Deck 9: The Goals Approach and Assessment of Results

Question 1

Organization-level goals are more specific and of lower complexity than are unit-level goals.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Behavioral issues are important for executives in supporting organization-level goals.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In order to benchmark effectively, a major initiative of a new leader is frequently a substantial upgrade in the breadth and depth of data collection.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

When task skills appear to be a problem, a strategy especially useful for those experiencing suboptimal performance is for the supervisor to take over responsibility for doing the task at hand.

Question 5

Role clarity was at its height as a problem at the beginning of the industrial age when there tended to be elaborate rules of worker protocol.

Question 6

In the balanced scorecard approach, the factors that define all major areas of organizational performance and operations should be monitored for organizational improvement.

Question 7

It has been learned in the research that employees respond best to goals that are so challenging that they are not attainable in the foreseeable future.

Question 8

Leaders should employ cognitive complexity to master detail at the same time they master disorder and wholeness.

Question 9

Management by the numbers is not successful in goal-setting, even when the desire is to set goals scientifically.

Question 10

Every leader should know when to depart from the objective and weigh in on the intuitive or instinctive in goal-setting.

Question 11

One source of external coordination occurs when employees work jointly with external entities through advisory boards or partnering.

Question 12

Organization design today is moving away from team-based decentralized hierarchies-because they have been shown to have led to an unacceptable economy-to a structure that is again taller with greater control by executive leaders.

Question 13

There is really no such thing as constructive conflict in an organization because cohesiveness is damaged.

Question 14

When motivation is lacking, disincentives are more effective than positive reinforcements.

Question 15

In a learning organization, as described by Senge, employees are nurtured to think new and expansive thoughts that would benefit the whole organization.

Question 16

At the heart of assessment is:

A) determining internal equity
B) rewarding the good performers
C) asking the right questions
D) measuring the organization's social influence

Question 17

There are five sources of information that leaders can use in setting goals on organizational effectiveness, including:

A) academic articles on Gantt
B) any documents that provide information about the mission, vision, and values of the organization
C) proportional success of time to delivery
D) stock market valuation of the organization

Question 18

Goal-setting specifically requires:

A) a general understanding of organizational perspectives, including the organization's environment
B) data gathering and critical evaluation of data relative to competitors
C) an ethical stance on corporate accounting systems
D) database management

Question 19

A structured approach for identifying data appropriate for comparison to a particular organization is called:

A) contrasting
B) benchmarking
C) formatting
D) comparing

Question 20

The finite microcompetency necessary to accomplish work is called:

A) role clarity
B) innovation
C) task skill
D) creativity

Question 21

Improving the linkage between work and rewards is a strategy shown in the text to address deficiencies in:

A) innovation
B) role clarity
C) creativity
D) task skills

Question 22

Individual creativity has the following nature:

A) It emphasizes lateral thinking
B) It emphasizes vertical thinking
C) It prefers nonprovocative pathways
D) It is not either lateral or vertical in nature and focuses on the big picture rather than one element at a time

Question 23

Goal-setting is said to require subordinate effort that is characterized in ways that include:

A) self-sacrifice of leaders
B) brainstorming
C) peak effort
D) intelligence

Question 24

According to a study cited in the text regarding when motivation is lacking, the single most important factor in the retention of employees at the transactional level is:

A) their remuneration or salary
B) their colleagues or peers
C) the quality of supervision
D) the quality of the job in terms of its depth

Question 25

The most obvious source of cooperation and cohesiveness is:

A) the work structure itself
B) the psychological stability of the group
C) whether the job is political in nature
D) how long the group has worked on the project at hand

Question 26

The degree to which the organization is aligned with its stakeholders is known as:

A) cooperation and cohesiveness
B) the organization of the work
C) external coordination
D) subordinate effort

Question 27

Leaders should consider the following practical strategy to remedy organizational deficiencies caused by lack of innovation and creativity:

A) improving role modeling
B) improving group rewards
C) creating the role of an advisory board
D) stimulating friendly competition as well as team synergy

Question 28

Cutting service levels is one of the strategies to exercise when the following happens:

A) Role clarity is ambiguous
B) There is a lack of resources or support
C) The effort of subordinates is lackluster or inadequate
D) Cohesiveness and cooperation are weak

Question 29

A process that requires all types of business decisions to be statistically data-driven, including the setting of goals and strategy in every area of business activity, is called:

A) strategic analysis
B) decisive statistics
C) linear statistics
D) analytics

Question 30

When a leader is focused on setting goals that are balanced and related to important aspects of performance, it is important to consider all three metacategories for goals, including the following:

A) Balanced scorecard goals are used when the company is attempting to earn the Bowerman award
B) Organizational alignment goals are used when leaders are most concerned about remaining innovative
C) Follower development goals are most pronounced for lower-level supervisors
D) Technical performance goals are emphasized when a leader is new to the job

Question 31

Goal-setting requires a general understanding of organizational perspectives, including the organization's environment. What organizational perspectives should be taken into consideration?

Question 32

What are the types of constraints that leaders need to assess?

Question 33

How does the case of 3M demonstrate what can contribute to downward ranking of a company as an innovative company?

Question 34

Describe three of the four characteristics given in the text as critical for all goal-setting activities.

Question 35

What is the meaning of "the organization of work?" What are the important dimensions of the organization of work?