Deck 13: Organisational Culture and Climate

Question 1

People's perceptions of the physical, social and cultural and environment in which they work best defines:

A) organisational culture.
B) emotional intelligence.
C) organisational climate.
D) social awareness.

Answer 1

organisational climate.

Question 2

The keyholder, the kite, and the kith and kin are features of which conceptual model of organisational success?

A) Theory X
B) Theory Y
C) Keyholder theory
D) Theory K

Answer 2

Theory K

Question 3

Which typology of culture is best defined as one where workers strive to become competent and proficient in each role they occupy?

A) Academy
B) Sports team
C) Club
D) Fortress

Answer 3

Academy

Question 4

Which typology of culture is best defined as a preoccupation with survival and maintaining market share?

A) Academy
B) Sports team
C) Club
D) Fortress

Question 5

Which of the following options is not one of Quinn and McGrath's (1985) cultural types?

A) Academy
B) Adhocracy
C) Clan
D) Hierarchy

Question 6

Typologies of culture:

A) are not useful for classifying different types of organisations.
B) categorise all of the important differences between companies.
C) should not replace a more detailed and systematic analysis of the specific characteristics of each organisation.
D) are popular with proponents of scientific management.

Question 7

When the core values and beliefs of the organisation are widely agreed upon and shared by organisational members and they are followed intensely, it indicates:

A) an intense culture.
B) a weak culture.
C) a strong culture.
D) a shared culture.

Question 8

A subculture that shows general adherence to the fundamental beliefs and values of the overall organisation and influence others to become more committed is called:

A) orthogonal subculture.
B) enhancing subculture.
C) subversive subculture.
D) counterculture subculture.

Question 9

For organisational culture, communication and socialisation represent:

A) maintenance processes.
B) innovation processes.
C) crisis procedures.
D) creation procedures.

Question 10

The expectation that insiders (organisational members) have a clearer understanding of the culture than would an outsider pre-empts:

A) an etic approach to research.
B) an emic approach to research.
C) a culture profile approach to research.
D) all kinds of questionnaire approaches to research.

Question 11

Research typified by the use of structured questionnaires that ask organisational members for their beliefs about the values which are espoused by their organisation is best described as:

A) an etic approach to research.
B) an emic approach to research.
C) anthropological research.
D) psychological research.

Question 12

The culture of any organisation:

A) is not at all affected by national culture.
B) will to some extent be determined by national culture.
C) to a large extent impacts upon national culture.
D) is largely determined by national culture.

Question 13

Uncertainty avoidance is best described as:

A) a fear of all of the aspects of an organisation that are unknowable.
B) the level of uncertainty that a particular negative aspect of organisational culture can be avoided.
C) one of the variables in Hofstede's research at IBM that measured the extent to which people in the society accept or avoid uncertainty in their environment.
D) the opposite of the enjoyment and appreciation of certainty.

Question 14

Which one of the following is not among the variables tested in Hofstede's research at IBM?

A) Certainty avoidance
B) Power distance
C) Time orientation
D) Collectivism versus individualism

Question 15

Which one of the following dimensions was added to Hofstede's model later?

A) Uncertainty avoidance
B) Power distance
C) Time orientation
D) Collectivism versus individualism

Question 16

What major limitation has been suggested for Hofstede's typology?

A) He assumed a unitary culture in each country he studied.
B) He did not survey a sufficient number of people.
C) He made up some of his data.
D) He failed to take into account his own cultural biases.

Question 17

Within a large and complex organisation:

A) there may be an overall collective climate, but also several subclimates.
B) there is no overall collective climate, merely a collection of subclimates.
C) there is no subclimate.
D) subclimates normally outweigh the collective climate.

Question 18

Which of the following are subscales in the Business Organisational Climate Index?

A) Attitudes, values and norms.
B) Power distance, time orientation and uncertainty avoidance.
C) Egalitarianism, future orientation and emotional control.
D) Planning organising, leading and controlling.

Question 19

Organisational climate surveys:

A) may lack evidence of reliability and validity.
B) are always easy to interpret.
C) always draw clear links between climate and other variables.
D) are rarely developed within the organisation.

Question 20

How does organisational culture differ from organisational climate?

Question 21

List and briefly discuss any of the three types of cultural typologies outlined by Robbins et al. (1998).

Question 22

What are the three forms of subculture within organisations identified by Martin and Siehl (1983)?

Question 23

From your perspective, how does organisational culture, via an emphasis on values, influence productivity?

Question 24

How does emic research methodology of assessing culture differ to that of etic method?

Question 25

Compare and contrast incremental and revolutionary culture change.

Question 26

Based on Hofstede's (1980) research of IBM employees, what characteristics differentiate one society from another?

Question 27

According to Kopelman et al. (1990), what are the core dimensions of organisational climate?