Deck 7: Groups and Teamwork

Question 1

On which task is the presence of only one poor performer most likely to damage group performance?

A)Conjunctive
B)Disjunctive
C)Reflexive
D)Additive
E)Complexive

Answer 1

A

Question 2

One reason for members reporting less satisfaction in larger groups is

A)they have more time to develop friendships with other group members.
B)individual members can identify less easily with the success of the group.
C)opportunities for participation increase in larger groups.
D)conflict and dissension are less likely in larger groups.
E)people are less inhibited about participating in larger groups.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is a primary feature of virtual teams?

A)Team member stability
B)Small group size
C)Diversity of members
D)Lack of face-to-face contact
E)Superordinate goals

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is an example of process loss?

A)No one in the group could remember how to work the video machine.
B)Because the group was so large,communication became a problem.
C)After losing the game,the team was much less cohesive.
D)After they failed to land the big contract,the status of the sales staff decreased.
E)The source of the quality problems could have originated in any one of three separate departments.

Question 5

A manager recommends an employee for a promotion because the employee stood up for the manager during a leadership crisis.Which reward allocation norm led the superior to recommend this employee for promotion?

A)Reciprocity
B)Equity
C)Equality
D)Social responsibility
E)Performance

Question 6

Diverse groups tend to develop more ________ than less diverse groups.

A)roles
B)poorly
C)quickly
D)slowly
E)loyalty norms

Question 7

Which of the following is an example of a process loss?

A)Performance norm
B)Disjunctive task
C)Reduced status
D)Social loafing
E)Loyalty norm

Question 8

Identify the proper sequence of group development activities.

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

Question 9

As a group size increases,

A)members become less inhibited about participating in group activities.
B)members become more satisfied with group membership.
C)the group consistently performs better.
D)the time available for verbal participation by each member decreases.
E)performance on conjunctive tasks improves.

Question 10

Which of the following equations is accurate?

A)Potential performance = actual performance + process losses
B)Process losses = potential performance + actual performance
C)Potential performance = actual performance - process losses
D)Actual performance = potential performance - process losses
E)Process performance = actual performance - process losses

Question 11

During which stage of group development is conflict likely to develop?

A)Forming
B)Storming
C)Norming
D)Adjourning
E)Performing

Question 12

As a group performing an additive task gets bigger,

A)process losses decrease.
B)the average productivity per member decreases.
C)group cohesiveness should increase.
D)potential group productivity decreases.
E)the performance of the best member becomes more critical to group success.

Question 13

Tasks that depend on the performance of the best group member's performance are

A)disjunctive.
B)conjunctive.
C)injunctive.
D)reflexive.
E)complexive.

Question 14

According to behavioural scientists,

A)groups have at least five members.
B)group members have a common goal and interact with each other.
C)group members must interact face-to-face.
D)informal groups are shown on organizational charts.
E)members of larger groups tend to report higher levels of satisfaction.

Question 15

A television news team consists of a reporter,a camera operator,and a sound technician.Their job is to get good news reports to the station in time to make the evening news.A bad story,a bad picture,or bad sound means they have failed.This is a(n)________ task.

A)additive
B)disjunctive
C)conjunctive
D)reflexive
E)complexive

Question 16

Which of the following statements is most indicative of a process loss?

A)As the task force got bigger,it encountered more coordination problems.
B)Bill forgot how to program FORTRAN computer language because he hadn't used it in ten years.
C)Nan experienced role conflict when her boss told her to do something that she felt was unethical.
D)Zeke worked harder when his colleagues were present than when he was alone.
E)Carly was clearly the star of the group and they could not have completed the project on time without her participation.

Question 17

Which of the following is an additive task for a group?

A)Picking grapes at harvest
B)Passing water buckets along a human chain
C)Writing a short story
D)Working in a self-managed group
E)Looking for a single error in a complicated computer program

Question 18

Temporarily organized groups that are formed to achieve particular goals or solve particular problems are called

A)work groups.
B)task forces.
C)committees.
D)informal groups.
E)self-managed teams.

Question 19

A group performing a disjunctive task will perform at the level of

A)its best member.
B)its worst member.
C)the average performance of all its members.
D)the member who is most friendly to other members.
E)the relative process loss.

Question 20

The relationship between group size and group ________ is particularly complex and highly contingent upon the task being performed.

A)cohesiveness
B)member participation
C)member satisfaction
D)performance
E)norms

Question 21

The members of a work group are paid a group bonus according to the productivity of the group.Because of this,each member expects the other to perform at the highest level.This expectation is an example of which aspect of group structure?

A)Status
B)Cohesiveness
C)A norm
D)A role
E)A disjunctive task

Question 22

In the punctuated equilibrium model of group development,a critical point occurs

A)when the group enters the storming stage.
B)at the midpoint of the group's allotted time until deadline.
C)at the midpoint of the volume of work that has to be accomplished.
D)at the middle of Phase 1.
E)towards the end of Phase 2.

Question 23

In the stage model of group development,conflict is a particular problem

A)in the stage before norming.
B)in the forming stage.
C)in the adjourning stage.
D)in the stage after norming.
E)in the performing stage.

Question 24

Which of the following statements about norms is true?

A)A person can have his or her own private,personal norm.
B)Norms are generally unrelated to attitudes.
C)Norms are not an aspect of group structure.
D)Norms cannot be targeted at a specific individual.
E)Normative influence is often unconscious.

Question 25

Which aspect of group structure most closely reflects the way members evaluate each other?

A)Size
B)Roles
C)Norms
D)Status
E)Diversity

Question 26

Which of the following statements about status is true?

A)Informal status in the organization is more likely than formal status to carry over into the community.
B)In most organizations,formal and informal status systems are equivalent.
C)All organizations have both formal and informal status systems.
D)In organizations,status symbols are more a part of the informal status system than the formal status system.
E)Most organizations try not to tie status symbols to assigned roles.

Question 27

Robin is a member of a task force that may do away with her own department.Robin is most obviously experiencing

A)intrasender role conflict.
B)person-role conflict.
C)interrole conflict.
D)role ambiguity.
E)intersender role conflict.

Question 28

The workforce petitioned management to be paid on an individual piece rate basis.Which reward allocation norm do the workers favour?

A)Social responsibility
B)Equality
C)Equity
D)Reciprocity
E)Loyalty

Question 29

Lisa is a very religious person whose boss tells her to offer an illegal bribe to a government official to obtain a lucrative contract.What kind of role conflict is she experiencing?

A)Person-role
B)Interrole
C)Intrasender
D)Intersender
E)Role ambiguity

Question 30

The boss who constantly changes his mind can cause uncertainty for an employee.To put this another way,

A)intrasender role conflict can cause role ambiguity.
B)role ambiguity can cause intersender role conflict.
C)person-role conflict can cause role ambiguity.
D)role ambiguity can cause interrole conflict.
E)intersender role conflict can cause interrole conflict.

Question 31

In the punctuated equilibrium model of group development,the midpoint transition occurs

A)when half the group's time is elapsed.
B)when half the group's work is done.
C)at the beginning of Phase 1.
D)at the end of Phase 2.
E)as the group enters the storming stage.

Question 32

Higher status group members ________ than lower status members.

A)are addressed more frequently
B)have more influence
C)communicate more
D)participate more
E)all of the above

Question 33

Positions in a group that have attached to them a set of expected behaviours are called

A)roles.
B)norms.
C)status symbols.
D)attributes.
E)conjunctive tasks.

Question 34

Darlene is a physician who is employed as the director of research for a large drug company.She often worries that her actions as a manager could possibly violate the physicians' code of professional conduct.This is most clearly an example of ________ conflict.

A)person-role
B)intrasender
C)intersender
D)interrole
E)role ambiguity

Question 35

Who is experiencing interrole conflict?

A)Jack is vice-president of sales and marketing.
B)The straw boss on the construction job was unsure if he was a worker or a supervisor.
C)The head of engineering told Jan to do one thing,and the head of design told her to do the opposite.
D)The plant manager debated in his mind whether he should open the valve and risk polluting the environment.
E)Michael's boss told him to relax as he handed him another report to finish by the end of the day.

Question 36

Janice thought that her summer job as a municipal garbage collector would be easy.Unfortunately,her supervisor tells her to do one thing one day and the exact opposite the next day.Janice's role ambiguity

A)is inherent in the job she performs.
B)stems from a role sender.
C)stems from the social facilitation effect.
D)is a function of intersender role conflict.
E)is a function of person-role conflict.

Question 37

Which of the following statements about status and communication is true?

A)Lower-status members do more talking.
B)Most people like to communicate with others at their own status or lower.
C)Communication has a tendency to move down the status hierarchy.
D)Status has very little relation to communication in organizations.
E)People can be inhibited from communicating upward if status differences are large.

Question 38

The group had trouble coordinating its efforts because it was so big.This is an example of

A)a conjunctive task.
B)social loafing.
C)a process loss.
D)role ambiguity.
E)punctuated equilibrium.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is true?

A)The "class clown" fills an emergent role in his or her school.
B)People with similar attitudes are less likely to form a group than those with different attitudes.
C)A group has at least three members.
D)Moving a heavy crate is a disjunctive task.
E)Equity norms allocate rewards equally to everyone in the group.

Question 40

Which of the following types of role conflict is most likely to provoke role ambiguity?

A)Intrasender role conflict
B)Intersender role conflict
C)Interrole conflict
D)Person-role conflict
E)Status-role conflict

Question 41

A successful self-managed work team would probably not be

A)extremely large.
B)high in social skills.
C)highly cohesive.
D)performing an interesting task.
E)high in expertise.

Question 42

Highly cohesive work groups almost always

A)have high levels of turnover.
B)accomplish their own goals effectively.
C)produce more than less cohesive groups.
D)produce less than less cohesive groups.
E)accomplish the goals of the organization effectively.

Question 43

The textbook cites the example of how job seekers at Britain's Pret A Manger sandwich and coffee shops must work in a shop for a day and then the staff votes on whether the person can join the team.This is one strategy that can be used to help ensure the ________ of a new employee.

A)heredity
B)compensation
C)homogeneity
D)heterogeneity
E)fit

Question 44

The first-line supervisor who serves as the interface between "management" and "the workers" is most likely to experience ________ role conflict when labour relations are poor.

A)intrasender
B)intersender
C)boundary
D)person-role
E)status

Question 45

Which of the following factors is most influential in achieving formal organizational status?

A)Age
B)Assigned role in the organization
C)Nationality and religion
D)Ability to perform disjunctive tasks
E)Loyalty norms

Question 46

Organizations that allocate rewards to those who truly need the rewards have adopted a reward system that is based on a(n)________ norm.

A)social responsibility
B)reciprocity
C)equity
D)equality
E)loyalty

Question 47

Conventional specialized ________ usually disappear when effective self-managed teams are used by organizations.

A)norms
B)aspirations
C)tasks
D)values
E)roles

Question 48

Which of the following statements concerning group cohesiveness is false?

A)Smaller groups generally have a more difficult time becoming and staying cohesive.
B)Groups that are tough to get into should be more attractive than those that are easy to join.
C)A group becomes more attractive to its members when it has successfully accomplished some important goal.
D)Under extreme threat or loss of a contest,group cohesiveness is likely to suffer.
E)Voluntary turnover from highly cohesive groups should be low.

Question 49

The task force is large,successful,and experiencing moderate threat.Which factor would most likely prevent the task force from being cohesive?

A)Its size
B)Its success
C)The threat
D)Its homogeneous makeup
E)Its tough initiation procedures

Question 50

Social loafing is an example of

A)role conflict.
B)role ambiguity.
C)a disjunctive task.
D)punctuated equilibrium.
E)a process loss.

Question 51

Which factor is least likely to promote group cohesiveness?

A)Losing a contest
B)Winning a contest
C)Competing in a contest
D)Experiencing a tough initiation into the group
E)Small group size

Question 52

Self-managed work groups typically

A)are used only for white-collar work.
B)have highly specialized,carefully defined roles within the group.
C)suffer from the free rider effect.
D)perform best when assigned to very routine tasks.
E)must have stable membership to be effective.

Question 53

What kind of tasks are most appropriate for self-managed work groups?

A)Blue-collar
B)White-collar
C)Complex and challenging
D)Routine and boring
E)Conjunctive

Question 54

Virtual teams are

A)groups that exist throughout an organization and include customers and suppliers.
B)groups that use technology to accomplish their tasks and communicate with other groups in the organization.
C)groups of people who have expertise in technology and are always available when a task needs to be completed.
D)groups that use technology to communicate and collaborate across time,space,and organizational boundaries.
E)groups of individuals who are always available when the organization needs to form a team.

Question 55

All relevant specialties should be included when designing

A)virtual teams.
B)self-managed teams.
C)cross-functional teams.
D)any kind of team.
E)task forces.

Question 56

Which factor is most important in leading to the success of a self-managed work team?

A)Extra pay
B)Large size
C)An interesting task
D)Great similarity of members
E)Great diversity of members

Question 57

The team members' shared beliefs that their team can successfully perform a given task is known as ________.

A)self-efficacy
B)mutual-gain
C)collective efficacy
D)mutual satisfaction
E)collective self-interest

Question 58

Highly cohesive groups tend to be ________ than less cohesive groups.

A)more productive
B)less productive
C)more or less productive
D)more conflict-ridden
E)larger

Question 59

The technologies used by virtual teams tend to be

A)either asynchronous or synchronous ones.
B)asynchronous ones.
C)synchronous ones.
D)chat and groupware.
E)email,faxes,and voice mail.

Question 60

Just because a sports team has the most talented players,it does not necessarily mean the team will be the most successful in the league.The team usually needs to have a strong sense of ________ in order to become better than simply the sum of its players.

A)fear
B)homogeneity
C)ethnic diversity
D)self-efficacy
E)collective efficacy

Question 61

Superordinate goals are an important factor that contribute to the effectiveness of

A)cohesive groups.
B)virtual teams.
C)cross-functional teams.
D)self-managed teams.
E)diverse groups.

Question 62

A major disadvantage of virtual teams is that they increase

A)instances of discrimination.
B)stereotyping.
C)the formation of cliques.
D)personality conflicts.
E)miscommunication.

Question 63

Work groups that bring people with different functional specialties together to better invent,design,or deliver a product or service are called

A)self-managed teams.
B)virtual teams.
C)task forces.
D)cross-functional teams.
E)formal teams.

Question 64

When team members share identical information about how they should interact and what their task is,they are experiencing ________.

A)shared mental models
B)shared status
C)shared litmus testing
D)shared heritage
E)shared leadership

Question 65

Which of the following is the most accurate statement about virtual teams?

A)Although they were once a dream,they are now spreading and are used by numerous companies.
B)Although they were once a dream,they are now being used by a small and select group of companies.
C)Although they still remain a dream,some companies are now experimenting with them.
D)Although they still remain a dream,some companies plan to begin using them in the next five to ten years.
E)Although they were once a dream,it now appears that they will never deliver the benefits that many had hoped for.

Question 66

Instilling shared mental models in many cross-functional teams can often be challenging because of the ________________.

A)reluctance to agree on what the project is
B)avoidance of revealing that each person has an opinion
C)slow moving process of working in a cross-functional team
D)resistance to cross-functional teams in organizations
E)divergent backgrounds of the team members

Question 67

Employees who straddle the boundary between the organization and its clients or customers are especially likely to encounter what form of role conflict?

A)Intrasender role conflict
B)Intersender role conflict
C)Interrole conflict
D)Person-role conflict
E)All of the above

Question 68

What kinds of roles develop in organizations?

A)Designated roles and assigned roles
B)Designated roles and informal roles
C)Assigned roles and informal roles
D)Designated roles and emergent roles
E)Formal roles and informal roles

Question 69

Selma and Sam have just started new jobs at the same company.After one month,Selma has become known by her co-workers as the new software engineer,and Sam has become known as the office gossip.What kind of roles are these?

A)Selma's role is designated and Sam's role is designated.
B)Selma's role is designated and Sam's role is assigned.
C)Selma's role is assigned and Sam's role is designated.
D)Selma's role is emergent and Sam's role is emergent.
E)Selma's role is designated and Sam's role is emergent.

Question 70

Which one of the following is not an advantage of virtual teams?

A)Around-the-clock work
B)Reduced travel time
C)Reduced cost
D)Larger talent pool
E)Trust

Question 71

What did Connie Gersick study to learn about the development of groups?

A)Workers at Federal Express improving billing accuracy and reducing lost packages
B)Student groups doing class projects
C)Sales teams at UPS that sell and deliver products and services
D)Teams at Rubbermaid that invent and design innovative household products
E)A team at Thermos that invented an ecologically friendly electric barbecue grill

Question 72

Research on virtual teams has found that,compared to face-to-face teams,virtual teams engage in a

A)larger volume of information sharing.
B)lower volume of information sharing.
C)similar volume of information sharing.
D)lower volume of unique information sharing.
E)larger volume of redundant information sharing.

Question 73

Connie Gersick's research resulted in which of the following?

A)Typical stages of group development
B)Punctuated equilibrium model
C)Model of the role assumption process
D)Model of group cohesiveness
E)Model of factors that influence work group effectiveness

Question 74

What is the most important function of norms?

A)To increase group cohesiveness
B)To prevent social loafing
C)To prevent intersender role conflict
D)To provide regularity and predictability of behaviour
E)To prevent interrole conflict

Question 75

Which of the following type of group can enhance team creativity and innovation?

A)Self-managed
B)Informal
C)Cohesive
D)Diverse
E)Cross-functional

Question 76

All of the following are frequent outcomes of role ambiguity except

A)absenteeism.
B)job stress.
C)dissatisfaction.
D)reduced organizational commitment.
E)intentions to quit.

Question 77

You have been assigned a group project in your organizational behaviour course.You have six weeks to complete it.When will the midpoint transition occur?

A)At about one week
B)At about two weeks
C)At about three weeks
D)At about four weeks
E)At about five weeks

Question 78

What do Rubbermaid and Novartis and Wyeth have in common?

A)They have used virtual teams.
B)They have used self-managed teams.
C)They have used cross-functional teams.
D)They have used diverse work teams.
E)They have all used task forces.

Question 79

Whistle-blowing is often a signal of what form of role conflict?

A)Intrasender role conflict
B)Intersender role conflict
C)Interrole conflict
D)Person-role conflict
E)None of the above

Question 80

What elements can lead to role ambiguity?

A)Organizational factors,individual factors,role senders,
B)Individual factors,role senders,focal person
C)Organizational factors,individual factors,focal person
D)Organizational factors,role senders,focal person
E)Individual factors,group factors,organizational factors