1. Read the case study below. 

2. Working individually or in teams, provide a written recommendation for or against introducing teamworking at the Edinburgh office. 

3. Group spokespersons should be ready to report their group’s decision and the reasoning behind it. Background Since the 1940s, the use of asbestos in building materials and other products has led to many claims for damages as a result of personal injury or wrongful death. The procedure for those making claims is complicated and time-consuming. Insurance companies employ groups of employees trained to process the claims from each particular industry. The employees are given information on the history, use, and current medical research results on the product. The processing of each individual claim application form is tedious but very important: any mistakes may affect the total amount paid to the claimant. Land Rock Alliance Insurance has successfully bid for the contract to process the claims for over 213,000 asbestosis-related chest impaired cases (ACD) and vibration white finger (VWF) victims, their partners or descendants. The company Land Rock Alliance Insurance’s main office is based in Sheffield, England. The company has decided to open a branch office in Edinburgh to manage the new contract. It will be dedicated to processing the asbestosis and VWF claims. The plan is to hire 60 new employees including supervisors and line managers. Senior managers at head office, however, disagree on how the work should be organized at the new office. At the meeting to review how the work will be organized at the Edinburgh office, Eleanor Brennan, the HR director, suggested it would be more effective and efficient to create four teams of around 15 employees, with each team processing the claims according to geographical area: Scotland, Wales, northern England and southern England. She explained that each application form would be processed by team members, to enable each member to complete the whole processing task and to contribute to the recommendation of the final settlement. Presenting some of the advantages of teamworking, Eleanor commented, ‘The synergy generated by teamworking and communication will enhance efficiency and motivate employees to actively participate in reaching a decision in optimum time.’ She argued that there was a direct link between job enrichment and high performance. However, the director of facilities, Thomas Campion, strongly disagreed. He informed the assembled management team that in his opinion, ‘self-regulated teams were b*** s***!’ Besides, work teams required a much longer training period for employees. Moreover, it was his belief that increased communication impeded decision-making rather than enhanced it. Campion, continuing to dominate the meeting, outlined an alternative work arrangement for the processing of claimants’ forms. The work, he said, was to be divided into three major steps: 

Step 1: Scrutinize and verify biographical details, date of birth, gender. 

Step 2: Scrutinize and verify employment details, start/end/job description. 

Step 3: Scrutinize and verify medical history including lifestyle (such as smoker or nonsmoker, or whether there was evidence of exposure to second-hand smoke). Of the 60 new employees, 20 would be trained to complete Step 1, 20 to complete Step 2, and 20 to complete Step 3. Each major step in the claim process would also have a supervisor, a technical advisor, and a section manager. Organizing the work this way, Campion insisted, would optimize training time, and enable the easy replacement of any employee resigning from the company. Individual employees would be assigned a target to achieve each month, which would determine an annual bonus payment. Every six months, their section manager would appraise each employee based on how quickly he or she successfully processed the application forms.