OB Study Questions
University of British Columbia
Sauder School of Business
Organizational Behaviour and Management
Study Questions: The purpose of the questions below is to guide your reading and thinking about the material prior to your arrival in class. Your instructor will assume that you have a basic understanding of these issues before you come to class, and will use class time to highlight more difficult concepts, introduce additional material and conduct application exercises. If, after doing your reading, there is something that you do not understand, or feel needs further elaboration, please raise your questions during the class.
Introduction
• What is OB?
• What are the challenges for OB in the 21st century?
• How does OB make sense of behaviour?
• What does it mean to say that OB takes a contingency approach?
Skills for the New Workplace
• What is the “Competing Values Framework”?
• What kinds of skills does the Competing Values Framework suggest are useful for individuals to have?
• How do these skills link up with the activities and needs of today’s organizations?
Perception and Personality
• What is perception?
• What factors affect our perception?
• What does attribution theory tell us?
• What are the shortcuts and biases people use in judging others?
• What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
• What is personality? What are its determinants?
• Describe the Big Five Model of personality.
• What major personality attributes most influence OB?
• What are emotions? How do they affect the workplace?
• What is emotional labour?
• What is emotional intelligence?
Values and Attitudes
• What is the difference between a value and an attitude?
• Describe the GLOBE framework for assessing cultural values.
• Explain why gen-xers and baby boomers might not get along in the workplace.
• What are the implications of Canada’s multicultural society on the workplace? Illustrate this from your knowledge of aboriginal values, francophone values and
Sauder School of Business
Organizational Behaviour and Management
Study Questions: The purpose of the questions below is to guide your reading and thinking about the material prior to your arrival in class. Your instructor will assume that you have a basic understanding of these issues before you come to class, and will use class time to highlight more difficult concepts, introduce additional material and conduct application exercises. If, after doing your reading, there is something that you do not understand, or feel needs further elaboration, please raise your questions during the class.
Introduction
• What is OB?
• What are the challenges for OB in the 21st century?
• How does OB make sense of behaviour?
• What does it mean to say that OB takes a contingency approach?
Skills for the New Workplace
• What is the “Competing Values Framework”?
• What kinds of skills does the Competing Values Framework suggest are useful for individuals to have?
• How do these skills link up with the activities and needs of today’s organizations?
Perception and Personality
• What is perception?
• What factors affect our perception?
• What does attribution theory tell us?
• What are the shortcuts and biases people use in judging others?
• What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
• What is personality? What are its determinants?
• Describe the Big Five Model of personality.
• What major personality attributes most influence OB?
• What are emotions? How do they affect the workplace?
• What is emotional labour?
• What is emotional intelligence?
Values and Attitudes
• What is the difference between a value and an attitude?
• Describe the GLOBE framework for assessing cultural values.
• Explain why gen-xers and baby boomers might not get along in the workplace.
• What are the implications of Canada’s multicultural society on the workplace? Illustrate this from your knowledge of aboriginal values, francophone values and