Why do some groups succeed, and others fail? The characteristics of groups and teams have an important impact on their effectiveness. These same characteristics can create or reduce stress on team members. When supervisors are aware of these characteristics and understand their impact, supervisors are able to build better new groups and teams and are able to intervene in current groups and teams to improve their effectiveness by changing some of the characteristics.

Read each description and classify as the appropriate group characteristic. Roles Norms, Cohesiveness, Size, Homogeneity

1. Jeff is a team member on one team and a team leader in another group.

2. Jess has always been the person to lighten up the mood when others are upset, depressed, or involved in conflict.

3. Brandon is being pressured by other members of his group to quit telling jokes and stay on topic during meetings.

4. Yuchao is always on time to group meetings, finishes assigned work on time and up to the expected quality and is respectful of the others in the group. The other members of the group behave similarly.

5. Corina is in a group where the members each recognize that they are members of an elite group working on an important project.

6. Ahmed is on a team that has had a history of success achieving their goals.

7. Dongxue is in a group where members find it easy to reach quick decisions, do not need to rely on lots of rules, and even the quietest members participate in meetings.

8. Melanie is the leader of a group that consistently takes too much time to reach decisions. The solution is to divide the group into several subgroups.

9. Stephanie is currently working in a new company started by a group of individuals who all went to the same schools, came from the same social background, and are all about the same age.

10. Nick is the leader of a group made up of individuals from Brazil.