Agreeable people tend to be kinder and more accommodating in social situations, which you might think could add to their success in life. However, one downside of agreeableness is potentially lower earnings. Recent research has shown the answer to this and other puzzles; some of them may surprise you. First, and perhaps most obvious, agreeable individuals are less adept at a type of negotiation called distributive bargaining. As we discuss in Chapter 14, distributive bargaining is less about creating win-win solutions and more about claiming as large of a share of the pie as possible. Because salary negotiations are generally distributive, agreeable individuals often negotiate lower salaries for themselves than they might otherwise get. Perhaps because of this impaired ability to negotiate distributively, agreeable individuals have lower credit scores. Second, agreeable individuals may choose to work in industries or occupations that earn lower salaries, such as the “caring” industries of education or healthcare. Agreeable individuals are also attracted to jobs both in the public sector and in non-profit organizations. Third, the earnings of agreeable individuals also may be reduced by their lower drive to emerge as leaders, and by their tendency to engage in lower degrees of proactive task behaviors, such as coming up with ways to increase organizational effectiveness. While being agreeable certainly doesn’t appear to help one’s pay, it does provide other benefits. Agreeable individuals are better liked at work, are more likely to help others at work, and generally are happier at work and in life. Nice guys—and gals—may finish last in terms of earnings, but wages themselves do not define a happy life, and on that front, agreeable individuals have the advantage. 1. Do you think employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers? Why or why not? 2. Often, the effects of personality depend on the situation. Can you think of some job situations in which agreeableness is an important virtue? And in which it is harmful? 3. In some research we’ve conducted, we’ve found that the negative effects of agreeableness on earnings are stronger for men than for women (that is, being agreeable hurt men’s earnings more than women’s). Why do you think this might be the case?
> Assume Smith Company, a camera store, lost some inventory in a fire on August 15. To file an insurance claim, Smith Company must estimate its August 15 inventory by the gross profit method. Assume that for the past two years Smith Company’s gross profit
> Duracraft Corporation is nearing the end of its first year of operations. Duracraft made inventory purchases of $745,000 during the year, as follows: Sales for the year are 5,000 units for $1,200,000 of revenue. Expenses other than cost of goods sold a
> Express Detail, Inc. provides mobile car washing and detailing to its customers. The Income Statement for the month ended January 31, 2012, the Balance Sheet for December 31, 2011, and details of postings to the cash account in the general ledger for the
> The accounts of Gleneagles Company prior to the year-end adjustments follow. Adjusting data at the end of the year include the following: a. Unearned service revenue that has been earned, $1,650 b. Accrued service revenue, $32,200 c. Supplies used in o
> Valley Forge Corporation reported the following current accounts at December 31, 2011 (amounts in thousands): Cash................................................ $1,500 Receivables...................................... 5,900 Inventory...................
> This problem demonstrates the effects of transactions on the current ratio and the debt ratio of Hiaport Company. Hiaport’s condensed and adapted balance sheet at December 31, 2011, follows. __________________________________(In millions) Total current a
> Refer back to Problem 3-80B. In Problem 3-80B The accounts of Cool River Service, Inc., at March 31, 2012, are listed in alphabetical order. Requirements 1. Prepare the company’s classified balance sheet in report form at March 31, 2
> The accounts of Cool River Service, Inc., at March 31, 2012, are listed in alphabetical order. Requirements 1. All adjustments have been journalized and posted, but the closing entries have not yet been made. Journalize Cool River’s c
> The adjusted trial balance of Nicholl Corporation at May 31, 2012, follows: Requirements 1. Prepare Nicholl’s 2012 income statement, statement of retained earnings, and balance sheet. List expenses (except for income tax) in decreasin
> Crossway Apartments, Inc.’s unadjusted and adjusted trial balances at April 30, 2012, follow: Requirements 1. Make the adjusting entries that account for the differences between the two trial balances. 2. Compute Crosswayâ€
> Consider the unadjusted trial balance of Princess, Inc., at August 31, 2012, and the related month-end adjustment data. Adjustment data at August 31, 2012, include the following: a. Accrued advertising revenue at August 31, $2,100. b. Prepaid rent expi
> Journalize the adjusting entry needed on December 31, the end of the current accounting period, for each of the following independent cases affecting Woods Corp. Include an explanation for each entry. a. Details of Prepaid Insurance are shown in the acco
> Tulsa, Inc., reported the following data: Tulsa’s gross profit percentage is a. 54.0. b. 50.7. c. 53.0. d. 46.0. Freight in.. Purchases . $ 21,000 Sales returns. Purchase returns... $ 4,000 6,000 ........ 202,000 Beginning invento
> MusicMagic.net specializes in sound equipment. Because each inventory item is expensive, MusicMagic uses a perpetual inventory system. Company records indicate the following data for a line of speakers: Requirements 1. Determine the amounts that MusicM
> What are the three alternative work arrangements of flextime, job sharing, and telecommuting? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
> What are the consequences of stress?
> How do individual differences and organizational constraints influence decision making?
> How do the predications of self-determination theory apply to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?
> What are the early theories of motivation? How applicable are they today?
> What are the three key elements of motivation?
> What are some contemporary theories of motivation, and how do they compare to one another?
> What is the link between perception and decision making? How does one affect the other?
> What is the role of dependence in power relationships?
> What are the possible sources of stress?
> What shortcuts do people frequently use in making judgments about others?
> What is attribution theory? What are the three determinants of attribution? What are the implications of attribution theory for explaining organizational behavior?
> What is perception, and what factors influence our perception?
> Samantha Parks is the owner and CEO of Sparks, a small New York agency that develops advertising, promotions, and marketing materials for high-fashion firms. Parks has tended to keep a tight rein on her business, overseeing most projects from start to fi
> What are the three ethical decision criteria, and how do they differ?
> What are the three major ways that jobs can be redesigned? In your view, in what situations would one of the methods be favored over the others?
> What is the job characteristics model? How does it motivate employees?
> What is variable pay? What are the variable-pay programs that are used to motivate employees? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
> What are employee involvement programs? How might they increase employee motivation?
> What are the key tenets of expectancy theory?
> How is organizational justice a refinement of expectancy theory?
> What are the key principles of goal-setting theory, self-efficacy theory, and reinforcement theory?
> What are the implications of employee job engagement for management?
> Few topics in the business press grab headlines and ignite the public than the compensation packages received by top management, which continue to rise. For companies in the United States with more than $5 billion in revenue, the median CEO compensation
> What are some of the common decision biases or errors that people make?
> What is the rational model of decision making? How is it different from bounded rationality and intuition?
> How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work?
> What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and what does it measure?
> What is personality? How do we typically measure it? What factors determine personality?
> You are probably so used to seeing Starbucks coffee shops everywhere that you might not realize the company went from just 11 stores in 1987 to 2,600 in the year 2000. This incredibly rapid growth sprang from the company’s ability to create a unique expe
> Do values differ across generations? How so?
> What is the difference between terminal and instrumental values?
> What is the difference between trait and behavioral theories? Are those theories valid?
> How does the situation or environment affect the degree to which personality predicts behavior?
> Those who have been in the workforce for many years often lament the “job hopping” that occurs with those who are more recent entrants into the workforce. Younger individuals tend to see such an attitude as old-fashioned, and may resent the implication t
> Are emotions rational? What functions do they serve?
> What is the difference between emotions and moods? What are the basic motions and moods?
> How do you apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues?
> What are some strategies for emotion regulation and their likely effects?
> What is the evidence for and against the existence of emotional intelligence?
> What factors create and sustain an organization’s culture?
> What is affective events theory? What are its applications?
> Are leadership and management different from one another? If so, how?
> What are the sources of emotions and moods?
> We mentioned previously that some researchers have studied whether facial expressions reveal true emotions—the psychologist Paul Ekman is the best known. These researchers have distinguished real smiles (so-called Duchenne smiles, named after French phys
> As this chapter has shown, emotions are an inevitable part of people’s behavior at work. At the same time, it’s not entirely clear that we’ve reached a point where people feel comfortable expressing all emotions at work. The reason might be that business
> Does behavior always follow from attitudes? Why or why not? Discuss the factors that affect whether behavior follows from attitudes.
> What are the main components of attitudes? Are these components related or unrelated?
> What outcomes does job satisfaction influence? What implications does this have for management?
> What causes job satisfaction? For most people, is pay or the work itself more important?
> What are the major job attitudes? In what ways are these attitudes alike? What is unique about each?
> What are the key biological characteristics and how they are relevant to OB?
> What are the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture?
> How can organizations select and develop effective leaders?
> What are stereotypes and how do they function in organizational settings?
> What are the two major forms of workforce diversity?
> How do organizations manage diversity effectively?
> How can you contrast intellectual and physical ability?
> What is intellectual ability and how is it relevant to OB?
> That women are underrepresented on boards of directors is an understatement. In the United States, only 16 percent of board members among the Fortune 500 are women. Among the 100 largest companies in Great Britain, women hold approximately 12 percent of
> Over the past century, the average age of the workforce has continually increased as medical science continues to enhance longevity and vitality. The fastest-growing segment of the workforce is individuals over the age of 55. Recent medical research is e
> Given that a substantial amount of intellectual ability (up to 80 percent) is inherited, it might surprise you to learn that intelligence test scores are rising. In fact, scores have risen so dramatically that today’s great-grandparents seem mentally def
> What is the importance of interpersonal skills?
> What are the three levels of analysis in this book’s OB model?
> How is mentoring valuable to leadership? What are the keys to effective mentoring?
> How does national culture affect what happens when an organizational culture is transported to another country?
> What are the challenges and opportunities for managers in using OB concepts?
> Why are there few absolutes in OB?
> What are the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB?
> Why is it important to complement intuition with systematic study?
> What is organizational behavior (OB)?
> What do managers do in terms of functions, roles, and skills?
> The great global recession has claimed many victims. In many countries, unemployment is at near-historic highs, and even those who have managed to keep their jobs have often been asked to accept reduced work hours or pay cuts. Another consequence of the
> What is a positive organizational culture?
> How can an ethical culture be created?
> What is authentic leadership? Why do ethics and trust matter to leadership?
> How is culture transmitted to employees?
> What are the characteristics of a virtual organization?
> What is a matrix organization?
> What is a bureaucracy, and how does it differ from a simple structure?
> What are the behavioral implications of different organizational designs?
> Why do organizational structures differ, and what is the difference between a mechanistic structure and an organic structure?
> How can managers create a culture for change?
> How can managers create a boundaryless organization?
> What are the three types of conflict and the three loci of conflict?
> What are the differences between the traditional and interactionist views of conflict?
