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Focusses on the implications of empowerment for rewards and the way in which reward systems can support empowerment. Finds some support for this idea and works out the relation between empowerment and rewards somewhat further, while also observing some limitations. Describes two additional pay systems which proved useful in supporting empowerment ‐ one which focussed on the potential of the individual worker and could reward his/her multifunctionality; and another which could be directed to the performance of the team.

Technology uncertainty poses significant challenges to manufacturers, as rapid changes in product and/or process standards and specifications can disrupt the smooth flow of materials in extended supply chains. Practitioners and researchers alike who take a relational perspective widely regard supplier involvement as a potentially effective strategy to cope with technology uncertainty, as focal manufacturers can tap into their upstream supply networks for complementary resources and capabilities. However, the literature lacks a nuanced understanding of the supplier involvement processes. Specifically, the role of resource dependence for supplier involvement has yet to be systematically understood. To fill this gap, this study aims to combine the relational perspective with the resource-dependence perspective to explore how buyer dependence, supplier dependence and buyer–supplier interdependence influence buyers’ decision-making on tapping into upstream supply networks for coping with technology uncertainty.

To test the hypotheses, a survey is conducted among Dutch firms with more than 50 employees in the discrete manufacturing industries (ISIC 28-35), resulting in a sample of 125 manufacturers.

First, there is a significantly positive relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement, giving support to the expectation that buyers are indeed involving their key suppliers in the product/process design and improvement, as a response to technology uncertainty. Second, buyer dependence and interdependence are found to be positively moderating the relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement. In contrast, supplier dependence has a negative moderating effect on the baseline relationship.

The authors contribute to a relational view on buyer–supplier relationships by showing that the validity of this view, in the context of technology uncertainty, is contingent on the resource dependence between buyers and suppliers, and the authors contribute to the supply chain management literature more generally by combining a relational perspective with a resource-dependence perspective.

The findings provide several nuanced insights into the effect of resource dependence (buyer dependence, supplier dependence and interdependence) on supplier involvement for coping with technology uncertainty.

This study contributes to the supply chain management research by going beyond the benefits of supplier involvement and highlights the circumstances under which supplier involvement is likely to occur.

Emergency care delivery is a process requiring input from various healthcare professionals within the hospital. To deliver efficient and effective emergency care, professionals must integrate rapidly at multiple interfaces, working across functional, spatial and professional boundaries. Yet, the interdisciplinary nature of emergency care presents a challenge to the optimization of patient flow, as specialization and functional differentiation restrict integration efforts. This study aims to question what boundaries exist at the level of professionals and explores how these boundaries may come to influence integration and operational performance.

To provide a more holistic understanding of the inherent challenges to integration at the level of professionals and in contexts where professionals play a key role in determining operational performance, the authors carried out an in-depth case study at a busy, Level 1 trauma center in The Netherlands. In total, 28 interviews were conducted over an 18-month period.

The authors reveal the existence of structural, relational and cultural barriers between (medical) professionals from different disciplines. The study findings demonstrate how relational and cultural boundaries between professionals interrupt flows and delay service processes.

This study highlights the importance of interpersonal and cultural dynamics for internal integration and operational performance in emergency care processes. The authors unveil how the presence of professional boundaries creates opportunity for conflict and delays at important interfaces within the emergency care process, and can ultimately accumulate, disrupting patient flow and increasing lead times.

From a contingency perspective and by using the principles of self‐organization described by Morgan (1986), this essay relates the amount of variety in transactions and transformations to the requisite of self‐organization. Self‐organization is defined in terms of the local autonomy to make decisions on both the transactions to be realized and the way transformation processes are organized to achieve these transactions. Appropriate Human resource management (HRM) systems and policies can help to achieve the level of self‐organization aimed at. When the amount of variety in transactions is relatively low, an organization can easily standardize and control work processes. In this case, there is no need to develop self‐organization. The focus of HRM will be on standardization, behavioral control systems and the social needs of workers. In the case of a moderate level of variety in transactions, management may obtain responsiveness by creating self‐organizing teams which have the local autonomy to deal with variety in customer demand. HRM instruments can help these teams by supporting integrated management, the multifunctionality of workers, team development, and the introduction of a skill‐based assessment and reward system. When the amount of variety becomes high, it is more effective to assign responsibilities to individuals and to apply HRM practices aimed at the problemsolving capacity of workers and the commitment of workers to the organization.

This paper deals with the leeway organizations have to develop and design self‐managing teams by using a model containing four modal verbs: must, may, can and will. “Must” refers to the need for local decision making and is considered to be the result of diversity in environmental demand and variety in work processes. “May” pertains to organizational and work designs that facilitate local decision making. The skills and abilities of the workers are covered by the modal verb “can”, while “will” refers to the attitudes of the workers towards self‐managing teams. The model may help to find and realize a match between these “modalities”.

Teams are often introduced with the objective of improving the effectiveness of the organization, as well as the quality of working life for employees. This immediately makes clear that constructs in teamwork research may refer to completely different variables depending on the level that is considered (e.g. organizational effectiveness vs quality of working life). This paper aims to highlight the multilevel nature of team research.

In this paper three related multilevel issues are discussed: a conceptual and theoretical perspective of a multilevel approach to teamwork; measurement issues; the analytical side of a multilevel approach. The paper ends with two examples.

Following Klein and Kozlowski, three types of constructs are distinguished. Global constructs characterize the entire team (e.g. team size). Shared constructs are attributes that stem from individual workers but it is supposed that team members share these perceptions (e.g. interpersonal trust or group cohesion). Compositional properties also stem from individual team member; however, there is no condition of within‐unit agreement (e.g. age, skills or personality traits).

This paper contributes to the multilevel approach to teamwork.

Based on the four principles of self‐organization formulated by Morgan (1986), a four‐stage implementation model for empowering teams was developed. From the first to the last stage, the attention shifts from routine tasks to non‐routine tasks, from the individual to the group, and from inwards oriented to outwards directed activities. This model was used to develop five teams in an industrial glass producing firm. After two years, team progress was measured by means of a questionnaire and the results were discussed with each team. These data were used to evaluate the viability and applicability of the empowerment plan and to find relevant factors which facilitate or hinder the empowerment process. The results indicate that the step‐by‐step plan facilitates the development of empowered teams but that it should not be seen necessarily as the best or the only way of empowering working groups. Moreover, the attitude and style of management, the team cohesion and the nature of the work involved seem to interfere with team empowerment.

If the organization’s leading performance indicators shift towards innovation and the creation of knowledge, this will result in more non‐routine work and a higher level of interdependency among workers. We argue that a contingent performance management (PM) system has to focus on learning and group processes, on qualitative as well as quantitative goals and on both the individual as well the interpersonal level. Employees of three R&D departments of a firm producing advanced communication systems evaluated a PM system with four stages: accountability, engagement, appraisal, award. The results support our theoretical model. Furthermore, the results show that the firm’s system is perceived as somewhat imbalanced. While the first two stages are in line with our model, the latter two are not. We give suggestions for modifying the PM system to make it balanced, and we discuss the role of the manager.

We studied the barriers to the development of self‐organization in three teams by means of questionnaires and observations. We found that the level of self‐organization pertaining to “routine work” is rather high. With respect to “machine‐related tasks”, the opportunities provided by the maintenance support group, and the complexity of some of these tasks are the main barriers to delegating more of these tasks. “Shift‐related tasks” are delegated to the team, but actually are done by the group coordinator only. “Communication tasks” have not been delegated to the teams, although the need to do so is high. Barriers lay in the shift system and in the skills of the workers. With respect to “sophisticated tasks” and the “tasks directed to the environment”, we conclude that the requisite of delegating them to the team is low. A moderate level of participation, however, seems appropriate here.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the performance orientation of employees and self‐promotion in the form of overstating one's performance. It is hypothesized that this relationship depends on task clarity and personalized responsibility.

Data were collected by means of a survey among 281 employees of two Dutch organizations, one active in water management, the other in the justice field.

As expected, a positive relationship was found between performance orientation and self‐promotion, but only when task clarity was low. Personalized responsibility appeared to reduce the strength of the relationship between performance orientation and self‐promotion, but only under conditions of low task clarity.

Inducing high levels of task clarity seems to be generally effective in reducing self‐promotion. If it is not possible to increase task clarity, personalized responsibility is a second best option to reduce self‐promotion

The focus on high performance in modern organizations tends to induce employees to promote themselves as excellent performers. Performance‐oriented employees are especially known to react in this way while they can simultaneously be assumed to refrain from any behavior that is likely to be noticed as self‐promoting. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that factors that can enhance the visibility or traceability of self‐promotion will lead to a reduction in self‐promoting impulses. In the current study, two such factors, task clarity and an employee's personalized responsibility, have been investigated.