1.4 Chapter Activities and Exercises

Know yourself. Take a personal inventory and see where you are. What are your talents? Where are you weak and could use additional practice?

Keep your skills fresh. Consider revolutionizing your portfolio of skills at least every six years.

Master something. Competence in many skills is important, but excelling at something will set you apart.

Embrace ambiguity. Many people fear the unknown. They like things to be predictable. Unfortunately, the only certainty in life is that things will change. Instead of running from this truth, embrace the situation as a great opportunity.

Be authentic. Don’t force yourself to be something you are not. You won’t be comfortable and others won’t get to know the “real you.”

Network. The term has been overused to the point of sounding like a cliché, but networking works. This doesn’t mean that having 200 connections on LinkedIn or Facebook makes you more effective than someone who has 50, but it does mean that getting to know people is a good thing in ways you can’t even imagine now.

Don’t over- (or under-) sell yourself. Underpromising and overdelivering can be a wise strategy, but don’t sell yourself short. Be sure to share your successes with others as well, just don’t overdo it.

Appreciate new technology. This doesn’t mean you should get and use every new gadget that comes out on the market, but it does mean you need to keep up with what the new technologies are and how they may affect you and the business you are in.

Do you integrate ethics into your day-to-day decisions at work? It’s easy to think about ethics as something big that you either have or don’t have, but the reality is that ethical decisions are made or not made each and every day.

Do you take the “front page” test when making important decisions at work? Thinking about how you would feel if the decisions you are making at work showed up on the front page of your local newspaper can help you avoid engaging in questionable behavior.

Do you role model ethics at work? Seeing others engage in unethical behavior is the start of a slippery slope when it comes to ethics. Consider the decisions you are making and how they are consistent or inconsistent with how you would like to be seen by others.

Do you consider if rewards are distributed ethically at work? Situations in which there are “haves” and “have nots” are breeding grounds of unethical behavior. Maintaining pay equity can help keep everyone more honest.

Have you held a “risk brainstorm” at work? If you ask those around you if they see any situations that are challenging ethical behavior, you can uncover some seriously risky situations and avoid them.

Hopefully you have already completed reading this chapter. If not, wait until you’ve done so to complete this individual exercise.

If you have not done so already, consider taking the learning styles preference survey at  http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml.

In addition, please be sure you have reviewed the table of contents for this organizational behavior textbook.

What themes do you see? How do you think these topics affect your interactions with others? How might your learning style affect how you’ll approach this course? Have you ever considered journaling as a technique for self-improvement and reflection?

Now, write down five action steps that you plan to take as you work through this book. Refer to these steps throughout the term and modify them as needed.

Think about the best and worst jobs you have ever had. If you have never had a job, think of a school project instead. What made the job or project great or horrible?

Now get into a small group of students and share your experience with them. Listen to what others are saying and see if you see any themes emerge. For example, what are the most common features of the best jobs? What are the most common features of the worst jobs?