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Australia Chapter

Maarten Tentij, President

Annual General Meeting
On November 26, the Australia Chapter held its Annual General Meeting. After a brief session covering a review of 2007 and plans for 2008, voting ensued for the incoming board. All active members were reelected, with Terry Mahoney bowing out to be replaced by Mick Marcic. The chapter expressed their gratitude for all those who make the chapter events possible, then took their seats for a lively debate around the question: “A Command and Control Workforce, or Self-Directed Work Teams?”

The practitioner panel consisted of Michael Holroyd, national service manager, Konica Minolta Australia; Mark Rainbird, managing director, AWA; Greg Seaegg, operations manager, Chloride Power Protection; Brian Jones, field service manager, Unisys; and John Chivers, operations director, Tyco Healthcare. The topic provided a thoroughly interesting and entertaining discussion on the pros, cons, and pitfalls of the various approaches. Will using self-directed work teams deliver a more fault tolerant and robust workforce, or does shared responsibility equate to responsibility? Are we better off micromanaging worker schedules and dealing with the resultant management problems—such as resource scheduling conflicts and false feedback—or is it better to allow work teams to self-manage their schedules using KPIs and performance measures to motivate and create a spirit of competition that is self-fuelled? Clearly the nature of the work, the type of workforce, and the maturity of the organization all play a role in defining the right level of autonomy, but all agreed that this approach was worth further investigation.

For more information on this and other chapter events, visit www.afsmi.org.au.

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