Semi-Autonomous Groups and Work Management in Agribusiness: The Proposal of a Theoretical Model in the Agricultural Supply Chain

Abstract

The implementation of autonomous working groups has been a common focus of socio-technical systems approaches to work redesign. There is an interest in understanding the design, structure and performance of semi-autonomous teams in different markets and economic sectors. Thus, this work seeks to propose a theoretical model that correlates the main factors considered in semi-autonomous teams in the agricultural supply chain. In addition, we seek to know the indirect effect of these factors and their relevance. To this end, exploratory research in the field of sociotechnics is applied to identify the variables of the model and previous studies. Data collection is done by a survey in 4 countries of the agricultural market in Latin America and the model is validated from the modeling of structural equations with Smart PLS SEM. The results of the study indicate that the adoption of work autonomy does not have a direct effect caused by the management of human resources (HR) . Furthermore, the adoption of work autonomy is moderated by work remuneration. Finally, the indirect effect that HR management has on the adoption of semi-autonomous teams may be related to its own functioning in the organization. HR has an important influence on enterprise communication and conflict work.