Reporter Volume 26, No.20 March 9, 1995

By SUE WUETCHER
News Bureau Staff
Edward Lawler III, recently named one of the top six new gurus in the
field of management by Business Week magazine, will be one of the
keynote speakers at a conference designed to help companies develop a
team-based work environment, to be held on Friday, March 17, in the
Hyatt Regency Buffalo.
	The conference is sponsored by the Center for Team Performance
in the UB School of Management.
	The conference will feature experts from companies and
academia who can discuss the different points along the life cycle of
a team, says Jerry Newman, UB associate professor of human resources
and organization and director of the Center for Team Performance.
	The speakers:
	o Barbara Benedict Bunker, UB associate professor of
psychology, who will discuss how to institute a quick change in
corporate culture to one that emphasizes team efforts.
	o Karen Kemp, vice president for human resources for Fisher
Price, will offer suggestions on how to avoid land mines during the
first year in a transition to teams.
	o Lawler, founder and director of the Center for Effective
Organizations, recognized as one of the country's leading management
research organizations, will provide information on the latest
innovations in team-based compensation.
	o Representatives from three companies will discuss their
experiences with a team-reward system: Lisa Colten, director of human
resources for American Express; John Butler, vice president for human
resources for Nabisco, and Jim Valkwitch, industrial engineering
manager, and Jeff Karcher, U.S.W.A. incentive chairman for Local 593,
both representing Outokumpu-American Brass.
	o Barry Friedman, training team leader for Mobil Oil, will
detail how teams survive and thrive during corporate downsizing.
	o Brian Pettit, human resource manager for Motorola, will
discuss how a growing company adapts to team-building.
	The Center for Team Performance was established to help
students, businesses and scholars in understanding and developing
effective team-based work environments. The center helps develop the
team skills of students and practitioners by providing cases and
courses on building-team skills.
	It also acts as a central clearinghouse for information about
team work environments gathered from both organizations reporting
about their practices and from scholars communicating their team-based
research findings.
	In addition, the center promotes the understanding of team
skills through conferences, collaborations and funding for studies of
team performance.