STS interventions focus on the combination of organizational structural demands and social demands. STS interventions have been among the most widely implemented current OD interventions. Research suggests that STS interventions have a greater effect on productivity than either human process-based or techno-structural interventions. Faced with stiff competition, organizations have identified quality as a critical competitive factor. One way to improve quality is to design and implement a total quality management (TQM) program.

TQM is a set of concepts and tools for getting every employee responsible for continuous quality improvement, in the eyes of the customer. It usually involves a significant change in the way employees do their work. Self-managed teams (SMTs) are defined as formal groups in which the group members are interdependent and can have the authority to regulate a team’s activities. Organizations typically use SMTs as part of a larger organizational transformation strategy directed at refocusing the organization, increasing employee involvement, increasing productivity, or reducing costs.

There are some significant differences between these approaches. In an SMT approach, each team is empowered with the authority to make decisions affecting the output of that team without the concurrence of a supervisor. Teams used within TQM are usually encouraged to participate in problem solving, but they do not have the authority to implement changes. TQM focuses primarily on quality, as compared with the SMT, in which quality is one of several goals. Both approaches require changes in organizational structure, including policy, accountability, and labor contracts.