Chapter 13 Groups and Teams: Increasing Cooperation, Reducing
Conflict Answer Key
True / False Questions
1.
Participating on virtual teams does not require individuals to be available for electronic
communication 24 hours a day.
2.
There is no need for virtual workers to meet regularly.
3.
Over 25 years ago, Peter Drucker’s prediction that the future organization would be organized
around teamwork has become a reality.
4.
Teamwork cannot reduce destructive internal competition.
5.
Teamwork improves quality, speed, workplace cohesiveness, and productivity.
6.
A group is defined as two or more freely interacting individuals who share collective norms,
share collective goals, and have a common identity.
7.
Common commitment is the essence of a team, and what differentiates it from a group.
8.
Twenty-six new employees from Global Technologies Inc. are attending orientation, receiving
information about company policies, and filling out various forms. These employees comprise
a group.
9.
A group is a small group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common
purpose and performance goals.
10.
An informal group typically does not have an officially appointed leader, although a leader may
emerge from members of the group.
11.
In the workplace, informal groups cannot undercut the plans of formal groups.
12.
Informal groups can be highly productive, but not more so than formal groups.
13.
Research finds that the majority of workplace learning is informal.
14.
An advice team, such as an advisory council or an employee involvement group, is created to
broaden the information base for managerial decisions.
15.
A maintenance crew is an example of a production team.
16.
A work team may be self-managed, cross-functional, or virtual; however it cannot be all of
these at the same time.
17.
A group is staffed with specialists pursuing a common objective.
18.
Quality circles are not the same as continuous improvement teams.
19.
Continuous improvement teams consist of small groups of volunteers or workers and
supervisors who meet intermittently to discuss workplace- and quality-related problems.
20.
More than 75% of the top 1,000 U.S. companies use some form of self-managed work teams.
21.
Creating self-managed teams in the workplace has a positive effect on productivity and
attitudes of self-responsibility and control.
22.
The process of getting oriented and getting acquainted with the group is known as the norming
stage of team development.
23.
Many groups stall in the storming stage of group development.
24.
In the forming stage of group development, the leader should encourage members to work
through their conflicts about tasks and goals.
25.
Group cohesion arises during the norming stage of team development.
26.
The norming stage of team development generally does not last long.
27.
During the storming stage, the leader of a team should allow members the empowerment they
need to concentrate on solving problems and completing the assigned task.
28.
A leader should begin a newly formed group with rituals.
29.
The tendency of a group or team to stick together is known as cohesiveness.
30.
Managers can stimulate individuality in teams by encouraging people to have face–to-face
exchanges at work.
31.
Both teams and individuals benefit from specific, measurable performance goals with continual
feedback to tell individuals and team members how well they are doing.
32.
Mutual trust and commitment are developed within a team because members are mutually
accountable to other members of the team.
33.
Generally speaking, the optimal team size is considered to be 5 to 6 members.
34.
Small teams with 2 to 9 members tend to be more highly committed and satisfied, and have
better morale.
35.
Small teams are more likely than large ones to be more tolerant of autocratic leadership.
36.
People tend to exert less effort when working alone than in groups, a tendency known as
social loafing.
37.
Roles are socially determined expectations of how an individual should behave in a specific
position.
38.
Two types of team roles are task and maintenance.
39.
An example of a maintenance role is an initiator, someone who suggests new goals or ideas.
40.
A task role consists of behavior that fosters constructive relationships among team members.
41.
Maintenance roles point up the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behavior
among group or team members.
42.
One of the primary reasons norms are enforced is to emphasize the group’s important values
and identity.
43.
Norms are a cohesive group’s blind unwillingness to consider alternatives.
44.
The principal casualty of groupthink is the reduction in alternative ideas.
45.
Each member of a team or group should be told to be a critical evaluator and to actively voice
objections and doubts to prevent groupthink.
46.
Conflict is a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or
negatively affected by another.
47.
Conflict is not beneficial for organizations.
48.
Other names for functional conflict are constructive conflict or cooperative conflict.
49.
The tendency of people to go along with others for the sake of avoiding conflict is called the
Abilene paradox.
50.
Excessive conflict can erode organizational performance because of political infighting,
dissatisfaction, lack of teamwork, and turnover.
51.
A moderate level of conflict can induce creativity and initiative, thereby raising performance.
52.
When resources are scarce, conflict is less likely.
53.
The best way to manage virtual teams is to focus on what’s accomplished, not whether an
employee is working from her patio or at 10 p.m.
54.
When job boundaries or task responsibilities are unclear, it can often lead to conflict.
55.
Avoiding is an appropriate response to conflict when emotions are high and a cooling-off
period is needed.
56.
Accommodating discourages cooperation so the desires of the other party are unable to
prevail.
57.
In accommodating, both parties give up something to gain something.
58.
Longer-lasting impact is the primary benefit of using the collaborating conflict-handling style.
59.
When parties to a conflict have deeply rooted, opposing value systems, collaboration is
inappropriate for resolving the conflict.
60.
Competition is a not a form of conflict.
61.
The dialectic method is used to elicit different opinions without inciting people’s personal
feelings.
62.
Devil’s advocacy is the process of assigning someone to play the role of critic to voice possible
objections to a proposal.
63.
Teamwork increases costs and destructive internal competition.
64.
Informal groups can be highly productive—even more so than formal groups.
65.
At one GE factory, teamwork resulted in a workforce that was 20% more productive than
comparable GE workforces elsewhere. This is an example of increased productivity, an
advantage of teamwork.
66.
The stages in which groups may evolve into teams often aren’t of the same duration or
intensity, or even necessarily always in this sequence.
67.
Invulnerability, stereotyping of opposition, rationalization, and illusion of unanimity are
symptoms of the Abilene paradox.
68.
Being mutually accountable to a supervisor rather than to other members of the team makes
members feel mutual trust and commitment—a key part in motivating members for team
effort.