Autonomous and empowered team work in the australian motor vehicle industry

This paper reviews contemporary developments in team work design theory and identifies two distinctive team work design concepts currently in use - those of the autonomous work team and the empowered work team. The paper establishes the critical team work design criteria to be applied to each concept, with autonomous designs focussing upon the development of team self-organization, the development of team member skills and the development of a collective voice in setting goals and targets, and empowered designs focussing upon the expansion of the team member work role and the enhancement of team responsibility for business results. The paper goes on to show how these criteria are applied in practice, by presenting comparative case studies of team work in two automotive body stamping plants in the Australian vehicle industry. The research underlines the value of looking at teams from a work design perspective. By developing this perspective, team work design concepts can clearly distinguished and the outcomes of teamworking for employees can be clearly identified. Employees in autonomous teams exercise some control over the allocation of job assignments, have some collective say in the setting of production goals and targets and they have greater opportunities for skill development. Employees in empowered teams, in comparison, exercise less autonomy but have expanded work roles and are far more accountable for business results. Empowered team work designs would seem to offer employees limited gains compared to those available from autonomous designs.

本文综述了团队工作设计理论的当代研究进展，明确了当前主流采用的两类差异化团队工作设计概念——自主工作团队（autonomous work team）与赋能型工作团队（empowered work team）。本文确立了适配这两类设计概念的关键团队工作设计标准：自主型设计聚焦于培育团队自组织能力、提升团队成员技能水平，以及构建目标制定过程中的集体话语权；赋能型设计则侧重于拓展团队成员的工作职权范围，并强化团队对经营业绩的责任承担。随后，本文通过澳大利亚汽车制造业两家汽车车身冲压工厂的团队工作对比案例，阐释了上述标准的实践应用路径。本研究凸显了从工作设计视角审视团队工作的重要价值。依托这一研究视角，各类团队工作设计概念可被清晰区分，团队工作对员工产生的各类影响也能得到明确辨识。自主团队中的员工可对工作任务分配拥有一定控制权，在生产目标的制定环节拥有集体话语权，且具备更多技能提升的机会。相较而言，赋能型团队的员工自主性相对较弱，但工作职权范畴得到拓展，且需为经营业绩承担更重的责任。与自主型团队工作设计相比，赋能型设计为员工带来的收益相对有限。