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Team Management Systems

This paper will explore the dynamics of the organizational paradigm of team management systems. The way in which organizations are managed has undergone a major paradigm shift, beginning in the 1960s, changing from a scientific, hierarchical management style to one based on the formation of small groups referred to as teams. This paper will discuss the stated topic in terms of philosophy regarding human nature, management’s attitude towards workers, workers’ attitudes, and sense of responsibility toward the organization, group dynamics, successful attainment of the organization’s goals, and some of the drawbacks that characterize therein.
The classical or scientific approach to organizational management was created by Frederick Taylor in the early twentieth century. Taylor’s scientific management approach purported efficiency above all other goals. Taylor believed in four basic premises: 1) the “science of work,” and that each job could be broken down into a routine task; 2) the scientific selection and training of workers; 3) bringing together management and workers to ensure that the scientific principles resulting from the study of the tasks to be completed and the careful selection and training of workers to carry out those tasks were rewarded for adhering to standardized rules; and 4) expanding the role played by managers in the overall production process (Schriver, 1997). Although the scientific management style is no longer viewed as effective in many organizations, this approach did bring with it improvements in efficiency and helped workers with little education and experience to become fairly productive quickly. It improved the lives of many who had been exploited in sweatshop operations and in dangerous mining operations. Conversely, the high degree of specialization required by scientific management strategies created a division of labor; thereby, separating the workers from the finished product and denying them and...

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