Teamwork and high performance work organisation
| Index | << Prev | Next >> | [ |
Negative consequences of teamwork
This section considers possible negative aspects of teamwork, namely the possibility of an increased pace of work and the resulting higher workload and greater risk of health problems. However, it is difficult to generalise the results of analytical studies on this topic. The ambivalence lies chiefly in the increased demands on work performance and corresponding extended responsibilities and autonomy in work teams. If demands are increased but teams are not given the necessary scope for control and decision-making on how to meet these demands, it is likely that employees will experience higher levels of stress and work pressure.
The expert community can thus be divided into two groups of opinion. The larger group comprises advocates of teamwork, who usually claim that teamwork has positive impacts on employees and work organisation, for example in reducing the rate of work injuries, fewer absences from work and increased work productivity. The other group believes that teamwork and other aspects of HPWO may have ‘detrimental effects on workers by increasing work-related health problems and the risk of occupational hazards’ (Bauer, 2004; Askenazy, 2001; Brenner, Fairris and Ruser, 2004). Job rotation and greater responsibility on employees for product quality increase the pace of work; job rotation and rapid organisational changes facilitated by flexible production processes reduce workers’ chances to improve safety through work routines and learning on the job.
Individual national studies included case studies or studies based on quantitative work with data that draw attention to this problem. A case study describing the introduction in 1994 of new forms of work organisation in a company in the automobile sector in Austria concluded that the introduction of new forms of work organisation, including teamwork, led to an increased workload and an increase in time pressure caused by a staff shortage and technical problems.
This trend was also tracked in a Danish comparative study based on comprehensive analysis of 144 completed case studies and theoretical studies. The study makes it clear that the introduction of teamwork is typically followed by an intensification of work. This higher work intensity is problematic from the employee’s point of view mainly if the job enlargement is not accompanied by a greater possibility for control over one’s work.
Increased intensity of work following restructuring and the introduction of new forms of organisation is not only relevant in the manufacturing sector. An Austrian study from 2003, which examined a project introducing virtual teams, shows that workers in the information technology (IT) sector cite a high and continuously increasing pressure of work. All of the workers were involved in project teamwork as this is the dominant form of work organisation in IT services and in virtual teams. The workers noted an increase in short-term projects in general, and increasing international as well as internal competition due to reorganisation processes.
The Finnish Quality of Work Life survey reveals that 59% of employees working in teams described their working environment as being driven by time pressure and tight time schedules, compared with 51% of employees not working in teams. Increased stress among teamworkers is also apparent from the Spanish representative survey, Quality of Life in the Workplace, 2004. The available data show that 32.2% of those who work in a team report being ‘always or frequently’ stressed at work, in comparison with 23.4% of those who do not work in teams or groups. On the other hand, the results of the extensive Dutch quantitative survey of labour relations 2005, conducted by TNO, identified no statistically significant correlation between teamwork and working under time pressure.
The Employment in Britain Survey in 1992 and Working in Britain Survey 2000 revealed that ‘high performance work practices, including group work, were a source for spill-over of work into home life’. Overall, the results of this survey ‘suggest a conflict between high performance practices and work-life balance policies and in particular showed that group working practices were playing a larger role in work demands’. The Finnish Quality of Working Life survey 2003 draws similar conclusions, finding that people who work in teams think about their work in their free time more often than those not working in teams.
Insufficient time to get the job done
A correlation between teamwork and lack of time for work was not proven in most countries. Furthermore, contradictory tendencies can be observed among Member States where a statistically significant dependency was found. In Finland and Denmark, employees working in teams feel that they have insufficient time to do their work tasks considerably more often than is the case among other employees (Figure 15). Conversely, the opposite tendency was identified in Austria, where only 14.7% of employees working in teams mentioned problems with a lack of time to complete tasks, compared with 35.9% of employees not working in a team.
Overall, it may be concluded, with certain exceptions, that the distribution of work tasks between members of a team does not contribute to the subjective feeling that there is insufficient time to do the work, nor does it help to improve this situation. Figure 15: Percentage of those reporting insufficient time to complete job tasks
Source: EWCS 2000/2001
Working at very high speed and to tight deadlines
Working at a high speed and to tight deadlines, which reflect the intensity of work in different job categories, are further indicators of work intensity. The results show that teamwork has an impact on both variables, both in the EU15 and ACC12. People working in teams are more likely to work to tight schedules or at a high speed than other workers are. It is also significant that, in the EU15, a closer correlation exists between teamwork and working to tight deadlines than between teamwork and high-speed work. Nevertheless, the closeness of the association between teamwork and both of these variables was similar in the ACC12.
Figure 16: Percentage of those who report working at very high speed all or almost all of the time, according to teamwork
Source: EWCS 2000/2001
Figure 17: Percentage of those who report working to tight deadlines all or almost all of the time, according to teamwork
Source: EWCS 2000/2001
Figures 16 and 17 show the overall trend for individual countries. High-speed work is relatively more common among employees working in teams than among other employees in all countries except Austria, Finland, Sweden and the UK, where no statistically significant correlation was found (Figure 16). The most notable difference between the employee groups can be seen in Bulgaria and Romania, Spain and France.
Similarly, working to tight deadlines is more frequently the case for teamworkers than for other employees. In this regard, one can observe a correlation with the generally more frequent incidence of teamwork among higher-skilled professions. Again, no statistically significant association was registered in Germany or Sweden, while Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania and the UK show the widest differences between employees (Figure 17). Large gaps of 10 percentage points or more can also be found in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France and Spain.
Impact on employees’ health
As far as a subjective appraisal of the impact of working life on employees’ health is concerned, the results show that the health of teamworkers is negatively affected by their work more than the health of employees not working in teams is. Significant differences between teamwork and the impact of work on employees’ health were found in most countries, apart from the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK (Figure 18). The values show that, in the EU15, 61% of employees working in teams believe that the work has a negative impact on their health, compared with 56% of employees not working in teams. Analysis of the ACC12 reveals the same trend, specifically 71% compared with 61%.
Figure 18: Percentage of those reporting that their health is affected by work
Source: EWCS 2000/2001
The above can lead to a judgement of certain tendencies in work intensity and its impact on the health of employees in an organisational environment where new forms of work organisation have probably been introduced, at least in part. Work pressure is demonstrably greater among teamworkers than among other employees. It is highly probable that this fact also has an impact on the health of employees working in teams.
| Index | << Prev | Next >> |