Questions and Answers of Organizational Behaviour Understanding

Differentiate between organizational learning and learning organizations and describe how they are related. Why is organizational learning important for organizational change and innovation?
Discuss the differences in how people react to change over time. What does the research based on this model suggest organizations do when implementing change programs?
Do leadership, organizational culture, and communication influence the effectiveness of organizational change programs? Discuss the effect that leadership behaviour, strong cultures, and personal and
How can organizational learning practices, pay, and socialization influence organizational learning and innovation in organizations? Design a program to improve an organization’s ability to learn
Was Elon Musk showing yet again that he is an innovator par excellence, shaking up the old school auto industry, or is this a foolish decision meant to capitalize quickly on the many deposits that
1. What does this case say about the change process and resistance to change in particular?2. The chapter points out the importance of diagnosis in the change process. Was proper diagnosis evident
1. Comment on the change process at Dandy Toys. What advice would you give the president about how to improve the change process? What are some of the things that might be changed at Dandy Toys as
Contrast the bases of power available to an army sergeant with those available to the president of a voluntary community association. How would these differences in power bases affect their influence
Differentiate between power and politics. Give an example of the use of power that is not political.
Is it unethical to occasionally surf the internet at work? Is it unethical to download pornography? Defend your answers.
Compare and contrast the five bases of power.
What is the need for power?
How do individuals obtain power?
Under what circumstances will organizational politics be functional or dysfunctional?
How do organization departments obtain power?
Describe some common ethical dilemmas faced by organizational decision makers.
What are the causes of unethical behaviour and what can organizations do to improve ethical decision making?
What is whistle-blowing and what does it have to do with power, politics, and ethics?
What is sexual harassment and what can organizations do to prevent it?
What is political skill and what are the four facets to political skill?
Consider the role of politics and ethics in decision making. How can organizational politics be a source of effective or ineffective decision making in organizations? In what way can the causes of
How can an organization create an ethical workplace where ethical behaviour is the norm? Refer to the organizational learning practices in Chapter 2, attitudes in Chapter 4, ethical leadership in
What are the ethical dimensions of this case? How serious were Neena’s actions? How ethical was Air Canada’s response? How are issues of power apparent in the case?
1. What kind of organizational politics are at work here?2. What influence tactics might the profs have used to get the grad students to fill in for them?3. Discuss the ethics of the professors
The manager of a fast-food restaurant sees that conflict among the staff is damaging service. How might she implement a superordinate goal to reduce this conflict?
A company hires two finance majors right out of university. Being in a new and unfamiliar environment, they begin their relationship cooperatively. However, over time, they develop a case of deep
Two social workers just out of college join the same social welfare agency. Both find their caseloads very heavy and their roles very ambiguous. One exhibits negative stress reactions, including
Imagine that a person who greatly dislikes bureaucracy assumes her first job as an investigator in a very bureaucratic government tax office. Describe the stressors that she might encounter in this
What factors might explain why bullying persists? How do workplace bullies get away with it?
What are some of the factors that make it a real challenge for conflicting parties to develop a collaborative relationship and engage in integrative negotiation?
Compare and contrast the stressors that might be experienced by an assembly line worker and the president of a company.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of hiring employees with Type A personality characteristics.
Describe the model of a stress episode.
Explain how personality relates to stress.
Discuss the various stressors that affect executives and managers. Are these stressors likely to affect professionals or operative employees?
Compare the effectiveness of behavioural and psychological reactions to stress.
What can organizations do to reduce the stress experienced by their members?
Discuss the following three propositions:a) Organizations have a moral obligation to their employees to make the organizational environment as stress-free as possible,b) Stress reduction in
Differentiate among conflict, collaboration, and competition.
What causes organizational conflict?
Explain how conflict may be functional. Cite an example to illustrate your answer.
What can managers do to resolve conflict?
What is the difference between burnout and work engagement? What can organizations do to prevent burnout and facilitate work engagement?
What is techno-stress and what are the five dimensions of techno-stress?
Does personality influence the way that individuals manage conflict? Consider the relationship among each of the following personality characteristics and the five approaches to managing
Can leadership be a source of stress in organizations? Refer to the leadership theories described in Chapter 9 (e.g., leadership traits, behaviours, situational theories, participative leadership,
What are the pros and cons of permitting employees to work from home, and how is the practice relevant to conflict, stress, and fairness?
1. What are the core causes of the conflict seen in the customer support team?2. Is the conflict occurring in the team relationship, task, or process conflict, or a combination of types? Please
Construct a diagram of the various interest groups in the external environment of CBC Television. Discuss how some of these interest groups might make competing or contradictory demands on the CBC.
Which basic method(s) of coordination is (are) most likely to be found in a pure research laboratory? On a football team? In a supermarket?
What are the relative merits of mechanistic versus organic structures? Explain why organizations operating in more uncertain environments require more organic structures.
As SpinelIi Construction Company grew in size, its founder and president, Joe SpinelIi, found that he was overloaded with decisions. What two basic structural changes should SpinelIi make to rectify
Discuss contemporary organic structures. Why have these structures emerged and what do they have in common? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these structures for organizations?
Is the departmentation in a small college essentially functional or product-oriented? Defend your answer. (Hint: In what department will the historians find themselves? In what department will the
Discuss the logic behind the following statement: “We don’t want to remove the differentiation that exists between sales and production. What we want to do is achieve integration.”
Describe a situation in which a narrow span of control might be appropriate and contrast it with a situation in which a broad span might be appropriate.
Give an example of vertical integration. Use the concept of resource dependence to explain why an organization might choose a strategic response of vertical integration.
Why are mergers and acquisitions a common and popular form of strategic response? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Most of the advocates of the classical approach to organizational structure were practising managers or management consultants working in the early part of this century. Most of the advocates of the
Review the comparative strengths and weaknesses of product versus functional departmentation.
Describe the relationship between organizational size and centralization, complexity, and formalization.
Describe the concepts of differentiation and integration. Is integration an attempt to do away with differentiation?
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of bureaucratic organizations.
In what ways do formal integrators provide a unique means of organizational coordination?
Using the material in the chapter, describe how an organization might be well conceived at the individual and small group level (in terms of motivation and so forth) and still not be effective.
Compare and contrast ambidextrous, virtual, and modular organizations. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each form of structure?
Discuss the relationship between size and structure.
Explain why organizations operating in certain environments often employ mechanistic structures.
How is the concept of resource dependence related to the practices of vertical integration and interlocking directorates?
How should organizations be structured to cope with environmental uncertainty?
Discuss the connection between environment, structure, and effectiveness.
Explain the meaning and implications of organizations as open systems.
When should an organization establish legitimacy and what are the ways that an organization can achieve legitimacy?
Consider the effect of environmental uncertainty and resource dependence on power and politics in organizations. To what extent are subunit power and organizational politics a function of
How do the structural characteristics of organizations influence group work arrangements, leadership, communication, decision making, and power in organizations? Discuss the implications of each of
3. Discuss the implications of mergers and acquisitions for organizational culture. In particular, consider mergers and acquisitions in light of the assets and liabilities of strong cultures. How
How do the new forms of organizational structure influence the culture of an organization? In other words, what is the relationship between these types of structures and an organization’s culture?
How do these events illustrate structural decisions and the coordination of divided labour? Given advanced communication technology, is being based in the same physical location essential for good
1. The chapter discussed the merits of being alert to the external environment. Can an organization be too focused on the environment?2. Although achieving legitimacy is necessary for this new smart
Conway Manufacturing is a large organization that manufactures machine tools used by workers in various industries. In recent years, sales of the company’s products have begun to fall as a result
1. Describe the organizational structure of DSS Consulting in the late 1990s. What method of departmentation did they use, and why did they use it?2. Discuss the changes that began to affect DSS in
1. Discuss the role that environmental constraints and opportunities may have played in the creation and fall of Saturn. What contributed to its inception and its end?2. Apply the concepts of
1. Discuss the role that environmental constraints and opportunities may have played in the creation and fall of Saturn. What contributed to its inception and its end?2. Apply the concepts of
Are the bases of individual power easily substitutable for each other? Are they equally effective? For example, can coercive power substitute for expert power?1. Are the bases of individual power
Suppose that you are an entrepreneur who has started a new chain of consumer electronic stores. Your competitive edge is to offer excellent customer service. What would you do to empower your
Imagine that you are on a committee at work or in a group working on a project at school that includes a “high Mach” member. What could you do to neutralize the high Mach’s attempts to
Discuss the conditions under which the following subunits of an organization might gain or lose power: legal department; research and development unit; public relations department. Use the concepts
Is sexual harassment more likely to be a problem in some occupations and types of organizations? Describe those occupations and organizational cultures where sexual harassment is most likely to be a
Contrast the relative merits of consideration and initiating structure as well as leader reward and punishment behaviour in the following leadership situations: running the daily operations of a
Identify a leader who you think is a global leader and describe the characteristics and behaviours that make that person a global leader. What advice would you give an organization that needs more
What does it mean to be an ethical leader, and how can ethical or unethical leadership impact an organization? What about an authentic leader? A servant leader?
Describe leadership categorization theory and how it explains racial and gender bias in leadership. What can organizations do to remove the barriers that restrict the movement of women and members of
What is the trait theory of leadership? What are the main weaknesses of the approach?
Define consideration and initiating structure. Which leader behaviour is the most effective?
What is Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership? What is the main contribution to leadership theory?
What is the relevance of House’s path–goal theory to managers?
Assess the pros and cons of participation as a leadership technique.
Explain how the Vroom and Jago model can help managers use participation more effectively.
Compare and contrast transactional and transformational leadership.
Describe ethical leadership and explain how it differs from other theories of leadership.

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