Questions and Answers of Management And Organisational Behaviour

To what extent are YOU able to apply Stewart’s list of seven questions to the effective management of your own time and work as student?
What do YOU see as the main focus on management development? How well would you be capable of self-development for your chosen future career?
To what extent can YOU apply the underlying principles of the seven levers for workplace productivity to your performance as a student?
Watch the video by Bernard Marr, ‘What are the 5 best tools for Performance Management?’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CX73qOuIiE). How do we balance the organisational objectives and
How would YOU summarise essential criteria for successful organisational effectiveness and performance?
How would you attempt to argue against the view that Pavlov’s work has little practical application to learning in the classroom situation?
How effective do you believe operant conditioning is as an effective method of learning in (i) the classroom and (ii) the workplace?
How would YOU evaluate the experience of socialisation into your university course? What suggestions do you have to enhance the process?
Can YOU give an example of anything you have learned from application of Kolb’s learning cycle? What about your colleagues?
Have YOU ever been involved in an action learning experience? If so, with what affect? If not, how far does the idea appeal to you as a potential learning situation?
How comfortable are YOU with the use of technology as a means of learning? Do you believe e-learning endangers personal interaction and the development of social skills?
Tom Peters presents a stark view on organisational learning and the future – see www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg0OjblS48M. What do organisations need to focus on with regards to developing their
In what ways do YOU believe that knowledge management is likely to be affected by widening generations and age groups in the workforce?
To what extent do YOU have a creative imagination? In what ways have you been encouraged to, or dissuaded from, a more creative approach to your studies?
Watch the video by Brett Ledbetter (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= q7a5TIzOmeQ) and consider the importance of coaching at work. How does the ‘private voice’ turn into a positive outcome?
Before commencing to read this chapter think seriously about how accomplished YOU are in perceiving and relating to other people.
How would YOU be likely to perceive such a directive and how would you react to senior management’s use of email?
What did YOU see first in Figure 6.3 and how clear was it to identify? Do you think the figure you identified says anything about your personality? What do your colleagues think?
Watch the video by Trondheim on how culture drives behaviours (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Yy6poJ2zs) and consider why culture plays such a critical part in perception.
How well did YOU manage with the perceptual illusions? To what extent did the examples help you judge your perceptive skills? What about your colleagues?
What do YOU see as the greatest difficulty in perceiving other people? What errors have you made and what was the cause and result of those errors?
What other examples can YOU relate when the setting and environment has made a significant influence on establishing rapport with another person(s)?
To what extent do YOU identify with perceptual distortions or errors? Think honestly of occasions when your reality has led to errors and/or misunderstandings.
What is YOUR view of attribution theory? To what extent do YOU have an internal control orientation and belief that you can influence your own level of performance?
What specific examples can YOU give of cultural difficulties in non-verbal communication and body language?
What is YOUR view of the comparison between magic, perception and communication? How far do you identify with Fitzherbert’s twenty rules?
Before commencing to read this chapter think hard about what would really motivate you most to give your best at work.
How important to YOU is job security and good pension provision in thinking about your future choice of career? What single factor would have most influence on your choice?
Watch the following video by Dan Pink – www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y and consider the following question. How much do you identify with Type 1 behaviour, why is this the case?
How would YOU describe the comparative strength of economic rewards, intrinsic satisfaction or social relationships in determining your motivation to work?
Do YOU agree that Maslow’s hierarchy would be shown more meaningfully as an inverted pyramid? What alternative means of presentation can you suggest?
How would YOU relate the twelve human needs identified by Farren earlier in this chapter with Maslow’s need hierarchy?
To what extent would YOU agree that Herzberg’s two-factor theory still resonates strongly for an understanding of motivation and behaviour at work today?
What do YOU believe is the most practical value of process theories for an understanding of work motivation in twenty-first century organisations?
How strongly can YOU identify with Equity theory or Goal theory as practical approaches to an understanding of work motivation and performance?
How do YOU react to the word ‘clever’? To what extent would you argue that knowledge workers are not necessarily clever?
What do YOU think are the main reasons for higher levels of job satisfaction in the public sector compared with the private sector? How far does this influence you likely career choice?
Before commencing to read this chapter reflect upon how YOU behave when working in a group and how this affects your job satisfaction and performance.
To what extent do YOU believe there is any benefit in attempting to distinguish in any meaningful way between a group and a team? What examples can you provide?
In what specific ways have YOU benefited from group membership with your university colleagues? What expectations do you believe have not been satisfied fully?
Watch ‘Teamwork reimagined ‘by Kevin Cahill (see www.youtube.com/watch?v= UwsMogSQmYI). Consider what Cahill describes as the barriers to ‘we thinking’ and what can be done to overcome them.
Based on your own experience how far do YOU agree with Tuckman’s five successive stages of group progression and relationships? How far do you support importance of the storming stage?
How capable are YOU in forgoing an individualistic stance in order to view yourself as a member of a group and adopt group identity and values?
Watch the video with Simon Sinek on ‘What makes the highest performing teams in the world’ and consider what ‘the willingness to be there for each other means’. (See
How comfortable do YOU feel about working in virtual teams? To what extent do you believe absence of group dynamics and social interactions reduce the effectiveness of virtual teams?
Which team role do YOU believe you normally fit most comfortably? To what extent do you believe your colleagues would agree?
What do YOU feel about participating in regular sociometry or other self-insight exercises in order to learn more about how you are perceived by your classmates?
In what particular situations do YOU believe there is value in a brainstorming approach? Explain the caveats you have concerning the potential effectiveness of brainstorming.
Based on your own experience how far do YOU agree with Yukl’s team building procedures? Detail changes you would make to this list of procedures.
To what extent do YOU agree support for autonomous working groups is much like the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ – good in theory but in reality rarely work well without supervision?
Before commencing to read this chapter, what does the term ‘leadership’ mean to YOU and what image and/or situation springs immediately to mind?
To what extent do YOU like the idea of being a leader? Could you be happy being managed by someone who doesn’t lead?
What is it about people who YOU immediately think of as great leaders? How far do these people appear to share common personality characteristics?
Watch the video by Simon Sinek on ‘How great leaders inspire action’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4).What does Sinek argue are the most important issues and actions that leaders need to
To what extent would YOU support the contention that the Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum is the most relevant framework for the study of leadership?
How far can YOU relate Fiedler’s three sets of factors which influence favourability of the leadership situation to undertaking your course of study?
To what extent do YOU agree that although situational factors are a major determinant of leadership style, contingency models have little practical application?
How would YOU distinguish between transactional and transformational leadership? Can you provide an example of each form of leadership and contrast the two styles?
How would YOU explain charisma? What examples can you give of charismatic people who have a profound positive and/or negative influence on your attitude and performance?
Which one style or form of leadership are YOU most comfortable with from other people and which one style or form would you feel most happy practising?
What situations can YOU relate of national culture influencing the behaviour of leaders and followers?
To what extent do YOU believe the leadership title is misused and the only real indicator of who is a leader is about what a person actually does?
How good do YOU think you are or will become as a leader? What do you believe are your best leadership skills and what areas are in need of most development?
Before commencing to read this chapter, what do YOU immediately think of when you hear the term ‘management’?
To what extent do YOU believe thinking about management at your university level is likely to be relevant to your future managerial career?
Do YOU accept that ‘getting work done second-hand, through the efforts of other people’ is the best possible description of what management is basically all about?
How far do YOU support the idea of underlying philosophies for the effective management of other people, or are such philosophies naïve and unrealistic?
Patty McCord reflects upon post Covid 19 and the relationships and roles that we have at ‘work’, even with work taking place from home (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuy9yQlFZAU). What can we draw
Do YOU agree the underlying concept of Theory X and Theory Y is still one of the most meaningful insights into our understanding of managerial behaviour?
To what extent do YOU believe the Managerial/Leadership Grid helps to see yourself more clearly and influences your thinking about managing people?
Would YOU accept the contention that too strong a separate HR department leads to the danger of line managers abdicating responsibility for managing their own staff?
How far do YOU agree it is line managers who have the right and duty to manage their own staff and HR specialists should have only an advisory, supportive role?
What do YOU see as the practical value of Investors in People framework for helping to champion best practice in people management?
Do YOU agree that formal performance reviews are a complete waste of time? Monitoring performance should be an integral part of the line manager’s day to day responsibility.
How would YOU list in rank order the criteria you believe most appropriate for evaluating the effectiveness of managing other people at work?
Before commencing to read this chapter what value do YOU place on the work of leading writers to the study organisation theory and structure?
To what extent do YOU believe the analysis of structure and culture helps the organisation diagnose problems and achieve its goals?
Do YOU agree that criticism against general principles of organisation should be directed not against the need for such principles but the manner in which they are implemented?
How far do YOU believe a scientific management approach is more about control over workers rather than the search for improved organisational efficiency?
To what extent do YOU believe large-scale organisations can ever work effectively without displaying at least some characteristics of bureaucracy?
In what ways do YOU identify features of both scientific management and bureaucracy with McDonald’s? How do feel about a future career working in the fast-food industry?
How far would YOU support the contention that the human relations approach plays insufficient attention to the realities of the actual working environment?
With increasing automated innovations what do YOU see as the likely developments with the socio-technical approach to organisational theory?
To what extent do YOU agree that social action theory may seem interesting in the classroom but offers little constructive application in the actual work situation?
What examples can YOU provide of the adaptive value of postmodernism to the study of organisation theory and structure?
How would YOU best explain to a sceptical audience the practical benefits from the classroom study of organisational theory?
Before commencing to read this chapter how much emphasis would YOU place on the importance of effective structure to organisational performance?
To what extent do YOU agree with Drucker that correct design of structure is of most significance in determining organisational performance?
How far do YOU identify with the importance of differentiating task and element functions? How does this difference manifest itself in your university?
Would YOU agree the extent of decentralisation is often under recognised by organisations as a major factor influencing customer service and staff satisfaction?
To what extent do YOU believe medium or large-scale organisations can ever function effectively without a defined hierarchical structure?
Before commencing to read this chapter, what do YOU understand by the nature of the people–organisation relationship?
How would YOU describe the essential characteristics that make for a meaningful and successful people–organisation relationship?
a. Differences in status and power mean the psychological contract is always balanced in favour of the organisation. Managers will expect individuals to display loyalty and commitment, put in extra
Following the global pandemic and effects of Covid 19, organisations were forced to consider alternative forms of work patterns and delivery, including working from home. To what extent can the goals
a. National culture is not only an explanation of human beliefs, values, behaviours and actions, it is arguably one of the most significant features underlying your study of organisational
Which of the social science disciplines do YOU believe makes the greatest contribution to an understanding of organisational behaviour and why?
What do YOU think about the meaning of spirituality in the workplace? Is it just ‘pie in the sky’ or a means of avoiding reality?
To what extent do YOU believe knowledge of organisational theory can help predict the future and results in less organisational disturbance from the unexpected?
To what extent are YOU able to analyse the effectiveness of your university in terms of the five interrelated organisational sub-systems?

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