A guest blog by Corporate Rebels
In both popular and academic management literature, self-managing teams are identified as one of the key innovations in progressive organisations. But successful self-management is not an easy task. It requires both a good grasp of the key elements, and an understanding of the factors that influence them.
Recently we wrote that self-management has long been grounded in research. So, what can we learn from this immense body of academic literature for use in our day-to-day practices?
Fortunately, there is an excellent review of this literature by scholars Nina Cristina Magpili and Pilar Pazos (Self-Managing Team Performance: A Systematic Review of Multilevel Input Factors). It provides us with many of the answers.
The key factors (according to research)
These scholars reviewed almost 40 years of literature on the topic and present an extensive overview of the essential factors that, according to research, influence the success of self-managing teams.
The factors they describe can be a guide for organizations wanting to implement self-managing practices. This evidence-based analysis describes the factors that are crucial.
What are these key factors? We lay them out below on the three key organizational levels – (1) the individual, (2) the team, and (3) the organisation.
Key factors at the individual level (according to research)
1. Autonomy
Employees need to establish a balance between individual and team autonomy. On the one hand, individual autonomy can promote motivation; on the other, it can frustrate collective success.
Too much individual autonomy is a liability when employees make significant plans or decisions without consulting the rest of the team.
2. Roles
Roles within self-managing teams evolve and change as the work of the team changes. Sometimes new roles need to be created and, at others, removed. Roles are no longer tied to job descriptions. Employees must decide for themselves what roles are needed to accomplish their work.
Successful self-managing teams are capable of rotating jobs when they have overlapping skill sets.
3. Leadership
In successful self-managing teams, leaders are chosen on their proven skills. They are able to gain the commitment of others, and to delegate. Other important behaviours are mentoring and coaching of peers.
Effective leaders promote team cohesion by encouraging opinion sharing, clarifying misconceptions and addressing concerns.
4. Skills
Some studies suggest that the success of self-managing teams is dependent on having a mix of skills in the team. This improves flexibility and enhances collaboration. Both self-management and teamwork skills are important.
Crucial teamwork skills include the ability to lead, to communicate and to conduct meetings effectively. Training is usually essential for successful skill development.
5. Experience
Once teams gain experience, they are likely to gain more autonomy. Similarly, employees with more experience tend to become the leaders, mentors and coaches in the team.
Long work experience can also be a negative: it is shown that experienced employees are more tempted to revert to old practices. That can hurt performance.
Key factors at team level (according to research)
1. External leadership
Teams benefit from external leaders who provide supportive direction, but are not involved in their day-to-day tasks. They enrich teams by facilitating constructive processes for conflict, communication, development and decision-making.
Leader intervention is most productive when requested by the team. It hurts when intervention is experienced as excessive. Negative interventions include too much monitoring of teams, chairing meetings, assigning responsibilities and overriding team decisions. These all limit the sense of autonomy and ownership.
2. Peer control
Peer control influences behaviour via social pressure. Peer control is significantly and positively related to team performance.
However, if peer pressure is used in combination with strict norms or standards it can reduce the team’s perception of autonomy.
3. Task characteristics
Findings show that some tasks are better suited for self-managing teams than others. Examples include those that are novel, uncertain, technological, interdependent, complex and innovative.
Self-managing teams are less suitable for simple or repetitive tasks.
4. Team autonomy
A crucial component is team autonomy. Specific factors may prevent teams from achieving their desired level of autonomy, such as inadequate leadership, rigid organization structures and/or excessive peer control.
Key factors at organisational level (according to research)
1. Corporate culture
Successful implementation of self-managing teams is related to a culture that promotes autonomy, accountability, continuous learning, risk taking and change.
Unsurprisingly, retaining a top-down culture negatively influences the success of self-managing practices.
2. Corporate policies
Another unsurprising result is that highly prescriptive corporate policies limit risk-taking, creativity and flexibility, leading to a decrease in team performance.
3. Organisational goals
Organization goal clarity is a predictor of a self-managing team’s performance. They can then set their own goals to offer maximum support. Lack of clear goals causes confusion and frustration, and ultimately undermines team performance.
4. Organisational structure
Flat organization structures are more likely to promote a self-managing team’s success. Very hierarchical structures are shown to restrict communication, and therefore, collaboration.
5. Training
Training in self-management has a positive effect. Notably, it can improve decision-making and problem solving. Training is most effective when it is offered before implementation of self-management and continued after—rather than being a one-time event.
6. Resources
External leaders should allow teams access to all necessary resources, technology, equipment, space, tools, and materials to perform their work well. Access is essential for performance, and leads to better decisions, and more innovative ideas.
7. Rewards
Team-based rewards have a positive effect on a self-managing team’s performance. They enhance the sense of ownership. Individual rewards can undermine this.
Self-managing employees feel rewarded by social rewards. These could be becoming an informal leader, gaining the respect of the team, and being nominated by peers or leaders for good performance.
Conclusion
Flatter organisation structures, reduced formalisation, and an empowered, supportive culture provide the ideal context for self-management to thrive. All of this is very much in line with our ‘8 habits of highly progressive workplaces.’
Self-management thrives when all levels of the organisation clearly understand their supporting roles. Awareness of the key factors reported in this research will build this clarity. Equally, overlooking these key factors will almost certainly lead to failure and frustration!
Joost Minnaar, Pim de Morree, Freek Ronner and Catelijne Bexkens, are The Corporate Rebels, a consultancy firm, on a mission to make work more fun. They that set out to find and learn from the world’s most progressive organisations including well-known names such as Spotify, Google and Patagonia to lesser-known organisations that organise work in radically different ways. Self-management is a key feature of many of the organisations they have learned from, worked with and now support around the globe.
