cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

The underpinning theoryCasey believes that there is a clear link between the level of uncertaintyof the task being handled and the level of team work needed. The greaterthe uncertainty is, the greater the need for team work. The majority ofmanagement teams deal with both uncertain and certain tasks, so need tobe flexible about the levels of team working required. Decisions abouthealth and safety, HR policy, reporting processes and recruitment arerelatively certain, so can be handled fairly quickly without a need formuch sharing of points of view. There is usually a right answer to theseissues, whereas decisions about strategy, structure and culture are lesscertain. There is no right answer, and each course of action involvestaking a risk. This means more team working, more sharing of points ofview, and a real understanding of what is being agreed and what theimplications are for the team.THE TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL TEAMSRobert Keidal (1984) identified a parallel between sports teams and organizationalteams. He uses baseball, American football and basketballteams to show the differences.A baseball team is like a sales organization. Team members are relativelyindependent of one another, and while all members are required tobe on the field together, they virtually never interact together all at thesame time.Football is quite different. There are really three subteams within thetotal team: offence, defence, and the special team. When the subteamis on the field, every player is involved in every play, which is not thecase in baseball. But the team work is centred in the subteam, not thetotal team.Basketball is a different breed. Here the team is small, with all playersin only one team. Every player is involved in all aspects of the game,offence and defence, and all must pass, run, shoot. When a substitutecomes in, all must play with the new person.Many different types of team exist within organizations. Let us look at arange of types of team found in today’s organizations (see Table 2.2).66