Introduction

Question 1

What is an organisation?

Answer 1

A structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet same agreed goal

Question 2

What is the great samaritan experiment?

Answer 2

People are more likely to help others if others are to but not if everyone ignores them
Situational and personal influences all lead an individual to behave in a certain way

Question 3

What is the situational strength theory?

Answer 3

Situations are very strong suppressors of individual traits

Strong situations give little leeway to make free decisions eg. Organisations

Question 4

How do group norms and authority influence behaviour

Answer 4

We act to be part of the in group
Norms become collectively accepted in a group
We overly rely on experts with authority
We diffuse responsibility to others

Question 5

What experiments show the power of authority?

Answer 5

Stanford prison experiment

Inappropriate interview questions

Question 6

What is diffusion of responsibility?

Answer 6

People waiting for somebody else to act before they do
This is more evident in larger organisations
E.g. ford engineer who failed to recall combusting car felt no responsibility

Question 7

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 7

When a person acts we discount any potential environmental factors only assume internal causes of behaviour
When we act we always blame environmental causes not internal ones although we always have reasons