File: hittprequiz1, Chapter 1: A Strategic Approach to Organizational Behavior
True/False
1. A strategic approach to Organizational Behavior is important because it describes how people’s knowledge and skills can be managed effectively to accomplish the organization’s strategy.
Ans: True
Response: see page 5. The strategic approach to OB is more explicit in describing how people’s knowledge and skills can be effectively managed in accomplishing the strategic goals of an organization.
2. Only senior managers are involved in implementing the organization’s strategy.
Ans: False
Response: see page 7. Effective middle managers are involved in championing organizational strategy along with senior management. Even lower-level managers are involved in strategy when they succeed in adopting a longer-term view of the firm. All managers need to understand the firm’s strategy to be effective and strategy implementation requires the involvement of each level of management.
3. Resources such as property, factories, and equipment are critical intangible resources while human capital is a critical tangible resource.
Ans: False
Response: see page 11. Tangible resources are physical resources that you can see and touch. Intangible resources are nonphysical assets of a company such as human capital, company reputation, and organizational culture.
4. Imitability is the degree to which a resource is unique.
Ans: False
Response: see page 13. Imitability is the degree to which a resource can be copied by other organizations. The uniqueness of a resource represents its rareness.
5. Organizational diversity is part of the strategic lens used to study organizational behavior.
Ans: True
Response: see page 23. The strategic approach, organizational diversity, and managing in a global context are the three basic elements used to study organizational behavior through the strategic lens.
Multiple Choice
6. Which of the following is not one of the disciplines that Organizational Behavior, as a field of study, has been built from:
a) economics
b) history
c) psychology
d) sociology
e) cultural anthropology
Ans: b
Response: While history is rich with examples of how human beings behave in various contexts, it is not a discipline that has directly influenced Organizational Behavior. All of the other choices are mentioned on page 9.
7. The sum of the skills, knowledge, and attributes of an organization’s people is most accurately referred to as ______.
a) human resources
b) social resources
c) human capital
d) tangible capital
e) critical resources
Ans: c
Response: see page 11. Human capital is defined as the sum of skills, knowledge, and attributes of the people of an organization. Human resources is a possible answer, but not the best since it merely defines people who work in an organization in a general sense and not necessarily the skills, knowledge and attributes they bring. Social resources is not a phrase used in the field since it is vague and could describe people’s communication skills or “people” resources which is the same generalized term as human resources. Tangible capital would be defined as physical resources and skills, knowledge and attributes or individuals are nonphysical resources. Finally, critical resources is a general, vague term that could apply to any resource that is important to an organization.
8. To be considered a competitive advantage, a resource must have certain characteristics. Which of the following characteristics would not provide an organization an advantage over its competitors?
a) the resource is rare
b) the resource is valuable
c) the resource is unique
d) the resource is imitable
e) the resource is non-imitable
Ans: d
Response: see page 13. Value, rareness and non-imitability are the three basic elements of a resource that make it a competitive advantage for organizations that possess it. Therefore, choices rare, valuable and non-imitable represents a competitive advantage. Unique is simply another term for rareness. The difficulty with this question is in the selection of imitable or non-imitable as the element that represents competitive advantage. The text lists imitability as one of the elements, but this is the general property of whether or not a resource can be copied. To be a competitive advantage the resource must not be easily copied; the correct characteristic then would be non-imitability and not imitability.
9. Which of the following is not one of the key characteristics of high-involvement management?
a) information sharing
b) selective hiring
c) extensive training
d) managerial power
e) incentive compensation
Ans: d
Response: see page 17. Information sharing, selective hiring, extensive training and incentive compensation are all listed as key characteristics of high-involvement management. The only term not listed exactly as it is worded is managerial power. The text identifies decision power which is quite different than managerial power. Decision power reflects the amount of power associates are given to complete their tasks while managerial power describes the traditional system where the power is in the hands of managers without explicit consideration of the concept of empowering employees.
10. Which of the following describes a form of incentive compensation where associates receive extra income that represents a portion of savings generated from employee suggestions for improvements?
a) profit sharing
b) gain sharing
c) revenue sharing
d) piece-rate system
e) savings sharing
Ans: b
Response: see page 19. Profit sharing is when associates earn bonuses based on company profits (or revenue so profit sharing and revenue sharing are the same, though the technical term is profit sharing). The piece-rate system rewards employees for the amount produced and sold. Savings sharing is not an official term used in the field – it is vague and could mean employees are rewarded for how much the company saves (in profits, in costs, etc.). The definition as worded in the question explicitly describes gain sharing.