Organizational Behavior C715 Multiple Choice Questions2
Organizational Behavior C715 Multiple Choice Questions2
Organizational Behavior C715 Multiple Choice Questions2
Here’s what’s up – try not to sweat too much how many of these questions you get
right. If you’re getting a little more than half right for each competency, for example, that’s probably
good. Just read the questions, get used to “seeing” the course concepts through the vehicle of
multiple choice questions. Get comfortable looking at the course like this. It’s helpful. All of
the questions are first; all of the answers are at the bottom. If you have a “why is this the right
answer to this question” question, shoot it to [email protected] Strongly consider working with a
course instructor, see what types of “working sessions” they might offer. Working with a course
instructor to discuss the questions/answers from your Pre-Assessment coaching report is probably an
efficient step you can take to ready for this course.
CHAPTER 5 QUESTIONS
1) Esther Lugo has gone for an interview at an advertising firm in Manhattan and has been asked
to complete a self-report survey to help interviewers understand if she is the right candidate for
the job. From the interview, they have found that she is extroverted, empathic, scrupulous, and
cooperative in nature, which are key characteristics needed for the job. These characteristics
about Lugo indicate her ________.
A) talent
B) skill
C) knowledge
D) genealogy
E) personality
5) Which of the following statements is true about people with positive core self-evaluations?
A) They are committed to their goals and set ambitious goals.
B) They view themselves as powerless over their environment.
C) They tend to question their capabilities and capacities.
D) They lack persistence to achieve goals.
E) They tend to be disliked by superiors and co-workers.
6) Individuals scoring ________ have a strong ability to adjust their behavior to external,
situational factors and can behave differently in different situations.
A) low on openness
B) high on narcissism
C) low on agreeableness
D) high on self-monitoring
E) low on conscientiousness
7) Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), which consists of two sets of
values, namely ________ values and ________ values.
A) instrumental; terminal
B) fluid; stable
C) flexible; essential
D) unique; general
E) flexible; enduring
8) Which of the following is an instrumental value according to the Rokeach Value Survey?
A) economic success
B) social recognition
C) personal discipline
D) happiness
E) meaning in life
1) ________ is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions
in order to give meaning to their environment.
A) Sensation
B) Impression
C) Apprehension
D) Attribution
E) Perception
2) Alicia Akers works as a marketing executive. She always talks in a high pitch and often draws
a lot of attention wherever she is. Which of the following statements best explains the reason
behind people noticing Akers?
A) Perception of reality depends on the perceiver's past experiences.
B) Perception of reality depends on the perceiver's personality.
C) Characteristics of the target affect people's perception.
D) The time at which we observe behavior affects perception.
E) Motives and interests of the perceiver affects perception of behavior.
3) A manager doing performance appraisals gives more weight to recent employee behaviors
than to behaviors of six or nine months earlier. This shows that the manager's perception is
affected by ________ bias.
A) self-serving
B) availability
C) impact
D) distinction
E) hindsight
6) Johanna Springer, who works as a sales executive at Pascal's Bank, is upset at the way her
manager, Emma Womack, always calls her in for one-on-one meetings to discuss her
underperformance. Though Springer makes a higher number of sales calls and works longer
hours than last year, her sales figures are still low. She knows that the main reason behind her
underperformance is the recent economic meltdown in the country. However, her manager feels
that Springer's underperformance is the result of her laid-back attitude and has nothing to do with
external factors. In this situation, Womack's behavior is characterized by a(n) ________.
A) anchoring bias
B) contrast effect
C) fundamental attribution error
D) self-fulfilling prophecy
E) Pygmalion effect
7) Jane Allen, a campaign manager at a non-profit organization, often takes full credit for project
successes even when her team members' contributions play a big role in achieving milestones.
However, when projects receive setbacks, she blames her team members and sometimes states
that the situation was beyond her control. Allen's behavior is an example of ________ bias.
A) impact
B) anchoring
C) confirmation
D) distinction
E) self-serving
8) You are more likely to notice a car like your own due to ________.
A) stereotyping
B) self-serving bias
C) halo effect
D) selective perception
E) contrast effect
9) A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential
features from problems without capturing all their complexity is known as ________.
A) optimal decision making
B) intuitive decision making
C) bounded rationality
D) rational decision making
E) incremental decision making
10) Sarah Covington, a sales manager at Synergy Corporation Bank, often keeps low
expectations of her team. She feels that they are underqualified for their job and do not have
substantial experience to sell a large number of accounts. Covington's team does not feel
motivated enough and invariably underperforms and misses targets on a regular basis. Which of
the following concepts best explains Covington's team's poor performance?
A) hindsight bias
B) self-fulfilling prophecy
C) confirmation bias
D) contrast effect
E) bandwagon effect
CHAPTER 7 QUESTIONS
1) ________ is defined as the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and
persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
A) Leadership
B) Management
C) Learning
D) Emotional labor
E) Motivation
2) According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following is a lower level need?
A) social-belongingness
B) safety-security
C) esteem
D) self-actualization
E) recognition
5) Which of the following theories proposes that people prefer to feel they have control over
their actions, so anything that makes a previously enjoyed task feel more like an obligation than
a freely chosen activity will undermine motivation?
A) self-serving theory
B) motivation-hygiene theory
C) two-factor theory
D) self-determination theory
E) goal setting theory
6) According to goal-setting theory, goals are more likely to have a stronger impact on
performance when ________.
A) goals are kept private
B) where feedback on the tasks is not given
C) when the individual has an external locus of control
D) goals are easy rather than difficult
E) goals are specific as opposed to general
11) Oscar is looking for a new job. He used to be the company's top sales representative and was
eagerly expecting to be promoted. However, one of the regional manager's friends was promoted
to district manager instead. According to the expectancy theory, Oscar's dissatisfaction with his
current job stems from a breakdown in the ________ relationship.
A) performance-reward
B) effort-performance
C) reward-personal goal
D) satisfaction-effort
E) personal goal-self actualization
Chapter 9 Questions
2) Our tendency to take personal pride or offense for the accomplishments of a group we are a
part of is the territory of the ________ theory.
A) social exchange
B) expectancy
C) social identity
D) reinforcement
E) equity
3) Most people assume that police officers should behave in a lawful manner, refrain from
demonstrating favoritism to any particular group, and do their best to uphold the law. Which of
the following terms best represents these beliefs?
A) diversity
B) similarity
C) role expectation
D) uncertainty reduction
E) dispersion of responsibility
4) Michael is devout and very active in his church. He is also a very dedicated employee. His
manager offers him a promotion, but the new role will require him to work Sundays. Michael
would like the promotion but realizes that it would force him to miss some church activities. In
this situation, Michael is most likely to experience ________.
A) role conflict
B) social loafing
C) groupthink
D) role fuzziness
E) groupshift
5) ________ refers to the adjustment of one's behavior to align with the norms of the group.
A) Deviance
B) Conflict
C) Divergence
D) Conformity
E) Appearance
6) According to status characteristics theory, which of the following factors does not determine
status?
A) control over the resources needed by the group
B) contribution to goals
C) ability to conform to group norms
D) personality
E) talent
9) When compared to individual decision making, group decision making has a disadvantage in
the area of ________.
A) diversity
B) creativity
C) acceptance of final solutions
D) speed
E) accuracy
10) Which of the following steps can be taken by a manager to minimize groupthink?
A) increase the group size
B) encourage group leaders to develop a stronger sense of group identity
C) prevent all team members from engaging in a critical evaluation of ideas at the beginning
D) ask the group members to first focus on the positives of an alternative rather than the
negatives
E) seek input from employees before the group leader presents his or her opinions
11) In discussing a given set of alternatives and arriving at a solution, group members tend to
exaggerate the initial positions they hold. This phenomenon is called ________.
A) social desirability bias
B) groupshift
C) halo effect
D) social loafing
E) ingroup favoritism
Chapter 14 Questions
3) A party who seeks to appease an opponent may be willing to place the opponent's interests
above his or her own, sacrificing to maintain the relationship. We refer to this conflict-handling
intention as ________.
A) collaborating
B) avoiding
C) compromising
D) competing
E) accommodating
5) GoAir, a low-cost airline, has created a team made up of employees from production,
planning, quality control, tooling, design engineering, and information systems to automate the
company's C-17 program. This team is most likely to be an example of a ________ team.
A) command
B) cross-functional
C) self-managed work
D) problem-solving
E) task
6) Which of the following types of teams allows for collaboration between team members who
are physically dispersed?
A) problem-solving teams
B) self-managed work teams
C) task teams
D) virtual teams
E) command teams
7) The team effectiveness model classifies the key components of effective teams into three
general categories: context, composition, and process. Which of the following variables belongs
to the composition category?
A) adequate resources
B) conflict level
C) team efficacy
D) performance evaluation system
E) personality of team members
8) Which of the following statements is true regarding team composition?
A) A team's performance is merely the summation of its individual members' abilities.
B) High-ability teams find it hard to adapt to changing situations.
C) Agreeableness is the only personality dimension that aids the ability to work in groups.
D) In successful teams, members should be selected to ensure all the various roles are filled.
E) A high-ability team will function well irrespective of the deficits in the abilities of the leader.
9) Which of the following is true with regard to the impact of diversity on team effectiveness?
A) High levels of diversity among team members benefit the group immediately
B) Diversity has no impact on team performance.
C) Leadership has a negligible role to play in diverse teams because the members manage
themselves autonomously.
D) Elements of diversity are undesirable as they interfere with team processes in the long run.
E) Cultural diversity serves as an asset for tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints once the
team has worked out its differences.
10) Which of the following statements represents a strategy that is desirable for making effective
teams?
A) Combining people with extremely high and extremely low abilities helps make a balanced
team.
B) Individuals should ideally have one role in a team as multiple roles reduce their effectiveness
and efficiency.
C) Diversity should be avoided as diverse teams involve a lot of conflict in day-to-day
functioning.
D) If a natural work unit is larger, its size must be maintained for the nature of the job requires
large teams.
E) The preference of individual members to work as a part of groups must be considered when
forming teams.
12) When individuals engage in ________, they coast on the group's effort because their
particular contributions cannot be identified.
A) task conflicts
B) gainsharing
C) retaliating
D) process gains
E) social loafing
13) A software development firm has witnessed substantial growth and seeks to expand and
reorganize its structure to meet the demands from clients in a better manner. HR has been given a
clear directive that one of the major criteria for selection of recruits would be the candidate's
ability to function as a team player. This is because the company is revamping all its major
functions from the traditional departmental model to an arrangement of flexible teams. Joe
Sanchez, one of the firm's oldest and most experienced employees, has demonstrated
considerable ability in developing the best programs, but he prefers to work alone. The company
does not wish to lose resources like Sanchez and others who prefer to work alone, but teamwork
is essential to its reorganization. Which of the following strategies will help rectify this problem?
A) encouraging the formation of more diverse teams
B) informing all employees that ability to work in teams will be a major determinant for
promotions and bonuses
C) increasing the size of teams so the contribution of people like Joe will not affect team
performance overall
D) applying merit-based compensation systems instead of gainsharing
E) encouraging employees like Joe to work more independently
15) The work of your group would be better done in teams if the members of the team are
________.
A) independent
B) autonomous
C) individualistic
D) interdependent
E) reflexive
Chapter 16 Questions
1) Danny's boss is apathetic as to whether Danny works at home, at the office, or from his beach
house. All he cares about is that the project is completed on time, on budget, and with exemplary
quality. Which characteristic of organizational culture describes this aspect of Danny's job?
A) low risk taking
B) high outcome orientation
C) high attention to detail
D) low aggressiveness
E) high stability
2) Which of the following statements is true regarding an organization's culture?
A) Organizational culture is evaluative rather than descriptive.
B) Large organizations rarely have subcultures.
C) A dominant culture expresses the core values shared by a majority of the organization's
members.
D) A strong culture reduces employee satisfaction and increases employee turnover.
E) Subcultures and dominant cultures do not share any common values.
3) A culture that expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization's
members is known as a(n) ________ culture.
A) dominant
B) primary
C) fundamental
D) unique
E) subculture
4) When formal authority and control systems are reduced, the ________ provided by a strong
culture ensure(s) that everyone is pointed in the same direction.
A) rules and regulations
B) shared meaning
C) rituals
D) socialization
E) rigid hierarchy
5) ________ refers to the shared perceptions organizational members have about their
organization and work environment.
A) Organizational climate
B) Institutionalization
C) Microcosm
D) Groupthink
E) Organizational apprehension
8) The process of socialization consists of three stages. Which of the following is one of these
three stages?
A) metamorphosis
B) pre-encounter
C) evaluation
D) post-arrival
E) post-encounter
9) When you begin to notice things that are not as you expected, you are in the ________ stage
of socialization.
A) orientation
B) prearrival
C) encounter
D) metamorphosis
E) post-arrival
10) ________ typically contain narratives about the organization's founders, rule breaking, and
reactions to past mistakes.
A) Stories
B) Material symbols
C) Rituals
D) Organizational charts
E) Corporate chants
Chapter 12 Questions
1) Which of the following Big Five personality traits has been identified as the most important
trait in effective leaders?
A) conscientiousness
B) openness
C) extraversion
D) agreeableness
E) emotional stability
2) Nellie Fritz, the head of client support services at Olson Inc., is very popular among her
subordinates. Many believe that Nellie has a knack for getting the work done without making the
employees feel pushed into a corner. She is often seen speaking to her subordinates and support
staff about their families, helping them with any personal problems they have, and praising
employees for their good work. In light of the Ohio State Studies, this indicates that Nellie, as a
leader, is ________.
A) task oriented
B) high in consideration
C) low in trust propensity
D) low in relationship orientation
E) production oriented
4) According to the LMX (leader member exchange) theory, a leader implicitly categorizes
followers as "in" or "out" ________.
A) after careful performance analysis
B) on a temporary basis
C) early in the interaction
D) because of political pressure
E) only after several months of working together
5) Which theory of leadership proposes that followers attribute heroic or extraordinary leadership
abilities when they observe certain behaviors?
A) situational leadership theory
B) path-goal leadership theory
C) transactional leadership theory
D) behavioral leadership theory
E) charismatic leadership theory
6) A transactional leader is likely to ________.
A) reward employees for the work that they have done, thus recognizing accomplishments
B) help followers trust the leader and develop a loyalty toward the common vision
C) stimulate others in the organization to become thinkers of what the organization is all about
D) pay attention to the emotional needs of others and consider individual differences
E) avoid authoritarian, command, and control behaviors when dealing with employees
7) ________ leaders inspire followers to transcend their self-interests for the good of the
organization and can have an extraordinary effect on their followers.
A) Transformational
B) Transactional
C) Task-oriented
D) Laissez-faire
E) Production-oriented
8) In terms of the full range of leadership models, which leadership behavior is the least
effective?
A) management by exception (active)
B) contingent reward
C) management by exception (passive)
D) individualized consideration
E) laissez-faire
10) According to the attribution theory of leadership, a person aiming to be a leader has to
________.
A) gain sufficient experience to be a leader
B) possess qualities like charisma and intelligence
C) make changes on ground before leading people
D) possess many significant actual accomplishments
E) shape the perception that he or she could be a leader
11) The top management of Myers Corp are planning a reorganization of their company to cut
costs and increase efficiency. The different department heads have been asked to present their
departmental strengths, needs, and concerns at a meeting. The various division heads have come
to an agreement that clarity of goals and tasks, detailed procedural guidelines like employee
manuals, and a cooperative workforce are their main strengths. Additionally, they are of the
opinion that cutting managerial positions to reduce costs and reorganizing Myers Corp as a
relatively flat organization is a good approach. This scenario reflects the operation of ________
in replacing the support and ability offered by leaders.
A) vision
B) traits
C) attributes
D) substitutes
E) charisma
13) Lionel Tucker has been asked to lead a virtual team on a project with a tight time schedule.
While allocating the project to him, his manager impressed upon him the need to complete this
project successfully and in time so that this client gains enough confidence to use their services
in the future. Lionel and his team communicate via e-mail as the team members are located at
geographically dispersed locations. They have not had even one face-to-face meeting as yet. In
this case, Lionel must have an ability to ________ in addition to all the other desirable abilities
of a leader to lead the team successfully.
A) generate charisma to inspire the team
B) abdicate all responsibility to the members of the team
C) micromanage his team members till project completion
D) avoid making any decisions for the team
E) convey support and trust through electronic means
Chapter 1 Questions
1) Ellen Ortiz works as a sales manager at a telecom firm. The company has recently launched a
new product in the market. Her work in the next few weeks involves sharing knowledge about
the product with her team members. She will also need to inspire them to reach their sales targets
and clarify any doubts about the new product. Which of the following roles is Ortiz playing?
A) leader
B) liaison
C) disseminator
D) spokesperson
E) negotiator
Chapter 17 Questions
1) Which of the following terms refers to the actions that actively damage the organization,
including stealing, behaving aggressively toward co-workers, and being late or absent?
A) citizenship
B) counterproductivity
C) task orientation
D) satisficing
E) groupthink
3) The approach to evaluation that uses feedback from those who have daily contact with an
employee (everyone from mailroom personnel to customers to bosses to peers) is termed
________.
A) critical incidents
B) 360-degree evaluation
C) assessment center
D) multiperson comparisons
E) downward evaluation
Chapter 13 Question
1) Political behaviors usually ________.
A) lie outside of an individual's specified job requirements
B) are counterproductive to individual goals
C) are seen only in large organizations
D) are sanctioned by organizational leaders
E) are expected as part of each job requirement
Comp 1 Answers:
Chapter 5
1. E
2. B
3. B
4. C
5. A
6. D
7. A
8. C
Chapter 6
1. E
2. C
3. B
4. C
5. D
6. C
7. E
8. D
9. C
10. B
Chapter 7
1. E
2. B
3. B
4. E
5. D
6. E
7. C
8. E
9. D
10. D
11. A
Comp 2 Answers
Chapter 9
1. E
2. C
3. C
4. A
5. D
6. C
7. C
8. D
9. D
10. E
11. B
Chapter 14
1. A
2. C
3. E
4. B
Comp 3 Answers
Chapter 10
1. D
2. C
3. D
4. E
5. B
6. D
7. E
8. D
9. E
10. E
11. E
12. E
13. B
14. C
15. D
Comp 4 Answers
Chapter 16
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. B
5. A
6. B
7. D
8. A
9. C
10. A
11. C
12. C
Comp 5 Answers
Chapter 12
1. C
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. E
6. A
7. A
8. E
9. D
10. E
11. D
12. A
13. E
Chapter 1
1. A
2. B
Comp 6 Answers
Chapter 17
1. B
2. C
3. B
4. A
Chapter 13
1. A
2. D