Deck 7: Creating a Motivating Work Setting

Question 1

When employees are intrinsically motivated, good performance makes them feel good, thus motivating them to continue to perform at a high level; so good performance becomes self-reinforcing.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

As one of the core job dimensions, task identity is the extent to which a job requires an employee to use a number of different skills, abilities, or talents.

Answer 2

False
Skill variety is the extent to which a job requires an employee to use a number of different skills, abilities, or talents.

Question 3

Job enrichment involves designing jobs to provide employees with opportunities for growth by giving them more responsibility and control over their work.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In the scientific management approach to job design, pay is the principal outcome used to motivate employees to contribute their inputs.

Question 5

Job design does not influence the motivation of employees and their input levels.

Question 6

The job characteristics model focuses on what makes jobs extrinsically motivating.

Question 7

Job design is the process of linking specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding what techniques, equipment, and procedures should be used to perform those tasks.

Question 8

Grocery stores that have individual employees assigned to individual, or only a few tasks, such as bagger, cashier, produce clerk, and meat cutter, employ the principles of job simplification and specialization.

Question 9

Workers whose jobs have been enriched are more motivated and perform at a higher level.

Question 10

Jobs that were designed under scientific management principles tended to be monotonous and dehumanizing.

Question 11

The job characteristics model indicates that the higher a job scores on each core job dimension, the higher the level of extrinsic motivation.

Question 12

Scientific management focuses exclusively on intrinsic motivation and ignores the important role of extrinsic motivation.

Question 13

Job enlargement involves increasing the number of tasks an employee performs but keeping all of the tasks at the same level of difficulty and responsibility.

Question 14

Scientific management has been instrumental in helping organizations improve employee effectiveness and productivity.

Question 15

Scientific management is a set of principles and practices stressing job simplification and specialization.

Question 16

Job specialization involves breaking up the work that needs to be done into the smallest identifiable tasks, and then designing jobs around these narrow tasks.

Question 17

Job enlargement is referred to as horizontal job loading.

Question 18

The job characteristics model reveals exactly how long it takes to perform a task and the best way to perform it.

Question 19

When an assembly-line worker is given some of the responsibility for checking the quality of work, a job that the supervisor used to do, the worker's job has been enriched.

Question 20

Job enrichment is aimed at increasing the intrinsic motivation of employees.

Question 21

Knowledge of results is the degree to which employees know how well they are performing their jobs on a continuous basis.

Question 22

The job characteristics model acknowledges the role that individual differences play in determining how employees respond to the design of their jobs.

Question 23

When the intrinsic motivation of employees is high, they require close supervision.

Question 24

Social information processing and the job characteristics model have nothing in common.

Question 25

Receiving feedback has a positive impact on intrinsic motivation.

Question 26

The Job Diagnostic Survey can be used to identify the core dimensions of a job that should be redesigned and that, if changed, will produce the largest increase in the motivating potential score.

Question 27

The motivating potential score (MPS) is equal to the average of the first three core-job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, and task significance) multiplied by autonomy and feedback.

Question 28

Task significance is the degree to which a job allows an employee freedom and independence.

Question 29

Workers who are dissatisfied with their work context spend significant amounts of energy dealing with their dissatisfaction and are not able to appreciate and respond to the potential for intrinsic motivation on their jobs.

Question 30

Autonomy is the degree to which a job allows an employee the freedom and independence to schedule work and decide how to carry it out.

Question 31

Growth-need strength describes how satisfied employees are with extrinsic outcomes they receive from their jobs.

Question 32

Management's perceptions of the five core dimensions of a job are the key determinants of intrinsic motivation.

Question 33

Salancik and Pfeffer propose that how employees perceive and respond to the design of their jobs is influenced by their moods.

Question 34

Experienced responsibility for work outcomes is the extent to which employees feel they are personally responsible or accountable for their job performance.

Question 35

According to the job characteristics model, satisfaction with the work context is the extent to which an individual wants his or her work to contribute to personal growth, learning, and development.

Question 36

Contingent workers are hired or contracted on a temporary basis to fill needs for labor, which change over time.

Question 37

Experienced meaningfulness of work is the degree to which employees feel their jobs are important and worthwhile.

Question 38

The motivating potential score (MPS) is a measure of the overall potential of a job to foster intrinsic motivation.

Question 39

The job of a carnival ride operator who presses buttons to start and stop rides has a low level of skill variety.

Question 40

The social environment provides employees with information about how they should evaluate their jobs and work outcomes.

Question 41

Job design approaches, which stress intrinsic motivation, suggest designing jobs to make them interesting and enjoyable.

Question 42

It costs more money for companies to offshore services than it does for companies to offshore manufacturing operations.

Question 43

Scientific management implicitly assumes that intrinsic motivation is the primary determinant of performance.

Question 44

There is no difference between the social environment on the job for permanent workers and contingent workers.

Question 45

The social environment is an especially potent source of information when employees with limited information and experience are new to a job or to an organization.

Question 46

Job enrichment and job enlargement are intended to promote extrinsic motivation.

Question 47

Goal-setting theory explains what types of goals are most effective in producing high levels of motivation and performance, as well as why goals have these effects.

Question 48

When people identify with an organization, they define themselves in terms of being a member and see their destiny as being connected to it.

Question 49

According to the job characteristics model, workers who are intrinsically motivated contribute inputs to their jobs because they enjoy the work itself.

Question 50

Once employees have gained first-hand experience with their jobs, the social environment may play less of a decisive role in molding reactions, and the actual design of the job itself may become more important.

Question 51

Goal-setting theory focuses exclusively on how to motivate employees to contribute inputs to their jobs.

Question 52

Locke and Latham suggest that the goals employees try to attain at work have little to no effect on their levels of motivation and performance.

Question 53

The role of feedback in goal setting is insignificant.

Question 54

Organizational objectives contribute to creating a motivating work setting because they can provide employees with a sense of meaning and purpose.

Question 55

According to goal-setting theory, difficult goals lead to higher motivation and performance than do easy or moderate goals.

Question 56

Organizational objectives describe the overarching purpose of an organization-what it stands for and what it seeks to accomplish.

Question 57

Difficult goals lead to high motivation and performance only when the goals are set by employees themselves.

Question 58

A specific goal for a salesperson might be to "sell as much as you can."

Question 59

The key goal of scientific management is maximizing performance.

Question 60

A goal is what a person is trying to accomplish through his or her behavior or actions.

Question 61

Research shows that goal setting affects motivation and performance only when employees are given extra extrinsic rewards for achieving their goals.

Question 62

Which of the following statements on scientific management are FALSE?

A) It is intended to increase the performance of individual employees.
B) It embraces the principles of job enrichment.
C) It stresses job simplification.
D) It focuses on job specialization.

Question 63

How are job enlargement and specialization related to the scientific management theory?

A) They are used to counteract the negative affects of the theory.
B) They are key components of the theory.
C) They are unrelated to the theory.
D) They are used to increase efficiency and performance.

Question 64

Setting specific and difficult goals reduces performance when employees lack the skills and abilities to perform at a high level.

Question 65

________ is the process of linking specific tasks to specific jobs and of deciding what techniques, equipment, and processes should be used to perform them.

A) Job dissection
B) Job specification
C) Job design
D) Job modification

Question 66

Employees with specific, difficult goals are also MOST OFTEN motivated to engage in organizational citizenship behavior.

Question 67

________ was one of the earliest systematic approaches to job design.

A) Job enrichment
B) Scientific management
C) Job enlargement
D) Vertical loading

Question 68

In terms of the motivation equation, job design and goal setting focus primarily on how to motivate employees to contribute their inputs to their jobs and organizations.

Question 69

Goal setting can enhance both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

Question 70

A researcher found that bricklayers could use five motions to lay a brick rather than 18 motions. A foreman who follows the ________ theory would be MOST interested in this knowledge.

A) scientific management
B) job enrichment
C) social identity
D) job characteristics

Question 71

Most MBO programs have three basic steps: goal setting, implementation, and evaluation.

Question 72

________ results when employees are assigned to perform small, simple tasks and focus exclusively on them.

A) Job specialization
B) Job simplification
C) Job enrichment
D) Job enlargement

Question 73

Scientific management is a set of principles stressing job ________.

A) simplification and specialization
B) enlargement and enrichment
C) fulfillment and meaning
D) training and development

Question 74

All of the following are early approaches to job design EXCEPT ________.

A) scientific management
B) job enlargement
C) job enrichment
D) job intercession

Question 75

If creativity is desired and employees are given specific, difficult goals, they will MOST LIKELY focus on achieving the goals rather than being creative.

Question 76

A manager thought that his employee's jobs were simple and boring. He decided to add a few extra responsibilities to make work more exciting for his workers. The manager's strategy to make work more exciting will MOST LIKELY ________.

A) work for all of the employees
B) work for none of the employees
C) work only for those employees that are intrinsically motivated
D) work only for those employees that are extrinsically motivated

Question 77

MBO is a goal-setting process in which a manager meets periodically with his or her supervisor to set new goals and evaluate how well previously set goals have been met.

Question 78

Managers try to design jobs which accomplish all of the following EXCEPT ________.

A) increasing worker motivation
B) encouraging workers to perform well
C) allowing workers to enjoy their work
D) standardizing workers' outcome levels

Question 79

The objective of MBO is to make sure that all goal setting contributes to the organization's effectiveness.

Question 80

________ involves breaking up the work that needs to be done into the smallest identifiable tasks.

A) Job specialization
B) Job simplification
C) Job enrichment
D) Job enlargement