Assessment 1 – Week 3

Chapter Five.

True/False: State whether the following statement is true or false and provide a brief explanation of your answer.

1. Self-esteem is usually unrelated to a person’s level of education. 

False. Self-esteem is how much a person believes on him/herself based on self-evaluation. (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013) The experiences that one has in the course of life and how others treat them is what constitutes to their self-esteem. People who have achieved higher levels of education will most likely have a feeling of capability and acceptance in the society. The world today is educational driven. Various factors such as career, promotions and entrepreneurship are mostly based on a person’s level of education. This therefore means that person who have achieved a high level of education will be exposed to more opportunities and therefore a greater chance of success. This in turn will lead to boosting of their self-esteem

2. In individualistic cultures people are socialized to “fit into the community and to do their duty.” Thus, how an individualist feels about him- or herself is less relevant to life-satisfaction. 

False. People in individualistic cultures are driven to focus on themselves. The repercussion of this is that such people will find how they feel about themselves more relevant to life-satisfaction.

3. Global managers need to remember to deemphasize self-esteem when doing business in collectivist (“we”) cultures. 

True. By deemphasizing on self-esteem, workers in collectivist cultures will find it easier to fit into their community and play their roles more efficiently. However, if global managers emphasize on self-esteem in such culture, individuals will end up demoralized leading to lack of efficiency in work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

 4. Self-efficacy is functionally the same thing as self-esteem. 

False. Self-efficacy is the belief that a persona may have in his chances of achieving a certain task. This means that self-efficacy is based on accomplishing a specific task whereas self-esteem is based on overall self-evaluation. The result of self-efficacy is therefore self-belief in only one task while that of self-esteem is an overall self-belief in all tasks.

5. People who are low self-monitors are sometimes called chameleons because they can readily adapt their self-presentation to their surroundings. 

False. Low self-monitors are incapable of regulating their expressive presentations of themselves. Their expressive behaviors reflect their momentary inner states. This makes them insensitive to others. On the other hand, the name chameleons given to high self-monitors. These people who regulate their expressive presentations of themselves based on the environment they are in (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).  

6. People who believe they control the events that affect their lives are said to possess an internal locus of control. 

True. These are people who are unrestrained by situational forces and effecting environmental changes themselves. They identify opportunities in their surroundings, act on them and persevere until the change they wish occurs. Such people believe that they control the events and consequences that affect their lives.

 7. Successful performance depends solely on skill. 

False. Skill is described as the specific capacity of an individual in physical manipulation of objects. An ability on the other hand entails a broad characteristic responsible for an individual’s maximum performance on physical and mental tasks (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Therefore, successful performance depends on skill, ability and effort.

8. Emotional behavior seldom affects day-to-day organizational life. 

False. Emotional behavior has a very powerful effect on the day-to-day organizational life. For instance, jealousy and anger push aside rationality and logic in a workplace. Additionally, managers are known to use emotions such as fear to intimidate and motivate those under them. This not only shows the power that emotions hold but also how prevalent they are in workplaces.

Essay Questions

 1. Define organizational identification. What are the advantages and disadvantages of organizational identification? 

Organizational identification is a psychological process that occurs when an individual integrates an organization’s beliefs into his identity. The merits associated with this are increased loyalty and commitment, and a harder working work force. However, it also hold some demerits. It leads to poor ethics and disintegration moral standards of the employees. In addition to these, illegal activities, unhealthy groupthink, lack of objectivity and critical thinking may also arise (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

2. What is a proactive personality? How does having a proactive personality relate to resiliency? 

            A proactive personality is the charisma of being unrestrained by situational forces and effecting environmental changes (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Such people identify opportunities, act on them and work hard until they effect they change they had in mind. Resiliency can be described as the ability of overcoming drawbacks in life. It is usually developed through practice and inspiration by role models. Having a proactive personality therefore has a direct correlation to resiliency since an individual with an internal locus of control exercises control over the events shaping his life. This means that when met with shortcomings, such a person takes it upon himself to practice resiliency and shape his environment to achieve his goals.

3. Empirical research on emotions has focused on two concepts: emotional contagion and emotional labor. Define these two concepts with examples. 

Emotion contagion is an occurrence where the moods of an individual, bad or foul are passed to another through contact between the two in form of action or speech. An example is that tellers who express positive emotions usually attend to satisfied customers in a bank. Emotional labor is the masking of negative emotions such frustrations and anger with positive ones. This may be witnessed when a flight attendant who is having a bad day hides his true emotions and fakes a smile while serving the passengers on board.

Chapter Ten

True/False: State whether the following statement is true or false and provide a brief explanation of your answer.

1. A crowd on a street corner watching a man play the tambourine fits the definition of a group. 

False. This is because there is no interaction between the people in the crowd. Moreover, not all of them are aware of each other’s presence (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

2. According to Tuckman’s five-stage theory of group development, during the “norming” stage, subgroups take shape and subtle forms of rebellion occur. 

False. Creation of subgroups and rebellion occurs during the storming stage. In the norming stage, the members experience a feeling of team spirit, as they believe they have discovered their proper roles.

3. De-norming, de-storming, and de-forming are all observed stages of group decay. 

True. In de-norming, an erosion of conduct occurs among the members. De-storming entails a decline in cohesiveness and an increase in individual resistance while de-forming involves falling apart of the group into sub-groups (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

4. As the group develops, positive feedback typically decreases and negative feedback typically increases. 

False. As the group develops, the opposite occurs. Positive feedback increases while negative feedback decreases.

5. When group members accurately perceive important deadlines, the pacing of work and timing of interdependent tasks tend to be more efficient. 

True. Deadline expectations are critical to the ability of a group to accomplish successful transition in their work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Therefore, effective group management should involve clarification of tasks, goals, schedules and deadlines.

6. A supportive, democratic, decentralized, and participative leadership style is most effective early in the group development process. 

False. During the early stages of a group’s history, the leadership should be active, structured, aggressive, directive and task-oriented. These behaviors produce favorable results at this stage.

7. People in collectivist cultures tend to have higher role ambiguity than people in individualistic cultures. 

False. In such cultures, individuals are well aware of what others expect from them. This is because collectivist cultures ensure that everyone knows their place in the society.

8. A group member who says, “Let’s stop wasting time and get down to business. How do we solve this problem?” is performing a task role. 

True. This is because the above question defines, clarifies and pursues a common purpose. It will keep the group on track.

9. Odd-numbered groups are recommended if an issue is to be settled by a majority vote. 

True. Even-numbered groups can be stalled by voting deadlocks. An odd number removes his possibility.

10. The difference between the Asch effect and groupthink is that victims of groupthink are strangers to each other while Asch’s subjects are a friendly and tight-knit group. 

False. Asch subjects are usually strangers to each other. However, in groupthink, member ae friendly, brought together by a cohesive in-group.

Essay Questions

1. Distinguish between roles and norms. Why do norms exist in organizations? 

Roles are behaviors that people expect from the occupant of a position. Norms are attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions shared by people in guiding their behavior. They are usually developed in an informal manner. Explicit statements made by co-workers or supervisors may constitute to a norm. Critical events that occurred in the group in the past also serves as another source. In addition to these, norms may also evolve form the primary behaviors that may have emerged in a group or behaviors that have been carried over from past situations (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

2. How does a manager decide the optimum size of a work group? 

The optimum size of a group depends on the group’s objectives. If the group is meant to produce high-quality decisions, a small group will be appropriate. However, if the goals were to generate creative ideas, socialize new members, or communicate policies among others, then a large size will be justified (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). The effect of an odd-numbered group or an even one will also fall as a managerial implication. Odd-numbered groups are preferable to avoid voting deadlocks.

Chapter Three.

Explain the mentoring process and outline its benefits. Why should an individual seek a mentor or mentors? 

The mentoring process is whereby protégés seek developmental guidance from developers. The process entails the diversity of developmental relationship, which represents the variety of people in the network that a person employs for developmental assistance. Secondly, developmental strength represent the relationships’ quality among the person and those included in one’s developmental network. Mentoring holds various benefits such as enhancing the effectiveness in organizational communication and providing a mechanism to modify organizational structure. It is important to seek a mentor as he/she contributes in the creation of a sense oneness and membership (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

Chapter Four.

Compare and contrast the concepts of societal culture and organizational culture. 

Societal culture is based on the language and customs of individuals. Various environmental factors influence societal culture. They include economic/technological setting, ethnic background, political/legal setting and religion. Societal culture in turn gives rise to organizational culture that affects a person’s attitudes, ethics, expectations and assumptions. When it comes to management, it is therefore critical to take into account a person’s societal culture, organizational culture, and interactions that take place between such people (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

Reference

Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2013) Organizational Behavior, 10th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions: VitalBook file.