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76) Jason Jones has been asked to assemble an eight-member self-managed work team of
experienced employees to work on a project that combines the functional areas of research,
production, marketing, and distribution. Jason is apprehensive about managing a team so large;
he knows from prior experience that larger teams do not always result in greater productivity.
Jason has also been informed by the management that this team is being established as the
project must progress according to the predetermined timeline. The work lagging behind by one
division will cause a cumulative delay in all the successive stages of the project's execution.
Jason plans to implement a group-based incentive that he feels would motivate each of the team
members to work efficiently. Which of the following is an assumption made by Jason in
implementing this plan?
A) Increasing the number of experienced employees in the team will reduce the need for
supervision.
B) Each employee in the team is motivated to work equally hard to ensure that the group's
performance is satisfactory.
C) Since the team is comprised of employees who are highly skilled in their respective areas, the
output of the group will be of high quality.
D) Each employee will work well within the boundaries of their divisional functions, and
conflicts will be relatively fewer.
E) Each employee will be committed to working within the resources allocated.
77) A climate of trust among team members is a contextual factor relating to team effectiveness.
78) FDS is a government agency which holds its yearly appraisals in December and provides
employees with merit-based incentives based on their individual performance ratings. Merit is
the only criterion for incentives at FDS and this is likely to have a strong positive impact on
group performance.
79) Leadership of multiteam systems is also much different than for standalone teams. While
leadership of all teams affects team performance, a multiteam leader must both facilitate
coordination between teams and lead each team.
80) Conscientiousness and openness to experience are two personality dimensions of the Big
Five personality model that predict better performance in teams.
81) The term team cohesion means members are emotionally attached to one another and
motivated toward the team because of their attachment. Team cohesion is a useful tool to predict
team outcomes.
82) When teams have excess members, cohesiveness and mutual accountability decline.
83) Research shows we are better off putting our efforts into creating an egalitarian atmosphere
and choosing our teammates based on what they can contribute to our team.
84) Specificity refers to the degree to which a team reflects on and adjusts its master plan when
necessary.
85) The team effectiveness model identifies three categories of key components making up
effective teams. What are these three categories? Give examples of each category.
86) How does a climate of trust improve effectiveness of teams?
87) Compare the role of a leader in (a) a self-managed team, (b) a multiteam, and (c) a diverse
team.
88) How must roles be allocated to ensure effective team performance?
89) What is organizational demography? What is its significance?
90) Discuss the effect of team size on effectiveness of teams.
91) What is meant by member preferences? How can it be altered?
92) How do mental models contribute to task conflicts?
93) What is the relationship between task conflicts and reflexivity among team members?
94) What is social loafing? How can the management undermine the tendency of social loafing?
95) Which of the following will be useful in creating team players?
A) technical training
B) academic training
C) job rotation
D) cross-training
E) negotiation training
96) Diane Fielding, owner of the famous Mint chain of restaurants, planned to revamp the whole
concept and structure of her outlets. With this purpose in mind, she selected five managers from
her existing outlets based on their performance in relation to targets, experience, and motivation.
Each manager was asked to take up an aspect of the restaurant's functioning like menu, décor,
and customer service measures. Diane was sure that this group of high performers possessed a
clear understanding of the ground realities, which made them the best candidates to contemplate
and implement the required changes. In order to reward them, she announced a hefty bonus for
their collective performance. Six months later, after the changes were implemented, Diane
realized that the group had made many questionable decisions, which were resulting in problems.
Which of the following, if true, would best explain this outcome?
A) The team members had skills that were complementary to each other and added value to the
project.
B) The team members had high levels of affective commitment to their jobs as Diane was a good
leader.
C) Typically, these managers viewed each other as competition as Diane only rewarded the
highest earning outlet with incentives.
D) Two of the branches of Mint were located in the suburbs, while the other three outlets were
located in busy areas and witnessed more customers.
E) The team members were clear about their duties, and role ambiguity was minimal.
97) A software development firm has witnessed substantial growth and seeks to expand and
reorganize its structure to meet the demands from clients in a better manner. HR has been given a
clear directive that one of the major criteria for selection of recruits would be the candidate's
ability to function as a team player. This is because the company is revamping all its major
functions from the traditional departmental model to an arrangement of flexible teams. Joe
Sanchez, one of the firm's oldest and most experienced employees, has demonstrated
considerable ability in developing the best programs, but he prefers to work alone. The company
does not wish to lose resources like Sanchez and others who lack the ability to work in groups,
but teamwork is essential to its reorganization. Which of the following strategies will help rectify
this problem?
A) encouraging the formation of more diverse teams
B) informing all employees that ability to work in teams will be a major determinant for
promotions and bonuses
C) increasing the size of teams so the contribution of people like Joe will not affect team
performance overall
D) applying merit-based compensation systems instead of gainsharing
E) encouraging employees like Joe to work more independently
98) For creating good team players, an organization's reward system must be reworked to
encourage competitive efforts rather than cooperative ones.
99) Problems such as lack of trust or lack of sharing information among team members in a
competitive group can be swiftly changed by rewarding collective performance over individual
performance.
100) A trauma team in a hospital is one example of an action team with shared mental models.
101) Explain how organizations can create team players.
102) Which of the following is true with regard to use of individuals and teams?
A) Teams and individuals can be used interchangeably for all kinds of jobs without any
significant impact seen on effectiveness.
B) Teamwork requires less time and resources when compared to individual work.
C) Individuals have increased communication, supervision, and conflict-management demands
when compared to teams.
D) Individuals are bound by a collective common purpose that is organizationally determined,
and this typically reduces their performance.
E) Task complexity and requirement of different perspectives must be used as criteria when
assigning work to teams over individuals and vice versa.
103) Work should be performed by an individual if ________.
A) the work is complex and requires different perspectives
B) the work creates a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is more
than the aggregate of individual goals
C) the work is simple and does not require diverse input
D) several tasks that are interdependent are to be performed for completing the work
E) performing the work requires learning a new technology or understanding a new system
104) The work of your group would be better done in teams if the members of the team are
________.
A) independent
B) autonomous
C) individualistic
D) interdependent
E) reflexive
105) Using teams makes sense when the assignment involves independent tasks.
