MGMT chpt 6

Attribution theory

) ________ explains the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we assign to a given behavior.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: We don't evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered, and this phenomenon is explained by the contrast effect.

A candidate is likely to receive a more favorable evaluation if preceded by mediocre applicants and a less favorable evaluation if preceded by strong applicants. This is an example of the halo effect.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: The first ethical yardstick is utilitarianism, which proposes making decisions solely on the basis of their outcomes, ideally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. This view dominates business decision making. It is consistent with goals such as efficiency, productivity, and high profits.

A focus on utilitarianism creates an environment that hinders productivity and efficiency

stereotyping

A manager believes that he should not hire older workers because they can't learn new skills. This belief is an example of ________.

availability

A manager doing performance appraisals gives more weight to recent employee behaviors than to behaviors of six or nine months earlier. This shows that the manager's perception is affected by a(n) ________ bias.

True

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These factors can reside in the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived, or in the context of the situation in which the perception is made.

bounded rationality

A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity is known as ________.

problem

A(n) ________ refers to a discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: According to attribution theory, the more consistent a behavior, the more we are inclined to attribute it to internal causes.

According to attribution theory, the more consistent a behavior, the more we are inclined to attribute it to external causes.

distinctiveness

According to the attribution theory, ________ is one of the three main factors which attempt to determine an individual's behavior

low on consistency

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to external causes

low on distinctiveness

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores ________, we tend to attribute it to internal causes.

False According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores high on consensus and distinctiveness, we tend to consider it as an externally caused behavior.

According to the attribution theory, if a behavior scores high on consensus and distinctiveness, we tend to consider it as an internally caused behavior.

consensus

According to the attribution theory, if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows ________.

a behavior that scores high on consensus

According to the attribution theory, which of the following behaviors is most likely to be attributed to an external cause?

utilitarianism

According to the concept of ________, decisions are made solely on the basis of their outcomes, ideally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.

Characteristics of the target affect people's perception

Alicia Akers works as a marketing executive. She always talks in a high pitch and often draws a lot of attention wherever she is. Which of the following statements best explains the reason behind people noticing Akers?

Laura sat in on only one of Amanda's presentations prior to giving her the promotion

Amanda Winter worked as a public engagement coordinator at Safe Food Alliance until three months ago when her manager, Laura Morris, promoted her to the position of a sustainable food campaigner. However, soon after this, Laura noticed that Amanda was facing major difficulties in achieving campaign milestones and the project was falling behind schedule due to her lack of performance. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument that Laura was influenced by the halo effect in her decision to promote Amanda?

develop options of wind, solar, and hydro energy

Anne Warner, a climate campaigner at an environmental organization, is in charge of implementing a campaign activity where she needs to increase the use of renewable energy in the villages of Vietnam. For her project, she uses the rational decision-making model to implement activities. She has just completed identifying an appropriate criteria for decision making and has allocated weights to the criteria. Which of the following is Warner most likely to undertake next according to the model?

consistency

Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on three factors. Which of the following is one of these three factors?

True

Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior

Answer: TRUE Explanation: Public pressure on organizations to behave responsibly has meant sustainability issues now affect the bottom line: Consumers increasingly choose to purchase goods and services from organizations with effective CSR initiatives

Consumers increasingly choose to purchase goods and services from organizations with effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

his expectations

David Myers is of the opinion that people who drive SUVs are rash drivers. He feels that people driving SUVs do not respect road rules and always violate traffic regulations. What personal factor is most likely to be affecting Myers' perception of SUV drivers?

context

During team meetings Amber Downing always notices that Rhona Law tends to ask innumerable questions and suggest ideas at each discussion. However, Law stands out in the meetings only because she is the only one making suggestions. If both of them were part of team meetings where almost all members made suggestions and asked questions, Law would not have drawn as much attention from Downing. Which of the following factors has most likely influenced Downing's perception of Law?

search for solutions that are reasonable

Emily Boyce, a project manager at an insurance firm, regularly satisfices while making decisions. She often comes across complicated problems which would take a long time to resolve. Due to the pressing deadlines, she often meets project goals by satisficing a large number of her decisions. Which of the following is Boyce most likely to do?

True

Escalation of commitment refers to staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it's wrong.

The three-component model of creativity proposes that individual creativity essentially requires expertise, creative-thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation. a) Expertise is the foundation for all creative work. The potential for creativity is enhanced when individuals have abilities, knowledge, proficiencies, and similar expertise in their field of endeavor. b) The second component is creative-thinking skills. This encompasses personality characteristics associated with creativity, the ability to use analogies, as well as the talent to see the familiar in a different light. c) The final component is intrinsic task motivation. This is the desire to work on something because it is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging. This motivational component is what turns creativity potential into actual creative ideas. It determines the extent to which individuals fully engage their expertise and creative skills. A manager could hinder creativity by engaging in overconfidence bias. A creative person in an office where the manager is confident that his decisions are always correct would be less inclined to offer ideas. In addition, a manager that often engages in confirmation bias would only be looking for answers that support his ideas, and a creative person would be less inclined to participate or offer ideas.

Explain the three components of creativity. Name two biases and give examples of how they would affect creativity.

We don't look at targets in isolation

Extremely attractive or unattractive individuals are most likely to be noticed in a group. Which of the following statements best describes the reason behind this?

selective perception

Harriet Kirby, a fund raising manager at a women's rights organization, experienced a bad incident last year with the public relations manager of a banking company who had committed to sponsor a charity event. The bank backed out at the last minute. This year, when a renowned international bank executive showed interest in sponsoring the organization's upcoming annual event, Kirby rejected their participation. She felt that banks have a casual approach toward charity events and it is risky to involve them in the event. Which of the following best characterizes Kirby's decision?

consistency

If a person responds to a particular situation in the same way over a long time period, then the attribution theory states that the behavior demonstrates ________.

TRUE Explanation: Research shows we form impressions of others within a tenth of a second, based on our first glance. If these first impressions are negative, they tend to be more heavily weighted in the interview than if that same information came out later. Most interviewers' decisions change very little after the first four or five minutes of an interview. As a result, information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than does information elicited later.

In an interview, information elicited early from an interviewee carries greater weight than information elicited later.

selective perception

Individuals engage in ________ because it is impossible for them to assimilate everything they see and can take in only certain stimuli.

whistle-blowers

Individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders are known as ________.

self-serving

Jane Allen, a campaign manager at a non-profit organization, often takes full credit for project successes even when her team members' contributions play a big role in achieving milestones. However, when projects receive setbacks, she blames her team members and sometimes states that the situation was beyond her control. Allen's behavior is an example of a(n) ________ bias.

high on consistency

Janice Yoder works in an environmental campaigning organization and often needs to interact with a large team for project implementation activities. However, she always finds it difficult to work as a part of a team. She always seems to have major disagreements with team members which lead to antagonistic relations between them. Though she has moved from one team to another, her relations with colleagues always seem to be hostile and cold. How would the attribution theory describe this behavior?

It shows consistency

Janice is late for work each day by about ten minutes. How would attribution theory describe this behavior?

Griffin and Powell ensures that all their CSR initiatives on forests are regularly and substantially publicized.

Jeanne Edwards works as a campaign manager at Rainforest Alliance Trust, a forest protection organization in Indonesia. She is currently working on the Palm Oil Campaign, which aims to establish stringent laws against companies which aggravate deforestation by extracting palm oil for commercial use. Her role is to establish allies with other forest protection organizations and companies which use eco-friendly products that set good examples for other companies to follow. Jeanne allied with Griffin and Powell, a large multinational company, which, unknown to Jeanne, also has strong ties with local logging groups in Jakarta. Which of the following, if true, would strengthen the argument that Jeanne had an availability bias while establishing an ally with the company?

contrast effect

Jessica recently joined a new company and was first introduced to Michelle, her cubicle neighbor. Michelle came across as amiable and cheerful. During lunch she met another colleague, Carrie, who did not come across as friendly as Michelle. In this situation, Jessica's interpretation of Carrie's personality is most likely to be affected by ________.

Johanna was moved by the arguments put forth by the first speaker.

Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She has strong networks with the Ministry of Environment and allies with several environmental organizations in the country. Over the years, she has gained substantial knowledge on the issue of climate change. However, recently when she prepared a consolidated report on a conference she attended on climate change, it reflected major loopholes and limited information from the conference. Which of the following, if true, substantiates that Johanna had an anchoring bias?

Brenda was unable to make time for Johanna to brief her on the tasks involved in carrying out the campaign's media strategy

Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She recently worked on a campaign against global warming during which she worked extremely hard to achieve project milestones. However, the campaign failed as it could not achieve the desired objective. Due to this, her manager, Brenda Owens, gave her a poor performance appraisal. In the appraisal, Brenda said that Johanna was not motivated and failed to reach out to 25,000 people through Internet media to spread awareness about climate change. Which of the following, if true, weakens Brenda's statement?

fundamental attribution error

Johanna Springer, who works as a sales executive at Pascal's Bank, is upset at the way her manager, Emma Womack, always calls her in for one-on-one meetings to discuss her underperformance. Though Springer makes a higher number of sales calls and works longer hours than last year, her sales figures are still low. She knows that the main reason behind her underperformance is the recent economic meltdown in the country. However, her manager feels that Springer's underperformance is the result of her laid-back attitude and has nothing to do with external factors. In this situation, Womack's behavior is characterized by a(n) ________.

stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which the person belongs is called ________.

My colleagues did not inform me about the rally

Laura Simpson, a campaign manager at a child rights organization in Jakarta, planned a marathon for celebrities to raise money for underprivileged children. Though all arrangements for the event had been made, a few days before the event she realized that on the same day there was a political rally happening in the city which would block access to the route on which the marathon was supposed to be undertaken. In such a situation, what is Simpson, who suffers from a self-serving bias, most likely to say?

low consensus

Megan Cardova, who works as a sales executive at Orbit Bank, has been failing to meet her sales targets for the last 10 months. Recently, she had a face-to-face discussion with her manager where she said that the unrealistic targets were the reason for her underperformance. The manager, however, noticed that all the other team members were achieving their targets and sometimes were even achieving more than the set numbers. Which of the following is Cardova's behavior most likely to be characterized as according to the attribution theory?

Answer: FALSE Explanation: Who makes better decisions, men or women? It depends on the situation. When the situation isn't stressful, decision making by men and women is about equal in quality. In stressful situations, it appears that men become more egocentric and make more risky decisions, while women become more empathetic and their decision making improves.

Men make better decisions than women

expectation

Monica Walden feels that people who use plastic bags are insensitive toward the environment. She believes that people have a certain obligation toward their environment and should take it upon themselves to protect and preserve it. Which of the following factors has most likely influenced Walden's perception of plastic bag users?

Leah has been assigned a sales territory where consumers are from low income groups

Naomi Fisher, a sales manager at Pure, a water purifier company, had a new member, Leah Marshall, join her team. Though during Leah's interview, Naomi felt she would be a productive sales executive, her performance has often been below the mark. Consistently in the past three months, Leah has been unable to reach her targets and is falling substantially behind on her annual targets. Naomi assumes that Leah is not determined and motivated enough to do what it takes. Which of the following, if true, weakens Naomi's assumption?

True

Our tendency to believe we can predict the outcome of random events is the randomness error.

True

People are usually not aware of the factors that influence their view of reality.

True

People's behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

intuition

Phyllis Stintson needs to decide whether to start a campaign against deforestation in Indonesia. Though her research team has provided substantial information on the high feasibility of the project, Stintson does not go ahead with the project. If Stintson made her decision by drawing unconscious references from several different experiences in the past, her decision is most likely influenced by which of the following?

stereotyping

Rose Buffay needs to give a presentation to the board of directors of her organization next week. She knows that her presentation will play an important role in her performance appraisal in the next quarter. However, she knows that two of her colleagues, John Roy and Keith Mathews, will also be giving a presentation on the same issue. She is nervous because she believes that men have a better flair for giving presentations. Buffay's perception of Roy and Mathews is most likely characterized by ________.

low on consistency

Samantha is never late for work, but last Monday she arrived an hour late because of heavy traffic. According to the attribution theory, Samantha's behavior on that day scores ________.

self-fulfilling prophecy

Sarah Covington, a sales manager at Synergy Corporation Bank, often keeps low expectations of her team. She feels that they are underqualified for their job and do not have substantial experience to sell a large number of accounts. Covington's team does not feel motivated enough and invariably underperforms and misses targets on a regular basis. Which of the following concepts best explains Covington's team's poor performance?

True

Stereotyping helps individuals make quick decisions through generalizations.

anchoring

The ________ bias is a tendency to fixate on initial information and fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: The rational decision-making model relies on a number of assumptions, including that the decision maker has complete information, is able to identify all the relevant options in an unbiased manner, and chooses the option with the highest utility.

The rational decision-making model takes into consideration the fact that all information pertaining to a problem might not be available to the decision maker.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors is known as the self-serving bias.

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors is known as the confirmation bias.

hindsight

The tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome is known as a(n) ________ bias

True

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic is known as the halo effect

confirmation

The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments is known as a(n) ________ bias.

Answer: FALSE Explanation: The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others is known as the fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others is known as the randomness error.

intrinsic task motivation

The three-component model of creativity proposes that individual creativity essentially requires expertise, creative thinking skills, and ________.

False

To stop lie-detection for written communications we can look in e-mail messages as liars omit personal pronouns, use noncommittal expressions, change tenses, skip topics, provide too much detail, or add qualifying statements

defining the problem

What is the first step in the rational decision-making model?

attribution theory

When individuals observe another person's behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused. Which of the following attempts to explain this phenomenon?

perceivers

When two people witness something at the same time and in the same situation yet interpret it differently, factors that operate to shape their perceptions reside in the ________.

drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic

Which of the following describes the halo effect?

expertise. Expertise is the foundation for all creative work. The potential for creativity is enhanced when individuals have abilities, knowledge, proficiencies, and similar expertise in their field of endeavor.

Which of the following is a component of the three-component model of creativity?

rational decision-making model

Which of the following is a decision-making model that describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome?

interest

Which of the following is a factor present in a perceiver which may affect perception?

time

Which of the following is a factor present in a situation which may affect a person's perception?

novelty

Which of the following is a factor present in a target which may affect a person's perception?

stereotyping

Which of the following is a shortcut used in judging others by making generalizations?

An employee is late to work because of a punctured tire.

Which of the following is an example of externally caused behavior?

An employee was fired from work because he violated a company policy.

Which of the following is an example of internally caused behavior?

It involves making decisions based on distilled experience

Which of the following is true about intuitive decision making?

It involves evaluation of a person's features based on comparison with another person

Which of the following statements is true regarding a contrast effect?

Our perception of reality can be different from the objective reality.

Which of the following statements is true regarding perception?

) It assumes that an individual is able to identify all relevant options in an unbiased manner.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the rational decision-making model?

fundamental attribution error

Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others?

self-fulfilling prophecy

Which of the following terms refers to a situation in which a person inaccurately perceives another person and the resulting expectations cause the other person to behave in ways consistent with the original perception?

decision

Which of the following terms refers to choices made from among two or more alternatives?

anchoring bias

Which of the following types of biases is most likely to play a significant role during a negotiation?

halo effect

William Davies, a guest relations executive at a five star deluxe hotel, regularly interacts with bureaucrats, politicians, celebrities, and other prosperous individuals. He feels that all rich people are kind, hardworking, and friendly. Which of the following best characterizes Davies' perception?

seeking solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient

With reference to decision making, which of the following does satisficing involve?

distinctiveness

With reference to the attribution theory, which of the following terms indicates the extent to which an individual displays different behaviors in different situations?

Answer: TRUE Explanation: Twenty years of study find women spend much more time than men analyzing the past, present, and future. They're more likely to overanalyze problems before making a decision and to rehash a decision once made.

Women are more likely than men to overanalyze problems before making a decision and to rehash a decision once made

selective perception

You are more likely to notice a car like your own due to ________.

Self-serving

________ bias indicates the tendency of an individual to attribute his or her own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

Availability

________ bias refers to the tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is easily accessible

Intuitive decision making

________ is an unconscious process created from distilled experience.

Perception

________ is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment

Escalation of commitment

________ refers to staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it's wrong.

Contrast effect

________ refers to the evaluation of a person's characteristics that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.

Halo effect

________ refers to the tendency of people to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic