Exam 10: Understanding Groups and Managing Work Teams

As a group expands, individual productivity tends to decline.

Formal groups ________.

Work teams that perform at a high level typically fill ________ different team roles.

To be considered a group, a gathering must include at least five people.

Norming is a stage of group development that occurs when ________.

A major drawback of using global teams is ________.

In a global team, team members should guard against ________, which can be a source of discord and resentment among team members.

When a team can't agree on who does what, it is having this kind of contextual problem.

A low-ranking employee having the best parking space in the company parking lot is an example of ________.

Teams composed of individuals from the same department or functional area are called ________.

In the group development process, the group carries out its primary work during this stage.

Autonomy is a ________ factor that contributes to team effectiveness.

A group that has gone through the norming stage of the group development process ________.

Large groups appear to perform better when the goal of the group is to ________.

High cohesiveness combined with a very weak alignment between group goals and organizational goals typically results in this.

The Retreat (Scenario) The first-line managers of ELH Inc. were sent on a retreat to Silver Falls for their inaugural strategic planning meeting. Few people knew each other, but their task was clear: design a new performance appraisal system for subordinates that would be effective and usable. The first day, little was accomplished except for the jockeying to see who would be the official leader. Finally, Jim seemed to wrangle control and helped provide the first real direction for the group. By the second day, the group seemed to begin working well. They spent the morning determining group standards with respect to how they would make decisions within the group and how to manage the idea-generation process. On the third and fourth days, the managers got down to work and moved amazingly quickly, with ideas flowing freely. By the end of the fourth day, they had a workable system developed, and they felt satisfied. That night they all signed off on a new document to be presented to the regional manager the next day. They all felt a twinge of regret at having to break up the group and return to normal work life. -When the management group was determining standards and establishing how it would make decisions, it was in the ________ stage of group development.

Small groups appear to perform better when it comes to ________.

The Retreat (Scenario) The first-line managers of ELH Inc. were sent on a retreat to Silver Falls for their inaugural strategic planning meeting. Few people knew each other, but their task was clear: design a new performance appraisal system for subordinates that would be effective and usable. The first day, little was accomplished except for the jockeying to see who would be the official leader. Finally, Jim seemed to wrangle control and helped provide the first real direction for the group. By the second day, the group seemed to begin working well. They spent the morning determining group standards with respect to how they would make decisions within the group and how to manage the idea-generation process. On the third and fourth days, the managers got down to work and moved amazingly quickly, with ideas flowing freely. By the end of the fourth day, they had a workable system developed, and they felt satisfied. That night they all signed off on a new document to be presented to the regional manager the next day. They all felt a twinge of regret at having to break up the group and return to normal work life. -In the third and fourth days of the retreat, the managers were in the ________ stage of group development.

Some organizational tasks are better done individually than in a team or group.

Disagreeable team members rarely decrease team performance.