Chapter 17 - Leading Teams

What is one of the main components of a team process when it comes to issues arising?

Constructive conflict

Describe the outcomes of a diverse team.

Diverse team members tend to produce more creative and innovative solutions.

What statement is true of team composition?

Effective teams include members with technical and interpersonal skills.

T/F? As the size of a team increases beyond 20 members, the tendency to collaborate increases as coordination activities increase.

False

T/F? In the forming stage of team development, team members experience conflicts and interpersonal issues.

False

T/F? It is not necessary for effective teams to satisfy their team members.

False

T/F? Vertical teams are composed of employees from about the same hierarchical level but from several different departments in the organization.

False

T/F? Work groups are better than teams when the task is complex and sophisticated.

False

What should a team lead in the adjourning stage of team development do?

Manage feelings of sadness

Describe a self-directed team.

Members of a team have the authority and responsibility to make decisions and to participate in the processes that help the team succeed.

What statement is the best example of a vertical team?

Multiple members of the same team report to the same person who heads the team.

A team with members sharing their personal opinions with others and group members being more open to one another's ideas and suggestions is probably what stage of development?

Norming stage

___ refers to the extent to which individuals engage in the process of generating solutions and articulating their opinions and perspectives.

Participation

Kevin is leading a team whose members came together and got to know about their tasks and responsibilities. They got ideas about each other and each other's competencies. Which of the following should Kevin typically do during this stage of team development?

Provide resources

A team with members arguing with each other due to interpersonal issues arising from differences in the perspectives of each team member is probably what stage of development?

Storming stage

Describe a geographically distributed team.

Team members working from different locations on the same project. They relay mainly on telephone calls and emails to interact with each other.

What statement about team size is true?

Team size should reflect the nature of the task.

What statement about teams and workgroups is true when the task is complex?

Teams are better than workgroups when the task is complex and sophisticated.

Describe a collocated team.

Teams that use a significant amount of face-face communications in making operating decisions.

Which is true of the roles of effective team leaders?

They tend to manage agreement and disagreement.

Tom, the head of human resources in an organization is working on an important project for which he develops a team of five middle level managers, one from each department. The five managers will be reporting to Tom, who will head the project. This scenario shows that... -Tom has formed a horizontal team. -Tom has formed a geographically distributed team. -The managers are self-directed. -The managers belong to a functional team.

Tom has formed a horizontal team.

T/F? Conformity occurs when people behave in line with a group's expectations and beliefs.

True

T/F? Social loafing occurs when team members fail to contribute to the team's recommendations by disengaging from the team process.

True

T/F? Teams that include members whose primary language is different face more challenges.

True

T/F? Teams that include members with divergent agendas often struggle to come together and accomplish their assigned task.

True

T/F? The success of diverse teams increase when their members posses a shared understanding of each other's strengths and limitations.

True

___ teams are composed of a manager and his or her subordinates in the formal chain of command, usually in one functional department.

Vertical

A characteristic about teams is that they...

have clear task objectives.

The boundary manager determines what?

how a team works with others who have an interest in the team's performance.

A task is considered complex when...

it involves a lot of uncertainty about possible outcomes.

What statement is true of required skills for managing geographically distributed team?

managers should be skilled at managing a collocated team first.

For teams to be considered effective they must...

satisfy team members.

The extent to which group members need to work with and rely on each other to produce the collective work of the group is referred to as ___.

task interdependence.

A(n) ___ is defined as a group of two or more people with complementary skills who are committed to working together to achieve a specific objective.

team

The factor that differentiates work groups from teams is...

workgroups involve individual accountability and clearly defined leadership.