Question 1

Empowerment flourishes in organizations that have a learning orientation culture

Accepted Answer

Organizations with a learning orientation culture prioritize continuous learning, feedback, and improvement. This culture encourages employees to take ownership of their work and develop their skills, which ultimately leads to greater empowerment. Therefore, empowerment flourishes in organizations that foster a learning culture.

Question 2

Mental imagery is one of the most beneficial outcomes of job enrichment

Accepted Answer

Job enrichment primarily focuses on redesigning jobs to increase work satisfaction and performance by adding more meaningful tasks, giving more autonomy, and enhancing skill variety, rather than directly aiming to improve mental imagery. Mental imagery might be an indirect outcome or tool in some contexts, but it is not considered one of the most beneficial outcomes of job enrichment.

Question 3

One problem with empowerment is that it tends to make employees less responsive to the company's needs and objectives.

Accepted Answer

Empowerment actually helps employees feel more connected to the company's goals and motivated to contribute to its success. It allows them to act more independently and creatively to achieve those goals, rather than feeling stifled and restricted in their roles. Effective empowerment programs include clear communication of the company's objectives and support for employees to develop the skills and resources they need to contribute meaningfully to those objectives.

Question 4

Empowerment is the process of putting employees in situations involving job rotation and job enlargement.

Accepted Answer

Empowerment involves giving employees more autonomy, authority, and control over their work, including decision-making, rather than just changing their job roles or increasing their workload.

Question 5

Forming natural work units tends to increase task identity and task significance.

Accepted Answer

Forming natural work units makes it easier for employees to identify what their specific tasks are and how they fit into the overall goal of the unit, thus increasing both task identity and task significance.

Question 6

Positive self-talk motivates employees by increasing their effort-to-performance expectancy.

Accepted Answer

Positive self-talk helps employees believe in their ability to perform well, leading to an increased effort-to-performance expectancy. This, in turn, can motivate them to work harder and achieve better results.

Question 7

Self-leadership calls for employees to engage in negative self-talk to help them recognize their limitations.

Accepted Answer

Self-leadership encourages employees to engage in positive self-talk and to focus on their strengths and potential rather than their limitations. Negative self-talk can be damaging to self-esteem and can hinder progress towards goals.

Question 8

Mental imagery helps us to anticipate and work out solutions to potential obstacles in our work.

Accepted Answer

Mental imagery allows us to simulate potential scenarios and visualize different approaches, helping us to anticipate and overcome obstacles in our work.

Question 9

Job enrichment tends to increase the quality of products or services.

Accepted Answer

Job enrichment involves empowering employees with new responsibilities and challenges that can lead to greater job satisfaction and motivation. This increased motivation can result in higher quality work and products/services.

Question 10

One of the most important characteristics of empowerment is that it is a personality trait

Accepted Answer

Empowerment is not a personality trait but rather a process of giving individuals or groups the authority, skills, resources, and support necessary to take charge of their own lives and actions. It involves developing confidence, motivation, and a sense of self-efficacy to tackle challenges and achieve goals. While certain personality traits may facilitate empowerment, such as optimism, resilience, and assertiveness, it is not limited to people with certain personality types. Empowerment can be learned and fostered through education, coaching, mentoring, and participation in decision-making and leadership roles.

Question 11

Self-reinforcement occurs whenever an employee has control over a reinforcer but doesn't "take" the reinforcer until completing a self-set goal.

Accepted Answer

This is the correct definition of self-reinforcement. When an employee chooses to delay receiving a reinforcer (such as taking a break or getting a reward) until they have accomplished a self-set goal, they are engaging in self-reinforcement.

Question 12

Companies are applying job specialization when employees are made directly responsible for specific customers and having them communicate directly with those customers.

Accepted Answer

Job specialization refers to a process where employees are assigned specific tasks and responsibilities focusing on a narrow aspect of the company's operations, rather than being responsible for direct communication with specific customers.

Question 13

Employees are more likely to feel empowered in jobs where they experience self-determination and meaning.

Accepted Answer

When employees have the autonomy to make decisions and feel their work is meaningful, they are more likely to feel empowered and motivated in their jobs.

Question 14

Self-leadership suggests that goals should be set by the employee's supervisor with or without the employee's involvement.

Accepted Answer

Self-leadership encourages employees to set their own goals, establish their own priorities, and hold themselves accountable for their own performance, rather than simply following directives from a supervisor. Therefore, goals should be set by the employee themselves, with guidance and support from their supervisor, rather than being imposed on them.

Question 15

Research suggests that job enlargement increases employee motivation.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Research suggests that job enlargement increases employee...

Question 16

Self-leadership borrows ideas from social cognitive theory and research in sports psychology on constructive thought processes.

Accepted Answer

Self-leadership indeed borrows ideas from social cognitive theory and research in sports psychology on constructive thought processes.

Question 17

A video journalist is someone who performs all jobs previously done by a traditional news team-from operating the camera to reporting the story. Thus, a video journalist is an example of job enlargement and job enrichment.

Accepted Answer

Job enlargement refers to increasing the scope of tasks performed by an employee, while job enrichment refers to providing more responsibility and autonomy in completing tasks. As a video journalist performs all tasks traditionally done by a news team, including operating the camera and reporting, it is an example of both job enlargement and job enrichment.

Question 18

People are empowered when they feel self-determination, meaning, competence, and impact regarding their role in the organization.

Accepted Answer

Empowerment is about giving individuals the confidence, resources, and support to take control of their work and make meaningful contributions to the organization. The four key elements of empowerment are self-determination (having a sense of autonomy and control over one's work), meaning (feeling that one's work is valuable and makes a difference), competence (having the skills and knowledge necessary to perform one's job), and impact (seeing the results of one's efforts and feeling that they matter). When employees feel empowered in these ways, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and committed to the organization's goals.

Question 19

Two ways to enrich jobs are by clustering jobs into natural groups and by establishing client relationships.

Accepted Answer

Clustering jobs into natural groups allows for a variety of tasks and responsibilities to be combined into a single position, providing more job enrichment. Establishing client relationships allows employees to interact directly with clients, giving them a sense of ownership and responsibility over their work. Both of these methods can effectively enrich jobs.

Question 20

Self-leadership involves finding ways to increase job specialization

Accepted Answer

Self-leadership does not necessarily involve job specialization, but rather focuses on managing oneself and taking the initiative to improve performance and achieve personal goals. Increasing job specialization may be a different approach to improving job performance, but it is not synonymous with self-leadership.

Quiz 6: Applied Performance Practices