1. If you were a manager at Xerox, what concerns would you have with the way the company initially implemented high-performance work systems?
2. What role did information technology play in supporting high-performance work systems?
3. Why do you suppose some Xerox managers resisted the new systems?

One of the largest companies in the United States to implement high-performance work systems is the Xerox Corporation. The company employs 58,100 people worldwide. Its revenues in 2004 were $15.7 billion. As a result of a total quality management mandate that “improving quality is every employee’s job,” Xerox introduced its version of empowered teams, what it called “family groups.” These family groups became the cornerstone for high-performance work systems throughout the company’s service organization around the globe. Xerox service managers realized that they could improve productivity if responsibility for decision making moved closer to the point of customer contact. As empowered work groups evolved, the company began to realize that the groups could not function effectively unless other aspects of the company changed as well. Employees complained that they were evaluated and rewarded as individuals despite being organized as teams. Team members were not receiving the kind of information they needed to make decisions. This led Xerox to consider the entire system in which teams operated. And thus high-performance systems were born.