Training in the Team-Based Organization

Team-based organizations are growing at a rapid pace. Recent research estimates that ’40 to 50 percent of the workforce could be in some kind of empowered work team environment by the turn of the century’ (Manz et al. 1997, 4). In addition, as global competition forces organizations to become more productive ‘there is growing consensus that training must be at the forefront of their attempts to do so’ (Martocchio and Baldwin 1997, 7). It has been suggested that the way forward for individuals, organizations and economies through all the changes and enormous skill gaps is through training (Bentley 1990, 7). It has been found that in successful team-based organizations, new team members or leaders spend 20 percent of their first year in the team involved in training activities (Fisher 1993; Wellins 1992).