Self directed work teams
The organizational behavior issues that I addressed in this paper pertain to self-managing teams at General Electric's aircraft engine assembly facility in Durham, North Carolina (hereafter referred to as "GE"). The article "Engines of Democracy" from Fast Company magazine is particularly interesting because the self-managed teams at General Electric fit the definition from our class text, Organizational Behavior (1998), almost perfectly. According to this book, "Among the management responsibilities allotted each self-managing team is that of continually assessing the work of the team and redesigning the jobs of the team's members" (p. 152). Throughout the article, examples of job and process changes made at GE were noted. The majority of these changes were made to existing company processes prior to the opening of the plant, while the quest for continuous improvement has driven other changes since the facility opened. You will find various examples of these changes throughout this paper. Although our course text Organizational Behavior (1998) just touches on self-managing teams, the situation at GE seems to be a hybrid of not only self-managing teams (p. 152), but of quality circles (p. 151), and TQM (p. 150).
It was also decided that all employees should be FAA-certified mechanics. This is the only GE facility that has such a requirement. The rationale behind this thinking is that candidates will already possess valuable training if they are hired. As stated by Robert Henderson, who was in charge of opening the facility, "That would mean that we'd start with a better caliber of employee ..." (Fishman, 1999, p. 188). This remark fits the same line of thinking of another successful businessman, Ron Wolf, General Manager of the Green Bay Packers. Mr. Wolf stated in his book The Packer Way - Nine Stepping Stones to Building a Winning Organization, that the first of the nine keys to winning is to "hire the best"(Attner, Wolf, 1998). The GE workers strive to keep it simple. For example, the floor in an assembly building is painted blue, so when parts are dropped, they can be easily seen. To hold certain parts in place before they are permanently installed, technicians began using beeswax. Also, all tools have foam cutout areas so that they are not left out of place. This addresses both productivity and safety issues. Attner, P., & Wolf, R.. (1998). The Packer Way: Nine Stepping Stones to Building a Winning Organization. United States: St. Martins Publishing.
Some common words found in the essay are:
BS Fishman, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Management, Based Maslow's, Methods GE, Skill Level, Robert Henderson, Satisfaction GE, Duane Williams, Carolina Henderson, fishman 1999, organizational behavior, job satisfaction, ge employees, ge plant, organizational behavior 1998, self-managing teams, engines democracy, behavior 1998, robert henderson, 1999 188, fishman 1999 188, engines democracy fast, selection skill level, text organizational behavior,
Approximate Word count = 1541
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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