Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JUNE 2015 (Answers)
JUNE 2015 (Answers)
AC 220
MGT 430: Organizational Behaviour
Compilation of Past Year Questions and Answers
(June 2015)
Prepared for:
Madam Norida Abu Bakar
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Question 1
(a) Explain with example the concept of organisational behaviour.
(5 marks)
Organizational behaviour is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better
understanding and managing people at work. Concept of organizational behaviour
can be divided into three which are individual, group and organizational.
1) Organizational behaviour at the individual level of analysis, involves the study of
learning, perception, creativity, motivation, personality, task performance,
cooperative behaviour, ethics, and cognition. At this level, organizational
behaviour draws heavily upon psychology, engineering, and medicine.
2) Organizational behaviour at the group level of analysis, involves the study of
group dynamics, intra- and intergroup conflict and cohesion, leadership, power,
norms, interpersonal communication, networks, and roles. At this level,
organizational behaviour draws upon the sociological and socio-psychological
sciences.
3) Organizational behaviour at the organization level of analysis, involves the study
of topics such as organizational culture, organizational structure, cultural diversity,
inter-organizational cooperation and conflict, change, technology, and external
environmental forces. At this level, organizational behaviour draws upon
anthropology and political science.
(b) The charging workforce is one of the emerging trends in organisational behaviour.
Discuss three (3) workforce changes and identify two (2) consequences of these
charges for organisations.
(15 marks)
1) Demographic changes
Demographic changes causes organizational to adapt their practices in order to
respond for increasing diversity within labour markets. Changing demographic
profile of the broader population means that organizational need to grow strategies
that will meet the needs and desires of the countrys citizens. Diversity will alters
pools of potential employees, and the need of employees, as well as influencing
broader business objectives like service provision.
2) Changing workforce is the ageing population.
The employers must understand the needs and motivation of the younger
generation who will soon be replacing the older generations. According to
Humphrey, Costigan and Pickering(2003), states that companies feel the need to
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Question 2
(a) Identify and explain with example two (2) reasons why employee involvement tends
to increase organisational commitment.
(10 marks)
1) Responsibility
When employees are involved in decision-making process, they gain professional and
personal stake in the organization and its overall success. The involvement gives them
a sense of responsibility and commitment towards the organizations being in
ensuring continuing success. This commitment leads to increased productivity as
employees are actively participating in various aspects of the company and wish to
see their efforts succeed overall. This is not only beneficial to company growth, but is
also on-the-job training for workers. The increase in responsibility expands employee
skill sets, preparing them for additional responsibility in the future.
2) Teamwork
Participation in the decision-making process gives each employee the opportunity to
voice their opinions, and to share their knowledge with others. While this improves
the relationship between manager and employee, it also encourages a strong sense of
teamwork among workers. The expression of viewpoints opens dialogue between coworkers, with each worker bringing their individual strengths to a project. It is also a
good way to gather information about the employees as to how they work in a team
environment, and where training may be necessary, all of which leads to an increase
in effectiveness, and ultimately an increase in good teamwork and performance. When
there is teamwork, the work environment would be better. Employees will be
motivated to work in the organization and thus, increases organization commitment.
(b) Describe the four (4) dimensions of emotional intelligence.
(10 marks)
The four quadrant model, organizes emotional intelligence into four dimensions
representing the recognition of emotions in ourselves and in others, as well as the
regulation of emotions in ourselves and in others.
1) The first dimensions is awareness of own emotions. This is the ability to perceive
and understand the meaning of your own emotions. For example, you are more
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i.
Stereotyping
(2 marks)
Stereotyping is assigning traits to people base on social category
membership which occurs because of the categorical thinking and innate
drive to understand and anticipate others behaviour.
(b) Illustrate and discuss the Four-Drive Theory of motivation and explain how these
drives influence employee motivation.
(14 marks)
1) Drive to Acquire
Drive
to
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(b) Describe team cohesion and four (4) factors affecting team cohesion.
(15 marks)
Team cohesion is a process whereby a sense of we-ness emerges to transcend
individual transcend individual differences and motives. Members of a cohesive
group stick together and they are reluctant to leave the group. The reason on why they
are stick together is because they enjoy others company and need each other to
accomplish a common goal.
Four factors affecting team cohesion are members similarity, team size, member
interaction and team success.
1) Members similarity
Generally, people are attracted to others who are similar to them. Similarityattraction effect occurs because we assume that people who look like us and have
similar backgrounds are more trustworthy. It also bring more likely to accept us.
People also expect to have fewer negative experiences such as conflicts and
violations of our expectations and beliefs.
2) Team size
It is smaller teams tend to have more cohesion than larger teams because it is
easier for a few people to agree on goals and coordinate work activities. However,
smaller teams have less cohesion when they lack enough members to perform the
required tasks.
3) Member interaction
Teams tend to have more cohesion when team members interact with one another
fairly regularly. This occurs when team members perform highly interdependent
tasks and work in the same physical area.
4) Team success
Team cohesion increases with the teams level of success because people are
attracted to groups that fulfil their needs and goals. Furthermore, individuals are
more likely to attach their social media identity to successful teams than to those
with a string of failures.
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Question 5
(a) Explain two communication problems that could cause conflicts at works
(5 marks)
1. Noise
The first communication problem that could arise conflict at work is noise. The
noise will affect the information receive. This make employees fail to deliver the
information on requested directives. A weak delivery can cause the intended
receiver to fail to act. Additionally, noise and distraction in the work environment
can cause confusion during the reception and interpretation of message.
2. Information overload.
Second, the communication problem is information overload. Information
overload is a condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the
persons capacity to process it. Employees have certain amount of information
that they are able to process in a fixed unit of time. Information overload creates
noise in the communication system because information get overlooked or
misinterpreted when employees cannot process it fast enough. This will result in
poorer quality decision as well as higher stress in the workplace
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(b) Describe five (5) interpersonal conflict handling styles with a diagram.
(15 marks)
Hig
Integrating
Obligating
h
Compromising
Low
Dominating
Avoiding
High
Low
Concern for self
There are five styles of interpersonal handling conflict styles which consist of
integrating (problem solving), obliging (smoothing), dominating (forcing),
avoiding and compromising.
1) Integrating (problem solving)
This style shows high concern for others as well as for self. People who
encounter conflict usually confront the issue, identify the problem and find
ways or alternatives on how to solving the issues. This style is one of the best
styles for complex issues caused by misunderstanding. Nevertheless, it is
inappropriate for resolving issues caused by opposing value systems. Its
primary strength is its longer-lasting impact because it deals with the
underlying problem rather than merely with symptoms and its weakness of
this style that is time consuming.
2) Obliging (Smoothing)
Obliging person shows low concern for self and high concern for others. This
type of person usually tend to minimize the differences and maximize
similarities in order to please others. This is style is appropriate for conflicthandling strategy when it is possible to eventually get something in return,
however it inappropriate for worsening problems. The strength of this style is
it encourages cooperation and the weakness is it is temporary fix that fails to
confront the underlying problem.
3) Dominating (forcing)
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This style shows low concern for others but high for self which means the
other parties needs are ignored in order to force compliance. This style
encourages I win, you lose tactics. This style also called as forcing because
it relies on formal authority to force compliance. It is appropriate to use when
an unpopular solution must be implemented, the issue is minor or deadline is
near. It is inappropriate to use in an open and participative climate. The
strength of this style is speed and its weakness is it is often breeds resentment.
4) Avoiding
This tactic may involve either withdrawal from the problem or active
suppression of the issue. Avoidance is appropriate for trivial issues or when
the costs of confrontation outweigh the benefits of resolving the conflict. This
style is inappropriate to use for complex problems same like obliging style. Its
strength is that is buys times in folding or ambiguous situations and its
weakness is that the tactics provides a temporary fix that sidesteps the
underlying problems.
5) Compromising. This style applies moderates concern for both self and others.
It appropriate to use when parties have opposite goals or possess equal power.
Nevertheless, it is inappropriate when overuse would lead to inconclusive
action that is failure to meet production deadlines. The strength is that
everyone gets something and the weakness is it is temporary fix that can stifle
creative problem solving.
Question 6
(a) Describe and explain five (5) sources of power in organisations.
(15 marks)
There are 5 sources of power in the organizations which are reward power, coercive
power, legitimate power, expert power and referent power.
1) Reward Power
Reward power is a power that managers use mostly to obtain compliance from
the employees. Managers are the person who always has the reward power.
This reward can be view as something which is positive because it can boost
up the motivation of the employees and thus increase the performance of the
employees. For instance, manager plan to give bonus to the employees in
particular months. This bonus is given to those employees who had achieved
the target of the company achievement.
2) Coercive Power
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2. Absorption
It is involved taking action after an event has occurred. For example, if sporting
goods store that encounters a sharp drop in sales can counter with some novel
selling method. It will cope via absorption.
Question 7
(a) Explain how change agents perceive resistance to change.
(5 marks)
Change agent is someone who is catalyst in helping organizations to deal with old
problems in new ways. It can be external consultants or internal employees.
1) External consultant originated outside the organizations. There are four key
external forces for change which are demographic characteristics, technological
advancement, market changes and social and political pressures.
2) Internal employees come from inside the organizations. It may come from both
either human resource problems or managerial behaviour or decisions. These
forces can be subtle (low job satisfaction) or can manifest in outward signs (low
productivity, conflict or strike)
(b) List any three (3) behavioural and two (2) physiological symptoms of stress.
(5 marks)
Behavioural symptoms
i. Sleeping difficulties/Amnesia
ii. Lack of punctuality
iii. Absenteeism
Psychological symptoms
i.
ii.
iii.
Anxiety
Depression
Disengagement
This is a machine being used to train people to detect muscular tension. Then the
muscle relaxation is used to alleviate this symptom of stress. This strategy are
expensive due to the costs of equipment. However, the equipment can be used to
evaluate effectiveness of other stress reduction programs.
3) meditation.
The relaxation response is activated by redirecting one thought away from oneself.
There are 4 step procedure used to attain passive stress free state of mind. This
strategy least expensive and simple to implement and can be practiced almost
anywhere. For example, yoga.
4) holistic wellness technique.
This is a broad interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond stress reduction by
advocating that people strive for personal wellness in all aspects of their lives. The
technique inexpensive but often behaviourally difficult lifestyle changes.
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