midterm 260 final

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May 14, 2024

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RSM 260 Midterm Questions Time Allotted: 120 minutes Writing window: October 20, 7:00PM EST to October 20, 9:00PM EST Instructions: ● Download the Word document that contains the questions for the test ● Enter your responses to each question directly on this document ● Start your answer immediately below each question on the same page as the question ● Upload your document to Quizzes > Midterm Test within the time allotted ● Upload the same document to Assignment > Midterm Test immediately after submitting the assessment through Quizzes. This additional step is required in order to permit all answers to be assessed by a plagiarism detection software ● You will have 2 hours to complete this midterm test. ● There are five essay questions below; provide your response to any four of the five questions ● Read the case/scenario for each and apply your knowledge to respond to the questions in a detailed manner. ● Mark breakdown: ● Each essay question is worth 10 marks. You will only be scored on the 4 questions you choose to answer for a total of 40 marks. ● The exam is open-note and open-book. ● You must complete the exam alone without anyone else’s assistance. ● You must answer each question in fewer than 250 words . Anything longer than 250 words will not be marked as part of your response.

Academic Integrity Reminder: ● No collaboration among students during the test – it is an individual test and there is to be no collaboration ● Submission of any answers written by another student or written collectively by a group of students is prohibited and constitutes plagiarism (submitting someone else’s work as your own) ● Either seeking or providing the questions to another student prior to that student having begun their individual 2-hour period is similarly prohibited ● Any of the preceding actions (among others addressed in the Code) is a serious violation of the U of T Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters and could lead to a sanction up to assignment of a grade of zero for the entire course as well as a permanent indication on the student’s transcript of the reasons for the assignment of the zero grade ● If you’re not sure about something in any of the questions, state your assumptions. ● Once you click ‘submit’ or when the time is up, the test is considered submitted. The test cannot be ‘re-opened’ for re-submission. Name Sophia Nguyen Student #: 1007250671

QUESTION #1 (Total of 10 points). Answer all parts of Question #1 at the end of Question #1. Your friend, S. Marty Pence, is a manager who wants his employee meetings to be more efficient. Knowing you’re taking RSM260, he has a question for you: “What’s the best way of configuring chairs in a conference room so that meetings are most productive?” Right now, his plan for answering this question is to go to the library and check out all the books he can find by famous CEOs. Somewhere in these books, he thinks, a CEO will describe how they configured chairs in meetings. S. Marty Pence figures that what worked for the CEO will certainly work for him. (a) Based on what you learned in class and in the textbook, explain in detail what is wrong with S. Marty Pence’s plan to rely on a CEO book. Specifically, describe three reasons why this could be problematic. To make sure S. Marty understands each reason, give a brief example that illustrates each reason you provide. (4 points) S. Marty asks, “Well if you can’t rely on CEOs for answers, how can I figure out the best way to configure chairs in my conference room?” You tell S. Marty that it’s best to use scientific methods to answer your question, but S. Marty doesn’t know what you mean by this. To help him understand… (b) Describe a study he could run, using one scientific method O.B. scholars use, to try to answer his question about chair configuration. For this answer, do not describe an experiment. Make sure you are clear what the researcher would do in terms of study procedure. (2 points) S. Marty is starting to see the value of using scientific methods. He says “Very interesting! And once you have the results of the study, you’ll know exactly what configuration of chairs causes employees to be more productive, right?” (c) Explain to S. Marty why this assumption about causation may not be the case. (1 point) (d) To get the point across, provide an example you’ve come up with that illustrates your point about why causation cannot be safely assumed. Your example does not need to be related to chair configuration, but cannot involve any of the following: ice-cream, test performance, drowning, CO 2 , obesity (i.e., any examples presented in lecture). Make sure you’re clear about how this example illustrates your point. (3 points) Type your answers to question #1 here and the next page: In total, you answer to this question cannot exceed 250 words (anything longer will not be marked as part of your response).

(a) ) - First, this method relies of N of 1, which means he’s wrongfully extrapolating a pattern from a single data point (one CEO’s story), leading to over-generalization, and inaccuracy. For example, if one person did not study for an exam but scored an 80%, that is not a guarantee that, that strategy will work for everyone - Second, each person is unique, therefore, one CEO’s team may consist heavily of extroverts who would perform best sitting close to one another to encourage brainstorming, while Pence’s team may be more introverted and would excel sitting farther apart, absorbing information - Third, each group is unique in size therefore one CEO’s who’s team is small may prefer to be seated close together while Pence’s team may be larger and would require tables to be grouped together by department or division. b) Theory, dictating the 5 W’srelation between variables (ex. Productivity & chairs, then to a hypothesis that specifies a prediction of how the variable interact.. Next, collect data. Finally, to verify the validity of the hypothesis he would identify a potential correlation or lack thereof, and the strength of correlation between the variables. (c) Correlation does not equal causation, there may be a third variable that influences both. (d) Netflix’s stock has been on a downward trend and at the same time, the weather has been very hot. Doesn’t mean that heat causes Netflix’s stock to increase. Instead, a third variable, being free-time is influencing the data, where in the summer people have more and are purchasing Netflix subscription. QUESTION #2 (Total of 10 points). Answer all parts of Question #2 at the end of Question #2.

Read the following personality categories from a pop-psychology article about personality in the workplace: “4 Employee Personality Types: Understanding and Managing Different Personalities in the Workplace” 4 Employee Personality Types in the Workplace Here are 4 personality types each represented by a specific person. Personality Type #1: Ambitious and Amiable Amy Amy is the type of employee who is smart and eager to help others. She gets along well with the other three employee personality types because she doesn’t like conflict. She is well-balanced and aims for success, while generally being quite satisfied with her life. She also works well under pressure and doesn't get too stressed out at work. Amy can inspire others to follow her due to her friendly, sociable personality. However, employees with Amy’s personality type might lack attention to detail. 2. Highly-Functional Introvert Ivan Ivan is one of your company’s pillars. He has been in the company long enough to know all the intricacies of his work and is fairly experienced in what he does. Ivan is a critical thinker and is prepared for most tasks. His personality type is quiet but always pleasant to be around. He focuses on his tasks and takes the job seriously. In essence, he loves what he does and wants to get it right. However, he rarely expresses his own needs, resulting in him being unhappy. 3. Anxious Warrior Wanda We are sure you have met an employee like Wanda before; she is always rushing to get something done while constantly complaining about her stress and workload to everyone. She can be cold and often unwilling to help others. However, she is also motivated, meets deadlines, and works longer hours than anyone else. 4. Intense Temperament Terry Terry’s personality type is the trickiest of all employee personality types. He may experience sudden bursts of anger or become easily irritated by minor incidents. He can also engage in inappropriate workplace behavior and is often rude to colleagues. He is unsatisfied with his job and life. However, he is often very creative and likes to engage in a variety of different tasks and pursuits. Questions: a) There are several issues with this type of personality categorization. Applying what you’ve learned about other personality categorization techniques/tests (like the MBTI), what do you think about the “four employee personality types” in this article? What might be some of the issues with this type of categorization? ( 2 pts )

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