________ activities refer to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace.
- Social loafing
- Task coordinator
- Action learning
- Scout
- Ambassador
Scout activities refer to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace. A marketing team member who meets with an engineer to seek information about new materials is engaging in scout activities.
Team: Two or more people who work interdependently over some time period to accomplish common goals related to some task-oriented purpose.
________ activities involve communications that are intended to smooth the performance of work with people or groups in other functional areas.
- Groupthink
- Scout
- Social loafing
- Ambassador
- Task coordinator
Task coordinator activities involve communications that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas. For example, a member of the team might meet with someone from manufacturing to work out how a coupon might be integrated into the product packaging materials.
Task Coordinator Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas.
Leslie, a marketing manager at the Sunshine Spa, is consulting with Tess, a dermatologist at the spa, to explore the possibility of incorporating certain treatments as part of the spa's package schemes. Leslie is engaging in a(n) ________ activity of the boundary-spanning process.
- action learning
- ambassador
- task coordinator
- scout
- staff validity
Task coordinator activities involve communications that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas.
Task Coordinator Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas.
Which of the following is an example of an ambassador activity?
- Mimi, a grocery cashier at Fine Fresh Foods, requests a more regular, fixed work schedule so that she can better plan childcare for her three children.
- Sylvester, a delivery driver for Worldwide Package Express, collaborates with other drivers working the same shift on ways to improve efficiency and reduce fuel costs.
- Xavier, a waiter at the El Matador Steakhouse chain, takes night classes to learn software programming in the hopes of getting job at the company's corporate headquarters.
- Gypsy, a member of the sales team, approaches the VP of sales about the possibility of hiring a temp to help with menial tasks that are bogging the team down and impeding its progress.
- Bethany, a call center manager, implements a new policy that allows the top five customer service representatives with the most number of calls per week to take the following Monday off.
Ambassador activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. Members who engage in ambassador activities typically communicate with people who are higher up in the organization.
Ambassador Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team.
Matt, a training coordinator at ARC Technologies, and his team are organizing a workshop for the employees. Matt is meeting the vice president of finance to get support for an increase in the budget to accommodate a session by a well-known motivational speaker. Matt, in this case, is performing a(n) ________ activity of the boundary-spanning process.
- groupthink
- social loafing
- scout
- action learning
- ambassador
Ambassador activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. Members who engage in ambassador activities typically communicate with people who are higher up in the organization.
Ambassador Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team.
While performing the boundary-spanning process, members who engage in ambassador activities typically communicate with
- people who are in high positions in the organization.
- vendors and distributors of competitors.
- front-line production supervisors in the industry.
- their subordinates in the organization.
- the customers of the organization.
Ambassador activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. Members who engage in ambassador activities typically communicate with people who are higher up in the organization.
Ambassador Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team.
Noah, a services manager at the Feel Well Health Clinic, consults an alternative medicine specialist to see if it is feasible to incorporate certain treatments as part of the clinic's services. Noah is performing a(n) ________ activity of the boundary spanning process.
- action learning
- scout
- groupthink
- ambassador
- staff validity
Scout activities refer to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace. A marketing team member who meets with an engineer to seek information about new materials is engaging in scout activities.
Boundary Spanning: Interactions among team members and individuals and groups who are not part of the team.
________ activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team.
- Systems monitoring
- Task coordinator
- Ambassador
- Scout
- Groupthink
Ambassador activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. Members who engage in ambassador activities typically communicate with people who are higher up in the organization.
In a boundary-spanning process, the marketing team member who meets with an engineer to seek information about new materials is engaging in
- groupthink activities.
- decision informity activities.
- social loafing activities.
- action processes.
- scout activities.
Scout activities refer to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace. A marketing team member who meets with an engineer to seek information about new materials is engaging in scout activities.
Scout Activities: Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace.
Rebecca and her students from the drama class have been asked to conduct a play to raise funds for the school library. To make the play a success, Rebecca consults and enlists the help of the headmaster and senior teachers, while her students meet a few theater artists. They also consult a costume designer and a dance choreographer who have agreed to help the team with the play. Such activities involving individuals and groups who are not part of the team are termed as
- social loafing.
- nominal group technique.
- staff validity.
- boundary spanning.
- hierarchical sensitivity.
Boundary spanning involves activities with individuals and groups other than those who are considered part of the team. This type of task work process involves communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. It also includes communications that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas as well as obtaining information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace.
Boundary Spanning: Interactions among team members and individuals and groups who are not part of the team.
Silas, Jerome, and Sasha are members of the marketing team at Widget Innovations, Inc. (WII), and are responsible for generating ideas for new marketing strategies. Silas has done a phenomenal job in gathering information necessary to help the team understand the desires and needs of the client. All things being equal, Sasha has the best record of making good recommendations to Alvaro, the vice president of marketing. Jerome can make some good recommendations, but sometimes his recommendations are completely off base. Usually, Alvaro pays careful attention to what Sasha has to say, but he generally does not pay much attention to what Jerome proposes. In addition to Alvaro, Sasha has been meeting with the vice president of operations and other members of the executive team to gain support for their request to increase the marketing budget. Sasha is engaging in which of the boundary-spanning processes?
- coordination
- scout activity
- task coordinator
- systems monitoring
- ambassador activity
Ambassador activities refer to communications that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team. Sasha has been meeting with the vice president of operations and other members of the executive team to gain support for their request to increase the marketing budget.
Which of the following activities are boundary-spanning activities?
- groupthink, social loafing, and staff validity
- decision informity, staff validity, and hierarchical sensitivity
- transactive memory, transformative memory, and social loafing
- ambassador, task coordinator, and scout
- decision informity, social loafing, and transactive memory
Boundary spanning involves three types of activities with individuals and groups other than those who are considered part of the team. These activities include ambassador activities, task coordinator activities, and scout activities.
Boundary Spanning: Interactions among team members and individuals and groups who are not part of the team.
Spiros is a member of the production design team on a science fiction film called The Future Begins Yesterday. It is a big budget production and is already behind schedule due to weather delays. Spiros and two other team members, Juanita and Alex, are tasked with finding futuristic background props for a scene in which the hero and his nemesis have a huge fight. Spiros, while glad to have landed his first job in the film industry, earns more money from posting videos offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of the set online. To that end, he sneaks back to the team's trailer as often as he can to post new material. This means that the set decorations the team was supposed to source are not yet complete, and the scene cannot be filmed at the scheduled time. The set design supervisor, Marsha, observes Juanita and Alex arguing with Spiros about holding up his end of the group effort. Marsha hears Spiros telling them that they are much better at finding props than he is, so they do not really need his help. Marsha sees a lot of potential in Spiros, but she is unhappy with the fact that he is not contributing as much as he should and is holding up the production as a result. Given what you know about process loss, how should Marsha address Spiros' behavior?
- transfer Spiros to the front office where he will not have direct access to the set
- require employees to check in their cell phones and laptops when arriving on set
- make Spiros responsible for sourcing wall hangings and window treatments only
- demand that Juanita and Alex address Spiros' shortcomings however they see fit
- fire Spiros from the production since he is not capable of working in a team environment
Members of teams can work together on projects over an extended period of time, and as a consequence, it's difficult to keep an accurate accounting of who does what. Similarly, members contribute to their team in many different ways, and contributions of some members may be less obvious than the contributions of others. Regardless of the reasons for it, uncertainty regarding "who contributes what" results in team members feeling less accountable for team outcomes. Those feelings of reduced accountability, in turn, cause members to exert less effort when working on team tasks than they would if they worked alone on those same tasks. This phenomenon is called social loafing, and it can significantly hinder a team's effectiveness. Making members' task more discrete and identifiable, such as by making Spiros responsible for sourcing wall hangings and window treatments, can help counteract the feelings that lead to social loafing.
Process Loss: When team outcomes are less than expected based on the capabilities of the individual members.