Exam 1: The Field of Organizational Behavior

The open systems model of OB assumes that ________.

The use of outsourcing allows the firm to focus on:

The human relations movement in OB emphasized the importance of designing jobs as efficiently as possible.

________ is a structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet some agreed-upon objective.

A mutual commitment between employer and employees to do things to help one another achieve each other's goals and aspirations is known as:

By 2050, it is estimated that racial and ethnic minorities will comprise the majority of the U.S. population, making the term minority obsolete.

Under the ________, the assumption about effectively managing people is that it requires the appreciation of the cultural context in which they operate.

The social science that contributed to organizational behavior the tools and perspective to examine conflict and power within an organization is:

The practice of working fewer days each week, but longer hours each day is called:

A virtual organization is a type of contingency organization that uses workers for specific jobs and then disbands them.

The need to draw on the services of temporary employment firms is necessitated by:

Currently, the highest number of contingency workers fall into the job category:

The social science that relates to the OB topics of organizational culture and leadership is:

The perspective suggesting that organizational behavior is affected by a large number of interacting individual, situational, and organizational factors is:

The Hawthorne studies were an example of OB research at the ________ level.

Discuss organizational behavior's development in the modern era, noting key current trends.

John is looking at employee perceptions, attitudes, and motives in order to improve worker productivity. John is conducting OB research at which level?

In 2010, about one in four members of the U.S. workforce was a contingent worker.

A flexwork program that permits regular part-time work where the duties for one job are divided between two people is called:

Table 1.1 Simon is initiating an organizational behavior effort at his company.He wants to look at how people communicate with each other and coordinate their work efforts. His boss, Bill, is skeptical, "We conducted a study of this kind ten years ago. I'm not sure we need to do it again at this time." Simon convinces his boss they need to press ahead anyway. As Bill and Simon discuss the OB effort, Simon learns several things about his boss. Bill believes that the key thing for a business is to fit the right person to the right job. He agrees with Simon's interest in careful selection and training of current and future employees.But, Bill believes that there is only one right way to run a company and do a job. Simon thinks that the company should create clearer lines of authority by eliminating their matrix organizational structure, they should encourage employees to formulate and implement plans, and they should increase specialization among employees and managers. As Bill and Simon discuss the company's problems and ways to improve performance, they mutually come to the conclusion that company's current poor performance is probably a function of the fact that they are setting the same goals and expectations for everyone and not considering individual strengths and weaknesses or taking the different work circumstances into consideration. -Refer to Table 1.1. What characteristic of organizational behavior is the "boss" apparently not aware of?