Question 1

Donna,a chef in a fine restaurant,utilizes top-of-the-line equipment as she prepares meals for customers.Donna and her equipment are a(n)______ in the restaurant's system.

Accepted Answer

Inputs are the people,money,information,equipment,and materials required to produce an organization's goods or services.Whatever goes into a system is an input.

Question 2

When Cheyanne,the manager,was discussing a difficult competitive problem with the owner,she asked,"What management approach do you think will work best in this situation?" Asking this question to determine a solution is utilizing ____.

Accepted Answer

The contingency viewpoint emphasizes that a manager's approach should vary according to,or be contingent on,the individual and the environmental situation.

Question 3

Right Motors calls its customers after they purchase an automobile from the dealership.In addition,every year customers are asked to complete a short survey about the car they purchased from Right and the dealer's service.This is an example of a(n)___ system.

Accepted Answer

An open system continually interacts with its environment.

Question 4

After returning home from a trade show,Mr.Jones,the president of a manufacturing company,spoke to his employees in a production meeting about a new approach that should increase their production bonus by improving their performance.To do so,Mr.Jones discussed a goal of "zero defects." This is an example of ____.

Accepted Answer

Developed in the 1960s,quality assurance focuses on the performance of workers,urging employees to strive for zero defects.Quality assurance has been less successful because often employees have no control over the design of the work process.

Question 5

For years ABC Copier,a copier machine supplier,enjoyed strong sales and a huge share of the copier market,far ahead of its competition.However,over the years,ABC seldom asked customers for feedback.So when some of ABC's competition responded to what customers need and started offering copiers with new technology,ABC lost much of its market share.ABC utilizes a(n)____ system.

Accepted Answer

A closed system has little interaction with its environment;that is,it receives very little feedback from the outside.The classical management viewpoint often considered an organization a closed system.So does the management science perspective,which simplifies organizations for purposes of analysis.However,any organization that ignores feedback from the environment opens itself up to possibly spectacular failures.

Question 6

The management of XYZ Manufacturing is implementing a plan to minimize production mistakes by allowing teams that work in each area of the production facility to develop a plan and then monitor their area to ensure the reduction of errors.This is an example of ____.

Accepted Answer

Quality control is defined as the strategy for minimizing errors by managing each stage of production.

Question 7

A local farmer grows and sells tomatoes and beans to the local grocers.Using the systems viewpoint,The tomatoes,beans and profits that are earned from the sales are known as a(n)_____.

Accepted Answer

Outputs are the products,services,profits,losses,employee satisfaction or discontent,and the like that are produced by the organization.Whatever comes out of the system is an output.

Question 8

The contemporary perspective consists of three viewpoints: ____.

Accepted Answer

The contemporary perspective consists of three viewpoints: systems,contingency,and quality management (see Figure 2.3).

Question 9

When a line cook in a restaurant cooks a raw hamburger to become part of the Super Burger Special,this is an example of a ____.

Accepted Answer

Transformation processes are the organization's capabilities in management,internal processes,and technology that are applied to converting inputs into outputs.The main activity of the organization is to transform inputs into outputs.

Question 10

The systems viewpoint regards parts making up the whole system as ____.

Accepted Answer

Parts making up the whole system are subsystems.

Question 11

Gary Hamel suggests we need to look at management as a process and then make improvements and innovation ____.

Accepted Answer

Gary Hamel suggests we need to look at management as a process and then make improvements and innovation ongoing and systematic.

Question 12

The American economy consists of a complex combination of organizations and variables,such as countless companies differing in size and what they market,current events,and markets such as housing.All of these independent factors often behave as a single unit based on events and economic news,and respond to the environment and affect the stock market.This is an example of ___.

Accepted Answer

The systems viewpoint has led to the development of complexity theory,the study of how order and pattern arise from very complicated,apparently chaotic systems.Complexity theory recognizes that all complex systems are networks of many interdependent parts that interact with each other according to certain simple rules.

Question 13

A computer manufacturer is seeking to cut costs by designing an inventory system that reduces the number of finished products in stock due to overproduction and to set in place a production schedule that better matches customers' orders.This is an example of ____.

Accepted Answer

Operations management is concerned with work scheduling,production planning,facilities location and design,and decisions about the optimum inventory a company should maintain.

Question 14

When the sales of a certain brand of diet soda slowed,a national grocery retailer decided to drop the price of that product,which resulted in a large increase in sales of the soda.This sales increase is a type of ____.

Accepted Answer

Feedback is information about the reaction of the environment to the outputs that affects the inputs.Are the customers buying or not buying the product?

Question 15

The management of a facility that manufactures parts for car brakes has a policy of testing only some of the items in each production run to locate errors.This is an example of the ______ technique.

Accepted Answer

Quality control techniques were developed in the 1930s at Bell Telephone Labs by Walter Shewart,who used statistical sampling to locate errors by testing only some (rather than all)of the items in a particular production run.

Question 16

The belief that quality stemmed from "constancy of purpose," and that managers should stress teamwork,be helpful rather than simply give orders,and make employees feel comfortable about asking questions was proposed by _____.

Accepted Answer

Deming believed that quality stemmed from "constancy of purpose," a steady focus on an organization's mission,along with statistical measurement and reduction of variations in production,and that managers should stress teamwork,be helpful rather than simply give orders,and make employees feel comfortable about asking questions.

Question 17

The Jones family had a fire that destroyed their home.Various departments of a restoration company,from the initial cleanup crew to the assistance with the Jones family moving back in,worked together to achieve this goal.This is an example of a(n)____.

Accepted Answer

A system is a set of interrelated parts that operate together to achieve a common purpose,even when it does not work well.

Question 18

The systems viewpoint sees organizations as entities made up of interrelated parts known as ____.

Accepted Answer

The systems viewpoint regards the organization as a system of interrelated parts.The four parts of a system are inputs,outputs,transformation processes,and feedback.

Question 19

When a manager assesses a particular situation and decides what to do according to the individual and environmental situation,the manager is utilizing the ____ viewpoint.

Accepted Answer

The contingency viewpoint emphasizes that a manager's approach should vary according to,or be contingent on,the individual and the environmental situation.Thus,the manager who assesses a particular situation and decides what to do is using a contingency viewpoint.

Question 20

Joseph Juran defined quality as "fitness for use," which meant that ____.

Accepted Answer

Another pioneer with Deming in Japan's quality revolution was Joseph M.Juran,who defined quality as "fitness for use." By this he meant that a product or service should satisfy a customer's real needs.

Quiz 2: Management Theory: Essential Background for the Successful Manager

Donna,a chef in a fine restaurant,utilizes top-of-the-line equipment as she prepares meals for customers.Donna and her equipment are a(n) ______ in the restaurant's system.