Self-Leading Work Teams: Moving Beyond Self-Management Myths

Abstract

Recent challenges raised in the literature suggest that the application of employee self-managing teams can create more of a illusion or myth of employee self-influence than a reality. The amount of self-influence allowed self-managing employees is frequently subject to many limitations stemming from management practice and organizational constraints. In order to more fully develop and utilize organizational human resources a movement beyond self-managing teams toward self-leading teams is proposed. This perspective suggests that employees are empowered to influence strategic issues concerning what they do and why, in addition to the issue of how they do their work. The role of several contingency factors is also considered.