MGT 3301: Exam Two

What is groupthink and how do you avoid it?

- A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action" - Avoid with Minority dissent occurs when group members feel com-fortable disagreeing with other group members."

Noise

- Anything that interferes with, distorts, or slows down the transmission of the message - Can be literal or figurative

Non-Verbal

- Communication without words - Adds flavor to verbal communication - Helps understand tones and attitudes

What causes conflict?

- Interdependencies - Incompatibilities - Overlapping or unclear boundaries - Competition over limited resources - Unreasonable or unclear organizational policies - Organizational complexities

What are the benefits of intuition in the decision-making process?

- It can speed up the decision-making process, which is valuable when you are under time constraints. - It is useful when resources are limited.

What is conflict?

- Occurs when one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another part - It can have both positive and negative outcomes - Organizations can have too much or too little conflict - It may either be functional or dysfunctional

Active Listening

- Positive body language - Direct eye contact - Full on listening

According to the Ted Talk featuring Tim Urban, know what techniques can help us resist the urge to procrastinate?

- Restrain instant gratification monkey

Benefits of ADR

- Speed - Lower cost - Confidentiality - Potential for win-win resolution

Feedback

- The first round of feedback occurs when the original receiver expresses a reaction to the sender's message. Once the initial sender has obtained this feedback, he or she is likely to decode it and send corresponding feedback. This process continues until sender and receiver believe they have effectively communicated.

Decoding and Creating Meaning

- When receivers receive a message - Process of interpreting and making sense of a message in your mind

What are the different types of biases in decision making?

1. Confirmation Bias - "pertains to how we selectively gather information" Overconfidence bias- "results in overestimating our skills relative to those of other" 2. Availability Bias - Is a decision maker's tendency to base decisions on information readily available in memory 3. Representativeness Bias - Leads us to look for information that supports previously formed stereotypes 4. Anchoring Bias - Occurs when decision makers are influenced by the first information they receive about a decision, even if it is irrelevant 5. Hindsight Bias - Hindsight bias occurs when knowledge of an outcome influences our belief about the probability that we could have predicted the outcome earlier. 6. Framing Bias - "Relates to the manner in which a question is posed or framed. It leads us to change the way we interpret alternatives." - 85% lean instead of 15% fat 7. Escalation of Commitment Bias - Is the tendency to hold to an ineffective course of action even when it is unlikely the bad situation can be reversed" - Our tendency to remain committed to our past behaviors particularly those exhibited publicly, even if they do not have desirable outcomes

What are the forms of trust?

1. Contractual Trust - Trust of someone's character 2. Communication Trust - Trust of disclosure, do you believe they are telling the truth, or if they can disclose information 3. Competence Trust - Trust of people's necessary skills to accomplish completing the project.

What are the four steps of performance management?

1. Define Performance - Set goals and communicate performance expectations 2. Monitor and Evaluate Performance - Identify problems and recognize success 3. Review Performance - Feedback and coaching 4. Provide Consequences - Valued rewards or appropriate punishment

What are the different stages of team development and what goes in each stage?

1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning

What are the common perceptional errors?

1. Halo Effect 2. Leniency 3. Central Tendency 4. Recency Effects 5. Contrast Effects

What are the different stages to the rational decision-making model?

1. Identify the problem or opportunity 2. Generate alternative solutions 3. Evaluate alternatives and select a solution 4. Implement and evaluate the solution chosen.

What are the five common conflict-handling styles?

1. Integrating - Interested parties confront the issue and cooperatively identify it, generate and weigh alternatives, and select a solution 2. Obliging - Tends to show low concern for yourself and a great concern for others. Such people tend to minimize differences and highlight similarities to please the other party 3. Dominating - High concern for self and low concern for others, often characterized by "I win, you lose" tactics 4. Avoiding - Passive withdrawal from the problem and active suppression of the issue are common. We addressed the pitfalls of avoiding conflict earlier. 5. Compromising - Is a give-and-take approach with a moderate concern for both self and others. Compromise is appropriate when parties have opposite goals or possess equal power

What are the different types of operant conditioning?

1. Positive Reinforcement - Give them something to keep them doing that behavior 2. Punishment - Either give something or take that away to extinguish that behavior 3. Negative Reinforcement - Take something away to keep that behavior 4. Extinction - Weaken a behavior by attaching no consequences to it

What is the criteria for giving rewards?

1. Results 2. Behavior and actions 3. Nonperformance considerations

What might cause reward systems to fail?

1. Too much emphasis on monetary rewards. 2. If you use rewards that people don't value 3. Make sure employees don't view rewards as entitlements 4. If the system produces counterproductive behaviors 5. Lag between the performance and the reward

What are the different types of teams?

1. Work Teams - Individuals who work together as a team daily. - Well-defined, full commitment from the team members, primary job 2. Project Teams - Teams that assemble just to attack a specific project or task. - Assembled just to tackle a particular issue, problem, or project, often dividing their time between this team and their primary responsibilities, only a portion of their job 3. Cross-Functional Teams - When a team of individuals with different skill sets, from different departments, come together. 4. Self-Managed Teams - Administrative oversight of their own task, the team makes decisions of how to accomplish tasks, no certain leader overseeing the group 5. Virtual Teams - Working together in teams via electronic mediums.

What is the Delphi technique?

A group process that generates anonymous ideas or judgments from physically dispersed experts in multiple rounds of brainstorming

What is intuition?

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning - Intuition is fast and more susceptible to decision making biases, not necessarily accurate or valid

Jolene is a mathematics major. She has a high tolerance for ambiguity and tends to overanalyze many situations.What style does Jolene represent?

Analytical

What are the four decision-making styles?

Analytical, conceptual, directive, behavioral

Nonrational Decision Making

Assume that decision making is nearly always uncertain and risky, making it difficult for managers to make optimal decisions - Bounded Rationality and Satisficing under Simon's Normative Model - Intution

Central Tendency

Avoid extreme judgements, neutral, everything is average

Non-Defensive Listening

Avoiding defensive language from either party, which can foster inaccurate and inefficient information

Halo Effect

Biased by the overall impression regardless of performance quality

What are the 3 C's of effective teams?

Charters and Strategies - Document that lays out how the team will operate, outlines the plans, sets goals Team Composition - Ensuring team is composed of the right people Capacity - Ability to make changes and responsive demands for the team

What are decision support systems?

Computer-based interactive systems that help decision makers to use data and models to solve unstructured problems

Roger runs a small nonprofit group. He wants to buy a copier, because he knows it will be cheaper than going tothe copy store. One of the other employees remarks that they should make do with an inexpensive copier fromWalmart or Staples, but Roger wants one that will copy legal documents and collate reports. Roger may beimpacted by _______ bias.

Confirmation

Why is feedback important?

Critical to be instructional or motivational It enables you to learn how your performance compares to the goal, which you can then use to modify your behaviors and efforts

What is bounded rationality?

Decision makers are limited by their values and unconscious reflexes, skills, and habits - We don't have all of the information all the time

What is the difference between distributive negotiation and integrative negotiation?

Distributive Negotiation - Usually concerns a single issue—a "fixed pie" in which one person gains at the expense of another. Integrative Negotiation - In which numerous interests are considered, resulting in an agreement that is satisfactory for both parties

Orna bluntly tells the server that she needs to learn better conflict handling skills. But then, Orna goes over to the customer, who begins to argue with her. So she tells the customer to leave and not bother coming back. This best represents the _________ conflict handling style.

Dominating

As the payroll accountant at a large factory, it is John's responsibility to make sure that employees are properly compensated according to the timecards they filled out. Many of John's employees chose to have their paychecks automatically deposited into their designated bank accounts. However, it is still necessary to let the employees know that their checks were deposited in their bank accounts. Which of the following communication media should John choose to convey this information?

E-Mail

What are the different parts of the communication process?

Encoding Selecting a medium Decoding and creating meaning Feedback Noise

Contrast Effects

Evaluation of a person's characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics

Forms of ADR

Facilitation - Third party encouraging the two parties to come to a solution in a positive manner Conciliation - Communication conduit between the two parties because the two parties can't even be in the same room anymore Peer Review - Panels of trustworthy employees to hear different disputes in the workplace Ombudsman - Third party person Mediation - Trained third party who actively guides the disputing parties through exploring solutions to the conflict Arbitration - Legal binding ability, something you agree to going into a contract, you can hire from different companies, legal expertise, know the law, like Judge Judy

How can you protect against social loafing?

Functional Workload Sharing Norm - When the amount of effort and contribution is equal amongst all team members

How do multiple generations in the workplace affect communication? How do you best deal with it?

Generalizations of any trends, preferences, or perceptions to all men, all women, or all members of a particular generation - clarify community expectations and norms - use a variety of communication tools - be aware of implicit bias - make sure people get credit for their ideas and not their gender

What are the advantages of group decision making?

Greater pool of knowledge, different perspectives, intellectual stimulation, better understanding of decision rationale, deeper commitment to the decision, more visual role modeling

What is the difference between a group and a team?

Groups: Two or more freely interacting individuals who share norms and goals and have a common identity (Formal or informal; can overlap) Team: A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

Norming

Habits are Established Positive attitudes: people other than the leaders buying into the team. Brings team cohesiveness. Proper roles Group cohesiveness Reinforce positive norms

What is 360 degree feedback?

Individuals compare perceptions of their own performance with behaviorally specific (and usually anonymous) performance information - 360-degree feedback is a process through which feedback from an employee's subordinates, peers, colleagues, and supervisor, as well as a self-evaluation by the employee themselves is gathered

What is alternative dispute resolution?

Is a means for solving disputes using an independent third party and avoids the costs and problems associated with litigation or unilateral decision making

Dr. Slotsky is a well-liked professor. Last term, no one received less than a B in any of his courses. Dr. Slotsky may be suffering from _________ perceptual error.

Leniency

Selecting a Medium

Managers can communicate through a variety of media. - These include face-to-face conversations and meetings, telephone calls, charts and graphs, and the many digital messaging forms—e-mail, texting, voice mail, videoconferencing, Twitter, Facebook, Blackboard, and others.

How to select the right medium for communication?

Match medium richness with the situations complextivity.- choose appropriate medium for communication ex; email, text, etc.

What is media richness?

Media richness measures the capacity of a given communication medium to convey information and promote understanding

Operant Conditioning

Modifying behavior through positive/negative consequences following specific behaviors

How do key communication competencies affect communication?

Non-verbal Active listening Non-defensive listening Empathy

What are norms and why are they important?

Norms are acceptable behavior in groups Positive attitudes: people other than the leaders buying into the team. Brings team cohesiveness. Proper roles Group cohesiveness Reinforce positive norms

Storming

Obstacles Emerge (differences amongst individuals) Dealing with team conflict Relationship conflict- not good Task conflict- moderate levels of this can bring positive outcomes

What is the difference between performance and learning goals?

Performance Goals: Targets specific end results Learning Goals: Enhances skill and knowledge

Recency Effects

Ratings based on the most recent events/judgements

Empathy

Represents the ability to recognize and understand another person's feelings and thoughts

What causes team conflict?

Scarcity of Resources - People may be competing for resources ex; money, rewards, recognition. - Solution: find more resources so people do not have to compete Task Interdependence - When someone's ability to achieve goals is hampered by another team members ability to do their job Differing Goals - When people coming from different departments seek individual goals rather than team goals. Solution: rewards based on team performance rather than individual performance. Personality Clash - When people do not get along. Solution: working on interpersonal behavioral skills.

What is performance management?

Set of behaviors that include monitoring, measuring, evaluating, and providing consequences for performance expectations.

What is social loafing?

Social loafing is the phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when working alone.

How to effectively deal with social media in the workplace?

Social media policies that apply to all forms of social media include discussions of privacy issues

What are SMART goals

Specific - State what you'll do - Use action words Measurable - Provide a way to evaluate - Use metrics or data targets Attainable - Within your scope - Possible to accomplish, attainable Results-Oriented - Makes sense within your job function - Improves the business in some way Time-Bound - State when you'll get it done - Be specific on date of timeframe

Carol takes over as leader of head marketing team of Sandstorm Jeans. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy. She institutes radical changes and eliminates 35 percent of the team positions. Even after this, the remaining members resist her ideas. This represents the ____ stage; it is a time of testing

Storming

What are proxemics? What does it teach us

Study of how physical space conveys messages - Space conveys a message - Invasion of personal space leads to anxiety or discomfort

Performing

Team Excels Fine-tuned relationships and roles

Forming

Team is Created Uncertainty about roles, authority, and goals

Adjourning

Teams Disband Reflect on lessons learned

Leniency

To consistently evaluate everyone in a positive fashion

Encoding

Translating thoughts into a form or language that can be understood by others

What is coaching?

a customized process between two or more people with the intent of enhancing learning and motivating change.

How does work-family conflict affect people?

is the perception that expectations and demands between work and non-work roles are mutually incompatible

What is the difference between optimizing and satisfying?

optimizing: "means solving problems by producing the best possible solution based on a set of highly desirable conditions" satisfying: "represents the notion that decision makers are "bounded" or restricted by a variety of constraints when making decisions."

What are the disadvantages of group decision making?

social pressure a few dominant participants goal displacement groupthink