Business Management - Part 1
_______ are the routine social conventions of everyday life. They concern customs and practices such as expectation of behavior.
Folkways
Arguments such as problems caused by a business should also help solve the created problems would be an argument (for/against) CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility]
For
Whether Gina and Jason decide to sidestep the rules or not, in this ethical dilemma, which of the following rules is least likely to be broken?
Justice Rule
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Bridget is explaining the reasons behind the new reorganization plan and inspiring everyone to pitch in and make it work.
Leading
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Buzz is overseeing the arrangement of the space for the new R&D center. It needs to be set up so there is maximum interaction among the workers in order to stimulate creativity.
Organizing
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Yichen is working on the department's hiring forecast for next year, deciding how many new employees will be needed.
Planning
A Top Manager would be:
Renee is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the company. She meets with other employees and investors to review the organization's performance.
The desire to create a new, different kind of call center represented one of Wilson's ________ values.
Terminal
Justin Racz, who wrote the book 50 Bosses Worse than Yours, says that everyone has a bad boss story. Bad bosses have not adequately developed which type of skill?
Human
The person is creative, curious and cultured
Openness to experience
The person is calm, self-confident and cool
Emotional Stability
The professor instructs her students to bring a calculator to the math exam tomorrow. Marcus buys a calculator for 25 cents at a garage sale, but it breaks in the middle of the exam. Susana Purchases a fancy calculator at Best Buy for $75 and worked well. Sana buys a calculator at the Dollar store and worked well. Which student's purchase can be considered Efficeint but Ineffective?
Marcus
_______ are unwritten, informal codes of conduct that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations and are considered important by mom members of a group or organization.
Norms
Value quality of life, personal relationships and services that care for the weak.
Nurturing orientation
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Kelvin is busy assigning employees to teams based on their strengths, and also gathering the sports equipment and prizes needed for the company picnic on Saturday.
Organizing
No one _____________ is better, but some are more effective than others in certain situations
Personality
___________ can be changed by awareness of preferences, new training, life experiences and time
Personality
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Victor is deciding between a low-cost strategy and a differentiation strategy.
Planning
The professor instructs her students to bring a calculator to the math exam tomorrow. Marcus buys a calculator for 25 cents at a garage sale, but it breaks in the middle of the exam. Susana Purchases a fancy calculator at Best Buy for $75 and worked well. Sana buys a calculator at the Dollar store and worked well. Which student's purchase can be considered Efficeint but Effective?
Sana
What is the main source of diversity that is causing a problem among employees in the video?
Sexual Orientation
Maintaining personal stability and living in the present
Short-term orientation
A sense of obligation on the part of managers to pursue policies, make decisions and to take actions that benefit society would be:
Social Responsibility
_________ are any group or person within or outside the organization that has some type of investment or interest in the organization's performance
Stakeholder
What ethical rights do the customers have?
The right to be fully informed about the products and services they purchase
What ethical rights do the communities have?
The right to expect companies will not violate the basic expectations of society
What ethical rights do the suppliers have?
The right to expect contracts to be respected
Value assertiveness, performance, success, competition and results
Achievement Orientation
Arguments such as the lack of expertise to manage social programs, or the potential for conflict of interest would be an argument (for/against) CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility]
Against
The person is cooperative, warm and agreeable:
Agreeableness
All of the following are effective practices in creating an ethical organizational culture EXCEPT: A. Developing a code of Ethics B. Recognizing ethics may change over time C. Removing ethical Ombudsmans D. Taking stakeholder rights into consideration
C.
The person is hardworking, organized and dependable.
Conscientious
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Aimee is involved in performance reviews of her top sales associates.
Controlling
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. David is reading the company's quarterly financial statements and assessing the contribution of his work unit to the overall goals of the company.
Controlling
After spending several months in China on a business trip, Sarah learned that managers expect respect and organizational structures tend to have more hierarchy. Based on these specific findings, Hofstede would classify China as _____________. A. Low collectivism B. Low formal-orientation C. High Individualism D. High power distance
D.
A Middle Manager would be:
Dana performs an analysis on the efficiency of the sales department at a real estate company and makes recommendations to her boss, Bill, On which goals should be changed.
________ are norms that are considered important to be of central importance to the functioning society and to social life.
Mores
The ethical decision tree consists of
Questioning if it's legal. Questioning if it will maximize shareholder value and question if it's ethical to proceed. Is it ethical not to proceed?
_______ are beliefs about what a society considers to be good, right, desirable, or beautiful - or their opposites.
Values
______ is a world view that values subordination of the individual to the goals of the group.
collectivism
Racz describes micromanagers as often stifling workers and not allowing them to gain broad-based skills and experience, which could place the organization at a competitive disadvantage. The term _________ is often used to refer to the specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience that allows one organization to outperform its competitors.
core competency
Susan experiences a lot of negative emotions due to bullying. To better handle the situation and solve the problem, she needs to manage her emotions effectively. One ability that's especially beneficial is
emotional intelligence.
Under Wilson, what personality traits would Ryla most likely have sought in its employees?
high conscientiousness and high openness to experience
Efficiency is a measure of
how productively resources are used to achieve a goal.
The quintessential bad boss is condescending, greedy, lacking any and all people skills, and just plain annoying. Leading is one of the four essential managerial tasks that a bad boss is clearly not excelling at. Leading involves
motivating, coordinating, and energizing people to achieve organizational goals.
Managers with a high ________ would have enjoyed working at Ryla where people were promoted from within, offered new opportunities, and challenged to try new methods and projects.
need for achievement
Wilson believed that there could be a way to run call centers that would enable employees to actually enjoy working at them. Over a dozen investors disagreed and refused to invest. Because he was willing to take risks and develop a new kind of business, we can infer that Wilson's personality is stronger in the dimension of _______ than the personalities of those investors.
openness to experience
Considering that Ryla had a much lower turnover rate than other companies in this industry, its managers and employees probably demonstrate a high level of
organizational commitment.
The lawsuits against Ryla's new parent company, Alorica, likely mean that
the two firms had different cultures and different managerial values.
A boss who is a screamer lacks human skills. Human skills include the ability to
understand, alter, lead, and control the behavior of others.
Syl shuts Daniel off when Daniel was accusing Bob of discrimination. Syl is doing a poor job at which of the following roles in effectively managing diversity?
Disturbance Handler
Wilson believed in treating employees with respect, fostering open communication, and demonstrating a real commitment to his employees. These demonstrate Ryla's ______values.
terminal
A Middle Manager would be:
• Brian works at a TGI Friday's. He is responsible for the day shift, and currently is examining the restaurant's utility bills to see how he can help the restaurant save money.
A Top Manager would be:
• Cole is a manager of a manufacturing facility, one of four operated by his employer. His responsibilities include examining the efficiency of each of his departments.
A First-Line Manager would be:
*Jose : is the head mechanic of a new automobile dealership. He is in charge of making sure his employees perform superior service work on client's vehicles.
A First-Line Manager would be:
*Rochelle : is the head nurse of the obstetrics department at the hospital. Her responsibilities include staffing and establishing her employees' shift dates and times.
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Josh is measuring the quality of items ready for shipment.
Controlling
Which of the following managerial roles did Syl actually exhibit during the meeting with Daniel and Bob?
Disseminator
When it comes to performance evaluations, manager Cyndi is too lenient in evaluating her direct reports. Joel tends to blame others anytime he receives a poor evaluation. Cyndi would likely be considered to have ___________ and Joel would likely be considered to have __________.
High Agreeableness, external locus of control
The locus of control where you are in control would be an example of:
Internal Locus of Control
A Top Manager would be:
Jessica works for a hearing-aid manufacturer. She decides how the manufacturing and marketing departments of the organization should interact with each other.
A Top Manager would be:
John sets forth a vision for his promotional products organization as to what goods should be produced and communicates that vision to his employees.
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Lauren is describing her vision of being able to provide much-needed medicine at a low cost to the poorest people of the world to a group of potential investors.
Leading
A First-Line Manager would be:
Michael: works at a computer company. He is responsible for 15 field service technicians, overseeing the quality of their work and the level of customer service they provide.
What ethical rights do the competitors have?
The right to expect that a firm will abide by the rules of competition and not violate antitrust laws
Having a bad boss is one of the major factors that people list when they leave their company. Employees are one of many important resources that must be managed to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. Which of the following is NOT among an organization's resources?
environmental issues
____ values individual freedom and self-expression and adherence to the principle that people should be judged by their individual achievements rather than by their social backgrounds.
individualism
In this video, Gina and Jason are arguing over whether they should follow the procedures or sidestep the rules for greater benefits. This illustrates a(n)
Ethical Dilemma
The locus of control where things happen to you would be an example of:
External Locus of Control
The person is gregarious, assertive and sociable:
Extroversion
Technological, Socio-cultural, demographic, political/legal and economic forces would be part of what type of force in the global environment?
General Environment
As the founder and CEO of a medium-sized, publicly-traded clothing manufacturing firm, Janet is facing one of the hardest decisions she has ever had to make. Due to a downturn in the economy, her company is losing money. She is being pressured to cut costs to increase profitability. In particular, she has been advised to shut down two plants—one in Des Moines, Iowa, and the other in Akron, Ohio—and shift production from those two plants to China. Labor is less expensive there, and materials cost less there as well. Even with the additional transportation costs from China to the company's regional sales centers, the reduced labor and materials costs would offer substantial savings for Janet's firm. The change should result in an increase in sales, as more garments will be available at a lower price. Although this seems to be the logical decision, Janet is worried about the ethical implications of the decision. There are many groups who will be affected by this decision; some will be harmed, and some will benefit.
Groups that will be harmed: Employees, Akron and Des Moines, Local Suppliers
As the founder and CEO of a medium-sized, publicly-traded clothing manufacturing firm, Janet is facing one of the hardest decisions she has ever had to make. Due to a downturn in the economy, her company is losing money. She is being pressured to cut costs to increase profitability. In particular, she has been advised to shut down two plants—one in Des Moines, Iowa, and the other in Akron, Ohio—and shift production from those two plants to China. Labor is less expensive there, and materials cost less there as well. Even with the additional transportation costs from China to the company's regional sales centers, the reduced labor and materials costs would offer substantial savings for Janet's firm. The change should result in an increase in sales, as more garments will be available at a lower price. Although this seems to be the logical decision, Janet is worried about the ethical implications of the decision. There are many groups who will be affected by this decision; some will be harmed, and some will benefit.
Groups that will benefit: Stockholders, Customers, Distributors.
Professionals amass wealth and pass it on to their children.
High Power Distance
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Steve is motivating his team to succeed by describing how important their task is.
Leading
Values such as thrift and achieving goals
Long-term orientation
Nearly half of all workers feel they could do their boss's job better. A boss who pursues the wrong goals and makes poor use of his or her resources would be considered a(n) __________ boss.
Low Efficiency / Low Effectiveness
Social programs help reduce inequality for the less fortunate
Low Power Distance
Gina and Jason represent the same stakeholder group. This stakeholder group has the most responsibility for deciding the goals of the organization and is frequently in the position of having to juggle the interests of different stakeholders, including themselves. This group includes
Managers
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Carina is assigning mentors to the current group of new hires. She has 15 new hires but only three available mentors.
Organizing
__________ is the tendency people have to be more confident in their own abilities such as driving, teaching, or spelling, than is objectively reasonable.
Overconfidence Bias
Select the most appropriate category of managerial skill for the descriptors below. Grace is busy deciding on the best goals for her team.
Planning
When challenged by Alexandra, Susan emphasizes that she's been working in the company for 5 years, and working as a creativity manager for 15 years, to prove that she is very capable of her job. This indicates that Susan has high levels of
Self-esteem
_________ reflect natural preferences, not permanent facts about how you always behave.
Styles
The professor instructs her students to bring a calculator to the math exam tomorrow. Marcus buys a calculator for 25 cents at a garage sale, but it breaks in the middle of the exam. Susana Purchases a fancy calculator at Best Buy for $75 and worked well. Sana buys a calculator at the Dollar store and worked well. Which student's purchase can be considered Inefficeint but Effective?
Susana
Competitors, Distributors, Customers and Suppliers would be part of what type of force in the global environment?
Task Environment
What ethical rights do the employees have?
The right to safe working conditions, fair compensation and to be treated in a just manner.
What ethical rights do the shareholders have?
The right to timely and accurate information about their investments
Bullying from Alexandra can seriously impact Susan's attitude toward her job, such as ____. Employees are more likely to quit their jobs when the level of such attitude is too low.
job satisfaction
In addition to leading, the essential managerial tasks are
planning, organizing, and controlling.
Twenty-five percent of workers said that their boss is a Missing Boss, the type who is never around. A boss who isn't around to manage will not be very effective. Effective managers are those who choose the right organizational goals to pursue and have
the skills to utilize resources efficiently.
