CH 9,10,11 Management

A supervisor decides to use Maslow's theory to motivate an employee at the level of social needs. Which reward should the supervisor choose to motivate the employee?

A new project requiring an informal work group

Which of the following productivity constraints is most difficult to overcome?

An employee being unable to learn

Which assumption did Vroom make when he set out to explain what determines the intensity of motivation?

People act as they do to satisfy their needs.

Which of the following skills is most important for an employee involvement team to be successful?

Problem-solving skills

According to Herzberg's two-factor theory, dissatisfaction results from the:

absence of hygiene factors.

In the context of measuring productivity, when the bottom (denominator) of a fraction gets bigger, the number ________.

becomes smaller

In the context of dimensions of quality, ________ refers to the degree to which a product's design and operating characteristics meet established standards.

conformance

The most effective way supervisors can overcome the productivity constraint of management limitations is by:

demonstrating by their actions and words that they are interested in the department's productivity.

Six Sigma is best defined as a process-oriented quality-control method:

designed to improve the operations output to 99.9997 percent perfect.

Donna, an employee at Falken Inc., takes frequent breaks from her work. She has a habit of spending time gossiping with her colleagues because she feels that her job is too challenging. In the context of wastage of time, Donna's habit is an example of ________.

detour behavior

Much of the communication that occurs in an organization is:

directed toward meeting individual needs.

In the communication process, noise:

distorts communication by interfering with it.

Jeremy is the manager of a supermarket. When he asks all his employees to assemble for a meeting, he is using ________ communication.

downward

In the context of dimensions of quality, ________ primarily refers to supplements to a product's basic operating characteristics.

features

To overcome the barrier of information overload, supervisors should ideally:

give employees only the information that will be useful to them.

Rumors and gossip rarely tell a complete or unbiased version of the truth, therefore supervisors should:

have an open mind and get the facts from those directly involved.

Poor quality work is most likely to lead to:

high costs.

When work levels are low, the result is ________.

idle time

Craig is the manager of a company that is opening a new branch of operations in another country. In a meeting set up to inform his employees of this news, he focuses on how this move is going to make the company more profitable but fails to address the employees' fears for job security. In this case, Craig has communicated ineffectively because he has:

ignored his receivers' viewpoint.

The difference between a fact and an inference is that a(n):

inference is a conclusion drawn from the facts available.

People will receive a message only if:

it comes through a channel they feel comfortable using.

One way supervisors can protect themselves and avoid ethical problems that can arise from their public speaking activities is by:

letting their employer know about their public speaking activities.

One way to minimize the intrusiveness of modern media is to:

limit the use of calls and texts to situations where an immediate reply is essential.

When a receiver decodes a message, he or she is:

listening to the message.

Quality improvement directed toward value ideally begins when a(n):

organization's employees communicate with customers to determine their needs and wants.

When a person is sending both verbal and nonverbal messages:

the nonverbal message may have more influence on the receiver.

According to Alex Pentland and Benjamin Waber, the workers who interact the most with their co-workers are the most productive because:

they are more prepared to make important work-related decisions.

The rate at which employees leave an organization is termed as ________.

turnover

To be well informed and benefit from employees' creativity, a supervisor should primarily encourage:

upward communication.

Magix Productions orders new equipment for the company. The new equipment costs $50,000 and will help the company to save $10,000 annually. What is the average rate of return of the equipment?

20 percent

Which of the following is an example of an extrinsic reward?

A manager giving an "Employee of the month" award with a certificate and gift vouchers

McClelland's theory is based on which of the following needs?

Achievement, power, and affiliation

Which of the following is an example of punishment?

An assembly-line worker is docked if he gets to work late.

Which of the following is an annual award administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and given to the company that shows the highest quality performance in seven categories—leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; human resource focus; process management; and results?

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The superstore supervised by Joanne had such high retail sales for the year that the company president decided to identify her store as the premier store for comparisons, not only in terms of gross sales, but also for efficiency in all areas of operations. All the supervisors were then asked to learn and carry out the practices of Joanne at their own stores. What is this practice of determining the quality standards by measuring against the top performer of a particular process termed as?

Benchmarking

In the communication process, encoded messages:

Can be transmitted through personal contact.

Which of the following is an example of an overhead?

Cost of company cafeteria

Downtime is best defined as the time during which:

Employees or machines are not producing goods or services

Which of the following is true about improving productivity?

Employees should think of ways to achieve their objectives efficiently.

Select the correct statement about wage and salary information of private (nongovernment) workers.

Employees usually do not know one another's earnings.

Which of the following statements is true of feedback?

Feedback may take the form of behavior.

Steven is the supervisor of a transport company. He feels that he should do something to be more informed about his employees. Which of the following is a way for Steven to be more informed about his employees?

He should encourage upward communication.

Michael was an engineer in a large aerospace company. He was unhappy with his job and it was beginning to show in terms of his work performance. His supervisor, Nick, tried to motivate Michael by telling him about the new employee benefit plans that the company would be coming out within the next quarter. Nick also told Michael about the new building that they were going to move to next month. Using Herzberg's two-factor theory, which type of factor was Nick using to motivate Michael?

Hygiene factors

Which of the following would be the best way for a supervisor to ensure superior quality of goods and boost productivity?

Including employees in the decision-making process

Which of the following is true about installing modern equipment in a company?

Installing modern equipment can be expensive if its benefits are less than its cost.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of production bonus system?

It doesn't encourage high-quality work.

The grapevine is important to supervisors because:

It is used by employees as a source of information.

Vinita and Lilly work on the same projects in Cyber Max Company. They both manage the duties of a single position in the company. They only work for five hours every day as both of them have six-month-old babies. What type of work arrangement does this exemplify?

Job sharing

Ted is a manager at Global Gains, an advertising firm. Kim works as a sales executive in Global Gains. Ted has been reducing Kim's incentives for three successive months after repeatedly warning her of her incompetence. Kim started having a passive approach toward her job as she believed that she would fail no matter what. She was convinced that she would never be able to achieve what was expected of her. Which of the following describes Kim's situation?

Learned helplessness

Which of the following is an advantage of sending letters over e-mail?

Letters offer a chance for reflection and change.

Which of the following is true about Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory?

Maslow argues that needs are organized into a hierarchy and the most basic needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Which financial incentive pay plan involves companies paying employees for offering ideas on how to cut costs or improve quality?

Payments for suggestions

Arax Group of Companies (AGC) has a group incentive plan for its employees. Under this plan, the company sets aside a portion of its profits and divides it among employees. Which of the following plans has the company adopted?

Profit-sharing plan

What compromise have organizations developed to maintain the secrecy of individual salaries yet provide enough information on salary to motivate employees?

Publish pay ranges, showing the lowest and highest wage or salary for each position

Brian is the manager of a sales office. His company has not been doing well lately and all his employees are demotivated because of that. Which of the following needs must Brian try to satisfy in order to motivate his employees?

Security

Emma applies for medical insurance. Which hierarchical need is she trying to satisfy?

Security need

Anna goes for a meditation retreat in India to attain spirituality. According Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which need is she trying to satisfy?

Self-actualization need

Which of the following is a basic guideline for cross-cultural communication?

Stick to simple basic words.

Which of the following is true in the context of regulating departmental workflow?

The formation of teams of employees to examine and solve work-flow problems helps in effectively regulating departmental workflow.

Which of the following is an intrinsic reward?

The happiness one experiences from gardening

Rhett, the supervisor of a construction crew, assumes that her employees have little ambition and dislike work. She uses this assumption to micro-manage their work. From this description of Rhett, it can be inferred that she is a:

Theory X manager.

________ is a set of management attitudes that emphasizes employee participation in all aspects of decision making.

Theory Z

Which of the following is an advantage of memos?

They provide a written document for the receiver to review.

Which of the following is true of total quality management (TQM) strategies?

They require the involvement of employees at all levels.

________ can be best described as the quality improvement method that involves focusing the whole organization on continuously improving every business process so it satisfies customers.

Total quality management

________ theory says that the strength of motivation equals the perceived value of the outcome times the perceived probability that the behavior will result in the outcome.

Vroom's expectancy-valence

Which of the following statements about inferences and facts is true?

When sending a message, a supervisor should avoid statements that phrase inferences as facts.

Which of the following statements is true of memos?

When writing to someone outside the organization, employees usually send a memo.

In the context of barriers to communication, misunderstandings are most likely to occur when:

a message is complicated.

The technique that involves hearing what the speaker is saying, trying to understand the facts and feelings the speaker is trying to convey and then stating what the listener understands that message to be, is called:

active listening.

The factor that differentiates McClelland's theory from Maslow's theory is that, McClelland's theory:

assumes different people have different patterns of needs.

If money is to work as a motivator, it should:

be seen as achievable by employees.

The practice of identifying the top performer of a process, and then learning and carrying out the top performer's practices is called:

benchmarking.

Before a supervisor can make decisions about how to trim costs, he or she has to know where the money is going. The most important source of such information is the:

budget report.

Giving employees some contact with the people who receive and use their products:

can make their work more meaningful.

Marc, an employee at Tezel Inc., was assigned work by his manager. The manager asked him to start work as soon as he receives instructions from his supervisor. Marc waits for three hours before his supervisor gives him instructions to start work. In the context of productivity, the time spent on waiting for instructions is called ________.

downtime

When a supervisor gets a memo from top management describing a new company policy, he or she is receiving a(n) ________ communication.

downward

Organizational communication in which a message is sent to someone at a lower level is referred to as:

downward communication.

In the context of dimensions of quality, ________ primarily refers to the length of a product's life.

durability

Ronald, a production manager at FindSolutions Inc., finds that his organization's process efficiency has reduced over the past three years. He asks one the supervisors to set up two groups of 10 workers each. He assigns these groups the responsibility to assess the company's processes, make decisions, and evaluate factors that reduce efficiency. In the context of quality improvement methods, Ronald is engaging ________.

employee involvement teams

Frederick Herzberg's research led to the conclusion that:

employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction stem from different sources.

The communication process begins when the sender of a message:

encodes the message.

Job ________ is an effort to make a job more interesting by adding more duties to it.

enlargement

Job ________ is the incorporation of motivating factors into a job.

enrichment

A supervisor who wants to boost productivity by increasing output must ideally:

ensure that the new output goals are set very high even at the cost of being unachievable.

Joy is a supervisor at an advertising agency. While conducting performance appraisal meetings with her employees, she instructs her secretary to hold all calls and to prevent any other interruptions. This action of Joy:

ensures that distractions which might hamper communication are avoided.

Jim was praised by his manager for his work. In this case, according Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Jim's ________ needs have been met.

esteem

When a person does not feel valued by his or her company, the person's ________ needs are most likely to be unfulfilled.

esteem

Alan, a stockbroker, did well in the commodities market and decided to buy a Ferrari. According to Maslow's motivational theory, Alan is most likely fulfilling his:

esteem need.

As the grapevine is a source of information for employees, supervisors should:

expect that employees sometimes have information before they have delivered it.

In the context of purchasing new equipment to improve productivity, the ________ department usually has an opinion on what payback period is acceptable for the organization.

finance

Payments for meeting or exceeding objectives are known as ________.

financial incentives

A policy that grants employees some leeway in choosing which 8 hours a day or which 40 hours a week to work is called:

flextime.

A Theory Y manager:

focuses on developing the potential of employees.

People have a natural tendency to resist change because it is:

frightening.

A financial incentive plan that rewards a team of workers for meeting or exceeding an objective is called a:

group incentive plan.

When a supervisor gives information about productivity improvement, employees should:

have an opportunity to ask questions.

An important difference between hearing and listening is that:

hearing is the mere registration of sound whereas listening requires full understanding of a message.

Jude loves to play GameCube games. While he is playing, he gets so involved that when someone asks him a question, he answers, "Uh-huh." He is most likely:

hearing, but not listening.

Process control is best defined as the quality control method that emphasizes:

how to do things in a way that leads to better quality.

The zero-defects approach is best defined as the quality control technique:

in which an organization works toward making its goods and services free of problems.

Veronica is the sales manager of a company which manufactures office equipment. She believes that it is possible to increase sales by using reinforcement theory. If Veronica wants to use positive reinforcement to increase sales, she should:

increase sales commissions.

Joseph M. Juran, one of the experts who played an important role in spreading the idea of total quality management (TQM), taught quality concepts to the Japanese. He emphasized the view that management should seek to maintain and improve quality through efforts on two levels: the organization as a whole and the ________.

individual departments in the organization

A conclusion drawn from the facts available is referred to as:

inference.

The structure of a pay plan:

influences the degree to which employees are motivated to perform well.

In the context of quality improvement methods, ________ can be best described as a practice that considers any costs other than a cost that adds value for the customer to be wasteful and, hence, something to be eliminated.

lean process improvement

When perceptions about others are false, ________.

messages might get distorted

The expenses that an organization incurs on rent, utilities, and staff support are termed as:

overhead.

Whatever rewards a supervisor uses, they should be linked to an employee's:

performance.

According to Maslow, a man who has met his security needs is most likely to also have satisfied his ________ needs.

physiological

According to Maslow, a man will satisfy his ________ needs before he attempts to satisfy his social needs.

physiological

Vroom's and Skinner's process theories both state that supervisors motivate most effectively when they:

place less emphasis on punishing infractions.

Employees in a production department may receive a basic wage or salary plus a bonus that consists of a payment for each unit produced. This is called a:

production bonus system.

High turnover is most likely to:

prove expensive for the company.

Both letters and memos:

provide a written document for the receiver to review.

In order to successfully implement behavior modification programs in organizational settings, a supervisor should consider:

providing rewards and punishments that are substantial.

The most accurate way to apply statistical quality control is to use a:

random sample.

Reviewing and revamping the way things are done is the basic principle of ________.

reengineering

A person with a strong need for achievement tends to:

set challenging but achievable goals.

Jeff is the owner of a new Indian restaurant. He employs Vijay, an immigrant from India, who mostly speaks Hindi. Vijay recently began learning English and is making good progress. Jeff will be effectively communicating to Vijay if he:

supplements his words with gestures.

If incompatible electronic equipment is used to transmit a message, ________.

the communication is likely to be distorted by noise

In the context of communicating in organization, the grapevine is:

the path along which informal communication travels.

According to Vroom's expectancy-valence theory, expectancy is:

the perceived likelihood that a behavior will lead to an outcome.

Communication fails to occur when:

the receiver does not decode the message.

Betty, the CEO of Raxen Inc., thinks her organization must work as a unit toward enhancing the company's processes. She believes this will help her organization to improve customer satisfaction. In the context of quality improvement methods, Betty is most inclined toward ________.

total quality management

Supervisors can increase their own and their team's productivity primarily by:

understanding the goals of quality programs and their own role in achieving those goals.

Increasing output without increasing costs is most likely to make employees:

unhappy as it may mean that the new goals are unreasonable.

Organizational communication in which a message is sent to someone at a higher level is referred to as:

upward communication.

When James, the receptionist of a marketing firm, asks his manager for a raise, he is using ________ communication.

upward communication.

One method that supervisors can use to encourage upward communication is to:

use a suggestion box.

When faced with cross-cultural communication, supervisors should avoid:

using the jargon of his or her industry.

In the context of quality improvement, ________ is a larger goal toward which an organization's quality improvement methods should be directed.

value

Researchers, Alex Pentland and Benjamin Waber, determined that the workers who interacted the most with their co-workers:

were the most productive.

Much of the verbal communication that occurs in organizations is in writing because:

written communication provides a record of what people tell one another.

A ________ can be best defined as the quality-control technique based on the view that everyone in the organization should work toward the goal of delivering such high quality that all aspects of the organization's goods and services are free of problems.

zero-defects approach