final practice questions

• According to the leadership grid approach, the ideal manager has a ________ rating on the leadership grid.

9,9

• If you want your employees to resolve conflict cooperatively, what would you try to influence or create?

Agreeable conflict management norms

• Political behaviors are enhanced by ________________

Ambiguous roles and goals, centralization, and complexity

• In Duncan's company, the sudden departure of 5 top managers spurs the CEO to massively reorganize the hierarchical structure. Why is this not an example of organization development?

Because the change wasn't planned

• Patrice is Bert's supervisor. Bert often knows things Patrice's other subordinates don't, and he gets the lion's share of special, more autonomous duties. According to the LMX model, which of the following is also likely to be true?

Bert gets more support from Patrice than Patices other subordinates do

• Intranets that are rarely updated can reflect a culture that ___________________.

Does not value employee contributions, has poor internal contributions, and has poor attention to detail

T or F: In general, the degree to which a given employee acts politically is not influenced by her perception of the organization's culture.

False- employees who see others getting ahead via politics will being to behave more politically themselves

• Strategic leadership emphasizes the ability to lead change as its central focus.

False- this describes transformational leadership

• For a manager who is unable to create an organizational culture, what is the central cultural issue the manager faces?

How to best use the existing cultural system

• As the team leader you are trying to decide how much decision influence to allow your subordinates. Which leadership theory should you apply?

Tannenbaum & Schmidt's leadership continuum

• If you are working in a consulting company and need to form short-term cross-functional and cross-level project teams to serve client needs, what type of organizational structure should you use?

a lattice structure

• The purpose of ____________ is not to assign credit or blame, but to identify the circumstances that led to successful and less successful outcomes to enable learning.

after action review

• A ______________ conflict culture is passive and agreeable

avoidant

• Why does persuasion get people to do things differently?

because they want to

• If, after reflecting on the nature of leadership you decide that all leaders must treat their followers with respect, then you have identified a ___________ leadership model.

behavioral

• Which of the following recommendations would NOT help someone to be more persuasive?

being with a hard sell

befriending powerful others or starting small subgroups to promote specific aims

building coalitions

• You ask a colleague to support your effort to convince the boss to adopt your design for the new product rather than a rival coworker's design. Which political tactic is this an example of?

building coalitions

• Compared to the human resource department, you believe that your production unit is better able to influence high-level decisions. What type of power are you considering?

centrality

• Which of the following involves engaging the help of others to persuade someone to do something?

coalition tactics

• A ______________ conflict culture is active and agreeable

collaborative

• Sometimes an interaction doesn't go right between employees. If they are upset, then you get them together and work it out in a teamwork approach. What are you reinforcing?

collaborative conflict culture

• A ____________ is a group of people whose shared expertise and interest in a joint enterprise informally binds them together.

communities of practice

• You recently joined a company sponsored _____________ that allows other employees with expertise serving similar clients to share their knowledge and insights with each other.

community of practice

• After your coworker asks if she can format a project differently from what your boss wanted, you say, "Do whatever you want—I won't get in your way." You exhibited the ____________ response to an influence attempt.

compliance

• When your boss says, "Can I get your advice about these different vendors we're evaluating?" she is using the _____________ influence tactic.

consultation

• Which influence tactic involves requesting someone's advice to solve a problem or mutually setting goals to increase a follower's commitment to the leader's decision?

consultation

• Which influence tactic would be best to use in a country with strong democratic traditions, rather than in a country in which obedience to leaders is a strongly held cultural value?

consultation

trying to influence decisions before they are made

controlling decision parameters

• You try to get your team to agree that whatever decision is made about the new team workflow must improve productivity by at least 10%. Which political tactic is this an example of?

controlling decision parameters

restricting information to certain people

controlling information

• You share advance information about the company's upcoming budget with only your two most trusted colleagues. Which political tactic is this an example of?

controlling information

establishing gatekeepers to restrict access to certain information

controlling lines of communication

to ensure only certain topics are discussed

controlling the agenda

• When a colleague wants to introduce a topic in a meeting that is not on the agenda, you state that per the group's rules it should be put on the next meeting's agenda if it is to be brought up to the group. Which political tactic is this an example of?

controlling the agenda

• ___________ are permanent task forces created to address specific problems or recurring needs.

cross-functional teams

• If your organization performs nonroutine tasks in a complex environment and you wanted to empower the managers closest to the environment to make decisions and quickly implement them, which type of organizational structure would you likely choose?

decentralization

• After the restructuring, there are twenty fewer job titles in your organization. What does this reflect?

division of labor

• The ________________ in an organization is reflected by the number of job titles in the company.

division of labor

• A ______________ conflict culture is active and disagreeable

dominating

may even mean getting them promoted so they are out of the way

eliminating political rivals

• __________ are values and norms that employees exhibit based on their observations of what actually goes on in the organization.

enacted values and norms

___________ are the preferred values and norms explicitly stated by the organization.

espoused values and norms

• Which of the following involves offering something of value now or in the future as recompense for someone's cooperation?

exchange

T or F: Anyone who controls critical resources that cannot be secured elsewhere is an unlikely target of political influence tactics.

false

T or F: Political behaviors are reduced by organizational factors including scarce resources and ambiguous roles.

false

T or F: • According to Vroom's decision tree approach, one decision-making process is best for all situations.

false

T or F: • Anyone who controls critical resources that cannot be secured elsewhere is an unlikely target of political influence tactics.

false

T or F: • Political behaviors are most likely to occur when there is a reasonably low degree of ambiguity or uncertainty in the work environment.

false

T or F: • Political behaviors are reduced by organizational factors including scarce resources and ambiguous roles.

false

t or f: • All firms have cultural values consistent with high performance

false

t or f: • Organizational socialization typically changes employees' values.

false

• Because _____________ increases job and role clarity, it can increase employee commitment.

formalization

leaking info, getting only friends to provide feedback, etc.

game playing

• When your boss asks you to get feedback from at least three coworkers about your new product idea, you ask your three closest friends. Which political tactic is this an example of?

game playing

• Larger organizations tend to have ________ specialization and departmentalization and ______ rules than do smaller firms.

greater, more

Individuals' efforts to initiate change frequently fail when they run counter to the group's norms. The usual explanation for such failures is

group inertia

• Sarah's boss implements a new policy for filling out TPR reports. When Sarah follows this new policy, the recipients of the reports complain that the old way was better. They urge Sarah to ignore her boss, who never sees the TPR reports anyways. Sarah agrees. This is an example of ________

group inertia

• When you tried to change how you did your job, your coworkers interfered with your effort and made it impossible to do things differently.

group inertia

• Sexual ___________ refers to unwanted sexual advances, requests, communication, or contact with the threat of punishment for noncompliance.

harassment

• Situations with implicit plans and goals and a malleable reward structure require a ______ degree of leadership.

high

• Top managers are increasingly responsible for maintaining high ethical standards for their own conduct, unfailingly exhibiting ethical behavior, and _________________________

holding others in their organizations to the same standrads

enlisting "spin doctors" to project a desirable image

image building

• Which of the following political tactics involves enlisting "spin doctors" to project a desirable image?

image building

• _________ refers to the process of portraying a desired image or attitude to control the impression others form of us.

impression management

• Individuals who perceive themselves as __________ rewarded relative to others who engage in organizational politics may begin engaging in political behaviors to increase their own rewards.

inequitably

• If you have high referent power, which upward influence tactic should you use?

ingratiation

• Two impression management techniques in particular tend to work well in job interviews. One is self-promotion. What is the other?

ingratiation

• Which influence tactic involves appealing to someone's aspirations, values, and ideals to gain his or her commitment?

inspirational appeals

• If you want to be an effective politician at work, you must effectively influence others through persuasion, by generating support, and _______________.

inspiring trust

• Your departments power is derived from one of two things. The first is its strategic power. What is the other source of your departments power?

its control of resources

Employees in your isolated regional sales office don't see directives from headquarters regarding a cumbersome change in reporting procedures for expense accounts and continue the current practice as long as possible. Why did they resist the change?

lack of awareness

• Maja was not paying attention during the meeting in which the new customer service process was explained because she was talking to a friend. Maja did not exhibit the new customer service behaviors during her next shift. Maja resisted the customer service process change due to

lack of awareness

W. L. Gore, the maker of Gore-Tex , has a ___________ structure.

lattice

• Fiedler believed that everyone's least preferred coworker is likely to be equally "unpleasant," and that differences in our descriptions of them actually reflect differences in what?

leaders personality traits

• Which of the following involves bolstering one's authority by referring to rules, precedents, or official documents?

legitimating tactics

• You just promoted Mona to be an assistant manager. This is the first time that Mona will manage other people. What type of intervention should you do to help Mona adjust to her new role and be most effective?

management development

• __________ make up an outer layer of organizational culture.

marketing strategies

• When employees report to both a project or product team and to a functional manager they are working in a __________ structure.

matrix

• If your firm's environment is stable, what type of structure would you likely choose?

mechanistic organization structure

• Narrow spans of control are _____ costly and provide ______ supervision and coaching.

more, more

• When companies are first founded, they typically have a(n) _________ structure.

organic

• What term refers to a diagram of the chain of command and reporting relationships in a company?

organizational chart

If you wanted to change aspects of your company's culture and structure to better execute your strategy, what should you attend to?

organizational design

• A system-wide example of this is total quality management.

organizational development program

• ____________ refers to social influence attempts directed at those who can provide rewards that will help promote or protect the self-interests of the actor.

organizational politics

• ____________ is the core of what coordinates, controls, and motivates employees to cooperate toward the attainment of organizational goals.

organizational structure

• You are frustrated at work because you feel that your supervisor only assigns you the mundane tasks and that you receive less support from her than do your teammates.

out-group

• Leaders who are coaches contrast leaders who are _______

overseers

A ______________ conflict culture is passive and disagreeable

passive aggressive

• The silent treatment is most common within _________ conflict cultures.

passive aggressive

Because of the strong bureaucracy in your organization you try to avoid participating in conflict-related discussions and avoid interacting with coworkers when a conflict is possible. What type of culture is this?

passive-aggressive conflict culture

As a leader, you try to affect your subordinates' performance by clarifying the behaviors that will lead to desired rewards for them. What leadership theory are you implementing?

path goal theory

• You believe that you can and should adapt your leadership style depending on the situation, and that your primary goal as a leader is to clarify what employees need to do to perform effectively and earn rewards that they value. What leadership theory should you apply?

path goal theory

• As a new leader you have decided to apply the path-goal theory in managing your staff. One of the two important personal characteristics of subordinates in this theory is locus of control. What is the other important personal characteristic that you should consider?

perceived ability

• Your coworker wants to go to a concert and asks you to take a last-minute shift for him "because we're friends". He is using the _____________ influence tactic.

personal appeal

avoiding conflict is a form of

political behavior

• If you are starting a new company and need employees to do a variety of things while you make most of the decisions yourself, you would use a ________________ organizational structure.

prebureaucratic

• What is the least effective influence tactic?

pressure

• David works for an organization that has instituted a program focused on providing a work environment in which employees can satisfy individual needs. Such programs are known as __________

quality of work life programs

• Coercive power is ___________ appropriate.

rarely

• Which influence tactic uses logic and facts to persuade someone?

rational persuasion

• Which of the following would be most likely to decrease the overall occurrence of politics within an organization?

reducing uncertainty

• Self-protective leadership includes ensuring the safety and security of the leader and the group, being self-centered and status conscious, and _________________

saving face

• People who are higher in which personality trait are more likely to engage in impression management behaviors?

self monitoring

• Lorena is your most assertive subordinate and often tries to negotiate with you and sell you on her ideas about how to do her job better. What upward influence style does Lorena use?

shotgun

• The process through which individuals become social beings is called ___________

socialization

You have ten direct reports. What does this reflect?

span of control

• Subordinates' need for direction and supervision most influences which aspect of organizational structure?

span of control

• Which of the following is NOT a good tip for managers who want to create the conditions that enable communities of practice to flourish?

start with something really big

• Research suggests that organization culture is understood and communicated through the use of ____________

stories and symbols

• A system-wide rearrangement of task division and authority and reporting relationships is known as ___________

structural change

• This type of change affects performance appraisal and rewards, decision-making, and communication and information-processing systems.

structural change

• The way in which task, reporting, and authority relationships interact as a system determines an organization's ______________

structure

• Because workgroups develop their own ___________ intranets build a common cultural foundation that can help unify employees in different units and locations around common company values.

subcultures

• When mobile phone manufactures added a camera to the phone, they engaged in __________

systems innovation

• Which upward influence style emphasizes reason and uses an average amount of influence?

tactician

• Your subordinate Jack tries to influence you through reason. What upward influence style does Jack use?

tactician

• If you want to anticipate the effects of the upcoming organizational change on your firm's culture you would

take a holistic view of the organization

• Changing how inputs are transformed into outputs.

technological change

• In applying the path-goal theory as a leader, you try to motivate your subordinates by helping them cope with environmental uncertainty created by task structure, the primary work group, and what else?

the formal authority system

• People who engage in impression management often take great care to do what?

to be perceived in a positive light

• If you wanted to improve your employees' skills on a new technology platform, what tool would you most likely use?

training

• What type of leadership is focused on routine, regimented activities?

transactional leadership

T or F: If a behavior is enacted specifically to advance one's own self-interests, then the individual is acting politically.

true

T or F: Managing politics is about managing power

true

T or F: Political skill involves having interpersonal influence and social astuteness.

true

T or F: • Conflict is at the core of organizational politics.

true

T or F: • Effectively influencing others through persuasion, generating support, and inspiring trust are the core of effective politics.

true

T or F: • Employees who exhibit compliance are following a leader's directions but are not exerting extraordinary effort to accomplish those directions.

true

T or F: • If a behavior is enacted specifically to advance one's own self-interests, then the individual is acting politically.

true

T or F: • Most managers are not in a position to create an organization culture.

true

T or F: • People generally use political behavior in an attempt to obtain and use power.

true

t or f: • Both reengineering and rethinking the organization are considered structural change.

true

t or f: • Changing from a traditional organization to a team-based organization is an example of an organization culture change.

true

t or f: • Employees who contribute to an organizational change in any way should be rewarded.

true

t or f: • In the absence of information, the gap may be filled with inappropriate or false information, which may endanger the change process.

true

t or f: • Managers are most effective at implementing change when they consider all subsystems equally rather than restrict their focus to a small part of the organization. This is an example of a holistic view of change management.

true

t or f: • One key to enacting successful organization change is to start small.

true

t or f: • The most important organizational mechanism affecting the socialization of workers is the behavior they see experienced employees exhibit.

true

t or f: • The organizational culture and dominant coalition should be considered during a change effort as well as employees, tasks, structure, and information subsystems.

true

• If you find yourself working as a manager in a company with performance-reducing values, you should

try to change the organizations culture

• The phases of Lewin's change process go in which order?

unfreezing, change, refreezing

• What term refers to making informal or formal appeals to organizational superiors for intervention?

upward appeals

• You decide to hire the consulting firm that agrees to put your desired recommendations in their report regardless of its actual findings. Which political tactic is this an example of?

using outside experts

outside consultant may seem neutral, but is paid and directed by management to do their bidding

using outside exprets

• Your consulting company uses freelancing consultants and trainers build small or large teams as needed to work on projects. You have created a ________________

virtual organization