Chapter 1

Which statement is false about organizational behaviour? (slide 3)

- OB studies the influence that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organizations
- Its chief goal is to apply that knowledge toward improving an organizations effectiveness.

Which is not an area of interest in OB? (slide 6)

- Jobs
- Work
- Absenteeism
- Employment turnover
- Productivity
- Human performance
- Management

Which statement is false about managers? (slide 7)

- Managers get things done through other people
- Managers make decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of others to attain goals
- Managers are sometimes called administrators
- Managers perform 4 management functions
o Planning
o Organizing
o Leading
o Controlling

What is planning organizing leading controlling? (slide 8)

- Planning: defining an organizations goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and
developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate activities
- Organizing: determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped,
who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made
- Leading: motivate employees, direct their activities, select the most effective communication channels, and
resolve conflicts among members
- Controlling: monitor the organizations performance and compare it with previously set goals

What is intuition? (slide 9)

- The gut feeling explanation of behaviour

Which discipline does not contribute to the OB field? (slide 12)

- Psychology
- Social psychology
- Sociology
- Anthropology

Fill in the blanks (slide 14)

- OB concepts must reflect situational conditions: contingency variables
- Contingency variables are situational factors that moderate the relationship between two or more variables

Fill in the blank (slide 22)

- Creating a positive work environment can be a competitive advantage
- Positive Organizational Scholarship (positive OB):
o Examines how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock
potential
o Focus is on employee strengths, not their weaknesses
o Reflected best-self asks employees to think about when they were at their personal best in order
to understand how to exploit their strengths
o We all have things at which we are unusually good at, but we often focus only on our limitations
Chapter 2
What is surface level diversity? (slide 5)
- Differences in easily perceived characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not
necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel but that may activate certain stereotypes

What is deep-level diversity? (slide 5)

- Differences in values, personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for
determining similarity as people get to know one another better

Many forms of discrimination what is the definition? (slide 12)

- Discriminatory policies or practices: actions that deny equal opportunity to perform or unequal rewards for
performance
- Sexual harassment: unwanted sexual advances and other verbal, physical conduct of sexual nature that
create a hostile or offensive work environment
- Intimidation: threats or bullying
- Mockery and insults: jokes or negative stereotypes
- Exclusion: left out of opportunities, events, discussions, informal mentoring
- Incivility: disrespectful treatment: aggressive behaviour, interrupting, or ignoring

The older you get, the less likely you are to quit your job. Which one is not a reason that you will stay in your job?
- As workers get older, they have fewer alternative job opportunities as their skills have become more
specialized to certain types of work
- Longer tenure provides higher wages/salary, longer paid vacations, and more attractive pension benefits

Biographical characteristics male/female: do women perform as well as on jobs as men do? (slide 16)
- There are no consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive
drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability
- The glass elevator means men receive faster promotions in many female-dominated occupation
- Working mothers face maternal wall bias which limits their professional opportunities
- Both men and women face discrimination for their family caregiving roles
- Glass ceiling: invisible barrier blocking women and minorities from top management positions

Which one is not a biographical characteristic? (slide 19)

- Tenure: the length of time an employee has worked for their employer
- Religion
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity
- Cultural identity

What is ability? (slide 20)

- Ability is an individuals capacity to perform the various tasks in a job
o 2 sets of factors: they have at their disposal intellectual and physical abilities
- Everyone has strengths and weaknesses that make him or her relatively superior or inferior to others in
performing certain tasks or activities
- The key is using the knowledge that people differ to increase the likelihood an employee will perform his or
her job well

Which statement is not true regarding intellectual ability [and physical abilities]? (slide 21)
- Intellectual abilities
o The abilities needed to perform mental activities
o General Mental Ability (GMA) is a measure of overall intelligence
o Wonderlic Personnel Test: a quick measure of intelligence for recruitment screening
o No correlation between intelligence and job satisfaction
- Physical abilities
o The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics
Which dimension job example duo is incorrect? (slide 23)
Dimension Job example
Number aptitude Accountant
Verbal comprehension Plant manager
Perceptual speed Fire investigator
Inductive reasoning Market researcher
Deductive reasoning Supervisor
Spatial visualization Interior decorator
Memory Salesperson

Nine basic physical abilities (slide 24)

- Dynamic strength
- Trunk strength
- Static Strength
- Extent flexibility
- Dynamic flexibility
- Body coordination
- Balance
- Stamina

Chapter 3
What are the 2 approaches to measure job satisfaction? (slide 13)
- The single global rating is a response to one question, such as all things considered, how satisfied are you
with your job?
(Respondents circle a number between 1 and 5 on a scale from highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied)
- The summation of job facets is more sophisticated
o It identifies key elements in a job such as the nature of the work, supervision, present pay,
promotion opportunities, and relationships with colleagues
(Respondents rate these on a standardized scale, and researchers add the ratings to create an
overall job satisfaction score)

How satisfied are people in their jobs? (slide 15)

- Evidence suggests employees in Western cultures have higher levels of job satisfaction than those in Eastern
cultures
- The highest levels appear in Mexico and Switzerland
o Do employees in these cultures have better jobs? Are they simply more positive and less self-critical?
- The lowest level of satisfaction was for South Korea
o There is a lack of autonomy in the South Korean culture and businesses tend to be rigidly
hierarchical in structure

How satisfied are people in their jobs? (2) (Slide 16)

- Its difficult to discern all of the factors in the scores, but considering if and how businesses are responding
to changes brought on by globalization may give us clues
- The South Korean culture, for instance, is in the midst of a clash between traditional and contemporary
influences
- Businesses that adhere to Confucian values of respect for elders and authority by maintaining centralized
decision-making cannot always compete well with the needed decentralized decision-making processes for
globalization
- Another factor may be the amount of exposure the culture is getting to diverse ways of life
- South Korean has the highest percentage of wireless internet broadband subscriptions of any country (100%
or 100 subscriptions per every 100 people)
- This shows that people have access to worldwide contemporary business practices
What are the causes of job satisfaction? (slide 18)
- A recent European study indicated that job satisfaction is positively correlated with life satisfaction, in that
your attitudes and experiences in life spill over into your job approaches and experiences
- Interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with colleagues outside the workplace are
strongly related to job satisfaction, even after taking into account characteristics of the work itself
- Pay comes up often when people discuss job satisfaction
- For people who are poor or who live in poor countries, pay does correlate with job satisfaction and overall
happiness
- But once an individual reaches a level of comfortable living, the relationship between pay and job
satisfaction virtually disappears
- Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.
o After about 40,000 euros a year, there is no relationship between amount of pay and job satisfaction
- People who earn 80,000 euros are , on average, no happier with their jobs than those who earn closer to
40,000 euros
- Personality can influence job satisfaction
o Negative people are usually not satisfied with their jobs
o Research has shown that people who have positive core self-evaluations (CSEs) - - who believe in
their inner worth and basic competence are more satisfied with their jobs than those with negative
core self-evaluations

What are satisfied employees more likely to do? (slide 24)

- Talk positively about the organization
- Help others
- Go beyond the normal expectations in their job
Maybe because they want to reciprocate their positive experiences

What is the correlation between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction? (slide 25)
- Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
o Satisfied workers provide better customer service
- Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction because
o They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive
o They are less likely to turnover, which helps build long-term customer relationships
o They are experienced
- Dissatisfied customers increase employee job dissatisfaction

Chapter 4
What is affective computing? (slide 3)
- It allows computers to read emotion from facial expressions
- The MIT media lab is currently programming computers to use 24 facial points to infer an emotion

Statements about affective computing (slide 4)

- Employees may not want computers to read their emotions either for their managers or for automatic
feedback
- There are limits to affective computings ability to interpret emotions correctly especially across cultures

What are emotions and moods? (slide 8)

- Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of emotions that people experience, including both
emotions and moods
o Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something
o Moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often happen without a specific event acting as a
stimulus
- Most experts believe emotions are more fleeting than moods
o For example, if someone is rude to you, youll feel angry, but that intense emotion may be gone in a
matter of seconds, but if youre in a bad mood, you can feel bad for hours
How can emotions turn into moods and vice versa? (slide 9)
- Emotions can turn into moods when you lose focus on the event or object that started the feeling
- Good or bad moods can make you more emotional in response to an event

Which on is not a basic emotion? (slide 10)

- Anger
- Fear
- Sadness
- Happiness
- Disgust
- Surprise

Chapter 5
What did Gordon Allport say about defining personality? (slide 6)
- Gordon Allport, a psychologist, said personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment

What are self-reports surveys? (measuring personality) (slide 7)

- Most common
- We evaluate ourselves on a series of factors, such as I worry a lot about the future But we can lie or try
to create a good impression
- When people know their personality scores are going to be used for hiring decisions, they rates themselves
as about half a standard deviation more conscientious and emotionally stable than if they were taking the
test to learn more about themselves

What is the MBTI and how are individuals classified? (slide 10)
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the
world
- It is a 100-question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in situations
- Individuals are classified as:
o Extroverted or Introverted (E/I)
Extraverted individuals are outgoing, social, and assertive
Introverts are quiet and shy
o Sensing or Intuitive (S/N)
Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order and focus on details
Intuitives rely on unconscious processes and look at the big picture
o Thinking or Feeling (T/F)
Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems
Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions
o Judging or Perceiving (J/P)
Judging types want control and prefer order and structure
Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous

The big five model what are the 5 traits? (slide 13)
- The Big Five Model supports the idea that five basic dimensions underlie all others and encompass most of
the significant variation in human personality
- Five Traits:
o Extraversion: our comfort level with relationships
o Agreeableness: our propensity to defer to others
o Conscientiousness: a measure of reliability
o Emotional Stability: a persons ability to withstand stress
o Openness to Experience: our range of interests and fascination with novelty

What trait was highly valued among CEOs? (slide 14)

- Conscientiousness is important to organizational success
What is the dark triad? (slide 18)
- The Big Five are what we call socially desirable, researchers have found three other socially undesirable traits
1. Machiavellianism
2. Narcissism
3. Psychopathy

What are the traits of a person high in Machiavellianism? (slide 19)

- A person high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes ends can justify
the means

What is narcissism? (slide 20)

- Named after Greek myth of Narcissus, a young boy so vain and proud that he fell in love with his own image
- In psychology, narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance
- They require excessive admiration, they have a sense of entitlement, and is arrogant
- Both leaders and managers tend to score higher on narcissism which suggests that a certain
self-centeredness is needed to succeed

What is psychopathy? (slide 21)

- Psychopathy is defined as a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause
harm
- But in OB, psychopathy does not connote insanity
- Psychopathy tries to assess the persons motivation to comply with social norms, willingness to use deceit to
obtain desired ends; impulsivity, and disregard (lack of empathic concern for others)

Fill in the blanks (slide 22)

- Approach and avoidance motivation represent the degree to which we react to stimuli
- Approach motivation is our attraction to positive stimuli
- Avoidance motivation is our aversion to or dislike for negative stimuli
- Competitive pressures invoke both approach motivation (people work harder to win) and avoidance
motivation (people are distracted and demotivated by the fear of losing)

Other personality traits relevant to OB (slide 23)

- The Big Five traits, the Dark Triad, and the Approach-Avoidance Framework are highly relevant to OB
- But they do not exhaust the range of traits that can describe someones personality
- We can look at these powerful predictors of behavior in organizations
1. Core self-evaluations (CSE)
2. Self-monitoring
3. Proactive personality

Myth or science? Zero acquaintance approach (slide 25)

- We can accurately judge individuals personalities a few seconds after meeting them
- Surprisingly, this statement appears to be true
- Research shows that individuals can accurately appraise others personalities only a few seconds after first
meeting them
- This zero acquaintance approach shows that regardless of how you meet, whether you meet in person or
online, the first judgments about the other person are usually correct

What is self-monitoring? (slide 26)

- Self-monitoring describes a persons ability to adjust her behavior to external, situational factors
o High-self monitors show considerable adaptability in adjusting their behavior to external situational
factors
They are highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in varying situations,
sometimes presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private
self
o Low self-monitors show their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation so there is high
behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do
What is proactive personality? (slide 27)
- People with a proactive personality identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until
meaningful changes occur
- A study of 231 Flemish unemployed individuals found that a proactive personality was negatively related to
persistence in job searching
- Proactive people abandoned their job searches sooner
- It may be that proactivity includes knowing when to step back and reconsider alternatives in the face of
failure

Personality and situations: what does research show? (slide 28)

- Research shows that conscientiousness is helpful to the performance of most jobs
- Research also shows that extraversion is related to emergence as a leader in most situations

What is situation strength? (slide 29)

Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the
strength of the situation
By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behaviour
Strong situations pressure us to exhibit the right behavior, show us what that behavior is, and discourage the
wrong behaviour

What is the Trait Activation Theory (TAT)? (slide 30)

Trait Activation Theory (TAT) predicts that some situations, events, or interventions activate a trait more
than others

What are values? (Slide 31)

Values represent basic convictions that "a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or
socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence"
Values contain a judgmental element because they carry an individuals ideas about what is right, good, or
desirable
Values have both content and intensity attributes
o The content attribute says a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important
o The intensity attribute specifies how important it is

How are values established? (slide 32)

Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring
Many of the values we hold are established in our early years by parents, teachers, friends, and others
As children, we are told certain behaviors or outcomes are always desirable or always undesirable, with very
few gray areas
It is this absolute, black or white characteristic of values that ensures stability and endurance

Values are the foundation of what? (slide 33)

Values lay the foundation for our understanding of peoples attitudes and motivation and influence our
perceptions
We start working at a company with preconceived notions of what ought and ought not to be
These notions contain our interpretations of what is right and wrong and our preference for certain
behaviors or outcomes over others
Values cloud objectivity and rationality
They influence attitudes and behaviour

What are terminal and instrumental values? (slide 34)

Terminal values refers to desirable end-states of existence
o These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime
Instrumental values refers to preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving the terminal values
Which one is not an example of terminal value? (slide 35)
A comfortable life (a prosperous life)
An exciting life (stimulating, active life)
A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution)
A world of peace (free of war and conflict)
A world of beauty (beauty of nature and the arts)
Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all)
Family security (taking care of loved ones)
Freedom (independence, free choice)
Happiness (contentedness)

Which one is nor and example of an instrumental value? (slide 36)

Ambitious (hard working, aspiring)
Broad-minded (open-minded)
Capable (competent, efficient)
Cheerful (lighthearted, joyful)
Clean (neat, tidy)
Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)
Forgiving (willing to pardon others)
Helpful (working for the welfare of others)
Honest (sincere, truthful)

What is more important for managers today? (slide 37)

Managers today are less interested in an applicants ability to perform, a specific job than with her flexibility
to meet changing situations and commitment to the organization

What is the personality-job fit theory? (slide 37)

John Holland constructed the personality-job fit theory
He presents 6 personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a position depend
on how well individuals match their personalities to a job

What is the person-organization fit? (slide 40)

People are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values
They leave organizations that are not compatible with their personalities
Using the Big Five terminology:
o People high on extraversion fit well with aggressive and teamoriented cultures
o People high on agreeableness match up better with a supportive organizational climate than one
focused on aggressiveness
o People high on openness to experience fit better in organizations that emphasize innovation rather
than standardization
The fit predicts job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover

What are the international values? (slide 42)

The findings from Geert Hofstedes survey revealed that managers and employees varied on 5 value
dimensions of national culture
1. Power Distance
2. Individualism vs. Collectivism
3. Masculinity vs. Femininity
4. Uncertainty Avoidance
5. Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation
What is power distance? (Slide 43)
Describes the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is
distributed unequally
A high rating on power distance means that large inequalities of power and wealth exist and are tolerated in
the culture
For example, in a class or caste system that discourages upward mobility

What is masculinity vs. femininity? (slide 44)

The degree to which the culture favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control,
as opposed to viewing men and women as equals
A high masculinity rating indicates the culture has separate roles for men and women, with men dominating
the society
A high femininity rating means the culture sees little differentiation between male and female roles and
treats women as the equals of men in all respects

What is uncertainty avoidance? (slide 44)

The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations defines their
uncertainty avoidance
In cultures that score high on uncertainty avoidance, people have an increased level of anxiety about
uncertainty and ambiguity
o They use laws and controls to reduce uncertainty
People in cultures low on uncertainty avoidance are more accepting of ambiguity, less rule oriented, take
more risks, and more readily accept change

What is long-term vs short-term orientation? (slide 45)

This measures a societys devotion to traditional values
People in a culture with a long-term orientation look to the future and value thrift, persistence, and tradition
In a short-term orientation, people value the here and now, they accept change more readily, and do not see
commitments as impediments to change

Chapter 7
How do you define motivation? (slide 3)
- The processes that account for an individuals intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining
a goal specifically, an organizational goal
- Three key elements:
o Intensity how hard a person tries
o Direction effort that is channelled toward, and consistent with, organizational goals.
o Persistence how long a person can maintain effort

What are the early theories of motivation? (slide 4)

- These early theories may not be valid, but they do form the basis for contemporary theories and are still
used by practicing managers
o Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Alderfers ERG (Existence, Relatedness, and Growth)
o McGregors Theory X and Theory Y
o Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory
o McClellands Theory of Needs
Maslows hierarchy of needs (slide 5)
- There is a hierarchy of five needs; as each need is substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant.
- Levels:
o Self-Actualization
o Esteem
o Social Higher order
o Safety Lower Order
o Physiological
- Assumptions
o Individuals cannot move to the next higher level until all needs at the current (lower) level are
satisfied.
o Must move in hierarchical order.

McGregors theory x and theory y (slide 7)

- Theory X
o Workers have little ambition
o Dislike work
o Avoid responsibility
- Theory Y
o Workers are self-directed
o Enjoy work
o Accept responsibility

Recognize all the needs of McClellands three needs theory (slide 10)
- Need for Achievement (nAch)
o The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed
- Need for Power (nPow)
o The need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise
- Need for Affiliation (nAff)
o The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships
- People have varying levels of each of the three needs
o Hard to measure

Lockes goal-setting theory (slide 14)

- Basic Premise:
o That specific and difficult goals, with self-generated feedback, lead to higher performance.
- Difficult Goals:
o Focus and direct attention
o Energize the person to work harder
o Difficulty increases persistence
o Force people to be more effective and efficient
- Relationship between goals and performance depends on:
o Goal commitment (the more public the better!)
o Task characteristics (simple, well-learned)
o Culture (best match is in North America)