Chapter 4
TRUE-FALSE
T F 1. It helps to have a picture of an ideal as a group works to build an outstanding team.
T F 2. A commitment-strategy organization is tightly controlling and adversarial.
T F 3. An ideal team takes on the culture of its organization and does not develop its own.
T F 4. Even highly effective teams go through periods of inertia and conflict.
T F 5. According to Maslow, most people in a group are probably seeking self-actualization.
T F 6. A group’s syntality is the same as a personality is to an individual.
T F 7. A “superteam” focuses only on task issues without worrying about transactional
processes and systems relationships.
T F 8. When people are appointed to a team to represent another group, other members
should seek their opinions only on issues that relate to that other group.
T F 9. Social exchange theory proposes that when people interact, they predict whether the
rewards will outweigh the costs in the final outcomes.
T F 10. One potential drawback of an excellent team is that its members may become
arrogant and superioristic.
T F 11. A mixed control-commitment position describes an organization in transition, and
always reflects mostly control strategies in its culture.
T F 12. The strategy of an organization can affect the climate and effectiveness of a team.
T F 13. Reinforcement theories propose that people do things for some reward and don’t do
things because of some threat or punishment.
T F 14. A team that slumps in the middle of its work and then picks up energy and direction
is reflecting Gersick’s concept of the mid-life crisis in work teams.
T F 15. Members of a group are usually there for one motivation only—security.
T F 16. If someone says, “That team is so high-energy it’s more potent than any one member,”
he or she is referring to the group’s syntality.
T F 17. A “superteam” works almost exclusively when members are together; individuals do
not work apart.
T F 18. The degree to which your teammates are attractive to you is likely to remain a major
consideration in your desire to belong to the team as long as the group is together.
T F 19. The fact that individuals perceive things differently is a major contribution to creative
teamwork.
T F 20. Strong cohesiveness can be both an advantage and a detriment to effective
transactional and task processes.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. People with a high need to achieve, according to McClelland:
A. Set very difficult goals they probably can’t achieve
B. Set very easy goals to be sure they achieve
2. A diverse group of individuals may bring a wide range of which of the following to a team?
A. Abilities
B. Ways of perceiving
3. Teams studied by Gersick had the following in common in their development sequence:
A. The same general pattern
B. A mid-point crisis
4. “Superteams” are characterized by all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Activity
5. Team members should work together to develop:
A. An image and vision
B. Syntality and synergy
6. The authors, noting McClelland’s research, note that a person with a high need to achieve:
A. Sets very difficult goals he or she probably cannot achieve
7. With respect to systems relationships, “superteams” are characterized by all of the following
EXCEPT:
A. Building of formal and informal networks
8. In Maslow’s system of needs, the highest level (those that only can receive attention after all
other needs are satisfied) are:
A. Physiological
B. Security
9. When groups weigh how they predict decisions will come out (for example, will the rewards
outweigh the costs), how their result would compare to what they minimally will accept, and
how their result would compare to alternative choices, they are operating on the theory
known as:
C. Need theory
D. Reinforcement theory
10. Which of the following statements about perception as it relates to small group transactions
is UNTRUE?
A. People perceive selectively.
ESSAYS
1. Identify four significant characteristics of a “superteam.” What approaches to getting and
using feedback could a team use to help it achieve those four traits?
2. What are some individual reasons why people may choose to become members of a group?
How might these different motives affect the team’s development of its culture, image, vision,
syntality, synergy, and cohesiveness?
3. Groups go through somewhat similar patterns in their development. In what ways might the
cultural context of a parent organization affect how they go through the stages and how they
emerge in moving to the next steps?