Organizational Behavior Chapter 7 Assignment

Which of the following is likely to happen when an employee's skills do not match the expectations of his or her manager? Check all that apply.

- The employee will experience stress - The employee might experience depression or burnout

Which of the following are components of personality hardiness?

- Commitment - Control - Challenge

In role negotiation, what should a person in a focal role do?

- Identify their expectations of the role. - Negotiate their expectations with a supervisor.

Lachlan works as a swim coach for children under the age of six. He has a stressful job, because he has to instruct the children's parents, as well as instructing the children. Recently, his stress levels have become higher, and now his boss wants to be sure Lachlan isn't experiencing psychological distress. Which of the following might be symptoms that Lachlan is under psychological distress? Check all that apply.

- Lachlin approaches his boss with ideas for making his work situation less stressful, such as half-hour classes rather than hour classes. - Lachlan is depressed. He doesn't talk with people at work the way he used to.

Which of the following help to make up the ego-ideal?

- Qualities that you admire and want to have yourself - Good qualities that your parents had

What can stress do?

- Raise your blood pressure - Put your body in an offensive position - Change the level of chemicals in your bloodstream - Allow you to perform at higher levels than normal

Suppose that your best friend was a complete Type A personality. You're getting a little worried, because you don't want him to have a heart attack, and you know that Type As are more prone to coronary heart disease. Which of the following actions would you suggest to help your friend to modify his Type A behavior?

- Stop doing many things at once. - Spend time with someone who exhibits Type B behaviors.

You are in Ireland with a group of your friends on a hike. Suddenly, you come upon the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, a footbridge built over a 30-meter-deep chasm between two mountain tops. You are scared of heights. As your friends tell you how safe the footbridge is, you know that you must decide whether to cross the bridge or turn around to take the long route back to your hotel. Your decision is:

A stress response

Ever since you were a child, you have been terrified of clowns. Those white faces and red noses make you shudder. On your way to work today, you looked over and saw a clown driving the car next to you. Ick!! What is the clown?

A stressor

Every time you see Tess, your blood pressure goes up a little, and you start to growl and moan. Tess just annoys you to no end. Tess is:

A stressor

(A)________ are examples of interpersonal demands, while (B)_______ comes about as a result of interpersonal demands.

A) Emotional toxins B) Emotional dissonance

(A) ________ coping involves managing a stressor, while (B)_________ coping is often used by people who believe they are capable.

A) Problem-focused B) Emotion-focused

When Sean starts to worry about how well he is going to play soccer in an upcoming game, he reminds himself that he's kicked the most goals on his team this season. Sean is using (A)_______ to handle his stress. This is likely to make him (B)________ successful.

A) learned optimism B) more

What type of stress is presented: Ameda came to Noel yesterday and said, "You know, we agreed on a goal to raise sales by 3% this quarter. But we've only seen a 1% increase in our sales during the first two months of the quarter. Instead of getting stressed out about this, I see it as an opportunity to work with our sales team and come up with some new ideas for clients."

Cognitive

The Japanese term karoshi refers to:

Death by overwork

Classify each of the following as a direct or an indirect cost of mismanaged stress in an organization: An employee who leaves the organization just six months after being hired.

Direct

You've been at your company for 10 years, but now your work is starting to get to you. You're having trouble sleeping, and you can't seem to concentrate during the day. To make matters worse, you've developed an eye twitch that happens whenever your boss walks into the room. What is your reaction to your work?

Distress

Angus is an agent for a rental car company. Over the past several years, his company has undergone six different reorganizations, and the people Angus is working with now are not the people who were in the office when Angus started with the company. Angus's new bosses have rules about how Angus should act on the job. In particular, they want him to always be smiling when he interacts with customers, no matter how he is feeling. As a result, Angus is under a good deal of stress, and now he just doesn't have the energy he used to have at work. Angus is likely to be suffering from:

Emotional exhaustion

According to Richard Lazarus, a _______ stressor simply blocks goals without posing a personal threat.

Hinderance

What kind of stress does this example represent: Aria thought that getting a full-time job after all her kids were in school would be great. But Aria's been having a hard time recently balancing the demands of work and home. Even something that used to be simple, like cleaning out the refrigerator, is challenging. Aria is feeling stress just thinking about the work she has to do at the house and the work she's trying to do on the job!

Home

What type of stress is presented: Yesterday, at the office coffee machine, Kristen, one of Noel's employees, said, "I just don't know what's going on. Normally, I'm cool, calm, and collected, but for the last week, I've been jumpy and skittish. It feels like things are changing around here, and not for the better."

Homestatic/Medical

Classify each of the following as a direct or an indirect cost of mismanaged stress in an organization: An employee who is not happy when she comes to work.

Indirect

What kind of stress does this example represent: Hannah isn't going to take anymore of this. Just yesterday, that product manager made another pass at her. She's told him five times that she doesn't want to go out with him, and she's tired of his crude comments about her clothes and her body. She's already complained to her HR representative, and she's hoping the issue will be over soon.

Interpersonal

The Yerkes-Dodson law says that stress can be most beneficial for a person at what range?

Mid-range (moderate stress)

Tacoma International manufactures special filters for air conditioning systems. Recently, they've noticed that their employees are late to work more often, and there's even been talk of a strike among the employees. Tacoma International is experiencing costs related to:

Participation problems

Silo Systems creates state-of-the-art cement silos that are used by developers to lay the foundation of new buildings. But over the last year, managers at Silo Systems have noticed that individual employees are producing less and less. In addition, the equipment maintenance team is reporting more and more cases of equipment failure. Silo Systems is experiencing costs related to:

Performance decrements

What type of stress is presented: Noel's best worker, Nagla, was grumbling. "Why doesn't Noel just let me focus on inventories instead of trying to get me to do management all the time? I'm great at inventories, but I'm no good at managing people!"

Person-Environment Fit

If a person who loves songwriting and is very talented at writing music is asked to write a song, one might say that there will be a good________

Person-Fit Environment

What type of stress is presented: Ella, one of Noel's employees, was quiet. She was thinking to herself, "I wish I was more conscientious, the way my mother always was. I just don't live up to her standards."

Psychoanalytic

What kind of stress does this example represent: Rian is the CEO of a mobile data startup. He's torn between two jobs right now. On the one hand, he's responsible for getting venture capital to keep the company running. Making connections, doing presentations, and handling investors is a full time job in itself. But Rian is also responsible for the day to day operations of his company. He's supposed to be hiring new employees, creating a long term vision for the company, and managing everything to make sure the work is going right. He feels like his jobs conflict with each other, and isn't sure what to do.

Role

Distress is the same as:

Strain

You are at your friend Mike's house, enjoying a party, when someone says, "Hey, did you know Mike has a pool? Let's go swimming!" Unfortunately, you almost drowned when you were six years old, and as a result, you have a real fear of water. Nevertheless, you go outside to look at the pool, and as you're standing there, you try to decide if you should get over your fear and go swimming or if you should just say "forget it" and go home. What is your decision?

Stress

Preventive stress management has three parts: primary, secondary, and tertiary. What part would you be acting on if you had an on-site psychologist who was willing to work with your employees whenever they felt like they were under stress?

Tertiary prevention

Non-Western managers tend to experience less ________ than do Western managers.

role ambiguity

Two people can be exposed to the same stressor and act entirely differently. One person might break down because his personality hardiness is low, while the other might be fine because he has high self-reliance. The idea that people break down at their weakest point is called _______

the Achilles' heel phenomenon