Exam 1: Developing Self-Awareness

Nobody seems to know what their role is and what they are supposed to do in one of your divisions.Two people have applied for the job as manager of this struggling division.They are equal in experience and knowledge; however,Robert has been classified as external and Susan has been classified as an internal.Who should you hire?

If a job requires someone to be able to focus on only one element of information in order to not become distracted,which of the following would best match those requirements?

Assume that you are charged with the orientation of a cohort of new managers in your organization.How would you help them understand their own strengths and inclinations and how they could best contribute?

Employees at Turner,Inc.are engaged in a debate over the merits of an individual vs.a team-based compensation program.Based on Trompenaars' dimensions of national culture,which cultural dimension does this debate most closely relate to?

After the professor passed back the graded test,you heard a student remark,"I didn't do well because the professor gave us tricky questions." Which locus of control does this student probably have?

George has returned from his two-week trip to India.He believes his trip has provided an introspection that increased his self-knowledge.When you begin to question him about his experiences,he becomes defensive and states,"I don't want to talk about it with you!" Based on the review of self-awareness in the text,what would be the most accurate conclusion?

Emotional intelligence can be developed and improved.

Research indicates that business managers

Which best defines core self-evaluation?

To become a better manager,what is one of the first things one should do?

Research suggests individuals with low tolerance for ambiguity and low cognitive complexity are

In the workplace,people are most likely to interact with which co-workers?

Describe an actual example from your life of someone's sensitive line being crossed (it might be yourself).What were the signals that indicated the crossing of a sensitive line? How was threat rigidity manifest?

You need a little extra money,so you added an extra $100 to your expense reimbursement statement before handing the receipts over to accounting.Your co-worker Sara added over $1000 to her statement.If you believe Sara's actions are worse than yours,what is your level of values maturity?

Share a story (either fictional or based on real life)that depicts all three elements of tolerance for ambiguity.Clearly label each element in the story.

Communist Prison Camp To understand the development of increased self-awareness, it is helpful to consider the opposite process: the destruction of self-awareness. Understanding the growth process is often enhanced by understanding the deterioration process. In the case below, a process of psychological self-destruction is described as it occurred among prisoners of war during the Korean War. Consider how these processes that destroy self-awareness can be reversed to create greater self-awareness. The setting is a prisoner of war camp managed by the Communist Chinese. In such prisons the total regimen, consisting of physical privation, prolonged interrogation, total isolation from former relationships and sources of information, detailed regimentation of all daily activities, and deliberate humiliation and degradation, was geared to producing a confession of alleged crimes, the assumption of a penitent role, and the adoption of a Communist frame of reference. The prisoner was not informed what his crimes were, nor was he permitted to evade the issue by making up a false confession. Instead, what the prisoner learned he must do was reevaluate his past from the point of view of the Communists and recognize that most of his former attitudes and behavior were actually criminal from this point of view. A priest who had dispensed food to needy peasants in his mission church had to "recognize" that he was actually a tool of imperialism and was using his missionary activities as a cover for exploitation of the peasants. Even worse, he had used food as blackmail to accomplish his aims. The key technique used by the Communists to produce social alienation to a degree sufficient to allow such redefinition and reevaluation to occur was to put the prisoner into a cell with four or more other prisoners who were somewhat more advanced in their "thought reform" than he. Such a cell usually had one leader who was responsible to the prison authorities, and the progress of the whole cell was made contingent on the progress of the least "reformed" member. This condition meant in practice that four or more cell members devoted all their energies to getting their least "reformed" member to recognize "the truth" about himself and to confess. To accomplish this, they typically swore at, harangued, beat, denounced, humiliated, reviled, and brutalized their victim 24 hours a day, sometimes for weeks or months on end. If the authorities felt that the prisoner was basically uncooperative, they manacled his hands behind his back and chained his ankles, which made him completely dependent on his cellmates for the fulfillment of his basic needs. It was this reduction to an animal-like existence in front of other humans that constituted the ultimate humiliation and led to the destruction of the prisoner’s image of himself. Even in his own eyes he became something not worthy of the regard of his fellow man. If, to avoid complete physical and personal destruction, the prisoner began to confess in the manner desired of him, he was usually forced to prove his sincerity by making irrevocable behavioral commitments, such as denouncing and implicating his friends and relatives in his own newly recognized crimes. Once he had done this, he became further alienated from his former self, even in his own eyes, and could seek security only in a new identity and new social relationships. Aiding this process of confessing was the fact that the crimes gave the prisoner something concrete to which to attach the free-floating guilt which the accusing environment and his own humiliation usually stimulated. A good example was the plight of the sick and wounded prisoners of war who, because of their physical confinement, were unable to escape from continual conflict with their interrogator or instructor, and who often ended up forming a close relationship with him. Chinese Communist instructors often encouraged prisoners to take long walks or have informal talks with them and offered as incentives cigarettes, tea, and other rewards. If the prisoner was willing to cooperate and become a “progressive,” he could join with other “progressives” in an active group life. Within the political prison, the group cell not only provided the forces toward alienation but also offered the road to a “new self.” Not only were there available among the fellow prisoners individuals with whom the prisoner could identify because of their shared plight, but once he showed any tendency to seek a new identity by trying to reevaluate his past, he received a whole range of rewards, of which the most important was the interpersonal information that he was again a person worthy of respect and regard. -Which of the five core aspects of self-concept were the prison camps structured to change? Provide justification for your answer.

Tell a story (either fictional or based on real life)that depicts how three people with different cognitive styles might interact with each other as they work together to solve a problem.Clearly label each cognitive style as you depict it.

If you believe a government policy would benefit those that are less advantaged than yourself,what view of ethics is this?

According to research cited by the textbook authors,the general competency of emotional intelligence of individuals has increased over time.

You added an extra $100 to your expense statement and Sara added an extra $1000 to her expense statement.If you believe both of you are equally wrong (this does violate company policy),what is your level of values maturity?