Study Questions for chapters for:  Landy and Conte Chapters:

Chapter 1 What is I/O Psychology?
 

–1. According to Gardner (2002), what is the difference between “good work” and “good job?” What would be “good work” for you?
 
–2. What do you think was David Morris’ most challenging problem in developing a battery of tests for his job in Iraq?
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3. Explain how the scientist-practitioner model differentiates HR, labor relations from I/O psychology.

•4. Add to the list of debatable questions on p. 12, an issue you believes needs to be addressed.
 
•5. Which of the three branches of I-O is most interesting to you? Why?
 
6. What caused you to decide to study I-O psych?
 
7. How could a better understanding of I-O history helped to avoid wasting time with emotional intelligence?
 

–8. In the U.S. do Asian Americans, Africian Americans, European Americans hold different cultural values? If so, what are some?

Chapter 2 Research Methods and Statistics 

  1.  What specific question involving  organizational behavior most interests you? How could you study it with using (1) an experimental design, (2) a correlational design?
  2. Why is experimental more likely to be conducted in a lab setting and correlational research in a field setting?
  3. How could job satisfaction operate as either an independent or dependent variable?
  4. Identify two reasons why subjective (self-report) data can be inaccurate?
  5. What is the difference between correlation and regression?
     
  6. Is an organizational psychologist more likely to use experimental methods or correlational? Why?
     
  7. is a personnel psychologist more likely to use experimental methods or correlational? Why?

 Chapter 8: The Motivation to Work
  1. Define motivation in the context of organizational behavior and explain why it is considered a hypothetical construct.
     
  2.  How well has the Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham) stood up under empirical investigation?
     
  3. What are the three components of Deci's Self-determination (intrinsic motivation theory) and how do they relate to JCM characteristics?
     
  4. Which of the cognitive theories do you think is most useful in explaining organizational behavior?
     
  5. Give specific examples of how three operant conditioning principles (e.g. fixed ratio, variable ratio, extinction, punishment) have been used in an organization.  
     
  6. What are the two most important functions for pay / salary? (according to Dr. Mitchell)
     
  7. What problem results from paying workers well above the going rate?  
     
  8. Discuss the effect that money (tangible) compensation has on professional athletes' performance
     
  9. Explain how key elements of the JCM (Hackman & Oldham) relate to intrinsic motivational concepts.
     
  10. How would you compensate CEOs to motivate them to improve organizational functioning?

Chapter 9 Attitudes and Emotions at Work

1. What are the three components of an attitude and give an example using job satisfaction?
 

2. Which is more enduring? Mood or emotion?
 
3. What’s the difference between self esteem, self-efficacy and LOC? Give an example of each.
 
4. Which is most important for work motivation, affective, continuance, or normative commitment? Why?

5. How would you use what is known about the dispositional and situational (job characteristics) approaches to design an effective employee selection process?

4. Why has job satisfaction not been shown to be highly related to absenteeism and turnover?

 
 Chapter 11 Fairness and Diversity in the Workplace module 1.1

  1. How did Cropanzano get interested in studying “justice”?

  2. Give an example of a situation where justice was a problem at work

  3.   Is it better to ‘distance’ oneself from the negative outcome? Or not?

  4.  Equity, need, equality; what’s the difference?

  5.  How does a defined comp package (e.g. for Dick Grasso), differ from traditional retirement and what are implications for the effects of each on the employer/employee “contract”?

 Chapter 12 Leadership

 1. What is leadership? How does it differ from management?

2. How has trait theory evolved over the past half century and where does it stand now?

3. What duties (dimensions) distinguish leadership duties from those of a manager (Borman & Brush, '93)?

4. In what way does House/Mitchell's Path-Goal Theory rely on Expectancy theory notions?

5. How are LMX (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, '75) and Path -Goal (House, '71) similar and dissimilar?

6. What is the difference between transactional and transformational leadership style?

7. What are the relationships between the transformational characteristics and French and Raven's Bases of Power?

8. How are transformational leadership characteristics related to intrinsic motivation constructs?

Chapter 13 Teams in Organizations

1. What do groups have in common with teams?

2. What are some reasons why it is so difficult to conduct good experimental research with teams? (creative thought question)

3. Describe, in terms of autonomy, how self-managed teams differs from a self-directed team.

4. what are the primary distinctions between quality circles, project teams and product teams?

5.  What are the most important KSAs and personality attributes for successful team composition? (Guzzo & Dickson, '96; Barrick et al., '98)  

6.  How can group level rewards be used to reduce social loafing?

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using individual reward systems for team performance?

8. Most experts believe that for groups to be effective they must be rewarded. But how would you reward them?

9. Does intrinsic motivation theory apply to groups, and if so, how?