Tuesday Tutorial Revision

Short exam questions (answer all)

  1. What are the two groupings of power?
  1. You manage a department of five employees. You have identified that Joe scores high in the need for achievement, Mary scores high in the need for power, and Tim scores high in the need for affiliation. Sarah scored high in the need for power and low in the need for affiliation. Doug scores low in both need for power and need for affiliation.
  2. Which employee would be best suited as a mentor to new employees with a chance to develop friendships?
  3. Which employee would probably be best to leave in charge while you are on vacation?
  1. What is a virtual team?
  1. What is the negative perception of “delegating authority”?

Long exam questions (answer all)

  1. Describe the Big Five personality dimension of conscientiousness
  1. Explain how stereotyping can cause problems for some managers when making ethical decisions. Provide an example.

Answers

Short answers

  1. Personal and formal
  2. a. Tim (high in affiliation) b. Doug (low in need for power and affiliation)
  3. A team which is geographically dispersed, does not have a central base, hires out tasks to other organisations.
  4. Passing the buck, not taking responsibility

Long answers

  1. The Big Five conscientiousness dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable. Employees who score higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge, probably because highly conscientious people learn more. Higher levels of job knowledge contribute to higher levels of job performance. Conscientiousness is important for managers and for front-line employees. Conscientiousness, in the form of persistence, attention to detail, and setting of high standards, is considered more important than any other personality trait for job performance. Conscientiousness is important for organizational success. Conscientiousness is the Big Five trait most consistently related to job performance.
  1. Because one of the criterion of ethical decision making is to focus on individual rights, the use of stereotyping would affect the ethical decision-making process. The focus on rights calls on individuals to make decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges as set forth in documents like the Bill of Rights. An emphasis on rights in decision making means respecting and protecting the basic rights of individuals. If a manager engages in stereotyping, for example, believing that all women are less productive than men, he may be inclined to base organizational decisions on this stereotype. When an important project or promotion comes up, he would always be inclined to reward men over women.