Deck 7: Designing Organizations for Performance Excellence

Question 1

In a functional structure, none of the organizational units have control over whole processes.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Project teams are fundamental to Six Sigma.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Performance refers to the extent to which an individual contributes to achieving the goals and objectives of an organization.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The most common type of organizational structure is the functional structure.

Question 5

Support processes are most important to "running the business" and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 6

Interdependence and integration characterize Boeing Airlift and Tanker's organizational structure and its approaches to performance improvement.

Question 7

A drawback of functional structures is that they make it difficult to evaluate people based on a narrow set of responsibilities.

Question 8

An advantage of "flatter" organizations is that it creates additional supervisory and coordinating tasks for managers.

Question 9

Functional structures prevent complex and wasteful processes and promote process improvement.

Question 10

A drawback of flatter organizations is the widening of the communication gap between top managers and frontline employees.

Question 11

A distinct characteristic of the functional structure is that all employees in the organization communicate directly with customers.

Question 12

Production processes must be designed in a way that ensures products conform to specifications.

Question 13

Functional structures allow people to specialize in the aspect of the work for which they are best suited.

Question 14

The primary focus of functional structures is to provide high-quality service to customers.

Question 15

Recognizing the existence of internal customers is one way that organizations can promote quality and teamwork.

Question 16

At the individual level of an organization, work systems must focus exclusively on cooperation and cross-functional communication.

Question 17

Steering committees are a striking contrast of quality councils.

Question 18

Design and production/delivery are examples of value-creation processes.

Question 19

In coordination mapping, each coordinating conversation between the agents moves through eight phases.

Question 20

The organic structure is characterized by a large number of rules.

Question 21

In the value-creation process, _____ processes involve all activities that are performed to incorporate customer requirements, new technology, and past learning into the functional specifications of a manufactured good or service.

A) design
B) facilities management
C) public relations
D) sales and marketing

Question 22

The structural contingency model holds that there is no "one best way" to organize.

Question 23

The structural contingency theory is based on the assumption that organizations choose structures to help them perform better - provide high quality, low costs, and so forth.

Question 24

_____ states that if a problem has been bothering a company and its customers for years and won't yield, that problem is the result of a cross-functional dispute, where nobody has total control of the whole process.

A) Palermo's law
B) Moore's law
C) Deming's 14 points
D) Newberg's law

Question 25

Value-creation processes are also called _____ processes of a business.

A) subsidiary
B) core
C) support
D) key-result

Question 26

Fashion in a company cannot achieve its purpose unless it is entrenched in the organization.

Question 27

According to the structural contingency model, mechanistic structures are better able to process the information necessary to deal with a complex environment.

Question 28

According to the institutional theory, an aspect of organizational structure need not contribute to organizational performance in order to be worthwhile.

Question 29

Which of the following is an advantage that a team-based organization has over a functional organization?

A) It does away with cross-functional teams.
B) It identifies processes that compromise on quality.
C) It is designed primarily for the administrative convenience of the organization.
D) It replaces horizontal coordination with vertical reporting relationships.

Question 30

A fashion is a permanent phase in an organization.

Question 31

With respect to value-creation processes, _____ processes create or deliver the actual product.

A) marketing
B) public relations
C) production
D) sales

Question 32

Which of the following is most likely to be a characteristic of a traditional organization?

A) It has very few written rules.
B) It has a flat structure.
C) It adapts to changes with ease.
D) It is highly structured.

Question 33

A drawback of the functional structure is that it:

A) focuses excessively on providing high-quality service to customers.
B) is designed primarily for the administrative convenience of the organization.
C) does not allow people to specialize in the aspect of work for which they are best suited.
D) makes it extremely difficult to evaluate people based on the existing set of responsibilities.

Question 34

An organization is divided into functions such as operations and maintenance, each of which is headed by a manager. In small organizations, which of the following is most likely to be the title of such managers?

A) Director
B) Analyst
C) Executive
D) Coordinator

Question 35

The organic organization compromises reliability for flexibility.

Question 36

"People who work in different functions hate each other." This is the corollary to _____.

A) Moore's law
B) Newberg's philosophy
C) Palermo's law
D) Deming's 14 points

Question 37

According to the contingency model, organizations facing uncertainty should adopt a mechanistic structure.

Question 38

The structural contingency theory states that organizations strive to succeed by creating structures that will be seen as appropriate by important external constituencies.

Question 39

A fashion is defined as the pursuit of novelty for its own sake.

Question 40

Which of the following is true about the functional structure?

A) It allows employees to have direct contact with customers.
B) It facilitates communication that takes place horizontally across functions.
C) It provides organizations with a clear chain of command.
D) It focuses primarily on helping employees meet customer expectations.

Question 41

One of the four elements of leadership teams involves developing long-term goals and near-term priorities. Which of the following elements of leadership teams does this represent?

A) Planning
B) Implementation
C) Review
D) Monitoring

Question 42

In the value-creation process, manufacturing, assembly, dispensing medications, and teaching a class are examples of which of the following processes?

A) Facilities management
B) Sales
C) Advertising
D) Production

Question 43

The _____ element of leadership teams refers to tracking improvement through customer satisfaction and internal measures of quality.

A) forecasting
B) implementation
C) review
D) planning

Question 44

Which of the following is a result of the creation of process teams and the focus on internal customers?

A) A substantial increase in the number of hierarchical layers in the organization
B) Creation of non-value-added activities
C) Empowerment of frontline workers to improve processes
D) More supervision and coordination for managers to do

Question 45

In coordination mapping,:

A) there are four different customers and providers.
B) only a selected few conversations between agents go through all its phases.
C) the preparation stage involves reporting that work is complete.
D) the last phase involves declaring satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Question 46

Which of the following is true of a process focus?

A) It is identical to a functional structure.
B) It can help define the organization design.
C) It encourages primarily internal functional cooperation.
D) It helps managers recognize that problems arise from people.

Question 47

Traditionally, steering committees were known as _____.

A) strategic planning groups
B) benchmarking teams
C) quality councils
D) performance management teams

Question 48

Which of the following is true of coordination mapping?

A) The approach starts with the preparation of a request.
B) The approach replaces providers with customers.
C) The approach consists of eight different phases.
D) Each process activity consists of five different players.

Question 49

One type of structural change associated with total quality (TQ) is the creation of a high-level planning group. Such groups used to be known as _____.

A) project teams
B) steering committees
C) coalitions
D) benchmarking teams

Question 50

Which of the following does implementation, one of the four elements of leadership teams, involve?

A) Setting long-term objectives
B) Understanding employees' perceptions about quality standards
C) Formulating milestones for the company to achieve
D) Providing resources for improvement

Question 51

Which of the following does planning, one of the four elements of leadership teams, involve?

A) Tracking progress through internal measures of quality
B) Celebrating and offering recognition to employees for achievements
C) Creating key business process teams
D) Understanding basic customer needs

Question 52

Which of the following is a difference between core and support processes?

A) Support processes are those that are more important to "running the business" than core processes.
B) Support processes are those that are critical to customer satisfaction while core processes are not.
C) Core processes are driven by external customer needs while support processes are not.
D) The ultimate value of products depends on support processes and not on core processes.

Question 53

In an organization, _____ processes are driven by internal customer needs.

A) value-creation
B) support
C) primary
D) principal

Question 54

An effective way to understand internal customer-supplier relationships is through _____.

A) cartograms
B) critical path diagrams
C) process mapping
D) Pareto diagrams

Question 55

An advantage of flatter organizations is that they:

A) tencourage non-value-added activities.
B) promote the micromanagement of frontline workers.
C) create more supervisory tasks and responsibilities for managers.
D) improve communication between top managers and frontline employees.

Question 56

In a restaurant, which of the following is most likely to be an internal customer of the kitchen staff?

A) The kitchen staff of rival restaurants
B) Customers who visit the restaurant to try out the food
C) Food critics who write reviews about the restaurant
D) The servers at the restaurant

Question 57

One of the four elements of leadership teams involves forming key business process teams. Which of the following elements of leadership teams does this refer to?

A) Analysis
B) Implementation
C) Review
D) Planning

Question 58

_____ is a new approach to process mapping and is based on the premise that each process activity includes two players, a customer and a provider.

A) Thematic mapping
B) Coordination mapping
C) Competency mapping
D) Perpetual mapping

Question 59

In an organization, each major process consists of many subprocesses that are managed by _____.

A) functional managers
B) directors
C) chief operating officers
D) chief executive officers

Question 60

Today, steering committees are most commonly known as _____ in organizations.

A) leadership teams
B) performance management councils
C) power teams
D) benchmarking councils

Question 61

What are process maps? What is the new approach to process mapping?

Question 62

According to the structural contingency view, the two principal types of organization structures are _____.

A) single and clustered
B) mechanistic and organic
C) simple and complex
D) hierarchical and flat

Question 63

Describe the process of "coordinating mapping."

Question 64

Organizations can be viewed at three levels. At the individual job level, work systems should:

A) facilitate the micromanagement of employees.
B) promote primarily cooperation and cross-functional teamwork.
C) offer flexibility in managing work processes.
D) replace individual initiative with group collaboration.

Question 65

The purpose of job _____ is to renew interest or motivation of the individual and to increase his or her complement of skills.

A) evaluation
B) enlargement
C) rotation
D) sampling

Question 66

Describe the functional structure of organizations.

Question 67

Discuss the concept of an internal customer.

Question 68

Job _____ entails "vertical job loading" in which workers are given more authority, responsibility, and autonomy rather than simply more or different work to do.

A) rotation
B) enlargement
C) enrichment
D) sampling

Question 69

What are the benefits of a flat organization?

Question 70

Discuss the common approaches to job redesign.

Question 71

List some of the challenges of a functional structure.

Question 72

Explain the concept of high-performance work.

Question 73

Job _____ is a technique by which individual workers learn several tasks by moving from one task to another.

A) sharing
B) rotation
C) analysis
D) evaluation

Question 74

Explain how coordinating mapping can help discover possible breakdowns in a process.

Question 75

According to the contingency model:

A) organizations facing uncertainty should adopt a mechanistic structure.
B) organic organizations are better able to deal with a complex environment.
C) organizations that experience little uncertainty have volatile environments.
D) mechanistic organizations are better able to change rapidly and adapt themselves.

Question 76

Review is one of the four elements of leadership teams and involves:

A) formulating human resource goals.
B) monitoring progress in attaining objectives.
C) ensuring that all employees have the skills to participate.
D) aligning reward systems to support the quality approach.

Question 77

Job _____ is the process in which workers' jobs are expanded to include several tasks rather than one single, low-level task.

A) sampling
B) analysis
C) sharing
D) enlargement

Question 78

Which of the following is a characteristic of an organic organization?

A) Centralized
B) Strict division of labor
C) Informal coordination across departments
D) A large number of rules and regulations

Question 79

How does a process focus help managers in defining the organization design? Explain.

Question 80

Which of the following is a characteristic of a mechanistic organization?

A) Strict division of labor
B) Decentralization
C) Few rules
D) Informal coordination across departments