Deck 17: Working in Teams

Question 1

When Wilbert L. Gore launched his business in 1958, he thought that many big organizations took risks and were committed to change only when they faced a crisis.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Much of the appeal of working at W.L. Gore & Associates is due to their competitive compensation and benefits package.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A group is a special type of team, and team is the more general term that refers to people working together on a project.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

An informal group consists of a small number of individuals who frequently participate together in activities and share feelings for the purpose of meeting their mutual needs.

Question 5

Informal groups typically meet for the purpose of achieving organizational goals.

Question 6

Many top managers report spending 50 percent or more of their time in team meetings.

Question 7

A task force is another name for a work team.

Question 8

Google's corporate headquarters reflects the CEO's need for structure, which requires that employees finish their projects or meet certain milestones prior to taking time off.

Question 9

At Google's headquarters, most of the work gets done in small, project-focused teams, called "Googlettes."

Question 10

At companies such as Toyota and Honda, which are known for their product development skills, new cars are developed by up to 1,000 engineers who work independently on the many different aspects of this complex process.

Question 11

The main reasons that managers give for organizing work around teams are serving customers better through innovation, speed, cost reduction, and quality improvement.

Question 12

Work teams generally are permanent in nature.

Question 13

A problem-solving work team usually consists of employees from different areas of the organization whose goal is to consider how something can be done better.

Question 14

All problem-solving teams have indefinite life spans.

Question 15

Quality circles are also known as TQM teams.

Question 16

Quality circles, used at Navistar International and Exxon/Mobil, look for and propose solutions to quality-related problems continually.

Question 17

A functional work team brought together as a task force to look at a specific issue or problem would disband as soon as it had completed its specific assignment.

Question 18

Task forces differ from multidisciplinary work teams in one important way: Multidisciplinary work teams are the primary means for accomplishing the core work of the organization.

Question 19

The product development teams that pharmaceutical companies rely on to create new drugs are typically a type of multidisciplinary work team.

Question 20

Genomics, the study of DNA, is one of the biggest revolutions occurring in the pharmaceutical industry.

Question 21

Scientists at Roche continue to be divided into competing teams that focus on their own projects and fight each other to gain resources.

Question 22

A self-managing work team consists of employees who have nearly complete responsibility and authority for working together to make an entire product or deliver an entire service.

Question 23

In virtual teams, team members usually work in widely scattered geographic locations and often across time zones.

Question 24

Intel relies on virtual international teams to manage a wide range of its projects.

Question 25

One reason for Intel's success with globally staffed teams is that they have learned to use a few simple, basic processes and procedures throughout the company.

Question 26

The first step in fostering team effectiveness involves knowing the various factors that will determine the team's effectiveness.

Question 27

Effectiveness is determined by one main set of influences: the external context in which the team operates.

Question 28

Effectiveness criteria for teams are used to measure the outcomes achieved by individual members and the team as a whole.

Question 29

All groups, according to the stages of team development, reach their performance potential eventually.

Question 30

During the storming stage of team development, a work team focuses on orientation to its goals and procedures.

Question 31

During the forming stage of team development, a work team focuses on orientation to its goals and procedures.

Question 32

Harmony and conformity occur in the norming stage of team development.

Question 33

Members who have achieved trust and acceptance among themselves are ready to progress to the norming stage of team development.

Question 34

As members of a team experience turnover, some recycling through earlier development stages rather than adjournment may occur. Staggered terms for the appointment of new members can minimize the amount of recycling required.

Question 35

When Motorola developed the RAZR phone, the primary goal of the development team was to work quickly so they could introduce the phone at the Golden Globes ceremony in January.

Question 36

When developing the Motorola RAZR, it was essential that team members work together so that phone combined the expert ideas of both designers and engineers.

Question 37

The greater the degree to which trust, openness, freedom, and interdependence are present, the greater the level of group cohesiveness.

Question 38

Feelings refer to the emotional climate of a group.

Question 39

One way teams can maintain a performance norm is through the use of rewards and punishments.

Question 40

It is sometimes hard for managers to create behavioral norms that are acceptable to all team members.

Question 41

The purpose of subteams is to encourage all team members to share ideas when analyzing problems, information, and alternative solutions.

Question 42

Compared to a smaller team, larger teams demand greater attention by the leader.

Question 43

As work teams become larger, the team's tolerance of direction from the leader is greater, and the team's decision making becomes more centralized.

Question 44

Overstaffed teams tend to outperform understaffed teams.

Question 45

For innovative decision making, the ideal work team size is probably between five and nine members.

Question 46

Performance is decreased when the team is removed from the daily activities of the organization.

Question 47

Many of the principles of effective teamwork that apply to face-to-face team activities also apply to virtual work teams.

Question 48

In some cultures, such as China, Malaysia, and Thailand, societal values support avoiding open conflict and instead strive for harmony and cohesiveness.

Question 49

U.S. and Canadian cultures are individualistic and the workers are much more comfortable with conflict than workers from many other countries.

Question 50

In collective cultures, employees working in self-managing teams often report being very satisfied with their work.

Question 51

Team training usually involves the performance of a variety of tasks that enhance team cohesiveness.

Question 52

The greater the degree of self-management, the more the team has authority for making decisions.

Question 53

The less self-managing a team is, the more important it is for team members to receive training that will enhance all their management competencies.

Question 54

Both experiential training and formal training are needed to develop successful team management.

Question 55

Team rewards are fairly easy to design because most organizations assign workers to one primary full time team.

Question 56

When Wilbert L. Gore launched his business, he believed in:

A) the power of small autonomous teams
B) open communication
C) a strong commitment to innovation and change
D) all of the above

Question 57

To be successful at W.L. Gore & Associates, associates learn to embrace four guiding principles that were set down by Wilbert Gore. These principles included all of the following except:

A) Fairness to each other and everyone with whom they come in contact
B) The ability to make one's own commitments and keep them
C) Delegation of responsibility to other employees and associates
D) Consultation with other associates before undertaking actions that could impact the reputation of the company

Question 58

A __________is two or more individuals who come into personal and meaningful contact on a continuing basis.

A) team
B) group
C) unit
D) division

Question 59

Teams and groups are __________.

A) virtually the same thing
B) divided between informal and formal functions
C) defined by either work or leisure
D) both important to organizational life, but for different reasons

Question 60

Jennifer Landry works in the payroll department at Comal Electric. Landry is part of a(n) __________.

A) formal group
B) work team
C) informal group
D) task force

Question 61

A(n) ______________ consists of a small number of individuals who frequently participate together in activities and share feelings for the purpose of meeting their mutual needs.

A) formal group
B) informal group
C) task force
D) steering committee

Question 62

Six individuals who are employed by the City of Dayton regularly seek each other out and almost always eat lunch together. Their interactions have become meaningful and the individuals have developed expectations for each other's behavior. These individuals are known as a(n) __________.

A) social group
B) work group
C) informal team
D) informal group

Question 63

When airline pilots banded together at major hubs across the country and agreed to refuse to fly overtime, they were acting as members of a(n)_________.

A) national team
B) informal group
C) task force
D) virtual union

Question 64

To be a team, the members must have all of the following characteristics except __________.

A) communication
B) shared goals
C) formal leadership
D) collaboration

Question 65

A __________ consists of a small number of employees with complementary skills who work together on a project, are committed to a common purpose, and are accountable for performing tasks that contribute to achieving an organization's goals.

A) work team
B) work unit
C) formal group
D) task force

Question 66

A study that compared traditional auto repair garages to team-based garages found that __________.

A) team workers were more satisfied
B) customers did not fully understand the team concept
C) team-based garages were more profitable
D) team-based garages were faster

Question 67

The importance of teams is reflected in the amount of time that managers and others spend in team meetings. All of the following statements correctly support this except:

A) many top managers report spending 50 percent or more of their time in team meetings
B) first-line managers and professionals may spend between 20 and 50 percent of their time in team meetings
C) team meetings are varied in purpose, style, length, format, and technology
D) all of the above are true

Question 68

All of the following statements are true about Google's headquarters except:

A) the headquarters is called Googleville
B) employees have plenty of room to meet and thrash out ideas
C) outdoor activities and games help build team spirit and camaraderie
D) employees are offered free, healthy lunches

Question 69

At Google, most work gets done in small, project-focused teams called:

A) Team Google
B) Googlettes
C) Operation Google
D) None of the above

Question 70

The main reasons that managers give for organizing work around teams are serving customers better through:

A) innovation
B) speed
C) cost reduction
D) all of the above

Question 71

Teams increase the speed of product development by adopting the use of what type of development?

A) serial
B) functional
C) research
D) parallel

Question 72

Which of the following statements correctly describes Questar Energy Services' success with implementing work teams?

A) Productivity increased by 50 percent
B) Questar includes peer evaluations in their teamwork plan
C) Questar redesigned and launched the company's new customer information system, costing the company about $20 per customer less than their competitors spent
D) Questar's virtual teams integrated their Web site with their customers' Web sites

Question 73

All of the following are the types of work teams found in organizations except ________.

A) informal
B) functional
C) problem-solving
D) multidisciplinary

Question 74

Work teams differ in many respects. What are the key differences among work teams?

A) the education level of members
B) the members' level of commitment
C) the membership of the team
D) none of the above

Question 75

Which of the following statements accurately describes NASA's mission control team?

A) It has a membership that includes both suppliers and customers
B) The work team has been in existence for several decades
C) It's an informal team that is completely self-managing
D) It is a functional work team brought together as a task force to complete a particular mission

Question 76

A __________ team usually consists of employees from different areas of an organization whose goal is to consider how something can be done better.

A) problem-solving
B) decisional
C) participatory
D) cross-functional

Question 77

Michael Kruppa is a member of a manufacturing quality circle team. His team consists of engineers who meet one or two hours a week on a continuing basis to discuss ways to improve quality, safety, and productivity. Kruppa would accurately describe and categorize his team as a type of __________ team.

A) cross-functional
B) eclectic
C) problem-solving
D) none of the above

Question 78

A __________ is a group of employees who meet regularly to identify, analyze, and propose solutions to various types of workplace problems.

A) quality circle
B) departmental unit
C) committee
D) high-performance work team

Question 79

A __________ is a temporary team that is formed to accomplish a specific, highly important task for an organization.

A) multidisciplinary team
B) functional work team
C) task force
D) TQM team

Question 80

A team brought together as a task force to look at a specific problem __________.

A) is essential for accomplishing the core work of the organization
B) endures as long as the organization maintains its basic structure
C) includes a manager and his or her subordinates
D) disbands when its assignment is complete