Organization Theory Flashcards
Who is the best in the world?
Clara
What is a paradigm in the context of managing and organizations?
A paradigm refers to a coherent set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for a community, particularly within an intellectual discipline.
What is sensemaking in management?
Sensemaking is the process by which individuals and groups give meaning to organizational objectives, especially to explain novel, unexpected, or confusing events. It often involves storytelling in social interactions.
What is entrepreneurship and what is Stark (2009) idea?
Entrepreneurship means collecting different things without deciding their value right away. This is different from organizations, which prefer to agree on one set of rules. The author suggests that organizations should be open-minded when searching for new ideas and consider various ways to evaluate them. He talks about an organizational form called heterarchy, which allows different evaluation rules to coexist. In a nutshell, the author emphasizes the importance of being open to different ideas and approaches in entrepreneurship and organizations.
How are framing, sensegiving, and sensebreaking related to management?
Framing creates a cohesive understanding of situations, sensegiving influences others to adopt a particular sense, and sensebreaking disrupts existing understanding to foster alternative meanings.
What is managerialism, and how does it relate to economic rationalism?
Managerialism is the belief in the supremacy of managerial techniques, emerging from economic rationalism, which prioritizes market prices and outcomes over state and bureaucratic methods.
What is meant by ‘bounded rationality’ in management?
Bounded rationality describes managers’ tendency to make satisfactory rather than optimal decisions due to limitations in processing information
What is the gig economy, and how does it relate to digital organizations?
The gig economy consists of short-term contracts or freelance work, contrasting with permanent jobs, and is a consequence of digitalization’s impact on work.
How does holacracy differ from traditional organizational structures?
Holacracy replaces vertical hierarchies with a system of concentric circles dedicated to specific functions, promoting flexibility and autonomy.
What challenges do digital nomads present to traditional economic systems?
Digital nomads, by working remotely and often shifting locations, can create tax liability issues and distort local housing markets.
How is organizational culture and social relations at work changing in the digital age?
The digital age brings diversity and global interaction to the forefront, emphasizing ethical recruitment and the need for organizations to understand local markets worldwide.
What are the implications of AI and automation on the future of work?
AI and automation could lead to the elimination of routine jobs, necessitate a more skilled workforce, and emphasize the need for managing technological and cultural shifts globally.
What effect does AI have on the structure of organizations according to the text?
AI is expected to foster the replacement of low-cost labor with machine intelligence, influence the tax structure, and potentially lead to outsourcing of jobs to countries with fewer rights or AI-dominated regions.
What is the impact of global shifts on organizational design and management?
Global shifts, like the realignment of the economic center from the West to Asia and the changing nature of capitalist investment, are leading to organizations that are decentralized and more reliant on AI and digital technologies.
What is the significance of ‘faux pas’ in the context of digital and globalized business?
‘Faux pas’ refers to misunderstandings or missteps that can occur due to cultural differences in a globalized business environment, exacerbated by real-time digital communication.
What role does diversity play in organizational culture in the digital age?
Diversity is crucial for providing a range of insights and for understanding each market globally, which is increasingly important for organizations to remain competitive and ethical.
How are communication and generational differences affecting organizational culture?
Different generations bring unique values and communication styles to the workplace, with younger generations valuing corporate social responsibility highly and affecting the use of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power in organizations.
What are the implications of tax cuts and economic policies on management and organizations?
Economic policies, such as tax cuts for the rich, can increase inequality and potentially lead to reductions in government spending, affecting organizational strategies and public sector management.
What does Organizational Behavior (OB) study?
OB is the study of human behavior in organizational contexts, focusing on individual-level, group-level, and organization-level processes and practices affecting organizational performance.
What are the two main themes in the study of psychology?
The two main themes are the nature-versus-nurture debate and the concept of tabula rasa, which posits that personality is not determined but rather shaped by environmental opportunities.
How does Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution relate to competition in organizations?
Darwin’s theory suggests that survival behaviors, such as competition or cooperation, are key to the perpetuation of species, which can be related to competitive instincts in organizational settings.
What was Adam Smith’s view on economic growth and human behavior?
Smith believed that economic growth occurs because human behavior is driven by self-interest, served by free and unfettered markets, focusing on self-interest and economic wealth as the main drivers of human activity.
What is perception in the context of workplace behavior?
Perception involves receiving, attending to, processing, storing, and using stimuli to understand and make sense of our world, which can be influenced by schemas and can lead to stereotyping and other errors.
What are schemas, and how do they influence perception?
Schemas are structures of meaning that organize and interpret information, affecting thinking, planning, and behavior. They include personal, self, script, social, and role schemas.
What are some common perception errors in the workplace?
Common errors include stereotyping, which is the simplistic categorization of objects or people, and the self-fulfilling prophecy, where expectations can influence behavior and perceptions.
What does the attribution theory explain?
Attribution theory explains how individuals attribute causes to their own and others’ behaviors, often influenced by biases like the fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, and cognitive dissonance.
What is the halo effect, and how does it contrast with the devil effect?
The halo effect occurs when positive traits ascribed to a person in one context are generalized to other traits and situations. The devil effect is the opposite, based on negative characteristics.
What are the core features of Kahneman’s two systems of the brain?
System 1 is intuitive, fast, and emotional, often prone to errors. System 2 is deliberate, slow, effortful, and more rational, but also lazier in its operation.
What is the significance of heuristics according to Gigerenzer (2007)?
Heuristics are simple rules or mental shortcuts used for decision-making, especially useful when facing uncertainty and problems without clear right answers.
How does Schwartz define values, and what tension exists between different types of values?
Schwartz defines values as desirable goals that serve as guiding principles, varying in importance. There is tension between values associated with individuality and those associated with social conformance.
What is personality in the context of organizational behavior?
Personality refers to stable patterns of behavior and internal states of mind that explain a person’s behavioral tendencies.
What are value priorities, and how can they create challenges for managers?
Value priorities are the order of values in terms of their importance to individuals, which can cause conflict. Managers may face challenges when differing values need to be aligned or changed.
What is the trait approach to personality, and what does factor analysis have to do with it?
The trait approach suggests that personality is a mix of biological, psychological, environmental, and societal influences. Factor analysis is used to identify and categorize these traits, as seen in the ‘Big Five’ personality factors.
What are the ‘Big Five’ personality factors identified by McCrae and Costa?
The ‘Big Five’ factors are Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, each describing a range of behaviors and attitudes.
What does the socio-cognitive approach to personality suggest about reciprocal determinism?
The socio-cognitive approach, highlighting reciprocal determinism, suggests that personality is a product of our behavior, thoughts, and feelings in interaction with our environment.
What is the humanist approach to personality, and what conditions does Rogers believe enable growth?
The humanist approach focuses on ensuring that individuals realize their full potential and personal growth. Rogers identified three basic conditions for growth: being genuine, accepting, and empathic.
What is the relationship between personality and management?
Understanding different personality traits helps managers engage with others in a more informed way, recognizing the diverse qualities people bring to the workplace.
What does Positive Psychology (PP) focus on?
Positive Psychology is the study of the psychological bases for leading the best life possible, focusing on individual strengths and behaviors that move individuals and groups toward better citizenship.
What is emotional intelligence and who popularized this concept?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize our own emotions and the emotions of others, as well as to manage relationships effectively. It was popularized by Daniel Goleman.
What is the difference between moods and emotions?
What is the impact bias and how is it related to affective forecasting?
Impact bias is the tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of future emotions, which is a common error in affective forecasting—the process of predicting our future emotions.
What four qualities of life did Veenhoven describe?
Veenhoven described four qualities of life: Life chances, Utility of life (outer qualities), Life-ability of the person, and Appreciation of life (inner qualities).
How can focalism influence our decision-making and perceptions?
Focalism can lead us to overemphasize one aspect of an event in our feelings and predictions, potentially causing an impact bias in our emotional forecasting.
What are the different approaches to understanding personality in organizational behavior?
The three approaches to understanding personality are the trait approach, the socio-cognitive approach, and the humanist approach.
How does the trait approach explain personality?
The trait approach posits that personality is made up of stable patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that are influenced by a mixture of biological, psychological, environmental, and societal factors.
What is reciprocal determinism according to the socio-cognitive approach?
Reciprocal determinism is the concept that our personality is shaped by the interaction of our behavior, thoughts, and feelings with our environment.
What is the focus of the humanist approach to personality?
The humanist approach emphasizes personal growth and potential, striving for self-actualization and ensuring people are genuine, accepting, and empathic.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute others’ actions to their character or personality while underestimating situational factors.
What is the self-serving bias?
The self-serving bias is the common habit where people attribute their successes to internal factors like ability or effort, but attribute failures to external factors beyond their control.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs.
What does Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 theory explain?
Kahneman’s theory explains that System 1 is our quick, instinctual, and often subconscious way of thinking, while System 2 is our slow, deliberate, and conscious way of thinking.
What 3 qualities does a leader need to be able to master in order to change a organization? (The capstan steering model)
Power, politics and paradox.
Professor Badhams model “5M framework”, defines managing change as the process of influencing others to accomplish an objective. This process unfolds along 5 steps. Name these 5 steps!
- Mindfullness (importance of being mindfull and calm as changes can come with a lot of difficulties and mess)
- Mobilizing (buy-in form important steakholders and mobilizing their inteligence and networks to accomplish change)
- Mapping (planning the changing journey ahead, outline obsicals, shortcut etc.)
- Masks (what change makers needs in order to lay roles)
- Mirrors (to mirror the performance, plans are hyopthes and experiments. Feedback an learning is crusial for succsesfull change)
Researchers suggest that organisations should not be planning and structure for normal conditions. What do they mean by this?
Organisation needs to be accostumed to chaos! Perfect structures for only normal conditions is not enough.
Pascalle (1999) introduced 4 principles that can frame innovation processes:
- Equilibrium equals death (Organizations works as bike. You can not balance a bike without moving, the same goes for organizations) Dont stay with a previously successful business model. Organizations needs innovation and development in a fast-moving cooperate world. )
- Self-organization is important
- Complex tasks need a even more complex problem-solvning
- Complex organizations can only be distrobuted, not directed
Tuckmans model
Breaks down team and team dynamic
- Forming
- Storming - negotiation going on
- Norming - a outcome of storming (establish a norm)
- Performing
- Adjourning
organizational politics refer to
the networks between people in and around organizations that entail power relations.
definition of power
is that it is the chance for someone to realize their own will, even against the resistance of others
Max Weber (1978) is recognized as the ‘founding voice’ on power in organization studies, which aspect puts Weber to power?
Weber saw power as a pervasive aspect of organizational life, as people in management sought to execute actions through imperative commands/orders.
