MGHC02 - QUIZ #1 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026
Argument of "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B" - Answers Numerous reward systems
exist where types of behaviour rewarded are those which the rewarder is trying to discourage, while
the desired behaviour is not being rewarded at all
Fouled Up Reward System In Politics - Answers //Official goals are "purposely vague and general and
do not indicate the host of decisions that must be made among alternative ways of achieving official
goals and the priority of multiple goals
//Relied on to offend no one
//High acceptance, low quality goal
//Operative goals are higher in quality but lower in acceptance since they specify where the money
will come from and one alternatives will be ignored
//Most politicians prefer to speak only of official goals until after the election since operative goals
have a lower acceptance
Fouled Up Reward Systems In War - Answers //Primary goal of organization is to win
//Primary goal of most individuals is to get home alive
//Conflict: Personally rational behaviour at the bottom will endanger goal attainment by those at the
top
//This may not necessarily happen, it depends how the reward system is set up
//Reward system in WW2 was that whether or not they were patriotic, the more obedient the
soldiers were, the faster they would get to go home
//A mutineer in Vietnam was far more likely to be assigned rest and rehabilitation (on the assumption
fatigue was the cause) than he was to suffer any negative consequence (rewarding bad behaviour)
//"Zone of Indifference": "A person can and will accept a communication as authoritative only when
at the time of his decision, he believes it to be compatible with his personal interests as a whole"
Zone of Indifference - Answers A person can and will accept a communication as authoritative only
when at the time of his decision, he believes it to be compatible with his personal interests as a whole
Fouled Up Reward System in Medicine - Answers /Two types of errors:
//Type 1: Doctor can pronounce patients sick when they are actually well
//Type 2: Doctor can pronounce patients well when they are actually sick
/Physicians are reluctant to sustain a type 2 error that they will tolerate any type 1 errors
/More punishment for type 2 error: Guilt, embarrassment, and the threat of a malpractice suit
/A type 1 error is much safer and conservative approach to medicine in today's litigious society
/Type 1 errors are likely to generate increased income and a stream of study consumers who will not
embarrass the doctor by dying
/People are really rewarding type 1 errors, but hoping doctors don't make them
Fouled Up Reward System In Universities - Answers //Society hopes that professors will not neglect
their teaching responsibilities but rewards them almost entirely for research and publications
//Rewards for good teaching and punishments for poor teaching are rare, but common for research
and publication
//Also works for students
//Primary goal of a university is to transfer knowledge from teacher to student, and grades become
identifiable as a means toward that goal, serving as motivational, control, and feedback devices
//Instead, grades themselves have become much more important for entrance to grad school,
successful employment, tuition refunds, and parental respect, than the knowledge they gain
//This is why cheating occurs
Fouled Up Reward Systems in Consulting - Answers //Companies rarely bother to evaluate a new
TQM, employee empowerment program to see if the company is getting its money's worth
//Major reason is due to individuals (in HR, or organizational development) who would normally be
responsible for conducting the evaluations are the same ones often charged with introducing the
change effort in the first place
//Having convinced top management to spend money, they usually are quite animated afterwards in
collecting rigorous vignettes and anecdotes about how successful the program was
//Reward systems continue to reward ignorance in this area
Fouled Up Reward Systems in Sports - Answers //Most coaches don't discuss individual
accomplishments, preferring to speak of teamwork, proper attitude, and one-for-all spirit
//However, rewards are distributed based on individual performance
, //Ex: The basketball player who passes the ball to teammates instead of shooting will not compile
impressive scoring statistics and is less likely to be drafted by the pros
Fouled Up Reward Systems in the Government - Answers //Consider allocation of next year's budget
as a direct function of this year's expenditures (a clear example of a fouled up reward system)
//Those who award such budgets and contracts really hope for economy and prudence in spending
//This not reward the economy, but spending itself
Fouled Up Systems in Business - Answers //Reporting the wrongdoing has been corrupted by and
incompetent reward system in the U.S.
//Calls for whistleblowing employees to collect up to 30% of the amount of a fraud without a stated
limit.
//Thus, prospective whistleblower are encouraged to delay reporting a fraud, even to actively
participate in its continuance, in order to run up the total and their percentage of the take
Causes of fouled up reward systems - Answers //Fascination with an 'objective' criterion: Managers
seek to establish simple, quantifiable standards against which to measure and reward performance.
Such efforts may be successful in highly predictable areas within an organization, but are likely to
cause goal displacement when applied anywhere else.
//Overemphasis on Highly Visible Behaviors: Difficulties often stem from the fact that some parts of
the task are highly visible while other parts are not. Team-building and creativity are other examples
of behaviors which may not be rewarded simply because they are hard to observe.
//Hypocrisy: Rewarder may have been getting the desired behavior, notwithstanding claims that the
behavior was not desired. Ex: Judge campaigns get funded by defense attorneys, while prosecutors
are legally barred from making contributions. This doesn't help judges to be tough on crime, despite
what their campaign promises.
//Emphasis on Morality or Equity Rather than Efficiency: Sometimes consideration of other factors
prevents the establishment of a system which rewards behavior desired by the rewarded
Altering the Reward System - Answers //Managers who complain about lack of motivation in their
workers might do well to consider the possibility that the rewards systems they installed are paying
off for behaviour other than what they are seeking
//First step for managers is to explore what types of behaviours are being rewarded
Goal Setting Theory - Answers Theory of motivation that refers to the effects of setting goals on
performance
Control Theory - Answers Theory of motivation that contends that behaviour is never caused by a
response to an outside stimulus. Instead, the control theory states that the behaviour is inspired by
what a person want most at any given time: survival, love, power, freedom, or any other basic human
need.
Difference between goal setting theory and control theory - Answers Control theorists view
discrepancy reduction to be the motivating force of action, whereas goal-setting theory states that
the goal itself is the primary source of a person's motivation.
What would happen if discrepancy reduction were the primary source of motivation? - Answers
People would eliminate their goals in every way possible. This is not the case; people volitionally
create discrepancies between their current performance and their desired goal. Discrepancy
reduction is simply one correlate of goal-directed action. Second correlate is discrepancy production
(setting a goal for something an individual desires.
Define goal - Answers Object or aim of action
What are the 2 main attributes of goals? - Answers 1) Content: The result or object being sought
(increase profit by 20%)
2) Intensity: Refers to the effort needed to set a goal, the position of a goal in an individual's
hierarchy, and the extent to which a person is committed to goal attainment
What are the 2 core findings that lead to the development of the goal setting theory in 1990? -
Answers 1) Linear relationship between the degree of goal difficulty and performance: The
performance of participants with the highest goals was over 250% higher than those with the easiest
goals
2) Specific, difficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals as well as vague, abstract goals
such as 'do your best': Problem with a do-best goal is its ambiguity as to what constitutes
performance effectiveness. A specific high goal eliminates ambiguity as to what constitutes high
effective performance.
Argument of "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B" - Answers Numerous reward systems
exist where types of behaviour rewarded are those which the rewarder is trying to discourage, while
the desired behaviour is not being rewarded at all
Fouled Up Reward System In Politics - Answers //Official goals are "purposely vague and general and
do not indicate the host of decisions that must be made among alternative ways of achieving official
goals and the priority of multiple goals
//Relied on to offend no one
//High acceptance, low quality goal
//Operative goals are higher in quality but lower in acceptance since they specify where the money
will come from and one alternatives will be ignored
//Most politicians prefer to speak only of official goals until after the election since operative goals
have a lower acceptance
Fouled Up Reward Systems In War - Answers //Primary goal of organization is to win
//Primary goal of most individuals is to get home alive
//Conflict: Personally rational behaviour at the bottom will endanger goal attainment by those at the
top
//This may not necessarily happen, it depends how the reward system is set up
//Reward system in WW2 was that whether or not they were patriotic, the more obedient the
soldiers were, the faster they would get to go home
//A mutineer in Vietnam was far more likely to be assigned rest and rehabilitation (on the assumption
fatigue was the cause) than he was to suffer any negative consequence (rewarding bad behaviour)
//"Zone of Indifference": "A person can and will accept a communication as authoritative only when
at the time of his decision, he believes it to be compatible with his personal interests as a whole"
Zone of Indifference - Answers A person can and will accept a communication as authoritative only
when at the time of his decision, he believes it to be compatible with his personal interests as a whole
Fouled Up Reward System in Medicine - Answers /Two types of errors:
//Type 1: Doctor can pronounce patients sick when they are actually well
//Type 2: Doctor can pronounce patients well when they are actually sick
/Physicians are reluctant to sustain a type 2 error that they will tolerate any type 1 errors
/More punishment for type 2 error: Guilt, embarrassment, and the threat of a malpractice suit
/A type 1 error is much safer and conservative approach to medicine in today's litigious society
/Type 1 errors are likely to generate increased income and a stream of study consumers who will not
embarrass the doctor by dying
/People are really rewarding type 1 errors, but hoping doctors don't make them
Fouled Up Reward System In Universities - Answers //Society hopes that professors will not neglect
their teaching responsibilities but rewards them almost entirely for research and publications
//Rewards for good teaching and punishments for poor teaching are rare, but common for research
and publication
//Also works for students
//Primary goal of a university is to transfer knowledge from teacher to student, and grades become
identifiable as a means toward that goal, serving as motivational, control, and feedback devices
//Instead, grades themselves have become much more important for entrance to grad school,
successful employment, tuition refunds, and parental respect, than the knowledge they gain
//This is why cheating occurs
Fouled Up Reward Systems in Consulting - Answers //Companies rarely bother to evaluate a new
TQM, employee empowerment program to see if the company is getting its money's worth
//Major reason is due to individuals (in HR, or organizational development) who would normally be
responsible for conducting the evaluations are the same ones often charged with introducing the
change effort in the first place
//Having convinced top management to spend money, they usually are quite animated afterwards in
collecting rigorous vignettes and anecdotes about how successful the program was
//Reward systems continue to reward ignorance in this area
Fouled Up Reward Systems in Sports - Answers //Most coaches don't discuss individual
accomplishments, preferring to speak of teamwork, proper attitude, and one-for-all spirit
//However, rewards are distributed based on individual performance
, //Ex: The basketball player who passes the ball to teammates instead of shooting will not compile
impressive scoring statistics and is less likely to be drafted by the pros
Fouled Up Reward Systems in the Government - Answers //Consider allocation of next year's budget
as a direct function of this year's expenditures (a clear example of a fouled up reward system)
//Those who award such budgets and contracts really hope for economy and prudence in spending
//This not reward the economy, but spending itself
Fouled Up Systems in Business - Answers //Reporting the wrongdoing has been corrupted by and
incompetent reward system in the U.S.
//Calls for whistleblowing employees to collect up to 30% of the amount of a fraud without a stated
limit.
//Thus, prospective whistleblower are encouraged to delay reporting a fraud, even to actively
participate in its continuance, in order to run up the total and their percentage of the take
Causes of fouled up reward systems - Answers //Fascination with an 'objective' criterion: Managers
seek to establish simple, quantifiable standards against which to measure and reward performance.
Such efforts may be successful in highly predictable areas within an organization, but are likely to
cause goal displacement when applied anywhere else.
//Overemphasis on Highly Visible Behaviors: Difficulties often stem from the fact that some parts of
the task are highly visible while other parts are not. Team-building and creativity are other examples
of behaviors which may not be rewarded simply because they are hard to observe.
//Hypocrisy: Rewarder may have been getting the desired behavior, notwithstanding claims that the
behavior was not desired. Ex: Judge campaigns get funded by defense attorneys, while prosecutors
are legally barred from making contributions. This doesn't help judges to be tough on crime, despite
what their campaign promises.
//Emphasis on Morality or Equity Rather than Efficiency: Sometimes consideration of other factors
prevents the establishment of a system which rewards behavior desired by the rewarded
Altering the Reward System - Answers //Managers who complain about lack of motivation in their
workers might do well to consider the possibility that the rewards systems they installed are paying
off for behaviour other than what they are seeking
//First step for managers is to explore what types of behaviours are being rewarded
Goal Setting Theory - Answers Theory of motivation that refers to the effects of setting goals on
performance
Control Theory - Answers Theory of motivation that contends that behaviour is never caused by a
response to an outside stimulus. Instead, the control theory states that the behaviour is inspired by
what a person want most at any given time: survival, love, power, freedom, or any other basic human
need.
Difference between goal setting theory and control theory - Answers Control theorists view
discrepancy reduction to be the motivating force of action, whereas goal-setting theory states that
the goal itself is the primary source of a person's motivation.
What would happen if discrepancy reduction were the primary source of motivation? - Answers
People would eliminate their goals in every way possible. This is not the case; people volitionally
create discrepancies between their current performance and their desired goal. Discrepancy
reduction is simply one correlate of goal-directed action. Second correlate is discrepancy production
(setting a goal for something an individual desires.
Define goal - Answers Object or aim of action
What are the 2 main attributes of goals? - Answers 1) Content: The result or object being sought
(increase profit by 20%)
2) Intensity: Refers to the effort needed to set a goal, the position of a goal in an individual's
hierarchy, and the extent to which a person is committed to goal attainment
What are the 2 core findings that lead to the development of the goal setting theory in 1990? -
Answers 1) Linear relationship between the degree of goal difficulty and performance: The
performance of participants with the highest goals was over 250% higher than those with the easiest
goals
2) Specific, difficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals as well as vague, abstract goals
such as 'do your best': Problem with a do-best goal is its ambiguity as to what constitutes
performance effectiveness. A specific high goal eliminates ambiguity as to what constitutes high
effective performance.
