Decision Making
Which of the following exemplifies a company effectively applying evidence-based decision making?
- Company Blue analyzes thousands of customer feedback surveys to identify trends and preferences, leading to targeted product improvements.
- Company Green relies solely on the intuition of its executives without utilizing any data or analytics in their decision-making processes.
- Company Purple occasionally reviews historical sales data but does not employ advanced analytics techniques for decision support.
- Company Orange primarily relies on anecdotal evidence from a few key employees when making significant business choices.
Company Blue is implementing evidence-based decision making when it gathers and analyzes high-quality data to develop and implement a plan of action.
A CEO and her leadership team have started to see some positive changes in the organizational culture. Which mechanism would you recommend that is particularly strong and has great potential to embed the cultural changes made so far?
- tell the organization’s story
- provide structured training
- reward and incentivize employees
- change the organizational structure
Rewards and status symbols are among the strongest levers an organization can use to embed or change its culture. This is because people have a strong desire to be rewarded, and incentives fulfill this need.
Companies often make potential employees complete applications, interviews, background checks, and many other processes prior to hiring them. The EEOC considers all of these processes to be
- legally defensible.
- selection tools.
- employment tests.
- recruiting tactics.
e EEOC considers any employer-imposed employment requirement to be a test, including application forms, reference checks, and job interviews.
Walmart’s implementation of RFID, a type of technology that allows it to improve inventory tracking, is an example of a(n) ________Blank change because Walmart already had a very effective technology tracking system in place before it implemented RFID.
Proactive change or planned change involves making carefully thought-out changes in anticipation of possible or expected problems or opportunities.
Which of the following is being implemented by a manager who redesigns jobs and offers career counseling?
- role clarity
- glass ceiling
- holistic wellness
- buffers
Buffers are administrative changes that managers can make to reduce stressors and improve employee well-being.
Milena, the vice president of human resources, is working on the problem of pay and incentives not keeping up with market rates. In her efforts to restructure the company’s compensation plan by using the rational model of decision making, what should Milena do in the fourth, final step?
- Do more research to look at types of compensation plans.
- Select a contingency plan.
- Implement and evaluate the compensation plan chosen.
- Determine how costly the solution will be.
Implement and evaluate the compensation plan chosen.
In the fourth step of the rational model of decision making, Milena needs to implement and evaluate the compensation plan chosen.
The owners of Sundaes Galore Ice Cream Shoppe do not have a formal policy about dress code and work procedures because they see their company as a family place that provides enjoyable work. They believe that if you treat employees like family, the company will do well and grow. ________Blank are the core beliefs that represent the core values of Sundaes Galore Ice Cream Shoppe’s culture.
- Observable artifacts
- Basic assumptions
- Espoused values
- Rites and rituals
Basic assumptions, which are not observable, represent the core values of an organization's culture. They are those that are taken for granted and, as a result, are difficult to change.
Fuller Freight, a medium-sized trucking company, is concerned that its drivers have been in an increasing number of crashes and driver morale seems quite low. To increase the drivers’ human and social capital by way of enhancing individual performance, the Fuller Freight managers might implement
- a high-performance work system.
- talent management.
- strategic human resource management.
- HR practices.
The high-performance work system (HPWS) approach to strategic HRM deploys bundles of internally consistent HR practices in order to improve employee ability, motivation, and opportunities across the entire organization.
Change programs are more successful when
- they are fully focused on a single intervention.
- they are oriented toward achieving both short-term and long-term results.
- frontline employees, but not necessarily managers, are committed.
- interventions that worked in other cultures are blindly applied.
Change programs are more successful when they are oriented toward achieving both short-term and long-term results.
Although he is a skilled director, others in the recording studio regard Lorne as being aloof, suspicious, and easily irritated. Which of the following best describes Lorne’s personality?
- low on agreeableness
- high on emotional stability
- low on openness to experience
- high on extroversion
Agreeableness is how trusting, good-natured, cooperative, and soft-hearted someone is.
During the HR team’s first meeting about selecting a new health insurance provider, Evona suggested offering the contract to HealthPlus HMO. The others agreed with Evona for the sake of unanimity without researching or analyzing the decision. Evona and her team seem to be engaged in:
- groupthink.
- heuristics.
- minority dissent.
- goal displacement.
Groupthink occurs when group members strive to agree for the sake of unanimity and thus avoid accurately assessing the decision situation. Here the positive team spirit of the group actually works against sound judgment.
Which of the following best describes a company that empowers managers to solve their own problems?
- routine delegation
- centralized authority
- decentralized authority
- low accountability
An advantage of decentralized authority is that managers are encouraged to solve their own problems rather than escalate the decision to a higher level of management.
________Blank are organizations of employees formed to protect and advance their members’ interests by bargaining with management over job-related issues.
- Arbitration boards
- Labor unions
- Safety boards
- Mediators
Labor unions are organizations of employees formed to protect and advance their members’ interests by bargaining with management over job-related issues.
Which of these can be a catalyst for innovative change?
- consistent adherence to existing budgeting protocols
- reinforcing policies already established by the organization
- adopting a practice that a competitor has successfully implemented
- avoiding changes to established organizational norms
Innovative changes may arise when an organization adopts a policy or practice that other organizations have embraced, but that is new for the firm.
Milo, a new CEO, is excellent at setting and implementing goals, policies, and structure. Milo is quite proud of the strategic successes he’s had in his brief time as CEO. However, many of the employees seem unmotivated and are responding in ways he didn’t expect. What should Milo do?
- He should use the principles of OB to better understand the workers.
- He should vertically integrate to increase the profitability of key products.
- He should take a personality assessment to become more self-aware.
- He should examine his perceptions to make judgments and decisions.
Organizational behavior (OB), is the field dedicated to better understanding and managing people at work. In particular, OB tries to help managers not only explain workplace behavior but also predict it. Knowledge of OB helps managers to better lead and motivate employee performance.
When confronted with a decision, managers should utilize ________, which includes these four questions: “Is the proposed action legal? If yes, does the proposed action maximize shareholder value? If yes, is the proposed action ethical? If no, would it be ethical to take the proposed action?”
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- the stakeholder’s value statement
- Bagley’s ethical decision tree
- the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002
Bagley suggests that a decision tree is needed to help with ethical decisions.
The four members of a consulting team are located throughout the northeastern United States. To accomplish their shared work of finding ways to improve efficiency for their clients, they are utilizing video conferencing, e-mail, and collaborative computing to complete this project. Which type of workgroup is exemplified?
- horizontal group
- geographic structure
- virtual organization
- matrix team
The virtual organization is one whose members are geographically apart, usually working with e-mail and other forms of information technology while often appearing to customers and others to be a single, unified organization with a real physical location.
Which of the following is NOT a type of compensation?
- base pay
- promotions
- incentives
- benefits
Compensation has three parts: (1) base pay, (2) incentives, and (3) benefits.
Practicing self-compassion can
- increase your career competency of positive approach and teach you to be kind to others.
- increase your openness to change and reduce your need to be perfect.
- help you understand that your worth is conditional.
- make it easier to hide your mistakes while empathizing with others.
Self-compassion can increase your openness to change or your career readiness competency of positive approach because it reduces your need to be perfect.
________Blank is the extent to which employees have positive or negative feelings about various aspects of their work.
- Employee engagement
- Job satisfaction
- Organizational commitment
- Job performance
Job satisfaction is the extent to which you feel positive or negative about various aspects of your work.
Seamus, the manager of a kitchen supply store, is stressed that his store may soon be closed by corporate. Seamus has not been sleeping well, and his anxiety and irritability are quite severe. On several occasions this month, Seamus has missed important details in his job. Today the district manager is coming to Seamus’s store to perform a quarterly review. Seamus is worried the district manager may show an availability bias by
- focusing on performance data from only the last few weeks.
- saying she knew all along that Seamus was a poor manager.
- focusing on the excellent employee retention numbers for Seamus’s store.
- being sure she is the best person to evaluate Seamus’s performance.
Managers tend to give more weight to more recent behavior. The reason is the availability bias—the use of information readily available from memory to make judgments. The bias, of course, is that readily available information may not present a complete picture of a situation.
After you start a new job, how can you assess whether you are a fit?
- Become a lifelong learner.
- Focus on being optimistic and making the best of everything.
- Ask yourself, “Do my values align with the organization’s values?”
- Avoid becoming a victim to external influences.
Focus on understanding the business by assessing your level of fit with an organization by asking yourself questions such as “Do my values align with the organization’s values? If not can I see myself adopting the organization’s values?”
The ________Blank requires employers with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance.
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
- Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
- Occupational Safety and Health Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance.
Whole Earth Hair recently introduced a new all-natural shampoo, but the initial sales figures and customer reviews are dismal. Because his team conducted thorough focus groups and market research prior to launching the product, the director of new product development is confused by the outcome. To keep his team open to innovation, the director should
- step down as director and demote the team leader.
- fire and replace the team lead as an example to others.
- foster an innovative culture that permits risk-taking and failure.
- ignore the product failure and crowdsource new ideas.
Academic research also supports the conclusion that an innovative culture and climate are associated with the creation of new ideas and products. These findings reflect the fact that innovation requires experimentation, failure, and risk-taking, and these are all aspects of an organization’s culture.
Luke, who holds a Master’s degree, refuses to work for Pam because, although Pam has run the department for 22 years, she does not have a college degree. Luke is convinced he is more qualified to be the manager. Luke is causing conflict based on a characteristic in which layer of the diversity wheel?
- center
- internal dimensions
- external dimensions
- organizational dimensions
External dimensions of diversity include an element of choice; they consist of the personal characteristics that people acquire, discard, or modify throughout their lives: educational background, marital status, parental status, religion, income, geographic location, work experience, recreational habits, appearance, personal habits.