For quick reference, we have included a comprehensive, alphabetical listing of terms and definitions used throughout the main text.
A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U - Z
A
adhocracy - A selectively decentralized form of organization that emphasizes the support staff and mutual adjustment among people.
administrative orbiting - Delaying action on a conflict by buying time.
advancement - The second, highly achievement-oriented career stage in which people focus on increasing their competence.
affect The emotional component of an attitude.
affective commitment - The type of organizational commitment that is based on an individual's desire to remain in an organization.
anthropocentric - Placing human considerations at the center of job design decisions.
anthropology - The science of the learned behavior of human beings.
anticipatory socialization - The first socialization stage, which encompasses all of the learning that takes place prior to the newcomer's first day on the job.
artifacts - Symbols of culture in the physical and social work environment.
assumptions - Deeply held beliefs that guide behavior and tell members of an organization how to perceive and think about things.
attitude - A psychological tendency expressed by evaluating an entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.
attribution theory - A theory that explains how individuals pinpoint the causes of the behavior of themselves and others.
authority - The right to influence another person.
authority-obedience manager (9,1) - A manager who emphasizes efficient production.
autocratic style - A style of leadership in which the leader uses strong, directive, controlling actions to enforce the rules, reg-
ulations, activities, and relationships in the work environment.
B
barriers to communication - Aspects such as physical separation, status differences, gender differences, cultural diversity, and language that can impair effective communication in a workplace.
behavioral measures - Personality assessments that involve observing an individual's behavior in a controlled situation.
benevolent - An individual who is comfortable with an equity ratio less than that of his or her comparison other.
bounded rationality - A theory that suggests that there are limits upon how rational a decision maker can actually be.
brainstorming - A technique for generating as many ideas as possible on a given subject, while suspending evaluation until all the ideas have been suggested.
C
career anchors - A network of self-perceived talents, motives, and values that guide an individual's career decisions.
career ladder - A structured series of job positions through which an individual progresses in an organization.
career management - A lifelong process of learning about self, jobs, and organizations; setting personal career goals; developing strategies for achieving the goals, and revising the goals based on work and life experiences.
career path - A sequence of job experiences that an employee moves along during his or her career.
career plateau - A point in an individual's career in which the probability of moving further up the hierarchy is low.
centralization - The degree to which decisions are made at the top of the organization.
challenge - The call to competition, context, or battle.
change - The transportation or modification of an organization and/or its stakeholders.
change agent - The individual or group that undertakes the task of introducing and managing a change in an organization.
change and acquisition - The third socialization stage, in which the newcomer begins to master the demands of the job.
character assassination - An attempt to label or discredit an opponent.
charismatic leadership - The use, by a leader, of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers.
classical conditioning - Modifying behavior so that a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus and elicits an unconditioned response.
coercive power - Power that is based on an agent's ability to cause an unpleasant experience for a target.
cognitive dissonance - A state of tension that is produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitudes and behavior.
cognitive moral development - The process of moving through stages of maturity in terms of making ethical decisions.
cognitive style - An individual's preference for gathering information and evaluating alternatives.
collectivism - A cultural orientation in which individuals belong to tightly knit social frameworks, and they depend strongly on large extended families or clans.
communication - The evoking of a shared or common meaning in another person.
communicator - The person originating a message.
compensation - A compromise mechanism in which an individual attempts to make up for a negative situation by devoting himself or herself to another pursuit with increased vigor.
compensation award - An organizational cost resulting from court awards for job distress.
complexity - The degree to which many different types of activities occur in the organization.
conflict - Any situation in which incompatible goals, attitudes, emotions, or behaviors lead to disagreement or opposition between two or more parties.
consensus - An informational cue indicating the extent to which peers in the same situation behave in a similar fashion.
consequential theory - An ethical theory that emphasizes the consequences or results of behavior.
consideration - Leader behavior aimed at nurturing friendly, warm working relationships, as well as encouraging mutual trust and interpersonal respect within the work unit.
consistency - An informational cue indicating the frequency of behavior over time.
contextual variables - A set of characteristics that influences the organization's design processes.
continuance commitment - The type of organizational commitment that is based on the fact that an individual cannot afford to leave.
conversion - A withdrawal mechanism in which emotional conflicts are expressed in physical symptoms.
counterdependence - An unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to separation in relationships with other people.
counter-role behavior - Deviant behavior in either a correctly or incorrectly defined job or role.
country club manager (1,9) - A manager who creates a happy, comfortable work environment.
creativity - A process influenced by individual and organizational factors that results in the production of novel and useful ideas, products, or both.
cross-training - A variation of job enlargement in which workers are trained in different specialized tasks or activities.
cultural theory - An ethical theory that emphasizes respect for different cultural values.
D
data - Uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts.
defensive communication - Communication that can be aggressive, attacking and angry, or passive and withdrawing.
Delphi technique - Gathering the judgments of experts for use in decision making.
democratic style - A style of leadership in which the leader takes collaborative, reciprocal, interactive actions with followers concerning the work and work environment.
devil's advocacy - A technique for preventing groupthink in which a group or individual is given the role of critic during decision making.
dialectical inquiry - A debate between two opposing sets of recommendations.
differentiation - The process of deciding how to divide the work in an organization.
discounting principle - The assumption that an individual's behavior is accounted for by the situation.
disenchantment - Feeling negativity or anger toward a change.
disengagement - Psychological withdrawal from change.
disidentification - Feeling that one's identity is being threatened by a change.
disorientation - Feelings of loss and confusion due to a change.
displacement - An aggressive mechanism in which an individual directs his or her anger toward someone who is not the source of the conflict.
distinctiveness - An informational cue indicating the degree to which an individual behaves the same way in other situations.
distress - The adverse psychological, physical, behavioral, and organizational consequences that may arise as a result of stressful events.
distributive bargaining - A negotiation approach in which the goals of the parties are in conflict, and each party seeks to maximize its resources.
distributive justice - The fairness of the outcomes that individuals receive in an organization.
diversity - All forms of individual differences, including culture, gender, age, ability, personality, religious affiliation, economic class, social status, military attachment, and sexual orientation.
divisionalized form - A moderately decentralized form of organization that emphasizes the middle level and standardization of outputs.
dual-career partnership - A relationship in which both people have important career roles.
due process nonaction - A procedure set up to address conflicts that is so costly, time-consuming, or personally risky that no one will use it.
dynamic follower - A follower who is a responsible steward of his or her job, is effective in managing the relationship with the boss, and practices self-management.
dysfunctional conflict - An unhealthy, destructive disagreement between two or more people.
E
effective decision - A timely decision that meets a desired objective and is acceptable to those individuals affected by it.
ego-ideal - The embodiment of a person's perfect self.
eldercare - Assistance in caring for elderly parents and/or other elderly relatives.
empowerment - Sharing power within an organization.
enacted values - Values reflected in the way individuals actually behave.
encounter - The second socialization stage, in which the newcomer learns the tasks associated with the job, clarifies roles, and establishes new relationships at work.
engineering - The applied science of energy and matter.
entitled - An individual who is comfortable with an equity ratio greater than that of his or her comparison other.
environment - Anything outside the boundaries of an organization.
environmental uncertainty - The amount and rate of change in the organization's environment.
equity sensitive - An individual who prefers an equity ratio equal to that of his or her comparison other.
escalation of commitment - The tendency to continue to commit resources to a losing course of action.
espoused values - What members of an organization say they value.
establishment - The first stage of a person's career, in which the person learns the job and begins to fit into the organization and occupation.
ethical behavior - Acting in ways consistent with one's personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society.
eustress - Healthy, normal stress.
expatriate manager - A manager who works in a country other than his or her home country.
expectancy - The belief that effort leads to performance.
expert power - The power that exists when an agent has information or knowledge that the target needs.
expert system - A computer-based application that uses a representation of human expertise in a specialized field of knowledge to solve problems.
extinction - The attempt to weaken a behavior by attaching no consequences to it.
extraversion - A preference indicating that an individual is energized by interaction with other people.
F
fantasy - A withdrawal mechanism that provides an escape from a conflict through daydreaming.
feedback loop - The pathway that completes two-way communication.
feeling - Making decisions in a personal, value-oriented way.
femininity - The cultural orientation in which relationships and concern for others are valued.
first-impression error - The tendency to form lasting opinions about an individual based on initial perceptions.
fixation - An aggressive mechanism in which an individual keeps up a dysfunctional behavior that obviously will not solve the conflict.
flexible work schedule - A work schedule that allows employees discretion in order to accommodate personal concerns.
flextime - An alternative work pattern through which employees can set their own daily work schedules.
flight/withdrawal - A withdrawal mechanism that entails physically escaping a conflict (flight) or psychologically escaping (withdrawal).
followership - The process of being guided and directed by a leader in the work environment.
formal leadership - Officially sanctioned leadership based on the authority of a formal position.
formal organization - The part of the organization that has legitimacy and official recognition.
formalization - The degree to which the organization has official rules, regulations, and procedures.
functional conflict - A healthy, constructive disagreement between two or more people.
fundamental attribution error - The tendency to make attributions to internal causes when focusing on someone else's behavior.
G
garbage can model - A theory that contends that decisions in organizations are random and unsystematic.
glass ceiling - A transparent barrier that keeps women from rising above a certain level in organizations.
goal setting - The process of establishing desired results that guide and direct behavior.
group - Two or more people with common interests or objectives.
group cohesion - The ěinterpersonal glueî that makes members of a group stick together.
group polarization - The tendency for group discussion to produce shifts toward more extreme attitudes among members.
groupthink - A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment resulting from in-group pressures.
guanxi - The Chinese practice of building networks for social exchange.
H
Hawthorne studies - Studies conducted during the 1920s and 1930s that discovered the existence of the informal organization.
heuristics - Shortcuts in decision making that save mental activity.
hierarchy of authority - The degree of vertical differentiation across levels of management.
homeostasis - A steady state of bodily functioning and equilibrium.
humanistic theory - The personality theory that emphasizes individual growth and improvement.
hygiene factor - A work condition related to dissatisfaction caused by discomfort or pain.
I
identification - A compromise mechanism whereby an individual patterns his or her behavior after another's.
implicit personality theory - Opinions formed about other people that are based on our own mini-theories about how people behave.
impoverished manager (1,1) - A manager who exerts just enough effort to avoid being fired.
impression management - The process by which individuals try to control the impression others have of them.
incremental change - Change of a relatively small scope, such as making small improvements.
individual differences - The way in which factors such as skills, abilities, personalities, perceptions, attitudes, values, and ethics differ from one individual to another.
individualism - A cultural orientation in which people belong to loose social frameworks, and their primary concern is for themselves and their families.
inequity - The situation in which a person perceives he or she is receiving less than he or she is giving, or is giving less than he or she is receiving.
influence - The process of affecting the thoughts, behavior, and feelings of another person.
informal leadership - Unofficial leadership accorded to a person by other members of the organization.
informal organization - The unofficial part of the organization.
information - Data that have been interpreted, analyzed, and have meaning to some user.
initiating structure - Leader behavior aimed at defining and organizing work relationships and roles, as well as establishing clear patterns of organization, communication, and ways of getting things done.
instrumental values - Values that represent the acceptable behaviors to be used in achieving some end state.
instrumentality - The belief that performance is related to rewards.
integrated involvement - Closeness achieved through tasks and activities.
integration - The process of coordinating the different parts of an organization.
integrative approach - The broad theory that describes personality as a composite of an individual's psychological processes.
integrative negotiation - A negotiation approach that focuses on the merits of the issues and seeks a win-win solution.
interactional psychology - The psychological approach that emphasizes that in order to understand human behavior, we must know something about the person and about the situation.
intergroup conflict - Conflict that occurs between groups or teams in an organization.
interorganizational conflict - Conflict that occurs between two or more organizations.
interpersonal communication - Communication between two or more people in an organization.
interpersonal conflict - Conflict that occurs between two or more individuals.
interrole conflict - A person's experience of conflict among the multiple roles in his or her life.
intrapersonal conflict - Conflict that occurs within an individual.
intrarole conflict - Conflict that occurs within a single role, such as when a person receives conflicting messages from role senders about how to perform a certain role.
introversion - A preference indicating that an individual is energized by time alone.
intuiting - Gathering information through ěsixth senseî and focusing on what could be rather than what actually exists.
intuition - A fast, positive force in decision making utilized at a level below consciousness that involves learned patterns of information.
J
job - A set of specified work and task activities that engage an individual in an organization.
Job Characteristics Model - A framework for understanding person-job fit through the interaction of core job dimensions with critical psychological states within a person.
Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) - The survey instrument designed to measure the elements in the Job Characteristics Model.
job enlargement - A method of job design that increases the number of activities in a job to overcome the boredom of overspecialized work.
job enrichment - Designing or redesigning jobs by incorporating motivational factors into them.
job redesign - An OD intervention method that alters jobs to improve the fit between individual skills and the demands of the job.
job rotation - A variation of job enlargement in which workers are exposed to a variety of specialized jobs over time.
job satisfaction - A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences.
job sharing - An alternative work pattern in which there is more than one person occupying a single job.
judging - Preferring closure and completion in making decisions.
jurisdictional ambiguity - The presence of unclear lines of responsibility within an organization.
L
laissez-faire style - A style of leadership in which the leader fails to accept the responsibilities of the position.
language - The words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a group of people.
leader - An advocate for change and new approaches to problems.
leader-member relations - The quality of interpersonal relationships among a leader and the group members.
leadership - The process of guiding and directing the behavior of people in the work environment.
lean production - Using committed employees with ever-expanding responsibilities to achieve zero waste, 100 percent good product, delivered on time, every time.
learning - A change in behavior acquired through experience.
least preferred coworker (LPC) - The person a leader has least preferred to work with over his or her career.
legitimate power - Power that is based on position and mutual agreement; agent and target agree that the agent has the right to influence the target.
locus of control - An individual's generalized belief about internal control (self-control) versus external control (control by the situation or by others).
loss of individuality - A social process in which individual group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior.
M
M-oriented behavior - Leader behavior that is sensitive to employees' feelings, emphasizes comfort in the work environment, works to reduce stress levels, and demonstrates appreciation for follower contributions.
Machiavellianism - A personality characteristic indicating one's willingness to do whatever it takes to get one's own way.
machine bureaucracy - A moderately decentralized form of organization that emphasizes the technical staff and standardization of work processes.
maintenance - The third stage in an individual's career in which the individual tries to maintain productivity while evaluating progress toward career goals.
maintenance function - An activity essential to effective, satisfying interpersonal relationships within a team or group.
management - The study of overseeing activities and supervising people in organizations.
management by objectives (MBO) - A goal-setting program based on interaction and negotiation between employees and managers.
management development - A host of techniques for enhancing managers' skills in an organization.
manager - An advocate for stability and the status quo.
Managerial Grid - An approach to understanding a manager's concern for production and concern for people.
masculinity - The cultural orientation in which assertiveness and materialism are valued.
meaning of work - The way a person interprets and understands the value of work as part of life.
medicine - The applied science of healing or treatment of diseases to enhance an individual's health and well-being.
mentor - An individual who provides guidance, coaching, counseling, and friendship to a protege.
mentoring - A work relationship that encourages development and career enhancement for people moving through the career cycle.
message - The thoughts and feelings that the communicator is attempting to elicit in the receiver.
moral maturity - The measure of a person's cognitive moral development.
motivation - The process of arousing and sustaining goal-directed behavior.
motivation factor - A work condition related to satisfaction of the need for psychological growth.
moving - The second step in Lewin's change model, in which new attitudes, values, and behaviors are substituted for old ones.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - An instrument developed to measure Carl Jung's theory of individual differences.
N
need for achievement - A manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns individuals' issues of excellence, competition, challenging goals, persistence, and overcoming difficulties.
need for affiliation - A manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns an individual's need to establish and maintain warm, close, intimate relationships with other people.
need for power - A manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns an individual's need to make an impact on others, influence others, change people or events, and make a difference in life.
need hierarchy - The theory that behavior is determined by a progression of physical, social, and psychological needs.
negative affect - An individual's tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general.
negative consequences - Results of a behavior that a person finds unattractive or aversive.
negativism - An aggressive mechanism in which a person responds with pessimism to any attempt at solving a problem.
new communication technology - The various new technologiesósuch as electronic mail, voice mail, and fax machinesówhich are used for interpersonal communication.
nominal group technique (NGT) - A structured approach to group decision making that focuses on generating alternatives and choosing one.
nonaction - Doing nothing in hopes that a conflict with disappear.
nondefensive communication - Communication that is assertive, direct, and powerful.
nonprogrammed decision - A new, complex decision that requires a creative solution.
nonverbal communication - All elements of communication that do not involve words.
normative commitment - A perceived obligation to remain with the organization.
norms of behavior - The standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members.
O
objective knowledge - Knowledge that results from research and scholarly activities.
one-way communication - Communication in which a person sends a message to another person and no questions, feedback, or interaction follow.
operant conditioning - Modifying behavior through the use of positive or negative consequences following specific behaviors.
organization development (OD) - A systematic approach to organizational improvement that applies behavioral science theory and research in order to increase individual and organizational well-being and effectiveness.
organization man manager (5,5) - A manager who maintains the status quo.
organizational behavior - The study of individual behavior and group dynamics in organizational settings.
organizational citizenship behavior - Behavior that is above and beyond the call of duty.
organizational commitment - The strength of an individual's identification with an organization.
organizational (corporate) culture - A pattern of basic assumptions that are considered valid and that are taught to new members as the way to perceive, think, and feel in the organization.
organizational design - The process of constructing and adjusting an organization's structure to achieve its goals.
organizational life cycle - The differing stages of an organization's life from birth to death.
organizational politics - The use of power and influence in organizations.
organizational socialization - The process by which newcomers are transformed from outsiders to participating, effective members of the organization.
organizational structure - The linking of departments and jobs within an organization.
overdependence - An unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to preoccupied attempts to achieve security through relationships.
P
P-oriented behavior - Leader behavior that encourages a fast work pace, emphasizes good quality and high accuracy, works toward high-quantity production, and demonstrates concern for rules and regulations.
participation problem - A cost associated with absenteeism, tardiness, strikes and work stoppages, and turnover.
participative decision making - Decision making in which individuals who are affected by decisions influence the making of those decisions.
people - The human resources of the organization.
perceiving - Preferring to explore many alternatives and flexibility.
perceptual screen - A window through which we interact with people that influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the communication.
performance appraisal - The evaluation of a person's performance.
performance decrement - A cost resulting from poor quality or low quantity of production, grievances, and unscheduled machine downtime and repair.
person-role conflict - Conflict that occurs when an individual is expected to perform behaviors in a certain role that conflict with his or her personal values.
personal power - Power used for personal gain.
personality - A relatively stable set of characteristics that influences an individual's behavior.
personality hardiness - A personality resistant to distress and characterized by challenge, commitment, and control.
planned change - Change resulting from a deliberate decision to alter the organization.
political behavior - Actions not officially sanctioned by an organization that are taken to influence others in order to meet one's personal goals.
position power - The authority associated with the leader's formal position in the organization.
positive affect - An individual's tendency to accentuate the positive aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general.
positive consequences - Results of a behavior that a person finds attractive or pleasurable.
power - The ability to influence another person.
power distance - The degree to which a culture accepts unequal distribution of power.
powerlessness - A lack of power.
preventive stress management - An organizational philosophy that holds that people and organizations should take joint responsibility for promoting health and preventing distress and strain.
primary prevention - The stage in preventive stress management designed to reduce, modify, or eliminate the demand or stressor causing stress.
procedural justice - The fairness of the process by which outcomes are allocated in an organization.
process consultation - An OD method that helps managers and employers improve the processes that are used in organizations.
professional bureaucracy - A decentralized form of organizationthat emphasizes the operating level and standardization of skills.
programmed decision - A simple, routine matter for which a manager has an established decision rule.
projective test - A personality test that elicits an individual's response to abstract stimuli.
psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud's method for delving into the unconscious mind to understand better a person's motives and needs.
psychodynamic theory - The personality theory that emphasizes the unconscious determinants of behavior.
psychological contract - An implicit agreement between an individual and an organization that specifies what each is expected to give and receive in the relationship.
psychological intimacy - Emotional and psychological closeness to other teams or group members.
psychology - The science of human behavior.
punishment - The attempt to eliminate or weaken undesirable behavior by either bestowing negative consequences or withholding positive consequences.
Q
quality circle (QC) - A small group of employees who work voluntarily on company time, typically one hour per week, to address work-related problems such as quality control, cost reduction, production planning and techniques, and even product design.
quality program - A program that embeds product and service quality excellence into the organizational culture.
quality team - A team that is part of an organization's structure and is empowered to act on its decisions regarding product and service quality.
R
rationality - A logical, step-by-step approach to decision making, with a thorough analysis of alternatives and their consequences.
rationalization - A compromise mechanism characterized by trying to justify one's behavior by constructing bogus reasons for it.
realistic job preview (RJP) - Both positive and negative information given to potential employees about the job they are applying for, thereby giving them a realistic picture of the job.
receiver - The person receiving a message.
referent power - An elusive power that is based on interpersonal attraction.
reflective listening - A skill intended to help the receiver and communicator clearly and fully understand the message sent.
refreezing - The final step in Lewin's change model, which involves the establishment of new attitudes, values, and behaviors as the new status quo.
reinforcement - The attempt to develop or strengthen desirable behavior by either bestowing positive consequences or withholding negative consequences.
reinvention - The creative application of new technology.
reward power - Power based on an agent's ability to control rewards that a target wants.
richness - The ability of a medium or channel to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver.
risk aversion - The tendency to choose options that entail fewer risks and less uncertainty.
robotics - The use of robots in organizations.
role negotiation - A technique whereby individuals meet and clarify their psychological contract.
rule-based theory - An ethical theory that emphasizes the character of the act itself rather than its effects.
S
satisfice - To select the first alternative that is ěgood enough,î because the costs in time and effort are too great to optimize.
secondary prevention - The stage in preventive stress management designed to alter or modify the individual's or the organization's response to a demand or stressor.
secrecy - Attempting to hide a conflict or an issue that has the potential to create conflict.
selective perception - The process of selecting information that supports our individual viewpoints while discounting information that threatens our viewpoints.
self-efficacy - An individual's beliefs and expectancies about his or her ability to accomplish a specific task effectively.
self-esteem - An individual's general feeling of self-worth.
self-fulfilling prophecy - The situation in which our expectations about people affect our interaction with them in such a way that our expectations are fulfilled.
self-image - How a person sees himself or herself, both positively and negatively.
self-interest - What is in the best interest and benefit to an individual.
self-managed team - A team that makes decisions that were once reserved for managers.
self-monitoring - The extent to which people base their behavior on cues from other people and situations.
self-reliance - A healthy, secure, interdependent pattern of behavior related to how people form and maintain supportive attachments with others.
self-report questionnaire - A common personality assessment that involves an individual's responses to a series of questions.
self-serving bias - The tendency to attribute one's own successes to internal causes and one's failures to external causes.
sensing - Gathering information through the five senses.
sensitivity training - An intervention designed to help individuals understand how their behavior affects others.
simple structure - A centralized form of organization that emphasizes the upper echelon and direct supervision.
skill development - The mastery of abilities essential to successful functioning in organizations.
skills training - Increasing the job knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary to do a job effectively.
social decision schemes - Simple rules used to determine final group decisions.
social information-processing (SIP) model - A model that suggests that the important job factors depend in part on what others tell a person about the job.
social learning - The process of deriving attitudes from family, peer groups, religious organizations, and culture.
social loafing - The failure of a group member to contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group.
social perception - The process of interpreting information about another person.
social power - Power used to create motivation or to accomplish group goals.
social responsibility - The obligation of an organization to behave in ethical ways.
sociology - The science of society.
sociotechnical systems - Giving equal attention to technical and social considerations in job design.
specialization - The degree to which jobs are narrowly defined and depend on unique expertise.
standardization - The degree to which work activities are accomplished in a routine fashion.
status structure - The set of authority and task relations among a group's members.
stereotype - A generalization about a group of people.
strain - Distress.
strategic change - Change of a larger scale, such as organizational restructuring.
strategic contingencies - Activities that other groups depend on in order to complete their tasks.
stress - The unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced with any demand.
stressor - The person or event that triggers the stress response.
strong culture - An organizational culture with a consensus on the values that drive the company and with an intensity that is recognizable even to outsiders.
strong situation - A situation that overwhelms the effects of individual personalities by providing strong cues for appropriate behavior.
structure - The manner in which an organization's work is designed at the micro level, as well as how departments, divisions, and the overall organization are designed at the macro level.
superordinate goal - An organizational goal that is more important to both parties in a conflict than their individual or group goals.
survey feedback - A widely used method of intervention whereby employee attitudes are solicited using a questionnaire.
synergy - A positive force in groups that occurs when group members stimulate new solutions to problems through the process of mutual influence and encouragement in the group.
T
task - An organization's mission, purpose, or goal for existing.
task environment - The elements of an organization's environment that are related to its goal attainment.
task function - An activity directly related to the effective completion of a team's work.
task revision - The modification of incorrectly specified roles or jobs.
task structure - The degree of clarity, or ambiguity, in the work activity assigned to the group.
team - A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
team building - An intervention designed to improve the effectiveness of a work group.
team manager (9,9) - A manager who builds a highly productive team of committed people.
technocentric - Placing technology and engineering at the center of job design decisions.
technological interdependence - The degree of interrelatedness of the organization's various technological elements.
technology - The intellectual and mechanical processes used by an organization to transform inputs into products or services that meet organizational goals.
technostress - The stress caused by new and advancing technologies in the workplace.
telecommuting - Transmitting work from a home computer to the office using a modem.
terminal values - Values that represent the goals to be achieved, or the end states of existence.
tertiary prevention - The stage in preventive stress management designed to heal individual or organizational symptoms of distress and strain.
Theory X - A set of assumptions of how to manage individuals who are motivated by lower-order needs.
Theory Y - A set of assumptions of how to manage individuals who are motivated by higher-order needs.
thinking - Making decisions in a logical, objective fashion.
time orientation - Whether a culture's values are oriented toward the future (long-term orientation) or toward the past and present (short-term orientation).
total quality management - The total dedication to continuous improvement and to customers so that the customers' needs are met and their expectations exceeded.
trait theory - The personality theory that states that in order to understand individuals, we must break down behavior patterns into a series of observable traits.
transformational change - Change in which the organization moves to a radically different, and sometimes unknown, future state.
transformational coping - A way of managing stressful events by changing them into subjectively less stressful events.
transnational organization - An organization in which the global viewpoint supersedes national issues.
triangulation - The use of multiple methods to measure organizational culture.
two-way communication - A form of communication in which the communicator and receiver interact.
Type A behavior pattern - A complex of personality and behavioral characteristics, including competitiveness, time urgency, social status insecurity, aggression, hostility, and a quest for achievements.
U
uncertainty avoidance - The degree to which a culture tolerates ambiguity and uncertainty.
unfreezing - The first step in Lewin's change model, which involves encouraging individuals to discard old behaviors by shaking up the equilibrium state that maintains the status quo.
unplanned change - Change that is imposed on the organization and is often unforeseen.
upper echelon - A top-level executive team in an organization.
V
valence - The value or importance one places on a particular reward.
values - Enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence.
virtual office - A mobile platform of computer, telecommunication, and information technology and services.
W
whistle-blower - An employee who informs authorities of the wrongdoings of his or her company or co-workers.
withdrawal - The final stage in an individual's career, in which the individual contemplates retirement or possible career changes.
work - Mental or physical activity that has productive results.
work simplification - Standardization and the narrow, explicit specification of task activities for workers.
Z
zone of indifference - The range in which attempts to influence a person will be perceived as legitimate and will be acted on without a great deal of thought.
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