Deck 7: Decision Making and Creativity

Question 1

________ can be defined as the view that people should and typically do use logic and all available information to choose the alternative with the highest value.

A) Subjective expected utility maximization
B) The rational choice decision-making process
C) Bounded rationality
D) Decision making
E) Intuition

Answer 1

The rational choice decision-making process

Question 2

The rational choice decision-making process selects the choice with the highest value through the

A) calculation of probability and valence.
B) rational selective denominator.
C) calculation of choice intensity and ambiguity.
D) implicit favorite model.
E) anchoring and adjustment heuristics.

Answer 2

calculation of probability and valence.

Question 3

In the rational choice decision process model, which of the following immediately follows the step where possible choices have been discovered or developed?

A) Choose the best decision process.
B) Discover possible choices.
C) Select the choice with the highest value.
D) Implement the selected choice.
E) Evaluate the selected choice.

Answer 3

Select the choice with the highest value.

Question 4

The gap between "what is" and "what ought to be" is also called a

A) valence.
B) problem.
C) opportunity.
D) choice.
E) decision.

Question 5

Which step of the rational decision process involves whether to solve the problem alone or to involve others?

A) Implement the selected choice.
B) Evaluate the selected choice.
C) Choose the best decision process.
D) Identify the problem or opportunity.
E) Select the choice with the highest value.

Question 6

All rational decisions rely primarily on two pieces of information: the probability that each outcome will occur and

A) the valence or expected satisfaction of each outcome.
B) the personal preferences of the decision maker.
C) the likelihood of employee commitment.
D) the impact on profitability.
E) competitor's reactions.

Question 7

One difficulty that decision makers experience in problem identification is that suppliers, employees, and customers offer and withhold information that distorts the situation. This problem is known as

A) mental models.
B) programmed decision making.
C) perceptual defense.
D) decisive leadership.
E) stakeholder framing.

Question 8

Decision makers might succumb to the solution-focused problem trap because

A) they feel comfort in having closure to problem.
B) they prefer ambiguity rather than decisiveness.
C) it avoids the escalation of commitment problem.
D) it avoids problems of bounded rationality.
E) it helps in minimizing the biases caused by mental models.

Question 9

Which of the following is one of the assumptions of the rational decision-making process?

A) Decision makers evaluate alternatives against an implicit favorite.
B) Decision makers choose the alternative that is good enough.
C) Decision makers have well-articulated goals.
D) Decision makers evaluate alternatives sequentially.
E) Decision makers process perceptually distorted information.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a reason people engage in satisficing rather than maximization?

A) They lack the capacity and motivation to process a huge volume of information.
B) They lack complete and perfect information.
C) Decisions with many alternatives can be cognitively and emotionally draining.
D) Alternatives present themselves over time, not all at once.
E) It allows them to choose the alternative with the highest payoff.

Question 11

The representativeness heuristic refers to the tendency

A) to choose an alternative that is good enough rather than the best.
B) for people to influence an initial anchor point.
C) to evaluate probabilities of an event or an object by how closely it resembles another event or object.
D) to estimate the probability of something occurring by how easily we can recall those events.
E) for decision makers to evaluate alternatives sequentially rather than comparing them all at once.

Question 12

Middle managers of a marketing firm were addressing the problem of creating eye-catching ads that were able to be easily reproduced in both color and black and white. One manager said, "The main problem here is we should be using color to lure the consumer instead of trying to minimize costs with black and white ads." Which of the following best describes the decision-making problem that this manager is exhibiting?

A) The manager is engaging in escalation of commitment.
B) The manager is being too creative.
C) The manager is involved in participative decision making.
D) The manager is suffering from the representativeness heuristic.
E) The manager is defining the problem in terms of a solution.

Question 13

Often management is "under the gun" and want to solve problems and meet deliverables before logically assessing the situation. This problem is related to

A) decisive leadership.
B) stakeholder framing.
C) availability of information.
D) perceptual defense.
E) a solution focused problem.

Question 14

What is meant by "divine discontent"?

A) Decision makers are never satisfied with current conditions, so they more actively search for problems and opportunities.
B) It is much easier to discover blind spots in problem identification when listening to how others perceive the situation.
C) Employees can minimize problem identification errors by discussing the situation with colleagues and clients.
D) Decision makers are more motivated to consider other perspectives of reality.
E) Leaders require considerable willpower to resist the temptation of looking decisive.

Question 15

Decision makers compare alternatives against an implicit favorite because

A) they want to minimize confirmation bias.
B) they want to minimize cognitive dissonance.
C) they prefer evaluating all possible choices at the same time.
D) they are influenced by the prospect theory effect.
E) they usually prefer rational decision making rather than using their intuition.

Question 16

Human beings tend to compare alternatives rather than evaluate them purely against objective criteria. This explains which decision making heuristic?

A) availability
B) anchor and adjust
C) confirmation bias
D) representativeness
E) maximization

Question 17

When faced with a large number of alternatives, many people use a decision strategy that is even less cognitively challenging than satisficing? Specifically, they

A) anchor and adjust.
B) use heuristics.
C) use the rational choice process.
D) maximize
E) make no decision.

Question 18

Escalation of commitment can be minimized by ensuring that

A) there are ready-made alternatives to resolve the problem.
B) those who make the decision are different from those who evaluate it.
C) the team leader has strong opinions about the preferred options for a problem.
D) organizational goals are relatively ambiguous.
E) negative information is screened out to protect the self-esteem of the decision makers.

Question 19

________ shape(s) how we evaluate information, not just which choice we select.

A) Decisions
B) Emotions
C) Values
D) Cognitive dissonance
E) Design thinking

Question 20

Leading business writers emphasize that ________ is one of the most important and challenging tasks in the decision-making process.

A) implementing the decision
B) rational maximization
C) postdecisional justification
D) confirmation bias
E) bounded rationality

Question 21

Decision makers are often motivated to pour more resources into a failing project because of the large value of resources already put into the project. This problem is known as

A) bounded rationality.
B) intuition.
C) sunk costs effect.
D) self-justification effect.
E) prospect theory effect.

Question 22

Executive teams in successful companies are often less vigilant about competitors and other environmental threats. How is this explained in terms of emotions and decision making?

A) Executives rely on emotions more than other decision makers.
B) Executives are more in tune with their emotional markers.
C) When we are in a positive mood, we pay less attention to details.
D) When we are in a positive mood we pay more attention to details.
E) Executives are ignoring sunk costs.

Question 23

Emotional signals are valid intuitions when they are based on

A) accurate mental models.
B) gut feelings.
C) rational choice.
D) confirmation bias.
E) external confirmation.

Question 24

Which of the following statements is correct regarding emotions and intuition?

A) All emotional signals are intuition.
B) Intuition is purely an emotional experience.
C) Intuition exists after conscious rational analysis of a situation.
D) Mental models have no effect on intuition.
E) Intuition involves emotional experiences and rapid nonconscious analysis.

Question 25

________ states that decision makers want to be seen as rational and competent.

A) The sunk cost effect
B) The self-justification effect
C) The self-enhancement effect
D) Prospect theory effect
E) Escalation of commitment

Question 26

Confirmation bias which occurs during the evaluation process of decision making is called

A) sunk costs.
B) prospect theory.
C) postdecisional justification.
D) intuition.
E) dissonance.

Question 27

You have just received seed money for a new e-commerce business, and you want to hire a dozen people with a high level of creative potential. To hire the most creative people, you would select applicants who have

A) no experience in this industry, high analytic intelligence, and relatively low need for achievement.
B) high openness to experience, high value for self-direction, and relatively low need for affiliation.
C) strong mental models regarding their field of knowledge, high synthetic intelligence, and relatively high need for social approval.
D) high need for affiliation, high need for achievement, and high need for social approval.
E) low openness to experience, high need for social approval, and relatively low need for affiliation.

Question 28

When engaged in ________, employees are encouraged to examine combinations of characteristics of a product or service that seem nonsensical.

A) cross-pollination
B) redefining the problem
C) morphological analysis
D) role play
E) design thinking

Question 29

________ is valuable throughout the decision-making process.

A) Incubation
B) Creativity
C) Verification
D) Preparation
E) Illumination

Question 30

One of the most important conditions for creativity is that an organization has

A) insufficient resources.
B) closed communication.
C) extreme time pressures.
D) a learning orientation.
E) a low level of job enrichment.

Question 31

In the creative process, which of the following begins with a "fringe" awareness?

A) incubation
B) illumination
C) preparation
D) verification
E) convergent thinking

Question 32

When someone says, "The lightbulb just went on," they are in the ________ stage.

A) incubation
B) illumination
C) preparation
D) verification
E) convergent thinking

Question 33

Leaders at ABC Corp. now encourage employees to experiment with new ideas. In particular, the executives emphasize that reasonable mistakes are tolerated and expected as part of the discovery process. Which of the following best describes what these leaders are trying to develop?

A) cross-pollination
B) a learning orientation
C) associative play
D) intuitive decision making
E) escalation of commitment

Question 34

The ________ of design thinking states that no creative solution is truly original.

A) human rule
B) ambiguity rule
C) re-design rule
D) tangible rule
E) incubation rule

Question 35

The highest form of employee involvement is

A) to recommend solutions.
B) to facilitate the decision.
C) organizational democracy.
D) having a team recommend solutions.
E) restricting decision making to top executives.

Question 36

Which of the following is the lowest level of employee involvement?

A) Empower employees to make the decision.
B) Ask individual employees for specific information.
C) Describe the problem to individual employees and ask for information.
D) Create a team to make the decision.
E) Create a team to make recommendations.

Question 37

For which of the following would a lower level of employee involvement be recommended?

A) non-programmed decisions
B) the manager lacks knowledge
C) conflict among employees regarding the solution
D) employees will not accept the decision without being involved
E) employees possess relevant information

Question 38

Numerous studies on participative decision making, task conflict, and team dynamics have found that involvement

A) brings out less diverse perspectives.
B) tests ideas.
C) provides worst alternatives.
D) provides less valuable knowledge.
E) brings out weakened employee commitment.

Question 39

Sue Kim is trying to decide which shoes to order for the next season. She has examined the sales reports and walked the sales floor. She thinks she understands what customers will prefer, but is not certain. She asks her staff at the next meeting since they are more in touch with customers. She is using which contingency for employee involvement in decision making?

A) decision structure
B) source of decision knowledge
C) decision commitment
D) risk of conflict
E) cross-pollination

Question 40

With funding from her family, Sarine is currently developing a new line of dolls for her business, which she hopes will take her company to the next level. At first, she encountered some minor problems with the construction of the dolls and spent a fair amount of money engineering a way to enable them to be as she envisioned them to be. Unfortunately, she then found out that there was a patent protecting the way the dolls arms were connected, so she spent more money redesigning the dolls. After an unexpectedly uninterested response from the public in the dolls, she decided that they needed to be marketed differently in order to sell. With this in mind, Sarine allocated more resources to marketing, had the packaging of the dolls redesigned, and created a new set of advertising materials. The cost of manufacturing these dolls has now exceeded the initial proposed cost by four times, but she is determined to make it work. She is embarrassed by how this has gone but continues to put on a brave front.

-Sarine is most likely making decisions to continue with these dolls at this point because of

A) self-justification.
B) self-enhancement.
C) a decline of commitment.
D) prospect theory.
E) closing costs.

Question 41

With funding from her family, Sarine is currently developing a new line of dolls for her business, which she hopes will take her company to the next level. At first, she encountered some minor problems with the construction of the dolls and spent a fair amount of money engineering a way to enable them to be as she envisioned them to be. Unfortunately, she then found out that there was a patent protecting the way the dolls arms were connected, so she spent more money redesigning the dolls. After an unexpectedly uninterested response from the public in the dolls, she decided that they needed to be marketed differently in order to sell. With this in mind, Sarine allocated more resources to marketing, had the packaging of the dolls redesigned, and created a new set of advertising materials. The cost of manufacturing these dolls has now exceeded the initial proposed cost by four times, but she is determined to make it work. She is embarrassed by how this has gone but continues to put on a brave front.

-What could Sarine have done differently in order to avoid this escalation of commitment with her decisions?

A) Ensure that the people who evaluate the decisions are the people who originally made them.
B) Privately establish a preset level at which the decision is abandoned or reevaluated.
C) Find a source of systematic and clear marketing.
D) Involve several people in the evaluation of the decision.
E) Obtain funding from other sources instead of her family.

Question 42

With funding from her family, Sarine is currently developing a new line of dolls for her business, which she hopes will take her company to the next level. At first, she encountered some minor problems with the construction of the dolls and spent a fair amount of money engineering a way to enable them to be as she envisioned them to be. Unfortunately, she then found out that there was a patent protecting the way the dolls arms were connected, so she spent more money redesigning the dolls. After an unexpectedly uninterested response from the public in the dolls, she decided that they needed to be marketed differently in order to sell. With this in mind, Sarine allocated more resources to marketing, had the packaging of the dolls redesigned, and created a new set of advertising materials. The cost of manufacturing these dolls has now exceeded the initial proposed cost by four times, but she is determined to make it work. She is embarrassed by how this has gone but continues to put on a brave front.

-If Sarine had built several low-cost prototypes to test, she would have been able to test which rule of design thinking?

A) human rule
B) ambiguity rule
C) re-design rule
D) tangible rule
E) creative process rule

Question 43

Alvin, the production manager at the Paragon Company, wants to select the best supplier of raw materials from among several vendors. He has several choices and has done research into which company provides the best services and products. One company is known to be extremely timely, another is much lower in price but often late in deliveries, and the third is well-known to provide the highest quality products available.

-According to the rational decision-making process, Alvin should select the vendor that offers the most

A) discounts.
B) deliveries.
C) satisfaction.
D) expectancy.
E) quality.

Question 44

Alvin, the production manager at the Paragon Company, wants to select the best supplier of raw materials from among several vendors. He has several choices and has done research into which company provides the best services and products. One company is known to be extremely timely, another is much lower in price but often late in deliveries, and the third is well-known to provide the highest quality products available.

-According to the rational choice decision-making process, the first step in solving this problem would be

A) choosing the best decision process.
B) evaluating the decision inputs.
C) researching the problem.
D) identifying the problem or opportunity.
E) researching and evaluating the decision inputs.

Question 45

Alvin, the production manager at the Paragon Company, wants to select the best supplier of raw materials from among several vendors. He has several choices and has done research into which company provides the best services and products. One company is known to be extremely timely, another is much lower in price but often late in deliveries, and the third is well-known to provide the highest quality products available.

-Once Alvin makes the choice and contracts with the vendor, he will still need to

A) implement the best decision process.
B) evaluate the selected choice.
C) develop possible choices.
D) research the problem.
E) seek out additional vendors.

Question 46

George is a manager for InnoBLAST Inc., a web-based applications company. In an attempt to promote new ideas, George decides to allow his engineering team to devote 15 percent of their work time to whatever projects they would like to work on and reduces their assigned workload. He then institutes a 30-minute period each morning where the team members are asked to look over their current project list for the day and develop more knowledge about a task before they move on to work on their assigned tasks.

-George is attempting to promote

A) employee relations.
B) employee creativity.
C) employee work/life balance.
D) satisficing.
E) decision structure.

Question 47

George is a manager for InnoBLAST Inc., a web-based applications company. In an attempt to promote new ideas, George decides to allow his engineering team to devote 15 percent of their work time to whatever projects they would like to work on and reduces their assigned workload. He then institutes a 30-minute period each morning where the team members are asked to look over their current project list for the day and develop more knowledge about a task before they move on to work on their assigned tasks.

-The 30-minute time period set aside each morning by George should help promote which stages of the creative process?

A) preparation and verification
B) incubation and illumination
C) illumination and preparation
D) verification and preparation
E) both preparation and incubation

Question 48

George is a manager for InnoBLAST Inc., a web-based applications company. In an attempt to promote new ideas, George decides to allow his engineering team to devote 15 percent of their work time to whatever projects they would like to work on and reduces their assigned workload. He then institutes a 30-minute period each morning where the team members are asked to look over their current project list for the day and develop more knowledge about a task before they move on to work on their assigned tasks.

-George encourages employees to discover new ideas and advises them that reasonable mistakes are tolerated and expected in that discovery process. By doing this, George is helping to develop ________ in the work unit.

A) convergent thinking
B) the prospect theory effect
C) a learning orientation
D) cross-pollination
E) intuition

Question 49

Selene and Rita are both engineers at a highly innovative technology company. They are both very creative people. Selene has 15 years of engineering background, a high need for achievement, and strong task motivation, whereas Rita prides herself on her high openness to experience, strong self-direction, and ability to evaluate the potential usefulness of ideas.

-According to the characteristics of creative people, which areas are Selene's strongest?

A) independent imagination and experience
B) persistence and practical intelligence
C) cognitive and practical intelligence
D) experience and persistence
E) experience only

Question 50

Selene and Rita are both engineers at a highly innovative technology company. They are both very creative people. Selene has 15 years of engineering background, a high need for achievement, and strong task motivation, whereas Rita prides herself on her high openness to experience, strong self-direction, and ability to evaluate the potential usefulness of ideas.

-According to the characteristics of creative people, which areas are Rita's strongest?

A) independent imagination and experience
B) persistence and practical intelligence
C) cognitive and practical intelligence
D) experience and persistence
E) intelligence and independent imagination

Question 51

The Braided Bread company is struggling with how to break into the bagel market. They see this as an opportunity for growth, as it would not require any new machinery. The downside is that there is already a bagel shop in town.

-Since Braided Bread has identified the problem, their next step is to

A) choose the best decision process.
B) develop possible choices.
C) select the choice with the highest value.
D) implement the selected choice.
E) evaluate the selected choice.

Question 52

The Braided Bread company is struggling with how to break into the bagel market. They see this as an opportunity for growth, as it would not require any new machinery. The downside is that there is already a bagel shop in town.

-Braided Bread has selected a choice and now needs to

A) choose the best decision process.
B) develop additional possible choices.
C) implement the selected choice.
D) discover alternative choices.
E) evaluate the selected choice.

Question 53

The Braided Bread company is struggling with how to break into the bagel market. They see this as an opportunity for growth, as it would not require any new machinery. The downside is that there is already a bagel shop in town.

-What would Braided Bread do immediately after choosing the best decision process?

A) Discover or develop possible choices.
B) Identify the problem.
C) Evaluate the decision.
D) Implement the decision.
E) Identify the opportunity.

Question 54

The rational choice model describes decision making as a nonconscious process of moving toward a desirable state of affairs.

Question 55

Rational choice decision making involves an unsystematic and haphazard process.

Question 56

Mental models make it easier for decision makers to frame a problem or opportunity.

Question 57

Emotional signals are always intuitive.

Question 58

Programmed decisions are less likely to require employee involvement.