Problem: Team Leader's Challenge
Last year, the manufacturing plant where you work reorganized into self-directed work teams. You are the team leader for one of several teams in the assembly area. The transition to teamwork was difficult, but recently things have been working fairly well. Several months ago, upper management announced a new team incentive program that rewards each team for exceeding production targets. This incentive program had mixed effects on team performance and created some problems at the plant.
Your team is now highly motivated to maximize production, but this has created conflicts with other teams. You find yourself competing with the other manufacturing teams for access to the company's technical support staff. The team has been ignoring machine maintenance issues in order to spend more time producing. There have been several arguments with other teams in the plant who supply parts for your assembly area, and communication with these other teams has deteriorated. You think that the cause of these problems may be the new reward program, but upper management is very supportive of the rewards program.
a) How should you (the team leader) help the team deal with their internal problems?
b) What can be done to improve relations with the other teams at the plant?
c) How can you explain your team's problems to upper management?