OB final exam

Question 1

What are the two types of knowledge? what’s the rule of thumb to differentiate between them?

Answer 1

There is Explicit knowledge: easily learned and available.
Tacit knowledge: knowledge through exp
If you learn it in a book, it’s explicit.

Question 1

What are the 4 types of reinforcement? define them

Answer 1

Positive reinforcement: a positive outcome follows a desired behavior
Negative reinforcement: a negative outcome is removed after doing something good.
Punishment: a negative outcome follows a negative behavior
Extinction: a positive outcome is removed following undesired behavior

Question 2

Give an example for each of the types of reinforcement strategies

Answer 2

positive reinforcement: giving a dog a treat when he sits
negative reinforcement: not yelling at employee when they show up on time
Punishment: yelling at an employee when they show up late
Extinction: removing extended lunch hours when students show up late to class

Question 3

What are the different schedules of reinforcement? When are rewards given?

Answer 3

Continuous: rewards given after every desired behavior.
Interval:
Fixed interval: given after specific time period.
Variable interval: reward given at random times
Ratio:
Fixed Ratio: reward given after a certain amount of desired behaviors
Variable ratio: reward given at a variable number of desired behaviors

Question 3

Give an example of each type of reinforcement schedule.

Answer 3

Continuous: saying thank you every time someone says bless you
Fixed interval: receiving a paycheck every month
Variable interval: Supervisor walking by randomly
Fixed ratio: receiving 5$ for every product you produce (piece-rate)
Variable ratio: spinning a slot machine never knowing when the jackpot will drop (also commission pay)

Question 4

What does the behavior model of observation say about how people learn?

Answer 4

Most people learn from observing the behavior of the people around them and then replicate the observed behavior.

Question 5

What are the 4 steps of the behavior model? When do most problems arise?

Answer 5

1. Attentional processes: learned focuses on critical behaviors
2. Retention Processes: Learner remembers behaviors from model once the model is gone
3. Production process: the learner reproduces the behavior they retained
4. Reinforcement: The learner sees the model be reinforced or is reinforced themselves.
   Most problems occur in the production process

Question 5

What are the different elements to the goal orientation theory?

Answer 5

Goal orientation: the different goals and activities people prioritize
Learning orientation: focus on building knowledge
Performance orientation: focus on displaying knowledge
Performance proves: Want good performance so others think highly of them
Performance avoid: want good performance so others don’t think poorly of them.

Question 6

Rank the methods of the goal orientation model.

Answer 6

1. learning orientation has high learning and high confidence
2. performance prove
3. performance avoid has high anxiety and low learning

Question 7

What’s the difference between programmed and non-programmed decisions?

Answer 7

Programmed decisions are straight forward b/c the decision maker has a high degree of expertise.
Non-programmed decisions are more complicated because they are new or complex.

Question 8

When can the rational decision-making model be used? Do leaders use it often?

Answer 8

The rational decision-making model can only be used for non-programmed decisions. It’s an ideal model and not actual so it’s not used every time.

Question 9

What are the steps to the rational decision-making process?

Answer 9

1. determine decision making criteria
2. list all possible solutions
3. evaluate the alternatives against the criteria
4. pick the best solution
5. implement the best solution
6. evaluate the results

Question 10

What are the 4-decision making problems?

Answer 10

1. Limited info
2. Faulty perceptions
3. Faulty Attributions
4. Escalation of commitment

Question 11

What is bounded rationality? Which of the decision-making problems do it represent? How do people usually make decisions (bad way)

Answer 11

1. Bounded rationality is the idea that people won’t be able to gather or process all the available info when making a decision
2. This is part of limited info problem
3. People usually dumb down the problem, list a few familiar solutions, and pick the first one that works

Question 12

List the 9 examples of faulty perceptions define them.

Answer 12

1. projection bias: when you assume other people think the same way as you.
2. Stereotype: assumptions about a group based on their social group membership.
3. Availability bias: basing judgements off of info that is easy to recall.
4. Anchoring effect: relying on one piece of info that may or may not be relevant
5. Framing: making decisions based off how a question or situation is phrased. (ex: how much do you like your boss)
6. Representativeness bias: assuming the likelihood of an event will result just like another similar event. (ex: Tina is shy and likes books so she must be a librarian)
7. Contrast effect: judging things poorly based off of a reference that is similar to them.
8. Recency effect: ability to recall info that happened more recently
9. Ratio effect: thinking something is less likely to occur if the ratio is presented in smaller numbers than big numbers (1/10 vs. 10/100)

Question 13

What are the 2 types of attributions? what’s attribution?

Answer 13

Attribution is explaining outcomes. Internal attribution: blame personal factors (ability)
External attribution: blame environmental factors (bad weather)

Question 14

What is the fundamental attribution error? What is the self-serving bias? What makes the FAE happen less?

Answer 14

FAE: when judging others, we’re more likely to make internal attributions (they’re lazy). Happens less when we know the person well.
SSB: when judging ourselves, we are more likely to make external attributions

Question 14

Why do people escalate a failing commitment?

Answer 14

They wish to avoid embarrassment with admitting they made a mistake.

Question 14

In terms of attribution what is distinctiveness? What is consensus? What is consistency?

Answer 14

Distinctiveness is whether the same person acts the same way in other circumstances. Consensus is whether others acted the same way in the same circumstance. Consistency is if the person always act the same way in the same situation.

Question 14

To make an internal/external attribution what levels of Consensus/distinctiveness/consistency should there be?

Answer 14

Internal: low consensus, low distinctiveness, high consistency
External: high consensus, high distinctiveness, low consistency

Question 14

What are communities of practice? what is transfer of training? What helps with high transfer of training?

Answer 14

Communities of practice is when a group of employees learn from each other.
Transfer of training is taking what people learn from training and applying it to their job.
A good Climate for transfer helps the transfer b/c the org encourages use of new skills

Question 14

What are the steps between information and understanding in the communication process?

Answer 14

The sender encodes (prepares to send) the message the receiver decodes the message (interprets its)

Question 15

Rank the structures of communication from highest member satisfaction to lowest. Based on the same order who has the highest centralization, effectiveness in simple tasks, and effectiveness in complex tasks?

Answer 15

1. All channel
2. Circle
3. Chain
4. Y-network
5. Wheel
   Wheel has highest centralization
   Wheel is most effective in simple tasks
   All channel most effective in complex tasks

Question 15

What are the concerns associated with upward, downward, and horizontal formal communication?

Answer 15

Formal communication is messages officially sanctioned by management.
Upward: risky (politically motivated
Downward: filtering is required, also slow
Horizontal: none.

Question 15

What is the grapevine, gossip, and rumors in an organization? what are they all forms of.

Answer 15

Grapevine is informal communication across people in an org. Rumors are messages talked about through the grapevine without proof. Gossip are rumors about people. They're all informal communication

Question 15

What are the 5 potential issues in the communication process?

Answer 15

1. Communicator competence: Ability to encode and decode messages. 2. Noise: distractions 3. Info richness: amount and depth of info (FtoF highest richness) 4. gender differences: men communicate to achieve/maintain status. Women communicate to build/strengthen relationships. 5. Privacy: can ideas be expressed freely?

Question 15

(Week 2) what are the 5 types of teams? give their member involvement and level or permanence.

Answer 15

1. Work teams: team to produce goods or services. long life span and high involvement 2. Management teams: teams for managerial level tasks that affect the whole organization. Long life span, moderate involvement 3. Parallel teams (committees): teams for tasks adjacent to the company's primary goals. Low member involvement. Life span varies. 4. Project teams: Teams put together just for one specific project. varies in involvement. Life span varies 5. Action teams: teams put together to complete a task that is highly visible and/or super complex. Varied involvement. Varied life span.

Question 15

What are the two types of structured interviews?

Answer 15

Behavioral description interview: Reflect on past work experience Situational interview: thinking of hypothetical situations.

Question 16

What are the 5 stages of the 5-Stage Model of Team Development? Give a short description of each.

Answer 16

1. Forming: feel each other out 2. Storming: members still committed to their ideas, can be conflict. 3. Norming: Things smooth out and norms develop 4. Performing: the group works well in their roles 5. Adjourn: group is dispersed.

Question 17

What are the 3 stages to the punctuated equilibrium model?

Answer 17

first half: members make assumptions and set norms for the first half of the project Halfway: there's a realization that change is required. Second half: new change dominates team behavior.

Question 18

What teams use the punctuated equilibrium model? Which ones use the 5-stage model? What happens to teams that don't use the second half of the punctuated equilibrium model?

Answer 18

Project teams use P.E. model. Work teams, Management teams, and parallel teams. Action teams only use the last 2 stages

Question 19

What is task interdependence? What are the 4 types? provide an example for each.

Answer 19

Task interdependence is how employees of an org rely on each other. Pooled interdependence: everyone does their own thing, and the result is pooled (ex: crop harvesters) Sequential interdependence: rely on the person(s) before them (ex: assembly line) Reciprocal interdependence: rely on other people but in no specific order. (Salesman, tradesman, and construction crew selling a house) Comprehensive interdependence: everyone relies on everyone (all channel communication)

Question 20

What is goal interdependence? Outcome interdependence?

Answer 20

Goal interdependence is how much people agree with the same goals. Outcome interdependence is if everyone equally shares in the feedback and rewards of a project.

Question 21

What are team task roles? what are the three you need to know?

Answer 21

Team task roles are roles that help achieve the teams' tasks. 1. initiator-contributor: proposes ideas 2. Devil's advocate: challenges ideas 3. Energizer: motivates the team

Question 22

What are team-building roles?

Answer 22

These are roles that increase the quality of the social setting but don't really achieve tasks. 1. Encourager: praises contribution 2. Compromiser: finds halfway points 3. Follower: accepts ideas

Question 23

What are individualistic Roles? name the 2.

Answer 23

These goals put individual goals at the team's expense. 1. slacker: free loads 2. recognition seeker: takes the groups credit

Question 24

What are the three types of tasks associated with member ability?

Answer 24

Additive tasks: everyone's efforts contribute to the quality of the outcome (fighting fires, brainstorming) Disjunctive tasks: The most able member matters the most (trivia) Conjunctive tasks: the least able member matters the most (relay race)

Question 25

What three personality types are good in group setting?

Answer 25

Agreeableness: but not too much Extroversion: but not too much Conscientiousness: needed from everyone or else (slacker, recognition seeker)

Question 26

What are the two perspectives on diversity?

Answer 26

Value in Diversity problem solving: diversity is valuable and better for creative or complex problems. Similarity attraction: with diversity subgroups of similar people will form so there must be management.

Question 27

What are the two types of diversity?

Answer 27

Surface level diversity: based on things visible to the eye. Deep-level diversity: must be through observation or experience (opinions or personalities)

Question 28

What are Taskwork processes?

Answer 28

Taskwork processes are things done that directly contribute to meeting the teams' goals.

Question 29

What are the three types of taskwork processes?

Answer 29

There is creative behavior (brainstorming or nominal group techniques), decision-making (Decision informity, staff validity, hierarchical sensitivity), and boundary spanning (talking with people outside of the group)

Question 30

What are teamwork processes?

Answer 30

Teamwork processes are activities that get to team tasks but don't directly get to the teams' goals.

Question 31

What are the three teamwork processes?

Answer 31

Transition processes (mission analysis), Action processes (teamwork synchronization), and interpersonal processes (conflict management)

Question 32

What are team states?

Answer 32

Specific feelings and thoughts about the team as a result of working together

Question 33

What are the different Team States?

Answer 33

Cohesion (Strong bonds), Potency (Team-Confidence), Mental molds (same page), Transactive memory (Knowing + who to know)

Question 34

What are the 4 types of team training?

Answer 34

1. Transportable teamwork competencies: Training that is good across all teams 2. Cross-training: learning the roles of other team members 3. Team Process training: Action training (must solve real problem as a team) 4. Team Building: fun activities

Question 34

What are the three least effective influence strategies?

Answer 34

1. exchange tactics: Try to offer a reward for fulfillment of your ask 2. Coalition: strength in numbers 3. pressure: May only work short term and then hurt later

Question 35

What are the four contingencies of power?

Answer 35

1. Substitutability: do people have alternatives to access the resources the leader controls 2. Discretion: Does the leader call the shots? 3. Visibility: How aware of the leader's power is everyone 4. Centrality: how many people depend on the leader to complete tasks

Question 35

What are the 5 types of power?

Answer 35

Legitimate power: actual authority in the organization Coercive power: Punishment power Reward power: benefits or resources Referent power: based on likeability Expert power: knowledge or expertise

Question 35

What are the 4 most effective tactics of influence?

Answer 35

1. Rational persuasion: logic and reasoning. Works both ways 2. Inspirational appeal: appeal to value's 3. Consultative appeal: the subject has agency in how to carry out the request 4. Collaborative appeal: You will help remove barriers so it's easier to achieve the thing

Question 36

What are the 3 appeals that are moderately effective?

Answer 36

1. Ingratiation: kissing ass. Only works long-term 2. Personal Appeal: asking on the basis of friendship 3. Apprising: Explaining why it's better for the person to do your request

Question 36

What are the two types of bargaining in negotiation? How do emotions affect these choices?

Answer 36

Distributive bargaining: One party wins at the expense of the other party (car shopping, someone gets the $) Integrative bargaining: Finding a solution that suits both parties (picking a vacation destination) Positive mood causes overconfidence. Negative moods lead to more distributive bargaining and bad judgment.

Question 36

What are the 3 possible responses to influence tactics?

Answer 36

1. Internalization: target agrees to do it and is inspired to fulfill the request 2. Compliance: the target does it begrudged (most common) 3. Resistance: the target denies the request.

Question 37

What are the 4 aspects of organizational politics? Are politics bad in the workplace?

Answer 37

1. Networking 2. Appearing sincere 3. Social astuteness (emotional intelligence) 4. Interpersonal influence

Question 37

What are the 5 different conflict resolutions? (remember concern for oneself and concern for others)

Answer 37

1. Avoidance: no solution just delays the problem 2. Accommodation: I lose but you win 3. Collaboration: Both win 4. Compete: I win you lose 5. Compromise: most common where both parties sacrifice something and gain something

Question 38

What are the two alternative dispute resolution strategies? Which one has a binding resolution?

Answer 38

Mediation: voluntary 3rd party helps draw two parties to an agreement. NON-BINDING. Arbitration: Like court but private. This is binding

Question 39

What was the behavioral approach to leadership (Ohio State Studies)

Answer 39

Leaders can be high in consideration (emotionally caring/relationship building) and/or high in Initiating structure (structuring/critical/defining).

Question 40

What is the life cycle of leadership theory?

Answer 40

It's a theory describing the optimal combination of initiating structure and consideration for each stage of employment.

Question 41

What are the 4 leadership styles in the Life Cycle of Leadership chart? (from right to left)

Answer 41

Telling (High I.S. low C), Selling (High, High), Participating (Low I.S., High C) Delegating (Low I.C., Low C)

Question 42

What are the 4 I to transformational leadership?

Answer 42

1. idealized influence (Referent power) 2. Inspirational motivation (grand goals) 3. Intellectual stimulation (challenge status quo) 4. Individual consideration (focus on one person at a time)

Question 43

What are the three approaches to leadership? which are the most effective?

Answer 43

1. Transformational leadership (most effective 2. Transactional leadership 3. Laissez-faire. Lack of leadership (least effective)

Question 44

What is the Leader member exchange theory?

Answer 44

A theory on how relationships form between leaders and followers. Either role taking or role making.

Question 45

What are the three different types of transactional leadership

Answer 45

1. Passive management by exception (hands off until complaint) (worst transactional) 2. Active management by exception (micromanagement) 3. Contingent reward (most effective transactional)

Question 46

What defines the exchanges in leader member exchange theory?

Answer 46

Meeting expectations is role taking. Going above and beyond is role making. Similarity to the leader, likeability, and competence all affect what dyad forms.

Question 47

What is the Time driven model of leadership? What is the spectrum the leadership styles are plotted on.

Answer 47

It's a model that defines which style is most effective in certain situations. From high follower controlled to high leader controlled.

Question 48

What are the 4 styles on the Time-Driven model of Leadership?

Answer 48

Delegative style (most follower controlled) Facilitative style (Seeks consensus from group members) Consultative style (seeks opinions and suggestions) Autocratic style (most leader control)

Question 49

What are substitutes and Neutralizers? What is their difference?

Answer 49

Both subs and neutralizers limit the power of the leader. Substitutes provide a direct benefit to the employees, but neutralizers do not.

Question 50

What are the 5 elements of organizational structure?

Answer 50

1. Work specialization 2. Chain of command 3. Span of control 4. Centralization 5. Formalization

Question 51

What is work specialization? What is associated with high specialization?

Answer 51

The degree to which tasks are divided between jobs in an org. High productivity, easier training, reduced satisfaction and flexibility all associated with high specialization.

Question 52

What is chain of command?

Answer 52

Who reports to who

Question 53

What is span of control?

Answer 53

How many employees report to one boss. Most effective with moderate span.

Question 54

what is Centralization (decentralization)

Answer 54

Who gets to make the decisions in an org.

Question 55

What is (formal)ization?

Answer 55

Formalization is the degree to how many rules and regulations there are in place

Question 56

What is the main difference between mechanistic and organic organizations?

Answer 56

Mechanistic is focused on efficiency. Organic organizations are focused on adaptability.

Question 57

What are the factors to consider in organizational design?

Answer 57

Outside environment (stable or volatile) Company size Company strategy Technology

Question 58

What is the most common organizational structure?

Answer 58

Simple structure because of small businesses.

Question 59

What are the 4 bureaucratic structures of organization? How are they selected.

Answer 59

Functional structure (stable env w/ few products), geographic structure, product structure, client structure. Selected by what the company is most diverse in.

Question 60

What's the most common form of restructuring?

Answer 60

Flattening

Question 61

What are the three components to organizational culture?

Answer 61

1. observable artifacts 2. espoused values (the beliefs and norms the company explicitly states) 3. Basic underlying assumptions

Question 62

What are the 6 types of observable artifacts

Answer 62

1. Symbols 2. Physical structures 3. Language 4. Stories 5. Rituals 6. Ceremonies

Question 63

What is the basic underlying assumption of engineering?

Answer 63

Safety is a basic underlying assumption of engineering meaning it's an engrained belief in the industry

Question 64

What is the difference between the espoused values of an org and the enacted values?

Answer 64

Espoused values are what a company says they're going to do the enacted values are what they actually do.

Question 65

What are the two metrics that separate general culture types?

Answer 65

High/Low sociability and High/Low Solidarity.

Question 66

What are the four culture types? Which one signifies a need for change?

Answer 66

1. Fragmented low/low 2. Mercenary low soc/high sol 3. Communal high/high 4. Networked high soc/low sol

Question 67

What's the unfreezing change refreezing model?

Answer 67

It's a model of change where you realize the current system isn't working. Apply change and then get used to the new norms.

Question 68

What are the three steps to the ASA framework.

Answer 68

Attraction: people who align with the company will apply Selection: only select people who seem like they align with the company Attrition: people who don't align with the company will leave (1/3 after 90 days)

Question 69

What are the three stages of socialization?

Answer 69

1. Anticipatory: you imagine what work will be like 2. Encounter: first day on the job 3. Understanding and adaption: fully internalize the norms, values, and behavior Reality shock is the discrepancies between anticipatory and encounter.

Question 70

What are the 4 steps to the day-to-day change process?

Answer 70

1. Analysis and Diagnosis 2. Understanding and managing resistance 3. Choosing change intervention 4. Evaluating the change process

Question 71

What change intervention strategies have high, moderate, and low resistance?

Answer 71

High resistance: change in leadership & Merger Moderate resistance: performance management Slow resistance: selection and training

Question 72

What are the three methods to managing socialization?

Answer 72

Realistic job preview Newcomer orientation Mentoring