Question: BMW - the case continues - teams and flexibility
Most production staff work in self-managing groups of between eight and 15 members with a high degree of autonomy and clearly defined tasks. Members of the group decide upon each individual's responsibility and how they will move between jobs, as well as making suggestions and decisions about product improvement. Applicants for jobs are screened for their ability to work in a team environment and cooperate with others. Those who are interviewed go through elaborate tests designed to screen out individuals who can't work in a team environment. Each group elects a spokesperson to co-ordinate activities and to represent them, although they have no power to give orders or take disciplinary action. Supervisors remain as the group's immediate superior in technical and disciplinary matters, but play more of an advisory/facilitating role.
The supervisor is responsible for proposing and agreeing objectives, presenting progress figures, helping to progress continuous improvements and ensuring that group members improve their qualifications. The company has to ensure that adequate training is available, goals are agreed upon and results circulated. Improved product quality and job satisfaction are the aims, leading in turn to greater productivity. Staff are also expected be flexible in terms of time, place and assignment. They can save or overdraw up to 300 hours a year, which enables the company to reduce or increase the labour supply by that amount (for each employee), to cope with temporary changes in demand. They offer those nearing retirement the chance to gradually reduce working hours, which can vary, by mutual consent, with economic conditions. Staff are also expected to show local flexibility and mobility, moving between plants in BMW's facilities as requirements change.
Case questions:
· How would the introduction of teamworking have helped to improve the external fit between HRM and broader strategy?
· To achieve internal fit, what other changes would BMW have needed to make to support teamworking and flexibility?