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Management article
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Reference no. SMR45410
Published by: MIT Sloan School of Management
Published in: "MIT Sloan Management Review", 2004
Length: 9 pages

Abstract

Many companies organize employees into self-managing teams that are basically left to run themselves with some guidance from an external leader. In fact, comprehensive surveys report that 79% of companies in the Fortune 1,000 currently deploy such ''empowered'', ''self-directed'' or ''autonomous'' teams. Because of their widespread use, much research has been devoted to understanding how best to set up self-managing teams to maximize their effectiveness. Interestingly, though, relatively little attention has been paid to the leaders who must oversee such working groups. At first, it seems contradictory: Why should a self-managing team require any leadership at all? But the authors'' research has shown that self-managing teams require a particular kind of leadership. Specifically, the external leaders who contribute most to their team''s success tend to excel at one skill: managing the boundary between the team and the larger organization. That process requires specific behaviors that can be grouped into four basic functions: (1) moving back and forth between the team and the broader organization to build relationships; (2) scouting necessary information; (3) persuading the team and outside constituents to support one another; and (4) empowering team members.

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Abstract

Many companies organize employees into self-managing teams that are basically left to run themselves with some guidance from an external leader. In fact, comprehensive surveys report that 79% of companies in the Fortune 1,000 currently deploy such ''empowered'', ''self-directed'' or ''autonomous'' teams. Because of their widespread use, much research has been devoted to understanding how best to set up self-managing teams to maximize their effectiveness. Interestingly, though, relatively little attention has been paid to the leaders who must oversee such working groups. At first, it seems contradictory: Why should a self-managing team require any leadership at all? But the authors'' research has shown that self-managing teams require a particular kind of leadership. Specifically, the external leaders who contribute most to their team''s success tend to excel at one skill: managing the boundary between the team and the larger organization. That process requires specific behaviors that can be grouped into four basic functions: (1) moving back and forth between the team and the broader organization to build relationships; (2) scouting necessary information; (3) persuading the team and outside constituents to support one another; and (4) empowering team members.

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