Four Team Authority Types Applied to Behavioral Health

Dr. J. Richard Hackman, preeminent scholar of team effectiveness and group dynamics, created an authority matrix, which sorts teams by which of four functions they hold versus management: executing the task, monitoring and managing their own work process, designing the team and its organizational context, and setting overall direction (Hackman, 1987, 2002).

This matrix helps us understand common authority structures teams can hold, and with that deeper understanding, gets us closer to recognizing when a specific structure might advance or inhibit the work the team must accomplish.

Below are four illustrative examples through the lens of a behavioral health organization:

• Manager-led teams (team holds task execution only): a crisis call center shift where a supervisor assigns calls, reviews performance in real time, and decides on escalations.
• Self-managing teams (team also monitors and manages its own work process): a case management team that divides its caseload, schedules its own coverage, and handles workflow problems, with program leadership setting service targets and team membership.
• Self-designing teams (team also designs its own structure and context): a new program design team chartered to launch a service line that selects its own members, sets its structure, and negotiates its budget, while the agency’s mission and priorities remain fixed.
• Self-governing teams (team also sets its own direction): a community board, such as the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (the human board) itself, which sets direction and policy for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (the agency).

Have you experienced membership in each of these structures? What made a structure particularly well-suited for the work or perhaps inhibited it?

References

Hackman, J. R. (1987). The design of work teams. In J. W. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 315–342). Prentice Hall.

Hackman, J. R. (2002). Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances. Harvard Business School Press.