Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Being well versed in organizational behavior can help a manager in which of the following ways?

All of the above (deciding on policies that will have positive effects on individuals, knowing strategies to avoid conflict within groups, understanding how to encourage employees to work)

Which of the following can NOT be said from an open-systems perspective?

Changes in the external environment will not affect the open model. (YES --> A price increase in raw materials would affect the input stage, a drop in sales of the product would affect input of raw materials, A price decrease in raw materials would affect the input stage.)

_____ is described as the process in which organizations lay off workers to reduce cost.

Downsizing

A manger allows his employees ti work from home becuase he knows that many of the workers are parents. He is handling the _____ challenge.

Flexibility

Team dynamics and how people work together to communicate and make decisions is examined at the _____ level of organizational behavior.

Group

Val: Without a successful year from our Sales team, our company will not be successful. After all, our sales team brings revenue, and without revenue the company would not be able to function. Kim: I disagree. many other departments must also have successful years in order for the company to be successful. without Product Development, the Sales Team would have no products to sell. Without Quality Control, those innovative products would fail in the market. Without the Payroll Department, no one would get paid and so no one would get any work done. You need to have a broader appreciation for the different groups around here. If Kim's statements are all true, which of the following must also be true?

If the company is successful, then the Quality Control team must have been successful.

The post-project review of the Alpha Supplement project is complete. It found failures in planning. Too much time was budgeted to market research, leaving not enough time for product development and quality assurance. As a result, the project could not have succeeded even if the project had been run perfectly. but there were other problems as well. Constant conflicts between team members demonstrated a failure of leadership. Finally, there were failures in controlling. When component providers failed to deliver, project leaders did not locate and train new providers in time. Which of the following is most strongly suggested by the statements above?

If the project leaders had located alternate component providers, the Alpha Supplement project still would have failed.

Which event is not part of the open model?

Organizations survey employees to find levels of job satisfaction (YES--> Organizations transform inputs and add value to them, organizations release outputs to their environment, organizations obtain inputs from their environments.)

Product Director: We need to pick the best manger for the Prensabi software project. The project involves the latest technology and is very complicated. .... Since this is a technical project that requires technical skills, we should pick the manager with the strongest technical skills. Executive: The manager needs some familiarity with the technology, but he or she won't be writing the software code. The bigger challenge here is to analyze the goals of the project and make sure that it is being developed according to a strong overall vision. That's why we should insist that the manager have outstanding conceptual skills. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the Executive's argument?

The plan for the Prensabi is extremely detailed and leaves very little room for individual judgement.

Product Director: We need to pick the best manger for the Prensabi software project. The project involves the latest technology and is very complicated. .... Since this is a technical project that requires technical skills, we should pick the manager with the strongest technical skills. Executive: The manager needs some familiarity with the technology, but he or she won't be writing the software code. The bigger challenge here is to analyze the goals of the project and make sure that it is being developed according to a strong overall vision. That's why we should insist that the manager have outstanding conceptual skills. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the Product Director's argument?

The project manager with the strongest technical skills has no experience with motion capture technology.

The post-project review of the Alpha Supplement project is complete. It found failures in planning. Too much time was budgeted to market research, leaving not enough time for product development and quality assurance. As a result, the project could not have succeeded even if the project had been run perfectly. but there were other problems as well. Constant conflicts between team members demonstrated a failure of leadership. Finally, there were failures in controlling. When component providers failed to deliver, project leaders did not locate and train new providers in time. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly suggest that the problems attributed to controlling were actually caused by planning failures?

The project plan called for all possible component providers to produce components at their maximum capacity.

Val: Without a successful year from our Sales team, our company will not be successful. After all, our sales team brings revenue, and without revenue the company would not be able to function. Kim: I disagree. many other departments must also have successful years in order for the company to be successful. without Product Development, the Sales Team would have no products to sell. Without Quality Control, those innovative products would fail in the market. Without the Payroll Department, no one would get paid and so no one would get any work done. You need to have a broader appreciation for the different groups around here. Which of the following contains an error in reasoning similar to the error committed by Kim?

Vijayshree believes that the driving directions need to be accurate in order for people to get to the meeting. She must be mistaken, because those directions also need to be given to all of the right people, and even if they get the directions, they many not be able to come because of previous commitments.

Product Director: We need to pick the best manger for the Prensabi software project. The project involves the latest technology and is very complicated. .... Since this is a technical project that requires technical skills, we should pick the manager with the strongest technical skills. Executive: The manager needs some familiarity with the technology, but he or she won't be writing the software code. The bigger challenge here is to analyze the goals of the project and make sure that it is being developed according to a strong overall vision. That's why we should insist that the manager have outstanding conceptual skills. The Product director and the Executive most likely disagrees about which of the following questions?

Would is be a mistake to choose the manager with the strongest technical skills if that managers has weak conceptual skills?

organization

a collection of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve individual and organizational goals

Who is NOT an example of a manager?

a freelance writer working alone

World Wide Web

a global store of information that contains the products of most kinds of human knowledge such as writing, music, and art

team

a group in which members work together intensively and develop team specific routines to achieve a common group goal

virtual team

a group whose members work together intensively via electronic means, and who may never actually meet

intranets

a network of information technology linkages inside an organization that connect all its members

What are organizational procedures?

a routine that an employee follows to perform some task in the most effective way

organizational procedure

a rule or routine an employee follows to perform some task in the most effective way

role

a set of behaviors or tasks a person is expected to perform because of the position he or she holds in a group or organization

information

a set of data, facts, numbers, and words that has been organized in such a way that it provides its users with knowledge

skill

an ability to act in a way that allows a person to perform well in his or her role

social responsibility

an organization's obligations toward people or groups directly affected by its actions

global organizations

companies that produce or sell their products in countries and regions throughout the world

planning

deciding how best to allocate and use resources to achieve organizational goals

The planning function of a manager can be described as ________.

deciding how to allocate and use resources to achieve goals.

Organizational ______ is the ability of an organization to achieve its goal.

effectiveness

leading

encouraging and coordinating individuals and groups so that all organizational members are working to achieve organizational goals

The four principal functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization's human, financial, material, and other resources. The leading function can be described as _____.

encouraging individuals and groups to work toward organizational goals.

organizing

establishing a structure of relationships that dictates how members of an organization work together to achieve organizational goals

______ is described as the process of acquiring the skills, knowledge and organizational behaviors and procedures that have helped companies become major global competitors.

global learning

A/an _____ can BEST be defined as two or more people who interact to achieve their goals.

group

self-managed teams

groups of employees who are given the authority and responsibility to manage many different aspects of their own organizational behavior

top-management teams

high-ranking executives who plan a company's strategy so that the company can achieve its goals

diversity

individual differences resulting from age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background

The three levels at which organizational behavior is examined are _____.

individual, group, organizational

A police force is considered an organization because ______.

it is a group working together to achieve goals.

Product Director: We need to pick the best manger for the Prensabi software project. The project involves the latest technology and is very complicated. .... Since this is a technical project that requires technical skills, we should pick the manager with the strongest technical skills. Executive: The manager needs some familiarity with the technology, but he or she won't be writing the software code. The bigger challenge here is to analyze the goals of the project and make sure that it is being developed according to a strong overall vision. That's why we should insist that the manager have outstanding conceptual skills. Which of the following is most similar?

it is clear that we need a large truck in order to move all of our office equipment. Therefore, we should choose the largest truck possible.

Sweet Treats is a bakery that makes all sorts of cookies. Weather conditions negatively affect sugar production. How will this relate to the open system?

it will cost more to obtain supplies of inputs

technical skills

job-specific knowledge and techniques

controlling

monitoring and evaluating individual, group, and organizational performance to see whether organizational goals are being achieved

The post-project review of the Alpha Supplement project is complete. It found failures in planning. Too much time was budgeted to market research, leaving not enough time for product development and quality assurance. As a result, the project could not have succeeded even if the project had been run perfectly. but there were other problems as well. Constant conflicts between team members demonstrated a failure of leadership. Finally, there were failures in controlling. When component providers failed to deliver, project leaders did not locate and train new providers in time. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly suggest that the problems attributed to leadership were actually caused by organizing failures?

most of the conflicts between team members concerned questions of roles and determining who had the authority to make decisions.

A study of the culture and design of a company is examined at which level of organizational behavior?

organizational

The study of the many factors that have an impact on how people and groups act, think, feel and respond to work is termed _________.

organizational behavior

open system

organizations that take in resources from their external environments and convert or transform them into goods and services that are sent back to their environments where customers buy them

contingent workers

people employed for temporary periods by an organization and who receive no benefits such as health insurance or pensions

The study of organizational behavior provides a set of tools that help _____.

people to understand, analyze, and describe behavior in organizations

freelancers

people who contract with an organization to perform specific services

managers

persons who supervise the activities of one or more employees

Advancements in IT have created all of the following opportunities EXCEPT _______.

promoting face to face conversations within organizations. (YES --> allowing workers to form virtual teams, allowing entrepreneurs to start small dot.com economies, promoting the expansion of the global economies.)

organizational effectiveness

the ability of an organization to achieve its goals

conceptual skills

the ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to distinguish between cause and effect

human skills

the ability to understand, work with, lead, and control the behavior of other people and groups

well-being

the condition of being happy, healthy, and prosperous

internet

the global network of interlinked computers

information technology

the many different kinds of computer and communications hardware and software, and the skills of their designers, programmers, managers, and technicians

expatriate managers

the people who work for a company overseas and are responsible for developing relationships with organizations in countries around the globe

downsizing

the process by which organizations lay off managers and workers to reduce costs

global learning

the process of acquiring and learning the skills, knowledge, and organizational behaviors and procedures that have helped companies abroad become major global competitors

outsourcing

the process of employing people, groups, or a specialist organization to perform a specific type of work activity or function previously performed inside an organization

empowerment

the process of giving employees throughout an organization the authority to make important decisions and to be responsible for their outcomes

organizational learning

the process of managing information and knowledge to achieve a better fit between the organization and its environment

management

the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization's human, financial, material, and other resources to increase its effectiveness

ethical dilemma

the quandary managers experience when they have to decide if they should act in a way that might benefit other people or groups, and is the "right" thing to do, even though doing so might go against their own and their organization's interests

national culture

the set of values or beliefs that a society considers important and the norms of behavior that are approved or sanctioned in that society

organizational behavior

the study of factors that affect how individuals and groups act in organizations and how organizations respond to their environment

Val: Without a successful year from our Sales team, our company will not be successful. After all, our sales team brings revenue, and without revenue the company would not be able to function. Kim: I disagree. many other departments must also have successful years in order for the company to be successful. without Product Development, the Sales Team would have no products to sell. Without Quality Control, those innovative products would fail in the market. Without the Payroll Department, no one would get paid and so no one would get any work done. You need to have a broader appreciation for the different groups around here. Kim's response most strongly suggests that she mistakenly believes that Val claimed that ________.

the success of the Sales team guarantees the success of the company

ethics

the values, beliefs, and moral rules that managers and employees should use to analyze or interpret a situation and then decide what is the "right" or appropriate way to behave

group

two or more people who interact to achieve their goals

knowledge

what a person perceives, recognizes, identifies, or discovers from analyzing data and information