Chapter 10

Question 1

Work Team

Answer 1

a small number of people with complementary
skills who are mutually accountable for:
* pursuing a common purpose
* achieving performance goals
* improving interdependent work processes
- Helps firms respond to specific problems and challenges

Question 2

Advantages

Answer 2

• Increase customer satisfaction
• Improve product and service quality
• Increase speed and efficiency in product development
• Increase job satisfaction
• Cross-training: training team members to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members
• Share the benefits of group decision making

Question 3

Disadvantages of Teams

Answer 3

• Not a guarantee of positive outcomes
• Initial high turnover
• Social Loafing

Question 4

Social Loafing

Answer 4

behavior in which team members withhold their efforts and fail to preform their share of the work

Question 5

Disadvantages of group decision making

Answer 5

• Groupthink—members feel the pressure not to disagree with each
  other
• Minority domination—one or two people dominate team discussions
• Lack of feeling accountable for team decisions and actions

Question 6

Kinds of teams

Answer 6

1. Traditional work group
2. Employee involvement team
3. Semiautonomous work group
4. Self-Managing Team

Question 7

Traditional work group

Answer 7

a group composed of two or more
people who work together to achieve a shared goal

Question 8

Employee involvement team

Answer 8

team that provides advice or
makes suggestions to management concerning specific issues

Question 9

Semiautonomous work group

Answer 9

a group that has the authority
to make decisions and solve problems related to the major
tasks of producing a product or service

Question 10

Self-managing team

Answer 10

a team that manages and controls all of the major tasks of producing a product or service

Question 11

Special Kinds of Teams

Answer 11

1. Cross-functional team
2. Virtual team
3. Project team

Question 12

Cross-functional team

Answer 12

a team composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization
* Often used in conjunction with matrix and product organizational structures

Question 13

Virtual team

Answer 13

a team composed of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use telecommunication and
information technologies to accomplish an organizational task
* Highly flexible and often temporary

Question 14

Project team

Answer 14

a team created to complete specific, onetime projects or tasks within a limited time

Question 15

Tips for managing virtual teams

Answer 15

1. Establish clear expectations for communication, availability during offices hours, and frequency of check-ins.
2. Establish clear goals and milestones to help remote workers stay on track and accountable to the team.
3. Help team members set clear boundaries between work and family spaces.
4. Assign employees who have many outside obligations to teams whose members mostly have few nonwork obligations.
5. Ensure that team members have access to technology tools such as teleconferencing, file-sharing services, online meeting services, and collaboration portals.
6. Facilitate face-to-face communication with video conferencing or by requiring members of remote teams to work on-site several days each month.
7. Ensure the task is meaningful to the team and the company.
8. When building a virtual team, solicit volunteers as much as possible.

Question 16

Norms

Answer 16

informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior

Question 17

Team Norms

Answer 17

• Let team members know expectations
• Developed by observing nearby team members
• Developed around quality and timeliness of job performance, absenteeism, safety, and honest expression of ideas and opinions
• Powerful influences that regulate the everyday actions and allow teams to function effectively
• Disadvantage: negative norms strongly influenced team members to engage in these negative behaviors

Question 18

Cohesiveness

Answer 18

the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it

• Promoted by:
  1. Ensuring that all team members are present at team activities and
  meetings
  2. Creating additional opportunities for task interdependence
  3. Engaging in nonwork activities
  4. Helping employees feel they are part of the organization

Question 19

Team Size

Answer 19

• For most teams, the right size is somewhere between six and
  nine members
  1. Should be small enough for members to get to know each other
  2. Provides each member with the opportunity to contribute
• Greater team size:
  1. Poses the risk of minority domination
  2. Increases incidences of social loafing

Question 20

Team Conflict

Answer 20

Arises from disagreement over team goals

• Types of conflict
  1. Cognitive (c-type)—focuses on problem-related differences of opinion
  2. Affective (a-type)—emotional reactions that can occur because of
  personal disagreements

Question 21

Team conflict resolution

Answer 21

• Reduced by using cognitive conflict to address work problems
  in a manner where it minimizes occurrences of affective conflict
• To have a good fight:
  1. Work with more information
  2. Develop multiple alternatives to enrich debate
  3. Establish common goals
  4. Inject humor
  5. Maintain a balance of power
  6. Resolve issues without forcing consensus

Question 22

Stages or Team Development

Answer 22

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing

Question 23

Forming

Answer 23

the first stage of team development, in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin to establish team norms

Question 24

Storming

Answer 24

the second stage of development, characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it

Question 25

Norming

Answer 25

the third stage of team development, in which team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop

Question 26

Preforming

Answer 26

the fourth and final stage of team development, in which performance improves because the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team

Question 27

Team Development Reversals

Answer 27

Without effective management, team performance may begin to decline as it passes through these stages: 1. De-norming: a reversal of the norming stage, in which team performance begins to decline as the size, scope, goal, or members of the team change 2. De-storming: a reversal of the storming phase, in which the team’s comfort level decreases, team cohesion weakens, and angry emotions and conflict may flare 3. De-forming: a reversal of the forming stage, in which team members position themselves to control pieces of the team, avoid each other, and isolate themselves from team leaders

Question 28

Enhancing Work Team Effectiveness

Answer 28

* Setting team goals and priorities * Selecting people for teamwork * Team training * Team compensation and recognition

Question 29

Setting Team Goals and Priorities

Answer 29

Specific team goals to clarify team priorities by providing a clear focus and purpose a. S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals * Challenging team goals to reduce the incidence of social loafing * Stretch goals to increase motivation

Question 30

Stretch Goals

Answer 30

For stretch goals to be effective, these elements are necessary: * A high degree of autonomy over how they achieve their goals * Control of resources through empowerment * Structural accommodation * Bureaucratic immunity

Question 31

Structural accommodation

Answer 31

the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices in order to meet stretch goals

Question 32

Bureaucratic immunity

Answer 32

the ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization

Question 33

Individualism-collectivism

Answer 33

the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one’s self is more important than loyalty to team or company * Individualists prefer independent tasks; collectivists prefer working with others

Question 34

Team level

Answer 34

the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team * Used to guide selection of teammates when teams need a particular set of skills or capabilities

Question 35

Team diversity

Answer 35

the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on the team

Question 36

Team Training

Answer 36

For success, teams need training, particularly in interpersonal skills, decision-making and problem-solving skills, conflict resolution skills, and technical training * Interpersonal skills: skills, such as listening, communicating, questioning, and providing feedback, that enable people to have effective working relationships with others * Decision-making and problem-solving skills * Conflict resolution skills * Technical training

Question 37

Skill-based pay

Answer 37

compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge * Most effective for self-managed or self-directed teams, complex tasks

Question 38

Gainsharing

Answer 38

a compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as increased productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers * Most effective with relatively stable environments and a focus on improving productivity, cost savings, or quality

Question 39

Nonfinancial rewards

Answer 39

Most effective when teams or team-based interventions are first introduced