Deck 10: Managing Teams

Question 1

The achievement of stretch goals is made easier when the team members have:

A) localized synergy
B) bureaucratic immunity
C) strategic diversity
D) organizational accommodation
E) limited cohesiveness

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In the decision-making process, teams can do a much better job than individuals in defining the problem and generating alternative solutions.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In the decision-making process, teams can do a much better job than individuals in defining the problem and generating alternative solutions.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The achievement of stretch goals is made easier when the team members have:

A) localized synergy
B) bureaucratic immunity
C) strategic diversity
D) organizational accommodation
E) limited cohesiveness

Question 5

Which of the following size teams usually provides the best performance?

A) 2 to 3
B) 6 to 9
C) 15 to 20
D) more than 20
E) All sizes tend to perform equally well.

Question 6

Which of the following types of teams have the authority to change their composition as well as all of their tasks and work methods?

A) self-designing teams
B) sequentially interdependent teams
C) semi-autonomous work groups
D) self-managing teams
E) self-autonomous teams

Question 7

Work teams enhance speed and efficiency when designing and manufacturing new products because they:

A) allow departments to work independently of one another
B) make possible overlapping development phases
C) fit well with traditional sequential development phases
D) avoid problems associated with synergy
E) do all of these

Question 8

As a member of a typical of traditional work group, Joshua should expect to be responsible for:

A) doing what he is told to do
B) giving advice and making suggestions to management
C) making decisions and solving problems regarding major production/service tasks
D) cross training employees who are not part of his work team
E) creating ideas through processes like brainstorming

Question 9

What can management do to promote group cohesiveness?

A) Have the group members engage in nonwork activities together.
B) Create a special jargon for the group members to use.
C) Instruct the group members to work in each others' offices
D) Limit task interdependence.
E) Do all of these.

Question 10

Structural accommodation means giving teams the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices if it helps them meet their stretch goals.

Question 11

Which of the following kinds of team is defined as a permanent part of the organization's structure?

A) cross-functional teams
B) project teams
C) virtual teams
D) employee involvement teams
E) none of these

Question 12

How would you respond to the following statement? "Group conflict is always bad."

A) Affective conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance.
B) Both a-conflict and c-conflict are harmful, but b-conflict is not.
C) All cognitive conflict is bad, but all affective conflict is beneficial to the group.
D) Cognitive conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance.
E) The statement is correct.

Question 13

As a member of a typical of traditional work group, Joshua should expect to be responsible for:

A) doing what he is told to do
B) giving advice and making suggestions to management
C) making decisions and solving problems regarding major production/service tasks
D) cross training employees who are not part of his work team
E) creating ideas through processes like brainstorming

Question 14

Which of the following kinds of team is defined as a permanent part of the organization's structure?

A) cross-functional teams
B) project teams
C) virtual teams
D) employee involvement teams
E) none of these

Question 15

describes the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

A) Team diversity
B) Group synergy
C) Team level
D) Team conformity
E) Team performance

Question 16

Structural accommodation means giving teams the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices if it helps them meet their stretch goals.

Question 17

Since teams should be an end in themselves, it is appropriate to use them in most situations.

Question 18

How would you respond to the following statement? "Group conflict is always bad."

A) Affective conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance.
B) Both a-conflict and c-conflict are harmful, but b-conflict is not.
C) All cognitive conflict is bad, but all affective conflict is beneficial to the group.
D) Cognitive conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance.
E) The statement is correct.

Question 19

Team rewards that depend on are the key to rewarding team behaviors and efforts.

A) team performance rather than individual performance
B) individual efforts rather than team performance
C) someone taking the role of group leader
D) the elimination of social loafing
E) the use of groupthink

Question 20

Which of the following size teams usually provides the best performance?

A) 2 to 3
B) 6 to 9
C) 15 to 20
D) more than 20
E) All sizes tend to perform equally well.

Question 21

Norms are informally agreed-upon standards that regulate team behavior. They are valuable because they let team members know what is expected of them.

Question 22

The three significant disadvantages that teams and teamwork are prone to are initially high turnover, social loafing, and legal risk.

Question 23

Cross-functional teams are purposefully composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization.

Question 24

Teams are typically required when tasks are complex, require multiple perspectives, or require repeated interaction with others to complete.

Question 25

In the decision-making process, teams can do a much better job than individuals in defining the problem and generating alternative solutions.

Question 26

A work team is a small number of people who have been assigned responsibility for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes.

Question 27

Companies are making greater use of teams because teams have been shown to increase (1) customer satisfaction, (2) product and service quality, (3) speed and efficiency in product development, and (4) employee job satisfaction.

Question 28

Employee involvement teams not only provide advice and suggestions to management but also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service.

Question 29

Team norms may be associated with either positive or negative outcomes for the company.

Question 30

In many industries, teams are growing in importance because they help organizations respond to specific problems and challenges.

Question 31

Autonomy is the degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.

Question 32

Since teams should be an end in themselves, it is appropriate to use them in most situations.

Question 33

The autonomy continuum shows how five kinds of teams differ in terms of autonomy. The correct sequence from low team autonomy to high team autonomy is (1) traditional work groups, (2) employee involvement groups, (3) semi-autonomous work groups, (4) self-designing teams, and (5) self-managing teams.

Question 34

describes the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

A) Team diversity
B) Group synergy
C) Team level
D) Team conformity
E) Team performance

Question 35

One of the disadvantages of project teams is their lack of flexibility.

Question 36

The presence of someone with expertise in a group will often cause other group members to withhold efforts.

Question 37

Virtual teams are often, but not necessarily, temporary teams that are set up to accomplish a specific task.

Question 38

Cohesiveness refers to the extent to which members of a team are experiencing job satisfaction.

Question 39

A company engaged in cross training is using individual team members to teach other members how to do all or most of the jobs they can perform.

Question 40

Self-designing teams have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do and how they do them, and who belongs to the teams.

Question 41

Structural accommodation means giving teams the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices if it helps them meet their stretch goals.

Question 42

To enhance work team effectiveness, managers should carefully set team goals and priorities and take care when selecting, training, and compensating team members.

Question 43

_{32. According to the text, a(n) is a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves}
Mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes.

A) work team
B) venture group
C) semi-structured team
D) autonomous unit
E) ad hoc team

Question 44

Cognitive conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance, and affective conflict is strongly associated with decreases in team performance.

Question 45

In general, gainsharing is most effective for self-managing and self-directing teams performing complex tasks, while skill-based pay works best in relatively stable environments where employees can focus on improving the productivity, cost savings, or quality of their current work system.

Question 46

A preference for teamwork (i.e., collectivism), team level, and team diversity can help companies choose the right team members.

Question 47

Which of the following is a reason teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work?

A) Teamwork often allows teams to receive proprietary business information that is only available to managers.
B) Teamwork provides team members with unique work opportunities.
C) Teamwork gives workers a chance to improve their skills.
D) Teamwork gives workers unique leadership responsibilities which enable them to build individual leadership skills.
E) All of these are reasons why teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work.

Question 48

Once teams have made it to the performing stage, they no longer need fear a decline in performance.

Question 49

A local hospital ran into a funding problem when it tried to build a new state-of-the-art pediatric unit. The hospital management asked a group of physicians, hospital volunteers, and administrative staff to develop and implement a plan to raise the necessary money. This group of people with complementary skills formed a(n) .

A) semi-structured team
B) autonomous unit
C) work team
D) functional department
E) venture team

Question 50

Sincere attempts to reach agreement on a difficult issue can quickly deteriorate from cognitive to affective conflict.

Question 51

38. Allen-Edmonds is keeping its shoe manufacturing business in the United States by investing in new machinery and creating new processes. The strategy is a gamble and the outcome is uncertain. To cut costs and improve efficiency, the company's old assembly line is being replaced by a system of employees working in groups, with each person doing several jobs, and each trained to do the others' tasks. Allen-Edmonds' teams are using .

A) cross training
B) job enlargement
C) job specialization
D) Venn training
E) overlapping training

Question 52

34. Allen-Edmonds is keeping its shoe manufacturing business in the United States by investing in new machinery and creating new processes. The strategy is a gamble and the outcome is uncertain. To cut costs and improve efficiency, the company's old assembly line is being replaced by a system of employees working in groups, with each person doing several jobs, and each trained to do the others' tasks. Allen-Edmonds is using .

A) semi-structured teams
B) ad hoc committees
C) work teams
D) functional departments
E) venture teams

Question 53

As teams develop and grow, they pass through three stages of development. These three stages are 1) perceived team, 2) felt team, and 3) manifest team.

Question 54

_{36. An organization engaged in its work team members is training them in how to do all or most of the jobs}
Performed by the other team members.

A) cross training
B) job enlargement
C) job specialization
D) Venn training
E) overlapping training

Question 55

In general, skill-based pay is most effective for managing the performance of self-managing and self-directing teams.

Question 56

E-Lab (the "E" stands for experience) has project teams perform field research for its clients. These project teams are composed of students of theology, actors, and musicians as well as the more traditional marketing experts and statisticians. Each member of the group is trained to conduct observational research, interview clients, and understand the marketing impact of what they learn. E-Lab uses to make its project teams more efficient.

A) synergistic goals
B) stretch goals
C) cross training
D) vestibule training
E) OJT training

Question 57

Since teams that get stuck in the storming stage will be strained but productive, it is important for team leaders to focus the team on balancing cognitive and affective conflict.

Question 58

How are organizations using teams to help increase customer satisfaction?

A) by instituting a system of increased formalization throughout the organization
B) by creating problem-solving teams to study ways to improve customer satisfaction and make recommendations for improvements
C) by creating outsourcing opportunities that improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency by creating economies of scale
D) by developing ideal solutions to organizational problems through the use of information management systems (most notably expert systems)
E) by taking direct responsibility for service quality

Question 59

Conflicts and disagreements often characterize the second stage of team development, which is called storming.

Question 60

The most common type of training provided to members of work teams is training in leadership skills.

Question 61

Team rewards that depend on are the key to rewarding team behaviors and efforts.

A) team performance rather than individual performance
B) individual efforts rather than team performance
C) someone taking the role of group leader
D) the elimination of social loafing
E) the use of groupthink

Question 62

The least amount of team autonomy is found in .

A) traditional work groups
B) employee involvement teams
C) semi-autonomous work groups
D) self-managing teams
E) ad hoc committees

Question 63

In the autonomy continuum (which shows how five kinds of teams differ in terms of autonomy), the correct sequence, from low team autonomy to high team autonomy, is .

A) employee involvement teams, traditional work groups, semi-autonomous work groups, self-managing teams, and self-designing teams
B) traditional work groups, employee involvement teams, self-managing teams, semi-autonomous work groups, and self-designing teams
C) traditional work groups, employee involvement teams, self-designing teams, and self-managing teams
D) traditional work groups, employee involvement teams, semi-autonomous work groups, self-managing teams, and self-designing teams
E) employer-mandated teams, traditional work groups, employee involvement teams, project teams, and self- managing teams

Question 64

One way that teams can be broadly classified as either .

A) functional or departmental
B) local or national
C) line or staff
D) centralized or decentralized
E) functional or cross-functional

Question 65

Which of the following statements describe an advantage teams have over individuals in the decision-making process?

A) Teams can identify problems more efficiently and more quickly.
B) Teams are able to view problems from multiple perspectives.
C) Teams generate more commitment to making the decisions work.
D) Teams generate more alternative solutions.
E) All of these describe advantages teams have over individuals in the decision-making process.

Question 66

50. The highest level of team autonomy is found in______

A) self-managing teams
B) self-designing teams
C) semi-autonomous work groups
D) employee involvement teams
E) reciprocal work teams

Question 67

As a member of a typical traditional work group, Joshua should expect to be responsible for .

A) doing what he is told to do
B) giving advice and making suggestions to management
C) making decisions and solving problems regarding major production/service tasks
D) cross training employees who are not part of his work team
E) creating ideas through processes like brainstorming

Question 68

C) De-forming
D) Stonewalling
E) Mental atrophy

Question 69

B) Ample resources are available.
C) Management will continue to monitor and influence how work gets done.
D) The job can be done by people working independently.
E) All of these describe circumstances under which teams ought to be used.

Question 70

C) Group negation
D) Outsourcing
E) Stonewalling

Question 71

Which of the following is a potential disadvantage associated with the use of work teams?

A) commitment to finding an ideal solution that does not exist
B) initially high employee turnover
C) lack of creativity in decision making
D) decreased employee satisfaction
E) all of these

Question 72

_{58. The kind of team known as a(n) not only provides advice and suggestions to management but also has limited}
Authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service.

A) traditional work group
B) employer-monitored group
C) semi-autonomous work group
D) self-managing team
E) employee involvement team

Question 73

Teams are typically required when .

A) tasks are simple
B) tasks require multiple perspectives
C) synergy will complicate the problem solution process
D) the company has very limited resources
E) any of these conditions are met

Question 74

Boeing's operation in Macon, Georgia was named one of the ten best manufacturing plants in North America by IndustryWeek magazine. The company maintains an employee involvement team to track the plant's goals and performance metrics. This team .

A) determines who belongs to the team
B) provides advice to management concerning areas that needed change or improvements
C) has the authority to solve problems related to marketing and manufacturing issues
D) controls all of the major production tasks at Boeing
E) does none of these

Question 75

Which of the following is the only type of responsibility given to traditional work groups?

A) execute the task
B) give advice/make suggestions
C) make decisions and solve problems
D) manage and control all major production tasks
E) receive and process organizational information

Question 76

Many orthopedic parts are almost identical in size and shape. Stryker Howmedica Osteonics in New Jersey used a semi-autonomous work group to develop Product Recognition Technology that makes sure parts are identified correctly and orders are filled correctly. This group .

A) provided advice to the company's functional departments
B) controlled all of the major production tasks for manufacturing orthopedic parts
C) controlled the design and membership of the team
D) had the authority to solve problems related to the correct identification of orthopedic parts
E) did all of these

Question 77

When teams are used properly and in the right settings, work teams can .

A) help organizations respond to specific problems and challenges
B) dramatically improve company performance
C) instill a sense of vitality in the workplace that is otherwise difficult to achieve
D) increase customer satisfaction and service quality
E) do all of these

Question 78

Which of the following statements about semi-autonomous work groups is true?

A) Semi-autonomous work groups are not typically cross-trained.
B) Semi-autonomous work groups have low team autonomy.
C) Semi-autonomous work groups can control and change the design of the team.
D) Semi-autonomous work groups have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks of producing a good or service.
E) Semi-autonomous work groups are accurately described by none of these.

Question 79

Which of the following statements about social loafing is true?

A) Social loafing only occurs in organizational settings.
B) The consequences of social loafing include a loss of efficiency.
C) Social loafing creates an accommodative decision-making climate.
D) Social loafing preempts the usefulness of brainstorming.
E) Social loafing cannot occur if there is a group leader.

Question 80

do NOT have the authority to make decisions.

A) Self-designing teams
B) Employee involvement teams
C) Semi-autonomous work groups
D) Self-managing teams
E) Sequential teams