Self‐managed Teams: Assessing the Benefits for Small Service‐sector Firms
通过量化评估英国小型服务企业中自我管理团队的效果，发现其对绩效提升作用有限，甚至可能损害组织能力，质疑其作为提升竞争力的普遍建议。
In recent years the concept of the self‐managed team has gained in popularity as Western nations have struggled to remain competitive in world markets. Claims that autonomous working can contribute significantly to enhancing employee productivity, product innovation and quality management appear mainly based on anecdotal evidence extracted from single‐firm case studies. In an attempt to close identified theoretical and empirical gaps about autonomous working, a larger‐scale quantitative assessment of self‐managed teams in small UK service‐sector firms was undertaken. Although the results confirm that self‐managed teams can contribute to improving certain aspects of performance, the scale of impact seems much less than that suggested in many articles. Furthermore, in certain circumstances it appears that a move to self‐managed teams in small service‐sector firms may have a somewhat negative impact on certain aspects of organizational capability. The question is raised, therefore, whether autonomous working should be strongly advocated as an important contributor to enhancing the competitiveness of small service‐sector firms.