MGT Ch. 10-14

The extent to which applicants possess the skills necessary for job performance, such as verbal comprehension or numerical skills, is assessed in ________ tests.

Ability --- Explanation The two main kinds of paper-and-pencil tests used for selection purposes are ability tests and personality tests. Ability tests assess the extent to which applicants possess the skills necessary for job performance, such as verbal comprehension or numerical skills.

When a task force has submitted its findings, it has reached which stage of group development?

Adjourning --- Explanation The last stage, adjourning, applies only to groups that eventually are disbanded, such as task forces. During adjourning, a group is dispersed. Sometimes adjourning takes place when a group completes a finished product, such as when a task force evaluating the pros and cons of providing on-site child care produces a report supporting its recommendation.

________ is the behavior a leader engages in to support and encourage followers and help them improve and grow on the job.

Developmental consideration --- Explanation When managers engage in developmental consideration, they not only perform consideration behaviors, such as demonstrating true concern for the well-being of subordinates, but also go one step further by going out of their way to support and encourage subordinates, giving them opportunities to enhance their skills and capabilities and to grow and excel on the job.

Achieving high product quality lowers operating costs because of the effect of quality on

Employee Productivity Explanation Higher product quality can increase efficiency and thereby lower operating costs and boost profits. Achieving high product quality lowers operating costs because of the effect of quality on employee productivity.

Management by wandering around is an example o

Face-to-face communication Explanation Management by wandering around is a face-to-face communication technique that is effective for many managers at all levels in an organization. Rather than scheduling formal meetings with subordinates, managers walk around work areas and talk informally with employees about issues and concerns that both employees and managers may have.

Child labor was prohibited and the minimum wage, overtime pay, and maximum working hours were implemented with the ________ Act.

Fair Labor Standards --- Explanation In 1938, the government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibited child labor and provided for minimum wages, overtime pay, and maximum working hours to protect workers' rights.

Mallory emails her subordinates regarding some procedural changes in the organization. In the communication process, email is the

Medium --- A medium is simply the pathway, such as a phone call, a letter, a memo, or face-to-face communication in a meeting, through which an encoded message is transmitted to a receiver.

Applicants for secretarial positions typically are required to complete a keyboarding test that measures how quickly and accurately they type. This is a type of

Performance tests Explanation Performance tests measure job applicants' performance on actual job tasks. Applicants for secretarial positions, for example, typically are required to complete a keyboarding test that measures how quickly and accurately they type.

________ is the degree to which a tool or test measures the same thing each time it is used.

Reliability Explanation Reliability is the degree to which a tool or test measures the same thing each time it is used.

In which stage of group development do members experience conflict and disagreements because some members do not wish to submit to the demands of other group members?

Storming --- Explanation In the second stage of group development, storming, group members experience conflict and disagreements because some members do not wish to submit to the demands of other group members.

What is likely true of luxury brands like Rolex (watches) and Chanel (couture fashion)?

Their high-quality products have led to a reputation that allows them to charge more. --- Explanation Often, providing high-quality products creates a brand-name reputation for an organization's products. In turn, this enhanced reputation may allow the organization to charge more for its products than its competitors are able to charge, and thus it makes even greater profits.

The feedback from a(n) ________ appraisal is likely to be of little help for employees interested in improving their performance, as the appraisal is based on relatively enduring human characteristics that change only over the long term.

Trait Explanation One of the disadvantages of trait appraisals is that they often do not enable managers to give employees feedback they can use to improve performance. Because trait appraisals focus on relatively enduring human characteristics that change only over the long term, employees can do little to change their behavior in response to performance feedback from a trait appraisal.

Terence needs to communicate with managers in several different locations regarding a sensitive, complex topic. Therefore he should choose the communication medium highest in information richness, which would be a

Video conference --- EXP: Face-to-face communication is the medium highest in information richness. When managers communicate face-to-face, they not only can take advantage of verbal communication, but they also can interpret each other's nonverbal signals, such as facial expressions and body language. Advances in information technology are providing managers with new and close alternative communication media for face-to-face communication. Many organizations use videoconferences to capture some of the advantages of face-to-face communication while saving time and money because managers in different locations do not have to travel to meet with one another.

To compute total factor productivity, managers must express all inputs in terms of

a common unit --- Explanation The problem with total factor productivity is that each input is typically measured in different units: labor's contribution, the contribution of materials, the contribution of energy, and so on. To compute total factor productivity, managers must convert all the inputs to a common unit before they can work the equation.

Flexible manufacturing means

a company can produce a wider variety of products while enjoying reduced setup times. --- Explanation Flexible manufacturing aims to reduce the time required to set up production equipment. Redesigning the manufacturing process so that production equipment geared for manufacturing one product can be quickly replaced with equipment geared to make another product can dramatically reduce setup times and costs. Flexible manufacturing increases a company's ability to be responsive to its customers.

Sven is conducting yearly appraisals for the employees in his team. He wants to avoid giving subjective feedback and instead wants to focus on objective criteria. In order to achieve this, Sven would

assess the actual production of workers, such as their sales data, in their jobs. --- Explanation Objective appraisals are based on facts and are likely to be numerical—the number of cars sold, the number of meals prepared, the number of times late, the number of audits completed. Managers often use objective appraisals when results are being appraised because results tend to be easier to quantify than traits or behaviors.

The program that focuses on building the knowledge and skills of organizational members so they are prepared to take on new responsibilities and challenges is called

development --- Explanation Development focuses on building the knowledge and skills of organizational members so they are prepared to take on new responsibilities and challenges. Development tends to be used more frequently with professionals and managers.

Task structure refers to the

extent to which the work to be performed is clear-cut so that a leader's subordinates know what needs to be accomplished and how to go about doing it.

Groupthink refers to

faulty group decision making that results when group members strive for agreement at the expense of critical assessments. --- Explanation Diversity within a group helps guard against groupthink—faulty group decision making that results when group members strive for agreement at the expense of an accurate assessment of the situation.

Ad hoc committees are

formed to solve a specific problem. --- Explanation Managers form task forces to accomplish specific goals or solve problems in a certain time period; task forces are sometimes called ad hoc committees.

Which of the following refers to the shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow?

group norms --- EXP: Group norms are shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow. Groups develop norms concerning a wide variety of behaviors, including working hours, the sharing of information among group members, how certain group tasks should be performed, and even how members of a group should dress.

First and foremost, communication involves sharing

information --- EXP: First and foremost, communication, no matter how electronically based, is a human endeavor and involves individuals and groups sharing information and coordinating their actions.

When important information is overlooked and irrelevant information gets more attention than it deserves, ________ is usually to blame.

information overload --- Exp: Information overload is the potential for important information to be ignored or overlooked while tangential information receives attention. Moreover, information overload can result in thousands of hours and millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Which of the following is frequently used to compare different organizations in their efficiency?

labor productivity --- Explanation Labor productivity is most commonly used to draw efficiency comparisons between different organizations.

A disadvantage of the JIT inventory system is the

lack of a buffer stock of inventory against supply fluctuations. --- Explanation One drawback of JIT systems is that they leave an organization without a buffer stock of inventory. Although buffer stocks of inventory can be expensive to store, they can help an organization when it is affected by shortages of inputs brought about by a disruption among suppliers.

Regarding Fiedler's contingency model of leadership,

leader style is an enduring characteristic that managers cannot change. --- Explanation Fred E. Fiedler was among the first leadership researchers to acknowledge that effective leadership is contingent on, or depends on, the characteristics of the leader and of the situation. Fiedler's contingency model helps explain why a manager may be an effective leader in one situation and ineffective in another. According to Fiedler, leadership style is an enduring characteristic; managers cannot change their style, nor can they adopt different styles in different kinds of situations.

Comparing male and female managers,

male and female managers do not differ significantly in their tendency to perform different leader behaviors. --- Explanation The key finding from research on leader behaviors is that male and female managers do not differ significantly in their propensities to perform different leader behaviors. Even though they may be more participative, female managers do not engage in more consideration or less initiating structure than male managers.

Sara, a production manager, sees that production was down during the overnight shift in her aluminum casting facility. She immediately confronts Lee, the night supervisor, because she feels he is to blame. After reprimanding Lee, she sees that she set up the orders for the previous night improperly. She immediately tells Lee and the plant manager that she was to blame for the lack of production and explains what happened. Which leadership attribute did Sara display?

maturity --- Explanation Maturity helps managers avoid acting selfishly, control their feelings, and admit when they have made a mistake.

Regarding the balance of conformity and deviance within a group,

moderate conformity and moderate deviance result in high performance. --- Explanation When managers encourage and accept employees' suggestions for changes in procedures, do not rigidly insist that tasks be accomplished in a certain way, and admit when a norm they once supported is no longer functional, they signal to group members that conformity should not come at the expense of needed changes and improvements. Managers should encourage members of groups and teams to periodically assess the appropriateness of their norms.

An appraisal that is based on facts and is likely to be numerical is a(n) ________ appraisal.

objective --- EXP: An objective appraisal is an appraisal that is based on facts and is likely to be numerical.

Spoken communication transmitted over phone lines or via the Internet is more rich than

personal written communication, but less rich than face-to-face communication. ---- Explanation Lower than electronically transmitted verbal communication in information richness is personally addressed written communication. Even if managers use face-to-face communication, a follow-up in writing is often needed for messages that are important or complicated and need to be referred to later. Impersonal written communication is lowest in information richness.

The leader substitutes model

points out circumstances when the presence of a leader is not needed. EXP: The leader substitutes model suggests that leadership is sometimes unnecessary because substitutes for leadership are present. A leadership substitute is something that acts in place of the influence of a leader and makes leadership unnecessary.

The term information refers to a set of facts that have been

put into a meaningful order --- Explanation Information is data that are organized in a meaningful fashion, such as in a graph showing changes in sales volume or costs over time.

Goods and services that are reliable, dependable, or psychologically satisfying are said to score high on

quality --- Explanation "Quality" refers to goods and services that are reliable, dependable, or psychologically satisfying.

In a typical communication process, encoding takes place when the

sender translates the message into symbols. --- Explanation The sender, the person or group wishing to share information with some other person or group, decides on the message, what information to communicate. Then the sender translates the message into symbols or language, a process called encoding; often messages are encoded into words.

Nonverbal communication

shares information without words. --- EXP: Nonverbal communication shares information by means of facial expressions (smiling, raising an eyebrow, frowning, dropping one's jaw), body language (posture, gestures, nods, shrugs), and even style of dress (casual, formal, conservative, trendy).

The tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they work in groups than when they work alone is known as

social loafing --- Explanation Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they work in groups than when they work alone. Social loafing can occur in all kinds of groups and teams and in all kinds of organizations. It can result in lower group performance and may even prevent a group from attaining its goals.

A manager's referent power comes from his or her

subordinates' and coworkers' respect, admiration, and loyalty. --- Explanation Referent power is more informal than the other kinds of power. Referent power is a function of the personal characteristics of a leader; it is the power that comes from subordinates' and coworkers' respect, admiration, and loyalty. Leaders who are likable and whom subordinates wish to use as a role model are especially likely to possess referent power.

"Synergy" refers to

the performance gains that result when individuals and departments coordinate their actions. --- EXP: Factors that can contribute to synergy in groups include the ability of group members to bounce ideas off one another, to correct one another's mistakes, and to solve problems immediately as they arise.

Which leadership model includes the premise that effective leaders possess personal qualities that set them apart from ineffective leaders?

trait EXP: The trait model of leadership focused on identifying the personal characteristics that cause effective leadership. Researchers thought effective leaders must have certain personal qualities that set them apart from ineffective leaders and from people who never become leaders.

Michelle wants the managers in her retail outlet chain to encourage high performance with transactional leadership techniques. This means Michelle's managers will

use reward and coercive powers to motivate employees. --- Explanation In transactional leadership, managers use their reward and coercive powers to encourage high performance. When managers reward high performers, reprimand or otherwise punish low performers, and motivate subordinates by reinforcing desired behaviors and extinguishing or punishing undesired ones, they are engaging in transactional leadership.

What kind of team has members who rarely or never meet face-to-face, but rather interact by using various forms of information technology?

virtual --- Explanation Virtual teams are teams whose members rarely or never meet face-to-face and instead interact by using various forms of information technology such as email, text messaging, computer networks, telephone, fax, and videoconferences.