RMIT International University Vietnam
Bachelor of Commerce Program

Assignment Cover Page
| Subject Code: |BUSM2301 |
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|Subject Name: |Organizational Behavior |
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|Location & Campus (SGS or HN) where you study: |RMIT Vietnam |
|Title of Assignment: |Individual Paper |
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|Student name: |Nguyen Dinh Dung |
|Student Number: |S3310053 |
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|Teachers Name: |David Evers |
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|Group Number: |12 |
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|Assignment due date: |10 December 2010 |
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|Date of Submission: |4 December 2010 |
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|Number of pages including this one: |7 |
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|Word Count: |1552 |
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Individual Paper

Today with the highly competitive business in the world, the theory of self directed teams is so popular in business environment so organizations and companies have been used this self-directed teams to promote creatively and cost efficient products. This essay will define what the self directed teams are and introduce the reason why the self directed teams have the important role in the organizations and companies. Then the essay will compare some experiences in the work group activities with this theory and shows the ways how we can apply this theory to our work teams. Furthermore, this essay will identify the benefits and the drawbacks when we use self directed teams into our work teams and when not. Finally, the essay will help us to know what we can learn and how we can improve our work group teams from this theory in the future.

There are many types of work teams in business group working but the self directed teams are the most important kind of work teams in the current organizations and companies. According to Andre (2008), Self-directed teams (SDT) are defined as “a group of people working together in their own ways that control a big product or service” and sometimes this team also manages individual functions like deciding the team members and paying the salary for each member in teams. Another SDT’s definition is that the SDT is the functional work team which is complete the whole work by requiring many individual and independence tasks during the work process ( McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione 2010). This theory says that the SDT will be divided into 2 parts. Firstly, all group members will have a good relationship with each others in their group while they are fewer communities with other members outside their team. Secondly, the self direct team can do and control all the work group’s activities by themselves without directions or supervisors. In addition, McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione (2010) also present that autonomy is an independent task or liberty of all members in SDT. In some case, the SDT is also the teams or work groups that are permission to make their own decisions such as schedule, setting, improved their works ( G. Hunt, N. Osborn and R. Schermerhorn 2002). Moreover, Hans D (1993) states that the popular definition of SDT is that the SDT is the group of employees permitted to look forward of a detail section of the business. in this team, each member can possess different technical skills and all members in this group can manage all the workgroup activities by their own ways such as production, cost, hiring, firing, equipment maintenance, production control, coordinating with other teams. To sum up, there are a lot of various definitions of SDT. However, with different situations we will apply different SDT’s definitions to make sure that each SDT’s theory is suitable with each circumstance in the real working team.

Organizational behavior is the excited course for people who want to work in a work team or group. One of the most things we can learn from OB that OB helps us to understand clearly about the theory of team working and how we can improve our team working skills. It is very interesting when I study OB at my university. In my OB class, people will be divided into four groups. Each group will have each activity during studying this OB course. in my group, there are nine members in group working. And we also have a leader to leading and dividing the work for each other. Each member in my work group is very hard working. They always use their own way to finish the job that the leader gives them. They are very independent. Before meeting at OB class, we usually have a small meeting that the leader gives the each job for each member. then each member will do their own job. After that we will combine that each job to a whole job which will use for the meeting at OB class. Based on my experience, I feel that my work group is the self directed teams because we control our team by ourselves. Besides that, we can set the specific team’s goals by ourselves and we can also decide the members out or come in our work team. Furthermore, we can make the relationship with any work group we want. Each member in my group is very independent and we do not depend on anyone. No one can lead our team, just all members in our team can make the work group’s decisions.

I have a lot of experiences about the SDT when I work with my team at OB class. . According to Andre (2008), Self-directed teams (SDT) are defined as a group of people working together in their own ways that control a big product or service. Through my experience, I have found that my team is also a self directed team and making the work easily when we become a self directed team. We are a group of nine people and we have a leader and my team is very independent. For example, in last 4 weeks ago, myself directed team prepared activities for the meeting in OB class. My group was SD so my leader decided that each member in my group must read the lecture and summary the ideas by themselves, not using the ideas of another member and then we worked together to combine our ideas. Furthermore, my directed team also decided the SD presentation by their own way without any helps from teacher or other teams. In addition, Hans D (1993) states each member in SDT can manage all the workgroup activities by their own ways such as production, cost, hiring, firing, equipment maintenance, production control, coordinating with other teams. I have learned that my group controls the work, the money and the member out and come by ourselves. For example, in each week meeting we always get the money from each member in team with 10,000 vnd peer member. This purpose is that we want to make a fund which use to pay for the fee of the photocopy, printing papers or buying some materials for OB meeting and we decide this by ourselves.

On the other hand, there are some negative effects of SDT when I and my group work together. According to Alagoa, Marcelino, Tkalcevich and Weber (2010), some members in SDT can be shy at meeting but they are effective when working. They can be judged badly while working in self directed team. Based on my experience, I feel that some members in my work group are not good at the meeting at OB class but they are very good at preparing the documents, materials and the presentations. For example, in last three weeks ago, my group was SD group. My leader divided work into each member. Each member must prepare their presentation by themselves before talking in the meeting at OB class. Everything was ok until some members in my group had some problems with their presentation. Before that, they worked very hard but when they stayed in front of the class maybe they felt shy and nervous. After meeting, although my SDT prepared well for the presentation, we were not willing with that. Another negative effect of SDT is that sometimes SDT is suitable for a small group. It is not right for all organizations. In addition, if each member in SDT does not keep themselves responsible for the working so they are not a function team (Alagoa, Marcelino, Tkalcevich and Weber 2010). For example, in the last week ago, my SDT was Production. We must create a game for all of people in meeting at OB class but there were some members in my team did it, someone else did not do it. The result leaded that our game was very complex and made some confusing for people who want to enjoy our game.

In conclusion, there are a lot of positive and negative effects of SDT. After reading this literature my understanding has changed. To illustrate, I think that self directed team are the best kind of team work. If the team works like a self directed team, we can make the product more effective and easy. Moreover, working in an self directed team can help me learn more about the autonomy and how all members in a team work together. In future, with this knowledge I think I can work for a SDT in a global company. And if I have my own company, I will apply these theories about SDT into my employees to make them more productive and independent.

Reference lists:

• Alagoa, E, Marcelino, M, Tkalcevich, S, and Weber, M 2010,’ Self Directed Work Teams (SDWT)’, e-steve, viewed at 30 November 2010, . • Andre, R 2008, Organizational Behaviour, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. • G. Hunt, J, N. Osborn, R and R. Schermerhorn, J 2002, Organizational Behaviour, 7 edn, Jonh Wiley & Sons, USA. • Hans D, A 1993, ‘Self-directed work teams: how far is too far?’, allbusiness, viewed at 30 November 2010, < http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-team-building/403551-1.html>. • McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione 2010,Organisational behaviour, 3 edn, McGraw-Hill, level 2, 82 Waterloo Road, North Ryde NSW 2113.