Ch. 11: Effective Team Management

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

Two or more people who interact with each other to accomplish certain goals or meet certain needs.

Question 2

What is a team?

Answer 2

A group whose members work intensely with one another to achieve a specific common goal or objective.

Question 3

What is synergy?

Answer 3

Performance gains that result when individuals and departments coordinate their actions.

Question 4

What is a formal group?

Answer 4

A group that managers establish to achieve organizational goals.

Question 5

What is an informal group?

Answer 5

A group that managers or nonmanagerial employees form to help achieve their own goals or meet their own needs.

Question 6

What is a top management team?

Answer 6

A group composed of the CEO, the president, and the heads of the most important departments.

Question 7

What is a research and development team?

Answer 7

A team whose members have the expertise and experience needed to develop new products.

Question 8

What is a command group?

Answer 8

A group composed of subordinates who report to the same supervisor; also called department or unit.

Question 9

What is a task force?

Answer 9

A committee of managers or nonmanagerial employees from various departments or divisions who meet to solve a specific, mutual problem; also called ad hoc committee.

Question 10

What is a self-managed work team?

Answer 10

A group of employees who supervise their own activities and monitor the quality of the goods and services they provide.

Question 11

What is a virtual team?

Answer 11

A team whose members rarely or never meet face-to-face but, rather, interact by using various forms of information technology such as e-mail, computer, networks, telephone, fax, and videoconferences.

Question 12

What is a friendship group?

Answer 12

An informal group composed of employees who enjoy one another’s company and socialize with one another.

Question 13

What is an interest group?

Answer 13

An informal group composed of employees seeking to achieve a common goal related to their membership in an organization.

Question 14

What is division of labor?

Answer 14

Splitting the work to be performed into particular tasks and assigning tasks to individual workers.

Question 15

What is a group role?

Answer 15

A set of behaviors and tasks that a member of a group is expected to perform because of his or her position in the group.

Question 16

What is role making?

Answer 16

Taking the initiative to modify an assigned role by assuming additional responsibilities.

Question 17

What are the five stages of group development?

Answer 17

1) Forming - The members get to know one another. 2) Storming - The group members experience conflict and disagreement, because some do not wish to submit to the demands of others. 3) Norming - Close ties between the members develop, and feelings of friendship and camaraderie emerge. 4) Performing - This is where the actual work takes place, and where the manager has to make sure that the group works efficiently. 5) Adjourning - Applies only to groups that are eventually disbanded. Completion of the task at hand.

Question 18

What are group norms?

Answer 18

Shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow.

Question 19

What are the three reasons that group members conform to norms?

Answer 19

1) They want to obtain rewards and avoid punishments 2) They want to imitate group mebers whom they like and admire 3) They have internalized the norm and believe it is the right and proper way to behave

Question 20

How do groups generally respond to members who behave deviantly?

Answer 20

1) The group might try to get the member to change his or her deviant ways by altering pay or other punishment. 2) The group might expel the member 3) The group might change the norm to be consistent with the member’s behavior.

Question 21

What happens if too little or much conformity takes place in a group?

Answer 21

Question 22

What is group cohesiveness?

Answer 22

The degree to which members are attracted to or loyal to their group.

Question 23

How does group cohesiveness affect the level of participation within a group?

Answer 23

Group cohesiveness is essential for group participation, however if the group cohesiveness is at too high of a level, the group becomes ineffective.

Question 24

How does group cohesiveness affect the level of conformity to group norms?

Answer 24

Increasing levels of group cohesiveness result in increasing levels of conformity to group norms, and when cohesiveness becomes high, there may be so little deviance in groups that group members conform to norms even when they are dysfunctional. In constrast, low cohesiveness can result in too much deviance and undermine the ability of a group to control its member’s behaviors to get things done.

Question 25

How does cohesiveness affect group goals?

Answer 25

As group cohesiveness increases, the emphasis placed on group goal accomplishment also increases within a group. A strong emphasis on group goal accomplishment, however, does not always lead to organizational effectiveness. For an organization to be effective and gain a competitive advantage, the different groups and teams in the organization must cooperate with one another and be motivated to achieve organizational goals, even if doing so sometimes comes at the expense of the achievement of group goals. A moderate level of cohesiveness motivates group members to accomplish both group and organizational goals. High levels of cohesiveness can cause group members to be so focused on group goal accomplishment that they may strive to achieve group goals no matter what - even when doing so jeopardizes organizational performance.

Question 26

What is social loafing?

Answer 26

The tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they work in groups than when they work alone.

Question 27

What are the three ways to reduce social loafing?

Answer 27

1) Making individual contributions to a group identifiable when possible
2) Emphasizing the valuable contributions of individual members

3) Keeping group size at an appropriate level