Exam 8: Team Dynamics

As team leader, you discover that a competitor is about to develop a similar product that your group is currently developing. What is most likely to happen if you tell your team members about this external threat?

You have been given the unique opportunity to develop a ''greenfield'' site for a new production facility. A greenfield site means that the entire operation is new, including employees, structure, and practices. You want to ensure that the new plant supports self-directed work teams, unlike other company facilities which mainly focus on individual performance. Describe four different elements of the organizational and team environment that you need to consider that influence team effectiveness.

One way to change team norms in existing teams is to explicitly discuss the counterproductive norms with team members using persuasive communication strategies.

Teams are most effective when their members

Research on brainwriting suggests that it produces more and better quality ideas than brainstorming.

The shift from production to knowledge-based work has resulted in fewer virtual teams than in the past.

The first three stages of team development in sequential order are

The norming stage of team development is marked by interpersonal conflict as team members compete for leadership and other positions on the team.

Calculus-based trust is the best form of trust to have in virtual teams.

Which of the following is NOT identified as type of team boundary spanning?

Which of these statements about self-directed work teams (SDTs) is TRUE?

The main advantage of brainwriting is that it

Process losses are the resources expended to develop and maintain an effective team.

Self-directed work teams are typically responsible for a specialized skill, such as accounting or maintenance.

Norms are the informal rules and standards established by a team to regulate the behaviour of its members.

Diverse teams have fault lines that may split the team into subgroups along gender, ethnic, or other dimensions.

To maximize cohesiveness, the team should be as small as possible without jeopardizing its ability to accomplish the task.

Students experience pooled interdependence when they are lined up at the laser printers trying to get their assignments done just before a class deadline.

Most team building interventions try to

Members of SDTs have jobs that are