Organizational Management Midterm

The ethnic and cultural mix of the U.S. workforce is

Changing

A person's beliefs about what constitutes right and wrong behavior are called

Ethics

The belief that one's culture is superior to all others is called

Ethnocentrism

An organizational decision maker assesses conditions of certainty, uncertainty, and risk during the process of

Evaluating alternatives

What is a relatively new role for managers in teams?

Facilitator

A decision about which company a conglomerate should buy is an example of a programmed decision.

False

Applying a universal perspective, managers try to identify all of the possible ways to solve problems, based on the elements of the situation.

False

Authoritarianism is the belief that power and status differences are not appropriate within hierarchical social systems such as organizations.

False

Frederick Taylor, the father of scientific management, believed people were motivated by the opportunity to contribute to the workplace.

False

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, esteem needs refer to realizing one's full potential.

False

In most situations, the most effective group size is 30 or more members because more ideas are generated.

False

Increasing group interaction will not usually affect the cohesiveness of the group.

False

People who possess the personality trait of Machiavellianism prefer to delegate authority, power, and control to subordinates.

False

Ending an employee's workday shortly after lunch on Friday because that individual reported to work early that day is an example of

Flextime

__________ cohesive groups will not necessarily be more productive in an organizational sense than groups with low cohesiveness.

Highly

Psychological contracts create __________ promises and obligations between employees and the employer.

Implicit

A person's __________ is a relatively narrow indicator of efficiency measured by the employee's products or services created per unit of input.

Productivity

According to the human relations approach to motivation, offering employees __________ is the best way to enhance motivation in the workplace.

The Illusion of self-direction

Individuals might adjust their inputs or outcomes in order to mitigate concerns about inequity.

True

Interactionalism suggests individuals and situations interact continuously to determine individuals' behavior.

True

Job rotation involves keeping the tasks the same but systematically rotating the employees who perform those tasks.

True

Making changes to an organization's culture can help employees manage stress.

True

The origins of organizational behavior date back to prehistoric times.

True

The purpose of reward systems in most organizations is to attract, retain, and motivate qualified employees.

True

Age-based diversity is

c.a major issue affecting organizations today, as there is a large increase in older workers.

Group composition is

c.usually described in terms of the homogeneity or heterogeneity of group members.

A typical characteristic of a knowledge worker's career path is

compensation equivalent to that available to management.

Creative thinking is enhanced by which of the following? Attraction to complexity b. High levels of energy c. Intelligence d. Openness e. All of these are correct.

e. All of these are correct.

Generational groups are categorized by which designations?

e. Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials

A decision maker's actions should be guided by

A goal

People with the learning style of __________ focus on opportunity seeking and action.

Accommodaters

An organization's compensation structure should

Be equitable and consistent

Smoking and alcohol abuse are __________ consequences of too much stress at work.

Behavioral

__________ refers to the inability of human beings to process an unlimited amount of information, causing most decisions to be made in a partially irrational manner.

Bounded rationality

An __________ locus of control is related to passivity and learned helplessness.

External

Deciding to no longer laugh at a coworker's inappropriate jokes, to encourage him to stop telling those types of jokes, is an example of

Extinction

All groups go through all four stages of group development before disbanding.

False

An employee in a collectivistic culture would be much more concerned about her work than about her relationships with others.

False

Mangers should place individuals with a _______ tolerance for ambiguity in well-defined and regulated tasks.

Low

It can be difficult to develop a sense of community with a team that never actually meets together in the same room, which is called a

Virtual teams

People who are __________ tend to be more likely to be bullied. . more introverted b. less agreeable c. less conscientious d. more emotionally unstable e. All of these are correct.

All of these are correct

If a student always receives high grades, the student is exhibiting high __________

Consistency

A __________ worker is not employed by the company full-time.

Contingent

A __________ reinforcement schedule is one in which the desired behavior is reinforced each time it occurs.

Continious

In which stage is the group considered to be mature?

Control and organization

An organization with a competitive advantage due to product innovation would likely seek a core workforce of research and development employees who have

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Employees who find intrinsic value in their work are doing what is

Important to them

A company is open for business from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., five days a week, and it wants to hire two people to fill one forty-hour-per-week position at the company. Which of the following best describes an alternative work schedule that could suit this organization's circumstances?

Job Sharing

According to the Myers-Briggs inventory, __________ people are decisive and like to plan.

Judging

__________ workers are hired because of what they have learned through specialized training.

Knowledge

It is possible for the same decision to be __________ for an experienced manager and nonprogrammed for a more junior manager.

Programmed

A ____ is a set of expected behaviors associated with a particular position in a group or organization.

Role

__________ is a reward system commonly found in team environments, where recipients are required to acquire a set of core abilities.

Skill-based pay

An engineer who can solve complex mathematical equations is demonstrating strong

Technical Skills

__________ stress can result in unexpected negative effects, such as boredom and apathy.

Too little

Support groups are an effective individual coping strategy for adapting to and managing stress.

True

The administrative model of decision making does not attempt to prescribe how managers should make decisions.

True

A __________ is an informal alliance of individuals or groups formed to achieve a common goal.

Coalition

A group of department managers who meet periodically to establish corporate policy is an example of which type of group?

Command

Insight refers to a period of less intense conscious concentration during which knowledge and ideas are able to develop.

False

Job design involves how organizations design work that is performed in a company, rather than how jobs are structured.

False

Organizational consequences of stress include medical effects to employees, such as heart disease or headaches.

False

Performance measurement with a judgmental orientation focuses on the future to improve performance.

False

Stress is always caused by the same two factors: occupation and group pressures.

False

The universal approach to organizational behavior suggests that elements of the situation should be evaluated to determine the best way to respond.

False

Scientific management achieved which of the following?

Increases Productivity

The __________ variable in an experiment is the predictor, which researchers expect is affecting another factor.

Independent

__________ is an essential component of all groups.

Interaction

Employees who are part of a motorcycle riding club that meets outside of the organization is an example of which type of group?

Interest

An innate belief about something without conscious consideration is called

Intuition

__________ is important because it helps organizations ensure they are complying with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Diversity management

When applying concepts of __________, the decision maker knowingly accepts less than the best possible outcome.

Suboptomizing

To gain a competitive advantage, a company must offer

Superior value for the price

During the __________ phase of team implementation, a team's internal focus can become detrimental to other teams and to the organization as a whole.

Tightly formed teams

What is the most important factor in maximizing the positive effects of a diverse workforce within an organization?

Top management support

A manager with strong conceptual skills has the ability to think in the abstract.

True

A system is an interrelated set of elements that function as a whole.

True

According to reinforcement theory, if rewards are removed from behaviors that were previously reinforced, the behaviors are likely to decrease in frequency, and eventually disappear.

True

Advances in information technology have resulted in workplace communication processes that are less personal in nature than previous forms of workplace communication.

True

Classical conditioning is a simple form of learning that links a conditioned response with an unconditioned stimulus.

True

Verification is the final step in the creative process.

True

Extrinsic work values are defined as

Values related to the outcomes of the work

A new product development team would be considered which type of group?

Venture

Organizational functions that are typically outsourced include all of the following EXCEPT

Corporate governance

Nonprogrammed decisions require managers to use __________ rather than decision rules.

Creativity

A homogeneous group tends to be less productive than a heterogeneous group in situations where

Creativity is required

To help prevent groupthink, leaders should assign the role of __________ to each group member to allow each member to freely voice objections and doubts.

Critical evaluator

__________ groups always include members with different areas of expertise.

Cross-functional

A team that is comprised of members from different departments or functional areas is

Cross-functional team

A culture low in masculinity is not aggressive and is not concerned with the acquisition of money or other possessions.

True

An organizational system receives a variety of inputs from the environment, combines and transforms them, and then returns them to the environment.

True

Cultural diversity can enhance synergy in an organization.

True

Empathy, managing emotions, and social skill are components of emotional intelligence.

True

In order for goals that are difficult to attain to motivate behavior, they must be set at realistic levels.

True

Organizational behavior is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself.

True

People with high neuroticism often feel more vulnerable than others.

True

The controlling function involves monitoring and correcting the actions of the organization and its members to keep them directed toward their goals.

True

The practical approach to decision making combines elements of both the administrative and behavioral approaches.

True

The workplace is becoming increasingly diverse, which is also raising ethical challenges.

True

Two basic perceptual processes are selective perception and stereotyping.

True

When managers rely on a systems approach to organizations, they start by focusing on material, human, financial, and informational inputs.

True

A __________ reinforcement schedule is one in which the desired behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable number of instances.

Variable ratio

A __________ reflects the size and strength of the statistical relationship between two variables.

Correlation

Firms that apply a __________ strategy strive to be the lowest cost producer in the industry for a particular level of product quality.

Cost leadership

By focusing on organizational behavior, a business seeks to understand how: organizational structures shape employee behavior. b. organizational systems shape employee behavior. c. organizational decisions shape employee behavior. d. organizational processes shape employee behavior. e. All of these are correct.

E

The second step of the creative process is

Incubation

Teams differ from groups in that teams

b. place more emphasis on concerted action than groups do.

In order for social learning to take place,

b. the employee must possess the physical ability to perform the job.

An employee's work-life relationships are

c. are important to employees and should be a concern for organizations.

Why does working in teams result in enhanced performance?

d.Teams pool individual efforts in new ways and strive for continuous improvement.

People tend to perceive things __________

d.in different ways, but they assume that everyone perceives things in the same way.

A defining characteristic of a tiered workforce is __________.

e. employees are paid different wages for doing the same types of tasks

Flextime is a work schedule arrangement that

e.gives employees more personal control over the hours they work each day.

A __________ provides an organization an edge over rivals.

Competitive Advantage

A friendship group often performs its duties outside of regular work hours.

True

One way organizations can address privacy concerns on the Internet is to

d. post a privacy policy on the company's website.

Managers with a low tolerance for ambiguity tend to be more __________ with their staff and do not empower them to make their own decisions at work.

directive

A person who behaves in a way that is upbeat and optimistic exhibits a high level of Machiavellianism.

fALSE

Diversity management involves which of the following? All of these are correct. b. Giving all employees equal access to performance feedback c. Providing diversity training programs d. Creating fair company policies and practices e. Giving all employees equal access to mentors

All of these are correct.

The audience at an Oprah Winfrey talk show is an example of __________ group.

An interest

According to the job characteristics theory, the degree to which the job activities provide information about the effectiveness of performance is called

Feedback

In a highly collectivist culture, performance appraisals should be focused on

Group performance and feedback

The __________ effect occurs when people improve an aspect of their behavior or performance because they are aware they are being assessed.

Hawthorne

Goal setting can be motivating, especially if the individual employee

Helps to set he goals

A shortage of __________ factors in the workplace will lower satisfaction and cause employees to focus even more on hygiene factors, which will produce feelings of dissatisfaction if they are missing.

Motivation

The ____ indicator is among the most popular personality selection instruments used today in business.

Myers-Briggs

Decisions that recur infrequently and have no decision rules are __________ decisions.

N

People with a high level of __________ are willing to listen to new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes in response to new information.

Openness

Another term for power distance is

Orientation to authority

A successful MBO program starts with top managers establishing which of the following?

Overall organizational goals

Employees who feel the need to protect their own career prospects by impeding the prospects of others are experiencing

Perceived threat of loss

If a team does not receive support from top management, which of the following is likely to occur?

The team is not likely to succeed

A __________ is a collection of verbal and symbolic assertions that specify how and why two or more variables are related, and the conditions under which they should and should not relate.

Theory

Based on the descriptions in the Myers-Briggs inventory, the motto of __________ would be "ready, aim, aim."

An introvert

Being able to see similarities between situations, phenomena, or events is a creative ability called __________ thinking.

Convergent

During the __________ phase of team implementation, teams usually long for a system that resembles the old organizational structure.

Leader-centered teams

Allowing an employee to spend part of their time working off-site, usually at home, is called compressed workweek. b. flextime. c. job sharing. d. off-shoring. e. None of these are correct.

NONE

Motivated behavior begins with one or more

Needs

Removal of current or future unpleasant consequences to increase the likelihood that someone will repeat a behavior is called

Negative Reinforcement

When a person's abilities and the demands of the job are a good match, it is referred to as

Person-job fit

Reducing the work hours of low performing employees is an example of

Punishment

According to Herzberg's two-factor, dual-structure theory, motivation factors are often cited as the primary causes of

Satisfaction and Motivation

Satisficing refers to making a __________ rather than an optimal decision.

Satisfactory

A group norm is a standard against which the appropriateness of a behavior is judged.

True

Job satisfaction tends to __________ over time.

Stay constant

Any time a customer voices a complaint about the way the food tastes, the restaurant manager always offers a complimentary meal. This represents

Decision rule

Shortly after implementation, team performance often __________ before returning to previous levels.

Declines

Usually, high work stress results in __________ job performance.

Decreased

Deep-level characteristics are those considered to be

Invisible

Matching senior employees with diverse junior employees so that the employees can learn more about a different group in the workforce is a diversity management technique referred to as

R

If a human resources manager estimates the probability that a certain percentage of employees will take advantage of a proposed benefit plan, the manager is operating under a condition of

Risk

In __________, the decision maker examines alternatives only until a solution that meets minimal requirements is found.

Satisficing

Businesses that use a __________ strategy focus on a narrow market segment or niche.

Specialization

In exchange for employee contributions, an organization provides rewards such as pay and insurance benefits. These kinds of rewards are combined to create

Compensation packages

A manager who recognizes how various tasks within an organization interrelate and contribute toward achieving broad corporate goals is demonstrating strong

Conceptual Skills

Ignoring issues related to diversity can be costly to organizations because it can lead to

Decreased turnover

__________ diversity refers to differences in the concentration of valuable social assets or resources such as rank, pay, decision-making authority, and status.

Disparity

Being able to see differences between situations, phenomena, or events is a creative ability called __________ thinking.

Divergent

The risk of groupthink may be curbed by increasing the __________ of senior management.

Diversity