Deck 4: The Informal Organisation

Question 1

A positive organisational culture is important to an organisation, because it influences its ability to:

A) recruit employees.
B) retain employees.
C) engage employees.
D) motivate employees.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

According to systems theory, an organisation can be considered a system because:

A) it is made up of interwoven subsystems.
B) when one of its aspects is changed, its other aspects are also affected.
C) it is a collection of different elements which, when put together, create a complex, meaningful whole.
D) its various parts are interrelated.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

An organisation's 'cultural norms' could be described as the processes, behavioural practices and styles or methods of communication and working, both individually and together, that people who work for the organisation develop over time.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Which of the following statements is not true in relation to chaos theory?

A) Organisations are not machines that rules and procedures can control.
B) Systems are always changing.
C) It is impossible to predict the behaviour of a system from the behaviour of its parts, because the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
D) Only large, significant actions and events can have large, unpredictable consequences.
E) Too much control kills creativity, innovation and productivity.

Question 5

Only some organisations have an organisational culture; this depends upon whether an organisation has a mission and/or vision statement that is actively promoted and endorsed by senior figures in the organisation.

Question 6

Agreement by all members of a team on the outcome of a decision is known as:

A) negotiation.
B) majority vote.
C) balance of probabilities.
D) consensus.
E) arbitration.

Question 7

One way to build and maintain a desirable organisational culture is to:

A) recruit people who already fit the existing organisational culture.
B) have interviews of promising candidates conducted by staff members who already embody the existing organisational culture.
C) not hire staff members who obviously do not fit the existing organisational culture.
D) include training and information about an organisation's culture in every new employee's induction.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 8

Generating pride in an organisation, and showing how individual team members and teams as a whole contribute to the organisation, is one way of building a strong team culture.

Question 9

The informal organisation is collectively made up of:

A) the hierarchy of positions and authority as set out in the organisation's organisational chart.
B) the relationships between different levels within the organisation.
C) the webs of human relationships and unofficial power hierarchy inside the organisation.
D) the reporting relationships of employees and managers to those higher up in the organisational hierarchy.
E) the social relationships between employees outside business hours.

Question 10

Which of the following aspects of organisational culture would be unlikely to be present in a high-performing team?

A) Mutual trust
B) Dominant leadership
C) A focus on solutions
D) Smooth introduction of change
E) Strong team identity

Question 11

Due to the important impact that organisational culture can have on an organisation, the most appropriate time to explain a team's culture and norms to an employee is:

A) at their first performance review.
B) at their first team meeting.
C) during their induction.
D) during professional development training after they have settled in.
E) at their exit interview.

Question 12

One possible danger faced by highly cohesive teams is:

A) that cliques may form, creating division and conflict.
B) a lack of will of individual team members to contradict the perceived or actual wishes of the majority.
C) that the team may find it difficult to move on from 'discussion mode' and make actual decisions.
D) that team members' familiarity with one another may breed disrespect and, ultimately, the team's breakdown.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 13

A member of a team who consistently identifies flaws in others' ideas can be thought of as being:

A) functional.
B) dysfunctional.
C) either functional or dysfunctional.
D) neither functional nor dysfunctional.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 14

While relaxing with friends at a bar at the end of the work week, an employee of an organisation casually comments, 'That's nothing; my CEO is a complete crook - he overcharges all of our clients.' This remark ultimately leads to a police investigation, the CEO's arrest and the organisation's collapse. This situation would best be described as an example of:

A) systems theory.
B) chaos theory.
C) classic organisation theory.
D) neo-classical theory.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 15

Relationships inside an organisation grow out of the way people interact with each other. The development and management of these relationships are known as:

A) group dynamics.
B) team building.
C) high-performance management.
D) cultural competence.
E) social awareness.

Question 16

Which of the following would not be considered to be part of a company's 'informal organisation'?

A) Career advice network
B) Expert network
C) Innovation network
D) Network of contacts via membership of a peak industry body
E) Learning network

Question 17

An encourager within a team can be said to be playing:

A) a functional task role.
B) a functional process role.
C) a dysfunctional task role.
D) a dysfunctional process role.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 18

What strategy can managers employ to promote open discussion with and between employees so as to reach agreement on better ways of working together?

A) Performance reviews
B) Probation periods
C) Team-building activities
D) Grievance procedures
E) Performance plans

Question 19

In an organisation in which the completion of a project or process takes precedence, and the culture is characterised by the sharing of ideas, internal flexibility and the mobility of employees, there exists a:

A) person culture.
B) power culture.
C) role culture.
D) task culture.
E) corporate culture.

Question 20

Which of the following is not an example of a communication pattern?

A) A preference among team members to communicate using email rather than converse face-to-face
B) A weekly team meeting that all team members must attend
C) Team members regularly using industry jargon and abbreviations in memos they send one another
D) The practice, at team meetings, of allowing every attendee to speak on a particular agenda item if they wish to
E) A high degree of cooperation among team members to work together when there are strict deadlines or urgent priorities

Question 21

Where an informal leader exists within a team, the team's formal leader should:

A) undermine and discredit them.
B) try to remove them from the team.
C) convince them to stop acting as the team's informal leader.
D) promote them to another position outside of the team.
E) enlist their support and cooperation.

Question 22

One sign that a work climate is not a positive one is:

A) team members feeling unable to express themselves and share their feelings.
B) team members supporting one another.
C) team members contributing to group goals in the best way they can.
D) the sense that team members are enjoying their work as they get on with their tasks.
E) a team easily and consistently achieving its goals.

Question 23

Which of the following statements is true of all teams?

A) They need to be heterogeneous in order to be cohesive and supportive.
B) They need to be homogeneous in order to be diverse in their approaches and ways of thinking.
C) They need to be homogeneous, since diversity leads to tension, conflict and mistrust.
D) When containing elements of both homogeneity and heterogeneity, the team will benefit from having team members who are like-minded in their understanding of the team's purposes, goals, roles and procedures, but who are also diverse in their approaches and ways of thinking.
E) They need to be heterogeneous, so that team members are like-minded in their understanding of their purposes, goals, roles and procedures.

Question 24

Which of the following are examples of personal power?

A) Reward, legitimate and coercive power
B) Referent, proximity and expert power
C) Referent, proximity and coercive power
D) Referent, proximity and legitimate power
E) Referent and proximity power.

Question 25

A member of a team who is not the appointed team leader, but is the 'go-to' person for a range of issues - from IT questions to advice about how to undertake complex tasks - can be said to be the team's:

A) executive leader.
B) non-executive leader.
C) technical leader.
D) informal leader.
E) spiritual leader.

Question 26

A CEO's personal assistant may have little formal power, but tremendous influence, due to the fact that:

A) they may overhear important matters discussed by the CEO.
B) they know who has met with the CEO, since they schedule all of the CEO's meetings.
C) they have direct and ready access to the CEO because of their work station's proximity to them.
D) they may become aware of important information when typing documents for the CEO.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 27

Temporarily placing an employee in a higher position to cover the short-term absence of another staff member is an example of exercising:

A) legitimate power.
B) coercive power.
C) reward power.
D) expert power.
E) personal power.

Question 28

To be effective, the leader of a team needs to lead in such a way as to make clear to team members what is important to the team and/or the organisation - and, correspondingly, what is of less importance - as well as to establish the team's working climate.

Question 29

Workplace power based on position stems from a person's position in the organisational structure, whereas workplace power based on personal power must be earned.

Question 30

Which of the following may influence a team's group dynamics?

A) Events and influences occurring in the surrounding environment
B) Relationships within the group
C) Each team member's skills and personality
D) The team's job or task
E) All of these responses are correct.