BU288 Final (Non-Cumulative Portion)
Exam Questions and Answers31
Knowledge hiding - ANSWERS -Intentionally concealing or withholding information that has
been requested by or is relevant to another organizational member
defensive behaviours of politic - ANSWERS -1. best action is no action at all
- stalling
- over conforming
- buck passing (have someone else do it)
2. avoid blame for consequences
- buffing: documenting info to show that appropriate action was followed
- scapegoating: blaming others
Conflict - ANSWERS -A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has
negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.
- viewed as negative -> unavoidable -> inevitable & desirable
- Functional: supports the goals of the group and improves its performance
- dysfunctional: hinders group performance
- no conflict -> group think (some conflicts are beneficial cuz it improves decision making and
considers more ideas)
Causes of conflict - ANSWERS -1. breakdowns in communication
2. Value clashes: conflict btw diff generations or who have diff standards about right/wrong
- less conflict in org that shares values (through selection and socialization practices, assimilate
employees to org values)
,- criticism: no value clashes encourage groupthink
3. personality clashes: diff dominance and social abilities (e.g. an organized person vs someone
who makes decisions rashly)
- more dangerous since people can't work tgt
4. Culture clashes: diff viewpoints enhanced by globalization
5. Work policies and practices: arbitrary and confusing policies (e.g. seeing little relation btw
performance & rewards)
6. Adversarial management: supervisor regards others as enemy (e.g. other supervisors,
employees)
- hard to give constructive criticism
- employee resistance -> strike
Cause of org conflict in textbook (mcq) - ANSWERS -1. Group identification & intergroup bias:
develop positive views for people of their own in-group, and neg views for out-group
- cause: self-esteem (associating urself with in-group's success and away from failure of out-
group)
2. Interdependence: groups are mutually dependent on each other to accomplish their own
goals -> more conflict (does not always lead to conflict)
- facilitates interaction to coordinate interest ->likely conflict
- interdependence -> some power over other -> might abuse power/create antagonism
3. Differences in power, status, culture
- power: one way dependence (power imbalance) -> abuse of power and antagonism
- status: lower status rely on higher status people
- culture: more cultures in group -> value/belief clashes
4. Ambiguity: hard to accurately assign praises/blame to who's responsible (e.g performance
criteria)
5. Scarce resources: scarce resources -> fight for more power
, Types of conflict - ANSWERS -1. Relational conflict: tensions involving interpersonal relationships
(e.g. personality clashes)
2. Task conflict: disagreement of nature of work to be done (e.g. diff about goals/technical
matters)
3. Process conflict: disagreement of how work should be organized and accomplished (e.g.
responsibility, resource allocation)
Relational and process prevent cohesiveness
task conflict can be beneficial when need to consider variety of perspectives to solve problems
Types of conflict & org change - ANSWERS -Constructive conflict: promotes good decisions and
positive changes (low relational + process + high task), when team engage in open discussion
about team difference
- destructive conflict: high relational + process
Conflict stimulation: increase conflict to motivate change
- signal: 1) friendly rut -> peaceful relationships > org goals 2) avoid close interaction to avoid
conflict 3) downplay conflict by denying differences & ignoring
Conflict dynamics - ANSWERS -- winning conflict is more important than solving the problem at
hand
- conceal info or distort info
- each side is more cohesive (punish ppl conciliates)
- cant contact opposite party
- positive views of own, neg views of opposing
- aggressive becomes leader of party
- conflict process itself is a problem -> continues to cycle
Strategies for dealing with conflict - ANSWERS -1. win/lose: eliminates conflict having one side
win
Exam Questions and Answers31
Knowledge hiding - ANSWERS -Intentionally concealing or withholding information that has
been requested by or is relevant to another organizational member
defensive behaviours of politic - ANSWERS -1. best action is no action at all
- stalling
- over conforming
- buck passing (have someone else do it)
2. avoid blame for consequences
- buffing: documenting info to show that appropriate action was followed
- scapegoating: blaming others
Conflict - ANSWERS -A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has
negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.
- viewed as negative -> unavoidable -> inevitable & desirable
- Functional: supports the goals of the group and improves its performance
- dysfunctional: hinders group performance
- no conflict -> group think (some conflicts are beneficial cuz it improves decision making and
considers more ideas)
Causes of conflict - ANSWERS -1. breakdowns in communication
2. Value clashes: conflict btw diff generations or who have diff standards about right/wrong
- less conflict in org that shares values (through selection and socialization practices, assimilate
employees to org values)
,- criticism: no value clashes encourage groupthink
3. personality clashes: diff dominance and social abilities (e.g. an organized person vs someone
who makes decisions rashly)
- more dangerous since people can't work tgt
4. Culture clashes: diff viewpoints enhanced by globalization
5. Work policies and practices: arbitrary and confusing policies (e.g. seeing little relation btw
performance & rewards)
6. Adversarial management: supervisor regards others as enemy (e.g. other supervisors,
employees)
- hard to give constructive criticism
- employee resistance -> strike
Cause of org conflict in textbook (mcq) - ANSWERS -1. Group identification & intergroup bias:
develop positive views for people of their own in-group, and neg views for out-group
- cause: self-esteem (associating urself with in-group's success and away from failure of out-
group)
2. Interdependence: groups are mutually dependent on each other to accomplish their own
goals -> more conflict (does not always lead to conflict)
- facilitates interaction to coordinate interest ->likely conflict
- interdependence -> some power over other -> might abuse power/create antagonism
3. Differences in power, status, culture
- power: one way dependence (power imbalance) -> abuse of power and antagonism
- status: lower status rely on higher status people
- culture: more cultures in group -> value/belief clashes
4. Ambiguity: hard to accurately assign praises/blame to who's responsible (e.g performance
criteria)
5. Scarce resources: scarce resources -> fight for more power
, Types of conflict - ANSWERS -1. Relational conflict: tensions involving interpersonal relationships
(e.g. personality clashes)
2. Task conflict: disagreement of nature of work to be done (e.g. diff about goals/technical
matters)
3. Process conflict: disagreement of how work should be organized and accomplished (e.g.
responsibility, resource allocation)
Relational and process prevent cohesiveness
task conflict can be beneficial when need to consider variety of perspectives to solve problems
Types of conflict & org change - ANSWERS -Constructive conflict: promotes good decisions and
positive changes (low relational + process + high task), when team engage in open discussion
about team difference
- destructive conflict: high relational + process
Conflict stimulation: increase conflict to motivate change
- signal: 1) friendly rut -> peaceful relationships > org goals 2) avoid close interaction to avoid
conflict 3) downplay conflict by denying differences & ignoring
Conflict dynamics - ANSWERS -- winning conflict is more important than solving the problem at
hand
- conceal info or distort info
- each side is more cohesive (punish ppl conciliates)
- cant contact opposite party
- positive views of own, neg views of opposing
- aggressive becomes leader of party
- conflict process itself is a problem -> continues to cycle
Strategies for dealing with conflict - ANSWERS -1. win/lose: eliminates conflict having one side
win
