OB Exam 1

Ashley Madison works as a receptionist at a fashion magazine. One morning, her boss walks into the office and yells at her, teling her that the front office is a mess and she needs to clean it immediately. After her boss leaves the room, Madison goes to the front office and violently slams trash into the bin. Which of the following best describes Madison’s anger?

An emotion

Marina Lyon works as a reservation executive at a travel and tourism company. Though her job requires her only to efficiently book flight tickets for customers, she has also opted to undergo training to learn the process of hotel reservations. In addition, every evening she reads travelogues to be aware of upcoming travel destinations and trends. She loves the industry she works in and is eager to learn as much as she can. Considering the information given in this case, which dimension of the Big Five model best describes Lyon’s personality?

Openness to experience

Ben Ervin often experiences emotions in a much stronger manner than most of his other colleagues. Events that do not provoke any significant emotional response from another person send him into fits of happiness, anger, or depression. In view of such a situation, Erwin is displaying a high level of ____.

Affect intensity

Gerard Yoder believes that every time he picks up his daughter, Penny, from school, it brings him good luck. The last time he picked her up from school, he won a lottery ticket. Today, after he received her from school, he reached his office and found out that he has been promoted. Which of the following concepts best describes Yoder’s belief?

Illusory correlation

Rachel Hartley is a former top management graduate student who now works as a project manager at a retail firm. However, in spite of her strong educational background, she often finds it difficult to manage her team efficiently. She is not able to understand her team’s emotions when they feel frustrated with a work challenge or when they need appreciation for a job well done. Which of the following does Hartley suffer from?

Low emotional intelligence

Which of the following is not an example or moral emotions?

Contempt for those who behave ethically

An example of an input at an organizational level is _____.

structure

During an annual review, Michel Godfrey made the following assertion: “When I look at myself and my performance, I see what I have achieved is outstanding and something no one in the organization has the capacity to undertake. Surprisingly, it has not won me the admiration of my colleagues like it should have. I also believe that I do not just deserve a raise, but need one, since without me, let’s face it, the place would simply fall apart.” Which of the following personality traits best describes Michel’s personality?

Narcissism

Which of the following is true with respect to workplace discrimination?

It may lead to reduced productivity and citizenship

Alex was sent to Beijing to help local managers solve the problem of growing worker dissatisfaction at their manufacturing facility located in the city. As part of his visit, he decided to have a town hall meeting with the workers to understand the problems that they were facing and the reasons for their discontent. The turnout at the meeting was substantial; however, when asked for their opinions and suggestions, the crowd fell silent. As a result, Alex was unable to determine the reason for employee dissatisfaction. Which of the following, if true, best explains this situation?

There is an unequal distribution of power in the company.

With reference to cognitive dissonance, in which of the following situations is the attitude-behavior relationship most likely to be strong?

The attitude refers to something with which the person has direct experience.

Which of the following is most likely to be related to reduced absences and lower resignation rates?

High job involvement

Joann Hayes is currently working on a project to tackle climate change. During the project, she needs to find different options to replace the use of non-renewable energy and check the feasibility of different renewable energy options before choosing the most practical one. Which of the following skills does Hayes primarily need to use for these tasks?

Conceptual skills

Sally Mitchell works as a manager at an environmental organization. She is currently working on a global warming project and decides which tasks related to creating awareness about the issue need to be done. In addition, she is also deciding which members of her team will work on engaging with the public and which will work on lobbying with the government. She is also assigning people as team members to ensure that tasks are undertaken on time. Which of the following categories of functions is Mitchel undertaking?

Organizing

Myriam is analyzing the gender roles of men and women in management in the United States and comparing them to the gender roles in management in Japan. She is surveying fifty male and fifty female managers in each country to compare their daily behavior. Myriam’s study exemplifies how _____ contributes to OB.

Anthropology

In her work in the publishing industry, Vera Loranzo seeks out new authors who she considers promising. In the past two years, she has found a number of new writers whose work she thought was exceptional and immersed herself in the task of helping them shape their manuscripts for submission to her managers for publishing. Although she was extremely proud of the results, none of the authors she worked with were chosen for publication. After learning about her management’s decision, she is extremely frustrated and is beginning to resent the job she does. However, she knows there is nothing she can do and continues working because of the good perks and salary benefits the job offers. How can Loranzo’s job attitude bee best described?

Low job satisfaction

Which of the following statements is true about measuring job satisfaction?

The single global rating system is not very time consuming

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

Kimberly Mayfeild recently evaluated her subordinate’s progress report. She now plans to inform her about the objectives she did not achieve and how she can perform better. By doing this, Mayfield will be demonstrating the _____ component of an attitude.

Behavioral

Jason has been spending a great deal of work time talking to his co-workers about how dissatisfied he is with the job. He also has spent quite a bit of time discussing unionization. In the last week, Jason has arrived at work intoxicated twice. His behavior can be classified as ____ behavior.

Deviant

Which of the following is true regarding positive organizational scholarship?

It studies how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality, and unlock potential.

Which of the following functions do managers undertake as part of planning funcions?

Defining an organization’s goals

High levels of both job involvement and psychological empowerment are positively related to _____.

Organizational citizenship

Johanna Godfrey works as a guest relations executive at a five star deluxe hotel in Washington. During the course of her job, she needs to greet and smile at guests irrespective of her state of mind. In addition, when any guest faces problems, she needs to be calm and composed and help resolve issues. This shows that Johanna’s job requires ____.

Emotional labor

John Hardley recently joined as marketing director of H2O, a water sports gear company. Though in the last five years the company has had a drastic dip in sales, ever since Hardley has joined, he has turned the figures around. In addition to revamping the look of the brand, he has initiated several marketing campaigns through broadcast media to get the company to an all-time high peak of sales. Which of the following statements best describes Hardley?

Hardley has a proactive personality

Why are OB skills are important?

• “Good places to work” have better financial performance.

• Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality
  employees and higher quality applications for recruitment.

• There is a strong association between the quality of
  workplace relationships and job satisfaction, stress, and
  turnover.

• It fosters social responsibility awareness.

What’s a manager?

Someone who gets things done through other people in organizations.

What’s an organization?

A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

What are Mintzberg’s 10 managerial roles?

1. Figurehead

2. Leader

3. Liaison

4. Monitor

5. Disseminator

6. Spokesperson

7. Entrepreneur

8. Disturbance handler

9. Resource allocator

10. Negotiator

What are the Mintzberg’s interpersonal managerial roles?

1. Figurehead

2. Leader

3. Liaison

What is a figurehead?

Symbolic head; required to perform a number of routine duties of a
legal or social nature

What is a leader?

Responsible for the motivation and direction of employees

What is a liaison?

Maintains a network of outside contacts who provide favors and
information

What are the Mintzberg’s informational managerial roles?

1. Monitor

2. Disseminator

3. Spokesperson

What is a monitor?

Receives a wide variety of information; serves as nerve center of
internal and external information of the organization

What is a disseminator?

Transmits information received from outsiders or from other
employees to members of the organization

What is a spokesperson?

Transmits information to outsiders on organization’s plans, policies,
actions, and results; serves as expert on organization’s industry

What are the Mintzberg’s decisional managerial roles?

1. Entrepreneur

2. Disturbance handler

3. Resource allocator

4. Negotiator

What is an entrepreneur?

Searches organization and its environment for opportunities and
initiates projects to bring about change

What is a disturbance handler?

Responsible for corrective action when organization faces
important, unexpected disturbances

What’s a resource allocator?

Makes or approves significant organizational decisions

What’s a negotiator?

Responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations

What are the 3 management skills

1. Technical skills

2. People skills

3. Conceptual skills

What’s the definition of technical skills?

The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some
specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job.

What’s the definition of people skills?

The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people

What’s the definition of conceptual skills?

The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

What is organizational behavior?

It’s a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

What’s is systematic study of behavior?

Behavior generally is predictable if we know how the person perceived the situation and what is important to the person.

What is evidence based management (EBM)

• Complements systematic study

• Argues for managers to make decisions based on evidence

If we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct, we’re likely working with ____.

incomplete information

How do you use big data with your intuition?

You use it to gather as much evidence as possible to inform your intuition.

What are components of an attitude?

1. Cognitive

2. Affective

3. Behavioral

What is cognitive dissonance?

It’s any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes

Research has generally concluded that people seek ______ among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior.

consistency

What is organizational identification?

The extent to which employees define themselves by the same characteristics that define their organization.

What is job involvement?

Degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth.

What is psychological empowerment?

The belief in the degree of influence over one’s job, competence, job meaningfulness, and autonomy.

Employees who have _______ will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied, because they have a sense of organizational loyalty.

organizational commitment

What is perceived organizational support?

The degree to which employees believe the organization value their contribution and cares about their well-being.

What makes perceived organizational support higher?

When rewards are fair, employees are involved in decision-making, and supervisors are seen as supportive

Perceived organizational support is important in countries where _____ is lower

power distance

Engaged employees are ______ about their work and compny

passionate

What are the two popular approaches for measuring job satisfaction?

1. The single global rating

2. The summation of job facets

What causes job satisfaction?

1. Job conditions

2. personality and individual differences

3. pay

What are the outcomes of job satisfaction?

1. Job performance

2. OCB

3. Customer satisfaction

4. Life satisfaction

What is the active constructive response to dissatisfaction?

Voice

What is the active destructive response to dissatisfaction?

Exit

What is the passive constructive response to dissatisfaction?

Loyalty

What is the passive destructive response to dissatisfaction?

Neglect

What is an Affect?

• Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience

• More general [two main dimensions-positive affect and negative affect-that are composed of multiple specific emotions]

• Affect can be experienced in the form of emotions or mood

What are emotions?

• Caused by specific event

• very brief in duration

• Specific and numerous in nature (many specific emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise)

• Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions

What are moods?

• Cause is often general and unclear

• Last longer than emotions (hours or days)

• Generally not indicated by distinct expressions

What are the six essential universal emotions

1. Anger

2. Fear

3. Sadness

4. Happiness

5. Disgust

6. Surprise

What’s the definition of moral emotions?

They’re emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgement of the situation that evokes them. Our responses to moral emotions differ from our responses to other emotions. They’re developed during childhood and differs between cultures.

What are the sources of emotions and moods?

1. Personality

2. Time of day

3. Day of the week

4. Weather

5. Stress

6. Social interactions

7. Sleep

8. Exercise

9. Gender identity

What is emotional labor?

An employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.

What is emotional dissonance?

Inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and the emotions they project. Long-term emotional dissonance is a predicator for job burnout, declines in job performance, and lower job satisfaction. A

What is affective events theory?

Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this influences job performance and satisfaction.

What is the cascading model of emotional intelligence?

What are emotion regulation techniques?

1. Surface acting

2. Deep acting

3. Emotional suppression

4. Cognitive reappraisal

5. Social sharing

What is the personality-organization fit theory?

It suggests that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values and leave when there is no compatibility.

The _________ fit is most important for an organization facing a dynamic and changing environment.

Personality-organization

What are the other dimensions of fit?

1. Person-group fit

2. Person-supervisor fit

The most common means of measuring personality is through _____.

self-report surveys

The most widely used personality framework is the ________.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

What is the Big Five Model?

1. Conscientiousness

2. Emotional Stability

3. Extroversion

4. Openness to experience

5. Agreeableness

Why is conscientiousness relevant?

• Greater effort and persistence

• More drive and discipline

• Better organized and planning

What does conscientiousness affect?

• Higher performance

• Enhanced leadership

• Greater longevity

What is the dark triad?

1. Machiavellianism

2. Narcissism

3. Psychopathy

What is Machiavellianism?

The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes the ends can justify means.

What is Core self-evaluation?

Bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.

What is self-monitoring?

It measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.

What is a proactive personality?

People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

What is situation strength theory?

Indicates that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation.

What is trait activation theory?

Predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others.

What are the importance of values?

They lay the foundation for understanding attitudes and motivation. They also influence attitudes and behaviors. They also have a tendency to be stable and enduring.

Terminal v.s Instrumental values

Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence.

Instrumental values: preferred modes of behavior or means of achieving terminal values.

Hofstede’s Five Value Dimensions

Power distance
Individualism versus collectivism
Masculinity versus femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long-term versus short-term orientation