Deck 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

Question 1

The knowledge,skills,and abilities of employees are examples of structural capital.

Answer 1

False
Explanation: Structural capital refers to the knowledge captured and retained in an organization's systems and structures, such as the documentation of work procedures and the physical layout of the production line.

Question 2

Structural capital includes knowledge embedded in the organization's systems and composition.

Answer 2

False
Explanation: Structural capital refers to the knowledge captured and retained in an organization's systems and structures, such as the documentation of work procedures and the physical layout of the production line.

Question 3

Performing OB research and analyses at multiple levels is not recommended as it would lead to perceptual errors.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: OB researchers systematically study these topics at multiple levels of analysis-namely the individual, the team (including interpersonal), and the organization.

Question 4

One of the fastest ways to acquire knowledge is to hire individuals or purchase entire companies that have valued knowledge.

Question 5

Organizational behavior encompasses the study of how organizations interact with their external environments.

Question 6

According to the organizational learning perspective,an effective organization unlearns certain routines and patterns of behavior.

Question 7

Organizations that have high employee turnaround will be better able to retain intellectual capital within the organization.

Question 8

The best organizational practices are those built on the notion that organizations are closed systems.

Question 9

OB can be used to fulfill the need to understand and predict the behavior of others in the organization.However,it is not helpful in influencing others to getting things done in organizations.

Question 10

All organizations have a collective sense of purpose,whether it's producing oil or creating the fastest Internet search engine.

Question 11

Organizational learning perspective is focused on physical resources that enter and are processed in the organization.

Question 12

In order for something to be called an organization,it must have certain assets such as buildings and equipment.

Question 13

The open systems perspective emphasizes that organizations survive by adapting to changes in the external environment.

Question 14

A perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital is called high-performance work practices.

Question 15

Three challenges organizations are facing include globalization,increasing workforce diversity,and emerging employment relationships.

Question 16

Intellectual capital represents the stock of knowledge held by an organization.

Question 17

According to the open systems perspective,most organizations have one working part rather than many sub-components.

Question 18

Investment portfolio studies suggest that specific OB characteristics are important "positive screens" for selecting companies with the best long-term share appreciation.

Question 19

Open systems cannot exist without dependence on an external environment,whereas closed systems can exist without dependence on an external environment.

Question 20

Intellectual capital includes,among other things,the knowledge captured in an organization's systems and structures.

Question 21

Organizations are more effective when they invest in employee skills and knowledge development.

Question 22

Employee involvement is a widely recognized high-performance work practice.

Question 23

Values represent an individual's short-term beliefs about what will happen in the future.

Question 24

Working in a self-directed team reduces employee motivation because employees in such a team will support individualistic behaviors than team behaviors.

Question 25

Employees who are born between 1946 and 1964 are referred to as Generation X employees.

Question 26

Deep level diversity refers to the observable demographics such as age,gender and race.

Question 27

Globalization offers numerous benefits to organizations in terms of larger markets,lower costs,and greater access to knowledge and innovation.

Question 28

Research indicates that Baby Boomers and Generation-X employees bring the same values and expectations to the workplace.

Question 29

According to research,although telecommuting significantly increases employee stress and reduces productivity and job satisfaction,it makes employees feel more empowered.

Question 30

Globalization may have both positive and negative implications for people working in organizations.

Question 31

Work/life balance refers to minimizing conflict between work and non-work demands.

Question 32

Values guide an individual but are not an important subject within an organization.

Question 33

Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.

Question 34

Globalization refers to economic,social,and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world.

Question 35

Reduced job security and increased work intensification are partly caused by globalization.

Question 36

The stakeholder perspective also provides a strong case for ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Question 37

An organization's employees use information technology to perform their jobs away from the traditional physical workplace.This is an example of virtual work.

Question 38

Workforce diversity potentially improves decision making and team performance on complex tasks.

Question 39

Stakeholders of an organization are shareholders,customers,suppliers,governments and any other groups with a vested interest in the organization.

Question 40

The observable demographic or physiological differences in people,such as their race,ethnicity,gender,age,and physical disabilities is called deep-level diversity.

Question 41

Which of these statements is true about the field of organizational behavior?

A) It examines how individuals and teams in organizations relate to one another and to their counterparts in other organizations.
B) OB researchers systematically study various topics at a common level rather than at multiple levels.
C) Information technology has almost no effect on organizational behavior.
D) The field of organizational behavior relies exclusively on ideas generated within the field by organizational behavior scholars.
E) The origins of organizational behavior are traced mainly to the field of economics.

Question 42

Psychology and sociology have contributed many theories and concepts to the field of organizational behavior.

Question 43

A firm has good associations with its customers,suppliers,and others who provide added mutual value for the firm.Name the form of intellectual capital which is derived by the firm due to its good associations.

A) Structural capital
B) Intellectual capital
C) Human capital
D) Knowledge capital
E) Relationship capital

Question 44

According to the open systems view of organizations,_____ is an input for organizations.

A) incentive plans
B) products
C) financial resources
D) employee motivation
E) employee behavior

Question 45

The field of organizational behavior relies on qualitative rather than quantitative research to understand organizational phenomena.

Question 46

The systematic research anchor relies mainly on qualitative data and subjective procedures to test hypothesis.

Question 47

Which of the following statements is true about organizational behavior?

A) OB researchers systematically study various topics at a common level rather than at multiple levels.
B) It is concerned with the study of people who work independently.
C) It does not include the study of collective entities.
D) It is less effective in studying people who interact in highly organized fashion.
E) It includes team, individual, and organizational level analyses.

Question 48

The contingency anchor in organizational behavior suggests that we need to diagnose the situation to identify the most appropriate action under those specific circumstances.

Question 49

Which organizational behavior perspective discusses inputs,outputs,and feedback?

A) Organizational learning
B) Open systems
C) Multidisciplinary
D) Systematic research
E) Intellectual capital

Question 50

Most organizational behavior theories have been developed by OB scholars rather than from other disciplines.

Question 51

Which of the following perspectives of organizational effectiveness argues that companies take their sustenance from the environment and,in turn,affect that environment through their outputs?

A) Stakeholder
B) Systematic research
C) High-performance work practice
D) Organizational learning
E) Open systems

Question 52

Which of the following statements is true of the organizational behavior knowledge?

A) It is relevant to everyone who works in organizations.
B) It should never be used to influence the behavior of other people.
C) It should be used by managers and senior executives alone.
D) It should not be used by subordinates to influence the behavior of their managers.
E) It is less significant when the level of interpersonal interaction is high.

Question 53

ACME Software Inc.has developed a training program to make employees more aware of how their job performance affects customers and other employees within the organization and to inform them of the changing market conditions.This training program relates most closely to which of the following concepts?

A) Contingency anchor
B) Grounded theory
C) Open systems
D) Virtual teams
E) Telecommuting

Question 54

Organizational behavior views organizations as:

A) non-systems.
B) a single unitary subsystem.
C) open systems.
D) closed systems.
E) a system without interactions with the external environment.

Question 55

The open systems anchor of organizational behavior states that:

A) organizations affect and are affected by their external environments.
B) organizations can operate efficiently by ignoring changes in the external environment.
C) people are the most important organizational input needed for effectiveness.
D) organizations should avoid internal conflicts to achieve efficiency.
E) organizations should be open to internal competition to be able to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 56

In the field of organizational behavior,organizations are described as:

A) entities which are considered a legal grouping of people and systems.
B) groups of people who work independently to achieve a collective goal.
C) social entities with a publicly stated set of formal goals.
D) groups of people with independent profit-centered motives and objectives.
E) groups of people who work interdependently towards some purpose.

Question 57

Systematic research investigation produces evidence based management which involves making decisions and taking actions based on this research evidence.

Question 58

Organizational behavior knowledge:

A) originates mainly from models developed in chemistry and other natural sciences.
B) accurately predicts how anyone will behave in any situation.
C) is more appropriate for people who work in computer science than in marketing.
D) helps us to understand, predict, and influence the behaviors of others in organizational settings.
E) is important only for the managers of an organization.

Question 59

Communications and information systems are two emerging fields from which organizational behavior is now acquiring knowledge.

Question 60

Most organizational events may be studied from all three levels of analysis: individual,team and organization.

Question 61

Which of these organizational behavior trends is corporate social responsibility most closely related to?

A) Workforce diversity
B) Employment relationships
C) Information technology
D) Globalization
E) Workplace values and ethics

Question 62

The topic of ethics is most closely associated with the _____ perspective.

A) stakeholder
B) systems
C) high-performance work practices
D) open systems anchor
E) contingency

Question 63

_____ refers to an organization's moral obligation toward all of its stakeholders.

A) Values
B) Legal obligation
C) Multicultural teams
D) Corporate social responsibility
E) Organizational behavior

Question 64

Organizations retain intellectual capital by:

A) transferring employee capital into structural capital.
B) encouraging employees to take early retirement.
C) discouraging employees from communicating with each other.
D) reducing the level of documentation in organizations.
E) building strong human capital.

Question 65

The perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital is called _____ perspective.

A) HPWP
B) learning
C) human capital
D) intellectual capital
E) open-systems

Question 66

A computer maintenance company wants to 'capture' the knowledge that employees carry around in their heads by creating a database where employees document their solutions to unusual maintenance problems.This practice tries to:

A) transform intellectual capital into knowledge management.
B) transfer human capital into structural capital.
C) prevent relationship capital from interfering with human capital.
D) reduce the amount of human capital.
E) transfer structural capital into relationship capital.

Question 67

Which of the following is most closely associated with corporate social responsibility?

A) Knowledge management
B) Triple bottom line
C) Absorptive capacity
D) Adaptive ability
E) Knowledge acquisition

Question 68

Employees,suppliers,and governments:

A) are organizational stakeholders.
B) are rarely considered in organizational behavior theories.
C) represent the three levels of analysis in organizational behavior.
D) are excluded from the open systems anchor.
E) are independent units in an organizational set up.

Question 69

Twice every year,a major car parts manufacturer brings together the production and engineering specialists from its eight divisions to discuss ideas,solutions,and concerns.This helps to minimize the 'silos of knowledge' problem that exists in many organizations.This practice is primarily an example of:

A) grafting.
B) experimentation.
C) knowledge sharing.
D) documentation.
E) organizational unlearning.

Question 70

As part of the knowledge management process,experimentation is conducive to:

A) measuring intellectual capital.
B) knowledge acquisition.
C) increasing organizational memory.
D) knowledge sharing.
E) unlearning.

Question 71

Which of the following is a form of knowledge acquisition?

A) Observation
B) Experimentation
C) Documentation
D) Internal communication
E) Group discussion

Question 72

The ability to recognize the value of new information,assimilate it,and use it for value-added activities is known as _____.

A) perception ability
B) realization capacity
C) observation skill
D) absorptive capacity
E) adaptive capacity

Question 73

Which of the following statements is true about human capital in an organization?

A) Human capital helps the organization use opportunities than realizing them.
B) Existence of human capital increases the threats in the external environment.
C) Human capital is non-substitutable though it is abundant.
D) Human capital is independent of the challenges of the external environment.
E) It is a key variable in the HPWP model of organizational effectiveness.

Question 74

Which of the following typically results in a loss of intellectual capital?

A) The employees help the organization discover opportunities.
B) The employees protect the firm from threats in the external environment.
C) The company sells one of its divisions and its employees now work for the other organization.
D) The workers help in documentation of work procedures.
E) The company has a good physical layout of the production line.

Question 75

Eastern University performs a daily computer search through newspaper articles to identify any articles about the university or its faculty members.University administrators use this information to receive feedback about how the public reacts to university activities.In knowledge management,searching for newspaper articles and other external writing about the organization is mainly a form of:

A) knowledge acquisition.
B) grafting.
C) organizational unlearning.
D) knowledge sharing.
E) documentation.

Question 76

_____ refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.

A) Performance orientation
B) Ethics
C) Multicultural teams
D) Legal obligations
E) Organizational behavior

Question 77

Intellectual capital refers to the:

A) total spending on training and development of employees.
B) total number of employees in the organization.
C) total cost of computers and other 'intelligent' machines in the organization.
D) stock of knowledge that resides in an organization.
E) cost of hiring a typical employee.

Question 78

Stable,long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations are:

A) called intellectual capital.
B) the foundations of the open systems anchor.
C) the main reason why virtual teams fail.
D) rarely studied in the field of organizational behavior.
E) called values of the organization.

Question 79

The triple bottom line philosophy says that:

A) companies should pay three times as much attention to profits than to employee wellbeing.
B) the main goal of all companies is to satisfy the needs of three groups: employees, shareholders, and suppliers.
C) business success increases by having three times more contingent workers than permanent employees.
D) companies should fairly treat its local, national, and global customers.
E) companies should try to support the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability.

Question 80

The _____ perspective,also called knowledge management,views knowledge as the main driver of competitive advantage.

A) open systems
B) organizational learning
C) stakeholder
D) systematic research
E) shared values