Deck 14: Organizational Culture

Question 1

Shared assumptions are easily uncovered by surveying employees.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Values represent an important invisible part of an organization's culture.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Values represent the deepest part of an organization's culture.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Organizational culture consists of the values and assumptions shared within an organization.

Question 5

Artifacts refer mainly to the paintings and other tangible objects that appear throughout the organization.

Question 6

Organizational culture models and surveys present a distorted view of organizational culture.

Question 7

Organizational countercultures can potentially create conflict and dissension among employees.

Question 8

An organization's culture is defined by its espoused values.

Question 9

Most organizational culture models oversimplify the diversity of cultural values in organizations.

Question 10

An organization's culture is usually quite fuzzy and difficult to define using simple models and surveys.

Question 11

Organizational countercultures further strengthen the organization's dominant culture.

Question 12

Artifacts of organizational culture may include the building's design,the way people are greeted,and the food served in the company's cafeteria.

Question 13

Organizational countercultures can potentially help the organization maintain its ethical conduct.

Question 14

Organizational culture defines what is important and unimportant in the company and,consequently,directs everyone in the organization toward the "right way" of doing things.

Question 15

An organizational counterculture is a type of subculture.

Question 16

Subcultures are groups of employees whose values are opposed to the organization's dominant values.

Question 17

Organizational cultures include shared assumptions.

Question 18

The most accurate way to determine an organization's culture is by interviewing senior executives about their perceptions of that culture.

Question 19

Popular organizational culture models and measures falsely presume that organizations have a fairly clear,unified culture.

Question 20

Organizational culture is not represented by espoused values.

Question 21

Organizational stories support organizational culture by providing social prescriptions of the ways things should or should not be done around the organization.

Question 22

Stories have the greatest effect on communication corporate culture when they describe real people and are assumed to be true.

Question 23

Office space and paintings hung on walls can be artifacts that symbolize the organization's culture.

Question 24

Companies with strong corporate cultures invariably have much higher performance than companies with weak cultures.

Question 25

The organization's physical structure and use of space often communicate its dominant cultural values.

Question 26

The stronger the corporate culture,the more difficult it is for employees to embrace the dominant values.

Question 27

Organizational culture is a deeply embedded form of social control that influences the thoughts and actions of organizational members.

Question 28

Ceremonies are more formal artifacts than rituals.

Question 29

A strong organizational culture improves the firm's effectiveness,but only if the cultural values are aligned with its external environment.

Question 30

A strong corporate culture exists when employees are forced to abide by a particular set of organizational values whether or not they believe in those values.

Question 31

Organizational stories are most effective at communicating corporate culture when they describe real people and seem to represent true past events.

Question 32

A strong corporate culture bonds employees together and makes them feel part of the organization.

Question 33

In corporate cults,the culture is so strong that it focuses employees so much on one mental model that they may fail to see issues from different perspectives.

Question 34

Language reflects an organization's dominant values,but not the values of its subcultures.

Question 35

Researchers have found that an organization's culture may be identified very easily and quickly by looking at one or two observable artifacts.

Question 36

Organizational culture is not directly observable,but it may be loosely interpreted through visible artifacts.

Question 37

A strong organizational culture exists when most employees understand and accept the dominant values.

Question 38

Rituals represent the organization's deliberate and usually dramatic displays of its dominant culture.

Question 39

Companies with strong organizational cultures are potentially more effective.

Question 40

A ritual would include how visitors are greeted as they enter the company's offices.

Question 41

Organizations with very strong cultures may become dysfunctional because they suppress dissenting subcultural values.

Question 42

Two companies should not merge if a bicultural audit determines that they have substantially different cultures.

Question 43

Organizations with adaptive cultures are unable to maintain a stable value system and,consequently,tend to perform poorly in the long run.

Question 44

A few experts argue that an organization's culture cannot be managed.

Question 45

The company founder is arguably the most influential leader in an organization's culture.

Question 46

Most organizational behaviour writers suggest that organizations are more effective when they become corporate cults.

Question 47

Deculturation is the best strategy for combining corporate cultures in most mergers.

Question 48

One of the first steps in a bicultural audit is to identify cultural differences between the merging companies.

Question 49

Studies suggest that only 30 to 50 percent of corporate acquisitions add any financial value.

Question 50

Adaptive cultures focus employees on the changing needs of customers and other stakeholders and support initiative and leadership to keep pace with these changes.

Question 51

The bicultural audit process consists of three steps.

Question 52

The assimilation strategy of merging corporate cultures should be applied when the acquired firm has a weak culture and is willing to embrace the acquiring company's culture.

Question 53

The integration strategy for combining corporate cultures usually creates conflict as employees from the acquired firm resist the cultural intrusions.

Question 54

Compared to other strategies for merging two organizations,assimilation is most likely to result in a culture clash.

Question 55

In mergers and acquisitions,companies with clashing cultures tend to undermine employee performance and customer service.

Question 56

The separation strategy is most appropriate when the merging companies are unrelated industries.

Question 57

An adaptive organizational culture is one where employees pay attention to organizational goals,not the processes to achieve those goals.

Question 58

Corporate cults are preferred,because they help suppress subcultures within organizations.

Question 59

An adaptive culture has a strong learning orientation.

Question 60

An organization's culture can either support or undermine ethical conduct among employees.

Question 61

Organizational socialization is the process of meeting other employees and spending more time with them throughout the work day.

Question 62

The two types of psychological contracts are transactional and reciprocal.

Question 63

The three stages of organizational socialization are psychological contract,confirmation,and role management.

Question 64

Organizational socialization begins on the first day of employment and continues throughout one's career within the company.

Question 65

The attraction-selection-attrition (ASA)theory explains why companies are able to attract,and select people who fit the culture,but later on have difficulty forcing them out.

Question 66

The transactional type of psychological contract is primarily a short-term economic exchange.

Question 67

A psychological contract refers to the psychological effect after someone signs an employment contract.

Question 68

Reality shock improves the organizational socialization process by forcing newcomers to pay more attention to the realities of the workplace.

Question 69

Every organization should discourage "tribal storytellers" since they are typically unproductive workers.

Question 70

Employees are more likely to quit if values incongruence is sufficiently low.

Question 71

Organizational socialization does not occur until a person becomes a member of the organization.

Question 72

Organizational citizenship behaviours are more likely to prevail under relational than transactional psychological contracts.

Question 73

The psychological contract continues to develop and evolve even after a job applicant becomes an employee.

Question 74

Companies strengthen corporate culture by selecting applicants whose values are compatible with the company's dominant values.

Question 75

Most studies have found that reward systems have little or no effect on strengthening corporate culture.

Question 76

Nearly all of the socialization adjustment process occurs during and after the first day of work.

Question 77

Organizational socialization is a process of both learning and adjustment.

Question 78

According to the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA)theory,alignment with the company's culture is often a factor when deciding which applicant to hire.

Question 79

A strong culture depends on a stable workforce.

Question 80

New employees learn corporate culture through the process of organizational socialization.