Bma247 Practice Exam Answers 2014

Student Number ________________________

Pages: 16Questions: 23

UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA

EXAMINATIONS FOR DEGREES AND DIPLOMAS

PRACTICE EXAMINATION ANSWERS

Semester 1, 2014

BMA247 Organisational Behaviour

Examiner: Christine Adams

Time Allowed: TWO (2) Hours

Instructions:

This examination consists of two sections, Section A and Section B.

Section A consists of TWENTY (20) multiple choice questions. Students must answer ALL TWENTY questions. Section A is worth a total of 10 marks.

Section B consists of three (3) case studies. Students must answer all questions following each of the three (3) case studies. Each question is worth 10 marks for a maximum total of 40 marks.

This examination counts for 40% of the marks for this unit.


SECTION AMULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS [10 MARKS]Section A consists of TWENTY (20) Multiple Choice Questions. Students must answer all TWENTY (20) questions. Each question is worth 0.5 marks. Section A is worth a total of 10 marks.

Answers must be recorded on the answer sheet attached to this exam paper.

Question 1The belief that ‘discrimination is wrong’ is a value statement. Such an opinion is the _______________________ component of an attitude.

a) Behaviouralb) Reactivec) Affectived) Cognitive.

Question 2Michael’s job allows him to be relatively independent. Kate’s job is relatively routine. Jake’s job is challenging for him. John has control over the way he does his job. Based on the available information, who is least likely to have high job satisfaction?

a) Michaelb) Katec) Jaked) John.

Question 3Brenda is a recruiter for a global corporation with subsidiaries all over the world. She needs to convey information to future employees that will help them understand the importance of communicating across culture.

Brenda explains to future employees that cultures, like China and Vietnam, relay heavily on non-verbal cues.

a) low-contentb) low-contextc) high-contentd) high-context.

Question 4You have just been hired by Computers-R-Us to institute a management by objectives program. The sales people have asked you to explain the program to them and help them understand how it will affect them. You

Practice Exam AnswersSemester 1, 2014

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want to make sure that they understand the ingredients common to MBO programs. Which of the following is not one of those ingredients?

a) Goals should be general enough to allow creativityb) Time periods will be explicitc) Decision making will be participatived) Feedback will be given on each employee’s performance.

Question 5Your fellow employees have a terrible work situation. They work in an old, unattractive building with an antiquated heating system. The work itself is tedious and the supervisor is rarely available. You have decided to try to apply Herzberg’s two-factor theory to the situation.

You decide that your first job should be to remove the dissatisfiers. Which of the following are hygiene factors?

a) advancementb) intrinsic awardsc) working conditionsd) recognition.

Question 6Leaving early, sabotage, backstabbing and verbal abuse are examples of:

a) involuntary actions that violate normsb) emotional labourc) employee devianced) emotional quotient factors.

Question 7

Ginna and Hanna are teachers. Gina dislikes her students, but pretends she likes them by making sure she acts in a friendly manner toward them. Hanna also dislikes her students, but is trying to change the way she feels about them.Which of these teachers is most likely to feel the most stress from their actions and why?

a) Gina, since she has to feign genuine emotion


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b) Gina, since her deep emotions conflict with what her job requiresc) Hanna, since she will probably display her true feelings before she

changes her deep emotionsd) Hanna, since it is very difficult to change displayed emotion.

Question 8In recent months, Alicia has found her work to be increasingly difficult. She relates to a colleague that her manager would frequently change his mind about what he had previously said without realising it. He would frequently ask her to do one task only to reprimand her later insisting that he asked her to prioritise another task. In this case, which form of communication should be utilised more frequently?

a) oral communicationb) verbal communicationc) written communicationd) non-verbal communication.

Question 9You are the manager of a small boutique. You have decided to apply the Big Five Model in order to understand your employees and their work habits because it is generally supported by an impressive body of research. You want to use the five dimensions of personality to match individuals with jobs to which they are well-suited. You know that your customers are demanding and sometimes difficult. Which personality dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand stress?

a) agreeablenessb) conscientiousnessc) emotional stabilityd) extroversion.

Question 10Which of the five factors of personality will probably be most important in predicting organisational citizenship behaviour (OCD)?

a) agreeablenessb) extroversionc) conscientiousnessd) emotional stability.

Question 11


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________ are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organisation, what goals are important, which people are important, and which are expendable.

a) Cultural typologiesb) Ritualsc) Storiesd) Material symbols

Question 12Jo works on a production line. Her job used to be put on right front car bumpers. She is not particularly pleased because now she has been assigned to do several different jobs while each car is at her station. Jo has experienced:

a) job combinationb) job rotationc) job enrichmentd) job enlargement.

Question 13Jessi’s job is such that she gets to schedule her work and determine the procedures to be used in carrying it out. Jessi’s job has:

a) task identityb) task significancec) skill varietyd) autonomy.


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Question 14Employees at Acme Express are dissatisfied with working conditions, salary, and the general attitude of management. Mark, Susan and Tony are good friends who work at Acme, yet each seems to be reacting differently to the problems at work. Susan has written a list of concerns along with her suggestions for improving conditions. Susan is dealing with her dissatisfaction through:

a) voiceb) exitc) neglectd) loyalty.

Question 15Your boss never gives you the benefit of the doubt. When you were late this morning, he assumed you had overslept. He never considered there may have been a delay on the highway. He is guilty of:

a) inconsistencyb) selective perceptionc) fundamental attribution errord) self-serving bias.

Question 16You have just been promoted to manage a sales group. Your group is made up of ten people who range in age from 27 to 62. You have read that there are certain dominant work values for each age group and think that this may help you understand your group. You anticipate that your employees labelled are pragmatists who believe that ends can justify their means.

a) Nextersb) Boomersc) Xersd) Veterans.

Question 17Tests that measure specific dimensions of intelligence have been found to be strong predictors of:

a) Turnoverb) Job performancec) Ability to work with othersd) Job satisfaction.

Question 18People who consistently believe they control their own destinies have a:


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a) Type A personalityb) High internal locus of controlc) High extroversiond) High propensity for risk-taking.

Question 19_____________ represent basic convictions that ‘a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct’.

a) Valuesb) Preferencesc) Convictionsd) Attitudes.

Question 20

All of the following are examples of biographical characteristics except:

a) Sexual orientationb) Marital statusc) Aged) Gender.

[Total Section A: 10 marks]


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SECTION BCOMPULSORY CASE STUDIES [30 MARKS]Section B consists of three (3) case studies. Students must answer all questions following each of the three (3) case studies. Each question is worth 10 marks for a maximum total of 30 marks.

Read the cases carefully and answer the questions that follow. Question 21

CASE STUDY 1: TANIE MAJOR: A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE

Tania Major, at 22, is the youngest person to be elected to the board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission (ATSIC), and she believes she is ready for the challenge. She is a graduate of criminology from Sydney University, and has been mentored by Noel Pearson, a lawyer and entrepreneur, since she was aged 12. This mentoring involved her being sponsored throughout her secondary and tertiary education.

Tania is passionate in her believe that violence, drug and alcohol abuse, rife in most remote Aboriginal communities, combine to create a seriously destructive force for Aboriginal people. Tania’s view is that education and health are pivotal in turning around the disastrous experience for young people growing up in these communities. Tania also believes that the outcome of the education offered in remote communities reinforces a lack of self-esteem and low expectations in young people, when its aim should be to deliver self-confidence and drive. This then motivates students to take up significant roles in the community with the belief that they can make a difference, rather than seeing their lives as hopeless.

Tania put forward a very compelling argument when she recently addressed Prime Minister John Howard. She asked that her appeal not be seen as a cry for help; that is, she didn’t want the problems fixed by someone else. Her plea is to be seen as an equal partner with the government so that her people can rebuild their own families, lives and communities.

21 a) How would you describe Tania Major in terms of locus of control? Why?

Answer - The description of Tania in the brief case indicates that she has a high internal locus of control. She is described as being passionate in her belief that the solutions for the crisis in indigenous communities is within the capacity of its people and that what she is doing is not a ‘cry for help’. The problems are not for others to fix but within the grasp of


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the people themselves. Having a belief that your destiny is within your own control and that changes in outcomes are as a result of changes in your own behaviour is a demonstration of an internal locus of control.

21b) After her early experiences, do you believe that Tania Major would have high self-esteem? If so, why?

Answer - Tania is a remarkable individual who has demonstrated that determination and tenacity it rise above the cycle of violence, despair, abuse, discrimination, substance abuse and poverty she describes as endemic in her hometown. Her self-esteem has remained high, and this may be as a result of early mentoring and her ability to succeed in her educational endeavours and following her vision for improving the quality of life for those living in aboriginal communities.

21c) In terms of Holland’s typology of personality and congruent occupations what category of personality type would you attribute to Tania Major? How suited is she to the role she has taken on in ATSIC?

Answer - Research found important relationships between personality dimensions and job performance. A broad spectrum of occupations was examined in addition to job performance ratings, training proficiency (performance during training programs), and personnel data such as salary level. The results showed that conscientiousness predicted job performance for all occupational groups. Individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful, thorough, able to plan, organised, hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have higher job performance. Employees higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge. Extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions. Therefore Tania is well suited to the role that she has taken on in ATSIC.

21d) How would you describe Tania Major’s affect?

Answer - Positive affect is a mood dimension consisting of positive emotions like excitement on the high end and tiredness at the low end. Positive and negative affect influence our perceptions. Given Tania’s perspective is the face of adversity that successful outcomes are possible by members of the communities working in partnership with the government, Tania’s affect is described as positive.

21e) How would you describe the emotional labour’ of Tania Major? Would you consider she shows the ability to exhibit high levels of émotional labour’?

Answer - Emotional labour is an employee’s expression of organisationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. The concept of emotional labour emerged from studies of service jobs. The challenge for employees is to project one emotion while simultaneously feeling another. The disparity is called emotional


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dissonance. Tania displays positive emotions and affect and discusses her vision and belief that a meaningful future can be created. These emotions may well be in contrast with the emotions she feels when considering the current state of poverty and despair that many people are living with.

21f) From the text, we understand that knowledge of emotions in the field of OB can improve our ability to explain and predict a range of activities in the workplace. People who have particular skills in reading their own and other’s emotions accurately are said to possess high levels of emotional intelligence (EI). How do you think Tania would function on the five dimensions of EI?

Answer – The five dimensions of EI include:Self-awareness. Being aware of what you are feeling.Self-management. The ability to manage one’s own emotions and impulses. Self-motivation. The ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures. Empathy. The ability to sense how others are feeling.Social skills. The ability to handle the emotions of others.

The case describes a number of aspects of Tania that would indicate that she has a very high level of emotional intelligence. She has the self-motivation to have risen above many of the traditional setbacks and failures that her family and friends have experienced, openly discusses her own feelings which demonstrate a strong connection with her own self-awareness, is able to communicate at even the highest levels about the struggles and the lives of indigenous people, shows empathy and an acknowledge of how others are feeling and would appear to have the ability to help others manage their emotions.

[10 marks]


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Question 22

CASE 2 – QUEENSLAND DEPARTMENT OF MAIN ROADS

In 2003, road workers in the Queensland Department of Main Roads, a government department responsible for the construction and maintenance of the state’s road network, objected to being required to work in long trousers and shirts with long sleeves. According to the road workers, ‘Anyone that has spent a day outdoors in the heat of a summer’s day knows that wearing long sleeves to do physical work is unbearable and will eventuate into an additional occupational health and safety risk due to heat stress. It is simply too hot.’ It all began when the department decided that it needed to change the culture of the department to a safety culture. This new focus on safety meant that new guidelines and policies were constantly being implemented to ensure safety, and information sessions were used to introduce new safety procedures. One consequence of the desire not to delay the new safety protocols was that there was no consultation about the policies and as a result some of the new protocols clashed with others. For instance, to address the risk of skin cancer, a policy was mandated that all employees were to wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts while engaging in outside work. The policy, however, did not address the immediate short-term health risk of heat stress in summer.

THE DEPARTMENTFrom the perspective of the Department of Main Roads there were good reasons for requiring the change in the dress standards. This issue was only one of many safety issues addressed at the time. Recurring at-risk behaviours resulting in incidents, injuries and near-misses are an ongoing issue within the construction industry, and, as a leading employer within the construction industry and a public sector agency, it is important that the department has a major focus on safety in the workplace. Main Roads has a workforce of approximately 5000 workers who are employed on a full-time or a casual basis. The workers are employed as engineers, clerical staff, trades staff and labouring staff, working in state-wide groups, districts and commercial units.The Department of Main Roads is a stable, bureaucratic organisation with centralised policy development and resource allocation units. It operates within a hierarchical management structure, but also embraces various matrix structures, particularly in relation to its project activities. On its website, the department states that it works cooperatively with other government departments to implement the government’s policy agenda, which in turn is informed through consultation with stakeholders and external agencies and in accordance with national and international regulations and standards. One external agency that the department works with is the Cancer Council. The Cancer Council makes recommendations regarding various sun-safe strategies that workplaces can adopt to improve the detection and prevention of skin cancer in the workplace.


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The decision to mandate that workers wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers was based on the advice of the World Health Organisation, which provided figures showing that Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world; more than 380 000 people are treated for the disease every year. Each year more than 34 000 workers are believed to suffer skin cancers from working in the sun, including 200 who contract melanomas. According to the Cancer Council, all workplaces should adopt an ultraviolet (UV) radiation protection program, a comprehensive policy and strategy for the early detection and prevention of skin cancer in the workplace. Construction workers have a higher risk of skin cancer than many other workers due to the long periods they are exposed to UV radiation from direct sunlight and to UV rays that reflect off surfaces such as concrete.

THE CULTUREOverall, the Department of Main Roads has a positive organisational culture that seeks to protect its workers and minimise risks where possible. This is a culture shared across government departments and is led by the agency responsible for workplace health and safety. However, culture, can vary at different levels of an organisation. Within each department there are subcultures that share other core values and exhibit norms of behaviour that stem from its connections with industry and past customs and practices. This is typified by the road worker in the construction industry who stated that a tradition of outside workers is that ‘as soon as the sun comes out you take your shirt off ’.To combat this and other recurring at-risk behaviours, the Department of Main Roads endorsed a new strategy to improve the safety culture of the department. A Safety Leaders Group was created whose role was to influence and promote broad staff behaviours that are vital to the development of a positive safety culture. This included:• clarifying required and expected behaviours• owning safety responsibility• empowering others to challenge at-risk behaviours by engaging the right people in hazard identification and risk assessments• encouraging everyone to think, behave and operate in a safe manner at all times.The decision to ensure that dress standards were amended to incorporate more protective clothing had an unintended effect on a specific subculture of workers. In a bureaucratic organisation, one of the few controls that workers have is over their immediate environment and the way in which they work. Implementing this ruling had the effect of decreasing the small amount of autonomy road workers had; they were no longer able to decide for themselves what they wore to work and how to manage the threat of heat stress on hot days.

THE CHANGEThe decision was relayed to the workforce through a series of meetings that focused on a range of occupational health and safety issues. Factors involved in the workers’ resistance to change included industry norms


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where changes to the work environment are often seen as an imposition of the power of management and an attack on the autonomy of workers. The department conceded that control processes for heat stress had not been developed and none had been put in place. This type of action was interpreted by workers as management being concerned with minimising the risk of long-term compensation claims but not with the health of workers on a day-to-day basis.A key driver in the support of this change to a safety-focused culture was the commitment of senior leaders across the department in demonstrating and encouraging desired safety behaviours within their business units. The general safety policy that was implemented required consultation with staff and other agencies prior to the implementation of new protocols. Managers felt that information sessions about the new dress standards would be sufficient to implement the policy. This meant that other measures that could have been used to address the risk of sun exposure were not explored. These include the provision of a quality sunscreen, considering whether the task could be done at another time when there is lower sun exposure, or providing portable sunshades for various worksites, particularly where work needs to be conducted in the middle of the day.An important issue in ensuring that a safety culture is embraced by workers is that workers need to be consulted in determining the health and safety controls to be implemented in local workplaces. This, in addition to the support of senior leaders, will lead to the full adoption of workplace initiatives. By empowering workers to locally manage their health and safety issues and working in a cooperative way, the needs of all parties can be addressed. According to Work Cover business advisory officers, ‘Health and safety at work is everyone’s concern. Together, workers and employers can use simple strategies and safety equipment to protect themselves when working in the sun.’ As indicated in Chapter 17, control and social support both have a moderating effect on the experience of stress. Implementing programs that incorporate control but have a negative effect on the perception of social support, particularly between supervisors and workers, can be self-defeating, as the Department of Main Roads found out in this situation.Through addressing these and other issues, the department wants to be seen as an industry leader in implementing safety policies. It is envisaged that the safety leadership approach will be adopted by other construction bodies and provide a consistent standard to improve safety competency across the industry.Questions22a) What are some of the ways the department could have overcome

the resistance of workers to the change?

Answer: the textbook offers the following ways:A) Education and Communication – educating employees about the

underlying motivation behind the reasons for the change: the findings of the Cancer Council and the World Health Organisation indicated


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the high risk the workers are exposed to, and the ways to address this risk.

B) Participation – engaging the employees in designing the change can lead to creative solutions that will increase health and safety, and sustain employee satisfaction.

C) Building Support and Commitment – this option focuses on increasing employee commitment to the change. Employee commitment to reduce the risk of skin cancer can sustain this change.

D) Develop Positive Relationships – the relationships between management and workers in this case involved suspicion and lack of trust. Developing a positive relationship would have led to a greater workers cooperation.

E) Implementing Changes Fairly – involving individuals that will be affected from the change would have been perceived as more fair than forcing it on them.

F) Manipulation and Cooptation – manipulating the employees to think these regulations were forced upon the employer, or ‘buying off’ workers’ leaders could have pressured employees to comply with the change. However, these strategies can backfire if employees discover the truth (not unlikely in government organisations), and forcing the change without employee commitment could have also led to lower compliance with it over time.

G) Selecting People Who Accept Change – this option has to be exercised long before change initiatives are implemented.

H) Coercion – workers could have been coerced, by threatening to fine, expel, or even fire non-compliant workers. However, this tactic could backfire when further changes need to be introduced. It can also result in escalation of conflict: workers could involve court, start a strike, appeal to media, etc.

22b) What were the outside drivers of change and who were the change agents in this scenario?

Answer: The case describes several external bodies that led to the change. The Cancer Council and the World Health Organisation provided information illustrating the risk the department of Main Roads exposes its workers to. In addition, the government sought to become an industry leader in terms of workers health and safety.

22c) What were some of the functional and dysfunctional effects of organisational culture on the people and the organisation in this situation?

Answer: functional aspects of the culture: workers were aware of the importance of health and safety issues, and therefore were willing to examine ways to reduce the risk for skin cancer.However, the culture established some habits that went against this initiative. The norm was to combat heat stress in summer was to remove clothing, and thus become exposed to UV radiation.


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In addition, the culture established norms which saw managerial initiatives as attempts to assert control, rather than genuine attempts to improve employee health and safety.

22d) Based on the description in the case study, would you consider that the department has a mechanistic organisational design or an organic organisational design?

Answer: the case describes an organisation with rigid departmentalisation and centralisation of policy development and resource allocation units. These are consistent with a mechanistic structure. However, some organic elements exist, as the organisation embraces various matrix structures which cross-functional teams.

22e) What would the reduction in the autonomy of workers do for their job satisfaction?

Answer: according to the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) MPS model, (Motivating Potential Score, p. 209), a reduction in employee autonomy reduces their motivation and satisfaction. Although this statement varies among employees, in this case the reduction of employee autonomy is likely to reduce their satisfaction as well, since this is an important (and rare) aspect of autonomy for these workers.

22f) How would you have improved the implementation of this policy?

Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Students can draw on techniques to address resistance to change mentioned in question 1 above, as well as techniques listed in this chapter: exploring alternative solutions (such as rescheduling work, portable shades, and sunscreen lotions), further employee education, and senior management modelling of safe behaviour.

Source: Peter J. Jordan and Anne M. H. Christie (Griffith University). [10 marks]


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Question 23Read Case 3 carefully and answer the questions that follow.

CASE 3 – THE MERGER OF SYNERGIS AND ABACUS


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[Continued…]


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23 a) What are the main kinds of power bases Elliott used to solve the problem of Nick Brown undermining his position?

Answer - Elliott used the legitimate power as owner of Abacus to solve the problem of Nick Brown. Legitimate power is most frequently accessed through one’s structural position. It represents the power a person receives as a result of his/her position in the formal hierarchy. Within the position Elliott’s was able to use his authority include coercive and reward powers to negotiate and reward the management at Synabis and remove Nick Brown from the organisation.

23 b) What were the main power tactics used in this scenario? Which ones were the most successful? Why?

Answer – Elliott, Alan and Bill successfully used the tactics of legitimacy, consultation, and exchange to successfully negotiate and design the new merged organisation. Legitimacy – relying on authority position, stressing that the request is in accordance with organisational policies or rules, Consultation – Increasing the target’s motivation and support by involving him or her in making decisions, and Exchange - Use of negotiation through the exchange of benefits or favours.

23c) How were both legitimate and illegitimate political behaviour used together in this instance?

Answer – Using a legitimate for of political behaviour Elliott and Alan and Bill formed a coalition and through this alliance were able to develop the future strategy for combined organisation. Nick Brown unsuccessfully used illegitimate forms of politics through manipulation and sabotage to used the situation to advantage himself and his career ambitions.

23d) Describe how a power coalition formed in this case. Prove reasons for why it worked.

Answer – The coalition of Elliott, Alan and Bill formed to address the issues of merging the organisation and to negate the impact of Nick Brown’s own merger plans. The coalition worked because Elliott was open to investigating the behaviour and plans of his senior management team, a team who he both admired and trusted. Upon discovery that the concerns of Alan and Bill were indeed founded in fact, Elliott worked personally with Alan and Bill to develop a comprehensive merger plan.


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23e) How could Elliott West have avoided the expensive termination payment for Nick Brown?

Answer – Elliott could have used his legitimate power and terminated Nick’s contract when the deceit, false information and the sabotage and undermining of Elliott’s power was first brought to light.

23f) Demonstrate how ‘truth’ became a ‘casualty’ because of political action in this case.

Answer – Nick Brown used manipulation of facts to sell his ideas of a containment plan to Elliott initially. When the deception was investigation and revealed, Elliott, again used his secret meetings with Alan and Bill to unravel Nick’s initial plans.

23 g) What does this case highlight about group dynamics in organisations?Answer – The case demonstrates that those “out of power” and seeking to be “in” will first try to increase their power individually. If ineffective, the alternative is to form a coalition—an informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue.

[10 marks]

[Total Section B: 30 marks]

____________________________________________


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Student Name: Student Number:

Answer Sheet

Answer all questions by placing a (x) beside the correct answer.

1. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) 16. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

2. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) 17. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

3. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) 18. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

4. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) 19. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

5. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) 20. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

6. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

7. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

8. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

9. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

10. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

11. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

12. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

13. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

14. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )

15. A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( )


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Bma247 Practice Exam Answers 2014