BUS603: Managing People

Collaborative work systems (CWSs) are those in which conscious efforts have been made to create strategies, policies, and structures as well as to institutionalize values, behaviors, and practices that promote cooperation among different parties in the organization in order to achieve desired business outcomes. While many organizations vocalize support for teamwork and collaboration, CWSs are distinguished by intentional efforts to embed the organization with work processes and cultural mechanisms that enable and reinforce collaboration. New forms of organization continue to emerge with CWSs as an essential facet. Team-based organizations and self-managing organizations represent types of collaborative systems. The computer revolution has made possible network, cellular and spherical forms of organizing, which represent more trans-organizational forms of collaboration. CWSs provide one of the key competency areas that organizations can focus on for building vitality and excellence, including competitive and collaborative advantage.

Some forms of CWSs are listed below:

Group Level

• A group of people who have interdependent tasks and shared purpose and who are held mutually accountable for shared goals.
• Community of practice. An informal group or network of people who have shared interests, stories, and common language, but are not necessarily held mutually accountable.

Organizational Level

• Team-based organization. Teams are the unit of work, managers are in teams, and the organization is designed to support teams.
• Collaborative organization. Both formal and informal collaboration is supported, teams are used where needed, and the organization is designed to support collaboration.

Some reasons for focusing in CWSs are listed below:

• To increase a competitive advantage
• To create a context for team success
• To promote lateral integration and alignment
• To better connect to your environment
• To increase flexibility

The optimal CWS occurs when group members are provided access to information, knowledge and resources that allow them to participate in the design of unit-level methods for accomplishing the work and the construction of environmental support systems and enabling arrangements. The quality of the participation depends on the ability of group members to establish relationships with other individuals and groups so that decision making (formal authorization, empowerment) and accountability (structure) are clearly communicated and mutually understood within the context of support systems and enabling structures.