Which of the following shows employees' psychological responses to job demands that tax or exceed their capabilities?
- job performance
- leadership style
- job satisfaction
- ability
- stress
Stress reflects employees' psychological responses to job demands that tax or exceed their capacities.
Stress: The psychological response to demands when there is something at stake for the individual, and where coping with these demands would tax or exceed the individual’s capacity or resources.
Top Shelf Enterprises is conducting its annual performance review. Which of the following employees would Top Shelf view as being the most inimitable?
- Juana, who has had difficulty getting along with members of her work team
- Bert, who has often been late to meetings and complains about his work load
- Takumi, who devised a new component that increased company sales by 25 percent
- Liam, who has been a steady and reliable worker for the company for over five years
- Lotte, who has brilliant suggestions but often fails to follow them all the way through
Good people are rare-witness the adage "good people are hard to find." Good people are difficult to imitate, also, and thus are inimitable. A person like Takumi, who has devised a new component that increased sales by 25 percent, would be difficult to imitate and thus would be considered inimitable.
Inimitable: Incapable of being imitated or copied.
According to the Rule of One-Eighth,
- at least 88 percent of organizations will do everything necessary to put people first and thereby build profits.
- at best, 12 percent of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first.
- 75 percent of organizations won't believe the connection between how they manage their people and the profits they earn.
- 38 percent of the organizations try to make a single change to solve their problems.
- one in eight organizations miserably fails at making the people-to-profit connection.
According to the Rule of One-Eighth, at best 12 percent of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first.
Rule Of One-Eighth: The belief that at best one-eighth, or 12 percent, of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first.
Which of the following scenarios would be the most invisible to competitors?
- Mongo Films fires its CEO and hires a new one.
- Sports Stuff, Ltd., lowers its prices on swimwear.
- JTR, Ltd., opens a manufacturing plant in the Philippines.
- Spotless, Inc., starts a new line of natural bathroom cleaners.
- High Grade, Inc., hires a new middle-manager for its Boston office.
Big decisions are visible to competitors and observable by industry experts. In contrast, the "behind the scenes" decisions are more invisible to competitors, especially the decisions that involve the hiring and management of employees. High Grade, Inc, hiring a new middle manager for its Boston office would thus be invisible to competitors.
Newcomer Orientation: A common form of training during which new hires learn more about the organization.
In which of the following scenarios does history create a business advantage?
- Using its market research, Rise n'Shine devises the best-selling alarm clock to hit the market in the last 20 years.
- To maintain a business advantage, Cindy's Cinnies keeps the recipe for their highly popular cinnamon rolls top secret.
- Smooth Scent's new ad campaign gives this body lotion and cosmetics company a business advantage over competitors.
- The first company to sell vacuum cleaners in the retail market, Suck It Up, uses its experience to maintain a business advantage.
- HGT Enterprises and BDO, Inc., both West Coast real estate development firms, have been fierce competitors for more than 20 years.
People create a history-a collective pool of experience, wisdom, and knowledge that benefits the organization. The long experience of Suck It Up in the retail market has given this company a business advantage.
History: A collective pool of experience, wisdom, and knowledge created by people that benefits the organization.
You are a new employee who wants to impress upon your manager how valuable you are to the company. According to the research-based view, which of the following actions should you take?
- play it safe and avoid suggesting ideas that might seem risky
- agree with whatever your manager says, even if you disagree
- make sure you arrive on time each work day and attend all the meetings
- act in a friendly way with your co-workers and contribute to team discussions
- make unique, significant contributions to the company that most employees could not achieve
According to the research-based view, a resource is more valuable when it is rare. As a result, if you wanted to convey your value as an employee, you would make unique, significant contributions to the company that the majority of employees could not achieve.
You are the CEO of a business who wants to use an integrative model of OB. Which of the following actions would you take to implement this?
- use one work team, but do not appoint a specified leader
- have employees work alone but occasionally report to a manager
- divide your employees into three work teams, each headed by a different leader
- have employees work closely with two other people but without forming a team
- use a work team for the managers, but have the other employees work individually
The integrative model acknowledges that employees do not work alone. Instead, they typically work in one or more work teams, led by a formal (or sometimes an informal) leader. Because of this, you would divide your employees into three work teams, each headed by a different leader.
Work Teams: A relatively permanent team in which members work together to produce goods and/or provide services.
The Container Store, a retailer based out of Texas, wants to increase the motivation of its employees. Which of the following examples would most likely achieve this?
- a performance-based incentive system for its employees in which workers' pay will be based on their productivity
- a reduction of insurance benefits for employees who have been working at the company for less than five years
- the implementation of a new computer system that will enable employees to do more work for the same pay
- a more hands-on managerial style in which all employees would have to fill out time cards
- the consolidation of two departments into one, thereby reducing overhead expenses
A performance-based incentive system would most likely increase the motivation of employees because it would capture the energetic forces that drive employees' work effort.
Motivation: A set of energetic forces that determine the direction, intensity, and persistence of an employee’s work effort.
Magnus has come to mistrust the company he works for in recent months. Which of the following examples most likely caused this?
- Magnus's efforts to get a new vending machine installed failed.
- Magnus learned that his employer uses unethical advertising practices.
- Magnus became disappointed when his employer did not promote a close friend.
- Magnus had to fire an employee who had worked for his company for many years.
- Magnus proposed a policy that was partially successful in increasing company revenue.
Trust, justice, and ethics reflect the degree to which employees feel that their company does business with fairness, honesty, and integrity. Using unethical advertising practices shows a lack of honesty and integrity.
Trust: The willingness to be vulnerable to an authority based on positive expectations about the authority’s actions and intentions.
Which of the following examples shows an effective way of dealing with the international element of OB?
- Nancy adjusted her approach with an employee from South Korea because he had different motivations than U.S. employees.
- Hinata felt ashamed about discussing with her manager the difficulties of adjusting to American business practices.
- Larry assumed the policies he used for his Chicago office would work equally as well in the new Tokyo branch.
- Sean decided to ignore the international aspect of his work team because he did not want to play favorites.
- Mario believes the principles of OB management are consistent in countries throughout the world.
To deal effectively with the international element of OB, companies need to be aware of the challenges and differences in dealing with foreign employees and companies based in other countries. Nancy does this by adjusting her approach with an employee from South Korea.
Motivation: A set of energetic forces that determine the direction, intensity, and persistence of an employee’s work effort.
Culture, trust, teamwork, and reputation are termed ________ because it is not always clear how they came to develop, though it is clear which organizations do possess them.
- socially complex
- vague correlations
- natural structures
- evidence-based resources
- associative structures
People also create socially complex resources, like culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation. These resources are termed "socially complex" because it's not always clear how they came to develop, though it is clear which organizations do (and do not) possess them.
Socially Complex Resources: Resources created by people, such as culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation. The source of competitive advantage is known, but the method of replicating the advantage is unclear.
Culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation are examples of
- socially complex resources.
- easy-to-develop resources.
- evidence-based resources.
- associative structures.
- natural structures.
People also create socially complex resources, like culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation.
Socially Complex Resources: Resources created by people, such as culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation. The source of competitive advantage is known, but the method of replicating the advantage is unclear.
Gateway Corporation developed a new form of technology for which they hold a patent. This technology allowed them to significantly reduce the cost of production on their major product line. This resource is
- simple.
- complex.
- inimitable.
- hypothetical.
- substitutable.
Inimitable: Incapable of being imitated or copied.