Chapter 1
The Dynamics of People and Organizations
1. Organizational behavior avoids matters relating to interpersonal relationships due to the
complexities involved in understanding them.
2. Organizations can be viewed and managed as whole systems that have interorganizational
relationships.
3. Workforce diversity does not present any challenges for managers in an organization.
4. Many companies are urging their managers to deal with diversity by demonstrating openness,
confidence, compassion, and vulnerability.
5. The automatic acceptance of authority by employees has increased over the last few years.
6. Technology’s greatest benefits are that it allows people to do more and better work, and it
does not restrict people.
7. Theories consist of processes to gather and interpret relevant evidence that will either support
a behavioral theory or help change it.
8. Theories identify important variables and link them to form tentative propositions that can be
tested through research.
9. Organizational behavior starts with a set of fundamental concepts revolving around the nature
of people and organizations.
10. Individual differences require that a manager’s approach to employees be individual, not
statistical.
11. When perceiving things, people use an organized framework that they have built out of a
lifetime of experiences and accumulated values.
12. Activities within organizations are governed by social as well as psychological laws.
13. Organizations need to treat employees in an ethical manner in order to attract and retain
valuable employees.
14. In the human resources approach, managers decide what should be done and then closely
control employees to ensure task performance.
15. The human relations approach to organizational behavior discourages the practice of making
universal assumptions about people.
16. According to the results-oriented approach, if fewer inputs are used to produce the same
amount of outputs, productivity decreases.
17. The role of managers is to use organizational behavior to help achieve individual,
organizational, and societal goals.
18. A manager who ignores the needs of people as consumers of organizational outputs while
championing employee needs is misapplying the ideas of organizational behavior.
19. According to the law of diminishing returns, organizational effectiveness can be achieved by
maximizing just one human variable.
20. Without ethical leadership, the new knowledge learned about people becomes a dangerous
instrument for possible misuse.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The first objective of organizational behavior is to:
A) understand why people behave as they do.
B) predict future employee behavior.
C) describe, systematically, how people behave under a variety of conditions.
D) control, at least partially, and develop some human activity at work.
2. _____ defines the formal relationship and use of people in organizations.
A) Scheme
B) Structure
C) Hierarchy
D) Both A and C
3. _____ asks managers to set aside some of the things they think they know and become totally
committed to a rigorous collection of facts and combine these with relevant research.
A) Evidence-based management
B) Selective perception
C) Law of individual differences
D) Cost-benefit analysis
4. Which of the following statements is true of the external environment?
A) It provides competition for resources and power.
B) It influences the attitudes of people.
C) It affects working conditions.
D) All of the above.
5. Which of the following statements is NOT true about good theories?
A) They contribute to individuals’ understanding of organizational behavior.
B) They seldom identify variables.
C) They provide guidelines for managerial action.
D) They address significant behavioral issues.
6. _____ is the process of gathering and interpreting relevant evidence that will either support a
behavioral theory or help change it.
A) Selective perception
B) Documentation
C) Research
D) Testing
7. _____ helps us better understand how the major ideas in organizational behavior evolved over
time.
A) Selective perception
B) Research
C) Practice
D) None of the above
8. Theory and research form a natural foundation for _____, which is the conscious application
of conceptual models and research results in order to improve individual and organizational
performance at work.
A) speculation
B) morale
C) attitude
D) practice
9. Which of the following concepts regarding the nature of people deals with people’s unique
ways of seeing and interpreting things around them?
A) Acculturation
B) Motivated behavior
C) Desire for involvement
D) Perception
10. _____ means that people tend to pay attention to those features of their work environment
that are consistent with or reinforce their own expectations.
A) Selective perception
B) Bandwagon effect
C) Subjective validation
D) Behavioral bias
11. The two basic ways for management to motivate people include:
A) showing how certain actions will increase their need fulfillment.
B) threatening decreased need fulfillment if they follow an undesirable course of action.
C) ensuring needs are being fulfilled regardless of organizational constraints.
D) A and B only.
12. Organizations need people, and people need organizations. This relationship is formed and
maintained on the basis of some _____ among the participants.
A) selective perceptions
B) individual differences
C) mutuality of interest
D) behavioral biases
13. When an organization’s goals and actions are ethical, _____ objectives are more likely to be
met.
A) individual
B) organizational
C) social
D) all of the above
14. According to the _____, all parts of an organization interact in a complex relationship.
A) systems approach
B) results-oriented approach
C) human resources approach
D) contingency approach
15. Which of the following statements is true of the human resources approach to organizational
behavior?
A) It assumes that different managerial behaviors are required by different environments for
effectiveness.
B) It ensures that management is directive and controlling.
C) It requires managers to decide what should be done and then closely control employees to
ensure task performance.
D) It tries to create a climate in which employees may contribute to the limits of their improved
abilities.
16. The _____ toward organizational behavior means that different situations require different
behavioral practices for greatest effectiveness.
A) human resources approach
B) contingency approach
C) results-oriented approach
D) systems approach
17. The _____ can help managers know under what conditions they should choose one
behavioral approach over another.
A) human resources approach
B) contingency approach
C) results-oriented approach
D) systems approach
18. The interaction of motivation and ability determines a person’s _____ in any activity.
A) knowledge
B) skill
C) potential performance
D) all of the above
19. The potential for human performance has to be combined with _____ and opportunity to get
organizational results.
A) resources
B) behavior
C) ability
D) perception
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
9
Page: 15
Difficulty: Easy
20. Knowledge × skill = _____.
A) ability
B) motivation
C) potential human performance
D) organizational results
21. Which of the following is NOT a fundamental element of the systems approach to
organizational behavior?
A) The parts of a system are independent of each other.
B) There are many subsystems contained within larger systems.
C) Systems may produce both positive and negative results.
D) The consequences of systems should be examined on both a short-term and long-term basis.
22. Which of the following statements is a fundamental element of the systems approach to
organizational behavior?
A) Systems generally require inputs and produce outputs.
B) Systems produce both intended and unintended consequences.
C) The consequences of systems should be examined on both a short-term and long-term basis.
D) All of the above.
23. Holistic organizational behavior interprets people-organizational relationships in terms of
the _____.
A) whole person
B) whole group
C) whole social system
D) all of the above
24. A cost-benefit analysis:
A) determines whether potential actions will have a net positive or net negative effect.
B) forces managers to merely look at the immediate implications of their actions.
C) is done to arrive at a point where costs and revenues become equal.
D) is a statistical process that helps determine relationships among several variables.
25. Which of the following limitations of organizational behavior states that concern for
employees can be so greatly overdone that the original purpose of bringing people together—
productive organizational outputs for society—is lost?
A) Behavioral targeting
B) Behavioral bias
C) Law of diminishing returns
D) Law of individual differences
26. Which of the following concepts implies that for any situation there is an optimum amount
of a desirable practice, such as recognition or participation?
A) Focalism
B) Behavioral bias
C) The law of diminishing returns
D) The law of individual differences
Difficulty: Easy
27. _____ is the capacity of a system to endure across time and this presents a difficult challenge
to organizations, which must balance environmental, social, and economic demands.
A) Flexibility
B) Sustainability
C) Contingency
D) Productivity
Difficulty: Easy
28. Which of the following terms represents a continuing challenge to organizational behavior
and talks about managers embracing the newest fad to address the symptoms while neglecting
underlying problems, or fragmenting their efforts within the firm?
A) Varying environment
B) Managerial practice
C) Definitional confusion
D) Seeking quick fixes
Difficulty: Easy
29. When organizations _____, stress and conflict increase.
A) stagnate
B) decline
C) have their survival threatened
D) all of the above
30. Which of the following challenges confronting organizational behavior addresses the issues
of shrinking demand, scarce resources, and more intense competition?
A) Varying environments
B) Managerial practice
C) Definitional confusion
D) Seeking quick fixes
Essay Questions
1. What are the four goals of organizational behavior?
2. Define the three keys to success in the field of organizational behavior.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
12
Ans: The three keys to success in the field of organizational behavior are as follows.
Theories offer explanations of how and why people think, feel, and act as they do. Theories
identify important variables and link them to form tentative propositions that can be tested
through research.
Research is the process of gathering and interpreting relevant evidence that will either support a
behavioral theory or help change it. This is an ongoing process through which valuable
behavioral knowledge is continually uncovered.
Practice is the conscious application of conceptual models and research results in order to
improve individual and organizational performance at work.
Page: 7
Difficulty: Easy
3. Explain the concept of perception.
4. Why do people deserve to be treated differently from other factors of production, such as
land, capital, and technology?
5. How do ethics help an organization in meeting its goals?
6. Why is the human resources approach often called the supportive approach?
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
13
of their improved abilities. The manager’s primary role changes from control of employees to
active support of their growth and performance.
Page: 13
Difficulty: Easy
7. Describe why results orientation is a common thread woven through organization behavior.
8. According to the results-oriented approach, what role does organizational behavior play in
creating organizational results?
Ans. The role that organizational behavior plays in creating organizational results is illustrated
by a set of factors and the relationships between the factors:
9. Explain the economic law of diminishing returns.
10. What are the principles of ethical leadership?