1. Why do so many "self directed teams" perform poorly?

What can be done to improve their

performance?

As per Meredith and Mantel, self direct teams (SDT) are also known as self directed work teams
(SDWT) or self managed team (SMT). Self directed teams are slightly different structures then
regular team, vary in the amount of decision-making authority and autonomy exercised by the team,
they are all aimed at improving worker performance as well as improving production methods and
product quality (Meredith & Mantel, 2009, p.217).

The self directed teams work well in bottom-up management where management works with
employees in task controlled conditions like six sigma, tqm, six sigma (Meredith & Mantel, 2009,
p.217).

One reason why self-directed teams may perform poorly is because they may not have a good
understanding of how their efforts are meant to support overall organizational objectives. In the
absence of this understanding, the team will likely create its own objectives which will probably lead
to sub optimization if the teams objectives are only loosely related to broader organizational
objectives.

The solution to poor performance problem is to ensure that the team has a solid understanding of
how its objectives and its work are meant to support broader organizational objectives. The success
of SDWTs is ultimately dependent on a clear statement of what the team is expected to accomplish,
when, and at what cost (Meredith, 2009, p.218).

Benefits of "Self directed teams", are more job satisfaction. Team members will achieve more job
satisfaction in what they do and job stability. The team structure allows members to feel that they
are contributing to the accomplishment of a goal. For self-directed teams to succeed, they must
have clear goals, authority to take action and flexibility to decide on how best to do the work.



References
Meredith, J. R., Mantel, S. J. Jr. (2009). Project Management a managerial approach 7ed. John Willey &
Sons.