Organizational Behavior Practice Questions

Which of the following is an example of internally caused behavior?

An employee could not attend an interview because of a delayed flight.

With reference to the expectancy theory, which of the following examples indicates a weak rewards-personal goals relationship?

An employee works hard in order to be relocated to the Paris office but instead is transferred to Beijing

Which of the following does the heredity approach state?

An individual's personality is determined by molecular structure of the genes.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the effect of size of the group has on the performance of the group?

As compared to smaller groups, larger groups are better in problem solving.

________ bias refers to the tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is easily accessible.

Availability

Is as important for managers as for front-line employees and, among all Big Five Model traits, is most consistently related to job performance

Conscientiousness

________ refers to staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it's wrong.

Escalation of commitment

Which of the following statements is true regarding self-managed work teams?

In the case of self-managed work teams, supervisory positions take on decreased importance.

John holland's personality-job fit theory presents six personality types. Which of the following is one of these six types

Investigative

Which of the following is true with regard to leadership?

It focuses on downward influence on followers.

Which of these groups is the higher performing

Nominal Group

Which of the following statements is true regarding perception?

Our perception of reality can be different from the objective reality.

Which of the following statements is true regarding goal-setting theory?

People do better when they get feedback on how well they are progressing toward their goals

Which of the following is an instrumental value

Personal discipline

Helen, a high school teacher, wants her students to actively participate more in class. She has decided to use reinforcement theory to get the required results. Which of the following methods is she most likely to use?

She is going to give students extra credit each time that they contribute.

If Alberta is a categorized as a Theory X manager, which of the following behaviors is she most likely to exhibit?

She will strictly control all the details of any project she is managing

________ is a process that helps new employees adapt to the prevailing organizational culture.

Socialization

Which of the following is true regarding formal groups?

They are marked by stipulated behaviors in pursuit of organizational goals

Valerie Sinclair, a climate campaigner at an environmental organization, invariable uses rationale to make decisions for project implementation. She believes that the right decisions can be made only through scrutiny and analysis. Each time she needs to make a decison, she weighs all options before taking action. Which of the following is Sinclair's personality type according to the myers-briggs type indicator classification.

Thinking

The primary quality produced by authentic leadership is ________

Trust

With reference to the hofsted's framework, which country scores highest in individualism

United States

Which of the following statements is true regarding size of teams?

When teams have excess members, cohesiveness declines.

Which of the following is true with regard to deviant workplace behavior?

Widespread deviant workplace behavior depends on the accepted norms of the group.

Which of the following accurately differentiates between work groups and work teams?

Work teams generate a potential for an organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in inputs, while work groups cannot perform this function.

When ________ is of importance in decision making, group decisions are preferred to individual decisions.

acceptance of solution

The president of a small Asian country was hailed as a visionary and a genius when the nation's economy burgeoned during his first term in office. However, when the currency and the stock markets crashed during his government's second term, he was censured as arrogant, elitist, and shortsighted. Which of the following theoretical approaches is reflected here?

attribution theory

Luke's cubicle neighbor Leia, though an understanding and great co-worker, talks loudly on the phone. Luke gets annoyed every time Leia's phone rings, but he has decided it's simply not worth the trouble to talk to her about it. Luke's conflict-handling intention is called ________.

avoiding

A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity is known as ________.

bounded rationality

Which of the following is a conflict-stimulation technique?

bringing in outsiders

Transformational leaders enhance performance of employees by ________

building consensus among employees

Larry has an employee who is amazing at clearly seeing rules and enforcing them. He has recently promoted her to the lead position in quality assurance. Which method of creating a positive organizational culture is Larry utilizing

building on employee strengths

Which theory of leadership proposes that followers attribute heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors?

charismatic leadership theory

Araceli is a team member in a large corporation. She never speaks in team meetings because she has seen members talk behind each other's backs after the meetings. Members are constantly monitoring the other members' work and looking for mistakes to point out in a meeting. According to the information provided, which contextual factor is lacking in Araceli's team?

climate of trust

A strong culture should reduce employee turnover, because it results in ________.

cohesiveness and organizational commitment

Which of the following is not one of the key components of effective teams?

company reputation

Self-determination theory proposes that in addition to being driven by a need for autonomy, people seek ways to achieve ________

competence and positive connections

People scoring high on ________ are valuable in teams because they're good at backing up fellow team members and at sensing when their support is truly needed.

conscientiousness

According to Fred Luthans and his associates, managers involved in traditional management activities undertook which of the following tasks?

decision making

Reactive and protective behaviors designed to avoid action, blame, or change are termed ________.

defensive behaviors

With a deadline approaching, all seven members of Sharon's product development team were working round-the-clock and still the work was not completed in time. After the project was completed, Sharon spoke individually with the members to determine the cause for this delay. Many members complained saying the work given to them was not in accordance with their roles, some were unclear about which team member to approach when faced with a problem, and many underestimated the time and effort the project demanded. This team is characterized by ________.

dissimilar mental models

Jackie thinks that she is paid a lot less than other employees in her division and feels extremely resentful. She starts taking long breaks and generally wastes time. Her actions resulted from a perceived lack of ________ justice

distributive

Maurice Harper is a friendly and warm manager who starts her day at work by personally greeting her colleagues and subordinates. Maurice is often seen listening sincerely to employees' concerns and problems. She takes the initiative to hold programs to renew and improve the skills of current employees. Most of her employees know that she is accessible for help and information at all times. Maurice is a(n) ________ leader.

employee-oriented

Which of the following sources of increasing self-efficacy involves gaining relevant experience with a particular task or job?

enactive mastery

Which of the following is an effective means of countering social loafing?

ensuring that individual contributions to the group's outcome are identified

Top management has a major impact on the organization's culture by ________.

establishing norms that filter down through the organization

Which of the following Big Five personality traits has been identified as the most important trait in effective leaders?

extraversion

According to the interactionist view, ________ conflicts support the goals of the group and improve its performance.

functional

Which of the following terms best describes the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others?

fundamental attribution error

The HR department at Bailey Services is considering offering telecommuting as an option to some experienced employees. At a meeting to formalize the move, the heads of the different departments met with Laura Watson, the HR manager. Laura, who thought this meeting would be a short one, was proven wrong when all the members, who had previously agreed that telecommuting would work in their company, began coming up with divergent views. By the end, two divisions claimed having major concerns about allowing employees to telecommute, and those in favor of it were equally vocal. This scenario depicts the operation of ________

groupshift

Which of the following is most likely to increase team efficacy?

helping the team achieve small successes

Adrian Atwood, a senior manager at MNC, spends a lot of his time assigning group members to particular tasks and scheduling their work such that deadlines are achievable. Adrian also sets high expectations for standards of performance, and holds regular meetings to ensure that productivity and quality are up to the mark. In the light of the Ohio State Studies, this indicates that Adrian, as a leader, is ________.

high in initiating structure

Individuals scoring ___ have a strong ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors and can behave differently in different situations.

high on self-monitoring

The ability to understand, communicate with, motivate, and support other people, both individually and in groups, may be defined as ________.

human skills

What is the major problem with the myers-Briggs type indicator as a measure of personality

it forces a person to be categorized as either one type or another

For process conflict to be productive, it must be ________.

kept low

Johanna Reid, a campaign manager at a child rights organization, recently started working on an illiteracy project. During the project, she needs to motivate team members to attain their project milestones and direct them through different phases of the project. Which of the following kinds of functions will these tasks be covered under?

leading

Regina George works as a campaign manager in a not-for-profit organization in Hampshire. For the upcoming campaign against genetic engineering, she is networking with managers who are working on the issue of food safety. Through her network of contacts, she strives to gain information about the stakeholders in the food industry and other lobby groups. Which of the following roles is George most likely to be playing according to Mintzberg's classification of managerial roles?

liaison

Manuel is a manager for a manufacturing company in which managers are expected to fully document all decisions, and it is important to provide detailed data to support any recommendations. Also, out-of-the-box thinking is dissuaded. Which characteristic of organizational culture describes this aspect of Manuel's job?

low risk taking

The ________ view of conflict focuses on productive resolution of conflicts.

managed

When you start to accept the differences between your expectations and the reality of the organization, you move into the ________ stage of socialization

metamorphosis

According to Fred Luthans and his associates' study of 450 managers, ________ made the largest contribution to the success of managers in terms of speed of promotion within their organization.

networking

Grace works for a pet store where everyone is committed to the happiness of the animals. Often employees, bosses, and hourly workers alike, come into the store "off the clock" and spend time training the animals. Everyone loves the store, the animals, and their jobs. This attitude of her co-workers inspires Grace to do her best. Based on this information, we can say that Grace is experiencing the effects of ________.

organizational climate

In equity theory, individuals assess the ________.

outcome-input ratio

Stage II of the conflict process deals with the conflict being ________.

perceived and felt

Oscar is looking for a new job. He used to be the company's top sales representative and was eagerly expecting to be promoted. However, one of the regional manager's friends was promoted to district manager instead. According to the expectancy theory, Oscar's dissatisfaction with his current job stems from a breakdown in the ________ relationship

performance-reward

When the group energy is focused on the task at hand and the group is fully functional, it is said to be in the stage of ________.

performing

Which level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs deals with satisfying one's hunger, thirst, and other bodily needs?

physiological

Organizations that promote a spiritual culture ________.

recognize that people seek to find meaning and purpose in their work

Conflict is dysfunctional when it ________.

reduces group cohesiveness

Which of the following must be avoided if one wants to create and maintain an effective team?

relationship conflicts

Michael is devout and very active in his church. He is also a very dedicated employee. His manager offers him a promotion but the new role will require him to work Sundays. Michael would like the promotion, but realizes that it would force him to miss some church activities. In this situation, Michael is most likely to experience ________.

role conflict

Which of the following steps can be taken by a manager so as to minimize groupthink?

seeking input from employees before the group leader presents his opinions

You are more likely to notice a car like your own due to ________

selective perception

Which of the following theoretical approaches in the study of leadership focuses on followers' readiness as a determinant of effective leadership?

situational leadership theory

Contingency theories focus on the ________ that impact leadership success.

situational variables

Rose needs to give a presentation to the board of directors of her organization next week. She knows that her presentation will play an important role in her performance appraisal in the next quarter. However, she knows that two of her colleagues, John and Keith, will also be giving a presentation on the same issue. She is nervous because she believes that men have a better flair for giving presentations. Rose's perception of John and Keith is most likely characterized by ________.

stereotyping

Bruce is new at Wayne Corp., but after a week he already knows that the founder of the corporation started the business in his garage with only $4,000 and one client. This information was most likely transmitted to Bruce by way of ________

stories

Culture is most likely to be a liability when ________.

the organization's environment is dynamic

Trait theories of leadership focus on ________.

the personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from non-leaders

Work should be performed by an individual if ________.

the work is simple and does not require diverse input

Which of the following statements is most likely to be true regarding people with proactive personalities.

they are more likely than others to be seen as leaders

Which of the following is true of values

they have content and intensity attributes

To avoid politicking during performance evaluations, an organization should ________.

use objective criteria

According to the concept of ________, decisions are made solely on the basis of their outcomes, ideally to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.

utilitarianism

Individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders are known as ________

whistle-blowers