Deck 13: Power, Politics, Conflict, and Negotiation

Question 1

Managers who abuse power and politics to promote their own interests are likely to harm the interests of others.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Power is the principal means of directing and controlling organizational goals and activities.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Political decision making can lead to a more efficient use of organizational resources.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The legitimate power of a CEO is granted by an organization's board of directors.

Question 5

Political behavior is seen only at the top levels of an organization.

Question 6

Clearly specified rules and procedures that govern how coercive power and reward power are used prevent superiors from arbitrarily using their legitimate power to hurt people they dislike or disagree with.

Question 7

The terms power and politics often have negative connotations because people associate them with attempts to use organizational resources for one's personal advantage at the expense of others.

Question 8

Power is necessary for the efficient functioning of the organization.

Question 9

As long as employees value the rewards, a manager can use reward power to influence and control their behavior.

Question 10

Managers engage in organizational politics to increase their power and pursue goals that favor their individual and group interests.

Question 11

Individuals in an organization are not able to control the behavior of other individuals or groups.

Question 12

Coercive power is the power to give or withhold punishment.

Question 13

Formal individual power is the power that stems from a person's position in an organization's hierarchy.

Question 14

The most effective organizations are those in which organizational members hoard information.

Question 15

Superiors sometimes limit subordinates' access to information to maintain their power to control and shape the subordinates' behavior.

Question 16

Reward power is the power to control and use organizational resources to accomplish organizational goals.

Question 17

The ability to confer rewards and punishments fairly and equitably is a crucial managerial skill.

Question 18

Any power that an individual has in the workplace comes from his or her formal position in an organization.

Question 19

The greater a manager's access to and control over information, the greater is his or her information power.

Question 20

Informal individual power stems from personal characteristics.

Question 21

Expert power is informal power that stems from superior ability or expertise in performing a task.

Question 22

Central functions, whose activities are needed by many other functions, have access to a lot of information, which gives them power in their dealings with others.

Question 23

The power of a manager or subunit may come from legitimate authority, from the possession of scarce resources, or from expertise.

Question 24

One reason why many people engage in organizational politics is that higher-paying jobs are a scarce resource.

Question 25

Politically astute managers cultivate both people and information.

Question 26

When charismatic power exists, legitimate power, reward power, and coercive power lose their significance.

Question 27

Managers may increase their personal power by limiting their contacts within the organization to reduce their exposure to risk.

Question 28

Fame is one sign that a person has acquired expert power.

Question 29

Functional and divisional managers have to rely primarily on formal, direct sources of power to enhance their individual power.

Question 30

A contingency is an event or problem that could occur and that must be planned for by having people and resources in place to deal with it.

Question 31

A person's reputation within an organization indicates very little of the person's power to influence decision making.

Question 32

In general, functions or divisions that can solve the organization's problems and reduce the uncertainty it experiences are the ones that have the most power in the organization.

Question 33

According to researchers, conflict in an organization is always dysfunctional because it leads to lower performance, overall.

Question 34

The ability to control and generate resources for an organization is a source of functional and divisional power.

Question 35

A manager who controls the agenda can limit alternatives considered in the decision-making process.

Question 36

Managers may form a coalition with other managers to obtain the power they need to influence the decision-making process in their favor.

Question 37

Organizational conflict is the self-interested struggle that arises when the goal-directed behavior of one person or group blocks the goal-directed behavior of another person or group.

Question 38

Referent power is possessed by people who gain power and influence in a group because they are liked, admired, and respected.

Question 39

To increase their chances of promotion, most managers try to develop a personal power base to increase their visibility and individual power.

Question 40

Charismatic power is an intense form of expert power.

Question 41

Conflict that progresses to the manifest stage before being resolved has a greater potential to generate a negative conflict aftermath.

Question 42

Latent conflict begins when one party (group or individual) becomes aware that its goals are being thwarted by the actions of another group.

Question 43

The potential for conflict decreases as the interdependence of functions or divisions increases.

Question 44

During the stage of felt conflict, the conflict usually escalates as parties battle over the cause of the problem.

Question 45

Every conflict episode leaves a conflict "aftermath" that affects the way both parties perceive and respond to future episodes.

Question 46

Interpersonal conflict and intergroup conflict are caused by differentiation, task relationships, and scarcity of resources.

Question 47

Managers can use negotiation in ways that lead to cooperative, functional outcomes rather than competitive, dysfunctional outcomes.

Question 48

Reciprocal interdependence is more likely to lead to conflict than is sequential interdependence.

Question 49

Competition for scarce resources produces conflict.

Question 50

Accommodation is a process in which conflicting groups meet to make offers, counteroffers, and concessions in an effort to resolve their differences.

Question 51

Because of differences in their functional orientations, functional groups can have differing views of the organization's priorities.

Question 52

Task relationships generate conflict between people and groups, because organizational tasks are interrelated and affect one another.

Question 53

Pondy's model of the conflict process has limited applicability within organizations and provides guidance only for a limited range of situations.

Question 54

Managing conflict is a way to improve organizational decision making and resource allocation, thereby making the organization more effective.

Question 55

The management of conflict between individuals is directed at changing the attitudes or behavior of those involved in the conflict.

Question 56

If parties to a conflict are willing to cooperate to find a mutually agreeable solution to the conflict, then a company is more likely to achieve its goals.

Question 57

Differentiation in an organization occurs when people and tasks are grouped or split up into functions and divisions to produce goods and services.

Question 58

The strength of manifest conflict has no effect on organizational effectiveness.

Question 59

Inequitable performance evaluation systems that reward some functions but not others can create conflict.

Question 60

In the stage of manifest conflict, both parties try to hurt each other and thwart each other's goals.

Question 61

Both accommodation and avoidance are satisfactory styles of handling conflict from the organization's perspective.

Question 62

Accommodation is a style of handling conflict in which one party simply allows the other to achieve its goals.

Question 63

________ is the power that stems from a person's position in an organization's hierarchy.

A) Dynamic power
B) Organizational power
C) Formal individual power
D) Informal individual power

Question 64

Sally is a waitress at a well-established local restaurant. She works with several other waitresses, each of them of equal status. They do not supervise anyone nor have they been given any authority other than what is required to serve the customers. However, Sally is extremely well liked by patrons, the other waitstaff, and the cooks. Which BEST describes Sally's power within the organization?

A) She has no power since she is a waitress and has no authority.
B) She has a small amount of negligible power within the organization.
C) She holds referent power within the organization.
D) She holds expert power within the organization.

Question 65

Which statement BEST explains the relationship between charisma and power?

A) The more charisma a person has, the less able they are to influence others.
B) If one lacks charisma, one cannot have legitimate power.
C) If one has charisma, one also has other formal powers.
D) If one possesses charisma, other powers may not be as important.

Question 66

If conflicting parties cannot find an equitable solution, a third party may act as a mediator and impose a solution.

Question 67

Managers engage in ________ to increase their power and pursue goals that favor their individual and group interests.

A) arbitration
B) accommodation
C) organizational politics
D) political decision making

Question 68

A third-party negotiator is an outsider who is skilled in handling bargaining and negotiation.

Question 69

Conflicting parties must remember to discuss the problem at hand and not the shortcomings of one another.

Question 70

Two managers have conflicting views of how to best handle a recent increase in funds. They have many meetings and each manager must argue his position. After several weeks, a decision is made that results in an efficient and effective use of the new resources. This example BEST shows that ________.

A) only top management partake in political decision making
B) it harms other individuals when managers go after their goals
C) formal power is not necessary to engage in political decision making
D) political decision making can lead to improved performance

Question 71

A(n) ________ is a group of managers who have similar interests.

A) coalition
B) organization
C) network
D) consortium

Question 72

Group-level conflict management techniques do not need to address the underlying causes of the conflict.

Question 73

Group-level conflict management is aimed at changing the attitudes and behaviors of groups or departments in conflict.

Question 74

________ is characterized by active disagreement over which organizational goals to pursue and how to pursue them.

A) Turf warfare
B) Political decision making
C) Interdepartmental divergence
D) Organizational conflict

Question 75

Formal sources of power are based on ________.

A) an individual's personality
B) an individual's position in the organization
C) an individual's expertise
D) an individual's referent power in the organization

Question 76

The formal and informal sources of power possessed by managers, functions, and divisions that determine how an organization makes decisions is the organization's ________.

A) political system
B) hierarchy of authority
C) dominant political coalition
D) power structure

Question 77

________ is the principal means of directing and controlling organizational goals and activities.

A) Power
B) Arbitration
C) Negotiation
D) Accommodation

Question 78

Compromise usually involves bargaining and negotiation to reach a solution that is acceptable to both parties.

Question 79

Power is BEST defined as the ability of ________.

A) managers to increase their authority and pursue their own interests
B) managers to increase their authority and ability to influence the work of others
C) one person or group to cause another person or group to do something that they might not otherwise have done
D) one person or group to promote their own agenda

Question 80

Union and management negotiators often develop long-term relationships with one another and try to cooperate.