Employees often experience considerable stress when they do not know what the next
step in their professional lives might be or when they might take it. Which of the
following could be the best solution to this problem?
A) creating standardized jobs and defining procedures
B) designing and operating career counseling programs
C) promoting creativity and innovation at the work place
D) modifying the basic norms of organizational culture
E) making the organizational climate more formal
Which of the following is an accurate statement in reference to management by
objectives (MBO)?
A) Rewards are given to workers independent from their objective attainment.
B) Managers and workers meet to agree on worker objectives.
C) Managers and workers do not meet to monitor progress.
D) Managers set objectives for workers without their input.
E) Rewards are given on the basis of the manager’s effort .
Which level of the organization’s environment includes planning, organizing,
influencing, and controlling within the organization?
A) the general environment
B) the internal environment
C) the operating environment
D) the external environment
E) the political environment
Sexual harassment is a form of ________.
A) relativism
B) acculturation
C) pluralism
D) discrimination
E) ethnocentrism
Irvine White’s work primarily involves supervising the production in one of the
factories of TM Corp, a large manufacturing and retail company. Which of the
following information is most likely to be relevant for Irvine?
A) trend forecasts for the industry
B) exception reports of operating results of his company
C) detailed reports of problems in his factory
D) environmental data for the company’s business
E) decisions on strategic plans for his organization
The process of raising managers’ awareness and developing their competencies to deal
with the issues endemic to managing a diverse workforce is known as ________.
A) assimilation
B) reverse discrimination
C) diversity training
D) affirmative action
E) role overload
Which of the following is an example of an opportunity that has arisen from new uses
for raw materials?
A) the invention of the heart stent
B) an American bank providing services in China
C) raising chicken without antibiotics
D) using the Internet to sell a product
E) using corn to produce ethanol
In any organization, change-related activities include ________.
A) clarifying objectives of jobs in organizations
B) consulting when making decisions
C) providing recognition for achievements and contributions
D) encouraging innovative thinking
E) short-term planning
Sandra is in the top management at Silica Inc. A key policy governing the
manufacturing processes was recently changed, and Sandra needs to analyze the effects
of the change on the various departments of the company and predict the effect on the
output. This process involves using her ________ skills.
A) technical
B) moral
C) conceptual
D) human
E) interpersonal
ABC Corp. is an information technology company. The IT department wants to upgrade
the firm’s technological infrastructure but the cost of upgrading is likely to take up at
least 60 percent of the firm’s cash reserves. The finance manager is reluctant to release
funds for this purpose. According to him, “The economy is still in a state of uncertainty.
The company is better off preserving its cash reserves rather than investing it.”
Which of the following, if true, would most support the IT department’s plan to upgrade
the firm’s technology?
A) Efficiency gains from the new technology would offset the payments in 10 years.
B) ABC Corp. has always been ahead of the technology-curve.
C) The proposed technology is going to be the industry standard in the next year.
D) The firm has not made any significant investments in the recent past.
E) Investment in technology is always a gamble-it may or may not pay off.
A flow of interrelated events toward a goal, purpose, or end is specifically referred to as
a ________.
A) process
B) system
C) strategy
D) scheme
E) structure
Which of the following situations best demonstrates an error made during the
organizing stage of management?
A) LMN Tree has embarked on a new long-term project. Though the project is
progressing, employees feel that there were many better ways to achieve the desired
result.
B) Vista International took on a project at short notice and wasn’t able to go into details
of the strategy. As a result, some departments have clear objectives, while others do not.
C) The project team at Walton’s is dissatisfied with the functioning of the department,
but has no communication system through which they can convey their concerns to the
management.
D) Though DLB’s projects are usually very similar, employees have no way of
comparing performance as there are no set standards.
E) Two teams at Crimson Blue had been working separately on a project for three
weeks before they discovered that there was a lot of duplicated effort.
When Alan went to Japan on a business assignment, he realized that the country has a
long-standing tradition for people to exchange gifts during a business deal. For him, this
practice was as bad as taking a bribe. What kind of a situation is Alan facing?
A) role conflict
B) bicultural stress
C) discrimination
D) the glass ceiling
E) role overload