Deck 14: Teamwork and Communications

Question 1

Recently,major organizations have begun to rely less on teams and more on individuals to improve operations.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

An organization is a group of people with complementary skills who work together to achieve a specific goal.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Team members function interdependently.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In the case of the team that created the RAZR cell phone,the common goal was to create and bring to market an ultrathin cell phone that would help Motorola regain its lofty position in the cell phone market.

Question 5

Most teams are unaccountable to those higher up in the organization.

Question 6

A _____ is a group of people with complementary skills who can work together on a regular basis to accomplish a common goal.

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

Question 7

Team-based projects rarely fail.

Question 8

Teams have key characteristics that include:

A)the lack of lack authority to make decisions that will help them pursue their goals.
B)team members who are individually responsible for achieving team goals.
C)team members that change constantly.
D)team members that operate in a social context.

Question 9

Members of a working group go about their jobs independently.

Question 10

Which of the following is true regarding manager-led teams?

A)Team leaders are in charge of setting team goals,assigning tasks,and monitoring performance.
B)Team members are in charge of making all important decisions.
C)Team leaders have no authority to monitor team performance.
D)Team members are responsible for assigning tasks among themselves.

Question 11

Teams are essential to business organizations because they have been found to increase workplace performance.

Question 12

Companies build and support teams because:

A)teams reduce the number of people needed to make decisions.
B)teams increase overall work performance.
C)teams are always effective.
D)employees enjoy being on teams.

Question 13

This type of team is designed to take advantage of the special expertise of members drawn from different functional areas of the company.

A)self-managing team
B)cross-functional team
C)virtual team
D)expert-based team

Question 14

Self-managing work teams are often allowed to schedule assignments,but they are rarely allowed to fire coworkers.

Question 15

This type of team consists of geographically dispersed workers who interact electronically for the purpose of achieving a common goal.

A)cross-functional team
B)self-managing work team
C)virtual team
D)manager-led team

Question 16

Miscommunications can easily occur with virtual teams and it's difficult to establish trust.

Question 17

A virtual team should be limited to five to ten members.

Question 18

Which of the following is true about self-managing teams?

A)They are usually large in size.
B)Team members are not involved in scheduling work.
C)Team members determine overall goals.
D)Team members often perform activities that were once performed by subordinates.

Question 19

Members of a team work independently,but come together primarily to share information.

Question 20

The leader of a self managing team may determine overall goals,but employees control the activities needed to meet them.

Question 21

According to the idea of group cohesiveness,groups are most effective when their members like being part of the group.

Question 22

Great Ideas Ltd.has put together a team to design a new product to meet competition.What type of team have they likely put together?

A)problem-solving team
B)product design team
C)cross-functional team
D)virtual team

Question 23

Teams are more effective when team members depend on one another.

Question 24

The goal of Motorola's RAZR team was to develop (and ultimately bring to market)an ultrathin cell phone that would help restore the company's reputation as a designer of stylistically appealing,high function phones.One way in which the team achieved its goal was by:

A)building a team of individuals with similar backgrounds and training.
B)not putting any one individual in charge of the team.
C)limiting the number of team members to five.
D)using the authority given to it to make its own decisions.

Question 25

The team that designed and brought the RAZR phone to market would be called a _____ team.

A)task force
B)product design
C)cross-functional
D)virtual

Question 26

A cohesive team with goals that are aligned with the goals of the organization is most likely to succeed.

Question 27

When there is too much conformity within a group it can become ineffective.

Question 28

Bob and Megan have been placed on a team at work to find ways to improve product quality and reduce waste.What type of team are they likely to be on?

A)virtual team
B)problem-solving team
C)product design team
D)self-directed team

Question 29

When it comes to teams,there is no such thing as too much group cohesiveness.

Question 30

Gayle,Dan,Mary,and Peter are exceptional people in their attitudes toward work.They have been placed on a _____ made up of workers who perform shared tasks and make many of the decisions previously made by their supervisors.

A)self-managing team
B)virtual team
C)cross-functional team
D)manager-led team

Question 31

Committees and task forces,both of which are dedicated to specific issues or tasks,are often _____ teams.

A)virtual
B)manager-led
C)product design
D)cross-functional

Question 32

The bigger the team,the more satisfied members tend to be.

Question 33

Teams function more effectively when leadership responsibility is shared over time.

Question 34

The idea of group cohesiveness refers to the interest level of a team to the project they are working on.

Question 35

A _____ consists of members from various parts of the organization or even from outside the organization.

A)manager-led team
B)product design team
C)cross-functional team
D)virtual team

Question 36

Grainger Solutions has branch offices geographically dispersed in seven states.A _____ team has been formed to interact electronically for the purpose of achieving a common goal.

A)self-managed work team
B)virtual team
C)cross-functional team
D)manager-led

Question 37

In contrast to a team,members of a working group:

A)are responsible for achieving specific goals.
B)are highly dependent on each other.
C)meet primarily to share information.
D)have more authority to make decisions than teams do.

Question 38

Virtual teams have all of the following advantages except:

A)members can participate from any location.
B)time and money is saved through reduced travel.
C)team size is limited.
D)teams can meet for as long as needed to achieve a goal or solve a problem.

Question 39

Generally,the more that team members derive satisfaction from being on the team,the more fun they have and the less committed they become to achieving goals.

Question 40

For a team to succeed,team members must communicate with each other.

Question 41

Successful teams require that every member have some mixture of communication,financial and managerial skills.

Question 42

Difficulty in maintaining a high level of motivation is the chief cause of frustration among members of teams.

Question 43

More than two thirds of all students report having participated in some sort of group project.

Question 44

Typically a team performs well because its members possess some level of talent.

Question 45

In practice,which of the following tends to contribute to effective teamwork?

A)Members depend on each other
B)Members work better individually than as a team
C)Team members resent being on a team
D)Leadership rotates infrequently

Question 46

The business world is dominated by teams.

Question 47

A survey of Fortune 1000 companies reveals that only about 20 percent rely on self managing teams.

Question 48

Students who have worked in groups in college advise other students to avoid conflict by being more lenient with deadlines.

Question 49

The tendency to conform to group pressure in making decisions is called groupthink.

Question 50

Which of the following is true regarding groupthink?

A)Groupthink generates diverse ideas and conclusions.
B)With groupthink,it is common for a team member to take a stand that differs from the opinion of others in the group.
C)Groupthink results in team members spending considerable time weighing the pros and cons of a decision.
D)Groupthink results in a tendency for team members to conform to group pressure in making decisions.

Question 51

As a college student and as a member of the workforce,most of us will be members of a team more often than leaders.

Question 52

In a team-based organization,teams are interdependent.

Question 53

Which of the following is true regarding group cohesiveness?

A)It is low when members in a group are happy.
B)It refers to the attractiveness of a team to its members.
C)It is low when group members have similar attitudes and experiences.
D)It is low when the team is motivated to outperform other teams.

Question 54

Which of the following factors is not important to team effectiveness?

A)Members encourage other team members to do their best
B)Members have known each other for a long time
C)Members perform better as a group than alone
D)Members trust each other

Question 55

A major obstacle to team success in introducing teams into an organization is:

A)team members are willing to commit to a common goal.
B)management is willing to commit needed resources.
C)managers fail to delegate authority.
D)teams are willing to cooperate with other teams.

Question 56

Employers today look for an individual's ability to develop and sustain motivation when they are hiring new managers.

Question 57

When each team member is encouraged by other team members to do his or her best,then:

A)collective results improve.
B)individuals encouraging other members are rewarded.
C)the team never fails.
D)team members enjoy being on the team.

Question 58

Which of the following is not one of the factors that make a team cohesive?

A)When the team is successful at achieving its goals.
B)When team members perceive other fellow members as people who share their own attitudes and experience.
C)When it is difficult to get on the team.
D)When the team is very large (has a lot of members).

Question 59

_____ is often cited as a factor in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

A)Lack of collaboration among team members
B)Lack of an adequate budget
C)An engineering team that was too large
D)Groupthink

Question 60

Effective teamwork develops over time as team members learn how to handle various team-based tasks.

Question 61

Teams are most effective when there's a good balance between task facilitation and relationship building among members.

Question 62

Task facilitators are especially valuable when assignments aren't clear or when progress is too slow.

Question 63

If you were asked to be a team leader,all of the following leadership skills and behaviors would help you influence your team except:

A)integrity and honesty in communicating with team members.
B)being clear and consistent;letting members know what's expected of them.
C)being optimistic and generating positive energy.
D)willingness to let team members work on their own without asking them what they are doing and how the job is going.

Question 64

Efforts made to help a team maintain or improve group cohesiveness are part of the _____ roles that team members play.

A)blocking
B)relationship-building
C)task-facilitating
D)problem solving

Question 65

Team members who use the blocking tactic of overanalyzing tend to blow things out of proportion.

Question 66

Jan is good at providing information when someone else needs it and also asking for it when she needs it.Jan would be considered _____.

A)someone who is using blocking strategies
B)a team leader
C)a task facilitator
D)a relationship builder

Question 67

Task facilitators are especially valuable when:

A)people on the team aren't getting along.
B)group cohesiveness needs to be improved.
C)consensus needs to be built.
D)assignments are not clear or progress is slow.

Question 68

Advice on how to survive team projects in college includes:

A)Do whatever it takes to get the job done even if it means you do all the work yourself.
B)Don't share your very best ideas with the group until they can be trusted.
C)Draw up a team charter.
D)Once a conflict comes up,meet with your team members and decide how it should be resolved.

Question 69

Relationship-building roles address challenge number one-accomplishing the team goals.

Question 70

In contributing to the new-product design and development process,industrial designers such as Chris Arnholt must effectively communicate both ideas and practical specifications.

Question 71

When teams attempt to confront dysfunctional members,they usually end up destroying morale,creating conflict,and hindering progress instead.

Question 72

As a team member,Beverly seems to split hairs and belabor every detail.She seems to be using which of the following blocking strategies?

A)Resisting
B)Pulling rank
C)Rejecting
D)Overanalyzing

Question 73

Which of the following is not good advice on surviving team projects in college?

A)Draw up a team charter
B)Contribute your ideas
C)Use the strengths of each member
D)Getting the project done right and on time is more important than the experience gained from working on a team.

Question 74

A team charter generally includes all of the following except:

A)when and where your team will meet.
B)background information collected to date on the project.
C)ways to ensure that each member's ideas are respected.
D)how conflicts will be resolved.

Question 75

It is difficult for any one given member of a group to perform both the task-facilitating and the relationship-building roles because some people are better at focusing on tasks and others on relationships.

Question 76

Individuals who play blocking roles are generally good at building consensus among the group.

Question 77

When you challenge unmotivated behavior among team members you're performing a task-facilitating role.

Question 78

Every team requires some mixture of the following three skills:

A)time management/communication/research.
B)technical/decision making and problem solving/interpersonal.
C)presentation/technical/interpersonal.
D)conflict resolution/decision making and problem solving/technical.

Question 79

Mike will often talk too much and interrupt others.He is guilty of which blocking strategy?

A)Pulling rank
B)Dominating
C)Stalling
D)Finding fault

Question 80

Team leaders are more effective when they can _____.

A)influence team members
B)always get team members to follow their suggestions
C)gain their trust
D)both a and c