Human Relations: Interpersonal Job-Oriented Skills, 12e (DuBrin)
Chapter 12 Helping Others Grow and Develop
12.1 Multiple Choice Questions
1) A major characteristic of nurturing people is that they
A) dislike most people.
B) are late bloomers in their career.
C) promote the growth of others.
D) conduct serious negotiations over lunch.
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2) A toxic person in the workplace is likely to
A) ask for help with his or her deficiencies.
B) look to help other people with their deficiencies.
C) focus on the positive in dealing with other people.
D) focus on the negative in dealing with other people.
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3) The buddy system in a job setting refers to a pair of people
A) sharing information that could affect their careers.
B) recommending each other for good assignments.
C) sharing career expenses and clothing.
D) ganging up to downgrade the boss.
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4) In a mentoring relationship, the mentor
A) trains the protégé to be his or her replacement.
B) gives support and career advice to a less experienced person.
C) requests that the protégé recommend him or her for promotion.
D) assumes administrative responsibility for the protégé.
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5) Travis, age 24, serves as a reverse mentor to his boss Clarissa, age 56, when he
A) invites her to his backyard barbeque with his family and friends.
B) coaches her on the latest technology in their field.
C) asks for her to help him improve his financial situation.
D) suggests that she transfer to a different division of the company.
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6) Rachel participates in e-mentoring when she
A) sends e-mails to hundreds of employees to ask for help with problems.
B) gives advice on the best use of e-mail and social media Web sites to coworkers.
C) uses e-mail regularly to ask for and receive advice from her mentor.
D) uses posts on Twitter to poke fun at the mentor.
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7) An important characteristic of the new style of mentoring is that it is often
A) short term and informal.
B) long term and formal.
C) based on the assumption that the person being mentored will stay at the company for most of
his or her career.
D) based on the assumption that the person being mentored is impatient to be promoted.
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8) Which one of the following is the most likely to be the behavior of an effective mentor?
A) sharing a challenging assignment with the protégé
B) coaxing the protégé into potentially harmful situations
C) avoiding a personal friendship with the protégé
D) solving problems for the protégé
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9) Which one of the following is the least effective mentoring behavior?
A) counseling with the protégé
B) being a role model for the protégé
C) helping the protégé “learn the ropes”
D) solving problems for the protégé
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10) A recommended starting point in being an effective coach is to first
A) criticize coworkers so they will feel the need to be coached.
B) build positive relationships with coworkers before coaching them.
C) dig up some negative information about coworkers.
D) be assigned to the same project as the person or persons to be coached.
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11) Feedback in coaching should be
A) specific about the area needing improvement.
B) general to avoid pinpointing blame.
C) confined to the first coaching session.
D) avoided unless requested.
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12) A recommended way of giving advice is to
A) wait until the person has a bad day.
B) put your advice in the form of a question.
C) first make the person feel guilty.
D) threaten a punishment for not accepting the advice.
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13) Jack is coaching Suzy, so it is better to suggest what Suzy
A) will do to improve.
B) ought to do to improve.
C) should do to improve.
D) could do to improve.
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14) Which one of the following is considered to be an important characteristic of an effective
coach?
A) confrontational style
B) diplomacy and tact
C) competitiveness with team members
D) impatience
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15) Cindy wants to be an effective coach, so she should
A) do most of the talking during a coaching session.
B) minimize asking powerful questions.
C) applaud good results.
D) coach with “should,” not “could.”
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16) As a trainer, you explain to Pamela that if she learns how to find relevant information on the
Internet well, she will be eligible for promotion. You are making use of the learning principle
called
A) motivated interest.
B) concentration.
C) meaningfulness of material.
D) dealing with trainee defensiveness.
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17) Reflecting on what you have learned is likely to
A) enhance retention of the information.
B) decrease retention of the information.
C) increase your defensiveness about learning.
D) hamper the development of soft skills.
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18) Which one of the following is the least likely to be an effective training principle?
A) Use motivated interest.
B) Ensure the meaningfulness of material.
C) Remind learners to intend to remember.
D) To avoid stress, discourage intense concentration.
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19) Which one of the following is the best example of a learning style?
A) Barney uses a laptop computer to take notes in class.
B) Barry learns best when studying in a group.
C) Barbara likes to acquire new skills while on vacation.
D) Ben gets excited when he learns a new concept.
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20) A defining characteristic of the passive-aggressive type of difficult person is that he or she
A) avoids promising to meet deadlines.
B) says yes to the boss, but no to coworkers.
C) says no to the boss, but yes to coworkers.
D) rarely delivers on promises.
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21) Martha is a high maintenance type of difficult person. On the job she is most likely to
A) demand an unreasonable amount of her supervisor’s time.
B) backstab her coworkers.
C) cajole and intimidate other workers.
D) promise any deadline, but fail to deliver.
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22) Which one of the following is a recommended way of dealing with difficult people? Give
feedback
A) in a group setting.
B) about the person’s characteristics.
C) about the person’s behavior.
D) about the person’s values.
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23) Which one of the following is a recommended way of dealing with difficult people?
A) Use humor to point out a problem.
B) Avoid any negotiations with the person.
C) Report them to the boss immediately.
D) Retaliate by being tactless and non-diplomatic.
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24) Which one of the following is likely to be the least effective way of dealing with a difficult
person?
A) Use non-hostile humor to poke fun at his or her behavior.
B) Break down his or her self-confidence.
C) Be tactful and diplomatic even when the person is a nuisance.
D) Attempt to work out a deal with the person.
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25) “THINK,” the acronym for dealing with difficult people contains which one of the following
questions?
A) Is it helpful?
B) Is it idiotic?
C) Is it tormenting?
D) Is it kissable?
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Job Scenario, Multiple-Choice
Justine is the director of international marketing in her company. One of the people assigned to
her team is marketing associate Sebastian. Although Sebastian is performing satisfactorily,
Justine is not entirely satisfied with his performance. As Justine perceives the situation, Sebastian
seems to feel that because he is a recent marketing graduate he is a highly knowledgeable
marketing professional. Also, he recently gave a PowerPoint presentation to management that
Justine attended. Justine observed several factual errors as well as a few embarrassing spelling
errors.
26) Justine has a coaching session this morning with Sebastian. She wants to coach him on doing
a more careful job when making a PowerPoint presentation. An effective tactic for Justine would
be to
A) tell Sebastian to please listen for ten minutes before saying anything in the coaching session.
B) explain to Sebastian that his recent PowerPoint presentation was wretched, and that anybody
else in the department could have done a better job.
C) point out a couple of specific errors Sebastian made in his recent PowerPoint presentation.
D) accuse Sebastian of being careless and sloppy in his PowerPoint presentations.
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27) Justine has another coaching session with Sebastian, two weeks after the first coaching
session. This time she wants to coach him about his attitude of superiority, which is making him
a little difficult to deal with. How might Justine best approach Sebastian?
A) Inform Sebastian that his superiority complex is really an inferiority complex in disguise.
B) Tell Sebastian that he should be ashamed of himself for acting so superior to other marketing
professionals.
C) Ask Sebastian why he thinks he has much of a future in international marketing.
D) Explain that she admires his pride about his marketing knowledge, but that perhaps he could
soften his egotism a little in front of coworkers and her.
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12.2 True/False Questions
1) As companies have fewer managers and HR professionals, coworkers are expected to play a
more active role in developing and training each other.
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2) A nurturing person attempts to take as much from other people as feasible.
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3) Being a negative role model for others is part of being a nurturing, positive person because
you demonstrate to others how not to behave.
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4) Mentoring, in its precise meaning, includes the idea that mentoring is a one-way relationship
in which one person receives help.
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5) A coworker can be a mentor as long as he or she is more experienced and wiser than another
group member in some important aspect of the job.
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6) A characteristic of e-mentoring is that it typically involves formal discussions by e-mail, over
a long period of time.
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7) The defining aspect of informal mentoring is that the mentor gives guidance mostly over
meals, during beverage breaks, and in athletic settings.
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8) An effective protégé is careful to avoid making positive statements about his or her mentor
during a meeting, to avoid appearing too political.
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9) A mentor is likely to discourage the protégé from continuous learning because such activity
detracts from getting the job done.
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10) As organizations have become more complex, most of the coaching today is done by a group
of coaches in the human resources (HR) department.
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11) It is important to avoid building relationships with people before coaching them because a
personal relationship makes it difficult to act professionally.
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12) A recommended way of giving feedback in coaching is to deal in generalities rather than
specifics.
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13) The emphasis in behavioral feedback used in coaching is on the personal characteristics and
attitudes of the person being coached.
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14) The purpose of a powerful question in coaching is to help the other person see through the
strengths and weaknesses of what he or she is doing or thinking.
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15) An effective way of giving advice is often to ask a question, such as “Have you explored
enough alternative solutions to your problem?”
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16) A moderate amount of constructive advice is often a useful part of coaching another worker.
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17) An effective coaching technique is to emphasize what the person being coached should do, to
make him or her feel guilty.
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18) A study conducted with call center telephone operations supported the idea that coaching
makes a positive contribution to job performance.
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19) An effective technique for creating motivated interest for the learner is to show how the
material to be learned is related to the trainee’s career goals.
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20) Training is sometimes held back because the person being trained resists information that
clashes with his or her beliefs or practices.
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21) A nice thing about a person with a narcissistic personality that he or she is typically low
maintenance.
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22) High maintenance type employees are so named because of their ability and willingness to
take care of their own work without placing many demands on others.
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23) A major strategy for dealing with difficult people is to give them feedback about what their
behavior is doing to you.
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24) During a confrontation session with a difficult person, it is recommended that you lose
emotional control to demonstrate how serious you are.
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25) A recommended tactic for dealing with a difficult person is to make that person feel less
confident, because the majority of difficult people are suffering from over-confidence.
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