Communicating Effectively, Working in Groups and Teams
1. Peter is creating a report on measures his organization needs to take to achieve greater sustainability. As part of a persuasive approach, he should use _______ to demonstrate expertise. A. personal observations B. self-disclosure C. emotional appeals D. facts 2. The process of deciphering the meaning of a message is formally referred to as A. filtering. B. encoding. C. decoding. D. formatting. 3. The goal of counseling and coaching is to A. address work-related problems before they get worse. B. offer suggestions for working out personal problems. C. motivate an employee to seek another job outside of the organization. D. administer a reprimand. 4. Elizabeth can be counted on to question the direction in which the team is moving and offer an alternative that sounds a bit risky. Her team members respect her as a/an A. encourager. B. deviant. C. challenger. D. obstructer. 5. The process of transmitting information from one party to another is known as A. distortion. B. communication. C. decoding. D. semantics. 6. In many cases, organizations will assign a team to solve a problem when A. individual commitment isn't essential. B. time is limited. C. performance doesn't require multiple skill sets. D. the task is complex. 7. One of the disadvantages of team cohesion involves A. proposing solutions that involve some element of risk or uncertainty. B. tolerance of a certain level of conflict. C. shifting focus to the goals of the team rather than the organization. D. the development of strong norms and culture. 8. Making use of the _______ can help an active listener pause to reflect on what the other person is saying and try to find major themes or meanings in what is being communicated. A. impulse to respond immediately B. validation pause C. thinking-speaking differential D. verification opportunity 9. When approached by her employees, Barbara makes an effort to listen with _______, suspending her initial judgments and trying to see the issue from the other person's perspective. A. filters on B. filters off C. empathetic understanding D. reasonable doubt 10. Responsibility for establishing the overall mission of the organization usually falls on _______ teams. A. cross-functional B. top management C. project D. process-improvement 11. "I understand what you're saying, even though I don't agree," is a type of _______ statement that characterizes one of the elements of supportive communication. A. ownership B. bidirectional C. demeaning D. validating 12. One of the characteristics of an effective team is demonstrated by member's willingness to A. set and act upon a few immediate performance-oriented goals and tasks. B. put off developing rules of conduct geared toward achieving performance goals. C. devote little energy to spending time together to develop trust and rules of behavior. D. choose team members based on personality rather than skills. 13. In order to address concerns related to low levels of participation, _______ teams typically set expectations for future outputs and processes during their very first session. A. self-directed B. process-improvement C. virtual D. top management 14. _______ is defined as two or more people who interact in an organized manner to perform a task or activity to achieve a common goal. A. A team B. An organization C. A group D. Interdependence 15. _______ is a type of deviance that is tolerated because central norms are accepted, even though peripheral ones may not be observed. A. Social loafing B. Open revolution C. Creative individualism D. Subversive rebellion 16. During the _______ stage of development, a team begins to face a variety of conflicts and disagreements, and members need to determine whether to ignore them and carry on or deal with them openly, honestly, and directly. A. performing B. storming C. norming D. adjourning 17. Miranda works as a sales manager in a large household products company. One afternoon, her supervisor calls her into his office and confides that there's a position opening up in the organization's marketing research division that could really give her insight into the company's promotion and pricing strategy. Her manager's intention is to suggest that it would be great to have someone learn about the new targeting strategies the company is trying out and then come back and to help the sales department. What Miranda hears is that she's being pushed out of her job. This classic case of misunderstanding is referred to as A. distortion. B. communication. C. semantics. D. decoding. 18. A common misconception about self-directed teams is that A. they don't need leaders. B. some members may not want more responsibility than they already have. C. power is an expandable and flexible resource. D. team development requires considerable time and effort. 19. As a manager, Maria prefers face-to-face communication with the people she supervises, because she understands the _______ of traditional forms of communication. A. speed and efficiency B. lean media value C. impersonality D. symbolic value 20. Patrick appears to conform by abiding by peripheral team norms, like being sociable and showing up to meetings on time. But he doesn't accept the central norms of the team. This kind of _______ can go unnoticed by other team members, but over time it threatens the efficiency of the team. A. subversive rebellion B. conformity C. creative individualism D. open revolution
