Industrial-Organizational Psychology Test 2

What physiological changes occur in the body in reaction to stress?

+Adrenaline speeds up all bodily functions. +Blood pressure rises, +heart rate increases, and +extra sugar is released into the bloodstream. The increased blood circulation brings additional energy to the brain and muscles, making the person stronger and more alert to cope with the threat. A stressful situation mobilizes and directs one's energy, boosting it beyond its normal level.

Four styles that leaders can adopt to help employees reach their goals

+Directive leadership - The leader tells subordinates what they should do and how they should do it. +Supportive leadership - The leader shows concern and support for subordinates. +Participative leadership - The leader allow subordinates to participate in decisions that affect their work. +Achievement-oriented leadership - The leader sets challenging goals for subordinates and emphasizes high levels of job performance.

The hierarchy of needs from lowest to highest are:

+Physiological needs: The basic human needs, including food, air, water, and sleep, and the drives for sex and activity. +Safety Needs: the needs for physical shelter and for psychological security and stability. +Belonging and love needs: The social needs or love, affection, friendship, and affiliation that involve interaction with and acceptance by other people. +Esteem needs: The needs for self-esteem and for esteem, admiration, and respect from other people. +Self-actualization need: The need for self-fulfillment, for achieving our all potential and realizing our capabilities.

Three major characteristics of people who have a high need to achieve:

+They favor a work environment in which they are able to assume responsibility for solving problems. +They tend to take calculated risks and to set moderate, attainable goals. +They need continuing recognition and feedback about their progress so that they know how well they are doing.

advantages of a bureaucratic style of organization

+a decentralization into component parts and operations; +the division of labor is simplified, and jobs are specialized; +responsibility and authority are delegated downward while communications flow upward; +employees are cut off from contact with other levels of the organization.

Why do some TQM programs fail?

+because some employees have no desire to participate in decision-making or to assume responsibility for determining the best way to perform their jobs. +Efforts can be doomed when managers continue to try to control their subordinates instead of working with them to share power and authority.

Process theories of motivation

+deal with the cognitive processes used in making decisions and choices about work. + are concerned with actors and processes internal to the employee. Instead of focusing on characteristics of the work itself, as with content theories, process theories deal with our thoughts and perceptions about our jobs, our calculations about what we stand to gain in return for our efforts, and the decisions we make based on those calculations.

bureaucratic style of organization

+designed to correct the inequities, favoritism, and cruelty that employees often received during the Industrial Revolution. +created to function like a machine, without interference from the personal whims of owners and managers.

How can organizations reduce problems associated with work-family conflicts?

+have women managers present among employees; +reducing hours and offer flexible scheduling; +allow telecommuting; +provide and encourage supportive supervisors; +offer FMLA absences; and +offer maternity/paternity leave.

disadvantages of a bureaucratic style of organization

+human needs and values are ignored; +motivations do not get recognized; +employees have no identity or control of their work; +decision-making is centralized; +workers are isolated from management; and +new ideas are viewed as a threat to the organization.

How are these hierarchy of needs met on the job

+pay and benefits +interaction with coworkers and supervisor +accomplishment on the job +occasionally with creativity and leadership (for a few employees).

Total quality management (TQM)

+refers to the kinds of participative management programs characterized by increased employee involvement and responsibility. +The overall goal of TQM is to improve the quality of the work being performed within the organization by improving the quality of the employees' working life. +TQM programs are sometimes called quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs.

contingency theory

-A leadership theory developed by Fred Fiedler in which a leader's effectiveness is determined by the interaction between the leader's personal characteristics and the characteristics of the leadership situation. -Leaders are classified as task-oriented or people-oriented. -The type of leader who will be the more effective depends on the leader's degree of control over the situation. -Control is contingent on three factors: the relationship between the leader and followers, the degree of task structure, an the leader's authority or position of power.

What problems do female managers face on the job that are not likely to confront male managers?

-Women are paid less than men for doing the same or similar job. -Women report more barriers to advancement than men. -Women experience a lack of fit with the corporate culture and feel that they are deliberately excluded from informal networks. -Women are rarely considered for job opportunities that require geographical relocation.

Hardiness

A personality variable that may explain individual differences in vulnerability to stress. So-called hardy persons believe they can control the events in their lives and thus may be more resistant to stress.

Pygmalion effect

A self-fulfilling prophecy in which managers' expectations about the level of their employees' job performance can influence that performance. This phenomenon is particularly strong in the military and more prevalent among men than women.

role conflict

A situation that arises when there is a disparity in job requirements or between a job's demands and the employee's personal standards.

harassment

A social-psychological condition of the workplace that affect productivity, job satisfaction, and emotional and physical health is on-the-job harassment, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, or other personal characteristics.

relaxation training

A stress-reduction technique that concentrates on relaxing one part of the body after another.

Biofeedback

A stress-reduction technique that involves electronic monitoring of physiological processes so that people can learn to control muscle tension, blood pressure, and brain waves.

Merit pay

A wage system in which pay is based on level of performance.

Explain Herzberg's two-factor theory.

According to Herzberg, there are two sets of needs: the motivator needs, which produce job satisfaction, and the hygiene needs, which produce job dissatisfaction. The motivator needs (the higher needs) motivate employees to high job performance. Motivator needs are internal to the work itself. They include the nature of the individual job tasks and the workers' level of responsibility, achievement, recognition, advancement, and career development and growth. Job dissatisfaction is produced by the hygiene needs (the lower needs). The word hygiene relates to the promotion and maintenance of health. Hygiene needs are external to the tasks of a particular job an involve features of the work environment, such as company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary and benefits. When hygiene needs are not satisfied, the result is job dissatisfaction.

What are transactional leaders expected to do

Adhering to the path-goal theory, they are expected to: -set goals -articulate explicit agreements regarding what the leader expects from organizational members and how they will be rewarded for their efforts and commitment -provide constructive feedback to keep everybody on task. Transactional leadership establishes and standardizes practices that will help the organization reach maturity, emphasizing setting of goals, efficiency of operation, and increase of productivity.

Scientific management

An approach to leadership that was developed in the first half of the 20th century. A management philosophy concerned with increasing productivity that regarded workers as extensions of the machines they operated.

prosocial behavior

Behaviors directed toward supervisors, co-workers, and clients that are helpful to an organization.

What are the advantages to employees and employers of permanent part-time employment

By shifting to part-time employment, organizations reduce the costs of keeping full-time staffs (which require higher salary and benefit packages) and increase their scheduling flexibility. Part-time employment is attractive to people with family responsibilities and to disabled persons who have mobility problems. Researchers found that those who had chosen part-time employment were far more satisfied with their jobs, performed their work better, and were more committed to their organization than were those who were assigned to part-time work against their will.

employee assistance programs (EAP)

Counseling and rehabilitative services for various employee problems, notably alcohol and drug abuse.

OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Created by Congress to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.

What are three characteristics of Locke's goal-setting theory?

Edwin Locke's goal-setting theory argues that our primary motivation in a work situation is defined in terms of our desire to achieve a particular goal. Setting specific and challenging performance goals can motivate and guide behavior, spurring people to perform in more effective ways. An important aspect of the goal-setting theory is individual goal commitment, which is defined in terms of the strength of a person's determination to reach a goal. Setting goals has been found to produce substantial increases in employee output.

Explain Maslow's need hierarchy theory of motivation

Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance. The theory suggests that people always want what they do not yet have. Consequently, the needs that are already satisfied no longer provide any motivation for behavior and new needs must rise to prominence. Once people have satisfied their lower level needs, they can pay attention to higher level needs.

Do you think the widespread use of computers, cell phones, and other personal electronic devices at work and in everyday life make our lives more stressful or less stressful? Why?

I believe that computers, cell phones, and other personal electronic devices at work make our lives less stressful, but not being able to unplug from work causes stress.

What personality characteristics are related to burnout?

If you score high on the Big Five personality factor of neuroticism, you are far more likely to experience burnout. If you score high in extraversion and agreeableness, you were less likely to develop burnout.

Under what conditions is authoritarian style most effective?

In work situations that require unusually rapid and highly efficient job performance; productivity and satisfaction are more likely to be maintained under this style of leadership. The fire chief does not have time to hold a committee meeting to determine the best way to deal with the fire.

advantages of landscaped offices

Inexpensive to construct and maintain believed to facilitate communication and work flow.

Compare and contrast process and content theories of work motivation

Instead of focusing on characteristics of the work itself, as with content theories, process theories deal with our thoughts and perceptions about our jobs, our calculations about what we stand to gain in return for our efforts, and the decisions we make based on those calculations.

What is meant by the concept of job enrichment?

It has to do with expanding jobs to give employees a greater role in planning, performing, and evaluating their work, thus providing the chance to satisfy their motivator needs.

Name four characteristics of Adam's equity theory.

John Stacey Adams' Equity Theory acknowledges that subtle and variable factors affect an employee's assessment and perception of their relationship with their work and their employer. The theory is built-on the belief that employees become de-motivated, both in relation to their job and their employer, if they feel as though their inputs are greater than the outputs. Employees can be expected to respond to this is different ways, including de-motivation (generally to the extent the employee perceives the disparity between the inputs and the outputs exist), reduced effort, becoming disgruntled, or, in more extreme cases, perhaps even disruptive.

Consideration leadership

Leadership behaviors that involve awareness of and sensitivity to the feelings of subordinates.

job satisfaction

Our positive and negative feelings and attitudes about our jobs

Stress

Physiological and psychological responses to an excessive, usually unpleasant stimulation and to threatening events in the environment.

Which leadership style is best for creating change in an organization?

Research studies support the idea that transformational leaders are more effective in securing their subordinates' commitment to organizational changes and to achieving organizational goals.

role ambiguity

Role ambiguity is when job responsibilities are unstructured or poorly defined

What is self-efficacy? How can it affect our reactions to stress and our ability to cope with stressful situations at work?

Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one's ability to accomplish a task. It is the sense of how adequate, efficient, and competent a person feels about coping with life's demands. People who are high in self-efficacy are less bothered by stress than are people who are low in self-efficacy.

In what ways can an organization facilitate the socialization of its new employees?

Socialization involves several organizational strategies. Ideally, the company should provide new employees with challenging jobs that offer: +opportunities for growth and development +the mastery of skills, +self-confidence, +success experiences, +positive interactions with superiors, +feedback, and +coworkers who have high morale and a positive attitude toward the organization.

person-organization fit

The congruence between an employee's values and the organization's values.

group cohesiveness

The focus, closeness, and commonality of interests of a small work group. The components of group cohesiveness include: +Build trust with face to face time with others +Informal gatherings of employees +Opportunities to network and build social support +Personal interaction with other employees

social loafing

The idea that people do not work as hard in a group as they do when working alone.

authoritarian leadership style

The leader makes all the decisions and tells followers what to do.

democratic leadership style

The leaders and followers discuss problems and jointly make all decisions that affect their work.

job congruence

The match between a person's abilities and the requirements of a job.

Organizational culture

The organization's pattern of beliefs, expectations, and values as manifested in company and industry practices.

nominal working hours

The prescribed number of hours employees are supposed to spend on the job

environmental psychology

The study of the effect of workplace design on behavior and attitudes

Which leadership style is most effective?

The style that is most effective depends on the nature of the situation and the needs and characteristics of the followers

Describe the validity of the concept of accident proneness

The theory holds that certain people are more likely than others to have accidents. The theory also posits that most accidents are caused by or involve the same few people. The theory also assumes that accident-prone persons are likely to have accidents regardless of the type of situation. The theory no longer enjoys the credibility it once had, although evidence suggests that some workers may be predisposed to have more accidents in a particular type of work. Accident proneness may be specific to the work situation and not a general tendency over all situations, which limits the theory's predictive value.

job characteristic theory

The theory of motivation that states that specific job characteristics lead to psychological conditions that can increase motivation.

Theory X and Theory Y need what kind of leader?

Theory X calls for a dictatorial leader. Theory Y functions best under a leader who allows them to participate in setting and working toward personal and organizational goals.

transactional leaders

These leaders conduct their business by identifying the needs of their followers and bestow rewards to satisfy those needs in exchange for a certain level of performance.

Theory X

This approach to management assumes that most people are innately lazy and dislike work, avoiding it whenever they can. They must me coerced, watched, and scolded on the job to make them work hard enough to meet the organization's goals. Theory ? assumes that most people have no ambition, avoid responsibility, and prefer to be led and directed.

Theory Y

This approach to management assumes that most people seek inner satisfaction and fulfillment from their work. According to Theory ? then, people are industrious and creative and seek challenge and responsibility on the job.

Under what conditions is the democratic style most effective?

This style of leadership is most effective in small office settings or team settings.

burnout

a condition of job stress that results from overwork

landscaped offices

a huge open space with no floor-to-ceiling walls to divide the area into separate rooms. all employees, from clerks to corporate officers, are grouped into cubicles, functional work units that are set off from others only by planters, screens or partitions, or cabinets and book cases.

Personal characteristics of job involvement

age, growth needs, and belief in the traditional work ethic. Older workers are usually more involved with their jobs and are also more likely to believe in the value of hard work. Younger workers, typically in entry-level positions, hold less stimulating and challenging jobs.

advantages of flextime

avoidance of rush hour less absenteeism more productivity accommodating family responsibilities and educational commitments, and increased satisfaction with the work schedule.

major causes of burnout

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (a feeling of callousness and cynicism and a reduced sensitivity toward others), and reduced sense of personal accomplishment (inefficacy) - the feeling that one's actions and efforts are waste and worthless.

Explain McClelland's achievement motivation theory.

emphasizes the need to accomplish something, to do a good job, and to be the best. People who have a high degree of the need for achievement derive great satisfaction from working to accomplish some goal, and they are motivated to excel in whatever task they undertake.

Describe the effects of losing one's job.

feelings of guilt, resentment, depression, and anxiety about the future, as well as physical complaints, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, divorce, spouse and child abuse, and thoughts of suicide. People who lost their jobs after age 50 had twice the risk of strokes or heart attacks than those of the same age who were still employed. The layoff survivors reported a decrease in feelings of commitment to the organization since their friends and co-workers had been dismissed.

Content theories of motivation

focus on the importance of the work itself and the challenges, growth opportunities, and responsibilities work provides for employees. These theories deal with the specific needs that motivate and direct human behavior.

Path-goal theory of leadership

focuses on the kinds of behaviors a leader exercises to allow subordinates to achieve their goals. The theory states that leaders can increase their subordinates' motivation, satisfaction, and job performance by administering rewards that depend on the achievement of particular goals.

transformational leaders

have more latitude in their behavior. They are not limited by their followers' perceptions. Rather than believing that they must act in accordance with what their followers expect of them, transformational leaders work to change or transform their followers' needs and redirect their thinking. Transformational leaders challenge and inspire subordinates with a sense of purpose and excitement about what can be accomplished.

How can organizational culture affect job satisfaction and performance?

if the organizational culture is highly authoritarian in leadership and the employee is a democratic, creative, independent type. This type of organizational culture will clash.

Sexual harassment

involves unwanted sexual attention and coercion, and is targeted toward a specific woman or man. gender harassment does not necessarily involve sexual harassment. Gender harassment is directed toward all women, whereas sexual harassment is targeted toward a specific woman.

disadvantages of landscaped offices

lack of privacy, noise, and difficulty in concentrating. work areas tend to lack the personal touches - such as photos, plants, posters, or souvenirs - that contribute to feelings of individuality and comfort.

Ethnic harassment

may be manifested at work as slurs or derogatory comments about a person's racial or ethnic group and may result in the exclusion of the person from work groups or social activities.

change agents

organization development facilitators who work with business groups to implement change and develop group confidence and effectiveness.

Gender harassment

refers to behavior that reflects an insulting, hostile, and degrading attitude toward all women or men. Gender harassment does not necessarily involve sexual harassment. Gender harassment is directed toward all women, whereas sexual harassment is targeted toward a specific woman.

Job characteristics most relevant to job involvement

stimulation, autonomy, variety, task identity, feedback, and participation - the characteristics that allow for the satisfaction of the growth needs.

Organizational commitment

the degree of psychological identification with or attachment to the company for which a person works, has the following characteristics: +Acceptance of the organization's values and goals +Willingness to exert effort for the organization +Having a strong desire to remain affiliated with the organization.

Organizational development (OD)

the study and implementation of planned organizational changes. This effort involves techniques such as sensitivity training, role playing, group discussion, and job enrichment as well as survey feedback and team building.

Telecommuting

working from home, thanks to advances in personal computers, telecommunications, and fax machines.

Describe the characteristics of a successful first line supervisor

• Person-centered - They rate higher in the consideration function than do unsuccessful supervisors • Supportive of their workers - They are more helpful to employees and more willing to defend them against criticism from higher management than are less effective supervisors • Democratic - They hold frequent meetings with employees to solicit their views and encourage participation. • Flexible - They allow employees to accomplish their goals in their own way whenever possible, consistent with the goals o the organization. • Coaches rather than directors - They emphasize quality, provide clear directions, and give timely feedback to their workers.

Stress-related mental symptoms include the following:

• anxiety; • depression; and • anger/hostility.

Stress-related physical symptoms include the following (11):

• high blood pressure; • ulcers; • colitis; • heart disease; • arthritis; • skin diseases; • allergies; • headaches; • neck and lower back pain; • cancer; and • increase in infectious diseases.