Deck 1: Introduction to Organization and Systems

Question 1

A/An ________ is an organized collection of parts or subsystems that are integrated to accomplish an overall goal.

A) collective
B) group
C) organization
D) system

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What I/O pioneer, who had an interest in personnel selection, is credited with writing the first textbook?

A) Walter Dill Scott
B) Lillian Gilbreth
C) Hugo Munsterberg
D) Frederick Taylor

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What early I/O figure asserted that employee engagement was a necessary requirement for optimal organizational performance?

A) Frank Gilbreth
B) Hugo Munsterberg
C) Mary Parker Follett
D) Frederick Taylor

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What psychologist who is considered a founding figure in social psychology and wanted to use research to solve practical organizational problems?

A) Morton Deutsch
B) Kurt Lewin
C) Mary Parker Follett
D) Frederick Taylor

Question 5

What student of Kurt Lewin's conducted influential pioneering research on topics from conformity to intergroup relations?

A) Morton Deutsch
B) Mary Parker Follett
C) Walter Dill Scott
D) Frederick Taylor

Question 6

How would the workplace you will enter most noticeably differ from that a worker entered 100 years ago?

A) There is a decreased emphasis on the importance of technology in today's workplace.
B) An employee today is less likely to interact most closely with others in the same community in which he or she lives.
C) There is less diversity and interconnectedness across cultures today than 100 years ago.
D) There is a reduced focus on governmental regulation today than has been historically true.

Question 7

Jerome is opening a package pick-up and delivery business. What should he expect as a new business owner beginning in today's workplace?

A) Global competition to be on the rise at organizational and individual levels.
B) Increased feelings of isolation as we become more apart from the global system of human affairs.
C) People to spend less time, as compared to previous generations, working in organizations.
D) That any workplace decisions he makes to have little psychological impact on his employees.

Question 8

Tabitha is giving a presentation on the topic of systems. What statement below would you most expect to be a key point raised during her presentation?

A) The entire system is equal to the sum of its individual components or parts.
B) There is interdependence among all persons and/or units within a given system.
C) The system responds only to information received from sources external to it.
D) Systems occur in a limited number of places, mostly in the physical world only.

Question 9

The long-time employees of Keyser Ltd. have not met a sales goal for the past six months. You are hired by the CEO to come in and analyze why the employees in her organization are falling short of expectations. Based on the authors' discussion of systems, what recommendation for maintaining the health of an organization would you make to the CEO?

A) Introduce new perspectives to challenge employees' thinking on how to reach the sales goals.
B) Layoff all employees who have been with the company for more than 15 years.
C) Offer monetary rewards or additional time off for achieve their monthly goals.
D) Raise the degree of instability in the organization by randomly changing rules and policies.

Question 10

The This 'N' That Furniture company has just opened offices in Russia, Japan, England, Germany, and China to go along with its main corporate offices in the United States. The executive team wants to motivate employees in these differing cultures. If asked to advise them, what would you identify as a nearly universal motive for all people?

A) autonomy
B) extraversion
C) need for accuracy
D) need for cognition

Question 11

Your instructor is using the "If The World Were a Village of 100 People" (Table 1 -3), to illustrate some important world-wide demographic data. What would be a point he or she could make based on that information?

A) The majority of the world's population is male and typically has beyond a college education.
B) The majority of the world's population has a college education.
C) Persons who are white and from Europe and the United States are racial and national minorities.
D) While the majority of the world's population cannot read nor write, they do have access to the Internet.

Question 12

After reading the section on the brief history of I/O psychology, you are preparing an outline to lead the discussion at the next class meeting. Why would you make the point that I/O psychology has focused on both research and application?

A) Early pioneers in the field, as well as later contributors, used research to guide their applied solutions.
B) Hugo Munsterberg divided his first textbook equally between topics from both.
C) A theory must be tested and supported initially before it can be used as a practical application.
D) Walter Dill Scott argued for a graduate training model later name the scientist-practitioner model.

Question 13

Wanda is carefully watching a group of administrative assistants type letters on their computers as well as filing copies of important memos and other correspondences. Wanda is doing this to determine the optimal way of doing the filing task. What pioneer of I/O psychology is Wanda most like in her research?

A) Kurt Lewin
B) Elton Mayo
C) Walter Dill Scott
D) Frederick Taylor

Question 14

Richard is a manager who believes that breaking work down into smaller components to determine an optimal method for completing a task leads to very dehumanizing work conditions in today's world. Who below would agree with Richard?

A) Morton Deutsch
B) Elton Mayo
C) Hugo Munsterberg
D) Mary Parker Follett

Question 15

Daria wonders how people's beliefs regarding work has changed over the years. She decides to conduct a literature search examining young people's attitudes and expectations about work. Based on the authors' discussion in the text, what would she be likely to conclude?

A) Most young people readily accept information from authority and hold realistic expectations about the ability of organizational life to provide personal fulfillment.
B) Most young people readily accept information from authority and hold unrealistic expectations about the ability of organizational life to provide personal fulfillment.
C) Most young people distrust instituions and hold realistic expectations about the ability of organizational life to provide personal fulfillment.
D) Most young people distrust institutions and hold unrealistic expectations about the ability of organizational life to provide personal fulfillment.

Question 16

Explain why I/O psychologists study organizations.

Question 17

Compose an essay illustrating how an organization you are familiar with represents a system.

Question 18

How could the research discussed on global organizations be used to demonstrate that people across cultures have some important similarities?

Question 19

Discuss the work of early female pioneers in I/O psychology.

Question 20

Explain how the importance of research was seen in the work of important figures who were pioneers in the field of I/O psychology as well as when the organizational side developed.