Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
10-140
360. A strength of Generation X managers is likely to be their:
A. loyalty to the firm.
B. individualistic approach to problem solving.
C. ability to provide feedback to employees.
D. willingness to sacrifice other aspects of their lives to achieve success in the workplace.
361. The generation born between 1980 and 2000 is known as Generation:
A. We
B. Me two
C. Y
D. Z
362. As a group, Millennials tend to be:
A. older and more mature than Gen Xers.
B. less interested in technology than Baby Boomers.
C. inefficient, easily bored, and uncommitted.
D. adaptable, tolerant, and tech savvy.
363.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
Even across generations, motivation is likely to:
A. remain a mystery because researchers cannot quite pinpoint where it comes from.
B. come from the job itself.
C. develop within employees over time.
D. will diminish among employees who achieve at high levels.
364. The workplace is now:
A. two generations deep.
B. three generations deep.
C. four generations deep.
D. five generations deep.
365. Baby Boomers as managers need to understand that:
A. Gen X and Gen Y employees will be motivated by flexibility in the workplace.
B. Gen X and Gen Y employees will be motivated by a good deal of structure in the
workplace.
C. Millennials are motivated from within, while Gen Xers need rewards.
D. Gen Xers are motivated by knowing that they can keep their jobs for a lifetime.
10-142
366. When reflecting upon the newer generation, each older generation says the same
thing:
A. their generation had it better.
B. the newer generation “breaks the rules.”
C. their generation had a more difficult time of it.
D. newer generations are smarter.
367. According to the Spotlight on Small Business box, “Small Incentives Can Be Big
Motivators”,
A. Relationship building is detrimental to task completion and diverts attention from the
need to be profitable.
B. Small businesses are less likely to be able to devote funds toward employee motivation
strategies.
C. Employees in small businesses have broader responsibilities and more opportunity for
open communication.
D. Positive and negative reinforcement techniques work better than other motivational
theories in small business environments.
368.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
10-143
In order to understand how to motivate the various generations, we need to understand
each generation’s preferred mode of communication. Look at the following chart and fill
in the blank cell.
Generation
Preferred Communication Style at Work
Traditionalists
Face to face
Baby Boomers
Gen Xers
Email
Millennials
Technology such as social media
A. By cell phone
B. By text
C. Meetings and teleconferences
D. Online and social media
Feedback: Baby boomers prefer meetings and teleconferencing.
369.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
Which of the following statements about cultural differences in the workplace is most
accurate?
A. The best way to deal with cultural differences in the workplace is to treat everyone the
same way.
B. Cultural differences were once a major problem, but television, telecommunications, e-
mail, and the Internet have brought people closer together and greatly reduced cultural
differences.
C. Managers must be very aware of cultural differences and recognize that different
employees may respond best to different management and motivational styles.
D. Only firms that hire a lot of foreign-born employees are likely to have problems
dealing with cultural differences. Employees born in the United States tend to have a
common set of values and attitudes, regardless of age or social background.
Feedback: In the future, effective managers will find that they must get to know each worker
personally and tailor the motivational effort to the individual. This is particularly true because
of cultural differences that arise due to the globalization of business and due to differences
between employees from different generations.
370. When it comes to motivating Millennials and Gen Xers, it is important for managers to
know that they have a few things in common. One important likeness is:
A. They don’t like large families
B. They expect change
C. Neither group was raised by baby boomers
D. Neither group has advanced to management positions
Feedback: Due to unprecedented changes in the past twenty years, in almost every external
environment (economic, political, social, etc.), these generations were raised to expect
change.
10-147
375. Alex an employee at Green Spaces Irrigation Systems is pleased that his old
supervisor, Wally retired. “Wishy” Wally, as the crew used to call him, seemed like a
pretty nice guy, but seldom let Alex know if installations were adequate until something
went wrong. The new supervisor starts each day with reviewing yesterday’s successes and
challenges, and gives everyone opportunity to voice their concerns. One of the best assets
of __________ managers is their ability to provide timely feedback and to understand that
employees want regular performance reviews.
A. Baby boomers
B. Generation X
C. Generation Y
D. Millennials
Feedback: Generation X managers usually are more apt to provide timely feedback, and
positive feedback, if the situation calls for it.
376.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
On the long flight back from South Korea, Aaron had plenty of time to reflect upon the
challenges and successes of his business trip that took him to four Asian countries. His
goal to sell his company’s state-of-the-art bicycle pump to several foreign firms certainly
could have gone better! Although the 10 companies he visited didn’t turn him down, only
one agreed to place an order. Representatives from one Indonesian firm and two Chinese
firms asked him when he planned to come again! As Aaron reviewed his notes, he
pondered, “Didn’t they realize the expense of these international trips?” Aaron is
experiencing:
A. the fact that he is from a West Context Culture and the prospective buyers were from
an East Context Culture.
B. the fact that he is from a highly developed culture and the prospective buyers are from
third world countries.
C. the differences between high-context and low-context cultures.
D. brain drain.
Feedback: High context cultures spend more time developing relationships and prefer to
develop group trust prior to making business decisions. Low context cultures believe it is a
waste of time to build relationships on the job.
377. With the looming recession, Affluent International CEO Gabriella Goodheart
prepared a holiday statement proclaiming that all employees would receive a coupon for a
15-pound turkey that could be purchased during November and December of this year.
According to firm’s corporate HR department, the company would disperse coupons to the
6000 worldwide workers that the company employed. As a recent student that is learning
about personalizing motivation, you suggest:
A. to keep things fair, the company should email coupons to all 6000 employees.
B. employees will be more motivated if the company makes it more of a contest. All
employees should be given the opportunity to earn the rewards.
C. Gabriella should investigate the types of foods and traditions that are meaningful to
employees that work outside of the U.S., and provide a gift of appreciation accordingly.
D. the firm should offer employees the value of a 15 pound turkey in their respective
countries.
Feedback: Global businesses will fare better with employees if they investigate the types of
traditions that are meaningful to employees in each country. Thought should be given to the
types of rewards that different cultures find appropriate, and currency exchange rates should
be taken into consideration.
10-149
378. Referring to the Reaching Beyond our Borders box titled, “Importance of Cultural
Competency,” why is this competency important in the business world?
A. Understanding the cultural diversity of your employees can enhance the development
of your brand and your international markets.
B. Once your business understands the traditions of people in other countries, there is little
need to spend money increasing the workforce, internationally, because the domestic
employees will be able to penetrate new markets abroad.
C. It emphasizes the understanding of domestic and international trade laws.
D. It teaches us that the age of a culture has very little to do with how we approach it.
Feedback: The theme of this segment emphasizes the need for management to get to know
cultural differences in its employees, particularly as it expands its business to other countries.
Your employees are often your best leads into new markets.
10-150
379. Describe the contributions of scientific management to improving worker
productivity. What are some of the limitations of this approach?
10-154
384. Explain how managers could motivate employees by using expectancy theory? Create
a story/example of expectancy theory at work, incorporating the three questions that
according to expectancy theory employees will ask.
385.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
List the three generations in the workplace today, and provide at least two characteristics
of each generation that affect their motivation.
10-156
386.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
10-157
According to McGregor, Howie’s views of his employees suggest he is a ____________
manager.
A. Theory A
B. Theory J
C. Theory X
D. Theory Y
Feedback: Theory X assumes that most employees dislike work and will avoid it if possible,
so they must be forced, controlled and threatened with punishment to make them put forth an
honest effort.
387. Currently, jobs at Idle Time Gaming are broken into small individual steps, and each
employee is assigned to perform a different step in an effort to achieve task efficiency.
This technique is known as job:
A. segmentation.
B. refinement.
C. specialization.
D. simplification.
Feedback: Job simplification attempts to achieve task efficiency by breaking down jobs into
simple steps and assigning an employee to each of those steps.
388.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
John Noble speculated that Howie really didn’t know much about his employees,
including the types of rewards that they found meaningful and whether they personally
felt that if they worked hard, they could achieve a reward. Noble’s thoughts referred to:
A. Reinforcement Theory.
B. Equity Theory.
C. Expectancy Theory.
D. Theory J.
Feedback: Expectancy theory has three aspects: 1) The employee asks himself: If I work hard,
will I be able to achieve the goal? 2) If I achieve the goal, will I get a reward? 3) Is the reward
something that I want?
389. Before ending the meeting, John Noble informed Howie that he would be sending out
an email to all employees asking for suggestions as to how the jobs could be restructured
to improve productivity. As Howie walked back to the production site, he shook his head,
“Is Noble from a different planet? Does he really think our workers have a clue?” Unlike
Noble, Howie does not realize that:
A. employees can be motivated by open-communication.
B. employees seek equity.
C. employee perceptions of equity are usually under-estimated.
D. employees will offer ways to simplify job tasks.
Feedback: Employees are motivated to contribute ideas when they are given the opportunity
to provide open-ended feedback.