Deck 9: Engagement, Empowerment, and Motivation

Question 1

One of the easiest ways to involve employees on an individual basis is the suggestion system.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Efforts at empowerment fail in the absence of management's support.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Employee involvement approaches are mostly restricted to simple sharing of information or providing input on work-related issues.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Employee satisfaction is not related to employee engagement.

Question 5

Empowerment is an application of the teamwork principle of total quality, embodying "vertical" teamwork between managerial and nonmanagerial personnel.

Question 6

One of the practices that leads to effective employee recognition and rewards, is ensuring only individual and not team awards are given.

Question 7

One of the roles of a middle manager in an organization with empowered workforce is to act as a peer rather than a teacher or a coach.

Question 8

One of the key practices that lead to effective employee recognition and rewards is ensuring that the recognition is not publicized.

Question 9

Rewards should not be tied to quality.

Question 10

Compensation is not related to employee motivation.

Question 11

Although engagement is relevant for all aspects of organizational performance, it is not relevant to quality improvement.

Question 12

Engaged employees have a strong emotional bond to their organization.

Question 13

To gain the benefits of empowerment, managers must empower for its public relations value.

Question 14

Employee engagement decreases employee commitment to the organization.

Question 15

Empowerment allows organizations to flatten their organizational structure.

Question 16

Employee engagement replaces cooperation with adversarial mentality.

Question 17

For empowerment to succeed, it is not necessary for employees to be provided with business information.

Question 18

Efforts at empowerment fail when it is deployed collectively to all employees.

Question 19

The TQ perspective of employee engagement is in stark contrast to organizational behavior theory.

Question 20

Shortcomings of suggestion programs can be overcome by excluding supervisors from employee improvement programs.

Question 21

Growth-need strength is most affected by Total quality (TQ).

Question 22

The need most likely to be fulfilled by participation in quality-based initiatives is the need for achievement.

Question 23

_____ represents the highest level of engagement.

A) Participation
B) Enlargement
C) Enrichment
D) Empowerment

Question 24

Which of the following is a shortcoming of suggestion program?

A) It undermines and compromises the quality.
B) It increases the cost.
C) It is neither systematic nor continuous.
D) It makes employees disinterested and uninvolved.

Question 25

Which of the following is true regarding the employee suggestion system?

A) It decreases workforce flexibility.
B) It leads to poor interpersonal relationships in the workplace.
C) It leads to lower levels of motivation.
D) It improves workers' reasoning ability.

Question 26

Middle managers whose subordinates are being empowered feel that their own needs for power are better fulfilled in a performance excellence environment.

Question 27

Which of the following is a consequence of an engaged workforce?

A) Employees are less likely to stay with the company.
B) Customers are more likely to switch to other companies.
C) The company is more likely to experience a drop in productivity.
D) Employees are more likely to better understand the customer needs.

Question 28

According to the goal-setting theory, people who have clear goals are not any more motivated than people who lack goals.

Question 29

_____ refers to any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities, with the objectives of tapping the creative energies of all employees and improving their motivation.

A) Employee involvement
B) Employee clarity
C) Employee attrition
D) Employee orientation

Question 30

One of the easiest ways to involve employees on an individual basis is:

A) career guidance system.
B) quality circle.
C) the suggestion system.
D) management by objective.

Question 31

_____ refers to the extent of employee commitment, both emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization.

A) Intellectual labor
B) Aesthetic labor
C) Workforce engagement
D) Workforce adaptation

Question 32

According to the goal-setting theory, challenging goals that seem impossible are motivating.

Question 33

According to the job characteristics theory, most employees are likely to be unmotivated if their jobs involve few skills.

Question 34

Which of the following is a way to overcome the shortcomings of suggestion programs?

A) Recognizing only those employees whose suggestions result in significant improvements
B) Scaling team-based improvement efforts to minimizes downtime
C) Excluding supervisors from the employee improvement process
D) Discouraging employees from limiting their suggestions to their own areas of responsibility

Question 35

The principle of breakthrough improvement leads to fairly easy goals.

Question 36

Work design practices such as job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment are supported by the job characteristics theory.

Question 37

Employees with a high need for power are more likely to feel empowered in traditional organizations.

Question 38

Employee engagement is different from traditional management practices in that employee engagement:

A) replaces trust and cooperation with adversarial mentality.
B) decreases employee morale and commitment to the organization.
C) encourages sticking to established methods of working; it discourages creativity.
D) encourages employees to solve problems at the source immediately.

Question 39

Douglas McGregor's "Theory Y" approach to managing employees emphasizes that people in organizations should make decisions for themselves.

Question 40

Three critical questions that senior managers need to ask themselves in the empowerment process are all of the following except:

A) How can I make fewer decisions, thereby letting others become more involved in managing the business?
B) How can I teach others how to make solid decisions once they're given the chance?
C) How can I recruit others to be more aware of changes that need to be made in order to keep our company competitive?
D) How can I ensure employees always seek permission before making any change that gives the company a competitive edge?

Question 41

Which of the following core job characteristics leads to the critical psychological state of 'experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work'?

A) Skill variety
B) Task identity
C) Task significance
D) Autonomy

Question 42

Empowerment resembles Juran's concept of:

A) quality function deployment.
B) self-control.
C) cross-functional teams.
D) self-managed teams.

Question 43

Douglas McGregor's Theory Y approach to managing employees emphasizes that:

A) employees should be closely monitored.
B) managers should use coercion to gain employees' compliance.
C) employees should make decisions for themselves.
D) managers should create a punitive atmosphere in order to get employees to work.

Question 44

Which of the following core job characteristics gives employees knowledge of the actual results of their work activities?

A) Skill variety
B) Autonomy
C) Feedback
D) Task significance

Question 45

According to the job characteristics theory, people will be more motivated to work if:

A) their jobs involve few skills.
B) they aren't aware of the results of their work activities.
C) have little or no autonomy.
D) have high task identity.

Question 46

Which of the following is a principle of empowerment?

A) Do not provide business information to employees.
B) Do not ignore the middle management.
C) Stick to the existing reward system; don't attempt to change it.
D) Empower all employees irrespective of their capabilities.

Question 47

The idea that quality problems are usually attributable to management-created systems rather than employee motivation was proposed by _____.

A) Chris Argyris
B) Deming
C) Juran
D) Douglas McGregor

Question 48

Efforts at empowerment are likely to fail when:

A) empowerment is deployed collectively; to all employees.
B) empowerment is deployed jointly with employee development.
C) empowerment is deployed without the management's sustained commitment.
D) empowerment is deployed by managers who provide feedback.

Question 49

Which of the following is a key practice that leads to effective employee recognition and rewards?

A) Involving only senior managers in recognition programs
B) Giving only individual awards; not team awards
C) Tying rewards to quality and customer satisfaction
D) Discouraging extensive publicizing of recognition

Question 50

Which of the following is likely to be true of an organization that has an empowered workforce?

A) It encourages leadership skills in its employees.
B) It has a tall organizational structure.
C) It discourages creativity in its employees.
D) It involves only the top management in the decision making.

Question 51

The objective of empowerment is:

A) to direct and control employees.
B) to tap the intellectual energy of all employees.
C) to establish a tall organization structure.
D) to ensure abidance to organizational rules, norms, and SOPs.

Question 52

Which of the following is a measure most likely to be used by progressive organizations as a basis for compensation?

A) Revenue growth
B) Cost management
C) Cycle time reduction
D) Profitability

Question 53

Employee capability is ensured through:

A) job enlargement.
B) training processes.
C) job simplification.
D) empowerment.

Question 54

Which of the following statements about empowerment is false?

A) It is a natural extension of employee involvement.
B) It should be deployed selectively; to a segmented workforce.
C) It resembles Juran's concept of "self-control."
D) It allows employees to make decisions themselves.

Question 55

Rensis Likert described an organizational system called "_____," which featured empowered workgroups and cross-functional teams.

A) System cubes
B) System stand-alone
C) System matrix
D) System IV

Question 56

According to the acquired needs theory, employees are motivated by:

A) work that fulfills their want for achievement.
B) internal competitiveness in the organization.
C) new challenges in their job.
D) incremental financial incentives.

Question 57

_____ is an approach in which all employees share savings equally.

A) Gainsharing
B) Merit pay
C) Lump-sum bonus
D) Base pay

Question 58

Douglas McGregor's Theory Y approach to managing employees is based on:

A) the assumption that employees wish to do a good job.
B) the assumption that employees need close monitoring.
C) the assumption that employees are inherently lazy.
D) the assumption that employees tend to avoid responsibility.

Question 59

A good compensation system has all of the following objectives except:

A) to encourage cooperation between employees.
B) to attract and retain employees.
C) to reduce unexplainable variation in pay.
D) to encourage internal competition.

Question 60

The need most likely to be fulfilled by participation in quality-based initiatives is the need for _____.

A) affiliation
B) achievement
C) security
D) power

Question 61

List the advantages of employee engagement over traditional management practices.

Question 62

How does empowerment affect middle-management?

Question 63

Discuss the role of compensation in motivation and employee satisfaction.

Question 64

What role does the middle management have in organizations with empowered workforces?

Question 65

The _____ states that people will be more motivated to work and more satisfied with their jobs to the extent that their jobs possess skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.

A) job characteristics theory (JCT)
B) acquired need theory
C) goal setting theory
D) reinforcement theory

Question 66

Explain why businesses must first satisfy their workforce in order to satisfy their customers.

Question 67

Why do empowerment initiatives fail?

Question 68

What impact does empowerment have on individuals with various needs?

Question 69

Briefly state the job characteristics theory.

Question 70

List some of the benefits offered by companies to enhance the working lives of employees.

Question 71

The need for _____ is the desire to have influence over one's environment and the people in it.

A) power
B) affiliation
C) achievement
D) empowerment

Question 72

Employees with a high need for _____ are likely to be quite frustrated with traditional organizations that give them little influence.

A) affiliation
B) achievement
C) security
D) power

Question 73

The need for _____ refers to the desire to have close relationships with other people, for example as part of a team.

A) affiliation
B) achievement
C) empowerment
D) power

Question 74

List some practices that lead to effective employee recognition and rewards.

Question 75

Briefly describe the goal-setting theory.

Question 76

Describe the factors which have been identified that will influence the way people react to jobs that have high levels of the task characteristics.

Question 77

How can the shortcomings of suggestion programs be overcome?

Question 78

According to the goal-setting theory, goals will be motivating to people when:

A) they are not specific.
B) they are general.
C) they are easy.
D) people accept them as their own.

Question 79

What are the principles of empowerment?

Question 80

What is empowerment? How does it help companies flatten their organizational structure?