Deck 1: An Overview of Organisational Behaviour

Question 1

Organisational behaviour is the study of human behaviour in organizational settings, of the interface between human behaviour and the organisation, and of the organisation itself.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The ability to think in the abstract comes from a manager's conceptual skills.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A system is an interrelated set of elements that function as a whole.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Developing new corporate goals that involve acquiring new businesses is part of the planning function.

Question 5

Interactionalism attempts to explain how people select, interpret and change various situations.

Question 6

Technology is used to transform inputs into outputs.

Question 7

A systems perspective keeps managers focused on material, human, financial and informational inputs.

Question 8

Organisational behaviour is a designated business function just like marketing and accounting.

Question 9

Managers use their interpersonal skills to understand cause-and-effect relationships.

Question 10

Over time, organisational behaviour has gradually shifted from a situational perspective to a universal perspective.

Question 11

The situational perspective is illustrated by the notion that the relationship between workers' skill levels and their performance levels is dependent on their degree of loyalty.

Question 12

The controlling function includes monitoring and correcting the actions of the organisation and its members to keep them directed towards their goals.

Question 13

Cohesiveness can be measured at the individual and organisational levels.

Question 14

Organising is the process of designing jobs, grouping jobs into manageable units, and establishing patterns of authority among jobs and groups of jobs.

Question 15

Leading is the process of setting deadlines and making plans to achieve goals.

Question 16

An organisational system receives inputs from the environment, combines and transforms them, and then returns them to the environment.

Question 17

A manager who pays workers high wages may increase workers' satisfaction, but may also lower important organisation-level outcomes.

Question 18

The organisational system has four basic categories of input from its environment: technological, financial, material and human.

Question 19

Even though humans behave in organisations, such conduct occurs independently of the environment.

Question 20

In organszations, most situations and outcomes are contingent; that is, the precise relationship between any two variables is likely to be dependent on other variables.

Question 21

A manager's ability to develop solutions to problems is determined by her

A) conceptual skills.
B) time-management skills.
C) diagnostic skills.
D) interpersonal skills.
E) technical skills.

Question 22

From a universal perspective, managers try to identify the possible ways to solve problems based on organisational conditions.

Question 23

Planning is the process of

A) designing jobs, grouping jobs into units, and establishing patterns of authority between jobs and units.
B) determining the organisation's desired future position and deciding how best to get there.
C) motivating the organisation's members to work together towards the organisation's goals.
D) monitoring and correcting the actions of the organisation and its members to keep them directed towards their goals.
E) utilising organisational resources with the ultimate goal of attaining organisational goals efficiently and effectively.

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT an important reason for understanding organisational behaviour?

A) Most people are educated in organisations.
B) Government organisations regulate many of our activities.
C) Most adults spend the better part of their lives working in organisations.
D) Organisational behaviour offers specific perspectives on the human side of management.
E) Sole proprietorships are increasingly common for entrepreneurial organisations.

Question 25

Organisational behaviour (OB) typically includes the study of which of the following basic components?

A) Financial reporting
B) Research and development
C) Human behaviour in organisations
D) The task environment
E) Customer retention

Question 26

Evaluating performance and verifying inventory levels are examples of

A) leading.
B) decision-making.
C) organising.
D) planning.
E) controlling.

Question 27

A manager who schedules department meetings to disseminate important information to employees effectively has high

A) interpersonal skills.
B) technical skills.
C) diagnostic skills.
D) conceptual skills.
E) leadership skills.

Question 28

A manager acting in the role of a leader will

A) choose the best resources to produce the organisation's product or service most effectively and efficiently.
B) verify the quality of resources that pass through the organisation.
C) determine how organisational resources will be released in the environment.
D) encourage workers to increase productivity.
E) identify the various suppliers the organisation will utilise to acquire resources.

Question 29

When managers motivate employees with compensation and job opportunity, they are utilising which of the following managerial functions?

A) Synergising
B) Controlling
C) Leading
D) Planning
E) Organising

Question 30

The successful application of organisational behaviour principles can reduce a company's rates of turnover and absenteeism.

Question 31

An engineer who can solve complex mathematical equations on the job has strong

A) interpersonal skills.
B) problem-solving skills.
C) conceptual skills.
D) diagnostic skills.
E) technical skills.

Question 32

All organisational successes and failures result directly from

A) stakeholder management.
B) comprehensive selection and placement.
C) supplier relationships.
D) the behaviours of many people.
E) the dynamics of the reward system of the organisation.

Question 33

The first goal of a consultant hired to solve a problem in an organisation should be to

A) recognise that the organisation has always been this way and that little can be done to change it.
B) learn as much as possible about the organisation and the people within it.
C) generate an action plan, with specific targets and completion dates.
D) focus exclusively on changing the reward system, since everything else depends on it.
E) make sure employees know that the consultant has come to solve the company's problems.

Question 34

Which of the following is one of the specific perspectives of organisational behaviour?

A) People as technology users
B) People as resources
C) People as consumers
D) People as task environments
E) People as financial expenditures

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT a resource category that organisations use in the pursuit of goals and objectives?

A) Human
B) Financial
C) Physical
D) Intangible
E) Information

Question 36

A manager who groups jobs into units and establishes patterns of authority among jobs or groups of jobs is performing which of the following functions of management?

A) Planning
B) Organising
C) Controlling
D) Supervising
E) Leading

Question 37

The study of organisational behaviour (OB) involves both human behaviour and characteristics of organisations, but its principal focus is the external environment that surrounds the organisation.

Question 38

In dealing with the work-related activities of people, managers must have an understanding of all of the following EXCEPT

A) leadership.
B) decision-making.
C) organisational structure and design.
D) organisational culture.
E) the long-term plans of marketplace competitors.

Question 39

Organisational behaviour focuses on the

A) economic side of management.
B) control side of management.
C) human side of management.
D) financial side of management.
E) production side of management.

Question 40

A manager who can see how the various tasks within the organization fit together and how each task contributes towards the 'big picture' has strong

A) problem-solving skills.
B) diagnostic skills.
C) technical skills.
D) conceptual skills.
E) interpersonal skills.

Question 41

According to Michael Porter, to have a competitive advantage, a company must ultimately be able to give customers

A) the best possible product.
B) the best possible service.
C) the best possible price.
D) superior value for their money.
E) everything they want.

Question 42

A __________ is anything that gives an organisation an edge over rivals in attracting customers and defending itself against competition.

A) cultural privilege
B) business bias
C) personal talent
D) competitive advantage
E) monopoly

Question 43

__________ attempts to explain how people select, interpret and change various situations.

A) Interactionalism
B) Contextualism
C) Universalism
D) Individualism
E) Systems theory

Question 44

Under the systems view, the profit that Shoprite receives as a result of the services it provides is one type of

A) technology.
B) output.
C) input.
D) transformation.
E) contingency.

Question 45

John, a middle manager in a high-tech firm, has the ability to identify the products that consumers want to buy, which is based on his

A) diagnostic skills.
B) conceptual skills.
C) technical skills.
D) interpersonal skills.
E) All of these are correct.

Question 46

Under the systems perspective, a system is defined as

A) an interrelated set of elements that functions as a whole.
B) a procedure for fair and impartial performance appraisals.
C) a collection of independent organisations.
D) the central technology of the organisation.
E) the ideal process for completing a particular job.

Question 47

Organisations pursuing a differentiation strategy often try to develop a competitive advantage based on product

A) intervention.
B) integration.
C) invitation.
D) innovation.
E) integrity.

Question 48

A person's __________ is an indicator of his or her efficiency and is measured in terms of the products or services created per unit of output.

A) productivity
B) absenteeism
C) turnover
D) profitability
E) cost-effectiveness

Question 49

Businesses pursuing a __________ strategy focus on a narrow market segment or niche.

A) cost leadership
B) differentiation
C) specialisation
D) growth
E) psychological

Question 50

Which of the following is NOT a source of competitive advantage?

A) Selling the most expensive version of an adequate product
B) Having a well-known brand name
C) Providing the best customer service
D) Being more convenient to buy from
E) Developing a steady stream of innovative products

Question 51

Successful business strategies are grounded in creating and maintaining a competitive advantage that is

A) inflexible.
B) sustainable.
C) volatile.
D) intangible.
E) All of these are correct.

Question 52

Organisations pursuing a __________ strategy strive to be the lowest-cost producer in an industry for a particular level of product quality.

A) cost leadership
B) differentiation
C) specialisation
D) growth
E) self-sabotaging

Question 53

Which of the following is not studied as a group-level outcome in organisational behaviour?

A) Productivity
B) Absenteeism
C) Norms
D) Performance
E) Cohesiveness

Question 54

Organisations pursuing a specialisation strategy often try to develop a competitive advantage based on customer

A) intimidation.
B) integrity.
C) intimacy.
D) integration.
E) immolation.

Question 55

Which of the following perspectives argues that there's 'one best way' to solve a problem that will work for any organisation?

A) The universal perspective
B) Behavioural organisation theory
C) The systems perspective
D) The interactional perspective
E) The contingency perspective

Question 56

All of the following are inputs an organisation receives from its environment EXCEPT

A) money.
B) materials.
C) people.
D) employee behaviours.
E) information.

Question 57

Some outcomes can be studied at the individual, group and organisation levels.Which of the following is generally assessed at both the individual and organisational levels?

A) Absenteeism
B) Financial performance
C) Survival
D) Norms
E) Cohesiveness

Question 58

Which of the following perspectives of management would most likely refute the notion that one style of leadership would enhance employee satisfaction and job performance under any conditions?

A) Situational perspective
B) Classical perspective
C) Behavioural perspective
D) Interactional perspective
E) Universal perspective

Question 59

The systems view is important to managers because it

A) underscores the importance of the organisation's environment.
B) gives them a set procedure for making decisions.
C) allows them to eliminate the interaction among various elements of the organisation.
D) reduces their risk of human error.
E) shifts the focus from outside the company to inside the company.

Question 60

If a company creates and maintains a culture that encourages employees to bring new ideas into the company, it is most likely to be using

A) cost leadership.
B) differentiation.
C) specialisation.
D) growth.
E) sabotage.

Question 61

Deming's __________ cycle of continuous improvement promoted the adoption of fourteen principles to make any organisation efficient and capable of solving almost any problem.

A) plan-do-check-act
B) plan-check-act-do
C) act-do-check-plan
D) act-plan-check-do
E) check-plan-act-do

Question 62

The __________ variable in an experiment is predicted to affect something else.

A) dependent
B) independent
C) co-dependent
D) interdependent
E) measured

Question 63

What is the range of correlations?

A) 0 to 10
B) 1 to 10
C) 0 to 100
D) -10 to 10
E) -1 to 1

Question 64

What is the term for a written prediction specifying expected relationships between certain variables?

A) Hypothesis
B) Theory
C) Prophecy
D) Correlation
E) Statistic

Question 65

The __________ method relies on systematic studies that identify and replicate a result using a variety of methods, samples and settings.

A) philosophical
B) statistical
C) mathematical
D) scientific
E) humanist

Question 66

__________ management is based on the belief that productivity is maximised when organisations are rationalised with precise sets of instructions based on time-and-motion studies.

A) Scientific
B) Sociological
C) Straightforward
D) Strategic
E) Stratospheric

Question 67

A __________ reflects the size and strength of the statistical relationship between two variables.

A) correlation
B) mean
C) mode
D) standard deviation
E) range

Question 68

A __________ is a collection of verbal and symbolic assertions that specify how and why two or more variables are related, and the conditions under which they should and should not relate.

A) hypothesis
B) theory
C) data set
D) fact
E) statistic

Question 69

The __________ effect occurs when people improve some aspect of their behaviour or performance because they know that they are being assessed.

A) Hamilton
B) Henricks
C) Hawthorne
D) Hampton
E) Hoover

Question 70

Which of the following is an example of a hypothesis?

A) Setting a goal will be positively related to the number of products assembled.
B) A researcher found a .8 correlation between goal setting and productivity.
C) Personally, I am more productive when I set goals.
D) I wonder if there is a relationship between goal setting and productivity.
E) There is no way to determine whether goal setting is positively or negatively related to productivity.

Question 71

A researcher hypothesises that the age of employees influences their awareness of diversity.In this example, age is the __________ and diversity awareness is the __________.

A) variable, control
B) theory, correlation
C) correlation, theory
D) independent variable, dependent variable
E) dependent variable, independent variable

Question 72

Which of the following strategies focuses on company expansion, either organically or through acquisitions?

A) Differentiation
B) Cost leadership
C) Specialisation
D) Growth
E) Domination

Question 73

What type of relationship is indicated by a correlation of +0.90?

A) A strong, positive relationship
B) A weak, positive relationship
C) No relationship
D) A weak, negative relationship
E) A strong, negative relationship

Question 74

After World War I, attention shifted away from scientific management to understanding the role of __________ in organisations.

A) managerial corruption
B) law and politics
C) gender and sexual harassment
D) religion and spirituality
E) human factors and psychology

Question 75

Which letter is used to refer to a correlation?

A) r
B) f
C) p
D) n
E) c

Question 76

Decades of research have reinforced some of what many people intuitively believe about organizational behaviour (OB) and identified common misunderstandings.Which of the following questions could NOT be answered as a result of this research into OB?

A) Which goal level will best motivate my employees?
B) How important is employee satisfaction to job performance?
C) Should I seek a promotion with a competing organisation?
D) Is stress always bad?
E) When are different leadership approaches most effective?

Question 77

Maximising the efficiency of the manufacturing or product development process to minimise costs is referred to as

A) managerial skill.
B) business superiority.
C) operational excellence.
D) maintenance strategy.
E) differentiation.

Question 78

Deming felt that, when things go wrong, there is a 94 per cent chance that the __________ rather than the __________ is the cause.

A) user, technology
B) technology, user
C) system, worker
D) worker, system
E) organisation, environment

Question 79

An organisation with a product innovation competitive advantage would likely seek a core workforce of research and development employees who have

A) an entrepreneurial mindset.
B) a shorter-term focus.
C) a low tolerance for ambiguity.
D) conservative values.
E) a high aversion to taking risks.

Question 80

The __________ variable in an experiment is predicted to be affected by something else.

A) dependent
B) independent
C) co-dependent
D) interdependent
E) control