Deck 12: Enhancing Decision Making

Question 1

Which of the following is not one of the Simon's four stages of decision making?

A) implementation
B) intelligence
C) analysis
D) choice
E) design

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which type of decision is deciding whether to introduce a new product line?

A) structured
B) unstructured
C) recurring
D) nonrecurring
E) procedural

Answer 2

B

Question 3

All of the following managerial roles can be supported by information systems except

A) figurehead.
B) resource allocator.
C) spokesperson.
D) disseminator.
E) entrepreneur.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Mintzberg outlined three categories of managerial roles:

A) interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
B) leading, deciding, and controlling.
C) operations, management, and executive.
D) cultural, organizational, and technical.
E) negotiator, spokesperson, and entrepreneur.

Question 5

Which type of decision is calculating gross pay for hourly workers?

A) semistructured
B) procedural
C) structured
D) unstructured
E) ad hoc

Question 6

The decision to approve a capital budget is an example of a(n) ________ decision.

A) structured
B) ad hoc
C) semistructured
D) undocumented
E) unstructured

Question 7

According to Mintzberg, managers in their informational role act as

A) figureheads for the organization.
B) leaders.
C) nerve centers of the organization.
D) negotiators.
E) liaisons.

Question 8

When managers represent their company in the outside world and perform symbolic duties, they are acting in their

A) decisional role.
B) managerial role.
C) informational role.
D) interpersonal role.
E) leadership role.

Question 9

As discussed in the chapter text, the three main reasons that investments in information technology do not always produce positive results are

A) management support, technical logistics, and user compliance.
B) organization, environment, culture.
C) information quality, information integrity, and information accuracy.
D) information quality, organizational culture, and management filters.
E) organization, culture, and technology.

Question 10

The decisions involved in creating and producing a corporate intranet can be classified as ________ decisions.

A) semistructured
B) procedural
C) ad hoc
D) structured
E) unstructured

Question 11

The role of liaison falls into which of Mintzberg's managerial classifications?

A) decisional
B) informational
C) interpersonal
D) symbolic
E) leading

Question 12

When there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making a decision, it is said to be

A) undocumented.
B) unstructured.
C) documented.
D) semistructured.
E) ad-hoc.

Question 13

The role of entrepreneur falls into which of Mintzberg's managerial classifications?

A) decisional
B) informational
C) interpersonal
D) symbolic

Question 14

If you can follow a definite procedure to make a business decision, you are making a(n) ________ decision.

A) ad-hoc
B) procedural
C) unstructured
D) semistructured
E) structured

Question 15

Which of the following systems support a manager's role as leader of an organization?

A) decision support systems
B) telepresence systems
C) e-mail
D) MIS
E) ESS

Question 16

The ________ phase of decision making finds or recognizes a problem, need, or opportunity.

A) choice
B) design
C) implementation
D) analysis
E) intelligence

Question 17

The concept of management ________ describes situations in which managers act on preconceived notions that reject information that does not conform to their prior conceptions.

A) filters
B) roles
C) biases
D) risk
E) politics

Question 18

Which of the following is not one of the five observed ways in which managerial behavior differs from the classical description of managers?

A) Managers perform a great deal of work at an unrelenting pace.
B) Managerial activities are fragmented.
C) Managers prefer regular, written reports on firm activities.
D) Managers prefer oral forms of communication.
E) Managers give high priority to maintaining a diverse web of contacts.

Question 19

Checking store inventory is an example of a(n) ________ decision.

A) procedural
B) structured
C) ad hoc
D) unstructured
E) semistructured

Question 20

Which of the following statements best describes the business value of improved decision making?

A) Improved decision making creates better products.
B) Improved decision making results in a large monetary value for the firm as numerous small daily decisions affecting efficiency, production, costs, and more add up to large annual values.
C) Improved decision making enables senior executives to more accurately foresee future financial trends.
D) Improved decision making strengthens customer and supplier intimacy, which reduces costs.
E) Improved decision making creates a better organizational culture.

Question 21

Improving the quality of high-value decision making by an executive will save an organization far more money than improving the quality of lesser-value decisions made at a lower level.

Question 22

A structured decision can be made by following a well-defined set of procedures. No "feel" or intuition is necessary.

Question 23

Structured decision making is most prevalent at lower organizational levels.

Question 24

The intelligence phase of decision making consists of discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the organization.

Question 25

High-velocity decision making systems are growing rapidly for decisions classed as

A) semi-structured.
B) financial.
C) ad hoc.
D) predefined.
E) highly structured.

Question 26

Which of the following describes how the Simon framework of decision-making works in high-velocity decision environments?

A) Only the initial step is performed by the software; the final three steps are handled by humans.
B) The first two steps of Simon's framework are eliminated and the final two steps are handled by software algorithms.
C) The first three steps of the process are handled by software algorithms and the final step is handled by experienced managers.
D) All four steps are performed by humans with the support of high-speed, high-volume DSS and ESS.
E) All four steps of the process are handled by software algorithms; humans are eliminated from the decisions because they are too slow.

Question 27

Behavioral models of management sees managers as being ________ than does the classical model.

A) more systematic
B) more informal
C) more reflective
D) more well organized
E) less reactive

Question 28

Which of the following is not one of the five classical functions of managers?

A) leading
B) deciding
C) planning
D) organizing
E) controlling

Question 29

In your position of office manager at a legal firm, you are in charge of hiring temporary legal assistants and clerical workers. Describe how Simon's decision-making process applies to this decision. Could that decision be aided by an information system in any way, and if so, how?

Question 30

The dimension of ________ describes whether the structure of data is consistent within an information source.

A) completeness
B) accuracy
C) validity
D) consistency
E) integrity

Question 31

The first stage in Simon's decision-making process model is the design stage.

Question 32

A structured decision is repetitive and routine, for which known procedures provide solutions.

Question 33

The classical model of management does not address what exactly managers do when they plan, decide things, and control the work of others.

Question 34

Middle management face primarily unstructured decisions.

Question 35

The third stage in Simon's description of decision making is choice.

Question 36

Explain why even well-designed information systems do not always help improve a firm's decision making.

Question 37

The implementation phase of Simon's decision-making model includes choosing among solution alternatives.

Question 38

A drawback to high-velocity, automated decision-making systems is that they are unable to

A) handle high volumes of decisions.
B) handle structured decisions.
C) handle semi-structured decisions.
D) control themselves and respond to new environments.
E) be applied to situations outside of the financial world.

Question 39

A key business decision in your sporting goods manufacturing company is determining what suppliers to use for your raw materials. How can you determine if a manager in charge of selecting suppliers is making the best choice?

Question 40

Which quality dimension of information is concerned that the data values of an information source fall within a defined range?

A) timeliness
B) consistency
C) completeness
D) accessibility
E) validity

Question 41

You would use location analytics to determine how best to route your deliveries of products to retail outlets.

Question 42

Which of the following is not one of the six main analytic functionalities of BI systems for helping decision makers understand information and take action?

A) production reports
B) parameterized reports
C) business case archives
D) forecasts, scenarios, and models
E) drill down

Question 43

BI that is designed to determine the most likely effects of changes in the business environment is called

A) statistical modeling.
B) environmental analytics.
C) predictive analytics.
D) big data analytics.
E) parameterized reports.

Question 44

Which type of information system uses data visualization technology to analyze and display data for planning and decision making in the form of digitized maps?

A) GIS
B) DSS
C) location analytics
D) Executive support systems
E) GDSS

Question 45

Which of the following is not an example of a BI predefined production report?

A) workforce demographics
B) order cycle time
C) revenue forecasts
D) supplier performance
E) direct and indirect spending

Question 46

A geographic information system is a decision support system designed specifically to work with spatial information.

Question 47

Which of the following are most likely to rely primarily on the drill-down functionality of BI for their decision-making needs?

A) IT developers
B) middle managers
C) operational employees
D) business analysts
E) senior executives

Question 48

Which of the following companies is not one of the top five producers of business intelligence and analytics products?

A) Sun
B) Microsoft
C) SAP
D) IBM
E) SAS

Question 49

A(n) ________ is a BI feature that presents users with an easy-to-understand visual display of performance information.

A) ad hoc query
B) parameterized report
C) interface
D) portal
E) dashboard

Question 50

________ are visual tools for presenting performance data in a BI system.

A) Dashboards and scorecards
B) Paramaterized reports
C) Reports and the drill-down feature
D) Scenarios and models
E) Ad hoc report creation

Question 51

Which of the following BI tools or abilities have been driving the movement toward "smart cities? "

A) OLAP
B) chi-square analysis
C) predictive analytics
D) data mining
E) big data analytics

Question 52

Which of the following are most likely to rely primarily on production reports for their decision-making needs?

A) operational supervisors
B) senior managers
C) analytic modelers
D) business analysts
E) executives

Question 53

Which of the following statements best describes the term business intelligence?

A) the infrastructure for collecting and managing business data
B) the tools and techniques used to analyze and understand business data
C) software developed exclusively for business management
D) information systems involved in business decision making
E) enterprise systems used to make business decisions

Question 54

The dimension of ________ in information quality describes whether data is available when needed.

A) integrity
B) accuracy
C) timeliness
D) completeness
E) consistency

Question 55

Which of the following is not one of the six main elements in the business intelligence environment discussed in this chapter?

A) managerial users and methods
B) organizational environment
C) user interface
D) data from the business environment
E) platform

Question 56

A(n)________ report is produced when a user enters various values in a pivot table to filter data.

A) drill-down
B) SQL
C) ad hoc
D) production
E) parameterized

Question 57

Data visualization technologies are used to help human users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data.

Question 58

Decisions regarding managing and monitoring day-to-day business activities are referred to as ________ intelligence.

A) business
B) analytical
C) operational
D) transactional
E) production

Question 59

Big data is commonly used to analyze and predict consumer preferences.

Question 60

Predictive analytics is used for all of the following except

A) anticipate customer response to price changes.
B) identifying the most profitable customers.
C) determining the best routes for product delivery.
D) establishing consumer credit scores.
E) forecasting driver's safety.

Question 61

DSS primarily address structured problems.

Question 62

MIS typically produce fixed, regularly scheduled reports based on data extracted and summarized from the firm's underlying transaction processing systems.

Question 63

An essential component in the ability of GDSS to contribute to a collaborative environment is

A) allowing users to contribute simultaneously.
B) using structured methods for evaluating ideas.
C) identifying users informally.
D) the guarantee of user anonymity.
E) providing each attendee with dedicated desktop computers.

Question 64

DSS are a special category of GIS.

Question 65

What is a GIS?
Describe at least three ways in which a GIS could be used by modern business.

Question 66

You are an analyst for a firm that imports and distributes specialty oils and vinegars and your company wants you to evaluate their options for taking advantage of cutting edge business analytics. What are their choices?
What will you recommend?

Question 67

ESS

A) support the structured decision making of senior executives.
B) have the ability to drill down into lower levels of detail.
C) easily integrate data from different systems.
D) are primarily driven by information derived from a company's transaction processing systems.
E) enable operational managers to create parameterized reports.

Question 68

MIS typically produce

A) new ways of looking at data that emphasize change, flexibility, and rapid response.
B) fixed, regularly scheduled reports based on data extracted from the organization's TPS.
C) solutions to semistructured problems appropriate for middle management decision making.
D) assumptions, responses to ad-hoc queries, and graphic representations of existing data.
E) scorecards of overall firm performance along predefined key indicators.

Question 69

GDSS

A) require a small number of attendees in order to maintain high levels of productivity.
B) enable increasing a meeting size without reducing productivity.
C) include specific procedures for priority ranking the order in which participants can respond.
D) utilize shared desktop computers to foster collaboration.
E) are designed specifically for decision making by people working as a group in the same location.

Question 70

An information system for a building company that tracks construction costs for various projects across the United States would be categorized as a type of

A) DSS.
B) MIS.
C) GIS.
D) GDSS.
E) BI.

Question 71

You are evaluating BI software from a variety of vendors. Identify six elements in the BI environment. Use your understanding of the importance of these elements to formulate six questions to ask the vendor in order to determine how their software will interplay with your needs.

Question 72

Measures defined by management and used to internally evaluate the success of a firm's financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth are called

A) benchmarks.
B) KPIs.
C) the balanced scorecard method.
D) BPM.
E) parameters.

Question 73

Which of the following types of systems would be used to present senior marketing executives with in-depth information about customer retention, satisfaction, and quality performance?

A) CDSS
B) MIS
C) DSS
D) TPS
E) ESS

Question 74

A well-designed ESS will allow management to

A) create routine production reports as well as view overall business performance.
B) facilitate group decision making.
C) create pivot charts.
D) analyze big data.
E) track the activities of competitors.

Question 75

A pivot table is a(n)

A) spreadsheet tool that displays two or more dimensions of data in a convenient format.
B) type of relational database.
C) chart tool that can rotate columnar data quickly and visually.
D) tool for performing sensitivity analysis.
E) integral data visualization tool used in digital dashboards and scorecards.

Question 76

The leading methodology for understanding the really important information needed by a firm's executives is called the ________ method.

A) digital dashboard
B) balanced scorecard
C) KPI
D) data visualization
E) predictive analytics

Question 77

A(n) ________ facilitates the solution to unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group.

A) DSS
B) ESS
C) CDSS
D) GIS
E) GDSS

Question 78

An information system which combines data from internal TPS with information from financial systems and external sources to deliver reports such as profit-loss statements and impact analyses, is an example of

A) DSS.
B) ESS.
C) CDSS.
D) MIS.
E) GIS.

Question 79

The management methodology of using a firm's strategy to generate operational targets for the business and measuring progress towards them using the firm's enterprise systems is called

A) benchmarks.
B) KPIs.
C) the balanced scorecard method.
D) BPM.
E) business intelligence.

Question 80

GDSS

A) are designed to allow meeting attendees to share their thoughts in real-time with their peers.
B) support decisions that require knowledge about the geographic distribution of resources.
C) are typically used with geographically dispersed attendees.
D) implement structured methods for organizing and evaluating ideas.
E) provide tools that allow managers to visualize data.