Deck 13: Building Productive Work Teams

Question 1

Which of the following strategies may be effective in keeping an organisation's vision and team purpose alive?

A) Acknowledge team members who support the vision and team purpose.
B) Reward team members who support the vision and team purpose.
C) Align performance goals and measures with the vision and team purpose.
D) Refer to the vision and team purpose when reaching decisions.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

When a team is faced with a backlog of urgent work to get through, it should:

A) focus on task issues.
B) focus on process issues.
C) balance its focus on task and process issues.
D) reset its measures of success.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

If an organisation is aware that its production process is outdated, inefficient and needs to be improved, what sort of team should it establish to address this issue?

A) Functional team
B) Matrix team
C) Project team
D) Problem-solving team
E) Virtual team

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following traits is not necessary to be an effective member of a team?

A) Sound communication skills
B) Sound interpersonal skills
C) Technical skills
D) Emotional intelligence
E) Self-understanding

Question 5

If a team has just exceeded its performance expectations by a considerable margin, the time may be right to:

A) focus on task issues.
B) focus on process issues.
C) balance its focus on task and process issues.
D) reset its measures of success.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 6

A team purpose statement describes why a team exists, keeps the members of the team focused on where the team needs to head, acts as a shared vision for decision making and guides members' day-to-day behaviour.

Question 7

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a team?

A) Individuals pooling efforts to achieve shared goals
B) Individuals each being responsible for their own end results
C) Shared strategy
D) Shared values
E) Shared vision

Question 8

Which of the following actions would not be an example of team maintenance?

A) You clarify with team members that their main focus and priority is to assist customers in the customer contact area.
B) You decide not to take a lunch break so that you feel better about clearing as much of your work off your desk as possible before the end of the day.
C) You announce to the team that the past month's sales have increased by the highest percentage in two years.
D) You suggest a change to work flows which will improve the way the team works together.
E) You bring out a birthday cake for a team member and the team sings 'Happy Birthday'.

Question 9

Effective functional leadership involves satisfying the type of needs known as:

A) individual needs.
B) task needs.
C) team needs.
D) individual, task and team needs
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a characteristic of the communications of successful teams?

A) Face-to-face exchanges
B) All members having a roughly equal number of high-energy discussions with all other team members
C) Team members connecting often with members of other teams
D) Contributions to discussions predominantly being made by just a few senior team members
E) A high number of exchanges among team members

Question 11

The potential problem of having a team of more than 25 people is that:

A) team members will have difficulty communicating effectively.
B) subteams may form, which may adversely affect the team's coordination.
C) team members may struggle to develop sufficiently effective working relationships.
D) discussion, decision making and conflict resolution is likely to take longer than would be the case with a smaller-sized team.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 12

For role clarification to be as effective as possible, it should address the expectations of team members in relation to:

A) tasks.
B) process.
C) tasks and process.
D) efficiency.
E) productivity.

Question 13

Which of the following would not be considered to be a process issue for a team?

A) Team identity and spirit
B) Open and honest communication
C) Sense of fun and enjoyment
D) Clear measures of success
E) Respect and acknowledgement

Question 14

Which of the following statements would indicate that a team member felt part of and/or connected with their team?

A) 'We have been working really hard lately.'
B) 'You can leave it over there - we'll take care of it.'
C) 'They will have to look after that one.'
D) 'If you leave it with us, we'll make sure they receive it.'
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 15

'To organise and present our merchandise in an attractive, relaxing environment and serve our customers in a friendly, enjoyable, knowledgeable and helpful manner, so that we win their repeat business and meet or exceed our key performance targets.' This statement is an example of:

A) role clarification.
B) a key result area (KRA).
C) a team purpose statement.
D) a SMART measure of success.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 16

In successful teams, members all talk to each other, not just to the team leader, and talk and listen in roughly equal amounts.

Question 17

Team-building activities would be most likely to benefit:

A) merged and mixed teams.
B) matrix teams.
C) virtual teams.
D) innovation teams.
E) project teams.

Question 18

When setting a measure of success for a team, you should not limit its scope to what is possible and what ought to happen, but rather set it according to what you would like to see happen in your most ambitious visions.

Question 19

A team that selects its own members, reaches decisions by consensus and shares leadership duties among its members is an example of a:

A) functional team.
B) management team.
C) project team.
D) matrix team.
E) self-managed team.

Question 20

Which of the following relating to teams would be most likely to have a negative impact on an organisation?

A) Recommendations by problem-solving teams
B) Fewer layers of management
C) Groupthink
D) Increased morale due to working collaboratively
E) Recommendations by quality improvement teams

Question 21

Which of the following is likely to help teams grow and keep growing?

A) Rewarding extra effort
B) Training team members
C) Rotating assignments
D) Continuing to innovate and improve team procedures
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 22

Which of the following approaches would generally not be recommended for a leader-manager to implement in relation to managing temporary or casual staff members?

A) Integrate them into the workplace and the team by discussing with them the organisation's values, vision and mission, and the team's purpose.
B) Give them a shortened version of the same induction and assimilation process that permanent employees receive.
C) Make their role clear, and discuss the value that they are expected to add to the team.
D) Give them full autonomy and independence in carrying out their work role so they can utilise their individual skills.
E) Include them in corporate communications, newsletters and company events.

Question 23

During a crisis or a pending crisis, which of the following approaches/actions should a leader-manager avoid?

A) Being honest with the team
B) Saying as little as possible to the team, so as to protect them
C) Communicating openly with team members to reduce speculation and fear
D) Conducting regular meetings to update the team
E) Listening to the concerns and feelings of the team

Question 24

Which of the following represents the correct order of stages in a team's life cycle?

A) Norming, storming, forming, adjourning, performing
B) Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning
C) Forming, storming, norming, adjourning, performing
D) Forming, norming, storming, adjourning, performing
E) Forming, norming, storming, performing, adjourning

Question 25

Team members knowing that they can achieve a task better together than separately is an ingredient of the team's:

A) intelligence quotient.
B) collective intelligence.
C) technical intelligence.
D) emotional intelligence.
E) intellectual intelligence.

Question 26

Which of the following would be unlikely to be evident in an effective team?

A) Honest communication
B) Different viewpoints being openly dealt with
C) Arguments that move the team closer toward their goals
D) Conflict that is personalised due to diverse personalities or cultural differences
E) Team members with different skills and working styles

Question 27

A team requiring strong leadership that established clear boundaries, direction and guidelines to address conflict and infighting would most likely be going through the:

A) norming stage.
B) storming stage.
C) forming stage.
D) adjourning stage.
E) performing stage.

Question 28

Determining a team's goals and motivating the team to achieve them would fall under the heading of a leader-manager's:

A) interpersonal group role.
B) informational group role.
C) decisional group role.
D) both interpersonal and informational group roles.
E) both interpersonal and decisional group roles.

Question 29

Which of the following sequences of leadership style most closely equates to the order of stages in a team's life cycle?

A) Delegating, coaching, participating, directing
B) Directing, participating, coaching, delegating
C) Delegating, participating, coaching, directing
D) Directing, coaching, participating, delegating
E) Participating, coaching, directing, delegating

Question 30

The emergence of a team identity through which team members begin to depend less on the leader, but continue to require guidance from the leader, occurs during the:

A) norming stage.
B) storming stage.
C) forming stage.
D) adjourning stage.
E) performing stage.

Question 31

It is important not to let a team forget its task focus during a crisis, because staying organised, unified and productive can help the team to feel in control and assured that, together, they can survive the crisis.

Question 32

Which of the following is not a decisional role of managers?

A) Liaison role
B) Entrepreneur role
C) Disturbance-handler role
D) Resource-allocator role
E) Negotiator role