Chapter 5Working in Teams 179OBAT WORKScoring Key:
The authors of this instrument propose that it assesses team development behaviours in five areas: diagnosing team devel-
opment (items 1, 16); managing the forming stage (items 2–4); managing the storming stage (items 10–12, 14, 15); man-
aging the norming stage (items 6–9, 13); and managing the performing stage (items 5, 17, 18). Add up your score. Your
total score will range between 18 and 108.
Based on a norm group of 500 business students, the following can help estimate where you are relative to others:
95 or above = You are in the top quartile of being able to build and lead a team
72–94 = You are in the second quartile
6 0–7 1 = You are in the third quartile
Below 6 0 = You are in the bottom quartileSource:Adapted from D. A. Whetten and K. S. Cameron, Developing Management Skills,3rd ed. © 1995, pp. 534–535. Adapted by permission
of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.
BREAKOUT GROUPEXERCISES
Form small groups to discuss the following topics, as assigned by your instructor:
1 .One of the members of your team continually arrives late for meetings and does not turn drafts of assignments in
on time. In general this group member is engaging in social loafing. What can the members of your group do to
reduce social loafing?
2.Consider a team with which you’ve worked. Using the information in Exhibit 5-5, consider whether there were more
task-oriented or maintenance-oriented roles in the group. What impact did this have on the group’s performance?
3.Identify 4 or 5 norms that a team could put into place near the beginning of its life to help it function better over time.WORKING WITH OTHERS EXERCISE
The Paper Tower Exercise
Step 1 Each group will receive 20 index cards, 12 paper clips, and 2 marking pens. Groups have 10 minutes to
plan a paper tower that will be judged on the basis of 3 criteria: height, stability, and beauty. No physi-
cal work (building) is allowed during this planning period.
Step 2 Each group has 15 minutes for the actual construction of the paper tower.
Step 3 Each tower will be identified by a number assigned by your instructor. Each student is to individually
examine all the paper towers. Your group is then to come to a consensus as to which tower is the win-
ner (5 minutes). A spokesperson from your group should report its decision and the criteria the group
used in reaching it.
Step 4 In your small groups, discuss the following questions (your instructor may choose to have you discuss
only a subset of these questions):
a.What percentage of the plan did each member of your group contribute, on average?
b.Did your group have a leader? Why or why not?
c.How did the group generally respond to the ideas that were expressed during the planning period?
d.To what extent did your group follow the five-stage model of group development?
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