Case study: Service Adhesives tries again

Questions

1. Service Adhesives Ltd currently employs up to 20% of their workforce on short-term contracts. What effect will this have on the proposed team-based working structure?

2. In considering a transition from a traditional organizational work structure to a team-based work structure, what sort of barriers are Service Adhesives Ltd likely to encounter? Think about formal structures (e.g. roles and procedures) and informal structures (e.g. social groups and communication).

3. Senior management of Service Adhesives thought that the reason for ineffective improvement initiatives in the past was due mainly to the apparent lack of cohesion amongst the organization's human resource. Could a team-based work organization be the answer to their organizational difficulties? Why do think that previous initiatives at Super Supply had failed?

4. Employee empowerment is a key element of team-based working; what difficulties could Service Adhesives face in implementing empowerment?