Discussion Questions

Review Questions

1.  

2. Explain why modern organizations depend heavily on team efforts.

3. Define a team, and give examples.

4. Distinguish between formal and informal workgroups.

5. Define and discuss the five stages of group development.

6. Identify and discuss the key dimensions that affect work group effectiveness.

7. Describe the attributes of an effective group. Provide examples from your own experience or from an organization that you have read about in recent publications.

Discuss Questions

1. Have you ever violated group norm? Discuss your behavior and the group’s reaction?

2. Describe an effective and an ineffective group in which you have been a member. What role(s) did you play? What status did you have in the group? How cohesive was the group? What could you have done to make the group more effective?

3. What is the difference between a collection of individuals and a group? Who is a “group” of people waiting in line to see a movie not really a group?

4. Identify the stages of group development described in the text and apply them to any group to which you belong do all the stages apply?

5. Give examples demonstrating how norms, roles, and status operate within any groups to which you may belong

6. Imagine that you are about to go on stage to give a solo piano recital. How would the phenomenon of social facilitation account for your performance?

7. Describe an incident of social loafing in which you may have been involved (e.g., a class project). What might be done to overcome this effect?

8. What makes a team a special from of group? Is a baseball team really a team or is just a group?

9. Based on the evidence regarding the effectiveness of teams, would you say that the popularity of team today is well founded?

Suppose you were to compose a work team in your organization. What potential pitfalls would you expect? What might you be able to do to help make that team pogrom at high levels?