Chapter 10 - Understanding Work Teams

Question 1

what is a work group?

Answer 1

a group that interacts primarily to share information, make decisions, and help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility

Question 2

what is a work team?

Answer 2

a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs

Question 3

what are problem-solving teams?

Answer 3

groups of five to twelve employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment

Question 4

what are self-managed work teams?

Answer 4

groups of ten to fifteen people who autonomously implement solutions and take responsibility for the outcomes (responsibilities normally given to supervisors)

Question 5

what are cross-functional teams?

Answer 5

employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task

Question 6

what are virtual teams?

Answer 6

teams that use technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal

Question 7

what is a multiteam system?

Answer 7

a collections of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal; a team of teams

Question 8

what factors determine wether teams are successful?

Answer 8

adequate resources
leadership and structure
culture or climate
performance evaluation and reward system
crises and extreme contexts

Question 9

what is organizational demography?

Answer 9

the degree to which members of a work unit share a common demographic attribute, such as age, sex, race, educational level, or length or service in an organization