TQM and Teamwork Effectiveness: The Intermediate Role of Organizational Design

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative study that examines how design variables contribute to the improvement of teams' effectiveness. The analysis is carried out in an engineering firm developing advanced total quality management (TQM) practices. Results show that this management philosophy has created a culture and a set of values that have facilitated an adequate use of design variables in order to improve teams' effectiveness. In this sense, decentralization and formalization reinforce, respectively, autonomy and coordination inside and among teams. Also, the participative style of leadership, reinforced by the high degree of decentralization, facilitates the allocation of the resources required by teams, thus contributing to their effectiveness. Managers are provided with a set of key design variables that can modify and improve the team's effectiveness.

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