Seminar 1
According to Kotter, this is the primary goal of management.
A. Create change and growth
B. Create order and consistency
C. Inspire followers
D. Develop a vision
B. Create order and consistency
According to Warren Bennis, a first-time leader should generally do this when entering a new leadership role.
A. Make major changes immediately
B. Make a low-key entry and learn from experienced followers
C. Establish authority by replacing key people
D. Focus first on proving personal expertise
B. Make a low-key entry and learn from experienced followers
This source of power comes from a person’s knowledge or expertise.
A. Legitimate power
B. Reward power
C. Expert power
D. Referent power
C. Expert power
According to Groysberg et al., this culture style emphasizes warm relationships, mutual trust, teamwork, and support.
A. Results
B. Caring
C. Authority
D. Learning
B. Caring
According to Nohria et al., these are the four basic emotional drives underlying employee motivation.
A. Achievement, affiliation, power, and autonomy
B. Acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend
C. Pay, promotion, belonging, and security
D. Purpose, mastery, autonomy, and fairness
B. Acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend
This is NOT one of Kotter’s three main leadership activities.
A. Setting direction
B. Aligning people
C. Motivating and inspiring
D. Planning and budgeting
D. Planning and budgeting
According to George et al., authentic leadership begins primarily with this.
A. Developing charisma
B. Understanding your life story and yourself
C. Learning to imitate successful leaders
D. Building external recognition
B. Understanding your life story and yourself
According to Lingo and McGinn, this dimension of power emphasizes relationships, coalitions, trust, and understanding who can support or block your goals.
A. Situational power
B. Relational power
C. Dynamic power
D. Legitimate power
B. Relational power
According to Goffee and Jones, this is one of the six characteristics of the ideal workplace.
A. Keep important information at the top
B. Standardize employees as much as possible
C. Let people be themselves
D. Eliminate all organizational rules
C. Let people be themselves
According to Nohria et al., this organizational lever most directly satisfies employees’ drive to comprehend.
A. Reward system
B. Organizational culture
C. Job design
D. Performance management
C. Job design
According to Bailey, this statement best describes the relationship between leadership and management.
A. Leaders should focus on strategy while managers handle execution
B. Leadership is more important than management
C. People should lead or manage depending on what the situation requires
D. Senior executives should lead while middle managers manage
C. People should lead or manage depending on what the situation requires
According to Ibarra, this type of leader may struggle in a new role because they remain too attached to familiar behaviors that feel authentic.
A. High self-monitor
B. True-to-selfer
C. Level 5 leader
D. Servant leader
B. True-to-selfer
A manager builds relationships with senior leaders in other functions, outside experts, and important stakeholders to understand future priorities and gain support for new initiatives. Ibarra and Hunter would describe this primarily as:
A. Operational networking
B. Personal networking
C. Strategic networking
D. Social networking
C. Strategic networking
A company encourages experimentation, new ideas, curiosity, and exploration, even when some attempts fail. According to Groysberg et al., this culture most strongly reflects:
A. Learning
B. Safety
C. Order
D. Authority
A. Learning
According to Buckingham and Goodall, which feedback statement is most consistent with their recommended approach?
A. “You need to improve your communication skills.”
B. “You are not being strategic enough.”
C. “Here’s exactly where you started to lose me.”
D. “Everyone agrees that your presentation needs work.”
C. “Here’s exactly where you started to lose me”
A department head develops a new vision, communicates it across departments, and builds commitment to major change. According to Kotter, this is primarily an example of:
A. Management
B. Leadership
C. Controlling
D. Staffing
B. Leadership
A newly promoted manager says, “I have always been very open about my doubts, so I should continue telling my new team exactly how uncertain I feel.” Ibarra would be most likely to caution that this approach could:
A. Make the manager appear too results-oriented
B. Prevent employees from giving honest feedback
C. Undermine credibility if the new role requires more authority and confidence
D. Make the manager too focused on intrinsic motivation
C. Undermine credibility if the new role requires more authority and confidence
An employee frequently complains that her boss does not give her enough information or support. She waits for the boss to recognize what she needs rather than discussing expectations, work styles, or priorities. According to Gabarro and Kotter, her biggest mistake is:
A. Failing to use coercive power
B. Failing to manage the relationship with her boss as one of mutual dependence
C. Building too many personal networks
D. Relying too heavily on expert power
B. Failing to manage the relationship with her boss as one of mutual dependence
A company has a very strong caring culture. Employees trust one another and value teamwork, but managers notice that difficult decisions take too long because everyone wants consensus. According to Groysberg et al., this illustrates:
A. Why caring cultures should be replaced by results cultures
B. A potential downside of overemphasizing caring
C. Evidence that the company actually has an authority culture
D. Why strong cultures always hurt performance
B. A potential downside of overemphasizing caring
A manager schedules monthly one-on-ones but usually controls the agenda, cancels them when busy, and spends most of the meeting giving status updates. Based on the Seminar 5 material, which change would MOST improve these meetings?
A. Add more performance ratings to each meeting
B. Let the employee help drive the agenda, meet consistently, listen carefully, and end with clear next steps
C. Reduce meetings to once each semester
D. Use the meeting mainly to correct weaknesses
B. Let the employee help drive the agenda, meet consistently, listen carefully, and end with clear next steps
A CEO creates a compelling vision, pushes the company to exceptional performance, and earns strong employee commitment. Which additional behavior would most clearly move this leader from Collins’s Level 4 to Level 5?
A. Becoming more charismatic and visible to employees
B. Taking personal credit for the turnaround to strengthen credibility
C. Channeling ambition toward the organization, giving others credit, accepting blame, and building strong successors
D. Sharing with employees higher standards to ensure better performance
C. Channeling ambition toward the organization, giving others credit, accepting blame, and building strong successors
A leader enters a much bigger role and begins experimenting with communication styles learned from several respected leaders. Some of the new behaviors initially feel unnatural, but the leader keeps what works and gradually develops a style that fits both the new role and personal values. Which interpretation best fits the Seminar 2 readings?
A. George et al. would reject the behavior because authentic leaders should never imitate others
B. Ibarra would support the experimentation, while George et al. would still emphasize grounding the evolving style in core values and self-awareness
C. Both George et al. and Ibarra would argue that the leader should return to the original leadership style
D. Bennis would argue that experimentation should occur only late in a leader’s career
B. Ibarra would support the experimentation, while George et al. would still emphasize grounding the evolving style in core values and self-awareness
A project leader has no formal authority over several departments. Instead of demanding compliance, she maps who can support or block the project, builds alliances across units, connects the proposal to stakeholders’ interests, and adjusts her approach as relationships and priorities change. Which explanation BEST captures why she is effective?
A. She is relying mainly on legitimate power because she leads the project
B. She is using Pfeffer’s strategy of controlling resources while avoiding relationships
C. She is combining situational, relational, and dynamic power rather than relying on formal authority alone
D. She is primarily using operational networking to complete assigned tasks
C. She is combining situational, relational, and dynamic power rather than relying on formal authority alone
A company publicly promotes innovation and employee empowerment, but managers punish experimentation, hide bad news, and require employees to follow unnecessary procedures. Which interpretation BEST fits the Seminar 4 readings?
A. The company has a strong culture because its values are clearly stated
B. The company mainly needs a better mission statement
C. The company’s stated values are not supported by its actual practices, and leaders need to align behavior, systems, and norms with the culture they want
D. Employees should adapt frequently because culture is difficult to change
C. The company’s stated values are not supported by its actual practices, and leaders need to align behavior, systems, and norms with the culture they want
An employee misses an important deadline. The manager wants both accountability and development. Which response BEST reflects the Seminar 5 approach to an effective feedback conversation?
A. “You are unreliable. You need to become more responsible.”
B. “Everyone makes mistakes, so let’s forget about it and move on.”
C. “I noticed the report came in two days late, which delayed the team’s final submission. What happened from your perspective, and what can we agree to do differently next time?”
D. “I know exactly why this happened, so here is what you need to do from now on.”
C. “I noticed the report came in two days late, which delayed the team’s final submission. What happened from your perspective, and what can we agree to do differently next time”