ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAIVOUR EXAM REVIEW

CHAPTER 10: POWER AN INFLUENCE IN THE WORKPLACE

The Meaning of Power:
Power: is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others. (Power is based on
someones perception that the power holder possess).
Sources of Power in the Organization: SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONR REGARDING THESE
1) Legitimate Power: is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can
request certain behaviours of others. (managers telling employees what to do)
2) Reward Power: persons ability to control the allocation of rewards called by other and to remove
negative reinforcement. (Managers can give a bonus, vacation time, time off etc.)
3) Coercive Power: ability to apply punishment (opposite of reward power)
4) Expert Power: Individuals capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills valued by
others. Originates from within the power holder. (Many people tend to follow the guidance of these
experts without careful thought) Prevention, forecasting, and absorption).
5) Referent Power: when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them. Also originates
from within the power holder. (otherwise known as charisma)
Contingencies of Power:
1) Substitutability: arability of alternatives. Power is strongest when someone has a monopoly over a
valued resource.
2) Centrality: power holders importance based on the degree and nature of interdependence between
the power holder and others. (if you did not go to work, who would be affected )
3) Discretion: the freedom to exercise judgment to make decisions without referring to a specific rule or
receiving permission from someone.
4) Visibility: those who control valued resources or knowledge will yield power only when others are
visible and others are aware of it. (educational diplomas, make yourself visible in small group)
The Power of Social Networks and Gaining Power
Social Networks: social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to each other through
one or more forms of interdependence.
- They exist everywhere due to people drive to bond
- Guanxi is a Chinese term referring to an individuals network of social connections.
- Social Capital: knowledge and other resources available from a network that connects people with
others.
-strong ties are close knit relationships, information can be gain from them quickly and is usually more
accurate
-weak ties are acquaintances who are usually different from us and therefore offer recourse we do not
possess.
- Structural Hole: an area between 2 or more dense social networks areas that lack network ties.
Influencing Others:
Influence: any behaviour that attempts to alter someones attitudes or behaviour. Types:
- silent authority- through legitimate power

- Assertiveness- legitimate or coercive power through pressure or threats

- information control: manipulating someone else information to change their attitude
- Coalition formation: forming a group that attempts to influence others b poling the resources and power
of its members
- upward appeal: gaining support from a member of high authority
- persuasion: using logical arguments, evidence, and emotional appeals to convince people. Inculcation
effect: a persuasive communication strategy of warning listeners that others will ry to influence them in
the future.
- Integration: increase liking by someone targeted person (complimenting your boss) (impression
management)
- exchange: benefits/recourses are promised in exchange for person compliance.
CONSEQUENCES:
soft tactics (people generally favor more): influent rely on personal sources of power (expert and
referent), which then to build commitment.
Hard tactics (rely on power position (legitimate, reward, coercion), so they tend to produce compliance or
worse resistance. Undermine trust.
Organizational Politics: behaviours that other perceive as self-serving for personal gain at the expense
of other people and possibly the organization.
Machiavellian Values: belief that deceit is a natural and acceptable way to influence others and that
getting more than one deserves is acceptable.
CHAPTER 11: CONFLICT AND NEGOICATION IN THE WORKPLACE
The Meaning and Consequences of Conflict
Conflict: process in which one party perceives that his interests are being opposed or negatively
affected by another party. (Personal Perception!)
Negative:
- Stressful
- distracts employees from their work
- discourages sharing resources
- higher turnover
- lower customer service
Positive:
- better decision making
- test logic of arguments
- questions assumptions
- stronger team cohesion
Constructive and Relationship Conflict
Constructive Conflict: (also called task related conflict), is where people focus on the discussion on the
issue, while maintain employee respect
Relationship Conflict: (also called socio emotional conflict), focuses on the characteristics of other
individuals rather than on the issues as the source of conflict.
3 strategies to minimize relationship conflict:
1) Emotional intelligence: 5 aspects
2) Cohesive team: long people work together the better they know each other
3) Supportive team norms: if teams have an openness about things less things will bother them
STRUCTURAL SROUCES OF CONFLICT IN ORGANIZATIONS --- SHORT ANSWER QUESTION
1) Incompatible goals: occurs when the goals of one person or department seem to interfere with
another person or departments goals

2) Differentiation: differences among people regarding training, values, beliefs, and experiences. (2
people may have separate ways of dealing with a problem, but their end result is the same).
3) Interdependence: extend to which employees must share material to perform their jobs. The
more task and sequential interdependence the higher the chance of conflict.
4) Scarce resources: generate conflict because each person requiring the same resources
necessarily undermines other who need the same resource to do their job,
5) Ambiguous rules: or complete lack of rules increase the uncertainty that one party intends to
interfere with another.
6) Communication Problems: lack of opportunity, ability, and motivation to communicate
effectively.
Interpersonal Conflict Handling Styles. Page 306 exhibit 11.3
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Problem solving: finds a solution that is beneficial for both parties (win-win orientation)
Forcing: one party wins the conflict over the others expense (win-lose orientation)
Avoiding: avoids conflict situations all together
Yielding: giving in completely to party and in doing so lose your own interests
Compromising: looking for a position in which your positive equally match your negative

Structural approaches to conflict management

-Empathising superordinate goals- a broad gaol that all parties to a dispute value and agree is important
-reduce differentiation
-improve communication and mutual understanding
-reduce interdependence
-clarify rules and procedures
Third party Conflict Resolution
Definition: any attempt by a neutral person to help conflicting parties resolve their differences. 3
different ways:
1) Arbitrator: have high control over the final decision, but low control over the process. Listen to
both sides arguments and make a final decision (use only when mediation fails)
2) Inquisition: controls all discussion about the conflict, they choose the information and the way to
evaluate the conflict (least effective method)
3) Mediation: have high control over the intervention process, manage the process and context of
interaction between the disputing parties, the parties make the final decision about how to resolve
the conflict (best method).
Best Alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA): the best outcome you might achieve through
some other course of action if you abandon the current negotiation.

CHAPTER 12: LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTING

What is Leadership?
Definition: influencing, motivating and enabling other to contribute toward the effectiveness and
success of the organization of which they are members, through persuasion and enabling.
Shared Leadership: leadership is broadly distributed, rather than assigned to one person, people in the
organization lead each other.
There are 5 different perspectives of Leadership SHORT ANSWER QUESTION REGARDING THESE
1) competency
2) behavioural
3) contingency

4) transformational
5) implicit
1) Competency perspective of Leadership: personal characteristic that lead to superior
performance in a leadership role
Personality: high level of extroversion (outgoing, talkative, sociable) and conscientiousness
(careful, dependable, and self-disciplined).
Self-concept: self-beliefs and positive self-evaluation about her own leadership skills and ability
to achieve objects
Drive: inner motivation to pursue goals
Integrity: truthfulness and tendency to translate words into deeds
Leadership motivation: need for socialized power to accomplish team or organizational goals
Knowledge of the business: tacit and explicit knowledge about the companys environment,
enabling the leader to make more intuitive decisions.
Cognitive and practical intelligence: above average cognitive ability to process information and
ability to solve real world problems using practical intelligence
Emotional intelligence: ability to monitor her own and others emotions, 5 steps.
Authentic leadership: effective leaders needs to be aware of, feel comfortable with, and act
consistently with their values, personality, and self-concept.
Know yourself- engage in self-reflection, receive feedback from trusted sources, understand your life
story
be yourself- develop your own style, apply your values, maintain a positive core self-evaluation
2) Behavioural Perspective of Leadership: what behaviour makes leaders effective?
Directive (task-oriented): assign work, clarify responsibilities, set goals and deadlines provide
feedback, plan future work.
Supportive (people-oriented): concern for employee needs, make workplace pleasant,
recognize employee contributions, and listen to employees.
Servant leadership: leaders serve followers, help EEs fulfill their needs and are coaches
3) Contingency Perspective Leadership: most appropriate leadership style depends on the
situation.
Path goal theory: ensure that good performers receives a better reward compared to poor
performers. 1) direct, 2) supportive, 3) participative, 4) achievement oriented
Situational leadership theory: effective leaders vary their style with the readiness of followers
Fiedlers contingency model: leader effectiveness depends on whether the person natural
leadership style is appropriately matched to the situation
Leadership Substitutes: conditions that either limit a leaders ability to influence employees or
make a particular leadership style unnecessary
4) Transformational Perspective of Leadership: leaders can change teams or organizations
by creating, communicating, and modeling a shared vision for the team and inspiring
employees to strive for that vision. Most popular, views effective leaders as agents of
change.
Transactional Leadership: style that helps organization achieve there goals more effectively
Managerial leadership: effective leaders help employee improve their performance and
wellbeing in the current situation.
Elements of change: develop a strategic vision, communicate the vision, model the vision, and
build commitment towards the vision.
5) Implicit Leadership Perspective: people evaluate a leaders effectiveness of how that
person fits preconceived beliefs about the features and behaviours of effective leaders.

2 comments:
1) prototypes: preconceived notions of what a leader should be
2) romance of the leadership: amplify effect of leaders on organizational results

Cross cultural and gender issues in leadership

Shapes leaders values/norms, influence decision and action

Women adopt a participative leadership style more readily than males ( works better in some
cultures than others)
Women are higher rated than men on the emerging leadership qualities of coaching, teamwork,
and empower employees.

CHAPTER 13: DESIGNING ORGANIZATIONAL STURUCTURES

Organizational structure: a division of labor and patterns of coordination!! Communication, workflow,
and formal power that direct organizational activities.
DIVISION OF LABOUR: SUBDIVING WORK INTO SEPARATE JOBS ASSIGNED TO DIFFERENT
PEOPLE
-SUBDIVIDED WORK LEADS TO JOB SPECIALIZATION
-potentially increases work efficiency Necessary as company grows and wok becomes more complex
COORDINATING WORK ACTIVITIES: when people divided work among themselves, they require
Coordinating mechanisms to ensure that everyone works in concept
Every organization from corner store to the largest cooperation, entity uses 1 or more of the following
coordination mechanism
1) information communication
-sharing information, forming common mental models
-employees can exchange a large volume of information thru face to face communication and other
media channels
-easiest in small firms (200 more less, you can remember names)
-larger firms apply information communication through:
CONCURRENT ENGINEERING- organizing employees from several departments into temporary terms
-employee representative from design engineering manufacturing, marketing and purchasing
-coordinating together offers feedback
2.Formal hierarchy
-direct supervision
-assigns legitimate power to manage others
necessary in most firms but has problems
3.Standardization : involves creating routine patterns
-standardized process: through job descriptions and procedures. The work must be routine eg. Mass
production or simple
-standardized outputs: ensuring that employees have clearly defined goals outputs measured (sales
targets)
-standardized skills: for complex jobs work effort is coordinated through extensively training employees or
hiring people with those precise role behaviors from educational programs (hospital surgical operations)

Elements of organizational structure: 4

1) Span of control: refers to the number of people directly reporting to the next level in the hierarchy
-the best performing manufacturing plants have 38 production employees per supervisors even though it
is recommend that you have 20
-wider span of control possible when: directed supervision (formal hierarchy) is supplemented with other
coordinating mechanisms
-self-directed teams coordinate through informal communication and standardization so supervisors play
more of a supporting role
-staff members coordinate their work mainly through standardized skills
-many firms employ doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who dont require close supervision
tall or flat structures
-as companies grow they build taller hierarchy, widen span or both
-problems with tall hierarchy are: overhead costs- number of layers, information must pass through many
layers of management, focus power around managers, so staff less empowered and engaged
1. a. Companies need managers to make quick decisions, coach employees and help resolve
conflict
2. b. Increase workload and stress as delayering increases the number of direct reports per
manager
3. c. Restricts management career development
2) Formalization- the degree to which organizations standardize behavior through rules procedures,
formal training, and related mechanism:
-mcdicks restaurants rely on standardization of work processes as a coordinating mechanism
-employees have precisely defined roles, right down to how much mustard is dispensed, how many
pickles and how long each burger should be cooked.
-Problems:
-rules and procedures reduces organizational flexibility
-discourages organizational learning/creativity
-reduces work efficiency
-increases job dissatisfaction and work stress
3) Centralization and Departmentalization (DEp is the forth)
- formal decision making authority is held by a few people, usually at the top
-most organizations begin with centralized structures as the founder makers most of the decisions
-decentralization increase as companies grow
-varying degrees of centralization in different areas of the company (example) head office decides on
information technology but store managers control inventory
4) Departmentalization
-it specifies how employees and their activities are grouped together
-has 3 functions: 1) establishes chain of command
2) creates common mental models or ways of thinking, such as serving clients, developing products
3) encourages staff to coordinate through informal communication
Mechanistic vs Organic Structure
Mechanistic structure: narrow span of control, high formalization, high centralization
-have many rules and procedures, limited decision making at lower levels (CEO hold decision making
power)
Organic Structure: wide span of control, low formalization, decentralized decision
-tasks are adjusted to new situations and organizational needs, taxi relies on organic structure to remain

nimble
-are also compatible with organizational learning, high performance workplaces and quality management
because they emphasize information sharing and an empowered workforce rather than hierarchy and
status
Divisional structure: organizes employees around product/service clients, or geographic areas
Team Based Structure
-self-directed work teams that compete an entire piece of work, such as manufacturing a product or
developing an electronic game
-teams operate with minimal supervision
Matrix Structure (project based)
-employees are temporarily assigned to a specific project team and have a permanent functional unit (art,
audio, soft wear)

CHAPTER 14: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational Culture: the basic pattern of shared values and assumptions shared within the
organization (what is important and what is not). It is the companies DNA, invisible, yet powerful template
that shapes employees behavior.
Elements of Organizational Culture exhibit page 14.1 page 382 (know both seen and unseen features)
Organizational Subcultures:
Dominant culture: most widely shared values and assumptions
Two functions of countercultures:
-employees who hold countercultures values are an important source of surveillance and critical review of
the dominant order
-they maintain the organizations standards of performance and ethical behavior
-source of emerging values
Artifacts of Organizational Culture:
Shared values and assumptions are not easily measured through surveys and might not be accurately
reflected in the organizations values statements
-artifacts are Observable symbols and signs of an organizations cultures such as the way visitors are
greeted, the organizational building, and how employees are rewarded.
-Observables symbols and signs of culture
-physical structures, ceremonies, language stories
-maintain and transmit organizations culture
-need many artifacts to accurately decipher a companys culture
Artifacts: Stories and Legends
-see Cirque du solei stories on page 386
-provides a realistic human side to expectations
-most effective stories and legends:
-describe real people
-assumed to be true
-known throughout the organization

Artifacts: Organizational Language:

-words used to address people, describe customers, etc.
-leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as cultural symbols
Artifacts: Physical Structures/Symbols:
-Building structure- may shape and reflect culture
-office design conveys cultural meaning
-furniture, office size, wall hangings
Merging Cultures: Bicultural Audit: (what you need to do before you merge companies) SHORT
ANSWER QUESTION
-part of due diligence in merger
-minimize risk of cultural collision by diagnosing companies before merger
-three steps in bicultural audit:
1) Identify cultural artifacts
2) Analyze data for cultural conflict/compatibility
3) Identify strategies and action plans to bridge cultures
Merging Organizational Cultures:
1) Assimilation- acquired company embraces acquiring firms cultural values
2) Deculturation- forcing employees at acquired firm to throw away values and culture to be replaced by
new company values and culture
3) Integration- combine 2 cultures together to create the best features of both
4) Separation- prefer and agree to keep everyones values (acquire the company but operate with 2
different cultures)
Socialization: Learning and Adjustment:
Stages of Socialization:
1) Pre-Employment Stage: learn about the organization, form expectations, employers only talk about
positive things about an organization and ignore the bad. It is a two sided process
2) Encounter Stage: reality shock (stressful) when your expectations are not met. Two sided, employee
cant live up to the promises.
3) Role Management: strengthen relationship with co-workers, balancing work and life, adapting to new
values and culture.

CHAPER 15: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Finale exam- 65 multiple choice and 7 short answer question ( 5 points each)
LEWINS FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS MODEL page 409 SHORT ANSWER QUESTION
-developed by kurt lewin (3 steps unfreezing- create awareness of how behavior is hindering organization
(communication), changing- process for organization, (transition) change starts to become real (most
people struggle with new reality) hardest step to overcome (education and communication) how it will
benefit employees. , and refreezing (stabilizing new state after change) ensure people do not refer back
to old ways, cemented into organizational culture.
-driving forces- push organizational toward change, eternal force or leaders vision
-restraining forces- resistance to changeemployee behaviors that block the change process
- Force field model emphasizes that effective change occurs by unfreezing the current situation, moving
to a desired condition, and then refreezing the system so it remains in the desired state

- Refreezing occurs when the organizations systems and structures are aligned with the desired
behaviors. They must prevent the organization from slipping back into the old ways of doing things.
Restraining forces (to change):
-many forms of resistance- complaints, absenteeism, passive noncompliance
Why people resist change:
-personality, values, fear of the unknown, dont want to move out of their comfort level, some people think
that other people need to change but not themselves
Minimizing Resistance to Change:
1) Communication:
-highest priority and first strategy for change
-generates urgency to change
-reduces uncertainty (fear of unknown)
-problemstime consuming and costly
2) Learning:
-provide new skills and knowledge such as coaching
-break out of old routines
-problems: potentially time and consuming and costly
3) Involvement:
-employees participate in change process
-helps saving face and reducing fear of unknown
-includes task forces, future search events
-problems- time consuming and potential conflict
4) Stress Management:
-when communication , learning, and involvement are not enough to minified stress
-benefits- more motivation to change, less fear of the unknown, fewer direct costs
-problems:- time consuming, expensive, doesnt help anyone
5) Negation:
-influence by exchange- reduces direct costs
-may be necessary when people clearly else something and wont other support change
problems- expensive, gains compliance, not commitment
6) Coercion:
-when all else fails use assertive influence
-radical from of unlearning
-problems: reduces trust, may create more subtle resistance, encourage politics to protect job
Change agent- anyone who possesses enough knowledge and power to guide and facilitate the change
effort. Involves transformational leadership:
-develop the change vision
-communicate the vision
-model the vision
-build commitment to the vision
Strategic Vision and Change:
-need to vision of desired future state
-identifies critical success factors for change
-minimize employee fear of the unknown
-clarifies role perceptions
4 Approaches to Organizational Change: only these 2 you need to know (out of 4)
1) Action Research- most popular approach

-is a highly participative process and is a problem focused change process

-Action orientation and research orientation-an action orientation involves diagnosing current problems
and applying interventions that resolve those problems
Action research principles:
1- open systems perspective
2- highly participative process
3- date driven, problem oriented process
2) Parallel learning structures- highly participative arrangements composed of people from most levels
of the organization who follow the action research model to produce meaningful organizational change
-they are social structures developed alongside the formal hierarchy with the purpose of increasing the
organizations learning