Do you agree that management is responsible for answering work team questions?  Many of these questions deal with support issues (e.g. late, not enough, need a new model, no training) about the needs shown in Figure 4.1. How do excellent managers respond to these questions?

I take the position that answering team questions is necessary to prepare the best individuals for succession planning.   Every day is another day to learn something.  It is the daily activities that enable the student to experience real-time application of methods acquired in classroom training.  Management has the responsibility for the organization to provide support to frontline work teams.  However, management also has the prerogative to determine in what way to respond to work teams.   The first and last line for management and work teams is in promotion of the organizational mission.  Figure 4.1 shows the types of support teams need to accomplish the organizational mission.   As the text points out “high performing organizations have change their approach to the environment, putting much more emphasis on measured performance, empowerment, learning, responsiveness to all stakeholder needs, and continuous improvement.”   Management and work teams are continually engaged in the change process using all available tools toward achieving outcomes desired by their customers as well as establishing and maintaining the services excellence culture and chain described in the text (chapter 4).  Additionally, management involvement in work teams should purposefully peruse the work team for individuals who may be mentored for succession within the organization.  Therefore, I think answering work team questions is within the purview of management along with the method of how those questions should be addressed.