Exam 1 practice questions Flashcards
Technical skills are the most important skill set for a Top Manager.
False
“Positive Psychology” explores ways to help people recognize their positive traits or strengths, and nurture them to their full potential.
True
Effective managers must balance the people-focused and technical sides of their jobs.
True
Middle managers set the organization’s direction and make decisions that impact everyone.
False
Leading is the process of monitoring activities, measuring results and comparing them with goals, and correcting performance when necessary.
False
___________ is the process of setting goals for the future, designing appropriate strategies, and deciding on the actions and resources needed to achieve success.
Planning
_____________ is the ability to diagnose situations and predict patterns of behaviors, which result in better decision-making.
Critical thinking
What are the 3 Ps
Planet
Profit
People
________ is using the smallest amount of resources to achieve the greatest output.
efficiency
The people-focused side of a manager’s duties are often described as:
the “art” of management
The four basic management functions include:
planning, organizing, leading, controlling
One goal of the _____________ approach to management is to create, build, and continuously nurture trust among customers, employees, and communities.
sustaining
An organization’s self-defined commitment to the health and well-being of the local and global community beyond its legal obligation is its:
corporate social responsibility
Working through employee conflict, conducting efforts during a crisis, interpreting and responding to internal and external change is an example of which of the following decisional roles?
Disturbance handler
The process of orchestrating people, actions, resources, and decisions to achieve goals is:
organizing
___________ managers tend to engage in decisions involving setting employee schedules, hiring and promoting staff, and changing processes to improve daily tasks and actions, while _______ managers tend to engage in decisions involving establishing partnerships, approve significant purchases, and approving strategic plans.
First-line, Top
The beliefs that shape employee and organizational behaviors and are intended to be timeless may be described as an organization’s:
values
The most __________ process to build the company’s website might be to hire a friend that designs websites on the weekends, while the most _______ process to launch the company’s website might be to hire a professional design firm that will also help make sure the website is recognized by search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
Efficient, effective
Which of the following managerial skills involve the ability to think through complex systems and problems?
Conceptual skills
____________ roles require managers to make judgments and decisions based on available information and analysis of the situation.
Decisional
Negative entropy is the loss of social and market-based energy leading to the decline of a system.
False
The quantitative approach to management involves applying subjective methods to enhance decision making.
False
A Gantt Progress Chart provides managers with immediate visual feedback as to when a project is behind schedule and requires corrective action.
True
The Hawthorne Studies, conducted between 1924 and 1932, seemingly verified that
- Employees are motivated by more than money
- Group dynamics have an impact on worker morale and performance
- Managers encouraged to treat workers as people and to approach groups informally, thereby increasing productivity
Power dynamics in groups is most apparent in situations involving conflict.
True
According to Theory Y, managers have power over employees.
False
In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, which argued that ______________ could increase production by having workers specialize on a task.
division of labor
A form of organization marked by division of labor, managerial hierarchy, rules and regulations, and impersonality is known as which of the following?
Bureaucracy
A combination of setting performance standards, selecting the best worker for the job, and building good relations between managers and employees is called:
a task-management system
Lillian Gilbreth studied the perceptions, emotions, and thoughts of managers, and how these affected work and employees. This work made her a pioneer in the field of:
human resource management
One of the primary philosophies of the quality movement is the ongoing effort to improve a process, method, service, or product. This is called:
continuous improvement
According to Mary Parker Follett, which of the following stages of conflict resolution was ideal?
Integration
The management theory that states that different organizations, situations, and contexts require different approaches is known as:
contingency theory
A kind of equilibrium in which organizations are effective and efficient when managers control and influence people’s behaviors by modifying their motives is a:
cooperative system
A(n) _________ system has the power to change and be changed by external and internal forces.
open
When workers focus on completing a limited number of tasks, it is referred to as:
specialization
A disadvantage to this type of management is that managers and employees feel entitled to their jobs regardless of job performance.
Career orientation
The theorist who used time studies to search for new ways to improve performance through a scientific, quantitative approach was:
Frederick W. Taylor
Which of the following is an example of a quality program?
- Six Sigma
- Lean manufacturing
- Total Quality Management
_______________ is a negative view of the worker that states that people do not like to work; therefore, workers need to be coerced, told what to do, and intimidated.
Theory X
The difference between an inflow or outflow goal and sum of flow is known as a discrepancy.
True
The “Growth and Underinvestment” systems archetype occurs when managers reduce
resource allocation to increase profits temporarily or to avoid risk, with the unintended
consequence of losing its equilibrium in the marketplace.
True
The “Escalation” systems archetype occurs when two efforts compete for the same resources, and the more successful effort today gets more support, regardless of future potential of the
False
The two basic components of a system are stocks and flows.
True
A balancing loop encourages and amplifies change that increases or decreases a stock.
False
Underinvestment is just as risky as overinvestment if an organization is to maintain its equilibrium in the marketplace.
True
The “Tragedy of the Commons” systems archetype occurs when:
Individuals use a common limited resource purely for their own gain
A(n) ______________ approach involves looking at an organization as a whole, as a set of
interrelated parts, and understanding how these parts influence each other.
systems
A _______________ encourages and amplifies change that increases or decreases a stock.
reinforcing loop
The “Fixes that Fail” systems archetype occurs when:
An urgent problem arises and managers are tempted to quickly implement a
short-term solution that in the long-term will not fully correct the problem
Managers create a culture for healthy change when they clearly:
- Understand the company’s mission
- Comprehend the purpose of its subsystems
- Acknowledge the imbalances or discrepancies that feedback loops are imposing
what are the five main disciplines in the book The Fifth Discipline?
- Shared Vision
- Mental Models
- Personal Mastery
- Team Learning
- Systems Thinking
The “Limits to Growth” systems archetype occurs when:
A period of rapid growth due to a reinforcing feedback process is slowed or halted by a counteracting balancing process
In a weak or uncertain economy, companies often fall prey to the acceptance of lowered performance levels. This phenomenon is best represented by which of the common system archetypes?
Eroding Goals
The “Success to the Successful” systems archetype occurs when:
Two efforts or activities compete for the same resources
A visual tool that allows managers to see that change in measurements across a span of time is a:
behavior over time diagram
The time a force, internal or external, takes to have an effect on system behavior is called:
delay
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of what a country produces on an annual basis, representing the size of its economy.
True
Having a blue ocean strategy ensures long-term success of the product.
False
Managers know change is successful when it becomes part of the corporate culture.
True
Conscious aspects of an organization’s culture can be felt and thought.
False
Using technology to cost effectively build relationships with customers is an example of reactive engagement.
False
A _____________ is a repetitive phrase intended to support an organization’s culture, mission, vision, or values.
slogan
An organization’s _____________ environment directly impacts an organization’s operations and performance.
specific
Which of the following is NOT a dimension of a specific environment?
Location
____________ engagement is when a company creates a product of service as an alternative to enhance the customer’s experience.
Proactive
Which of the following is discussed in the text as a key strategy in leading change?
Communication
When companies employ the efforts of its customers and the public to innovate and further its mission, it is called:
crowd sourcing
In Force-Field Analysis, __________ forces help to provide motivation towards achieving a goal.
driving
A collection of beliefs that individuals and groups share to help their organization respond to environmental forces and changes is:
organizational culture
Monitoring positive and negative customer feedback and improving the organization’s products and services accordingly is known as:
Reactive engagement
The people who have the skills, knowledge, creativity, and relationships necessary to optimize an organization’s performance is/are referred to as:
talent
A company’s ___________ combines the forces of the organization that affect how managers set expectations, how employees perform their roles, and how the company interacts with and responds to stakeholders.
internal environment
Events, situations, objects, people, or other artifacts that provide greater meaning to the organization are the company’s _____________.
symbols
Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons why people resist change according to the text?
Shared perspectives
Which of the following is a resource that affects how businesses operate globally?
- water
- energy
- food
Which of the following is described by Joseph Campbell as one of the stages of a hero’s journey?
- Leaving home for an adventure
- Facing barriers that question success
- Returning home successful
7) An organizations blank is its central purpose intended to generate value in the marketplace for profit or community non profit
Mission
