business management ch. 8-11

Which of the following is true of training?

It usually starts with a needs assessment.

Bianca is CEO of That Special Something, a chain of fifteen, upscale gift shops in the western United States. She wants to expand her profits, and keep customers in the store for longer periods of time, by adding a small coffee and dessert shop to each store. With this in mind, Bianca is considering partnering with another company. Of the five candidates under consideration, the best choice would be the company

that specializes in gourmet coffee and treats and is interested in helping host after-hours dessert and shopping events.

Who selects the chief executive officer of a corporation?

the board of directors

When Millie reviews the process of producing the actual sportswear, the part of the value chain she is most likely to look at is

operations.

Authority typically is associated with a particular

position rather than a particular person.

Sun Dynasty Foods was voted producer of the best egg rolls nationwide. It soon expanded and now manufactures and distributes a whole line of frozen foods, kitchen equipment, and specialty sauces, with a separate department for each. Sun Dynasty is characterized by the ______ approach to departmentalization.

product

An example of a line department is

product design.

Which of the following stages of the HR planning process was the HR department involved in when it implemented recruitment and pay-system revisions?

programming

Companies invest a great deal to hire, train, and keep the best and the brightest employees in an attempt to gain competitive advantage by employing _____ human resources.

rare

A company that seeks to revolutionize key organizational systems and processes by thinking like the customer is applying the concept known as

reengineering.

As operations manager for Osan Electronics, Jun is seeking to enhance the company's core capabilities in order to make it more competitive in an ever-changing market. To that end, the company should concentrate on

revamping their system for developing new electronics.

In some corporations, one person holds all three positions of CEO, chair of the board of directors, and president, but it is more common for the CEO to

serve also as either chair of the board or president.

In order to fulfill senior management's aim of adopting a method to analyze the causes of defects in products that need to be eliminated to improve customer satisfaction, the company might consider a quality initiative such as

six sigma.

In Scenario A, each manager at Everyday Fashions Corp. has ten supervisors who are required to report to him or her. This is an example of

span of control.

The numerous tasks that must be carried out in a large organization make _____ a necessity.

specialization

Anthony and Roberto are employed at the same company and often work on the same products. However, they are assigned to separate units, and they perform very specific, different jobs that contribute to the larger task. This is an example of

specialization.

Division of labor is closely related to the concept of

specialization.

PowerSounds Inc. is a manufacturer of audio equipment. The corporation has production, marketing, accounting, and finance departments. They have a department that makes speakers, turntables, and accessories for professional DJs, and a department that produces equipment for home use. Marlena works in the production department manufacturing speaker components. She reports to the production manager and her project manager. Emmanuel works in the accounting department and also manages public relations. The organization requires all the employees to wear the corporation's T-shirt as part of the uniform. There are also specific procedures that the employees must follow while manufacturing the instruments. it can be inferred that Emmanuel is working in a _____ department.

staff

As operations manager of the Good Day Greeting Card Company, Rafael requires all seven branch offices to use the same type of computer and operating system. This simplifies both the communication and training processes for employees who frequently transfer between offices. Rafael can best be described as coordinating the offices by

standardization.

By requiring all employees to follow specific procedures, PowerSounds Inc. is making use of the principle known as

standardization.

When Tidewater needed to downsize, the dismissed employees' immediate supervisors discussed the need for downsizing with them. This is an example of a(n)

termination interview.

Stockholders of the Dearborn Automotive Group are voting on five new candidates to take an empty seat on the company's board of directors. The board of directors is currently made up of the company founder's two sons, one of the company's former marketing vice presidents, and a chief operating officer who has been with the company since its inception. Based on twenty-first century research and trends, the best person to fill the seat is

the vice president of product development for a software company.

For years, Kathleen served as head of the research and development (R&D) department at Bannerman Pharmaceuticals in Chicago. She enjoyed enormous support from her team, who liked her personally and respected her professionally. Now she has retired, and her place has been taken by Jerome from Bannerman's Cleveland facility. Yet employees continue to sidestep Jerome and come directly to Kathleen for guidance, calling or emailing her at home with questions. What is her best course of action?

to continually direct her former subordinates to Jerome while emphasizing the fact that, as the new director of R&D, he has authority over, and responsibility for, the team

When Lee talks about an approach to management that helps to attain customer satisfaction through tools that deliver high-quality goods, he is referring to

total quality management.

The presence of rules and regulations governing how people in the organization interact is called

formalization.

Jordan is a candidate for a research position with Southwestern Fine Chemicals. Though well-qualified for the job, he has a hearing impairment. Despite private concerns about the prospective employee's disability, the manager decides to hire Jordan. In hiring Jordan, the manager must remain compliant with the federal law known as the ______ Act.

Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments

As director of operations for Little Napoli Pizzerias, Bernard has set a goal of opening fourteen new stores on the West Coast in the next three years. He has chosen Angelina, a highly capable manager who has worked with the company for the better part of a decade, to take on this task. He meets with her, gets her suggestions and feedback, and sets about to ensure that she has the resources she needs to complete the assignment. A year later, the project seems to be on track, with four stores already opened and another four ready to go. However, at the time of their next meeting, with just six months left before the targeted completion date, the project is in disarray. What is the most likely cause for this failure?

Bernard did not meet with Angelina at regular and appropriate intervals.

Which of the following statements is true about a 360-degree appraisal?

Often, the person being rated can select the appraisers.

Affirmative action refers to special efforts to recruit and hire qualified members of groups that were discriminated against in the past, whereas managing diversity means

going beyond legal requirements to embrace a proactive business philosophy that values differences positively.

In Scenario A, Beatrice is the top manager, followed by managers of each department, and then the supervisors. This is an example of

a hierarchy.

Continual feedback to participants regarding how they are doing compared with the competition and how effectively they are meeting the strategic agenda, is particularly important in

a high-involvement organization.

Instead of an ordinary day at their desks, Sam and Laney spent all day in classes. There, they learned about various organizational barriers to effective diversity management, including the myths, stereotypes, and cultural differences that can separate people. Thanks to the skilled instructors-not to mention their own commitment to understanding the material-Sam and Laney came away with a better understanding of corporate culture, requirements for success, and important behaviors that affect opportunities for advancement. The class they attended today involved

awareness building.

During a job interview, Alicia questions Javier about his duties on his last job and what he accomplished during his time of employment. This type of interview is called a _____ interview.

behavioral description

Global Beverage Corporation is planning a worldwide celebration on a particular day in July that marks the centennial of the company's founding. However, this has caused a problem in one of its overseas markets, where that day happens to coincide with a solemn national holiday. How should Global Beverage handle the situation?

by allowing its local management team, in consultation with national leaders and other local personnel, to develop plans for an alternative celebration

A specific technique used to reduce the need for information is to

create self-contained tasks.

By analyzing how well the test correlates and predicts job performance, the management is focusing on

criterion-related validity.

Get in the Game Footwear, Inc., makes athletic shoes. Its departments are structured around products sold to professional athletes, novice athletes, and non-athletes. Get in the Game Footwear uses _____ departmentalization.

customer

An advantage of functional departmentalization is the fact that

decision making and lines of communication are simple and clearly understood.

As CEO of Everyday Fashions Corp., Beatrice distributes work and assigns responsibility to the various department managers through the process known as

delegation.

Each unit performs its specific set of tasks in Everyday Fashions Corp. This is an example of

differentiation.

According to Astrid, avoiding the costs of growing too large and creating waste will improve efficiency. She is referring to

diseconomies of scale.

The top management team at Universal Manufacturing Co., Inc., has decided that it needs to close one of its divisions and eliminate a level of middle management in the surviving divisions. This is an example of

downsizing.

In Scenario B, Bernardo, by saying that the company must work toward achieving lower costs per unit of production, is advocating for

economies of scale.

When he says that the company should use the same resources to make more related products, Rajiv is calling for

economies of scope.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires

employers, except small businesses, to provide health insurance for employees or pay a fee.

Bella is one of three managers at On-Time Electrical, where she supervises 32 repair technicians. She reports to the owner. On-Time Electrical would be considered a _____ organization.

flat

Chloe then turns her attention to the technology changes that could help her organization become more agile. Among the technology changes her boss could use successfully is

flexible manufacturing.

Helios, Inc., is a new startup specializing in retrofitting existing commercial buildings with affordable solar energy panels. The company is growing quickly and needs to fill about 20 junior and senior staff positions over the next few months. Their main goals at this stage are to increase brand awareness and to maximize the return on the time they invest in recruiting candidates. They also want the hiring process to be cost effective. Finally, they are looking to attract non-traditional candidates, not necessarily only those with business and science backgrounds. The founders, Brianna, Nick, and Vinh, meet with team mangers to discuss the best strategy for locating outstanding new hires. Which option makes the most sense given their current goals and restrictions?

having current employees network among their contacts and make qualified referrals

Lawrence and Lorsch found that highly differentiated firms were successful if they had ______ levels of integration.

high

Sandra, the CEO of Danforth & Caldwell, seeks input from both her top management team and the lower levels of the company before she decides on strategies about the future direction of the company. Judging from this, Danforth & Caldwell is a(n) _____ organization.

high-involvement

When Avi assesses where the company gets the textiles used to make the sportswear it sells, the part of the value chain is he most likely to look at is

inbound logistics.

If the region or country where a company is located is experiencing a labor shortage, what should the company's management do?

increase training budgets

Each demographic group is made up of

individuals.

Several top executives at Cogswell Integrated Systems are part of the corporation's board and are called ______ directors.

inside

Which of the following is a point from Deming's "14 points" theory that the company can use to improve internal quality management?

institute a program of education and retraining

Mary Ann hired Ali, who belongs to a minority group, to work in the accounting department because he was highly skillful. However, the other workers resented Ali's presence and excluded him from the work group. Ali had difficulty performing, since he was not given the needed information to work expediently. This is an example of ______, one of the challenges of a diversified workforce.

lower cohesiveness

In a decentralized organization, more of the decisions are made by the

lower levels of the organization.

In organizations that use continuous process technologies,

machines and/or computers do all the work.

When Asher considers the players' requirements, the part of the value chain is he most likely looking at is

marketing and sales.

From Scenario C, it can be inferred that Darrell's firm utilizes the ______ approach to departmentalization.

matrix

Scenario C. Darrell is a clothier whose company, 24-7 Activewear, has separate product lines for men, women, and children. He has group his organization into different departments such as production, marketing, and finance. Most of the employees report to two managers—a departmental head and a divisional head. Darrell encourages lower-level managers to make important decisions in order to promote quick and effective decision making. it can be inferred that Darrell's firm utilizes the ______ approach to departmentalization.

matrix

Whole Earth Grain Corp. has a production, finance, and accounts team. The company has two basic categories that are departmentalized into bread and flour divisions. Each of its employees has to report to two bosses—a functional manager and a divisional manager. Whole Earth Grain Corp. is an example of a _____ organization.

matrix

Managing diversity means

not just tolerating or accommodating all sorts of differences, but supporting, nurturing, and utilizing these differences to the organization's advantage.

All managers in Everyday Fashions Corp. are required to report to the CEO alone. This is an example of an organization following

unity of command.

Based on the description given in Scenario A, it can be understood that Everyday Fashions Corp. has a _____ span of control.

wide