Deck 15: Organizational Culture and Innovation

Question 1

Three important aspects of external adaptation are: (a)separating more important from less important external forces,(b)developing ways to measure accomplishments,and (c)creating explanations for why goals are not always met.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Cultural differences can have a major impact on the performance of organizations and the quality of work life experienced by their members.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The process of external adaptation often begins with the establishment of a unique identity; that is,each collection of individuals and each subculture within the organization develops some type of unique definition of itself.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A subculture has a pattern of values and philosophy that outwardly rejects the surrounding culture of the larger organization or social system.

Question 5

In the business setting,organizational culture is called corporate culture.

Question 6

In the context of internal integration,three important aspects of working together are: (a)deciding who is a member and who is not; (b)developing a formal agreement that specifies acceptable and unacceptable behavior; and (c)getting friends and enemies to collaborate with one another.

Question 7

Communications by Wall Street firms and employees are restricted by intensely detailed regulatory guidelines that present a challenge for individual employees who wish to promote themselves using social media tools.

Question 8

Internal integration deals with the creation of a collective identity and with finding ways of matching methods of working and living together.

Question 9

Organizational culture is the system of shared actions,values,and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members.

Question 10

Most organizational cultures are similar if not identical to one another.

Question 11

In North American companies,subcultures and countercultures may naturally form on the basis of ethnic,racial,gender,generational,or locational similarities.

Question 12

Smaller firms often have a single dominant culture with a universal set of shared actions,values,and beliefs.

Question 13

Through their collective experience,members of an organization can solve two extremely important survival issues: 1)internal adaptation,and 2)competition integration.

Question 14

Most larger organizations contain several subcultures as well as one or more countercultures.

Question 15

Every large organization imports potentially important subcultural groupings when it hires employees from the larger society.

Question 16

Strong subcultures are seldom found in high-performance task forces,teams,and special project groups in organizations.

Question 17

The external adaptation function of organizational culture concerns issues regarding tasks to be accomplished,methods used to achieve the goals,and methods of coping with success and failure.

Question 18

Some of the key questions regarding internal integration are: What do we do if specific targets are not met? How do we tell others how good we are? When do we quit?

Question 19

Some of the key questions regarding external adaptation are: How do we allocate power,status,and authority? How do we communicate? What is the basis for friendship?

Question 20

In Japanese organizations,subcultures often form based on the date of graduation from a university,gender,or geographic location.

Question 21

Many consultants suggest that organizations should develop a dominant and coherent set of shared values.

Question 22

Research shows that most organizations originate in several national cultures and incorporate very little features from these host cultures even when they expand internationally.

Question 23

Rituals are embellished heroic accounts of the story of the founding of an organization.

Question 24

The observable culture includes the unique stories,ceremonies,and corporate rituals that make up the history of the firm or a group within the firm.

Question 25

Isolating common cultural assumptions is accomplished very easily that explains why culture is a relatively superficial aspect of organizational life.

Question 26

In European firms,subcultures may form on the basis of ethnicity,language,or gender.

Question 27

One of the difficulties associated with organizations importing and accepting subcultural groupings from the larger society is that firms that accept and build on natural divisions from the large culture may find it extremely difficult to develop sound international operations.This may help to explain why many Japanese firms have had difficulty adjusting to the equal treatment of women in their US operations.

Question 28

One of the difficulties associated with organizations importing and accepting subcultural groupings from the larger society is that the firm may encounter extreme difficulty in coping with broader cultural changes.

Question 29

The deepest level of cultural analysis focuses on shared values that can play a critical role in linking people together and can provide a powerful motivational mechanism for members of the culture.

Question 30

A counterculture is a group of individuals with a unique pattern of values and philosophy that is consistent with the organization's dominant values and philosophy.

Question 31

Sagas are important because they are used to tell new members the real mission of the organization,how the organization operates,and how individuals can fit into the company.

Question 32

The second level of cultural analysis focuses on common cultural assumptions that are the taken-for-granted truths that collections of corporate members share as a result of their joint experiences.

Question 33

The term shared in cultural analysis implies that the group is a whole.

Question 34

Observable culture that is the first level of cultural analysis,refers to the way things are done in a particular organization.

Question 35

Three important levels of cultural analysis in organizations are: observable culture,implicit culture,and uncommon cultural assumptions.

Question 36

Three important levels of cultural analysis in organizations are: observable culture,shared values,and common cultural assumptions.

Question 37

The multicultural organization is a firm that values diversity but systematically works to block the transfer of societally based subcultures into the fabric of the organization.

Question 38

In step one of Taylor Cox's five-step program for developing the multicultural organization,the organization should develop pluralism with the objective of multi-based socialization.

Question 39

Rites are standardized and recurring activities used at special times to influence the behaviors and understanding of organizational members; rituals are systems of rites.

Question 40

The Wall Street Journal reports that older workers are at greater risk of layoffs because many employers use a "first in/first out" rule when cutting back staff.

Question 41

A common myth in organizations is the presumption of administrative competence.

Question 42

Organizational culture often specifies when various types of actions are appropriate and where individual members stand in the social system.

Question 43

The corporate uniforms worn by UPS and Federal Express delivery personnel are examples of cultural symbols.

Question 44

Subcultures often arise from the type of technology deployed by the units,the specific function being performed,and the specific collection of specialists in the unit.

Question 45

Cultural rules and roles are part of the operational controls of the organization and emerge from its strategic planning.

Question 46

Creativity is the process of creating new ideas and putting them into practice.

Question 47

Idea creation,initial experimentation,feasibility determination,and final application are the basic steps in a typical process of organizational innovation.

Question 48

To many researchers and managers,shared common values lie at the heart of organizational culture.

Question 49

In many firms,the management philosophy is supported by a series of organizational myths.

Question 50

Shared values tie the corporation to the important values of society.

Question 51

Shared values help turn routine activities into valuable and important actions.

Question 52

By linking values and actions,the organization taps into some of the strongest and deepest realms of the individual.

Question 53

A common myth in organizations is the denial of trade-offs.

Question 54

An organization with a "strong culture" possesses a broadly and deeply shared value system that can provide a strong corporate identity,enhance collective commitment,provide a stable social system,and reduce the need for formal and bureaucratic controls.

Question 55

Generating an idea through spontaneous creativity,ingenuity,and information processing is the feasibility determination step of the innovation process.

Question 56

A strong culture can be detrimental if it reinforces a broad and pluralistic view of the organization and its environment.

Question 57

The best organizations don't stagnate; they innovate; they value and expect innovation,and it becomes a normal part of everyday operations.

Question 58

Often,the language of a subculture,and its rituals and rites,emerge from the group as a form of jargon.

Question 59

A cultural artifact is any object,act,or event that serves to transmit cultural meaning.

Question 60

A cultural symbol is any object,act,or event that serves to transmit cultural meaning.

Question 61

__________ are groups of individuals with a unique pattern of values and philosophy that is NOT inconsistent with the organization's dominant values and philosophy.

A)Subcultures
B)Countercultures
C)Subordinate cultures
D)Collateral cultures
E)Tributary cultures

Question 62

A number of studies suggest that the key difficulty with product development is the integration across all of the units needed to move from the idea stage to final implementation.

Question 63

__________ involves reaching goals and dealing with outsiders.

A)Institutional adaptation
B)Internal integration
C)External adaptation
D)Systematic integration
E)Structural adaptation

Question 64

A firm's __________ is the system of shared actions,values,and beliefs that develops within the organization and guides the behavior of its members.

A)organizational structure
B)control philosophy
C)organizational persona
D)organizational climate
E)organizational culture

Question 65

Resolving the issues of __________ helps individuals develop a shared identity and a collective commitment.

A)shared meanings
B)internal integration
C)external adaptation
D)cultural diversity
E)management philosophy

Question 66

The issues concerned with __________ are tasks to be accomplished,methods used to achieve the goals,and methods of coping with success and failure.

A)structural adaptation
B)strategic adaptation
C)internal integration
D)institutional integration
E)external adaptation

Question 67

"What precisely needs to be accomplished,and how can it be done?" is a cultural question pertaining to the survival issue of __________.

A)external adaptation
B)internal integration
C)institutional adaptation
D)systematic integration
E)structural adaptation

Question 68

__________ deals with the creation of a collective identity and with finding ways of working and living together.

A)Institutional integration
B)Internal integration
C)Structural adaptation
D)External adaptation
E)Bureaucratic integration

Question 69

Refining an existing product to make it more saleable in a new market is an example of exploration.

Question 70

In a business setting,a firm's system of shared actions,values,and beliefs that develops within the company and guides the behavior of its members is called its __________.

A)institutional culture
B)corporate culture
C)indigenous culture
D)bureaucratic culture
E)domestic culture

Question 71

According to a meta-analysis of 100 published statistical studies over the past 30 years,six team processes are particularly important for innovative success: 1)vision,2)support for innovation,3)task orientation,4)cohesion,5)internal communications,and 6)external communications.

Question 72

Innovative organizations benefit from and require top management support.

Question 73

Process innovations introduce new and better work methods and operations.

Question 74

"How do members resolve the daily problems associated with living and working together?" is a cultural question pertaining to the survival issue of __________.

A)institutional adaptation
B)structural adaptation
C)internal integration
D)external adaptation
E)systematic integration

Question 75

Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding subcultures?

A)Strong subcultures are often found in high-performance task forces.
B)Strong subcultures are often found in high-performance special project groups.
C)Subcultures reflect groups with a unique pattern of values and philosophy that are inconsistent with the dominant culture of the larger organization or social system.
D)Subcultures emerge to bind individuals working intensely together to accomplish a specific task.
E)Strong subcultures are often found in high-performance teams.

Question 76

__________ deals with questions such as: What is our unique identity? How do we view the world? Who is a member? How do we allocate power,status,and authority? How do we communicate? What is the basis for friendship?

A)Institutional adaptation
B)Internal integration
C)External adaptation
D)Systematic integration
E)Structural adaptation

Question 77

__________ deals with questions such as: What is the real mission? How do we contribute? What are our goals? How do we reach our goals? What external forces are important? How do we measure results? What do we do if specific targets are not met? How do we tell others how good we are? When do we quit?

A)Institutional adaptation
B)Internal integration
C)External adaptation
D)Systematic integration
E)Structural adaptation

Question 78

To work together effectively,individuals need to do which of the following?

A)decide collectively how to allocate power,status,and authority
B)establish a shared understanding of who will gets rewards and sanctions for specific types of actions
C)work out acceptable ways to communicate
D)develop guidelines for friendships
E)all of the above.

Question 79

Managers cannot modify the visible aspects of culture,such as the language,stories,rites,rituals,and sagas.

Question 80

The process of __________ often begins with the establishment of a unique identity; that is,each collection of individuals and each subculture within the organization develops some type of unique definition of itself.

A)institutional adaptation
B)structural adaptation
C)internal integration
D)external adaptation
E)systematic integration