Chapter 6 - Performance Practices

Question 1

Money and other financial rewards

Answer 1

fundamental part of the employment relationship, but it also relates to our needs, our emotions, and our self-concepts

Question 2

Organisations reward employees for their:

Answer 2

membership and seniority, job status, competences, and performance

Question 3

Membership-based rewards

Answer 3

may attract job applications but these reward objectives also tend to discourage turnover among those with the lowest performance

Question 4

Rewards based on job status try to:

Answer 4

maintain internal equity and motivate employees to compete for promotions

however, encourages bureaucratic hierarchy, support status differences and motivates employees to compete and hoard resources

Question 5

Competency-based rewards

Answer 5

becoming increasingly popular because they improve workforce flexibility and are consistent with the emerging idea of employability

however, tend to be subjectively measured and can result in added costs as employees learn new skills

Question 6

Five ways to improve reward effectiveness

Answer 6

ensure that rewards are linked to work performance, rewards are aligned with performance within the employee’s control, team rewards are used where jobs are interdependent, rewards are valued by employees, and rewards have no unintended consequences

Question 7

Job design

Answer 7

process of assigning tasks to a job, including the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs

Question 8

Job specialistation

Answer 8

sub specialization subdivides work into separate jobs for different people

this increases work efficiency because employees master the tasks quickly, spend less time changing tasks, require less training and can be matched more closely with the jobs best suited to their skills

Question 9

Job characteristics model

Answer 9

template for job redesign that specifics core job dimensions, psychological states and individual differences

Question 10

Five core job dimensions

Answer 10

skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and job feedback

Question 11

Contemporary job design strategies try to motivate employees through

Answer 11

job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment

Question 12

Organisations introduce job rotation to

Answer 12

reduce job boredom, develop a more flexible workforce and reduce the incidence of repetitive strain injuries

Question 13

Job enlargement

Answer 13

Increasing the number of tasks within the job

Question 14

Two ways to enrich jobs are:

Answer 14

clustering tasks into natural groups and establishing client relationships

Question 15

Empowerment

Answer 15

psychological concept represented by four dimensions: self-determination, meaning, competence and the impact of the individuals role in the organisation

Question 16

Job design is a particular influence on

Answer 16

empowerment, particularly autonomy, task identity, task significance and job feedback

Question 17

Empowerment is supported at the organizational level through

Answer 17

a learning orientation culture, sufficient information and resources, and corporate leaders who trust employees

Question 18

Self-leadership

Answer 18

process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform a task

Question 19

Self-leadership includes:

Answer 19

personal goal setting, constructive thought patterns, designing natural rewards, self-mointoring, and self-reinforcement

Question 20

Constructive thought pattern

Answer 20

self-talk and mental imagery

Question 21

Mental imagery

Answer 21

involves mentally practicing a task and imagining successfully performing it beforehand

Question 22

More likely to apply self-leadership strategies if

Answer 22

people have a higher level of conscientiousness, extroversion and a positive self-concept

Question 23

Intrinsic motivation

Answer 23

Motivation generated on its own from performance on well-designed jobs

Question 24

Critical thinking skills

Answer 24

Ask questions
Define problems objectively
Examine the available evidence
Avoid oversimplifying
Consider alternative explanations

Question 25

Building a theory in OB

Answer 25

developed by process of analysis and synthesis

Question 26

Theories

Answer 26

a general set of propositions that describe interrelationships among several concepts (constructs)

Question 27

3 Types of studies

Answer 27

Experimental - participants randomly assigned to conditions
Quasi-experimental - not randomly, naturally assigned groups
Non-experimental - survey research, observational

Question 28

Requirements for causality

Answer 28

1) Association between variables
2) Cause precedes the effect
3) Alternative plausible explanations ruled out

Question 29

Issue in Organisational Research

Answer 29

Multiple causation