Are "Teams" a meaningful unit? LO13486

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@CompuServe.COM)
06 May 97 04:50:50 EDT

Replying to LO13409 --

Stever says, "I was observing that I've never heard of a case where a
self-directed team was delegated the budgetary and resource allocation
authority to follow through on their suggestions without at least running
it by top management first. (Unless the self-directed team itself is
comprised of people with budgets.) Thus, in practice, top management can
squelch attempts to learn by withholding resources that the team deems
necessary."

All the models I am familiar with require upper management approval to
spend money if the expense exceeds a certain limit. This is a matter of
allocating scarce resources. The team has no way to evaluate what
resources are available if they have no budget responsibility. I recognize
that exercising this function is often perceived as squelching, but
allocating scarce resources is what upper management get, paid to do.

-- 

Rol Fessenden 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>