Exam 6: Applied Performance Practices

Job specialization usually reduces the employee's work efficiency.

Which of the following statements about mental imagery is FALSE?

The Job Characteristics Model identifies five core job characteristics and three psychological states.

Which of the following is LEAST likely to create an ownership culture?

NuGlass Ltd.manufactures glass for commercial products.The production process has several interdependent tasks and employees in those tasks need to coordinate their work for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.Management wants each employee to learn several jobs so that the production group can be more flexible.Describe one type of reward system that would best motivate employees to learn several jobs, and identify a potential disadvantage of this reward system.

One advantage of competency-based rewards is that measuring employee competencies is mostly done through objective measurement methods.

A job in which employees are able to complete something from beginning to end or there is a visible outcome of the work is called:

Job enrichment tends to increase the quality of products or services.

Which of the following job design strategies tends to increase work efficiency?

Self-leadership includes several elements, including:

Mental imagery is one of the most beneficial outcomes of job enrichment.

In 1436, the waterways of Venice were used to fully load 10 galleons with supplies in just six hours.As each vessel was towed along the narrow waterway, people at each house transferred munitions, cardage and other supplies to the passing vessel.By the end of the street, each vessel was fully loaded and ready for sailing.This event, known as the 'Arsenal of Venice', is an early example of:

Self-leadership has become increasingly important in contemporary organizations.Identify and fully describe three of the components of self-leadership and explain how each of those three self-leadership components potentially improves employee motivation and/or performance. Self-leadership refers to the process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform a task.There are five elements in the self-leadership model.Students can fully describe any three of these.(Some students may view self-talk and mental imagery as separate elements.It is the marker's judgment whether these should receive credit or should be considered parts of one element.) The following definitions also provide information on how the self-leadership component improves employee motivation and/or performance. Personal goal setting.Personal goal setting applies the ideas on goal setting, such as identifying goals that are specific, results-oriented and challenging.The only difference between personal goal setting and our previous discussion is that goals are set alone, rather than being assigned by or jointly decided with a supervisor.Personal goal setting improves employee motivation by establishing a direction to effort and creating more meaning in subsequent feedback. Constructive thought patterns.This includes both self-talk and mental imagery.Self-talk refers to any situation in which a person talks to him- or herself about his or her own thoughts or actions.The statements that we make to ourselves affect our self-efficacy, which in turn can influence our behavior and performance in a particular situation.Self-talk also affects how well we figure out the best way to accomplish new or complex tasks.Mental imagery involves mentally practicing a task and imagining successfully performing it beforehand.By mentally walking through the activities required to accomplish the task, we begin to see problems that may occur.Imagining successful performance of the task beforehand increases goal commitment and motivates us to complete the task effectively. Designing natural rewards.Employees can find ways to make the job itself more motivating.This might involve consciously thinking about the effects of one's work, which thereby increases task significance.Or it may involve altering the way a task is accomplished so that it fulfils one's needs more completely.

A large retail organization previously divided work among its four employee benefits staff into distinct specializations.One person answered all questions about superannuation (pension plans), another answered all questions about various forms of paid time off (e.g.vacations), and so on.These jobs were recently restructured so that each employee benefits person answers all questions for people in a particular geographic area.For example, one staff member is responsible for all employee benefits inquiries from anyone in a particular geographic region.This job restructuring is an example of:

___________ are often "golden handcuffs" that potentially increase continuance commitment.

Which of the following is an individual incentive?

Motivator-Hygiene Theory highlights the idea that job content is an important source of employee motivation.

Self-leadership suggests that goals should be set by the employee's supervisor with or without the employee's involvement.

Scientific management includes which of the following?

Gainsharing plans focus on cost reductions and increased labor efficiency.