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Agency Guide to "Meeting Challenges with Teams"

More and more Federal agencies are using teams to improve quality and productivity, to increase customer satisfaction, to create greater flexibility in their workforce, and to provide more efficient use of resources. One such agency is the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. FHWA has published a Resource Guide for its managers and employees entitled, Meeting Challenges with Teams. The Guide serves as an educational tool for employees who want to learn about workplace teams and provides a framework for determining how the team concept can best be adapted in various work situations. It describes the "team-based organization" in which teams are the distinctive organizational feature as opposed to the traditional multi-layered organizational model. It also includes an extensive list of books and videotapes for further reading and learning.

• Three Models
• Questions and Answers
• Performance Management

Three Models. The Guide presents models of three types of teams: project-based teams, semi-autonomous teams, and self-managed teams. Each model addresses the same issues, making it easy to compare and contrast the models with each other. For each model, issues highlighted include the scope of the team's role, the benefits of using the model, special challenges, the effect on supervisory roles, and the effects on performance appraisal and recognition. The Guide observes that there are many variations in the design and implementation of teams and that each FHWA organization must decide whether workplace teams are appropriate for it and which type of team(s) to use.

Questions and Answers. One of the most valuable aspects of the Guide is that it can be used as a tool to lead the reader through various decision-making processes. For example, the Guide includes a set of questions that need to be considered before deciding whether or not to implement teams. Readers are advised that if, after exploring the issues raised by these questions, they are not able to answer most of them with a positive response, then perhaps moving to a team-based concept is not right for their organization at that time.

One question that organizations must ask themselves before implementing teams is: Do we have the necessary organizational values needed to support teams? Readers are asked to consider how their organizations perform in the areas of recognition and rewards, standards of quality, and individual accountability and responsibility.

Performance Management. The Guide specifically addresses issues of measuring and evaluating team performance and explains that these issues are still evolving. FHWA has introduced Team Performance Factors into its new performance management program to facilitate rating an employee's overall performance in a team setting. Because the program is new, experience with these factors is limited.

For more information on this Guide, you may call Carolyn Eberhard of the Federal Highway Adminstration at 202-366-1162.

Originally published on August 1995.