MGMT310A CH17

Even the best teams have to end eventually. When they were finished filming Breaking Bad, everyone associated with creating the television show went through the _________________ stage.

Adjourning

Dominating, overanalyzing, and making decisions prematurely are all _________________________ that reduce a team's effectiveness.

Blocking Behaviors

When organizations use ________________ teams, team members engage in a lot of face-to-face interaction rather than rely on e-mail.

Collocated

"To ensure the team has organizational support, the leader of a geographically distributed team should take which of these actions? A. Isolate the team from outside influences. B. Communicate with other managers only when the team has results to show. C. Avoid the politics of seeking executive alliances. D. Build an alliance with a highly placed sponsor."

D. Build an alliance with a highly placed sponsor.

Teams often deal with uncertainty, so an effective team leader __________________________ team members by providing them with advice, assistance, and positive comments as needed.

Encourages and Coaches

There were 25 reviewers for Noria Khan's new book. Each reviewer submitted his or her work individually, and a senior editor reviewed all of the work to give notes to the author.

Group

Managers should ___________________ a collocated team before leading a geographically distributed team.

have experience leading

Perla's team is having a problem with ____________. Perla hears comments like "Nobody will notice if I don't get my job done," and "Somebody else can do all the boring grunt work."

social loafing

If a team leader wanted to help a team such as Vicky's get through the forming stage of team development, he or she should take which of the following actions? Check all that apply.

"Determine how group members will coordinate their activities. -Give the group the resources they need. -Establish goals for the group."

You've just become a team leader, and you want to be sure that the group doesn't show too much _____________________. There should be lively debates about different ideas during team meetings.

Conformity

Compared to the leader of a collocated team, the leader of a virtual team communicates ___________________ to be effective.

Even More

Last week, Mr. Simon told his English class that they were responsible for finishing The Great Gatsby and writing a six-page essay about why the book captured the culture of the 1920s. Today, each student in Mr. Simon's class turned in his or her essay.

Group

Perla's team is having a problem with __________________. Perla hears comments like "Nobody will notice if I don't get my job done," and "Somebody else can do all the boring grunt work."

Social Loafing

Advertising agencies are often made up of ___________________ teams in which employees from different departments-creative arts, writing, direction, and so on-work together to design an advertisement.

horizontal

Teams benefit from ___________________, which the leader generates by expressing optimism and recognizing progress.

positive energy

"Team Description: These teams do not solicit input They rely on group knowledge to complete tasks. But they interact with external groups by promoting their activities. Manager Interaction: Passive Interaction"

"Team Type: Parading"

It is difficult to tell who is and who is not part of the Occupy movement. The people who participate in Occupy protests change constantly.

Group

Everyone knows who plays ball for the D.C. United soccer squad. People are either part of the squad or not.

Team

In Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win, Fred Kiel states that CEOs who _____________________, by treating people fairly and in alignment with their personal values, achieve better financial returns.

demonstrate integrity

"Team Description: These teams maintain an interactive relationship with outsiders, constantly revising their information to best suit the needs of their stakeholders. Manager Interaction: Active Engagement"

"Team Type: Probing"

Last week, the logistics employees at Run River got together to determine the best way to ship products overseas. Each employee created a separate plan and submitted it to the logistics manager, who decided which plan the company would pursue.

Group

"Team Description: Members have high confidence in their ability and knoledge that are relevant to tasks. Therefore, they rely on group knowledge to complete tasks quickly. Manager Interaction: No or Minimal Interaction"

"Team Type: Informing"

Jobs in startup organizations often have high levels of _____________________ that require different skills, and do not follow standardized routines or procedures.

Task Complexity

According to Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, The following characteristics would indicate that you are working in a TEAM rather than in a GROUP:

"Having interdependent tasks Having a purpose that is unique to its members Shared leadership roles Individual and mutual accountability Purpose is specific to the team Characterized by complex and interdependent tasks Collective work products Open-ended discussions and problem solving are encouraged"

Robbie Whitten and his father, Robert, have a clear task that they work on together: to create white-collar pawn shops that attract high-end clients.

Team

"Our team in Australia functions very independently and confidently. Give the following advice to that team leader:

"Keep senior management and other stakeholders informed of the team's work and results . -Exhibit predictable behaviors, so team members find you to be consistent . -Provide team members with encouragement and advice."

Tough Mudder takes reservations from people wanting to enroll in its events by phone and online. The employees confirming these reservations, answering customers' questions, and ensuring that billing is processed correctly should be organized as a _________________ because there is a standard set of processes to follow and a defined set of information to know. On the rare occasions an employee cannot meet a customer's needs, that customer can be referred to a supervisor.

work group

"Kate works for a large technology company that sponsors an intramural soccer league. Kate has been on a soccer team with the other software engineers for her product for several years, and they are very good. Team members rarely miss practices and never miss games, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses on the field, and they play together so well that they have won the company championship 2 years in a row. When the team was first formed, however, the players did not seem very committed, team cohesion was not very good, and the team took a very long time to decide on which plays and strategies to use. After making a change midway through the first season that led to increased cohesion, team performance improved dramatically. What stage of development is Kate's soccer team in currently? A. Norming B. Forming C. Performing D. Storming"

C. Performing

If a team leader wanted to help a team such as Kate's get through the adjourning stage of team development, he or she would take the following actions:

"Help the team evaluate its work . -Help group members manage their feelings of sadness and loss."

"Which of the following statements about a team's composition is true? A. Team members should expect to balance conflict and consensus as they make decisions. B. The task of the team has little to do with who should be selected to be on the team. C. Each person on a team should have his or her own individual goal if the team is to function effectively. D. New team members can be added with little additional work on the part of existing team members."

A. Team members should expect to balance conflict and consensus as they make decisions.

"Last summer, Jeff decided to join a bowling league with some colleagues from work. They formed a team and bowled together several times to get to know one another better. The week before the league started, the team had to come up with a name. During a meeting to discuss this, Jeff and his teammate Becky got into a heated debate because Jeff wanted their name to be The Lucky Strikes, whereas Becky wanted the team name to be The Pin City Pimps. While yelling at each other, it became clear that Jeff thought he should be the team manager because he had formed the team. Becky was just as adamant that she should be team manager because she is the more experienced bowler. As Jeff and Becky argue about the team name, what stage of development is their bowling team in? A. Storming B. Norming C. Forming D. Performing"

A. Storming

"""A new team we just formed to explore expanding into the Mediterranean and Middle East seems to have split into three factions around what kinds of events to host and what kinds of customers to target, and communication is sometimes not respectful. How can the team move beyond this?"" A. Team members should share and accept their personal opinions and adopt standards that promote collaborative behavior. B. The team leader should solicit opinions from those team members who do not participate very much to break down conformity. C. The team should revisit its objectives and ensure everyone agrees on them, and it should recruit more resources since lack of resources is often a source of conflict. D. The team leader should insist that team members get to work. If they can't work together, they'll have to work independently."

A. Team members should share and accept their personal opinions and adopt standards that promote collaborative behavior.

"To reduce the possibility that team members will make faulty assumptions about each other, the leader of a remote team should do which of the following? A. Discourage team members from sharing personal details, such as their pets and favorite foods . B. Encourage team members to share background information about their professional experience and personal interests. C. Change the subject or end the conversation whenever two or more team members are in conflict . D. Discourage team members from sharing their career aspirations and instead limit conversations to the work of the current team."

B. Encourage team members to share background information about their professional experience and personal interests.

"""One of our teams has a member, Ingrid, who puts forward her ideas at length and very emphatically. When other team members do contribute to the discussion, she flatly rejects their ideas. Ingrid has a lot of knowledge and works hard, so she is a valuable member of the team. How should the team leader approach her?"" A. The leader should confront Ingrid during a team meeting and let her know how her behavior is affecting the morale of the group. B. The leader should find a way to transition Ingrid off the team because there is no way to change the behavior of someone like her. C. The leader should talk to her in private, focusing on how the team in general is doing rather than on anything Ingrid specifically is doing . D. The team leader should talk to Ingrid in private, focusing on specific observations of Ingrid's behavior."

D. The team leader should talk to Ingrid in private, focusing on specific observations of Ingrid's behavior.

"The CEO of Tough Mudder believes that teams in his company are not working as effectively as they could, and he is asking you for advice. Provide the best answers to his questions. ""Our teams seem to spin their wheels a lot, discussing and debating solutions and not being able to come to a decision. The differences of opinion are about ideas, not personalities, so the conversations stay constructive, but they don't ever end. How can our teams be more productive?"" A. Team leaders can stop the brainstorming process after their teams comes up with three ideas; with fewer ideas to consider, teams will find it easier to make decisions. B. The teams need to establish norms around how team members will communicate respectfully and their expectations for meeting deadlines. C. Team leaders should share their frustration with the team members who are talking the most, telling them that they are slowing things down . D. The teams should determine specific criteria with which to evaluate their proposed solutions."

D. The teams should determine specific criteria with which to evaluate their proposed solutions.

"Your software development team is working less effectively these days. There's one team member who just won't shut up. He dominates every discussion the group has. And there's another member who doesn't say anyth ing, even when the team asks her for her opinion. She seems to like being passive with the group. One team member hasn't come to the last three meetings, and you feel like he's rejecting the team and especially you. And there's another team member who overanalyzes everything. He constantly comes to you after the team meetings to explain why he doesn't agree with the dominant team member's ideas. You should do the following to help the group interact more effectively: "

"As much as possible, ask team members to share ideas, and evaluate those thoughts only when everyone has had a chance to present. -When talking to the dominant member of the group, keep your comments specific to the situation at hand, not to other situations."

"If you were a team leader, and you wanted to be sure that your team was learning and improving as well as executing tasks, take the following actions: "

"Ask team members why they are proposing a particular solution rather than telling them that the solution will not work. -If you get angry or frustrated with the team, tell the group about your concerns, but don't blame the group for causing your concerns."

"When we host an event, we put together a team that includes people on the ground at the event site and in different departments at our headquarters, all under a manager. You need to know the following about these teams:

"Because the teams are horizontal, they bring a multiperspective approach to problem solving . -While all team members will be responsible for leadership in varying capacities, each team's manager is ultimately responsible for the team's performance . -Team members should be chosen on the basis of their task-related expertise as well as their ability to engage and motivate other people."

According to Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, The following characteristics would indicate that you are working in a GROUP rather than on a TEAM:

"Having a purpose that is the same as the organization's mission -Making sure that each person is held accountable for his or her own work -Having one person who is clearly the leader -Having independent tasks -Clearly focused leader -Individual accountability -Group's purpose is same as organization's mission -Characterized by straightforward and independent tasks -Individual work products -Predetermined work structure"

If a team leader wanted to help a team such as Jeff's get through the norming stage of team development, he or she would take the following actions:

"Help the team create ground rules for the group . -Help the team discourage social loafing . -Help team members openly discuss the expectations they have of each other with regard to meeting, working, communication, -leadership, and consideration."

The following actions are typically taken primarily by boundary managers:

"Identifying people who will be impacted by the work of the group -Helping the team understand positions of people outside of the team -Negotiating with other groups on the team's deadlines -Reducing the impact of organizational infighting on the team -Persuading top managers to support the team's work"

You have been on a finance team for the past 3 years. Generally, your group gets along pretty well, but in the past few weeks there have been some arguments about how to handle crisis forecasting. The following actions you should take to help your group handle disagreements constructively:

"If team members start using personal attacks as a way of fighting for their ideas, stop the team meeting and come back to meet again later. -Make sure that everyone in the group has a chance to openly present his or her opinion about crisis forecasting."

"Suppose that you were hired as the manager of the Eat Right supermarket. You know that Eat Right uses teams to run each department in the store, from seafood to produce. Your store is small, but expanding. Up until this year, you have not had a pet food department, but now you are adding one and want to make sure that its team has the best environment possible. The following actions would help your new team perform more effectively: "

"Make sure that everyone on the team wants to accomplish the same thing. -Hire people with a variety of technical skills, including experts in dogs, cats, birds, fish, and other pets. -Hire people who are good with other people. They should be able to resolve conflicts and be open to new ideas . -Help team members understand each other's strengths and limitations . -Have all team members work in the same location to improve their communication skills."

The following actions represent elements of effective team processes at Hire Now!:

"Team members considered many applicants and used both conflict and consensus building to determine which ones to choose . -The company provided on-the-floor coaches to help their associates avoid conformity and keep conflicts constructive . -Each team member actively participated in the work of the group while at the same time avoiding behaviors like stalling and passivity in group meetings."

"The following actions represent elements of effective team processes at Meggox: "

"When making decisions, team members will often generate possible solutions before deciding how to evaluate their options . -During team meetings, every team member is given 3 minutes to state his or her opinion on the problem being solved . -When team members cannot agree on a solution after extensive discussion of a problem, they take a break from their team meeting and agree to reconvene the following day. When the team meets next, they can usually find a way to agree."

Everyone in the neighborhood had the same goal: to clean up the graffiti that covered the old trestle bridge. So one Saturday, 30 neighbors came together and worked for 4 hours to repaint the wooden trestles.

Team

"The tradition of the entire team going to a local bar after each game appears to be what? A. Social loafing B. Groupthink C. A team norm D. Minority domination"

C. A team norm

"Which of the following statements about horizontal teams is true? A. Horizontal teams usually have members from only one functional department. B. Horizontal teams are always self-directed . C. Horizontal teams allow managers to see a problem from many different perspectives. D. Horizontal teams typically have extremely vague member roles."

C. Horizontal teams allow managers to see a problem from many different perspectives.

"To handle potential conflict, managers of geographically distributed teams should do which of the following? A. Explain every instruction several times to make sure team members know not to disagree with it. B. Limit communication to only absolutely vital information to reduce the exchange of conflicting opinions. C. Assume that if no one says otherwise, there is no conflict . D. Ask follow-up questions like ""Will this approach work for you?"""

D. Ask follow-up questions like "Will this approach work for you?"

"Which of the following statements about geographically distributed teams is true? A. Geographically distributed teams provide faster feedback on team members' work than collocated teams do. B. Much of the communication in geographically distributed teams is physical: facial expressions and body language are especially important. C. Geographically distributed teams use informal conversation more than collocated teams . D. If team members come from different cultures, they can have difficulty communicating, and the team may be less effective."

D. If team members come from different cultures, they can have difficulty communicating, and the team may be less effective.

Each of the scientists in the research and development department had a great idea for a future company product. One researcher came up with a new app for survey research, another with an app for inventorying items on store shelves, and a third with an app for easily accessing information about new businesses.

Group

"Employees at Federal Express meet regularly to determine how to direct their work and to work together more effectively. Everyone works together to determine what goals the employees will try to achieve, and anyone can suggest ways to reduce service errors."

Team

The project team working to improve the accounting workflow, which consists of members of the accounting department as well as people across the company who interact with accounting, is a ______________ team because the head of the accounting department manages the team's performance.

Manager-Led

Skylar and Kasen were discussing what could be done about the low _____________________ in their team. No team members were offering new suggestions or ideas about how to do the work, and they weren't bringing the work they were assigned to team meetings.

Participation

At Johnsonville Sausage, employees form _______________________ teams that decide what work should be done and how it should be done. The teams evaluate their own work, and they select new team members and fire people who are not working well with the team.

Self-Directed

When the company is hosting an event, managers should assign event preparations to a ______________________. Preparations include trucking in different kinds of equipment and setting it up over several acres; installing sufficient security, first aid, and portable restrooms throughout the course; and having food and drink delivered, as well as marketing the event and enrolling participants.

Team

The sales department was a _______________ team, with sales representatives helping each other generate and qualify leads and make pitches to prospects, and the sales manager managing the team's performance.

Vertical

Casey Nicholaw, a Broadway choreographer and director, worked with Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame as __________________ produce The Book of Mormon. The trio shared the same goal, a successful 1musical, and had complementary skills, but they did not have a strict hierarchy among themselves

a team

Establishing _______________________ the team will communicate will reduce misunderstandings.

explicit guidelines governing how

When a team is _________________________, there is less face-to-face interaction between team members. Instead, team members interact with each other using tools such as e-mail and videoconferencing.

geographically distributed

Lolita's team meets every Tuesday morning. Lolita always brings doughnuts to these meetings, and she always starts the meeting by asking who's had a big success that week, which encourages participation. Lolita's habitual actions were developed during the ________________ stage of team development.

norming

Sanjav shouted, "No! We can't do that! If we put the buttons on the bunnies first, we won't be able to get their eyes on properly!" Xian growled back, "Oh, stop acting like a child! We can get the eyes on just fine, even if we put the buttons on first." Sanjav and Xian are on a team that is going through the _______________ stage of development.

storming

In a hospital's emergency department, _________________________ Correct exists because health care providers with different skills must work closely together to achieve the best outcome for the patient.

task interdependence

The company is gearing up for next year's events and determining where to hold them. The employees making these decisions should be organized as a ______________, as customer feedback, logistics, and pricing of sites and supplies all play a role in the decisions. So do intangible factors, such as whether it is better to continue an event in one place year after year where repeat customers are used to coming or to place an event in a new area where it might attract new customers.

team

When you work with other students on a project, you expect them to come to meetings prepared and to spend almost all of your group time talking about class-related issues. Such _________________ will help the group perform better.

team norms