Deck 12: Power and Influence in the Workplace

Question 1

By avoiding written documentation of special procedures,maintenance workers in the French tobacco-processing industry were maximizing their expert power through non-substitutability.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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

Answer 2

True

Question 3

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

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Subordinates have reward power over their bosses through 360-degree feedback systems.

Question 5

Counterpower is the power that the dominant person in a relationship uses as a backup when the primary source of power fails to work as planned on the dependent person.

Question 6

Legitimate power is an agreement between people that one person has the right to request specific behaviors from the other person.

Question 7

Employees in Canada and other low power distance countries are more likely to accept legitimate power than are employees in Mexico and other high power distance countries.

Question 8

Professions gain power in the marketplace by reducing their substitutability through the control of tasks and knowledge.

Question 9

Employees with low power distance are more likely to comply with legitimate power.

Question 10

Employees are losing their expert power as society moves from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy.

Question 11

Peer pressure typically represents a form of coercive power.

Question 12

The four contingencies of power include substitutability,visibility,referent and utilitarian.

Question 13

Three general strategies to help organizations to cope with uncertainty are prevention,creation and deception.

Question 14

Power does not exist until the power holder actually applies power to influence someone else.

Question 15

Some employees and departments gain power by forecasting uncertainties in the organization's environment.

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

Prevention,forecasting and absorption are three contingencies of power in organizations.

Question 19

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

Question 20

In any relationship,both parties have some degree of power over the other.

Question 21

Influence is an essential process in organizations through which people coordinate their effort.

Question 22

Women have difficulty getting into senior management because they are usually excluded from male networks.

Question 23

Upward appeal is considered a more forceful influence strategy than ingratiation.

Question 24

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

Question 25

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

Question 26

Networking can potentially leverage a person's power by increasing the person's visibility and centrality.

Question 27

Persuasion is the most common form of influence in high power distance cultures.

Question 28

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

Question 29

Negotiation and the norm of reciprocity are associated with the influence process of exchange.

Question 30

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

Question 31

Exaggerating one's résumé is categorized within the influence strategy of persuasion.

Question 32

First-line supervisors may have legitimate,reward and coercive sources of power,but their actual power is often limited by a lack of discretion.

Question 33

How we dress and the way we behave politely towards others represents a type of influence strategy.

Question 34

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

Question 35

Persuasion general works better in face-to-face interaction than through e-mail or written letters.

Question 36

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

Question 37

Silent authority,assertiveness,and exchange are three sources of power.

Question 38

Exchange,coalition formation,and ingratiation represent three forms of influence.

Question 39

Even though you should be visiting clients most of the time,you make a point of stopping by the office each day so your boss sees that you are working.This increases your power by increasing your centrality.

Question 40

Mentors help to increase a junior employee's actual power mainly by influencing how quickly the junior employee's actions affect other employees.

Question 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

Which of the following statements about power is FALSE?

A) Power exists only when the dependent party is aware that the power holder controls valued resources.
B) Power requires interdependence in the relationship.
C) Power is the capacity to influence, rather than 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 sometimes gain power by convincing others that they have something of value for them.

Question 44

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

Question 45

Organizational politics tends to reduce trust and the motivation to collaborate.

Question 46

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

Question 47

When the issue is extremely important to listeners,the speaker's personal characteristics are more important than the message content in persuading listeners.

Question 48

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

Question 49

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 those commands.
E) any situation where one person is dependent on another person, who is not at all dependent on the first person.

Question 50

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

Question 51

Establishing a free flow of information and using effective change management practices help to minimize organizational politics.

Question 52

The capacity to influence others in organizational settings is known as:

A) organizational politics
B) the inoculation effect
C) impression management
D) Machiavellianism
E) organizational power

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 beware of the opponent's arguments.

Question 54

Research indicates that people seem more willing to allow men to use assertiveness as an influence tactic than to allow women to use this tactic.

Question 55

People with an internal locus of control and strong Machiavellian values are more likely to engage in organizational politics.

Question 56

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

Question 57

Research indicates that women are more likely than men to blame others for their mistakes,whereas men tend to apologize,even when they did not cause the problem.

Question 58

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

Question 59

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

Question 60

Forming coalitions is considered a political tactic,whereas cultivating networks is not.

Question 61

Employees have more expert power today than a few decades ago because:

A) fewer people now attend university than a few decades ago.
B) referent and legitimate power are no longer valued in organizations.
C) society is shifting from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy.
D) employers have a higher power distance than in the past.
E) of none of these explanations.

Question 62

Which source of power can employees potentially have over their supervisors?

A) Legitimate power
B) Coercive power
C) Expert power
D) Employees can potentially have all of these sources of power over their supervisors.
E) Employees never have any of these sources of power over their supervisors.

Question 63

Counterpower refers to:

A) a second source of power held by the power holder in case the main source of power is ineffective.
B) the initial feeling of power employees experience when they are given more freedom and control over their jobs.
C) the capacity to keep someone who is more powerful than you in the exchange relationship.
D) a method of measuring the number of times an employee uses his or her power each day.
E) the ability of a person or department to gain more power through unethical organizational politics.

Question 64

Which of these statements about legitimate power is FALSE?

A) Legitimate power depends on more than job descriptions.
B) Employees in Canada are generally less likely to accept legitimate power than are employees in Singapore.
C) Your boss's power to make you work overtime partly depends on your agreement to this power.
D) Employees are generally more tolerant of legitimate power today than were employees a few decades ago.
E) All employees have some degree of legitimate power.

Question 65

Legitimate,referent,and expert are:

A) different types of organizational politics
B) different forms of visibility.
C) different sources of organizational power
D) different types of substitutability
E) different contingencies of organizational power

Question 66

Control over information flow as a power base is:

A) strongest in highly bureaucratic organizations.
B) quite rare in organizations today.
C) more likely to occur in the all-channel communication structure.
D) mainly associated with the coercive power base.
E) less likely to exist in the 'wheel' communication structure.

Question 67

Coping with uncertainty is a variation of:

A) legitimate power.
B) expert power.
C) coercive power.
D) referent power.
E) none of these.

Question 68

Which of the following is one of the five main sources of power?

A) Discretion
B) Visibility
C) Substitutability
D) All of these are sources of power
E) None of these is a source of power

Question 69

Which of the following statements about counterpower in organizational relationships is TRUE?

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

Question 70

An employee has power in the organization only when he or she:

A) has the authority to influence others.
B) possesses all five sources of power.
C) has one or more contingencies of power.
D) has one or more sources of power.
E) possesses one or more sources of power and the contingencies support that power base.

Question 71

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

A) the employees have a high power distance value.
B) the power holder gives orders outside the employees' normal role requirements.
C) the company encourages people to disobey orders that interfere with their work.
D) the employees have a low power distance value.
E) the employees have low collectivism.

Question 72

As organizations rely increasingly on knowledge rather than on machines and physical resources as the means of production,employees:

A) are gaining expert power in the workplace.
B) are losing any power in the labor market.
C) are gaining more referent power in the workplace.
D) are becoming more tolerant of their boss's legitimate power.
E) are becoming less willing to use organizational politics to get their way.

Question 73

A 360-degree feedback system gives employees which source of power over their bosses?

A) Referent
B) Reward
C) Legitimate
D) Expert
E) 360-degree feedback is not a source of power for employees over their bosses

Question 74

Which of the following is NOT a distinct source of power?

A) Legitimate power
B) Centrality power
C) Referent power
D) Coercive power
E) Expert power

Question 75

Which of the following is a contingency of power?

A) Coercive
B) Legitimate
C) Referent
D) All of these are contingencies of power.
E) None of these is a contingency of power.

Question 76

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

A) Expert power
B) Legitimate power
C) Coercive power
D) Reward power
E) All of these

Question 77

The power that the dependent party has over the dominant party in order to maintain the exchange relationship is known as:

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

Question 78

Referent power is typically associated with:

A) reward systems.
B) educational systems.
C) knowledge management.
D) peer pressure.
E) charisma.

Question 79

A manager's legitimate power over subordinates exists when:

A) the organization grants formal authority over the employees.
B) the manager is able to reward or punish the employees.
C) employees agree to let the manager have power over them.
D) employees are blinded by the manager's charisma.
E) the organization grants formal authority AND employees agree to let the manager use this authority.

Question 80

Which source of power might non-management employees have over their supervisors?

A) Legitimate power
B) Expert power
C) Referent power
D) All of these are employee sources of power over their supervisors.
E) None of these is an employee source of power over supervisors.