Chapter 12
TRUE-FALSE
T F 1. Members sometimes put pressure on deviants to protect their own egos from
challenges.
T F 2. Teams usually start with coercive strategies to induce others to conform.
T F 3. A team that is sure of its moral superiority is not engaging in groupthink.
T F 4. Groupthink leads to blocking out possible options and analysis.
T F 5. Groups are usually consistent in the pressure they put on nonconforming members to
conform.
T F 6. Competitive communication in a group leads to a “win-lose” approach to
transactional and task processes.
T F 7. The payoff a member gets from playing games is usually easy to identify.
T F 8. Team members’ respective cultures may determine whether they’re more comfortable
with direct or indirect conflict-management strategies.
T F 9. Group cohesiveness can lead to conformity and “mindlessness.”
T F 10. A cooperative approach to team communication assumes that someone must win and
someone must lose.
T F 11. According to the authors, dysfunctional conflict is all of the following: personalized,
affective, competitive, and productive.
T F 12. According to the authors, productive conflict is all of the following: depersonalized,
substantive, and cooperative.
T F 13. In context of group communication, a deviant is invariably a negative force.
T F 14. A group deviant may be someone who dresses differently, who behaves differently,
or who thinks differently from the majority of the group.
T F 15. When members conform to the group’s pressure, they make it easier and faster to
reach a decision—but they may obscure important objections or considerations at the
same time.
T F 16. Deviance isn’t all bad or all good.
T F 17. Competitive game-playing among team members is fun and harmless.
T F 18. High cohesiveness is essential in the vigilant, cooperative analysis of issues by a
team.
T F 19. Bad decisions that ignore important information frequently come from a group’s
determination to maintain harmony as well as the illusion that the group is morally
superior and invulnerable to harm.
T F 20. Game-playing among members uses a cooperative approach to developing
transactional and task processes.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. When a group puts pressure on an individual to conform:
D. All of the above
E. None of the above
2. A member of a group who has different opinions than are shared by the group can be
described as:
A. Non-conforming
B. Deviant
3. Cohesiveness of a group can:
A. Contribute to productivity
B. Be a uniting force for members
4. If a teammate seems to be playing games, they will be characterized by which of the
following?
A. A gimmick
B. A script
5. Productive conflict in a team does which of the following?
A. Completely avoids evaluation of ideas
B. Focuses on behaviors and personalities of members
6. Which of the following is a cooperative/supportive strategy for gaining compliance?
D. All of the above
E. None of the above
7. Pat never has work done on time. Instead of admitting that, Pat always says, “Why me?
These things always happen to me…” And follows with a tale of woe. The team then is
distracted by Pat’s troubles and sympathizes instead of confronting this irresponsibility.
What does this situation imply?
A. Pat is a deviant and the group is putting on pressure to conform.
8. Among the signs of groupthink are all of the following EXCEPT:
D. Belief in the superiority of the group
9. In the face of a crisis, threat, or even competition with extremely high stakes, groupthinking
members are more likely to be:
A. Open to new ideas and ways of looking at things
10. The type of situation that occurs when two or more people perceive that their individual
goals are mutually exclusive and that accomplishing one’s goal keeps another’s from being
achieved is known as:
A. Self-monitoring
ESSAYS
1. Describe what may happen when a member of a team expresses a deviant opinion. How may
2. Create a hypothetical example of a team that experiences groupthink. Explain what
antecedent conditions exist for the team, what kinds of illusions and behaviors these create, what
the outcomes might be, and what measures the team could take to avoid or correct the
groupthink.
3. You’ve been asked to teach a workshop on conflict management for high school students.
Outline the points you think would be most important to cover in that workshop, and explain
why they are crucial to learning to manage conflict.