Personality
A new team member is highly anxious and reacts strongly to criticism. Which Big Five trait is most relevant here, and how might it affect their teamwork?
High Neuroticism; may lead to stress, defensiveness, and strained relationships.
An employee says, “I hate working late, but I still stay back to finish tasks.” Which concept explains this contradiction?
Cognitive dissonance.
A team in the “storming” stage of Tuckman’s model is constantly arguing. What’s your first step as a leader?
Facilitate conflict resolution, clarify goals/roles, and build trust.
Two employees argue over how to divide project tasks, not the tasks themselves. Which type of conflict is this?
Process Conflict
A leader motivates employees by giving bonuses for performance. Which leadership style is this, and what’s the limitation?
Transactional; limitation = short-term compliance, not long-term inspiration.
You are assigning a sales role. Candidate A is very agreeable, Candidate B is highly extroverted. Whom would you choose and why?
Candidate B, because extroversion aligns better with client-facing, persuasive roles.
During appraisals, a manager gives consistently high ratings to employees they “like.” Which perceptual bias is operating, and what’s the risk?
Halo Effect
A project group shows declining effort as the team size increases. What concept explains this, and how would you fix it?
Social loafing; solution = set individual accountability, smaller teams, recognition systems.
In a salary negotiation, one side insists on a fixed number, the other proposes creative options like stock options. Which bargaining styles are shown?
Distributive vs. Integrative bargaining.
An Indian firm where hierarchy is strictly respected exemplifies which Hofstede dimension? How would this shape leadership style?
High Power Distance; leaders expected to be authoritative, less participative.
A manager blames employees for delays, while employees blame "bad luck" and external factors. How does locus of control explain this difference?
Manager = internal locus; Employees = external locus. Impacts accountability and problem-solving.
Two employees receive the same feedback. One sees it as “growth opportunity,” the other as “personal insult.” What explains this difference?
Selective perception and individual attitude differences.
Team members are highly skilled but not collaborating. How would you shift them from a “work group” to a “work team”?
Create shared goals, interdependence, joint accountability.
Two departments in your company keep blaming each other for missed project deadlines. One side argues the targets are unrealistic, while the other insists resources aren’t being shared fairly. As a manager, how would you diagnose the type of conflict, and what steps would you take to resolve it?
Conflict type = Task conflict (over project goals) + Process conflict (over resource allocation).
Steps: clarify roles and timelines, facilitate cross-department meetings, align goals with resources, and set shared accountability to prevent repeated blame-shifting.
In a crisis, a leader inspires employees with a powerful vision, but over time, employees become dependent on their personality. Which style is this?
Charismatic leadership; risk = over-dependence, succession issues.
In a crisis project, which personality trait (from Big Five) is most critical to emphasize in selecting a team leader, and why?
Conscientiousness; ensures reliability, discipline, and goal focus in high-pressure contexts.
As an OB consultant, how would you reduce stereotyping in a multicultural workplace?
Training, diverse teams, structured decision-making, bias-checking tools.
In a strategy team, most members nod along with the leader’s idea without raising concerns. What’s happening, and how do you prevent it?
Groupthink; prevent by encouraging dissent, inviting external reviewers, using devil’s advocate
A multinational merger team struggles due to cultural clashes. What negotiation strategy would you recommend to create win-win outcomes?
bargaining with focus on shared goals, cultural sensitivity training, and compromise solutions.
A fast-growing start-up promotes itself as “innovative and risk-taking,” but employees complain that managers reject new ideas and stick rigidly to old processes. As a consultant, how would you identify the cultural barriers that are blocking the company’s strategy?
Look for gaps between espoused values (“innovation”) and enacted values (risk-aversion).
Diagnose via employee interviews, observation of decision-making, HR policies, and turnover data.
Identify cultural artifacts (symbols, rituals, communication) that contradict the strategy.
Recommend aligning reward systems and leadership behaviors with the innovation strategy.
A company uses MBTI for recruitment. Critically evaluate its usefulness and limitations in predicting performance.
Useful for self-awareness/team building; Limited due to weak empirical validity, doesn’t strongly predict job performance.
Critically evaluate how attitude–behavior consistency can be improved in an organization.
Through strong norms, role clarity, supportive leadership, aligning incentives with expressed attitudes.
Your cross-functional project team has brilliant individual performers, but meetings often end without decisions, and deadlines are slipping. As a manager, what OB concepts can you apply to improve team effectiveness and ensure accountability?
Apply concepts of group norms, role clarity, and team cohesion. Set clear goals (SMART), assign roles, establish decision-making norms, and introduce accountability mechanisms (performance reviews, milestone tracking). Encouraging psychological safety can also improve participation.
During annual budget negotiations, two departments both demand a larger share of funds. Discussions are heated, and neither side wants to compromise. As the mediator, what negotiation approach would you use to reach a workable solution, and why?
Shift discussion toward integrative bargaining by identifying shared interests (e.g., efficiency, company growth).
Explore creative trade-offs (e.g., phased funding, shared resources).
Emphasize long-term collaboration rather than short-term wins.
A company undergoing digital transformation wants leaders who can inspire employees through uncertainty but also maintain trust and morale. What leadership approaches would you recommend, and how should they be applied in this situation?
Recommend transformational leadership for vision, motivation, and navigating change.
Combine with servant leadership behaviors (listening, supporting, empowering) to maintain trust.
Application = leaders articulate a compelling digital vision while showing empathy and investing in employee development.
Outcome = employees remain committed and resilient during transformation.