Chapter 01
Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behaviour

True / False Questions
 
1. In order to be considered an organization, a business must have buildings and equipment. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour
 
2. More than 1,000 years ago, Chinese factories were producing 125,000 tons of iron each year. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour
 
3. All organizations have a collective sense of purpose. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour
 
4. Social entities are called organizations only when their members work interdependently toward some purpose. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour

5. Scholars have been studying organizational behaviour since the days of Greek philosophers. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-03 Historical Foundations of Organizational Behaviour
 
6. The study of organizational behaviour wasn't formally organized until the 1970s. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-03 Historical Foundations of Organizational Behaviour
 
7. Organizational behaviour emerged as a distinct field around the 1940s. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-03 Historical Foundations of Organizational Behaviour
 
8. An important principle in organizational behaviour is that OB theories should never be used to question or rebuild one's mental models. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?
 
9. Organizational behaviour knowledge helps us influence people and organizational events. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?

10. Evidence indicates that applying organizational behaviour knowledge tends to improve the organization's financial performance. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?
 
11. Organizational effectiveness, not profitability, is considered the "ultimate dependent variable" in organizational behaviour. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
12. One problem with the term "organizational effectiveness'' is that it has too many substitute labels, as well as too many different definitions. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
13. Almost all organizational behaviour theories share an implicit or explicit objective of making organizations more effective. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

14. The goal attainment definition of effectiveness focuses on whether the organization achieves its stated goals. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
15. At present there is only one organizational behaviour perspective which adequately defines organizational effectiveness. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
16. The major organizational effectiveness perspectives are considered detailed extensions of the closed systems model. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
17. The open systems perspective emphasizes that organizations are effective when they maintain a good "fit" with their external environments. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

18. One problem with the open systems perspective is that it neglects to focus on how well the organization operates internally. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
19. The most efficient companies are not necessarily the most effective ones. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
20. Successful organizations only need to concentrate on achieving efficient transformation processes. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
21. Organizational efficiency refers to the amount of outputs relative to inputs in the transformation process. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

22. As organizations grow, they tend to develop more subsystems making coordination among them become more complex. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
23. Knowledge management develops an organization's capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
24. The organizational learning perspective is also known as the knowledge management perspective. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
25. Intellectual capital includes, among other things, the knowledge captured in an organization's systems and structures. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

26. Experimentation is considered a valid knowledge acquisition strategy. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
27. Intellectual capital represents the stock of knowledge held by an organization. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
28. The most obvious form of intellectual capital is one's level of education. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
29. Human memory plays a critical role in organizational memory. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
30. Structural capital refers to buildings and other depreciable tangible assets. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

31. One of the fastest ways to acquire knowledge is to hire individuals or purchase entire companies that have valued knowledge. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
32. Knowledge acquisition can only be achieved through formal education. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
33. Organizational memory includes knowledge embedded in the organization's systems and structures. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
34. Successful organizations should never ''unlearn'' knowledge that they have previously gained, because all knowledge is valuable. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

35. Intellectual capital includes relationship capital. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
36. Organizational unlearning is particularly important for organizational change. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
37. A key variable in the high-performance work practices (HPWP) model is employee competence. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective
 
38. The high-performance work practices perspective supports the idea that organizations should strive to find "one best way" to do things. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective

39. One criticism of the high-performance work practices perspective is that it promotes shareholder and customer satisfaction at the expense of employee well-being. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective
 
40. Stakeholders are individuals, organizations, or other entities that affect, or are affected by the organization. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
41. Stockholders are stakeholders. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
42. Values represent an individual's short-term beliefs about what will happen in the future. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
43. Values guide our preferences and motivate our actions. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

44. Values are relatively stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
45. The concept of values is an important aspect of the stakeholder perspective. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
46. Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
47. One reason why workplace values have become more important is that employees increasingly value command-and-control direct supervision. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

48. Milton Friedman is the greatest advocate of the triple-bottom-line philosophy. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
49. The "triple-bottom-line" philosophy says that successful organizations focus on financial performance three times more often than do less successful organizations. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
50. Emerging evidence is that companies with a positive CSR reputation tend to have better financial performance. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
51. The integrative model of organizational behaviour ties individual and team processes, and outcomes to organizational effectiveness. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-20 Connecting the Dots: An Integrative Model of Organizational Behaviour

52. In the integrative model of organizational behaviour, individual outcomes are referred to as the ultimate dependent variable. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-20 Connecting the Dots: An Integrative Model of Organizational Behaviour
 
53. Globalization may have both positive and negative implications for people working in organizations. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-07 Globalization
 
54. Reduced job security and increased work intensification may be partly caused by globalization. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-07 Globalization
 
55. Three of the most prominent workforce diversity forms are: age, ethnicity, and occupation. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity

56. Surface-level diversity refers to observable demographic and other overt differences in people. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
57. People born between 1946 and 1964 are referred to as Baby Boomers. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
58. Workforce diversity does not consider the differences in psychological characteristics of employees. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
59. According to your text, 47 percent of Canadians identify themselves as members of a visible minority group. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor

60. Research indicates that baby boomers and Generation X employees bring the same values and expectations to the workplace. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
61. Studies suggest that deep-level diversity exists across generations. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
62. According to one study, Millennials and Gen-Xers value extrinsic rewards significantly more than Boomers. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
63. Workforce diversity potentially improves decision making and team performance on complex tasks. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity

64. When we describe multiculturalism we are primarily referring to surface-level diversity. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
65. Teams with diverse members usually take longer to perform effectively. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
66. The emerging employment relationship in Canada is that people must give up their legal rights regarding employment discrimination in return for long-term employment. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
67. One employment relationship trend is the focus away from work-life balance and virtual work, because of the extra stress these place on workers. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships

68. The best-known form of remote work is telework. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
69. One of the most consistent observations is that telework is ranked as one of the most popular perks. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
70. Work-life balance refers to the length of time one remains in the workforce during one's lifetime. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
71. Work-live balance refers to minimizing conflict between work and nonwork demands. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships

72. Teleworking forces employers to evaluate employee performance based on ''face time'' rather than work output. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
73. Successful teleworkers tend to be self-motivated and are able to fulfill their social needs outside of the work context. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
74. Research indicates that teleworkers have higher productivity than other staff, likely because they experience less stress and tend to transfer some former commuting time to work time. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
75. Information technology has created challenges, such as tethering people to their jobs for longer hours, reducing their attention spans at work, and increasing techno-stress. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-06 Technological Change

76. Most organizational behaviour theories have been developed by OB scholars rather than from other disciplines. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
77. Psychology and sociology have contributed many theories and concepts to the field of organizational behaviour. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
78. Communications, marketing, and information systems are three emerging fields from which organizational behaviour is now acquiring knowledge. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
79. Sociology is one of the few disciplines that has not made any contribution to organizational behaviour knowledge. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor

80. The field of organizational behaviour relies on common sense to understand organizational phenomena. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor
 
81. The systematic research anchor relies mainly on qualitative data and subjective procedures to test hypothesis. 
FALSE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
82. The contingency anchor in organizational behaviour suggests that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor
 
83. Most organizational events may be studied from all three levels of analysis: individual, team, and organization. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-14 The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

84. The contingency anchor in organizational behaviour suggests that we need to diagnose the situation to identify the most appropriate action under those specific circumstances. 
TRUE

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor

Multiple Choice Questions
 
85. Which of these statements about the field of organizational behaviour is FALSE? 
A. Organizational behaviour scholars study individual, team, and structural characteristics that influence behaviour within organizations.
B. Leadership, communication, and other organizational behaviour topics were not discussed by scholars until the 1940s.
C. Organizational behaviour emerged as a distinct field around the 1940s.
D. The field of OB has adopted concepts and theories from other fields of inquiry.
E. OB scholars study what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour
 
86. Which of these statements about the field of organizational behaviour is TRUE? 
A. Organizational behaviour emerged as a distinct field during the 1980s.
B. The origins of some organizational behaviour concepts date back to Plato and other Greek philosophers.
C. Information technology has almost no effect on organizational behaviour.
D. The field of organizational behaviour relies exclusively on ideas generated within the field by organizational behaviour scholars.
E. The origins of organizational behaviour are traced mainly to the field of economics.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-03 Historical Foundations of Organizational Behaviour

87. In the field of organizational behaviour, organizations are best described as: 
A. legal entities that must abide by government regulations and pay taxes.
B. physical structures with observable capital equipment.
C. social entities with a publicly stated set of formal goals.
D. groups of people who work interdependently towards some purpose.
E. any social entity with profit-focused motives and objectives.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour
 
88. Organizational behaviour knowledge: 
A. originates mainly from models developed in chemistry and other natural sciences.
B. accurately predicts how anyone will behave in any situation.
C. is more appropriate for people who work in computer science than in marketing.
D. helps us to understand and influence the behaviours of others in organizational settings.
E. cannot help leaders understand what motivates behaviour in organizational settings.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?
 
89. According to the author of Canadian Organizational Behaviour, organizational behaviour knowledge: 
A. should never be used to influence the behaviour of other people.
B. should be used mostly by managers and senior executives.
C. should never replace your common sense knowledge about how organizations work.
D. is relevant to everyone who works in organizations.
E. should never be used to influence the behaviour of other people and should be used mostly by managers and senior executives.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?

90. All of the following statements about the field of organizational behaviour are accurate, EXCEPT? 
A. Organizational behaviour scholars study individual, team, and structural characteristics that influence behaviour within organizations.
B. The field of OB has adopted concepts and theories from other fields of inquiry.
C. Organizational behaviour emerged as a distinct field around the 1940s.
D. Given the specific utility of the field, OB is useful for the managers in the organizations and not the employees.
E. OB scholars study what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-04 Why Study Organizational Behaviour?
 
91. Which of the following perspectives is consistent with the concept of organizational effectiveness? 
A. Open systems perspective
B. Organizational learning perspective
C. High-performance work practices perspective
D. Stakeholder perspective
E. All the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-15 Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
92. Which of the following is included in the open systems perspective of organizations? 
A. Inputs
B. Subsystems
C. Outputs
D. Feedback from the environment
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

93. The open systems perspective of organizational behaviour states that: 
A. organizations take their sustenance from the environment and in turn affect that environment.
B. organizations can operate efficiently by focusing on what they do best and ignoring changes in the external environment.
C. people are the only important and valued organizational input.
D. organizations should be viewed as machines with one working part.
E. organizations are only sustainable through increasing profits.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
94. ACME Software Ltd has developed a training program to make employees more aware of how their job performance affects customers and other employees within the organization. This training program relates most closely with which of the following concepts? 
A. Contingency anchor
B. Grounded theory
C. Open systems perspective
D. Marketing principles
E. Organizational efficiency

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
95. Which organizational behaviour perspective discusses inputs, outputs, and feedback? 
A. Mechanistic perspective
B. Open systems perspective
C. Goal-attainment perspective
D. Organizational learning perspective
E. Stakeholder perspective

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

96. Which of the following relates to the perspective that organizations are open systems? 
A. The organization adjusts its services to satisfy changing consumer demand.
B. The organization finds a substitute resource in anticipation of a future shortage of the resource previously used to manufacture the product.
C. Production and sales employees coordinate their work activities to provide a more efficient work process.
D. The organization changes its products to suit customer needs.
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
97. The amount of outputs relative to inputs in the organization's transformation process is referred to as: 
A. organizational efficiency
B. organizational effectiveness
C. organizational deficiency
D. transformational quotient
E. organizational footprint

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
98. Knowledge management is an extension of: 
A. traditional accounting methods of measuring corporate assets.
B. the organizational learning perspective of organizational behaviour.
C. microeconomic principles of supply and demand.
D. the efficiency model of industrial engineering.
E. the specialization achieved through the division of labour.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

99. Intellectual capital refers to: 
A. how much money an organization spends on training and development.
B. the stock of knowledge that resides in an organization.
C. the percentage of information available that is actually used productively by the organization.
D. the total cost of computers and other ''intelligent'' machines in the organization.
E. the cost of hiring a typical employee.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
100. Intellectual capital consists of: 
A. knowledge that employees possess and generate.
B. the knowledge captured in an organization's systems and structures.
C. the value of the organization's relationship with customers.
D. All of the answer choices for this question are correct.
E. knowledge that employees possess and generate and the knowledge captured in an organization's systems and structures.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
101. A computer maintenance company wants to ''capture'' the knowledge that employees carry around in their heads by creating a database where employees document their solutions to unusual maintenance problems. This practice tries to: 
A. transform intellectual capital into knowledge management.
B. transfer human capital into structural capital.
C. prevent relationship capital from interfering with human capital.
D. reduce the amount of human capital.
E. transfer structural capital into relationship capital.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

102. The organizational learning perspective states that an organization's effectiveness depends on: 
A. extracting information and ideas from the external environment and through experimentation.
B. ensuring that knowledge is shared throughout the organization.
C. ensuring that employees effectively use the knowledge available to them.
D. All of the answers are correct.
E. ensuring that knowledge is shared throughout the organization and that employees effectively use the knowledge available to them.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
103. Which of the following is a form of knowledge acquisition? 
A. Hiring job applicants.
B. Research and development.
C. Information sessions where employees describe to colleagues unique incidents involving customers.
D. Ability testing potential applicants.
E. Hiring job applicants and research and development.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
104. Which of the following is an example of knowledge acquisition? 
A. Surveying employees about their attitudes towards recent corporate changes.
B. Developing a training program for employees to learn the latest software for their jobs.
C. Encouraging employees to share their knowledge with coworkers.
D. Hiring people who bring valuable knowledge that is not available from current employees.
E. Attempting to reduce the extent of the informal communication network known as the grapevine.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

105. Organizational memory refers to: 
A. its ability to hire more people with good memorization skills.
B. its level of current knowledge so it can bring in new knowledge from the environment.
C. its storage and preservation of intellectual capital.
D. its ability to unlearn knowledge.
E. its ability to conduct memorable work.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
106. A technology company wants to move into the field of wireless communications. Unfortunately, few of its employees know enough about the basic technology to acquire emerging knowledge about that field or to launch a separate business unit to enter that market. With respect to learning about wireless technology knowledge, this organization has: 
A. too much structural capital.
B. low organizational memory.
C. high human capital but low relationship capital.
D. too much of an open system.
E. low human capital.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
107. As part of the knowledge management process, experimentation mainly affects: 
A. measuring intellectual capital
B. knowledge acquisition
C. organizational memory
D. knowledge sharing
E. unlearning

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

108. Eastern University performs a daily computer search through newspaper articles to identify any articles about the university or its faculty members. University administrators use this information to receive feedback about how the public reacts to university activities. In knowledge management, searching for newspaper articles and other external writing about the organization is mainly a form of: 
A. knowledge acquisition
B. communities of practice
C. organizational unlearning
D. knowledge sharing
E. documentation

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
109. Twice each year, a major car parts manufacturer brings together production and engineering specialists from its eight divisions to discuss ideas, solutions, and concerns. This helps to minimize the ''silos of knowledge'' problem that exists in many organizations. This practice is primarily an example of: 
A. relationship capital
B. experimentation
C. knowledge sharing
D. documentation
E. organizational unlearning

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

110. Organizational memory is best described as: 
A. the total terabytes of hard disk space available on computers throughout an organization.
B. the ability of senior executives to recall important information about the company's products, services, and employees.
C. the storage and preservation of intellectual capital within an organization.
D. the ability of employees throughout the organization to recall important information about the company's products and services.
E. the extent to which potential customers are able to recall specific products and services provided by an organization.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
111. Organizations can retain intellectual capital by: 
A. transferring human capital into structural capital.
B. encouraging employees to take early retirement.
C. discouraging employees from communicating with each other.
D. eliminating all informal channels of communication.
E. converting natural resources into human capital.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
112. Which of the following typically results in a loss of organizational memory? 
A. The processes used to make a unique product are incorrectly documented.
B. The company lays off nearly one-quarter of its workforce.
C. The company sells one of its divisions (including employees in that division) to another organization.
D. All of the answer choices for this question are correct.
E. The processes used to make a unique product are incorrectly documented and the company lays off nearly one-quarter of its workforce.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

113. Under what conditions should organizations ''unlearn''? 
A. In situations involving organizational change.
B. Whenever new knowledge is brought into the organization.
C. Whenever the organization shifts from communities of practice to experimentation in the knowledge acquisition process.
D. Whenever there is a public disapproval of business practices.
E. In situations involving rapid technological advancement.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
114. The relatively new field of research that has emerged with the objective of identifying internal systems and structures that are associated with successful companies is called: 
A. the organizational behaviour systems perspective.
B. the comparative organizations perspective.
C. the organizational learning perspective.
D. the organizational effectiveness perspective.
E. the high-performance work practices perspective.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective
 
115. Which of the following best describes the high-performance work practices perspective? 
A. Organizations that want to be effective should strive for "one best practice" strategy.
B. A particular action may have different consequences depending on the situation.
C. All organizations should be viewed as being made up of many different parts which contribute to high performance.
D. Effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital.
E. Organizations that want to be effective should concentration solely on "profit maximization" strategies.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective

116. Two of the most widely mentioned high-performance work practices in organizational behaviour are: 
A. effective recruitment and hiring practices.
B. ethical business practices and corporate social responsibility.
C. avoiding counterproductive work behaviours and increasing workforce diversity.
D. minimizing political behaviours and encouraging cooperation among organizational members.
E. increasing employee involvement and job autonomy.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective
 
117. Which of the following is NOT a concern expressed with respect to high-performance work practices (HPWP) perspective? 
A. HPWPs increase work stress for employees.
B. Even when HPWPs are successful, management is reluctant to share the financial benefits with workers.
C. The HPWP perspective lacks theoretical understanding of why such practices improve performance.
D. HPWPs satisfy shareholder and customer needs at the expense of employee well-being.
E. The HPWP perspective fails to consider the impact of such practices on the environment and society.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective
 
118. Stakeholders include: 
A. shareholders
B. employees
C. suppliers
D. governments
E. All of the answer choices are considered stakeholders.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

119. Employees, suppliers, and governments: 
A. are organizational stakeholders.
B. are rarely considered in organizational behaviour theories.
C. represent the three levels of analysis in organizational behaviour.
D. are excluded from the open systems anchor.
E. are not considered important organizational stakeholders.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
120. Stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations are: 
A. called intellectual capital.
B. the foundations of the open systems anchor.
C. the main reason why organizations fail to adapt.
D. rarely studied in the field of organizational behaviour.
E. called values.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
121. Values have become more important in organizational behaviour because of: 
A. increased demand for corporate social responsibility.
B. increased pressure on organizations to engage in ethical practices.
C. direct supervision is expensive and incompatible to today's workforce.
D. All of the answers are correct.
E. None of the answers apply.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

122. The topic of ethics is most closely associated with: 
A. workplace values.
B. the scientific method.
C. workforce diversity.
D. the open systems anchor.
E. the contingency approach to organizational behaviour.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
123. Corporate social responsibility is most closely related to which of these organizational behaviour trends? 
A. Workforce diversity.
B. Employment relationships.
C. Virtual work.
D. Globalization.
E. Workplace values and ethics.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
124. The triple-bottom-line philosophy asserts that: 
A. companies should pay three times more attention to profits than to employee wellbeing.
B. the main goal of all companies is to satisfy the needs of three groups: employees, shareholders, and suppliers.
C. business success increases by having three times more contingent workers than permanent employees.
D. companies should pay attention to local, national, and global customers.
E. companies should try to support the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

125. Which of the following concepts is most closely associated with corporate social responsibility? 
A. Knowledge management
B. Sociological theories
C. Entrepreneurship
D. Open systems perspective
E. Triple-bottom-line philosophy

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
126. Which of these statements about corporate social responsibility (CSR) is FALSE? 
A. Most companies now publically report on their CSR practices.
B. CSR emphasizes the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability.
C. Most Canadians expect companies to engage in CSR.
D. CSR is closely related to the topics of values and ethics.
E. An organization's perceived level of CSR influences whether people apply for work with that organization.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective
 
127. Which of the following is NOT considered an individual outcome in the integrative model of organizational behaviour? 
A. Behaviour
B. Decisions
C. Social networks
D. Well-being
E. Organizational citizenship

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-20 Connecting the Dots: An Integrative Model of Organizational Behaviour

128. According to the integrative model of organizational behaviour, which of the following is classified as an organizational input? 
A. Motivation
B. Organizational citizenship
C. Social networks
D. Organizational culture
E. Communication

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-20 Connecting the Dots: An Integrative Model of Organizational Behaviour
 
129. Which of these statements about globalization and organizational behaviour is TRUE? 
A. Globalization has little or no effect on organizational behaviour.
B. Globalization has forced organizational behaviour researchers to study only large multinational businesses.
C. Globalization emphasizes the need to recognize the contingencies of effective organizational behaviour practice in diverse cultures.
D. Globalization has forced organizational behaviour textbooks to study only companies with headquarters in North America.
E. Globalization has forced organizational behaviour researchers to study only large multinational businesses and forced organizational behaviour textbooks to study only companies with headquarters in North America.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-07 Globalization

130. Globalization occurs when an organization: 
A. actively participates in other countries and cultures.
B. serves diverse customers within the firm's home country.
C. has a diverse workforce within the firm's home country.
D. removes all trade barriers retraining international exchange.
E. serves diverse customers within the firm's home country and has a diverse workforce within the firm's home country.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-07 Globalization
 
131. Workforce diversity: 
A. includes the entry of younger people to the workforce.
B. can potentially improve decision making and team performance in organizations.
C. is increasing in Canada.
D. includes the increasing proportion of visible minorities in the workforce.
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
132. Which of the following is considered surface-level diversity? 
A. Physical qualities.
B. Gender.
C. Ethnicity.
D. Age
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity

133. Personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes are: 
A. secondary categories of workforce diversity.
B. primary categories of workforce diversity.
C. categories of deep-level workforce diversity.
D. not considered categories of diversity.
E. a result of generational psychometrics.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
134. Which of the following statements is TRUE? 
A. Canada is becoming a more homogeneous society.
B. Deep-level diversity includes characteristics over which we have some control.
C. Most Canadians believe that the government should disband multiculturalism.
D. Diversity offers tremendous advantages to organizations with almost no disadvantages.
E. Nearly one-half of all immigrants to Canada over the past decade were born in the United States.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
135. All of the following statements about Canada's population and workforce are true, EXCEPT? 
A. More than half of immigrants to Canada over the past decade were born in Europe.
B. The participation of visible minorities in the workforce has increased over the past few decades.
C. Generation X employees bring somewhat different needs and expectations to the workplace than their Baby Boomer counterparts.
D. Canada is becoming a more multicultural society.
E. Workforce diversity presents both opportunities and challenges to organizations.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity

136. Which of the following statements is FALSE? 
A. Employment relationships are shifting towards the idea that companies must provide employees a high degree of job security, possibly even a job for life.
B. Generation X employees bring somewhat different values and needs to the workplace than those of baby boomers.
C. The workforce is becoming more diverse.
D. Successful firms increasingly rely on values rather than direct supervision to guide employee decisions and behaviour.
E. More work-life balance is an emerging issue in the employment relationship.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-09 Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
137. The degree to which a person minimizes conflict between work and nonwork demands refers to: 
A. life choice balance.
B. stress management.
C. quality of life issues.
D. Personal-professional actualization.
E. work-life balance.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
138. When employees work away from the organization's traditional common work site this is referred to as: 
A. virtual work
B. teleconferencing
C. nonwork demands
D. work-life balance
E. remote work

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships

139. What effect does teleworking have in the workplace? 
A. Teleworking tends to improve the teleworker's work-life balance.
B. Teleworking forces corporate leaders to evaluate employees more from their work results rather than their ''face time''.
C. Under some circumstances, teleworking increases the teleworker's productivity.
D. Teleworking increases the risk that employees feel socially isolated from each other.
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
140. Which of the following is NOT a benefit of telecommuting according to research? 
A. It reduces stress.
B. It improves job satisfaction.
C. It makes employees feel more empowered.
D. It reduces costs for the employer.
E. It reduces pollution.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
141. Which of the following is NOT a conceptual anchor in organizational behaviour? 
A. Contingency anchor
B. Systematic research anchor
C. Organizational effectiveness anchor
D. Multidisciplinary anchor
E. Multiple levels of analysis anchor

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge

142. Which of the following does NOT represent a belief that anchors organizational behaviour? 
A. OB should view organizations as closed systems.
B. OB should assume that the effectiveness of an action usually depends on the situation.
C. OB should draw on knowledge from other disciplines.
D. OB should rely on the systematic research methods to generate knowledge.
E. OB topics can be studied from multiple levels of analysis.

Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge
 
143. Which of the following statements about the field of organizational behaviour is FALSE? 
A. OB is the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.
B. OB emerged as a distinct field of inquiry in the 1940s.
C. OB is a self-contained discipline, independent of other disciplines.
D. OB theories are usually tested using the scientific method.
E. Many OB theories are contingency-oriented.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge
 
144. Which of these statements is consistent with the four anchors of organizational behaviour? 
A. Organizational behaviour theories must apply universally to every situation.
B. Organizations are like machines that operate independently of their external environment.
C. Each OB topic relates to only one level of analysis.
D. The field of organizational behaviour should rely on other disciplines for some of its theory development.
E. None of these statements is consistent with the OB anchors.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge

145. Which discipline has provided organizational behaviour with much of its theoretical foundation for team dynamics, organizational power, and organizational socialization? 
A. Sociology
B. Psychology
C. Economics
D. Industrial engineering
E. Political science

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
146. Which of the following is identified as an emerging field from which organizational behaviour is acquiring new knowledge? 
A. Industrial engineering
B. Information systems
C. Anthropology
D. Economics
E. Psychology

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-12 The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
147. To form research questions, collect data, and test hypotheses against those data organizational behaviour scholars rely on: 
A. systematic research.
B. closed systems theory.
C. grounded theory.
D. experimental theory.
E. contingency theory.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-11 The Systematic Research Anchor

148. Which of the following is NOT an anchor of organizational behaviour? 
A. Contingency anchor
B. Open systems anchor
C. Multidisciplinary anchor
D. Systematic research anchor
E. Multiple levels of analysis anchor

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge
 
149. The contingency anchor of organizational behaviour states that: 
A. we should have a second OB theory to explain the situation in case our first choice doesn't work.
B. OB theories must view organizations as systems that need to adapt to their environments.
C. there is usually one best way to resolve organizational problems.
D. a particular action may have different consequences in different situations.
E. All of the answers are correct.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor
 
150. According to the multiple levels of analysis anchor: 
A. organizational behaviour is mainly the study of how all levels of the organizational hierarchy interact with the external environment.
B. OB topics typically relate to the individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.
C. there are eight levels of analysis that scholars should recognize when conducting OB research.
D. organizational events can be studied from only one level of analysis.
E. our understanding of organizational behaviour increases with the level of mathematical analysis applied to create the models.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-14 The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

151. Which of the following is an anchor of organizational behaviour knowledge? 
A. diversity anchor.
B. stakeholder anchor.
C. open systems anchor.
D. socioeconomic anchor.
E. multiple levels of analysis anchor.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-14 The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

Short Answer Questions

152. Marketing specialists at Napanee Beer Co. developed a new advertising campaign for summer sales. The ads were particularly aimed at sports events where Napanee Beer sold kegs of beer on tap. The marketing group worked for months with a top advertising firm on the campaign. Their effort was successful in terms of significantly higher demand for Napanee Beer's keg beer at sports stadiums. However, the production department had not been notified of the marketing campaign and was not prepared for the increased demand. The company was forced to buy empty kegs at a premium price. It also had to brew some of the lower-priced keg beer in vats that would have been used for higher-priced specialty beer. The result was that Napanee Beer sold more of the lower-priced keg beer and less of the higher-priced products that summer. Moreover, the company could not initially fill consumer demand for the keg beer, resulting in customer dissatisfaction. Use open system perspective to explain what has occurred at Napanee Beer Co. 
This incident mainly relates to the open systems perspective that organizations consist of many interdependent parts. In larger organizations, subsystem interdependence is so complex that an event in one department may ripple through the organization and affect other subsystems. In this case, the marketing group's advertising campaign had unintended implications for the production group. Marketing's campaign increased demand for keg beer, which forced production to brew more of the lower-priced product rather than the higher-priced specialty beer. It was also necessary to keep up with demand by paying premium prices for empty kegs.

Students may argue that marketing employees did not notify the production group about its plans. This may be a valid argument in this incident. However, we must keep in mind that employees engage in many activities that have repercussions for others that we would never expect. Moreover, it is possible that production employees could not predict all of the implications of marketing's campaign even if the production group was notified in advance.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

153. Senior officers in a national military organization decided that operations in supplies requisition were inefficient and costly. They brought in consultants who recommended that the entire requisition process be ''reengineered''. This involved throwing out the old practices and developing an entirely new set of work activities around workflow. However, contrary to expectations, this intervention resulted in lower productivity, higher employee turnover and other adverse outcomes. Discuss likely problems with the intervention in terms of open systems perspective. 
There are two possible ways that open systems perspective explains these problems. The first and more likely of these is the fact that open systems have interdependent parts. In this situation, reengineering the supplies requisition process may have disrupted other parts of the organization, which, in turn, undermined the supplies' group's ability to complete their work. The point here is that open systems consist of interdependent parts and that it is always useful to ensure that changes in one part of the organization have minimal adverse effects on other parts of the organization.

The second possible (but less likely) problem is in terms of inputs, transformation, outputs and feedback. The reengineering process may have thrown out a functioning transformation process. Possibly the change resulted in less feedback from the environment regarding how well the organization is interacting with the environment. Perhaps the change resulted in a disruption of inputs or side effects in the outputs.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective
 
154. An aircraft manufacturing company developed a computer simulation representing the very complex processes and subgroups that create an airplane. Teams of production employees would participate in a game where trainers gave them the challenge of reducing costs or minimizing space using the simulation. As the trainers predicted, the team's actions would almost always result in unexpected consequences. Explain how this simulation relates to the open systems perspective of organizational behaviour. 
The production simulation teaches teams that organizations are complex systems with many interdependent parts. As such, complex systems tend to produce unintended consequences when one part of the system is altered. The lesson here is to recognize the repercussions of subsystem actions on other parts of the organization.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-16 Open Systems Perspective

155. WindTunnel Ltd, a manufacturer of commercial vacuum cleaner systems, has heard about new computer-based technologies that help vacuum cleaner systems to work more efficiently and provide additional features to users. So far, only one British vacuum cleaner company has apparently moved to integrate this technology into its products, but more firms will soon follow. Senior executives at WindTunnel are also aware of a small engineering firm that has applied similar computer technology to military suction-like products. No one at WindTunnel has much experience or knowledge with this computer technology, yet the company needs such expertise quickly. Explain which knowledge acquisition strategy would best help WindTunnel to gain the necessary intellectual capital. 
Students should begin by defining knowledge acquisition as the organization's ability to extract information and ideas from its environment as well as through insight. The scenario described in this question strongly suggests that WindTunnel needs to apply the knowledge acquisition practice of hiring individuals or acquiring companies. In this situation, WindTunnel should consider either merging with the small engineering firm, creating a joint venture with it or luring some of its engineers to work at WindTunnel.

Hiring individuals or acquiring companies is most appropriate in this case for a few reasons. First, no one at WindTunnel has the required knowledge and the knowledge does not seem to be something that can be acquired quickly through individual learning or experimentation. Moreover, WindTunnel needs the knowledge quickly to remain competitive, because one competitor has already begun to integrate the new technology. These activities provide quick knowledge acquisition compared to the other strategies.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

156. Comment on the accuracy of the following statement: ''Without employees, an organization has no organizational memory.'' 
This statement is generally FALSE: An organization's memory may be embedded in systems and structures, not just the brain cells of employees. Certainly, a considerable amount of memory would be lost if employees suddenly disappeared, but some knowledge remains through structural capital. For example, knowledge is embedded in the company's physical layout, its documentation, the design of its products and so forth. Of course, it is necessary to have employees transform their human capital into structural capital. But once it is embedded in structural capital, some knowledge exists without employees.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective
 
157. A courier service laid off a large percentage of its production staff during last year's recession. These low-skilled employees performed routine tasks filling orders. The company now wants to rehire them. However, most of the unskilled employees have since found employment in other companies and industries. Do you think the courier company lost much organizational memory in this situation? Explain your answer. 
Organizational memory refers to the storage and preservation of intellectual capital—in other words, the knowledge that the organization possesses. The courier company has lost some organizational memory, but probably not a great deal. The amount of organizational memory lost may be fairly small in this situation. These are unskilled employees, some of whom have moved to other industries. This suggests that they might have been fairly replaceable and do not have much unique knowledge for the organization. Similarly, the tasks are fairly routine, suggesting that most knowledge is established within the task routines and thereby documented in procedures manuals.

However, some organizational memory loss has occurred because every employee possesses some unique knowledge that is of value to the organization. For instance, the laid off employees may have had undocumented knowledge about the preferences of certain customers or the operation of certain equipment. When employees leave the firm, they take this knowledge with them unless it is clearly documented or retained in other ways within the organization.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

158. Comment on the accuracy of the following statement: ''An important objective in knowledge management is to ensure that intellectual capital is stored and preserved.'' 
This statement is mostly, but not completely, TRUE: In support of this statement, students should indicate that an organization's knowledge—its intellectual capital—is the main source of competitive advantage for most companies. One part of this process is knowledge management (acquiring, sharing, and using knowledge), the other is maintaining an organizational memory. Organizational memory involves storing and preserving knowledge. For example, effective organizations ensure that knowledgeable employees do not leave. They also document knowledge for future use. Without organizational memory organizations could not compete in the external environment.

Students should also indicate the circumstances where this statement is false. Specifically, students should state that successful companies also unlearn knowledge that is no longer useful or appropriate. In fact, organizational unlearning—expelling some intellectual capital—is necessary so that organizational change may occur more effectively. This means that companies should cast off the routines and patterns of behaviour that are no longer appropriate.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-17 Organizational Learning Perspective

159. The high-performance work practices (HPWP) perspective holds that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices to harness the potential of human capital. What common activities do high performance organizations practice? 
Employee involvement and job autonomy. Typically such organizations put a lot of thought into providing more employee involvement and job autonomy. Both of these seem to improve employee motivation to perform, and improve decision-making, organizational responsiveness, and commitment to change.

Employee competence. This is an important variable affecting the organization's effectiveness. High performance organizations devote resources (invest) in employee skill and knowledge development. The strong skills and performance potential of job applicants are weighed carefully during the selection process.

Link performance and development to rewards. The performance and skill development of employees is linked to various financial and nonfinancial rewards that are actually valued by the employees. This has the effect of encouraging desired behaviour.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-18 High-Performance Work Practices (Hpwp) Perspective

160. There is an increased interest by organizations about the importance of values in the workplace. Explain the difference between values, ethics and corporate social responsibilities. 
Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations. Values help us to know what is right or wrong, or good or bad, in the world. Values are an important part of our self-concept and, as such, motivate our actions.

Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. We rely on our ethical values to determine "the right thing to do." Ethical behaviour is driven by the moral principles we use to make decisions. These moral principles represent fundamental values.

Corporate social responsibility consists of organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm's immediate financial interests or legal obligations.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

161. Many organizations are placing increasing importance on values and ethics in the workplace. Discuss two reasons why workplace values have become more important in recent years. Your answer should briefly define values and ethics. 
Values are defined as relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.

Ethics refer to moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.

The textbook offers reasons for the increased interest in workplace values and ethics. Students need to describe any two of these. Some students might also identify other reasons through logical argument. These logical arguments should receive consideration when grading this answer.

Increasing globalization. As organizations expand across cultures, differences in values become more pronounced. This leads to both personal and organizational challenges. At the individual level, employees may find that their personal values conflict with organizational and cross-cultural values. At the organizational level, leaders are looking for ways to integrate (or, at least, coordinate) people with diverse personal and cultural value systems.

Replacing direct supervision. The old ''command-and-control'' system of direct supervision is expensive and incompatible with today's more independently minded workforce. Organizational values represent a subtle, yet potentially effective, alternative.

Increasing pressure for ethical organizations and corporate social responsibility. Many societies are putting more pressure on organizations to engage in ethical practices. Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. We rely on our ethical values to determine ''the right thing to do.''

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Topic: 01-19 Stakeholder Perspective

162. The changing workforce is one of the emerging trends in organizational behaviour. Describe how the workforce is changing and briefly identify two consequences of these changes for organizations. 
There are numerous workforce changes that students might correctly identify. However, the textbook specifically refers to the following: (a) more ethnic diversity, (b) visible minorities represent a large percentage of the workforce and are entering occupations previously held mostly by men, and (c) younger people (Generation X and Generation Y) are bringing somewhat different values and needs to the workforce.

There are several consequences of these workforce changes. Chapter 1 of the textbook briefly identifies the following: (a) potentially better decision making, (b) potentially better customer service, and (c) underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in senior positions (i.e. discrimination).

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of technological change, globalization, emerging employment relationships, and workforce diversity.
Topic: 01-08 Emerging Employment Relationships
 
163. Discuss the four anchors of organizational behaviour. 
1) The systematic research anchor states that OB knowledge should be based on systematic research, which typically involves forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data. 2) The multidisciplinary anchor states that organizational behaviour should welcome theories and knowledge in other disciplines, not just from its own isolated research base. 3) The contingency anchor states that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. 4) The multiple levels of analysis anchor states that OB events should be understood from three levels of analysis: individual, team, and organization.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-10 Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge

164. Explain why (i) organizations are characterized as collective entities, and (ii) why their members have a collective sense of purpose. 
(i) Organizations are collective entities - They consist of human beings—typically, but not necessarily, employees—and these people interact with each other in an organized way. This organized relationship requires some minimal level of communication, coordination, and collaboration to achieve organizational objectives. As such, all organizational members have degrees of interdependence, they accomplish goals by sharing materials, information, or expertise with co-workers.
(ii) Organizations have a collective sense of purpose - This collective purpose isn't always well defined or agreed on. Although most companies have vision and mission statements, these documents are sometimes out of date or don't describe what employees and leaders try to achieve in reality. Imagine an organization without a collective sense of purpose. It would be an assemblage of people without direction or unifying force.

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behaviour and organizations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Topic: 01-02 The Field of Organizational Behaviour

165. Two organizational behaviour students are debating the idea that many OB theories are contingency-oriented. One student believes that every OB theory should be contingency-oriented. The other student disagrees, saying that most theories should try to be universal. Evaluate both positions and provide your opinion on this issue. 
Both students have taken extreme views of the contingency anchor. Both are partly correct and partly incorrect. The first student is saying that every OB theory should abide by the contingency anchor. This means that the theory should incorporate factors that help us to determine the best action in a particular situation. The benefit of the contingency anchor is that it provides a more accurate understanding of organizational events and allows us to influence those events more precisely.

The problem, however, is that the contingency anchor can make some theories very complex with relatively little advantage over universal theories. In this respect, the second student is partly correct. We should try to see whether OB theories can be universal rather than contingency-oriented. This is consistent with the view that all theories should be parsimonious. If the theory can explain well without contingency factors, then it is best left as a universal theory. The difficulty is that most OB events are sufficiently complex that contingencies are required for the theories to effectively explain those events.

When answering this question, students should state their preference in terms of the degree of universality or contingency orientation. Some might argue that theories are already too complex for practical use, whereas others might say that we need more contingencies to gain more precision in understanding organizational behaviour.

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors of which organizational behaviour knowledge is based.
Topic: 01-13 The Contingency Anchor