Exam 16: Building a Team and Management Succession

Job enlargement is based on the premise that the best way to design a job is to break it down into its simplest form and to standardize each task.

A ________ interview involves offbeat questions to determine how job candidates think and reason, allowing the interviewer to assess their capacity for creativity.

Flextime is a work arrangement in which two or more people share the same 40-hour-a-week job.

A leveraged buyout is an arrangement in which managers and/or employees borrow money from a financial institution and pay the owner the total agreed-on price, pro-rated over a seven-year period.

Mini-Case 16-2: Passing the Baton Carol Wingard started a small jewelry manufacturing company when she was in her late 20s, and has worked hard to build it into a highly successful family business. Now, 40 years later, she was "ready to sit down and enjoy life." Seven family members, including her two sons, Ralph and Cooper, work in the business. Ralph, with 30 years of experience, and Cooper, with 22 years of experience, are both vice presidents of the company. Carol has always intended to pass the business on to her sons, who together own 20 percent of the company's stock. However, she has always been too busy running the business to put together a formal management succession plan. For the past decade, many of the employees have whispered among themselves about who would be named president if Mrs. Wingard stepped down and exactly what would happen to the business. Now that she has decided to retire, Carol wants to begin developing a management succession plan. -What tools would you suggest to Carol to minimize the estate taxes involved in passing the business on to Ralph and Cooper? Explain the advantages and disadvantages of at least three choices and explain why you make the final recommendation that you do.

Maria is excited about the new opportunity her company has offered her-she will be able to work from her home office with a company computer and a high speed internet connection while she spends time with her newborn son. This is possible because of the implementation of:

Every new employee a business owner hires determines the heights to which the company can climb or the depths to which it will plunge.

Companies using flextime schedules often experience lower levels of tardiness and absenteeism.

Mini-Case 16-4: Plumbers Don't Want Recognition "If I ever went out to those guys and asked them if they wanted a little more recognition, they would laugh me out of the shop. People work for money." Norm Schultz had been a plumber himself for 18 years before he saved enough money to open a small plumbing contractor business. The men who worked for Norm knew what was expected of them-a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. "You don't need to tell a person that he or she is doing a good job; the person is either doing the work or not working for me!" Norm's son-in-law was taking a management course at a local college. When Norm asked him what he was learning in class, he told him the management of people. Norm was very emphatic about managing the plumbers who worked for him. "Tell an employee what you expect from the beginning. Watch to see if they perform the job properly. Treat your people fairly and never cheat them." Norm went on to tell his son-in-law that this was the way good managers did things. "Recognition won't put bread on the table." -What do you think about Norm Schultz's attitudes toward employees?

More than 80 percent of businesses throughout the world are family owned.

A family limited partnership (FLP) is a strategy that allows business owning parents to transfer their company to their children and ________ their estate taxes while retaining control over the business.

Assume the role of a consultant to a small business owner who is about to conduct a job interview for the first time. Identify the guidelines that will help him develop interview questions. Also, explain the three phases of an effective interview.

Studies regarding succession of family businesses reveal that:

A leveraged buyout is an arrangement in which managers and/or employees borrow money from a financial institution and pay the owners:

The key to using rewards to motivate employees involves tailoring them to the needs and characteristics of the workers.

During the transfer of power, how should the owner deal with company problems and mistakes the successor makes?

The type of job design that breaks work down into its simplest form and standardizes tasks is known as:

Job enrichment increases the planning, decision-making, organizing, and controlling functions in a job.

Effective leaders recognize that money is not the only reward that motivates workers.

Cora arrived at work at 7 a.m. today, and she will get off at 4 p.m. so that she can watch her son's soccer game. Her office mate, Emma, is not a "morning person" and usually arrives at the office at 10 a.m. and gets off at 7 p.m. Their company uses: