Management Test Bank Chapter 15

Which of the following is true for Gen Y workers?

They are knowledgeable and willing workers, but do not compromise on their personal lives.

A person who rates as being high in Machiavellianism would accomplish a task regardless of what it takes. T/F

True

Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. T/F

True

Cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility or inconsistency between attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. T/F

True

Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do. T/F

True

Extraversion is the degree to which someone is sociable, talkative, assertive, and comfortable in relationships with others. T/F

True

If a manager thinks that all attractive employees are also productive employees, the manager is committing an error based on a halo effect. T/F

True

Individuals with low self-esteem are more susceptible to external influence than are people with high self-esteem. T/F

True

Organizational citizenship behavior is discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee's formal job requirements. T/F

True

Research indicates that satisfied employees have lower levels of turnover while dissatisfied employees have higher levels of turnover. T/F

True

The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person. T/F

True

The influence that models have on an individual is partially determined by attentional processes. T/F

True

The component of attitude that includes beliefs and opinions is the ________ component.

cognitive

According to research, employees who have a high internal locus of control ________.

exhibit more satisfaction with their jobs than externals

A person who believes that what happens to him is due to luck or chance is said to have a(n) ________.

external locus of control

Eliminating any reinforcement that's maintaining an undesirable behavior is called ________.

extinction

The Big Five Model of personality includes ________.

extraversion

Organizational behavior is concerned only with group interactions. T/F

false

A test that Jake took at a career counseling session indicated that he preferred coordinated physical activity. He also turned out to be stable and conforming to expected standards. Which of the following occupations is likely to be a good match for Jake?

farmer

As a manager, if you prefer to have a harmonious work environment and dislike reprimanding your subordinates, you would probably score high on the ________ aspect of the MBTI®.

feeling

George, one of Doug's researchers, gets along well with most people in the team. He is good at his job but needs to be reassured once in a while. Another trait Doug notices is that George is always trying to keep everyone happy. George can be described as a(n) ________ personality.

feeling

Which of the following managerial styles will Gen Y workers approve of and respond to?

flexible

Underestimating the influence of external factors and overestimating the influence of internal factors when making judgments about others is known as the ________.

fundamental attribution error

Doug himself is purposeful and an excellent planner. One thing that his team admires him for is his ability to sift through a whole lot of information to extract precisely what is needed for a job at hand. He is also a quick decision maker. Which of the following personality types does Doug fit into?

judging

If you are a good planner and purposeful, you would probably score high on the ________ trait of MBTI®.

judging

Though clearly capable, Mary does not seem very confident of herself. She is always unsure of whether she can handle assignments that are difficult and as a result ends up choosing jobs that are fairly straight forward and involve routine work. She is also susceptible to evaluations from other people. Mary seems to have ________.

low self-esteem

Which of the following is true for satisfied employees with high organizational commitment?

lower rates of turnover and absenteeism

After watching a behavior in a social learning situation, a person can learn by performing the behavior. This is known as learning by ________.

motor reproduction

In the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), "sensing" personality types are those who ________.

have a high need for closure and show patience with routine details

People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs are said to have ________ personalities.

proactive

Andrew is social, friendly, and understanding, and prefers activities that involve helping and developing others. Which of the following occupations is a potentially good match for him?

teacher

In the Big Five Model of personality, conscientiousness refers to ________.

the degree to which someone is reliable, responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement oriented

________ is defined as the failure to report to work.

Absenteeism

In the statement, "The highway is very busy at 5 p.m., and is scary to drive on, so I'll wait until 7 p.m. to go home," the word "scary" represents which component of an attitude?

Affective

The ________ component of attitude is based on emotions.

Affective

Define attitudes. List and discuss the three components of attitudes and include an example of a statement that describes each component to support your answer.

Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—concerning objects, people, or events. They reflect how an individual feels about something. When a person says, "I like my job," he or she is expressing an attitude about work. The three components that make up attitudes are cognition, affect, and behavior. The cognitive component of an attitude is made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person. The belief that "discrimination is wrong" illustrates cognition. The affective component of an attitude is the emotional or feeling part of an attitude. This component would be reflected by the statement, "I don't like Jon because he discriminates against minorities." Finally, affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. For instance, "I might choose to avoid Jon because of my feelings about him" is an example of the behavioral component of an attitude.

________ theory explains how we judge people differently depending on what meaning we ascribe to a given behavior.

Attribution

In the statement, "The highway is very busy at 5 p.m. and is scary to drive on, so I'll wait until 7 p.m. to go home," the phrase, "so I'll wait until 7 p.m. to go home," represents which component of an attitude?

Behavioral

When someone chooses to act in a certain way, she is demonstrating the ________ component of her attitude.

Behavioral

The Unhappy Employee (Scenario)-Mary is not happy with her current job. She dislikes having to convince prospective customers to buy products that she believes are inferior to others in the market. In her opinion, the lower quality products are overpriced. However, she has sales targets for all products, superior or otherwise, that she must meet in order to receive her commission. Although Mary tries to meet the target sales for all products, she is torn between her beliefs and the actions she must take. This inconsistency or incompatibility is known as ________.

Cognitive Dissonance

Explain cognitive dissonance theory in brief.

Cognitive dissonance theory sought to explain the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility or inconsistency between attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. The theory argued that inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals will try to reduce the discomfort and thus, the dissonance. How people cope with cognitive dissonance depends on several factors. The theory proposed that how hard we'll try to reduce dissonance is determined by three things: (1) the importance of the factors creating the dissonance, (2) the degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over those factors, and (3) the rewards that may be involved in dissonance. If the factors creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant, the pressure to correct the inconsistency will be low. However, if those factors are important, individuals may change their behavior, conclude that the dissonant behavior isn't so important, change their attitude, or identify compatible factors that outweigh the dissonant ones. How much influence individuals believe they have over the factors also affects their reaction to the dissonance. If they perceive the dissonance is something about which they have no choice, they won't be receptive to attitude change or feel a need to do so. If, for example, the dissonance-producing behavior was required as a result of a manager's order, the pressure to reduce dissonance would be less than if the behavior had been performed voluntarily. Although dissonance exists, it can be rationalized and justified by the need to follow the manager's orders—that is, the person had no choice or control. Finally, rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce dissonance. Coupling high dissonance with high rewards tends to reduce the discomfort by motivating the individual to believe that there is consistency.

Which of the following is true of a person who believes that "the ends justify the means"?

He is likely to be high in Machiavellianism.

________ is a performance measure of both the efficiency and effectiveness of employees.

Employee productivity

Consensus refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. T/F

False

High self-monitors can't adjust their behavior and there's high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do. T/F

False

In the Big Five Model, emotional security was found to be positively related to job performance. T/F

False

Low levels of perceived organizational support lead to lower turnover. T/F

False

Operant behavior is reflexive or unlearned behavior. T/F

False

Perceived organizational support is the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals. T/F

False

There is enough evidence to support the validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a measure of personality. T/F

False

When we make judgments about the behavior of other people, we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and to overestimate the influence of internal factors. This tendency is called the self-serving bias. T/F

False

Describe the Big Five Model. List and discuss the five personality traits that are based on the Big Five Model of personality.

In recent years, research has shown that the five basic personality dimensions of the Big Five Model underlie all others and encompass most of the significant variation in human personality. The Big Five provide more than just a personality framework. Research has shown that important relationships exist between these personality dimensions and job performance. a. Extraversion—the degree to which someone is sociable, talkative, and assertive. b. Agreeableness—the degree to which someone is good-natured, cooperative, and trusting. c. Conscientiousness—the degree to which someone is responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement oriented. d. Emotional stability—the degree to which someone is calm, enthusiastic, and secure (positive) or tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative). e. Openness to experience—the degree to which someone is imaginative, artistically sensitive, and intellectual.

The degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job or actively participates in it refers to the employee's ________.

Job Involvement

Which of the following is true according to the MBTI®?

Judging types want control and prefer their world to be ordered.

An individual who is high in ________ is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.

Machiavellianism

Which of the following is true for organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)?

OCB is discretionary behavior which promotes the effective functioning of the organization.

________ behavior is voluntary or learned behavior.

Operant

What is organizational behavior? How can the study of organizational behavior help managers?

Organizational behavior is a field of study that is concerned specifically with the actions of people at work. It focuses primarily on two areas, individual behavior and group behavior. Individual behavior includes topics such as attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation. Group behavior includes norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict. The goals of organizational behavior are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Finally, OB also looks at organizational aspects including structure, culture, and human resource policies and practices. Managers need to be able to explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather than others, predict how employees will respond to various actions the manager might take, and influence how employees behave

What is a key point of Holland's theory?

People in job environments compatible with their personality types should be more satisfied.

________ is employees' general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

Perceived organizational support

Which of the following is associated with the study of individuals?

Perception

________ is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory impressions to give meaning to the environment.

Perception

________ is a personality trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior according to external situational factors.

Self-monitoring

________ is the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as ability or effort while putting the blame for personal failure on external factors such as luck.

Self-serving bias

Just Your Type Employees (Scenario)- Doug has recently been promoted and is now the manager of a team of researchers. All of his subordinates are well educated and have been with the company for a minimum of three years. In an attempt to learn more about the employees and to better assign them to jobs that they will enjoy, he has administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)®. Doug noted that Sandy is very good at precise work. He does not tire of repetitive work as easily as some of the others. However, when faced with a new problem that requires an innovative solution, his performance is not satisfactory. Sandy's personality is likely to be classified as a(n) ________ type.

Sensing

A manager makes decisions very quickly and requires little information for making the decisions. Which of the following is a likely reason for this?

The manager is high in risk-taking.

In the Big Five Model of personality, ________ refers to the degree to which someone is good-natured, cooperative, and trusting.

agreeableness

People with high self-esteem ________.

are more likely to take unpopular stands

In ________, the observer's perception of others is influenced more by the observer's own characteristics than by those of the person observed.

assumed similarity

James is a very hardworking person and has just been promoted to the managerial ranks. His managerial style is to be flexible and understanding and not boss over his employees too much. He believes that people who are hardworking will always make sure that the work gets done on time. Even when he is out of office, he supposes that his subordinates are working diligently because he works diligently most of the time. James's perceptions of his employees are based on ________.

assumed similarity

The regular use of ________ can alert managers to potential problems and employees' intentions early enough to do something about them.

attitude surveys

The three components that make up an attitude are ________ components.

cognitive, affective, and behavioral

If everyone who's faced with a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows ________.

consensus

Bridget prefers rule-regulated, orderly, and unambiguous activities. She doesn't have a lot of imagination but could be described as conforming and efficient. Which of the following describes Bridget's personality?

conventional

The ability to sense how others are feeling is known as ________.

empathy

Kevin is a whirlwind as a research and development supervisor. His colleagues are surprised that even though he makes decisions very quickly and always with less information than others, his decisions are as good as anybody else's. This information implies that Kevin has ________.

high risk-taking ability

If you like yourself, then your personality would be described as having ________.

high self-esteem

A person who can adapt and adjust behavior to external factors has ________.

high self-monitoring

The cognitive dissonance theory proposes that the intensity of the desire to reduce dissonance is determined by ________.

importance, influence, and rewards

If you believe that you control your own destiny, which of the following personality traits are you likely to possess?

internal locus of control

Doug realizes that Alan's temperament is not well-suited to being a researcher. He tends to dislike doing the same thing twice and has no patience to sort out information step-by-step. As a result, he often jumps to conclusions. Alan is most likely a(n) ________ type of personality.

intuition

Sarah, the floor supervisor, seems to be a different person depending on whom she is with and what the situation demands. She has the ability to adjust her behavior as and when required. This indicates that she ________.

is high in self-monitoring

Anna has recently been promoted to the managerial ranks which has increased her interaction with the senior managers at her company. She realizes that Peter, her assistant manager, exhibits a distinct lack of emotional involvement with his colleagues and subordinates. His entire focus is on achieving the goals he sets, no matter what the course he has to take to get there. These traits lead Anna to conclude that Peter ________.

is high on Machiavellianism

When Darrin went to a career counselor, Joanna, he took a test that would allow the counselor to gain an insight into his personality. After speaking to Darrin and analyzing his answers in the test, Joanna realized that he is curious by nature. He preferred activities that involved understanding and organizing, and that he is basically analytical. Which of the following occupations is a potentially good match for him?

news reporter

The study of group behavior includes the study of ________.

norms, roles, and leadership

According to the Big Five Model of personality, a person who has a wide range of interests and is imaginative, fascinated with novelty, artistically sensitive, and intellectual is described as ________.

open to experience

The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization is the employee's ________.

organizational commitment

If your boss could be described as flexible, adaptable, and tolerant, he or she would probably score high on which of the following aspects of the MBTI®?

perceiving

Holland's theory proposes that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when ________.

personality and occupation are compatible

Emotional intelligence has been shown to be ________.

positively related to job performance at all levels

The influence of models depends on how well an individual remembers the model's behavior. This refers to the individual's ________.

retention process

When a manager molds an individual's behavior by guiding his or her learning in graduated steps, he is using ________.

shaping processes

If an employee does not exhibit a desired behavior, a manager might use ________.

shaping to guide the employee to learn the desired behavior

Donna has just moved to the city from a small town and gets a job as an assistant in a law firm. Not being very familiar with the way things work in the corporate world, she watches her colleagues closely and tries to learn from their mistakes and achievements. This can be described as ________.

social learning

When people judge someone on the basis of the perception of a group they are a part of, they are using the shortcut called ________.

stereotyping

Bill, a manager at a consulting firm, has been keenly analyzing the performance of a new recruit who turns out to be extremely intelligent. He concludes that she will be a good manager in the future even though her interpersonal skills are not half as impressive. This conclusion on Bill's part seems to be the result of ________.

the halo effect

By using ________, we form a general impression about a person based on only a single characteristic, such as intelligence or appearance.

the halo effect