OB exam 3
Managers should begin assessing the motivational climate of their work environment by asking this question?
"A good start is asking your boss exactly what's expected of you and how soon you're supposed to deliver it."
What is the "iron law of power"?
"Iron law of power" the greater the discrepancy in power between influence and target, the greater the probability that more directive influence strategies will be used
What 5 things need to be done to make nonfinancial rewards effective?
(1) give the awards publicly, (2) use awards infrequently, (3) embed them in a credible reward process, (4) use the awards presentation to acknowledge past recipients, and (5) make sure the award is meaningful within the organization's culture
After setting goals and removing obstacles, managers turn next to rewards. What diagnostic question helps managers focus on rewards? What two related principles should managers follow so that the answer to this diagnostic question is "yes"?
-Do subordinates feel being a high performer is more rewarding than being a low or average performer? - (1) in general, managers should link rewards to performance, rather than seniority or membership; and (2) managers should use discipline to extinguish counterproductive behaviors and use rewards to reinforce productive behaviors.
Be able to reproduce Figure 7.3, the two-dimensional model of conflict behavior. Name and define the five kinds of conflict responses shown in Figure 3.
-Forcing (assertive, uncooperative) is an attempt to satisfy one's own needs at the expense of someone else. A manager who is bossy, manipulative and threatening. Breeds hostility and resentment -Accommodating approach (cooperative, unassertive) satisfies the other party's concerns while neglecting one's own. The problem is that it emphasizes preserving a friendly relationship at the expense of critically appraising issues and protecting personal rights - people may take advantage of you. -Avoiding response (uncooperative, assertive) neglects the interests of both parties by sidestepping the conflict or postponing the solution. It is a lose-lose situation because neither parties' true interests are met. Causes frustration -Compromising (middle of both) an attempt to obtain partial satisfaction for both parties in the sense that both receive half of what they want. Encourages expediency and people might start asking for more than they want. -Collaborating approach (cooperative, assertive) attempt to address fully the concerns of both parties - problem solving mode. The intent is to find solutions that are satisfactory to both parties rather than to find fault or assign blame. Encourages norms of collaboration and trust while acknowledging the value of assertiveness. Makes people feel empowered and focus on the issues.
Finish this statement, "You cannot motivate someone; all you can do is..."
...provide a motivating environment and the players will motivate themselves
What 4 things have your authors "determined" with respect to conflict?
1. Interpersonal conflict in organizations is inevitable 2. Conflict that focuses on issues or facts rather than on personality differences can enhance decision making 3. Despite the intellectual acceptance of the value of conflict, there is a widespread tendency to avoid it 4. The key to increasing one's comfort level with conflict is to become proficient in particular skills
What are the 3 essential skills for dealing with conflict?
1. Managers must be able to accurately diagnose the types of conflict, including causes. For example, managers need to understand how cultural differences and other forms of demographic diversity can spark conflicts in organizations 2. Having identified the sources of conflict, managers must be able to select an appropriate conflict management strategy 3. Skillful managers must develop the skills to resolve interpersonal disputes effectively while maintaining working relationships between disputants
What are the four phases of collaborative problem-solving?
1. Problem Identification 2. Solution generation 3. Action plan formulation and agreement 4. Implementation and follow-up The two actors in a dispute are an initiator and responder
What does figure 7.1 suggestion about the relationship between conflict and organizational outcomes?
A moderate level of conflict is beneficial for organizations because it allows for innovation but doesn't lead to interpersonal conflict (which demoralizes spirit and zap people's energy - they include personal conflicts and arguments over things that cannot be changed)
Why is ability, like motivation, a key factor in employee performance?
Ability is a key factor (as motivation) in employee performance
Why do your authors promote the collaborative approach?
Collaborative approach means that each side is agreeing not to force the other party to accept a one-sided solution - they commit to working together.
Why is feedback also an important part of goal-setting?
Feedback provides opportunities for clarifying expectations, adjusting goal difficulty, and gaining recognition. Feedback is also very important when the time required to complete an assignment or reach a goal is very long
Explain "the folly of rewarding A while hoping for B."
It can encourage a work group to avoid challenging projects, suppress debate, and routinize task performance
To what do supervisors typically attribute workers' poor performance?
Low motivation
What does research show with respect to people-focused conflicts and issue-based conflicts? Define each. What % of management time is wasted on resolving personality-based conflicts?
People Focused Conflict: "in your face" kind of confrontations in which emotions run high and people feel moral indignation. Accusations of harm, demands for justice, and feelings of resentment are common markers of personal disputes. They are extremely difficult to resolve and the long term effects can be devastating. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets. It also takes a lot of an organization's time trying to fix it (18% of manager's time) Issue focused conflict: rational negotiations which can be thought of as "an interpersonal decision making process by which two or more people agree how to allocate scarce resources". In issue based conflicts, manager-negotiators are typically acting as agents, representing the interests of their department, function, or project. The negotiators have priorities and they recognize they need to find an amicable settlement that appears fair to all parties.
What is the formula for performance?
Performance = Ability × Motivation (Effort) where Ability = Aptitude × Training × Resources Motivation = Desire × Commitment
Specifically, when does performance lead to satisfaction?
Performance leads to satisfaction if workers believe that their organization reinforces high performance by contingently linking it to valued rewards
What was the prevailing wisdom regarding the relationship between satisfaction, motivation, and performance? According to research, what should the order of these variables be?
Satisfaction → Motivation → Performance Motivation → Performance → Satisfaction Motivation → Performance → Outcomes → Satisfaction
What are the 3 characteristics of effective goals? Explain each one.
Specific: measurable unambiguous, and behavioral Consistent: goals that are possible to accomplish Appropriately challenging: because hard goals are more motivating than easy goals
What must managers do to get the necessary "buy in" needed for the goal-setting process to work?
Subordinates must feel they are part of the goal-setting process. Management must have a supportive attitude.
What are the 3 signs of ability deterioration? Explain each one.
Taking refuge in a specialty Focusing on past performance Exaggerating aspects of the leadership role
What is the task of effective managers?
Task of effective managers is to encourage members of management teams to argue without destroying their ability to work together
What was the result of Boulding's (1964) classic study of decision making?
There were two groups - one with a "devil's advocate" and one without. The one with the devil's advocate performed much better during problem solving by generating more alternatives and their proposal for the problem was superior. However, when asked to vote someone out of the group, they voted out the "devils advocate".
Managers who are uncomfortable with conflict typically attribute conflict to what?
They attribute conflict to personality defects, thinking of those people as trouble makers
What do managers typically view this as?
They view it as a sign of good leadership because there's no conflict, when it's actually an indicator of being out of touch with significant changes in the marketplace - Conflict is progressive and leads to innovation
What is one of the leading causes of business failure?
Too much agreement among top management because the lack of tension fosters a climate of complacency
What are the 2 kinds of negotiation strategies? What do distributive negotiators typically do? What about integrative negotiators. Which of the conflict responses are distributive and which are integrative (See Table 7.3)?
a. Distributive bargaining: resources are scare and limited so their negotiations focus on dividing up a fixed i. Assume and adversarial, competitive posture ii. Often overlook opportunities to pursue collaborating as a conflict management strategy iii. Compromising, Forcing, Accommodating, Avoiding= b. Integrative perspective: search for collaborative ways of expanding the pie by avoiding fixed, incompatible positions i. Adopt problem solving techniques instead of adversial ones ii. Strive for "win win" situations iii. Collaborating
How do personal preferences (ethnic culture, gender) affect which conflict response strategies people prefer
a. Ethnic culture affects which conflict management strategy you use i. Asian cultures are nonconfrontational- accommodating and avoiding ii. Americans and South Africans prefer the forcing approach b. Gender is less clear cut - males are more forceful where females are more compromising
What are the six steps in the general six-step framework for collaboration (which comes from integrative bargaining)? Name and explain each one.
b. Establish overarching goals: The parties need to focus on what they share in common. Starting with shared goals sensitizes the parties to the mutual benefits of resolving their differences. "What common goals support these discussions?" c. Separate the people from the problem: They should focus on solving the problem, as opposed to "fixing" the person. Depersonalizing the confrontation allows each participant to view the other party as an advocate for their point of view rather than a rival. "This is an unreasonable position" rather than "You are an unreasonable person." d. Focus on interests, not positions: Positions are demands or assertions - interests constitute the reasons behind the demands. Asking why questions to get to the heart of the other person's needs. "Help me understand why you advocate that position." e. Invent options for mutual gains: Generating creative solutions through brainstorming mutually agreeable solutions - the more options, the greater probability of finding common ground. "Now that we better understand each other's underlying concerns and objectives, let's brainstorm ways of satisfying both our needs." f. Use objective criteria for evaluating alternatives: There will be interests that cannot be met, so rather than arguing over it, determine what is fair. Rather than getting what you want, decide what makes more sense. It allows parties to avoid overconfidence or over-commitment to their initial position. "What is a fair way to evaluate the merits of our arguments?" g. Define success in terms of real gains, not imaginary losses: Rather than looking at your losses, look at your gains. For example, if you were supposed to get a 10% raise and only get 6%, it's still a 6% improvement rather than losing 4%. "Does this outcome constitute a meaningful improvement over current conditions?"
Why do goals work?
because they mobilize effort, direct attention, and encourage persistence and strategy development
Based on Figure 7.4, what are the most commonly used methods for resolving conflict? Which response strategy was used more than any other and why did managers use it?
d. Most common method is forcing i. It is used most because they fall back on organizational power to insist on compliance
What are the three critical components of goal-setting?
goal-setting process, goal characteristics, and feedback.
What are the four incident-specific circumstances that can be used to select the appropriate conflict management approach (see Table 7.4 and the questions on the bottom of p. 317)?
i. How important is the issue ii. How important is the relationship iii. What is the relative level of power, or authority, between disputants iv. To what extent is time a significant constraint
What seven principles, A-G, should you follow as you initiate conflict (through problem identification and solution generation) with others? Explain each one (i.e., what you should do or not do).
i. Maintain personal ownership of the problem 1. Make the problem yours, not someone else ii. Succinctly describe your problem in terms of behaviors, consequences and feelings 1. "I have a problem. When you do X, Y results, and I feel Z." 2. Describe the behaviors (X) that present a problem for you 3. Describe the observable consequences (Y) of these behaviors 4. Describe the feelings (Z) you experience as a result of the problem iii. Avoid drawing evaluative conclusions and attributing motives to the respondent 1. Avoid making accusations because generally, both participants feel like the victim and are defensive, you don't want to make it worse iv. Persist until understood 1. Restate the problem in different ways until it's fully understood v. Encourage two-way discussion 1. The longer you talk, the more emotional you get, and the more defensive the other party gets 2. Focus introductory statement on specific manifestation of a problem and then open the conversation to the responder a. "Bill, we had difficulty getting that work order processed on time yesterday. What seemed to be the problem?" vi. Manage the agenda: approach multiple or complex problems incrementally 1. Focus initially on a simple or rudimentary problem, then as you gain greater appreciation for the other part's perspective, you can discuss more challenging issues c. Initiator solution Generation (still part of the 7) i. Focus on commonalities as the basis for requesting a change 1. Once parties clearly understand the problem, the discussion should shift to the solution-generation phase. Make a request that takes into account the common interests. 2. "Jane, one of the things we have all worked hard to build is this audit team is mutual support. We are all pushed to the limit getting this job completed by the third-quarter deadline next week. Will you reconsider your position on not working overtime, at least until we can all get through this crisis together?"
What two conclusions can be drawn from the above research?
i. Not one approach is most effective for managing every type of conflict ii. Managers are most effective in dealing with conflicts if they feel comfortable using a variety of approaches iii. What this means is that you need to understand the conflict to decide which management technique is most effective
Name and explain the 4 sources of conflict and why they typically occur. How easy or difficult are each of these sources of conflict to resolve? Why is diversity associated with conflict?
i. Personal Differences - Perceptions and expectations ii. Informational deficiencies - Misinformation ad misrepresentation iii. Role incompatibility - Differing goals and responsibilities which each person thinks theirs is priority iv. Environmental Stress - Resource scarcity and uncertainty
Which conflict response strategies were never used for certain types of issues.
ii. Some methods were not even used - not a single case of problem solving or compromising when personal problems were the source of conflict
Be able to reproduce Figure 6.1 and define and explain each of the 4 management styles it shows
imposing: managers have little concern for how employees feel about their jobs. Ignoring: When managers emphasize neither satisfaction nor performance Integrating: emphasizes performance and satisfaction equally
What happens when managers are unaware of their impact on employee motivation?
it may lead to managerial actions that actually reinforce undesirable behaviors in their subordinates
What are the basic assumptions of Theory X?
management style characterized by close supervision. The basic assumption of this theory is that people really do not want to work hard or assume responsibility. Therefore, in order to get the job done, managers must coerce, intimidate, manipulate, and closely supervise their employees
What should managers do with respect to job satisfaction and employee productivity?
must focus on increasing both satisfaction and productivity
aptitude
native skills and abilities a person brings to a job
Define performance
product of ability multiplied by motivation
ability (to perform)
product of aptitude multiplied by training and resources
motivation
product of desire and commitment
The foundation of an effective motivation program is?
proper goal setting
training
skill-enhancement
What is the cost or downside of life-enhancing perks that are available to all employees?
the risk of undermining the motivation of high performers
What is the first diagnostic question that supervisors must ask when dealing with poor performers?
whether the person's performance deficiencies stem from lack of ability or lack of motivation
Theory Y?
workers basically want to do a good job and assume more responsibility; therefore, management's role is to assist workers to reach their potential by productively channeling their motivation to succeed
