Business Communication Today, 11e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 2 Mastering Team Skills and Interpersonal Communication
1) In participative management
A) employees are involved in the company’s decision making.
B) all top-level managers participate in profit sharing.
C) teams are discouraged in favor of individual achievement.
D) an authoritarian management model is used.
2) Which of the following is not a way teams help organizations to succeed?
A) Increase information and knowledge
B) Increase groupthink among members
C) Increase performance levels
D) Increase diversity of views
3) Groupthink refers to
A) the willingness of individual group members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions,
even when those objections are legitimate, and to favor majority opinion.
B) the four-step decision-making process in groups.
C) software programs that help groups make decisions.
D) the basic rules that underlie a group’s behavior and guide the group to make its decisions that
operates primarily in large groups but can also be seen in small groups.
4) A hidden agenda refers to
A) a meeting agenda that is not revealed to others outside the meeting group.
B) individuals harboring motives that are concealed from the rest of the group.
C) an agenda that members must look for before they can attend a meeting.
D) an approach to group dynamics that helps facilitate group functioning.
5) You and several coworkers serve on a task force charged with updating the company
6) ________ are informal standards of conduct that team members share.
A) Group maintenance roles
B) Rules of parliamentary procedure
C) Group norms
D) Robert’s Rules
7) Group members who are motivated mainly to fulfill personal needs play a
A) team-maintenance role.
B) task-facilitating role.
C) self-oriented role.
D) coordinating role.
8) One member of a task force on which you serve is particularly good at helping other members
get along and work through their differences. This individual plays a
A) team-maintenance role.
B) task-oriented role.
C) self-oriented role.
D) coordinating role.
9) The first phase that a team typically goes through is
A) conflict.
B) reinforcement.
C) orientation.
D) brainstorming.
10) Only one sales representative can go to the conference in Hawaii, but both Susan and Sean
want to go. After much discussion and arguing, they draw straws and Susan gets the trip. This is
an example of
A) a win-lose situation.
B) the five-step decision-making process.
C) the best way to deal with a conflict.
D) all of the above.
11) When it comes to overcoming resistance to change in groups, it is a good idea to
A) avoid all conflict in the first place.
B) hold off dealing with minor problems until the conflict becomes major.
C) deal directly with resistance.
D) encourage participants to repress their emotions about the situation.
12) When composing collaborative messages, the best strategy is to
A) avoid writing as a group.
B) begin by letting all members “do their own thing” and then seeing what they all produce.
C) let all members use their own preferred software.
D) make the team as large as possible so that every possible area of expertise will be covered.
13) “Virtual offices” that give everyone on a team access to the same set of resources and
information are called
A) instant messaging software.
B) videoconferencing systems.
C) shared workspaces.
D) none of the above.
14) Social networking technologies that are specifically designed for business are best used to
A) discourage employees from socializing at work.
B) help dissatisfied employees air their complaints.
C) discourage socializing so individual employees can reach their full potential.
D) create virtual communities.
15) The primary difference between constructive feedback and destructive feedback is
A) constructive feedback is focused on the people involved.
B) destructive feedback is focused on the process and outcomes of communication .
C) constructive feedback can hurt people’s feelings.
D) destructive feedback delivers criticism with no guidance for improvement.
16) The key to a productive meeting is careful planning that addresses
A) its purpose.
B) its participants.
C) its location and agenda.
D) all of the above.
17) A meeting agenda
A) is a formality that most groups skip these days.
B) should be circulated before the meeting, providing participants with enough time to prepare.
C) should be general rather than specific.
D) is only a guideline, and deviations are common and expected.
18) Use of parliamentary procedure
A) tends to slow meetings down.
B) contributes to dissent among participants.
C) helps meetings run more smoothly.
D) is only useful for meetings with more than a dozen participants.
19) At the last staff meeting, someone suggested that using parliamentary procedure would help
make the meetings more efficient. To learn more about parliamentary procedure, which of the
following should you consult?
A) SEC Standards of Ethics
B) Robert’s Rules of Order
C) Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
D) Fundamental Meeting Management
20) When conducting a meeting
A) if some people are too quiet, leave them alone; they probably have nothing to contribute.
B) if some people dominate the conversation, let them do so, since they are probably the most
knowledgeable attendees.
C) try to simply act as an observer, and let the meeting “run itself.”
D) do none of the above.
21) Which of the following meeting technologies would be most effective for negotiations,
collaborative problem solving, and other complex discussions?
A) Instant messaging
B) Teleconference
C) Telepresence
D) None of the above
22) If you are listening mainly to understand the speaker’s message, you are engaging in
A) content listening.
B) critical listening.
C) empathic listening.
D) active listening.
23) If you are engaging in critical listening, your goal is to
A) understand and retain information.
B) understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants.
C) evaluate the logic and validity of the message.
D) appreciate the speaker’s point of view.
24) A reliable employee you supervise has come to speak with you about a leave of absence
related to personal issues. To understand her feelings and needs, you should engage in
A) content listening.
B) empathic listening.
C) critical listening.
D) sustained listening.
25) Within 48 hours, people tend to forget approximately ________ percent of what was said in
a 10-minute conversation.
A) 1
B) 10
C) 50
D) 90
26) The first step in the basic listening process is
A) physically receiving the message.
B) interpreting the message.
C) evaluating the message.
D) encoding the message.
27) Selective listening refers to
A) a highly focused form of listening.
B) letting one’s mind wander until something personally relevant is said.
C) a form of defensive listening.
D) listening only long enough to get a word in edgewise.
28) In part, poor listening occurs because listeners
A) can think faster than speakers can speak.
B) concentrate on each word the speaker says, rather than the overall point.
C) are unable to think originally.
D) do all of the above.
29) Touch
A) is the least important form of nonverbal communication.
B) is the great equalizer, putting people of different status on the same footing.
C) should be completely avoided in all business situations.
D) is governed by cultural customs that establish who can touch whom and when.
30) Which of the following is not an important consideration related to etiquette in the
workplace?
A) The clothing you wear to work
B) Your grooming habits
C) Your telephone skills
D) Your height and weight
31) When receiving business-related phone calls,
A) you should use frequent verbal responses (such as, “I see”) to show that you are listening.
B) it is impolite to say things such as, “I understand” while the other person is speaking.
C) it is perfectly acceptable to put the caller on hold without explanation.
D) do none of the above.
32) A new co-worker from Russia asks you about North American greeting customs. You
explain that in most business contexts,
A) women are expected to shake hands differently than men.
B) it is not necessary to stand up before shaking hands if you are already seated.
C) shaking hands is now widely regarded as an outdated custom.
D) a firm handshake is expected when two people meet.
33) When introducing yourself to someone in a business context, you should always include a
brief description of
A) one of your personal interests or hobbies.
B) your role in the company.
C) your company’s history.
D) all of the above.
34) Using mobile phones during meetings is
A) routine in today’s high-tech workplace.
B) now restricted or prohibited in many organizations.
C) an effective way to show your professionalism.
D) all of the above.
35) When it comes to online etiquette,
A) spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are not important.
B) do not assume that people are available to discuss work matters around the clock.
C) avoiding “flames” is really all that matters.
D) you can rest assured that there’s almost nothing you can do that will offend your audience.
36) A team consists of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for
working to achieve their goals.
37) Solving a temporary problem involving office renovations would call for the formation of a
task force rather than a committee.
38) Cross-functional teams perform several roles, but contain employees from the same
department or division.
39) Teams usually achieve lower performance levels than what would have been accomplished
by the members working independently.
40) One characteristic of effective teams is that one leader tends to take charge and make all the
major decisions.
41) In the phenomenon of groupthink, the team may arrive at poor-quality decisions and even act
unethically.
42) Despite the advantages of teamwork, the costs can be high.
43) Group members who play team-maintenance roles help everyone to work better together.
44) Group members who play task-facilitating roles are motivated to fulfill personal needs, so
they tend to be less productive than other members.
45) When making a decision, groups usually go through five phases: orientation, conflict,
brainstorm, emergence, and reinforcement.
46) Conflict between persons or groups in an organization is always destructive and must be
avoided at all costs.
47) In productive teams, conflict is always handled politely—regardless of how strongly team
members feel about their viewpoints.