KSA Requirements for Effective Teamwork Skills and Strategies

P ... met HAR RERA PROTERDAR .. ... AR C H .RS RRRRRRRRRR Appendix A DR . LAGAVAO.COM UM ---..------ ....... . m m VIP ....... . . .. . .......... .......... TUBICE The Knowledge, Skill, and Ability (KSA) Requirements for Teamwork I. Interpersonal KSA's a. Conflict Resolution KSA's 1 The KSA to recognize and encourage desirable, but discourage undesirable team conflict

The KSA to recognize the type and source of conflict confronting the team and implement an appropriate resolution strategy. 3 The KSA to employ an integrative (win-win) negotiation strategy rather than the traditional distributive (win-lost) strategy. b. Collaborative Problem Solving KSA's 4 The KSA to identify situations requiring participative group problem solving and to utilize the proper degree and type of participation 5 The KSA to recognize the obstacles to collaborative group problem solving and implement appropriate corrective actions C. Communication KSA's 6 The KSA to understand communication networks, and to utilize decentralized networks to enhance communication where possible The KSA to communicate openly and supportively, that is, to send messages which are (a) behavior- or event-oriented, (b) congruent, (c) validating, (d) conjunctive, and (e) owned 8 The KSA to listen non- evaluatively and to appropriately use active listening techniques 9 The KSA to maximize the consonance between nonverbal and verbal messages and to recognize and interpret the nonverbal messages or others 10 The KSA to engage in small talk and ritual greetings and a recognition of their importance II. Self-management KSA's d. Goal Setting and Performance Management KSA's 11 The KSA to help establish specific, challenging, and accepted team goals 12 The KSA to monitor, evaluate, and provide feedback on both overall team performance and individual team member performance e Planning and Task Coordination KSA'S 13 The KSA to coordinate and synchronize activities, information, and tasks between team members 14 The KSA to help establish task and role assignments for individual team members and ensure proper balance of workload

Note: From The Knowledge, Skill, and Ability Requirements for Teamwork Implications for Human Resource Management by MJ. Stevens and M.A. Campion, 1994, Journal of Management, 20, p. 505. 13 Your Employee ID No: Teamwork-KSA Test Instructions This test is designed to measure how you would react to situations in a team-oriented work environment. Please answer each question by circling the letters to the left of the alternatives. The example below illustrates the type of question and how to indicate your answers by circling them. Example The sharing of work-related information among team members is: A. something teams can do without. B. only important for deciding when to take breaks. CA not at all related to a team's productivity. very important to a team's success. mm Carefully read each question and all its possible alternatives before indicating your answer. Some alternatives may be partly correct, so you should read all the answers and select the one you think is best. Please read the instructions above. Do NOT open your booklet until instructed. Michael J. Stevens, Ph.D. Department of Marketing and Management University of Texas at El Paso El Paso, TX 79968 Copyright© 1993 Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce 1. When you set work goals for

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yourself or your work team, what are the best goals to set? Set goals to "do your best." Set general and broad goals. Set specific and detailed goals. Set easy and simple goals. (D D tot itt ( 2. How can members of a work team avoid wasting time in idle chit-chat? A. Only allow chit-chat during breaks or lunches. Develop an agreement among team members to avoid excessive chit-chat. . Reward those who do not waste time in idle chit-chat by giving them an award. Chit-chat is important and should never be avoided, because it helps develop team spirit and strong relationships among team members. 3. Suppose you are on a team that decides for itself which team members perform its various duties and assignments. Which of the following should be used in making your decision? A. We should consider the match between

each job's requirements and each employees' abilities. We should consider whether the workload is equally shared. We should consider the individual preferences of the team members. All of the above should be considered. Ove ATA WIL 4. Which of the following is most likely to improve the acceptance of a team's goals by all of the team members? A. Giving a strong message from management that the goals are essential and must be reached. Involving all the team members in the process used to set the goals. Making sure the goals are easy enough to guarantee they are met. D. Monitoring progress and giving timely and accurate feedback. AC le 5. A decision is being made about which people in a work area should be grouped together on a team. It is important to: A. always start by getting the supervisor's

opinion first. B. have everyone vote on the final assignments. consider how each person's work relates to the work others do. try different combinations until you find the one that works best. A k ( DU < 6. A team member is bothered about something. The best course of action for this person is to: A. hide his or her feelings and "deal with it," because this promotes the good of the group and maintains peace and harmony. talk privately to one or two team members who are sympathetic and willing to listen. constructively voice the concern and ask the group to consider ways to resolve it. D. pretend it doesn't exist and just go about his or her work. 7. You notice that another team member is pulling less than a full share of the team's load. You should: A. confront the person in a team meeting and ask for an explanation. Bi talk to the team member privately and encourage the rest of

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the team to do the same. ignore it for now and wait to see if the team member will "come around," because confronting someone like this usually creates more problems. speak to a supervisor or manager in private and ask them to talk to the person. TA Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce 8. Suppose that you find yourself in an argument with several co-workers about who should do a very disagreeable, but routine task. Which of the following would be the most effective way to resolve this situation? Have your supervisor decide, because this would avoid any personal bias. BArrange for a rotating schedule 90 everyone shares the chore. Let the workers who show up earliest choose on a first-come, first served basis. D. Randomly assign a person to do the task and don't change it. 9. Your work team must develop a solution to a very difficult problem for your company. You want to generate a good solution. To make sure that the process runs as smoothly as possible, you should: A. let those members with the greatest expertise on the problem develop the solution, because this would use your resources efficiently. begin by encouraging everyone to share

their ideas and suggestions in a noncritical atmosphere. use a strategy where you evaluate ideas as they are presented, because this will speed up the process. D. do all of the above. 10. Some experts suggest that work teams should involve all team members when making decisions by seeking advice and input from everyone. This is because greater involvement: A. usually reduces the time required to come up with a good decision. B. normally allows the team leader to shift the responsibility for the decision to others if things don't work out. typically increases the breadth and diversity of available information. helps keep pressures to conform to a minimum. V 11. Suppose that you wanted to improve the effectiveness of your work team. Which of the following strategies is most likely to help? A. Give the members more freedom to do their work by only setting general goals. Set specific and challenging goals. Set easy goals, to give a sense of accomplishment. Criticize members with the lowest productivity record. + t DE NK IS

4 . D 12. Suppose you are making copies of some training materials for your team. You need to make some decisions, such as what type of paper to use or whether to make single- or double-sided copies. Your team likes to involve everyone when making decisions on important matters. What should you do in this case? A. Wait and bring it up at the next team meeting. Try to contact as many team members as you can before you go ahead. Try to contact at least one other team member before you go ahead. Make the decision on the spot for the team and explain it later if asked. 13. You are running a team meeting. A lot of time seems to be wasted due to irrelevant conversations. You should: A prohibit any discussion not related to the purpose of the meeting. (B.) have a meeting agenda and stick to it. c. only let people speak who have something relevant to say. D. limit the time for the meeting. Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce ATA 14. Some people communicate with others by using a tone that suggests they are very certain and unwavering in their views or positions. If you communicated this way with your team members, you

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would likely: show that you are a confident decision maker. B. find that others are reluctant to open up to you. emerge as the informal leader of your work team. D. end up hurting other team members' feelings. bers your work to you. 15. You want to talk to the other members of your team about something important to you. However, you are worried that they might not react well to what you have to say. You should: A. start by suggesting that the message is from your supervisor or a manager. B. soften the message by saying up front that you are just stating your opinion, and that you are willing to change your mind. say that you believe your message is important and that you would like the team to listen to your concern. avoid bringing it up, because your concern may not be that important and may likely go away. 16. To listen more effectively to others, you should: A) pay attention to things like facial expression, voice tone, etc. B. ask

questions to see if others have understood what you just said. try to anticipate what the other person is going to say and where he or she is likely to head with the conversation. D. focus more on the specific words the other person is using. o 17. Your team members like to take some time to greet each other at the beginning of your shift, and make small talk with each other while working. This behavior: suggests that your team is not spending enough time focused on its work. can have positive benefits so long as it doesn't interfere with work. can sometimes hurt good working relationships among members of your team. D. both Band C are correct. 18. You have set a goal and started working on it. You should lower the goal: A. only if things change so that it's now impossible to reach the goal. B. if it turns out that the goal was set so high that reaching it will require a lot of effort. if it looks like the goal might not be reached, because this way you

can still reach the goal. you should never lower the goal, because this would lower commitment to goals in the future. Son 19. Suppose you are presented with the following types of goals. You are asked to pick one for your team to work on. Which would you choose? A. An easy goal so the team will be assured of reaching it, thus creating a feeling of success. B. A goal of average difficulty so the team will be somewhat challenged, but successful without too much effort. A difficult and challenging goal that will stretch the team to perform at a very high level, but attainable so that effort will not be seen as futile. A very difficult, or even impossible goal so that even if the team falls short, it will at least have a very high target to aim for. i t in mnnnnnnn a Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce 20. Your team has many activities that it must do. You must set some priorities to help you decide what to work on first. Which of the following questione would help

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you set these priorities? A. Ask which activities are the greatest threat to the team's, or the company's survival if they are not done? Ask what activities the company considers most important? If there are several things that need to be done right away, ask which will likely result in failure if left unattended? All of the above questions would help set priorities. cum mu 21. A successful work team must properly plan and coordinate all of its tasks and activities. Which of the following would most likely help a team do this planning and coordinating? A. The team should look at how things have been done in the past and use that as its guide. The team should consider the priorities, pacing, and sequencing of its tasks and activities. The only way a team can know how to plan and coordinate things is by trial-and-error. D. The team should do both A and C above,

22. Suppose that your work team is trying to develop a new strategy to improve the way it performs a certain task. Soon, your team has come up with several possible options. In order to choose the best new strategy, which of the following should your team consider? A. Our team should consider which new strategy is the most imaginative, because they are almost always the best. Our team should consider which members suggested each of the new strategies, because it should make sure that every team member has at least one suggestion adopted. Our team should consider how it defines success, and whether it faces any obstacles that might keep the new strategies from working. D. All of the above should be considered. f New St m WO 23. Suppose that you are having a problem with another member of your work team, and that the problem is based on a genuine disagreement (that is, it's not just a "miscomunication"). In the list below,

which would be the most appropriate way to begin to resolve this situation? Negotiate a solution that both of you are willing to accept. Ask questions to try and understand each other's position and look for solutions that both of you like. Offer to give something up to resolve the conflict if the other person is willing to do likewise, Allow each person to try and persuade the other, so long as it is done fairly and without personally attacking anyone. 1 D. 1 OD PT U QUER 24. How can you tell if a co-worker is not really expressing his or her true feelings or opinions when talling to you about something? A. By listening more attentively to what the person is saying. B. By directly confronting the person with your suspicions. By paying close attention to his or her

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body posture, facial expressions, and tone during the conversation. D. By privately talking to other team members to see if they know what is going on. M Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce 25. Work teams can often face problems when making decisions about how something should be done or who should do what. Which of the following is an example of this type of decision making problem? A. Important or powerful members of the team are usually too eager to go along with the rest of the team. The concern over properly sharing the workload can dominate other concerns like how the team can best reach its objectives. Members who are legs assertive will usually reject a bad decision, even when other team members might accept it. D. All of the above are examples of typical problems. theme with the powerf É m

26. Your work team is facing a problem and the team is pressed for time. A member of the team has just presented a solution that appears to be workable. Your team should: still take the time to evaluate the solution, even if it slows the process down. carry out the solution at once, because the time is short. vote on the solution and accept it only if it is approved by a majority of the team. D. do none of the above. ACC U 27. Which of the following statements is true about decisions made in a group versus decisions made individually? A. Groups tend to make less risky decisions than individuals. B Groups tend to make less cautious decisions than individuals. c. Groups tend to make decisions that are either more risky or more cautious than individuals, depending on the circumstances. D. Group decisions are no different from individual decisions in terms of Lisk OL caution. U OIL

V NEW no 1 28. You are concerned about a poor level of quality in the decisions that your work team is making. Which of the following symptoms would lead you to believe that the problem is due to the team's strong desire for harmony and conformity? A. The group seems to be too willing to listen to any new idea, no matter how odd it may be. B. When objections are raised, they are taken much too seriously and prevent the team from acting. Criticism is dismissed with ease and decisions are made without examining all the facts. D. Members of the group seem to raise a lot of objections and concerns, 29. If left without direction or guidance, most group discussions tend to: A. be a good way to spontaneously communicate new and unshared information. B. improve the quality of the group's decisions. bias individual group members into adopting decisions they would never adopt on their own. only share information that the group members already have in common and that

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supports existing preferences. 30. Your team wants to conduct a "brainstorming" session to generate some new ideas. Which of the recommendation(s) below should it follow? A. The process of generating ideas should be separated from the process of evaluating ideas, in order to encourage greater creativity. Every new idea should be adopted, developed, and supported by one team member so that "ownership" results, When the team meets in the "brainstorming" session, the meeting should not follow any sort of format or agenda. D. All of the above should be followed. B. Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce 31. What is the best kind of seating arrangement for a team meeting in order to encourage participation by all team members? A. The team leader should sit at the head of the table, with the members along both sides. Team members who have more to contribute should sit towards the front of the table. Everyone should be seated with no special distinctions among members. Seating arrangements really don't matter when it comes to meeting participation.

32. The ability of an individual to use an open and supportive communication style with others will be enhanced most by: (A) improving the quality of his or her personal relationships. B. positioning oneself properly in the communication network. learning the proper nonverbal communication techniques. D. paying attention to things like social standing within the group. 33. When speaking to someone about a problem, supportive communication would tend use messages that focus on: A. the person. B. the event. - C. the person's behavior. both B and C are correct. 34. Your team wants to improve the quality and flow of the conversations among its members. Your team should: A. set up a specific order for everyone to speak and then follow it. use comments that build upon and connect to what others have already said. let team members with more to say determine the direction and topic of conversation. D. do all of the above. 35. To become better communicators, many people try to pay close attention to their own nonverbal messages (for example, use good eye contact, stand closer to the other person, etc.). Which of the following statements about these nonverbal messages is most correct? A. To become a truly skilled communicator, you must learn to consciously

control and manipulate your nonverbal messages. If you strive to communicate openly and candidly with others, your nonverbal megsages will take care of themselves. Nonverbal messages communicate most of the meaning in a conversation, so you should constantly try to monitor them to be sure they are expressing what you want them to. D. Nonverbal messages don't matter -- they are unimportant to becoming a Omru DU 36. In your team meetings, everyone seems to always get distracted on problems that are not job-related. What should you do the next time this happens? A. Try to get the team back on track by suggesting that everyone focus more attention on the topic of the meeting. Try not to let it bother you, because this kind of "free expression" can lead to some very creative solutions. C. Let everyone have their say because it helps build team morale. D. Suggest that the meeting be adjourned since it's not going anywhere. B. Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce .. . . . .

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. . . . . der calls it e as emergency to the asal nie absence; 37. Your team leader calls in and you answer the phone. He states that he is taking the next three days off as emergency leave. You should: A wish him well and pass the message on to the assistant team leader. B. reassure him that everything will be fine during his absence. c. take responsibility to manage things since you are the one who took the message. F OUL supervisor will know what to do. On Cause eme FI 03 te mat and 38. Because of scheduling conflicts, you are unable to meet some important personal obligations. Although it's not your turn, you

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could fix your problem by switching to a later shift. You should respond by: A) asking the team to understand how you need to switch for personal reasons. just working your regular schedule and making no mention about your situation because that's the only fair thing to do, trying to get rescheduled by going to the shift manager. asking the team leader to make an exception for you without telling the others because they might get upset. a an EX SV 39. During a break, a team member starts telling you about a conflict he's having with another team member. You can tell he's very bothered about it: A. so you listen attentively and nod in agreement with whatever he says. B. but you stop the conversation anyway since you can tell he's going to start revealing some very personal information. so you suggest that a conversation with both parties would be more productive. but you suggest he wait and share it with the team leader since that's the team leader's job.

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40. In your last team meeting, a disagreement came up over who is working the most without getting any recognition. Since you were running out of time, the team leader postponed the discussion for later. Now, you are coming to the end of your next team meeting but the team leader has forgotten to bring it up. You should: (A) remind the team about it and ask them to address the disagreement. B. ask your team leader if he has forgotten about the disagreement. raise the topic again, but make it seem like a new issue. D. wait to see if the problem goes away because team members should worry more about contributing than in getting personal recognition. 1t 30 D Copyrighted Material Please Do Not Reproduce

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