Charles is a senior$-$level manufacturing manager at Hoffman$-$Durand Apparel, a contract manufacturing firm. He has been with the company for a number of years and has seen it grow from a fledgling company with just a few clients to a large firm with several plants and dozens of clients. Amanda has recently joined the company after a few years with a rival company after she finished graduate school.

At Amanda's previous job, she implemented teams at various levels within the organization. Manufacturing managers at each of the facilities participated in weekly meetings via teleconferences to discuss problems they were encountering to see if there was commonality among the facilities. She had facilitated the use of quality circles in each of the facilities, volunteer groups of workers who met weekly to discuss work$-$related issues and offer suggestions for improvements, such as production methods of quality control.

She would like to introduce the team concept at her new employer but she is encountering resistance from Charles. "All of you MBA types are the same," he sighs. "You want to do everything by appointing teams. All teams do is have meetings and waste a lot of time. We didn't get where are today by having everything done by teams." Amanda disagrees. "You might be surprised by some of the great work that teams can do when you get talented people working together to solve problems or come up with new ideas. I think we should give it a try."

Which of the following questions describes the point at issue between Charles and Amanda?

Are teams more creative than individuals?

Will teams improve productivity at Hoffman$-$Durand Apparel?

Are teams worth the cost of implementation?

Should Hoffman$-$Durand Apparel implement a team approach in its facilities?

Do teams waste time by having meetings?