High Performance Organizations
Companies that are starting off in today 's business world face many problems in the path to their success. While there are many different ways to run a company, companies that learn how to become high performance teams have a better chance of success. A high performance team (HPO) is "designed to bring out the best in people and achieve sustained high performance." ( Schermerhorn, 2003.) By maximizing the ability of their team to do their best and achieve higher performance levels, managers maximize their chances of success. HPO 'S emphasize respect for people. High performance organizations organize their workflow around five specific areas, and follow policies that "enhance employee flexibility, skills and motivation" (Schermerhorn, 2003).Those five areas are employee involvement, self-directing work teams, integrated production technology, total quality management and organizational learning. Employee involvement is important to an HPO because it shows how much decision making is actually done by employees. There are three basic levels of employee involvement. The first is no involvement; essentially, they come to work, do their jobs, and don 't make any suggestions on any topic. These employees may drop off anonymous tips in suggestion boxes, or participate in roundtable discussions, but they don 't participate in the process for making decisions that affect the company. The next level is moderate involvement. In this level there are more opportunities for day-to-day decision making. The last level is high involvement. These employees make decisions daily that involve the welfare of the company. Self directing work teams are empowered teams that are encouraged to plan, do, and evaluate their work. These teams are important to an HPO because they know how to constructively criticize and increase their skill levels. Allowing employees to self-direct gives them confidence in their abilities, and encourages them to try new and improved methods.
References: Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G & Osborn, R.N. (2003) Organizational Behavior