Organizational Theory Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Organizational Theory explores the fundamental principles, models, and frameworks that shape how organizations function, adapt, and evolve in varying environments. Covering classical, modern, and contemporary perspectives, the course examines key topics such as organizational structure, culture, design, decision-making processes, power dynamics, and the impact of technology and globalization. By analyzing both historical and current organizational challenges, students gain a comprehensive understanding of how organizations achieve goals, manage change, foster innovation, and optimize performance in complex settings.
Recommended Textbook
Contemporary Organizational Behavior 1st Edition by Kimberly D. Elsbach
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14 Chapters
357 Verified Questions
357 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not one of the three levels of organizational behavior?
A) Individual
B) Interpersonal
C) Organizational
D) Group or team
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following is not one of the four organizational processes?
A) Individual
B) Interpersonal
C) Organizational
D) Corporate
Answer: D
Q3) The focus of organizational behavior is on ________.
A) Productivity
B) People in organizations
C) Leading and leadership processes
D) Efficiency
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Individual Characteristics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Someone who often makes rash and hasty decisions would likely score high on the ________ dimension of personality.
A) Feeling
B) Sensing
C) Intuiting
D) Judging
Answer: C
Q2) The most sought after competency by employers is ________.
A) Ethics/social responsibility
B) Leadership
C) Critical thinking/problem solving
D) Teamwork/collaboration
Answer: C
Q3) Which job requires the highest level of emotional labor?
A) Certified financial accountant
B) Customer service representative
C) Financial analyst
D) Maintenance worker
Answer: B
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Learning
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jim had a bad habit of arriving to work late. His boss Carlos, wanted Jim to arrive on time. Carlos decided to have Jim make up the time he missed by working late. When Jim arrived on time, he had 15 minutes added to his lunch hour. It didn't take long for Jim to begin arriving on time so that he could have extra time for lunch and not have to work late. Which of the following best explains what happened in this situation?
A) Jim learned that arriving late had consequences
B) Jim experienced action learning
C) Jim wanted a promotion
D) Carlos changed Jim's behavior through operant conditioning
Answer: D
Q2) As children progress through grade levels at school, their ________ increases. A) Intelligence
B) Cognitive complexity
C) Learning goal orientation
D) Performance goal orientation
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which is not one of the three categories of attribution?
A) Consensus
B) Congruency
C) Distinctiveness
D) Consistency
Q2) What do our perceptions consist of?
A) Our experience combined with current stimuli
B) Our current reality
C) The stimuli that surrounds us
D) A portion of the stimuli that surrounds us
Q3) What does the process of attribution describe?
A) Behavior of others
B) Behavior of self
C) Assigning credit or blame
D) Categorizing by level and dimension
Q4) What is the similarity between perceptions and heuristics?
A) Their underlying purpose
B) They rely on incomplete information
C) They can be improved through training
D) They can be used interchangeably
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Chapter 5: Leadership
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do transformational leaders impact their followers?
A) They can bring awareness and conscientiousness to ethical issues
B) The followers receive personal gain in factors appealing to them
C) They use extrinsic motivation to encourage followers to work toward their vision
D) None of the above
Q2) Authentic leadership emphasizes ________ and de-emphasizes the importance of ________.
A) Leadership; management
B) Justice; demagogues
C) Integrity; power
D) Ethics; trust
Q3) Which of the following is true of the research on trait theory?
A) If you are not born with leadership traits, you can develop them
B) No one is born with leadership traits but everyone can develop them
C) Traits consist of task behaviors and interpersonal behaviors but you can only develop interpersonal traits
D) Possessing certain traits does not translate into leadership effectiveness
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Chapter 6: Motivation
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Sample Questions
Q1) When would your motivation for a task be the highest?
A) Working under a Theory X manager
B) Working under a Theory Y manager
C) You are in flow
D) You perceive equity
Q2) An organization gives a 1% raise to everyone annually, and many employees are upset by this practice, so they have no motivation to work hard. Why are employees upset and unmotivated?
A) The practice is not consistent with an optimal experience
B) The amount of the raise is too small; a raise of at least 3% is needed to motivate
C) Everyone is treated the same; no distinction is made based on performance
D) There is no communication about why everyone gets a 1% raise
Q3) What happens when skill variety, task identity, and task significance are present in a job?
A) Increased organizational commitment
B) Personal skill development leads to higher performance
C) Rewards need to increase to maintain current motivation
D) Intrinsic motivation results from the meaningful work
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8
Chapter 7: Persuasion, Influence, and Impression Management
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Sample Questions
Q1) As HR manager, you are under intense pressure to hire top talent at the lowest possible cost. What would be the most effective way to persuade a candidate to join your organization without offering more money?
A) Allow the candidate one week to consider the compensation package before getting back to you
B) Provide statistics on employee satisfaction at your organization
C) Tell the applicant you are considering two other highly qualified applicants for the opening and want to decide soon
D) Provide a better benefits package that may include better medical insurance or stock options
Q2) Why would a company choose not to grow or expand despite great demand for their product?
A) Create greater perceived value for their product
B) Increase the cost of their product
C) Create greater demand for their product
D) All of the above
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Chapter 8: Decision Making
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Sample Questions
Q1) When you begin your new job, you are soaking in all types of information about your new work environment: some good, some bad. Mentally, you emphasize the number and importance of the good aspects and discount those of the bad as you go through your first week. What are you doing?
A) Managing your impression that you like the job
B) Maintaining a healthy outlook
C) Confirming to yourself that you made the right decision
D) Gathering information about the organization's culture
Q2) How would the garbage can model describe organizational decision making?
A) Heavily influenced by trivial matters and chance
B) It improves as the quality of the problems and solutions improve
C) It is modeled after untrained decision makers
D) All of the above
Q3) The last recommendation for improving naturalistic decision making is "decision makers should put less emphasis on organizational decision making structures and more emphasis on training decision makers who have expertise to look at a situation in its entirety." What should organizations do to implement this suggestion?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Groups and Teams
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Q1) In what way are production teams and service teams similar?
A) They both focus on improving ongoing aspects of the business
B) They both focus on improving aspects of employee interactions
C) They both focus on meeting short-term goals of the business
D) The names can be used interchangeably
Q2) Why do the social loafing and free rider effect say that the same individual will do less work in a group than on their own?
A) The more talented people in the group don't want them to drag them down so they push them aside
B) There is no one else to take responsibility or be held accountable for your work when you are working on your own
C) Everyone does less work in a group than on their own because there are more people to distribute the tasks
D) Peer pressure doesn't exclude them when they are working individually
Q3) Groups and teams differ primarily on which factor?
A) Shared responsibility for goals
B) Basic unit of coordinating work in organizations
C) Accomplish tasks that can't be effectively performed by an individual
D) Operate within organizations
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Conflict and Negotiation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which type of negotiation views resources involved in the negotiation as flexible instead of fixed?
A) Distributive negotiation
B) Integrative negotiation
C) Process negotiation
D) Expansion negotiation
Q2) The number of organizations using a team structure is increasing and more individuals are working in close proximity and working together on various projects. Given this new organizational structure, which type of conflict is likely to increase compared to the individual work structure of the past?
A) Process conflict
B) Task conflict
C) Interpersonal conflict
D) None of the above
Q3) Which of the following is not a predetermined factor in negotiations?
A) Issues involved
B) People involved
C) Surrounding environment
D) Strategy choice
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Diversity and Communication
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following can be used to support and verify a message?
A) Data
B) Storytelling
C) Climax
D) Targeting
Q2) When might understanding generational differences in the workplace be useful?
A) Understanding others' perspectives
B) Deciding how and when to provide motivation and feedback
C) Forming teams or workgroups
D) All of the above
Q3) All of the following are communication style preferences of men except ________.
A) Make statements instead of ask questions
B) Use "I" instead of "we"
C) Offer criticism instead of compliments
D) Avoid talking about personal achievements instead of focus on achievements
Q4) Which of the following best describes big data?
A) Proliferation of data in daily life
B) A database of quantitative information
C) Complex problem solving in real world settings
D) Expanding number of data sources readily available
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Chapter 12: Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) If you want to know what a culture is really like, what should you examine?
A) Behavioral artifacts
B) Physical artifacts
C) Espoused values
D) Basic assumptions
Q2) Your company encourages innovative ideas, and perseverance in the face of failure, to maintain their status as industry leader. Your company just made a new acquisition and they want to keep doing what their customers expect, delivering on a proven background of experience and tradition. What is the cultural dimension that differs between the organizations?
A) Power distance
B) Individualism vs. collectivism
C) Uncertainty avoidance
D) Time orientation
Q3) What is the most effective type of organizational culture for an "as seen on TV" product manufacturer to adopt?
A) Clan
B) Adhocracy
C) Hierarchy
D) Market driven
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Chapter 13: Change, Innovation, and Stress
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Q1) If you want to promote creativity, you should do everything except ________.
A) Lessen the emphasis on successful outcomes
B) Decrease time for projects
C) Reinforce the process and effort instead of the outcome
D) Increase individual autonomy
Q2) Organizational change focuses change efforts on which of the following?
A) Planned or unplanned changes
B) Rapid or incremental changes
C) Structure, process, or outcome
D) Culture, hierarchical structure, or innovation
Q3) How is appreciative inquiry distinct from other methods of change?
A) Appreciative inquiry builds on positive aspects instead of trying to change or improve problem areas
B) Appreciative inquiry is based on positive reinforcement instead of forcing change
C) Appreciative inquiry is driven by employees in a grassroots method instead of the top down approach used by the other methods
D) Appreciative inquiry is the most recent approach to change and comes out of the positive psychology line of behavioral research
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Chapter 14: Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Sustainability
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is an aspect of the triple bottom line?
A) All organizations have a responsibility to their employees
B) Companies have a responsibility for their employees and community
C) Corporations can only engage in CSR when profitable
D) Environmental sustainability only applies to organizations using raw materials
Q2) What is the major criticism of the shareholder model?
A) Serving shareholders is the primary responsibility of businesses
B) Organizations are a driving force of capitalism
C) Organizations need to serve their employees before they attend to shareholders
D) Organizations should remain privately held so they independently make decisions
Q3) Which is not a category of ethical discussion?
A) Philosophical
B) Applied
C) General
D) Normative
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