Exam 2 - Understanding Work Teams

Question 1

Why are teams popular?

Answer 1

• achieve feats an individual cannot
• flexible and responsive to changing events
• quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband
• increase employee involvement
• collaborative mindset

Question 2

Teams

Answer 2

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

Goal: collective performance
Synergy: Positive
Accountability: Individual and mutual
Skills: Complementary

Question 2

Groups

Answer 2

interacts primarily to share information and make decisions that help each member perform within their own area of responsibility

Goal: share information
Synergy: neutral (sometimes negative)
Accountability: individual
Skills: Random and varied

Question 3

Problem-solving

Answer 3

Teams that discuss quality improvement, efficiency, work environment; low decision making

Question 4

Self-managed

Answer 4

groups of employees who perform highly related and interdependent jobs with supervisory responsibilities

Question 5

Cross-functional

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Virtual

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Multiteam system

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Team context (what factors determine whether teams are successful?)

Answer 8

• Adequate Resources
• Leadership and Structure
• Climate of Trust
• Performance Evaluations and Rewards

Question 9

Team composition

Answer 9

• Abilities of members
• Personality
• Allocating roles
• Diversity
  *negative effects: gender, ethnicity, dissimilar experiences
  *positive effects: function, education, expertise
• Cultural differences (initially negative, then positive)
• Size of teams
• Member preference

Question 10

Team processes

Answer 10

• Team plan, strategy, reflexivity
• Specific goals (SMART)
• Team efficacy (gain)
• collective belief in success
• Team identity (gain)
• sense for belonging
• Team cohesion
• Mental models
• member’s knowledge and beliefs about how work gets done
• Team conflict level
• Social loafing (loss)

Question 11

Know when to use individuals instead of teams

Answer 11

• Can the work be done better by one person?
• Does the work create a common goal or purpose?
• Are the members of the group interdependent?