Organizational Behavior Exam 3

Which of the following is correct regarding organizational culture and ethics?

Organizational culture can cause unethical behavior.

_____ represents the heart of transformational leadership.

A strategic vision

____ occurs when employees at the acquired company willingly embrace the cultural values of the acquiring organization.

Assimilation

____ leadership refers to how well leaders are aware of, feel comfortable with, and act consistently with their self-concepts.

Authentic

Which of the following is true regarding authentic leadership?

Authentic leaders develop a personal style which is comfortable to them.

Which of the following is the highest priority and first strategy required for any organizational change?

Communicate the need for change.

XYZ Office Supplies is about to introduce a new customer service program that will affect all its 355 sales and service employees. Job duties will be changed, and the employee rewards system will be altered to fit this new customer focus. Moreover, the company wants to improve the efficiency of work processes, thereby removing some of the comfortable (and often leisurely) routines that employees have followed over the years. Top management is concerned about the different types of forces resisting change that the company will potentially experience during this change process. XYZ attempts to assist the change process by putting employees in direct contact with customers. Here, the company is trying to do which of the following?

Create an urgency for change.

Which of the following is NOT a strategy for changing and strengthening organizational culture?

Distribute handbooks to employees that describe the new rules and regulations.

Path-goal theory assumes which of the following?

Effective leaders select the most appropriate behavior based on the situation.

Which of the following statements about emotional intelligence and leadership is TRUE?

Emotional intelligence is one of the desired competencies of effective leaders.

Which of the following is an advantage of having a moderate level of organizational conflict?

It energizes people to evaluate alternatives in decision making.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the integration strategy?

It is usually slow and potentially risky due to many forces preserving the existing culture.

Which of the following is a problem with the employee involvement strategy in minimizing resistance to change?

It is very time-consuming.

Which of the following is a positive consequence of workplace conflict?

It makes for better decision making by reexamining assumptions.

Which of the following is correct regarding a strategic vision?

It minimizes fear of the unknown.

Which of the following is consistent with the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) theory?

Job applicants avoid employment in companies whose values seem incompatible with their own values.

Which of the following is the most accurate definition of leadership?

Leadership is influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization.

____ theory assumes the situation either limits the leaders ability to influence subordinates or renders a particular leadership style unnecessary.

Leadership substitutes

Which of the following is true of managerial leadership?

Managerial leaders are responsible for operational excellence in support of the strategic vision.

Effective managers should do which of the following regarding conflict?

Minimize the relationship conflicts that exist in the organization.

Which element of transformational leadership involves the practice of walk the talk?

Model the vision.

In the context of organizational socialization, who would have an easier time adjusting?

Newcomers with diverse work experience.

Which of the following statements is correct regarding pilot projects?

Pilot project are a cautious approach to organizational change.

What should managers do after the change to facilitate employees not slipping back into old behavior patterns?

Realign organizational systems and team dynamics with the desired behaviors.

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and relationship conflicts?

Relationship conflict is less likely to occur if emotional intelligence is high.

Situations with both _____ produce the highest risk of conflict.

Scarce resources and high task interdependence

What does the "optimal conflict" perspective on organizational conflict state?

Some level of conflict in necessary and promotes organizational effectiveness.

Which of these statements about organizational stories is TRUE?

Stories are most effective at communicating corporate culture when they describe real events with real people.

________ leadership includes behaviors that define and structure work roles.

Task-oriented

Which of the following is a feature of relationship conflict?

The conflict episodes are viewed as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem.

For which of the following would yielding be the best conflict-handling style?

The issue is much less important to you than the other party.

Which of the following statements is TRUE about superordinate goals?

They are higher order aspirations such as the organization's strategic objectives.

Jessie and Preston are both managers at CPA4U, a large accounting firm. Each has a very different management style. Jessie frequently checks on her subordinates to see if there is any way she can help them to complete their projects. As a supervisor in the financial sector, Jessie maintains her moral integrity and is not swayed by pressures to take shortcuts. She tries to know a little bit about her employees' outside interests and always remembers everyone's birthday. Preston keeps to himself more and communicates with his subordinates mainly through emails; he's not particularly interested in his employees' after-work activities. His subordinates know exactly what is expected of them; they submit daily reports on their progress toward the weekly goals he has assigned them. Which type of leader is Jessie?

a servant leader

One of the functions of ____ is that it is a spawning ground for emerging values that keep the firm aligned with the needs of customers, suppliers, society, and other stakeholders.

a subculture

Employees at SuperTech Services seek out opportunities rather than wait for them to arrive. They also have a strong learning orientation. This implies that SuperTech has a(n) __ culture.

adaptive

What is refreezing?

aligning an organization's systems with the desired behaviors to support and reinforce the new role patterns

According to the action research model, which of the following occurs during the "diagnose the need for change" step?

analysis of data

Jorge is implementing a new job appraisal system. This is being met by resistance from the staff, who prefer the old system. Jorge blames the staff for being ignorant and short-sighted. How is Jorge most likely interpreting his staff's resistance?

as relationship conflict

The Toy Barn acquired The Game Stop. The Game Stop has a dysfunctional culture, while The Toy Barn has a strong and effective culture. Which merger strategy would be recommended in this situation?

assimilation

Nadia has a relationship conflict with her colleague at the workplace. She tries to evade the conflict by having minimal communication with her colleague so as to reduce any chances of confrontation. What conflicting style has Nadia adopted in this case?

avoiding

Initial offer points, target points, and resistance points represent three elements in the ________ model.

bargaining zone

Jackie is the CEO of a struggling company. She has listened to her employees' concerns about where the corporation is going and has developed a new vision that she feels will help foster a common bond throughout the organization. Jackie then hosted a company-wide picnic where she delivered an inspiring speech about the new plans for the business, including her plans for more open communication between management and employees. After her speech, management and employees all participated in trust-building exercises, and each employee had a one-on-one conversation with Jackie. By the end of the day, Jackie had energized her people to adopt her new vision as their own. Which element of this leadership model was Jackie focusing on that day?

building commitment toward the vision

In the negotiation process, a key objective of ________ is to establish and maintain trust.

building the relationship

At a meeting, the senior management of a firm cites the accomplishments of lower-level employees and announces the rewards for good performance. Such meetings occur annually at the firm. In the context of organizational artifacts, this is specifically an example of a(n)

ceremony.

B&D Systems, a small company, wants to go in a different direction with the manufacturing of several products that are needed as quickly as possible for the Christmas season. Allison has worked for the company for several years and has a great deal of influence with the other employees in her group, and they have been slowing down management plans. After her manager tried several tactics, unsuccessfully, to get Allison on board with the proposed changes, the quickly approaching holiday deadlines forced management to fire Allison. Which of the following strategies is being used?

coercion

You are assigned to resolve a conflict between two departments of an organization. Both parties have equal power. Both parties are under time pressure to resolve the conflict. You also realize that the parties lack trust/openness for problem solving. You are actively searching for a middle ground between the interests of the two parties. Which of the following conflict resolution styles would you use in this situation?

compromising

What is one of the first steps to minimize a cultural clash in a merger?

conduct a bicultural audit

People with an external locus of control tend to be more satisfied with ________ leadership styles.

directive and supportive

When a negotiator adopts a winlose orientation in which one party necessarily loses when the other party gains, they are using the ________ approach to negotiations.

distributive

Which of the following characteristics addresses the leader's moderately high need for achievement?

drive

BusCorp. wants to introduce a new procedure to improve how customer requests are handled. This change will require employees to break old routines and adopt new role patterns. The company decides to adopt two new programs, one in which employees learn how to work in teams as the company changes. The other involves forming task forces within the company to help determine new customer service practices. The formation of task forces to minimize resistance to change is an example of which strategy?

employee involvement

The values that corporate leaders hope will eventually become the organization's culture are ____, however the organization's culture is defined by its ____.

espoused values; enacted values

To create a more ____ organization, leaders need to work on the enacted culture that steers employee behavior.

ethical

Jerry is a sales rep who covered Sue's clients while she was on vacation. Jerry took an order for a customer and gave them a 15% discount. When Sue returned from vacation and found out about the discount, she was furious. That customer should never get more than 10%, she tells Jerry. Their disagreement begins to escalate. In resolving this conflict, Jerry is more likely to use the _____ style, while Sue is more likely to use the ____ style.

forcing; avoiding

A project team has adopted the norm of meeting remotely. However, the team's manager insists they work in the office. Due to ____, the project team is resisting this directive.

incongruent team dynamics

Which of the following organizational culture dimensions is characterized by risk taking and low cautiousness?

innovation

Which of the following is an artifact?

language

Most employees at United FiberTech support the idea that the company's success depends on their willingness to continually change and improve customer service. This indicates that the firm most likely has which of the following?

learning orientation

In the context of interpersonal conflict-handling styles, a _______ represents the forcing style.

low degree of cooperativeness and a high degree of assertiveness.

Which of the following factors leads to relationship conflicts in teams?

low levels of communication

The chief executive of Telecommco, a large telecommunications company, wants to restructure the organization so that product leaders would have more power than the executives in charge of each region. The regional executives try to prevent this restructuring because it would weaken their power and possibly reduce their salaries in the long term. The product leaders also put up some resistance because they feel that things work just fine the way they are. This action by the regional executives is primarily an example of resistance due to which of the following?

negative valence of change

Bezel Systems is introducing a few organization wide changes. A coalition of employees will clearly lose out from the proposed changes and they have enough power to cause the change effort to fail. Assuming that the change effort can proceed slowly and cost is not an issue, which strategy would be you recommend to minimize resistance?

negotiation

Which of the following refers to the strategy in which employees deliberately inflate problems with changes that they did not initiate, just to prove that those ideas were not superior to their own?

not-invented-here syndrome

The _______ is represented by the values and shared assumptions most consistently and widely shared by employees.

organization's dominant culture

Which of the following is associated with charisma?

personal traits that provide referent power over others

Leadership prototypes refer to which of the following?

preconceived beliefs about the features and behaviors of effective leaders

Which of the following interpersonal conflict management styles represents a purely win-win orientation?

problem solving

What are rituals?

programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize the organization's culture

Change agents sometimes mistake resistance to change as ____ conflict, which tends to further escalate the conflict.

relationship

Which of these forces are commonly called resistance to change?

restraining forces

By serving as __, a strong organizational culture fulfills the employees need for social identity.

social glue

Jonas's job is to attach screens onto tablet computers. He has done this routine for five years. His manager Lacy has noticed recently that Jonas appears bored and disinterested in his work. This is causing more of his work to have defects. However, Jonas is a valued employee. Which leadership style would you recommend Lacy adopt in this situation?

supportive

Which of the following leadership styles should be used by leaders when team cohesiveness is low?

supportive

What are the two types of organizational conflict?

task conflict and relationship conflict

The customer-service department at Park-E Bank complains it is unable to keep track of its new business clients as the department handling data compilation has failed to enable a free exchange of information between two departments. This hindered the customer-service department to follow up on its customers' queries and update their relationship status with the bank. This has also impacted the department's sales target. This scenario exemplifies conflict due to which of the following?

task interdependence

Several managers were having a budget meeting. At first, they were all focused on the issues, though there was mild disagreement. Tensions increased as the participants wanted more of the fixed pool of monies than was available. The discussion then moved away from the budget to personal insults and sniping. The first part of this meeting illustrates _____ conflict, which later turned into ____ conflict.

task; relationship

What is the romance of leadership?

the idea that followers tend to inflate the perceived influence of leaders on the organization's success

When managing change, learning interventions are most effective for which of the following?

to break routines that cause resistance to change

Lewin's force field model emphasizes that effective change occurs by ____ the current situation, moving to a desired condition, and then ____ the system so it remains in the desired state.

unfreezing; refreezing

A deculturation strategy of merging two corporate cultures should be applied in which of the following situations?

when the acquired firm's culture doesn't work