.المملكة العربية السعودية
وزارة التعليم
الجامعة السعودية اإللكترونية
College of Administrative and Financial Sciences
Assignment 2
Deadline: 20/11/2021 @ 23:59
Course Name: Organizational Behavior
Student’s Name:
Course Code: MGT301
Student’s ID Number:
Semester: 1st
CRN:
Academic Year: 2021/2022 G
For Instructor’s Use only
Instructor’s Name: Dr xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Students’ Grade: 00/ 05
Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low
Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY
• The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated
folder.
• Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted.
• Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented; marks may be
reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page.
• Students must mention question number clearly in their answer.
• Late submission will NOT be accepted.
• Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or
other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions.
• All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font.
No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism).
• Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted.
Course Learning Outcomes-Covered
1 Evaluate ethical issues as related to organizational behavior and decision making from an
individual and organization perspective. (CLO6).
Assignment 2
Reference Source:
Textbook:Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2019). Organizational behaviour: Improving
performance and commitment in the workplace (6th ed). Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Case Study: -
Case: FBI
Please read the case “FBI” from Chapter 10 “ABILITY” Page: - 328 given in your textbook –
Organizational behaviour: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (6th ed). by
Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2019) and Answer the following Questions:
Assignment Question(s):
1. Which specific cognitive and emotional abilities are likely to be most important for FBI special
agents? Explain. (1.25 Marks ) (Min words 150-200)
2. Identify the specific physical abilities that are assessed in the FBI’s annual physical fitness test.
Describe the responsibilities of special agents for which these abilities are likely to be most
important. (1.25 Marks ) (Min words 150-200)
3. How might the frequency of various special agent responsibilities make it important to test for
physical abilities (but not cognitive or emotional abilities) on an annual basis? Explain.
(1.25 Marks ) (Min words 200)
Part:-2
Discussion question: - Please read Chapter 10 “ABILITY” Carefully and then give your answers
on the basis of your understanding.
4. What combination of abilities is appropriate for the job of your dreams? Do you possess those
abilities? If you fall short on any of these abilities, what could you do to improve? (1.25 Marks )
(Min words 200-300)
Important Note: - Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories
from the textbook and at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
Due date for the submission of Assignment:- 2
• Assignment-2 should posted in the Black Board by end of Week-09.
• The due date for the submission of Assignment-2 is end of Week-11.
Answer:
1.
2.
3.
.
.
©Marmaduke St. John/Alamy
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
I
f you go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s home
page, you’ll see links to lists of most wanted criminals, terrorists, and victims of kidnappings and other missing persons. You might also see an announcement regarding the
filing of charges against computer hackers, or a warning to
the public regarding a new type of investment fraud. In fact,
it won’t take you long to realize that the scope of the FBI’s
responsibilities is remarkably broad. The agency not only
provides assistance to municipal, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies, but it also conducts investigations into cybercrime, business crime, public corruption,
and terrorism. If that’s not enough, the FBI also runs programs
that provide assistance to crime victims and their families.
With all these responsibilities, it should not be surprising
to learn that there are many different types of jobs at the FBI.
The first job that might come to mind is that of the special
agent who does things like plan operations, interview suspects, and piece clues together to solve crimes. However,
carrying out the agency’s mission also requires intelligence
analysts, surveillance specialists, and linguists. Additionally,
the FBI employs professionals involved in specialized fields
such as accounting and finance, communications, counseling, engineering, law, mathematics, and medicine. So, what
are the implications to the FBI of having employees involved
in so many different types of jobs?
Although the FBI seeks to hire personnel who have
similar values and regard for the role of justice in society, the agency also needs people who possess the specific abilities required for the specific jobs that need to be
filled. To accomplish this, the FBI conducts extensive testing of job-specific abilities during the hiring process. For
example, when hiring intelligence analysts, the FBI tests for
whether applicants possess strong reasoning abilities. This
is because intelligence analysts need to be able to identify
potential causes for a problem, critically evaluate hypotheses regarding potential causes in light of available information, and draw sound conclusions as to which hypothesis is
most likely. As another example, the FBI tests for perceptual
abilities of those interested in becoming surveillance specialists. This is because surveillance personnel need to pay
attention to details and recognize patterns in observations
of people and objects. The FBI’s hiring process is expensive
and time-consuming; however, it believes that the safety of
the United States and its citizens depends on having personnel with abilities that are tailored to the requirements of
specific jobs.
306
C H A P T E R 1 0 Ability
ABILITY
10.1
What is ability?
Few people have the physical abilities necessary to
compete with professional
golfers such as Annika
Sorenstam, who is widely
considered to be the top
female golfer of all time.
The topic of ability is probably already familiar to you. This is because “ability” is an everyday
word in our language, and we’ve all developed a pretty good understanding of our own abilities.
All of us have experience doing things that require different abilities, and we received feedback, in
one form or another, as to how well we did. So knowing that you’re already familiar with the topic
of ability, why would we write an entire chapter on it for this textbook?
Well for one thing, there are many different abilities, some of which are important but might
not be as familiar to you. Another reason we’ve included a chapter on ability is, although it might
seem obvious that abilities are highly related to effectiveness in jobs, this relationship is truer in
some circumstances than in others. Finally, it may be useful to understand how organizations use
information about abilities to make good managerial decisions. Our chapter is organized around
these three issues.
Ability refers to the relatively stable capabilities people have to perform a particular range of
different but related activities.1 In contrast to skills, which can be improved over time with training and experience, ability is relatively stable. Although abilities can change slowly over time with
instruction, repeated practice, and repetition, the level of a given ability generally limits how much
a person can improve, even with the best training in the world. One reason for this stability relates
to the “nature vs. nurture” question, an issue that has been much debated in OB (see Chapter 9 on
personality and cultural values for more discussion of such issues). So, are abilities a function of
our genes, or are they something we develop as a function of our experiences and surroundings?
As it turns out, abilities are a function of both genes and the environment, and the amount
attributable to each source depends somewhat on the nature of the ability. Consider for a moment
abilities that are physical in nature. Although training that involves weightlifting, dancing, and
swimming can improve a person’s strength, equilibrium, and endurance, there are limits to how
much improvement is possible. As an example, there are millions of people who take golf lessons
and practice their swing for countless hours on a driving range, yet the vast majority of these
people could never compete in a professional golf tournament because they just can’t manage
to consistently hit that little white ball straight or far enough. As an example of abilities that are
cognitive in nature, you likely know people who, even if they went to the best schools on earth,
would have great difficulty doing well in jobs such as theoretical astrophysics that require a lot of
brainpower.
For abilities that are more cognitive in nature, such as those we mentioned in the chapter opening, it appears that genes and the environment play roughly equal roles.2 However, differences in
cognitive abilities due to the environment become less apparent as people
get older, and this may be especially
true for the effect of the family environment.3 As an example, though
neglect, abuse, and deprivation
may have a negative impact on how
children fare on standardized intelligence tests, that negative impact
does not tend to carry over into
adulthood. Beyond the family situation, there are some other factors in
the environment that affect cognitive
ability.4 For instance, the quantity of
schooling may be important because
it provides opportunities for people
to develop knowledge and critical
thinking skills.5 There’s also evi©John Gress/AP Images
dence that our choice of occupations
C H A P T E R 1 0 Ability
307
may influence our cognitive abilities. Complex work develops and exercises our minds, which
promotes higher performance on intelligence tests.6 Finally, certain biological factors are known
to affect cognitive abilities negatively during childhood. Examples include malnutrition, exposure
to toxins such as lead, and prenatal exposure to alcohol. In fact, over the last century average
scores on standardized intelligence tests have risen significantly in industrialized countries as the
quality and availability of education and health factors have improved, and the complexity of life
has increased.7
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR AN EMPLOYEE
TO BE “ABLE”?
As the examples in the previous paragraphs imply, there are different types of ability. Whereas
the golf example refers to physical ability, the theoretical astrophysics example refers to cognitive ability. In fact, there are many different facets of ability, and they can be grouped into
subsets by considering similarities in the nature of the activities involved. As we’ll talk about
in the sections to follow, abilities can be grouped into three general categories: cognitive, emotional, and physical. As our OB Internationally feature illustrates, there may be some abilities
that do not fit neatly into one of these three categories. Nevertheless, all abilities refer to what
people can do. That’s in contrast to personality (the subject of Chapter 9), which refers to what
people are like or what people will likely do. As with personality, organizational personnel and
hiring systems focus on finding applicants who possess abilities that match the requirements
of a given job.
COGNITIVE ABILITY
Cognitive ability refers to capabilities related to the acquisition and application of knowledge in
problem solving.8 Cognitive abilities are very relevant in the jobs most of you will be involved
with—that is, work involving the use of information to make decisions and solve problems.
Chances are good that your cognitive abilities have been tested several times throughout your
life. In fact, each year millions of children in the United States take standardized tests of intelligence at some point during elementary school, middle school, or high school.9 Although you
might not remember taking one of these, you probably remember taking the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). And though you probably thought about the SAT as a test that would have a
major impact only on where you could and could not go to college, the SAT is actually a test of
cognitive ability.
You might also remember that the SAT included a variety of different questions; some tested
your ability to do math problems, whereas other questions assessed your ability to complete sentences and make analogies. In fact, the different types of questions reflect specific types of cognitive ability that contribute to effectiveness on intellectual tasks. Table 10-1 lists many of these
cognitive ability types, along with their specific facets and some jobs in which they’re thought to
be important. The definitions and information in this table, as well as that discussed in the following sections, comes from research that produced a public database called O*NET, which outlines
requirements of employees in different types of jobs and occupations.10
VERBAL ABILITY Verbal ability refers to various capabilities associated with understanding and
expressing oral and written communication. Oral comprehension is the ability to understand spoken words and sentences, and written comprehension is the ability to understand written words and
sentences. Although these two aspects of verbal ability would seem highly related—that is, people
who have high oral comprehension would tend to have high written comprehension, and vice
versa—it’s not difficult to think of people who might be high on one ability but low on the other.
As an example, it’s been reported that as a result of his dyslexia, actor Tom Cruise has poor written comprehension and can learn his lines only after listening to them on tape.11
10.2
What are the various types
of cognitive ability?
308
C H A P T E R 1 0 Ability
OB
INTERNATIONALLY
What makes some people more or less effective in culturally diverse organizational contexts?
According to some, the answer to this question is cultural intelligence, or the ability to discern differences among people that are due to culture and to understand what these differences mean in
terms of the way people tend to think and behave in different situations. There are three sources
of cultural intelligence that correspond to the “head,” “body,” and “heart.” The source of cultural
intelligence that corresponds to the head is called cognitive cultural intelligence. This concept refers
to the ability to sense differences among people due to culture and to use this knowledge in planning how to interact with others in anticipation of a cross-cultural encounter. The source of cultural intelligence that corresponds to the body is called physical cultural intelligence, which refers
to the ability to adapt one’s behavior when a cultural encounter requires it. Finally, the source of
cultural intelligence that corresponds to the heart is called emotional cultural intelligence. This
concept refers to the level of effort and persistence an individual exerts when trying to understand
and adapt to new cultures.
Understanding cultural intelligence may be useful because it’s an ability that can be
improved through training. A training program could begin with an assessment to identify
sources of cultural intelligence that may be weak. Consider, for example, an individual who
is very knowledgeable about the customs and norms of another culture and is very willing to
learn more, but who just can’t alter her body language and eye contact so that it’s appropriate
for the other culture. In this particular case, the aim of the training would be to improve physical cultural intelligence. The individual might be asked to study video that contrasts correct
and incorrect body language and eye contact. The individual might also be asked to engage in
role-playing exercises to model the appropriate behavior and receive feedback from an expert.
Finally, the individual might be asked to take acting classes. Although an organization may rely
on improvements in employee cultural intelligence that result from exposure to new cultures
and cross-cultural experiences, the costs of poor performance in cross-cultural contexts can be
significant for both the employee and the organization, and therefore, training on cultural intelligence may have great utility.
Sources: P.C. Earley and S. Ang, Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions across Cultures (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2003); P.C. Earley and E. Mosakowski, “Cultural Intelligence,” Harvard Business Review 82 (2004),
pp. 139–46; L. Imai and M.J. Gelfand, “The Culturally Intelligent Negotiator: The Impact of Cultural Intelligence (CQ)
on Negotiation Sequences and Outcomes,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 112 (2010), pp. 83–98;
and M.M. Chao, R. Takeuchi, and J.L. Farh. “Enhancing Cultural Intelligence: The Roles of Implicit Culture Beliefs and
Adjustment.” Personnel Psychology 70 (2017), pp. 257–92.
Two other verbal abilities are oral expression, which refers to the ability to communicate
ideas by speaking, and written expression, which refers to the ability to communicate ideas in
writing. Again, though it might seem that these abilities should be highly related, this is not necessarily so. You may have taken a class with a professor who had authored several well-regarded
books and articles, but at the same time, had a very difficult time expressing concepts and
theories to students. Although there could be many reasons this might happen, one explanation
is that the professor had high ability in terms of written expression but low ability in terms of
oral expression.
Generally speaking, verbal abilities are most important in jobs in which effectiveness depends
on understanding and communicating ideas and information to others. As an example, the effectiveness of business executives depends on their ability to consider information from reports and
other executives and staff, as well as their ability to articulate a vision and strategy that promotes
employee understanding. As another example, consider how important the verbal abilities of a
Purchase answer to see full
attachment