Management: A Focus on Leaders, 2e (McKee)
Chapter 12 Organizational Controls: People, Processes, Quality, and Results
1) Controls are used to monitor and regulate how well an organization meets its goals.
2) Frederick Taylor consulted workers on the most efficient way to carry out work.
3) Mayo’s Hawthorne studies proved that the level of lighting had a profound effect on worker
productivity.
4) Mary Parker Follett stressed that managers should have “power with workers” not “power
over workers.”
5) The human relations movement at the beginning of the 20th century emphasized production
efficiency in the workplace.
6) Bureaucratic control systems have been shown to encourage innovation.
7) Objective control often relies on workers following SOPs.
8) The primary participants of corporate governance are the board of directors, management, and
selected stakeholders.
9) The Sarbanes-Oxley Act applies only to privately owned companies.
10) The first step in the control process is to compare performance to established standards and
metrics.
11) Feed-forward control anticipates problems before they occur.
12) A cash flow analysis is a snapshot of an organization’s assets and liabilities at a given time.
13) Beyond Budgeting focuses on decentralizing the decision-making process in an organization.
14) CRM focuses on making sure that customers feel that their concerns are being heard and
addressed.
15) Business Process Reengineering is an incremental approach to improving organizational
performance.
16) Total Quality Management can only be implemented in manufacturing industries.
17) The Lean Management approach focuses on manufacturing and logistics.
18) Six Sigma’s primary focus is to improve an organization’s ability to be creative and
innovative.
19) The major goal of ISO 9000 is to improve environmental responsibility in an organization.
20) MBO encourages employees to participate in setting their own goals.
21) The practice of scientific management is focused on ________.
A) customer relations
B) efficiency
C) ethics
D) employee motivation
22) Karl Marx claimed that workers found their work meaningless because they ________.
A) were not motivated to excel
B) were poorly paid and worked long hours
C) were not organized
D) had no control over their situation
23) Frederick W. Taylor was primarily concerned with ________.
A) worker morale
B) efficiency
C) profit
D) worker motivation
24) Frederick W. Taylor’s approach to management was scientific because it used techniques that
were ________.
A) based on observation and experimentation
B) based on physical laws
C) developed in laboratories
D) based on time and motion
25) One of Frederick W. Taylor’s key ideas was to ________.
A) break down work tasks into discrete actions
B) consider work tasks as a whole rather than as discrete actions
C) focus on the skill of the worker
D) make sure that workers got adequate breaks from their labor
26) Which slogan is the best fit for Frederick W. Taylor’s research?
A) Efficiency has its limits.
B) The customer is always right.
C) Efficiency above all else.
D) Empower the worker.
27) The Hawthorne studies were first designed to measure the relationship between productivity
and ________.
A) management style
B) physical conditions
C) number of hours worked
D) employee IQ
28) The Hawthorne studies found that workers were more productive if they were ________.
A) well paid
B) made to feel special
C) pressured by peers
D) threatened with punishment
29) The Hawthorne studies established the importance of the ________.
A) relationship between workers and their peers
B) relationship between managers and employees
C) need for discipline in the workplace
D) need for clear goals for both workers and managers
30) Mary Parker Follett thought that ________ were best equipped to solve problems.
A) experts
B) managers
C) the people who have the most skill and intelligence
D) the people who are closest to the problem
31) Mary Parker Follett felt that power in an organization should be given out according to a
person’s ________.
A) seniority
B) position in the organization
C) knowledge and ability
D) interpersonal skill
32) Mary Parker Follett suggested that command-and-control approaches to management were
________.
A) ineffective in life-threatening situations
B) more effective than resonant approaches
C) effective across all industries
D) less effective than resonant approaches
33) Mary Parker Follett was the first management researcher to place importance on ________.
A) efficiency
B) effectiveness
C) employee empowerment
D) employee rewards
34) Command-and-control approaches to management work best in ________ situations.
A) life-threatening
B) informal
C) low-pressure
D) self-directed
35) Employees tend to perform best in a ________ work culture.
A) strict
B) resonant
C) lenient
D) command-and-control
36) According to the book, the best types of controls focus on ________.
A) quality, employees, and ethics
B) customers, process, and profits
C) people, process, and results
D) process, people, and profits
37) Which of the following is the most hierarchical type of control system?
A) bureaucratic
B) normative
C) output
D) behavior
38) Bureaucratic control systems focus on ________.
A) creativity and innovation
B) rules and standards
C) empowering employees
D) self-directed employees
39) Bureaucratic control systems typically lack ________.
A) a common value system
B) informal social rules
C) ID cards
D) innovation
40) Which type of control system does NOT focus on observables?
A) bureaucratic
B) normative
C) behavior
D) output
41) Bureaucratic control systems achieve organizational outcomes by focusing on ________.
A) SOPs
B) inputs
C) morale
D) work conditions
42) Output control relies on ________ to keep employees motivated.
A) coercion
B) incentives and rewards
C) punishment
D) motivation rules
43) Behavior control relies on ________ to control employees.
A) organizational norms
B) SOPs
C) the employee’s own self-control
D) rewards and punishment
44) Which type of control system focuses on using organizational values to guide employee
behavior?
A) bureaucratic
B) output
C) normative
D) behavioral
45) Which of the following is NOT one of Simons’ levers of control systems?
A) boundary systems
B) process improvement systems
C) diagnostic control systems
D) interactive control systems
46) A knowledge management system falls under which of Simons’ levers of control?
A) boundary systems
B) belief systems
C) diagnostic control systems
D) interactive control systems
47) Measures that define quality and efficiency criteria are called ________.
A) controls and levers
B) commands and controls
C) standards and metrics
D) feedback mechanisms
48) A company’s board of directors usually includes ________.
A) only present employees of the company
B) some individuals who are not employed by the company
C) only people who wrote the corporate charter
D) executives of the company only
49) Which type of control enables a company to stay “ahead of the game”?
A) concurrent
B) feed-forward
C) normative
D) output
50) Which of the following does a government agency typically NOT control?
A) product pricing
B) employee rights
C) whether a product is “certified organic”
D) safety in the workplace
51) Sarbanes-Oxley focuses on ________.
A) environmental protection
B) business ethics
C) workplace safety
D) quality measures
52) The Sarbanes-Oxley Act established new standards for all of the following EXCEPT:
A) executive pay.
B) accounting.
C) company board responsibilities.
D) manager responsibilities.
53) Opponents of Sarbanes-Oxley claim that it ________.
A) increases the likelihood of accounting scandals
B) decreases executive pay
C) decreases America’s competitive edge
D) decreases America’s world image
54) Which of the following is a qualitative metric for an employee at a manufacturing firm?
A) complete two products each hour
B) take no more than six minutes to assemble one component
C) provide products that have excellent fit and finish
D) make fewer than eight mistakes per week
55) The kaizen principle of Total Quality Management focuses on ________.
A) customer relationships
B) cultural norms
C) continuous process improvement
D) financial accountability
56) Which type of control provides corrective action in “real time?”
A) feedback
B) feed-forward
C) concurrent
D) recurrent
57) Which type of control attempts to anticipate problems before they occur?
A) feedback
B) feed-forward
C) concurrent
D) recurrent
58) Which kind of accounting control provides a snapshot of an organization’s assets and
liabilities at a given time?
A) budget
B) cash flow analysis
C) profit and loss statement
D) balance sheet
59) Which kind of accounting control itemizes revenue and expenses?
A) budget
B) cash flow analysis
C) profit and loss statement
D) balance sheet
60) CRM focuses on ________.
A) maximizing the number of transactions per unit of time
B) maximizing customer loyalty
C) minimizing product defects
D) having the lowest prices in the market