MGMT Exam 3
Know which groups managers spend the majority of their time communication with
Subordinates (46%), External Others (23%), Internal Others (17%), Superiors (14%)
Definition of Challenge Stressors
Challenge stressors refer to demands and circumstances that cause stress but that also promote individual growth, such as high work pressures, high levels of responsibility, or having a lot of (high-quality) work to do.
Cognitive dissonance definition
Cognitive dissonance is a term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, for example, believing that you should always be polite to a customer regardless of personal feelings, yet having just been rude to one. Although acting positive can make a person feel positive, emotional labor that involves a large degree of emotional or cognitive dissonance can be grueling, sometimes leading to negative health effects.
Counterculture definition and be able to give an example
Defined as shared values and beliefs that are in direct opposition to the values of the broader organizational culture, countercultures are often shaped around a charismatic leader. For example, within a largely bureaucratic organization, an enclave of innovativeness and risk taking may emerge within a single department. A counterculture may be tolerated by the organization as long as it is bringing in results and contributing positively to the effectiveness of the organization. However, its existence may be perceived as a threat to the broader organizational culture. In some cases this may lead to actions that would take away the autonomy of the managers and eliminate the counterculture.
Emotional labor definition
Emotional labor refers to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes. Three levels of emotional labor: 1. Surface Acting: Displaying physical signs, such as smiles, that reflect emotions (without actually feeling the emotions). 2. Deep Acting: Pretending to experience emotions. 3. Genuine Acting: Displaying emotions that are aligned with emotions that are actually felt.
Be able to explain why organizational culture matters to an organization. In other words, what are some of the effects of having a positive (or negative) organizational culture?
Culture, or shared values within the organization, may be related to increased performance. Researchers find a relationship between organizational cultures and company performance, with respect to success indicators such as profit, market performance, growth, innovation, quality of products and services, as well as employee job attitudes. At the same time, it is important to have a culture that fits with the demands of the company's environment. To the extent shared values are proper for the company in question, company performance may benefit from culture. In other words, just as having the "right" culture may be a competitive advantage for an organization, having the "wrong" culture may lead to performance difficulties, may be responsible for organizational failure, and may act as a barrier preventing the company from changing and taking risks.In addition to having implications for organizational performance, organizational culture is an effective control mechanism for dictating employee behavior. Culture is in fact a more powerful way of controlling and managing employee behaviors than organizational rules and regulations.
Know which outcomes are associated with high levels of emotional intelligence
- Self-awareness exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions. - Self-management exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed. - Social awareness exists when you are able to understand how others feel. - Relationship management exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others.
Know the three levels that comprise culture, and examples of each
1. Assumptions: Assumptions are taken for granted, and they reflect beliefs about human nature and reality 2. Values: Values are shared principles, standards, and goals. 3. Artifacts: visible, tangible aspects of organizational culture. For example, Facebook headquarters has machines dispensing necessities such as keyboards and power cords at no charge, by simply swiping their badge
Know the steps involved in creating culture change
1. Create a sense of urgency: create a sense of urgency on the part of employees and explain to them why changing the fundamental way in which business is done is so important. 2. Change leaders and other key players: A leader's vision is an important factor that influences how things are done in an organization. Thus, culture change often follows changes at the highest levels of the organization. 3. Role Model: Role modeling is the process by which employees modify their own beliefs and behaviors to reflect those of the leader. CEOs can model the behaviors that are expected of employees to change the culture. 4. Train: Well-crafted training programs may be instrumental in bringing about culture change by teaching employees the new norms and behavioral styles. 5. Change the reward system: The criteria with which employees are rewarded and punished have a powerful role in determining the cultural values in existence. Switching from a commission-based incentive structure to a straight salary system may be instrumental in bringing about customer focus among sales employees. 6. Create new stories and symbols: Finally, the success of the culture change effort may be increased by developing new rituals, symbols, and stories.
Be able to name, describe and provide an example of two barriers to effective communication
1. Filtering- is the distortion or withholding of information to manage a person's reactions. Some examples of filtering include a manager's keeping a division's negative sales figures from a superior, in this case, the vice president. The old saying, "Don't shoot the messenger!" illustrates the tendency of receivers to vent their negative response to unwanted messages to the sender. A gatekeeper (the vice president's assistant, perhaps) who doesn't pass along a complete message is also filtering. Additionally, the vice president may delete the e-mail announcing the quarter's sales figures before reading it, blocking the message before it arrives. Filtering prevents members of an organization from getting a complete picture of reality. To maximize the possibility of sending and receiving effective communications, it's helpful to deliver a message in multiple ways and to seek information from multiple sources. In this way, the effect of any one person's filtering the message will be diminished. 2. Selective perception- refers to filtering information to suit our own needs. This process is often unconscious. Small things can command our attention when we're visiting a new city or a new company. Over time, however, we begin to make assumptions about the way things are on the basis of our past experience. Often, much of this process is unconscious. "We simply are bombarded with too much stimuli every day to pay equal attention to everything so we pick and choose according to our own needs." Selective perception is a a necessary tool that provides efficiencies in a complex culture, but it can also lead to mistakes. A classic study on selective perception involved participants watching a particularly violent football game between Princeton and Dartmouth. Each side counted more infractions committed by the other side. In other words, when communicating with others, we have a tendency to hear what we want to hear, or see what we want to see. 3. Emotional disconnects- happen when the sender or the receiver is upset, whether about the subject at hand or about some unrelated incident that may have happened earlier. An effective communication requires a sender and a receiver who are open to speaking and listening to one another, despite possible differences in opinion or personality. One or both parties may have to put their emotions aside to achieve the goal of communicating clearly. A receiver who is emotionally upset tends to ignore or distort what the sender is saying. A sender who is emotionally upset may be unable to present ideas or feelings effectively. Effective communication also requires senders and receivers to understand and have empathy for the emotional impact of the message content or how it is sent. For example, in a meeting about upcoming organizational changes, employees may be feeling stressed and anxious about their job security. Not recognizing this, giving a lot of technical details about the timing and logistics of the change or how the change will benefit the organization may result in mistrust in management as their feelings of anxiety are not being recognized and addressed.
List methods for assisting employees in dealing with stress, according to the text
1. Give Employees Autonomy- Giving employees a sense of autonomy is another thing that organizations can do to help relieve stress. It has long been known that one of the most stressful things that individuals deal with is a lack of control over their environment. Research shows that individuals who feel a greater sense of control at work deal with stress more effectively 2. Create Fair Work Environments- Work environments that are unfair and unpredictable have been labeled "toxic workplaces." A toxic workplace is one in which a company does not value its employees or treat them fairly. Statistically, organizations that value employees are more profitable than those that do not. Research shows that working in an environment that is seen as fair helps to buffer the effects of stress. This reduced stress may be because employees feel a greater sense of status and self-esteem or due to a greater sense of trust within the organization. 3. Provide Social Support- Social support can be an individual or organizational strategy. Individuals can reach out to others to have a connection, but organizations can also facilitate relationship development and camaraderie. Having a supportive manager is perhaps the key resource when it comes to dealing with work-related stress, so the careful selection and training of managers is an effective stress management technique. 4. Telecommunicating- Telecommuting refers to working remotely. For example, some employees work from home, a remote satellite office, or from a coffee shop for some portion of the workweek. Being able to work away from the office is one option that can decrease stress for some employees. 5. Training- Job-related training is useful to build feelings of efficacy. Some types of jobs are inherently stressful, such as jobs involving physical danger, including firefighters and police officers. Training them in how best to perform their jobs prevents them from experiencing unnecessary levels of stress by making them more capable 6. Employee Sabbaticals- Sabbaticals (paid time off from the normal routine at work) have long been a sacred ritual practiced by universities to help faculty stay current, work on large research projects, and recharge every five to eight years.
Be able to name two workplace stressors and give an example of each
1. Information Overload: Messages reach us in countless ways every day. Some are societal—advertisements that we may hear or see in the course of our day. Others are professional—e-mails, memos, voice mails, and conversations from our colleagues. Others are personal—messages and conversations from our loved ones and friends. Add these together and it's easy to see how we may be receiving more information than we can take in. This state of imbalance is known as information overload, which can be defined as "occurring when the information processing demands on an individual's time to perform interactions and internal calculations exceed the supply or capacity of time available for such processing 2. Interpersonal Stressors: Much of the stress experienced at work is due to interactions with other people. Among these, supervisors are a key source of stress. In fact, their actions or inactions are often directly responsible for creating much of the stress discussed in this chapter, such as role stressors and work-life conflict. The leadership style (such as being too controlling or too disinterested), communication style (low levels of support and interactional justice), or displays of negative styles (abusive leadership, undermining of employees, or bullying) are important stressors that could affect employee well-being.
Be able to recognize different types of organizational cultures (e.g., innovative, team-oriented)
1. Innovative: Flexible, experiment with new ideas, adaptable 2. Outcome-Oriented: achievement, results, and action 3. Stable: stable, predictable, rule-oriented, beaurocratic 4. People-Oriented: Fairness, supportiveness, respecting indv rights 5. Team-Oriented: collaborative, cooperative 6. Detail-Oriented: precision, paying attention to details 7. Aggressive: cultures value competitiveness and outperforming competitors: By emphasizing this, they may fall short in the area of corporate social responsibility.
Examples of role ambiguity, role overload, and role conflict
1. Role Ambiguity: Vagueness in relation to job responsibilities.If you have started a new job and felt unclear about what you were expected to do, you have experienced role ambiguity. 2. Role Conflict: Facing contradictory demands at work. For example, your manager may want you to increase customer satisfaction and cut costs, while you feel that satisfying customers inevitably increases costs. In this case, you are experiencing role conflict because satisfying one demand makes it unlikely to satisfy the other. 3. Role Overload: Having insufficient time and resources to complete one's job. When an organization downsizes, the remaining employees will have to complete the tasks that were previously performed by the laid-off workers, which often leads to role overload.
Know what is involved in active listening and be able to explain some of its techniques
Active listening can be defined as giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as needed, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. Active listening creates a real-time relationship between the sender and receiver by acknowledging the content and receipt of a message. As we've seen in the Starbucks example above, repeating and confirming a message's content offers a way to confirm that the correct content is flowing between colleagues. The process creates a bond between coworkers while increasing the flow and accuracy of messaging.
Know what the most influential factor is for creating an ethical culture
Among all factors affecting ethical culture creation, leadership may be the most influential. Leaders, by demonstrating high levels of honesty and integrity in their actions, can model the behaviors that are demanded in an organization. If their actions contradict their words, establishing a culture of ethics will be extremely difficult.
Know the factors that influence the effectiveness of a mission statement
An effective mission statement is well known by employees, is transmitted to all employees starting from their first day at work, and influences employee behavior.
Definition of General Adaptive Syndrome
He hypothesized that stress played a general role in disease by exhausting the body's immune system and termed this phenomenon the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The GAS model predicts that when there is a threat to the individual's natural balance, the body responds by engaging in a "fight-or-flight" response. Our bodies prepare for these scenarios with an increased heart rate, shallow breathing, and wide-eyed focus. Our veins constrict, acting as an armor—blood is sent to the muscles, making it easier to fight or flee, and less likely for us to lose blood if we are injured. Non-essential systems such as the digestion and immune system are stopped in preparation for the fight-or-flight response. In the alarm phase of stress, an outside stressor jolts the individual, insisting that something must be done. If stress continues past the alarm stage, we move into the resistance phase, where the body begins to release cortisol and draws on reserves of fats and sugars to find a way to adjust to the demands of stress. If our body cannot return to equilibrium because the stress lasts too long or is too severe, we move into the exhaustion phase, in which the body has depleted its stores of sugars and fats, and the prolonged release of cortisol has caused the stressor to significantly weaken the individual. Disease results from the body's weakened state, leading to death in the most extreme cases.
Be able to describe how someone can improve their listening skills
How can you improve your listening skills? The Roman philosopher Cicero said, "Silence is one of the great arts of conversation." How often have we been in a conversation with someone else when we are not really listening but itching to convey our portion? This behavior is known as "rehearsing." It suggests the receiver has no intention of considering the sender's message and is actually preparing to respond to an earlier point instead. Effective communication relies on another kind of listening: active listening. Active listening can be defined as giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as needed, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Know the aspects of crucial conversations
In addition to these events, there are also many times in our professional lives when we have crucial conversations—discussions where not only the stakes are high but also where opinions vary and emotions run strong. One of the most consistent recommendations from communications experts is to work toward using "and" instead of "but" as you communicate under these circumstances. In addition, be aware of your communication style and practice flexibility; it is under stressful situations that communication styles can become the most rigid. High-stakes communication requires a lot of preparation, even when it looks as if it is spontaneous. For example, if you are thinking about making a key point and go against the consensus opinion at a meeting, it would be useful to practice what you are going to say so that what you say is clear, concise, and impactful.
Be able to describe how managers can create a customer-responsive culture
Managerial Actions : - Select new employees with personality and attitudes consistent with high service orientation. - Train and socialize current employees to be more customer focused. - Change organizational structure to give employees more control. - Empower employees to make decision about their jobs. - Lead by conveying a customer-focused vision and demonstrating commitment to customers. - Conduct performance appraisals based on customer-focused employee behaviors. - Provide ongoing recognition for employees who make special efforts to please customers.
Be able to describe some options that a company can offer employees to help alleviate work-family conflict, according to your text.
Organizations can help employees maintain work-life balance by using organizational practices such as flexibility in scheduling as well as individual practices such as having supervisors who are supportive and considerate of employees' family life
Definition of Corporate Athlete Approach
The "corporate athlete" approach to stress is a proactive (action first) rather than a reactive (response-driven) approach. While an overdose of stress can cause some individuals to stop exercising, eat less nutritional foods, and develop a sense of hopelessness, corporate athletes ward off the potentially overwhelming feelings of stress by developing strong bodies and minds that embrace challenges, as opposed to being overwhelmed by them. Could eating better, exercising more, and developing a positive attitude help with stress? Groppel's answer was yes. If professionals trained their minds and bodies to perform at peak levels through better nutrition, focused training, and positive action, Groppel said, they could become "corporate athletes" working at optimal physical, emotional, and mental levels.
Be able to explain what information-rich channels are (3 characteristics) and rank-order various modes of communication on their richness
The key to effective communication is to match the communication channel with the goal of the message. Information-rich channels convey more nonverbal information. Face-to-face conversation: High Videoconferencing: High Telephone conversation: High Emails: Medium Handheld devices: Medium Blogs: Medium Written letters and memos: Medium Formal written documents: Low Spreadsheets: Low
Be familiar with differences between men and women in communication styles
There is quite a bit of research suggesting that women are less likely to be dominant or assertive in communications. women may be speaking less in high-stakes communication events such as meetings because there may be a backlash against women who are perceived to speak more than others, which does not exist for men who dominate conversations Supporting these findings, it has been observed that women tend to withhold their opinions more in meetings, and what they perceive as "passion" in these conversations is often perceived as "too much emotion" by men.
Be able to describe how organizational cultures are created and maintained
They are created by the founders values and industry demands leading to early values, goals, and assumptions. - A company's culture, particularly during its early years, is inevitably tied to the personality, background, and values of its founder or founders, as well as their vision for the future of the organization. This explains one reason why culture is so hard to change: It is shaped in the early days of a company's history. - While founders undoubtedly exert a powerful influence over corporate cultures, the industry characteristics also play a role. Industry characteristics and demands act as a force to create similarities among organizational cultures. For example, despite some differences, many companies in the insurance and banking industries are stable and rule oriented, many companies in the high-tech industry have innovative cultures, and companies in the nonprofit industry tend to be people oriented. If the industry is one with a large number of regulatory requirements—for example, aviation, banking, health care, and nuclear power plant industries—then we might expect the presence of a large number of rules and regulations, a bureaucratic company structure, and a stable culture. Cultures are maintained by attraction selection attrition, new employee onboarding, leadership, and reward systems leading to an organizational culture. - Attraction Selection attrition: Organizational culture is maintained through a process known as attraction-selection-attrition. First, employees are attracted to organizations where they will fit in. As a result of the ASA process, the company attracts, selects, and retains people who share its core values - New employee onboarding: Onboarding refers to the process through which new employees learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization. If an organization can successfully socialize new employees into becoming organizational insiders, new employees feel confident regarding their ability to perform, sense that they will feel accepted by their peers, and understand and share the assumptions, norms, and values that are part of the organization's culture. - Leadership: Leaders are instrumental in creating and changing an organization's culture. There is a direct correspondence between a leader's style and an organization's culture. - Rewards: the company culture is shaped by the type of reward systems used in the organization, and the kinds of behaviors and outcomes it chooses to reward and punish. One relevant element of the reward system is whether the organization rewards behaviors or results.
Be familiar with the concept of workplace gossip and some characteristics of it
Workplace gossip, also known as the grapevine, is a lifeline for many employees seeking information about their company. Researchers agree that the grapevine is an inevitable part of organizational life, with 70% of all organizational communication occurring at the grapevine level. Employees trust their peers as a source of messages, but the grapevine's informal structure can be a barrier to effective communication from the managerial point of view. Its grassroots structure gives it greater credibility in the minds of employees than information delivered through official channels, even when that information is false. Some downsides of the office grapevine are that gossip offers politically minded insiders a powerful tool for disseminating communication (and self-promoting miscommunications) within an organization. In addition, the grapevine lacks a specific sender, which can create a sense of distrust among employees—who is at the root of the gossip network? When the news is volatile, suspicions may arise as to the person or persons behind the message. Managers who understand the grapevine's power can use it to send and receive messages of their own. They also decrease the grapevine's power by sending official messages quickly and accurately, should big news arise.
Know the methods for alleviating cognitive dissonance
You'll experience discomfort or stress unless you find a way to alleviate the dissonance. You can reduce the personal conflict by changing your behavior (trying harder to act polite), changing your belief (maybe it's OK to be a little less polite sometimes), or by adding a new fact that changes the importance of the previous facts (such as you will otherwise be laid off the next day).
