Management: A Focus on Leaders, 2e (McKee)
Chapter 8 Workplace Essentials: Creativity, Innovation, and a Spirit of Entrepreneurship
1) Hypercompetition causes product life cycles to increase in length.
2) Many organizations respond to substantial change by falling into a crisis management mode.
3) Nonmanagerial workers can be creative only if they are promoted to a more creative job.
4) Creative people are often good at dealing with ambiguous or paradoxical ideas.
5) The first step to more creativity at work is establishing an environment where it is valued and
rewarded.
6) Creative thinking is limited to right-brain, divergent modes of thought.
7) Age has no impact on a person’s capacity for creativity.
8) Diversity is a key ingredient for creativity in work teams because it can help avoid “cookie
cutter” thinking.
9) Innovation is the process of generating new ideas.
10) One of the key innovations developed by Netflix was to eliminate “late fees” for video
rentals.
11) Seventh Generation features only “green” products.
12) A Skunk Works® is a forum to show failed ideas and analyze why they failed.
13) More than three-fourths of all private-sector employees work for small businesses.
14) Entrepreneurs are typically people with high self-esteem.
15) An intrepreneur is an entrepreneur who has founded a nonprofit organization.
16) A break-even point refers to the maximum salary an entrepreneur can pay himself or herself.
17) An entrepreneur usually maintains full control of a business when it is funded by a venture
capitalist.
18) The very characteristics that make entrepreneurs successful–creativity, risk taking, and
action orientation–can cause them to fail because they lose sight of where they are going.
19) In the growth stage, a start-up looks to protect its market share.
20) In the United States, a patent lasts for only 20 years.
21) Hypercompetition is ________.
A) a state of constant and escalating competition
B) competition between two highly successful organizations
C) competition that is unfair
D) competition between brand new start-up companies
22) Hypercompetition makes it ________ for an organization to maintain a competitive
advantage.
A) easy
B) difficult
C) impossible
D) unnecessary
23) Design cycles and life cycles for products ________ in a hypercompetitive market.
A) lengthen
B) shorten
C) come to an end
D) slow down
24) One of the only ways to stay ahead of a hypercompetitive market is to ________.
A) go into crisis management mode
B) adopt a more autocratic management style
C) centralize decision making
D) focus on innovation and creativity
25) Which of the following is NOT an impact of empowering employees to make decisions?
A) conflicts between employees increase
B) employees generate new knowledge
C) creative solutions to problems are encouraged
D) employees generate innovation
26) Which of the following could be considered an enemy of creativity?
A) knowledge
B) optimism
C) mindfulness
D) conformity
27) In most organizations, ________ can be creative.
A) only managers
B) only nonmanagerial employees
C) almost all employees
D) only top managers
28) Creativity is the process of ________.
A) making an artistic or philosophical statement
B) having profound insight into situations
C) making something new or solving a problem in a new way
D) solving a difficult problem in the most efficient way possible
29) Creative people typically are able to deal well with uncertainty and ambiguity with a
________ approach.
A) stubborn
B) rigid
C) flexible
D) vague
30) Creative people tend to be comfortable replacing the language of ________ with the
language of ________.
A) possibility; certainty
B) convergence; divergence
C) spontaneity; certainty
D) certainty; possibility
31) Creative people are more inclined to ________ than most people.
A) go with the flow
B) defend the status quo
C) cause conflict
D) challenge assumptions
32) Convergent thinking refers to thought processing that primarily ________.
A) is open and illogical
B) is analytical and logical
C) focuses on pattern recognition
D) focuses on making random connections
33) Divergent thinking refers to thought processing that primarily ________.
A) is illogical and outcome-oriented
B) is analytical and logical
C) is open and focuses on pattern recognition
D) corresponds to left-brain activity
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34) Creativity is a product of ________ thinking.
A) only divergent
B) both divergent and convergent
C) only convergent
D) neither divergent and convergent
35) A popular, but untrue myth states that creativity is controlled by ________.
A) the right brain only
B) the left brain only
C) both sides of the brain
D) the limbic system
36) When a person is carrying out creative thoughts, ________.
A) all parts of the brain are active
B) only the right brain is active
C) some parts of the brain are shut down
D) the limbic system shuts down
37) When you suddenly have a revelation and recognize the meaning of a poem, you are using
the ________ domain of creativity.
A) deliberate-emotional
B) deliberate-cognitive
C) spontaneous-emotional
D) spontaneous-cognitive
38) When you are working hard to balance a complex budget utilizing systematic and exhaustive
methods, you are using the ________ domain of creativity.
A) deliberate-emotional
B) deliberate-cognitive
C) spontaneous-emotional
D) spontaneous-cognitive
39) Which statement is NOT true?
A) Some people are naturally more creative than other people.
B) Most people are at least somewhat creative.
C) People can learn to be more creative.
D) It is impossible for people to learn to be creative.
40) To promote creativity within an organization, managers should ________.
A) develop organizational culture that values creativity
B) tightly control workers and compel them to be creative
C) punish workers who fail to show creativity
D) reward creative workers only
41) To promote creativity within an organization, managers should try to create an atmosphere in
which ________.
A) mistakes are not allowed
B) people feel comfortable making mistakes
C) risks are minimized
D) mistakes are paid for with serious consequences
42) What type of creativity produces the “Eureka!” moment of discovery?
A) deliberate processing within the emotional domain
B) spontaneous processing within the cognitive domain
C) deliberate processing within the cognitive domain
D) spontaneous processing within the emotional domain
43) Which type of creativity begins in the limbic system of the brain?
A) spontaneous-emotional
B) deliberate-cognitive
C) spontaneous-cognitive
D) deliberate-emotional
44) Innovation is the process of ________ new ideas.
A) originating
B) evaluating
C) implementing
D) rejecting
45) Seventh Generation tries to make customers aware of the cost of ________ a product.
A) both production and disposal of
B) only production of
C) only disposal of
D) both advertising and production of
46) Seventh Generation contends that although its price is ________, the “real cost” of a non-
green product is usually ________ than that of a green product.
A) low; lower
B) low; higher
C) high; higher
D) high; lower
47) Which of the following was NOT identified by 20-somethings as an innovative product?
A) online learning
B) 4G Internet
C) telemedicine
D) the “cloud”
48) John Reid-Dodick, Chief People Officer at AOL, believes there are four dimensions to great
leadership. Which of the following does NOT fit his model?
A) optimism
B) curiosity
C) resilience
D) empathy
49) A Skunk Works® is a part of an organization where ________.
A) toxic chemicals are used
B) employees are fired
C) the bureaucracy makes things dysfunctional
D) entrepreneurial activities can flourish
50) An idea incubator ________.
A) recycles old ideas
B) stores good ideas until they are ready to be implemented
C) is identical to a brainstorming session
D) provides immediate funding for good ideas with “no questions asked”
51) An entrepreneur is defined as someone who ________.
A) starts a small business without borrowing money
B) takes an entrepreneurial approach to work with no risk
C) takes an entrepreneurial approach to life shifting focus every few years to show risk-taking
D) starts any kind of new business
52) Which of the following best defines having an entrepreneurial approach to work?
A) having a sense of ownership of your work
B) having a sense of urgency about your work
C) being competent in the way you do your work
D) being efficient in your work
53) Which of the following is an entrepreneur?
A) a major league baseball player
B) the mayor of a large city
C) a highly paid software engineer who works for Intel
D) the owner of a new Dunkin’ Donuts franchise
54) Small businesses provide jobs for ________ of all private sector employees.
A) 99.7 percent
B) over 50 percent
C) 33.3 percent
D) 74.6 percent
55) Social entrepreneurship is the activity of identifying opportunities to help society in some
way with ________ taking a secondary position if it factors in at all.
A) operational efficiency
B) employee development
C) financial gain
D) innovation
56) Which celebrity has created a venture to affect social change?
A) Mary-Kate Olsen
B) Kourtney Kardashian
C) Melissa Joan Hart
D) Oprah Winfrey
57) Which term best characterizes an entrepreneur?
A) pays attention to details
B) loyal to a fault
C) risk-taker
D) reckless and impulsive
58) The Kyoto Box is a(n) ________.
A) sushi lunch
B) electronic communication device
C) onboard computer that records conditions in car accidents
D) solar cooker that is environmentally friendly
59) An intrepreneur performs all of the functions of an entrepreneur ________.
A) in a nonprofit company
B) within an existing organization
C) as a strategic partner of an existing organization
D) without any connection to an existing organization
60) From a business perspective, what is a break-even point?
A) the amount of money a business needs to make to pay all of its employees
B) the amount of money a business needs to make to pay all of its expenses
C) the amount of money a business needs to make to meet its expected profit goals
D) the point at which an entrepreneur decides that her venture is worth doing
61) Which investors typically take a stake in a business venture?
A) banks
B) credit unions
C) venture capitalists
D) commercial banks
62) How many new businesses typically fail in the first two years?
A) one-third
B) two-thirds
C) 44 percent
D) 56 percent