Leading Workers to Lead Themselves: The External Leadership of Self- Managing Work Teams

TLDR

This paper explores the paradoxical role of external leaders in self‑managing work teams. The study used observations, interviews, group elicitation, and literature review in a medium‑sized manufacturing plant to identify 21 salient leader behaviors, which were then measured with a newly developed self‑management leadership questionnaire. Correlations with overall leadership‑effectiveness ratings showed that external leaders most effectively facilitate self‑management through self‑observation, self‑evaluation, and self‑reinforcement, indicating a distinct but legitimate role compared to traditional participative leadership. The authors acknowledge Dr.

Abstract

We gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of Dr. Richard Cherry. This paper explores the paradoxical role of the external leaders of self-managing workteams. Observation, interviews, group elicitations, and a literature search were used to identify salient leader behaviors in a medium-sized manufacturing plant that had been operating for several years under a system of self-managing work teams. A selfmanagement leadership questionnaire was developed to measure the 21 leader behaviors identified. Correlations with overall leadership-effectiveness ratings generally indicated that the external leaders' most important behaviors are those that facilitate the team's self-management through self-observation, self-evaluation, and selfreinforcement. The study suggests that there is a legitimate role for external leaders of self-managing work teams but that it differs from traditional and participative leadership roles.