Multiple team memberships: an Australian study

Multiple team memberships: an Australian study

The study investigated the effects of number of team memberships on participation and attitudinal
outcomes. A survey of Australian employees was conducted in organisations implementing teams in Total Quality Management programs. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that with increased involvement in teams, there was a more pronounced effect on perceived influence in
decision-making. No support was found for a higher degree of skill utilisation, satisfaction with participation, job satisfaction, and more positive attitudes toward consultation as team involvement increased among employees. The results of correlation analysis indicated a significant association between number of team memberships and perceived influence, but weak and non-significant
associations between number of team memberships and attitudinal outcomes. The results also failed to find a more pronounced effect of number of team memberships among lower-level employees. Overall, the results suggested that there were limited effects of multiple team
memberships on attitudinal outcomes, but stronger effects on perceived influence.

The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) has gained widespread popularity, not only in the United States and Europe, but has been adopted by a number of organisations throughout the Asia-Pacific region (De Cieri, Samson, and Sohal, 1991) including Australia, where TQM was introduced in the early 1980s (Sprouster, 1987). Research evidence suggests that employee participation is a critical feature of successful TQM programs (Coye and Belohlav, 1995; Shiba,
Graham, and Walden, 1993). The International Quality Study (American Quality Foundation and Ernst & Young, 1991) found that without employee participation even the best TQM programs were likely to fail (Lengnick-Hall, Heinrich, and Middleton, 1993). Employee participation in
organisations adopting TQM occurs in the form of quality circles (QCs) (Lawler, 1994; Powell, 1995; Sprouster, 1987), quality improvement teams (Juran, 1969), and cross-functional teams (Deming, 1993; Ishikawa, 1985). Understanding the factors, such as membership of TQM-based
circles and teams that affect employee attitudes is important, and may enable organisations adopting
TQM principles to realise the benefits of employee participation in TQM programs. It is the issue of
how multiple memberships in TQM-based teams affect perception of participation and in turn, skill
utilisation, satisfaction with participation, job satisfaction and attitudes to consultation that is the focus of this study.

Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.