Organizational Behavior Midterm MC Questions
____ is defined as the extent to which a person is interested in reaching a goal.
Goal commitment
Which of the following is true about employees working in the same company but in different locations?
Their behaviors may differ within and across countries.
Personality affects which of the following?
choice of career
Which of the following is NOT a relaxation technique for coping with work stress?
Making a "to do" list
Jane is relatively calm, poised, and secure. Jane's boss is more excitable, insecure, and reactive. Jane and her boss differ in their level of which personality trait described in the Big Five personality framework?
Neuroticism
An employee who just finished an MBA paid for by a firm's tuition reimbursement program might feel a moral obligation to stay with the employer for at least a few years to repay the debt. This person would be classified by which type of commitment?
Normative
For various reasons, Anne is unable to move ahead into a higher position at work. According to Alderfer's ERG theory, which of the following sets of needs will become more important to Anne?
Relatedness
Which type of value reflects what we want to accomplish?
terminal
_________ rely mainly on active experimentation and concrete experience in order to learn, and they focus on risk taking, opportunity seeking, and action.
Accommodators
What is the likely impact of perquisites on the employees who receive them?
An elevated sense of status in the organization
Which of the following is NOT a benefit of valuing diversity?
Greater homogeneity
Which is NOT an important reason for understanding organizational behavior?
Sole proprietorships are increasing common for entrepreneurial organizations.
______ refers to observable differences in people, including race, age, ethnicity, physical abilities, physical characteristics, and gender.
Surface-level diversity
The concept of Machiavellianism is based on what publication?
The Prince
All of the following are direct organizational consequences of stress EXCEPT
accident proneness
Which of the following methods can be used to enhance individual performance at work?
all of these
As the age diversity of work groups increases, it becomes increasingly likely that
an older employee will report to a younger supervisor
Task demands that are too low can cause a person to
become bored.
A knowledge worker's career path may run parallel to a management career path. The benefit of this path for the worker is
compensation that is equivalent to that available to management.
When a construction worker decides to work additional hours on a typical workday so that he can have a three-day weekend, he is likely taking advantage of a ____ program.
compressed workweek.
John, a middle manager in a high-tech form, has the ability to identify the products that consumers want to buy, which is based on his ____.
conceptual skills
All of the following are steps in an individual's formation of equity perceptions EXCEPT
confronting the comparison other with any inequity.
A(n) _________ worker is employed in a company on an impermanent or part-time basis.
contingent
An ice cream maker requires approximately two months from the time a new flavor is decided on in the corporate board room to the time it is produced and available to consumers in stores. This time is called
cycle time.
If a company creates and maintains a culture that encourages employees to bring new ideas into the company, it is most likely to be using what strategy?
differentiation
Managers with a low tolerance for ambiguity tend to be more ________ with their staff and don't empower them to make their own decisions at work.
directive
Which of the following statements about variable work schedules is true?
employees grow resentful and powerless
All of the following are benefits of telecommuting EXCEPT
employees miss the interaction of the workplace
According to Herzberg, once a state of no dissatisfaction has been reached,
further attempts to enhance motivation via the hygiene factors will be a waste of time.
10 out of 10 points Once we categorize someone as a high performer, we focus more on (and better remember) information related to her ___________ and disregard more of the information reflecting her _____________.
high performance, low performance
A researcher hypothesizes that the age of employees influences their awareness of diversity. In this example, age is the _____________ and diversity awareness is the ____________.
independent variable, dependent variable
Medical, psychological, and behavioral responses to stress are primarily
individual consequences
What term refers to the manner in which individuals process and organize information during learning?
information processing capacity
The first widespread model of how individual work should be designed was
job specialization.
The courts and Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines have mandated that performance measurements be based on
job-related criteria.
A person who feels equitably treated is motivated to ________.
keep things the way they are
Highly Machiavellian people are ______ ethically sensitive than are lower Machiavellian people and agree ______ with ethical policies or rules of behavior.
less, less
An understanding of OB can help organizations to prevent all of the following problems EXCEPT
loss of market share.
Mangers should place individuals with a _______ tolerance for ambiguity in well-defined and regulated tasks.
low
Although Costco pays its employees substantially more than its closest competitor, Sam's Club, it has similar financial returns on its labor costs due to which of the following?
lower turnover and higher levels of productivity
Behavioral consequences of organizational stress include all of the following EXCEPT
negative changes in attitudes
Removal of current or future unpleasant consequences to increase the likelihood that someone will repeat a behavior is called _____________.
negative reinforcement
Which of the "Big Five" personality dimensions is associated with being anxious, depressed, angry, and insecure?
neuroticism
Which of the following is one of the specific perspectives of organizational behavior?
people as resources
Aria has been performing successfully at work for several months. Aria believes that she will get a pay raise if she maintains this high level of performance. This belief is an example of the ____ expectancy.
performance-to-outcome
Deming's ______________ cycle of continuous improvement promoted the adoption of 14 principles to make any organization efficient and capable of solving almost any problem.
plan-do-check-act
A performance bonus is an example of _____________.
positive reinforcement
Which of the following terms refers to the degree of inequality that exists and that is accepted among people with and without power?
power distance
According to the human resource approach, offering employees _____________ is the best way to enhance motivation in the workplace.
self-direction
If you are proud of your accomplishments yet look forward to achieving higher levels of performance and are confident in your abilities, you have high
self-esteem.
Which of the following is NOT a source of competitive advantage?
selling the most expensive version of an adequate product
Seline runs a small company that sells medical software. She has devised a process by which her company is able to develop new versions of the software relatively quickly and with almost no bugs. However, Seline believes that the success of this process hinges on her company's unique makeup and the type of product it produces; she does not believe that most software companies could use her process to any great effect. Seline's views embody which type of perspective?
situational
A moderate degree of workload-related stress can
stimulate energy and motivation.
Job enlargement involves the process of horizontal job loading, meaning that
the employee is assigned more tasks to perform.
People tend to associate beauty with other positive characteristics. This phenomenon is an example of which of the following?
the halo effect
According to the human relations approach, offering employees _____________ is the best way to enhance motivation in the workplace.
the illusion of self-direction
Which of the following is NOT a way to restore feelings of equity
try to convince the comparison-other to reduce her inputs
Which of the following does NOT reflect individualism?
valuing harmony more highly than honesty
Two of the most important issues regarding how to conduct a performance appraisal are
who does the appraisal and the frequency of the appraisal.
The dimension of uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which
workers prefer unambiguous situations.
