The effects of teamworking on work related
stress
05 December 2001
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today published a report providing a detailed analysis of teamworking. The report shows that teamworking can both increase or decrease work-related stress levels, depending on the team design and methods of implementation adopted by employers.
A team involves more than a group of people working near to
each other.
Members of teams work collaboratively together, co-ordinating inter-dependent
activities, in order to achieve shared goals. Such teamworking is increasingly
common within modern companies as they strive to be more flexible,
cost-effective and innovative. The mid-1990s saw 55 percent of UK manufacturers
using teamworking, and this usage is expected to increase.
The review identifies two schools of thought. Successful teamworking can reduce
employees' work-related stress through enabling greater discretion over their
work environment and increasing job challenge. On the other hand, there is a
danger that team working could escalate employee stress levels through
increasing workload and raising uncertainty about what is expected of employees
under a new approach.
A model for understanding teamworking has been put forward showing that teams
can be successful if they have a positive impact on aspects such as job
autonomy, skill variety and feedback. In contrast, teams that remove job
discretion and increase workload are likely to have negative effects for
employees. This can be the case with 'lean production teams' involving employees
working together on tightly-linked tasks that have highly standardized methods.
In addition, the model suggests that employee well-being can be better
safe-guarded by designing an appropriate context within which teams work,
particularly with regard to an appropriate team design, an effective
implementation process, and a supportive culture.
In the context of the model the research reports on the results of three
studies, each considering a different type of production team:
Study A: A longitudinal study of the effects of implementing flexible work teams
in a wire-making company:
Study B: A longitudinal study of lean production teams in a vehicle
manufacturing company: and
Study C: An investigation of self-managed teams in a chemical processing
company.
Dr Helen Williams said of the report: "Implementing team working is
implicitly neither good nor bad for employee well-being. Rather, the effects of
team working will depend on a number of organizational, design, strategic,
individual, and implementation factors."
"The important point is that organizations need to recognize that they can
make choices that have important consequences for employee well-being. By
pro-actively considering the factors outlined in the report, employers can make
choices that enrich employees' work characteristics and thereby promote mental
health at work. Employers need to be fully informed about the choices available
to them, and the consequences of these choices".
Notes:
Current research by Professor Sharon Parker and Dr Helen Williams at the
Institute of Work Psychology (Sheffield University) reviews existing teamworking
research in relation to employee work stress, providing background information,
reviewing major theories and other studies of teamworking. The latest research
also reviews three studies conducted by the authors, with each study considering
a different type of production team.