Q&A Hero

Q: Communication that flows from one level of a group or organization to a lower level is called ________. A) intrapersonal communication B) downward communication C) upward communication D) lateral communication E) horizontal communication

Q: Which of the following is the final step in the communication process? A) silence B) feedback loop C) all-channel transmission D) decoding E) encoding

Q: In a communication process, ________ is the check on how successful we have been in transferring our messages as originally intended. A) filtering B) signal C) feedback D) encoding E) noise

Q: When the receiver of a communication translates the message, it is known as ________. A) encoding B) conveying C) transmitting D) filtering E) decoding

Q: Which of the following statements is true regarding an informal communication channel? A) It traditionally follows the authority chain within the organization. B) It generally transmits messages related to the professional activities of members. C) It is established by the organization. D) It is generally used for communicating personal or social messages. E) Information regarding change in the policies of the organization is transmitted through it.

Q: Formal information channels are characterized by ________. A) the transmission of spontaneous messages B) the emergence in response to individual choices C) the absence of noise in the communication cycle D) the personal and social nature of usage E) the compliance with the organizational authority chain

Q: Stacey was at work when Ann, her sister, called to confirm their dinner plan the following weekend at their Aunt Hilda's farmhouse. Stacey said she would call Joe, her husband, and get back to her. However, when Stacey called her back, Ann could not hear most of what she said because Jennifer, Ann's daughter, was crying loudly in the background. Who represents the noise in the communication process depicted in this scenario? A) Hilda B) Joe C) Jennifer D) Ann E) Stacey

Q: Stacey was at work when Ann, her sister, called to confirm their dinner plan the following weekend at their Aunt Hilda's farmhouse. Stacey said she would call Joe, her husband, and get back to her. However, when Stacey called her back, Ann could not hear most of what she said because Jennifer, Ann's daughter, was crying loudly in the background. Who is the first sender in this scenario? A) Joe B) Stacey C) Jennifer D) Ann E) Hilda

Q: With reference to the communication process, the ________ is the one to whom the message is directed, who must first translate the symbols into understandable form. A) creator B) receiver C) encoder D) sender E) transmitter

Q: With reference to the communication process, the ________ is the medium through which the message travels. A) feedback B) noise C) encoder D) channel E) decoder

Q: The ________ is the actual physical product of the sender's encoding. A) channel B) filter C) message D) noise E) medium

Q: In a communication process, the ________ initiates a message by encoding a thought. A) receiver B) decoder C) transmitter D) sender E) receptor

Q: Before communication can take place, a ________ is required. A) filter B) channel C) receiver D) purpose E) decoder

Q: Synergy Inc. has recently assigned some of its best employees to form a cross-functional team and complete a project from a new client. Many of the employees on this team are apprehensive about the structure and dynamics of how they will function as a group and accomplish this goal. To energize the employees, their immediate manager is holding a meeting with them next week where he will provide them some additional training in strategies and methods that may work well for the team. The manager's initiative to hold this meeting fulfills the ________ function of communication. A) filtering B) information C) emotional expression D) control E) informal

Q: The emotional expression function of communication involves ________. A) managers motivating employees by setting specific goals B) management communicating company policies to employees C) managers training employees in decision-making strategies D) members of the organization following their job descriptions E) members of the organization showing their satisfaction and frustrations

Q: Norah Baines is one of the most devoted teachers at Oakwood Academy. She has been working with the institution for seven years and is expecting a promotion soon. However, Norah's candidacy for this promotion is passed over in favor of another less experienced male employee as Norah plans to start a family soon. Consequently, Norah writes a formal letter voicing her concerns. Norah's letter fulfills the ________ function of communication. A) motivation B) accommodation C) facilitation D) control E) informal

Q: Which of the following statements is true with regard to communication? A) Communication cannot be used to motivate and control employees in an organization. B) Communication involves the transfer and understanding of meaning. C) Communication involves the mere imparting of meaning to another person or group. D) Perfect communication is not dependent on a channel and its richness. E) Perfect communication results in dissimilar mental models.

Q: Explain how organizations can create team players.

Q: What is social loafing? How can the management undermine the tendency of social loafing?

Q: What is the relationship between task conflicts and reflexivity among team members?

Q: How do mental models contribute to task conflicts?

Q: What is meant by member preferences? How can it be altered?

Q: Discuss the effect of team size on effectiveness of teams.

Q: What is organizational demography? What is its significance?

Q: How must roles be allocated to ensure effective team performance?

Q: Compare the role of a leader in (a) a self-managed team, (b) a multiteam, and (c) a diverse team.

Q: How does a climate of trust improve effectiveness of teams?

Q: The team effectiveness model identifies three categories of key components making up effective teams. What are these three categories? Give examples of each category.

Q: What are some special challenges that virtual teams face? For virtual teams to be effective, what should management ensure?

Q: What is a cross-functional team?

Q: Describe and discuss self-managed work teams.

Q: Discuss the difference between a work group and a work team.

Q: Using teams makes sense when the assignment involves independent tasks.

Q: Work that creates a common purpose or set of goals must be assigned to individuals, not groups.

Q: Problems such as lack of trust or lack of sharing information among team members in a competitive group can be swiftly changed by rewarding collective performance over individual performance.

Q: For creating good team players, an organization's reward system must be reworked to encourage competitive efforts rather than cooperative ones.

Q: Specificity refers to the degree to which a team reflects on and adjusts its master plan when necessary.

Q: Social loafing illustrates a process gain from using teams.

Q: When teams have excess members, cohesiveness and mutual accountability decline.

Q: Research has shown that the larger the team, the more effective its performance.

Q: Conscientiousness and openness to experience are two personality dimensions of the Big Five personality model that predict better performance in teams.

Q: Lower-ability teams are more adaptable to changing situations than high-ability teams.

Q: FDS is a government agency which holds its yearly appraisals in December and provides employees with merit-based incentives based on their individual performance ratings. Merit is the only criterion for incentives at FDS and this is likely to have a strong positive impact on group performance.

Q: A climate of trust among team members is a contextual factor relating to team effectiveness.

Q: Low levels of virtuality in teams result in higher levels of information sharing.

Q: Cross-functional teams consist of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.

Q: In self-managed teams, supervisory positions may be eliminated.

Q: Problem-solving teams discuss a problem, generate potential solutions, and implement them successfully.

Q: Nancy is a part of a group at work that stresses collective goals and performance. Nancy is amazed at how well the members of the team use their skills to benefit themselves and their team members. Whenever a problem arises, the team, as a whole, works to provide reasons and solutions. She enjoys working in this group as there is a lot of positive energy. This group that Nancy is a part of is a work group.

Q: The goal of a work group is to share information.

Q: Teams and traditional departments have the same level of flexibility and responsiveness to external changes.

Q: More and more organizations are resorting to teams as they represent a better way to use employee talents.

Q: The work of your group would be better done in teams if the members of the team are ________. A) independent B) autonomous C) individualistic D) interdependent E) reflexive

Q: Work should be performed by an individual if ________. A) the work is complex and requires different perspectives B) the work creates a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is more than the aggregate of individual goals C) the work is simple and does not require diverse input D) several tasks that are interdependent are to be performed for completing the work E) performing the work requires learning a new technology or understanding a new system

Q: Which of the following is true with regard to use of individuals and teams? A) Teams and individuals can be used interchangeably for all kinds of jobs without any significant impact seen on effectiveness. B) Teamwork requires less time and resources when compared to individual work. C) Individuals have increased communication, supervision, and conflict-management demands when compared to teams. D) Individuals are bound by a collective common purpose that is organizationally determined, and this typically reduces their performance. E) Task complexity and requirement of different perspectives must be used as criteria when assigning work to teams over individuals and vice versa.

Q: A software development firm has witnessed substantial growth and seeks to expand and reorganize its structure to meet the demands from clients in a better manner. HR has been given a clear directive that one of the major criteria for selection of recruits would be the candidate's ability to function as a team player. This is because the company is revamping all its major functions from the traditional departmental model to an arrangement of flexible teams. Joe Sanchez, one of the firm's oldest and most experienced employees, has demonstrated considerable ability in developing the best programs, but he prefers to work alone. The company does not wish to lose resources like Sanchez and others who lack the ability to work in groups, but teamwork is essential to its reorganization. Which of the following strategies will help rectify this problem? A) encouraging the formation of more diverse teams B) informing all employees that ability to work in teams will be a major determinant for promotions and bonuses C) increasing the size of teams so the contribution of people like Joe will not affect team performance overall D) applying merit-based compensation systems instead of gainsharing E) encouraging employees like Joe to work more independently

Q: Diane Fielding, owner of the famous Mint chain of restaurants, planned to revamp the whole concept and structure of her outlets. With this purpose in mind, she selected five managers from her existing outlets based on their performance in relation to targets, experience, and motivation. Each manager was asked to take up an aspect of the restaurant's functioning like menu, d©cor, and customer service measures. Diane was sure that this group of high performers possessed a clear understanding of the ground realities, which made them the best candidates to contemplate and implement the required changes. In order to reward them, she announced a hefty bonus for their collective performance. Six months later, after the changes were implemented, Diane realized that the group had made many questionable decisions, which were resulting in problems. Which of the following, if true, would best explain this outcome? A) The team members had skills that were complementary to each other and added value to the project. B) The team members had high levels of affective commitment to their jobs as Diane was a good leader. C) Typically, these managers viewed each other as competition as Diane only rewarded the highest earning outlet with incentives. D) Two of the branches of Mint were located in the suburbs, while the other three outlets were located in busy areas and witnessed more customers. E) The team members were clear about their duties, and role ambiguity was minimal.

Q: Which of the following will be useful in creating team players? A) technical training B) academic training C) job rotation D) cross-training E) negotiation training

Q: Jason Jones has been asked to assemble an eight-member self-managed work team of experienced employees to work on a project that combines the functional areas of research, production, marketing, and distribution. Jason is apprehensive about managing a team so large; he knows from prior experience that larger teams do not always result in greater productivity. Jason has also been informed by the management that this team is being established as the project must progress according to the predetermined timeline. The work lagging behind by one division will cause a cumulative delay in all the successive stages of the project's execution. Jason plans to implement a group-based incentive that he feels would motivate each of the team members to work efficiently. Which of the following is an assumption made by Jason in implementing this plan? A) Increasing the number of experienced employees in the team will reduce the need for supervision. B) Each employee in the team is motivated to work equally hard to ensure that the group's performance is satisfactory. C) Since the team is comprised of employees who are highly skilled in their respective areas, the output of the group will be of high quality. D) Each employee will work well within the boundaries of their divisional functions, and conflicts will be relatively fewer. E) Each employee will be committed to working within the resources allocated.

Q: Jason Jones has been asked to assemble an eight-member self-managed work team of experienced employees to work on a project that combines the functional areas of research, production, marketing, and distribution. Jason is apprehensive about managing a team so large; he knows from prior experience that larger teams do not always result in greater productivity. Jason has also been informed by the management that this team is being established as the project must progress according to the predetermined timeline. The work lagging behind by one division will cause a cumulative delay in all the successive stages of the project's execution. Which of the following measures, if adopted by Jason, would best ensure that the team members are working efficiently? A) implementing a training program to provide the team members with the necessary technical and human relations skills for the project B) discouraging team members from restricting themselves to their own functional areas by experimenting with and learning the jobs done by other members of the team C) instructing the team members to finalize the plan for the project right at the beginning and ensuring that it is implemented without any changes D) assigning the specific tasks of the project to each team member by keeping in mind their preferences and abilities E) implementing a group-based incentive he has planned for this team

Q: Shane Dermott is a manager at a software design firm that develops software programs for clients using multiple teams of specialists. One of his most successful teams has been performing very well for years and so it came as a surprise to Shane when he noticed a sharp drop in the team's performance. He decided to speak with the team members individually and find a solution. After interviewing all 7 team members, he determined that one of the team members performed routine administrative tasks that were hardly visible to any of the other team members and understood that this was a case of social loafing which demotivated the entire group. Which of the following would most likely improve the performance of the employee who was social loafing? A) encouraging him to work more independently B) making him individually responsible for definite and crucial tasks C) empowering him to make decisions autonomously D) providing him with administrative training E) giving him additional assignments to complete

Q: When individuals engage in ________, they coast on the group's effort because their particular contributions cannot be identified. A) task conflicts B) gainsharing C) retaliating D) process gains E) social loafing

Q: Which of the following must be avoided if one wants to create and maintain an effective team? A) task conflicts B) reflexivity C) specific goals D) relationship conflicts E) congruent mental models

Q: Which of the following is an example of a task conflict? A) Will and Hilda have been removed from the team they worked with after they were overheard making derogatory comments about one of their colleague's racial origin. B) Henry and Solomon have been reprimanded by their project lead for spending too much time using the Internet for personal use at work. C) Linda and Dorothy had a disagreement over which of their employees should be assigned to work on a high-priority project. D) Sally and her manager have just had a heated argument because Sally feels she has been overlooked for a promotion that was her rightful due. E) The company head has resigned after longstanding conflict between him and his top management employees.

Q: When teams are performing nonroutine activities, ________ stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of problems and options, and can lead to better team decisions. A) task conflicts B) disciplinary conflicts C) relationship conflicts D) resource allocation conflicts E) discriminatory conflicts

Q: Which of the following is not a common characteristic of an effective team? A) The team has adequate resources. B) The team has effective leadership. C) The team has a climate of trust. D) The team has a performance and evaluation system that reflects team contributions. E) The team is the right size for the task-about 15-20 people.

Q: With a deadline approaching, all seven members of Sharon's product development team were working round-the-clock and still the work was not completed in time. After the project was completed, Sharon spoke individually with the members to determine the cause for this delay. Many members complained, saying the work given to them was not in accordance with their roles. Some were unclear about which team member to approach when faced with a problem, and many underestimated the time and effort the project demanded. This team is characterized by ________. A) a clear role allocation for all team members B) dissimilar mental models C) high degree of role clarity D) excessively large team size E) a strong climate of trust

Q: Managers facing job candidates who lack team skills should do all of the following except ________. A) avoid hiring the job candidate B) hire the candidate, but assign them to tasks where teamwork is not important C) provide the candidate with the type of training that can help improve his or her ability to be a successful member of a team D) choose the individual with the best technical skills regardless of his or her ability to perform as a member of a team E) bring the candidate on board, but assign the individual to an area where teamwork is not a priority

Q: ________ are defined as organized mental representations of the key elements within a team's environment that team members share. A) Path-goal models B) Task models C) Mental models D) Individual models E) Specific models

Q: Which of the following is most likely to increase team efficacy? A) providing vast and generic goals B) helping the team achieve small successes C) creating a team such that it has diverse members D) ensuring that team goals are substantially difficult E) reducing the number of members on a team drastically

Q: Alberto's team is developing a database for the water pollution data of three cities. Before he begins on this intensive project, he wants to improve the team efficacy of his team. Which of the following actions can Alberto take to increase team efficacy before the project starts? A) plan a team outing for the team members B) make sure that his team is not comprised of more than nine people C) spend considerable time evaluating team members and allocating proper roles for each D) provide client's software and database training for all the team members E) create team goals that are very challenging

Q: The belief that effective teams have in their ability to succeed is called ________. A) goal specificity B) reflexivity C) mental model D) common purpose E) team efficacy

Q: Effective teams translate their common purpose into ________ goals. A) universal B) generic C) vast D) specific E) diverse

Q: Hank Murphy was selected to develop an advanced personal communication device with his own self-managed work team. Hank was assured that resource allocation and timelines were flexible for this project provided the work was a cut above that provided by the rest of the employees. As a part of the project guidelines, Hank included the demand that the device being developed by the team should also be marketed exclusively by them without resorting to franchising or cobranding. This was to ensure that customers recognized the product as reflecting the values of their company. Work on this project began with a lot of vigor and once the device was developed, Hank's team implemented their marketing strategy. However, even three months after the product's release, visibility remained low in the market and many reviewers did not consider the device to be much of an innovation. Which of the following statements, if true, would indicate a lack of reflexivity in Hank's self-managed work team? A) Hank's team members developed multiple blueprints of the device, which were thoroughly discussed, improvised, and synthesized into the final plan for the product. B) In the first few weeks of the project, Hank had witnessed a moderate level of conflict between the team members as each one had his own idea about how best to go about this high-priority project. C) The device was later marketed as a part of a national level tie-up with E-store outlets and did remarkably well in its second stint in the market. D) In Hank's team, the members took accountability for the group's performance as a whole and reported their individual progress to him as well. E) Hank's team used e-mail and instant messaging to communicate unique information when some of the team members were not available for face-to-face interactions.

Q: While discussing their marketing campaign for a new product, the members of the cross-functional team responsible for Carver Inc. realized that a couple of changes relating to their prior plan would be beneficial. The offer of a franchising that had earlier been brushed off by the company head was discussed thoroughly, and it was decided that it would be implemented on a trial basis initially and on full scale if found to work well. From the information provided, it can be concluded that this cross-functional team has a high degree of ________. A) demography B) reflexivity C) conformity D) diversity E) uncertainty

Q: A team that has a good plan but is also willing to adjust its master plan and adapt when conditions call for it demonstrates high ________, an important variable in successful team processes. A) goal specificity B) goal congruency C) conformity D) diversity E) reflexivity

Q: Gerald Murphy is a manager at Wright & Wayner, a publishing house which is a very employee-friendly company. The demarcation between managers and subordinates is flexible and the nature of these reporting relationships is flexible and informal. Gerald recently assigned five of eight of his subordinates to work on a new publication project with a fairly tight deadline because he believed that these efficient employees would function even better with each other's support. A week before the deadline, however, Gerald realized that the group had been shirking work as each of the members thought that the project was not just his or her responsibility. Additionally, under the guise of working together, the team was actually doing their personal work, surfing the Internet, or just socializing. This scenario reflects ________. A) gainsharing B) high process gains C) reflexive goal-setting D) job sharing E) social loafing

Q: ________ illustrates a process loss from using teams. A) Organizational demography B) Role conflict C) Social loafing D) Multitasking E) Profit-sharing

Q: Which of the following statements is true with regard to team processes? A) This category comprises variables that relate to how teams should be staffed. B) Effective teams invest time and effort to discuss and agree on a purpose that belongs to them both collectively and individually. C) Once a specific goal is chosen, effective teams resist making any changes in them so as to maintain the momentum of the team. D) Effective teams do not engage in task and relationship conflicts. E) Effective teams begin by selecting the right kind of people to be members of the team.

Q: Which of the following statements represents a strategy that is desirable for making effective teams? A) Combining people with extremely high and extremely low abilities helps make a balanced team. B) Individuals should ideally have one role in a team as multiple roles reduce their effectiveness and efficiency. C) Diversity should be avoided as diverse teams involve a lot of conflict in day-to-day functioning. D) If a natural work unit is larger, its size must be maintained for the nature of the job requires large teams. E) The preference of individual members to work as a part of groups must be considered when forming teams.