Develop an argument for an issue that is important to you. State the claim, enumerate
the grounds, and make explicit the warrants. Be sure to distinguish between claim,
grounds, and warrants. (Pages 24-25, application of concepts)
Evaluate the argument of a popular figure in the news. Identify the claim, grounds, and
warrants. Does the argument stand up under your analysis? Why or why not? (Pages
24-25, application of concepts)
List the three competencies that you scored lowest on when you completed the
pre-course online assessment instrument. What action imperatives were each of these
competencies associated with? (Pages 17-18 and 20)
All of the following are characteristics of a bureaucracy except?
a. Division of labor is used to increase efficiency
b. Hierarchy is used to clarify lines of authority
c. Personnel are selected and promoted based on social skills and relationships
d. Standard rules and procedures are used to create consistency
e. Administrative decisions are recorded in writing and maintained over time
Which type of individual is likely to be the most comfortable in a position that focuses
on managing execution and driving for results?
a. An individual who is interested in controlling processes to ensure that they are as
efficient as possible
b. An individual who likes to engage in extensive collaboration to ensure that everyone
is on board with new initiatives
c. An individual who is task-oriented and likes to ensure that all necessary activities are
completed effectively
d. An individual who focuses on creativity and coming up with new ideas
e. None of these
Which of the following best describes a truth about the forces for or the forces against
desired change?
a. Pressures for change are internal to the organization
b. Pressures for change are external to the organization
c. People in a dysfunctional state will generally feel some motivation to change because
they want to heal or get better
d. Constant, sustained effort is required to achieve the changes that lead to excellence
e. All these are true
The concept of the “negative zone” in the competing values framework refers to:
a. Poor individual-level performance due to lack of behavioral complexity
b. Poor individual level performance due to lack of awareness or ability to perform
different management skills
c. Poor organizational-level performance due to unclear or counteractive values that
result in loss of direction
d. All of these
e. Poor individual-level performance due to lack of behavioral complexity and poor
organizational-level performance due to unclear or counteractive values that result in
loss of direction, but not poor individual level performance due to lack of awareness or
ability to perform different management skills
What is the first step of the communication process?
a. Encoding
b. Choosing a medium
c. Reducing noise
d. Decoding
e. Feedback
When negotiating, the strategy of “dovetailing” refers to
a. Collaborating to find how the needs of both parties can be met
b. Excluding as many issues as possible from the negotiation to simplify the discussions
c. Offering the other party something small that they have an interest in obtaining in
exchange for something larger that you want to obtain
d. Offering to accommodate the other party so that a peaceful relationship can be
maintained
e. Including excessively large demands in your first position statement so that you can
later appear to be giving up something, even though you never really expected to get it
Which psychological state is described as the discretion, autonomy, and choice involved
in initiating, maintaining, and regulating one’s actions in the pursuit of the task?
a. Meaning
b. Self-determination
c. Self-motivation
d. Competence
e. Impact
In recent years, the term “compliance” has come to be associated with
a. Obeying U.S. federal laws and regulations
b. Acting in a socially responsible way and being accountable for organizational
activities
c. Conserving environmental resources and recycling waste
d. Engaging in philanthropy and corporate volunteerism
e. Obeying international laws and complying with international treaties
Which of the following key components of visions often proves to be the most difficult
task?
a. Making the case for change
b. Making the vision short and to the point
c. Making the methods to achieve the vision explicit
d. All of these are equally difficult
e. None of these are particularly difficult
When organizations want to make significant changes in employee behavior, it is often
necessary to alter
a. Deeply held assumptions, beliefs, and values
b. Organizational rhetoric
c. Performance evaluation and reward systems
d. All of these
e. Deeply held assumptions, beliefs, and values and performance evaluation and reward
systems, but not organizational rhetoric
Which of the following is a paradox associated with the competencies in the Create
quadrant?
a. People distrust powerful leaders but people also want their leaders to be powerful
b. Resistance to change never lasts very long in organizations
c. People will not resist change if they are given a direct order
d. Creativity requires that people engage in many spontaneous activities
e. The more things change, the more things stay the same
According to your text, managers today must learn to transcend paradox. What is a
paradox?
a. A representation of a more complex reality
b. A set of beliefs about what a manager should do
c. A situation where two seemingly inconsistent ideas are both true
d. All of these explanations are consistent with the concept of a management paradox
e. None of these.
Which of the following is true about master managers?
a. They are equally skilled at all the competencies that we have studied throughout this
text
b. They are equally skilled at all four action imperatives associated with the competing
values framework
c. They are never willing to make tradeoffs
d. They are able to integrate and blend apparently competing competencies in
innovative ways that meet the needs of the situation at hand
e. They frequently make tradeoffs to speed up the decision making process
How is mutual respect demonstrated?
a. Listening respectfully
b. Speaking candidly
c. Focusing more on solving problems than on placing blame
d. All of these demonstrate mutual respect
e. Listening respectfully and focusing more on solving problems than on placing blame,
but not speaking candidly
Which of the following is an organizational barrier to change?
a. Resource limitations
b. Existing routines
c. Existing structure
d. All of these are organizational barriers to change
e. Resource limitations and existing structure, but not existing routines
The action imperative that appears diagonally opposite of the internal process model
quadrant in the competing values framework is
a. Compete
b. Control
c. Create
d. Collaborate
e. Conform
What is meant by “unity of command” in Fayol’s General Principles of management?
a. Each group of activities having one objective should have one plan
b. Leaders of the organization should agree on a single mission
c. An employee should receive orders from one superior only
d. Union is strength, and it comes from the harmony of the personnel
e. Agreement is necessary for effective organizational performance
An organization that expands its policy to let employees submit their expense reports
electronically, as an alternative to completing a paper report, is using which type of
compliance strategy?
a. Punitive ” similar to threatening employees with sticks
b. Preventative ” similar to putting hurdles up in front of employees
c. Remunerative ” similar to tempting employees with carrots
d. Generative ” similar to creating a fast track for employees to follow
e. Cognitive ” similar to enlightening employees about the benefits of compliance
Assume your boss asks you to create a spreadsheet to evaluate the key variables that
early contingency theories suggested were important for determining the
appropriateness of managerial actions. Which variables would you need to include in
the spreadsheet?
a. Size of the organization, how customized the technology is, how
turbulent/predictable the environment is, and what kind of individuals are employed by
the organization
b. Size of the organization, how customized the technology is, whether or not the
organization operates globally, and the degree of political unrest in the environment
c. Complexity of government regulations, stability of the environment, and
interdependence across divisions of the organization
d. Age of the organization, size of the industry, barriers to entry due to high capital
requirements, and how customized the technology is
e. Age of the organization, how customized the technology is, what type of products the
organization sells, and how employees are compensated
When a message is insightful, mind-stretching, and visionary, it is more likely to be
intended to ________________ than to ___________________
a. build trust; provide facts
b. direct action; stimulate change
c. stimulate change; provide facts
d. provide facts; stimulate change
e. build trust; direct change
Which one of the paradoxes below is associated with information overload?
a. People don”t want to be overwhelmed with unnecessary information and don”t want
to receive unsolicited emails.
b. People don”t want to participate in meetings and don”t want to be overwhelmed with
unnecessary information.
c. People want to be informed about what is happening in the organization and want to
have access to multiple sources of information.
d. People don”t want to be overwhelmed with unnecessary information and don”t want
to be uninformed about what is happening in the organization.
e. People want to use only one method of communication and want to be connected to
everyone in the organization.
When leaders focus too much on increasing cohesiveness and commitment, they are
likely to become
a. Impractical dreamers
b. Oppressive egotists
c. Permissive pushovers
d. Rigid bureaucrats
e. Master managers
Which of the following is TRUE with respect to brainstorming and nominal group
technique?
a. Brainstorming is intended to create constructive conflict as people argue about the
merits of different ideas.
b. Nominal group technique encourages people to focus on their own unique definition
of the problem.
c. Effective brainstorming depends upon the designation of an active devil’s advocate
d. Nominal group technique is a quick way to generate new ideas.
e. Nominal group technique includes a brainstorming phase.
One of the major risks that companies focusing primarily on the Compete action
imperative face is that
a. They will spend too much money on training employees
b. They will fail to take advantage of employee skills
c. They will burn out their employees
d. They will be subject to antitrust regulations
e. None of these is a risk associated with focusing primarily on the Compete action
imperative
Why is the measurement of productivity more controversial today than it was in the
days when the rational goal model was initially developed?
a. Because employees today are less likely to stay with an employer for many years
b. Because we already know as much about productivity as we need to know, so
spending time and money on additional measurement is wasteful
c. Because it is more important to measure an organizations carbon footprint than its
productivity
d. Because it is more complex to measure the productivity of intellectual capital than
other forms of capital such as natural resources
e. Because productivity is no longer important to organizational effectiveness
The open systems model is consistent with which theoretical perspective?
a. Bureaucratic theory
b. Administrative theory
c. Scientific management theory
d. Human relations theory
e. Contingency theory
The Create action imperative is associated with one of the _________ management
models.
a. most recent
b. oldest
c. least important
d. most simple
e. least realistic
Which of the following would research predict would be the most effective goal?
a. I will do my best to improve my ranking in the sales department.
b. I will increase my sales calls by 10% next month.
c. I will try really hard to get my sales report done on time.
d. I will learn Spanish for my trip to my new customer in Mexico.
e. I will increase my earnings from commission sales by 10% next month.
Leaders such as Steve Jobs (Apple Computer and Pixar) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com
and Blue Origin), are visionary because they are able to
a. Recognize the value of new technology before anyone else in their industries
b. Out negotiate other business leaders to gain a competitive advantage
c. Embrace competing values and transcend paradox
d. Engage in arrogant behavior and still be considered charming
e. Don”t let their personal passions influence their business decisions
Proxy measures of outcomes are used
a. To allow independent verification
b. To obtain a complete understanding of outcomes
c. To make inferences about exact measures
d. To provide for responsiveness
e. To eliminate subjectivity
How do you determine the appropriate size for a cross-functional team?
a. Make sure to have one person from each functional unit.
b. Make sure you have a diverse number of perspectives.
c. Keep the team as small as possible with critical functional representation.
d. Make sure all powerful people are members.
e. Keep the team to fewer than eight members.
Consistent with a hierarchical culture and Weber’s ideas about bureaucracy, the internal
process model focuses on measuring and documenting performance as the basis for
_______________ rather than on ______________.
a. Promotions; seniority
b. Promotions; personal relationships
c. Team assignments, credentials such as academic degrees or certifications
d. All of these
e. None of these
U.S. federal sentencing guidelines for organizations do NOT apply to criminal conduct
by
a. Small corporations (under 50 employees)
b. Trusts
c. Chief executive officers
d. Pension funds
e. U.S. federal sentencing guidelines for organizations apply to all of these
Which of the following statements describes the roles individuals take on in groups?
a. Each role is best played by only one person.
b. Group members can take on roles that either facilitate or hinder team effectiveness.
c. Most people are most comfortable playing one or two roles during team meetings.
d. Each role is best played by only one person and most people are most comfortable
playing one or two roles during team meetings.
e. Group members can take on roles that either facilitate or hinder team effectiveness
and most people are most comfortable playing one or two roles during team meetings.
In this stage of the five steps to mastery, you gain a better appreciation of the
complexity of the task and recognize a much larger set of cues.
a. Expert stage
b. Competent stage
c. Over-achieving stage
d. Novice stage
e. Advanced beginner stage
Explain the benefits of delegation for the organization, the manager and the employee
to whom the task is delegated. If you were deciding whether or not to delegate a
particular task, what would be the most important steps in making that decision?
Identify the action imperative with which you are most comfortable as well as the one
with which you are least comfortable. Describe specific situations to support your
response. What do these two action imperatives have in common? On what dimensions
do they differ? (Calls for integration of Assessment on pages 313-315 with material
covered throughout the course.)
Identify a visionary leader with whom you are familiar. Describe how he or she is/was
effective, given the material from the chapter on vision.
What competencies does the open systems model emphasize? Why are these
competencies especially relevant to the open systems model?
What is a Gantt Chart? [How could a Gantt chart be used to manage a project with
which you are currently involved? Create a Gantt chart showing the first five activities
for that project.]
Identify and explain the basic elements of the SSSAP framework.
What are the four primary resources that need to be monitored over the course of a
project? What tools can project managers use to monitor these resources?
Describe the TRAF system. Do you use this system? What are the pros and cons of the
system?
Describe a recent communication exchange where noise got in the way of effective
communication. Identify each step of the communication process and identify why the
problems occurred.
Evaluate your own job in terms of the four psychological states of empowerment. How
might you self-manage to increase the level of each?
How does your organization currently set goals and objectives? Is the process consistent
with the MBO approach proposed by Peter Drucker? Identify the similarities and
differences between the system your organization uses and the MBO approach.
Describe the structure of your current organization with respect to the core concepts and
principles of structure.
Describe your own personality in terms of the Five-Factor Model and/or the
Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. Identify and analyze a specific time when personality
differences caused conflict in your life.
Assume that you are participating in a training session for newly promoted managers.
How would you explain to them why their new position will NOT automatically give
them the ability to influence the behavior of their subordinates?
Why has project-based work become so common in organizations today? What are the
problems associated with project-based work? Is project-based work just a fad? Justify
your answer.
Discuss why organizations fail to monitor the right processes and outcomes. Has this
become less of a problem since 1975 when Steven Kerr wrote his classic article on this
topic? Justify your conclusion.
Note: Students may provide other examples based on in-class discussion or recent news
stories. For example, the major BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico led to the discovery
that “Minerals Management Service officials, who can receive cash bonuses in the
thousands of dollars based in large part on meeting federal deadlines for leasing
offshore oil and gas exploration, frequently changed documents and bypassed legal
requirements aimed at protecting the marine environment, the documents show.”
(Washington Post, May 24, 2010).