FA

Exam Study Guide

Decision Making

  • Rational Decision Making:
    • Logical choice to optimize for the organization.
    • Classical model: Identify issue, solutions, evaluate, implement.
  • Non-Rational Decision Making:
    • Based on gut feeling due to incomplete information and uncertainty.
  • Bounded Rationality:
    • Rational approach limited by cognitive ability, time, and resources.
    • Satisficing model: Choosing the best alternative given constraints.
  • Decision Making Styles:
    • Based on tolerance for ambiguity and value orientation (task vs. people).
    • Styles: Analytical, Conceptual, Directive, Behavioral.
  • Considerations:
    • Importance of decision, credibility of information, urgency.

Organizational Culture

  • Definition: Shared beliefs, values, and assumptions within an organization.
    • Also known as corporate culture.
    • Influenced by founders' values, industry, national culture, and leaders' behaviors.
  • Organizational Structure: Reporting relationships and coordination of tasks.
    • Depicted via organizational charts.
  • Competing Values Framework:
    • Clan Culture: Flexible, internally focused, family-oriented.
    • Adhocracy Culture: Start-up environment; innovative, adaptable.
    • Hierarchy Culture: Stable, control-oriented with processes and procedures.
    • Market Culture: Competitive, customer-focused, driven by market share.
  • Levels of Organizational Culture:
    • Observable Artifacts: Visible aspects like dress code and office layout.
    • Espoused vs. Enacted Values: What the organization says versus what it does.
    • Basic Assumptions: Core values understood by members.
  • Learning Organizational Culture:
    • Symbols: Objects passed down.
    • Stories: Narratives about the organization.
    • Rites and Rituals: Planned or unplanned events.
  • Common Elements in Organizations:
    • Common Purpose: Shared understanding of the organization’s goals.
    • Coordinated Effort: How tasks are integrated.
    • Division of Labor: Task specialization.
    • Hierarchy of Authority: Decision-making structure.
    • Span of Control: Number of subordinates a manager oversees.
    • Authority, Responsibility, Delegation.
    • Centralization vs. Decentralization of Authority.

Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM)

  • Definition: Activities to attract, retain, and develop an effective workforce. *Activities include:
    • Establishing mission, vision, and values.
    • Planning human resource needs.
    • Recruiting and selecting people.
    • Orienting, training, and developing employees.
    • Performance evaluation.
  • Key Terminology:
    • Human Capital: Economic value of employee skills and knowledge.
    • Knowledge Workers: Hired for their knowledge.
    • Social Capital: Strong, trusting relationships within a social network.
    • Job Analysis: Process to observe/analyze a job.
      *job Analysis results in:
      *Job Specification: Minimal qualifications.
      *Job Description: Specific tasks.
  • Human Resource Inventory: Internal database of employee skills and education.
  • Recruiting:
    • Employee Referrals: Effective recruiting tool.
    • E-Recruitment: Using online platforms such as LinkedIn or other Job Boards.
    • Realistic Job Preview: Honest overview of the job.
  • Types of Recruiting:
    • Internal Recruiting: Advantages - employees know that org.
      *Disadvantage, need to employ someone else
    • External Recruiting: Advantages - specialized skills, fresh perspective.
      *Disadvantages, is very expensive
  • Selection Process:
    • Screening: Reviewing resumes and background checks.
    • Interviews: Face-to-face or virtual.
    • Employment Tests: Assessing technical skills.
  • Performance Appraisal Process:
    • Define performance goals.
    • Monitor and evaluate performance.
    • Review performance with manager.
    • Reward or correct performance.

Change Management

  • Types of Change:
    • Reactive Change: Responding to an event or problem.
    • Proactive Change (Planned Change): Anticipating and planning for change.
  • Forces for Change:
    • External: Demographic, technological, market changes, social/political pressures.
    • Internal: HR issues, managerial behavior.
  • Types of Models of Change:
    • Adaptive Change: Reintroduction of familiar practice.
    • Innovative Change: New to the organization but not the industry.
    • Radically Innovative Change (Transformational): New to the industry.
  • Lewin's Change Model:
    • Unfreezing: Creating motivation for change.
    • Changing: Implementing new behaviors/processes.
    • Refreezing: Reinforcing change into the culture.
  • Resistance to Change:
    • Emotional/behavioral response to threats.
    • ABC Approach: Affective, Behavioral, Cognitive.
  • Dealing with Resistance:
    • Allow room for failure.
    • Communicate the reasons for change.
  • Organizational Development (OD): Managing planned change in organizations.
    • Change Agent: Consultant facilitating the change.
    • Used for managing conflicts, revitalization, adapting to mergers.

Individual Differences

  • Personality: Stable traits and attributes.
  • Big 5 Personality Dimensions:
    • Extroversion: Outgoing and sociable.
    • Agreeableness: Cooperative and trusting.
    • Conscientiousness: Responsible and dependable.
    • Emotional Stability: Secure and unworried.
    • Openness to Experience: Curious and imaginative.
  • Key Terms:
    • Locus of Control: Belief in controlling one's fate.
    • Self-Efficacy: Belief in one's ability to do a task.
    • Self-Esteem: Liking or disliking oneself.
  • Organizational Behavior (OB): Study of how workplace behavior impacts performance.
  • Values vs. Attitudes:
    • Values: Abstract ideals.
    • Attitudes: Learned predispositions.
  • Cognitive Dissonance: Discomfort when values conflict with behavior.
  • Workplace Attitudes:
    • Employee Engagement: Involvement and enthusiasm.
    • Job Satisfaction: Positive or negative feelings about work.
    • Organizational Commitment: Identifying with organizational goals.
  • Individual Behaviors:
    • Performance and Productivity.
    • Absenteeism and Turnover.
    • Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Going above and beyond.
    • Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Sabotaging others.

Motivation

  • Definition: Psychological process of directing behavior toward a goal.

  • Factors Influencing Motivation:

    • Personal Factors: Personality, attitudes, emotions.
    • Contextual Factors: Organizational culture, group dynamics.

  • Motivation Process:

    • Unfulfilled Need -
    • Motivation -
    • Behaviors -
    • Rewards (Extrinsic/Intrinsic).

  • Types of Motivation Theories:

    • Content Theories: Needs of individuals.
    • Process Theories: Perceptions and thought processes.
    • Job Design: Job characteristics impact motivation.
    • Reinforcement Theory: Reinforcing desired behaviors. Reduce negative one.

  • Content Theories:

    • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization.
    • McClelland's Acquired Needs Theory: Achievement, affiliation, power.
    • Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory: Competence, autonomy, relatedness.
    • Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: Hygiene factors, motivating factors.

  • Process Perspectives:

    • Equity Theory: Fairness in treatment relative to others.
    • Expectancy Theory: Motivation based on desire and perceived chance of obtaining it.

  • Job design: fitting the people to the job or fitting the job to the people

    • fitting people to the job- scientific management approach- job simplification
    • fitting job to the people- job enlargement or job enrichment.
      Enlargement= expanding ones repsonsabilities to kindda motivate for skill development
      Enrichment= stretch assignments to forther leadership skills.

  • Reinforcement Theory: Carrot and stick approach.
    *Rewarded for the behaviors that they like to see in the organizations
    *Decrease the negative behaviors

Groups and Teams

  • Definitions:
    • Group: Two or more individuals with shared norms/goals.
    • Team: Small group with complementary skills, performance goals, and mutual accountability.
  • Importance of Teamwork: Increased productivity, speed, accuracy, diversity.
  • Types of Teams:
    • Work Teams: Permanent teams for specific tasks.
    • Project Teams: Solve specific challenges.
    • Cross-Functional Teams: Members from different departments.
    • Self-Managed Teams: Administrative oversight is given,
    • Virtual Teams: Operate across time/space via technology.
  • 5 Stages of Group Development: Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning.
    *forming- getting aquainted
    *storming- conflict arises
    *norming- relationships deveolp closer
    *performing- they accomplsih a goal
    *adjourning- disban after the finished project
  • Building Effective Teams: Collaboration, trust, performance goals.
  • Roles and Norms: Influence on everyone
    *Roles- social determind expectations of echother
    *Norms- what guidlines you operated within eachother
  • Groupthink: Unwillingness to disagree, limits creativity.
  • Conflict: Opposing views between parties.
    • Functional Conflict: Beneficial, brings out different interests.
    • Dysfunctional Conflict: Threatens performance.
  • Types of Conflict:
    • Personality Conflict.
    • Intergroup Conflict.
    • Multicultural Conflict.
  • Conflict Styles: Avoiding, accommodating, forcing, compromising, collaborating

Nature of Leadership

  • Leadership: Influencing employees towards organizational goals.
  • Managerial Leadership: Influencing with the purpose of facilitating individual/organizational goals.
  • Leader vs. Manager: Leader copes with change, sets direction, inspires; manager plans, organizes, directs resources.
  • Sources of Power:
    • Legitimate Power: Formal authority.
    • Reward Power: Ability to reward.
    • Coercive Power: Ability to punish.
    • Expert Power: Specialized knowledge.
    • Referent Power: Personal attraction, liking.
  • Leadership Traits:
    • Positive: Intelligence, conscientiousness, emotional stability.
      Negative, narcissism or psychopathy.
    • Important Skills: cognitive, interpersonal, business, conceptual.
  • Behavioral Approaches: Actions that leader do, that are watched and seen by those people.
    Task vs relationships oriented, oriented and transofmational or relationship
    *Task- how the mission will be given.
    *Relationship- how well they interact, ethics, and if they willing to be on the level with them.
  • Situational Approaches: adapts to the person based on their needs
    *Contingency, leadership approach by Fiedler- relationship between the leader and the follower- the task structure- and the positional power that you have with the followers
    *Path, goal leadership model - Housecame up with this and basically said, you're motivated to accomplish different things based upon the pathway that you're getting there.
  • Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory: In-groups (trusted, liked) vs. out-groups (defined roles).
    Visually, the in group is kind of this core select group that is very tight knit with the leader and is given more responsibility in the out group.
  • Transformational Leadership Model: Inspires and motivates through vision, individual consideration, ethical standards, and intellectual stimulation.
    Manners of leaders- inspiration meaning. Individualized influence, idealized is how they have ethically and morally, intellectual stimulating.

Control

  • Definition: Defining, monitoring performance, and taking corrective action.
  • Purpose of Control: Adaptability to change, detecting irregularities and opportunities, assisting with complexity.
  • Steps in Control Process: Establish standards measure performance compare performance.
  • Three Levels of Control: Strategic, tactical, operational.
  • Six Areas of Control: Structural, cultural, physical, human resource, informational, financial.
  • Balanced Scorecard: Comprehensive view of customer satisfaction, internal processes, innovation, financials.
  • Deming Principles: Focus on quality, continuous improvement, data-driven decisions (PDCA process).
  • Keys to Successful Controls: Strategic, results-oriented, timely, accurate, flexible.
  • Barriers to Control: Too much/little control or lack of employee participation.
  • Total Quality Management (TQM): Comprehensive approach to continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
  • Productivity: Outputs / Inputs.