Keywords

Question 1

employee share ownership plans (ESOPs)
A reward system that encourages employees to buy company shares.
psychological empowerment
A perceptual and emotional state in which people experience more self-determination, meaning, competence, and impact regarding their role in the organization.
equity theory
A theory explaining how people develop perceptions of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources.
escalation of commitment
The tendency to repeat an apparently bad decision or allocate more resources to a failing course of action.
ethics
The study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.
evaluation apprehension
Occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe that others in the decision-making team are silently evaluating them.
evidence-based management
The practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence.
exit-voice-loyalty-neglect (EVLN) model
The four ways, as indicated in the name, that employees respond to job dissatisfaction.
expectancy theory
A motivation theory based on the idea that work effort is directed toward behaviours that people believe will lead to desired outcomes.
extraversion
A personality dimension describing people who are outgoing, talkative, sociable, and assertive.
false-consensus effect
A perceptual error in which we overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to our own.
field surveys
Research design strategies that involve collecting and analyzing information in a natural environment, such as an office, a factory, or other existing location.
five-factor (Big Five) model
The five broad dimensions representing most personality traits: conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and extraversion.
force field analysis
Kurt Lewin’s model of system-wide change that helps change agents diagnose the forces that drive and restrain proposed organizational change.
formalization
The degree to which organizations standardize behaviour through rules, procedures, formal training, and related mechanisms.
four-drive theory
A motivation theory based on the innate drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend that incorporates both emotions and rationality.
functional structure
An organizational structure in which employees are organized around specific knowledge or other resources.
fundamental attribution error
The tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that person’s behaviour.
gainsharing plan
A team-based reward that calculates bonuses from the work unit’s cost savings and productivity improvement.
general adaptation syndrome
A model of the stress experience, consisting of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.
global mindset
An individual’s ability to perceive, appreciate, and empathize with people from other cultures, and to process complex cross-cultural information.
grapevine
An unstructured and informal communication network founded on social relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions.
grounded theory
A process of developing knowledge through the constant interplay of data collection, analysis, and theory development.
halo effect
A perceptual error whereby our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, colours our perception of other characteristics of that person.
human capital
The knowledge, skills, abilities, creative thinking, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization.
hypotheses
Statements making empirically testable declarations that certain variables and their corresponding measures are related in a specific way proposed by the theory.
implicit favourite
A preferred alternative that the decision maker uses repeatedly as a comparison with other choices.
implicit leadership theory
A theory stating that people evaluate a leader’s effectiveness in terms of how well that person fits preconceived beliefs about the features and behaviours of effective leaders (leadership prototypes), and that people tend to inflate the influence of leaders on organizational events.
impression management
Actively shaping through self-presentation and other means the perceptions and attitudes that others have of us.
individualism
A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize independence and personal uniqueness.
influence
Any behaviour that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes or behaviour.
information overload
A condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the person’s capacity to process it.
inoculation effect
A persuasive communication strategy of warning listeners that others will try to influence them in the future and that they should be wary about the opponent’s arguments.
intellectual capital
A company’s stock of knowledge, including human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital.
interpretivism
The view held in many qualitative studies that reality comes from shared meaning among people in a particular environment.
intuition
The ability to know when a problem or opportunity exists and to select the best course of action without conscious reasoning.
job characteristics model
A job design model that relates the motivational properties of jobs to specific personal and organizational consequences of those properties.
job enlargement
The practice of increasing the number and variety of related tasks assigned to a job.
job enrichment
The practice of giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, and planning their own work.
job evaluation
Systematically rating the worth of jobs within an organization by measuring their required skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.
job satisfaction
A person’s evaluation of their job and work context.
job specialization
The result of division of labour in which work is subdivided into separate jobs assigned to different people.
Johari Window
A model of self-awareness and mutual understanding with others that advocates disclosure and feedback to increase our open area and reduce the blind, hidden, and unknown areas.
laboratory experiment
Any research study in which independent variables and variables outside the researcher’s main focus of inquiry can be controlled to some extent.
leadership substitutes theory
A theory identifying conditions that either limit a leader’s ability to influence subordinates or make a particular leadership style unnecessary.
leadership
Influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.
legitimate power
An agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviours of others.
locus of control
A person’s general belief about the amount of control they have over personal life events.
management by wandering around (MBWA)
A communication practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue.
managerial leadership
A leadership perspective stating that effective leaders help employees improve their performance and well-being towards current objectives and practices.
Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory
A motivation theory of needs arranged in a hierarchy, whereby people are motivated to fulfill a higher need as a lower one becomes gratified.
matrix structure
An organizational structure that overlays two structures (such as a geographic divisional and a product structure) in order to leverage the benefits of both.
mechanistic structure
An organizational structure with a narrow span of control and a high degree of formalization and centralization.
media richness
A medium’s data-carrying capacity, that is, the volume and variety of information that can be transmitted during a specific time.
mental imagery
The process of mentally practising a task and visualizing its successful completion.
mental models
Knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us.
mindfulness
A person’s receptive and impartial attention to and awareness of the present situation as well as to one’s own thoughts and emotions in that moment.
moral intensity
The degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles.
moral sensitivity
A person’s ability to recognize the presence of an ethical issue and determine its relative importance.
motivation
The forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behaviour.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
An instrument designed to measure the elements of Jungian personality theory, particularly preferences regarding perceiving and judging information.
need for achievement (nAch)
A learned need in which people want to accomplish reasonably challenging goals and desire unambiguous feedback and recognition for their success.
need for affiliation (nAff)
A learned need in which people seek approval from others, conform to their wishes and expectations, and avoid conflict and confrontation.
need for power (nPow)
A learned need in which people want to control their environment, including people and material resources, to benefit either themselves (personalized power) or others (socialized power).
needs
Goal-directed forces that people experience.
negotiation
The process in which interdependent parties with divergent beliefs or goals attempt to reach agreement on issues that mutually affect them.
network structure
An alliance of several organizations for the purpose of creating a product or serving a client.
neuroticism
A personality dimension describing people who tend to be anxious, insecure, self-conscious, depressed, and temperamental.
nominal group technique
A variation of brainwriting consisting of three stages: participants (1) silently and independently document their ideas, (2) collectively describe these ideas to the other team members without critique, and then (3) silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.
norm of reciprocity
A felt obligation and social expectation of helping or otherwise giving something of value to someone who has already helped or given something of value to you.
norms
The informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behaviour of their members.
open systems
The view that organizations depend on the external environment for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs.
organic structure
An organizational structure with a wide span of control, little formalization, and decentralized decision making.
organic structure
An organizational structure with a wide span of control, little formalization, and decentralized decision making.
organizational behaviour (OB)
The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.
organizational behaviour modification (OB Mod)
A theory that explains employee behaviour in terms of the antecedent conditions and consequences of that behaviour.
organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs)
Various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization’s social and psychological context.
organizational culture
The values and assumptions shared within an organization.
organizational effectiveness
The extent to which an organization has a good fit with its external environment, effectively transforms inputs to outputs through human capital, and satisfies the needs of key stakeholders.
organizational politics
The use of influence tactics for personal gain at the perceived expense of others and the organization.
organizational socialization
The process by which individuals learn the values, expected behaviours, and social knowledge necessary to assume their roles in the organization.
organizational strategy
The way the organization positions itself in its setting in relation to its stakeholders, given the organization’s resources, capabilities, and mission.
organizational structure
The division of labour as well as the patterns of coordination, communication, workflow, and formal power that direct organizational activities.
organizations
Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose.
parallel learning structures
Highly participative arrangements composed of people from most levels of the organization who follow the action research model to produce meaningful organizational change.
path–goal leadership theory
A leadership theory stating that effective leaders choose the most appropriate leadership style(s), depending on the employee and situation, to influence employee expectations about desired results and their positive outcomes.
perception
The process of receiving information about and making sense of our surrounding environment.
personality
The relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics.
persuasion
The use of facts, logical arguments, and emotional appeals to change another person’s beliefs and attitudes, usually for the purpose of changing the person’s behaviour.
positive organizational behaviour
A perspective of organizational behaviour that focuses on building positive qualities and traits within individuals or institutions as opposed to focusing on what is wrong with them.
positivism
A view held in quantitative research in which reality exists independent of the perceptions and interpretations of people.
power distance
A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture accept unequal distribution of power in a society.
power
The capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.
power
The capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.
primacy effect
A perceptual error in which we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them.
procedural justice
The perception that appropriate procedural rules have been applied throughout the decision process.
process losses
Resources (including time and energy) expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task.
production blocking
A time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time.
profit-sharing plan
A reward system that pays bonuses to employees on the basis of the previous year’s level of corporate profits.
profit-sharing plan
A reward system that pays bonuses to employees on the basis of the previous year’s level of corporate profits.
prospect theory effect
An innate tendency to feel stronger negative emotion from losing a particular amount than positive emotion from gaining an equal amount.
psychological contract
The individual’s beliefs about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that person and another party (typically an employer).
rational choice decision making
The process of using pure logic and all available information about all alternatives to choose the alternative with the highest value.
realistic job preview (RJP)
A method of improving organizational socialization in which job applicants are given a balance of positive and negative information about the job and work context.
reality shock
The stress that results when employees perceive discrepancies between their pre-employment expectations and on-the-job reality.
recency effect
A perceptual error in which the most recent information dominates our perception of others.
referent power
The capacity to influence others on the basis of an identification with and respect for the power holder.
refreezing
The latter part of the change process, in which systems and structures are introduced that reinforce and maintain the desired behaviours.
relationship capital
The value derived from an organization’s relationships with customers, suppliers, and others.
relationship conflict
A type of conflict in which people focus their discussion on qualities of the people in the dispute, rather than on the qualities of the ideas presented regarding a task-related issue.
representative sampling
The process of sampling a population in such a way that one can extrapolate the results of that sample to the larger population.
representativeness heuristic
A natural tendency to evaluate probabilities of events or objects by the degree to which they resemble (are representative of) other events or objects rather than on objective probability information.
rituals
The programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize the organization’s culture.
role perceptions
The degree to which a person understands the job duties assigned to or expected of them.
role
A set of behaviours that people are expected to perform because they hold specific formal or informal positions in a team and organization.
satisficing
Selecting an alternative that is satisfactory or “good enough,” rather than the alternative with the highest value (maximization).
scenario planning
A systematic process of thinking about alternative futures and what the organization should do to anticipate and react to those environments.
scientific management
The practice of systematically partitioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency.
scientific method
A set of principles and procedures that help researchers to systematically understand previously unexplained events and conditions.
selective attention
The process of attending to some information received by our senses and ignoring other information.
self-concept
An individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations.
self-directed teams (SDTs)
Cross-functional work groups that are organized around work processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks.
self-efficacy
A person’s belief that they have the ability, motivation, correct role perceptions, and favourable situation to complete a task successfully.
self-enhancement
A person’s inherent motivation to have a positive self-concept (and to have others perceive them favourably), such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important.
self-fulfilling prophecy
The perceptual process in which our expectations about another person cause that person to act more consistently with those expectations.
self-leadership
Specific cognitive and behavioural strategies to achieve personal goals and standards through self-direction and self-motivation.
self-reinforcement
Reinforcement that occurs when an employee has control over a reinforcer but doesn’t ‘take’ it until completing a self-set goal.
self-serving bias
The tendency to attribute our favourable outcomes to internal factors and our failures to external factors.
self-talk
The process of talking to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions.
self-verification
A person’s inherent motivation to confirm and maintain their existing self-concept.
servant leadership
The view that leaders serve followers, rather than vice versa; leaders help employees fulfil their needs and are coaches, stewards, and facilitators of employee performance.
service profit chain model
A theory explaining how employees’ job satisfaction influences company profitability indirectly through service quality, customer loyalty, and related factors.
share options
A reward system that gives employees the right to purchase company shares at a future date at a predetermined price.
shared leadership
The view that leadership is a role, not a position assigned to one person; consequently, people within the team and organization lead each other.
skill variety
The extent to which employees must use different skills and talents to perform tasks within their jobs.
social capital
The knowledge, opportunities, and other resources available to members of a social network, along with the mutual support, trust, reciprocity, and coordination that facilitate sharing of those resources.
social cognitive theory
A theory that explains how learning and motivation occur by observing and modelling others as well as by anticipating the consequences of our behaviour.
social identity theory
A theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment.
social loafing
The problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone.
social networks
Social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to each other through one or more forms of interdependence.
span of control
The number of people directly reporting to the next level in the hierarchy.
stakeholders
Individuals, groups, and other entities that affect, or are affected by, the organization’s objectives and actions.
stereotype threat
An individual’s concern about confirming a negative stereotype about their group.
stereotyping
The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category.
strengths-based coaching
An approach to coaching and feedback that focuses on building and leveraging the employee’s strengths rather than trying to correct their weaknesses.
stress
An adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being.
stressors
Environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person.
structural hole
An area between two or more dense social network areas that lacks network ties.
superordinate goals
Goals that the conflicting parties value and whose attainment requires the joint resources and effort of those parties.
surface-level diversity
The observable demographic or physiological differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities.
task conflict
A type of conflict in which people focus their discussion around the issue (i.e., the “task”) in which different viewpoints occur while showing respect for people involved in that disagreement.
task identity
The degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or an identifiable piece of work.
task interdependence
The extent to which employees must share materials, information, or expertise with others to perform their jobs.
task significance
The degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the organization and/or larger society.
team cohesion
The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members.
team efficacy
The collective belief among team members of the team’s capability to successfully complete a task.
team-based structure
An organizational structure built around self-directed teams that complete an entire piece of work.
teams
Groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.
theory
A general set of propositions that describes interrelationships among several concepts.
third-party conflict resolution
Any attempt by a relatively neutral person to help conflicting parties resolve their differences.
transformational leadership
A leadership perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, communicating, and modelling a vision for the organization or work unit and inspiring employees to strive for that vision.
trust
Positive expectations one person has toward another person or group in situations involving risk.
uncertainty avoidance
A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty avoidance) or feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty (high uncertainty avoidance).
unfreezing
The first part of the organizational change process, in which the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces.
upward appeal
A type of influence in which someone with higher authority or expertise is relied on in reality or symbolically to support the influencer’s position.
values
Relatively stable evaluative beliefs that guide a person’s preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.
remote teams
Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks.
wikis
Collaborative web spaces where anyone in a group can write, edit, or remove material from the website.
win–lose orientation
The belief that conflicting parties are drawing from a fixed pie, so the more one party receives, the less the other party will receive.
win–win orientation
The belief that conflicting parties will find a mutually beneficial solution to their disagreement.
inclusive workplace
A workplace that values people of all identities and allows them to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization.
work–life integration
The extent to which people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains.
MARS model
A model depicting the four variables—motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors—that directly influence an individual’s voluntary behaviour and performance.
intrinsic motivation
Motivation that occurs when people are fulfilling their needs for competence and autonomy by engaging in the activity itself, rather than from an externally controlled outcome of that activity.
extrinsic motivation
Motivation that occurs when people want to engage in an activityfor instrumental reasons, that is, to receive something that is beyond their personal control.
goal
A cognitive representation of a desired end state that a person is committed to attain.
interactional justice
The perception that appropriate rules have been applied in the way the people involved are treated throughout the decision process.
dark triad
A cluster of three socially undesirable (dark) personality traits: Machiavellianism,narcissism, and psychopathy.
Machiavellianism
A personality trait of people whodemonstrate a strong motivation to achieve their own goals at the expense of others, who believe that deceitis a natural and acceptable way to achieve their goals,whotake pleasure in outwitting and misleading others using crude influence tactics,and who have a cynical disregard for morality.
narcissism
A personality trait of people with a grandiose, obsessive belief in their superiority and entitlement, a propensity to aggressively engage in attention-seeking behaviours, an intense envy of others, and tendency to exhibit arrogance, callousness, and exploitation of others for personal aggrandizement.
psychopathy
A personality trait of people who ruthlessly dominate and manipulate others without empathy or any feelings of remorse or anxiety, use superficial charm, yet are social predators who engage in antisocial, impulsive, and often fraudulent thrill-seeking behaviour.
social media
Digital communication channels that enable people to collaborate in the creation and exchange of user-generated content.
synchronicity
The extent to which the channel requires or allows both sender and receiver to be actively involved in the conversation at the same time (synchronous) or at different times (asynchronous).
social presence
The extent to which a communication channel creates psychological closeness to others, awareness of their humanness, and appreciation of the interpersonal relationship.
task variability
The degree to which job duties are nonroutine and unpredictable; employees perform diverse tasks from one day to the next because they are faced withunfamiliar and unexpected issues.
task analyzability
The degree to which job duties allow the application of established procedures and rules to guide decisions and behaviour (high analyzability); employee creativity and judgment are necessary to perform jobs with low task analyzability.
design thinking
A human-centred, solution-focused creative process that applies both intuition and analytical thinking to clarify problems and generate innovative solutions.
psychological safety
A shared belief that it is safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking; specifically, that presenting unusual ideas, constructively disagreeing with the majority, and experimenting with new work behaviours will not result in co-workers posing a threat to one’s self-concept, status, or career.