Term Assignment
Assignment One PSHA/PS 375, Organizational Behavior Assistant Professor Dave Erwin Distance learning
assignment number one of five. Please answer the following questions, and submit your answers in accordance with
the directions given in the Blackboard course site. The questions in this assignment, number one of five, address
issues found in chapter 5 of our text, and all can be answered based on a reading of the appropriate section of the
text.
1) Define perception
2) What are the three general factors that influence the perception process?
3) What is figure - ground separation?
4) What is a schema?
5) What are the six common kinds of perceptual distortions?
6) Define impression management
7) During which stage(s) of the perception process should managers engage in distortion management?
8) Concerning attribution theory, define the fundamental attribution error, and self - serving bias ?
9) In the United States, which cause, internal or external, is more likely to be overemphasized, and which is
more likely to be underemphasized?
10) What are the general organizational outcomes of an overemphasis on internal causes?
Assignment Two PSHA/PS 375, Organizational Behavior Assistant Professor Dave Erwin Distance learning
assignment number two of five. Please answer the following questions, and submit your answers in accordance with
the directions given in our Blackboard course site. The questions in this assignment, number two of five, address
issues found in chapter 12 of our text, and all can be answered based on a reading of the appropriate section of the
text.
1. Chapter 12 mentions the 'dualistic notion of strategy' noted in chapter 11. What are those two notions
of strategy?
2. What are the two aspects of the process of co-evolution?
3. Define organizational design, and list the factors upon which the choice of an organizational design
is contingent.
4. In James Thompson's view of technology, an automobile assembly line represents which of his three
classifications of technology?
5. From her studies, Joan Woodward came to what conclusion concerning the combination of structure and
technology?
6. Adhocracy, as a design, is particularly useful when a firm is faced with what two "sticky" problems?
7. What three changes took place in information technology with the adoption of WINTEL?
8. Why is understanding the environment important to organizations, as open systems?
9. What are the three main factors in the environment that define the nature of environmental complexity?
10. Define organizational learning.
11. Why is mimicry important to a new firm?
12. What are: experience, vicarious learning, and individual social learning?
13. Describe the characteristics that identify a firm in a deficit cycle, and a firm in a benefit cycle.
14. What is organizational inertia?
Assignment Three PSHA/PS 375, Organizational Behavior Assistant Professor Dave Erwin Distance learning
assignment number three of five. Please answer the following questions, and submit your answers in accordance
with the directions given in the Blackboard course site. The questions in this assignment, number three of five,
address issues found in chapter 13 of our text, and all can be answered based on a reading of the appropriate
section of the text.
1. Define organizational (or corporate) culture.
2. Briefly describe (one or two sentences) external adaptation and internal integration.
3. Define dominant culture, subculture, and counterculture.
4. According to Taylor Cox, what are the five steps for developing a multicultural organization?
5. Define the three levels of cultural analysis, and give organizational examples of each.
6. What is management philosophy?
7. In what three ways does a well-developed management philosophy link strategy to a more basic understanding
of how the firm is to operate?
8. After carefully reading pages 226 - 232, beginning with "continuous cultural development", answer the following:
What is organizational development(OD)?
OD is guided by principles operating in which levels of the organization?
