Questions and Answers of Organizational Behaviour Key Concepts

Specify issues that should be addressed before implementing a motivational program.
The Denver Public Schools’ pay-for-performance plan to motivate teachers was hailed as a model for the rest of the country when it took effect three years ago. It now stands on the verge of
A retrocession is a kickback that “asset managers may be skimming off investments. While little known in the US, the practice has been an open secret in European private banking for decades—and
Define the term performance management, distinguish between learning goals and performance outcome goals, and explain the three-step goal-setting process.
Identify the two basic functions of feedback, and specify at least three practical lessons from feedback research.
Define 360-degree feedback, and summarize how to give good feedback in a performance management program.
Distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, and explain the four building blocks of intrinsic rewards and motivation.
Summarize the reasons why extrinsic rewards often fail to motivate employees.
Discuss how managers can generally improve extrinsic reward and pay-for-performance plans.
State Thorndike’s law of effect, and explain Skinner’s distinction between respondent and operant behavior.
Define positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction, and distinguish between continuous and intermittent schedules of reinforcement.
Demonstrate your knowledge of behavior shaping.
At the suburban Philadelphia offices of Kenexa, people grin at one another all day long. Sometimes they hug.Bright posters of the company’s guiding principles dot the walls: YOU’RE ALLOWED TO
Using company resources to work on personal projects, especially on company time, is a no-no for employees in most organizations. But supervisors often operate in what I call a gray zone, turning a
Identify the four sociological criteria of a group, and discuss the impact of social networking on group dynamics.
Describe the five stages in Tuckman’s theory of group development, and discuss the threat of group decay.
Distinguish between role conflict and role ambiguity.
Contrast roles and norms, and specify four reasons norms are enforced in organizations.
Distinguish between task and maintenance roles in groups.
Summarize the practical contingency management implications for group size.
Discuss why managers need to carefully handle mixed gender task groups.
Describe groupthink, and identify at least four of its symptoms.
Define social loafing, and explain how managers can prevent it.
What can managers in white-collar firms learn from roughnecks and roustabouts on an offshore oil rig?That extinguishing macho behavior is vital to achieving top performance. That’s a key finding
Paul Dyer always was able to hold off his boss’s invitations to party by employing that arm’s-length response: “We’ll have to do that sometime,” he’d say.But when his boss, in his 30s,
Explain how a work group becomes a team.
Identify and describe four types of work teams.
Explain the model of effective work teams, and specify the two criteria of team effectiveness.
Identify five teamwork competencies team members need to possess.
Discuss why teams fail.
List at least four things managers can do to build trust.
Distinguish two types of group cohesiveness, and summarize cohesiveness research findings.
Define virtual teams and self-managed teams.
Describe high-performance teams and discuss team leadership.
Of all the things Dave Gray worried about when he branched out overseas, tripe never entered the equation.Gray, founder and chairman of Xplane, a consulting and design firm based in Portland, Oregon,
On Mar. 2, [2009], Wayzata (Minn.)- based TCF Financial announced it would return $361 million to the Treasury Dept. TCF’s decision came weeks after politicians pilloried the bank for holding a
Compare and contrast the rational model of decision making, Simon’s normative model, and the garbage can model.
Discuss eight decision-making biases.
Discuss knowledge management and techniques used by companies to increase knowledge sharing.
Explain the model of decision-making styles.
Explain the model of intuition and the ethical decision tree.
Summarize the pros and cons of involving groups in the decision-making process.
Contrast brainstorming, the nominal group technique, the Delphi technique, and computer-aided decision making.
Describe the stages of the creative process.
Discuss practical recommendations for increasing creativity.
Almost 30 months after Alan R Mulally left Boeing to become chief executive of Ford Motor, it’s still easy to peg him as an industry outsider. . . . Outsider CEOs have a decidedly varied track
In the hospital business they call it a “wallet biopsy.” A growing number of medical centers are using sophisticated software that digs into patients’ finances to help determine whether they
Define the term conflict and put the three metaphors of conflict into proper perspective for the workplace.
Distinguish between functional and dysfunctional conflict, and discuss why people avoid conflict.
List six antecedents of conflict, and identify the desired outcomes of conflict.
Define personality conflicts, and explain how managers should handle them.
Discuss the role of in-group thinking in intergroup conflict, and explain what management can do about intergroup conflict.
Discuss what can be done about cross-cultural conflict.
Explain how managers can stimulate functional conflict, and identify the five conflict-handling styles.
Explain the nature and practical significance of conflict triangles and alternative dispute resolution for thirdparty conflict intervention.
Explain the difference between distributive and integrative negotiation, and discuss the concept of added-value negotiation.
Throughout the 1990s, Selina Lo had a reputation as one of Silicon Valley’s most aggressive and successful salespeople. But anyone who was not part of what Lo deemed the solution, she treated as
At the company where I work— we make creative products for children—two of the top executives are at war with each other. They go off on rants, they use foul language, and from time to time they
Describe the perceptual process model of communication.
Describe the barriers to effective communication.
Contrast the communication styles of assertiveness, aggressiveness, and nonassertiveness.
Discuss the primary sources of nonverbal communication.
Review the five dominant listening styles and 10 keys to effective listening.
Describe the communication differences between men and women, and explain the source of these differences.
Discuss the formal and informal communication channels.
Explain the contingency approach to media selection.
Describe the Internet Generation, and discuss the pros and cons of teleworking.
Specify practical tips for more effective e-mail and cell phone etiquette.
In the world of Facebook or Twitter, people love to hear feedback about what they’re up to. But sit them down for a performance review, and suddenly the experience becomes traumatic.Now companies
Wendy Wilkes was giving a presentation about Unilever’s information technology to 30 new hires—most of them barely out of school—and they were not happy. They didn’t like the company-issued
In this dawn of geo-tracking, many people are more likely to start out swapping data with friends and families. Already 25 million people have installed Facebook on their handsets.And Google is
Explain the concept of mutuality of interest.
Name at least three “soft” and two “hard” influence tactics, and summarize the practical lessons from influence research.
Identify and briefly describe French and Raven’s five bases of power, and discuss the responsible use of power.
Define the term empowerment, and explain why it is a matter of degree.
Explain why delegation is the highest form of empowerment, and discuss the connections among delegation, trust, and personal initiative
Define organizational politics, and explain what triggers it.
Distinguish between favorable and unfavorable impression management tactics.
Explain how to manage organizational politics.
The management revolt at Meetup Inc. broke into the open last February. Douglas Atkin, a senior manager, yanked CEO Scott Heiferman into a conference room and showed him a list scrawled on a
For Linda Skoglund, getting a pedicure on a busy Tuesday afternoon was a career turning point. It ran against her Midwestern work ethic. And certainly, there was plenty of work piled up at J.A.
It can be hard to get people to face the truth sometimes. Especially about lying. You don’t want your kids to eat too much, so you say all the cookies are gone. You don’t feel like going out, so
Define the term leadership and explain the difference between leading and managing.
Review trait theory research and the takeaways from this theoretical perspective.
Explain behavioral styles theory and its takeaways.
Explain, according to Fiedler’s contingency model, how leadership style interacts with situational control, and discuss the takeaways from this model.
Discuss House’s revised path–goal theory and its practical takeaways.
Describe the difference between laissez-fair, transactional, and transformational leadership.
Discuss how transformational leadership transforms followers and work groups.
Explain the leader–member exchange model of leadership.
Review the concept of shared leadership and the principles of servant-leadership.
Describe the follower’s role in the leadership process.
Despite layoffs and recession-starved budgets, many employers are investing in leadership-development programs, hoping not to be caught short of strong managers when the economy recovers.Identifying
Indra Nooyi is an entirely different kind of CEO, a product of her native India as well as of PepsiCo’s family values approach to grooming CEOs. She is not hung up on pay. She’s not shy about
Describe the four characteristics common to all organizations, and explain the difference between closed and open systems.
Define the term learning organization.
Describe seven basic ways organizations are structured.
Discuss Burns and Stalker’s findings regarding mechanistic and organic organizations.
Identify when each of the seven organization structures is the right fit.
Describe the four generic organizational effectiveness criteria.

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