Absolutes in Organizational Behavior

BBA 352 Organizational Behaviour

2014-15 Term 2 Group Assignment I

Instructions for Assignment:

1. Form groups of five or six persons and complete all questions in the assignment.
2. State the number of the question before each answer clearly. Work should be well structured, typed up and submitted in both hard copy and soft copy formats.
3. The maximum score for the assignment is 120 marks. The number in the brackets indicates the mark allocation for the question.
4. The deadline for submission of the assignment is 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 11, 2015.
5. In order to produce a good assignment, you are strongly advised to read the corresponding chapter in the textbook, the lecture slides and related information from other sources.
6. Plagiarism will incur a severe penalty. You should quote the references or sources at the end of the assignment.
7. Please include a VeriGuide report and a signed declaration of originality in your submission.

Assignment I

1. There are few absolutes in Organizational Behavior. Why is this advantageous for managers? (5)
2. How can a manager manage diversity effectively? (10)
3. Explain how moderating factors affect the relationship between attitudes and behavior. (10)
4. Explain the concept of ‘cognitive dissonance’ and people’s possible responses to it. (5)
5. Describe the main causes of job satisfaction. (5)
6. What outcomes does job satisfaction influence? What implications does this have for management? (10)
7. Describe the Affective Events Theory and its applications. (10)
8. Explain the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and discuss its strengths and weaknesses as a tool for assessing personality. (10)
9. How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work? (10)
10. How does the situation or environment affect the degree to which personality predicts behavior? (10)
11. Explain Attribution Theory. What are the implications of the theory in explaining organizational behavior? (10)
12. Read the following case carefully and answer the questions below.

Is it Okay to Cry at Work?

Emotions are an inevitable part of people’s behavior at work. However, it is not entirely clear that we have reached a point where people feel comfortable expressing all emotions at work. The reason might be that business culture and etiquette remain poorly suited to handling overt emotional displays. The question is: Can organizations become more intelligent about emotional management? Is it ever appropriate to yell, laugh or cry at work?