Management Test 2 Practice Problems

When organizations achieve ______________ , they make ongoing horizontal communication and problem solving part of the culture of the organization.

relational coordination

When your manager assigns you a task, you have the _______ to carry out that task as assigned.

responsibility

Engaging in innovation requires a looser structure, while implementing new ideas requires a more rigid structure. Organizations can meet both needs by using an ______________ .

ambidextrous approach

A company that offers $1,000 for the best idea an employee submits each quarter is running _________________ . a skunkworks an idea incubator a new-venture team an internal innovation contest

an internal innovation contest

Layla is applying for a _____________ position, in which she will coordinate the activities of the engineering and manufacturing departments to achieve a 5% reduction in defect rate.

project manager

A company is planning to have a booth at a job fair to recruit for landscapers. In order to help potential applicants decide whether they are a good fit for the job, the company should: a. Have a current employee who is a landscaper help staff the booth and tell interested people both the plusses and minuses of the job b. Encourage everyone who stops by the booth to fill out a job application c. Not share the job description and specifications with people who come to the booth because that is confidential company information

A

A manager is exhibiting ____________ when he believes that all languages, manners of dress, and preferences in food and music are equally valuable. a. ethnorelativism b. stereotyping c. diversity of perspective d. prejudice

A

After job candidates have been recruited, a manager uses a __________ process to determine who is a good fit with the position and the organization and should receive a job offer. a. selection b. recruitment c. performance appraisal d. human resource planning

A

Companies today expect employees to take control of their own careers a. to take control of their own careers b. to expect lifetime employment c. to view other employees as family d. to loyally support company management at all times

A

Scott has asked you for advice about his hiring process. He is concerned that Barcelona is not hiring the right people. He says he doesn't learn much from résumés and says, "I've hired too many people that I thought were amazing in an interview, and they ended up being a dud, and vice versa." What advice would you give? a. Perform a job analysis to clearly identify what skills are needed to perform in each position at Barcelona. b. Only hire people with at least two years' experience in the same position at another restaurant. c. Before interviewing an applicant, have him or her complete an online personality test that has been validated for teachers and social workers. d. In addition to posting positions on Craigslist, use job boards like Monster.com to increase the number of applications received.

A

The job description for the administrative assistant position includes a summary of the job's responsibilities and tasks. a. job description b. job preview c. job analysis d. job specification

A

__________ is important to predict what jobs the organization will need to fill and what knowledge and skills future workers will need to have. a. human resource planning b. recruiting c. employee development d. realistic job previews

A

Scott says about his employees, "They might not always make the choice that I would make. Sometimes they make a better one." From this statement, you can infer that Barcelona is: a. An organization with little accountability b. A decentralized organization c. Best adapted to a very stable environment d. A centralized organization

A decentralized organization

A key skill in the global economy is _______________ to create an organization in which people's differences are leveraged for maximum performance while conflict is minimized. a. job evaluation b. managing diversity c. 360 degree feedback d. recruitment

B

During the staff meeting, the performance of BJ is discussed. BJ works hard but received a poor customer rating, and the manager is told to "figure it out" or fire BJ. Which of the following would be the best approach to try to improve BJ's performance? a. Give BJ a raise because his poor performance is probably a symptom of poor motivation, and money is a great motivator. b. Provide BJ with 360-degree feedback from customers, coworkers, and managers to give him insight into how his behavior is perceived. c. Have BJ attend a restaurant management course at a local college. d. Implement a profit-sharing plan so that all employees receive the same percentage bonus if the restaurant they work at meets its profitability target.

B

The __________ means a larger number of women are choosing not to have mainstream careers, perhaps because of the stress and negative health effects involved. a. female advantage b. opt out trend c. glass cieling d. queen bee syndrome

B

You and several of your classmates interview for a management position at the same company, and when you compare notes afterward, you discover that the interviewer was probably using a ____________ , because each of you was asked the same series of questions. a. nondirected interview b. structured interview c. panel interview

B

Your best friend is coming over to give you an exercise pep talk. According to force-field analysis, what's the best topic for the talk? a. How healthy you'll be once you've started exercising. b. How much exercise you can get into very short periods of time. c. How great you're going to look once you've started exercising. d. How cool it would be to run a marathon.

B

"Under what circumstances should I hire more managers so each can have a narrower span of control?" Check all that apply. a. When most people reporting to each manager will be performing similar work b. When tasks are new and few procedures are in place to guide how work should be done c. When few management support resources, such as technology or people, are in place d. When the work tends to be the same over time and requires little planning

B & C - When tasks are new and few procedures are in place to guide how work should be done - When few management support resources, such as technology or people, are in place

Most companies post jobs on the company intranet or on bulletin boards in common areas like break rooms. This ____________ activity solicits applications from current employees. a. employer branding b. job analysis c. internal recruiting d. external recruiting

C

The CEO of your company has been examining the rates of promotion among male and female managers and is concerned that there might be a glass ceiling at the company. He asks you, "What impact could this phenomenon have on our company?" a. The company is likely to perform better than competitors with more female executives. b. The senior leadership team will have greater diversity of perspective. c. The company may not perform as well as competitors who have several senior-level women. d. It will probably hurt the company's performance, but since fewer women than men attend college, there is little that can be done to promote more women.

C

Your company's human resource manager is out of the office on maternity leave, and you have four open positions to fill in your department. Which of the following tests should you choose if you want to engage applicants in a conversation to determine if they have good communication skills? a. An employment test b. An online check c. An interview d. An application form

C

This law added punitive damages to the compensatory damages already available to parties who can prove intentional discrimination.

Civil Rights Act 1991

More and more work has been moved into Katie's job, and she has kept up with the workload. During her last two performance evaluations, her manager said she deserved to be in a higher pay grade because her responsibilities had grown, but her manager never followed through. Now another position has been eliminated, and her manager is giving Katie most of that person's work. Katie has decided to give her new tasks a very low priority. Reason for Resisting Change: a. Self interest b. distrust c. different viewpoint d. uncertainty

Distrust

This law requires that men and women be paid the same amount of money for doing the same kinds of work.

Equal Pay Act

Passed in 2010, this law requires that firms with 50 or more employees provide health care insurance for their workers or pay a fine if the government must subsidize health care coverage.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Suppose you are the CEO of a start-up toy manufacturer. You know that if your business is to be successful, you have to create at least 10 wildly different toys in the next three years. Which of the following toy designers should you hire? Check all that apply. a. Frankie, who has been in the toy business for 10 years and who knows what he's doing, but who always likes testing a new idea. b. Marie, a stable, committed worker who was with her last company for 15 years. She will do work the way you say it should be done. c. Malcolm, who loves to play. His last boss says that Malcolm was the "chief kid" in his last office. d. Leslie, who is independent and self-confident. She doesn't need people to tell her what to do.

a c & d

Because organizational change is a difficult endeavor, a company may use a change agent , who is an OD expert, to diagnosis problems, develop a training plan, and document performance. a. a creative individual b. an idea champion c. a change agent

a change agent

Managers conduct ____________ when they consider the problems and opportunities that drive change and the factors that restrain change. a. a refreezing b. conflict management c. a large group intervention d. a force field analysis

a force-field analysis

Employees have heard that their company is merging with another company, but management has not made any announcements about how the merger is expected to affect what products the company makes and how it makes them or what the likely effect on the bottom line will be. Employees aren't sure whether the merger will be positive for the firm or not. Reason for Resisting Change: a. Self interest b. distrust c. different viewpoint d. uncertainty

Uncertainty

Functional Structure

activities are grouped together by common function from the bottom to the top of the organization

In new venture teams and skunkworks, managers remove employees from the main body of the company in order to give them: a. Additional rules and regulations so that innovative ideas are implemented correctly b. Additional time, space, and freedom for innovation c. Extra training so that they can learn from more senior members of the organization d. Extra exposure to customers and renegades who can help them dream up new product approaches

additional time, space, and freedom for innovation

For the back of the house, where many employees from dishwasher and prep cook to sous-chef and head chef work to prepare dishes to order, which structure is the best fit? a. A mechanistic structure with a very narrow supervisory span of control b. A mechanistic, centralized structure c. An organic, decentralized structure d. An organic structure with a very wide supervisory span of control

an organic, decentralized structure

In the strategic approach to human resource management, employees are viewed as __________ a. assets b. liabilities

assets

Managers determine that their organization needs ___________ : people throughout the company need to become better at working in teams, at empowering lower-level decision making and at being empowered to make decisions, and at reaching agreement on priorities.

culture change

Employees make greater use of their skills and enjoy more opportunities for professional development in a _______________ organization.

decentralized

Employees doing different kinds of work, such as research and development, manufacturing, and sales, tend to communicate with one another more and coordinate their activities. functional or divisional

divisional

The accounting department in the Carribbean unit consists of three people, so they do not have the budget for much training and don't interact with a range of colleagues with accounting expertise. functional or divisional

divisional

A company has strong ____________ if it continuously seeks new ideas from customers and from looks for ways to use new technologies. a. external coordination b. idea incubators c. internal coordination d. idea champions

external coordination

Employees in each unit tend to be focused on their work specialty rather than on the customer, so the organization can be slow to respond to changes in the business environment. functional or divisional

functional

Employees who do a particular type of work, such as sales or accounting, have more opportunity to develop in-depth expertise. functional or divisional?

functional

A CEO is evaluating her company's _________ when she assesses the value of all employees' knowledge, experience, skills, and capabilities. a. technological know how b. human capital c. creative capacity d. human resource management

human capital

Have you ever been injured on the job and filed for workers' compensation? legal or illegal

illegal

What groups or organizations do you belong to outside of work? legal or illegal

illegal

Facebook purchased Oculus VR, a startup that makes the Oculus Rift headset used for virtual reality games, in the hopes of bringing that technology to many other customers. The social media giant was engaged in _________ a. horizontal linkage b. innovation by acquisition c. closed innovation d. crowdsourcing

innovation by acquisition .

Have you ever held a job under a different name? If so, please provide the name under which you worked. legal or illegal

legal

If you knew that one of your coworkers had submitted phony expense reports because she was on the verge of losing her house, would you tell your boss? Why or why not? legal or illegal

legal

Your manager has ___________ when he has the right to tell you what work to do and to hold you accountable for doing it.

line authority

As an organization becomes more mechanistic, its communication flow becomes ________________ .

more vertical

Even nontechnology companies like GE and Sears were engaged in ____________ by using open source software, releasing the code and allowing anyone to develop applications with it. This approach reduced costs and reduced the time it took to bring a product to market. a. internal coordination b. a new-venture team c. open innovation d. an ambidextrious approach

open innovation

You would study a business's _____________ to see a visual representation of its vertical structure, including the chain of command.

organization chart

The company has grown rapidly, and the expanded workforce includes people in many locations and of diverse backgrounds, leading to conflict. organizational development or training?

organizational development

Managers are concerned that moving to a team-based structure will mean that decisions will be made mostly by their subordinates, reducing the value of the manager job. Reason for Resisting Change: a. Self interest b. distrust c. different viewpoint d. uncertainty

self interest

An organization is engaged in _____________ , a type of discrimination, when its culture permits crude jokes and images that result in a hostile environment for some employees. a. termination b. human resource management c. affirmative action d. sexual harassment

sexual harassment

Federated Investors has a __________ structure , with each mutual fund being managed by several portfolio managers who together take responsibility for the fund's performance.

team based structure

Sometimes when an organization first starts horizontal coordination efforts to promote innovation, team building is needed to help employees communicate with each other and constructively deal with conflict. a. Survey feedback b. large group intervention c. team building

team building

A cafeteria's microwave ovens, its short-order cooks' skills, and its process for setting up the salad bar with fresh vegetables are all part of its ____________ .

technology

Taco Bell and McDonald's are considering adding kiosks in restaurants for customers to place their orders. This ___________ will hopefully make the ordering process more efficient and increase accuracy. a. technology change b. product change

technology change

Customer service supervisors often have angry callers transferred to them, so they would benefit from techniques to help avoid burnout. organizational development or training

training

A manager with many direct subordinates has a ____________ than does a manager with only a few subordinates.

wider span of management