Exam 9: Managerial Decision Making

Scenario - Vaughn Bately Vaughn Bately manages a group of eight electrical engineers at Defiance Designs. His team is highly trained and well respected by experts both inside and outside the company. Recently one of Vaughn's engineers suggested a new technique for the development and use of an argon laser. There appeared to be rich potential for this technology, but Vaughn wasn't certain that developing this technology was the best use of his limited resources. Vaughn was facing a significant decision. -If Vaughn uses the administrative model of decision making, which of these assumptions would he reject?

Explain the four underlying assumptions of the administrative model.

A(n) _____ is assigned the role of challenging the assumptions and assertions made by the group.

Brainwriting refers to the tendency of people in groups to suppress contrary opinions.

All of these are basic assumptions of the political model except:

Step one in the managerial decision-making process is recognition of decision requirement.

List four of the eight questions Kepner and Tregoe recommend that managers ask when diagnosing and analyzing causes.

_____ is by far the most difficult situation for a decision-maker.

Normative decision theory recognizes that managers have only limited time and cognitive ability and therefore their decisions are characterized by bounded rationality.

The main difference between risk and uncertainty is that with risk you know the probabilities of the outcomes.

Research has identified four major decision styles. These include all of the following except _____.

The _____ model of decision making describes how managers actually make decisions in difficult situations, such as those characterized by nonprogrammed decision, uncertainty, and ambiguity.

As a top manager, Joanna works with others within her team every day in making important corporate decisions. Her preferred decision-making approach is to generate as many alternatives to problems as possible in a short amount of time. This approach is referred to as _____.

When quality control measures at the local tire plant were found to be inadequate, managers were asking themselves, "How did this occur?" and "What is the result?" The company is in which stage of the managerial decision-making process?

Which of the following refers to the willingness to undertake risk with the opportunity to increase one's return?

_____ is a vital part of good management because decisions determine how the organization solves its problems, allocates resources, and accomplishes its goals.

Individuals with a conceptual decision-making style are more socially oriented than those with an analytical style.

Nonprogrammed decisions require six steps, however, programmed decisions being structured and well understood require only one step.

Managers are considered to have a(n) _____ style when they prefer to consider complex solutions based on as much data as they can gather.

Which of the following has the highest possibility of failure?