C&S WHOLESALE

GROCERS: SELF
MANAGED TEAMS

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By: ANMOL SETHI 123067

HARSHMEET SINGH 123079
JUBY THOMAS 123080
NAMAN JAIN 123089
ROHAN BHONSLE 123096
SHASHANK 123100

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 Q.1 What conditions are necessary for a self-managed team? How many are
present in the present situation? What other measures would the management
need to implement to make the proposed self-directed teams functional?

A self-managed team is a group of employees that's responsible and accountable

for all or most aspects of producing a product or delivering a service. A self-managed
team carries out supporting tasks, such as planning and scheduling the workflow and
managing annual leave and absence, in addition to technical tasks.

Conditions for a self-managed team are:

1) Joint Accountability
 Successful self-directed teams assign responsibility to all members of the
group
 This joint responsibility allows each member to feel fully invested in the
success of the project
 This creates a sense of ownership for each team member
 As the team members feel more fully invested, they work harder to see the

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project succeed
 These team members invest more time and resources outside of the team

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meetings to analyze different actions and research potential ideas
 This investment increases the success of the project

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2) Interrelationship
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 A sense of interdependence among team members increases the success of
self-directed teams
 Team members who rely on each other for information trust their colleagues to
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deliver
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 The team members work together, allowing each one to focus on his own
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responsibilities and to trust the other members to deliver on their

responsibilities
 The team members do not need to worry about others completing their work
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3) Empowerment
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 Self-directed teams need to feel empowered to proceed with their project

 A team with a successful plan for completing its project needs the ability to
proceed with its plan
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 The company needs to provide the team with the authority to move ahead
with the plan without seeking additional approval
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 Self-directed teams empowered to proceed maintain the momentum for

seeing the project succeed

4) Common Objective
 All members of the self-directed team need to work toward a common goal
 When each member works toward a different goal, the project faces failure
 This occurs when the goal of the team is not clearly identified at the beginning
 However, when the group defines the goal at the first meeting, the team's
potential for success increases
 Each member takes action to move the project forward and the team tracks its
progress toward the ultimate goal

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 Present in the present situation
 According to the case, all the given conditions prevail in the present situation.
 Cohen took the concept of self-managed team and decided to run a scaled-
down experiment in the warehouse (Joint Accountability)
 The results of the experiment were favorable: team productivity, measured by
time to complete the orders, improved (Interrelationship)
 There was increased employee efficiency and quality towards common goal
(Common objective)
 Also, there was increased employee involvement as going hand in hand with
improved operational performance (Empowerment)

Other measures needed to implement self directed teams properly:

 Managing Change : The shift from Traditional teams to Self Managed Team
would be very difficult as there is a lot of pressure from everyone around and
managing this change would be a challenge
 A good Leader: Self Managed Teams require distributive leadership and

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requires people to be more proactive to communicate the changes that are to
be made

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 Managing Disputes: Self Managed Teams are unable to manage conflicts
efficiently. Whenever a contradiction occurs, members stop co-operating and

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hence the entire group performance declines
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 Labor absentees: Reduce the number of absentees
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 Labor turnover: Increase the turnover rates in Self Managed teams
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Q.2 Given the situation and the employees, what leadership style would be the
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most effective for the present project? Give reasons for your answer

Current Scenario in the company:

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For companies like C&S maximizing team performance in order to operate is

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a very important aspect. However, it is important to be able to recognize when

it would not be useful to implement this specific team concept. When a team’s
direction or design is flawed, one needs to be able to analyze the situation
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and be able to conclude whether the team is imperative to the work at hand
because sometimes it is an inappropriate design choice.
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On the other hand, Cohen experimented with a smaller team which might
prove beneficial for him to implement the new structure immediately on a
larger scale since the current structure might not be able to handle or be
efficient, in the upcoming holiday season.

In this case we see that Cohen ended up hiring more supervisors to manage
the upcoming holiday season. This increase I staff caused overcrowded
workplace which lead to inefficiency in operations, hence, the most effective
leadership style would be:-

Laissez-faire leadership

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 Laissez-faire literally means “let them do” in French. This is typically
translated to “let it be”. As such, laissez-faire leaders are characterized by
their hands-off approach, allowing employees to get on with tasks as they see
fit calls for limited leadership. The leader’s role is limited and the main
responsibility of organizing and getting things done falls to the group and not
the leader. However, it is important that leaders monitor performance and
effectively communicate expectations to prevent work standards slipping.
Since, it was seen that excess of supervisors lead to overcrowding and
inefficiency, laissez-faire leadership style will ensure that each and every
employee is responsible for himself thereby increasing work standards for
operations which is the ultimate goal of any organization.

Democratic leadership
As the name suggests, in this type of leadership style, leaders ask for group
members for their inputs and take in their opinions before making and final
decision. This ensures high level of satisfaction among the employees as
members feel a level of involvement as they feel a part of the group. Group

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members are encouraged to share ideas and opinions, even though the
leader retains the final say over decisions. Since C&S is a really big firm

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which many employees, making sure than each employee feels like a part of
the organization will ensure greater operational efficiency.

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