Principles of Management Test 3

In the context of motivation, direction of effort refers to the choices that people make:

in deciding where to put forth effort in their jobs.

In the context of motivation, _____ is concerned with the choices that people make about how much effort to put forth in their jobs.

initiation of effort

In the context of work team characteristics, _____ are informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior.

norms

In the context of equity theory, other people with whom people compare themselves to determine if they have been treated fairly are called _____.

referents

The primary disadvantage of geographic departmentalization is that it:

can lead to duplication of resources

Members of a project team:

can return to their functional units after a project is finished.

The students of a university criticize the institution because all the decisions about cultural and sports events are made by the dean, and the students have to consult him to make even small decisions. In this case, the students are criticizing the university because it supports _____.

centralization of authority

Fareed is a marketing manager in a firm, and recently found that his colleague who has similar work experience and job profile receives higher pay than him. Fareed, instead of getting demotivated, compares his output/input ratio with other marketing managers and realizes that there is only a minor difference between his pay and the pay of other marketing managers. According to equity theory, Fareed has _____ to restore equity in this scenario.

changed his referent

In the context of work team characteristics, _____ is the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it.

cohesiveness

_____ is the average degree of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

Team level

Linda is a manager at a local restaurant. She wants to introduce a new happy hours discount scheme that she thinks will improve customer satisfaction. She wants to convince her team to get on board with her idea without being forced into it. In this case, which type of conflict will be healthy?

Cognitive conflict

Identify a difference between cognitive conflict and affective conflict.

Cognitive conflict is characterized by a willingness to examine, compare, and reconcile differences, whereas affective conflict often results in hostility, anger, resentment, distrust, cynicism, and apathy.

Minority domination will most likely be a problem:

as the number of members increases in a team.

_____ means permanently passing decision-making authority and responsibility from managers to workers.

Empowering workers

_____ is a feeling of intrinsic motivation in which workers perceive their work to have meaning and perceive themselves to be competent, having an impact, and capable of self-determination.

Empowerment

_____ occurs when members of highly cohesive groups feel intense pressure not to disagree with each other so that the group can approve a proposed solution.

Groupthink

_____ is the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one's self is more important than loyalty to one's team or company.

Individualism-collectivism

_____ are natural rewards associated with performing a task or activity for its own sake.

Intrinsic rewards

_____ is the number, kind, and variety of tasks that individual workers perform in doing their jobs.

Job design

Jeff works as a garbage collector. His boss recently asked him to pick up garbage from an additional location near his current route and also to pick up the recycling bins in addition to the trash bins. In the given scenario, it is evident that Jeff's boss has followed _____.

Job enlargement

_____ increases the number of different tasks that a worker performs within one particular job.

Job enlargement

_____ refers to the perceived fairness of the process used to make reward allocation decisions in an organization.

Procedural justice

_____ have the least autonomy in the team autonomy continuum.

Traditional work groups

Which of the following is true of job rotation? a. It involves periodically moving workers from one job to another to give them more variety. b. It involves increasing the number of tasks and giving workers authority and control over their jobs. c. It occurs when the number of different tasks that a worker performs in a job is increased. d. It occurs when a job is composed of a small part of a larger task or process.

a. It involves periodically moving workers from one job to another to give them more variety.

Which of the following is true of affective conflict? a. It is strongly associated with decreases in team performance. b. It is characterized by a willingness to reconcile differences. c. It increases the satisfaction of team members. d. It focuses on problem-related differences of opinion.

a. It is strongly associated with decreases in team performance.

Patrick works as a senior customer support representative at TellySupport Inc. His routine work includes answering calls and troubleshooting and reporting customer's problems. His manager, however, has recently assigned new tasks such as material procurement and inventory management to him and has given him complete autonomy to perform these tasks. Which of the following job design approaches has been adopted by Patrick's manager? a. Job enrichment b. Job enlargement c. Job rotation d. Job abasement

a. Job enrichment

Which of the following is a requirement for team compensation to work? a. The level of rewards must match the level of performance. b. Rewards must strictly be in the form of appreciation. c. Compensation must be given to employees who put in extra hours at work. d. Performance measurement must be based on the experience of an employee.

a. The level of rewards must match the level of performance.

Picture Perfect Advertising recently hired a fresh batch of copywriters and designers for its creative team. The team is currently facing problems due to minor disagreements, and performance is relatively low. In which of the following stages of team development is this group most likely to resolve petty differences among its members, develop friendships, and establish strong group cohesiveness? a. The norming stage b. The forming stage c. The reforming stage d. The storming stage

a. The norming stage

Which of the following is true of situational constraints? a. They include policies and resources that have an effect on job performance. b. They refer to the degree to which employees lack the knowledge needed to do a job. c. They include factors that are within the control of individual employees. d. They refer to the degree to which workers lack the skill needed to do a job well.

a. They include policies and resources that have an effect on job performance.

Amberlind Inc. is a manufacturer of grooming products. It has two product lines—HE range of products for men and SHE range of products for women. The company has separate production units for both series of products. In the given scenario, which of the following methods of departmentalization is followed by Amberlind Inc.? a. Matrix departmentalization b. Customer departmentalization c. Functional departmentalization d. Structural departmentalization

b. Customer departmentalization

Which of the following companies has adopted matrix departmentalization? a. Durawear Corp., a company that manufactures plastic storage and serving containers, has different factories and warehouses for manufacturing and storing small, medium, and large containers. b. InsureClef Inc., an insurance company, has a business unit that focuses on major commercial businesses, and it also has a smaller second unit that focuses on the different products that the company offers. c. Quad Fibre Works, a company that manufactures electrical wiring, has divided its departments into fabrication, assembly, and packaging. d. Buzzband Inc., an Internet service provider, has divided its operations according to cities and has an office in every city where it provides its services.

b. InsureClef Inc., an insurance company, has a business unit that focuses on major commercial businesses, and it also has a smaller second unit that focuses on the different products that the company offers.

Which of the following is true of cognitive conflict? a. It undermines team performance by preventing teams from engaging in the kinds of activities that are critical to team effectiveness. b. It focuses on problem-related differences of opinion. c. It lowers satisfaction among team members and results in hostility, anger, resentment, distrust, cynicism, and apathy. d. It refers to emotional reactions when conflicts become personal.

b. It focuses on problem-related differences of opinion.

Which of the following best describes a line function? a. It is the right to command only immediate subordinates in the chain of command. b. It is an activity that contributes directly to creating or selling a company's products. c. It is an activity that does not contribute directly to creating or selling a company's products but instead supports line activities. d. It is the right to advise but not command others who are not subordinates in the chain of command.

b. It is an activity that contributes directly to creating or selling a company's products.

Which of the following best defines an organizational process? a. It is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments within a company. b. It is the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customers value. c. It is a system that allocates responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities. d. It is a system that determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes.

b. It is the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customer value.

Which of the following best describes line authority? a. It is the right to advise but not command others who are not subordinates in the chain of command. b. It is the right to command immediate subordinates in the chain of command. c. It is an activity that contributes directly to creating or selling a company's products. d. It is an activity that does not contribute directly to creating or selling a company's products but instead supports line activities.

b. It is the right to command immediate subordinates in the chain of command.

Which of the following is the key difference between line authority and staff authority? a. Line authority gives all employees the right to advise those who are not subordinates, whereas staff authority is generally exercised by employees at managerial levels. b. Line authority is the right to command immediate subordinates, whereas staff authority is the right to advise but not command others who are not subordinates. c. Line authority is the right to advise but not command immediate subordinates, whereas staff authority is the right to command others who are not subordinates. d. Line authority can only be exercised by employees at the lower levels of the chain of command, whereas staff authority can be exercised by employees at every level.

b. Line authority is the right to command immediate subordinates, whereas staff authority is the right to advise but not command others who are not subordinates.

FlyWagon, an automobile manufacturing company, has a department that focuses on sales and information systems. It also has another department that focuses on the manufacturing and assembly of its automobiles. Which of the following is the departmentalization method adopted by FlyWagon? a. Functional departmentalization b. Matrix departmentalization c. Customer departmentalization d. Product departmentalization

b. Matrix departmentalization

Which of the following is an advantage of work teams? a. They restrict minority domination. b. They increase customer satisfaction. c. They show low initial turnover. d. They prevent social loafing.

b. They increase customer satisfaction.

Organic organizations are characterized by:

broadly defined jobs and responsibilities.

Which of the following is true of the stages of team development? a. A team matures into an effective, fully functioning team in the norming stage. b. Group cohesion is relatively strong at the storming stage. c. A preliminary team structure is set up during the forming stage. d. Conflicts and disagreements often characterize the performing stage.

c. A preliminary team structure is set up during the forming stage.

In equity theory, which of the following is an example of an outcome of an employee ? a. Intelligence b. Abilities c. Assignments d. Education

c. Assignments

Which of the following responsibilities is most likely to be taken up by workers of traditional work groups? a. Making decisions b. Controlling team design c. Executing tasks d. Solving problems

c. Executing tasks

Natsuko, an accountant, creates an easy-to-use excel sheet that auto-populates the required fields when the variables are entered. This would reduce an employee's duration of work on a ledger by half. Noticing Natsuko's efforts, her manager promotes her. Which of the following types of rewards has Natsuko received in this scenario? a. Natural reward b. Intrinsic reward c. Extrinsic reward d. Intangible reward

c. Extrinsic reward

Which of the following is a disadvantage of functional departmentalization? a. It complicates communication among employees in the same department. b. It inhibits allocation of work to highly qualified specialists. c. It hinders cross-department coordination. d. It increases costs because it leads to increased duplication of resources.

c. It hinders cross-department coordination.

Which of the following is a feature of cognitive conflict? a. It involves emotional reactions that occur when disagreements become personal. b. It results in hostility, anger, resentment, distrust, cynicism, and apathy. c. It is strongly associated with improvements in team performance. d. It can cause members to withdraw and decrease their commitment to a team.

c. It is strongly associated with improvements in team performance.

In the context of the job characteristics model, which of the following defines task significance? a. It is the amount of information a job provides to workers about their work performance. b. It is the number of different activities performed by employees in their respective jobs. c. It is the degree to which a job is perceived to have a substantial impact on others inside or outside the organization. d. It is the degree to which a job, from beginning to end, requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.

c. It is the degree to which a job is perceived to have a substantial impact on others inside or outside the organization.

Which of the following defines an extrinsic reward? a. It is the feeling of self-satisfaction that one gets for completing a job or achieving a goal. b. It is the sense of responsibility that an employee feels when he or she faces a challenging task. c. It is visible to others and is given to employees contingent on the performance of specific tasks. d. It is a natural reward associated with performing a task or activity for its own sake.

c. It is visible to others and is given to employees contingent on the performance of specific tasks.

Which of the following is true of a modular organization? a. It has unstable and temporary relationships with the outside organizations it does business with. b. It is part of a network in which many companies share skills and markets with each other. c. It results in a loss of control when key business activities are outsourced to other companies. d. It costs significantly more to run than traditional organizations.

c. It results in a loss of control when key business activities are outsourced to other companies.

Which of the following forms of departmentalization violates the principle of unity of command? a. Functional departmentalization b. Customer departmentalization c. Matrix departmentalization d. Product departmentalization

c. Matrix departmentalization

Which of the following typically happens during the storming stage of team development? a. Team members become intensely loyal to one another, and feel mutual accountability for team successes and failures. b. Team members begin to settle into their roles, and teammates get to know what to expect from each other. c. Team members begin to work together, and different personalities and work styles may clash. d. Team members first meet each other, form initial impressions, and try to get a sense of what it will be like to be part of the team.

c. Team members begin to work together, and different personalities and work styles may clash.

Which of the following is an advantage of modular organizations? a. They get a high degree of control when key business activities are outsourced. b. They provide better products and services in all respects. c. They cost significantly less to run than traditional organizations. d. They are fast and flexible because members can quickly combine their efforts to meet customers' needs.

c. They cost significantly less to run than traditional organizations.

Which of the following is true of virtual organizations? a. They outsource business activities other than the core activities to outside companies. b. They have a slow decision-making process because of their rigid organizational structure. c. They let companies share costs, and they are fast and flexible. d. They keep a high degree of control when key business activities are outsourced.

c. They let companies share costs, and they are fast and flexible.

Which of the following is a characteristic of team norms? a. They often result in decreased organizational commitment. b. They indicate the extent to which team members are attracted to a team. c. They often lead to increased trust in the management. d. They often allow flexibility in terms of job performance.

c. They often lead to increased trust in the management.

Which of the following is a difference between functional departmentalization and product departmentalization? a. Unlike functional departmentalization, product departmentalization inhibits managers and workers from specializing in one area of expertise. b. Unlike in functional departmentalization, the decision-making process is slow in product departmentalization. c. Unlike functional departmentalization, product departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for producing particular services. d. Unlike in functional departmentalization, cross-department coordination is easy in product departmentalization.

c. Unlike functional departmentalization, product departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for producing particular services.

Power Plate Inc., a hot plate manufacturer, decided to introduce an innovative product. The manager in charge formed a team of product designers, innovators, engineers, marketing professionals, and sales professionals. This is an example of a _____.

cross-functional team

Max and Kings Corp. is an insurance company that has formed a new team of insurance policy processors, underwriters, and raters. In order to ensure that no work is stalled in the absence of a member in the team, the manager should provide _____ to the members.

cross-training

Which of the following individuals performs a staff function? a. A supervisor who is in charge of overseeing the manufacture of his or her company's products b. A foreman who is responsible for casting and forging metal tools in a company c. A salesperson who is responsible for selling his or her company's products in a particular territory d. A member of a company's finance department who provides advisory assistance to the marketing department

d. A member of a company's finance department who provides advisory assistance to the marketing department

Which of the following is true of underreward—a form of inequity? a. Employees perceive that a referent's outcome/input (O/I) ratio is worse than their outcome/input (O/I) ratio. b. Employees perceive that their outcome/input (O/I) ratio is equal to the referent's outcome/input (O/I) ratio. c. Employees experience guilt and usually show a very high tolerance toward it. d. Employees receive fewer outcomes relative to their inputs compared to a referent.

d. Employees receive fewer outcomes relative to their inputs compared to a referent.

Which of the following statements is true of team cohesiveness? a. Team cohesiveness tends to increase when task interdependence is low. b. High group cohesiveness equates to low team motivation. c. Cohesive groups have trouble retaining their members. d. Engaging in nonwork activities as a team can help build cohesion.

d. Engaging in nonwork activities as a team can help build cohesion.

Which of the following best describes job enrichment? a. It occurs when the number of different tasks that a worker performs in a job is increased. b. It involves periodically moving workers from one job to another to give them more variety. c. It occurs when a job is composed of a small part of a larger task or process. d. It involves increasing the number of tasks and giving workers authority and control over their jobs.

d. It involves increasing the number of tasks and giving workers authority and control over their jobs.

Which of the following best defines organizational reengineering? a. It is an approach in which workers closest to problems are authorized to make the decisions necessary to solve the problems on their own. b. It means permanently passing decision-making authority and responsibility from managers to workers. c. It is an approach that seeks to formulate jobs in such a way that workers are highly specialized in one particular job. d. It is a radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance.

d. It is a radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance.

Thomas works as a car cleaner at CleanSupreme. He was previously working as a tire changer in the same company. His tasks are scheduled to change every two months, and he works on six different tasks every year. Which of the following best exemplifies Thomas's job design? a. Job enrichment b. Job specialization c. Job enlargement d. Job rotation

d. Job rotation

Jeremy is a tool operator at Sato Mechanical Works. He is assigned the task of making M12 bolts, which would eventually be used to attach a silencer to a motorcycle. Which of the following best exemplifies Jeremy's job design? a. Job enrichment b. Job rotation c. Job enlargement d. Job specialization

d. Job specialization

Selvig and Anzer, a military weapons manufacturer, is divided into different organizational units—the S&A Logistics, which handles the inventory; the S&A Engineering, which handles engineering work such as designing and prototyping; the S&A Production, which manufactures the weapons; and the S&A sales, which handles the sale of the weapons. It is evident that Selvig and Anzer has adopted the _____ approach.

departmentalization

Which of the following is a difference between semi-autonomous work groups and self-managing teams? a. Semi-autonomous work groups manage and control all tasks without having to take their manager's permission, whereas self-managing work groups have the authority to make decisions and solve problems with their manager's permission. b. Semi-autonomous work groups can offer suggestions or advice, whereas self-managing work groups are not allowed to offer suggestions or advice. c. Semi-autonomous work groups are not allowed to offer suggestions or advice, whereas self-managing work groups can offer suggestions or advice. d. Semi-autonomous work groups have the authority to make decisions and solve problems with their manager's permission, whereas self-managing work groups can manage and control all tasks without taking their manager's permission.

d. Semi-autonomous work groups have the authority to make decisions and solve problems with their manager's permission, whereas self-managing work groups can manage and control all tasks without taking their manager's permission.

Which of the following is true of teams with six to nine members? a. They pave the way for social loafing. b. They eventually face minority domination. c. They lack diverse skills and knowledge. d. They allow team members to get to know each other.

d. They allow team members to get to know each other.

Which of the following is true of employee involvement teams? a. They only allow team members to execute tasks. b. They permit the team members to change the designs of teams. c. They allow team members to make decisions. d. They facilitate solution recommendations from the people closest to a problem or situation.

d. They facilitate solution recommendations from the people closest to a problem or situation.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of virtual organizations? a. They have a rigid organizational structure, and hence, the decision-making process is slow. b. They favor a highly centralized organizational structure with numerous vertical levels. c. They are less responsive toward customer needs. d. They require high managerial skills to make a network of independent organizations work together.

d. They require high managerial skills to make a network of independent organizations work together.

Marleya corp. is a large multinational company. Every employee in the company is responsible for his or her own work, and any problems that arise during work are fixed by the employees who are closest to the problems. The given scenario exemplifies _____.

decentralization of authority

Peter, the marketing manager of a company that manufactures furniture, has been given the task of increasing the sale of the company's office furniture line in the upcoming quarter. As Peter has other tasks lined up, he gives his assistant the full responsibility and authority to develop a mailing campaign that would target all the offices in the entire state. In other words, Peter has _____.

delegated the task

Jena manages the art department of a small publishing company. She is normally responsible for preparing the department's monthly budget. For the upcoming month, however, Jena has assigned the budgeting task to Miriam, one of her subordinates. Jena has informed Miriam that she is free to contact people and collect all the necessary information required to prepare the budget. Miriam is now completely responsible for preparing the budget. By assigning her work to Mirian, Jena has exhibited _____.

delegation of authority

Kasiez corp. is a leading automobile manufacturer. It has specialized teams for manufacturing, assembling, and sales and marketing. From the given information, it is clear that Kasiez corp. follows _____.

departmentalization

Teams can have healthy conflicts by:

developing multiple alternatives to enrich debate.

Notions Inc. laid off 25 percent of its employees due to recession. Several retained employees expressed their discontent over the management's decision. However, they later rationalized the decision by telling themselves that they still at least had their jobs and things could have been worse. This method of restoring equity is called _____.

distorting inputs or outcomes

One of the disadvantages of job specialization is that it can lead to _____.

employee boredom

Every month a group of workers at Waltman Tools Inc., meets at the company head office to discuss issues pertaining to project scheduling, plant safety, and product quality. The workers provide suggestions to the top management about how to rectify existing issues in these areas, but are not authorized to make decisions. This group is an example of a(n) _____.

employee involvement group

Cygen Inc. reorganized its operations to minimize the complexity of running various projects at the same time. While reorganizing, it abandoned matrix departmentalization. In the given scenario, Cygen's restructuring will most likely help it to:

end conflicts between product managers of different departments.

Ivana, a fashion designer, was assigned a task to design costumes for a play in two weeks' time. The short time duration made the task extremely challenging for her. However, Ivana knew that if she pulled it off her efforts would be acknowledged and recognized by her manager. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory, Ivana was motivated by _____.

esteem needs

According to Alderfer's ERG Theory, the three levels of needs are:

existence, relatedness, and growth.

According to expectancy theory, _____ is the perceived relationship between effort and performance.

expectancy

A group consisting of architects and engineers is created to plan the construction of a new bridge. The team members are getting to know each other and are setting some initial ground rules. This group is in the _____ stage of team development.

forming

The central concern of the job characteristics model is _____.

internal motivation

A company forms a new team to work on a new project that requires frequent communication with the client. Passing on accurate information is clearly indispensable for this project. The team is diverse with both inexperienced and experienced members. In order to ensure that the team's communication skills are enhanced, the company should provide training on _____.

interpersonal skills

The primary disadvantage of matrix departmentalization is that:

it requires a high degree of coordination.

Brainden Inc. is a multinational company that primarily provides ideas for business improvements, marketing, and promotions. The company has to work on a challenging project that requires experts such as software engineers, hardware professionals, marketing managers, and media personnel. The company forms a team consisting of these experts and provides cross-training to ensure that there is a certain level of understanding of each other's roles. In this case, Brainden is trying to increase _____.

job satisfaction

Ability can be defined as the:

knowledge, skills, and talent that a worker possesses to do a job well.

Eduardo is the new manager at a retail store. Since he started working at the store, he has noticed that there is a lack of cohesiveness among his employees. In order to build team cohesiveness among his subordinates, Eduardo should:

make his staff feel like they are an essential part of the organization.

A work team at Krumb Foods Inc., consists of eight people. However, Minta and Oscar are almost always the only team members who discuss ideas and opinions, while the other team members rarely get an opportunity to voice their opinions in team meetings. This work team is most likely experiencing _____.

minority domination

In the context of motivation, _____ are the physical or psychological requirements that must be met to ensure survival and well-being.

needs

A group of medical specialists works in the neonatal unit of Brightlake Medical College and Hospital. The group has informally agreed to explain to students the reasons behind specific procedures during the course despite the fact that there are no formal guidelines mandating that students should be given an explanation. The group's agreed-on standards can be best categorized as _____.

norms

A manager at a restaurant has put forth a set of rules that employees should follow within the restaurant to regulate team behavior. Accordingly, employees are required to be in the restaurant by 8:00 a.m. They are also required to wear a uniform. Moreover, any order placed should be served within 30 minutes. In this case, the restaurant manager has developed _____.

norms

In the context of team compensation and recognition, skill-based pay is most effective for _____ performing complex tasks.

self-managing teams

The incidence of _____ is high in large teams.

social loafing

Vincent is the creative director at Greene & Kumar, a leading advertising agency. The company had been approached by a client who wants to market a product in a different country. Vincent established a development team and put Greg in charge of market research. After three weeks, all the other team members finished their share of work, except Greg. Greg had been procrastinating and had not completed his work. As a result of this, the project was indefinitely delayed. In this scenario, Greg's actions exemplify _____.

social loafing

Work teams are favorable for organizations because:

they improve product and service quality.

A manager who wants to use work teams but wants to give team members the least amount of autonomy should select:

traditional work groups

In expectancy theory, _____ refers to the attractiveness or desirability of various rewards or outcomes.

valence

The chain of command can be best defined as the:

vertical line of authority that clarifies who reports to whom throughout the organization.

Springer Games Inc. is a video game developer with offices in five cities around the world. Developers from these five cities are required to communicate with their coworkers in other countries. As they cannot meet in person, they communicate with each other via e-mail, videoconferencing, and group communication applications. This team is an example of a(n) _____.

virtual team

Functional departmentalization involves organizing:

work and workers into separate units responsible for particular business operations or areas of expertise.