Collective self-determination in work team requires open, constructive and supportive interaction

Working based on collective-self-determination means that the team is independently steered in a common direction through open and supportive interaction. Collective self-determination is constructed through small everyday interactions that support team autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Working in collective self-determined manner, the team is autonomously guided in a common direction through open, constructive and supportive interaction. The active involvement of team members in decision-making process and deciding working methods is central for this type of working. Sara Keronen, doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä explored what kinds of speech actions construct collective self-determination in group learning situations.

Collectively self-determined teams should be emphasized in working life

As work tasks becomes even more complex and challenging in expert work, there is growing need for collective level self-determination alongside individual self-determination. Work tasks are rarely completed completely alone, which means that consultancy, multi-professional teams and various forms of group and pair work are essential ways to complete work tasks in organizations. This requires working together and learning new things as group as well as collaborative working practices. Collective self-determination can be seen as response to the needs of current working life as it emphasizes active participation, significance of motivation, flexibility and pondering issues together.

Work teams can be seen as utilizing collective self-determination when it makes decisions about work assignments and working methods, sets goals for actions, analyses possible problems occurring, makes plans and evaluates its own performance. Central is freedom to decide and construct inside the team the best practices to current situation at work. Allowing team independently to decide the best way of working can also increase team members’ motivation.

Key is to support autonomy, competence and relatedness, which will help to build up commitment and engagement to a common and shared goal and maintain motivation. In a team, workers can promote each other’s autonomy by giving meaningful rationale and offering different options to support decision-making process. Competence can be supported through feedback and making plans and setting goals together. Relatedness is strengthened by encouraging and supportive comments and by showing compassion. This kind of interaction based on trust and openness creates a suitable environment for learning as well.

Cooperation requires individuals’ initiatives

However, collective self-determination is based on self-determination of individual employees’ and their initiative in learning situations. Therefore, everyone can have an impact on collective self-determination and its construction in the work community through their own actions. Overall, the everyday and even very small it is about every day and small ways of interacting that

While autonomy of teams is central to collective self-determination, it simultaneously requires supervisor or facilitator to support and coach the team. The role of the supervisors is to help the team establish common rules and ensure that every team member possesses the necessary skills for work based on collective self-determination, such as good interpersonal and collaboration skills. It is also essential to consider what practices this kind way of working requires in each organization and within what frameworks it can be implemented. In addition, teams operating in collective self-determined manner should also be align with the larger goals and strategies of the organization.

When constructing collective self-determination in teams, key is to create an encouraging and supportive atmosphere where every team member feels they make a difference in the team and is motivated to work with others. This allows the team to make decisions autonomously and responsibly, learn new things, and orient towards common goals and tasks as a unified entity.  However, the purpose of collective self-determination is not for individual teams to operate in isolation, but rather to provide the freedom within the team to develop and create meaningful practices that are appropriate for the current work and learning situation.

Text is based on the publication: Keronen, S., Lemmetty, S. and Collin, K.M. (2024), “Construction of collective self-determination in development-oriented group discussions”, Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 36 No. 9, pp. 88-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-05-2024-0110

Sara Keronen, doctoral researcher, JATKOT