Final answer:
3) Teams eliminate the use of middle management and give more power to an organization's employees.
Teams help create a flatter organizational structure by ironing out problems without upper management and giving more power to employees. Teamwork can disrupt traditional hierarchies and promote efficiency, but they require effective communication and decision-making to be successful.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of teams within organizations is a strategy for creating a flatter organizational structure. One reason for this is that teams can iron out problems within an organization, thus reducing the need for upper-level management involvement in many tasks.
This is true because a team-based structure allows for the combination of diverse skills, experiences, and expertise, which can lead to a more efficient and dynamic problem-solving process.
This process enables teams to handle a wide variety of issues that might otherwise require intervention from higher management levels.
Furthermore, teams can often disrupt the traditional hierarchy of an organization by giving more autonomy and decision-making power to employees at different levels.
For example, team members may be able to solve problems on their own without going through middle management, which can lead to a less hierarchical, more collaborative, and agile organization.
It is also worth noting that while teams can improve productivity and efficiency, they do not always do so. Effective teamwork requires good communication and decision-making skills, and teams can struggle if they encounter internal conflict or if there is an issue with social loafing, where some members don't contribute their fair share.
The team halo effect can sometimes give the impression that teams are working better than they actually are because successes are credited to the team while failures are often blamed on individuals.