OB 6301 Chapters 6,7,8,9 Study Guide
Which of the following is an observation from organizational behavior that contradicts the rational decision-making process assumptions?
Decision makers have limited information processing abilities.
Which of the following is a rule for design thinking?
Design thinking is human-centered.
Which of the following work environment factors would support self-leadership?
Employees have some degree of autonomy.
Which of the following should a sender do to make it easier to get the message across?
Focus on the problem, not the person
Nonverbal communication differs from verbal communication in which of the following ways?
Nonverbal communication is less rule-bound.
________ provides one explanation of why people belong to informal groups.
Social identity theory
________ is the phenomenon that occurs when people exert less effort when working in groups than when working alone.
Social loafing
electronic brainstorming
a form of brainstorming that relies on networked digital devices for submitting and sharing creative ideas
role
a set of behaviors that people are expected to repeatedly perform because they hold formal or informal positions in a team and organization
scenario planning
a systematic process of thinking about alternative futures and what the organization should do to anticipate and react to those environments
Gainsharing Plan
a team-based reward that calculates bonuses from the work unit's cost savings and productivity improvement
cognitive dissonance
an emotional experience caused by a perception that our beliefs, feelings, and behavior are incongruent with one another
social media
digital communication channels that enable people to collaborate in the creation and exchange of user-generated content
Research suggests that effective open-space design balances the trade-off between
increased distractions and social interaction.
information overload
information overload
Which of the following are two features that distinguish remote teams from conventional teams?
lack of co-location and dependence on information technology
Active listeners improve their evaluating activities by
organizing the information provided.
Brooks's law
the principle that adding more people to a late software project only makes it later
Studies have shown that performance-based rewards
will motivate most employees but only under the right conditions.
What is psychological safety?
The feeling that one can engage in interpersonal risk-taking without adverse consequences.
Which of the following happens immediately after the receiver receives the encoded message in the communication process model?
The receiver decodes the received message.
availability heuristic
a natural tendency to assign higher probabilities to objects or events that are easier to recall from memory, even though ease of recall is also affected by nonprobability factors (e.g., emotional response, recent events)
What is the relationship between team efficacy and team performance?
an inverted U-shaped curve
People in countries with ________ tend to have a high respect and priority for money.
high power distance
The rational decision-making model begins with
identifying an opportunity.
evaluation apprehension
occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe (often correctly) that others in the decision-making group are silently evaluating them
Which of the following would be favorable for team cohesion?
restricted entry to the team
If a manager wanted employees to collaborate in creating and exchanging information, which of the following would be best suited for that purpose?
social media
intuition
the ability to know when a problem or opportunity exists and to select the best course of action without conscious reasoning
In the communication process, filtering occurs when
a manager delays giving negative feedback to an employee.
Which of the following drives is fulfilled by communication?
drive to bond
Employees at CyberTech perform repetitive jobs that have resulted in boredom as well as repetitive strain injury. Technology makes it difficult to combine existing jobs, but the company wants to make employees more multiskilled. Which of the following would best help CyberTech to improve this situation?
Introduce job rotation.
Which of the following statements is correct regarding digital written communications?
They are poor for communicating emotions.
Which of the following is supported by research on gender differences in communication?
Women are more sensitive to nonverbal cues in face-face conversation.
media richness
a communication channel's data-carrying capacity—that is, the volume and variety of information that can be transmitted during a specific time
management by wandering around (MBWA)
a communication practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue
You have made an important presentation to several Japanese executives regarding a proposed partnership between your American company and their Japanese firm. The Japanese executives were very silent during the presentation. Most people in the United States would view this silence as
a disagreement with your proposal.
brainstorming
a freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where team members aren't allowed to criticize but are encouraged to speak freely, generate as many ideas as possible, and build on the ideas of others
job characteristics model
a job design model that relates the motivational properties of jobs to specific personal and organizational consequences of those properties
Dictionaries of symbols, language, gestures and other communication tools are called
codebooks
Decision structure, risk of conflict, and decision commitment are the
contingencies of employee involvement.
In the creative process, which of the following refers to the experience of suddenly becoming aware of a unique idea?
illumination
Team rewards are better than individual rewards when employees work in highly interdependent jobs because
it is difficult to measure individual performance in these situations.
________ is the process of assigning tasks to a job.
job design
mental models
knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us
Which of the following psychological empowerment dimensions is possessed by employees when they care about their work and believe that what they do is important?
meaning
One consideration in channel selection is ________, the capacity of the channel to carry a volume and variety of data.
media richness
Which of the following would hinder the success of remote teams?
members who use one preferred communication channel
Establishing a preset level at which the decision is abandoned or reevaluated is recommended mainly to
minimize escalation of commitment.
Which of the following involves systematically examining combinations of characteristics of a product, service, or event, and then looking at the feasibility of each combination?
morphological analysis
Which type of decision typically requires the decision maker to go through all six steps in the rational decision-making model?
nonprogrammed
During the ________ stage, the team develops its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established and a consensus forms around group objectives and a common or complementary team-based mental model.
norming
Item 5 For rewards to be relevant, they should be tied to
performance within the employee's control.
trust
positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations involving risk
divergent thinking
reframing a problem in a unique way and generating different approaches to the issue
When a person makes a decision without conscious reasoning, they are
relying on intuition.
Which of the following are included under constructive thought strategies in self-leadership?
self-talk and mental imagery
social networks
social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to one another through one or more forms of interdependence
self-leadership
specific cognitive and behavioral strategies to achieve personal goals and standards through self-direction and self-motivation
One strategy to support psychological empowerment is to enhance ________, which refers to changing the workplace conditions or environment.
structural empowerment
Synchronous communication channels convey a greater sense of urgency than do text messages and other asynchronous channels due to their
symbolic meaning
job evaluation
systematically rating the worth of jobs within an organization by measuring the required skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions
In the team effectiveness model, which of the following are the two overall team components that directly impact team effectiveness?
team design and team processes
social presence
the extent to which a communication channel creates psychological closeness to others, awareness of their humanness, and appreciation of the interpersonal relationship
skill variety
the extent to which employees must use different skills and talents to perform tasks within their jobs
task interdependence
the extent to which team members must share materials, information, or expertise in order to perform their jobs
synchronicity
the extent to which the channel requires or allows both sender and receiver to be actively involved in the conversation at the same time (synchronous) or at different times (asynchronous)
norms
the informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behavior of their members
job specialization
the result of a division of labor, in which work is subdivided into separate jobs assigned to different people
escalation of commitment
the tendency to repeat an apparently bad decision or allocate more resources to a failing course of action
persuasion
the use of facts, logical arguments, and emotional appeals to change another person's beliefs and attitudes, usually for the purpose of changing the person's behavior
Active listeners constantly cycle through
sensing, evaluating, and responding.
Which of the following types of task interdependence exists among production employees working on assembly lines?
sequential interdependence
job enrichment
the practice of giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, and planning their own work
job enlargement
the practice of increasing the number and variety of related tasks assigned to a job
scientific management
the practice of systematically partitioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency
A higher level of employee involvement is preferable when
the problem relates to a nonprogrammed decision.
social loafing
the problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone
communication
the process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people
mental imagery
the process of mentally practicing a task and visualizing its successful completion
self-talk
the process of talking to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions
confirmation bias
the processing of screening out information that is contrary to our values and assumptions, and to more readily accept confirming information
bounded rationality
the view that people are bounded in their decision-making capabilities, including access to limited information, limited information processing, and tendency toward satisficing rather than maximizing when making choices
anchoring and adjustment heuristic
a natural tendency for people to be influenced by an initial anchor point such that they do not sufficiently move away from that point as new information is provided
representativeness heuristic
a natural tendency to evaluate probabilities of events or objects by the degree to which they resemble (are representative of) other events or objects rather than on objective probability information
Which of the following statements regarding the grapevine is correct?
It is an important conduit for organizational stories and cultural symbols.
Which of the following is true of employee involvement in decision making?
It is a critical practice in organizational change.
What is process loss?
Resources (including time and energy) expended on team development and maintenance rather than on performing the task.
Which of the following statements regarding social presence is correct?
Social presence is more important when the purpose of the communication is to understand and empathize.
During a meeting, senior executives of a consumer products company were addressing the problem of being late in detecting several consumer trends, such as the trend toward using see-through plastics in kitchenware. While trying to determine the source of this problem, one executive said: "The main problem here is that we need to find a better industrial design firm to design our products." Which of the following best describes the decision-making problem that this executive is exhibiting?
The executive is defining the problem in terms of a solution.
Which of the following does scientific management include?
Systematically dividing a job into its smallest possible elements and assigning these divided tasks to employees who are best qualified to perform them.
________ is the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work, such as assembling an entire broadband modem rather than just soldering in the circuitry.
Task identity
design thinking
a human-centered, solution-focused creative process that applies both intuition and analytical thinking to clarify problems and generate innovative solutions
psychological empowerment
a perceptual and emotional state in which people experience more self-determination, meaning, competence, and impact regarding their role in the organization
self-enhancement
a person's inherent motivation to have a positive self-concept (and to have others perceive him or her favorably), such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important
Management by walking around refers to
a practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue.
implicit favorite
a preferred alternative that the decision maker uses repeatedly as a comparison with other choices
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
a reward system that encourages employees to buy company stock
stock options
a reward system that gives employees the right to purchase company stock at a future date at a predetermined price
profit-sharing plan
a reward system that pays bonuses to employees on the basis of the previous year's level of corporate profits
learning orientation
a set of beliefs and norms in which people are encouraged to question past practices, learn new ideas, experiment putting ideas into practice, and view mistakes as part of the learning process
psychological safety
a shared belief that it is safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking; specifically, that presenting unusual ideas, constructively disagreeing with the majority, and experimenting with new work behaviors will not result in coworkers posing a threat to their self-concept, status, or career
production blocking
a time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time
brainwriting
a variation of brainstorming whereby participants write (rather than speak about) and share their ideas
nominal group technique
a variation of brainwriting consisting of three stages in which participants (1) silently and independently document their ideas, (2) collectively describe these ideas to the other team members without critique, and then (3) silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented
prospect theory
an innate tendency to feel stronger negative emotion from losing a particular amount than positive emotion from gaining an equal amount
grapevine
an unstructured and informal communication network founded on social relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions
Which core job characteristic(s) affect(s) experienced responsibility for work outcomes?
autonomy
Which of the following motivates employees to continuously learn skills that will keep them employed?
competency-based rewards
Which of the five Cs concerns aligning the work with others and keeping the team on track?
coordinating
Glossary self-directed teams (SDTs)
cross-functional work groups that are organized around work processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks
If a dysfunctional norm is very deeply ingrained in a team and solutions have not worked, the best strategy is probably to
disband the group and replace it with people having more favorable norms.
One issue with membership and seniority-based rewards is that they
do not directly motivate job performance.
Empowerment includes all of the following characteristics except
effort
Evidence shows that people listen to their emotions for guidance when evaluating alternatives. This process is called the ________ effect.
emotions as information
One disadvantage of job specialization is that
employees often do not see where their job fits in the overall production output.
The rational decision-making model ends with
evaluating the selected choice.
teams
groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization
Self-directed teams
have substantial autonomy over the execution of a complete task.
Brainstorming requires team members to
provide as many ideas as possible.
process losses
resources (including time and energy) expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task
Rather than maximizing their decision choice, most people ________, meaning they choose a solution that is "good enough."
satisfice
satisficing
selecting an alternative that is satisfactory or "good enough," rather than the alternative with the highest value (maximization)
Catrina decided to do a more enjoyable task after completing a task that she disliked. This instance is an example of
self-reinforcement.
team efficacy
the collective belief among team members in the team's capability to successfully complete a task
decision making
the conscious process of making choices among alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs
team cohesion
the degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members
task significance
the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the organization and/or larger society
task identity
the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or an identifiable piece of work
creativity
the development of original ideas that make a socially recognized contribution
human capital
the knowledge, skills, abilities, creative thinking, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization
emotional contagion
the nonconscious process of "catching" or sharing another person's emotions by mimicking that person's facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior