BUSINESSES TURN TO WORK TEAMS FOR NEW PROJECTS : SYSTEM DIFFUSES MANAGEMENT POWER.

Byline: L.M. Sixel Houston Chronicle

Self-directed work teams have become one of the hottest business trends going. Many companies have latched onto the trend, and, overnight, teams have sprung up in banks, manufacturing companies, oil firms and high-tech companies.

Apache Corp., for example, has an acquisition team that springs into action whenever the Houston-based company is thinking about making an oil or gas deal. Representatives from several areas, including accounting, engineering and product pricing, evaluate the project, said company spokesman Tony Lentini.

About three years ago, the College of the Mainland in Texas City, Texas, began establishing work teams to run academic departments instead of relying on department chairmen. The team members make schedules and purchases, approve travel and handle student grievances, said Ouida Sanmann, who teaches English and humanities at the community college.

Her team is studying the possibility of teaching English classes through computers and at unusual times and coming up with new academic offerings. While companies have reported a number of successes with teams, problems sometimes crop up. Too often, companies that have designed elaborate team systems don't design compensation packages around the new structures.

They're stuck in the same old mold of evaluating individual achievement without taking team participation into account, said Shikhar Sarin, professor of management and technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. It doesn't take long for conflicts to develop between the teams and traditional managers, said Sarin, who recently studied product teams made up of people from different departments at high-tech companies.

Team members didn't know whom they should satisfy. Another problem, he said, is that companies, in an effort to jump on one of the biggest management trends of the day, proclaim they're getting into ``team leadership'' but don't offer training on goal-setting or conflict resolution. They just expect employees to immediately come together in well-performing teams.

Some companies get into trouble by trying to reinvent the wheel too often. One Houston company has created havoc by organizing a new product development team every time it launches a new product. A company team member who asked not to be identified said key people have been left out of the discussions until the 11th hour. Recognizing it has a problem, the company plans to form a permanent team next year that will develop all new products.

Teams also face a lot of resistance. Much of that comes from middle managers, who wonder if teams will disappear as fast as other flavor-of-the-month trends. Middle managers don't want to give up their power and resources for something for which they won't get any credit, Sarin said.

Unions have also been reluctant to embrace the team concept. In some cases, there's downright hostility. Tom Gentry, president of an Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union local, figures teams are a way to lay people off.