A study of workplace context and its relationship with team competences

The management of workplace context and organizational culture for knowledge workers is vital for nurturing good team competences. This paper presents a pilot study of the relationship between workplace context and team competences. The study has been conducted by a questionnaire-based assessment methodology named contextcompetence assessment method which makes use of a series of survey tools. They involve a self-administrated questionnaire, an organizational climate tool, a Management Skills Assessment Tool and Values and Norms questionnaire. A case study has been conducted in a manufacturing company in China to realize the capability of the context-competence assessment method. The results show that it is able to determine the organization's context with the organizational culture, climate and hence their relationships with team competences. The level of the team competences can be also determined with a significant level of confidence. The process of determining contextcompetence relationship provides an important means to identify useful areas of improvements and recommendations for the company. This paper concludes with a discussion about the current culture, current competence, possible culture shifting and the reason why culture shifting may help to improve the organization's future development.