Radial Bearing Team: A Manufacturing Group's Transformation to Self-Directed Work Teams Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

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The case traces the evolution of a worldwide oilfield service company’s manufacturing division that had 5500 workforce and $1.2 billion sales. It transformed into a team-based culture from a departmental organization with a conventional machine shop hierarchy. While this transformation the other things that changed, were the roles and responsibilities which change from a conventional foreman framework to a Self-Directed Work Team (SDWT) framework for the Radial Bearing Team. The ability to tackle new responsibilities is significantly affected by the individual behaviors and by the dynamics of change, they manage the quality control, regular workflow, and equipment utilization. While incorporating new roles and responsibilities, the organization’s manager encountered several dysfunctions in this change process. However, everyone in the team had the potential, but it needed to integrate the innovative culture along with this change. The case presents the methodologies used by the team for its performance evaluation as it assumes roles and accountability for quality improvement. The management assigned the implementation of SDWTs to the unit leadership to make it effective. Now the machine shop manager and the internal Organizational Development specialist, George Smiley and Shane Husky respectively, needed to present argument to help management decide if expansion of the SDWT program was assured and the best practices gained from the RBT experience that would add to future achievement.