Three Great Teams

A team is defined as a group of two or more people who work interdependently over a period of time to accomplish common goals related to a task$-$oriented purpose. Fortune magazine reported on the top work teams that have changed businesses forever. These teams have both differences and similarities.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

Thomas Edison's Lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey $($circa $1870)$

Thomas Edison employed a team of four inventors$-$an English machinist, $7$ S S wiss clockmaker, a German glassblower, and an American mathematician. Edison and his team designed the first electric lightbulb to burn $14$ hours in $1879,$ among many other groundbreaking inventions. Edison was not a typical boss but enjoyed working as a team and getting into the work alongside the team members. One member even said it was strange to be paid on Saturdays because it "does not seem like work."

$2.$ America's first mass$-$developed suburb, Levittown, New York $($circa $1950)$

The Levitt family business built $17,500$ homes in the developed community within three years. The precise, assembly$-$line work consisted of small teams who proceeded in clockwork movements to build houses at a previously unseen speed. The process from foundation to framers to painters to electricians to completion was impressive. Demand was high for affordable homes for veterans and sales were impressive. On one day in $1949,650$ houses were sold in five hours.

$3.$ Lockheed's Skunk Works $(1943$ to present$)$

The Skunk Works home page describes this team best: "What do the world's first stealth aircraft, the world's most advanced fighters, and the world's fastest manned aircraft have in common? They were all imagined by 'Skunks'$-$some of the mnct innovative ctratonir and vicinnan, thinkorc arnund" Kolly Inhnenn wac nivon normiccion to huild an oxnorimental

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Skunkworks appeared to have $$ task interdependence, while the Levittown builder seemed to have $q,$ task interdependence.

Multiple Choice

$$ comprehensive; sequential

ces

pooled; comprehensive

reciprocal; pooled

$$ sequential; reciprocal