Management Review 3

Dysfunctional turnover is the loss of high-performing employees due to unplanned downsizing. T or F

False

Product departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for particular kinds of customers. T or F

False

Which of the following statements about team development is true? Select one: a. The growth stages are forming, norming, and performing. b. Group cohesion is relatively strong at the informing stage. c. Team performance begins to decline at the de-norming stage. d. Decline will inevitably occur in every team. e. None of these statements about team development is true.

a. The growth stages are forming, norming, and performing. The growth stages are forming, storming, and norming. There is no informing stage. Decline can happen but is not inevitable if the process is managed well.

Which of the following statements about the organic form of organization design is true? Select one: a. The organic form of organization design is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge. b. The organic form of organization design works best in stable business environments. c. The organic form of organization design is better suited to using organizational design techniques based upon functional departmentalization and centralized authority. d. The organic form of organization design is typically less appropriate than the mechanistic approach for the environments in which todays businesses compete. e. All of these statements about the organic form of organization design are true.

a. The organic form of organization design is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge. Organic organizations work best in dynamic business environments, are loosely defined, and are more appropriate for today's businesses.

Which of the following training methods is most appropriate for imparting information or knowledge to trainees? Select one: a. group discussions b. lectures and planned readings c. role-playing d. case studies e. coaching and mentoring

b. lectures and planned readings

____ means providing opportunities for employees to develop the job-specific skills, experience, and knowledge they need to do their jobs or improve their performance. Select one: a. Supervising b. Directing c. Training d. Mentoring e. Mediating

c. Training

In the nursing home industry, pairing two younger workers with an older worker creates more job opportunities for the older workers. Furthermore, this pairing could be a significant advantage in nursing homes where an older worker may have more sensitivity to aging problems. This would be an example of a type of mentoring called ____. Select one: a. awareness training b. coaching c. diversity pairing d. social integration e. acculturation

c. diversity pairing

Full compliance with federal law is enough to ensure that an organization cannot incur liability in sexual harassment complaints. T or F

False

The Big Five dimension of conscientiousness is the degree to which someone is cooperative, polite, flexible, forgiving, good-natured, tolerant, and trusting. T or F

False

Using reciprocal interdependence, work must be performed in succession because one group or jobs outputs become the inputs for the next group or job. T or F

False

Autonomy is the degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs. T or F

True

In the decision-making process, teams can do a much better job than individuals in defining the problem and generating alternative solutions. T or F

True

The coordination of departmental activities tends to be more difficult with the geographic approach to departmentalization than with the other approaches. T or F

True

Which of the following statements about functional departmentalization is true? Select one: a. Functional departmentalization allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists. b. Functional departmentalization increases costs by reducing duplication. c. Functional departmentalization complicates communication and coordination for departmental managers. d. Functional departmentalization requires the same kinds of functional departments in any company. e. Functional departmentalization is also called free-form specialization.

a. Functional departmentalization allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists. Functional departmentalization lowers costs by reducing duplication. People within a department organized by functional departmentalization have an easy time communicating with one another. One company that uses functional departmentalization might have an accounts receivable department while another may only have an accounting department.

____ is one of the disadvantages associated with the use of work teams. Select one: a. Storming behavior b. Social loafing c. Group negation d. Outsourcing e. Stonewalling

b. Social loafing

Bentley College launched a comprehensive diversity initiative, which includes frequent diversity retreats for faculty, staff, and student leaders. What basic type of diversity training is Bentley using? Select one: a. diversity audits b. awareness training c. skills-based diversity training d. diversity mentoring e. acculturation

b. awareness training Awareness training is designed to raise employees' awareness of diversity issues and to challenge the underlying assumptions or stereotypes they may have about others.

Diversity helps companies grow by ____. Select one: a. creating discrimination benchmarks b. improving the quality of problem solving c. undoing targeting mistakes d. requiring the centralization of all marketing and human resources activities e. punishing those who have engaged in discrimination

b. improving the quality of problem solving

With ____ departmentalization, most employees report to two bosses. Select one: a. geographic b. matrix c. product d. customer e. functional

b. matrix

Which of the following team sizes usually provides the best performance? Select one: a. 2 to 3 b. 6 to 9 c. 15 to 20 d. more than 20 e. All sizes tend to perform equally well.

b.6 to 9

Unlike ____, which punishes companies for not achieving specific gender and race differences in their work forces, ____ programs seek to benefit both organizations and their employees by encouraging organizations to value all kinds of differences. Select one: a. affirmative action; self-monitoring b. diversity; self-monitoring c. diversity; affirmative action d. affirmative action; diversity e. federal agency monitoring; self-monitoring

d. affirmative action; diversity

The two basic types of diversity training programs are ____. Select one: a. mentoring and role-playing b. organizational plurality and individual autonomy c. role-playing and computer simulation d. computer simulation and role-playing e. awareness training and skills-based diversity training

e. awareness training and skills-based diversity training

To ensure that sexual harassment laws are followed and not violated, companies should ____. Select one: a. respond immediately when sexual harassment is reported b. write a clear, understandable, strongly worded policy that is well publicized within the company c. make sure they are acting in compliance with not only federal but also local laws d. respect the privacy of the accused and the accusers e. do all of these

e. do all of these

In order to be considered ____, recruitment, selection, training, performance appraisals, and employee separations must be valid and be directly related to the important aspects of the job and identified by a careful job analysis. Select one: a. employee related b. reliable c. concrete d. competitive e. job-related

e. job-related

A(n) ____ organization is an organization that is characterized by specialized jobs and responsibilities; precisely defined, unchanging roles; and a rigid chain of command based on centralized authority and vertical communication. Select one: a. modular b. departmentalized c. standardized d. organic e. mechanistic

e. mechanistic

A producer of mobile aerial work platforms rewards employees for the number of basic skills they can perform rather than for the jobs to which they are assigned. Prior to initiating this system, pay increases were based on a merit system. The merit system is still in effect; however, the new program emphasizes continued acquisition of new skills. The company uses ____. Select one: a. hourly wages b. gainsharing c. piecework d. retained earnings e. skill-based pay

e.skill-based pay Skill-based pay is a compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge.