July 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Background Note
HBS Case Collection

Technology for Teams

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Geoffrey Bock

Format:Print
| Pages:10

Abstract

The importance of groups in organizations has long been recognized but, until recently, groups were always "tacked onto" organizations that were designed around individuals. It was not just the logic of classical organizational theory that perpetuated this focus on the individual; the entire entrepreneurial tradition of U.S. society and culture supported it. Recently, companies have begun to break down these traditional organizational and cultural barriers and to recognize teams as a formal unit of the organizational structure. While autonomous (or semi-autonomous) work teams have operated within manufacturing environments for several decades, more recently companies like General Electric, IBM, and Frito-Lay have attempted to create "empowered" work teams as the basic unit of organizational work throughout their organizations. As companies attempt to formally recognize the team as a structural unit of the organization, they are also forced to reevaluate organizational processes and structures that detract from effective group functioning. A growing number of companies are finding that technology can be an important tool for facilitating team processes.