Deck 14: Managerial Decision Making

Question 1

Objective probability is the likelihood that a specific result will occur,based on hard facts and numbers.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Risk is usually thought of as the potential harm that may arise from some decision or decision process.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Uncertainty is the condition under which an individual does not have the necessary information to assign probabilities to the outcomes of alternative solutions.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Leaders often need to employ intuition,creativity and all available information to make a judgement regarding the course of action to take.

Question 5

Probability refers to the condition under which individuals can define a problem,specify the probability of certain events,identify alternative solutions,and state the probability of each solution leading to a result.

Question 6

The conditions under which decisions are made are classified as risk,certainty,and uncertainty.

Question 7

Probability is the percentage of times that a specific result would occur if an individual were to make the same decision a large number of times.

Question 8

Decision making includes defining problems,gathering information,generating alternatives,and choosing a course of action.

Question 9

Estimating the number of deaths over the course of a year for a life insurance company based on previous years' death rates is an example of objective probability.

Question 10

Business leaders often prepare to handle only the types of crises they've already suffered,and not even all of those.

Question 11

Knowledge management hinders the decision making process.

Question 12

Decision making is easily avoidable for most of us.

Question 13

Subjective probability is the likelihood that a specific result will occur,based on hard facts and numbers.

Question 14

Certainty is the condition under which individuals are fully informed about a problem,alternative solutions are known,and the results of each solution are known.

Question 15

Probability of a specific event is a measure between 0(impossible)and 1(certainty)of whether an event is likely to happen.

Question 16

Leaders must identify and measure the strength of factors affecting decisions as well as their potential impacts.

Question 17

In Learning from Experience "David Hoover CEO of Ball Corporation," the BLT is the ball leadership team.

Question 18

Harm discussed in reference to decision making only pertains to physical harm such as loss of an investment.

Question 19

According to Learning from Experience"David Hoover CEO of Ball Corporation," the BLT meets to explore such questions as "Why is there a Ball?"

Question 20

An expected number of attendees at a conference based on the number of pre-registered attendees is an example of subjective probability.

Question 21

According to the Change Competency: Shoes For Crews Reduces Risk and Uncertainty,Shoes for Crews reimburses companies for slips and falls on almost all surfaces,including stairs and ladders.

Question 22

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)is an automatic identification method that relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.

Question 23

Knowledge management is the art of adding or creating value by systematically capitalizing on the know-how,experience,and judgment found both within and outside an organization.

Question 24

Knowledge management consists of explicit knowledge,implicit knowledge,and adapting technologies.

Question 25

A person who is renting a car based on a published price is probably experiencing certainty in her decision making process as to the actual charges for the car rental.

Question 26

A limited search means that alternatives are considered only until one is found that seems adequate.

Question 27

Escalating conflict may be due to limited searching by the parties.

Question 28

Escalating commitment is a process of continuing or increasing the allocation of resources to a course of action even though a substantial amount of feedback indicates that the choice made is wrong.

Question 29

In conditions of uncertainty,the decision maker has limited or no information about developments and forces on which to base a decision.

Question 30

Risk propensity is the tendency of an individual or teams to make or avoid decisions in which the anticipated outcomes are unknown.

Question 31

Bounded rationality describes the limitations of rationality and emphasizes the decision making process often used by individuals or teams.

Question 32

According to the Change Competency: Shoes For Crews Reduces Risk and Uncertainty,this company reimburses companies up to $5,000 for each worker's compensation claim paid if an
employee slips and encounters an injury while wearing a pair of the company's shoes.

Question 33

According to the Change Competency: St.Clair Hospital Adopts RFID and Related Technologies,this hospital is reducing medication errors with its innovative Five Rights Medication Verification System.

Question 34

By accepting a seasonal job with no guarantee of off season employment,Susan is making a decision involving a good deal of risk.

Question 35

Self-interest is the tendency to select an acceptable,rather than an optimal,goal or decision.

Question 36

The dictionary rule involves ranking items the same way a dictionary does: one criterion at a time.

Question 37

Heuristics can be thought of as "rules of thumb".

Question 38

Choosing a set of technologies on which to build knowledge management should involve delivering the relevant information to users quickly and it should be delivered in a timely fashion using technology such as cell phones,Blackberry's and laptop computers.

Question 39

Knowledge management is the tendency to interpret issues and options in either positive or negative terms.

Question 40

The potential for biases to be used in decision making are more likely to occur under conditions of low risk.

Question 41

Political decision making describes situations where the parties have separate and different
interests,goals,and values and,therefore,employ self-serving tactics.

Question 42

Evidence-based management helps to reduce the mental blinders and bounded rationality that prevent leaders and others from seeing,seeking,using,or sharing relevant and accessible information during the decision-making process.

Question 43

Two of the limitations of evidence-based management are the notions of "substituting facts for conventional wisdom" and "being committed to fact-based decision making" because they can be a challenge to put in practice.

Question 44

One of the limitations of evidence-based management is that it places too much emphasis on the value of intuition and judgment.

Question 45

Wisdom involves learning principles,models,and concepts (knowing what)but not processes and procedures (knowing how).

Question 46

According to evidence-based management,one way to help leaders and others avoid simpleminded quick fixes is to carefully consider five critical diagnostic questions.One of these questions is:
What assumptions does the idea or practice make about people and organizations?

Question 47

Wisdom means "knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know".

Question 48

In Diversity Competency: Chubb's Business Case for Diversity,the leaders of this firm contend that it is important to pay attention to the buying power of minorities since their buying power is increasing.

Question 49

Evidence-based management proceeds from the premise that using a better,deeper diagnosis and employing facts to the extent possible enable managers and leaders to do their jobs better.

Question 50

According to evidence-based management,leaders should constructively question the big idea or technique that is claimed to create breakthroughs for the organization.

Question 51

One of the insights about evidence-based management by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton is:
"Leaders should be cautious about blindly embracing and implementing practices and ideas that are sold as new and novel,but are really old ideas and practices under new labels."

Question 52

Political decision making is found in some organizations.

Question 53

Political decision often draws on two of the self-serving ethical principles (1)the hedonistic
principle-do whatever you find to be in your own self-interest;and (2)the political might principle,which states that higher ranking managers should make decisions in their best interest since they hold the most power.

Question 54

The distribution of power in an organization and the effectiveness of the tactics used by leaders and employees influence the impact of the decisions.

Question 55

One of the limitations of evidence-based management is that the evidence for decision making,especially under conditions of uncertainty,may be contradictory,not always easy to understand,and subject to different interpretations among leaders as well as influential stakeholders.

Question 56

According to evidence-based management,leaders should recognize and diagnose only the potential virtues of a particular new idea or practice both before and during its implementation.

Question 57

In many French organizations,power,once attained,should not be shared except with a small group of senior leaders.

Question 58

In the Diversity Competency: Chubb's Business Case for Diversity,the leaders of the firm make diversity a business priority because they perceive diversity as primarily a moral imperative.

Question 59

According to the Change Competency: St.Clair Hospital Adopts RFID and Related Technologies,the SoMo 650 uses bar code scanning to identify patients and their medications.

Question 60

Political decision making describes situations where the parties have separate and different
interests,goals,and values and,therefore,employ self-serving tactics.

Question 61

A common political strategy for avoiding stalemate decisions is to form a coalition (alliance)in which no one person,group,or organization has sufficient power to select or implement its preferred goal.

Question 62

In order to learn from mistakes,it's important to forgive and remember.

Question 63

Perceptual blocks to creative decision making include such factors as the failure to use all of the senses in observing,failure to investigate the obvious,difficulty in seeing remote relationships,
and failure to distinguish between cause and effect.

Question 64

The interconnected stages of the creative process are observation,alternatives,elimination,and choice.

Question 65

Jerry wants decision A,and Kramer wants decision B.Jerry views decision A as good for him,and bad for Kramer.Kramer views decision B as good for him,and bad for Jerry.This situation is referred to as a win-lose situation.

Question 66

The concentration stage of the creative process involves focusing energies and resources on identifying and solving an issue or problem.

Question 67

In political decision making,stakeholders attempt to define problems to their own advantage.

Question 68

Despite the popular view,political decision making is not always bad.

Question 69

Political decision making calls for all employees to present all relevant information openly.

Question 70

The political influence method,Legitimating,means using demands,threats,or persistent reminders.

Question 71

In many French organizations,it is harmful to reveal information unnecessarily because then the decision-making process cannot be controlled.

Question 72

Creativity is the ability to visualize,generate,and implement new ideas or concepts or new
associations between existing ideas or concepts that are novel and useful.

Question 73

In many French organizations,if individuals have been recognized as having top-leadership competencies,they still need to have experience to be put in a leadership position.

Question 74

Compared to others,the leaders who rely heavily on the pressure method typically (1)receive the lowest performance evaluations, (2)earn less money,and (3)experience the highest levels of job tension and stress.

Question 75

Scapegoating is the casting of blame for problems or shortcoming on an innocent or only partially responsible individual,team,or department.

Question 76

Cultural blocks to creative decision making include a desire to conform to established norms,overemphasis on competition or conflict avoidance and smoothing,the drive to be practical and
narrowly economical above all else,and a belief that indulging in fantasy or other forms of open-ended exploration is a waste of time.

Question 77

Whistle-blowers,who report what they see as wrongdoing to outside agencies,often receive organizational rewards and recognition.

Question 78

An organization's choice of goals will be influenced by the relative power of its stakeholders.

Question 79

Emotional blocks to creative decision making is when someone can not put their feelings to the side when trying to make a decision.

Question 80

Three broad categories of blocks to creative decision making are behavioral,societal,and visual.