Deck 10: Decision Making: Rationality and Risk

Question 1

In addition to information, what other problem must each decision-making approach tackle?

A) uncertainty
B) values
C) crises
D) indecision

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which approach processes decisions as inputs and outputs?

A) bargaining
B) public choice
C) rational
D) participative

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Each major decision-making approach fails to account for ______.

A) defining goals
B) bargaining
C) crises
D) calculating consequences

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is incrementalism?

A) a theory that interest group pressure on government should be made in small steps in order to receive policy implementation
B) a theory that decisions typically are-and should be-made in small steps with the opportunity to make adjustments between each step
C) a strategy of bargaining in which those involved in a decision bargain out their differences
D) a method of decision making that assumes individuals pursue their self-interest and that drives propositions about their behavior-and the behavior of organizations-from this assumption

Question 5

In addition to defining goals, the rational decision making includes ______.

A) seeking advice
B) calculating the consequences
C) examining the political consequences
D) surveying the private sector

Question 6

What approach supports applying business practices within the public sector?

A) bargaining
B) public choice
C) participative
D) rational

Question 7

Which of the following decision-making approaches seeks the most efficient solution for the problem?

A) participative approach
B) public-choice approach
C) rational approach
D) bargaining approach

Question 8

What approach favors involving, in the decision-making process, the parties affected by decisions?

A) rational
B) bargaining
C) public choice
D) participative

Question 9

The public-choice approach favors which of the following?

A) incrementalism
B) privatization
C) partisan mutual adjustment
D) regulatory negotiation sessions

Question 10

The NIMBY phenomenon is most often associated with which approach?

A) participative
B) public-choice approach
C) rational approach
D) bargaining approach

Question 11

In the participative approach, each of the following groups may claim participation in decision making EXCEPT ______.

A) employees of an organization not making the decision
B) clientele
C) taxpayers
D) the voting public

Question 12

Lack of complete information is a major weakness of which approach?

A) bargaining
B) participative
C) rational
D) public choice

Question 13

What approach holds efficiency as the highest value for decision makers?

A) participative
B) bargaining
C) rational
D) public choice

Question 14

According to the text, one of the biggest advantages of the participative approach is the ______.

A) wealth of information received
B) utilization of private sector practices
C) response to patronage
D) integration of interests of new officials

Question 15

What approach does Charles Lindblom advocate?

A) bargaining
B) participative
C) public choice
D) rational

Question 16

What is a major weakness of the rational approach?

A) lack of attention to calculating consequences
B) lack of attention to identifying alternatives
C) lack of complete information
D) lack of emphasis on inputs and outputs

Question 17

What does each of the major decision-making approaches fail to deal with?

A) calculating consequences
B) bargaining
C) defining goals
D) uncertainty

Question 18

What approach emphasizes limiting analysis to a few alternatives as opposed to evaluating them all?

A) satisficing
B) NIMBY phenomenon
C) privatization
D) incrementalism

Question 19

The first two steps of the rational approach are ______.

A) defining goals and seeking advice
B) defining goals and identifying alternatives
C) seeking advice and perusing the political consequences
D) seeking advice and surveying the private sector

Question 20

Which approach would utilize an advisory committee of private citizens for decision making?

A) participative
B) rational
C) bargaining
D) public choice

Question 21

In 1945, ______ argued that decision making should be central to a public administration theory.

A) Herbert Simon
B) Luther Gulick
C) Robert Behn
D) James Vaupel

Question 22

The participative approach utilizes ______ for decision making.

A) the maximization of individual utility
B) private sector ideas
C) incrementalism
D) advisory committees of private citizens

Question 23

Which step is not normally considered a basic step of the rational decision-making approach?

A) Define goals.
B) Identify alternatives.
C) Decide.
D) Ignore feedback.

Question 24

It is not possible to identify which decision-making approaches work best on which decision-making problems.

Question 25

Why are values such a sticky subject?

Question 26

What phrase describes inferior management decision making based on information asymmetries?

A) moral hazard
B) adverse selection
C) rationality
D) blindness in truth

Question 27

Administrators must deal with two main issues: ______ and ______ in their approach to decision making.

A) Congress; local governments
B) information; values
C) crisis; budget
D) constituents; justice

Question 28

According to Francis E.Rourke, public support for an agency's decision most often comes from two different sources: an agency's ______ and ______.

A) mass public; attentive publics
B) values; information
C) constituents; budget
D) politics; voting block

Question 29

The author argues that if "decision making is the central administrative act" then "______ is the lifeblood of decision making."

A) funding
B) good people
C) the right answer
D) information

Question 30

One reason risk management is so difficult is because ______.

A) managers feel as though they already have things under control
B) there are not enough financial resources and staff to care
C) managers are challenged with items that seem to be more important at the time
D) there is a lack of command and control

Question 31

From what source does participative decision making depend on for information?

A) the media
B) the government
C) those affected by decisions
D) elected officials

Question 32

The public-choice approach focuses on intimate involvement from what group(s)?

A) congressional oversight
B) political activists
C) private citizens
D) markets

Question 33

On what does public -choice decision making depend?

A) assumed values of administrators
B) self-interest of players
C) focus on client's values
D) rationality of Congress

Question 34

None of the decision-making approaches discussed in the chapter provide the solution to bureaucratic pathologies that block the flow of important information.

Question 35

The Grace Commission was appointed by President Bill Clinton to study the best way to study the NIMBY effect.

Question 36

Most fundamentally, privatization is a method for how the government does things, not what it ought to do.

Question 37

James March and Herbert Simon use the term ______ to describe how decision makers simplify the process by screening out silly options and stop searching when they come upon a satisfactory alternative, even if it is not an exhaustive search.

A) rational
B) externalities
C) satisficing
D) spillover

Question 38

The rational approach seeks to do what with regard to efficiency?

A) quell
B) depress
C) maximize
D) bargain

Question 39

One problem with the major decision-making approaches is that they tend to focus on a single value.

Question 40

Weber pointed out that legislators delegate power to specialized administrators under the presumption that administrators will exercise their expert judgment and not their______ while making decisions.

A) information
B) bargaining power
C) bias
D) patronage

Question 41

What does the participative approach argue?

Question 42

How are information and values important to the decision-making approaches?

Question 43

What are the three weaknesses shared across the major decision-making approaches?

Question 44

What is the public-choice approach and on what premise does it base its claims?

Question 45

In essence, what is the rational approach trying to maximize?

Question 46

Explain the argument that risk management be "someone's business."

Question 47

What does the rational approach argue?

Question 48

Of the four approaches (rational, public choice, bargaining, and participatory), do you feel that any presents as a superior tool for decision making? Why or why not?

Question 49

What is satisficing?

Question 50

What strategy might a public choice approach have advocated for in the cases of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis and the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs?

Question 51

What four groups might take part in participative decision making?