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 exploring techniques that could extend human life to 100 years or more. In addition, the combination of laws prohibiting age discrimination and elimination of defined-benefit pension plans means that many individuals continue to work well past the traditional age of retirement. Unfortunately, older workers face a variety of discriminatory attitudes in the workplace. Researchers scanned over 100 publications on age discrimination to determine what types of age stereotypes were most prevalent across studies. They found that stereotypes that suggested job performance declined with age, counter to empirical evidence presented earlier in this chapter that relationships between age and core task performance are essentially nil. Stereotypes also suggest that older workers are less adaptable, less flexible, and incapable of learning new concepts. Research, on the other hand, suggests they are capable of learning and adapting to new situations when these are framed appropriately. Organizations can take steps to limit age discrimination and ensure that employees are treated fairly regardless of age. Many of the techniques to limit age discrimination come down to fundamentally sound management practices relevant for all employees: set clear expectations for performance, deal with problems directly, communicate with workers frequently, and follow clear policies and procedures consistently. In particular, management professionals note that clarity and consistency can help ensure all employees are treated equally regardless of age. 1. What changes in employment relationships are likely to occur as the population ages? 2. Do you think increasing age diversity will create new challenges for managers? What types of challenges do you expect will be most profound? 3. How can organizations cope with differences related to age discrimination in the workplace? How can older employees help? 4. What types of policies might lead to charges of age discrimination, and how can they be changed to eliminate these problems?
> 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
> 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 a
> 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
> 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?
> How do charismatic and transformational leadership compare and contrast? Are they valid?
> What are the roles and functions of third-party negotiations?
> How do individual differences influence negotiations?
> What are the differences between distributive and integrative bargaining?
> What are the steps of the conflict process?
> What are the similarities and differences among the five bases of power?
> What is power? How is leadership different from power?
> What are some examples of impression management techniques?
> What is Fiedler’s contingency model? Has it been supported in research?
> What are the main limitations of behavioral theories of leadership?
> What are the differences among downward, upward, and lateral communication?
> What are the key parts of the communication process, and how do you distinguish formal and informal communication?
> What are the primary functions of the communication process in organizations?
> What unique problems underlie cross-cultural communication?
> What are some common barriers to effective communication?
> What are the four main approaches to managing organizational change?
> What is the difference between automatic and controlled processing of persuasive messages?
> What are the methods of oral, written, and nonverbal communication?
> What are the differences between formal small group networks and the grapevine?
> What is the difference between planned and unplanned change?
> What is the difference between a group and a team?
> How do you explain the growing popularity of teams in organizations?
> When is work performed by individuals preferred over work performed by teams?
> How can organizations create team players?
> What conditions or context factors determine whether teams are effective?
> What are the five types of teams?
