How Bell manages itself

New Mexico Business Journal, August-Sept, 1999 by Jim Porter, Robert Rehder, Lisa Abdegon

The company is a local pioneer of self-directed work teams

The Bell Group is a family-owned, Albuquerque-based industrial distributor serving the jewelry industry. Beginning as a small store-front retailer, the company has been in business for 55 years and has grown into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with more than 350 employees. Today Bell is recognized as a highly innovative self-managing organization with high levels of employee loyalty. Here's how it got that way.

In the early 1980s Hugh Bell, the company's president, began to look for new ways to run the business. The traditional top-down management approach did not seem to be working as the company grew, and operations efficiency and productivity levels were disappointing. Moreover, Bell was not happy with the emerging culture and structure of the company. He thought they did not fit the company's ideals and values of employee trust, loyalty, and teamwork as established by his father and company founder, Saul Bell.

The son had become increasingly interested in the Japanese organization structure with quality circles, and other new management approaches that stressed the same values his company was founded upon. Since he knew that the people who do the work are also those who best understand it, Bell believed that the new concept of quality circles, the forerunner of self-directed work teams, might play a useful role.

As The Bell Group gradually recognized the potential advantages of independent teams, the management considered expanding the levels of self-direction. By 1987, a more ambitious and refined approach to self-managed organization had evolved. Employee teams were assuming multi-task responsibilities; for example, a materials team that had previously been responsible for just one aspect of processing silver orders had become responsible for ordering, receiving, stocking and filling orders for all items in the department.

Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWTs), involve both self-management and collaborative teamwork. They generally combine planning, organizing, and monitoring work scheduling, team assignments, purchasing, quality control, problem solving, and often hiring, training, and discipline functions.

Conceived as a conscious effort to counteract the traditional bureaucratic organization, SDWTs entrust workers with greater responsibility, authority, and decision-making power. Increased productivity and improved quality of work life have been their primary benefits.

The Bell Group's successful transition provides a lesson for organizations seeking positive change. Research by William Hitt and Ronald Purser has identified the following characteristics of productive, autonomous work teams in companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, and Microsoft:

* Commitment to common goals

* Agreement on high team expectations

* Open and honest communication

* A climate of trust

* A belief that one can influence outcomes

* A win-win approach to conflict resolution

* Understanding the importance of process as well as outcomes

* Open access to relevant information

* Support by management for decisions that are made by SDWTs

Bell's experience exemplifies these characteristics. The company is entirely comprised of self-directed work teams at operational levels. Teams consist of a coach and associates. Coaches currently work with a number of teams organized along product or service lines. The shipping and packing services group, for example, consists of several teams, each responsible for a specific task. Each member is cross-trained so that he can do the job of another member. At Bell, team members, including the coach, are called associates. Most teams have a maximum of eight associates, each of whom is provided with information and support by the coach.

Each team meets weekly for at least an hour. Special meetings are called whenever necessary to deal with problems or issues requiring prompt attention. In addition, different production/service area groups meet as necessary. All meetings are held on company time, and associates are paid their regular wage while attending. The team coach is routinely present during team meetings, but instead of leading the meeting, he or she facilitates it.

Since teams do much of the work previously done by supervisors in more traditional organizations, every team is given the authority to initiate a broad range of actions. Team responsibilities include selecting members, training new members, disciplining and dismissing members and monitoring work flow to accommodate changing needs. Any associate can propose a change in any job procedure; initiation of change is even a part of one's job responsibility. One or more of the associates simply proposes the change to the team coach, who in turn takes it to management. After analysis and possibly experimentation with the proposed change, the initiator receives a response to his or her proposal from management.

The company has learned a number of significant lessons as a result of transforming its corporate culture. They include: