This document provides sample exam questions and outlines key concepts in organizational behavior including perception, motivation, decision-making, groups, and organizational culture. Specifically, it discusses perceptual biases individuals have and motivation theories like Expectancy Theory. It also examines decision-making biases such as status quo bias and groupthink. Finally, it defines organizational culture and the functions and types of culture.

1. SAMPLE EXAM QUESTIONS
Here are some sampleexam questions,to show you the type of questions that you can expect on the October
1 final exam.
A) Define the following perceptualor decision making biases ....
B) Accordingto Articlename what are five reasons for using....?
C) Give a specific examplefor how each of the motivation theoriesbelow could be used to increase the
performance of a .....?
D) In the vignette below, João has made a poor decision.Explain someof the specific mistakeshe made in
termsof decision making biases?

2. Organizational Behavior
OB is the study and understandingof individual and group behavior,and patterns of structure in order to help
improve organizational performanceand effectiveness
Levels of OB analysis
Individual;group;organization;environment
Perception
Is a process by which individuals organizeand interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment?
Why is so important? Because people´s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is,noton reality
itself? Studying
Perceptual biases:Systematic errors perceivingothers
Individual cognitivearemisers becausewe want to conserve our mental energy by spendingthe lastamountof
effort thinkingabout other people. That’s why we stereotype, categorize and have other bias.These kind of
shortcuts help us conserve mental energy and cab be functional
Perceptual errors:
 Stereotyping: When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group or category to
which we think they belong
 Halo Effect: When we drawa general impression on the basis of a singlecharacteristic,such as
intelligence,appearanceor background
 Defensiveness: We perceive the world, other people, and events in a way that help us maintain our
positiveself-image
 Projection: The tendency to attribute one´s own characteristics,preferences and motivations to other
people
 Confirmation Bias: A Tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one´s
preconceptions and avoids information and interpretation which contradictprior beliefs
 Attribution errors: When individualsobserve behavior they attempt to determine whether it is
internally (individual) or externally (situations) causes
Motivation
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do becausethey want to do it
(Eisenhower)
Motivation Theories
Theory X: assumes that employees dislikeand will attempt to avoid work; must be coerced, controlled,or
threatened with punishment if they are to perform; will avoid responsibility and seek formal direction and
placesecurity above all factors and display littleambition
Theory Y: assumes that employees likework and view it as natural;will exercise self-direction and control if
they are committed to objective and will accept,even seek, responsibility and can also becreativeand make
innovativedecisions.
IntrinsicMotivators:A person´s internal desireto do something, due to such things as interest, challengeand
personal satisfaction
Extrinsic Motivators:Motivation thatcomes from outsidethe person, such as pay,bonuses and other tangible
reward.
Process theories of motivation
1. Goal-setting: specific and difficultgoals,feedback, leads to higher performance. Participativegoal -
setting can overcome resistanceto difficultchallenges.
2. Expectancy: Motivation to act in a certain way results from expectations regardingeffort-performance
relationship (skills,training,tasks and goals) ,performance-reward relationship (recognition,keep
promises) and Rewards-personal goals relationship (suitablerewards,employee choiceand input)
3. Job design: Every job can be described in terms of 5 dimensions: skill variety + task identity + task
significance(gives meaningto work); autonomy (gives responsefor outcomes) and feedback
(knowledge of results)

3. There are 3 approaches to job design: job rotation (periodic shiftingof employees between tasks), job
enlargement (expanding a job horizontally in terms of number and tasks) and job enrichment (expandinga
job vertically,to increasea person´s planning,execution and evaluation of their work)
How do jobs motivate employees? Givingemployees greater discretion in a job,makingemployees more
accountablefor own work, introducingmore difficultand complex tasks and givingemployees feedback on
their performance contributes to a meaningful outcome.
Basically weshould be able to see what we produce, have our work acknowledgeable,know our work
helps others and have positivereinforcement
4. Organizational Justice: there are 3 dimensions.
 Distributive justice – Fair outcomes. The Distributivejusticeperceptions arebased on what we receive
(outcomes), our contributions (inputs) and in comparison to (a referent other).
 Procedural justice – decision makingprocesses. Fair rulesand procedures.Ex.: ability to have a voice
in the decision,accurateinformation, and ability to appeal the outcome arrived atby those
procedures, etc…
Give voice improve understanding,increaseengagement and accountability and enhancemotivation
and decision acceptance(instrumental voice– you can influencethe decision;Symbolic voice– you
can express your opinion)
 interactional justice – supervisor´s treatment. Fair interpersonal treatment and adequate
explanations thataretimely, personalized,detailed,sincereand accurate.
5. Fairness theory: Fairness becomes most important when outcomes are negative and unexpected.
Procedures and interactions can reducereactions to negative outcomes. They can (3) : provide
confidence regardingfuture outcomes and procedures, showthat the “victim” is a valued member of
the group or show respect and concern for the “victim” as an individual.
Payoff for fairness: Employee engagement, quality decision making, acceptanceof job offer,
organizational changeeffectiveness, quality of customer service,etc..
There are costs for unfairness: Psychological withdrawal,withholdingeffort,team dysfunction,
absenteeism, retaliation,theft and violenceand assaults.
Decision Making
For a rational Decision making we should:
Definite the problem; identify decision criteria;weight the criteria;generates alternatives;evaluate the
alternatives and select the best alternative
The most common decision-making biasesand errors:
 Status quo bias: is an emotional bias;the current baseline(or status quo) is taken as a reference
point, and any change from that baselineis perceived as a loss.
 Overconfidence bias: Tendency to overestimate how frequently correctand accuratewe are.
 Anchoring bias: Tending to overly swayed by initial information given as a startingpointand to not
adequately adjustfor subsequent information.
 Confirmation bias: the tendency to seek out, and pay greater attention to information that reaffirms
our pastchoices and to not avoid and pay less attention to information that challenges our past
choices.We see what we want to see.
 Availability bias: Individual judgeevents that aremore easily recalled frommemory, based on
vividness or recency, to be more numerous than events of equal frequency whose instances areless
easily recalled.“if you can think of it,it must be important and or frequent”
 Escalation of commitment: An increasecommitment to a failingcourseof action despite negative
information
 Randomness bias: The tendency to try to create meaning out of random events
 Ignoring the base rate error: Error in judgment that occurs when someone ignores the statistical
likelihood of an event in making a decision.

4. Groupthink: Phenomenon in which the norm consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternativecourses
of action.As a result of group pressure,there is a deterioration in individuals
What causes?
 High group cohesiveness
 Insulation of the group
 Previous success
 Directiveleadership
 Lack of norms requiringmethodical procedures
 Etc..
How to avoid? Ensure open leader behavior;balancegroup cohesiveness with need for diverseopinions;follow
methodical decision makingprocess;avoid insulation from outsideand reduce time pressures.
Deficiencies of groupthink decision-making
 Incomplete assessmentof problem
 Poor information search
 Selective bias in processinginformation
 Limited development of alternatives …
Groupshift: Phenomenon in which the initial positions of individual members of a group areexaggerated
toward a more extreme position
What causes: Discussion creates familiarization amonggroup members, group discussion motivates individuals
to take risks and group diffuses responsibility
Organizational Culture
Culture: a property of a defined social unit,with significantshared experiences in addressingproblems.
Organization culture: Is a set of characteristicsthatthe organization values thatdistinguishes theorganization
from other organizations.
Organizational cultureincludes an organization'sexpectations,experiences,philosophy,and values thathold it
together, and is expressed in its self-image,inner workings,interactions with the outsideworld, and future
expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs,customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been
developed over time and areconsidered valid.Itaffects the organization's productivity and performance,and
provides guidelines on customer careand service,product quality and safety,attendance and punctuality,and
concern for the environment.
It also extends to production-methods, marketing and advertisingpractices,and to new product creation.
Organizational culture is unique for every organization and one of the hardest things to change.
Culture Functions:
Culture define a role, conveys a senseof identity, facilitates thegeneration commitment, enhances social
stability and sense-makingand control mechanism
Types of Organizational Cultures
 Dominant culture: express de core values that areshared by a majority
 Subcultures: tend to develop in largeorganization to reflect common problems,situations or
experiences that members face
Strong culture: characterized by the organization´s corevalues beingboth intensely held and widely shared
Weak culture: characterized by vagueness, ambiguity and/or inconsistencies
Cultural Change: Is most likely to take when the followingconditions exist,likea dramatic crisis,a turnover in
leadership,in a small or youngorganization and within a weak culture.