Deck 12: Communityorganizational Psychology

Question 1

________ examines organizations from the perspective of the individual, whereas ________ examines organizations from a systems perspective.

A) Organizational behavior? employee assistance programs
B) Quality circles? organized labor unions
C) Organizational psychology? organizational behavior
D) Team building? community psychology

Answer 1

Organizational psychology? organizational behavior

Question 2

What do the study of organizational behavior and community psychology have in common?

A) Both serve to enhance the functioning of their constituencies.
B) Individuals and organizations have a transactional relationship.
C) A systems perspective? that is, they take the whole organization into account.
D) All of the above.

Answer 2

All of the above.

Question 3

What is a difference noted in the text between community psychology and organizational psychology?

A) Community psychologists have little interest in what happens in organizations.
B) Organizational psychologists but not community psychologists are concerned with diversity issues.
C) Community psychologists but not organizational psychologists are concerned with empowerment.
D) Organizational psychologists are more concerned with benefiting the organization rather than individuals.

Answer 3

Organizational psychologists are more concerned with benefiting the organization rather than individuals.

Question 4

In answer to the question, "Is alcohol use related to workplace stress?" researchers have found that the answer is

A) no, people with low, medium, and high stress jobs all drink too much.
B) maybe, but only for white collar but not blue collar employees.
C) yes, especially if we examine endoftheworkday drinking patterns.
D) there is no identifiable relationship between job stress and drinking.

Question 5

Role ambiguity at work occurs when

A) one's roles are unclear.
B) one's roles conflict.
C) there is too much to do.
D) All of these create role ambiguity.

Question 6

Barack feels he has too much to do - too many committee meetings, too many reports to read, too many appointments, and too many documents to generate. Barack suffers from

A) role conflict.
B) role ambiguity.
C) role overload.
D) All of these.

Question 7

What is true about burnout?

A) Idealism can cause burnout in organizational members.
B) Burnout is a feeling of being drained or exhausted.
C) Poor person organization fit can cause burnout.
D) All of the above are true of burnout.

Question 8

Stress reduction programs being provided to all employees is an example of

A) universal prevention.
B) indicated prevention.
C) selective prevention.
D) All of the above.

Question 9

Burnout, as defined in the text, consists of all of the following except

A) feelings of exhaustion.
B) insensitivity to others.
C) purposely breaking company rules.
D) low sense of accomplishment.

Question 10

A likely consequence of burnout is

A) being cynical about clients and customers.
B) a low sense of accomplishment.
C) feeling drained and exhausted.
D) All of the above.

Question 11

What factor appears to play a large role in determining whether individuals in an organization experience burnout?

A) Pay scales
B) Rules and regulations
C) Gender
D) Fairness

Question 12

Pretty and McCarthy found that sense of community in businesses

A) were determined by different workplace qualities for men and for women.
B) were related to peer cohesion for males.
C) were related to involvement for females.
D) All of the above.

Question 13

Fernando works in an organization that encourages his growth by paying for his trips to professional conferences. His work culture might be described as

A) repressed.
B) open.
C) horizontal.
D) vertical.

Question 14

According to the text, organizational culture influences which of the following?

A) Organizational structure
B) Power distribution within
C) Ideology of the organization
D) All of these.

Question 15

In organizations, a(n) __________ culture would likely include _________.

A) open? holding strictly to regulations
B) repressive? quality of work life programs
C) open? quality circles
D) repressive? compressed work week

Question 16

What features of an organization inspire empowerment within it?

A) An accessible opportunity structure
B) A peer based support system
C) A sense of community
D) All of the above.

Question 17

Bond's (1999) connectivity is fostered by

A) acknowledgement of reliance on group members to accomplish goals.
B) recognition of multiple realities and perspectives.
C) realization of differences in pay in duties.
D) a and b
E) a, b, and c

Question 18

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Organ et al., 2006) has come to include:

A) altruism.
B) conscientiousness.
C) sportsmanship.
D) All of the above.

Question 19

Sportsmanship in Organizational Citizenship is defined as

A) being aware of the rules of the game.
B) tolerating unexpected demands.
C) helping others avoid problems.
D) working to achieve collective goals.

Question 20

Recent research on work and identity has found

A) that we are no longer defined by our work.
B) for many work is an important part of their self concept.
C) the relationship between work and wellbeing is negative.
D) both a and c

Question 21

Chatman and Spataro's (2005) work suggest that diverse groups work best where

A) individuals are rewarded for their accomplishments.
B) collectivist values are emphasized.
C) culture is not emphasized.
D) differences are ignored.

Question 22

What can be said about wage disparities between men and women?

A) Today, women and men earn about the same as each other.
B) Women have made such great strides that today they outearn men.
C) Women today earn about 80% of what men make.
D) As careers progress, women eventually catch up to men in pay.

Question 23

Given the principles of community psychology, what interventions would community psychologists be most likely to institute in an organization?

A) Creating more rules/developing pay differentials between employee tiers.
B) Reducing the number of rules and regulations/giving everyone pay raises.
C) Instituting participatory decisionmaking/ creating more rules and regulations.
D) Promoting an open rather than repressed culture/developing quality circles.

Question 24

Work anxiety, negative views of the social aspects of the organization and perceived distance has been related to

A) smaller organizations.
B) medium size organizations.
C) larger organizations.
D) the physical dimensions of organizations with no relationship to their size.

Question 25

Research on differences in the wages of women and men has found that over time at work

A) the gender differences grow smaller.
B) the gender differences disappear.
C) the gender differences grow larger.
D) gender is lost as a significant contributor to wage discrepancy.

Question 26

With regard to rules and regulations within organizations, one of the most important variables in organizations is

A) the perception of fairness.
B) concrete and unassailable rules.
C) the inability of workers to influence the creation of rules.
D) All of the above.

Question 27

________ leader is to efficient as ________ leader is to inspiration.

A) Taskfocused?transformational
B) Interpersonallyfocused?laissezfaire
C) Transactional? transformational
D) Democratic? autocratic

Question 28

A transactional leader is likely to engage in which of the following?

A) Stimulating the employees to be happier and more productive.
B) Providing feedback about job performance, whether good or bad.
C) Seeking opinions and providing opportunity for discussions.
D) All of the above.

Question 29

Wielkiewicz and Stelzner (2005) believed the leader

A) emerged from a given context.
B) was related to a set of personality traits.
C) could be defined across cultures by their charismatic qualities.
D) both b and c

Question 30

Newell found that in bringing about greater cooperation among members

A) the skill of the leaders was a most important quality.
B) the quality of the members relationships was the best indicator of success.
C) the use of incentives to bring about cooperation was most important.
D) the use of external structures helped in the interactions.

Question 31

Foster Fishman used "soft systems" and "system dynamics" to find

A) levers for change.
B) the correct level of wages for workers.
C) the place to bring up "difficult discussions."
D) All of the above.

Question 32

Quality of work life programs generally involve

A) making larger groups smaller.
B) participatory decision making.
C) top-down not bottom-up management.
D) All of the above.

Question 33

According to Quality Work Circles

A) those living and working closest to the issues should know how to deal with them.
B) the advantage of the circles is the ability of management to communicate their vision.
C) the usefulness of having directives clearly understood by all who are effected by them.
D) All of the above.

Question 34

According to research presented in the text, team building should result in

A) poorer overall group performance.
B) empowerment of individuals on the teams.
C) loss of goal motivation among team members.
D) All of the above.

Question 35

When organizational members are trained to improve their level of cooperation within a small group, what technique is being implemented?

A) Management by objective
B) Survey guided feedback
C) Team building
D) Social support

Question 36

This method of organizational change emphasizes shared goal setting and/or creation of better interpersonal competence among group members.

A) Survey guided feedback
B) Working to "rule"
C) System audits
D) Team building

Question 37

Team building is used most often for

A) increasing acceptance of diversity.
B) increasing perceptions of empowerment.
C) improving communication in a group setting.
D) establishing better resource management.

Question 38

Managers with longer time horizons seem to

A) have happier workers.
B) be less able to complete tasks.
C) need less direction.
D) have a good self concept.

Question 39

Meta analysis showed flexible programs (hours, telecommuting) led to

A) more absenteeism
B) better pay for employees
C) better health and job satisfaction
D) all of the above

Question 40

Overload of work duties, lack of participation in decision-making, inadequate recognition, feeling of unfairness and incongruency of meaning and goals between an individual and the organization are all predictors of

A) burnout
B) happiness
C) psychopathic organizations
D) sociopathic bosses

Question 41

"Thriving at work" environments are predictive of:

A) physical health of employees
B) creativity in the workplace
C) higher performance
D) all of the above

Question 42

In what ways are organizational and community psychology similar? Where do they part company?

Question 43

Describe any 4 problems commonly found in organizations today.

Question 44

Think of someone you know who suffers from burnout or job stress. Describe his or her symptoms. Are they consistent with what is presented in the text? Could this situation have been avoided? How?

Question 45

Describe an open and a closed organizational culture. What are three organizational strategies likely to be found in each?

Question 46

Select any two organizational problems and discuss a traditional "cure" for each and then a solution that would be more acceptable to community psychologists. Why are these latter solutions more acceptable?

Question 47

What is organizational citizenship and what does it have to do with organizational functioning?

Question 48

Define and provide a concrete (realistic) use for each of the following: survey guided feedback, quality circle, burnout, an open organizational culture, team building.

Question 49

You are a community psychologist trying to convince the president of a large organization to adopt less traditional management methods within this repressive organization. What arguments, supported by research, would you use?

Question 50

Differentiate role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload. Provide a concrete example of each.

Question 51

What six organizational factors have been identified as contributing to burnout?

Question 52

Name and describe four types of leadership style. Provide a statement that each type of leader might make as he or she meets with employees.

Question 53

Select any one real organization (e.g. your university) and then elaborate upon any two Community methods for bringing about change to that organization.

Question 54

From a community/organizational viewpoint, how might you deal with a diverse work force?