Chapter 12
Informal and Formal Groups
1. The properties of groups are the same as the properties of the individuals who make up the
group.
2. Informal organizations arise spontaneously as people associate with one another.
3. A manager holds either formal power or informal power, but not both.
4. The formal leader often engages in behaviors that help build and sustain the informal group’s
level of cohesiveness.
5. The informal organization is a desirable source of potential formal leaders.
6. A significant benefit of the informal organization is that it gives satisfaction and stability to
work groups.
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Ans: True
Page: 321
Difficulty: Medium
7. A benefit of the informal organization that is seldom recognized is that its presence
encourages managers to plan and act more carefully than they would otherwise.
8. Adapting too quickly to change is a major problem with informal organizations.
9. Informal groups are always subject to management’s direct control.
10. The informal organization should be strong enough to be supportive, but not strong enough
to dominate.
11. The goal of all committees is to facilitate prompt decision making.
12. A committee is a specific type of group in which members who have been given the
authority to handle the problem at hand meet one or more times to address and resolve it.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Difficulty: Medium
13. When a group reaches a crisis in its surface agenda, hidden agendas come to life.
14. Checking for consensus is an example of a task leadership role.
Difficulty: Easy
15. The effectiveness of a meeting can be enhanced by balancing serious discussions with a bit
of lighthearted fun.
16. The purpose of deferred judgment is to separate idea evaluation from idea censorship.
17. Electronic brainstorming is a more convenient process, but it generates fewer ideas than the
traditional brainstorming process.
18. Some face-to-face decision-making groups converge too quickly on one alternative while
overlooking others.
19. When quick, decisive action is necessary, an individual approach is more effective than a
group.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Ans: True
Page: 336
Difficulty: Easy
20. Devil’s advocates are guardians of clear and moral thinking and can help the group
immeasurably by providing it with a stream of constructive criticism.
1. Informal groups generally emerge at work on the basis of all of the following EXCEPT:
A) common interests.
B) organizational goals.
C) proximity.
D) friendships.
2. Informal power attaches to a(n) _____.
A) institution
B) position
C) person
D) all of the above
3. Which of the following statements is true about power in an informal organization?
A) It is delegated by managers.
B) It strictly follows the official chain of command.
C) It is likely to come from superiors in the formal hierarchy than from peers.
D) It is usually more unstable than formal authority.
4. In an informal organization, workers may embrace a set of _____ different from those the
organization expects of them.
A) attitudes
B) beliefs
C) sentiments
D) all of the above
5. An informal leader:
A) normally emerges from outside the informal group.
B) often engages in behaviors that sustain the group’s cohesiveness.
C) has limited power and does not work on complex tasks.
D) makes the best formal manager.
6. Which of the following statements is true of employees willing to be informal leaders?
A) Some employees feel that informal leadership is a form of job enrichment and adds variety.
B) Many employees find informal leadership as a means of fulfilling security needs.
C) Employees who become informal leaders make the best formal managers.
D) Employees who are introverts prefer informal leadership as it seldom requires them to
socialize.
7. Which of the following is a potential benefit of an informal organization?
A) It implements organizational changes without resistance.
B) It completely discourages negative attitudes.
C) It avoids interpersonal and intergroup conflicts.
D) It provides a safety valve for employee emotions.
8. Cohesiveness is indicated by all of the following EXCEPT:
A) how strongly the employees stick together.
B) how much the employees rely on each other.
C) individual desire to remain a member of the group.
D) how the organizational goals influence the employee’s personal goals.
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Ans: D
Page: 321
Difficulty: Medium
9. Which of the following is a way to increase cohesiveness?
A) Selecting members with completely different attitudes, backgrounds, and values
B) Providing opportunities for frequent interactions among members
C) Eliminating competitions against other groups
D) Ignoring major threats or common enemies of the group
10. _____ are informal organization charts that usually focus on either interpersonal feelings
expressed among individuals or actual behaviors exhibited.
A) Network charts
B) Gantt charts
C) Matrices
D) Scatter plots
11. Determining patterns of behaviors in informal systems can be done by:
A) observing interactions personally.
B) collecting data on communication patterns.
C) directly asking individuals involved.
D) all of the above.
12. In the context of influencing informal organizations, which of the following is a valid
management guideline for action?
A) Ignore the effects on informal systems when taking any kind of action.
B) Keep formal activities from unnecessarily threatening informal organizations.
C) Avoid integrating the interests of informal groups with those of the formal organization.
D) Ensure that the informal organization is strong enough to dominate.
13. A _____ is a specific type of group in which members who have been delegated the
authority to handle the problem at hand meet one or more times to address and resolve it.
A) committee
B) sect
C) social network
D) nominal group
14. Which of the following statements is true about the factors of effective committees?
A) When selecting members of the committees, leaders merely need to consider the members’
interest level.
B) The primary role of the task leader is to sense the mood of the group and help members
become aware of it.
C) Leaders of committees lack the power and opportunity to select committee members.
D) A group of five members is often preferred for typical situations.
15. The official task of a group is known as the _____.
A) social norm
B) hidden agenda
C) surface agenda
D) group consensus
16. A task leader can help a group accomplish its objectives and stay on target during a meeting
by doing all of the following EXCEPT:
A) stating the problem.
B) checking for agreement.
C) pushing too hard for a decision.
D) periodically summarizing the progress being made.
17. Which of the following is a task role?
A) Checking for consensus
B) Supporting the contributions of members
C) Facilitating participation of all members
D) Evaluating the group’s effectiveness
18. Which of the following is NOT a recommended practice for participants in a brainstorming
session?
A) Generating as many ideas as possible.
B) Being creative, freewheeling, and imaginative.
C) Criticizing others’ ideas.
D) Building upon, extending, or combining earlier ideas.
19. One of the main principles of brainstorming is _____.
A) egocentrism
B) social loafing
C) deferred judgment
D) social facilitation
20. _____ is the process by which all ideas, even unusual and impractical ones, are encouraged
without criticism or evaluation.
A) Consensus
B) Social facilitation
C) Deferred Judgment
D) Social loafing
21. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the nominal group technique?
A) Opportunity for equal participation by all members
B) Absence of domination by a single member
C) Tight control of time
D) High feelings of cohesiveness
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Page: 331
Difficulty: Medium
22. The dialectic decision process begins with:
A) a devil’s advocate questioning others’ ideas.
B) identifying the explicit or implicit assumptions.
C) a clear statement of a problem to be solved.
D) creating a subgroup and empowering it to make a decision.
23. In the _____, members are selected because they are experts or have relevant information to
share and the time available to do so.
A) Delphi decision-making process
B) dialectic decision-making process
C) program evaluation and review technique
D) critical path method
24. Which of the following statements is true of the potential outcomes of formal group
processes?
A) Group members are least stimulated by the presence of other people around them.
B) Groups have lesser capacity than an individual to examine suggestions and reject the
incorrect ones.
C) Participation increases the likelihood of each member’s developing new interactive skills.
D) All of the above
25. _____ means group members are alert to the perceived expectations and norms of the
majority, and make conscious or unconscious efforts to adapt to them.
A) Consensus
B) Conformity
C) Polarization
D) Cohesiveness
26. Which of the following does NOT help in reaching a consensus?
A) Conducting a straw poll to identify where people stand
B) Asking members to withdraw controversial proposals
C) Moving dissenting members to a subgroup and not involving them
D) Expediting closing of discussion through use of a “go–round” or “fishbowl”
27. _____ is the process of helping a group attain resounding success, maximize its efficient use
of time, and feel satisfied with its efforts.
A) Facilitation
B) Expediting
C) Conformity
D) Consensus
28. _____ involves setting aside several minutes at the end of a meeting to examine what went
well, what went poorly, and how the group’s behavior could be improved in future sessions.
A) Facilitating
B) Processing
C) Polarization
D) Stimulation
29. The alternative behavior that is in contrast to groupthink is _____.
A) devil’s advocate
B) social loafing
C) polarization
D) commitment
30. _____ is the behavioral affliction that is defined as the temptation to be overly influenced by
how the problem was presented.
A) Linearity bias
B) Framing bias
C) Egocentrism
D) Anti-statistical bias
1. How is power assigned in an informal organization?
2. How is an informal leader selected? Explain the role of an informal leader.
3. Identify the problems that are associated with the informal organization.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Page: 320
Difficulty: Medium
4. How does a group’s size tend to affect the way it works?
5. What are the roles of a task leader?
6. List the four guidelines around which brainstorming is built. What are the limitations of
brainstorming?
7. List the merits of the Delphi decision process.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Ans: The Delphi decision process has the following merits:
• Elimination of the detraction from interpersonal problems among panelists
• Efficient use of experts’ time
• Adequate time for reflection and analysis by respondents
• Diversity and quantity of ideas generated
• Accuracy of predictions and forecasts made or scenarios generated
Page: 332
Difficulty: Medium
8. Explain the role of facilitators in a group meeting.
9. Explain the role of a devil’s advocate in reducing groupthink.
10. Explain the concept of escalating commitment which is a possible weakness of a committee.