Deck 7: Decision Making and Creativity

Question 1

Intuition includes any emotional signals we experience regarding a situation.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Post-decisional justification causes decision makers to forget what decision they made.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Subjective expected utility refers to how much the selected alternative benefits or satisfies the decision maker.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Bounded rationality adopts the main assumptions of the rational choice paradigm of decision making.

Question 5

The decision-making process is more effective when problems are defined in terms of their solutions.

Question 6

Prospect theory and self-justification are the main causes of satisficing.

Question 7

Satisficing occurs when people continue on a failing course of action.

Question 8

One reason why the problem identification stage is imperfect is that various stakeholders try to 'frame' the decision maker's view of the situation.

Question 9

Decision makers can discover blind spots in problem identification by discussing the situation with other people.

Question 10

Escalation of commitment is more likely to occur when the perceived costs of terminating the project are high or unknown.

Question 11

Employee involvement potentially improves decision-making quality and commitment.

Question 12

Whether or not the emotions we experience in a situation represent intuition depends largely on our level of experience in that situation.

Question 13

The higher the level of employee involvement,the more influence people have over the decision process.

Question 14

The rational choice paradigm assumes that decision makers have limited information-processing capabilities and engage in a limited search for alternatives.

Question 15

The decision maker's emotions play an important role in his or her identification of a problem or opportunity.

Question 16

Decision making is an unconscious process of moving toward a desirable state of affairs.

Question 17

When making important decisions,we 'listen in' on our emotions to guide our preference among the decision alternatives.

Question 18

Employee involvement mainly refers to controlling resources for one's own job.

Question 19

Scenario planning is a structured process that helps decision makers to explore potential problems and choose the best solutions under different future conditions.

Question 20

If a decision maker encounters the same problem several times,he or she can increasingly rely on non-programmed decision routines to solve the problem.

Question 21

The ultimate principle of rational choice paradigm is to choose the alternative with:

A) Utilitarianism
B) Projective expected utility
C) Subjective expected utility
D) Highest returns

Question 22

Creative people have a low need for achievement and a strong need to follow rules.

Question 23

A potentially useful creative practice is to list different dimensions of a system and the elements of each dimension,then think through the potential commercial usefulness of each combination.

Question 24

Creativity occurs only in a few types of decisions.

Question 25

The ideas that appear during the insight stage of creativity are quickly forgotten unless documented.

Question 26

The incubation stage of creativity is more effective when the decision maker sets aside all other activities and focuses attention on the issue or problem.

Question 27

Organisational decisions and actions are influenced mainly by:

A) What attracts management attention
B) Objective reality of any environment
C) Actions by stakeholders
D) Specific actions

Question 28

Creativity occurs by redefining the problem,not just by finding a unique solution to the existing problem.

Question 29

Creative people tend to have a high need for social approval.

Question 30

Employees should not make the final decision alone when conflict is likely among employees.

Question 31

Creativity is related to both the characteristics of creative people and the situation in which they work.

Question 32

Non-programmed decisions require:

A) Ready made decisions
B) Employee involvement decisions
C) All steps in the decision model
D) Following standard operating procedures

Question 33

Employees tend to be less creative in organisations that punish failure.

Question 34

Employee involvement tends to weaken synergy in the decision-making process.

Question 35

Programmed decisions follow standard:

A) Operating procedures
B) Marked procedures
C) Complex procedures
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 36

Incubation is the stage of creativity in which the problem is simmering at the back of your mind while you are doing something else.

Question 37

Herbert Simon argued that people engage in bounded rationality because:

A) People evaluate and then process information
B) They process limited and imperfect information and rarely select the best choice
C) They process correct and timely information
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 38

The highest level of employee involvement should occur when the problem is structured (i.e.it is a programmed decision).

Question 39

Google estimates the potential of each applicant using:

A) Interviews
B) Selection criteria
C) Research
D) Opportunities

Question 40

Creative ideas can emerge when asking people unfamiliar with the problem to explore the problem with you.

Question 41

During a meeting,senior executives of a consumer products company tackled the problem that they were late in detecting several consumer trends,such as the trend towards using see-through plastics in kitchenware.While trying to determine the source of this problem,one executive said: 'The main problem here is that we need to find a better industrial design firm to design our products.' Which of the following best describes the decision-making problem that this executive is exhibiting?

A) The executive is engaging in escalation of commitment
B) The executive is acting as a devil's advocate when the situation calls for consensus
C) The executive is engaging in groupthink
D) The executive is defining the problem in terms of a solution

Question 42

In what stage of the decision-making process do emotions influence human decision making?

A) Identifying problems
B) Identifying alternatives
C) Choosing alternatives
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 43

Escalation of commitment can be minimised by ensuring that:

A) There are ready-made alternatives to resolve the problem
B) Those who choose the decision are different from those who implement and evaluate it
C) The team leader has strong opinions about the preferred options
D) Organisational goals are relatively ambiguous

Question 44

A committee of employees developed a process whereby they would choose a new office-cleaning firm from the six companies that tendered proposals for the contract.The process involved carefully assessing each firm on the four factors that were most important (e.g.cost),weighting the importance of each factor and then choosing the firm with the highest score.This decision-making activity potentially minimises problems with:

A) Production blocking
B) Constructive conflict
C) Satisficing
D) Problem identification

Question 45

Establishing a pre-set level at which the decision is abandoned or re-evaluated is recommended mainly to:

A) Minimise reliance on an implicit favourite
B) Avoid relying on mental models to recognise problems or opportunities
C) Minimise escalation of commitment
D) Minimise problem identification

Question 46

A non-programmed decision is:

A) Any routine situation where the company has a ready-made solution
B) Any decision that does not relate directly to the employee's job description
C) Any non-routine situation in which employees must search for alternative solutions
D) Any decision that is clearly within the employee's job description

Question 47

Which of the following decision-making activities tends to make the most use of tacit knowledge?

A) Intuition
B) Decision support systems
C) Escalation of commitment
D) Data mining

Question 48

When evaluating decisions,confirmation bias involves:

A) Excessive optimism
B) Selecting the evidence and emphasising negative features
C) Ignoring or downplaying negative features and over emphasising positive features
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 49

One reason why the rational choice model doesn't fit reality is that it focuses on logical thinking and completely ignores:

A) Emotions
B) Alternatives
C) Evaluation of solutions
D) Subjective expected utility

Question 50

For the past 2500 years,scholars in most western countries have mainly followed the ____________ model of decision making.

A) Implicit favourite
B) Bounded rationality
C) Rational choice
D) Prospect theory

Question 51

Which of these statements about information processing in decision making is FALSE?

A) Decision makers typically look at alternatives at the same time rather than sequentially
B) Perceptual biases distort the selection and interpretation of information
C) Decision makers don't think through all of the possible alternatives and their outcomes
D) Decision makers engage in a limited search for and evaluation of alternatives

Question 52

Escalation of commitment is more likely to occur when:

A) The decision maker has a strong need to justify their decision
B) The costs of ending the project are high or unknown
C) The decision maker screens out negative information about the decision due to perceptual defence
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 53

The textbook mainly identifies post-decisional justification as a problem with which stage of decision making?

A) Evaluating decision outcomes
B) Implementing the selected alternative
C) Developing alternative solutions
D) Choosing the best decision style

Question 54

Studies have found that people like to have choices,but when exposed to many alternatives they become:

A) Ineffective in understanding the choices
B) Efficient decision makers
C) Cognitive misers by engaging in less optional decision making
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 55

A decision maker's need to justify their decision tends to cause:

A) More ethical decisions
B) Escalation of commitment
C) Creative decisions
D) The decision maker to look for more alternatives

Question 56

Which of these statements about human decision making is FALSE?

A) Personal biases typically distort the selection and interpretation of information
B) Decision makers engage in a limited search for and evaluation of alternatives
C) Decision makers usually examine all alternatives at the same time
D) Decision makers compare each alternative to an implicit favourite

Question 57

Employee involvement refers to the:

A) Employee involving him or herself in each and every task
B) Degree to which the employee influences how their work is organised and executed
C) Benefits an employee receives for his or her involvement
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 58

Satisficing refers to:

A) The tendency to choose an alternative that is good enough rather than the best
B) The feeling employees experience when they are not involved in a decision in which they would have made a valuable contribution
C) A desirable outcome of decision making when several employees participate in the decision process
D) The feeling employees experience when they make the right decision

Question 59

Intuition relies on which of the following?

A) Escalation of commitment
B) Bounded rationality
C) Post-decisional justification
D) Tacit knowledge

Question 60

Decisions tend to have a higher failure rate when leaders are:

A) Decisive
B) Contemplative
C) Intuitive
D) Effective

Question 61

If employee goals and norms conflict with the organisation's goals,then:

A) Employees should make most decisions in the organisation
B) Employees should be invited to make recommendations on important ideas,which are almost always accepted by management
C) Employees should never be involved in organisational decisions
D) Employees should have a low level of employee involvement

Question 62

An executive was trying to think of ways to increase sales of ballpoint pens among young people.While walking down a street with lots of neon signs,the executive got the idea that young people would want to buy pens with ink in bright neon colours and with pen containers that glow in the dark.This situation is an example of:

A) Divergent thinking
B) Escalation of commitment
C) Devil's advocacy
D) Bounded rationality

Question 63

The first stage of the creative process is:

A) Divergent thinking
B) Preparation
C) Experimentation
D) Insight

Question 64

In the creative process,insight:

A) Produces a well-developed and tested solution to problems
B) Follows the verification stage
C) Almost always occurs at night,rarely during the daytime
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 65

Need for achievement,the ability to synthesise ideas,and risk-taking are characteristics of:

A) People who tend to be more creative
B) Convergent thinkers
C) Employees with a high evaluation apprehension
D) People who conform to peer pressure in decision making

Question 66

A marketing specialist needed to find a new way of marketing the company's main product to clients.While watching a movie one evening,the marketing specialist saw a scene that gave her inspiration for a new marketing plan.According to the creative process model,the stage in this creative process after inspiration is:

A) Preparation
B) Incubation
C) Verification
D) Insight

Question 67

Convergent thinking mainly improves which stage of the creative process?

A) Incubation
B) Insight
C) Preparation
D) Convergent thinking does not improve any part of the creative process.

Question 68

An important resource for creativity is:

A) Open communications
B) Programmed decision routines
C) A job where you work alone
D) A performance-based reward system

Question 69

Divergent thinking mainly contributes to which of the following?

A) Bounded rationality
B) The rationality choice decision model
C) Organisational politics
D) Creativity

Question 70

Employees tend to be more creative when they:

A) Avoid risk-taking
B) Enjoy abiding by rules and status
C) Have a high need for social approval
D) Have none of these characteristics

Question 71

The preferred level of employee involvement depends on:

A) Source of decision knowledge
B) Risk of conflict
C) Decision structure and decision commitment
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 72

Which of these statements about creativity is TRUE?

A) Creativity is found in only 15 per cent of the adult population in Australia
B) Creative people have no knowledge of the fundamental issues on that decision problem
C) Creativity is strongest when employees have formed strong mental models
D) Creative people tend to have a high need for achievement

Question 73

Incubation and verification are:

A) Stages of the creative process
B) Elements of bounded rationality
C) Elements of the MARS model
D) Problems with team decision making

Question 74

Employees probably should not make the decision alone (without the manager's involvement)when:

A) Their goals and norms conflict with the organisation's objectives
B) They lack commitment to decisions made by the boss alone
C) They possess more knowledge than the manager
D) Employees are likely to disagree with each other regarding the preferred solution

Question 75

Employee involvement tends to have which of the following benefits in decision making?

A) Leads to a more accurate definition of the problem
B) Improves the number and quality of alternative solutions and increases the likelihood of selecting the best alternative
C) Strengthens employee commitment to the solution
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 76

In decision making,creativity is used:

A) To find problems
B) To identify alternatives
C) To implement solutions more effectively
D) To assist all stages of decision making

Question 77

Which of the following occurs during the incubation stage of the creative process?

A) Escalation of commitment
B) Prospect theory effect
C) Convergent thinking
D) Divergent thinking

Question 78

People tend to be more creative when:

A) They have a reasonable level of job security
B) They are secluded from colleagues in other areas of the organisation
C) They risk losing their job if their ideas fail
D) They lack personal freedom to try things out

Question 79

Employee involvement is LESS valuable or successful when:

A) Employees are committed to decisions made by their bosses
B) Employees have the same information as their bosses
C) Employee norms conflict with organisational goals
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 80

The benefits of employee involvement increase with:

A) The routineness and similarity of the problem or opportunity
B) Management's knowledge of the situation
C) The standardisation and repetitiveness of the problem or opportunity
D) The novelty and complexity of the problem or opportunity