43)
At what stage does the team, rather than the leader, take responsibility for solving problems,
confronting and correcting mistakes, and ensuring success?
43)
A)
Forming
B)
Norming
C)
Storming
D)
Performing
44)
A vision statement containing the following language, “We are all part of a journey to create an
extraordinary corporation … we want to be the catalyst for discovering new ways for people to do
things,” would be most appealing to team members from countries where which culture is
predominate?
44)
A)
Affective
B)
Neutral
C)
Diffuse
D)
Collectivist
45)
Lately, as team leader, you find yourself spending time answering team members’ inquiries into the
way the work has been organized. What should you do?
45)
A)
Ignore these disagreements.
B)
Clarify goals, procedures, rules, and expectations.
C)
Encourage obedience to your (leader’s) directions.
D)
Encourage these inquiries to be turned into suggestions for improvement.
46)
If your team is moving into the norming stage, which behaviors are you most likely to see?
46)
A)
Development of shared standards and expectations
B)
Factions forming
C)
High levels of coordination
D)
Social interaction with one another
A
D
47)
In the past few weeks you notice that Tom has not said a word and has refused to interact with his
teammates. What role is Tom playing?
47)
A)
Blocking role, more specifically, resisting
B)
Blocking role, more specifically, remaining passive
C)
Relationship–building role, more specifically, processing
D)
Task–facilitating role, more specifically, reality testing
E)
Blocking role, more specifically, rejecting
48)
At what stage would “groupthink” be a hindrance to teamwork?
48)
A)
Forming
B)
Norming
C)
Storming
D)
Performing
49)
Relationships must be formed and trust established. Clarity of direction is needed from team
leaders. Your team is at what stage?
49)
A)
Forming
B)
Norming
C)
Storming
D)
Performing
50)
Vince emphasizes the interpersonal aspects of the team. He focuses on assisting team members to
feel good about one another. What type of role is Vince playing?
50)
A)
Task–facilitating role
B)
Forming role
C)
Reality testing role
D)
Relationship–building role
51)
Which did the Xerox Corporation do when it implemented hierarchical family teams?
51)
A)
Guaranteed that the teams’ past success would continue
B)
Engaged team members in teaching others
C)
Put teams together in a way that would decrease divisiveness
D)
Worked to minimize doubts
B
52)
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism…. The
one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its
continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling
nationalities.” How does this statement compare to the criteria of an Everest goal?
52)
A)
It lacks passion.
B)
It lacks interest.
C)
It has the necessary characteristics to be considered an Everest goal.
D)
It lacks specific objectives and is not interesting.
53)
During what stage of team development is the main challenge to create a cohesive unit?
53)
A)
Forming
B)
Norming
C)
Storming
D)
Performing
54)
As a team leader, Ginger’s team has recently been assigned to develop a new product that is
viewed as a risky assignment in her company. To build credibility, what is best for Ginger to do?
54)
A)
Express views with which her team members can agree, such as “We have a lot of diversity of
opinion in our team regarding this assignment.“
B)
Focus primarily on managing agreement and disagreement among her team members during
this assignment
C)
Ask the human resources department to provide training that focuses on creative thinking to
her team members
D)
Provide her team members with statistics related to the number of new products that have
succeeded
55)
During a team meeting, Julie tells Eric that his behavior seems insensitive to the needs of the other
members of the team. What kind of feedback is this and why?
55)
A)
Poor feedbackJulie’s action has focused on sharing ideas and information rather than the
behavior.
B)
Poor feedbackJulie’s action has focused on inferences and judgments rather than
observations and descriptions.
C)
Good feedbackThis provides an emotional release for Julie.
D)
Poor feedbackJulie’s action has focused on observations and descriptions rather than
inferences and judgments.
E)
Good feedbackJulie’s action has focused on the behavior rather than the person.
56)
If your team’s development was in the storming stage, which of the following behaviors would you
most likely see?
56)
A)
Conformity to standards and expectations
B)
Dependence
C)
Coalitions being formed
D)
Unconditional commitment to the team
57)
You have just brought your team together. What should you do in this early stage of your team’s
development?
57)
A)
Expect obedience to your directions.
B)
Focus on the task accomplishment over helping members become comfortable with one
another.
C)
Focus on helping members become comfortable with one another regarding task
accomplishment.
D)
Encourage open discussion and consensus decision making.
58)
Which of the following behaviors is least likely to result in building credibility and influence among
team members?
58)
A)
Demonstrating integrity by “walking the talk“
B)
Creating positive energy by being optimistic and complimentary
C)
Sharing information that involves having knowledge about the tasks and the external
environment
D)
Being flexible and open about what the team should achieve
TRUE/FALSE. Write ‘T’ if the statement is true and ‘F’ if the statement is false.
59)
Providing negative feedback is easier if one focuses the feedback on behavior related to a specific
situation.
59)
60)
Relationships should be formed during the forming stage of team building.
60)
61)
Groupthink is the ability of a team to bring people together thus increasing the amount of expertise
available to solve a problem.
61)
62)
What you learn in the textbook about teams and teamwork is applicable only to employing
organizations. It is not applicable to classroom activities or sports.
62)
63)
One of the crucial responsibilities of a team leader in the norming stage of team development is to
help team members establish expectations.
63)
64)
Two key skills associated with team membership are playing advantageous roles and providing
helpful feedback to build relationships with other team members.
64)
65)
To reach the fourth stage of the four stages of team development labeled by Tuckman, a team must
progress through the first three stages of development.
65)
66)
As a team leader, the ability to express certainty about what you want is the single most important
requirement for leadership effectiveness.
66)
67)
“You are completely naive,” is more effective feedback than “Your comments are not on the topic.”
67)
68)
As a new team leader, Vanessa engages in frequent checking (asking questions of team members to
determine levels of agreement, obstacles, dissatisfactions, and needs) with her team members. This
is likely to result in enhancing her credibility.
68)
69)
Some cultures, i.e., Japan, are more comfortable spending substantial amounts of time on
relationship–building activities before moving toward task accomplishment.
69)
70)
As a leader of a team, skills on how to manage conflict would be extremely useful in the storming
stage of team development.
70)
71)
Research indicates that team composition has as much influence on team effectiveness as the
leadership skills displayed by a team leader.
71)
72)
Two critical aspects of team leadership are developing credibility and influence among team
members and establishing a motivating vision and goals for the team.
72)
73)
In team meetings, Wong has a habit of either straying from the topic under discussion or trying to
change the topic of discussion. Wong is displaying the blocking role of deflection.
73)
74)
An Everest goal represents an extraordinary achievement.
74)
75)
The task of the team in the forming stage is to clarify direction.
75)
76)
A key objective in the performing stage is continuous improvement.
76)
77)
Once the team has developed a comfortable climate, the next stage is the performing stage.
77)
78)
You are involved with a team where members encourage relationship–building roles and team
members take responsibility for providing feedback regarding performance. Your team is in the
norming stage.
78)
79)
Gerald, one of your teammates, comments, “Can we all at least agree on point number 1, even if we
disagree on the other three points?” Gerald’s comment most closely relates to the task–facilitating
role of reality testing.
79)
80)
Once the team reaches the performing stage, there are no issues to resolve, no questions to answer.
80)
81)
The following behaviors are typically displayed by team members in the performing stage: mutual
responsibility and concern for one another; an emphasis on ensuring that each team member is
learning and developing; and providing assistance to one another.
81)
82)
Employee involvement in teams has had a positive impact on productivity, quality, and morale.
82)
83)
Your manager comments, “Although it is nice to have some team members play
relationship–building roles, these roles are not essential for the group to develop and be successful.
The key is that a majority of team members play task–facilitating roles.”
83)
84)
The use of work teams has remained at consistent levels for approximately 30 years.
84)
85)
You should tell subordinates how to carry out a specific goal because it increases innovation and
decreases the potential for suboptimization of resources.
85)
86)
One of the behaviors typically exhibited by team members in the storming stage is unconditional
commitment to the team.
86)
ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
87)
Explain the principles that have been found to be effective in providing feedback to others.
The Tallahassee Democrat‘s ELITE Team
Katzenbach and Smith (1993, pp. 67–72), as part of their extensive research on teams, observed the formation of a team at
the Tallahassee Democrat, the only major newspaper left in Tallahassee, Florida. Here is their description of how the team,
which called itself “ELITE Team,” performed over time. All incidents and names are factual. As you read the description, look
for evidence of team development stages.
Fred Mott, general manager of the Democrat, recognized [the declining profitability and distribution of most major
metropolitan newspapers] earlier than many of his counterparts. In part, Mott took his lead from Jim Batten, who made
“customer obsession” the central theme of his corporate renewal effort shortly after he became Knight–Ridder’s CEO. But the
local marketplace also shaped Mott’s thinking. The Democrat was Tallahassee’s only newspaper and made money in spite of
its customer service record. Mott believed, however, that further growth could never happen unless the paper learned to
serve customers in ways “far superior to anything else in the marketplace.” The ELITE Team story actually began with the
formation of another team made up of Mott and his direct reports. The management group knew they could not hope to
build a “customer obsession” across the mile–high barriers isolating production from circulation from advertising without
first changing themselves. It had become all too common, they admitted, for them to engage in “power struggles and finger
pointing.”
Using regularly scheduled Monday morning meetings, Mott‘s group began to “get to know each other’s strengths and
weaknesses, bare their souls, and build a level of trust.” Most important, they did so by focusing on real work they could do
together. For example, early on they agreed to create a budget for the paper as a team instead of singly as function heads.
Over time, the change in behavior at the top began to be noticed. One of the women who later joined the ELITE Team, for
example, observed that the sight of senior management holding their “Monday morning come–to–Jesus” meetings really
made a difference to her and others. “I saw all this going on and I thought, ‘What are they so happy about?”‘
Eventually, as the team at the top got stronger and more confident, they forged a higher aspiration: to build customer
focus and break down the barriers across the broad base of the paper....
A year after setting up the new [team], however, Mott was both frustrated and impatient. Neither the Advertising
Customer Service department, a series of customer surveys, additional resources thrown against the problem in the interim,
nor any number of top management exhortations had made any difference. Ad errors persisted, and sales reps still
complained of insufficient time with customers. In fact, the new unit had turned into another organizational barrier.
Customer surveys showed that too many advertisers still found the Democrat unresponsive to their needs and too
concerned with internal procedures and deadlines. People at the paper also had evidence beyond surveys. In one instance,
for example, a sloppily prepared ad arrived through a fax machine looking like a “rat had run across the page.” Yet the ad
passed through the hands of seven employees and probably would have found its way into print if it had not been literally
unreadable! As someone commented, “It was not anyone’s job to make sure it was right. If they felt it was simply their job to
type or paste it up, they just passed it along.” This particular fax, affectionately known as the “rat tracks fax,” came to
symbolize the essential challenge at the Democrat….
At the time, Mott was reading about Motorola’s quality programs and the goal of zero defects. He decided to heed
Dunlap’s advice by creating a special team of workers charged with eliminating all errors in advertisements. Mott now
admits he was skeptical that frontline people could become as cohesive a team as he and his direct reports. So he made
Dunlap, his trusted confidante, the leader of the team that took on the name ELITE for “ELIminate The Errors.”
A year later, Mott was a born–again believer in teams. Under ELITE’s leadership, advertising accuracy, never before
tracked at the paper, had risen sharply and stayed above 99 percent. Lost revenues from errors, previously as high as $10,000
a month, had dropped to near zero. Ad sales reps had complete confidence in the Advertising Customer Service department’s
capacity and desire to treat each ad as though the Democrat‘s existence were at stake. And surveys showed a huge positive
swing in advertiser satisfaction. Mott considered all of this nothing less than a minor miracle.
The impact of ELITE, however, went beyond numbers. It completely redesigned the process by which the Democrat sells,
creates, produces, and bills for advertisements. More important yet, it stimulated and nurtured the customer obsession and
cross–functional cooperation required to make the new process work. In effect, this team of mostly frontline workers
transformed an entire organization with respect to customer service.
ELITE had a lot going for it from the beginning. Mott gave the group a clear performance goal (eliminate errors) and a
strong mix of skills (12 of the best people from all parts of the paper). He committed himself to follow through by promising,
at the first meeting, that “whatever solution you come up with will be implemented.” In addition, Jim Batten’s customer
obsession movement helped energize the task force.
But it took more than a good sendoff and an overarching corporate theme to make ELITE into a high–performance team.
In this case, the personal commitments began to grow, unexpectedly, over the early months as the team grappled with its
challenge. At first, the group spent more time pointing fingers at one another than coming to grips with advertising errors.
33