Chapter 1 | Making OB Work for Me Flashcards
What describes an interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding and managing people at work?
Organizational behavior (OB)
What is the benefit of learning about OB?
The effective application of OB is critical to success in all disciplines of work and job levels.
What calls for using the OB concepts and tools that best suit the situation, instead of trying to relay on “one best way”?
Contingency approach
What are these: overreliance on hindsight, lack of rigor, and lack of objectivity?
Three major weaknesses of using common sense
What are the technical expertise and knowledge required to do a particular task or job function?
Hard skills
What relate to human interactions and include both interpersonal skills and personal attributes?
Soft skills
What are four soft skills most desired by employers for workforce in 2020?
Problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and people management
What skill involves identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options then implement solutions?
Problem solving
What skill uses logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternate solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems?
Critical thinking
What skill applies new ideas, processes, and technology to improve products, services, and other outcomes?
Creativity
What skill motivates, develops, and influences others to meet individual, group, and organizational goals?
People management
What are skills that are more or less relevant in every job, at every level, and throughout your career?
Portable skills
With what do you build goodwill and trust and demonstrate integrity? Ex: Attitudes, personality, teamwork, and leadership
Personal attributes
With what do you foster respectful interactions? Ex: Active listening, positive attitudes, effective communication
Interpersonal skills
As you move to levels of higher responsibility, how do technical/job-specific skills and personal skills change in importance?
Technical/job-specific skills decline in importance, personal skills increase in importance
What guides our behavior by identifying right, wrong, and the many shades of gray in between?
Ethics
What are situations with two choices, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable manner?
Ethical dilemmas
What cause of unethical behavior involves setting goals and incentives to promote a desired behavior, but encourage a negative one? Ex: Pressure to maximize billable hours in accounting, consulting, and law firms leading to unconscious padding
Ill-conceived goals
What cause of unethical behavior overlooks the unethical behavior of another when it’s in our interest to remain ignorant? Ex: Sports officials failing to notice created conditions that encourage steroid use
Motivated blindness
What cause of unethical behavior holds others less accountable for unethical behavior when it’s carried out through third parties? Ex: A drug company deflecting attention from price increases by selling rights to another company that imposes the increases
Indirect blindness
What cause of unethical behavior is when we are less able to see others’ unethical behavior when it develops gradually? Ex: Auditors more likely to accept questionable financial statements if infractions have accrued over time
The slippery slope
What cause of unethical behavior gives a pass to unethical behavior if the outcome is good? Ex: A researcher whose fraudulent clinical trial saves lives is considered more ethical than one leading to deaths
Overvaluing outcomes
What do these involve:
-Recognize that ethical issues are business issues and treat them that way
-Accept that confronting ethical concerns is part of your job
-Challenge the rationale
-Use your lack of seniority or status as an asset
-Consider and explain long-term consequences
-Suggest solutions-not just complaints
Ways to confront unethical conduct
What is a difference or gap between an actual and a desired state or outcome?
Problem
What is a systematic process for closing gaps between an actual and a desired state or outcome?
Problem solving
What are the three steps in the OB applied approach to problem solving?
- Define the problem
- Identify potential causes using OB concepts and theories
- Make recommendations and (if appropriate) take action
What are the infinite characteristics that give individuals their unique identities?
Person factors
What are the elements outside us that influence what we do, the way we do it, and the ultimate results of our actions?
Situation factors
What states that behavior is a function of interdependent person and situation factors?
Interactional perspective
What three levels does OB distinguish among at work?
Individual, group/team, and organizational
What factor do these fall under: values and work attitudes, personality and emotions, perceptions and diversity?
Person factors
What factor do these fall under: human resource policies, practices, and procedures, leader behavior, and organizational culture?
Situation factor
What is critically important to your short and long-term success?
Self-awareness
Employers want employees with what kind of skills?
Both hard and soft skills
The vast majority of unethical conduct at work is not ____.
Illegal
What tool helps you organize, understand, and apply your OB knowledge and tool?
The Organizing Framework
