Perceptual biases are:
A) types of judgment errors that people are prone to make.
B) characteristics of the person who interprets a specific situation.
C) attempts to identify the causes of others’ behavior.
D) tendencies to categorize people based on the groups to which they belong.
An example of a staff job in an organization would be the:
A) corporate legal counsel.
B) VP of Human Resources.
C) sales manager.
D) VP of Operations.
When interpreting an organization’s culture, it is important to remember that:
A) organizational culture will not change over time.
B) companies actually contain multiple cultures.
C) there is a best culture for every organization.
D) innovation is a function of people, not companies.
Police recruits whose instructors expected them to perform poorly in their training class
did, in fact, perform worse than those about whom instructors had no advance
expectations. The performance of the recruits could be attributed to:
A) fundamental attribution error.
B) the halo effect.
C) the Pygmalion effect.
D) the Golem effect.
Research has shown that organizational managers spend as much as ________ of their
time dealing with conflict on the job and its impact.
A) 50%
B) 15%
C) 20%
D) 25%
In what percentage of cases in which EAP services are provided are work losses
avoided?
A) 15%
B) 30%
C) 40%
D) 60%
The strength of an individual’s desire to excel is known as:
A) achievement motivation.
B) power motivation.
C) affiliation motivation.
D) self-monitoring.
Table 10.1
Brian, Chen, Adrienne, Sandra, and Jill are working on a company problem. Jill is
deeply concerned for the company and how the solution will affect the personal
development of employees. She is open to the others’ suggestions and will tend to make
her decision in the meeting. On the other hand, Brian wants a simple, clear, quick
solution. He only gathers the minimum necessary information and tends to rest on rules
or precedent to make his decision. Adrienne has just retired from a successful 20-year
career in the Army as a logistics officer.In contrast to Brian, Chen enjoys the
problem-solving process. He wants to look at a complex solution because he wants the
best possible solution. Sandra is the facilitator of the group. She reminds the group to
think of the solution’s impact on the employees. Sandra has a strong future orientation
and enjoys her role as facilitator because it allows her to initiate new ideas.
Refer to Table 10.1. Brian’s decision style is:
A) directive.
B) analytical.
C) conceptual.
D) behavioral.
Table 11.2
A team of business students is working on a semester-long class project. The nature of
the project is additive, each team member must have information from several other
team members in order to complete his/her portion of the project. In a group meeting,
Joe tells Amanda that if she will proofread his part of the paper, he’ll set up the
spreadsheet formulas for her calculations. Amanda tells him no thanks. She’s not really
concerned about the quality of his section of the project and she’d just as soon work on
her own. She thinks she can do a much better job than Joe setting up the spreadsheet.
Another member of the team, Celine, wants everyone to have the same outcome from
this project. She cautions those with weak work to improve it and asks the stars to tone
down their work a bit so as to not embarrass the weaker members of the team. Paul
wants to maximize the outcome of this project for everyone. He wants everyone to
experience complete satisfaction with the process, the project, and their final grade. The
reality is that the team will receive two grades. There will be a team grade and then
each individual will receive a separate grade on his/her section. The grades are
weighted 40/60.
Refer to Table 11.2. Joe’s offer to Amanda is an example of:
A) integrative behavior.
B) trust.
C) individualistic behavior.
D) reciprocity.
Table 3.2
William and Malcolm are interviewing high school students for jobs at a newly opened
fast food restaurant. William knows his first interviewee; he coached him on the local
community softball team. William doesn’t expect the interview to go well or to hire the
young man because he wasn’t very open to advice when he was coached. Malcolm’s
first candidate is late and runs up disheveled and out of breath. Malcolm assumes the
young man had difficulty on his way to the interview and gives him time to calm down
and improve his appearance. Several hours into the process William is interviewing his
20th candidate, Jane. When she sits down she drops into her seat, folds her arms, and
pinches her lips together. She’s wearing a T-shirt with the image and name of a local
heavy metal band on it. William prepares himself for a hostile and unfriendly interview
but is surprised that after the first couple of questions Jane turns out to be quite polite
and friendly. Malcolm’s last candidate is friendly, has similar interests to Malcolm and
knows several of the people Malcolm knows in the community. Malcolm comments to
William as they are picking up their files, “That kid reminds me of me when I was 17.”
Refer to Table 3.2. William is demonstrating which perceptual bias error with his first
interviewee?
A) Fundamental attribution error
B) Halo effect
C) Similar-to-me effect
D) First-impression error
In China:
A) managers pay less attention to absenteeism than managers do in Canada.
B) employees often go home or are absent from work due to illness.
C) workers are often paid more for not working due to illness than for working.
D) workers are more likely to take time off from work for personal issues than in
Canada.
The relationship between job satisfaction and mood shows that they:
A) closely linked at work.
B) impact each other.
C) impact work moods.
D) All of the above.
“Just like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” represents which of the following tools
for transmitting culture?
A) Slogans
B) Symbols
C) Stories
D) Jargon
If the HR director wanted information from as many employees as possible on a regular
basis, using a quick and easy method of gathering the information, his best choice of
tool would be:
A) brown bag meetings.
B) skip-level meetings.
C) a corporate hotline.
D) employee surveys.
You have an employee who is usually late and it takes him a half an hour to become
productive. You believe that his behavior stems from being lazy and unorganized. This
belief is an example of:
A) an attribution.
B) a correspondent inference.
C) a causal attribution.
D) observational learning.
Table 9.2
A student of organizational communication, John is studying how the target of a
communication shapes the communication. In his studies, he notes that the technical
professionals tend to not tell middle managers about problems they are having with the
system or about shutdowns they will implement to change something. This isn’t a
problem for John because he hears about the system shut downs from the IS department
secretary who calls him up to warn him about 10 minutes before the system goes down.
However, up and down the hall, John can hear managers swearing, as the system goes
down and their work disappears for anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours.
The marketing manager tends to work fairly hard at keeping the sales and operation
managers current on her plans for product campaigns so the sales people can talk about
them and operations can make sure there is enough product on hand to meet demand.
Refer to Table 9.2. The problem with the lack of communication between the technical
professionals and the middle managers is an example of a lack of:
A) downward communication.
B) horizontal communication.
C) diagonal communication.
D) upward communication.
When confronted with rising tension, people may find it useful to make a conscious
decision to insert a brief period of delay known as:
A) meditation.
B) time-out.
C) equilibrium restoration.
D) cosmic consciousness.
According to goal setting theory, an assigned goal serves as a motivator because:
A) of the additional fear element present over the possibility of displeasing the boss.
B) it provides information about how well one is performing a task.
C) of the requirement of acceptance of the assigned goal as a personal goal.
D) it influences the individual’s self-efficacy positively.
There are limitations to departmentalization by product, including:
A) conflicting reporting relationships.
B) difficulty in attracting and retaining talented employees.
C) the difficulty in tracking various tax requirements.
D) overloading functional areas with conflicting demands.
Table 3.1
Joe and Mary Jane are observing the new class of management trainees as they enter the
training room for their initial orientation. As they watch each person enter, they observe
how they are dressed, how they carry themselves when they walk, if they talk to the
persons next to them when they sit down, and so forth. Joe notices one man who is
casually dressed, who walks with a relaxed stride, and who talks to everyone within
reach of his seat. Joe believes this man will be a good ‘volunteer’ for role plays because
he is obviously very outgoing. Joe has watched hundreds of trainees before and
everyone who acted this way turned out to be good up in front of everyone else. Mary
Jane sees a young woman she interviewed. In the interview she was outgoing, smiled a
great deal, and was very expressive. Mary Jane sees her now sitting by herself, having
taken a seat away from everyone, arms folded across her chest, with a scowl on her
face. Mary Jane thinks that this woman obviously does better in one-on-one settings
than she does in large groups.
Refer to Table 3.1. The basis of Mary Jane’s thinking about the woman she interviewed
is an example of basing a judgment on ________ information.
A) consensus
B) consistency
C) distinctiveness
D) enhancement
________ is the most common strategy for resolving organizational conflicts by having
all sides make offers, counteroffers, and concessions in an attempt to find a mutually
acceptable agreement.
A) Bargaining
B) Meditation
C) Arbitration
D) Mediation
The capacity to endure physical activity is known as:
A) strength.
B) flexibility.
C) stamina.
D) speed.
In organizations departmentalized by products, each self-contained division ________.
A) gains economies of scale through shared resources
B) gives employees a global perspective of the company
C) meets changes in the market in flexible ways
D) has all the resources needed to develop, manufacture, and sell its products
A feedback process that uses multiple sources from around the organization to evaluate
one person is:
A) multiple regression.
B) team feedback.
C) 360-degree feedback.
D) a baseline audit.
The Hawthorne studies:
A) stressed efficiency and monetary rewards for workers.
B) focused on the noneconomic and social factors that influence behavior in
organizational settings.
C) permitted the proper assignment of management responsibilities based on 14 key
principles.
D) led to the effective restructuring of large organizations into bureaucracies.
Table 11.1
Students from an organizational behavior class are studying group conflict and
cooperation by observing the work of academic committees on their campus. They
notice that some faculty seem to go out of their way to do things for their committee
and committee members, yet have no hope of any type of return for these actions. Some
student members of committees are doing more than is expected of them, even though
they don’t have to, and they frankly don’t expect an return for their actions. These
students have found that the committees treat them as peers, the faculty treat them
fairly, and that they actually have a voice in the processes.
Refer to Table 11.1. The behavior of some of the faculty is an example of:
A) prosocial behavior.
B) reciprocity-based behavior.
C) a distributive orientation.
D) organizational citizenship behavior.
Table 8.1
Introduction to Business class is to observe the use of groups in a large manufacturing
business. The students notice that most groups are arranged by reporting relationships.
Bill discovers a group of managers who have been placed together to study and
recommend a course of action on a flextime schedule for employees. Jane finds that the
executives of the company have formed a team consisting of themselves, some middle
managers, and a few hourly employees to work on improving work processes and
efficiency within the company. This group has been in existence for 5 years and is
going strong.
Refer to Table 8.1. The majority of groups in this business appear to be:
A) informal interest groups.
B) formal command groups.
C) ad hoc committees or task forces.
D) self-managing groups.
Suppose that as a supervisor, you find it necessary to discipline one of your employees
for consistently showing up for work late. Which one of the following actions would be
correct to perform?
A) Punish the individual by focusing on his or her irresponsibility.
B) Make an example out of this person by punishing him or her, but not others who are
also consistently late.
C) Give the person the rest of the day off after you discuss the problem.
D) Clearly communicate the reasons for the disciplinary action.
Some of the most common forms of unplanned change stem from ________.
A) the introduction of new technology.
B) responses to new government regulation.
C) more economic competition.
D) adjustments to the size and structure of the organization.
Unscheduled absences have been estimated to account for approximately ________
percent of payroll expenses.
A) 15
B) 33
C) 49
D) 60
The value of the Hawthorne studies to OB lay in their discovery that:
A) physical working condition had no impact on worker productivity.
B) employee productivity and job satisfaction were directly related to the supervision
they received.
C) human needs, attitudes, motives, and relationships were important to worker
performance.
D) there is a most effective way to organize every work team, although it will vary
among teams.
In Japan, “no” is communicated by ________.
A) leaving the room
B) responding in a highly tangential manner
C) asking questions that change the topic
D) All of the above.
John is trying to influence the behavior of his company’s softball team by appealing to
their values and ideals about teamwork and winning. John is using the social influence
technique of:
A) consultation.
B) personal appeal.
C) legitimating.
D) inspirational appeal.