Final Exam

True/False: A frequent complaint about meetings is that they waste time because participants stray from the main topic and go off on tangents.

True

True/False: The terms, decentralized and centralized, are relative since most companies fall along a range between both extremes.

True

In the context of stages of team development, storming is often perceived as a stressful period because group members:

Try to delineate exactly what each member's specific role will be.

Personality traits that describe someone who has varied interests are known as a:

Type B personality

Who among the following most likely has an external locus of control?

Will, who blames his team members for his poor performance ratings

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

Absence of hygiene factors.

All team members need to know what is happening. In the context of characteristics associated with team productivity, to which of the following characteristics does this statement correspond?

Access to information

Employees who accept responsibility may be rewarded for doing a good job, and those who do not may be punished. This practice is called _____.

Accountability

According to the Hersey-Blanchard life cycle theory of leadership, leaders should:

Adapt their behaviors according to the maturity of the followers.

Which of the following statements about the middle-of-the-road management style of leadership is true?

Adequate organization performance is possible through balancing the necessity to get out work with maintaining morale of people at a satisfactory level.

Identify the stage of team development in which a team decides to disband after having achieved its goals.

Adjourning

In the context of dimensions of quality, _____ refers to the way a product looks, feels, tastes, and smells.

Aesthetics

The Immigration Reform and Control Act forbids employers from:

Hiring illegal immigrants

Branden, a supervisor at Xenze Inc., has been working in the organization for more than 5 years. He meets the human resource manager of a rival company in a restaurant, who offers him a better position with increased monetary benefits. Branden is in an ethicaldilemma ofquitting his job at Xenze Inc.and joining the rival company. In the context of ethical behavior of supervisors, Branden is in an ethical dilemma because his _____ will be in question.

Loyalty

In the context of supervisors' relationships with their managers,a supervisor can reasonably assume that the manager expects:

Loyalty, cooperation, communication, and results.

A supervisor can develop employees' idea-generating skills by:

Making idea generation something the group practices regularly.

_____ is a process in which managers and employees at all levels set objectives for what they are to accomplish.

Management by objectives

For the effective use of management by objectives, _____.

Managers at all levels must be committed to the system

During a meeting, when a problem cannot be solved in the allotted time, which of the following is the best practice to be undertaken by a supervisor?

Scheduling a follow-up meeting

In the process of delegating, what should supervisors specifically do during follow up?

They should set forth a plan for periodically checking on the progress of the work.

What is the objective of screening in the selection process?

To narrow the pool of applicants to the number that a supervisor wants to interview for a job

True/False: The lesser the staff specialists available to provide support in a variety of areas, the larger the span of control would be.

False

True/False: When managers start talking about improving productivity, employees initially react with relief.

False

According to the _____ Act, organizations with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius must give employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new born, adopted, or foster child within one year of the child's arrival.

Family and Medical leave

What are the three types of control?

Feedback, concurrent, and precontrol

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:

Felxible

The structure of an organic organization is relatively _____.

Flat

In the context of characteristics associated with team productivity, a(n) _____ leader is most likely to have a leadership style that does not dominate.

Flexible

A Theory Y manager:

Focuses on developing the potential of employees.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act:

Forbids employers from retaliating against whistle-blowers.

Which is the first stage of the team development process?

Forming

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

Frightening

A _____ is a scheduling tool that lists the activities to be completed and uses horizontal bars to graph how long each activity will take, including its starting and ending dates.

Gantt chart

Which of the following is the first step a supervisor should take when he or she suspects that an employee is behaving unethically?

Gather and record evidence

In the appraisal process, while observing and measuring individual performance against standards, a supervisor:

Gathers information about each employee's performance.

Sexism is discrimination based on:

Gender stereotypes

As what is the generation born approximately between the years 1960 and 1981 known?

Generation X

Which of the following statements is true about inferences?

Statements using the words "never" and "always" are inferences.

This generation experienced comparatively less change than some prior generations. There are significant differences in how people in these different generations view the world and interpret information. Which generation is this?

Generation Y

When is diversity least likely to contribute to a company's goals?

When it is overlooked by top management

Which of the following types of training can be an effective way to provide important information all at one to a large number of people?

Classroom training

An effective objective must be _____.

Clear

The last step of the organizing process typically involves a supervisor:

Grouping activities and assigning duties to the appropriate employees.

The practice of forming an overall opinion on the basis of one outstanding characteristic is referred to as _____.

Halo effect

_____ can be best defined as settling on a solution that gives each person part of what he or she wants; no one gets everything, and no one loses completely.

Compromise

Statistical process control is a technique for _____.

Concurrent control

Which of the following is a common orientation method?

Conducting a tour of the facilities

Kyra, a supervisor at Hercules Industries, suspects that one of her subordinates is indulging in unethical practices. She gathers the required evidence to support her case. Which of the following should be Kyra's next step?

Confronting the concerned employee with the evidence

When an employee fails to respond to initial attempts at counseling, a supervisor should ideally:

Discuss the problem with his or her manager.

Which of the following modes of training delivers the course content to participants who are located far away fromthe provider of the trainingthrough computers and other communications technology?

Distance learning

In the communication process, noise:

Distorts communication by interfering with it.

The basic way to measure productivity is to _______.

Divide outputs by inputs

Employees engaging in insubordination are the ones who:

Do not do their work properly because they choose not to.

A difference between process theories and content theories is that process theories:

Do not focus on specific motivators, whereas content theories do.

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

Downward

In which of the following types of appraisals does a supervisor list the employees in a group and then rank them?

Paired-comparison approach

Which of the following is a component of secondary diversity?

Education

What does a supervisor require to build on the advantages of diversity in a company?

Effective communication that bridges cultural differences

A characteristic feature of servant leaders is that they are _____.

Empathic

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

Emphasize the positive aspects of the change.

If a supervisor can successfully get an employee to accept responsibility for carrying out a task, then the:

Employee and the supervisor become responsible for the work.

A company-based program for providing counseling and related help to employees whose personal problems are affecting their performance is most accurately called a(n):

Employee assistance program.

Identify a fact about aid in and evaluation of recovery.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are voluntary and confidential in nature.

Which of the following is true of training?

Employee training meets important needs.

True/False: A supervisor should always avoid human compromises in making decisions.

False

True/False: A supervisor should ideally delay responding to problem behavior because it often tends to aggravate when it receives positive reinforcement from the supervisor.

False

True/False: A sustainable organization is less likely to have a steady supply of workers and customers.

False

True/False: A written job description typically mentions the desired skills in a candidate.

False

True/False: Absenteeism is often the first step leading to low turnover.

False

True/False: Cohesiveness increases when group members are competing with one another.

False

True/False: Compared to employees suffering from physical health stressors, employees seeking mental health treatment are less likely to work under suboptimal conditions.

False

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

False

True/False: For effective communication to occur, it is mandatory for the sender to play an active role, but the receiver can play a passive role.

False

True/False: If the person you are calling is not available, leave a message even though you have no control over when the call will be made.

False

True/False: In all the three types of controlling methods, the controlling process begins only when employees' work is complete.

False

True/False: Job performance is best when the amount of stress moves from moderate to high.

False

True/False: Low turnover is expensive for any company.

False

True/False: McClelland's and Herzberg's theories are process theories since they deal with specific motivators.

False

True/False: Older workers are more afraid of change than of discrimination.

False

True/False: Position power refers to the extent to which a leader has the support and loyalty of group members.

False

Applied to a work situation, Maslow's theory means a supervisor must:

Be aware of the current needs of particular employees.

As a leader, a supervisor is expected to _____.

Be loyal to the organization and subordinates

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

Physiological

A major type of distraction that hampers active listening is:

Planning one's own responses.

A supervisor ideally determines the expected accomplishments of a department or work group during the:

Planning process

The halo effect is best defined as the:

Practice of forming an overall opinion on the basis of one outstanding characteristic.

Steve, a supervisor,works in a country where corruption levels are relatively high. As a direct consequence of this, Steve will have difficulty:

Practicing ethical values.

Which of the following ideally comes under the scope of an employer when dealing with troubled employees?

Protecting the employee's privacy

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

Esteem

Which of the following is the last step in the training cycle?

Evaluating training

True/False: According to the path-goal theory of leadership, leaders should adjust their degree of task and relationship behavior in response to the growing maturity of their followers.

False

Control that focuses on past performance is referred to as _____ control.

Feedback

True/False: Most people get satisfaction from doing a job well, so self-discipline should result when employees understand what is expected.

True

True/False: One must be careful that one's to-do list serves its purpose and does not become a goal in itself.

True

True/False: One of the benefits of promoting current employees to fill vacancies is increased motivation.

True

True/False: Planning should begin at the top, with a plan for the organization as a whole.

True

True/False: A formal performance appraisal ensures that feedback to an employee covers all important aspects of the employee's performance.

True

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

Greatest expected value.

Norms refer to the:

Group standards for appropriate or acceptable behavior.

Lincoln, the supervisor of an acid manufacturing company, finds out that there has been an acid leakage from one of the containers and if nothing is done, the plant is likely to be destroyed within hours. Which of the following is the optimum response for this situation?

He should make a quick decision by himself.

An important difference between hearing and listening is that:

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

In the context of conducting an appraisal interview, what is the first step toward resolving any problems described in the appraisal?

Hearing the employee's reactions

Identify the factor involving an organization's work design that can contribute to work-related stress.

Hectic pace

In the context of cultural diversity, the old "melting pot" model refers to:

How immigrants were expected to assimilate their culture and language into the mainstream.

In the context of job specification, knowledge of the person performing a job refers to:

Information required to perform the tasks in the job description.

A supervisor had a conflict with her manager due to the misunderstanding of a situation. As what type of conflict can this be best categorized?

Interpersonal conflict

Understanding cultural differences helps in:

Interpreting behavior in order to arrive at agreements.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:

Investigates charges of discrimination and may pursue a remedy in court or arrange for mediation.

Since expectations for performance are objectives, each expectation should be:

Measurable

In its general form, _____ is a practice of focusing your thoughts on something other than day-to-day concerns.

Meditation

The primary objective of total quality management (TQM) is to:

Meet or exceed customer expectations.

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

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

_____ is a set of management attitudes based on the view that people dislike work and must be coerced to perform.

Theory X

According to McGregor's _____, working is as natural an activity as resting or playing, and people will work hard to achieve objectives to which they are committed.

Theory Y

True/False: Although employees should accept responsibility for carrying out a task, this does not mean that a supervisor gives up the responsibility for its proper completion.

True

True/False: An internal locus of control is the belief that an individual is the primary cause of what happens to him or her.

True

True/False: Employees are fearful of productivity improvements due to possible layoffs.

True

True/False: Factors that can affect the success of a change include the kind of change to be made.

True

True/False: If a supervisor cannot act alone in resolving conflicts with another department, he or she should make sure that higher-level managers know about the stress-related job factors.

True

True/False: It is up to the supervisor to see that the treatment plan provided by an employee assistance program (EAP) is producing the desired results at the workplace.

True

True/False: Job rotation involves moving employees from job to job to give them more variety.

True

True/False: Lack of motivation is often the problem underlying time lost to tardiness and absenteeism.

True

True/False: The desire to achieve higher quality is a source of problems for a supervisor to solve creatively.

True

True/False: Tone of voice is a major type of nonverbal message.

True

True/False: Vroom's theory is based on employees' perceptions of rewards and whether they are able to achieve them.

True

A department is best defined as a:

Unique group of resources that management has assigned to carry out a particular task.

According to the principle of _____, employees who receive orders from several people tend to get confused and aggravated.

Unity of command

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

Upward communication

When a supervisor needs to build support for a solution, such as cutting costs or improving productivity, it is best for the supervisor to:

Use group decision making.

Which of the following is true of performance reports?

Useful performance reports clarify rather than conceal problems.

Which of the following is a cause of stress due to management issues in a job?

Vague or conflicting expectations

_____ is a view that extends beyond legally protected differences to fair treatment of employees who differ in some ways such as military service, sexual orientation, and age differences not protected by law.

Valuing diversity

Which of the following is the most common reason for structural conflict?

Various groups in an organization share resources

Which is the job factor involving an organization's work environment that is linked to stress?

Verbal abuse

Which of the following is true of the different leadership styles?

Very few supervisors are completely authoritarian or totally democratic.

A type of training that allows employees to practice using equipment off the job is called:

Vestibule training

Which of the following scenarios best exemplifies sexual harassment?

Violet's manager, Ted, often shows obscene pictures to her and threatens to fire her if she complains.

_____ 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

In the process of administering discipline, the first step should ideally be to _____ the employee.

Warn

Which of the following is an example of an open-ended question?

What are your views on corporate social responsibility?

In which of the following situations should a supervisor make a decision alone?

When a decision must be made quickly, as in an emergency

When does a flat organization offer advantages?

When employees can handle responsibilities

The most basic way to evaluate training is to measure:

Whether the problem addressed by the training is being resolved.

A group of about 30 members at AutoMax Inc. leaves 15 to 20 minutes early from work every day. William, a supervisor at AutoMax, notices this issue. Which of the following is the right way to deal with the issue?

William must try to persuade employees to change or ignore the informal group's norm.

A qualified individual with a disability is a person:

With a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of a particular job.

In general, problem employees fall into two categories. One of the categories consists of employees causing problems and the other includes employees:

With problems

To use the _____ approach, a supervisor tries to establish objective measures of performance.

Work-standards

In the context of the Davis model of corporate social responsibility, businesses must listen to the public to understand what can be done to improve society as a whole because businesses:

operate as a two-way open system, with open receipt of inputs from society and open disclosure of its operations to the public.

Pick the approximate years of birth for the Silent Generation.

1925-1942

In the communication process, encoded messages:

Can be transmitted through personal contact.

A benefit of delegating is that:

It is an important tool for time management.

The cure for stereotyping is to:

Not assume that everyone is alike.

One of the most common reasons given for taking unscheduled time off is:

Personal illness

In the context of assessments by someone other than a supervisor, supervisors:

Can use subordinate appraisals to supervise more effectively and to make their organization more competitive.

Which of the following principles states that authority flows from one level of management to the next, from the top of an organization to the bottom?

Chain of command

Which of the following factors is most likely to impact the need for retraining employees?

Changing customer needs

A basic way to verify that the information on a job application or résumé is correct is to _____.

Check references

Feedback is best defined as:

The way the receiver of a message responds or fails to respond to the message.

Combining several sources of appraisals is called _____.

360-degree feedback

In which of the following situations has the Pygmalion effect been utilized to increase motivation?

A manager tells all his employees that he expects much higher performance from them.

A company that provides diversity training to its supervisors is most likely to benefit from:

A more resilient workforce.

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

The difference between a policy and a rule is that:

A policy does not specify details of how to handle a specific situation, but rules are very specific.

Which of the following supervisors best demonstrates halo effect?

A supervisor who generalizes one positive aspect of an employee to the employee's entire performance

Which of the following supervisors best demonstrates harshness bias?

A supervisor who gives poor ratings to good performers

Power is best defined as the:

Ability to get others to act in a certain way.

Aisha, a supervisor at Teserel Corp., suspects that one of her subordinates, Gilbert, is selling the trade secrets of Teserel to a rival company. She confronts Gilbert and questions him. However, Aisha finds that her information about Gilbert is wrong. Which of the following steps should Aisha have taken while supervising Gilbert?

Aisha should have gathered and recorded evidence before questioning Gilbert.

Substance abuse arising from an addiction is treated as a disability by the:

Americans with Disabilities Act.

Which of the following is true in the context of characteristics of effective controls?

An effective control system is one that helps the supervisor direct his or her efforts toward spotting significant problems.

Differentiate between open-ended and closed-ended questions. Give one example each.

An open-ended question is one that gives the person responding broad control over the response. An example of an open-ended question is, "What have you learned in your past job that will help you accomplish this one?" A closed-ended question is one that requires a simple answer, such as yes or no. An example of a closed-ended question is, "Which shift do you prefer to work?"

Which of the following is true about an organic organization?

An organic organization has very little hierarchy.

Which of the following best exemplifies connection power?

An organization's employee who is the daughter of a vice president

A test that measures an applicant's ability to learn skills related to a job is known as a(n) _____ test.

Aptitude

Which of the following questions during an interview violate anti discrimination laws?

Are you planning to have any children?

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.

Which of the following is the first step in the process of providing training to employees?

Assessing needs for training

Choose the team characteristic associated with team productivity that mostly deals with the importance of team members focusing on outcomes and effects.

Assessment of progress and results

In the process of delegating, which of the following is the next step once a supervisor decides what tasks to delegate?

Assigning the work

In the context of personal perspective as a compromise in decision making, people make the mistake of:

Assuming that everyone sees things the way they do.

A common error in cross-cultural communication is the:

Assumption that a loud tone of voice is the only way to communicate effectively.

Lateral communication occurs when a message is sent to a person:

At the same level in the organization.

A structured task—that is, one with a set procedure to follow—is best managed by a(n):

Authoritarian leader.

The workers born between 1946 and 1964 are typically referred to as:

Baby boomers

Probability theory is defined as a(n):

Body of techniques for comparing the consequences of possible decisions in a risk situation.

Choosing an alternative that meets minimum standards of acceptability is a form of:

Bounded rationality

Policies are best defined as:

Broad guidelines for how to act.

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.

The tools for control include:

Budgets, performance reports, and personal observation.

Which of the following is a commonly used political strategy in an organization?

Building relationships at all levels

How can supervisors minimize organizational stressors?

By letting employees participate in decision making

If an organization does business in a country where corruption is expected, employees:

Can have more difficulty meeting high standards.

Max, a new employee at Glanx Inc., is being informedabout the company's values and habits that will help him distinguish right from wrong. In the context of corporate social responsibility, Max is learning the company's _____.

Code of ethics

Which of the following is true about communication?

Communication is one area in which supervisors can serve as particularly good role models of managing diversity constructively.

Which of the following is a guideline for proper decision making in the workplace?

Consider the consequences of one's actions.

After having a discussion on what the problem is, which is the next step of the counseling interview process?

Considering possible solutions to the problem

Time management is the practice of:

Controlling the way you use time

_____ refers to the beliefs and norms that govern organizational behavior in a firm.

Corporate culture

In a structured interview, an interviewer:

Covers the same material with each candidate.

Strategic planning is best defined as the process of:

Creating long-term goals for the organization as a whole.

In the program evaluation and review technique (PERT), a delay in the _____ will cause the entire project to fall behind.

Critical path

As part of the training program for commercial loan officers, Maria was trained by the training instructors at one of the bank's training institutes for different positions of its operations. These different positions included being a bank teller, a new accounts representative, a loan collector, and an installment loan officer. This is an example of:

Cross-training

Training in the skills required to perform more than one job is known as:

Cross-training

An employee who knows which employees are targeted in the next round of layoffs has _____ power.

Information

Making ethical decisions ideally involves:

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

Which of the following is the next step in the training cycle after setting objectives for training?

Deciding who will participate

A graph that helps decision makers use probability theory by showing the expected values of decisions in varying circumstances is known as a(n):

Decision tree

Insubordination is best defined as the:

Deliberate refusal to do what a supervisor or other superior asks.

In the context of what to measure in an appraisal, focusing on behavior means that the appraisal should:

Describe specific actions or patterns of actions.

In the context of what to measure in an appraisal, focusing on results means that the appraisal should:

Describe the extent to which an employee has satisfied the objectives for which he or she is responsible.

A job _____ is a listing of the characteristics of the job—that is, the observable activities required to carry out the job.

Description

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

Designed to improve the operations output to 99.9997 percent perfect.

What is the next step after defining the objectives in the organizing process?

Determining the needed resources

Loyalty, fairness, and honesty are _____ that supervisors must follow.

Dimensions of ethical behavior

Positive discipline is best defined as the:

Discipline designed to prevent the occurrence of problem behavior from beginning.

Identify a true statement about discipline or punishment from the following.

Discipline is a broader concept than punishment.

Which of the following statements is true of alcohol and drug abuse by workers?

Employees who abuse drugs are far less productive than their co-workers who stay sober.

The communication process begins when the sender of a message:

Encodes the message

In the context of coaching employees, which of the following tips is most likely to help a supervisor in stimulating high-quality performance?

Encourage team members by expressing understanding and appreciation of their ideas and feelings.

A supervisor can receive his group's support by:

Encouraging the group to participate in solving problems.

Expressions such as "get the nod" have more than one meaning. This emphasizes the fact that:

English has the potential to mislead, and certain words should be used with care.

Which of the following is an advantage of diversity for an individual supervisor?

Enhanced communication skills

A manager should use a relatively democratic leadership style only when:

Enough time is available.

The _____ published the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, which include guidelines for designing and implementing performance appraisals.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Mark, a supervisor at KMT Inc., encourages his team members to come up with innovative suggestions. He reviews the suggestions with the employees, and if it results in monetary savings or profits, the employee who made the suggestion is awarded a $500 bonus. In this case, Mark is trying to:

Establish and maintain a creative work climate.

A supervisor can benefit from his or her entire group's creativity by:

Establishing a work climate that encourages innovative thinking.

Which of the following is the first step in the process of controlling?

Establishing performance standards

Which of the following is true of business ethics?

Ethical behavior can improve an organization's relations with the community.

In the rational model of decision making, which of the following is the next step after gathering and organizing facts?

Evaluating alternatives

People who blame others or events beyond their control when something goes wrong are said to have a(n):

External locus of control.

Perfectionism often underlies the:

Failure to delegate work

To deliver their potential benefits, performance appraisals must be completely:

Fair and accurate

True/False: A disadvantage of training is that it makes the new employee dependent on the supervisor and makes it hard for the employee to adapt to changes in the workplace.

False

True/False: A growing number of organizations are trying to stay flexible by increasing their size.

False

True/False: In the MBO system, the top management alone sets the objectives for each employee in the company.

False

True/False: Maslow's theory assumes that different people have different patterns of needs.

False

True/False: Rationalization interferes with good decisions when the decision maker focuses more on weighing alternatives against previously defined criteria than on justifying an alternative.

False

True/False: The consequences of a conflict depend solely on the way that it is resolved.

False

True/False: The first step in the organizing process is to determine the needed resources.

False

Which of the following is often mentioned as a way to make the workplace friendlier to female employees?

Flexible work arrangements

In the context of types of appraisals, the _____ approach is used when an organization determines that supervisors have been rating an unbelievably high proportion of employees as above average.

Forced-choice

_____, born between 1981 and 1995, tend to be optimistic and enthusiastic, and they expect that their managers will be eager to act as mentors.

Generation Y employees

Which of the following should be avoided by a supervisor when effectively discussing a problem with an employee?

Getting emotional about the problem

Orientation is best defined as the process of:

Giving new employees the information they need to do their work comfortably, effectively, and efficiently.

Team members should view accomplishing objectives as the team's primary purpose because they give them the direction and purpose. Which of the following characteristics associated with team productivity best corresponds to this statement?

Goals that are understood and accepted

In the process of selecting a candidate for a job, the _____ is most likely to do the initial screening.

Human resources department

Which of the following is a series of standards adopted by the International Organization for Standardization to spell out acceptable criteria for quality systems?

ISO 9000

Dan works 50 to 60 hours a week supervising a group of engineers. He realizes that he is spending too much time training new engineers and starts thinking about new options. He could delegate the training to the senior engineers, ask the human resources department to offer training seminars, or require better work experience from all future employees. Which step in the rational model of decision making is Dan performing here?

Identifying alternative solutions

Which of the following conditions is least likely to get a disability status under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Illegal drug users disciplined for current abuse

The primary purpose of providing employee assistance programs and other counseling programs is to:

Improve a troubled employee's performance.

Which of the following is true of making the selection decision?

In practice, hiring decisions often reflect a variety of issues, including a supervisor's comfort level.

The behaviorally anchored rating scales are best defined as a performance appraisal:

In which an employee is rated on scales containing statements describing performance in several areas.

When a team member is reluctant to speak up at meetings, the leader should seek his or her input during or outside the meeting. Identify the team characteristic associated with team productivity that mostly deals with the significance of this issue.

Involvement and participation

A supervisor can most effectively promote ethical decision making by:

Involving the employees in the process.

A person with a strong need for achievement:

Is more motivated by success than by money.

The scientific method of decision making:

Is systematic and logical.

The difference between line authority and staff authority is that staff authority:

Is the right to advise or assist those with line authority.

Which of the following is an advantage of a critical-incident appraisal?

It allows focusing on actual behaviors.

Which of the following is true of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission?

It has the power to investigate complaints and use conciliation to eliminate discrimination when found.

Which of these is a feature of resolving as a strategy for conflict management?

It is an approach that avoids frustration because it can leave both parties better off.

The grapevine is important to supervisors because:

It is used by employees as a source of information.

Which of the following is one of the advantages primarily associated with a performance appraisal?

It motivates employees to work on their shortcomings.

Which of the following is true of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973?

It prohibits discrimination against qualified handicapped persons.

The major potential drawback of role-playing is that _____.

It requires a trainer with expertise in conducting it

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

It requires cooperation from all the members.

Which of the following is a feature of compromising as a strategy for conflict management?

It works best when the problem is relatively minor and time is limited.

Which of the following is a cause of stress linked to the workplace involving the organization's management?

Job insecurity

In the context of types of training, _____ requires that employees learn to perform more than one job.

Job rotation

Which of the following is a subordinate characteristic in choosing a leadership style?

Knowledge and experience

Which is the job factor involving an organization's work design that is linked to stress?

Lack of control

Employees who are eager to assume responsibility will most likely appreciate _____ leadership.

Laissez-faire

In which of the following leadership styles does the leader remain uninvolved and let the subordinates direct themselves?

Laissez-faire leadership

When choosing a leadership style, an individual has to consider values, level of confidence in employees, strengths, and tolerance for ambiguity. These attributes describe:

Leader characteristics

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

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

Repeated punishment or failure can lead to an unhappy consequence called:

Learned helplessness

Which of the following is most likely to help one in communicating effectively?

Learning from feedback

The basic type of authority in organizations is _____ authority.

Line

The right to carry out tasks and give orders related to an organization's primary purpose is called:

Line authority

Which of the following is the last step in dealing with an employee suspected of unethical behavior?

Look for and correct the conditions that led to the problem.

A supervisor acquired a self-centric attitude toward work. In this case, which dimension of ethical behavior did the supervisor violate?

Loyalty

According to Lewin's model of change, refreezing involves people who:

Make a new behavior part of their routine.

In a broader context, life-long learning:

Makes a labor force more productive.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973:

Makes it illegal to refuse a job to a disabled person because of the disability, if the disability does not interfere with the person's ability to do the job.

The performance appraisal method in which a supervisor compares each employee's accomplishments with the goals for that employee is referred to as:

Management by objectives.

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.

What advice do experts provide for successfully implementing a computer-assisted training program?

Maximize access, speed, and ease of use.

If a department, team, or other work group has little experience in making its own decisions, the supervisor:

May find that an authoritarian approach is easier to use.

Reinforcement differs from punishment in that it is:

More effective in the long term.

Which of the following is true of assessment of training needs?

Needs assessment should be an ongoing, not an occasional, concern of supervisors.

Ashton's supervisor Carol notices that he is always late to work. She discusses the matter with Ashton and makes him realize how his behavior is affecting everyone in the department. Then Carol encourages him to analyze the problem and listens to what Ashton has to say. Ashton realizes that the reason behind his being late is that he is running too many errands in the morning. So he decides to run his personal errands during lunch and after work. In this scenario, which type of counseling approach has been used?

Nondirective counseling

Which of the following statements is true about nonverbal communication?

Nonverbal communication seldom occurs without some accompanying words.

Span of control is the:

Number of people a manager supervises.

In the appraisal process, after a supervisor establishes and communicates standards for measuring performance, the next step is to:

Observe and measure individual performance against set criteria.

A task group is:

Often disbanded once the objective of the group is achieved.

An apprenticeship is a long-term form of _____ training.

On-the-job

In the context of conducting background and reference checks, people who will vouch for an applicant's character are considered _____ references.

Personal

In the context of external recruitment, _____ has become the most popular way to match candidates to jobs.

Online recruiting

Successful teamwork requires _____ communication among team members.

Open

_____ questions tend to be more useful in interviewing, because they lead a candidate to provide more information.

Open-ended

Organizational structure in which the boundaries between jobs continually shift and people pitch in wherever their contributions are needed is known as a(n) _____ structure.

Organic

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

Organization chart

_____ can be best defined as intentional acts of influence to enhance or protect the self-interest of individuals or groups.

Organizational politics

One way to overcome barriers to creativity is to:

Overcome one's own fear of failure.

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

The _____ theory of leadership suggests that the primary activities of a leader are to make desirable and achievable rewards available to organization members who attain organizational objectives and to clarify the kinds of behavior that must be performed to earn those rewards.

Path-goal

A Theory X manager assumes that:

People wish to avoid responsibility.

When the human resources department and supervisor share responsibility for conducting an orientation, the supervisor typically covers topics related to:

Performing a particular job in a particular department.

Antonio is the owner of a popular Italian restaurant. He decides to stop offering takeaway services to its customers because he feels the beauty in the way food is presented will be lost when it is packaged. His customers are very unhappy with his decision. Which human compromise has Antonio made in his decision?

Personal perspective

A supervisor can best combat biases in attention by:

Phrasing messages carefully to appeal to the receiver.

Which of the following statements is true of planning?

Planning centers on the setting of goals and objectives.

Which of the following is a cause of stress linked to the workplace involving the organization's work environment?

Poor ergonomics

According to Fiedler's contingency model, _____ refers to the formal authority granted to the leader by the organization.

Position power

Power that arises from an individual's formal role in an organization is termed:

Position power

In the context of approaches to leadership, ethical leadership reflects the extent to which leaders:

Possess a moral code and abide by those moral standards.

Which of the following statements accurately differentiates prejudice and discrimination?

Prejudice is a preconceived judgment about a group of people, whereas discrimination is unfair treatment based on prejudice.

An interviewer should begin the interviewing process by:

Preparing the content and conditions of the interview.

Quality control is best defined as an organization's efforts to:

Prevent or correct defects in its goods or services or to improve them in some way.

Ethics is best defined as the:

Principles by which people distinguish what is morally right.

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

Problem-solving skills

Which of the following can be best described as a time waster because it leads people to spend their time on low-priority activities while they avoid the higher priorities?

Procrastination

The last step in the performance appraisal process involves:

Providing remedies or reinforcing performance.

During a performance appraisal, labeling people with certain characteristics is most likely to:

Put employees on the defensive.

Which of the following is a component of primary diversity?

Race

Being decisive means:

Reaching a decision within a reasonable amount of time.

Schedule time for thinking, not solely for doing, as creative processes require time for:

Reflection

In the context of employee orientation, what should a supervisor do during follow-up?

Regularly check on the performance and progress of employees

A leader who is a good listener, empathic, healing, aware, and persuasive meets the description of a(n) _____ leader.

Servant

Which of the following strategies for conflict management assumes that many conflicts are win-win conflicts?

Resolving

_____ is the obligation to perform assigned activities.

Responsibility

Which of the following is true of rumors?

Rumors rarely tell a complete or unbiased version of the truth.

According to Herzberg's two-factor theory, which of the following are hygiene factors?

Salary and benefits

Most employees welcome the opportunity to be part of informal groups primarily because these groups:

Satisfy social needs

If a supervisor is interrupted by an employee with a problem, and the supervisor views the employee's problem as not urgent, then he or she should:

Schedule a meeting with the employee at a later time.

A salesperson in a hardware store has a 10-year-old son with behavior problems, and this is affecting his work. The supervisor gets to know about this and plans counseling sessions with him. In one of these sessions, the supervisor says, "I've noticed that we haven't received any more customer complaints about your service and, in fact, one customer told me you went out of your way to help." From the given information, identify the stage in which the process of counseling has most likely reached.

Scheduling a follow-up meeting

What is the last step of the counseling interview process?

Scheduling a follow-up meeting

Employees often have excellent ideas for doing work better because they:

See the problems of their jobs.

Which of the following terms best describes the quality of recognizing one's emotions and how they affect others?

Self-awareness

Which of the following terms best describes the ability to control emotions and maintain integrity?

Self-regulation

The supervisor should choose oral communication over written communication when the message is:

Sensitive

Formal groups are best defined as groups that are:

Set up by management to meet organizational objectives.

Supervisors can help with the constant interruptions of modern media by:

Setting aside time when cell phones should be turned off so everyone can concentrate.

When organizations put in efforts to achieve sustainability, the effort to become sustainable starts with _____.

Setting sustainability goals

In the context of quality improvement methods, employee involvement teams primarily involve:

Setting up teams of employees to identify quality-related problems and come up with possible solutions.

Which of the following is one of the conditions to get a disability status under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

Severe obesity

Which of the following is the most blatant form of sexism?

Sexual harassment

Jennifer is the head of a marketing company. She requests a group meeting with her employees to come up with a new marketing strategy. She decides to begin with a brainstorming session. Jennifer knows that although brainstorming sessions are generally effective, there can be some pitfalls as well. Which of the following steps can she take to avoid pitfalls?

She can ask everyone ahead of time to come up with ideas for the marketing strategy.

Which of the following reactions should be avoided by a supervisor when an employee says, "You always give me the dirty assignments"?

Showing his or her power and authority by being angry and defensive

In choosing a leadership style, one needs to consider the type of organization and the effectiveness of the group. These attributes describe:

Situation characteristics

Which of the following is true of behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)?

Some organizations pay behavioral scientists or organizational psychologists to create BARS.

Identify the fact about consequence of stress.

Sources of stress may make employees prone to accidents.

In the control process, _____ define the acceptable quantity and quality of work.

Standards

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 conflict that arises between two employees when their manager informs that they are both are in the running for a retiring supervisor's job can be best categorized as a(n) _____ conflict.

Strategic

Conflicts that arise from the way a company is organized are termed:

Structural conflicts

Phil, the manager of a grocery store, orders truckloads of pumpkins as he believes that there will be a huge demand for it, based on the sales of the previous month. He doesn't know that the demand had been due to the State Pumpkin Week held last month. This is an example of the human compromise known as:

Subjective rationality

Which of the following is a common time waster that plagues supervisors?

Supervising every detail of employees' work

From the following, choose the basic approach that supervisors can take to reduce stress in the workplace.

Supervision consistent with organization's values

Small organizations are sometimes unable to afford an expert consultant to carry out their team building processes. In such cases, the _____ carries out this responsibility at regular team meetings.

Supervisor

What is a characteristic of reward power?

Supervisors are often limited in this regard.

Coaching is best defined as the process in which:

Supervisors provide guidance and instruction in how to do a job so that it satisfies performance goals.

Identify a correct statement about confrontation of troubled employees.

Supervisors should give employees a fair chance to respond to any complaints.

Nathan, a production manager at OCSET Inc., asks his employees to reduce wastage of raw materials. He desires to instill a habit in the employees of producing high quality products with as little resources as possible. He thinks it will help in preserving natural resources for coming generations. In the context of corporate social responsibility, Nathan is trying to make his company more _____.

Sustainable

A leader who focuses on the jobs to be done and the goals to be accomplished is considered:

Task-oriented

Activities like setting goals, analyzing what needs to be done and allocating work, examining how well the group is working, and examining the relationships among the team members are part of the process of _____.

Team building

Which of the following acts forbids employers from retaliating against an employee who reports possible accounting, auditing, or reporting misdeeds that deceive investors?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Identify the final stage of burnout.

The employee views his or her effectiveness negatively.

In times of crisis when employees are not satisfied with the amount of information they receive from management, they are most vulnerable to getting incorrect information from:

The grapevine

Operative employees will contribute to improve productivity only if they believe:

The management is truly committed to this objective.

Which of the following is true of orientation methods?

The methods a supervisor uses will depend on the organization's policies and resources.

An intrinsic reward is:

The personal satisfaction that comes directly from performing a task.

Which of the following is a disadvantage typically associated with the graphic rating scale appraisal method?

The rating is subjective.

Which of the following is true of secondary diversity?

The secondary dimensions of diversity are factors that an individual has some control over.

Which of the following is a proposition of the Davis model of corporate social responsibility?

The social costs related to each activity, product, or service shall be passed on to the consumer.

Procedures are best defined as:

The steps that must be completed to achieve a specific purpose.

Which of the following is true when mediating a conflict?

The supervisor should summarize what has been discussed and agreed on.

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

The value a person places on the outcome of a particular behavior.

Which of the following is true of action plans?

They are created by answering the questions what, who, when, where, and how.

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.

Which of the following is a common reason why supervisors resist delegating work?

They believe only they can really do the job right.

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.

Meeting high ethical standards is likely to be most challenging for:

Those who work with people from more than one culture.

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

Timely

_____ created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Title VII of 1964 Civil Rights Act as amended in 1972

Role-playing is best defined as a(n):

Training method in which roles are assigned to participants, who then act out the way they would handle a specific situation.

Which of the following is true of evaluation of training?

Training that does not produce results should be changed or discontinued.

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

Transactional

When the sender of a message encodes a message, it means that the sender is:

Translating his or her thoughts and feelings into words.

Which of the following is most likely to reduce the occurrence of workplace violence?

Treating employees fairly

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

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

For objectives to be effective, they should be:

Written, measurable, clear, specific, and challenging but achievable.

If a supervisor has control over scheduling a change, he or she should:

make sure that the deadlines are reasonable.

Sustainability is best defined as:

the ability of an organization to meet its present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Communication fails to occur when:

the receiver does not decode the message.