quiz 4

________ is the first step in action research.

Diagnosing the organization

________ are the rules of thumb that help people simplify decision making.

Heuristics

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

IT systems cannot be used to make nonprogrammed decisions.

________ is an OD technique designed to improve the effectiveness of interdependent groups.

Organizational mirroring

The upper management of a toy company has decided that more divisions would be useful. They decided that one-year-olds have different needs than two-year-olds, so they created a division for each age. They also decided that people in the northern part of the state have different needs than the people in the central part of the state and the southern part of the state, so they created three more divisions. Lastly, they decided that because they serve schools, daycares, families with many kids, and families with few kids, they needed four more divisions. How would an expert on organizational structures MOST LIKELY rate this strategy?

Poor; operating that many divisions will drastically increase operation costs.

Which of the following statements is FALSE? 2

Reengineering is an incremental organizational change.

Which of the following statements BEST describes the communication of a company where all communication takes place via electronically-transmitted verbal communication?

Their communication is not as rich as it could be.

Which of the following OD techniques is BEST to use when change causes conflict?

bargaining

According to March and Simon, decision makers are constrained by ________, an ability to reason that is limited by the capabilities of the human mind itself.

bounded rationality

An important tactic for influencing decision making is to ________, that is, to determine what issues and problems decision makers will consider.

control the agenda

When revolutionary change must be implemented, which of the following should managers NOT do?

disregard employee commitment to the change

Internal or external change agents MOST OFTEN use ________ to provide information on how a change will personally affect organizational members.

education and communication

A performance program allows organizational members to be creative when faced with unusual situations.

false

Any power that an individual has in the workplace comes from his or her formal position in an organization.

false

Chain networks are common when there is reciprocal task interdependence.

false

Communication takes place whenever a person speaks to another person.

false

Escalation of commitment is rare in organizations, but is more common in people's personal lives.

false

Most employees are excited when change occurs in an organization because they view the change as beneficial for the whole organization.

false

Norms are formal rules and regulations that cultivate the work attitudes and behaviors that are valuable to an organization.

false

Organization change is a series of techniques and methods for increasing the adaptability of organizations.

false

Organizational culture is a primary force for change within an organization.

false

Organizational design is the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve an organization's goals.

false

Reaching a common understanding in communication means that people have to agree with each other.

false

Revolutionary change is gradual, incremental, and narrowly focused.

false

Reward power is the power to control and use organizational resources to accomplish organizational goals.

false

Small-batch technology is used when a customer wants a large quantity of a certain product delivered a few items at a time.

false

Smaller organizations do not have to worry about the effects of global, economic, and political forces on their activities.

false

The values and assumptions in an organization's culture have little effect on organizational effectiveness.

false

Total quality management is an intensive, one-time effort by all of an organization's functions to find new ways to improve the quality of its goods and services.

false

All of the following are advantages of group decision making EXCEPT ________.

faster decision making

In persuasive communication, the sender's task is to ________.

influence the receiver's response

Reengineering and total quality management are ________.

interrelated and complementary

Effective communication requires that the sender translate the message into a form that ________.

is understood by the receiver

Which of the following is NOT considered an integrating mechanism?

mutual adjustment

Nonprogrammed decisions can become programmed decisions if they ________.

need to be made repeatedly

A company operating within a ________ focuses on one functional activity in which it excels, such as research and development, and then outsources the rest of its other functional activities to other companies.

network structure

Top management members do not want a tall organization, so they should ________.

offer training to employees to enable them to make more decisions

A company that has low formalization, is decentralized, and has high participation from employees in decision making is considered to have a(n) ________ structure.

organic

According to total quality management, ________ often originates at crossover points or handoffs; that is, when people turn over the work they are doing to people in different functions.

poor quality

If an organization's work force is highly skilled, the organization will LEAST LIKELY ________.

possess rigid rules to regulate behavior

The formal and informal sources of power possessed by managers, functions, and divisions that determine how an organization makes decisions is the organization's ________.

power structure

Decision making in response to ________ occurs when individual, group, or organizational goal attainment and performance are threatened.

problems

According to Lewin's model, ________ the organization in the new desired state is required so that its members do not revert to previous work attitudes and role behaviors.

refreezing

A manager has been told by upper management to communicate a message to several of his employees. The manager needs to convey the message quickly and does not want to have a lengthy discussion about the message. His BEST option would be ________.

sending an email

A contingency is an event or problem that could occur and that must be planned for by having people and resources in place to deal with it.

true

A decentralized structure is appropriate with small-batch technology.

true

All-channel networks are prevalent when there is reciprocal task interdependence.

true

Competition for scarce resources produces conflict.

true

Decisions are made in response to either problems or opportunities.

true

Every conflict episode leaves a conflict "aftermath" that affects the way both parties perceive and respond to future episodes.

true

Force field theory asserts that organizational change occurs when forces for change strengthen, resistance to change lessens, or both happen simultaneously.

true

Grouping by function improves an organization's ability to motivate employees.

true

In a wheel network, most information travels through one central member of the group.

true

Managers engage in organizational politics to increase their power and pursue goals that favor their individual and group interests.

true

Organic structures foster the development of skills that enable employees to be creative and responsive when developing solutions to new problems.

true

Organizational conflict is the self-interested struggle that arises when the goal-directed behavior of one person or group blocks the goal-directed behavior of another person or group.

true

Over time, members internalize the organization's values and the specific rules, norms, and SOPs that govern behavior.

true

Political decision making can lead to a more efficient use of organizational resources.

true

Reciprocal interdependence is more likely to lead to conflict than is sequential interdependence.

true

Reengineering and TQM are highly interrelated and complementary, although one is evolutionary and the other revolutionary.

true

Referent power is possessed by people who gain power and influence in a group because they are liked, admired, and respected.

true

Since each organization faces a different set of contingencies, there is no "one best way" to design an organization.

true

Supervisors in functional structures find monitoring easy because they usually possess high levels of skill in the particular function.

true

Team building is a common method of improving relationships within a group.

true

The hierarchy of authority exemplifies the relative authority that each manager has - extending from the CEO at the top down through the middle managers and first-line managers, to the nonmanagerial employees who actually make the goods or provide the services.

true

The use of information technology (IT) can reduce the effects of biases and heuristics on decision making.

true

Tunnel vision increases organizational inertia because the organization must spend time and effort to secure agreement about the source of a problem before it can even consider how the organization should respond to the problem.

true

Typical instrumental values include working hard, valuing traditions, being creative, taking risks, and maintaining high standards.

true

Kurt Lewin's force-field theory asserts that ________ are the three steps of organizational change.

unfreeze, change, and refreeze

Managers are likely to design an organizational structure that is formal and controlling in all of the following situations EXCEPT ________.

when the technology is complex and hard to understand