BOB2024 Organizational Behavior, Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A.

Judge, Organizational Behavior, 15th edition, 2013, Pearson Education TUTORIAL QUESTIONS Chapter 1 1. What is the importance of interpersonal skills? 3. What is organizational behavior (OB)? 4. Why is it important to complement intuition with systematic study? 6. Why are there few absolutes in OB? 7. What are the challenges and opportunities for managers in using OB concepts? Chapter 5 1. What is personality? How do we typically measure it? What factors determine personality? 2. What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and what does it measure? 3. What are the Big Five personality traits? 4. How do the Big Five traits predict work behavior? 6. What are values, why are they important, and what is the difference between terminal and instrumental values? 7. Do values differ across generations? How so? Chapter 6 1. What is perception, and what factors influence our perception? 3. What shortcuts do people frequently use in making judgments about others? 4. What is the link between perception and decision-making? How does one affect the other? 5. What is the rational model of decision-making? How is it different from bounded rationality and intuition? 6. What are some of the common decision biases or errors that people make?

8. Are unethical decisions more a function of an individual decision maker or the decision makers work environment? Explain. Chapter 7 1. What are the three key elements of motivation? 5. What are the similarities and differences between goal-setting theory and management by objectives? 8. What are the key tenets of expectancy theory? Chapter 9 1. Define group. What are the different types of groups? 2. What are the five stages of group development? 4. How do group norms and status influence an individuals behavior? 8. What are the strengths and weaknesses of group (versus individual) decision-making? Chapter 11 1. What are the primary functions of the communication process in organizations? 2. What are the key parts of the communication process, and how do you distinguish formal and informal communication? 3. What are the differences among downward, upward, and lateral communication? 6. What are the main forms of electronic communication? What are their unique benefits and challenges? Chapter 12 1. Are leadership and management different from one another? If so, how? 2. What is the difference between trait and behavioral theories? Are the theories valid? 4. What is Fiedlers contingency model? Has it been supported in research? 6. What is authentic leadership? Why do ethics and trust matter to leadership? 7. How is mentoring valuable to leadership? What are the keys to effective mentoring?

8. How can organizations select and develop effective leaders? Chapter 13 1. What is power? How is leadership different from power? 2. What are the similarities and differences among the five bases of power? 3. What is the role of dependence in power relationships? 4. What are the nine most often identified power or influence tactics and their contingencies? 6. What are the causes and consequences of political behavior? 7. What are some examples of impression management techniques? Chapter 15 1. What are the six key elements that define an organizations structure? 2. What is a bureaucracy, and how does it differ from a simple structure? 3. What is a matrix organization? 4. What are the characteristics of a virtual organization? Chapter 16 1. What is organizational culture, and what are its common characteristics? 2. What are the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture? 3. What factors create and sustain an organizations culture? 5. How can an ethical culture be created? Chapter 18 3. What are the four main approaches to managing organizational change? 4. How can managers create a culture for change? 5. What is stress, and what are the possible sources of stress?

6. What are the consequences of stress? CASE INCIDENTS Chapter 9 New Case: Negative Aspects of Collaboration? Throughout this chapter we have discussed ways that groups can perform well or perform poorly, which leaves an overriding question: are the negative aspects of collaboration so severe that we should avoid making decisions and working in groups? Groups and teams need more time to process multiple pieces of information and coordinate what they know. Daniel Kaheman and colleagues also warn that when committees and groups make recommendations, theyve often fallen in love with a particular idea and are no longer thinking rationally. These problems of heuristics and biases (introduced earlier in the book) can be magnified when a group of people are making a decision collectively. Look no further than the U.S. Congress in recent years to see instances in which a group decisionmaking process might lead to a worse outcome than if one consistent course of action were pursued. So what can managers do to minimize these biases? The problems of coordination and collaboration suggest that we should invoke group decision making only when it appears that pooling information will lead to better decisions than individual decision making. Experts advise that decision makers receiving advice from teams should always ask whether the teams recommendations contain any self-interested biases. Its also important to see whether the team has developed an emotional attachment to one course of action or has succumbed to groupthink. Finally, run down a checklist of the heuristics and biases weve described earlier in the book to see whether the group might be prone to making these decision errors.
Sources: M. T. Hansen, When Internal Collaboration Is Bad for Your Company, Harvard Business Review (April 2009), pp. 82-88; D. Kahneman, D. Lovallo, and O. Sibony, Before You Make That Big Decision, Harvard Business Review (June 2011), pp. 50-60; E. Klein, Washingtons Suicide Pact Newsweek (March 21, 2011), www.newsweek.com.

Questions 1. Think about a time when youve been in a group that had to make a collective decision that didnt turn out well. Can you identify any specific decision-making errors the team made? 2. In the situation you encountered, can you think of any strategies that would have helped make the group decision making process more efficient and accurate? 3. Can you think of a type of decision that is probably better made by an individual than a group? What types of decisions need to be made by groups? Chapter 12 New Case: Moving from Colleague to Supervisor

Cheryl Kahn, Rob Carstons, and Linda McGee have something in common. They all were promoted within their organizations into management positions. And each found the transition a challenge. Cheryl Kahn was promoted to director of catering for the Glazier Group of restaurants in New York City. With the promotion, she realized that things would never be the same again. No longer would she be able to participate in water-cooler gossip or shrug off an employees chronic lateness. She says she found her new role to be daunting. At first I was like a bulldozer knocking everyone over, and that was not well received. I was saying, Its my way or the highway. And was forgetting that my friends were also in transition. She admits that this style alienated just about everyone with whom she worked. Rob Carstons, a technical manager at IBM in California, talks about the uncertainty he felt after being promoted to a manager from a junior programmer. It was a little bit challenging to be suddenly giving directives to peers, when just the day before you were one of them. You try to be careful not to offend anyone. Its strange walking into a room and the whole conversation changes. People dont want to be as open with you when you become the boss. Linda McGee is now president of Medex Insurance Services in Baltimore, Maryland. She started as a customer service representative with the company, then leapfrogged over colleagues in a series of promotions. Her fast rise created problems. Colleagues would say, Oh, here comes the big cheese now. God only knows what they talked about behind my back.
Source: Based on D. Koeppel, A Tough Transition: Friend to Supervisor, The New York Times, March 16, 2003, p. BU12.

Questions 1. A lot of new managers err in selecting the right leadership style when they move into management. Why do you think this happens? 2. What does this say about leadership and leadership training? 3. Which leadership theories, if any, could help new leaders deal with this transition? 4. Do you think its easier or harder to be promoted internally into a formal leadership position than to come into it as an outsider? Explain.