Peter runs a non-profit educational organization with a small budget and very few full-time staff members. During the bulk of their programming in the summer, their staff swells to 35 or 40 part-time, temporary teachers. During the hiring process, Peter and the full-time staff carefully review the teachers' resumes and put teachers into teams where they each bring something unique to the table. In these teams, teachers are in charge of planning all of their own activities, units, field trips, and lessons. They have to make proposals to the full-time staff for big trips, but otherwise, this frees up the full-time staff to trouble-shoot and deal with student issues. From a management perspective, which of the following benefits of work-teams is Peter maximizing?

A) empowerment of workers by enabling them to play a more direct role in organizational decision making
B) development of a workforce that is multi-skilled rather than deskilled
C) development of holistic team synergies that result in innovative decision making
D) functional autonomy, with little need for direct supervision

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Samuel Smith · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : D, Explanation :  Functional autonomy, with little need for direct supervision, is the benefit of work-teams that Peter is maximizing. By putting teachers into teams and giving them the responsibility for planning all of their own activities, units, field trips, and lessons, Peter is freeing up the full-time staff to trouble-shoot and deal with student issues. This allows the full-time staff to focus on the big picture and to provide support to the teachers as needed, without having to micromanage them.

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