Essentials of Organizational Behavior 15th edition Published by Stephen P. Robbins test bank

 

78) What do we mean by workforce diversity? Why is workforce diversity a challenge for organizations?

Answer:  Workforce diversity relates to how organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of employees' gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics. This poses tremendous challenges for organizations. Organizations have to address questions such as: How can we recognize the strength of our diversity? Should we treat all employees alike, or adapt to accommodate each other's differences? There are challenges relating to the legal requirements with regard to protecting a diverse workforce from discrimination.

Diff: 3

AACSB:  Diverse and Multicultural Work Environments

Quest. Category:  Critical Thinking

LO:  1.5 Identify managers' challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.

 

79) Explain "workforce diversity." What key managerial skill do you think is most important when dealing with workforce diversity?

Answer:  Workforce diversity is a term used to describe how organizations are becoming more heterogeneous with regard to gender, race, and ethnicity. It also includes disabilities, sexual orientation, and age. While student responses may vary regarding the required skills, one of them could be human skills. Human skills are defined by the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people and would be important to manage a diverse workforce because of the different individual variables that the manager would be working with.

Diff: 3

AACSB:  Reflective Thinking

Quest. Category:  Concept

LO:  1.5 Identify managers' challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.

 

 

80) Sergio is the manager of a Honda dealership in Orlando, Florida. When one of his salespersons, Karen, posts on her Facebook account how she enjoys driving her Toyota Camry, Sergio finds out. Should Sergio punish Karen? Why or why not?

Answer:  Responses to this question will vary but should address both the right of the employee to make personal statements but also address that employees should not make public statements that might harm the reputation of the company. In this case, Karen sells Hondas but extolls the virtues of a rival brand—Toyota. This could harm the reputation of the Honda dealership.

Diff: 3

AACSB:  Ethical Understanding and Reasoning

Quest. Category:  Critical Thinking

LO:  1.5 Identify managers' challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.

 

81) What conclusions can you draw about turnover if an employer strives to find balance in work-life conflicts? How can the employer find this balance and still have productive employees?

Answer:  Because work is constantly infringing on people's lives, some employers make efforts to find balance in the work-life conflict. For example, if a job requires a lot of travel time away from the family, when the travel assignment is done, the employer could allow the employee to work from home several days to be able to spend more time with the family. Allowing flexible schedules and complementary time off for overtime worked gives an employee time to recuperate what was lost to work, thus increasing job satisfaction and most likely decreasing turnover.

Turnover is the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organization. A high turnover rate results in increased recruiting, selection, and training costs–which are quite significant. Although it might appear that the employer is losing productivity by allowing flexible time and balance in work-life conflicts, he is actually increasing productivity because he isn't training new employees due to reduced turnover, and employees with high job satisfaction are more productive.

Diff: 3

AACSB:  Analytical Thinking

Quest. Category:  Synthesis

LO:  1.5 Identify managers' challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.

 

82) In the basic OB model, the variables, such as personality, group structure, and culture, which lead to processes are called ________.

A) resources

B) abilities

C) inputs

D) ethics

E) genetics

Answer:  C

Explanation:  Inputs set the stage for what occur within the organization.

Diff: 2

AACSB:  Analytical Thinking

Quest. Category:  Analytical

LO:  1.6 Compare the three levels of analysis in this text's OB model.

 

83) A ________ is an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.

A) process

B) framework

C) model

D) rule

E) law