Deck 12: Enhancing Decision Making

Question 1

Even with timely,accurate information,some managers make bad decisions.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Choice consists of choosing among solution alternatives.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Management information systems (MIS)provide routine reports and summaries of transaction-level data to middle- and operational-level managers to provide answers to structured and semistructured decision problems.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Implementation involves making the chosen alternative work and continuing to monitor how well the solution is working.

Question 5

A sophisticated GDSS provides each attendee with a dedicated desktop computer under that person's individual control.

Question 6

Executive support systems (ESS)provide analytical models or tools for analyzing large quantities of data for middle managers who face semistructured decision situations.

Question 7

Design involves identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem.

Question 8

High-quality decisions require high-quality information.

Question 9

In their interpersonal role,managers act as the nerve centres of their organizations,receiving the most concrete,up-to-date information and redistributing it to those who need to be aware of it.

Question 10

Classical models of management state that the actual behaviour of managers appears to be less systematic,more informal,less reflective,more reactive,and less well organized than the classical model would have us believe.

Question 11

Organizations are bureaucracies with limited capabilities and competencies for acting decisively.

Question 12

Operational management and rank-and-file employees tend to make more structured decisions.

Question 13

A data table is a table that displays two or more dimensions of data in a convenient format.Microsoft Excel's PivotTable capability makes it easy to analyze lists and databases.

Question 14

Behavioural roles are expectations of the activities that managers should perform in an organization.

Question 15

Management information systems (MIS)are systems that provide senior management,making primarily unstructured decisions,with external information and high-level summaries of firm performance.

Question 16

Many decisions have elements of both types of decisions and are semistructured,where only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.

Question 17

The ESS software system contains the software tools that are used for data analysis.

Question 18

In their informational role,managers act as entrepreneurs by initiating new kinds of activities;they handle disturbances arising in the organization;they allocate resources to staff members who need them;and they negotiate conflicts and mediate between conflicting groups.

Question 19

Knowledge workers act as figureheads for the organization when they represent their companies to the outside world and perform symbolic duties,such as giving out employee awards.

Question 20

Senior executives face many unstructured decision situations,such as establishing the firm's five- or ten-year goals or deciding new markets to enter.

Question 21

Unstructured decisions are novel and nonroutine,and there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making them.

Question 22

Backward sensitivity analysis software is used for goal seeking.

Question 23

Middle management tends to face more unstructured decision scenarios,but may include some structured components.

Question 24

What-if analysis works forward from known or assumed conditions.

Question 25

Unstructured decision making is most prevalent at lower organizational levels.

Question 26

GDSS facilitate the solution of unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group in either the same location or different locations.

Question 27

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

Question 28

The balanced score card is a framework for operationalizing a firm's strategic plan by focusing on measurable outcomes on four dimensions of firm performance.

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

Data visualization technologies help distill large amounts of information into easily read textual lists.

Question 32

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

Question 33

DSS primarily address structured problems.

Question 34

GDSS effectiveness depends on the nature of the problem and the group and on how well a meeting is planned and conducted.

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

DSS are a special category of GIS.

Question 38

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

Question 39

Rank-and-file employees tend to make more structured decisions.

Question 40

ESS have the ability to drill down,moving from a piece of summary data to lower and lower levels of detail.

Question 41

Many decisions have elements of both types of decisions and are ________,where only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.

A)structured
B) unstructured
C)semistructured
D)semiunstructured

Question 42

During a GDSS meeting,the attendees control the use of GDSS tools.

Question 43

Middle managers and analysts are much more likely to be immersed in the data and software,entering queries and slicing and dicing the data along different dimensions.

Question 44

Web-based tools for videoconferencing and electronic meetings are the primary tools for GDSS.

Question 45

John has an important decision to make.He wants to decide how his firm should enter their new product line in Ontario.He has chosen to enter the market and use gas stations to distribute the product.He is continuing to monitor how the decision is going.What stage of the decision-making process is he in?

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

Question 46

Senior executives face many ________ decision situations,such as establishing the firm's five- or ten-year goals or deciding new markets to enter.

A)structured
B) unstructured
C)semistructured
D)semiunstructured

Question 47

Middle management faces more structured decision scenarios but their decisions may include ________ components.

A)structured
B) unstructured
C)semistructured
D)semiunstructured

Question 48

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.

Question 49

Brad has an important decision to make.He wants to decide how his firm should enter their new product line in Alberta.He is deciding between using a wholesaler and creating his own distribution channel.He is choosing to use a wholesaler.What stage of the decision-making process is he in?

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

Question 50

The underlying foundation of business intelligence is a powerful mobile system that captures all the relevant data to operate the business.

Question 51

MBS,DAS,and ESA deliver information and knowledge to different people and levels in the firm-operational employees,operational managers,middle managers,and senior executives.

Question 52

Ken has an important decision to make.He wants to decide how his firm should enter their new product line in Alberta.He is looking at many options and solutions to this opportunity.What stage of the decision-making process is he in?

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

Question 53

Production reports are predefined reports based on industry-specific requirements.

Question 54

Businesses must deal with both structured and unstructured data from only one source,mobile devices.

Question 55

Operational employees will,along with customers and suppliers,be looking mostly at prepackaged reports.

Question 56

Business informatics and analytics are products defined by technology vendors and consulting firms.

Question 57

Dashboards/scorecards are visual tools for presenting performance data defined by users.

Question 58

Operational management and rank-and-file employees tend to make more ________ decisions.

A)structured
B) unstructured
C)semistructured
D)semiunstructured

Question 59

Business analytics toolset is a set of hardware tools that are used to analyze data and produce reports,respond to questions posed by managers,and track the progress of the business using key indicators of performance.

Question 60

Predictive analytics are being built into mainstream applications for everyday decision making by all types of employees,especially in finance and marketing.

Question 61

Eddy has an important decision to make.His firm has a cash flow problem but he is not sure why the problem exists and what the effect on the firm is.What stage of the decision-making process is he in?

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

Question 62

John is responsible for entering data into the system.He gets his data from the firms internal customer database.The data from this database is not always as accurate and timely as it should be.He is concerned because the system is not giving good information for the managers.This case illustrates which main reason of why investments in technology don't always produce positive results?

A)information quality
B)management filters
C)organizational culture
D)lack of resources

Question 63

Bob is making a decision on how to extend his company's brand line.As he looks over the information that he needs to make a decision,he notices that the market share numbers look very high.Upon closer inspection he realizes that the numbers do not represent the reality of the market.Which quality of information dimension is lacking?

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

Question 64

Brad is making a decision on how much inventory to produce.As he looks over the information that he needs to make a decision,he notices that the data elements in the information are not defined the same for different products.Which quality of information dimension is lacking?

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

Question 65

When there is no well-understood or agreed-upon procedure for making decisions,it is said to be

A)undocumented.
B)unstructured.
C)documented.
D)semistructured.

Question 66

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

A)procedural
B)unstructured
C)structured
D)semistructured

Question 67

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

A)structured
B)unstructured
C)semistructured
D)none of the above

Question 68

Glen is making a decision on how much to pay his salesman.As he looks over the information that he needs to make a decision,he notices that the data is from last year,what he really needs is this year's data.Which quality of information dimension is lacking?

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

Question 69

Which phase of decision making finds or recognizes a problem,need,or opportunity?

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

Question 70

Simon's description of decision making consists of which four stages?

A)planning,financing,implementation,and maintenance.
B)planning,design,implementation,and maintenance.
C)intelligence,design,choice,and implementation.
D)intelligence,design,financing,and implementation.

Question 71

Helen is in charge of marketing.Her system has given her great information on what type of products the company needs to make.The production department just will not make the decision to make these products.Helen is very frustrated.This case illustrates which main reason of why investments in technology don't always produce positive results?

A)information quality
B)management filters
C)organizational culture
D)lack of resources

Question 72

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

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

Question 73

Canadian Wildlife Service biologist Jim Hawkings uses ________ to make sense of decades of data related to the movements of birds and animals in the Yukon and their use of habitat.This GIS-generated map shows where bands were recovered from ducks banded in the Yukon.Some were recovered in Alaska,and others on the major flyways heading south through the heart of North America.

A)ESS
B)GIS
C)GDSS
D)MIS

Question 74

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

A)semistructured
B)unstructured
C)structured
D)undocumented

Question 75

John is making a decision on how to invest the company's investment portfolio.As he looks over the information that he needs to make a decision,he notices that there are no historical data.Which quality of information dimension is lacking?

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

Question 76

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

A)semistructured
B)unstructured
C)structured
D)none of the above

Question 77

The five classical functions of managers are planning,organizing,deciding,controlling,and

A)coordinating.
B)leading.
C)managing.
D)negotiating.

Question 78

In contrast to the classical model of management,behavioural models see the actual behaviour of managers as being more

A)systematic.
B)informal.
C)reflective.
D)well organized.

Question 79

Robert is getting great information from his system.It is accurate information,but for some reason Robert continues to make bad decisions.This case illustrates which main reason of why investments in technology don't always produce positive results?

A)information quality
B)management filters
C)organizational culture
D)lack of resources

Question 80

The type of decision that can made by following a definite procedure is called a(n)________ decision.

A)structured
B)unstructured
C)semistructured
D)procedural