Question 1

Which of the following is not a people-related early warning sign of team failure?&#10;A) Personality differences in team members.&#10;B) Lack of top management support.&#10;C) No stakeholder participation in the project.&#10;D) Failure of subject matter experts.

Accepted Answer

The five people-related early warning signs are: lack of top management support, weak project manager, no stakeholder participation in the project, team members lacking requisite knowledge and skills, and failure of subject matter experts to provide adequate time to teams.

Question 2

Which one of the following is not a benefit flowing directly from an organisation's choice of adopting a team-based approach?&#10;A) Increased workplace productivity&#10;B) Lower overall costs&#10;C) Lower levels of absenteeism&#10;D) Improvements to product and service quality

Accepted Answer

Organisations adopting team-based approaches have reported benefits such as increased workplace productivity, improvements to product and service quality, reduced number of management layers, lower levels of absenteeism, and reduced employee turnover.

Question 3

Which one of the following is a benefit flowing directly from an organisation's choice of adopting a team-based approach?&#10;A) Increased workplace productivity&#10;B) Lower overall costs&#10;C) Higher levels of absenteeism&#10;D) Multi-skilling

Accepted Answer

Organisations adopting team-based approaches have reported benefits such as increased workplace productivity, improvements to product and service quality, reduced number of management layers, lower levels of absenteeism, and reduced employee turnover.

Question 4

What is the most important factor for ensuring the success of team-based projects?&#10;A) Project managers detecting people-related and process-related early warning signs, and determining to bring about changes before it is too late.&#10;B) Subject matter experts providing adequate time to teams.&#10;C) Having adequate documentation on success criteria.&#10;D) Having adequate resource allocation.

Accepted Answer

The most important factor is the ability of project managers to detect people-related and processrelated early warning signs, and their determination to bring about changes before it is too late. In order to be able to do so, it is important that team managers have a good grasp of what teams are and the various types of teams that operate within organisations.

Question 5

A top management team usually has high levels of:&#10;A) independence between the functional areas.&#10;B) reliance on the board of directors.&#10;C) reliance on customer feedback.&#10;D) interdependence between the functional areas.

Accepted Answer

Departmental teams consist of employees with complementary skills located in the same unit, usually with minimal task interdependence because they are servicing other departments (e.g. the human resource division). A top management team, on the other hand, usually has high levels of interdependence between the functional areas.

Question 6

Self-managing teams (also called self-directing teams) are:&#10;A) groups of independent individuals that can self-regulate their behaviour on relatively whole tasks.&#10;B) groups of interdependent individuals that can self-regulate their behaviour on relatively whole tasks.&#10;C) groups of interdependent individuals that focus only on the tasks they are given.&#10;D) groups of independent individuals that focus only on the tasks they are given.

Accepted Answer

Self-managing teams (also called self-directing teams) are groups of interdependent individuals that can self-regulate their behaviour on relatively whole tasks (Cohen & Ledford, 1994).

Question 7

The concept of self-directed work teams was first formally introduced into:&#10;A) Frederick Taylor's production lines in the 1920s.&#10;B) Henry Ford's production lines in the 1940s.&#10;C) British coal mines in the late 1940s and 1950s.&#10;D) US steel mills in the 1890s.

Accepted Answer

The origins of self-directed work teams go back to the work of social scientists Eric Trist and Ken Bamforth at Britain's Tavistock Institute in the late 1940s (Trist & Bamforth, 1951). In subsequent work, Trist, Emery, and Murray (1997) advanced the notion that greater productivity in a work unit can be accomplished through the 'optimisation' of the social (i.e. human) and technical subsystems that are embedded in the work unit. Their ideas came to be referred to as sociotechnical systems theory (STS). The strength of their ideas was demonstrated when the concept of self-directed work teams was introduced into British coal mines in the late 1940s and 1950s. Productivity and the work satisfaction experienced by mine staff increased dramatically (Flood, 2006). The ideas surrounding STS spread across the world, as large corporations such as Boeing, Volvo, 3M, Federal Express and numerous others implemented self-directed work teams to increase worker productivity, product/service quality and turnover, and reduce absenteeism.

Question 8

Self-managed teams:&#10;A) need leaders to oversee their contribution to the larger organisation.&#10;B) do not need leaders to oversee their contribution to the larger organisation.&#10;C) do not need autonomy of decision-making and feedback on the results of work activities.&#10;D) need a low level of employee involvement.

Accepted Answer

Although it may seem contradictory, self-managed teams need leaders to oversee their contribution to the larger organisation. In a study of 500 consumer durable goods manufacturers that had adopted self-directed work teams, Druskat and Wheeler (2004) reported that self-directed teams required oversight from external leaders who managed the relationship between the teams and the larger organisation.

Question 9

The most important attribute contributing to the success of virtual teams is:&#10;A) shared work time.&#10;B) shared financial resources.&#10;C) shared stories.&#10;D) shared understanding.

Accepted Answer

Gibson and Cohen (2003) have suggested that the most important attribute contributing to the success of virtual teams is shared understanding.

Question 10

Which one of the following is not an aspect to be guarded against on a virtual team?&#10;A) Increased similarity&#10;B) Less team spirit&#10;C) Less open communication&#10;D) Fewer shared experiences

Accepted Answer

Being virtual can lead to reduced similarity, fewer shared experiences, less team spirit, less open communication, and less information sharing-all factors that reduce shared understanding, either directly or because differences become too difficult to identify and resolve.

Question 11

Facilitating shared understanding in virtual teams involves which of the following?&#10;A) Protection of personal information.&#10;B) Protection of essential knowledge that is needed across sites.&#10;C) Guarding against development of a strong team identity.&#10;D) Sharing of information about day-to-day activities throughout the project.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Facilitating shared understanding in virtual teams involves...

Question 12

Selection of the right electronic collaboration and communication technology to meet the needs of the project is a critical success factor for which type of team?&#10;A) Self managed team&#10;B) Self directed team&#10;C) Top management team&#10;D) Virtual team

Accepted Answer

The answer of Selection of the right electronic collaboration and...

Question 13

A group of people who apply different skills, with a high degree of interdependence, to ensure the effective delivery of a common organisational objective defines a:&#10;A) virtual team.&#10;B) cross-functional team.&#10;C) self-managed team.&#10;D) top management team.

Accepted Answer

The answer of A group of people who apply different...

Question 14

Which one of the following is not a critical success factor in managing cross-functional teams?&#10;A) Senior management should constitute the team and define their role within the organisation.&#10;B) The appointment of a strong project leader.&#10;C) Divergence of team's agenda and inter-departmental agendas.&#10;D) Top management must visibly support the team.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which one of the following is not...

Question 15

Defining processes, action processes and interpersonal processes are:&#10;A) moderators in a model of team effectiveness.&#10;B) team work process variables in a model of team effectiveness.&#10;C) types of team effectiveness.&#10;D) parts of a mental model.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Defining processes, action processes and interpersonal processes...

Question 16

The first and perhaps the most important step a team should undertake is to:&#10;A) establish clear rewards and punishments for team behaviours.&#10;B) elect a leader.&#10;C) develop a dispute resolution procedure.&#10;D) reach a clear understanding of its mission through the articulation of a mission statement.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The first and perhaps the most important...

Question 17

Two moderators of teamwork processes and team effectiveness are:&#10;A) mission and team composition.&#10;B) task interdependence and team size.&#10;C) coordination and mission.&#10;D) conflict management and communication.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Two moderators of teamwork processes and team...

Question 18

The most visible indicator of team effectiveness is:&#10;A) team performance.&#10;B) team culture.&#10;C) team communication.&#10;D) team leadership.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The most visible indicator of team effectiveness...

Question 19

The emotional bonds that develop among members as they work together as a team are called:&#10;A) team culture.&#10;B) team mission.&#10;C) team cohesion.&#10;D) team relationships.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The emotional bonds that develop among members...

Question 20

Team mental models:&#10;A) are the plans that teams draw up to complete complex tasks.&#10;B) are ways of thinking about forming a team.&#10;C) allow members to anticipate one another's actions and to coordinate their behaviours.&#10;D) allow reason to prevail over emotional team situations.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Team mental models:&#10;A) are the plans that...

Question 21

The extent to which members of a group believe that they can be effective as a team across tasks or contexts is best defined as:&#10;A) team cohesion.&#10;B) team performance.&#10;C) team potency.&#10;D) team mission.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The extent to which members of a...

Question 22

Which one of these options is not one of the three sets of diversity impacting on team performance?&#10;A) Objective differences&#10;B) Task process diversity&#10;C) Personality diversity&#10;D) Deep level dispositional diversity

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which one of these options is not...

Question 23

Define self-managing teams (SMT) and discuss any two foundations of SMTs.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Define self-managing teams (SMT) and discuss any...

Question 24

What are some of the factors that can lead to the downfall of self-managing teams?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are some of the factors that...

Question 25

What are the critical success factors in managing virtual teams?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the critical success factors in...

Question 26

What are the critical success factors in managing cross-functional teams?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the critical success factors in...

Question 27

Briefly discuss task interdependence and team size as moderators of team effectiveness.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Briefly discuss task interdependence and team size...

Question 28

What is your understanding of the term 'psychologically healthy workplace'?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is your understanding of the term...

Question 29

Define team cohesion and briefly explain its three components.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Define team cohesion and briefly explain its...

Deck 9: High Performance Teams