Question 1

Alfred Chandler,the noted business historian,indicated that "the administrative load of the senior executives increased to such an extent that they were unable to handle their entrepreneurial responsibilities efficiently." He was speaking of the:

Accepted Answer

A)  U form of business organization.
B)  M form of business organization.
C)  matrix form of business organization.
D)  mixed design. A

Question 2

Dan Unowsky,director of remanufacturing for the Southern division of Enhanced Computers,finds that communication with marketing is very difficult.This is a ______ of separating marketing from production.

Accepted Answer

A)  benefit
B)  cost
C)  necessary component
D)  potential opportunity B

Question 3

The initial companies in the United States in the 1800s failed after following the design of the railroad system because ______.

Accepted Answer

A)  global competition made labor cheaper abroad
B)  monitoring costs increased rapidly
C)  managers became greedy and workers began to shirk
D)  managers could not handle the complexities D

Question 4

Starting from the 1990s there was a significant shift toward:

Accepted Answer

A)  granting employees broader decision authority and more specialized functions.
B)  granting employees narrower decision authority and more specialized functions.
C)  granting employees narrower decision authority and less specialized functions.
D)  granting employees broader decision authority and less specialized functions.

Question 5

Dan Unowsky manages a production group in a PC repair shop.He has noticed that the speed of repair is based on each worker doing one task.However,if an employee is out sick,then the entire repair process slows down.This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

A)  coordination costs.
B)  the trade-off between low cross-training costs and reduced flexibility of the employees.
C)  the absolute need for every employee to be trained in all aspects of PC repair.
D)  managerial ineptitude.

Question 6

Network organizations depend upon:

Accepted Answer

A)  formal lines of authority.
B)  intersecting lines of authority.
C)  decentralization of operating decisions to the business-unit level.
D)  work groups and specific projects without any formal lines of authority.

Question 7

You are a manager of a small coal mining operation.Your best way to design task would be:

Accepted Answer

A)  narrow task assignment to workers and limited interest in specialized task.
B)  narrow specialization among workers without any task assignment.
C)  narrow task assignment and functional specialization among workers.
D)  broad allocation of decision rights and empowerment via delegation.

Question 8

Specialized task assignment's greatest cost is ignoring the foregone ______ across tasks.

Accepted Answer

A)  comparative advantage
B)  flexibility
C)  complementarities
D)  lower cross-training costs

Question 9

Which of the following is not a cost of specialized task assignment?

Accepted Answer

A)  Foregone complementarities across tasks
B)  Functional myopia
C)  Comparative advantage of specialization
D)  Reduced flexibility

Question 10

A matrix organization is organized on the basis of:

Accepted Answer

A)  functional areas of expertise.
B)  geographic region.
C)  product line.
D)  both functional specialty and product line.

Question 11

In the BankInc case,the change in assignment for caseworkers was made practical by:

Accepted Answer

A)  centralized functional management systems.
B)  computerization of task input for managerial oversight.
C)  elimination of cross-training among credit tasks.
D)  integrating credit checking with pricing,but maintaining document preparation in a separate department.

Question 12

Which of the following is not a benefit of the M form of an organization?

Accepted Answer

A)  Improved coordination among functional specialists
B)  Use of local product or geographic information
C)  Focus across the entire product line
D)  Improved use of senior management's time

Question 13

Incentives are an important aspect to determine whether multiple tasks should be combined into one job or not.How can monetary incentives help and/or hinder the process of getting a job done,particularly if it is made up of several tasks?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Incentives are an important aspect to determine...

Question 14

A disadvantage associated with grouping jobs on the basis of functional specialty is that:

Accepted Answer

A)  managers rely on implicit understanding and informal relationships.
B)  managers tend to ignore the interdependencies among units that might lower a firm's value.
C)  employees concentrate more on achieving departmental goals rather than customer satisfaction.
D)  employees have to seek ratification from managers for initiation and implementation of decisions.

Question 15

The choice between specialized and broad task assignments depends on:

Accepted Answer

A)  politicking and other influencing activities carried on within an organization.
B)  the principle of separation of decision management and control.
C)  the principle of comparative advantage to increase the output level.
D)  technological,informational,and incentive issues.

Question 16

Dan Unowsky assigns his computer repairers four tasks: customer service,replacement of broken parts,clean-up of equipment,and sale of used equipment to customers.If the company provides a 10% commission for all sales made by employees,then:

Accepted Answer

A)  employees will clearly emphasize the clean-up task.
B)  employees may ignore other tasks when faced with a potential sale.
C)  replacement of broken parts will clearly be favored by employees.
D)  the entire production process will be speeded up by the sales incentive.

Question 17

The BankInc case shows the potential of shifting from ______ tasks to ______ task assignments.

Accepted Answer

A)  broad; specialized
B)  specialized; broad
C)  functional; geographic
D)  broad; functional

Question 18

Defense,construction,and management consulting are usually set up as:

Accepted Answer

A)  M forms of business organizations.
B)  U forms of business organizations.
C)  network designs.
D)  matrix designs.

Question 19

Industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor was particularly rude in his recommendation that jobs be kept simple.He argued that the characteristics of lower-level workers were such that they should be assigned very limited decision rights and a narrow set of tasks.While certainly crude by today's standards,Taylor recognized that:

Accepted Answer

A)  broad task assignment is necessary for complex jobs.
B)  simple task assignment is always dehumanizing.
C)  broad task assignment eliminates the need for coordination.
D)  simple task assignment may improve overall productivity.

Question 20

Two tasks are said to be ______ if performing more of one task increases the benefit or reduces the cost of performing another task.

Accepted Answer

A)  substitutes
B)  complements
C)  bundled
D)  flexible

Exam 13: Decision Rights: Bundling Tasks Into Jobs and Subunits