Exam 12: Teams: Processes and Communication

In highly cohesive teams, when members try to maintain harmony by striving toward consensus on issues without ever offering, seeking, or seriously considering alternative viewpoints and perspectives, this is

________ is getting more from the team than you would expect according to the capabilities of its individual members.

Talia is the northeast regional sales rep for Mountain Bike Tires 4 Less (MBT4L). Her territory includes a number of large chain stores and smaller bike shops that carry her company's bike tires. She has good personal relationships with many of the smaller shops, but she has been hearing from many of them that they are having trouble competing with the larger chains on price. In order to keep the smaller retailers happy, she offers extended payment terms on large orders. She told Bob of Bob's Bikes that he could take 120 days to pay on his latest order. Bertram works in the credit department at the MBT4L headquarters and is in charge of monitoring shipments and payments to the customers in Talia's region. When he sees that Bob's Bikes has not paid for their most recent order, he places their account on credit hold pending the receipt of payment. When Bob is unable to place a new order, he calls to complain to Talia who then calls and yells at Bertram for holding up one of her customers' orders. Bertram explains that Bob's Bikes' account is past due. Talia tells him that it is not past due because she offered extended terms. Bertram tells Talia that he had no knowledge of these special terms. The conflict between Talia and Bertram causes mistrust and resentment, and Bob's Bikes is caught in the middle. Eventually, Miguel, the VP of sales and marketing, is forced to intervene. Keeping the benefits of cross-training in mind, which approach should Miguel use to achieve improved communication and reduced friction between Talia and Bertram?

In a project team at Kaizen International, everyone focuses on his or her specialty and what they do best. Members know exactly where they can go to get information when there are gaps in their knowledge, and this team produces synergistic results. This shows that the project team at Kaizen has an effective

________ activities refer to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace.

________ is normally conducted by a consultant and intended to facilitate the development of team processes related to goal setting, interpersonal relations, problem solving, and role clarification.

Monitoring, evaluating, and providing performance-related feedback are associated with which of the following?

Matt, a training coordinator at ARC Technologies, and his team are organizing a workshop for the employees. Matt is meeting the vice president of finance to get support for an increase in the budget to accommodate a session by a well-known motivational speaker. Matt, in this case, is performing a(n) ________ activity of the boundary-spanning process.

As a result of a strong marketing push during the pre-holiday period, sales of the Talking Tomato novelty toy increase by 150 percent. Troy, the production manager for the company that makes the product, is tasked with making sure the company can meet demand in the coming months. Things seem to be going well at first, but then the assembly line manager tells Troy that they are low on the audio components that provide the Talking Tomato's vocal sounds. After checking his past purchase orders, Troy realizes he failed to submit a request for additional parts. As a result, the assembly line workers are unable to deliver enough units to keep store shelves stocked for the holidays. Troy would have avoided this mistake if he had employed which of the following teamwork processes?

Marcella is a network administrator for Diablo Electronics. The company recently completed a merger with Machine Parts, Inc., and her team is responsible for integrating the two companies' computer networks. Before embarking on the project, Marcella meets with her team. Together, they discuss the potential issues that might arise during integration, outline the major steps required to complete the project successfully, and review the list of hardware and software that will be required to make the two systems work together. What kind of transition process activity is Marcella is engaging in?

Systems monitoring and helping behaviors are examples of ________ processes.

Having a cell phone conversation at a busy construction site is difficult because of

Noise increases the effort that communicators need to exert to make the communication process work.

Which of the following refer(s) to the degree to which teams are capable of remaining together as ongoing entities?

Lou chose the new product team very carefully, recruiting only the best performers from marketing, operations, finance, and HR. She expected this group to design and develop a stellar new product in record time. She doesn't understand why this team composed only of superstars has not lived up to her expectations. Lou's group has not demonstrated synergy.

One way to potentially prevent problems associated with too much cohesion is to formally institute the role of a(n) ________, a person who is responsible for evaluating and challenging prevailing points of view in a constructive manner and also bringing in fresh perspectives and ideas to the team.

Spiros is a member of the production design team on a science fiction film called The Future Begins Yesterday. It is a big budget production and is already behind schedule due to weather delays. Spiros and two other team members, Juanita and Alex, are tasked with finding futuristic background props for a scene in which the hero and his nemesis have a huge fight. Spiros, while glad to have landed his first job in the film industry, earns more money from posting videos offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of the set online. To that end, he sneaks back to the team's trailer as often as he can to post new material. This means that the set decorations the team was supposed to source are not yet complete, and the scene cannot be filmed at the scheduled time. The set design supervisor, Marsha, observes Juanita and Alex arguing with Spiros about holding up his end of the group effort. Marsha hears Spiros telling them that they are much better at finding props than he is, so they do not really need his help. Marsha sees a lot of potential in Spiros, but she is unhappy with the fact that he is not contributing as much as he should and is holding up the production as a result. Given what you know about process loss, how should Marsha address Spiros' behavior?

A team of highly skilled and qualified members of an organization failed to perform the team objective assigned to them. When the reason for this lack of performance was investigated, it was clear that, although the team members worked hard, they had to wait for their teammates to complete a particular task before they could start their own. Which of the following explains the reason for process loss in this case?

________ is the phenomenon occurring when members of a team exert less effort when working on team tasks than they would if they worked alone on those same tasks.

Kelly has thought a lot about how to explain why she is quitting her job. Now that she has her thoughts in order, she is writing them down in a formal letter of resignation. Kelly is engaged in the decoding part of the communication process.