Chapter 10 Quiz Questions

Which of the following team sizes usually provides the best performance?

6 to 9

Which of the following is NOT one of the recommendations for minimizing the occurrence of affective conflict and having a good fight?

Always resolve issues by consensus

____ describes the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

Team level

When teams are used properly and in the right settings, work teams can ____.

a. dramatically improve company performance b. do all of these c. increase customer satisfaction and service quality d. instill a sense of vitality in the workplace that is otherwise difficult to achieve e. help organizations respond to specific problems and challenges b. do all of these

Which of the following types of conflict is most strongly associated with improvements in team performance?

cognitive conflict

Standard Motor Products Standard Motor Products makes aftermarket auto parts for repairs and replacement that are sold by warehouse distributors like Carquest and NAPA (National Automotive Parts Association) and auto parts retailers like Advance Auto Parts and Auto-Zone. Its products include emission and engine controls, voltage regulators, sensors, ignition wires, distributor caps and rotors, ignition and electrical parts, air-conditioning compressors, accumulators, fan clutches, heater cores and valves, evaporators, hoses, and window lift motors. Although the aftermarket auto parts market was $56 billion in 2008, it's incredibly competitive, and companies that don't continue to improve quickly lose market share and profits. Right now, Standard Motor Products is struggling. Downtime-when machines aren't running-is up significantly, and, when parts aren't being produced, revenues aren't being generated. Not surprisingly, productivity is also down, and costs are up. Since Standard competes in an industry where the difference between a profit and a loss is three cents per hose, it can't continue to incur rising costs. The company is already losing millions per year and is closing down money-losing production facilities. You're worried that your plant, which is facing a perfect storm of problems, is next. Problem number one is a top-down, authoritarian culture where managers pride themselves on being tough on workers. Combine that with a work force that is 50 percent unionized, and let's just say there's no love lost between managers and workers. Second, the workers dislike each other, too. Language difficulties separate the white and African American workers from the Hispanic and Asian workers. In fact, negative feelings were so strong that when the company introduced English language classes, almost no one attended. With their noise and nonstop pressure to keep costs low, quality high, and production on schedule, manufacturing plants are already challenging places to work. Stir in an authoritarian culture, intense hostility between labor and management, a militant employee union, basic communication/language problems between employees, and hard feelings all around, and you've got the recipe for poor results that are sure to lead company headquarters to shut this place down. In response to this situation, management decided to implement a team-based structure at the Edwardsville, Kansas plant. In the end, managers decided to give the teams the highest level of autonomy. Consequently, the teams directly control all their tasks, how those tasks get done, and who does or does not become a member of each team. To compensate employees, Standard Motor Products shares the financial value of performance gains such as productivity, cost savings, or quality with its workers. The company hands out cash awards each quarter, the amount depending on how much it saves in terms of increased productivity, quality, returned products, and safety. In the first year of the program, the average annual award at the Edwardsville plant was $2,000 per employee. Refer to Standard Motor Products. What common disadvantage of teams would you expect Standard Motor Products' Edwardsville plant to have experienced when it introduced teams?

initially high employee turnover

The major drawback to the use of virtual teams is ____.

members must learn to express themselves in new contexts

Mattel Ivy Ross, Mattel's head of design and packaging for its girls division, needed a new toy that was part construction set and part craft kit. Ross built a team from various departments (designers from research and development, model makers from production, copywriters from marketing, etc.) and assigned them the task of developing the new toy. The twelve members of the team were freed from all other duties so they could concentrate on developing this new toy. During their first week together, members were exposed to different ways of thinking. One of the hardest things the group had to deal with was the lack of structure. It took participants nearly two weeks to realize that there was no schedule for their activities. The strength of the team lay in its members' abilities to build on each other's ideas and to trust one another. Refer to Mattel. One of the advantages associated with the creation of such teams is ____.

increased job satisfaction

A group in Great Britain has been established to improve the employment, retention, and promotion prospects of black and other ethnic minorities as well as women in the Fire and Rescue Service, which at present has a largely white, male demographic. By the ____ stage of team development, the group members will have resolved petty differences, developed friendships, and established strong group cohesiveness.

norming

The kind of team known as a(n) ____ not only provides advice and suggestions to management but also has limited authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service.

semi-autonomous work group