ABSTRACT
Jaime de la Horra reflected, while boarding the plane taking off to Buenos Aires, on the initiative implementing self-managed teams that was being developed at the S. C. Johnson production lines in its viña del Mar plant in Chile. Jaime was concerned about the impact that the company’s new strategy, which had been defined at its headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, USA, was having in the wax production plant. In recent years, this plant had experienced a job redesign process, complemented with employee training and development programs, that prepared workers to take part in self-managed teams (SMT). Jaime was considered an ardent advocate of SMTs, held the operations manager position at the viña del Mar plant, and had led the SMT implementation process in this plant. However, sometimes he doubted whether the process would be established successfully, given the difficulties encountered along the way.
