Exam 13: Power, Politics, Conflict, and Negotiation

Group-level conflict management techniques do not need to address the underlying causes of the conflict.

During group meetings, Douglas is never able to discuss his idea for reducing energy usage in the office. He has a detailed, well thought out plan for how to accomplish this. He thinks it is a really great idea that can save the company money. But, within the current context, he does not even have a chance to share his ideas. Douglas should focus his efforts on ________.

The management of organizational politics MOST OFTEN falls to ________.

The legitimate power of a CEO is granted by an organization's board of directors.

If parties to a conflict are willing to cooperate to find a mutually agreeable solution to the conflict, then a company is more likely to achieve its goals.

Conflicting parties must remember to discuss the problem at hand and not the shortcomings of one another.

A manager who controls the agenda can limit alternatives considered in the decision-making process.

As the chief mechanic at Fly Hi Airlines, Mack Wild's department is the only one that has the necessary skills to repair the airline's critical cockpit electronics. The senior managers all treat Mack with respect and try to avoid criticizing him or his department because they MOST LIKELY see Mack's department as ________.

List and define the sources of formal individual power.

Task relationships generate conflict between people and groups, because organizational tasks are interrelated and affect one another.

________ are MOST LIKELY to sap the strength of an organization, waste organizational resources, and distract the organization from achieving its goals.

Inequitable performance evaluation systems that reward some functions but not others can create conflict.

The formal and informal sources of power possessed by managers, functions, and divisions that determine how an organization makes decisions is the organization's ________.

Which of the following is NOT a major source of interpersonal and intergroup conflict?

Managers engage in ________ to increase their power and pursue goals that favor their individual and group interests.

Accommodation is a style of handling conflict in which one party simply allows the other to achieve its goals.

________ is the power that stems from a person's position in an organization's hierarchy.

Bruce is a middle manager who is in the running for an upper management position. During an interview with the hiring committee, he pays the most attention to an older gentlemen who seems to command a great deal of authority. Bruce watches the man's changes in facial expressions during his responses and modifies his answers accordingly. Bruce does not pay attention to or make eye contact with a woman on the end who is quiet and not as well dressed. It turns out that the woman on the end has the most authority in the hiring process and did not care for Bruce's lack of eye contact. She decided the team would keep searching for the right candidate. Bruce failed to ________.

Central functions, whose activities are needed by many other functions, have access to a lot of information, which gives them power in their dealings with others.

A manager should be MOST concerned if conflict is in the ________ stage.