Module 1 discussion
1. After reading Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural
differences in Chapter 2 (pages 40-44) and looking up and reviewing near the
bottom of Geert Hofstede’s web page (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/), describe
a significant difference between cultures that you have witnessed. Use the
Geert Hofstede comparison tool (at the link below) to compare the two cultures
in your example and describe the relative merits of the different approaches in
an organizational situation.
2. Compare and contrast two cultures using information
contained at http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php (If the
Hofstede website is not working, please do your best with the summary
information in the book, or other sources you may find).
3. Use Saint Leo University’s core value of integrity as the
foundation to form an opinion concerning whether the developing global economy
will cause ethics and social responsibility to become more similar or more
distinct across cultures? Be certain to explain why and how and provide
examples.
Module 2 discussion
For this discussion, you will use what you learned in
Chapter 3 of the textbook and expand your critical thinking about the differences
in people and how to appreciate and effectively manage these differences in the
workplace.
1. Take the abbreviated (and less accurate) Myers-Briggs
test. Reveal your MBTI type in your response and describe the following
scenarios:
a. An organizational
situation (job function, event, team assignment, etc.) where your personality
type could be at a disadvantage (real world or hypothetical)
b. A situation
where your personality type might be an advantage (real world or hypothetical)
c. Based on your
MBTI, how you learn best?
2. Respond to the following two questions about negative
effect and self-monitors:
a. Imagine that
you have a person with negative affect in your organization. What might be a
positive contribution that this person could make in a group where everyone else has positive affect and
similar backgrounds?
b. What
contributions can high self-monitors make in organizations? Low self-monitors?
When you answer the personality part of this question, make
sure that you have viewed the module material, including ideas on how to think
about where your personality type is at an advantage or disadvantage (i.e., the
Nurse MBTI example) and the definition of negative affect! And, with respect to
how you learn best, consider the MBTI introvert/extravert differences (page 94)
and “You 1.2” from Chapter 1, Module 1.
Module 3 discussion
This discussion will help you build your perspective of
human motivation and equity theory (Chapter 5), and link this new understanding
to performance considerations that are introduced in Chapter 4.
1. In your current (or previous) organizational role, are
you motivated by lower or higher-order needs and motivators or hygiene factors?
Discuss and explain which specific needs and Herzberg factors seem to be most
important to you? Also use the theories presented in Figure 5.2 and Table 5.2
to explain your primary needs and motivators.
2. Reflect on the complex factors that go into job
satisfaction and performance (pages 126-130) and integrate the following
considerations into your answer
a. Has job satisfaction generally led to higher performance?
Or, has higher performance led to job satisfaction? Has this varied by
situation?
b. To the extent that job satisfaction has led to the
greater performance, what has been the most important source(s) of that
satisfaction? Have the most important areas been the Social environment, money,
health benefits, physical environment, facilities, job location, or perks?
Explain your reasoning.
3. In your organization, what inequity affects people the
most? Which textbook method seems to be used to resolve that inequity? What
ways are people finding to change inputs and outputs or do they leave the
organization? Alternatively, are the people just living with the inequity and
still meeting organizational goals? Explain.
NOTE: Remember that equity compares an individual’s specific
effort-reward ratio against other organizational members or people with
comparable skills, location, job conditions, etc. Even when there is wage (or
other) dissatisfaction, the perception of inequity is less well-founded when
the groups are not comparable in the most important ways. If you stretch the
limits of comparability far enough, you can easily find examples that will make
you feel both lucky and cheated, and many people make that choice based on
personality factors like positive vs. negative affect.
Module 4 discussion
This discussion is centered on the material in Chapter 9 –
teamwork.
1. Describe the most effective group or team of which you
have been member? What factors made the group or team effective? In your
answer, consider both individual factors in part 2 of your textbook (e.g.,
values, motivation, feedback/learning, etc.) and group factors in Chapter 9,
such as diversity (pages 331-332), the group characteristics in Table 9.1, and
the group behavior concepts on pages 317-319.
2. What are the most significant barriers to teamwork and to
empowerment that you have experienced and why were these barriers important?
Consider trust and other factors introduced during the interaction part of this
module.
Module 5 discussion
This discussion is oriented around the material in Chapter
11 and also draws on the concepts from Chapters 10 and 12.
1. Using the dimensions of empowerment in the book (pages
412-417), analyze and describe the degree to which people in your work
environment are empowered. Then, review the first box in Figure 12.3 and
describe the approach your supervisor or manager uses when making key
decisions. Finally, with respect to both participation in decision-making and
team member empowerment, what strategies would you change if you were the
manager of your or another organization? Consider all of Figure 12.3 and pages
366-368 in Chapter 10.
2. Do you think of yourself as powerful, powerless, or a
little of both? Explain your basis for these perceptions? In your answer
integrate the specific symbols of power in the textbook (pages 403-404).
3. Who is the most powerful person you know personally? What
makes this person so powerful? Does this person’s power use empowerment as a
tool or do they make all the decisions? In your answer use French and Raven’s
five specific interpersonal forms of power (pages 397-398), and the textbook’s
addition of “information power” (page 398) to assist you in your
analysis.
Module 6 discussion
1. While reflecting on Chapter 13, explain and analyze the
issues that cause the most significant conflict in your personal life or work
environment.
2. Use textbook terminology to analyze a conflict or repeating
pattern of conflict that you have witnessed or unfortunately participated in.
Feel free to disguise your comments to maintain privacy.
a. Which of the
causes listed in the book were at the root of the conflict?
b. Which form or
forms of conflict were displayed?
c. If
interpersonal conflict was involved what defense mechanisms were manifested
(Table 13.2) and did you observe these defense mechanisms in use?
d. Describe
effective and ineffective conflict management techniques that were used during
this conflict and the conflict management styles demonstrated. In the end, did the conflict turn out to be
dysfunctional or functional?
Module 7 discussion
At this point in the course, you have many things to keep in
your mind about organizational behavior. Chapter 14 addresses job design to the
organizational behavior model.
As Chapter 14 implies, models are often oversimplified and
leave out the complicating factor of individual differences (refer back to
Figure 3.1 on page 83). Herzberg pointed out that not every job or person is a
fit for enrichment. Businesses and their strategies differ and the kinds of
skills, procedures, and behavior required on the factory floor is quite
different from those required for a leading-edge design shop. In addition,
people with the same abilities and personalities may be at different levels in
terms of satisfying their needs (e.g., Maslow’s hierarchy). It should be no
surprise to you that both job and organizational design are situational and
interdependent with many other concepts involved in the “management of human
energy.”
1. In either designing the job, or in hiring to fill the
job, does your organization consider any of the individual factors that might
influence success? Explain your answer and consider the following factors:
– Cultural
differences in the people (Chapters 1 and 2)
– Personality
factors like MBTI type, conscientiousness, locus of control, and hardiness
– Where a person
is in satisfying their higher- and lower-level needs (Chapter 5)
2. In your organization, are there any jobs that appear to
have been successfully designed (either initially or as they have “evolved”)
using ideas like those described in the textbook? Anchor your comments in the
achievement of the three critical states described on page 525, and in the
achievement of “engagement” as described on pages 526-527.
3. How would you describe the organization you work for on
each of the basic design dimensions (pages 557-558)? What changes in these
dimensions have you seen in your organization due to pressures for improved
cost/effectiveness or to meet other changes in the environment/competition?
