Organizational Behavior Test 1

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental concepts of Organizational Behavior, diversity, individual differences, and perception based on the textbook notes.

Organizational behavior (OB)

The systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work.

Visual learner

A learner who retains more information by reading and seeing diagrams and flow charts.

Auditory learner

A learner who primarily learns by listening to others in lectures, conversations, and videos.

Kinesthetic learner

A learner who has a preference for doing things through trial and error.

Meta-analysis

A technique used by researchers to summarize what other researchers have found on a given topic by taking observed correlations from multiple studies and weighting them by the number of observations.

Reliability

The consistency of a measurement.

Validity

The underlying truth of a measurement.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

A law enacted in $2002$ consisting of $11$ different requirements aimed at greater accountability in financial reporting.

Employee engagement

A concept viewed as managing discretionary effort, where employees are fully involved in and enthusiastic about their work.

Moore’s Law

The observation by Gordon Moore that computing power doubles every $2$ years.

Triple bottom line

A business concept suggesting that beyond economic viability, businesses need to perform well socially and environmentally.

Shamrock organization

An organization comprising one-third regular employees, one-third temporary employees, and one-third consultants and contractors.

Diversity

The ways in which people are similar or different from each other, often defined by demographic, stable, and visible characteristics.

Similarity-attraction phenomenon

The tendency for individuals to be attracted to similar individuals and communicate less frequently with those perceived as different.

Surface-level diversity

Highly visible traits such as race, gender, and age.

Deep-level diversity

Internal traits such as values, beliefs, and attitudes.

Faultline

An attribute along which a group is split into subgroups, which can reduce overall team cohesiveness.

Stereotypes

Generalizations about a particular group of people which can lead to unfair decision making.

Glass ceiling

The phenomenon where women are represented in lower level positions but are less likely to be seen in higher management and executive suites.

Affirmative action

Policies designed to recruit, promote, train, and retain employees belonging to a protected class.

Expatriate

Someone who is temporarily assigned to a position in a foreign country.

Individualistic cultures

Cultures in which people define themselves as individuals and form looser ties with their groups, valuing autonomy and self-reliance.

Collectivistic cultures

Cultures where people have stronger bonds to their groups and group membership forms a person’s self-identity.

Power distance

The degree to which a society views an unequal distribution of power as acceptable.

Uncertainty avoidance

The degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguous, risky, or unstructured situations.

Masculine cultures

Cultures that value achievement, competitiveness, and acquisition of money and other material objects.

Cultural intelligence

A person’s capability to understand how a person’s cultural background influences their behavior.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture is superior to other cultures.

Interactionist perspective

The view that behavior is a function of the person and the situation interacting with each other.

Person–organization fit

The degree to which a person’s values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization.

Person–job fit

The degree to which a person’s skill, knowledge, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands.

Terminal values

End states that people desire in life, such as leading a prosperous life and a world at peace.

Instrumental values

Acceptable modes of conduct, such as being honest, ethical, and ambitious.

Conscientiousness

The Big Five trait referring to the degree to which a person is organized, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable.

Neuroticism

The Big Five trait referring to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody.

Self-monitoring

The extent to which a person is capable of monitoring their actions and appearance in social situations.

Proactive personality

A person’s inclination to fix what is perceived as wrong, change the status quo, and use initiative to solve problems.

Self-efficacy

A job-specific belief that one can perform a specific task successfully.

Locus of control

The degree to which people feel accountable for their own behaviors, categorized as internal or external.

Perception

The process with which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli.

Self-enhancement bias

The tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us.

Self-effacement bias

The tendency for people to underestimate their performance and see events in a way that puts them in a more negative light.

False consensus error

The tendency to overestimate how similar we are to other people.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A cycle that occurs when people automatically behave as if an established stereotype is accurate, leading to reactive behavior that confirms the stereotype.

Selective perception

A process where people pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts.

Attribution

The causal explanation given for an observed behavior, classified as internal or external.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute our failures to the situation while attributing our successes to internal causes.