Self-managed Teams: Assessing the Benefits for Small Service-sector Firms

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.