Q1. Which of the following best describes functional strategy?
a. a strategy for determining the firm’s overall attitude toward growth and the way it will manage its businesses or product lines
b. a strategy at the business-unit or product-line level that focuses on improving a firm’s competitive position
c. a strategy by which managers in specific areas decide how best to achieve corporate goals through productivity
d. a strategy that assists first-line managers in making day-to-day decisions about motivating employees
e. a strategy that integrates an organization’s marketing goals into a cohesive whole by focusing on the ideal product mix to achieve maximum profit potential
Q2. Which of the following managers depend most on conceptual skills?
a. first-line managers
b. top managers
c. middle managers
d. marketing managers
e. financial managers
Q3. Which element of an organization is defined by shared experiences, stories, beliefs, and norms?
a. its human resources
b. its product philosophy
c. its corporate culture
d. its mission statement
e. its organizational structure
Q4. Which aspect of the management process involves determining what the organization needs to do and how best to get it done?
a. organizing
b. planning
c. controlling
d. processing
e. monitoring
Q5. Which of the following best describes a mission?
a. an objective that a business hopes and plans to achieve
b. a broad set of organizational plans for implementing decisions made for achieving organizational goals
c. the shared experiences, stories, beliefs, and norms that characterize an organization
d. an organization’s statement of how it will achieve its purpose in the environment in which it conducts business
e. an organization’s competitive standing in the marketplace
Q6. Which of the following are responsible for production and quality control?
a. information managers
b. human resource managers
c. first-line managers
d. operations managers
e. marketing managers
Q7. Starbucks has established itself as the premier marketer of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining its uncompromising principles and continuing to grow. This statement illustrates what aspect of Starbucks’ organization?
a. its strategy
b. its tactic
c. its mission
d. its diversity
e. its profitability
Q8. What does e-partnering involve?
a. buying shares of small companies that provide technology unavailable to the “purchasing” company
b. buying shares of small companies that are similar to the “purchasing” firm
c. linking up to the inventory records of another company
d. sharing a Web server with another company
e. advertising another company on the “purchasing” company’s Web site
Q9. Which variable of SWOT analysis identifies changing consumer tastes, hostile takeover offers, and new government regulations?
a. threats
b. opportunities
c. strategies
d. internal factors
e. weaknesses
Q10. What type of skills requires defining problems and selecting the best course of action to take?
a. human relations skills
b. production skills
c. conceptual skills
d. decision-making skills
e. technical skills
Q11. Which feature characterizes the organization of centralized firms?
a. flat
b. tall
c. very large
d. responsive to change
e. well capitalized
Q12. Acme Oil Company has three divisions: Exploration, Extraction, and Refining. This is an example of process departmentalization.
a. True
b. False
Q13. What style of organization relies almost entirely on employees working on a common project, with little or no underlying functional hierarchy?
a. team
b. virtual
c. learning
d. flexible
e. stratified
Q14. After responsibility for a task is assigned, which of the following comes next?
a. the centralization of the task
b. the liability of the task
c. the span of control is decided
d. the work team is created
e. the granting of authority
Q15. With relatively few layers of managers, what do decentralized organizations tend to reflect?
a. tall organizational structure
b. short organizational structure
c. flat organizational structure
d. elliptical organizational structure
e. triangular organizational structure
Q16. What is the preferred span of control when jobs are more diversified or prone to change?
a. wide
b. narrow
c. tall
d. deep
e. authoritative
Q17. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, stated, “If you don’t let managers make their own decisions, you’re never going to be anything more than a one-person business.” What style of management is Welch proposing?
a. authentic management
b. linear management
c. centralized management
d. group management
e. decentralized management
Q18. What is the process of designing specific jobs that need to be done and identifying the people who will perform them called?
a. departmentalization
b. job specialization
c. group tasks
d. segmentation
e. team cohesion
Q19. Firms typically use the same form of departmentalization at upper and lower levels.
a. True
b. False
Q20. Which of the following best describes accountability?
a. the power to make the decisions necessary to complete a task
b. the obligation employees have to their manager for the successful completion of an assigned task
c. the decision to communicate clear expectations related to assigned tasks
d. the number of people supervised by one manager
e. the duty to perform a financial task
Q21. According to Maslow’s model, a set of needs will be a motivator until which of the following occurs?
a. The needs are satisfied.
b. New needs are identified.
c. The person becomes self-motivated.
d. A supervisor changes the work.
e. The needs are replaced by hygiene factors.
Q22. Which of these behaviors best indicates good organizational citizenship?
a. being willing to help new employees
b. asking for a pay raise
c. meeting job performance standards
d. keeping regular hours
e. using office supplies for business use
Q23. Which of the following works to achieve a more satisfactory fit between workers and their jobs?
a. job redesign
b. team management
c. MBO
d. participative management
e. person-position fitting
Q24. When does turnover occur?
a. when people quit their jobs
b. when managers reprimand staff
c. when employers cut down costs
d. when employees call in sick
e. when benefits are improved
Q25. What is emotionality?
a. the ability of a person to get along with others
b. the degree to which someone tends to be positive or negative
c. the number of things a person tries to accomplish at once
d. the relative rigidity of an individual’s beliefs
e. the likelihood that a person will react aggressively
Q26. The essence behind management by objectives (MBO) is that performance goals are used to direct and motivate behavior.
a. True
b. False
Q27. Michelle has been working at AdCo for five years. The company recently hired a new college graduate to work in a position very similar to Michelle’s position. In a casual conversation with the new hire, Michelle discovers that the new employee is making $4,000 more annually than she is. What might Michelle’s reaction be?
a. Michelle may feel that the psychological contract has been broken.
b. Michelle may feel that her job description no longer applies.
c. Michelle may feel that her supervisor is not empathetic.
d. Michelle may feel that her person-job fit cannot be improved.
e. Michelle may feel that she has benefitted from the Hawthorne effect.
Q28. Which of these is one of the “big five” personality traits?
a. openness
b. logic
c. creativity
d. organization
e. musical talent
Q29. Which of the following allows people to choose their working hours by adjusting a standard work schedule on a daily or weekly basis?
a. job enrichment
b. flextime programs
c. job enlargement
d. job redesign
e. work sharing
Q30. Two-factor theory examines the relationship between effort and performance.
a. True
b. False
Q31. Which term refers to the strategy of paying suppliers and distributors to perform certain business processes or to provide needed materials or services?
a. outsourcing
b. reengineering
c. controlling
d. scheduling
e. warehousing
Q32. Tootsie Roll Industry’s corporate principle, “We run a trim operation and continually strive to eliminate waste, minimize costs, and implement performance improvements,” is an example of which of the following?
a. just-in-time production
b. benchmarking
c. a quality circle
d. competitive product analysis
e. value-added analysis
Q33. When a company turns out costumes in time for Halloween, it creates which type of utility?
a. ownership
b. time
c. form
d. place
e. value
Q34. Thousands of empty jugs move down a conveyor belt at Colgate-Palmolive before stopping to be filled and moving on to be labeled. What type of layout is utilized?
a. supply-chain
b. custom-products
c. hybrid
d. fixed-position
e. same-steps
Q35. When Dell Inc. shares information to improve the overall flow through a system composed of companies working together, it is engaging in which of the following?
a. distribution chain management
b. total quality management
c. supply chain management
d. service channel analysis
e. supplier selection analysis
Q36. Which of the following is the ability of a product to satisfy a human want or need?
a. utility
b. relative advantage
c. content
d. satisfaction
e. capacity
Q37. Which of the following best describes total quality management?
a. the principle that quality belongs to each person who creates it while performing a job
b. the consistency of a product’s quality from unit to unit
c. the sum of all activities involved in getting high-quality products into the marketplace
d. the process by which a company analyzes a competitor’s products to identify desirable improvements
e. a certification program attesting that an operations process has met rigorous requirements
Q38. Which term refers to all the activities involved in making products “goods and services” for customers?
a. operations
b. processes
c. planning
d. scheduling
e. performance
Q39. What term describes the special ability that production does especially well to outperform the competition?
a. supply chain management
b. total quality management
c. process engineering
d. operations capability
e. value-added analysis
Q40. Operations control includes materials management and quality control.
a. True
b. False
