Deck 1: Introduction to Quality and Performance Excellence

Question 1

Since quality relates to goods or services, only for-profit organizations can benefit from adopting performance excellence procedures.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

"Scientific management" involved skilled craftspeople who served both as manufacturers and inspectors, building quality into their products.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

In terms of total quality management, "continuous improvement" refers only to breakthrough improvement.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A successful organization is one which integrates quality principles with its mundane daily work activities.

Question 5

Competitive behavior-one person against another or one group against another-is one of the basic principles of TQ.

Question 6

A firm that is characterized by flexibility and short cycle times is considered to be agile.

Question 7

Performance excellence can be defined as "any primary or complementary activity that does not directly produce a physical product."

Question 8

The view of quality as the satisfaction of customer needs is often called fitness for use.

Question 9

From a total quality perspective, all strategic decisions a company makes are "customer-driven."

Question 10

Employee engagement is manifest by empowerment.

Question 11

Total Quality views everyone inside the enterprise as a customer of an internal or external supplier and a supplier of an external or internal customer.

Question 12

Not-for-profit organizations are adopting quality principles because of their impact on the bottom line.

Question 13

Agency theory views the management system as one based on social and human values, whereas total quality is based on an economic perspective.

Question 14

According to Noriaki Kano's three classes of needs, the required safety features in an automobile are an example of a satisfier.

Question 15

Process time refers to the time it takes to accomplish one cycle of a process.

Question 16

A difference between service and manufacturing is that manufacturing is performed away from the customer whereas customers are involved in the service process.

Question 17

In quality control, tolerances are acceptable deviations from the values assigned to the targets.

Question 18

The Deming Prize was constituted by the United States to raise awareness of quality and recognize national role models.

Question 19

After World War II, the first country to adopt quality initiatives and improvement in industry was the United States.

Question 20

The traditional way of viewing an organization is by surveying the horizontal dimension-by keeping an eye on an organization chart.

Question 21

Agency theory suggests that information may be concealed to advance self-interests.

Question 22

The term _____ refers to an integrated approach to organizational performance management that results in delivery of ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders, contributing to organizational sustainability.

A) fitness for use
B) gap analysis
C) performance excellence
D) accreditation

Question 23

The prize constituted by Japan to recognize quality initiatives in business is named after _____.

A) Edwards Deming
B) Malcolm Baldrige
C) Frederick Taylor
D) Noriaki Kano

Question 24

In an ancillary manufacturing unit, the bolt manufacturing section has a value of 0.095 as the target, 0.005 as the tolerance. Which of the following is the acceptable range of values in production?

A) Between 9.500 and 1.005
B) Between 0.009 and 0.001
C) Between 0.900 and 0.010
D) Between 0.090 and 0.100

Question 25

Leaders in agency theory provide a quality vision and play a strategic role in the organization.

Question 26

With respect to the quality dimensions of manufactured products, _____ refer(s) to a product's primary operating characteristics.

A) reliability
B) features
C) performance
D) durability

Question 27

_____ introduced statistical quality control to Japanese workers after World War II as part of General MacArthur's rebuilding program.

A) Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran
B) F.W. Taylor
C) Malcolm Baldrige and Henry Ford
D) Noriaki Kano

Question 28

In 1987, Congress established the _____ to raise awareness of quality and recognize national role models, spawning a remarkable interest in quality among American businesses.

A) President's Quality Award
B) Peak Performance Award
C) Deming Prize
D) Baldrige Award

Question 29

The organismic model of organizations views an organization as a tool or a machine designed solely to create profits for its owners.

Question 30

The mechanical organizational model assumes that systems goals such as the need to survive displace performance goals, such as profit.

Question 31

In the organismic model of organizations, organizations are considered to be autonomous entities.

Question 32

As part of the evolving understanding of quality management, many began to use the term _____ to contrast the difference between managing for quality in all organizational processes and focusing solely on manufacturing quality .

A) micro-quality
B) strategic quality
C) Big Q
D) lead Q

Question 33

_____ refers to the degree to which physical and performance characteristics of a product match preestablished standards.

A) Reliability
B) Conformance
C) Features
D) Aesthetics

Question 34

_____ refer(s) to a product's primary operating characteristics.

A) Benefits
B) Conformance
C) Aesthetics
D) Performance

Question 35

_____ is the subjective assessment of a product resulting from image, advertising, or brand names.

A) Perceived quality
B) Reliability
C) Performance
D) Aesthetics

Question 36

Agency theory assumes that risks are to be minimized and shared between the two parties.

Question 37

In the cultural organizational model, learning needs are driven not by adaptation to environmental forces but in response to individual needs.

Question 38

In the organismic model of organizations, work is reduced to elementary tasks with a focus on efficiency, conformity, and compliance.

Question 39

In the cultural organizational model, managers relinquish control and share power in order to meet the needs of the many individuals.

Question 40

Frederick W. Taylor's concept of _____ greatly influenced the nature of quality in manufacturing organizations.

A) scientific management
B) the Hawthorne effect
C) Theory X
D) the observer-expectancy effect

Question 41

With respect to the quality dimensions of manufactured products, _____refer(s) to the amount of use one gets from a product before it physically deteriorates or until replacement is preferable.

A) durability
B) aesthetics
C) features
D) serviceability

Question 42

With respect to the systems approach to management, _____ refers to looking at an organization as a whole and building on key business attributes, including core competencies, strategic objectives, action plans, and work systems.

A) alignment
B) integration
C) sequence
D) synthesis

Question 43

Which of the following is an example of a service provider?

A) A steel plant
B) A clothing manufacturer
C) A pharmaceutical company
D) A bank

Question 44

A(n) _____ is a sequence of activities that is intended to achieve some result.

A) process
B) array
C) cluster
D) symmetry

Question 45

With respect to the quality dimensions of manufactured products, _____ deals with how a product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells.

A) serviceability
B) durability
C) performance
D) aesthetics

Question 46

Customer engagement refers to:

A) organizations designing products and processes with the goal of maximising revenue from individual customers.
B) organizations building relationships with customers so they will continue to use their goods and services and actively advocate for and recommend them.
C) organizations customizing product and service features to meet the needs of individual customers rather than mass-producing products.
D) customers proactively approaching organizations in order to suggest product ideas and features for development.

Question 47

According to McGregor's _____ , workers are self-motivated, seek responsibility, and exhibit a high degree of imagination and creativity at work.

A) Theory Z
B) Theory Y
C) Theory X
D) Theory Q

Question 48

In the context of Noriaki Kano's classification of customer needs, _____ refer to those needs that are expected in a product or service.

A) satisfiers
B) delighters
C) dissatisfiers
D) exciters

Question 49

_____ is an important dimension associated with service quality.

A) Aesthetics
B) Serviceability
C) Durability
D) Accuracy

Question 50

With respect to the quality dimensions of manufactured products, _____ refer(s) to the probability of a product's surviving over a specified period of time under stated conditions of use.

A) aesthetics
B) serviceability
C) features
D) reliability

Question 51

With respect to the quality dimensions of manufactured products, _____ refer(s) to the ability to repair a product quickly and easily.

A) durability
B) serviceability
C) conformance
D) features

Question 52

A manager who is considered a Theory X manager is likely to believe that:

A) productivity is enhanced when employees make decisions on their own.
B) workers dislike work and require close supervision and control.
C) worker productivity improves when managers relax supervision.
D) employees are self-motivated and eager to take on challenges.

Question 53

Teamwork within work groups and across functional lines is called _____ teamwork.

A) cross-training
B) interorganizational
C) horizontal
D) quality circle

Question 54

Which of the following TQ principles was the TQ quality initially based on?

A) Emphasis on individual work
B) Continuous improvement
C) Employee focus
D) Quality variance

Question 55

Which of the following is true of the service sector as opposed to manufacturing firms?

A) The output of a service firm is intangible.
B) A service firm considers that all customer needs are the same.
C) Service firms usually maintain inventory registers.
D) Service firms require a physical production site.

Question 56

In 1992, the chairs and CEOs of nine major U.S. corporations in cooperation with deans of business and engineering departments of major universities, and recognized consultants endorsed a definition of _____ as a people-focused management system that aims at continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost.

A) business process reengineering
B) a quality circle
C) total quality
D) Six Sigma management

Question 57

In a total quality environment, internal customers are the:

A) designated team members of the quality control team.
B) customers who are part of the product testing panel.
C) recipients of any work output.
D) immediate customers, but not the end users.

Question 58

The _____ is the highest award given to executive branch agencies for management excellence.

A) President's Quality Award
B) Malcolm Baldrige Award
C) Deming Prize
D) National Quality Improvement Award

Question 59

Partnerships with suppliers and customers are called ______ partnerships.

A) horizontal
B) cross-functional
C) vertical
D) interorganizational

Question 60

Teamwork between top management and lower-level employees is called _____ teamwork.

A) vertical
B) interorganizational
C) horizontal
D) cross-functional

Question 61

In agency theory, _____ is a primary mechanism used by both parties to maintain and govern the relationship.

A) autonomy
B) motivation
C) self-regulation
D) monitoring

Question 62

In the _____ organizational model, work is reduced to elementary tasks with a focus on efficiency, conformity, and compliance.

A) environmental
B) organismic
C) mechanistic
D) cultural

Question 63

Define the four stages in a learning cycle.

Question 64

Describe the different types of continuous improvement.

Question 65

What is performance excellence?

Question 66

The _____ model views an organization as a collection of cooperative agreements entered into by individuals with free will.

A) mechanistic
B) cultural
C) organismic
D) environmental

Question 67

The _____ model assumes that systems goals, such as the need to survive, displace performance goals, such as profit.

A) organismic
B) mechanistic
C) cultural
D) environmental

Question 68

Briefly describe the quality dimensions of manufactured products.

Question 69

Illustrate the differences between TQ and agency theory.

Question 70

According to Noriaki Kano's classification of customer needs, _____ new or innovative features that customers do not expect in a product or service.

A) satisfiers
B) delighters
C) dissatisfiers
D) essentials

Question 71

Total Quality shares the most similarities with the _____ organizational model.

A) cultural
B) environmental
C) mechanistic
D) organismic

Question 72

What are the points organizations have to look into beyond product orientation to ensure service quality?

Question 73

Describe the three levels at which data and information support analysis is disseminated and aligned within an organization.

Question 74

Agency theory makes the assumption that individuals in agency relationships are _____ and will always take actions to enhance their self-interests.

A) utility-maximizers
B) negotiators
C) satisficers
D) adopters

Question 75

How is empowerment related to employee engagement?

Question 76

According to Noriaki Kano's classification of customer needs, _____ are the needs that customers say they want.

A) satisfiers
B) dissatisfiers
C) delighters
D) exciters

Question 77

Describe the three major organizational models.

Question 78

Sylvia orders a security system to be installed at her house. After placing the order, the company took three days to install it. The time taken for the order to be delivered is referred to as:

A) execution gap.
B) cycle time.
C) performance gap.
D) turnaround time.

Question 79

Describe in brief the most important dimensions of service quality.