Deck 10: Power and Influence in the Workplace

Question 1

Peer pressure typically represents a form of coercive power.

Answer 1

True
Explanation: Many firms rely on coercive power to control coworker behavior in team settings.This, in turn, affects peers to perform.

Question 2

Referent power is mainly developed through a person's interpersonal Skills.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: People have referent power when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them.As with expert power, referent power originates within the power holder.It is largely a function of the person's interpersonal Skills and tends to develop slowly.

Question 3

People might gain power by convincing others that they have something of value.

Answer 3

True
Explanation: People might generate power by convincing others that they control something of value, whether or not they actually control that resource.This perception is also formed from the power holder's behavior, such as those who are not swayed by authority or norms.

Question 4

The power of the CEO of an organization is not as extensive as most people realize because their discretion is restricted.

Question 5

Countervailing power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a more powerful person or group in the exchange relationship.

Question 6

An employee's ability to influence others increases as the source of his or her power becomes more substitutable.

Question 7

Employees in low power distance cultures tend to comply with legitimate power more than employees in a high power distance culture.

Question 8

Displaying one's diplomas and degrees on office walls is one way professionals increase their visibility.

Question 9

Expert and referent power originate mainly from the power holder's own characteristics.

Question 10

Reward power is associated with charisma.

Question 11

The four contingencies of power are prevention, forecasting, coercion, and distribution.

Question 12

Even though your job entails that you should be visiting clients most of the time, you make it a point to stop by the office everyday so your boss sees that you are working.This increases your power by increasing your centrality.

Question 13

Playing "face time" instead of working productively behind closed doors is a strategy for gaining increased visibility at work.

Question 14

People have more power when their actions quickly affect many other people through the organization.

Question 15

By avoiding written documentation of how to operate equipment or serve customers, employees are maximizing their expert power through non-substitutability.

Question 16

Legitimate power is created whenever the organization assigns a supervisor with formal authority over subordinates.

Question 17

Prevention, forecasting, and absorption are three types of expertise that cope with uncertainty in organizations.

Question 18

The right to control the information that others receive is part of expert power.

Question 19

Power is the act of changing another person's attitudes and behavior.

Question 20

Legitimate power has restrictions; it only gives the power holder the right to ask for a range of behaviors from others.This range is known as the "norm of reciprocity."

Question 21

Three factors determine your centrality in a social network: betweenness, closeness, and degree (number) centrality.

Question 22

Silent authority is also known as deference to authority.

Question 23

People are more persuasive when they rely on logical arguments and avoid emotional appeals.

Question 24

The CEO of an organization has absolute power over his or her vice presidents.

Question 25

A feature of influence is that it operates down the corporate hierarchy but not up or across that hierarchy.

Question 26

A coalition attempts to influence people outside the group by pooling the resources and power of its members.

Question 27

Exchange, ingratiation, and persuasion are considered "hard" influence tactics.

Question 28

Managers with an internal locus of control are viewed as more powerful because they don't act like they lack discretion in their job.

Question 29

Networking is a form of influence that tends to increase the individual's expert and referent power.

Question 30

To understand how much social capital people have from their social networks, we need to consider the number, depth, variety, and centrality of the connections that they have in their networks.

Question 31

Centrality is both an important contingency of power and an important factor in social networks.

Question 32

The gap between two clusters of people in a social network is called a structural hole.

Question 33

A coalition gains power by symbolizing the legitimacy of the issue supported by the coalition.

Question 34

People who have more power over others engage in more automatic rather than mindful thinking.

Question 35

People with power over others have more difficulty empathizing.

Question 36

Bridging a structural hole makes a person a broker, who controls information flow and gains additional power in the network.

Question 37

As people become more powerful they tend to become less goal-oriented, less motivated, and more focused on gaining additional power.

Question 38

First-line supervisors often hold legitimate, reward, and coercive power over their subordinates, as well as high levels of discretion.

Question 39

The only way employees get ahead is by developing their competencies.

Question 40

Extreme forms of assertiveness include bullying colleagues.

Question 41

People with strong Machiavellian values are more likely to engage in organizational politics.

Question 42

Soft influence tactics such as persuasion tend to build compliance rather than commitment to the influencer's request.

Question 43

Organizational politics can result in lower job satisfaction, and high levels of work-related stress.

Question 44

Machiavellian values help employees to recognize and avoid using political tactics in organizational settings.

Question 45

Office politics flourish when resource allocation decisions are ambiguous and complex with no formal rules.

Question 46

In organizational settings, power is defined as:

A)the practice of trying to influence another person.
B)the capacity to influence others.
C)the act of changing another person's attitudes and behaviors.
D)the extent to which one person is required to follow another person's commands even though he or she does not want to follow the commands.
E)the ability of a person who is dependent on another person to dominate another person who is not at all dependent on the first person.

Question 47

People who have expertise tend to have more influence using persuasion.

Question 48

As impression management is inherently unethical, it is discouraged by career professionals.

Question 49

Power is the _____ to change someone's behavior.

A)need
B)act
C)potential
D)duty
E)hidden agenda

Question 50

Impression management is a common strategy for people trying to get ahead in the workplace.

Question 51

The preferred influence tactics vary across cultures.

Question 52

The most appropriate influence tactic depends in part on the influencer's power base and position in the organization.

Question 53

In persuasive communication, the inoculation effect involves warning listeners that others will try to influence them in the future and that they should be aware of the opponent's arguments.

Question 54

Organizational politics refers to any use of power to influence others.

Question 55

Research indicates that ingratiation is more commonly used by managers in high power distance cultures than by managers in low power distance cultures.

Question 56

Organizational leaders can minimize organizational politics by making decision rules more complex and ambiguous.

Question 57

Organizational politics tends to increase in situations where decisions become routine and programmed.

Question 58

Supervisors who use ingratiation and impression management tactics tend to lose the respect of their staff.

Question 59

Organizational politics occurs when someone attempts to influence others for the purpose of promoting personal interests.

Question 60

Joe wears his "signature" clothing to work every day: black shirt, black tie, black pants.This could be called his "personal brand."

Question 61

Which of the following statements about power is true?

A)Power exists only when the power holder is able to change someone's behavior.
B)Power requires asymmetric dependence in a relationship.
C)Power is the actual practice of influencing others.
D)Power exists only when one person has something of value for a second person, but the second person has nothing of value for the first person.
E)People cannot have power over others by controlling a desired job assignment, useful information, important resources, or even the privilege of being associated with someone.

Question 62

Employees have _____, ranging from sarcasm to ostracism, to ensure that coworkers conform to team norms.

A)reward power
B)legitimate power
C)referent power
D)expert power
E)coercive power

Question 63

Social networks exist everywhere because people:

A)have a drive to bond.
B)are insecure.
C)are all extroverted.
D)have a need to defend their territory.
E)need to be visible.

Question 64

Which of the following refers to availability of alternatives?

A)Visibility
B)Substitutability
C)Centrality
D)Discretion
E)Referent power

Question 65

People have ______ power when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them.

A)reward
B)legitimate
C)referent
D)expert
E)coercive

Question 66

Employees are more likely to comply with a supervisor's legitimate power when the:

A)employees have high power distance.
B)power holder gives orders outside the employees' normal role requirements.
C)company encourages people to disobey orders that interfere with their work.
D)manager has little charisma.
E)manager has a very good reward system in place.

Question 67

Referent power is typically associated with:

A)reward systems.
B)power distance.
C)uncertainty avoidance.
D)peer pressure.
E)charisma.

Question 68

Which of these sources of power originates mainly from the person rather than the position?

A)Referent power
B)Legitimate power
C)Coercive power
D)Reward power
E)Perceived right

Question 69

Legitimate power occurs when:

A)the manager can remove negative sanctions.
B)the manager is able to reward or punish the employees.
C)the manager has the capacity to influence others on the basis of identification with and respect for the power-holder.
D)employees are blinded by the manager's charisma.
E)it is agreed that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others.

Question 70

Which of the following sources of power originates from the power holder's own characteristics?

A)Legitimate power
B)Coercive power
C)Expert power
D)Reward power
E)Formal power

Question 71

Employees also have _____ power over their bosses through their feedback and ratings in 360-degree feedback systems.

A)referent
B)reward
C)legitimate
D)expert
E)coercive

Question 72

In order to maintain the exchange relationship, the dependent party must have _____ over the dominant party.

A)countervailing power
B)substitutability
C)reverse dependence
D)visibility
E)legitimate power

Question 73

The freedom to exercise judgment in an organization is called _______.

A)visibility
B)absorption
C)centrality
D)discretion
E)persuasion

Question 74

Which of the following are the three general strategies for coping with uncertainty?

A)Visibility, discretion, and prevention
B)Visibility, immediacy, and pervasiveness
C)Prevention, forecasting, and absorption
D)Discretion, immediacy, and prevention
E)Immediacy, forecasting, and absorption

Question 75

Social networks generate power through:

A)political behavior.
B)Guanxi.
C)social capital.
D)network capital.
E)Machiavellianism.

Question 76

The (perceived) ability to manage uncertainties in the business environment is a form of _____ power.

A)reward
B)legitimate
C)referent
D)expert
E)coercive

Question 77

Genevieve makes sure that she walks by her boss's office several times a day and tries to greet and make eye contact with her.She is trying to increase her:

A)visibility.
B)absorption.
C)centrality.
D)discretion.
E)persuasion.

Question 78

Which contingency of power are unions mainly applying by going on strike at a critical time in the company's business cycle?

A)Visibility
B)Absorption
C)Centrality
D)Discretion
E)Persuasion

Question 79

Which of the following statements about countervailing power in organizational relationships is true?

A)Countervailing power prevents anyone else from having any power over you.
B)Countervailing power is used by the stronger party to prevent the weaker party from leaving the relationship.
C)Countervailing power is the weaker party's power to maintain the stronger party's continued participation in the relationship.
D)Countervailing power is one of the ways that people gain power by coping with uncertainty.
E)Countervailing power is a personality characteristic of people who crave power.

Question 80

Which of these refers to the degree and nature of interdependence between the power holder and others?

A)Visibility
B)Substitutability
C)Centrality
D)Discretion
E)Expertise