Running head: MODULE TWO ESSAY

Module Two Essay

Joseph Thannisch

OGL 343 Social Processes in Organizations

William Erwin

March 28, 2023

MODULE TWO ESSAY 2

Module Two Essay

In module two we learned about different team designs, identities, and development of

teams. We also learned about multidisciplinary versus interdisciplinary approaches and how they

are similar and how they differ from each other. We will be looking at how these different

concepts are seen in the evolution of how Boeing designed their planes and how they were able

to transition from a multidisciplinary approach to an interdisciplinary approach successfully.

In the late 90s, Boeing decided to change their approach on how they built planes, they

went from a multidisciplinary approach to a interdisciplinary approach. (Thomas, 2023)

Previously, following a multidisciplinary approach, the different departments would work

together but in a linear fashion, the engineering group would design the plane, hand it over to

tooling who would create the tools, then it would go to manufacturing where the employees

would try and piece everything together. They were working together as a group, but they

weren’t really a team. This changed when they switched to an interdisciplinary approach, where

the big design team included members from different groups, like manufacturing, engineers,

tooling people and even customers. (Thompson, 2023) With this approach they truly started

working like a team, where everyone’s perspective was respected and where everyone could see

how their contributions added to the big picture. Following the interdisciplinary approach, the

Boeing team most closely resembled reciprocal interdependence, (Thompson, 2023) with each

member depending on each other to be able to successfully complete their task in designing a

new plane. This worked well for them because one of the advantages of reciprocal
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interdependence is that all team members understand the end objective and work harder because

they feel more accountable. The Boeing 777 design/build team resembles a cross functional team

from Chapter Ten, (Thompson, 2023) because it was made up of people from different groups

who possessed expertise in different areas, whether it was engineering, tooling or manufacturing.

By being a cross functional team and having expertise in different areas of the plane building,

they were able to successfully come up with a design for the Boeing 777.
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References

Thomas, D. (2023) BIS 343 DT2 video clip 1, Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/82302290
(Accessed: March 30, 2023).

Thompson, L.L. (2023) Making the team: A guide for managers. NY NY: Pearson.