OB

Question 1

Define OB.

Answer 1

The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around orgs.

Question 2

Define org.

Answer 2

Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose.

Question 3

What skills are listed as most important in several surveys?

Answer 3

Problem solving
Ability to work in teams
Communication
Also leadership

Question 4

Describe the “open systems” view of O.B.

Answer 4

Orgs have numerous subsystems that transform incoming resources into outputs that are returned to the external environment (positive and negative). Orgs are effective when they maintain a good fit with their external environment.

Question 5

Define human capital.

Answer 5

The knowledge, skills, abilities, creativity, and other valued resources that employees bring to the org.

Question 6

Define values.

Answer 6

Relatively stable, evaluative beleifs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situatioins.

Question 7

Describe the Integrative Model of OB.

Answer 7

Organizational Inputs and Process affect Individual Inputs and Processes, which affect Individual Outcomes, which affect Organizational Outcomes (effectiveness).

Question 8

What are the five anchors of OB knowledge?

Answer 8

Systematic Research
Practical Orientation
Multidisciplinary
Contingency
Multiple Levels of Analysis

Question 9

What are the two kinds of diversity?

Answer 9

Surface-level and deep-level. There’s also informational?

Question 10

What idea has replaced work-life balance?

Answer 10

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).

Question 11

What is the MARS model of individual behaviour and results?

Answer 11

Motivation, Ability, Role perceptions, Situational factors.

Question 12

Define “direction.”

Answer 12

The forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behaviour.

Question 13

Define ability.

Answer 13

Learned capabilities and natural aptitutdes required to successfully complete a task.

Question 14

Define role perceptions.

Answer 14

How clearly people understand what is expected of them.

Question 15

What are the three forms of role clarity?

Answer 15

Specific duties or consequences for which they are accountable.
The priority of their various tasks and performance expectations.
Understanding the preferred behaviours or procedures for accomplishing tasks.

Question 16

What is task performance?

Answer 16

The individual’s voluntary goal-directed behaviours that contribute to organizational objectives.

Question 17

What are the three kinds of task performance?

Answer 17

1. Proficient - efficient & accurate
2. Adaptive - response to change
3. Proactive - initiative to anticipate & introduce

Question 18

Define personality.

Answer 18

The realitively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterize a person, along with the psycholoical processes behind those characteristics.

Question 19

What are the Big Five personality traits according to the Five-Factor Model of Personality?

Answer 19

Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness to experience
Extraversion

Question 20

Which personality trait is a weak predictor of proficient task performance, but is one of the best of adaptive and proactive performance?

Answer 20

Openness to experience.

Question 21

What is the opposite of neuroticism, and what does it predict?

Answer 21

Emotional stability. Adaptive performance.

Question 22

What are the three types of task performance?

Answer 22

Proficient task performance
Adaptive task performance
Proactive task performance

Question 23

What are the four ethical principles?

Answer 23

1. Utilitarianism (greatest good for greatest number of people)
2. Individual rights
3. Distributive justice (the benefits and burdens of similar individuals should be the same or proportional)
4. Ethic of care (everyone has a moral obligation to help others within their sphere to grow and self-actualize)

Question 24

Define moral intensity.

Answer 24

The degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles.

Question 25

Define moral sensitivity.

Answer 25

A person’s ability to detect a moral dilemma and estimate its relative importance.