COM 230 Final

Characteristics of a small group

3-5 people, has a common purpose, is unlikely to be successful if members are primarily interested in their own individual accomplishments within the group

Individualist and collectivist cultures differ in their preferred approach to conflict management in which of the following ways?

Collectivist cultures favor avoiding; individualist cultures favor power-forcing style

Diverse group membership has which of the following potential benefits?

Group performance may be enhanced, a wide array of problem-solving and decision-making resources are available, Biases of group members are likely to be addressed

resistance is

a covert strategy to prevent dominance from others

A hidden agenda is an example of

a manipulative communication pattern

"What changes, if any, should be made in the priority process used to distribute parking permits on campus" is an example of a

a question of policy

A central, overriding point about leadership is that effective leaders

adapt to changing situations

"Communication is transactional." This means that each person communicating is

both a sender and receiver simultaneously

To be effective, teams should have

clear, cooperative, challenging goals, and be committed to these goals

if you were describing a collectivist culture you would use words such as

community and loyalty

You energetically seek information that agrees with your point of view when researching a group project and you ignore information that contradicts your point of view. You are exhibiting

confirmation bias

An effective way to address passive aggressive resistance strategies is

confronting the strategy directly

"Cooperation is a process not an outcome." This means that

cooperation is a means to achieve group goals, but it won't always achieve those goals

majority rule may be advantageous when

decisions must be made relatively quickly

You want to prevent groupthink from becoming a problem in your group. To do this you should

develop a norm in the group that legitimizes disagreement

Potentially, the group's best means of coping effectively with information overload is

discerning patterns to identify irrelevant information

Communication competence is defined as engaging in communication with others that is both

effective and appropriate

Individual accountability

establishes a minimum standard of effort and performance for all team members

Groupthink is a process whereby

excessive cohesiveness discourages dissent in the group

Autonomy in teams means

exercising freedom, independence, and discretion when working in teams

Your group brainstorms several ways to raise additional funds for a campus project beyond what is offered by the college administration. This is an example of which integrative problem solving technique?

expanding

The central communicative function of task roles is to

extract the maximum productivity from the group.

Groupthink can be most effectively addressed by discouraging dissent in a group so the group can get its work accomplished in an efficient manner. (true/false)

false

Paraphrasing is an example of a competitive listening skill (true/false)

false

The output of the task dimension is cohesiveness; the output of the social dimension is productivity (true/false)

false

communication is simply a process of sending messages to receivers (true/false)

false

conflict is always a destructive force in groups (true/false)

false

Which of the following contributes strongly to grouphate?

frequent meetings that accomplish little, conducting group meetings incompetently, social loafing of some members

Someone using the competing, power-forcing style of conflict management shows

high concern for task but low concern for relationships in groups

The Milgram studies on "Obedience" demonstrate that

individuals are inclined to obey legitimate authority

the two dimensions of every message are

its content and the relationship element

Research on the trait perspective on leadership in groups shows that

leaders aren't born; they're developed

"Leadership is a process not a person." This means

leadership is a leader-follower transaction; a partnership between leaders and followers

The central communicative function of maintenance roles is to

maintain the peace and reduce secondary tension

Constructive participation in group decision making can be increased by

making issues and problems relevant to the interests of low-participators, establishing a system of accountability, valuing the contributions of low participators

When a small group is so dysfunctional that it produces a worse result than would be expected based on perceived individual skills and abilities of members, this is called

negative synergy

In a collectivist culture, typically

personal goals are less important than advancing the goals of a valued group

what are the two variables that influence the "ideal" group size

quality and speed of decision making

Which of the following negotiation strategies is characterized by initially competing or acting tough, then cooperating and relaxing demands?

reformed sinner

Passive aggression is a form of

resistance

"The capacity to recognize the current requirements of the group and then enact the role-specific behaviors most appropriate in the given context" is the definition for

role flexibility

Groups establish boundaries and thus regulate change by

speaking a group lingo or specialized language, establishing roles for members, making some members feel like outsiders and not real group members

deep diversity refers to

substantial variation among group members in task-relevant skills, knowledge, abilities, beliefs, values, perspectives, and problem-solving strategies

There are two primary dimensions of every group. They are

task and social

Hersey and Blanchard combine three variables in their situational model of leadership. They are

task emphasis, socio-emotional emphasis, and readiness level

Symbolic convergence theory asserts that

team identity is created by stories, called fantasies, that provide a shared interpretation of events that bind members and offer a shared identity

define ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture is superior to others

Group synergy occurs when

the group as a whole outperforms the sum of expected individual performances by members

The Stanford Prison study showed

the potent power of roles on perception and behavior

Which of the following is a condition that influences the degree of conformity in groups?

the stronger the cohesiveness, the greater the conformity

empathy is

thinking and feeling what you perceive another person to be thinking and feeling

Individuals typically outperform groups when

time is a critical factor (e.g., emergencies)

Any evaluation, even praise and recognition, has the potential to create a defensive climate (true/false)

true

Context is a central element for determining communication competence (true/false)

true

Group discussions that follow some systematic procedure tend to be more productive than relatively unstructured discussions (true/false)

true

In general, group members who use more powerful language patterns are perceived to be more credible, attractive, and persuasive than those using less powerful language (true/false)

true

Playing roles in a group is a fluid, dynamic process (true/false)

true

The distributive leadership perspective posits that finding the right balance between task requirements and social needs in a group is essential to leadership effectiveness. (true/false)

true

The essence of all teams is collaborative interdependence (true/false)

true

The essence of all teams is collaborative interdependence.

true

proper brainstorming technique requires

withholding evaluation of ideas until brainstorming has been completed