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Organizational Behavior FINAL EXAM

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(2) What are three theories that explain the impact of diversity (understand their major arguments and the causality through which diversity affect group performance)?
 Information/decision making arguments

 Social categorization theory

 Similarity/attraction theory
(1) What is leadership?
Leadership is a process of social influence whereby a leader steers members of a group towards a collective goal (Bryman, 1992).

Leadership is the ability of an individual to motivate others to forgo self interests in the interest of a collective vision, and to contribute to the attainment of that vision and to the collective by making significant personal self-sacrifices over and above the call of duty, willingly (House & Shamir, 1993).
(2) What are the major arguments of the trait-based approach to leadership?
Basic arguments
(1) Good leaders all have some stable characteristics.
(2) Therefore, good leaders are born and can not be made.
(3) The research focus is to identifying and measuring these traits and use these traits to select future leaders.
Three categories of traits
(1) Physical features
(2) Ability characteristics
(3) Personality traits
Limitations
(1) No single trait consistent predicts effectiveness of leadership.
(2) No empirical evidences for the existence of leadership profile
(3) We simply can not wait for the birth of the great man (Sarcastic??)
(3) What are the major arguments of the leadership style approach?
Basic arguments
(1) The effectiveness of leadership is determined by leaders’ external behaviors and exerted leadership style.
(2) The emphasis shifts from who leaders are to what leaders do.
(3) Leadership is a behavioral pattern and can be learned.
(4) Research task is to find the “right” styles and people can be trained to exhibit the behaviors and become better leaders.

Critiques
--Findings are inconsistent
--Focus is solely on formal leaders, ignoring informal leaders
--Studies failed to consider contextual factors (e.g., task complexity and interdependence, subordinate characteristics)
Ohio State studies
Initiating structure vs. consideration: These are 2 consistent patterns, with both have high employee performance & satisfaction. Initiating: leaders set up rules & ask subordinates to do things in a specific way. Consideration: Take into account the human needs/satisfaction of subordinate
Michigan studies
Employee-oriented vs. production-oriented Emp-orient: (higher productivity & satisfaction) emphasize interpersonal relations; take interest in needs of employees & indiv differences. Production-orient: emphasize the technical/task aspects, main concern was accomplishing task, grp members are means to an end
Managerial grid
Concerns for people vs. concerns for production
Scandinavian studies
Development-oriented behaviors
(4) What are the major arguments of the contingency approach to leadership
Basic arguments
--There is no one leadership style that succeeds in all situations. Certain leadership behaviors will be effective in some situations but not in others.
--The task is to identify the fit between leadership behaviors and situations.
Fiedler model
(1) Least-preferred coworker
(2) Situations
--L-F relationship
--Position power
--Task structure
Hersey & Blanchards' SLT
--Leadership effectiveness is determined by the interaction between leadership behaviors (task- vs. relationship-oriented) and the developmental level of teams (readiness: willingness and ability)
House & Michell's path-goal theory
Leaders’ role is assistant, helping subordinates accomplish tasks
--Therefore, leaders’ behaviors should compensate for what subordinates do not have and what environments do not provide. Leadership behaviors providing what subordinates already have are redundant and thus ineffective.
Vroom & Yetton's normative decision-making model
Vroom & Yetton: Normative decision-making model
--The major part of leadership is decision making.
--Which decision-making style of leaders depends on situational factors.
--Autocratic (AI): without subordinates’ inputs at all
--Autocratic (AII): gathering necessary information from subordinates
--Consultative (CI): share problems with individual subordinates only
--Consultative (CII): share problems with groups
--Joint decision (GII): completely participative decision making
Leader-member exchange theory
refer to our textbook
 Weber’s model of charisma
Marx Weber (1947): Authority
--Weber’s five components model of Charisma
(1) An exceptional leader
(2) A crisis situation
(3) The leader’s vision or mission, which presents a solution to the
crisis
(4) Followers who are attached to the leader and buy into the vision
(5) Validation of charismatic qualities of the leader through repeated
success
 Major characteristics of charismatic leadership
Ability to identify deficiency in status quo
Ability to formulate an idealized vision
Extensive use of articulation and impression management skills
Ability to instill value into followers and influence followers’ value and self-conception (Is Kobe a charismatic leader? How about coach K?)
Use of unconventional and innovative methods to achieve their vision
Sensitivity to environments constraints
Sensitivity to follower needs
Willingness to take risks and assume responsibility
Willingness to sacrifice
Howell (1977): socialized vs. personalized charismatic leadership
--Socialized: egalitarian behaviors, emphasis on collective interests, develop and empower others
--Personalized: personal dominance, authoritarian behaviors, emphasis on leaders’ self-interests, exploitation of others
Conger (1990): positive vs. negative charismatic leadership
(example?)
 When is charismatic leadership the most effective?
--Crisis and demanding situation: business downturn and startup
--Level of organizational hierarchy: the higher the level, the higher the influence. Why?
 What is transactional leadership and its main characteristics?
--The relationship between leaders and followers is exchange; Followers obtain valued outcomes if they act according to leaders’ wishes. Bargaining is regularity between leaders and followers.
--Therefore, leaders’ role is to stipulate exchange rules (e.g., performance standards) and compensation.

Specific Components
--Contingency rewards
--Management by exception
 What is transformational leadership and its main characteristics?
--Leaders move beyond exchange relationship to motivate and inspire followers by creating followers’ attachment to leaders, instilling values, transcending self-interests, and formulating visions.

Specific Components
--Charisma
--Inspiration
--Intellectual stimulation: challenge followers to search for novel, creative problem solutions
--Individual consideration
 What is the difference between transactional and transformational leadership?
transformational and transactional leadership differ in:
--Process of motivating and inspiring followers
--Types of goals: transformational—vision vs. transactional—performance goal
(1) What is diversity?
--Diversity is the situation in which the actors of interests are not alike with respect to some attributes.
(2) What are three theories that explain the impact of diversity
 Information/decision making arguments
 Social categorization theory
 Similarity/attraction theory
 Information/decision making arguments
General arguments
(1) Group members with diverse demographic attributes, personality, and attitudes increase the range of knowledge, abilities, and information.
(2) Groups with diverse members have networks tied to diverse information sources.
(3) Diverse information contributes to group performance.
Limitations
(1) The theory pays little attention to processes of group coordination.
(2) Whether diverse information is needed depends on tasks; diverse information adds more benefits when tasks are complicated
 Social categorization theory
General arguments
--Individuals have desire to maintain high self-esteem, which can be done by social comparison.
--Besides self-identification, uncertainty increases social categorization.
--To make social comparison, individuals first define themselves by social categorization using salient characteristics, which allows them to develop positive social identity.
--Social categorization creates in- and out-group biases
--In/out-group biases increase fragmentation, polarization, stereotyping, and anxiety, impeding group processes.
 Similarity/attraction theory
General arguments
--Interaction between individuals follows the rule of homophily: individuals tend to voluntarily interact with similar others.
--Similarity is often defined by some salient attributes.
--Similarity enhances group integration and cohesion, facilitating group processes.
(3) How can we reconcile the contraction implied by the three theories of diversity effect?
-- Static View

-- Dynamic View
Static View
An inverted-U shape relationship between diversity and group performance: a homogenous group has no information advantage, some increments of diversity have large positive increases in group problem-solving capabilities, too much diversity may generate insurmountable group conflicts.
Dynamic View
In the short run, homogeneous groups outperform moderately or highly heterogeneous groups.
In the long run, both homogeneous and highly heterogeneous groups will outperform moderately homogeneous groups.
(1) What is negotiation?
--A process through which two or multiple sides attempt to reach agreement on terms of exchanging so that actual exchanges can take place.
(2) What are the two generic types of negotiation?
--Distributive: (1) zero-sum game, (2) W-L situation, (3) short-term orientation, (4) hostile and intense (5) figure out a way to gain more

--Integrative: (1) sum is not fixed, (2) W-W is possible, (3) long-term orientation, (4) cooperative and friendly, (5) figure out a way to generate more
How will Expectation of future interaction influence negotiation processes?
--Future expectation reduces aggressiveness and increase cooperation
--Why?
How will Embeddeness in relational networks influence negotiation processes?
--Negotiators embedded in a dense network are less aggressive to each other
--Why?
How will Third-part factors influence negotiation processes?
--The existence of third parties can reduce conflict level, reduce negotiation time, and increase mutual gain (e.g., North Korea Case)
--Why?

Book - pp. 439-440
How will Culture factors influence negotiation processes?
--Negotiation always takes place in the context of culture. Different culture leads to different negotiation styles and approaches.
--Mexican, Chinese, and USA

Book - pp. 440-441
(4) What is conflict?
--A process through which one party perceives that another party is affecting and about to affect something he or she cares about.
--A state in which two or more parties are in contradiction over something that is closed related to each party’s interests.
(5) What are three types of conflicts at workplace?
--Task conflict: conflict over task content and goals
--Process conflict: conflicts over procedures of getting work done
--Relational conflict: conflicts over personal relationships
(6) Is conflict good or bad and why?
Book pp. 430-431; 442-444
If conflict is good, how to create productive conflicts?
???
What are the stages of the Conflict Process
1) Potential opposition or incompatibility
- antecedents

2) Cognition and personalization
- perception of conflict

3) Intentions
4) Behaviors (Behavioral manifestation)
5) Outcome

(CHECK BOOK FOR ALL)
Potential opposition or incompatibility
Book pp. 424-426
Cognition and personalization
Book pp. 426-427
Intentions
Book pp. 428-429
Behaviors
Book pp. 429-430
Outcomes
Book pp. 430-433
(8) Why do conflicts sometimes escalate?
In general, conflicts take time to unfold.
Conflicts can accumulate.
The accumulation of conflict makes it difficult to resolve conflict.
The escalation of conflicts can manifest in two aspects:
(1) The accumulation of conflicts between two parties directly involved.
(2) The involvement of other parties escalates conflicts
Example of my study
Implications for management
--Be sensitive to conflicts and bad relationships among employees
--Be proactive
--Resolve conflicts before it escalate
--Not only focus on parties directly involved but also possible other parties.
(9) How can conflict be resolved?
How to resolve conflict?
--Open discussion
--Superordinate goal
--More resources
--Authoritative command
--Avoid
--Structural change
(1) What is power?
--Capabilities to influence others to act according one’s wishes
According to Weber, where can power be derived from?
--Legal
--Legitimacy
--Charisma
a. How and why does dependence create power difference between individuals or organizations?
Peter Blau: power as dependency
(1) General propositions
--If A has control over something B wants, then we say that B
depends on A and thus A has power over B.
--B’s dependence on A depends on (a) how much B wants the
“something” and (b) whether there exists other alternative ways
for B to obtain the “something”.
b. How can dependence and thereby power difference be reduced? (three strategies)
--Psychological adjustment: change the motivation for something
--Find alternative way to obtain something
--Cooptation strategy
(1) Dyadic strategy
--Figure out what A wants and see if A depends on B for that
--Intentionally create A’s dependence on B
(2) Triadic strategy

(3) Group strategy: coalition formation
a. What are some major factors that can be sources of power and explain why?

(power from personal factors)
--Charisma
--Expertise
--Referent power
--Prestige
What is Formal structural power? and what are some major factors of it?
--Determined by formal positions in organizational hierarchies
--Coercive Power: A power base dependent on fear
--Reward Power: Compliance achieved based on the ability to distribute rewards that others view as valuable
--Legitimate Power: The power a person receives as a result of his or her position in the formal hierarchy of an organization; formal authority to control & use organizational resources; mutual agreement of authority
--Information Power: Power that comes from access to and control over information
(5) How can you influence others by applying different types of power?

(Influencing tactics)
Legitimacy
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Exchange
Personal appeals
Ingratiation
Pressure
Coalition
a. What is politics?
--Informal activities intended to influence the distribution of benefits within an organization.
--Key elements
(1) Underground/informal: not part of job prescription
(2) Advance parochial interests
(3) Through influencing power distribution
Why does politics exist in organizations?
--There exist individual and parochial interests (e.g., aspiration for control)
--Competition for scarce resources (e.g., allocation resources among departments, promotion, hiring, job evaluation, pay)
--Enough ambiguity which makes manipulation possible (e.g., to evaluate for tenure, what is considered as contributing community?)
b. Is politics good or bad? Ethical?
Book pp. 400-411
c. What are some consequences of politics in organizations?
Book pp. 400-411
(1) What is communication
Communication is the process through which information and meanings are transferred between individuals through certain communication media.
What are the Functions of communication
(1) Control
(2) Motivation
(3) Information
(4) Emotion expression
(2) What is the typical communication process composed of?
Refer to Robbin’s Book: p.330
Mini class
Process
(1) Information sender (encode and send)
(2) Communication media
(3) Information receiver (receive and decode)
(4) Feedback (check communication accuracy)
(3) What are three typical types of formal communication networks?
(1) Chain - rigidly follows the formal chain of command (might find this in a rigid 3 level organization)

(2) Wheel - relies on a central figure to act as the conduit for all the group's communication.
- Stimulates the communication network you would find on a team with a strong leader

(3) All channel or full connection - Permits all group members to actively communicate with each other.
- Characterized in practice by self-managed teams , in which all group members are free to contribute and no one person takes on a leadership role
(4) Why do informal communication networks exist in organizations?
Book - pp. 306-308
Can we completely formalize communication in an organization?
Book - pp. 306-308
(5) What are some important barriers to effective interpersonal communication?
Tendency to evaluate
--Why does evaluating others’ statement affect communication?
Failure to be a good listener
--Mini class exercise
--Why is listening so difficult?
--How can good listening be achieved?
Hierarchical barriers
--How can subordinates and supervisors communicate effectively?
What are Filtering, Selective perception, Information overloaded, Emotion
Language, and Communication apprehension
BOOK - PP. 315-317
(6) What can we learn from the movie “12 Angry men” regarding communication, influencing, and issue selling in a group setting?
ASK SOMEONE FROM CLASS
(1) What is virtual team? And why are virtual teams so popular?
--Virtual teams are groups of geographically and/or organizationally disperse coworkers that are assembled using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task.

Popularity from
--The increasing prevalence of flat or horizontal organizational structures.
--Competition through interorganizational cooperation
--Employees’ expectation of organizational participation
--A shift from production to service/knowledge environment
--Globalization and internationalization
--Increasing pressure for work-family balance and employees’ requirement for flexible work schedules
(2) What are some main obstacles for virtual team successes?
--Virtual teams impose higher requirements on cooperation, trust, and disciplines without direct face-to-face interaction and monitoring

Technophobia
--A lot of people are not comfortable with computer technologies
Trust and cohesion issues
--How can trust be established without direct monitoring?
--Stipulate policies to guarantee that electronic media are safe to communication
Burnout and stress
--How much responsibility and work should be assigned to virtual teams members?
--Overcome the feeling of isolation and detachment
Organizational structural resistance
--How are virtual teams integrated with rest of the organization?
Assess and recognize virtual teams’ performance
(1) What is organizational structure?
--Casual definition: the way in which work is arranged.
--Formal definition: how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated
What are the Six elements of organizational structure
- Work specialization
- Departmentalization
- Chain of command
- Span of control
- Centralization
- Formalization
a. What is specialization and what are some advantages and disadvantages of specialization?
Work specialization: division of labor, scope of job responsibility and required skills

Book pp.452-454 = + and -
b. What is departmentalization and how can departmentalization be done?
Departmentalization: the basis for grouping work together

Can be done by:
--function
--product
--geography
--process
--Customer
c. What is chain of command and what are its two components?
Chain of command: the unbroken chain of authority and reporting relationships
--Authority: formal rights of each managerial position
--Unity-of-command principle: one-on-one supervising and reporting
--With orgs. Becoming flat and empowerment, chain of command is less important
d. What is span of control? Where are some advantages and disadvantages of narrow and wide span of control respectively?
Span of control: the number of subordinates a manger can supervise effectively and efficiently

Narrow span
- Advantages: manager can maintain close control
- Disadvantages: expensive b/c they add levels of management; make vertical communication more complex (added levels of hierarchy slow down decision making and isolate upper management); encourage overly tight supervision and discourage employee autonomy

Wide span
- Advantages: more cost efficient; generally more efficient
- Disadvantages: if too wide they reduce effectiveness (employee performance suffers b/c supervisors no longer have time to provide necessary leadership/support
e. What is centralization?
the concentration of decision making power
--Employee empowerment pushes organizations towards decentralization
f. What is formalization and what are its advantages and disadvantages?
Formalization: the extent to which jobs are standardized or programmed
--Higher formalization means less employee inputs

- High formalization-There are explicit job descriptions, organizational rules, clearly defined procedures covering work processes in org.
-Low formalization-jobs are relatively non-programmed; employees have freedom to exercise discretion.
What is the Simple structure design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
low degree of departmentalization, wide span of control, authority centralized in a single person, little formalization. “flat” org, only 2/3 vertical levels. Advantage: simple structure, fast, flexible, inexpensive. Disadvantage: difficult to maintain in anything other than small organizations. Low formalization is inadequate as comp grows.
What is the Bureaucratic structure design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
structure with highly routine operating tasks achieved thru specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional depts, centralized authority, narrow span control, decision making follows chain-of-command. Advantage: ability to perform standardized activities in highly efficient manner, minimum duplication of personnel & equipment, less talented/costly managers, central decision making. Disadvantage: specialization creates subunit conflicts; functional unit goals can override the overall goals of the org.
What is the Matrix structure design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
creates dual lines of authority and combines functional and product departmentalization. Advantage: like specialties put together, minimizes the # necessary while allowing sharing or resources across products, facilitate coordination when there exist complex and interdependent activities. Disadvantage: difficulty coordinating the tasks of diverse functional specialists so that their activities are completed on time and within a budget, confusion of authority relationships & conflicts over power.
What is the Team/Horizontal structure design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
use of teams as the central device to coordinate work activities. Breaks down departmental barriers and decentralizes decision making, require employees to be generalists as well as specialists.
What is the Virtual organizational design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
a small, core organization that outsource major business functions. Highly centralized, with little or no departmentalization, challenges: want to outsource, protection of competitive advantage, process continuity and innovation. Advantage: flexibility, allows indiv with an innovative idea but little money to successfully compete against bigger companies. Disadvantage: reduces management’s control over key parts of its business.
What is the Boundaryless organizational design? its main characteristics? its main advantages and disadvantages?
or that seeks to eliminate the chain of command, have limitless spans of control, and replace departments with empowered teams and information technology. Eliminate horizontal, vertical, and interorganizational boundaries. By removing boundaries: management flattens the hierarchy, status & rank are minimized. Advantage-breaks down barriers to external constituencies and barriers created by geography. Networked computers allow ppl to comm. across intra- & interorg boundaries.
(4) Why do organizations look different?
Strategy: structure helps achieve objectives, objectives derived from strategy. Innovation (emphasizes the introduction of major new products and services), cost minimizing (emphasizes tight cost controls, avoid unnecessary innovation or marketing, & price cutting), imitation (seeks to move into new products or new markets only after their viability has already been proven)
Organizational size:
Technology: how an or transfers its inputs into outputs
Environment: institutions or forces outside the org that potentially affect the orgs performance
Organizations need to adapt to diverse environments: capacity (environmental), volatility (change pace), complexity
why do organizations look similar?
coercive forces/legal requirements, normative forces (expectations of what org should be), and imitation/diffusion. Conforming to expectations does not necessarily bring efficiency (deal w/ this by having org appearance be a disguise and or conducts their activities according to efficiency.
(1) What is organizational strategy?
organization’s orientation in what business the firm is in and how it should compete w/ rivals to inc profits & growth. Strategy sets the bearing for org activities. Perform different activities from rivals’ or perform similar activities in different ways. (not effectiveness: perform similar activities better than rival performs).
(2) What are Michael Porter’s three generic strategies?
Competitive advantages (raise prices way above costs) = differentiations strategy, low cost strategy, or both
(3) What is resource dependence theory?
How can organizations manage their dependence on other individuals or organizations for resources?
-orgs always depend on their environment for necessary
resources; dependence usually means uncertainty which affects profits. To manage dependence: merger/acquisition, board interlocking, interorganizational relationships
What is resource-based view (RBV)?
-org derive above normal profits from owning resources that are valuable, rare, insubstitutable, unimitable
What is organizational culture?
system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Common perception.
Question
Answer
(understand their major arguments and the causality through which diversity affect group performance)
-
-
Similarity/attraction theory
What is leadership?
Leadership is a process of social influence whereby a leader steers members of a group towards a collective goal (Bryman, 1992).
What are the major arguments of the trait-based approach to leadership?
Basic arguments:
What are the major arguments of the leadership style approach?
Basic arguments:
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