Chapter 01
Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

True / False Questions
 
1. Three challenges organizations are facing include globalization, increasing workforce diversity, and emerging employment relationships. 
TRUE
Three challenges organizations are facing include globalization, increasing workforce diversity, and emerging employment relationships.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Contemporary Challenges for Organizations
 
2. Organizational behavior encompasses the study of how organizations interact with their external environments. 
TRUE
Organizational behavior encompasses the study of how organizations interact with their external environments, particularly in the context of employee behavior and decisions.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior

3. Studying organizational behavior at multiple levels is not recommended as it could lead to perceptual errors. 
FALSE
OB researchers systematically study these topics at multiple levels of analysis—namely the individual, the team (including interpersonal), and the organization.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior
 
4. In order for something to be called an organization, it must have certain assets such as buildings and equipment. 
FALSE
Organizations are groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose. Organizations are not buildings or government-registered entities. In fact, many organizations exist without either physical walls or government documentation.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior
 
5. The members of an organization have a collective sense of purpose. 
TRUE
A key feature of organizations is that they are collective entities. An organization without a collective sense of purpose would be a collection of people without direction or unifying force.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior

6. Organizational behavior emerged as a distinct field around the 1940s. Before that, organizations had not been studied at all. 
FALSE
Organizational behavior emerged as a distinct field around the early 1940s, but organizations have been studied by experts in other fields for many centuries.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Historical Foundations of Organizational Behavior
 
7. German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and systematic ways to organize work processes and motivate employees through goal setting and rewards. 
FALSE
German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations, the work ethic, and charismatic leadership. Soon after, industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor proposed systematic ways to organize work processes and motivate employees through goal setting and rewards.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Historical Foundations of Organizational Behavior

8. The "human relations" school of management emphasized the study of employee attitudes and informal group dynamics in the workplace. 
TRUE
In the 1930s, Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues established the "human relations" school of management, which emphasized the study of employee attitudes and informal group dynamics in the workplace.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Historical Foundations of Organizational Behavior
 
9. An advantage of the study of organizational behavior is that it tends to have a specific career path. 
FALSE
Organizational behavior (OB) instructors face a challenge: Students who have not yet begun their careers tend to value courses related to specific jobs, such as accounting and marketing. However, OB doesn't have a specific career path—there is no "vice president of OB"—so students sometimes have difficulty recognizing the value that OB knowledge can offer to their future.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?

10. Studying organizational behavior does not make a difference in one's career success. 
FALSE
Organization behavior (OB) does make a difference to one's career success. OB helps us to make sense of and predict the world in which we live. We use OB theories to question our personal beliefs and assumptions and to adopt more accurate models of workplace behavior.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?
 
11. The greatest value of organizational behavior knowledge is that it helps us to get things done in the workplace. 
TRUE
Probably the greatest value of organizational behavior knowledge is that it helps us to get things done in the workplace. By definition, organizations are people who work together to accomplish things, so we need a toolkit of knowledge and skills to work successfully with others.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?
 
12. Organizational behavior knowledge is strictly for managers, not for lower level employees. 
FALSE
A common misunderstanding is that organizational behavior is for managers. Organization Behavior is valuable for everyone who works in and around organizations.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Organizational Behavior Is for Everyone

13. Organizational behavior knowledge is beneficial not only to an individual, but also to an organization's financial health. 
TRUE
Organizational behavior knowledge is not only important for an individual, but it is also just as important for an organization's financial health.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?
 
14. Research into the best predictors of investment portfolio performance suggests that specific organizational behavior characteristics are important "positive screens" for selecting companies with the highest and most consistent long-term investment gains. 
TRUE
The bottom-line value of organizational behavior (OB) is also supported by research into the best predictors of investment portfolio performance. These investigations suggest that specific OB characteristics (employee attitudes, work-life balance, performance-based rewards, leadership, employee training and development, and so forth) are important "positive screens" for selecting companies with the highest and most consistent long-term investment gains.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?

15. Building a high-performance team, handling workplace conflicts, and motivating coworkers are skills that are offered in organizational behavior. 
TRUE
Building a high-performance team, handling workplace conflicts, motivating coworkers, influencing your boss, and changing employee behavior are just a few of the areas of knowledge and skills that are offered in organizational behavior.

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Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?
 
16. Organizational effectiveness is considered the ultimate dependent variable in organizational behavior. 
TRUE
Organizational effectiveness is considered the ultimate dependent variable in organizational behavior.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

17. Today, many organizational behavior experts agree that the best indicator of a company's effectiveness is how well it achieves its stated objectives. 
FALSE
Many years ago, organizational behavior experts thought the best indicator of a company's effectiveness is how well it achieved its stated objectives. Today, we know this isn't necessarily so. The best yardstick of organizational effectiveness is a composite of four perspectives: open systems, organizational learning, high-performance work practices, and stakeholders.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
 
18. The best yardstick of organizational effectiveness is a composite of four perspectives: open systems, organizational learning, high-performance work practices, and stakeholders. 
TRUE
The best yardstick of organizational effectiveness is a composite of four perspectives: open systems, organizational learning, high-performance work practices, and stakeholders. Organizations are effective when they have a good fit with their external environment, are learning organizations, have efficient and adaptive internal subsystems (i.e., high-performance work practices), and satisfy the needs of key stakeholders.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

19. Open systems cannot exist without dependence on an external environment, whereas closed systems can exist without dependence on an external environment. 
TRUE
The open systems perspective views organizations as complex organisms that "live" within an external environment. The word open describes this permeable relationship, whereas closed systems operate without dependence on or interaction with an external environment.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Open Systems Perspective
 
20. According to the open systems perspective, most organizations have one working part rather than many subsystems. 
FALSE
The open systems perspective states that organizations depend on the external environment for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

21. The best organizational practices are those built on the notion that organizations are closed systems. 
FALSE
Closed systems have little dependence on the external environment. As open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, including raw materials, employees, financial resources, information, and equipment. According to the open systems perspective, organizations are effective when they maintain a good "fit" with their external environment.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Open Systems Perspective
 
22. The open systems perspective emphasizes that organizations maintain a good fit by actively managing their external environment. 
TRUE
One way that organizations maintain a good fit is actively managing their external environment.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organization-Environment Fit

23. The organizational learning perspective is focused on physical resources that enter and are processed in an organization. 
FALSE
The open systems perspective has traditionally focused on physical resources that enter the organization and are processed into physical goods. The organizational learning perspective emphasizes knowledge as a key driver of competitive advantage.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective
 
24. An important feature of an effective transformation process is how well the internal subsystems coordinate with each other. 
TRUE
An important feature of an effective transformation process is how well the internal subsystems coordinate with each other.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Internal Subsystems Effectiveness
 
25. Intellectual capital represents the stock of knowledge held by an organization. 
TRUE
A company's stock of knowledge is called its intellectual capital.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

26. Intellectual capital includes, among other things, the knowledge captured in an organization's systems and structures. 
TRUE
Intellectual capital exists in three forms: human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. Structural capital includes the knowledge captured and retained in an organization's systems and structures.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective
 
27. The knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees are examples of structural capital. 
FALSE
Structural capital refers to the knowledge captured and retained in an organization's systems and structures, such as the documentation of work procedures and the physical layout of a production line.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

28. One of the knowledge acquisition strategies involves environmental scanning, such as actively monitoring customer trends and competitor activities. 
TRUE
Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment as well as through insight. One knowledge acquisition strategy involves environmental scanning, such as actively monitoring customer trends and competitor activities.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Knowledge Acquisition
 
29. According to the organizational learning perspective, an effective organization not only learns but also unlearns certain routines and patterns of behavior. 
TRUE
The organizational learning perspective states that effective organizations not only learn, but they also unlearn routines and patterns of behavior that are no longer appropriate.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Knowledge Storage and Organizational Memory

30. The perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital is called high-performance work practices (HPWPs). 
TRUE
The high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective holds that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital. The HPWP perspective states that human capital—the knowledge, skills, and abilities that employees possess—is an important source of competitive advantage for organizations.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective
 
31. Employee involvement is a widely recognized high-performance work practice (HPWP). 
TRUE
Organizational behavior researchers have studied the effects of many work practices, but four are consistently identified as high-performance practices: employee involvement, job autonomy, competency development, and rewards for performance and competencies.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective

32. Working in a self-directed team reduces employee motivation because employees in such a team will support individualistic behaviors rather than team behaviors. 
FALSE
Involving employees in decision making and giving them more autonomy over their work activities tends to strengthen employee motivation as well as improve decisions, organizational responsiveness, and commitment to change. In high-performance workplaces, employee involvement and job autonomy often take the form of self-directed teams.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective
 
33. High-performance work practices (HPWPs) build human capital, which improves performance as employees develop skills and knowledge to perform the work. 
TRUE
High-performance work practices (HPWPs) improve an organization's effectiveness by developing employee skills and knowledge (human capital), which are direct predictors of individual behavior and performance.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective

34. Stakeholders of an organization are shareholders, customers, suppliers, governments, and any other groups with a vested interest in the organization. 
TRUE
Stakeholders include individuals, organizations, and other entities that affect, or are affected by an organization's objectives and actions.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Stakeholder Perspective
 
35. Labor unions are an example of a type of stakeholder in a company. 
TRUE
Stakeholders include anyone with a stake in the company—employees, stockholders, suppliers, labor unions, government, communities, consumer and environmental interest groups, and so on.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Stakeholder Perspective
 
36. Stakeholder relations are static, a fixed condition. 
FALSE
Stakeholder relations are dynamic; they can be negotiated and managed, not just taken as a fixed condition.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Stakeholder Perspective

37. Managing and satisfying the interests of stakeholders is not very challenging because all stakeholders have the same interests and goals. 
FALSE
Understanding, managing, and satisfying the interests of stakeholders is more challenging than it sounds because stakeholders have conflicting interests and organizations don't have the resources to satisfy every stakeholder to the fullest.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Stakeholder Perspective
 
38. Values represent an individual's short-term beliefs about what will happen in the future. 
FALSE
Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
39. Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations. 
TRUE
Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations. Values help us know what is right or wrong, or good or bad, in the world.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

40. The stakeholder perspective's focus on values also brings ethics and corporate social responsibility into the organizational effectiveness equation. 
TRUE
The stakeholder perspective's focus on values also brings ethics and corporate social responsibility into the organizational effectiveness equation.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
41. 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
Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.

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AACSB: Ethics
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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
42. Everyone agrees that organizations need to cater to a wide variety of stakeholders. 
FALSE
Not everyone agrees that organizations need to cater to a wide variety of stakeholders.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

43. Corporate social responsibility has no effect on the financial performance of an organization. 
FALSE
Companies with a positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation tend to have better financial performance, more loyal employees (stronger organizational identification), and better relations with customers, job applicants, and other stakeholders.

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Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
44. Globalization may have both positive and negative implications for people working in organizations. 
TRUE
Globalization offers numerous benefits to organizations in terms of larger markets, lower costs, and greater access to knowledge and innovation. At the same time, there is considerable debate about whether globalization benefits developing nations, and whether it is primarily responsible for increasing work intensification, as well as reducing job security and work-life balance in developed countries.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Globalization

45. Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. 
TRUE
Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Globalization
 
46. Globalization offers numerous benefits to organizations in terms of larger markets, lower costs, and greater access to knowledge and innovation. 
TRUE
Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. It offers numerous benefits to organizations in terms of larger markets, lower costs, and greater access to knowledge and innovation.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Globalization

47. Reduced job security and increased work intensification are partly caused by globalization. 
TRUE
There is considerable debate about whether globalization benefits developing nations, and whether it is primarily responsible for increasing work intensification, as well as reducing job security and work-life balance in developed countries.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Globalization
 
48. Deep-level diversity refers to the observable demographic or physiological differences in people. 
FALSE
Surface-level diversity refers to the observable demographic or physiological differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

49. Deep-level diversity refers to factors such as age, gender, and race. 
FALSE
Deep-level diversity includes differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
50. Surface-level diversity is evident in a person's decisions, statements, and actions. 
FALSE
Deep-level diversity is evident in a person's decisions, statements, and actions.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
51. Employees who were born between 1946 and 1964 are referred to as Generation X employees. 
FALSE
Employees who were born between 1946 and 1964 are called Baby Boomers.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

52. Research indicates that Baby Boomers and Millennials bring the same values and expectations to the workplace. 
FALSE
Studies have found that Millennials are more self-confident, are more self-focused, and have less work centrality (i.e., work is less of a central life interest) when compared to Baby Boomers.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
53. Workforce diversity potentially improves decision making on complex tasks. 
TRUE
Diversity is an advantage because it provides diverse knowledge. Furthermore, teams with some forms of diversity (particularly occupational diversity) make better decisions on complex problems than do teams whose members have similar backgrounds.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Consequences of Diversity

54. Teams with diverse employees usually perform effectively in a shorter amount of time. 
FALSE
Teams with diverse employees usually take longer to perform effectively because they experience numerous communication problems and create "faultlines" in informal group dynamics.

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AACSB: Diversity
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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
55. Work-life balance occurs when people are able to minimize conflict between work and nonwork demands. 
TRUE
Work-life balance occurs when people are able to minimize conflict between their work and nonwork demands.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships
 
56. Germany, France, and USA all have work-life balance levels below the global average. 
TRUE
The Global Work-Life Balance Index indicates that Germany, France, and USA all have work-life balance levels below the global average.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships

57. An organization's employees use information technology to perform their jobs away from the traditional physical workplace. This is an example of virtual work. 
TRUE
Virtual work is one of the employment relationship trends, whereby employees use information technology to perform their jobs away from the traditional physical workplace.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships
 
58. Telework potentially reduces productivity because employees experience more stress and tend to allocate less commuting time to work activity. 
FALSE
Telework potentially improves productivity because employees experience less stress and tend to allocate some former commuting time to work activity.

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Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships

59. Telework is better suited to those who have sufficient fulfilment of social needs elsewhere in their life. 
TRUE
Telework is clearly better suited to people who are self-motivated, organized, can work effectively with broadband and other technology, and have sufficient fulfillment of social needs elsewhere in their life.

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Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships
 
60. Systematic research investigation is the basis for evidence-based management, which involves making decisions and taking actions based on this research evidence. 
TRUE
Systematic research investigation is the basis for evidence-based management, which involves making decisions and taking actions based on this research evidence.

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Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor

61. Organizational behavior knowledge is generic, and therefore it cannot be based on systematic research. 
FALSE
A key feature of organizational behavior knowledge is that it should be based on systematic research, which typically involves forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data.

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Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor
 
62. One advantage of systematic research investigation is that it does not require the process of data collection. 
FALSE
A critical feature of organizational behavior (OB) knowledge is that it should be based on systematic research, which typically involves forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data.

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Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor
 
63. According to evidence-based management, corporate leaders can embrace fads and pet beliefs without wasting time to find out if they actually work. 
FALSE
Evidence-based management is the practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor

64. A good organizational behavior research is necessarily generic and rarely described in the context of a specific problem in a specific organization. 
TRUE
A good organizational behavior research is necessarily generic; it is rarely described in the context of a specific problem in a specific organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor
 
65. Only organizational behavior scholars should develop organizational behavior theories. 
FALSE
Organizational behavior is anchored around the idea that the field should welcome theories and knowledge in other disciplines, not just from its own isolated research base.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
66. Communications and information systems are two emerging fields from which organizational behavior is now acquiring knowledge. 
TRUE
Organizational behavior knowledge has benefited from knowledge in emerging fields such as communications, marketing, and information systems.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Multidisciplinary Anchor

67. The contingency anchor in organizational behavior suggests that we need to understand and diagnose a situation and select a strategy most appropriate under those circumstances. 
TRUE
The contingency anchor recognizes that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. In other words, no single solution is best in all circumstances. Thus, when faced with a particular problem or opportunity, we need to understand and diagnose the situation and select the strategy most appropriate under those conditions.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Contingency Anchor
 
68. Organizational behavior (OB) recognizes that what goes on in organizations can be placed into three levels of analysis: individual, team, and organization. 
TRUE
Organizational behavior recognizes that what goes on in organizations can be placed into three levels of analysis: individual, team (including interpersonal), and organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

Multiple Choice Questions

69. Which of the following statements is true about organizational behavior? 
A. It involves a systematic study of various topics at a single level rather than at multiple levels.
B. It is concerned with the study of people who work independently.
C. It does not include the study of collective entities.
D. It is less effective in studying people who interact in a highly organized fashion.
E. It encompasses the study of how organizations interact with their external environments.
Organizational behavior encompasses the study of how organizations interact with their external environments, particularly in the context of employee behavior and decisions.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior
 
70. Which of these statements is true about the field of organizational behavior? 
A. It examines how individuals and teams in organizations relate to one another and to their counterparts in other organizations.
B. Organizational behavior researchers systematically study various topics at a single common level rather than at multiple levels.
C. Information technology has almost no effect on organizational behavior.
D. The field of organizational behavior relies exclusively on ideas generated within the field by organizational behavior scholars.
E. The origins of organizational behavior are traced mainly to the field of economics.
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations. It looks at employee behavior, decisions, perceptions, and emotional responses. It examines how individuals and teams in organizations relate to one another and to their counterparts in other organizations.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior

71. In the field of organizational behavior, organizations are described as: 
A. entities which are considered a legal grouping of people and systems.
B. groups of people who work independently to achieve a collective goal.
C. groups of government-registered entities.
D. groups of people with independent profit-centered motives and objectives.
E. groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose.
From an organizational behavior perspective, organizations are defined as groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior
 
72. Organizational behavior 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 predict the world in which we live.
E. is important only for the managers of an organization.
Organizational behavior (OB) helps us make sense of and predict the world in which we live. We use OB theories to question our personal beliefs and assumptions and to adopt more accurate models of workplace behavior.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?

73. Which of the following statements is true of organizational behavior knowledge? 
A. It is relevant to everyone who works in organizations.
B. It should never be used to influence the behavior of other people.
C. It should be used by managers and senior executives alone.
D. It should not be used by subordinates to influence the behavior of their managers.
E. It is less significant when the level of interpersonal interaction is high.
Organizational behavior is relevant to everyone in an organization since the work environment increasingly expects us to be self-motivated and to work effectively with coworkers without management intervention.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?
 
74. Which of the following perspectives of organizational effectiveness argues that companies take their sustenance from the environment and, in turn, affect that environment through their outputs? 
A. Stakeholder
B. Systematic research
C. High-performance work practice (HPWP) ()
D. Organizational learning
E. Open systems
The open systems perspective views organizations as complex organisms that "live" within an external environment. As open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, including raw materials, employees, financial resources, information, and equipment.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

75. Organizational behavior views organizations as: 
A. non-systems.
B. a single unitary subsystem.
C. open systems.
D. closed systems.
E. a system without interactions with the external environment.
The open systems perspective views organizations as complex organisms that "live" within an external environment.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Open Systems Perspective
 
76. The open systems anchor of organizational behavior states that: 
A. organizations affect and are affected by their external environments.
B. organizations can operate efficiently by ignoring changes in the external environment.
C. people are the most important organizational input needed for effectiveness.
D. organizations should avoid internal conflicts to achieve efficiency.
E. organizations should be open to internal competition to be able to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.
The open systems perspective views organizations as complex organisms that "live" within an external environment. As open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, including raw materials, employees, financial resources, information, and equipment.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

77. Which organizational behavior perspective discusses inputs, outputs, and feedback? 
A. Organizational learning
B. Open systems
C. Single window
D. Systematic research
E. Intellectual capital
According to the open systems perspective, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Open Systems Perspective
 
78. As open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for _____. 
A. incentive plans
B. products
C. financial resources
D. employee motivation
E. employee behavior
As open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, including raw materials, job applicants, financial resources, information, and equipment.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

79. ACME Software Inc. continuously collects feedback from its existing customers and implements them as bug fixes and new features in the latest versions of their software. This strategy relates most closely with which of the following concepts? 
A. Contingency anchor
B. Grounded theory
C. Open systems
D. Virtual teams
E. Telecommuting
According to the open systems perspective, organizations are effective when they maintain a good "fit" with their external environment. The most common strategy to fit with the external environment is to change a company's products and services as well as how those outputs are produced. In this case, ACME Software Inc. changes its products according to its customers' needs.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Organization-Environment Fit
 
80. A firm has good associations with its customers, suppliers, and others who provide added mutual value for the firm. Name the form of intellectual capital that is possessed by the firm due to its good associations. 
A. Structural capital
B. Task capital
C. Human capital
D. Knowledge capital
E. Relationship capital
Relationship capital is a form of intellectual capital, which is the value derived from an organization's relationships with customers, suppliers, and others who provide added mutual value for the organization. It includes the organization's goodwill, brand image, and combination of relationships that organizational members have with people outside the organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

81. The _____ perspective views knowledge as the main driver of competitive advantage. 
A. open systems
B. organizational learning
C. stakeholder
D. systematic research
E. shared values
The organizational learning perspective takes the view that effective organizations find ways to acquire, share, use, and store knowledge.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective
 
82. Human capital includes the: 
A. amount of outputs relative to the inputs in an organization.
B. knowledge embedded in an organization's systems and structures.
C. value derived from an organization's relationships with customers, suppliers, and others.
D. abilities among employees that provide economic value to an organization.
E. cost of selection and recruitment in an organization.
Human capital is the stock of knowledge, skills, and abilities among employees that provide economic value to an organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

83. Organizations retain intellectual capital by: 
A. creating structural capital.
B. encouraging employees to take early retirement.
C. discouraging employees from communicating with each other.
D. reducing the level of documentation in organizations.
E. substituting human capital.
Human capital is a huge risk for most organizations. Employees remove valuable knowledge when they leave, which makes the company less effective. Fortunately, even if every employee left the organization, some intellectual capital remains as structural capital.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective
 
84. Which of the following typically results in a loss of intellectual capital in an organization? 
A. Employees help the organization discover opportunities.
B. Employees protect the organization from threats in the external environment.
C. The organization sells one of its divisions, and its employees now work for another organization.
D. Employees in the organization help in documentation of work procedures.
E. The organization has a good physical layout of the production line.
Intellectual capital refers to the stock knowledge residing in an organization and exists in three forms: human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. Human capital is a huge risk for most organizations. Employees remove valuable knowledge when they leave, which makes the company less effective.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

85. Which of the following is one of the knowledge acquisition strategies? 
A. Observation
B. Experimentation
C. Documentation
D. Internal communication
E. Group discussion
Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment as well as through insight. The knowledge acquiring strategies are individual learning, environmental scanning, grafting, and experimentation.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Knowledge Acquisition
 
86. In the context of the four organizational learning processes, grafting is conducive to: 
A. measuring intellectual capital.
B. knowledge acquisition.
C. increasing organizational memory.
D. knowledge sharing.
E. unlearning.
Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment as well as through insight. Many growing companies achieve this by actively recruiting talented people and buying competing businesses, which is called grafting.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Knowledge Acquisition

87. 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 the context of organizational learning processes, searching for newspaper articles and other external writing about the organization is mainly a form of: 
A. knowledge acquisition.
B. knowledge drafting.
C. organizational unlearning.
D. knowledge sharing.
E. documentation.
Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment as well as through insight. One knowledge acquisition strategy is environmental scanning, such as actively monitoring customer trends and competitor activities.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Knowledge Acquisition
 
88. Twice every year, a major car parts manufacturer brings together the 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. grafting.
B. experimentation.
C. knowledge sharing.
D. documentation.
E. organizational unlearning.
Knowledge sharing involves distributing knowledge throughout an organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Knowledge Sharing

89. Which of the following knowledge acquisition strategies involves the active recruitment of talented people and purchase of competing businesses? 
A. Reverse engineering
B. Experimenting
C. Environmental scanning
D. Grafting
E. Offshore scanning
Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment as well as through insight. Many growing companies achieve this by actively recruiting talented people and buying competing businesses (called grafting).

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Knowledge Acquisition
 
90. 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 is trying to: 
A. transform intellectual capital into knowledge management.
B. create 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.
Human capital is a huge risk for most organizations. Employees remove valuable knowledge when they leave, which makes the company less effective. Fortunately, even if every employee left the organization, some intellectual capital remains as structural capital. Structural capital includes the knowledge captured and retained in an organization's systems and structures, such as the documentation of work procedures and the physical layout of the production line.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

91. The perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital is called _____. 
A. high-performance work practices (HPWPs)
B. learning
C. human capital
D. intellectual capital
E. open-systems
The perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital is high-performance work practices (HPWPs).

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective
 
92. Which of the following statements is true about human capital in an organization? 
A. Human capital helps the organization use opportunities more than realizing them.
B. Existence of human capital increases the threats in the external environment.
C. Human capital is nonsubstitutable, though it is abundant.
D. Human capital is independent of the challenges of the external environment.
E. Human capital is a key variable according to the high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective.
The high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective states that human capital, the knowledge, skills, and abilities that employees possess, is an important source of competitive advantage for organizations.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective

93. Employees, suppliers, and governments: 
A. are organizational stakeholders.
B. are rarely considered in organizational behavior theories.
C. represent the three levels of analysis in organizational behavior.
D. are excluded from the open systems anchor.
E. are independent units in an organizational set up.
Stakeholders include anyone with a stake in a company—employees, shareholders, suppliers, labor unions, government, communities, consumer and environmental interest groups, and so on.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Stakeholder Perspective
 
94. Stable, evaluative 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 virtual teams fail.
D. rarely studied in the field of organizational behavior.
E. called the values of an organization.
Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

95. The topic of ethics is most closely associated with the _____ perspective. 
A. stakeholder
B. systems
C. high-performance work practices (HPWPs)
D. open systems anchor
E. contingency
The stakeholder perspective's focus on values also brings ethics and corporate social responsibility into the organizational effectiveness equation. In fact, it emerged out of earlier writing about ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Ethics
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
96. _____ refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. 
A. Performance orientation
B. Ethics
C. Multicultural team
D. Legal obligation
E. Organizational behavior
Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Ethics
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

97. Which of these following trends is corporate social responsibility (CSR) most closely related to? 
A. Workforce diversity
B. Employment relationships
C. Information technology
D. Globalization
E. Sustainable business practices
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) consists of organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm's immediate financial interests or legal obligations. In this case, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is most closely related to sustainable business practices.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Ethics
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
98. _____ refers to an organization's moral obligation toward all of its stakeholders. 
A. The bottom-line philosophy
B. Legal obligation
C. Homogenous team
D. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
E. Organizational behavior
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to an organization's moral obligation toward all of its stakeholders. It is the view that companies have a contract with society, in which they must serve stakeholders beyond shareholders and customers.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Ethics
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

99. The triple-bottom-line philosophy says that: 
A. companies should pay three times as much attention to profits as they do 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 treat their local, national, and global customers fairly.
E. companies should try to support the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability.
As part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), many companies have adopted the triple-bottom-line philosophy. They try to support or "earn positive returns" in the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability. Firms that adopt the triple bottom line aim to survive and be profitable in the marketplace (economic), but they also intend to maintain or improve conditions for society (social) as well as the physical environment.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
100. Which of the following is most closely associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR)? 
A. Knowledge management
B. Triple bottom line
C. Absorptive capacity
D. Adaptive ability
E. Knowledge acquisition
As part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), many companies have adopted the triple-bottom-line philosophy: They try to support or "earn positive returns" in the economic, social, and environmental spheres of sustainability.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

101. _____ refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. 
A. OB
B. Globalization
C. Work-life balance
D. Knowledge management
E. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Globalization
 
102. Which of the following is an example of globalization? 
A. A footwear firm based in San Diego opens a new branch in Los Angeles.
B. A car company based in Pittsburgh manufactures its cars in Philadelphia.
C. Rewind, a German music band which plays traditional German folk music, performs in Berlin.
D. Rowan, a French citizen, publishes a novel within France.
E. An American-based burger joint opens a new outlet in China.
Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. Organizations globalize when they actively participate in other countries and cultures. In this case, the American burger chain has opened an outlet in another country.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Globalization

103. Which of the following statements is true about globalization and organizational behavior? 
A. Globalization has little or no effect on organizational behavior.
B. Globalization has forced organizational behavior researchers to study only large multinational businesses.
C. Globalization offers numerous benefits to organizations.
D. Globalization has forced organizational behavior textbooks to discuss only companies with headquarters in North America.
E. Globalization does not have a significant impact on today's organizations.
Globalization offers numerous benefits to organizations in terms of larger markets, lower costs, and greater access to knowledge and innovation. Globalization is now well entrenched, so the most important issue in organizational behavior is how corporate leaders and employees alike can lead and work effectively in this emerging reality.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Globalization
 
104. Differences in the psychological characteristics across generations are an example of _____ diversity. 
A. surface-level
B. internal
C. deep-level
D. racial
E. reflective
Deep-level diversity is evident in a person's decisions, statements, and actions. A popular example is the apparent deep-level diversity across generations.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

105. At Clickz, an American photography magazine publisher, more than half of the senior management positions are held by women. African Americans represent 40 percent of the company's workforce. The description of Clickz's diversity refers to: 
A. deep-level diversity.
B. psychological diversity.
C. personality diversity.
D. surface-level diversity.
E. attitude diversity.
The observable demographic or physiological differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities constitute surface-level diversity.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
106. _____ diversity includes differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes. 
A. Reflective
B. Deep-level
C. Organizational
D. Surface-level
E. External
Diversity also includes differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes. This deep-level diversity cannot be seen, but it is evident in a person's decisions, statements, and actions.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

107. Deep-level diversity includes: 
A. physiological differences.
B. attitudes.
C. ethnicity.
D. gender.
E. all of these.
Deep-level diversity is differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity
 
108. Which of the following groups expect more rapid career advancement regarding promotions and pay increases? 
A. Gen-Xers
B. Gen-Yers
C. Baby Boomers
D. Millennials
E. Silent Generation
One recent investigation of 23,000 undergraduate college and university students reported that, compared with the other groups, Millennials expect more rapid career advancement regarding promotions and pay increases.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

109. Mick works for a company as a financial analyst from home using information technology. He does not work in a traditional physical workplace. This trend is known as: 
A. deep-level diversity.
B. contract work.
C. virtual work.
D. surface-level diversity.
E. frictional unemployment.
Work performed away from the traditional physical workplace by using information technology is called virtual work. In this case, Mick works from home using information technology and not in a traditional workplace.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships
 
110. Which of the following is true according to the systematic research anchor? 
A. OB topics typically relate to the individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.
B. OB should import knowledge from other disciplines, not just create its own knowledge.
C. OB theory should recognize that the effects of actions often vary with the situation.
D. A particular action may have different consequences in different situations.
E. OB should study organizations by forming research questions, collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data.
A key feature of OB knowledge is that it should be based on systematic research, which typically involves forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Systematic Research Anchor

111. Which discipline has provided organizational behavior 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
In OB, sociologists have contributed to our knowledge of team dynamics, organizational socialization, organizational power, and other aspects of the social system.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Multidisciplinary Anchor
 
112. Which of the following anchors of organizational behavior states that no single solution is best all of the time? 
A. The systematic research anchor
B. The multidisciplinary anchor
C. The multiple levels of analysis anchor
D. The contingency anchor
E. The experimental theory anchor
According to the contingency anchor, people and their work environments are complex, and the field of organizational behavior recognizes this by stating that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. In other words, no single solution is best all of the time.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Contingency Anchor

113. Which of the following statements is consistent with the concept of the contingency anchor? 
A. To obtain the best results, actions should be taken without considering their consequences.
B. A particular action may have different consequences in different situations.
C. OB theories are based on simple, common sense ideas about what managers should do.
D. OB theories point out the one best way to resolve organizational problems.
E. Organizations should never be viewed as systems that process inputs to provide outputs.
The contingency anchor states that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Contingency Anchor
 
114. According to the multiple levels of analysis anchor: 
A. organizational behavior is mainly the study of how all levels of the organizational hierarchy interact with the external environment.
B. organizational behavior 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. corporate executives need to understand business ethics from various levels and perspectives.
According to the multiple levels of analysis anchor, OB topics typically relate to the individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

115. Which of the following is a conceptual anchor in organizational behavior? 
A. The contingency anchor
B. The economic anchor
C. The social anchor
D. The single-level anchor
E. The scientific anchor
Contingency anchor is one of the five conceptual anchors in organizational behavior.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: The Contingency Anchor
 
116. Scenario: Allison Albright
Your roommate, Allison Albright, is a non-business major. When she discovered that you are taking a course in Organizational Behavior, she was thoroughly confused as to why one would need to study OB and what it entails. Based on what you have studied, can you help Allison obtain knowledge of organizational behavior?
To help Allison understand some preliminary information about OB, which of these statements about the field is true? 
A. Organizational behavior scholars give more importance to individual characteristics than structural characteristics.
B. The field of organizational behavior is independent of the concepts and theories from other fields of inquiry.
C. Organizational behavior emerged as a distinct field late in the 1990s.
D. Given the specific utility of the field, OB is useful for the managers in the organizations but not for employees.
E. Organizational behavior scholars study what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior

117. Scenario: Allison Albright
Your roommate, Allison Albright, is a non-business major. When she discovered that you are taking a course in Organizational Behavior, she was thoroughly confused as to why one would need to study OB and what it entails. Based on what you have studied, can you help Allison obtain knowledge of organizational behavior?
Allison thinks that organization is the same as an organism. However, in the field of organizational behavior, 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. collective entities wherein members have a collective sense of purpose.
E. any social entity with profit-centered motives and objectives.
Organizations are groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose. One key feature of organizations is that they are collective entities. A second key feature of organizations is that their members have a collective sense of purpose.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: The Field of Organizational Behavior

118. Scenario: Allison Albright
Your roommate, Allison Albright, is a non-business major. When she discovered that you are taking a course in Organizational Behavior, she was thoroughly confused as to why one would need to study OB and what it entails. Based on what you have studied, can you help Allison obtain knowledge of organizational behavior?
Allison should understand that organizational behavior knowledge: 
A. should never be used to influence the behavior of other people.
B. should be used only by managers and senior executives.
C. should never replace common sense knowledge about how organizations work.
D. is relevant to everyone who works in organizations.
E. is an independent science that has evolved independently.
All employees need OB knowledge as the work environment increasingly expects us to be self-motivated and to work effectively with coworkers without management intervention. So OB is for everyone.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-01 Define organizational behavior and organizations; and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Why Study Organizational Behavior?

119. Scenario: Bob Baldwin
As the owner and manager of Tricky Toys, Bob Baldwin is fascinated by all the changes occurring and transforming the workplace. Bob is concerned about the important OB trends that he can understand and take advantage of in developing and positioning his company in the marketplace.
Bob is interested in this trend of globalization. He should know that globalization occurs when an organization: 
A. increases its connectivity with people and organizations in other parts of the world.
B. serves diverse customers within the firm's home country.
C. has a diverse workforce within the firm's home country.
D. has a substantially strong domestic market.
E. operates in a country with strict foreign trade policies.
Globalization refers to economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. Globalization increases when this connectivity is increased. Although businesses have traded goods across borders for centuries, the degree of globalization today is unprecedented because information technology and transportation systems allow a much more intense level of connectivity and interdependence around the planet.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Globalization

120. Scenario: Bob Baldwin
As the owner and manager of Tricky Toys, Bob Baldwin is fascinated by all the changes occurring and transforming the workplace. Bob is concerned about the important OB trends that he can understand and take advantage of in developing and positioning his company in the marketplace.
If Bob wants to study deep-level diversity in his organization, he should: 
A. review the demographic characteristics of his workforce.
B. consider the likelihood of long-term employment with the organization for each of his employees.
C. observe the physiological differences in the people who represent his workforce.
D. look at different attitudes and expectations of his employees.
E. research the cultural and racial background of the workforce in the industry.
Deep-level diversity includes differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

121. Scenario: Bob Baldwin
As the owner and manager of Tricky Toys, Bob Baldwin is fascinated by all the changes occurring and transforming the workplace. Bob is concerned about the important OB trends that he can understand and take advantage of in developing and positioning his company in the marketplace.
Bob is considering the idea of implementing telecommuting in Tricky Toys. Which of the following is an advantage of telecommuting? 
A. Reduced employee stress
B. Larger markets
C. Greater demand for firm's products
D. Enhanced employee recognition
E. Ability to recognize the value of new information
Telework potentially improves productivity because employees experience less stress and tend to allocate some former commuting time to work activity.

AACSB: Analytic
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships

Essay Questions

122. Name the four important perspectives of organizational effectiveness. Explain each perspective. 
Organizational effectiveness is a composite of four perspectives: open systems, organizational learning, high-performance work practices (HPWPs), and stakeholders. The open systems perspective holds that organizations depend on the external environments for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs. The organizational learning perspective is founded on the idea that organizational effectiveness depends on an organization's capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge. These processes build the organization's stock of knowledge, known as its intellectual capital. Intellectual capital exists in three forms: human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. Human capital refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities that employees carry around in their heads. Human capital is a competitive advantage because it is valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and nonsubstitutable. The high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective states that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital. The stakeholder perspective personalizes the open systems perspective; it identifies specific people and social entities in the external environment as well as within the organization (the internal environment). Stakeholders are the individuals, groups, and other entities that affect, or are affected by, the organization's objectives and actions.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

123. Explain the organization-environment fit concept of the open systems perspective. 
According to the open systems perspective, organizations are effective when they maintain a good "fit" with their external environment. Good fit exists when the organization's inputs, processes, and outputs are aligned with the needs and expectations of the external environment. There are three ways that companies maintain a good environmental fit. The most common strategy to fit with the external environment is to change the company's products and services as well as how those outputs are produced. Companies also maintain a good fit by actively managing their external environment. For instance, businesses rely on marketing to increase demand for their products or services. Some firms gain exclusive rights to particular resources (e.g., exclusive rights to sell a known brand) or restrict competitor access to valued resources. Still others lobby for legislation that strengthens their position in the marketplace or try to delay legislation that would disrupt their business activities. If the external environment is too challenging, organizations rely on a third organization- environment fit strategy: they move to a new environment that can sustain them.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Organization-Environment Fit

124. 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, like many reengineering changes, this intervention resulted in lower productivity, higher employee turnover, and other adverse outcomes. Discuss likely problems in the context of the open systems perspective. 
The open systems perspective views organizations as complex organisms that "live" within an external environment. There are three possible ways that systems theory explains these problems. First is the fact that as open systems, organizations depend on the external environment for resources, including raw materials, job applicants, financial resources, information, and equipment. In this case, reengineering the supplies requisition may have created resource requirements that are unavailable or difficult to obtain. The second and more likely of these is the fact that open systems have subsystems that are dependent on each other. 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 subsystems that are dependent on each other, and 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 third 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.
The change could also have 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. Student answers will vary for this question.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

125. Marketing specialists at Sarasota Beer Co. developed a new advertising campaign for summer sales. The ads were particularly aimed at sports events where Sarasota 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 Sarasota'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 Sarasota 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 the open system perspective to explain what has occurred at Sarasota Beer Co. 
This incident mainly relates to the open systems idea that organizations consist of many subsystems that are dependent on each other. 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. The marketing group'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.
The students could discuss the necessity of co-ordination and the effect of interdependence when discussing this scenario. Student answers will vary for this question.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

126. 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 behavior. 
The production simulation teaches teams that organizations are complex systems with many subsystems, and these subsystems are dependent on each other as they transform inputs into outputs. 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. Student answers would vary though they should address these issues in the answer.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Open Systems Perspective

127. A courier-service firm 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 intellectual capital in this situation? Explain your answer. 
Intellectual capital refers to a company's stock of knowledge including human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. The courier company has lost some intellectual capital, but probably not a great deal. 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 knowledge 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. Student answers will vary for this question.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Apply
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 3 Hard
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective

128. According to the organizational learning perspective, what are the four organizational learning processes? Explain each process. 
An organization's intellectual capital develops and is maintained through four organizational learning processes: acquiring, sharing, using, and storing knowledge. Knowledge acquisition includes extracting information and ideas from the external environment, as well as through insight. It involves individual learning, environment scanning, grafting, and experimentation. Knowledge sharing is an aspect of organizational learning that involves distributing knowledge throughout the organization. It includes communication, training, information systems, and observation. Knowledge use includes applying knowledge in ways that add value to the organization and its stakeholders. It involves knowledge awareness, knowledge location, and the freedom to apply it. Knowledge storage includes any means by which knowledge is held for later retrieval. It includes human memory, documentation, practices or habits, and databases.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Organizational Learning Perspective
 
129. Explain the three propositions that high-performance work practices (HPWPs) are based on. 
The high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective is based on three propositions:

1. Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and abilities that employees possess—is an important source of competitive advantage for organizations. As such, this human capital is (a) valuable, (b) rare, (c) difficult to imitate, and (d) nonsubstitutable.
2. This perspective tries to figure out specif ways to generate the most value from this human capital.
3. OB researchers have studied the effects of many work practices, but four are consistently identified as high-performance practices: employee involvement, job autonomy, competency development, and rewards for performance and competencies. Each of these four work practices individually improves organizational effectiveness, but studies suggest that they have a stronger effect when bundled together.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: High-Performance Work Practices Perspective

130. Many organizations are placing increasing importance on values in the workplace. Explain the differences between values, ethics, and corporate social responsibility. 
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 anchor our thoughts and, as such, motivate our actions.
By incorporating values into organizational effectiveness, the stakeholder perspective also provides the strongest case for ethics and corporate social responsibility. 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 behavior 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 a firm's immediate financial interests or legal obligations.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Ethics
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-04 Compare and contrast the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Values, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility
 
131. The changing workforce is one of the emerging trends in organizational behavior. 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. Some of them are (a) increasing workforce diversity; (b) longer working hours; (c) employees experience more work-related stress; (d) growing evidence of family and personal relations suffering; and (e) younger people (Generation-X and Generation-Y) bringing somewhat different values and needs to the workforce.
There are several consequences of these workforce changes. They are: (a) potentially better decision making; (b) potentially better customer service; and (c) higher financial returns, at least in the short run.

AACSB: Analytic
AACSB: Diversity
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Increasing Workforce Diversity

132. Telecommuting has been identified as an important trend in organizational behavior. Discuss three organizational behavior topics that are influenced by telecommuting. 
(Note: Students may identify the relevance of various OB topics through creative and logical thinking.) Some of the organizational behavior topics that are influenced by telecommuting include.
Stress management: Telecommuting tends to offer better work-life balance.
Performance: Telecommuting seems to improve job performance and productivity because employees tend to allocate some former commuting time to work activity.
Productivity: Employees remain productive when the weather or natural disasters block access to the office.
Organizational influence and politics: Telecommuters have to adjust to the lack of networking, and learn to overcome the limitations of limited face time in demonstrating their value.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Remember
Learning Objective: 01-02 Debate the organizational opportunities and challenges of globalization; workforce diversity; and emerging employment relationships.
Level of Difficulty: 1 Easy
Topic: Emerging Employment Relationships
 
133. Discuss the conceptual anchors based on which organizational behavior is developed and redefined. 
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. The multidisciplinary anchor states that organizational behavior should welcome theories and knowledge in other disciplines, not just from its own isolated research base. The contingency anchor states that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. In other words, no single solution is best all of the time. The multiple levels of analysis anchor states that what goes on in organizations should be understood from three levels of analysis: individual, team, and organization.

AACSB: Analytic
Blooms: Understand
Learning Objective: 01-03 Discuss the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based.
Level of Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Anchors of Organizational Behavior Knowledge