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Chapter 16 Organizational Culture Answer Key
True / False Questions
1.
Organizational culture shapes and reinforces certain employee attitudes and behaviors by
creating a system of control over employees.
2.
Employees transfer knowledge about a company’s culture to other employees through
explicit communication, simple observation, and other less obvious means.
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3.
Symbols, rituals, and espoused values are three major types of observable artifacts.
4.
Physical structures say a lot about a culture.
5.
Ceremonies are the daily planned routines that occur in an organization.
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6.
Espoused values can range from published documents, such as a company’s vision or
mission statement, to verbal statements made to employees by executives and managers.
7.
When a company holds to its espoused values over time and regardless of the situations it
operates in, the values become less believable to employees.
8.
It is easy to stay true to espoused values in times of economic downturns.
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9.
Whatever a company’s underlying assumptions are, its hidden beliefs are those that are
the most likely to dictate employee behavior and affect employee attitudes.
10.
Organizations that have cultures in which employees think alike but are not friendly to one
another can be considered communal cultures.
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11.
When asked about the company where she works, Jena responds by discussing how well
they get along and like each other and how, although there is, of course, some conflict, in
general the employees think alike about most of the important company values and
concerns. Jena is discussing her company in terms of two general culture types: affability
and consensus.
12.
Organizations that have mercenary cultures are likely to be very political.
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13.
As companies grow, they tend to move toward a networked culture because solidarity is
harder to foster when groups get really large.
14.
A positive service culture has been shown to reduce accidents and increase safety-based
citizenship behaviors.
15.
Creativity cultures affect the quality, but not the quantity, of creative ideas within an
organization.
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16.
Strong cultures take a very long time to develop but are easy to change.
17.
Strong cultures are always good cultures as they guide their employees toward the most
successful organizational outcomes.
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18.
Subcultures unite a smaller subset of the organization’s employees.
19.
Subcultures are more likely to exist in small companies.
20.
When the values of subcultures do not match those of the larger organization, they are
known as fragmented cultures.
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21.
Attraction and selection processes do not always align employees’ personalities with
organizational culture.
22.
As a college senior, Mason researched many companies before deciding on those he
wanted to apply to. He searched particularly for those where the company’s values were in
agreement with his personal values and didn’t apply to those where they weren’t.
Recruiters for the companies he did apply to recommended hiring him partly because they
saw Mason’s values as a good fit with the company’s values. When he made his selection,
Mason was sure he would enjoy working for the company because it seemed like a perfect
fit for him. Mason’s job search reflects the attraction, selection, attrition framework.
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23.
An outsider can fully grasp or understand the culture of an organization simply by looking
at artifacts visible from outside the company.
24.
The socialization process ends once the employee starts handling the job all by him– or
herself.
25.
Socialization happens in five relatively distinct stages.
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26.
The anticipatory stage of socialization begins the day an employee starts work.
27.
The goal of an organization’s socialization efforts should be to minimize reality shock as
much as possible.
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28.
The length of the socialization process depends solely on the characteristics of the
company.
29.
Mergers often result in the creation of the strong culture that managers hope will appear
when they make the decision to merge.
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30.
One of the major reasons that one company purchases another is simply to acquire the
technology that it has. In such cases, the acquired company is usually expected to change
to fit the buyer’s culture.
31.
Job satisfaction is higher and stress is lower when there is a good person-organization fit.
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32.
When employees feel they fit with their organization’s culture, they are much more likely to
develop an emotional attachment to the company.
33.
In general, person-organization fit is more closely related to citizenship behavior than to
task performance.
34.
One of the main disadvantages of realistic job previews is that they are very expensive.
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35.
Realistic job previews occur during the anticipatory stage of socialization during the
recruitment process.
36.
Orientation programs provide social knowledge, resources, and psychological support to
the protégé both at the beginning of employment and as the protégé continues his or her
career with the company.
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37.
Formal mentoring programs have always existed in companies, but their use is increasing.
38.
Marie is the department manager at Verve, Inc. She has been working in the position for
five years. Marie starts every Monday morning with a 60-minute department meeting
where each member in the department gets five minutes to report progress; share stories
of success and failure; and seek general input, advice, and information. Jeremy is
responsible for sharing an anecdote, an account, or a legend about the company for every
first Monday of the month to keep everyone reminded of where they work and what is
important. Marie has created the workplace for her department in a totally open forum.
There are no walls or cubicles, and everyone—including Marie—is in one open room.
Marie has created a skull with a victory flag on its forehead as her department’s corporate
logo, representing the “victory or die trying” motto for her group. The group has succeeded
in achieving some exceptional results in the past two years.
The workspace of Marie’s department with no walls or cubicles represents the observable
artifact known as a symbol.
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Topic: Organizational culture
39.
Marie, the department manager at Verve, Inc., has been working in the position for five
years. Marie starts every Monday morning with a 60-minute department meeting where
each member in the department gets five minutes to report progress; share stories of
success and failure; and seek general input, advice, and information. Jeremy is responsible
for sharing an anecdote, an account, or a legend about the company for every first Monday
of the month to keep everyone reminded of where they work and what is important. Marie
has created the workplace for her department in a totally open forum. There are no walls
or cubicles, and everyone—including Marie—is in one open room. Marie has created a
skull with a victory flag on its forehead as her department’s corporate logo, representing
the “victory or die trying” motto for her group. The group has succeeded in achieving some
exceptional results in the past two years.
What Marie and Jeremy are doing are parts of the observable artifacts component of
culture.
Multiple Choice Questions
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40.
The shared social knowledge within an organization regarding the rules, norms, and values
that shape the attitudes and behaviors of its employees refers to organizational:
41.
The three major components to any organizational culture are:
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42.
_____ are the manifestations of an organizational culture that everyone can see or talk
about.
43.
The physical layout of workspaces, dress codes, and the level of technology used are all
examples of _____ that are represented by the organization’s culture.
16–20
44.
Which of the following supply the primary means of transmitting an organization’s culture
to its workforce?