Question | Answer |
Work group | A collection of three or more people who must interact and influence each other to solve problems and to accomplish a common purpose |
Group goal | A future state of affairs desired by enough members of the group to motivate the group to work toward its achievement |
Specific goal | A precisely stated, measurable, and behavioral goal |
Consistent goals | Complementary goals: achieving one goal does not prevent the achievement of another |
Challenging goals | Goals that require hard work and team effort; they motivate group members to do things beyond what they might normally accomplish |
Acceptable goals | Goals to which members feel personally committed. |
Homogeneous group | Group in which members have a great deal of similarity |
Heterogeneous group | Group in which various demographics, levels of knowledge, attitudes, and interests are represented |
Cohesiveness | The degree of attraction members have to each other and to the group’s goal |
Team building activities | Activities designed to help the group work better together |
Norms | Expectations for the way group members will behave while in the group |
Ground rules | Prescribed behaviors designed to help the group meet its goals and conduct its conversations |
Synergy | A commonality of purpose and a complementariness of each other’s efforts that produces a group outcome greater than an individual outcome |
Face-to-face meeting | A meeting in which all members come together in one physical location to make a decision or solve a problem |
Virtual meeting | A meeting in which people in various locations use technology to work together on a decision or problem |
Forming | The initial stage of group development during which people come to feel valued and accepted so that they identify with the group |
Storming | The stage of group development during which the group clarifies its goals and determines the roles each member will have in the group power structure |
Groupthink | A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressure |
Norming | The stage of group development during which the group solidifies its rules for behavior, especially those that relate to how conflict will be managed |
Performing | The stage of group development when the skills, knowledge and abilities of all members are combined to overcome obstacles and meet goals successfully |
Adjourning | The stage of group development in which members assign meaning to what they have done and determine how to end or maintain interpersonal relations they have developed |
Question of fact | Questions concerned with discovering what is true or to what extent something is true |
Questions of value | Questions that concern subjective judgments of what is right, moral , good or just |
Questions of policy | Questions that concern what courses of action should be taken or what rules should be adopted to solve a problem |
Brainstorming | An uncritical, non-evaluative process of generating associated ideas |
Decision making | The process of choosing among alternatives |