Deck 5: Working With People on Projects

Question 1

Negotiation is an important skill in preventing frustration among stakeholders that could cause project failure.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Edgar Schein described organizational culture as a tangible concept that constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure to the organization.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A team is most appropriate when speed is important.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Stresses between project team members are not addressed in action item meetings.

Question 5

Emotional intelligence includes self-indulgence.

Question 6

The first step in developing a resolution to a conflict is to restate, paraphrase, and reframe the problem behind the conflict to develop a common understanding of the problem.

Question 7

Delegating too much authority to others who do not have the knowledge, skills, or information will typically cause problems that result in delay or increased cost to the project.

Question 8

Typically on smaller, less complex projects, project managers need more organizational skills to deal with the project.

Question 9

In the DISC acronym, conscientiousness relates to social situations and communication.

Question 10

A successful project manager has a high degree of tolerance of ambiguity.

Question 11

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, sensing types focus on facts.

Question 12

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator rates an individual's preferences and limitations.

Question 13

Formal communication is important to establishing personal trust among team members and with the client.

Question 14

The creation of a project story is an active process.

Question 15

Contracts are conducive to establishing a trusting project culture.

Question 16

Using the Myers-Briggs descriptions, team members who favor feeling, perceiving, and intuition often contribute valuable insights in leadership meetings.

Question 17

Action item meetings are for problem solving, not sharing.

Question 18

The goal of negotiations is to develop the lowest costs for the project.

Question 19

Most leaders have a contingent leadership style that is most comfortable.

Question 20

On larger, more complex projects, the project manager is intimately involved in developing the project schedule, cost estimates, and quality standards.

Question 21

_____ prefer written communication as the primary means of communicating.

A) Extraverts
B) Introverts
C) Sensing types
D) Intuitive types
E) Perceiving types

Question 22

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator MBTI), the _____ type describes a preference for making decisions.

A) Thinking T)-Feeling F)
B) Extroversion E)-Introversion I)
C) Sociability S)-Nervousness N)
D) Sensing S)-Intuition N)
E) Judging J)-Perceiving P)

Question 23

According to the DISC acronym, _____ relates to control, power, and assertiveness.

A) independence
B) steadiness
C) influence
D) dominance
E) competence

Question 24

Which of the following is

A) It is a reliable way to assign people with similar ways of thinking to project tasks.
B) The purpose of the MBTI is to understand and appreciate the differences among people.
C) Effective interpretation of the MBTI does not require any kind of training.
D) It identifies 12 personality types based on four preferences derived from the questionnaire.
E) On large, complex projects, all project managers use the MBTI as an individual skill-building tool after project start-up.

Question 25

In all cultures, an affirmative answer to a question always means a yes.

Question 26

According to the DISC acronym, which of the following relates to structure and organization?

A) Dominance
B) Influence
C) Stimulus
D) Steadiness
E) Conscientiousness

Question 27

Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt described leaders as either _____ or _____.

A) autocratic; democratic
B) transactional; transformational
C) implementers; visionaries
D) analytical; team oriented
E) pathfinders; problem solvers

Question 28

Based on the theories of psychologist _____, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator uses a questionnaire to gather information on the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

A) Daniel Goleman
B) Robert Tannenbaum
C) Carl Jung
D) Warren Schmidt
E) Harold Leavitt

Question 29

_____ is the process of understanding the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to manage a task and then matching the team members with the right skills to do that work.

A) Benchmarking
B) Expediting
C) Procurement
D) Delegation
E) Solicitation

Question 30

Leaders who focus on the long-term needs of the group and organization are perceived as _____.

A) autocratic
B) transactional
C) democratic
D) analytical
E) transformational

Question 31

Lack of involvement in teamwork is the highest barrier to communication.

Question 32

The cultural aspects of the power of management are stronger than the safety aspects of culture.

Question 33

Which of the following statements is

A) They are the filters through which project members screen information that is shared.
B) They do not lend themselves to create an environment of trust.
C) The success of larger, more complex projects is more dependent on contracts than on relationships of trust.
D) Without contracts, projects that are highly dependent on an information-rich environment will suffer.
E) Contracts promote the growth of a trusting project culture.

Question 34

Stress, at appropriate levels, can make the work environment interesting and challenging.

Question 35

Innovation is important to developing methods of shortening a project schedule.

Question 36

According to Daniel Goleman, _____ is a factor more important than _____ in predicting leadership success.

A) collective intelligence; strategic intelligence
B) collaborative intelligence quotient; systems intelligence quotient
C) social intelligence; general intelligence
D) emotional intelligence quotient; IQ
E) abstract intelligence; academic intelligence

Question 37

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator MBTI), the _____ type describes a preference for internalizing information.

A) Thinking T)-Feeling F)
B) Extroversion E)-Introversion I)
C) Sociability S)-Nervousness N)
D) Sensing S)-Intuition N)
E) Judging J)-Perceiving P)

Question 38

"Do it because I said to" is the mantra for project managers who use _____ as the default approach to resolve conflict.

A) collaborating
B) compromising
C) accommodating
D) forcing
E) avoiding

Question 39

Vijay Verma suggests that negotiations involve four principles. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A) Separate people from the problem
B) Focus on common interests
C) Generate options that advance shared interests
D) Develop results based on standard criteria
E) Insist on using subjective patterns

Question 40

_____ is a personal characteristic that reflects the truthfulness of an individual that can be checked against observable facts.

A) Objective credibility
B) Attribution of benevolence
C) Nonmanipulative trust
D) High cost of lying
E) Acknowledgment of munificence

Question 41

Which of the following is a source of qualitative information available to project managers?

A) Project schedules
B) Budget reports
C) Risk analysis
D) Goal tracking
E) Judgments of expert team members

Question 42

Edgar Schein defined _____ as a pattern of basic assumptions formed by a group on how to perceive and address problems associated with both internal adaptation and external integration.

A) value
B) trust
C) civility
D) reputation
E) culture

Question 43

Operational rules are the rules that are _____, and official rules are the rules that are _____.

A) affirmed; enforced
B) enforced; stated
C) enounced; obligatory
D) stated; enforced
E) enounced; compulsory

Question 44

_____ is perhaps the most visible manifestation of culture.

A) Organization
B) Acculturation
C) Communication
D) Enculturation
E) Nationalization

Question 45

This team is assigned to address specific issues that arise during the life of a project.

A) Problem-solving teams
B) Cross-functional teams
C) Virtual teams
D) Functional teams
E) Self-managed teams

Question 46

Which of the following statements is

A) Questions are designed to elicit responses that require data.
B) It is a survey developed during the later phases of a project.
C) Qualitative responses are converted to a quantitative value.
D) Reponses are scored on a scale from 1 to 5.
E) Projects with a high level of complexity due to team-based and cultural issues are surveyed less frequently.

Question 47

Under which of the following conditions would teams be more effective than individuals?

A) When speed is important
B) When the activities involved in solving the problem are very detailed
C) When the actual document needs to be written
D) When innovation is required
E) When a commitment to the solution is needed by small portions of the project team

Question 48

Creating a positive project story entails identifying the _____ aspects of a project and building a positive outcome.

A) complex
B) unique
C) standard
D) verifiable
E) social

Question 49

In building trust on a project, project managers can assure that the _____ stated goals) and _____ goals that are reinforced) are aligned.

A) personal goals; professional goals
B) super-ordinate goals; personal goals
C) professional goals; strategic goals
D) official goals; operational goals
E) indirect goals; direct goals

Question 50

The _____ is a tool developed by Russ Darnall to capture the thoughts of project participants that are not reflected in the project reporting tools.

A) DISC
B) MBTI
C) Humm Factor
D) RSS
E) communication matrix

Question 51

An) _____ is the short explanation that project team members give when asked about the project.

A) scope of work
B) attribution of benevolence
C) Humm Factor
D) project story
E) project profile

Question 52

Which of the following is

A) They are short meetings to develop a common understanding of what the short-term priorities are for the project.
B) They focus on short-term activities, usually less than a week in duration.
C) They are purely fact-based meetings with a left-brain type focus.
D) They have very little dialogue except to ask clarification questions.
E) They are oriented toward developing plans, tracking progress of existing plans, and making adjustments to plans in response to new information.

Question 53

_____ is a form of trust that is built on the examination of the person's motives and the conclusion that they are not hostile.

A) Objective credibility
B) Attribution of benevolence
C) Nonmanipulative trust
D) Unequivocal liberality
E) High cost of lying

Question 54

The engineering team, the procurement team, and the project controls team are examples of _____ teams within a project.

A) problem-solving
B) cross-functional
C) self-managed
D) functional
E) virtual

Question 55

Leadership meetings:

A) are opportunities to discover obstacles to goal achievement.
B) are used to explore the larger issues of the project.
C) are left-brained, creative meetings that focus on the people issues of the project.
D) are focused on information sharing with little discussion.
E) are focused on developing and progressing goals.

Question 56

Cross-functional teams:

A) are assigned to address specific issues that arise during the life of the project.
B) address issues and work processes that include two or more of the functional teams.
C) have a longer life span than functional teams.
D) are chartered to address a problem and then disband.
E) are easier to manage than problem-solving teams.

Question 57

_____ culture is an abstract concept that constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure to the organization.

A) Organic
B) Hierarchical
C) National
D) Organizational
E) Industry

Question 58

_____ is/are clearly the highest barrier to communication.

A) Language
B) Gender inequality
C) Lack of involvement
D) Perception
E) Emotions

Question 59

Action item meetings:

A) are long meetings.
B) are for problem solving.
C) are more apt for members who favor thinking over feeling.
D) have a lot of dialogue.
E) focus on long-term activities.

Question 60

Under which of the following conditions would a person be more appropriate than a team?

A) When the problem and solution cross project functions
B) When a commitment to the solution is needed by large portions of the project group
C) When the activities involved in solving the problem are vague
D) When innovation is required
E) When speed is important

Question 61

Explain how a project manager can build trust.

Question 62

Fred Fiedler introduced _____ theory and the ability of leaders to adapt their leadership approach to the environment.

Question 63

The project manager has several tools for developing good _____ information-based on numbers and measurements-such as the project schedules, budgets and budget reports, risk analysis, and goal tracking.

Question 64

_____ is placing yourself in the speaker's position as much as possible, understanding the communication from the point of view of the speaker, listening to the body language and other environmental cues, and striving not just to hear, but to understand.

Question 65

_____ is a creative process that requires both fun and focus.

Question 66

Describe a conflict resolution approach that a project manager can use to deal with conflicts?

Question 67

Explain the importance of developing a project story.

Question 68

Describe how differences in culture between stakeholders affect the project.

Question 69

_____ is a biological reaction to perceived threats, but at appropriate levels can make the work environment interesting and even challenging.

Question 70

Briefly describe emotional intelligence.

Question 71

_____ is a form of trust that correlates to a person's self-interest and the predictability of a person's behavior in acting consistent in that self-interest.