Chapter 2

Question 1

What does the POLC framework acronym stand for?

Answer 1

Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling

Question 2

What concepts fall under each part of the POLC framework?

Answer 2

1. Planning - Vision & mission, strategizing, goals & objectives
2. Organizing - organization design, culture, social networks
3. Leading - leadership, decision making, communications, groups/teams, motivation
4. Controlling - Systems/processes, strategic human resources

Question 3

This encompasses a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns.

Answer 3

Personality

Question 4

What are the “Big Five Personality Traits”?

Answer 4

OCEAN

1. Openness - curious, original, intellectual, creative and open to new ideas
2. Conscientiousness - organized, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented and dependable
3. Extroversion - outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys being in social situations
4. Agreeableness - affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind and warm
5. Neuroticism - anxious, irritable, temperamental and moody

Question 5

Although OCEAN lays out the top five most common personality traits, there are a few others notably worth mentioning:

Answer 5

1. Self monitoring - the extent to which a person is capable of monitoring one’s actions and appearance in social situations
2. Proactive personality - a person’s inclination to fix what is wrong, change things, and use initiative to solve problems
3. Self-esteem - the degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about oneself
4. Self-efficacy - a belief that one can person a specific task successfully

Question 6

What is the best trait known to predict performance?

Answer 6

Conscientiousness

Question 7

One method some companies use to improve and detect the people who are potentially good job candidates is…?

Answer 7

personality testing

Question 8

This refers to people’s stable life goals, reflecting what is most important to
them.

Answer 8

Values

*** The values that are important to a person tend to affect the types of decisions they make, how they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviors.

Question 9

Researchers have developed several frameworks, or typologies of values. One of the particularly useful frameworks includes 10 values. These are…?

Answer 9

Achievement
Benevolence
Conformity
Hedonism
Power
Security
Self-direction
Stimulation
Tradition
Universalism

Question 10

The tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and to see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us.

Answer 10

self-enhancement bias

Question 11

The tendency to underestimate our performance, and capabilities, and see events in a way that puts ourselves in a more negative light.

Answer 11

self-effacement bias (aka - modesty bias)

Question 12

How we as human beings overestimate how similar we are to other people.

Answer 12

false consensus error

Question 13

Generalizations based on a group characteristic.

Answer 13

stereotypes

Question 14

When an established stereotype causes one to behave in a certain way, which leads the other party to behave in a way that makes the stereotype come true.

Answer 14

self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 15

When we pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts.

Answer 15

selective perception

*** this is why stereotypes persist

Question 16

Initial thoughts and perceptions we form about people that tend to be stable and resilient to contrary information.

Answer 16

First Impressions

Question 17

Our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment.

Answer 17

attitude

** how we behave at work often depends on how we feel about being there

Question 18

The emotional attachment people have toward the company they work for.

Answer 18

organizational commitment

Question 19

Research shows that people pay attention to several factors of their work environment, including:

Answer 19

1. Personality
2. Person-environment fit
3. Job characteristics
4. Psychological contract
5. Organizational justice
6. Work relationships
7. Stress

Question 20

A strong influence over our satisfaction level at work is how fairly we are treated. Organizational justice can be classified into three categories:

Answer 20

1. Procedural = fairness in the way policies and processes are carried out.
2. Distributive = the allocation of resources or compensation and benefits
3. Interactional = the degree to which people are treated with dignity and respect

*** at the root of this is trust, something that is easier to break than to repair if broken.

Question 21

The unspoken, informal understanding that an employee will contribute certain things to the organization and will receive certain things in return.

Answer 21

psychological contract

*** employee contributes work ability and willing attitude and in return expects reasonable pay and benefits.

Question 22

Stressers present on the job range from…?

Answer 22

1. Environmental = noise, heat, inadequate ventilation)
2. Interpersonal = organizational politics, conflicts with co-workers
3. Organizational = pressure to avoid making mistakes, worry about the security of the job

Question 23

Given that work attitudes may give us clues about who will leave or stay, who will perform better and who will be more engaged, tracking satisfaction is a helpful step for companies. There are two systemic ways in which this can be done:

Answer 23

1. Attitude surveys = survey that is given to employees track their work attitudes. These should be periodic and confidential.
2. Exit interviews = involve a meeting with the departing employee usually conducted by human resources

Question 24

When companies hire employees, they are interested in assessing at least two types of fit. These are…?

Answer 24

1. Person-organization fit = the degree to which a person’s values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization.
2. Person-job fit = the degree to which a person’s skill, knowledge, abilities and other characteristics match the job demands (commonly referred to as the KSAO)

Question 25

What are the four behaviors focused on in the workplace environment?

Answer 25

1. Job performance
2. Organizational citizenship behaviors
3. Absenteeism
4. Turnover

Question 26

This refers to the level to which an employee successfully fulfills the factors included in the job description.

Answer 26

job performance

Question 27

The most powerful influence over our job performance is our…?

Answer 27

general mental ability (aka - cognitive ability/intelligence)

Question 28

Voluntary behaviors employees perform to help others and benefit the organization.

Answer 28

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB)

** typically, the most important factor for this is the relationship we have with our managers, our peers and when we are treated fairly.

Question 29

Interestingly, __ seems to be related to the frequency with which we demonstrate citizenship behaviors.

Answer 29

age

Question 30

The cost of absenteeism to organizations is estimated at…?

Answer 30

74 billion

15% of the money spent on payroll is related to absenteeism

Question 31

Research does not reveal a consistent link between personality and absenteeism but there is one demographic criterion that predicts absenteeism:

Answer 31

age

Interestingly, and against some stereotypes that increased age would bring more health problems, research shows that age is negatively related to both frequency and duration of absenteeism. That is, younger workers are the ones more likely to be absent.

Question 32

What is the primary culprit in employee turnover?

Answer 32

work attitudes