Exam 3a questions from students

Here are some recent questions from students with my replies included.

Q: 
I was wondering if you could answer two questions for me. They are related
to the University of Michigan hospital studies and IDEO. ...What are the most important things I should
know about the two topics?
 
A: Regarding the UM case, remember what they were faced with (resistance, etc.), how they implemented the program (e.g., TQM and the groups' levels of autonomy), and what the outcomes were.

The aspects of IDEO's "deep dive" decision processes, which I mentioned in the digital audio exam reviews posted today, are most of what you'll need to review for exams 3a/3b.


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Q: What do you mean by know the functions of groups and teams? Also i want to make sure that we don't need to know about social loafing and How to build and maintain trust? 

A: The functions of teams center on how they function and what they do, especially what they can do well.  Though I didn’t single out either of those other topics, I’m not  guaranteeing they’re completely absent from the exam. …mf

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Q: Looking back at my notes I seem to miss what a semi-autonomous work group is and self designing team is could you please explain what they are again or if not where i might find the answer. 

A:

self-designing team	team that has the characteristics of self-managing teams but that also controls team design, work tasks, and team membership
self-managing team	team that manages and controls all the major tasks of producing a product or service
semi-autonomous work group ---------------	group that has the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to some tasks associated with producing a product or service

Q: First, in the ethics session, the shareholder theory is the same as the
agency theory(by friedman)? if so, what does it support? And what is the
difference with the stakeholder theory by Freeman?

A:Agency theory is defined in the slide I put up in class...along with several that were in your session 24 set of review slides. You can get a fuller definition from it online if you like--here, for example (considering the manager as "broker" and the shareholder as "client"):


I used AT in reference to the shareholder view, just to point out how it addresses the fact that managers' interests sometimes diverge from those of owners. You won't have to deal on these exams with the complicated relationship between AT and the stakeholder view.

Also, from the leadership session, do we need to know characteristics of
each contingency factor from the goal trait theory(for example
achievement-oriented,work facilitation etc)or just know the general
research findings and managerial implications?

All you need to know about contingency theory is the topics I discussed in class, which are also in your slides. (Of course, you may need to review the chapter to fully understand those aspects--which DON'T include any full analysis of the goal trait theory you note in your question.)
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http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Agency+Theory