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51. How are solutions initially presented in the team problem-solving process?
a. by a nominated leader of the group with input by the solution writer
b. by each team member individually, followed by commentary after reading
c. by each team member individually without comment from others
d. anonymously, by a nominated leader
52. How should the devil’s advocate operate in the team problem-solving process?
a. Trying to offer many reasons why the highest-priority solution might fail.
b. Trying to knock down as many early suggestions as possible to reduce idea clutter.
c. Acting as a force of focus during the brainstorming session.
d. Picking two or three of the weakest solutions and championing them.
53. What is a likely type of information shared in open book management?
a. employee evaluations
b. profit reports
c. company goals
d. personal reflections
54. What is the ultimate goal of open book management?
a. motivating nonmanagement employees to seek management positions
b. empowering nonmanagement employees so they make better decisions
c. eliminating conflict between management and subordinates
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d. creating a more ethical workspace
55. Which of the following would be the most ideal scenario in which to implement open
book management?
a. A company has had steady but modest profits for several years.
b. A company has scored very low on an ethical report card analysis made by a third
party.
c. A company is experiencing record profits and trying to decide how to invest the extra
revenue.
d. A company’s management is considering salary caps during a difficult economic
downturn.
56. How does appreciative inquiry differ from open book management?
a. It pushes greater information sharing with employees.
b. It tries to leverage the contributions of employees.
c. It doesn’t allow rumination on employee or organization weaknesses.
d. It disempowers subordinates rather than empowering them.
57. What is the initial task for employees in an appreciative inquiry process?
a. Identify processes that are causing problems for their organization.
b. Identify processes that work well for their organization.
c. Envision processes that would work well for their organization.
d. Envision future problems or crises that might befall their organization.
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58. A group of employees have reached the “dream” stage of the appreciative inquiry
process. Which of the following questions might best be asked at this stage?
a. What would the organization be like with record profits?
b. How can we make the lives of employees better?
c. How can we eliminate the problem employees that are dragging down our sales
department?
d. How might creating a new office of customer relations improve our client base?
59. What is the “positive core” of an organization with respect to the appreciative inquiry
process?
a. the organization’s specific ethical behaviors
b. the organization’s ethical mission statement and plan for implementation
c. the main aspects of the organization that support the organization’s mission and
superior service
d. the group of employees that most represent the positive aspects of the organization
60. What is the crucial final step to the appreciative inquiry process?
a. management follow-up on employee recommendations
b. written codification of vision and image
c. making recommendations for organizational improvement
d. drafting a new organizational mission statement
61. When employees make “personal commitments” in the appreciative inquiry process,
what does this mean?
a. describing how they will make ethics a bigger part of their work
b. listing better or different behaviors they will implement to improve customer service
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c. listing bad habits or actions they will do less of to improve customer service
d. pledges for increasing time spent with customers
62. In the appreciative inquiry process, which of the following is a criterion that must be
met for the employee’s new one-sentence mission statement to be valid?
a. The mission is achievable.
b. The mission improves the ecological profile of the company.
c. The mission will increase company profits.
d. The mission statement is approved by a majority of team members.
63. How should each team member end their speaking contribution in team huddle?
a. describing a problem that was solved
b. suggesting a new course or strategy for the team
c. describing a problem that still needs addressing
d. giving a personal evaluation of another team member
64. What is the main benefit of having team members start by describing a success
story in each team huddle?
a. It encourages fence-sitters to become more engaged.
b. It makes the employee see the job as meaningful work.
c. It helps the employee’s self-esteem.
d. It helps other members see that employee’s value to the organization.
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65. What type of employee or unit gains new responsibility in a Scanlon-type
gainsharing plan?
a. a low-level department head
b. individual employees in a department
c. a work-unit team
d. union membership
66. What happens if a Scanlon-type gainsharing plan results in costs savings
improvements over historical benchmarks?
a. No revenue sharing occurs; the point of the plan is to empower employees.
b. All savings go to employees involved in the plan.
c. A portion of the savings go to employees of the organization.
d. The organization receives the benefits and chooses whether to reward employees
through pay raises.
67. Implementation of a Scanlon-type gainsharing plan at a small company results in
total cost savings of $10,000 for the month of April. If the plan is typical, how much of
that total will employees receive (as a group) in direct bonuses for April?
a. $2,500
b. $5,000
c. $10,000
d. $1,000
68. How does a profit-sharing plan differ from a Scanlon-type gainsharing plan?
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a. Employees receive more financial compensation.
b. Employees do not necessarily have an increase in responsibility or accountability.
c. Profit-sharing plans have a specifically assigned coordinator.
d. Employees do less to increase organizational loyalty.
69. In what structural way do profit-sharing plans increase organizational loyalty?
a. Employees must have high performance evaluations to participate in profit sharing.
b. Employees will stay on to seek management positions because only managers
participate in profit sharing.
c. Employees must stay with the company a certain amount of time to access the funds.
d. Only employees who contribute the most in terms of work receive funds through profit
sharing.
70. Karin is a new hire at her company and is told the company has a stock option plan.
Which of the following is likely TRUE of her options?
a. She is now fully vested.
b. After ten years, her right to purchase shares through the stock option program will
increase.
c. She can purchase as many shares as she wants through the program.
d. Her newly hired supervisor will have the right to purchase more stock options than
she will.
71. How does an employee stock purchase plan differ from a stock option plan?
a. Stock purchase occurs over time as a percentage of pay, not purchased outright.
b. Stock purchase is not voluntary.
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c. The company typically does not offer discounts as it does with stock options.
d. Newer employees do not typically have access to this type of plan.
72. In which of the following situations would a company be more likely to offer phantom
stock?
a. The company is not privately held.
b. The company is not publicly traded.
c. The company does not want to increase organizational loyalty among employees.
d. The company has very low profits.
73. How do employee stock option plans differ from stock option plans?
a. They are exclusive to 401k plans.
b. They are more inclusive but less profitable for employees.
c. They are automatic for all employees over 21 years of age.
d. They typically involve the use of phantom stock.
74. Who purchases the company in an employee stock option plan?
a. private shareholders
b. a legal entity composed of employees
c. the employees
d. a bank trust fund
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75. What happens to employees’ participation in an ESOP plan if/when they leave the
organization?
a. They lose their accumulated value.
b. They can purchase their vested shares (to be sold back later).
c. They sell their shares back to the company.
d. They can cash out their vested share value.
76. Which of the following employees has the characteristics of the typical gainsharing
coordinator?
a. Camilla, a go-getter and the current human resources manager
b. Wendell, a fence-sitter and the current assistant director of finance
c. Carlos, an adversarial and current union representative
d. Jackie, a congenial and current member of the executive board
77. The nurse gainsharing team at Madison General Hospital has suggested a plan that
changes how patients are transported to the radiology department. The plan is within
their monthly budget. What is the next step?
a. Consult with the transportation gainsharing team.
b. Send the plan to the radiology gainsharing team for approval.
c. Initiate the plan and monitor effectiveness.
d. Forward the plan to the review board.
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78. What happens in a gainsharing plan when actual costs are lower than the projected
historical cost?
a. It is dispersed amongst the gainsharing team members.
b. The difference is split 50/50 between nonmanagement employees and the company.
c. 50% is given as a bonus to gainsharing team; 50% is placed in gainsharing team
reserves.
d. It is applied toward the next months’ project.
79. Who is responsible for governing profit-sharing plans?
a. Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
b. Security Exchange Commission (SEC)
c. the organizations Board of Directors
d. the Chief Financial Officer
80. When are deferred compensation profit-sharing plans usually taxed?
a. Only when the employee quits or takes a personal leave of absence.
b. When the employee takes out a loan on their account.
c. At the end of the fiscal year.
d. Upon retirement, death, disability, or employee termination.
True/False
1. According to Frederick Herzberg, the lack of factors that cause job satisfaction will
result in job dissatisfaction.
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2. Level of employee engagement is linked to the ethical nature of a company.
3. According to Paul Lawrence, the drive to defend is primarily related to an employee’s
desire to protect the organization and its mission.
4. Managers should try to empower all employees in a company.
5. Fence-sitters should be kept away from go-getters, as they can drag down high
performers.
6. It is best to empower adversarial employees under closely controlled conditions.
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7. The pinch theory process is best employed when a team conflict has gotten too large
and contentious to be handled calmly or rationally.
8. Among the group-based financial incentives, Scanlon-type gainsharing plans do the
most to pass responsibility and power to lower-level employees.
9. Stock option plans are only available to employees of publicly traded companies.
10. Stock options give an employee the right to purchase a specific number of shares at
a fixed price by a specific future date.
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Short Answer
1. Describe the three levels Chip Conley used to consolidate Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs.
2. An employee likes to be in charge of their own work and to delegate work to others
as they see fit. However, they prefer not to interact with others and can be hostile to
collaboration. They also rarely seek promotion and seem content to stay in the same
job. How would David McClelland describe this employee?
3. What preventative measures should be taken to stop an adversarial employee from
causing harm?
4. Describe the first two steps of the pinch theory reconciliation process.
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5. If after contributing to an employee stock purchase plan, the employee decides not to
purchase company stock by the expiration date. What happens to the pay that was
deducted?
Essay
1. Describe the link, if one exists, between employee engagement and organizational
performance.
2. Contrast Paul Lawrence’s human needs classification with Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs.
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3. The CEO of a company wants to increase the level of organizational justice in their
company. Offer an example of what they could do to improve organizational justice in
each of the following categories: procedural justice, informational justice, interactional
justice, and distributive justice.
4. Choa has evaluated her subordinates and feels she has adequately identified which
ones are go-getters, fence-sitters, and adversarials. What should she do to motivate,
manage, or empower each?
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5. Compare the details and benefits of a profit sharing plan with those of a stock option
plan.