Deck 1: The Evolving Supervisory Role

Question 1

Middle management positions are generally considered the most desirable jobs in healthcare facilities because of their relative job security.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The supervisor or manager of a work group is paid more than the workers to acknowledge that person's position as the most important member of the group.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The attitude and approach of a department supervisor can have significant effects on the morale and motivation evident among the employees.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A multi-layered management structure develops rapidly within an organization and is done away with just as quickly when the organization is flattened.

Question 5

The supervisor of a group is generally protected from the negative pressures on morale and motivation experienced by the employees in the work group.

Question 6

Changes that have occurred in many organizations have prompted some to claim that the concern for money has grown out of proportion to concern for health care.

Question 7

Reengineering consists largely of reorganizing, in which a few functions are combined, some functions are eliminated, and a number of positions are done away with.

Question 8

The organization of the modern healthcare institution leans considerably toward Rensis Likert's job organization system.

Question 9

Healthcare organizations are unique both in terms of the output they produce and in terms of the management processes employed.

Question 10

The healthcare institutions of more than a century ago were mostly charitable organizations operated by churches or social welfare groups, and no thought was given to operating then like businesses.

Question 11

Health care is extensively different from all other organized endeavors and thus warrants a completely different and unique approach to management.

Question 12

Understanding of organizational labels is essential in appropriately addressing the kinds of activities pursued in any business, especially that of a healthcare provider.

Question 13

The proliferation and growth of for-profit hospital corporations, health maintenance organizations, and other healthcare chains demonstrate that health care is a business of significant proportions.

Question 14

To be complete and useful, every job description written must account for all tasks that the person who holds the job is likely to encounter at any time.

Question 15

Businesses basically organized along the lines of Rensis Likert's cooperative motivation system tend to have frequent built-in quality checks at points in the process.

Question 16

Reengineering appropriately pursued consists primarily of:

A) Reorganization of every department.
B) Redesign of the business's core processes.
C) Reduction of the work force by some specified percentage.
D) Concerted effort to improve all present methods and processes.

Question 17

For the foreseeable future, the best background and initial preparation for the new healthcare supervisor will include:

A) Working experience in the department one is expected to supervise.
B) Minimum of an undergraduate degree in one of the health sciences.
C) Training and experience in one of the healthcare specialties.
D) The desire to advance in healthcare management.

Question 18

The way that many healthcare supervisors must approach their jobs is being dramatically affected by:

A) A leveling-off of demand for quality healthcare services.
B) Competition between and among various hospitals and hospital systems.
C) The continuing demand to deliver high quality care while containing or reducing costs.
D) The fact that most supervisors have not had formal management training.

Question 19

Within Rensis Likert's job organization system:

A) Jobs tend to be organized in considerable detail.
B) Individual employees are difficult to supervise because of their independence.
C) Most of the work to be encountered is unpredictable.
D) People are motivated to work by individual enthusiasm.

Question 20

In Rensis Likert's cooperative motivation system:

A) Variable work dominates most organizational activity.
B) Specific controls over organizational activity are not possible to any great extent.
C) It is often difficult to schedule inputs and outputs with any appreciable accuracy.
D) All of the above.

Question 21

Many exercises that have borne the label of reengineering have been little more than cursory exercises in ____________.

Question 22

A strong belief held by many in health care is that it is generally not possible to reduce costs without adversely affecting _________.

Question 23

When middle-management positions are eliminated, the majority of those positions' duties revert to the ____________ managers.

Question 24

In Rensis Likert's job organization system __________ work is the dominant form of activity.

Question 25

In the job organization system, Likert postulated that it is __________ motives that keep the system running as it should.