Last year, the manufacturing plant where you work reorganized into self-directed work teams. You are

Last year, the
manufacturing plant where you work reorganized into self-directed work teams.
You are the team leader for one of several teams in the assembly area. The
transition to teamwork was difficult, but recently things have been working
fairly well. Several months ago, upper management announced a new team
incentive program that rewards each team for exceeding production targets. This
incentive program had mixed effects on team performance and created some
problems at the plant.

Your team is now
highly motivated to maximize production, but this has created conflicts with
other teams.

Last year, the
manufacturing plant where you work reorganized into self-directed work teams.
You are the team leader for one of several teams in the assembly area. The
transition to teamwork was difficult, but recently things have been working
fairly well. Several months ago, upper management announced a new team
incentive program that rewards each team for exceeding production targets. This
incentive program had mixed effects on team performance and created some
problems at the plant.

Your team is now
highly motivated to maximize production, but this has created conflicts with
other teams. You find yourself competing with the other manufacturing teams for
access to the companys technical support staff. The team has been ignoring
machine maintenance issues in order to spend more time producing. There have
been several arguments with other teams in the plant who supply parts for your
assembly area, and communication with these other teams has deteriorated. You
think that the cause of these problems may be the new reward program, but upper
management is very supportive of the rewards program.

How should you
(the team leader) help the team deal with their internal problems? What can be
done to improve relations with the other teams at the plant? How can you
explain your teams problems to upper management?