Deck 7: Decision Making and Creativity

Question 1

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

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Our mental models of the world can prevent us from recognizing emerging problems in the workplace.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The last step in the rational decision-making model is to evaluate the decision outcomes

Answer 3

True

Question 4

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 5

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

Question 6

The rational choice paradigm assumes that decision makers have well-articulated and agreed-on organizational goals.

Question 7

The textbook argues that problem identification is usually the least important step in the rational choice paradigm.

Question 8

Decision heuristics automatically distort either the probability of outcomes or the value (utility) of those outcomes.

Question 9

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

Question 10

According to bounded rationality theory, people make better decisions when their perceptions are "bounded" or framed by past experience.

Question 11

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

Question 12

The rational choice paradigm is inherently logical, as such it an always be applied in realistic situations.

Question 13

Decision makers typically look at alternatives sequentially and compare each alternative to an implicit favourite.

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

Decision makers have a need to reduce uncertainty, so they tend to focus on solutions before fully understanding the problem.

Question 17

One way to improve problem identification is for leaders to create a norm of "divine discontent," in which they are never satisfied with the status quo, and this aversion to complacency creates a mindset that more actively searches for problems and opportunities.

Question 18

The rational choice paradigm states that effective decision makers begin at any step in the model.

Question 19

The rational choice paradigm assumes that people rely on logic to evaluate and choose alternatives.

Question 20

Ill-defined problems require a nonprogrammed decision process.

Question 21

Research suggests that decision makers rely on stereotypes and other shortcuts to speed up the decision process when they experience anger.

Question 22

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

Question 23

Intuition is the main strategy to minimize escalation of commitment

Question 24

Intuition allows us to draw on our tacit knowledge to guide our decision preferences.

Question 25

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

Question 26

Intuition is both an emotional experience and a rapid nonconscious analytic process.

Question 27

When making important decisions, emotional markers guide our preference among the decision alternatives.

Question 28

Action scripts prolong the decision-making process by lingering at the problem identification stage.

Question 29

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

Question 30

The emerging emotional view of decision making states that people form preferences toward alternatives as soon as they receive information about those alternatives.

Question 31

Clustering illusion causes us to see patterns from a small sample of events, when in fact those events are random.

Question 32

Decision makers tend not to evaluate various alternatives when they find an opportunity.

Question 33

People satisfice when they select the first alternative that exceeds a standard of acceptance for their needs and preferences.

Question 34

Intuition is based on well-grounded mental models.

Question 35

Systematic evaluation of alternatives helps to increase the use of implicit favourites and satisficing in the decision process.

Question 36

When in a positive mood, people pay more attention to details and follow a nonprogrammed decision routine.

Question 37

According to almost all organizational behaviour research, intuitive decision making causes us to make wrong decisions.

Question 38

Intuition includes any emotional signals we experience regarding a situation.

Question 39

Representativeness heuristics is a natural tendency to pay less attention to whether something resembles something else than on more precise statistics about its probability.

Question 40

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

Question 41

Creativity occurs only in a few types of decisions.

Question 42

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 43

Confirmation bias gives people an excessively optimistic evaluation of their decisions, but only until they receive very clear and undeniable information to the contrary.

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

One strategy to improve the decision evaluation process is to involve as few people as possible to reduce potential ambiguity and conflict.

Question 47

Divergent thinking occurs when the individual has a fleeting inspiration that is usually forgotten before it can be written down.

Question 48

Escalation of commitment may be corrected by ensuring that those involved in choosing decision alternatives are also responsible for evaluating the implemented solution.

Question 49

People are creative because they work in creative environments, not because of any differences in their ability or personality.

Question 50

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

Question 51

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 52

Creative people tend to have a high need for social approval

Question 53

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

Question 54

Creativity should be used only in cases of nonprogrammed problems.

Question 55

Creative people value self-direction, but also have a strong need to follow rules.

Question 56

Post-decisional justification gives people an excessively optimistic evaluation of their decisions, until they receive very clear and undeniable information to the contrary.

Question 57

The ideas that form during the insight stage of creativity need to be verified through conscious evaluation and experimentation.

Question 58

Knowledge and experience can undermine creativity, because it can lead to routinization of that knowledge.

Question 59

Typically, creative people possess less knowledge and experience on the subject than experts in the field.

Question 60

Escalation of commitment occurs when employees increase their support for a decision because most of their colleagues also support that decision.

Question 61

Employees are more likely to be committed to implementing a solution when they are involved in making the decision.

Question 62

To make the best decisions, the number of employees involved should be minimized.

Question 63

Task significance and autonomy are important conditions for creativity in organizations.

Question 64

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

Question 65

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 66

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

Question 67

Employee involvement potentially improves decision-making quality and commitment.

Question 68

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

Question 69

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

Question 70

The highest level of employee involvement occurs when employees are asked to make recommendations to managers, who then decide whether to implement them.

Question 71

Creativity tends to suffer during times of downsizing and corporate restructuring.

Question 72

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

Question 73

People are most creative when management puts intense pressure on them to produce creative ideas.

Question 74

Art classes and improvisational theatre are two creative activities of associative play

Question 75

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

Question 76

The optimum level of employee involvement depends on the situation.

Question 77

Morphological analysis is a test to identify people with a creative personality.

Question 78

Creative people have a high degree of nonconformity and have less concern about social approval.

Question 79

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

Question 80

Employee involvement improves the number and quality of solutions.