Are you good at seeing the big picture with group dynamics? Do you understand how individual and interpersonal qualities combine to form an organization? If you are a college student who already understands these concepts, you may want to check out the DSST Organizational Behavior exam.
A DSST Test is a prior learning assessment program that helps college students earn credit for material they have already mastered through experience or independent study. The DSST exams cost less than a three-hour college course and in some cases can help you graduate faster. Thousands of colleges nationwide accept DSST exams for credit, but you should always check with your college or university before registering for a DSST exam.
The DSST Organizational Behavior exam covers these five topics:
- Organizational Behavior
- Individual Processes and Characteristics
- Interpersonal and Group Processes and Characteristics
- Organizational Processes and Characteristics
- Change and Development Processes.
All questions on the DSST Organizational Behavior exam are multiple-choice and measure the following knowledge and abilities related to the exam topics: knowledge of basic facts and terms (about 50-55% of the exam), understanding of concepts and principles (about 30-35% of the examination), and the ability to apply knowledge to specific problems and situations (about 10-15% of the exam).
Although DSST exams are designed to measure what you already know, studying for the exam is recommended. Reviewing the material beforehand can make the difference between passing (and earning college credit) and failing. Your first stop should be a DSST Organizational Behavior study guide, which will provide helpful study information, including a detailed exam outline, sample questions, and other study resources.
DSST Organizational Behavior Practice Questions
1. Which of these is not one of Henry Mintzberg’s main groupings of roles that managers play in the workplace?
A. Interpersonal
B. Informational
C. Decisional
D. Leadership
E. All are correct
2. A manager gives a new intern a tour of his facility; the president of a community college gives diplomas to students at the graduation ceremony. These are both examples of which type of managerial role according to Mintzberg?
A. Leader
B. Liaison
C. Figurehead
D. Disseminator
E. Spokesperson
3. Which of the following is not included by Robert Katz as being a basic skill required of managers?
A. Decisional
B. Technical
C. Human
D. Conceptual
E. They all are required
4. Psychologists have found that in work as in life, it is human nature that we tend to overestimate the power of internal (personal) factors and to underestimate the power of external factors. This mistake is known as the:
A. Self-serving bias
B. Fundamental attribution error
C. Error of selective perception
D. Error created by contrast effects
E. Error created by the halo effect
5. Sally is a very honest person and employee. She tends to assume automatically that all of her coworkers and customers are equally trustworthy. If another lies or cheats in the workplace, Sally never expects it and, as a result, is caught by surprise and ends up feeling betrayed. Malcolm is a manager who was so impressed by the technical expertise of several Asian American employees he had hired that when faced with a choice of three new candidates, he hired another Asian American, but was then disappointed to find that this new hire was not as technically proficient on the job as he had expected. Which statement correctly identifies the errors of Sally and Malcolm?
A. Sally engaged in stereotyping, and Malcolm engaged in projection
B. Sally and Malcolm both engaged in projection
C. Sally and Malcolm both engaged in stereotyping
D. Sally and Malcolm did not engage in stereotyping or in projection
E. Sally engaged in projection, and Malcolm engaged in stereotyping
6. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument, which of these is not one of the bipolar pairs of classification terms used to arrive at a personality type?
A. Extroverted vs. introverted
B. Sensing vs. intuitive
C. Active vs. reflective
D. Thinking vs. feeling
E. Judging vs. perceiving
7. The Big Five model of personality traits has in common with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator the dimension of extroversion, or how outgoing a person is. Which is not one of the other four dimensions of the Big Five?
A. Agreeableness
B. Locus of control
C. Conscientiousness
D. Emotional stability
E. Openness to experience
8. Don is very successful in his job. He is very good at convincing others. He is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his aims. He is not very concerned with the ethics of all of his actions. He is not a stickler for following the rules if they do not serve his purposes. Based on this description, Don would best be characterized as a:
A. Narcissistic type
B. Risk-taking type
C. Type A personality
D. Machiavellian type
E. Proactive personality
9. Julia recently started working for a business running a large chain of stores. She has been proud and enthusiastic about the low prices in her company’s stores, which customers love, making the stores more successful than others. Then one day she discovers reports by outside observers that her company underpays its store employees and denies them certain basic employee rights. She is very disturbed at these reports of business practices that she personally condemns. Until or unless she comes up with a solution to resolve the conflict she is now feeling, Julia can be said to be experiencing:
A. Cognitive dissonance
B. Employee dissonance
C. Organizational dissonance
D. Employee engagement
E. Perceived organizational support
10. Cris manages a team of ten employees in a corporate office. He observes that his team members do not all consistently arrive on time for work in the morning. He implements these new practices: He gives verbal praise and small daily rewards to every team member who comes in on time; he reports and acknowledges the number of team members who were on time all week during team meetings; and he gives a larger reward, like taking the whole team to lunch, anytime that all team members have come in on time every workday for an entire month. As a result, soon all of his team members are consistently arriving on time and his team has the highest rate of timeliness of all the teams in the office. What Cris has done is an example of:
A. Classical conditioning
B. Operant conditioning
C. Social learning
D. Shaping
E. None of these
DSST Organizational Behavior Practice Questions Answer Key