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Bachelor Thesis Business Administration
Traditional teams versus self-management teams:
A humane approach with an emphasis on cultural
differences.
University of Amsterdam. Written by: Arie Vreeke Supervisor: Dr. Kyrill Goosseff
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Abstract.
The research attempts to find out how managers can successfully handle traditional teams (non-SMT’s) and self-managing teams ((non-SMT’s) while dealing with cultural differences between them. A central concept for this paper is Grey’s (2014) statement that the vast majority of research done on organizational culture is written from efficiency points of view. Successful cultures are described as improving organizational growth and profit by being as efficient as possible. The humane aspect meaning that humans are intrinsically moral beings is not taken into account, leaving many important aspects of organizational culture unspoken in the literature. This leads to the question: ‘What is it to
be human?’ being a central concept of this research.
Data was gathered by conducting 12 interviews with SMT-employees, 9 of them having past experience working in a non-SMT. The interviews were semi-structured and consisted of
predetermined open questions combined with spontaneous questions. Questions were related to themes to help stay on topic during the interview. The themes used were: Organizational culture, respondents’ own perception of others and how they think others perceive them, motivation, relation with leadership and potential conflicts with employees outside of their SMT. One emergent theme that was created after conducting the interviews is structures and competences covering factual information on team setup.
Day-to-day operations in non-SMT’s are actively managed by a direct supervisor who gives out tasks to his/her employees. The culture does not have an open atmosphere, is hierarchical, individually oriented, and interaction is quite formal. In SMT’s day-to-day operations are managed by the team and managers are rarely present at the office. The culture is open, interaction is informal, supportive, and team oriented. Employees in SMT’s had a good impression of what characteristics people should have in order to function well in the team and are actively trying to derive an image of other team members, suggesting that human perception is considered.
It was concluded that issues are not likely to arise between non-SMT and SMT employees, if they rarely have to interact and when the SMT is implemented well. Poorly performing SMT’s might cause conflicts with management or within teams due to personality clashes or bad communication. It is then the task of the team to handle these issues instead of contacting a manager as this would diminish the purpose of being self-managing. However, a well-functioning team is needed to solve these issues internally.
In general, non-SMT culture seems to be more directly aimed at performance as work is more individual and primarily requires employees to perform their work well. SMT culture seems to be more aimed at personality as getting along is necessary to achieve good performance. A manager dealing with both types of teams should have the flexibility to deal with both cultures as each requires its own management strategy and adjust its behavior according to the right situation.
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Table of contents.
1. Introduction………. 5
2. Research topic and questions………. 6
- Main topic and questions………. 6
- Research question and sub-questions………. 6
3. Methodology……….. 7
4. Theoretical framework……….. 11
- Leadership and organizational culture………. 11
- Human perception within organizations……….... 14
- Self-management teams………. 14
- Cross-cultural management………. 16
5. Raw data / ordering the information……….. 17
1.1) Structure and competence in non-SMT’s………. 18
1.2) Structure and competence in SMT’s……… 18
2.1) Organizational culture of non-SMT’s……… 18
2.2) Organizational culture of SMT’s……….. 19
3.1) Perception of non-SMT employees………. 20
3.2) Perception of SMT employees……… 20
4.1) Motivation in non-SMT’s………. 21
4.2) Motivation in SMT’s……… 21
5.1) Relation with management for non-SMT’s…………. 21
5.2) Relation with management for SMT’s………. 22
6) Conflicts between cultures……….. 22
6. Discussion and conclusion……….. 23
- Sub-questions………. 23
- Main research question……….. 27
- Conclusion………. 28
7. Reflection……… 29
8. Literature………. 30
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Statement of Originality
This document is written by Student Arie Vreeke who declares to take full
responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original
and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references
have been used in creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision
of completion of the work, not for the contents.
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1) Introduction.
1.1 Organizational culture.
Rather recently, around 1980, researchers have started to find links between culture within an organization and its effects on performance of the whole organization as well as the behavior and attitude of employees (Warrick, 2017). Schein (1980) was one of the early writers on the subject and gives organizational culture the following definition: ‘’The culture of a group can be defined as a
pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.’’
The word ‘group’ can be used to describe social units of any size (Schein, 1992) and when people get together they often create some sort of culture. The term ‘group’ from the definition could therefore be translated into lots of different things among which organizations. To make it concrete,
organizational culture is about the psychological “environment” people work in and its effects on how they act, think, and experience work (Warrick et al., 2016).
The type of culture is an important factor when it comes to job satisfaction and commitment which has been shown in many of the literature already (Clugston, Howell & Dorfman, 2000; Kanungo & Wright, 1983; Palich, Hom & Griffeth, 1995). Culture is now recognized as such an important element of organizational success that Fortune’s yearly top 100 list of best organizations to work at is based mainly around employees' information on culture at the company (Levering, 2016).
There have been lots of studies about the effectiveness of a successful culture within a company that show the impact it can have. For example, over a duration of 11 years, organizations with successful cultures had an increase in sales of 682% compared to 166% for similar companies without a successful one (Kotter & Heskett, 1992).
There are cultural differences between countries when it comes to levels of power distance and determinism (Andres, 1985; Hofstede, 1980). This may cause certain cultures to resist concepts as self-management teams (Kirkman & Shapiro, 1997) because employees might not feel like they can force much change within the organization (Trompenaars, 1993).
1.2 Human perception in organizations.
Grey (2014) criticizes the current scientific literature on organizational culture because none of the important authors consider how humans should be viewed. They are seen as ‘empty casings’ that will do whatever management expects of them. Employees are dehumanized in a way as their existence in the literature is only based on their skills and what they can add to the company. The fact that every human is a unique individual with its own goals is not considered, which leads to leaving out major components attributable to organizational theory (Grey, 2014). The view of humans
(Mensbeeld in Dutch*) between SMT’s and non-SMT’s will be researched as Grey (2014) identified a
clear gap that most papers and books about organizational theory were written from the manager’s point of view, to improve efficiency while putting the human aspect aside. Most theories about
organizational culture also focus on obtaining growth and profit by being as efficient as possible (Grey, 2014). This leads to the exclusion of very important factors, for example that humans are intrinsically moral and emotional beings that cannot simply be molded to fit any organization, except when forced or threatened (Goosseff, 2019). There do not exist organizational or economic /
6 financial theories that ask themselves one of the most important questions when it comes to
organizational culture: ‘What is it to be human?’(Grey, 2014; p.47).
2) Research topic and questions.
In this chapter, the main topic and academic gap will be explained to make it clear what will be added to the existing literature. Not every aspect of organizational culture will be covered so the demarcation of the research will be made clear as well. After that, the research questions will be presented.
2.1 Self-management teams.
Self-management teams (SMT’s) are different from traditional teams (non-SMT’s) as they consist of interdependent individuals that have the ability to regulate their behavior themselves on relatively complete assignments (Cumming & Griggs, 1977; Goodman et al., 1986). The central principle of SMT’s is that the team itself has full authority over the process and takes full responsibility for their work instead of being accountable to a manager. From a distance, not on a daily basis, SMT’s have higher levels of accountability than most non-SMT’s. The team monitors its own performance and has the ability to change performance strategies when necessary (Wageman, 1997).
Most organizations that have implemented SMT’s still work with non-SMT’s as well. These two types of teams have different cultures within the same company which could mean that mismatches occur between them. This explanation is necessary as non-SMT’s and SMT’s will be compared in the research questions.
2.2 Main topic and questions.
The paper will do research on what cultural differences may exist between non-SMT’s and SMT’s and whether employees are aware of these cultures. It will take a bottom up approach and look at culture form the perspective of employees. The paper will not primarily be about important aspects of companies that exist within the bank cultures. Structures and processes in both types of teams will be explained but this will not be discussed in depth. This information is related to culture but deriving people’s feelings on culture is the primary goal for the paper, not identifying structures in both setups. Neither will it go deeply into leadership but the aspect of how managers interact and
communicate with its subordinates may give important information on perception. These topics lead to the following research question and sub-questions:
2.3 Research question and sub-questions.
How can managers successfully handle non-SMT’s and SMT’s while dealing with cultural differences between them?
The following four sub-questions are needed:
1. What is organizational culture?
2. What are the main characteristics of SMT- and non-SMT cultures?
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4. How are employees perceived in SMT’s and non-SMT’s?
2.4 Scientific relevance: Academic gap, practical / societal relevancies.
Literature on organizational culture is mainly focused on the structures and management within a company. The cited papers from Warrick (2015, 2016, 2017) look at organizational culture from the perspective of people in high positions and how they can benefit from a strong organizational culture almost as a tool. They do not look at it from an employee’s point of view and what culture could mean for them. Same goes for Schein, one of the most important writers on this topic, in his books ‘organizational culture and leadership’ (1992, 2010). Understanding organizational culture by Alvesson (2012) takes a more social approach and writes about identity for example but does not consider human perception within organizations. Employees are assumed to be predictable, manageable and compliant to the expectations of management. Employees are not defined as full-fledged members of a social unit where every person has different and unique characteristics (Goosseff, 2019). Culture’s goal in organizational theories is a means of increasing efficiency as it should result in increased performance and sales (Grey, 2014). Employee satisfaction and motivation, commitment, etc. is at best secondary and often not an organizational goal by itself but linked to the efficiency of the organization.
This paper adds information about organizational culture from a social perspective to the existing research. As noted by Grey, literature is mostly written from the perspective of improving efficiency by e.g. having a proper culture but this leaves important factors out, for example how employees are viewed or treated. This research takes a bottom up approach by interviewing employees that are not necessarily in high positions at their firm. By doing this it is attempted to find out what culture(s) is/are present at ABN AMRO, what is thought of it, how respondents perceive others, and feel like others perceive them. The societal relevance is that more attention is paid to employees in an organization instead of perceiving them solely as a means of improving efficiency which could improve the way they are treated.
3) Methodology.
Introduction.
Qualitative research is often used in socially oriented research as it uses methods that generate stories rather than numbers. It is a way of finding information about people’s feelings, opinions, experiences, etc. It provides answers to questions about the ‘what’, ‘how’ or ‘why’ of phenomena (Patton & Cochran, 2002). This research will be qualitative as information will be gathered through in depth interviews. The downsides of qualitative research are the often small sample sizes, which is not always representative for the whole population, the findings can lack rigor, thus reliability, and results can be biased by the researchers' own ideas and opinions (Patton & Cochran, 2002). Minimizing sample bias means recognizing that the selected samples will not represent the
organizational population. The bias can be reduced by including people of all genders and functions relevant to the research question (Patton & Cochran, 2002). Eventually it may be possible that the research advises a follow up investigation when for example no conflicts arise between cultures at the respondents’ companies. This may have happened in other companies thus giving conclusions
8 not representable for the whole population. Conclusions will be most reliable when data is gathered from several companies. Whether it will be possible to find a diverse pool of respondents is yet to be discovered.
3.1 Research setup.
The setup of the interviews will be semi-structured meaning that there will be some predetermined but open questions combined with open questions based on themes. Themes can be seen as topics that must be included in order to obtain appropriate information about the research topics. This method allows respondents to open up and be truly understood about sensitive subjects. Qualitative research has an emergent character. This means that the researcher is quite actively involved with obtaining the data as it happens through interviews, thus making it easier to adapt research methods during the gathering process (Onwuegbuzie & Combs, 2010). This can result in new themes being added during the process.
A literature review will be conducted as well to find information on the important theories and to check Grey’s research gap within the field. The information will be described in the theoretical framework. Data gathered from the interviews will be compared to the literature and will be analyzed to find patterns in order to answer the main research question and sub-questions. Web sites of ABN AMRO will also be explored to find information.
3.2 Choice of respondents.
As this paper aims to take a bottom up approach, respondents working in SMT’s and non-SMT’s that have direct interaction with customers will be interviewed as these are at the bottom of the
organization but still have some degree of responsibility. For example employees working in the cafeteria or cleaning crew are at the bottom as well but will not qualify as respondents because they do not interact with customers and have very little responsibility in the organization as a whole. An equal distribution of non-SMT and SMT employees would be most reliable. If this is not possible, employees working in one of the setups that have had experience working in the other one will be qualified to answer questions relating to both. This is done to have as much respondents as possible for both types of teams. As means are limited in the research, total sample size is reduced to 12 interviews making it difficult to minimize sample bias.
3.2 COVID-19 adjustments.
As this paper is written in times of COVID-19, it proved to be challenging to find respondents resulting in some research adaptations. The thesis is written by me being part of a group of four students with the same supervisor, whereof one works in ABN AMRO. This is a Dutch bank that makes use of both SMT’s and non-SMT’s. All interviews will be taken from ABN AMRO employees by the four students that will exchange the data with each other in the form of interview summaries. Every student's main research question and themes differ but has Grey’s ‘What is it to be human (in
organizations)’ as a central concept which means that there will be overlapping themes. These
themes were communicated between students and incorporated in everyone's interviews, thus enabling the use of each other's data. Only data related to the themes applicable for this research will be used in the analysis.
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3.3 Methodology in practice:
Twelve interviews total was possible with the bank and will be done with employees from ABN AMRO. Interviews were conducted through Zoom and audio calls making the interaction less personal and making it more difficult to identify non-verbal nuances. The information of interviews will be divided between all four students from the group. Interviews will be taken individually but themes will be shared to ensure that everyone can get useful information from all interviews. This exchange will be in the form of raw data, meaning the notes that were taken during the interviews will be put together into a summary by the interviewer which will be shared with the other students. Analyses will be done individually. The interviews will not be recorded, meaning that no thick
descriptions will be available. The reason for this is that as each student will conduct 3 interviews, it will not be difficult to remember what was said and summaries will be written immediately after the interview is finished.
To reduce the bias by the researchers’ own opinions, only information from scientific articles and papers will be used as literature so that everything that is stated as facts in this research will be supported by sources. The questions from the interviews will be asked from a neutral standpoint to make sure the interviewees’ opinion is not affected by the interviewer. The interviewee must feel like he/she can say whatever without being judged or steered in a certain direction.
3.4 Themes:
As said in the research setup, themes are necessary topics that will be included in all interviews to make sure that data from each interview will be related to each students’ paper, thus enabling the use of information gathered in all interviews. The themes used are related to the research question and sub-questions in order to find the appropriate information to answer them. Not all themes used in the interviews were predetermined as one has emerged during the interviewing process. Note that questions related to non-SMT’s can only be answered by respondents that have had past experience working in a non-SMT. 9 out of 12 respondents have had experience working in traditional teams, therefore information on this consists of 9 interviews in total, not 12.
1. Structure and competence
The emergent theme for this research is ‘Structure and competence’. See chapter 4 raw data for an explanation.
1.1) Structure and competence in non-SMT’s:
More practical and factual information about the present structures at the office. This part will contain data on the overall structures within the non-SMT as for example level of hierarchy and distance to management.
1.2) Structure and competence in SMT’s:
More practical and factual information about the present structures at the office. This part will contain data on overall structures within the SMT as for example hierarchy and functions of team members.
10 2. Culture
What do the respondents think of the organizational culture present at the office? Culture of a group is seen as ‘shared knowledge’, meaning that it is a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid. ‘Shared values’ are the lasting beliefs of members of a culture (Schein, 2010).
This information will be derived by asking questions on emotions and interactions between colleagues. A distinction will be made between non-SMT’s and SMT’s.
2.1) Organizational culture of non-SMT’s:
How do respondents describe non-SMT cultures and what do they think of it? This question is only applicable to employees that have (had) experience working in non-SMT’s.
2.2) Organizational culture of SMT’s:
What do the respondents think of SMT cultures? This question is only applicable to employees that have (had) experience working in SMT’s.
3. Perception of / on others
The human perception employees have of others and what they believe is thought of them is also a main topic. How do the respondents feel that they are perceived by their superiors and colleagues? How do respondents perceive others in the organization?
Perception is people’s personal view on the world around them. It is defined as: ‘We select from all
the stimuli falling on our senses only those that interest us. In a world of shifting impressions, each of us constructs a world in which objects have recognizable shapes, are located in depth, and have performance’ (Ingold, 1996). As perception is personal, the respondents can never know for sure how
others perceive them but their feeling of this perception could be in itself a perception.
3.1) Perception of non-SMT employees:
How do non-SMT employees feel about the way others in the organization perceive them? Do they feel appreciated, connected to the company, management, etc.?
3.2) Perception of SMT employees:
How do SMT employees feel about the way others in the organization perceive them? Do they feel appreciated, connected to the company, the team, management, etc.?
4. Motivation:
Work motivation can give knowledge on what is thought of the existing culture and perception thus it will be part of this research. It has a large influence on a person's feelings in the form of moods, both positive and negative, which are integral parts of the human experience (George & Brief, 1996). People are not likely to be motivated when they do not fit in a culture or feel negatively perceived by colleagues. This makes it related to the research questions as it is a way to derive whether people feel comfortable and accepted in their current situation.
Therefore it will be found out how respondents are motivated, and which of these factors are present in non-SMT’s or SMT’s and whether they prefer one or the other?
11 4.1) Motivation in non-SMT’s:
What aspects of working in a non-SMT do respondents find motivating or demotivating?
4.2) Motivation in SMT’s:
What aspects of working in an SMT do respondents find motivating or demotivating?
5. Relation with management:
There are significant differences in employees’ distance to management between non-SMT’s and SMT’s. Non-SMT’s often operate with a direct manager who actively manages day-to-day operations and gives out specific tasks for the employees to complete before a certain deadline. SMT’s on the other hand often do not operate under a direct manager as team members are meant to manage each other and come up with tasks and ideas themselves. It will be derived how the respondents’ working in non-SMT’s and SMT’s describe their relation with upper management and how they feel about it.
5.1) Relation with management for non-SMT’s:
To what extent are non-SMT respondents managed by a superior and how do they experience this?
5.2) Relation with management for SMT’s:
To what extent are SMT respondents managed by a superior and how do they experience this?
6. Conflicts between cultures:
There could be cultural differences between non-SMT- and SMT members in terms of interaction. Whether respondents experience any differences when interacting with people outside of their SMT’s and have ever had incidents where cultures clashed will be derived.
4) Theoretical framework.
In this chapter, the main scientific articles and theories relevant for the research will be reviewed.
1. Leadership and organizational culture
Schein, E. H. (1983). Organizational Culture: A Dynamic Model.
Edgar Schein was one of the early writers of scientific literature on the subject of organizational culture and he devised a model for it in 1983, making him a prominent person in this area of
research. His formal definition of organizational culture is: The pattern of basic assumptions which a
given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which have worked well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. This definition has not changed over the years as he uses more or less the same one
12 in one of his more recent papers from 2010. Schein (1983) explains that culture will constantly be changing due to external adaptation and internal integration, covers all aspects of human functioning and is an interrelated set of basic assumptions dealing with, among other things, the nature of humanity, relationships, time and space. He argues that more research is necessary to find out the importance of organizational culture and be able to relate it to other variables such as strategy, organizational- structure and effectiveness. Proposals of change within the organization need to be assessed to find out whether they go against the current culture and managers must learn how to make these assessments, making the understanding of organizational culture integral to good management (Schein, 1983).
Schein, Edgar H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership.
Schein's more recent paper from 2010 describes the connection between leadership and culture. He starts off by describing organizational culture and leadership in detail which is necessary as they are central subjects of the paper. His approach to organizational culture does not seem to have changed much compared to his paper in 1983, he does explain everything in much more detail and links it with leadership but the central definitions are the same. He then illustrates how to analyze culture and its importance by using cases as examples. As this has been written 27 years later than
Organizational culture: A Dynamic Model (1983), the importance of organizational culture has
already been proven meaning that his question about its relation to strategy, effectiveness, etc. has been answered.
Schein writes from the perspective of a leader in this paper and how they can successfully apply principles of culture to achieve organizational goals.
Warrick, D. D. (2015). Understanding, building, and changing organizational cultures.
Warrick (2015) explains the importance of organizational culture by using real life cases as examples. Most of these cases are about creating and changing cultures. He discusses the importance of culture within organizations and considering it when making decisions. It is again mostly from a leader's perspective as he argues that it is the responsibility of leaders to build and maintain a positive working environment and culture and that change is most likely to succeed with a visionary leader. Effective leaders know what the needs of their people are and recognize that success is only possible when keeping them satisfied so that everyone works together well. This is why changes in culture cannot be forced upon people as support is needed from all levels. Warrick (2015) considers leaders as great role models that must set the right example as in how to behave because this sets the tone for how employees should treat each other.
A competent culture must focus on people and results, and committed employees are necessary so that they understand the company's goals and missions. It largely influences the performance of a business and when implemented well, it can boost morale and motivate people. The importance of dealing with a multicultural group of people is also explained by using cases as examples. Having a culture that expects employees to take responsibility and allows individual learning and self-direction makes it much easier to adapt to changes within the culture but in other departments as well. When mergers occur, it is necessary to be aware of the reigning cultures in both companies, as a new culture can only be formed when the new organization fully understands these. Warrick (2015) writes about so-called ‘action skill programs’ which are groups of individuals within a company that work together in order to solve problems. These teams help develop leadership capacity, enhance
13 change management skills, strengthen interpersonal skills such as listening and critical reasoning, etc.
In general, this paper is some sort of manual for leaders to understand the importance of culture, how to implement it, how to behave properly and impose this on the organization, and how to deal with both internal and environmental impacts on culture. He gives lots of examples of how leaders should or shouldn’t act and writes about this in great detail. When it comes to employees, he is not very specific as they are expected to look up to their leaders and be significantly influenced by them which is not always the case in reality. It is remarkable that Warrick (2015) gives many different cases but none of them are written from the employees’ perspective. It is written from a leaders’
perspective as were the papers from Schein (1983, 2010).
Warrick, D. D. (2016). Leadership: A high impact approach.
Warrick’s (2016) is about the industrial age and the start of the business world. Lots of things were not regulated yet and leaders were relatively relaxed because they did not know what a good business leader should be like. Leaders that succeeded in this age were to become major leaders throughout history. He then describes the change towards the information age which is completely different as everything became technical. With the internet available, people could post and look up articles about how to behave or be a good role model as a leader. Workplace standards improved due to regulations which led, among other things, towards employees seeing their job as a source of fulfillment instead of doing it purely out of financial needs. Warrick (2016) describes work motivation as: “motivation consists of the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and
persistence of effort in obtaining an organizational goal.” Leaders must adapt the way they motivate
employees based on their demographics and environment.
This corresponds to Warrick (2015) which was mainly focused on leadership as well.
Warrick, D. D. (2017). What leaders need to know about organizational culture.
Warrick (2017) writes about organizational culture from the perspective of a leader. He argues why it should be important for organizations to have strong cultures as this may influence a companies’ performance, stimulate motivation and productivity of employees, making it easier to attract and retain talented people and many other things. He discusses that many organizations are however not aware of this or consciously choose to not pursue a strong culture as it consumes too much time and resources. To achieve the best possible results, leaders should see culture development as a key task as well as aligning strategies and decision making with cultural ideals.
As in his other papers, Warrick writes purely out of the leaders’ perspective and describes how leadership changed with the development of technology. In all three papers from Warrick (2015, 2016, 2017), he writes from the leaders’ perspective and does not write about employees as individuals with their own norms and values. This makes his perspective quite one-sided and mostly aimed at treating your employees in such a way that they will be as efficient as possible while keeping them satisfied at the same time. No significant differences to Schein’s conclusions about organizational culture have been found as they both see leaders as the major deciders of it and both papers give the impression that employees should merely act as they are expected to in order to be as efficient as possible. The fact that employees are described as simple minded and moldable is the exact criticism Grey (2014) has on the literature on organizational culture.
14 2. Human perception within organizations
Grey, C. (2014). A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations.
The main theory this paper is based on is the one from Grey (2014, 2017), arguing that existing literature in the field of organizational culture is missing major elements. He writes that in most literature organizations are defined more or less like: “A social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals.” The aspects of a ‘social unit’ are silently assumed and organization theory usually only describes the aspect of reaching and managing efficiency in a broad sense of the word (Goosseff, 2019). His critique on the literature is that it is mostly written from the perspective of managers which was also the case in the papers of Warrick (2015, 2016, 2017) and Schein (1983, 2010). The literature provides theories and skills aimed towards leaders in order to create the ‘best possible’ company. He argues that these theories are not factual based although the writers pretend as if they are and miss a lot of necessary components.
Organization theory is a construction of shared assumptions which fails to recognize that an organization is in fact a highly abstract form of a construction. The organizational borders, meaning to what point its influence reaches, can’t be defined scientifically which leads to an ambiguous area of responsibility between an organization and its environment. His greatest criticism on the theories are the silently assumed assumptions of “what it is to be human”. The silent assumptions are mostly wrong about employees because they are viewed as predictable and moldable to fit any
organization. The task of employees is to serve and be compliant to management's expectations within the room the organizational culture dictates. Employees are not regarded as part of a social unit as all properties needed to be human are ignored. In organizational theory, personhood is reduced to people’s job as organizations expect employees to identify with their job and only be evaluated as such. Grey argues that the essence of humanity, whatever this may be, is not included in economic, financial or organization theories. Goosseff (2019) states that there do exist
organizations with humane cultures but this is due to managers thinking out of the box, not because of organizational theory.
3. Self-management teams
Wageman, R. (1997). Critical success factors for creating superb self-managing teams.
In this paper, Wageman discusses the fact that SMT’s are often implemented in the wrong way and provides factors that are critical for its success. She starts off by describing SMT’s as a means of making an organization more flexible, push decision making to the front lines, and make full use of employees’ creativity. The central principle of SMT’s is that the teams take responsibility for their own work, manage their own performance, work well as a team, and switch strategies due to changing conditions. It becomes easier to respond to customer demands as employees in these teams are close to the customer and organizational learning is enhanced through experimenting with strategies that are suited for specific tasks. Being able to participate in making organizational
decisions enhances employees’ commitment to the company. These positive outcomes are not always achieved which is due to the wrong implementation which causes the teams to operate as they did before becoming an SMT. Work is divided among members, causing them to do it individually which goes against the principle of having good teamwork which is necessary for successful SMT’s. Wageman did research on 43 SMT’s in the Xerox service organization to find out
15 how leaders should organize these teams in order for them to work well. She points out that there are three very important characteristics members should have, which are: taking personal
responsibility for the outcome of the teams’ work, monitoring their own performance by seeking out data about it, and altering performance strategies as needed (Wageman, 1997). The leader of the team should not be controlling or directing but instead be a coach for the team and support its members. There are seven main factors, that can all be influenced by a team leader, that are strongly related to customer satisfaction, speed of response, and expense management:
1) Having a clear and engaging direction: Having a sense of why the group exists and what it wants to accomplish.
2) Groups with real team tasks: All tasks should be done collectively instead of dividing these. 3) Rewards for team excellence: Rewards for the whole team when achieving goals instead of rewarding members individually.
4) Basic material resources: Having the appropriate tools, meeting space, computing services, etc. in order to work effectively.
5) Authority to manage the work: The team has the power to decide over work strategies, not the leader.
6) Team goals: Setting specific descriptions of what needs to be accomplished within a certain time frame.
7) Team norms promoting strategic thinking: Informal rules that guide members’ behavior within the team should encourage coming up with new strategies.
The base of creating well working SMT’s is the design. If this is not done right, the efforts of the leader to coach the team will not have much effect. Leaders must learn to behave in a new way compared to before as they are not required to deal with day-to-day operations as much but are more involved in setting up the teams right and ensuring that proper resources are available. They must also help establish the right norms and goals but this should happen in accordance with the entire team instead of forcing it upon them. Finally when a good base has been built, the leader should switch into a coaching role by teaching members new skills, giving teams proper rewards, and intervening when the teams’ authority is undermined (Wageman, 1997).
Barker, J. R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams.
The paper by Barker (1993) describes the way an organization's control system evolved through a transition from hierarchical control towards concertive control in the form of SMT’s. Having control is essential for an organization in order to attain its goals and purposes. This means that a strategy to effectively control employees’ actions in a functional manner is necessary for a company. He describes the three forms of control as identified by Edwards (1981) which are: ‘simple control’, which is the personal control of workers by the owner or hired boss; ‘technological control’, emerging from the physical technology of an organization; and the most widely used ‘bureaucratic control’, making use of hierarchies with rules that reward conformity and punish disconformity. Barker presents concertive control as a fourth form of control which encourages organizations to de-bureaucratize and implement ideological designs which can flatten hierarchies, cut costs, increase productivity and make it easier to respond to environmental changes.
Control shifts from management to employees themselves that work together to form their own means of control. Rules are not imposed on the workers by management but come from the
16 workers’ mutually agreed consensus about values. Official rules on for example being on time are not necessarily mandatory in concertive control but peers have the authority to demand the workers' willing compliance. SMT’s are the most popular form of implementing concertive control and proponents of these teams argue that it improves among other things creativity, flexibility and employee satisfaction. Barker did research on ICE Communications during their transition from traditional teams to SMT’s. He describes the transition and consequences in great detail but the most important developments are that the teams start developing a mutually shared sense of ethical rational action at work and develop emotional attachments to the shared values. They put the values into action by forming norms to behave and work effectively making the values progress towards rationalization. Members started monitoring and directing voluntarily showing that concertive control was nested in the team. Rules were enforced between members through peer pressure and because the control measures were created by themselves, it all seemed natural and workers did not feel controlled by anyone or anything even though this was the case. The rules were then formalized even further and teams seemed to work effectively through rational rules and monitoring of
individual and collective actions. Barker concludes by saying that concertive systems work within a set of rational rules, as do bureaucratic systems, but these rules are decided and developed or adjusted along the way with the whole team which is the big difference. Employees within SMT’s still have to move within an ‘iron cage’ of rules having almost invisible barriers as these barriers are commonly decided. This does have as a consequence that members must be committed to their organization because they invest a part of themselves in the team. As Barker states: “If they (team
members) want to resist their team's control, they must be willing to risk their human dignity, being made to feel unworthy as a teammate.” (Barker, 1993).
Barker shows that SMT’s might be a more humane approach compared to traditional work environments (non-SMT’s) as employees can influence the culture they work in to some degree which is usually not the case in non-SMT’s.
4. Cross cultural management
Chevrier, S. (2003). Cross-cultural management in multinational project groups.
Cross-cultural management is one of the main subjects in this paper as well because it is researched how managers can motivate employees from different cultures which is why the scientific article from Chevrier (2003) will contribute well to this paper. She did research on cross-cultural
management of project groups having multinational members with different cultures and tried to find a way for leaders to deal with- and potentially benefit from diversity. People ingrained in a certain cultural context tend to share the same worldview when it comes to ways of cooperating, dealing with conflicts, accepting authority, and communication in general. Research has proven that 25 - 50% of variation in attitudes is explained by national culture. A variety of worldviews from employees can increase the pool of resources making them potentially more creative in solving problems compared to groups of the same nationality. It could have some negative effects though as diversity may increase ambiguity, complexity and confusion within teams making it less effective. Skills like for example flexibility, charisma or self-confidence may be beneficial to leaders in certain cultural contexts but might not work in others. She researched three projects with different contexts, goals and structures, all conducted by engineers from several European countries. She argues that there are three strategies on how to perform cross-cultural management.
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The first one is to purposefully not manage differences or interpretations and rely on tolerance and
self-control of the members. There were situations where members were annoyed by certain
behavior but are able to control themselves in order to avoid conflicts. Some members already had a lot of experience working with foreign people making it easy for them to adapt and others stated that differences should be respected and if possible be used as an advantage. He did find that members do not want to interrupt processes of the group, they will be more willing to accept adjustments and potentially give up on better solutions thus dumbing down.
The second strategy is to get members to interact and know more about each other in order to
facilitate mutual decision making. These interactions can be stimulated by organizing diners or other events to help develop personal relationships between members which enable effective mutual agreements. It could happen that members do not get along well which may reinforce negative stereotypes and polarize different cultural groups creating the opposite effect of what was intended.
The third strategy is to implement professional or corporate cultures in order to align team members
with different worldviews. In the case of the engineers, this resulted in project leaders focusing on technical discussions instead of cultural issues. All engineers had the same “occupational” culture which makes it easier to form interpersonal relationships with each other compared to people having another profession. The cultural differences could however cause members to take different
approaches when dealing with the same kind of issues and how people from certain professions are viewed by the public differs per culture as well. A solution to this is implementing a clear corporate culture that everyone is expected to follow but the issue is that these corporate cultures are not identical across countries. As Chevrier (2003) describes it: “Transnational corporate culture that is
compatible with the basic conceptions of all involved cultures can be found only on a very small common denominator, which considerably reduces the space for action.”
She concludes by saying that choosing a strategy is dependent on context and can only be identified through interactions with members. The strategies are not exclusive and elements from each strategy can be used simultaneously.
This article on culture took a more social approach than the ones from Warrick (2015, 2016, 2017) and Schein (1983, 2010) but is still written as some sort of guideline for managers on how to deal with culture and increase efficiency.
5) Raw Data: Categorizing / ordering the information.
In this chapter, useful information gathered from the interviews will be ordered per theme followed by the statement they are derived from. This will give a clear overview of all important data
necessary for this research. The data will only be ordered, no conclusion or analyzations will be made. The interviews comprise multiple themes but only those that apply to this research will be used. The raw data will be presented per theme, in the same order as the methodology. Note that all 12 respondents are working in SMT’s and only 9 out of 12 said they have had experience working in non-SMT’s. Therefore, statements applicable to non-SMT’s will consist of a total of 9 respondents and all else consists of a total of 12 respondents.
The emergent theme for this research is ‘Structure and competence’ which comprises factual answers on the questions about culture e.g. there are functions 1-, 2- and 3 employees, etc. When asking respondents about the culture at the office they named quite a few factual attributes.
18 Apparently people are more likely to share factual information on the culture than to express their deeper lying assumptions which can result in the initial answers being quite trivial. It is easier to talk about ‘tangible’ topics. A distinction will be made between non-SMT’s and SMT’s in this theme. In the Appendix, starting from p. 57 is located a more thorough analysis of the raw data with multiple quotes which was used as a summary to answer the research questions.
1.1 Structure and competence in non-SMT’s (9 from the 12 respondents total):
Deciding-, dividing-, and setting deadlines for assignments is done by the manager. Hierarchy consists of directors in the highest position, managers directly under that, followed by senior employees, and normal employees. Assignments are individual and are completed without much consultation with others. There is a manager present at the office which leads to a lot of interaction with management. Employees do not have much influence in the company and the decision makers (directors and managers) do not have a lot of interaction with clients.
1.2 Structure and competence in SMT’s (12 respondents total):
ABN AMRO teams consist of function 1, 2 & 3 employees. It has not been asked whether these functions are given by team members or management. Functions 1 and 2 are on the same level. Function 2 used to have a little more responsibility but this has diminished over time. Function 3 has most responsibility and is related closest to management. There is only one function 3 employee in the team and this person does the same work as others but also makes schedules and is seen as the first person to contact when having complaints.
Skill leads are comparable to managers for the SMT’s and have responsibility for SMT’s in certain
regions. They set up goals and expectations for the team and are only present at the office once every few months. They are not concerned with day-to-day operations and are not part of the SMT.
Team coaches have a supporting role and help with the teams’ wellbeing. The coach arranges weekly
meetings with the entire team and mostly helps to improve teamwork. This person is independent of the teams’ performance and has a supporting role. Coach is not part of the SMT.
Skill coaches can be requested when an employee has problems with an assignment but they will
approach employees themselves when he/she underperforms to have a face-to-face conversation. Skill coach is not part of the SMT.
5 out of 12 respondents agreed that there is no official process of feedback and are satisfied with that while 1 respondent said that feedback happens with the function 3 colleague.
2.1 Organizational culture of non-SMT’s (9 from the 12 respondents total):
9 out of 9 respondents stated that interaction is formal and hierarchy is present at the office. 8 out of 9 stated that culture is not open. The culture does not allow to bring in new ideas or establish deep relationships with others for example.
Quote: ‘Bank culture has a professional business character.’
1 out of 9 said to not (yet*) notice major differences in formality of interaction compared to SMT’s. Note that this respondent is part of an SMT that was only implemented very recently.
3 out of 9 respondents said that not everything can be talked about on a business level.
Quote: ‘When I disagree with decisions by managers, I am not likely to argue against it and will rather leave it as is.’
19 9 out of 9 respondents said that employees have less freedom to decide what to work on as tasks are given by the manager. 2 of these respondents do not mind this as it saves time and lets them focus on completing the assignment. It also makes the job description very clear. The other 7 of these respondents did not enjoy the fact that they have less freedom in deciding what to do as they value freedom and responsibility.
2 out of 9 respondents like the fact that decision making goes quickly in a non-SMT due to the manager being responsible for this. 1 out of 9 respondents said that a manager can filter the incoming information and only pass on the information necessary to his/her employees. 3 out of 9 respondents enjoy working with a direct manager.
2.2) Organizational culture of SMT’s (12 respondents total): 12 out of 12 respondents said there is informal interaction.
Quote: ‘Team members interact more informally, although we are still polite to one another.’
12 out of 12 respondents said there is an open culture at the office as everything can be talked about on a business level and bringing ideas forward is easy as this is expected from team members. 12 out of 12 respondents said there is a positive atmosphere at the office and colleagues are supportive.
Quote: ‘Sometimes I can be inspired by my colleagues.’
10 out of 12 respondents enjoyed the fact that they have more freedom in deciding what to do, coming up with improvements and taking initiative. 12 out of 12 respondents said they feel connected with the team.
Quote: ‘I want to deliver good work as my own bad performance would negatively impact the whole team. I feel connected with them and do not want to disappoint anyone.’
2 out of 12 respondents said decision making can take a long time as everyone is allowed to have their say. 1 respondent said that there are too often discussions about things that are not important for everyone in the SMT making this a waste of time. 4 out of 12 respondents had criticism on the feedback process as team members do not always dare to be honest with each other.
Respondents were asked what they think are important characteristics for SMT employees to have:
8 out of 12 respondents named ‘being able to listen to others’:
→ quote: ‘You are working together with different employees that all have their own opinions and perspectives so you must be able to listen well when they share these.’
8 out of 12 respondents named assertiveness / being proactive:
→ quote: ‘Everyone’s input is needed to achieve goals, if someone for example does not share his/her ideas, the talent is wasted.’
→ quote: ‘No one tells you when to do a certain thing, you have to come up with it on your own.’
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→ quote: ‘You need to be open with team members and share your thoughts to function in an SMT.’
→ quote: ‘You need to be able to be yourself towards colleagues.’
5 out of 12 respondents named being empathic / supportive:
→ quote: ‘When someone does not appear a lot on the foreground, you can help this person open up more.’
→ quote: ‘You work together with all these different people so you must be able to put yourself in their shoes in order to understand them.’
3 out of 12 respondents named being an independent person:
→ quote: ‘There is no manager telling you what to do so you must be able to take matters into your own hands.’
2 out of 12 respondents named flexibility:
→ quote: ‘Things can change quite fast in an SMT as everyone can influence processes so you must be able to deal with this.’
2 out of 12 respondents named having self-confidence:
→ quote: ‘You must dare to speak up when not agreeing with something or when you come up with new ideas.’
2 out of 12 respondents named having confidence / trust in others:
→ quote: ‘As teamwork is important you must be able to trust others.’
3.1) Perception of non-SMT-employees (9 respondents total):
1 out of 9 respondents said that employees try to make their point but in the end the manager makes the decision which can make it feel as if your opinion is not perceived as valid.
1 out of 9 respondents said they do not feel as having any influence in decision making when working in SMT’s.
Quote: ‘The manager was satisfied when you completed your work in a timely manner but I did not feel like coming up with ideas as I felt like I had no one to share it with.’
2 out of 9 respondents enjoy interaction with management as this gives them an idea of what is thought of their performance.
3.2) Perception of SMT employees (12 respondents total):
12 out of 12 respondents feel that there is a positive perception of other members in the team and feel like they are perceived positively by other team members. 11 out of 12 of the respondents did not have an opinion on perception of the team from employees outside of the SMT (not including management) as there is not much interaction with them.
10 out of 12 respondents are satisfied with the perception of management and feel appreciated by them. 1 of these 10 satisfied respondents did doubt whether this perception is sincere.
21 9 out of 12 respondents have a positive perception of management as they for example showed extra support during COVID-19. 3 out of 12 respondents have a negative perception of management as communication can go wrong between the team and management leading to situations that should never have happened if things were communicated well. 2 out of 12 respondents do not feel enough appreciation from management and think they should show more.
1 out of 12 respondents thinks SMT employees are not appreciated enough by outside employees as they do not exactly know how the SMT works. 2 out of 12 respondents feel negatively perceived by management.
Quote: ‘I feel as if they (management) see me as just another number.’
4.1) Motivation in non-SMT’s (9 respondents total):
3 out of 9 respondents named salary and bonuses as a motivating factor. 1 out of 9 respondents said to be motivated by working with a direct manager who is present at the office. 1 out of 9
respondents said to not like the hierarchical character of non-SMT’s in the banking culture.
1 out of 9 respondents finds compliments from management motivating and finds this more valuable than compliments from colleagues.
Quote: ‘Having a manager give you a compliment is more valuable to me than receiving compliments from team members, which is what I am currently missing.’
4.2) Motivation in SMT’s (12 respondents total):
12 out of 12 respondents felt connected to- and appreciated within the team which is a big part of their work motivation.
Quote: ‘We are some sort of ‘office family’ and we do not want to disappoint each other.’
9 out of 12 respondents said that the feeling of mutual responsibility makes team members want to perform well as negative performance would negatively impact the entire team. 8 out of 12
respondents said that job satisfaction (helping customers) is a motivating factor. 7 out of 12
respondents said that working in an SMT is motivating as it allows them to take initiative. 2 out of 12 respondents said that working in an SMT makes employees come in contact with more diverse kinds of work which helps with learning and personal development.
Quote: ‘Work can be quite diverse which allows me to develop skills as HR for example. This helps with my personal development.’
5 out of 12 respondents named salary and bonuses as motivation. 3 out of 12 respondents said that signs of appreciation by management in the form of gift cards, personal emails or team lunches are motivating.
4 out of 12 respondents stated that people who do not possess certain personality traits will not enjoy working in an SMT.
Quote: ‘People that like to sit behind their computer with their head down and be passive will not function well in the team.’
4 out of 12 respondents said that management could show more appreciation which would be motivating. 1 out of 12 respondents was not motivated by working in an SMT as she does not necessarily enjoy the responsibility.
22 5.1) Relation with management for non-SMT’s (9 respondents total):
9 out of 9 respondents said there is a lot of interaction with a manager. 3 out of 9 respondents said to enjoy frequent interactions with a manager.
1 out of 9 respondents said that interaction with management feels like it happens on an equal level, although there is hierarchy. 0 out of 9 respondents have experienced problems with a manager while working in a non-SMT.
1 out of 9 respondents likes to get compliments from management as she feels it has more value than coming from team members.
5.2) Relation with management for SMT’s (12 respondents total):
12 out of 12 respondents said there is not much interaction with management as they only come to the office every few months. 9 out of 12 respondents did not say to mind having little interaction with management and feel like management shows enough appreciation by sending gift cards and flowers. Although It does not feel very personal for 1 of these 9 respondents.
10 out of 12 respondents feel trust from management.
Quote: ‘They give us a lot of freedom and responsibility which is a sign of trust to me.’
3 out of 12 respondents want more frequent interaction with management.
Quote: ‘I think that having an official manager within the team would be a good addition.’
3 out of 12 respondents feel like management should show more appreciation as they would like to hear more often from management whether performance is good. 2 out of 12 respondents do not feel trust from management as some decisions made in the team such as going back to working in shifts were denied.
6) Conflicts between cultures (12 respondents total):
0 out of 12 respondents ever experienced a conflict between SMT- and non-SMT employees as SMT members do not interact much with non-SMT members besides management, customers and coaches. There are frictions here and there but this is said to be the case in any job.
2 out of 12 respondents said there are sometimes frictions with skill leads (managers) as they are almost never present at the office but still set very demanding goals.
1 out of 12 respondents said that employees that used to be managers in a non-SMT setting and are now used in SMT’s, can tend to act as if they still have a managing position.
1 out of 12 respondents said that frictions between SMT members occur and this has to be solved by control from outside or from within. When someone is more individually focused, this can cause frictions.
1 out of 12 respondents said there is poor communication within the SMT between permanent employees and students that work on Saturdays. 1 out of 12 respondents said that older employees try to take a superior role over younger employees.
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6) Discussion and conclusion.
The data will be analyzed to answer the sub questions and finally the main question. The chapter will end with a conclusion.
6.1 Sub-questions:
In this part of the thesis, the sub-questions will be answered in order to make a good foundation for answering the main research question based on the findings mentioned in the previous chapter.
6.1.1 What is organizational culture?
There exist many definitions and interpretations of organizational culture within the scientific domain. The concept of culture is used in literature to describe ideas and cognition, as symbols and meanings, values and ideologies, norms, emotions, the collective unconscious, behavior patterns, structures and practices, etc. (Alvesson, 2012).
Schein (2010; p.18) defines culture as: ‘The culture of a group can be defined as a pattern of shared
basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.’ Schein's
definition states that groups collectively adopt a certain way of thinking and behaving to effectively solve problems which is taught to new members as well. It gives meaning to interactions and positions of people involved.
Culture defines the mental environment people live or work in as well as how it impacts the way they behave, think, and experience things. Culture influences or even determines human behavior in a certain context. It consists of the total sum of shared norms and values but also knowledge. Culture is present in all layers of life whether it be sports teams, families or organizations. This shows that culture and human perception are fundamentally intertwined in the social domain as it dictates for a large amount how people see others and interact with them. In certain cultures, people are much more polite to each other than in others for example which could be related to the degree of respect people have for each other. Respecting someone could be seen as a human perception which has likely been influenced by culture.
Culture gives meaning to how people interact and this has effects within organizations as well. Grey (2014) identified that this human perception is present in organizations but they are not aware of this. Therefore human perception remains unspoken although it does influence behavior.
Organizational culture influences how coworkers perceive each other and the way managers perceive their subordinates. These perceptions then may influence interactions and the way people treat each other in an organization. Managers that see their subordinates as a means for achieving better performance are not expected to treat them as well as managers who respect their employees and recognize they have their own goals and personalities. Recognizing these goals and personalities could even benefit performance and efficiency as managers could give their employees tasks that are more personally suited to them. Organizational theory, whether it is written form a managers
perspective or not, should start to recognize this human perception as it would not only benefit employees but may benefit managers as well.
24 The respondents with non-SMT experience stated that the general culture is hierarchical,
professional, and interaction is formal which makes it difficult to make social contacts. The SMT culture is said to be less hierarchical and interaction is quite informal. This enables
interaction on a more personal level and all respondents felt connected to the team which was also a big motivating factor for them. There are lots of other characteristics present that have both
advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed further in the next question.
6.1.2 What are the main characteristics of SMT- and non-SMT cultures?
Non-SMT’s:
Traditional teams usually have a manager who functions as a supervisor possessing the power to decide group members, goals, tasks, deadlines, and what performance is expected. Non-SMT’s are hierarchical and interaction is quite formal as respondents feel like not everything can be talked about on a business level with colleagues or managers. This leads to an atmosphere that does not feel very open. Tasks are given by a direct supervisor that employees have to answer to. This leads to the job description being very clear and employees knowing what is expected of them. It also saves a lot of time as thinking of what has to be done, when it has to be done, and by who is mainly left for the manager to decide. Decision making is done primarily by management and the board. Employees do not have a large say in this. Teamwork and consultation with colleagues is not as prominent as in SMT’s resulting in work being more individual. There is more ‘distance’ between employees which makes it easier to ‘lean back more’, meaning that employees do not have to be as proactive. Tasks must be completed in a timely manner and not much else seems to be expected.
SMT’s:
SMT’s do not have a direct manager because the team divides tasks and deadlines. Performance goals are set by management but they are rarely present at the office. Interaction is informal and everything can be talked about on a business level. Bringing ideas forward and stating your opinion is easy as this is expected from the team members. This leads to an open atmosphere. Respondents said to have lots of shared responsibilities and are dependent on others in the team, making teamwork a major factor of an SMT’s success. This is also supported by Wageman (1997) and Goodman (2009) as they state that SMT’s need to be well coordinated in order to be effective, making the design an essential part of its success. As good teamwork is only achievable when members have collective goals in mind, SMT's must have high levels of cohesiveness and strong norms that support cooperation. A lot of freedom is given to the team as they are mostly free to make decisions that affect only the team but not decisions that affect the whole organization. Decisions can be made within a framework which was said to be large enough.
The most important characteristics for members of an SMT to have named by respondents were related to teamwork and communication. Being able to listen and assertiveness were named the most as all team members have their own opinions and are allowed to share this, making it important to hear and understand what others have to say. Assertiveness is important as no manager is present at the office so members must take matters into their own hands and think of changes or improvements themselves. People that do not share their ideas or opinions do not add much to the team as everyone’s input is needed to achieve goals. Openness / honesty between team
