MGT 3200 Exam #3 - Cashen - LSU

Organizational culture

The characteristics, traditions, norms, and values that employees share.

How do values and norms influence organizational culture?

They impact what you should or should not do and what is or is not important.

The leader (what is said and what is done)

A person who takes responsibility of the company's faults. (Boeing crash in Ethiopia)

Company's core values

A company that already has fixed existing values. (Denny's)

Management practices

Training, procedures, etc. (Acadian)

Employees' pre-existing values

An employee coming into a company with values that are already established. (Professor's values on women @ LSU)

Visible artifacts

Abiding by the employer's values. (Business professional)

Examples of visible artifacts

How cubicles are configured within a work area, employee award ceremonies, dress code, dedicated parking spots for executives, and executive dining rooms.

Clearly conveying the firm's core values

Establishing values to their target audience. (E.L.F Makeup and John Deere)

Exercising leadership (actions, comments, and vision)

Leaders impacting the creation and longevity of the culture through the actions they take. (Proctor and Gamble; innovating by going global and talking to consumers to see what they're looking for.)

Using management practices

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling to foster the culture you desire that reinforces the same values as the company.

Psychological contract

The overall set expectations held by an individual with respect to what he or she will contribute to the firm and what the firm will provide in return.

What is a psychological contract and what are the managerial implications of every employee having one?

What the employee will contribute to the firm and what the firm will provide in return.

What are contributions and inducements?

The contributions are by the individual, and the inducements are by the organization.

How do these factor into the psychological contract?

The contributions factor in by skills, effort, and loyalty. The inducements factor by career opportunities, benefits, and pay.

What does it mean to have a fair psychological contract?

Individuals feel that what they receive from the company reflects the effort they contribute towards the company.

What is person-job fit as it relates to the psychological contract?

The extent to which the contributions made by the individual match the inducements offered by the firm.

Is person-job fit a frequent occurrence in organizations?

No, due to imperfect selection procedures, people, and organizations changing.

What are attitudes?

Relatively lasting beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies that people have toward specific ideas, situations, or other people.

Job satisfaction

The degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs.

What is the relationship between job satisfaction and other behaviors by employees?

Directly influences how employees feel about themselves, their work, and their firm.

What survey/tool is used to measure job satisfaction?

The Job Descriptive Index (JDI).

What are the 5 dimensions of job satisfaction as discussed by this tool?

The work itself, pay, relationship with co-workers, quality of supervision, and promotional opportunities.

What is organizational commitment?

Reflects the degree to which an employee has a desire to remain a part of the organization, willingness to expend considerable effort for the firm, and staying committed to the organization's values/goals.

What individual behavior does organizational commitment influence?

Loyalty.

The relationship between organizational commitment and an individual's: Age.

Commitment gets stronger as people gain more years in the company.

The relationship between organizational commitment and an individual's: Tenure

Years with the position.

The relationship between organizational commitment and an individual's: Sense of security

Gaining a sense of safety at the company.

The relationship between organizational commitment and an individual's: Participation in decision making

Having a say in decision making in the company.

In all instances, is organizational commitment desirable?

No, because more commitment can lead to toxic or illegal work practices.

Affectivity

Reflects one's feelings and emotions.

What are the two types of affectivity important to managers?

Positive and Negative.

Positve affectivity

"Good mood" and overall sense of well-being.

Negative affectivity

Bad mood" and a Negative Nancy.

What is personality?

The enduring, organized, and distinctive pattern of behavior that characterizes an individual's adaptation to a situation.

What is self-esteem?

The extent to which people believe they are capable, significant, successful, and worthwhile.

What does self-esteem impact in the workplace?

It enhances performance, increases the likelihood of success, and fuels motivation.

What are characteristics of high self-esteem people?

Take more risks in job selection, are more attracted to high-status occupations, and are more likely to choose more unstructured jobs.

What are characteristics of low self-esteem people?

They tend to set lower goals for themselves and are more easily influenced by the opinions of others.

What is locus of control?

The extent to which individuals believe that they can control events affecting them.

What is internal locus of control? What/who controls the outcomes?

You are in control of your outcomes. (my own behaviors and actions)

What is external locus of control? What/who controls the outcomes?

Uncontrolled circumstances determined by outside forces. (luck, fate, God, etc.)

What is authoritarianism?

The extent to which an individual believes that power and status differences are appropriate within hierarchical social systems like firms.

High authoritarianism

Accept orders from higher-ups because they are seen as "The Boss."

Low authoritarianism

Will accept orders, but they'll question things, express disagreements, and refuse to carry out orders.

What is Machiavellianism?

Someone who vies for and manipulates others for pure personal gain.

What are the personality characteristics of a person who ranks high on Machiavellianism?

Unemotional, controlling, exploitative, bullying, and unethical.

Type A personality characteristics

Focused, competitive, impatient, and measures success relative to others.

Type B personality characteristics

Easygoing, less competitive, no need to display achievements, and communicate more precisely.

Perception

The way people experience, process, define, and interpret the world around them.

How does individual perception influence behavior?

Individuals learn to simplify and make sense of their perceptions through their experiences.

Perceptual grouping

The organization of sensory data into patterns.

What are the three mechanisms for perceptual grouping?

Closure, continuity, and proximity.

Closure

Perceive incomplete data. (our brains will fill in the missing details)

Continuity

Perceive sensory data in continuous patterns.

Proximity

Perceive sensory data as related because of the close physical location.

Stereotyping

The tendency to assign attributes to someone, not based on individual characteristics, but solely on the category or group to which that person belongs.

Culture

The acquired knowledge that people use to interpret, experience, and generate social behavior.

Values

Basic convictions that people have regarding what's right and wrong.

What is the relationship between culture and behaviors in the workplace?

Culture impacts an individual's behaviors in the workplace.

What was the purpose of the Hofstede's Culture study?

To discover 4 cultural dimensions that help explain how and why people from different cultures behave as they do.

What were the 4 dimensions of Hofstede's Culture Study?

Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism vs. collectivism, and Masculinity vs. femininity.

Power distance

The extent to which less powerful people in companies accept that power is distributed equally.

The two types of power distance

High power distance and Low power distance.

Which type of power distance best describes U.S. culture?

Low power distance.

The business/organizational characteristics associated with High Power Distance

Centralized firms with tall structures, large amounts of managers, and fewer qualified people at the bottom.

The business/organizational characteristics associated with Low Power Distance

Decentralized firms with flat structures, fewer managers, highly qualified people at the bottom, and they emphasize equality.

Uncertainty Avoidance

The extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguity.

The two types of uncertainty avoidance

High uncertainty avoidance and low uncertainty avoidance.

Which type of uncertainty avoidance best describes U.S. culture?

Low uncertainty avoidance.

The business/organizational characteristics associated with High Uncertainty Avoidance

Very formalized company structures, Important written rules, low risk-taking by managers, low labor turnover, and less employee ambition.

The business/organizational characteristics associated with Low Uncertainty Avoidance

Less formalized company structures, less important written rules, high amount of risk-taking by managers, high employee turnover, and more employee ambition.

Individualism

People tend to look after themselves and their immediate family only.

Collectivism

The tendency of people to belong to groups or collectives and to look after each other in exchange for loyalty.

The individual/business characteristics associated with individualism

Focuses more on their goals and what they must do on their part. Companies tend to spotlight these individuals through their own accolades.

The individual/business characteristics associated with collectivism

Resources are distributed equally, despite ranks or efforts. Success and welfare of the group are prioritized. Allows for community bonding.

What is masculinity?

Dominant values in society are performance, achievement, material rewards for success/earnings, and assertiveness.

What is femininity?

Dominant values in society are caring for others, quality of life, and personal relationships.

The individual/business characteristics associated with masculinity.

Higher job stress, build big companies, greater importance of economic growth, emphasis on high performance, fewer women hold higher jobs, 60-70 hour work weeks.

The individual/business characteristics associated with femininity.

Lower job stress, empire is not necessary, lower importance on economic growth, emphasis on social adaptation, more women hold higher jobs, 30-40 hour work weeks.

What is communication?

An interpersonal process of sending and receiving messages through verbal and nonverbal means.

What is the communication process?

Sender & Encoding → Message & Noise → Decoding & Receiver → Feedback.

What two results do we want to maximize with communication?

Effective and efficient communication.

Which one is more important out of the two?

Effective communication.

What is noise?

Anything that interferes with effective communication.

What are the types of noise?

Poor choice of channels; poor written or oral expression; failure to recognize non-verbal signals; physical distractions; and Cross-cultural diversity.

Poor choice of channels

A communication channel is the medium through which a message is conveyed from the sender to the receiver.

Poor written or oral expressions

Communication will be effective only to the extent that the sender expresses a message in a way that can be clearly understood by the receiver.

When do we prefer written over oral communication?

When a simple message needs follow-up.

Failure to recognize non-verbal signals. What is non-verbal communication?

All messages that are non-language responses.

Proxemics

How people perceive space.

Kinesics behavior

Nonverbal facial expressions.

Paralanguage

The speaking tone that someone conveys.

Time

Being on time. (early = on time)

Environment

Time and place

Physical distractions

Drop-in visitors, phone calls, and texts.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to consider one's culture and its values superior to others. (I.E., handshakes in Indian culture)

Semantics

The meaning of words.

Information overload

The capacity to process information is exceeded.

What are the ways people process information overload?

Failing to process some of the info, processing the info incorrectly, and lowering the quality of info processing.