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|Question 4 | |A common refrain among executives is “People are our most important asset. ” Relate this statement to any two of the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness | |presented ion this chapter. Does this statement apply better to some perspectives than to others? Why or why not? | |Click For Answer | Answer 4 | |This is an open discussion question because the statement can relate to all four perspectives of organizational effectiveness. | | Open systems probably the least focus on employees of the four perspectives. People represent the internal subsystems of organizations, so are vital in that respect. | |Some employees are also “boundary spanners” in that they link the organization to the external environment. | Organizational learning these perspective views employees as reasonably important because they hold a large portion of intellectual capital (human capital and | |possibly some forms of relationship capital). People bring knowledge into the organization and are largely responsible for sharing that knowledge. Knowledge use is | |also ultimately a human endeavor. | | High performance work practices arguably the perspective that views people (employees) as the most critical resource. HPWPs embrace the human capital model; they | |consider employees competitive advantage.
HPWPs are practices to leverage or unleash the competitive advantage potential of employees. | | Stakeholder Employees are one type of stakeholder, so the statement applies to this perspective. It recognizes that employees have a vested interest in the | |organization and its actions. | |Question 5 | | | |Corporate social responsibility is one of the hottest issues in corporate boardrooms these days, partly ecause it is becoming increasingly important to employees | |and other stakeholders. In your opinion, why have stakeholders given CSR more attention recently? Does abiding by CSR standards potentially cause companies to have | |conflicting objectives with some stakeholders in some situations? | |Click For Answer | |Answer 5 | |These questions are open to speculation and debate.
Some might argue that increasing affluence allows society to raise the bar on companies by demanding more than a | |living wage. Others might point out that environmental problems (e. g. global warming) may have raised awareness of corporate roles in the triple bottom line. Still | |others might suggest that globalization has brought developed world companies closer to people in poverty and countries in need of better health standards. | | Students may also point to corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom as being responsible for bringing the issue to the forefront of public discourse.
Other | |reasons include the preference of stakeholders wanting to be associated with organizations that are deemed socially responsible. This preference has not gone | |unnoticed in corporate boardrooms. A growing number of companies are equating social responsibility with increased profitability. As a result, they are changing the | |way they do business. They reason that CSR can be leveraged as a competitive advantage in the market. | | Regarding the conflicting objectives, many students would agree.
After all, the textbook states that companies can’t satisfy all stakeholders because there are | |limited resources and stakeholders have conflicting goals. But some corporate leaders have suggested that there is less conflict then assumed. They particularly | |believe that satisfying communities and the environment ultimately satisfies the needs of shareholders and employees. | Question 3 Research has found strong evidence that heredity has a strong influence on an individual’s personality. What are the implications of this in organizational settings? Answer 3
There are a number of issues that student might and should raise in response to this question. First, the strong effect of heredity suggests that applicant selection is an important way to improve job performance and employee well being (by ensuring their work matches their personality). Although we might try to change an employees style of behavior, their inherent style is strongly determined already. This is why many companies refer to “hire e for attitude, train for skill” A second implication is that training for some types of behavior (fun oriented, detailed, talkative, etc. might be less successful than employer assume. It would be better to transfer people into jobs that more closely match their personality. [pic] [pic]Question 4 Suppose that you give all candidates applying for a management trainee position a personality test that measures the five dimensions in the five? factor model. Which personality traits would you consider to be the most important for this type of job? Explain your answer. Answer 4 The textbook provides some information to help students answer this question.
First, conscientiousness and emotional stability (low neuroticism) are important because they best predict individual performance in almost every job group. Both are motivational components of personality because they energize a willingness to fulfill work obligations within established rules (conscientiousness) and to allocate resources to accomplish those tasks (emotional stability). Various studies have reported that conscientious employees set higher personal goals for themselves, are more motivated, and have higher performance expectations than do employees with low levels of conscientiousness.
They also tend to have higher levels of organizational citizenship and work better in organizations that give employees more freedom than in traditional “command and control” workplaces. The other important personality dimension is extroversion, because it is associated with performance in sales and management jobs, where employees must interact with and influence people. One or more other personality dimensions might also be relevant to management trainees, but these three stand out. Question 5
An important aspect of self concept is the idea that almost everyone engages in self enhancement. What problems tend to occur in organizations as a result of this self enhancement phenomenon? What can organizational leaders do to make use of a person’s inherent drive for self enhancement? Answer 5 Self enhancement refers to the notion that human beings are inherently motivated to promote and protect a self view of being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, valued, etc. The textbook describes one problem with self enhancement, namely that it can undermine decision making.
For example, self enhancement causes managers to overestimate the probability of successful in investment decisions, such as acquiring another company. Student might also infer other problems with self enhancement, such as perceptual biases (less likely to notice problems), competition with other employees, and morale and motivation problems (not everybody is above average! ). The second question offers an open discussion of strategies to leverage the motivation of self concept and, in particular, self enhancement.
In other words, how can we make people feel good about themselves at work in ways that motivates them and improves their well being? One suggestion might be person job fit put employees in jobs for which they are qualified and enjoy the type of work activity. Another idea is to focus on the employee’s strengths, rather than shortcomings, in performance feedback. Leadership style is a third approach. Great leaders treat every employee as an individual; when they interact with people, they treat that person as the focus of their attention. CHP 4 |Question 2 |”Emotional intelligence is more important than cognitive intelligence in inCluencing an individual’s success. ” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support | |your perspective. | | | |Click For Answer | |Answer 2 | |Many students may argue that to be successful, an individual requires high IQ (cognitive intelligence).
Although cognitive intelligence is important, many | |organizations are recognizing that EI (emotional intelligence) is a critical competency for the performance of most jobs. To effectively work in dynamic, team oriented| |environments, employees require the ability to manage, understand, assimilate and express emotions effectively. | |At the same time, some popular experts on emotional intelligence may have overstated the importance of this concept. They initially concluded that EI is much more | |important than cognitive intelligence, but critique from other experts led to more moderate statements today.
The relative importance of EI and IQ will continue to be | |debated, but they are both highly important. A key point as well is that EI and IQ are important in different ways. For instance, EI may be less important than IQ in | |individual decision making, whereas EQ may be more important than IQ for tasks requiring interpersonal activities. | | | [pic] |[pic]Question 4 | |”Happy employees create happy customers. Explain why this statement might be true, and identify conditions in which it might not be true. | |Click For Answer | |Answer 4 | |There are two main reasons why employee job satisfaction positively affects customer service. | | | |(a) Job satisfaction affects an employee’s general mood.
Employees who are in a good mood are more likely to display positive emotions which in turn positively affect| |the customer’s mood and experience. | | | |(b) Satisfied employees are more likely to stay with the organization and longer service employees tend to have more skills and experience to better serve customers. | |In addition, some customers build loyalty to any employee, not the organization, so retaining these employees maintains customer loyalty. | | |The textbook does not describe conditions where the employee customer profit chain link may be weak, but students can creatively speculate at such circumstances. | | | |(a) One consideration is the extent to which customers require personal interaction with employees. We typically refer to customers service situations (e. g. retail, | |restaurants, airlines) when pointing out how happy employees result in happy customers.
However, if customers mainly interact with the company through impersonal | |means (such as the internet), then the effect of employee satisfaction may be much less pronounced. | | | |(b) A second contingency of the employee customer profit chain link | [pic] |Question 5 | |What factors influence an employee’s organizational loyalty? |Click For Answer | |Answer 5 | |Organizations can do a variety of things to create an environment where employees are more likely to Demonstrate loyalty to the organization: | | | |? Treat employees with fairness, courtesy, forgiveness and moral integrity Support employee well being | |?
Avoid layoffs and threats of layoffs | | | |? Ensure that employee values are aligned with company values (such as through careful selection and socialization). | | | |? Keep employees informed about what is happening in the company and connected to other co workers – Involve employees in decision making | |?
Trust employees and ensure leaders are trustworthy | | | [pic] |Question 2 | |Learned needs theory states that needs can be strengthened or weakened. How might a company strengthen the achievement needs of its management team? | |Click For Answer | Answer 2 | |McClelland’s learned needs theory identifies three needs. However, this question requires students to focus only on the need for achievement (nAch) and describe how it| |could be reinforced. | |This theory holds that needs can be strengthened via reinforcement, learning and social conditions. Therefore, answers should address these strategies in a workplace | |setting. A typical answer might approximate the following: | |Provide training.
The company could develop training programs where trainees write achievement-oriented stories, or practice achievement-oriented behaviors in various | |types of simulations. They could also learn how to develop and write achievement plans. | |Provide Reinforcement. Employees could be encouraged to engage in more achievement- oriented behaviors, if the company provided a combination of effective feedback and| |recognition. The recognition could take the form of awards, praise, time off, or monetary incentives. | |Social conditions.
The company could strive to establish an environment where achievement is celebrated by supervisors, and peers. Some group incentives for reaching | |certain objectives could be put in place to socialize success among groups of employees. | | | [pic] [pic] |Question 6 | |Using your knowledge of the characteristics of effective goals, establish two meaningful goals related to your performance in this class. |Click For Answer | |Answer 6 | |Six conditions to maximize task effort and performance are identified. Effective goals should reflect each of the following elements. | |Specific. A specific goal communicate precise outcome expectations Relevant. Relates to the individual’s role and is within his/her control | |Challenging.
Goal that is challenging enough to stretch the employee’s abilities and motivation toward peak performance | |Goal commitment. Commitment exists to accomplishing the goal | |Goal participation. Individual (sometimes) participates in setting the goal | |Students should be encouraged to write draft goal statements and then working in small groups or with a partner, refine their draft goal statements to ensure each of | |the above criteria are applied.
Each goal statement needs to reflect the individual’s current level of performance, knowledge etc. For example, what is challenging to| |one student may be unattainable, therefore, de-motivating to another student. | [pic] [pic] |Question 8 | |Organizational injustice can occur in the classroom as well as in the workplace. Identify classroom situations in which you experienced feelings of injustice. What | |can instructors do to maintain an environment that fosters both distributive and procedural justice? |Click For Answer | |Answer 8 | |There should be no shortage of discussion here. Feelings of inequity seem to develop easily in evaluative settings (such as a course where student grades have value | |for receiving degrees and scholarships). One common complaint we often hear about from students who receive a low grade on an exam, case, or other assignment is that | |they “worked hard deer than many other students” on the assignment.
Although you might point out that the grade is based on results, not effort, some students still | |feel as sense of inequity. Their outcome/input ratio considers amount of time, so inequity occurs when their comparison other receives a higher grade with less time. | |Another source of inequity occurs when some students successfully bypass the limitations of an assignment. The author recently experienced this with a case analysis | |that had a seven page limit. The assignment clearly stated that the case write-up must be double-spaced and use normal font size and margins.
Some students complained| |because they saw others successfully use a IO-point font, which gave them more words to answer the case questions. The offending students claimed this was their | |”normal” font size whereas others said it wasn’t. (Microsoft’s default is 12-point New Times Roman. ) A couple of students also successfully shrunk the line spacing | |slightly less than double-spacing. The complaining students felt this was unfair, claiming that they could have received a higher grade if they could have written | |more words. |In conclusion, it is important that instructors maintain an environment that fosters both distributive and procedural justice in order to enhance students’ | |motivation. Instructors need to ensure that students believe that the evaluation process is fair. Instructors may require training and development to understand how | |to develop and apply objective grading rubrics for assessing student assignments and exams. Instructor development and coaching may be needed to develop behaviors | |associated with procedural justice e. g. exhibiting a supportive demeanor, giving students some control over process etc. CHP 8 |Question 1 | | Informal groups exist in almost every form of social organization. What types of informal groups exist in your classroom? Why are students motivated to belong to | |these informal groups? | |Click For Answer | |Answer 1 | |Students should identify several types of informal groups in the classroom, depending on the characteristics of this class.
Perhaps a few students share a ride to | |class or, at least, talk to each other on public transit systems. Other students go together for lunch or other meals. A few students might have gone through high | |school together and meet occasionally. Some students participate in sports activities after school or are part of college student groups. If students have difficulty | |thinking of informal groups, the instructor might begin with the question: “How many people in this room knew at least one other person before this class first met? | |From there, the instructor might ask whether these people meet outside class in any way. | |The second part of this question relates to the reasons why informal groups exist. These include: (1) to fulfill relatedness needs, (2) social identity, (3) to | |achieve nonwork goals, and (4) to receive social support that relieves stress. For example, some students gather for a snack during class break or after class simply | |because they enjoy each other’s company. For social identity, some people like to belong to groups that are popular or respected, such as college sports teams.
Some | |informal groups fulfill nonwork goals, such as providing transportation to get to class. Lastly, some people are part of informal groups during stressful times. The | |instructor might note how students hang around together both immediately before and after a difficult final examination. | [pic] |Question 2 | |The late management guru Peter Drucker said: “The now? fashionable team in which everybody works with everybody on everything from the beginning rapidly is becoming a| |disappointment. Discuss three problems associated with teams. | |Click For Answer | |Answer 2 | |The textbook describes the following troubles with teams: | | | |Teams aren’t always necessary. Companies tend to use teams as a solution to every problem that may exist. Yet some tasks are more effectively completed by individuals | |rather than teams. | | |Process losses. Teams have costs beyond employees working alone. In particular, they require resources for team development and maintenance. Thus, we need to determine| |the cost benefits of teams rather than assume they incur similar costs as individuals. | | | |Social loaning. Teams bring the problem of social loafing. Individuals tend to put forth less effort in certain team settings than when working individually. | | [pic] |Question 1 | |Why is it important for top executives to value and support leadership demonstrated at all levels in an organization? | | Click For Answer | |Answer 1 | |Emerging views of leadership support the idea that leadership needs to be developed at all levels of an organization.
In a recent study, only 8 percent of executives | |in large firms indicated their organizations had enough leadership. Effective leaders are responsible and their success may be determined, by their ability to teach | |and empower employees to take leadership roles. In increasingly dynamic, team-based organizations, an organization’s competitive success may be determined by | |employees’ ability to understand the business environment and take action consistent with organizational goals.
Characteristics associated with leadership such as | |self-confidence, emotional intelligence, integrity are increasingly being used by organizations to select employees for positions at all levels within an organization| |(not just management and executive positions). | [pic] [pic] |Question 5 | |Transformational leadership is currently the most popular perspective of leadership. However, it is far from perfect. Discuss the limitations of transformational | |leadership. |Click For Answer | |Answer 5 | |Circular definition of effective leadership. One problem with the transformational leadership perspective is that some researchers define this concept in terms of the| |leader’s success. They suggest that leaders are transformational when they successfully bring about change, rather than whether they engage in certain behaviors we | |call transformational.
This is circular logic, because it means that all successful leaders use the transformational style. Universal approach to leadership. The | |transformational leadership model still implies a universal rather than contingency approach to leadership. Only very recently have writers begun to explore the idea | |that transformational leadership is more appropriate or effective in some situations than others. For example, it may be less effective in some cultures. | |Cross-cultural relevance. Implicit in the discussion about the universal nature of transformational leadership is the notion that it applies across cultures.
Yet we | |know that leadership includes behaviors and communication styles that might be inconsistent with some cultures. However, preliminary evidence suggests that | |transformational leadership is applicable across cultures. | |Question 2 | |Some people suggest that the most effective organizations have the strongest cultures. What do we mean by the “strength” of organizational culture, and what possible| |problems are there with a strong organizational culture? |Click For Answer | |Answer 2 | |Cultural strength refers to how many employees in the organization accept the dominant values; how strongly, deeply, and intensely they believe in these values; and | |how long these values have dominated in the organization. Strong cultures are long-lasting, dispersed across subunits, deeply internalized by employees, and | |institutionalized through well-established artifacts.
Although potentially beneficial, strong cultures also create three potential problems. First, strong culture | |increases organizational effectiveness only when the cultural content is appropriate for the organization’s environment. If the cultural values are incompatible with | |the environment, then the organization is misaligned and will be less effective. A second problem is that a company’s culture might be so strong that employees blindly| |focus on the mental model shaped by that culture.
They have difficulty seeing different perspectives of problems and, consequently, might not make appropriate | |decisions. A third problem with strong cultures is that they discourage people from holding or expressing dissenting values. In the long term, this prevents | |organizations from nurturing new cultural values that might emerge as dominant values as the environment changes. | [pic] [pic] |Question 5 | |”Organizations are more likely to succeed when they have an adaptive culture. What can an organization do to foster an adaptive culture? | |Click For Answer | |Answer 5 | |An adaptive culture exists when employees focus on the changing needs of customers and other stakeholders and support initiatives to keep pace with these changes. | |Organizations are more likely to succeed when they have an adaptive culture. The textbook describes the following ways to foster an adaptive culture: External focus. |Organizations foster an adaptive culture by adopting an external focus – creating a common mental model that the organization’s success depends on continuous change | |to support stakeholders. Pay attention to organizational processes. Engage in continuous improvement of internal processes e. g. productivity, customer service to | |serve external stakeholders. Sense of ownership. Encourage employees to assume responsibility for achieving organizational goals and performance expectations. | |Proactive and quick. Support employees’ efforts to seek out opportunities proactively. |