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Questions for Review
10-1. How do you explain the growing popularity of teams in organizations?
Answer: Although teams are not always effective they have become popular. Some of
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10-2. What is the difference between a group and a team?
loafing.
Learning Objective: Contrast groups and teams
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10-3. What are the five types of team arrangements?
Answer:
efficiency, and the work environment.
Self-Managed Work Teams: groups of 10 to 15 people who take on the
responsibilities of their former supervisors.
Multiteam Systems: collections of two or more interdependent teams that share a
superordinate goal.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10-4. What conditions or context factors determine whether teams are effective?
on that confidence.
Learning Objective: Identify the characteristics of effective teams
Learning Outcome: Describe best practices for utilizing groups and work teams in organizations
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10-5. How can organizations create team players?
of teamwork.
Learning Objective: Explain how organizations can create team players
Learning Outcome: Describe best practices for utilizing groups and work teams in organizations
AACSB: Reflective thinking
10-6. When is work performed by individuals preferred over work performed by teams?
Learning Objective: Decide when to use individuals instead of teams
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Experiential Exercise
Whether to Use Self-Managed Teams
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Break into teams of four to five. Assume you work for a large tech company that has recently
acquired a local start-up firm with more expertise in a market your company is trying to break
self-managed.
Answer the following questions as a team:
10-7. What issues could affect the productivity of a self-managed team? Are these issues likely to
probably focus on issues related to merging what could be very different corporate
employees from different organizations.
10-8. How, if at all, would you change the reward structure for performance if the team were
self-managed? Why?
Answer: Again, responses to this question will vary by student.
10-9. Each member of your team should explain what aspects of the team they would allow team
members to self-manage if they were a supervisor in this company. As a group, compare your
responses. Does everyone agree on what duties and responsibilities should be self-managed, or
are there differences? If you could, would you make a team fully self-managed? Why or why
not?
Teaching Notes
This exercise provides members of the class to work effectively in teams. Not all members of
each team will agree with the recommendations arrived at by the team. You can use evidence of
this dynamic as a discussion point on how teams deal with diversity of opinion and conflict.
Teaching Notes
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
Ethical Dilemma
Is It Worth Hiring a Star Instead of a Team Player
This exercise contributes to:
opera singer still apply to modern day prima donnas in the workplace. Prima donnas enjoy being
heard. A prima donna employee may talk over others to make sure their ideas are heard during a
meeting. Prima donnas also enjoy being the center of attention, and may be very difficult to work
with on a team. Unfortunately, oftentimes, like the prima donnas of two hundred years ago, these
may seem less detrimental. There are roles that require more solo work than team work. Some
teams may have joint goals, but less interdependent tasks. This could help team members receive
credit for their own contributions, despite the “star” employee’s attention-seeking ways. There
are also many cases where hiring an employee who has great abilities but poor teamwork skills
with others.
Hiring an employee who does not work well with others, even if it is only one employee, can
also have its drawbacks. As we learned in the chapter, relationship conflict is almost always
dysfunctional. The conflicts that these employees create could lead to a loss in productivity.
Employee morale and job satisfaction of other team members may also be effected if one of their
in counterproductive work behaviors.
Sources: D. Gillaspie, “You Can Turn a Prima Donna into a Performer Without Drawbacks,” Entrepreneur, February 12, 2016,
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270726, accessed April 9, 2016; M. Weber, “Building a Team That Works: Are Prima Donnas Worth the
Risk?” Forbes, September 16, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2013/09/16/dont-hire-a-prima-donna/#185a5cc76f77, accessed April 9,
2016.
Questions
10-10. Think of some of the processes we learned about in this chapter, such as team identity
affect these processes?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary depending on the opinions of students, but
10-11. In Chapter 9, recall the effects of incivility on employees. Think about how incivility
others? Why or why not?
Answer: Responses to this question will depend on the student’s own perspectives.
10-12. As mentioned earlier, the goal of most sports teams is to try to select the players with the
highest performance. The logic of this decision is that teams with the most talented
players win the most games. Recent evidence suggests that this is not true. A recent
analysis of team performance of professional basketball and soccer players found that
chemistry to those with superstars.
Case Incident 1
Trusting Someone You Can’t See
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the characteristics of effective teams
AACSB: Reflective thinking
One of the greatest determinants of a successful team is trust. In order for a team to be
successful, employees must trust that their team members are reliable and capable. They have to
have faith that their teammates will work towards the goals of the team, rather than their own
goals. Trust can be built in teams by creating an environment where team members are not
counteract some of the negative effects of low trust in virtual teams by carefully documenting
team interactions. This practice shows that team members will be held accountable for the work
they do in virtual teams, as well as make sure that team members will be recognized for their
contributions.
period to learn more about their teammates before having faith that they will contribute to team
goals.
Sources: W. Vanderbloemen, “Is your Staff a High-Trust Team?,” Entrepreneurs, March 21, 2017,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamvanderbloemen/2017/03/21/is-your-staff-a-high-trust-team/#2997197230cd, accessed April 9, 2016; D. B.
Questions
10-13. Recall a time when you felt like you could not trust members on your team? Why did
Student responses will vary.
10-14. Can you think of other strategies that can help build trust among virtual team members?
Student responses will vary.
10-15. Imagine you are a manager at a national corporation. You have been asked to select
employees for a virtual problem-solving team. What types of employees would you
include and why?
Student responses will vary.
Case Incident 2
Smart Teams and Dumb Teams
This exercise contributes to:
also can describe teams. For example, individuals can be high in the trait of openness, as can a
team. Along the same lines, have you noticed that some teams seem to be smart, while others
You might be remembering a few teams you’ve witnessed that are in the dumb category, but we
hope you can think of a few that excelled. Smart teams tend to be smart in everything—for any
The findings were:
contributions from members than in other teams.
2. Smart teams had more members who were able to read minds. Just kidding. But the members
were able to read complicated emotions by looking into the eyes of others. There is a test for this
ability called Reading the Mind in the Eyes.
3. Smart teams had more women. It’s not that smart teams had more gender equality; these teams
simply had more women. This result might be partly due to the fact that more women scored
smart teams had more equal member communication (and plenty of it) and were good at emotion
reading. When the online collaborators could not see each other, they practiced Theory of Mind,
Chapter 4.
When we have the opportunity to hand-pick team members, we can look for those who listen as
much as they speak, express empathy, and remember what others tell them about themselves. For
Functioning,” Cognition 138 (2015): 21–34; B. Maciejovsky, M. Sutter, D. V. Budescu, et al., “Teams Make You Smarter: How Exposure to
Teams Improves Individual Decisions in Probability and Reasoning Tasks,” Management Science 59, no. 6 (2013): 1255–70; and A. Woolley, T.
Questions
10-16. From your experiences in teams, do you agree with the researchers’ findings on the
characteristics of smart teams? Why or why not?
Answer: This answer will vary depending on the student’s beliefs and opinions.
10-17. On the highly functioning teams in which you’ve been a member, what other
characteristics might have contributed to success?
opinions.
10-18. The authors who suggested that membership in a team makes us smarter found that teams
were more rational and quicker at finding solutions to difficult probability problems and
teams? Why or why not?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyLab Management.
Student responses will vary.
MyLab Management
following Assisted-graded writing questions:
to managers? Why or why not?
10-20. In reference to Case Incident 2, do you think you can read emotions from people’s eyes
enough to react well to them in teams? Why or why not? There are Reading the Mind
from the Eyes tests online if you want to test your skill.
10-21. MyLab Management Only—comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.
Instructor’s Choice
Curtailing Social Loafing
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
First, have students read “Extrinsic and Intrinsic Origins of Perceived Social Loafing in
Organizations,” Academy of Management Journal 3 (1992), pp. 191–202.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
Exploring OB Topics on the Web
AACSB: Reflective thinking
1. Moving from a traditional hierarchical structure to teams requires thought and planning.
team building.
2. What is the difference between a self-managed team and a self-directed team? Go to
http://ezinearticles.com/?
Difference-Between-Self-Managed-and-Self-Directed-Teams&id=1521183 to see a series of
3. Virtual teams require tools to support their effectiveness. For example, how do they hold
at OBJs’ website “Groupware & Collaboration Support”
4. For a brief overview of the characteristics of effective teams, go to Forbes’ “Five Ways to
Build an Effective Team”
characteristic number one is, “There is a clear unity of purpose.” Did your group have that unity?
5. Read Forbes’ “Want to be a Team Player? Strike This one Word From Your Vocabulary”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2013/11/25/want-to-be-a-team-player-str
class for further discussion.
