Chapter 4 - The Team as a Whole

Question 1

What are the 4 dimensions of team empowerment?

Answer 1

1. autonomy: degree to which team members experience substantial amounts of freedom, independence, and discretion in their team’s work
2. impact: extent to which a team produces work that is significant and important for an organization
3. potency: collective belief of members in a team that it can be effective; applies to a wide variety of team tasks
4. meaningfulness: degree to which a team deems its tasks as important, valuable, and worthwhile

Question 2

What are the 4 dimensions of individual empowerment

Answer 2

1. choice: the extend to which people have self-determination or control over carrying out their work.
2. impact: the extend to which a persons work is perceived as making a difference in the company.
3. competence: the extend to which people can carry out their work skillfully when they attempt to do so
4. meaningfulness: the extend to which people care about the work they do

Question 3

How are team empowerment and individual empowerment similar (2)

Answer 3

1. Team empowerment autonomy is similar to the individual empowerment dimension on choice
2. Team empowerment of potency is similar to individual empowerment dimension of competence

Question 4

How are team empowerment and individual empowerment different

Answer 4

1. Autonomy is different from individual empowerment dimension of choice because a team’s members have to share the amount of decision-making latitude in their work with one another (which might actually decrease individual autonomy!). The key difference is, that with team autonomy, a team’s members have to share the amount of decision making latitude with one another.
2. Impact is different from individual empowerment dimension because a team’s members do not necessarily share in a collective sense of impact despite individual impact experiences.
3. Potency is different from individual empowerment dimension of competence because a high level of perceived competence by individuals does not automatically translate into all members feeling a collective sense of potency
4. Meaningfulness is different from individual empowerment dimension because a team might complete some tasks that are personally meaningful to that team’s members but have little impact on organization.

Question 5

What is the most important dimension for team empowerment

Answer 5

Meaningfulness

Question 6

Team Trust

Answer 6

Team Trust: the common belief among a team of individuals that team members make a good-faith effort to behave in accordance with any commitments, are honest in whatever negotiations preceded such commitments, and do not take excessive advantage of one another even when the opportunity is available

Question 7

Team Psychological Safety

Answer 7

Team Psychological Safety: the extent to which a team as a whole is safe for interpersonal risk taking

Question 8

Define “hidden profile.”

Answer 8

Hidden Profile: team reaches a suboptimal decision even when a highly promising solution is actually within its grasp. The tendency for team members to share only information that is already generally known.

Question 9

What is the primary reason that team members fall prey to the common knowledge effect?

Answer 9

Primary cause: Revealing unique or novel information can actually make team members feel vulnerable to disrupting the good feelings of a cohesive team.

Question 10

What 5 ways can a team leader do to build team psychological safety?

Answer 10

1. Role modeling: leading by example
2. Encouraging and allowing teams to participate in decision making
3. Providing effective coaching for teams to become confident in their empowerment experiences
4. Sharing important and strategic information with teams
5. Displaying a high level of concern and caring