Organizational Behavior Test Questions – Flashcards
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Which of the following is true of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory?
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It is a theory about human motivation.
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All of the following are factors that are necessary in the communication process EXCEPT
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Trust
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Which of the following is NOT part of what traditional organization theorists refer to as "organizational structure"?
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Absence of authority
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Which of the following is NOT thought to be a determinant of personality?
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Emotional intelligence
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Which of the following is considered an unethical political tactic to gain power in an organization?
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Playing territorial games
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Which of the following is needed for a flat organizational design to work effectively?
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An understanding by executives and managers that employees must want to work at the company
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What do denial, stereotyping, and projection have in common?
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They are all ways to deal with sensory information.
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Which principle of organizational design provides that each employee should report to only one manager?
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Unity of command
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The following are true about making good business decisions EXCEPT
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an estimated 20 percent of decisions made in organizations fail
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What is considered a standard response for routine problems?
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Programmed decision
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A manager trying to motivate an employee should
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give ample feedback
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What is the best way for new employees to learn about an organization's culture?
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By observing leaders and socialization
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Of the following, which is NOT an external force of change?
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Changes in productivity
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Cross-functional teams are
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used most often for the purpose of product development
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Decision criteria are used to
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evaluate alternatives
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Who developed the situational leadership model?
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Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard
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What is the trend in work space design?
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Creating public spaces for employees to use for various purposes
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Excessive interpersonal conflict between managers and subordinates is a sign that change is needed, and frequently requires what intervention?
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A human resources department response
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Employees resist change most often because of the
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fear of an adverse outcome
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Which type of organizational change is least threatening to employees because it involves reintroducing an already familiar practice?
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Adaptive change
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Which of the following is true of heuristics?
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Heuristics lead to biases in judgment.
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According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Bill is a thinking-type. When reviewing a vendor proposal with his boss, he will most likely
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express his opinion
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Which of the following is true about gender differences in leadership?
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It is difficult to judge the truth about stereotypes of gender differences
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According to Kolb's Learning Style Type, which of the following describes the accommodative learning style?
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Concrete experience, active experimentation, adaptive
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Power granted to a person by an organization is an example of
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position power
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What is a dependent variable?
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The factor that an experiment or hypothesis tries to explain or predict that is affected by some other factor
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Which of the following is NOT true about stress?
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Women respond more intensely to stress than men and have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
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Which of the following statements accurately describes situational leadership?
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There is no one best way to influence group members.
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A mechanistic organization
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emphasizes specialization and control
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Which of social psychologist Kurt Lewin's three-stage model of planned change is considered to be the most difficult part of the change process?
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Change will not occur unless there is motivation to change.
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Which is a major contributing factor to the transformational leader?
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Charisma
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The most important challenge facing the field of organizational behavior is
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managing workforce diversity
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Which technique is used by organizations to help "unfreeze" the organization?
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Benchmarking
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Empowerment is a strategy focused on improving all of the following EXCEPT
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bureaucracy
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What is an organigraph?
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A map that gives an overview of a company's functions and the way people organize themselves at work
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Which of the following statements is true about Herzberg's two-factor theory?
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Intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction
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Accounting firms, consulting firms, and hospitals are examples of
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professional bureaucracies
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Which of the following is a difference between men's and women's communication styles?
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Women prefer to communicate to build rapport, and men use communication to display knowledge and skill.
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Being "in the zone" is also known as
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the experience of flow
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Which of the following is true about Total Quality Management (TQM)?
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Relies on bottom-up, participative decision making in planning and execution
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A leader with Machiavellian tendencies would likely
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manipulate others for his or her personal gain
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Which of the following statements accurately describes Vroom's expectancy theory?
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It is one of the most widely accepted theories of motivation.
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Advances in information technology have
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increased access to information and made delayering possible
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What type of power will help a leader establish a power base?
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Power as an expert
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What is the relationship between stress and job performance?
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Moderate stress correlates with high performance.
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Outsourcing means that a company
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hires other companies to do some of its work
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What is an affinity group?
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An employee-involvement group made up of professional-level workers
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The only way a person can influence someone else is to
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communicate
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Which is true about flat organization structures?
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Customer problems can be solved quickly.
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A person with a high achievement need
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prefers tasks of intermediate difficulty
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What differentiates a team from a group?
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Shared versus individual accountability
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Consider the following application scenarios. Which activity is an example of refreezing?
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Customer service personnel compensation is changed so pay rate and bonuses are based on customer satisfaction surveys.
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Determining the tasks to be done, who should do them, and who reports to whom is an example of which management function?
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Organizing
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Which of the following statements is true about group dynamics?
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Groups go through predictable stages to become productive.
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According to the triarchic theory of intelligence,
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wisdom, street smarts, and common sense are important factors of intelligence
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As a rule of thumb, in the absence of information, what do many employees do?
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Create and spread rumors
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Which of the following describes people with a directive style of decision making?
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Has a low tolerance for ambiguity and seeks rationality
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The following are all conditions that favor social learning EXCEPT
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need for power
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Which of the following is true about virtual teams?
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They benefit companies that are spread out in a wide geographic area.
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The contingency approach to organization design affirms that
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organizations are more effective when they are structured to fit the situational demand
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Which of the following is true about employee recognition?
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Employees welcome praise as much as a paycheck.
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A strategy, or method, for increasing organizational effectiveness by bringing about planned change is called
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organizational development
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Nonverbal communication has the main purpose of
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expressing the communicator's emotions behind the message
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If an employee misperceives an event that occurs in the workplace, it is likely that he or she has
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strong attitudes about that event
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Which organization structure is best suited to leveraging specialization?
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Functional
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The nominal group technique is
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a group decision-making approach that generates creative alternatives independently
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According to the Holmes and Rahe "Social Adjustment Rating Scale," which of the following is considered the most stressful event?
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Death of a spouse
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Which of the following is NOT a technique to enhance creativity?
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Forming homogeneous work groups
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Which of the following is a disadvantage of a bureaucratic organizational structure?
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Bureaucratic controls can suppress initiative and decision making at lower levels.
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In order to build teamwork, a manager should avoid which of the following?
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Supervising the group closely
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Which of the following is an accurate description of Emotional Intelligence (EI)?
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A person's EI predicts performance better than IQ.
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Which of the following statements is true about organizational behavior?
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Organizational behavior is a study of individuals, groups, and structure.
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Openly discussing the worst-case possibilities of a situation is a way a company can
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reduce the negative consequences of rumors
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What does the P stand for in the equation B = ? (P x E)?
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Person
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All of the following accurately describe Alderfer's ERG theory EXCEPT
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Alderfer reworked Herzberg's theory to align with empirical research
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According to the Leadership Grid®, which is the best leadership style?
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Team management
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According to equity theory model,
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employee satisfaction is dependent on how fairly the employee believes he or she is treated in comparison to others
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Who created the three-step model for change that includes unfreezing, movement, and refreezing?
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Kurt Lewin
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Leadership is the domain of which group of employees?
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B. F. Skinner
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Which of the following is true about conflict?
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Conflict can be both positive and negative.
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Which of the following accurately describes organizational change?
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Individuals' ability to learn to deal with change is a major part of managing change.
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Cognitive style is determined by
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how people gather and evaluate information
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Groupthink is
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likely to occur when the group values getting along more than getting things done
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Experts predict that the predominant style of organization in the future will be
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skills-oriented
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The 4I framework of a learning organization consists of intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and
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institutionalization
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Which of the following is the foundation of all organization cultures?
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History of the company and its founders
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What triggers the fight or flight response?
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Stress
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Process consultants will
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guide and coach on workflow, informal relationships, and communication
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Which type of firm is likely to use a territorial departmentalization structure?
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Large service firm
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The Delphi technique is best suited for
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decision making for groups that are difficult to bring physically together
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What is cognitive dissonance?
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When attitudes or beliefs held by a person are contradictory
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A team member in the role of process observer contributes by
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helping the group look at how it's functioning
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According to attribution theory,
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information on causation is gathered on three dimensions of behavior
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Which of the following is a frequently used research method for organizational behavior?
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Interviews
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Which of the following accurately describes social loafing?
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It is also known as freeloading.
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According to Myers-Briggs typology, a sensation-type individual is best described as someone who
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prefers routine and order when gathering information
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Problem recognition, immersion, incubation, insight, and verification describe what organizational process?
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Creative decision making
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Individual styles are likely to come into conflict during which stage of group development?
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Storming
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All of the following are ways to become a learning organization EXCEPT
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focus development efforts on senior management
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Which of the following is the most effective technique for preventing and reducing stress?
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Power napping
