Deck 9: Adapting Organizations to Todays Markets

Question 1

Many organizations are moving their focus from management to customers.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Recent changes in the organizational structure of businesses are intended to facilitate management.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Mass production refers to the efficient production of a large quantity of goods.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The driving force behind the change in business organizations includes global competition,the stagnating economy and faster technological change.

Question 5

Management begins with planning.

Question 6

Mass production causes a more complex production process.

Question 7

The concept of economies of scale suggests that the bigger a plant,the more efficient production becomes.

Question 8

Fayol's principle of the division of labour says that functions should be divided into areas of specialization such as production,marketing,and finance.

Question 9

The process of creating individual departments to do specialized tasks is called departmentalization.

Question 10

The concept of economies of scale suggests that the average cost of goods decreases as the production level increases.

Question 11

The unity of command principle,introduced by Henri Fayol,suggests that all people in an organization should work toward the same objective.

Question 12

Small business organizations lack the size required to reap the benefits of division of labour specialization.

Question 13

Correctly structuring a business organization allows managers to avoid delegating responsibility and authority to employees.

Question 14

Small businesses find that organizing their workers is still very difficult.

Question 15

The production of cars,computers and houses have benefited from mass production.

Question 16

The division of labour and specialization often improves an employee's job performance.

Question 17

Henri Fayol and Max Weber are best known for their contributions to accounting theory.

Question 18

An important challenge of management is to manage change.

Question 19

Fayol's principle of esprit de corps says that employees should be divided into small groups that can be directed efficiently by a single manager.

Question 20

Max Weber's principles of organization were similar to those of Henri Fayol.

Question 21

A bureaucratic style of organization is slow when responding to change.

Question 22

Weber had a great deal of faith in managers.He was confident that a firm would do well if employees simply did as they were told.

Question 23

Some business organizations still follow the 1940s organizational theory of Max Weber.

Question 24

A bureaucracy empowers employees to quickly respond to customers' wants and desires.

Question 25

According to Weber,a bureaucrat is a middle manager whose job is to implement top management's orders.

Question 26

Bureaucratic organizations are structured to empower employees and please customers.

Question 27

An organizational hierarchy establishes one person at the top of an organization.

Question 28

Weber was critical of bureaucrats because he felt they undermined the efficiency of the organization.

Question 29

Weber believed that large organizations required everyone to precisely follow the established rules and guidelines.

Question 30

Max Weber's organizational theories require an educated work force to operate efficiently.

Question 31

A bureaucracy is designed to be customer focused.

Question 32

Bureaucratic organizations are less common today than in the past.

Question 33

Weber believed that employees should be empowered to make their own decisions.

Question 34

A hierarchy requires many top managers,but only a few middle managers.

Question 35

Bureaucratic organizations are not very responsive to customers.

Question 36

Weber promoted the idea of the pyramid shaped organization structure for large businesses.

Question 37

Weber was a strong proponent of bureaucracy.

Question 38

A chain of command is a line of authority that moves from the lowest level of the hierarchy to the top.

Question 39

Bureaucratic organizations establish rules and regulations that everyone is expected to follow.

Question 40

The design of a bureaucratic organization assumes a well educated workforce.

Question 41

Centralized authority provides for the delegation of authority to employees who are then better able to respond to customers' needs.

Question 42

Span of control refers to the number of different markets a business can serve efficiently.

Question 43

As a new employee in a bureaucratic organization,Nancy can expect a great deal of independence and authority.

Question 44

Bureaucracy does not work well in any business today.

Question 45

Most businesses adopted a bureaucratic organization in order to speed up their decision making process.

Question 46

An advantage of decentralized authority is that those individuals closest to the customers and more familiar with local conditions make decisions.

Question 47

As a result of rapidly changing markets and global differences in consumer tastes,more firms are considering centralized authority.

Question 48

Economies of scale occur when a firm operates more efficiently as it grows larger.

Question 49

Gerald is a manager at Academy Manufacturing.He believes that it is very important for each worker at Academy to have only one boss.Gerald's view is consistent with Fayol's unity of command principle.

Question 50

In firms with centralized authority,each department is treated as if it is a completely separate and independent organization.

Question 51

Ping believes all workers should receive the same wage rate regardless of their position within a company.Ping's views on wages illustrate Fayol's principle of equity.

Question 52

The optimum number of subordinates a manager should supervise is referred to as the span of control.

Question 53

A diverse corporate image is one of the disadvantages of a decentralized business organization.

Question 54

The degree to which an organization allows lower level managers to make decisions determines the degree of decentralization.

Question 55

As an experienced loan officer,Julia has noticed that many businesses have reorganized to focus on the needs of the consumer,rather than facilitating the role of management.

Question 56

In an organization characterized by decentralized authority,top management delegates decision-making authority to middle and supervisory management.

Question 57

Augustino works in the accounting department of a large firm.This is an example of Fayol's division of labour concept.

Question 58

Kitty holds a middle management position with a large corporation.She prefers to involve her subordinates in decision making.She also favours allowing workers a fair amount of flexibility in how they do their jobs.Kitty's approach to management exemplifies the principles first popularized by Max Weber.

Question 59

Weber put great trust in the creativity,skills,and pride of employees and believed that managers should act more as coaches than as bosses.

Question 60

Barbara is a middle manager who spends much of her time devising ways to implement the ideas of top management.Max Weber would have called Barbara a bureaucrat.

Question 61

Bently Bakeries is a nationwide bakery that has plants located throughout North America.Top management at Bently believes that customers in different regions have different tastes.It also recognizes that its bakeries face more intense competition in some regions than in others.Therefore,Bently's top management gives local managers the freedom to offer different types of breads and desserts,and to decide on a reasonable pricing strategy for its products.Bently seems to be a decentralized organization.

Question 62

The more standardized the work,the wider the span of control.

Question 63

A tall organization structure consists of multiple levels of management.

Question 64

The more complex the job,the narrower the span of control.

Question 65

The flatter an organization's structure,the fewer managers are needed.

Question 66

Departmentalization is the dividing of organizational functions into separate units.

Question 67

An advantage of a tall organization is that it ensures fast and efficient communication throughout the organization.

Question 68

A recent trend has been for businesses to eliminate whole layers of management.

Question 69

The more experienced and capable the manager,the broader the span of control.

Question 70

A study at the Mars Hotel Corporation identified poor employee morale.These workers are frustrated by their inability to deal directly with customers' concerns and complaints.These employees feel that if they were empowered with the authority to make decisions,customer satisfaction would dramatically increase.This illustrates one of the disadvantages of decentralized authority.

Question 71

In today's business environment,the trend is to decrease the span of control.

Question 72

In the Quebec City plant of the ABC Company,workers are supervised by a foreman.The foreman reports to the shift supervisor who reports to the head of the production department,who then reports to the assistant plant manager,who reports to the plant manager.The plant manager,in turn,reports to a district manager,who then reports to a product group manager,who reports to an assistant vice president of operations,who keeps in close touch with an executive vice president.It appears that ABC is a tall organization.

Question 73

The trend towards employee empowerment results in a wider span of control.

Question 74

The traditional way to departmentalize an organization is by geographical area served.

Question 75

Studies indicate that a manager's span of control is limited to seven employees.

Question 76

Martina is an experienced manager with excellent communications skills.The workers in her area are highly skilled and are capable of doing their work with very little direct supervision.Martina's span of control is likely to be quite broad.

Question 77

It is relatively expensive to maintain a tall organization structure.

Question 78

Management at BIG Burgers,a nationwide chain of fast food restaurants,believes that its customers value a predictable and consistent level of service and quality.Top managers at BIG Burgers believe that when people stop at a BIG Burgers restaurant anywhere in Canada,they should know what to expect in terms of menu,price and quality.In order to maintain this consistency,BIG Burgers should adopt a decentralized organization.

Question 79

Managers near the top of an organization have the broadest span of control.

Question 80

A flat organizational structure is designed to be more responsive to the needs of management.