Management Test 2 (6,7,8 & 9)

According to a 2015 article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, researchers found that experiment subjects performing a task that required intense focus performed poorly when they received notification of a text or call on their phone during the experiment. Being "always on" for work means you are

Always distracted

Corporate culture is rooted in

An organization's goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to labor, customers, investors, and the greater community.

Procter & Gamble needs many different skills to put together a new product launch. They need

A cross-functional team

Edward Jones is a national financial advisor firm. They have 14,000 advisors, most of whom run a one-person office. The advisors far outnumber the central staff. Edward Jones benefits from

A flat organization with more autonomy and faster communications

Freddie Mac, a financial services company, in Virginia allows job-sharing, which means two people share a job that is normally one full-time job. Each person works part-time, 3 days per week. Freddie Mac keeps specialist skills that are hard to replace, and the two employees keep their careers on track. What is this an example of?

A flexible work arrangement

As an employee, Mohammed is more comfortable when management confidently make decisions and give directions. He prefers a stable environment and enjoys working in an organization with efficient operations. He prefers an organization to have its policies, procedures, and rules written down in detail. He would fit best in a company with

A formal structure

Burger King is a fast-food restaurant with locations around the world. Because of the cultural and legal differences between countries, the restaurant management uses

A geographic departmentalization

Procter & Gamble has fickle customers and needs to rapidly innovate new products. It benefits from implementing

A matrix organization to manage a wide variety of demographic-specific products or services

Jackson is an engineer at a computer manufacturer with offices in the US, Europe, and South America. His New York-based team reports to their office's head product manager. The team also reports to the CTO, who is based in Germany. What type of structure is Jackson's company using?

A matrix structure

What is an advantage of a network structure?

A network enables a firm to adopt to change in the marketplace

Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational manufacturer of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its credo, on a stone at the entrance to headquarters, says that stockholders come fourth, after customers, employees, and communities. The credo is

A statement of values

In the past, HR focused on rule compliance and tracked simple metrics like number of training hours delivered. They are now required to focus on results and outcomes, not only compliance. What must HR do to meet the new requirements from management?

Align the people strategy with the company's business strategic goals and focus on outcomes

Matrix organizations have a design that:

Allows product managers to have control over product-related matters, and functional department managers to have authority over policy relating to their function, such as accounting

At The Ritz-Carlton, the Credo and The Employee Promise are displayed in common areas and in each office. In addition, all employees—known as "our ladies and gentlemen"—have a pyramid on their desk that shows the annual goals, vision, mission, and motto. The pyramids are

Artifacts

Which of the following statements is true of the organizational design and the life cycle of a firm?

As firms matures, it tends to emphasize division of labor.

Given the cost and operational impacts of turnover, organizations have an incentive to ensure that new hires assimilate quickly. Which of the following orientation approaches would be more effective in onboarding a new employee?

Assigning a Buddy

An instructor who is free to choose the textbook, design the course content, and use any relevant materials when delivering lectures has high levels of

Autonomy

CORE-Econ is a nonprofit organization created to bring out a new economics textbook, The Economy. The book designer, Fire&Lion, has found that book layouts are much more successful when the designers are independent of the textbook authors. The organization design for CORE-Econ should emphasize ________ for the designers.

Autonomy

In the United States Navy, a ________ is generally a temporary organization composed of ships, aircraft, submarines, military land forces, or shore service units assigned to fulfill a specific mission for a limited time. This does not require a formal and permanent fleet reorganization and can be dissolved after the mission is completed.

Task force

In the Harry Potter movies, the Minister of Magic suppresses disagreement and conflict. People feel they cannot offer different opinions. Under the Ministry of Magic,

The community exhibits groupthink

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, says "Collective bargaining means one contract covers everyone. Such contracts do not reflect individual contributions. Instead unionized companies typically base promotions and raises on seniority, not merit." Why would an adjunct professor choose to join a union, where his individual contribution would not be recognized?

Unionization can mean higher wages and better conditions

Team cohesiveness is the extent that members are attracted to the team and are motivated to remain in the team. Members of highly cohesive teams

Value their membership

CORE-econ has written a new free economics textbook. The authors include 53 people in 3 countries: Colombia, France, and the United States. They coordinated through a version of GitBooks called the Electric Book. Because of the distances, the team did not meet in person and functioned as a

Virtual team

Lumen Learning works with professors all over the country to edit its new biology textbook. The professors interact through Google Docs, commenting on the text and its revisions. The professors don't need to meet in person. They are a

Virtual team

The Google Founders' Award is a special award for entrepreneurial achievement at Google Inc. The awards are given in the form of stock grants. The awards

Support the corporate strategy to innovate.

BITS is a consulting firm offering software and systems administration services. The company allows employees to come in late or leave early at their discretion. Employees must still average 40 hours a week, but BITS only requires that employees be in the office from 10 am to 2 pm. Employees use this policy to avoid rush hour in Washington, DC. We can conclude that

BITS values productivity over face time

Bill Gore was the inventor of Gore-Tex, a fabric popular in many sports. When building his company, he wanted to harness the fast decision-making, diverse perspectives, and collaboration of small teams. His approach was that "We're all in the same boat," sharing risks and rewards and committed to what's best for the company and its long-term success. One advantage of teams is

Better communication

McDonald's old mission statement said, "Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which centers on an exceptional customer experience—People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion." McDonald's Restaurants do well with division of labor, but the mission statement suggests they want to focus on their organization's

Common Purpose

Edgar Schein, a prominent organizational psychologist, identified four key elements of an organization's structure. Schein proposes that these elements are instrumental in defining the organization's culture. The four elements are

Common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority

At Valve, a Seattle game developer, all employees have desks on wheels. They roll their desks around depending on the projects they join or leave. The company has even designed an intranet app so colleagues could locate each other easily. It displays an office map, in real-time, showing where people have plugged in their computers. The team uses the desks-on-wheels to improve

Communication

Baseball is not an inherently safe sport. Whenever several players are involved in a play, the risk for collisions is high. Teamwork and ________ dramatically reduce the risk of mishaps.

Communication

Conflict can be productive or destructive. Budget cuts and poor management have left you and your teammates scrambling to meet your respective project deadlines. This situation might be expected to result in:

Competition over resources

You've been tasked with assembling a team to conduct an environmental scan and update your organization's PESTEL analysis and given carte blanche to select team members. In evaluating potential team members, your priority should be to:

Create a blend of skills and socio-cultural experience

To deliberately initiate culture change at company is an uphill struggle. Most employees tend to return to familiar ways of doing business. To succeed, executives need to

Create a sense of urgency, model the changes that they want, and show commitment to the culture

Like people, organizations change as they age and grow. Each growth stage encompasses an evolutionary phase of growth and a revolutionary phase. Dr. Greiner's model uses five phases:

Creativity, direction, delegation, coordination, and collaboration

A firm's statement of values requires a lot of pruning. There are many acceptable values, but to be effective, the list must be short. Executives choose the most important values. Therefore, the clue to ________ is in what is chosen.

Culture

The banking industry is heavily regulated to prevent crises like the Great Recession of 2008. At the same time, it can be very competitive, with bankers each trying to win deals. A company in this industry may have two cultures, one to enforce regulations and another to make the sales or investment decisions. The employees working on regulations need to be

Detail-oriented

In the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP), companies can be scored on seven dimensions that reflect their culture. These include

Detail-oriented, agressive, and people-oriented

After a new company has developed a customer base, management needs to build more structure into the organization. In Greiner's model, the ________ will focus on accounting, and capital management will drive most business decisions.

Direction phase

In the 1950s, the TV show I Love Lucy made fun of assembly lines. Lucy takes work in a candy factory, and her job is simple: wrap the candy as it moves past on the assembly line. Of course, things don't go well for Lucy. Her simple job, wrapping the candy, is an example of

Division of labor and specialization

The Reverend Lawrence Biondi was a controversial figure at St. Louis University. Campus dissension erupted with Biondi's proposed policies on faculty evaluations, which weakened the status of tenure. When asked about his approach to leadership for accomplishing his bold vision, Biondi said he is a "my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy." Biondi's approach to conflict resolution was

Dominating

Xinhua, the official news agency of China, commented on the dispute between the US and North Korea in August 2017, writing, "Venting cannot become a guiding policy for solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula." Xinhau is accusing the leaders of North Korea and the US of

Emotional conflict

Including "up and coming" employees in meetings, conferences, and other events is one approach to

Employee development

Half of the total revenue generated by S&P 100 firms is from outside the US. Qualcomm, a telecommunications equipment company, gets about 87 percent of its revenue internationally and has enjoyed average revenue growth of over 25 percent for the past 10 years. In order to serve its customers, Qualcomm should focus on hiring

Employees with range of backgrounds and skill sets to connect with its diverse customers

To coordinate efforts, managers must also take into account

Employees' preference, job satisfaction, and engagement

The Ritz Carlton is a luxury hotel chain. The Ritz has calculated that the lifetime value of a customer is a quarter million dollars. To keep customers happy and coming back, they

Empowers employees to spend $2,000 per incident to help out customers, without asking a manager

Nick works with a large team at a social media company. He has proposed and finished several projects which the company funded and completed. He has a great sense of pride in doing his job. He has worked with the company for four years now but has yet to see a promotion. Nick works for a company with a:

Flat hierarchy structure

________ include reduced workload (part time), compressed work weeks, and remote work (telework). For example, working from home can save employees 10 hours or more of commuting time each week.

Flexible work arrangements

Homeland Security has many rules, regulations, and procedures. New employees have to learn a lot before they are ready to work alone. This is the place for someone who likes

Formalization

The ________ involves a period of orientation and getting acquainted. Uncertainty is high during this stage, and people are looking for leadership and authority.

Forming stage

Jim and Natasha started an interior design business five years ago. At first, it was just Jim taking care of the business side of things while Natasha focused on design, but as the business grew, they hired people to help. Now they have a team of 20 organized into the following areas: designers, operations and finance, sales and marketing, and purchasing. What kind of structure have they implemented in their business?

Functional

Nick works with a large team at a social media company. He has proposed and finished several projects which the company implemented. He has a great sense of pride in doing his job. The company has three products currently, and the sales division and marketing division are responsible for increasing product adoption. Nick works in the marketing division and often gets marketing campaign ideas from talking with the customer service division and the salespeople. He enjoys the information communication in the company. Nick works for a company with a:

Functional departmentalization structure

IBM's credit department reduced 4 positions to one and shortened the processing time for credit requests. This flatter organization structure resulted in

Greater productivity

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that benefit costs average $11.12 in June 2017, compared to the total compensation cost of $35.28, or about 32 percent. Companies that want to attract more parents could offer more

Healthcare benefits

Some of the visible clues to a company's culture are

How employees dress, snack areas and candy jars, and plaques and awards

Bob works in a tile manufacturing firm. The tile material is mixed in giant bowls and flattened by pressing it through giant rollers. Bob's job is to stand over the rollers and watch for defects. Safeguards are minimal. If his manager is unwilling to address the situation, Bob should complain to Multiple Choice Question

Human Resources management

________ involves enticing quality employees to an organization, identifying measurements that assist employees to remain focused to meet the organization's goals, and rewarding employees for their work efforts to keep them engaged.

Human resource management

According to Robert Half Management Resources, most change efforts fail because of

Inadequate communication

Montgomery College advertises continuously for adjunct professors. The college wants a large inventory of candidates so that they can replace teachers quickly. Demand is uncertain and they must sometimes hire in a week before classes start. The HR department receives a large number of applications for positions. To keep costs low, the college uses keyword filters to reduce the candidate pool. What is the downside to this approach?

Keywords filters are not able to assess teaching proficiency

Between 2014 and 2017, General Motors paid more than $2 billion in fines, penalties, and settlements due to faulty ignition switches, a flaw that led to vast recalls and at least 124 deaths. The fault was identified in 2002, but it took GM engineers and managers a decade to fix it. An independent consultant hired to investigate attributed this to a culture that rewarded conformity and silenced bad news. Senior executives were forced to investigate and fire employees after widespread media reports. These executives

Lacked an adequate sense of urgency

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks voluntary and involuntary job separations. The number of voluntary separations was 3.2 million in July 2017, a rate of 2.2 percent per month. There were 1.8 million involuntary separations in July 2017, a rate of 1.2 percent per month. Involuntary separations are

Layoffs and firings

Before the 9/11 attack in the US, the FBI was focused on catching criminals after the fact. The investigation into the attack showed that the FBI and CIA had enough information to stop the attacks but failed to communicate. After 9/11, Director Robert Mueller flipped the priority to intelligence, gathering information and systematically sharing it. Mueller recognized the organization had failed to

Make a coordinated effort

Google shares its research on work in a website called ReWork.withGoogle.com. On teams, Google says great teams are not a product of great players. Instead, the most important dynamic is psychological safety, meaning team members can speak up without fear of embarrassment or punishment. With this, teams bring together people with diverse skills and

Make something that nobody could do alone

Which is the recommended approach to employee development? Employees are responsible for their own development. Managers have an important role to play to help employees develop their potential. Managers will invest time in developing employees when they demonstrate personal loyalty.

Managers have an important role to play to help employees develop their potential.

Departmentalization often leads to the problem of silos. Employees in different departments do not talk to each other regularly. Issues between departments go up the management chain for senior management to resolve. A ________ fixes this by giving each employee two managers with different specialties.

Matrix structure

Intel runs an employee development program with a very specific goal: transferring skills between employees. Instead of matching high-level executives with newer hires, people are matched based on their strengths. Intel uses its matchmaking software to train a range of different employees by matching them directly with someone who knows what they need to know. Intel's program is a form of

Mentoring

A new investment product, housing revenue bonds, requires expertise in back-office processes, accounting policy, legal issues, and, of course, a portfolio manager's judgment on value. Difficulties at any step will influence the value of the investment. The opinions of the experts are interdependent, so the portfolio manager recommends a team approach for

More efficiency

A ________ structure tries to borrow the flexibility of a social system. The goal of this structure is to achieve rapid organizational evolution and adaptation to constantly changing external and internal environments.

Network

Rene's company decides to fire her for an expensive error in judgment that led to a large fine for the company. She is black, Muslim, and a gay mother. Can she sue the company under the US discrimination laws?

No. The law does not protect her from dismissal for good cause

In the ________, consensus develops around who the leader or leaders are, and individual member's roles. Interpersonal differences begin to be resolved, and a sense of cohesion and unity emerges. Team performance increases during this stage as members learn to cooperate and begin to focus on team goals.

Norming stage

When John Kelly was appointed as White House chief of staff in 2017, he set new ________ for the staff. These were paraphrased as, "Stop Bickering, Get in Early, and Make an Appointment."

Norms

A 2017 study by Brandon Hall Group showed that 90% of organizations use contingent labor, and all of these expect to increase their use over the next year. Why would so many organizations use staff with no loyalty to the company?

Part-time and contingent emloyees can be a flexible, budget-friendly resource

Warby Parker has been making and selling prescription glasses online since 2010. It designs its own glasses and sells directly to customers, cutting out the middleman and keeping prices low. It works to ensure the entire team works well together by insisting everyone helps keep break areas clean or sending random employees out to lunch together. Warby Parker culture is

People-oriented

Work Rules is a book written by Laszlo Bock, who is the former Senior Vice President of People Operations (HR) at Google. Work Rules is a no-holds-barred account of Google's philosophies and practices in HR management. One chapter is titled "Pay Unfairly." It encourages discrimination, but is it illegal discrimination? One role of human resource management is

Planning compensation arrangements that are legally defensible

Sports journalist Nick Dimengo described the Seattle Seahawks, a professional football team, this way in April 2015: "Seattle has proved that it's not how the job gets done, but that it does get done, relying on one another to compete and contribute in order to reach their goals—which they often do because of the chemistry and trust that they have. Based on this description, which of the key characteristics of effective teams is working for the Seattle Seahawks?

Positive group dynamics

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, popularized an employee performance approach called Rank-and-Yank. Employee performance was ranked and the bottom 10 percent were fired. "Neutron Jack" famously fired thousands of workers. This approach initially worked for GE because it was overstaffed and needed to fire people. Microsoft used a similar system until 2013, and it led to subtle sabotage as employees sought to hurt colleagues' ranking. In the language of human resources, these approaches are

Rating scales

GE's SVP of Global Operations, Shane Fitzsimons, wrote a 2016 article for Fast Company magazine, stating what kind of person GE wants to hire. For example, he writes, "the kind of person who succeeds at GE is humble." The article shows GE's approach to ________ candidates.

Recruiting

Human resource managers must understand federal and locals laws in their activities. ________ particularly require a knowledge of the law.

Recruitment and selection, safety and health, and employee and labor relations

Karl plans to start an insurance company offering annuity policies online. He figures the cost savings from operating online and with automated systems will save a bundle and make him rich. But as he sets up shop, his lawyer explains that government regulations would require a physical presence in the state and physical records. Since the contracts are for decades, the public wants to know that insurers will honor the agreement. The contracts must survive any personal misfortunes. In designing an insurance organization, Karl needs to consider the

Regulatory environment

Reston Property Management has new employees follow an experienced employee in their daily activities. Employees visit properties, talk to clients, and place work orders for repairs or maintenance. The new employees gain more confidence, seeing the real work. This approach is Multiple Choice Question

Shadowing

Procter & Gamble is a consumer products company. It launches many new products every year. The people who develop each new product must understand consumer tastes, distribution, manufacturing, marketing, accounting, and legal issues. P&G uses teams because the group members

Share a common goal with interpedendent constraints that can be overcome by their synergy

The job characteristics model argues that ________ can lead to high-quality performance, high internal motivation, and high satisfaction.

Skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback

Why is it important that all the key elements of HR be aligned with the organization's strategy?

So the right rewards are linked to employee contributions to further the organization's goals

Paul looks forward to working with his team. They are a good group that looks out for each other and the success of the group. Paul's team is an example of

Social cohesion

Tom Price, US Secretary of Health and Human Services in early 2017, ignored Trump's promises to "Drain the Swamp" in Washington and spent nearly $1 million on private and military jets in the first months of the administration. Although Dr. Price resigned amidst the resulting criticism, his behavior reflected the administration's lack of

Social cohesion

An investigation of the safety issues with the Chevrolet Cobalt car blamed GM's company culture in part. Mary Barra, the CEO, described the "GM Nod" as when everyone nods in agreement to a proposed plan of action, but then leaves the room expecting someone else to handle it. The GM Nod is a form of

Social loafing

Guiseppe has been manufacturing puppets for a while, but his current crew cannot keep up with demand. Currently, each employee works on every step of the process, from cutting the wood to painting the eyes. Guiseppe's crew can do more if each person will ________.

Specialize in certain tasks

Starbucks focuses on making coffee. By ________, they are faster, more consistent, and their production costs are lower than McDonald's. Although they have an advantage in the coffee department, they fall well short of par in the food department.

Specializing in making coffee

Olivia and her sister Rachel started a small interior design business together. However, just a few weeks after they launched, their administrative assistant quit and two weeks after that, Rachel fired their consultant, who had been contracted to find potential clients for the business. Their business was struggling to exit which stage of team development?

Storming

USAA, an insurance company for military families, asks employees to identify with their customers. According to BusinessWeek, their initial training involves reviewing deployment letters like the ones soldiers get telling them to get their affairs in order before reporting for duty on a specific day and time, eating MREs (meals ready to eat) like the ones soldiers eat, and reading real letters from soldiers in the field to their families back home. At USAA,

The corporate culture reinforces the brand, which empasizes service to military

Amazon competes with low prices, selection, quick deliveries, and easy returns. Employees know they succeed through efficiency improvements in any part of the process. Customers rely on Amazon for prices, selection, and easy service. What does this illustrate about the relationship between Amazon's culture and brand?

The culture and the brand reinforce each other

It took Boeing 6 years to produce the first 787 aircraft, and it will take another 6 years to break even from the $32 billion investment. Design engineers may move on even before the plane leaves the ground. The company needs people and a culture that works for a future longer than the average career today. The culture is shaped by

The industry

Edward Jones is a national financial advisor firm. They have 14,000 advisors, most of whom run a one-person office. The advisors have a great deal of autonomy to manage the customer relationship. This means

The organization benefits from greater productivity, innovation, and customer service

Effective teams know how their work contributes toward an organizational goal. The team leader reminds members of how each team member makes business success possible. In other words,

The purpose of the team must be clearly defined in concrete and measurable objectives

In 2013, Microsoft was losing ground to Google and Amazon. CEO Steve Ballmer announced changes aimed at the culture. His letter asked for "more emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, more emphasis on employee growth and development" and announced "no more curve [or ratings.] ... Managers and leaders will have flexibility to allocate [compensation] in the manner that best reflects the performance of their teams and individuals, as long as they stay within their compensation budget." Ballmer used ________ to foster culture change.

The reward system

In 2000, AOL and Time Warner merged. The deal was valued at $350 billion. Ten years later, Time Warner sold AOL for about $3 billion. Mr. Parson, the president of Time Warner before the merger, said afterward that "The business model sort of collapsed under us, and then finally this cultural matter. . . . It was beyond certainly my abilities to figure out how to blend the old media and the new media culture. They were like different species, and in fact, they were species that were inherently at war." "Culture" here means:

The shared values, attitudes and beliefs that determine the organization's operating behavior

In September 2017, Target fired the first salvo of this year's holiday hiring wars, saying that it would raise its minimum hourly wage to $11 in October (from $10) and then to $15 an hour by the end of 2020. Target, Walmart, and other retailers compete for seasonal workers at the holidays. With the unemployment rate at 4.3%, retailers need to up their game. Target is responding to

The supply and demand for workers

Outward Bound builds teams by having groups of strangers rough it in an outdoor adventure. There are individual challenges like rock climbing, as well as group challenges like putting up a shelter for the night. The group sleeps on a tarp to conserve body warmth when there is frost on the ground. The tarp is the difference between sleeping and being too cold to sleep. The trick is rotating so that no one spends the entire night near the cold edge. On the first night, though, the group does not know this and someone is usually too cold to sleep. This means

The team lacks expertise

Netflix's pioneering approach to culture, like not needing permission to take time off or its policy of no annual employee reviews, is meant to attract "fully formed adults" who are okay with the business being run like a pro-sports team rather than a family. To make sure candidates get the message, Netflix includes a long manifesto, "Culture at Netflix," on their website. This statement represents

The values level of culture

Apple and Microsoft are competitors in selling computer operating systems, the MAC OS and Windows. Yet they have very different cultures and values. Apple is known for design and attention to detail. Microsoft is aggressive, launching products before they are finished. Both cultures reflect

Their founders