BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS‐PART II: INTER‐DEPARTMENTAL TEAM BUILDING

This article is the second part of a two part series. The first half of the article described a case study which illustrates the use of several techniques for developing inter‐departmental and inter‐level collaboration. The company manufactures consumer products and was modernising its production, inventory control, and purchasing processes. To complement these technical improvements, training was carried out for 30 section leaders, 20 supervisors and 9 managers. The result of this training was more cohesive departmental teams and greater co‐operation between departments. The second half of the article presents guidelines for using these team building techniques. For example, emphasis is given to gradually and systematically developing departmental identity and trust at each status level, and then to bringing together people from different levels and departments to construct specific change plans.