Questions and Answers of Organizational Behaviour And Management

What is leadership and what does it mean for a leader to be “effective”? LO7
What traits and characteristics are related to leader emergence and leader effectiveness? LO7
What two dimensions capture most of the day-to-day leadership behaviours in which leaders engage?LO7
How does transformational leadership differ from transactional leadership, and which behaviours set it apart?LO7
How does leadership affect job performance and organizational commitment? LO7
Can leaders be trained to be more effective?LO7
Can you think of any “dark sides” to transformational leadership? What might they be? LO7
Do you think GM can outduel the technology companies for safe autonomous driving vehicles? LO7
Would you consider Mary Barra to be the prototypical transformational leader? In what ways does she fit or not fit that model? LO7
Given GM’s history, why does Barra put a premium on her executives’ leadership behaviours? LO7
Imagine that a space alien has descended to Earth and actually uttered the famous line “Take me to your leader!” Having read a bit about leadership, your group knows that leaders come in a number
Share the thoughts you’ve jotted down in your groups, going from member to member, with each person describing what “leadership” means for the given types of leaders. LO7
Once all these thoughts about the various types of leaders have been shared, think about whether certain traits, styles, or behaviours are universal across all the types. For example, maybe all of
Elect a group member to write the group’s four universals and four challenges on the board. LO7
Class discussion (in groups or as a class) should centre on whether the theories described in the chapter discuss some of the leadership universals identified by the groups. Are there theories that
What is organizational culture, and what are its components? LO5
What general and specific types can be used to describe an organization’s culture? LO5
What makes a culture strong, and is it always good for an organization to have a strong culture? LO5
How do organizations maintain their culture? LO5
Can organizational culture change? How does change happen? LO5
What is person–organization fit and how does it affect job performance and organizational commitment? LO5
What steps can organizations take to make sure that newcomers will fit with their culture? LO5
Have you or a family member ever worked for an organization with a strong culture? If so, what made it strong? Did you or they enjoy working there? What do you think led to that conclusion? LO5
Is it possible for an employee to have personal values that are inconsistent with the values of the organization? If so, how is this inconsistency likely to affect the employee’s behaviour and
How can two companies in the same industry with very different cultures both be successful?Shouldn’t one company’s culture automatically be a better fit for the environment? LO5
Imagine what the Canada Revenue Agency’s culture must be like. Where do these impressions come from? Do you think your impressions are accurate? What might make them inaccurate? LO5
Think about the last job you started. What unique things might companies do to reduce the reality shock new employees encounter?Are these methods likely to be expensive? LO5
Why is an organization’s culture perhaps the most evident during crisis situations? LO5
What causes companies like Delta and United to become so different in regard to organizational culture? LO5
What will it take for United to overcome a culture that has been built up over such a long period of time? LO5
Using the table below, consider the observable artifacts that transmit the organizational culture of your university. LO5 Symbols Physical structures Language Stories Rituals Ceremonies Think about
Consider the sorts of values listed in Table 15-3.If you consider the symbols, physical structures, language, stories, rituals, and ceremonies identified in question 1, what core values seem to
What are the five general team types and their defining competencies? LO4
What are the three general types of team interdependence? LO4
What factors are involved in team composition? LO4
What are the types of team diversity and how do they influence team functioning? LO4
What are taskwork and teamwork processes, and what are some examples of team activities that fall into these process categories? LO4
What are team states, and what are some examples of the states that fall into this process category? LO4
How do team characteristics and processes affect team performance and team commitment? LO4
What steps can organizations take to improve team processes? LO4
In which types of teams have you worked?Were these teams consistent with the team types discussed in this chapter, or were they a combination of types? LO4
Think of a team you worked in that performed poorly. Were any of the causes of the poor performance related to the forces that tend to create process loss? If so, which force was most particularly
Which team processes do you believe are most important to the crew of astronauts travelling to Mars? Why? Are there specific team processes you feel are relatively unimportant? Explain. LO4
Discuss how team training could be used to build effective processes for the crew travelling to Mars. LO4
Your professor will supply you with the materials you need to create your final product: as many paper airplanes as you can fold to quality standards in three five-minute rounds. Instructions for
Your group is the complete workforce for the Paper Plane Corporation. The company, established in 1943, has led the market in paper plane production. Presently under new management, the company is
In the first round of the airplane manufacturing process, you have been asked to focus on individuality.Each Paper Plane worker should manufacture his or her own planes from start to finish.When each
In the second round of manufacturing, you have been asked to give each worker a specific job. In other words, the manufacturing process will take place in an assembly-line fashion. When planes come
In the final round of manufacturing, your team has been asked to devise a manufacturing process that will maximize both efficiency and effectiveness.You may do whatever you like in terms of creating
What is trust, and how does it relate to justice and ethics? LO8
In what three sources can trust be rooted? LO8
What dimensions can be used to describe the trustworthiness of an authority?LO8
What dimensions can be used to describe the fairness of an authority’s decision making?LO8
What is the four-component model of ethical decision making?LO8
How does trust affect job performance and organizational commitment? LO8
What steps can organizations take to become more trustworthy? LO8
Putting yourself in the shoes of a manager, which of the four justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, informational) would you find it most difficult to maximize? Which would be
In terms of the four-component model of ethical decision making, what effect did Blackfish seem to have on the public as it altered its views of SeaWorld’s theatrical orca shows? LO8
If you consider the various moral principles described in Table 8-5, is there support for ending theatrical orca shows but not ending theatrical dolphin or sea lion shows? LO8
Activist groups like PETA exist, in part, to force companies to become more ethical in their practices.Looking back across decades, has that seemed to happen? What role does (or should)government
Read the following scenario:Alex Grant recently graduated from university and is excited to be starting his first job as a store manager for The Grocery Cart, a large supermarket chain. The company
As a manager, what steps should Alex take to reduce employee theft? Come up with three ideas. Elect a group member to write these ideas on the board or on a transparency. LO8
Now read the following scenario: LO8 When Alex arrived for his first day of work in his new store, he saw that Drew was in the process of terminating an employee (Rudy Johnson) who had been caught
Class discussion (whether in groups or as a class)should centre on whether the theft that’s occurring at The Grocery Cart reveals a problem of moral awareness, moral judgment, or moral intent. LO8
What is learning, and how does it affect decision making? LO2
What types of knowledge can employees gain as they learn and build expertise? LO2
What are the methods by which employees learn in organizations? LO2
What two methods can employees use to make decisions? LO2
What decision-making problems can prevent employees from translating their learning into accurate decisions?LO2
How does learning affect job performance and organizational commitment?LO2
What steps can organizations take to foster learning? LO2
What does the term “expert” mean to you?What exactly do experts do that novices don’t? LO2
Given your background, which of the decisionmaking biases listed in the chapter do you most struggle with? What could you do to overcome those biases to make more accurate decisions?LO2
How does the organization facilitate learning of tacit knowledge? LO2
What kind of decision is Sandi currently faced with? What kind of information should she consider?What are the risks that may lead to a poor choice? What do you think she will do? LO2
What kind of decision is Sandi currently faced with? What kind of information should she consider? LO2 What are the risks that may lead to a poor choice? What do you think she will do?theatre, you
Your instructor will give you the correct answer to each problem. LO2
Class discussion, whether in groups or as a class, should focus on the following questions: How accurate were the descriptions you reached?What decision-making problems were evident in the decisions
What is job performance? LO6
What is task performance? LO6
How do organizations identify the behaviours that underlie task performance? LO6
What is citizenship behaviour? LO6
What is counterproductive behaviour? LO6
How can organizations use job performance information to manage employee performance? LO6
Describe the job you currently hold or hope to hold after graduation. Now look that job up in the National Occupational Classification (NOC)database (www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC); also try looking up the
Describe a job in which citizenship behaviours would be especially critical to an organization’s functioning, and one in which citizenship behaviours would be less critical. What is it about
Figure 2-3 classifies production deviance and political deviance as more minor in nature than property deviance and personal aggression.When might those “minor” types of counterproductive
Consider how you would react to 360-degree feedback. If you were the one receiving the feedback, whose views would you value most: your manager’s or your peer’s? If you were asked to assess a
How well do you think that Jack Welch’s performance review system evaluated employee job performance (as we have defined it in this chapter)?Which specific dimensions of job performance do you
Describe advantages of the PD@GE app as a means of evaluating employee job performance. LO6
Describe disadvantages of the PD@GE app.Explain why managers with longer tenure at GE may have doubts about the effectiveness of the PD@GE app? What could be done to alleviate potential concerns? LO6
Conduct a job analysis for a restaurant server.Begin by drawing a circle like the one shown.Use that circle to summarize the major job EXERCISE • Performance of a Server dimensions of a restaurant
Take a look at the resulting list. Did you come up with any behaviours that might be described as “citizenship behaviours”? If you didn’t include any in your list, does that mean citizenship
Take another look at your list. Did you come up with any behaviours that might be described as counterproductive? If you didn’t include any in your list, does that mean counterproductive behaviour
Class discussion (whether in groups or as a class)should centre on how a restaurant owner or manager might use the resulting list to evaluate the performance of restaurant servers. How might this
What is personality? What are cultural values? What is ability? LO9
What are the “Big Five” factors of personality? LO9
What taxonomies can be used to describe cultural values? LO9
What are the various types of cognitive ability? LO9
What are the various types of emotional ability? LO9

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