Exam 1

In the United States, the giving of gifts in the workplace is most likely to be interpreted as

a form of bribery, an attempt to buy influence.

A whistle-blower is best defined as a person who

exposes a violation of ethics or law.

Employees who participate in planning and decision making are less likely to take responsibility for the quality of what they do.

false

Allowing a supervisor to occasionally ignore a variance if it is in the best interests of the company is an example of a control that is

flexible

Stereotyping interferes with rational decision making because it

limits a decision maker's understanding of the people involved.

Authority is best defined as the

right to perform a task or give orders to someone else.

The activities involved in identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and quality of employees can best be categorized as the management function of

staffing

In the context of supervisors' relationships with their managers, "communication" means

a supervisor works with others in the organization to achieve organizational goals.

The U.S. workforce is getting younger as older workers are opting to retire early.

false

Bilal, a supervisor at BrainWare Corp., is given the task of organizing and setting up processes for a new department in his company. This new task will draw heavily on Bilal's ________ skills.

technical

In the context of the characteristics of effective controls, the controls should be ________, enabling supervisors to correct problems quickly enough to improve results.

timely

In the context of approaches to leadership, ________ leaders focus on leading by adhering to tasks.

transactional

Which of the following is an appropriate example of an honest behavior?

A supervisor makes sure that the employees get the credit when they make a brilliant suggestion.

Assigning work to employees refers to which of the following characteristics of a successful supervisor?

Ability to delegate

Which of the following is a characteristic of organic organizations?

All workers tend to be on the same level.

Choose a correct statement regarding workforce diversity.

Almost everybody holds some stereotypes that consciously or unconsciously influence their behavior.

Which of the following is a recent diversity trend in the United States?

An aging workforce, as some older workers postpone retirement to continue working

Name the standard way used by businesspeople to draw the structure of an organization.

An organization chart

Jake, the restaurant manager at Tulips le Beignet, greets his customers at their tables, visits the kitchen to see how work is progressing, and makes the effort to fix any issues as soon as they occur. Which of the following types of control does Jake use in this scenario?

Concurrent control

If everyone in a team agrees all the time, it may signify that the team members are unable or unwilling to contribute. Which of the following team characteristics associated with team productivity mostly deals with the significance of this issue?

Debate and discussion

Sheena, a supervisor, decides to organize a company softball team to play against other companies in the city. She starts by laying down the purpose of the team. In this list, she includes improvement of the team's morale, physical exercise, and most importantly, having fun. Which of the following steps in the organizing process is Sheena concentrating on at present?

Defining objectives

Which of the following is a challenge when establishing the practice of ethical behavior in workplaces?

Downsized or restructured organizations tend to lack the resources to monitor the day-to-day behavior of their employees.

Which of the following is true according to the principle of unity of command in an organization?

Each employee should have only one supervisor.

Which of the following is a component of secondary diversity?

Education

Which of the following is an advantage of empowering employees?

Employees provides more insight and expertise than managers can provide alone.

Joe, the supervisor of the information technology team of BHJ Corp., does not like Frank, one of his employees. He often passes the blame for mistakes on to Frank and tasks him with responsibilities that he does not have the skill or knowledge to handle. In the context of the ethical behavior of supervisors, which dimension of ethical behavior does Joe violate in this scenario?

Fairness

Which of the following scenarios best exemplifies ageism?

Fifty-five-year-old James was denied employment at a manufacturing firm because the interviewer felt that younger workers are more reliable.

Best Inc. offers its employees a paid day off to attend a diversity training program. Which of the following will be the most likely result of this offer?

Higher morale and motivation throughout the company

Which of the following is a common goal of diversity training?

Improving communications skills

Which of the following is a weakness of an organic organization?

It requires cooperation from all its members.

According to Fred Fiedler's contingency model, whether relationship-oriented or task-oriented leaders perform better depends on three characteristics of the situation

Leader-member relations, task structure, and the position power of the leader

Which of the following is true of self-managing work teams?

Members of these teams collaborate with each other to produce an entire product.

Which of the following is the first step of the Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process?

Objective finding

________ refers to efforts aimed at preventing behavior that may lead to undesirable results.

Precontrol

Daphne, who works part-time and goes to school full-time, has the ability to obtain straight As but is not motivated to work for them. She thinks she can justify her low grades since she works part-time and is, therefore, not able to put in the hours required to get straight As. Which human compromise is this an example of?

Rationalizing

________ includes deciding which activities will take priority over others and deciding who will do what tasks and when.

Scheduling

________ are generalized, fixed images of other people.

Stereotypes

Which of the following statements is true of managing at the supervisory level?

Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that each department contributes to accomplishing the company's goals.

Which of the following Equal Employment Opportunity Legislations places the burden of proof on the employer and allows for compensatory and punitive damages in discrimination cases?

The Civil Rights Act of 1991

Which of the following is true of the exception principle?

The exception principle is beneficial when it helps supervisors manage their time wisely and motivate employees.

Identify a true statement about span of control.

The more people the manager supervises, the greater the span of control.

What should supervisors do to effectively communicate while managing a diverse workforce?

They must think before communicating.

The more confidence a supervisor has in employees, the more he or she will involve them in planning and decision making.

True

Samantha is a project supervisor for an ad agency. She calls a meeting to generate ideas for a new ad. During the meeting, she finds that some members do not speak at all. In this case, Samantha should

ask their opinions about the ideas discussed.

In the context of approaches to leadership, ________ leadership reflects the extent to which a leader stands by his or her values and provides true and accurate feedback to followers.

authentic

People who want a lot of direction will most likely welcome ________ leadership.

authoritarian

According to the theory of path-goal leadership, supportive behavior involves

being friendly and encouraging to followers.

"Policies" are best defined as

broad guidelines for how to act.

When a supervisor listens carefully, shares pertinent information, and engages in fair, predictable behavior, he or she is most likely to

build trust.

Many employees are afraid to be ethical because doing so would

cause their performance to suffer and cost them their jobs.

Organizing draws heavily on a supervisor's conceptual skills, but leading requires good ________ skills.

conceptual

Ray, a manager at Senzel Inc., wants to implement a new software in the company's processes. This software will help him monitor the productivity of his employees more effectively. However, before implementing the change, he discusses it with lower-level managers to understand the effect it will have on the internal environment of the company. Ray is primarily utilizing ________ skills in this scenario.

consulting

Making ethical decisions ideally involves

deciding what is right and then determining how to carry it out.

Employees who are tolerant of ambiguity will most likely accept a(n) ________ style of leadership.

democratic

When a manager needs to know about a decision, it is usually smart for a supervisor to

discuss the problem before reaching and announcing the decision.

In the context of the benefits of ethical behavior, ethics helps in

distinguishing right from wrong.

To be effective, performance standards should be

easy rather than challenging.

In the context of the skills of successful managers, ________ primarily involves challenging people to question their assumptions about the work and consider better ways of doing it.

encouraging innovative thinking

A ________ structure results when an organization is departmentalized according to the location of the customers served or the goods or services produced.

geographic

In using a decision tree, decision makers should select the alternative that has the

greatest expected value.

In the context of today's business world, a(n) ________ is two or more people who interact with one another, are aware of one another, and think of themselves as a unit.

group

According to the rational model of decision making, a decision maker first

identifies the problem.

Corporate social responsibility is best defined as the

managerial obligation to take action that protects and improves both the welfare of society as a whole and the interests of the organization.

To use the probability theory, a supervisor

needs to know or be able to estimate the value of each possible outcome.

A task group is

often disbanded once the objective of the group is achieved.

A(n) ________ organization can be best defined as one in which there is very little hierarchy, and each employee is multitalented and has the diverse skills and flexibility to perform a variety of tasks.

organic

A(n) ________ provides a visual representation of the overall structure of a company.

organization chart

According to the ________ principle, when someone accepts a responsibility, he or she also needs enough authority to be able to carry out that responsibility.

parity

A scheduling tool that most efficiently identifies the relationships among tasks as well as the amount of time each task will take is called a

program evaluation and review technique (PERT).

Chang works as a supervisor at Corpus Inc. He finds that Emily, the only female employee in the office, has difficulties communicating effectively with her colleagues because of subtle discrimination. In the context of dealing with discrimination, Chang must

question negative stereotypes regarding Emily and ask the employees to avoid such remarks.

Anita, a quality supervisor, knows that her manager focuses on maintaining quality. Anita tends to favor a high-quality alternative whenever she is considering alternative ways to approach a problem. She understands that another alternative might be more successful. However, Anita believes that whatever the outcome, her manager is likely to appreciate her efforts to maintain the quality standard. This is an example of the human compromise known as ________.

rationalization

In the context of the characteristics of team productivity, members of a team must have close relationships, which is impossible when the team's membership keeps changing. This is a dimension of quality known as ________.

relatively low turnover

In the rational model of decision making, the selection and implementation of the best alternative

requires formal criteria for making decisions.

Zack, a former rock musician who holds a master's degree in economics, works as a financial advisor at Plateau Finances. Zack's boss thinks that all rock musicians are incompetent at finance-related jobs. In this case, Zack is subjected to ________.

stereotyping

A manager's span of control is most likely to be lesser when

subordinates perform more complex functions.

Awareness of roles is important because it helps

supervisors encourage desirable behavior.

In the context of the skills of successful managers, being considerate when tasks are difficult and helping employees overcome anxiety and stress is part of the ________ set of skills.

supporting

According to the theory of path-goal leadership, ________ behavior involves recognizing that above all, followers are human beings.

supportive

The information gained from the control process is beneficial only if supervisors

use it as the basis for reinforcing or changing behavior.

Clayton, an accounts manager at Zonfex Corp., finds discrepancies in the company's financial records. He finds that Zonfex is practicing unlawful accounting and eventually exposes the company in a press conference. In the context of corporate social responsibility, Clayton is a(n) _____.

whistle-blower