OPPapers.com

Levi Strauss & Co.'s Flirtation With Teams

Case Study: Levi Strauss & Co.'s Flirtation with Teams - Chapter 7

Group Name:

Group Members:

Name ID No.

November 9, 2005

1. Discuss the stages of group development and the implementations of them for the development of the teams at Levi Strauss?

Generally, five (5) stages of development are experienced by any team implemented to work together. These five stages are identified as Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. At Levi Strauss & Co. Ltd., in going through these stages, it was the team members' handling of the inevitable conflicts that developed, which had severe and far-reaching implications for team development at the organization. Team members became frustrated and remained stagnated for long periods in certain stages.

Forming – is the first stage of group development. Teams in this stage come together and begin to identify their collective purpose. There is an initial belief that synergy will be created and that the team will perform at a higher level than the sum of the individual members.
At Levi Strauss the employees did not form their own teams but were placed by middle management into teams. The building of trust and a team's foundation, an expected step in forming, did not occur at Levi Strauss. There was thus no natural flow of information on tasks, goals and processes.

Team members were generally aware of their common purpose of increasing production in a self-managed environment, but how this was to be accomplished was not clearly defined. Consequently, instead of leaders emerging and synergy developing, conflict reigned.
Storming – the second stage of team development, should see the clarification of goals and the adoption of an accepted decision-making process. Successful teams learn to accommodate diversity. Conflict, which is not necessarily a negative feature, is characteristic of this stage. At Levi Strauss, no guidelines for resolving conflict were established. Instead, teams...