Deck 12: Enhancing Decision Making

Question 1

DSS primarily address structured problems.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

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

Answer 2

True

Question 3

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

Answer 3

True

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

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

Question 7

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

Question 8

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

Question 9

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

Question 10

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 11

DSS are a special category of GIS.

Question 12

Middle management face primarily unstructured decisions.

Question 13

Structured decision making is most prevalent at lower organizational levels.

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

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

Question 17

Backward sensitivity analysis software is used for goal seeking.

Question 18

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 19

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

Question 20

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

Question 21

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

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

Question 22

Businesses must deal with both structured and unstructured data from many different sources,including big data.

Question 23

Most major league teams have embraced sabermetrics,the application of statistical analysis to baseball records to evaluate the performance of individual players.

Question 24

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 25

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

Question 26

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

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

Question 27

Forecasts,scenarios,models: These include the ability to perform linear forecasting,what-if scenario analysis,and analyze data using standard statistical tools.

Question 28

Since all the major league teams use sabermetrics in one way or another to guide their decisions,the A's no longer have the competitive edge they once enjoyed when they were the only ones with this knowledge.

Question 29

Predictive analytics are being incorporated into numerous business intelligence applications for sales,marketing,finance,fraud detection,and health care

Question 30

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

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

Question 31

The classical model of management states 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 32

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

Question 33

In informational role their they 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 34

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.

Question 35

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

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

Question 36

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

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

Question 37

In their decisional 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 38

Senior managers,middle managers,operational managers,and employees have different types of decisions but have the same information requirements.

Question 39

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

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

Question 40

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 41

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

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

Question 42

Which types of decisions are automated for high-velocity decision making?

A) highly-structured decisions
B) semi-structured financial decisions
C) unstructured financial decisions
D) all of the above

Question 43

Which of the following is a disadvantage of high-velocity,automated decision-making systems?

A) inability to handle high volumes of decisions
B) inability to handle structured decisions
C) inability to handled semi-structured decisions
D) inability to control themselves and respond to new environments

Question 44

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

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

The concern that data values of an information source fall within a defined range reflects which quality dimension of information?

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

Question 47

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.

Question 48

Behavioral models of managers find that,from observation,managers

A) perform often fewer than 100 activities a day.
B) operate best with standardized, predictable, printed information.
C) create a formalized, hierarchic structure of contacts to provide filtered information.
D) typically work in a fragmented manner, with only 10% of activities exceeding an hour in duration.

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

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

Question 51

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

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

Question 52

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

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

Question 53

The concern that the structure of data is consistent within an information source reflects which quality dimension of information?

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

Question 54

Mintzberg's classification of managerial roles outlines which three main categories?

A) interpersonal, informational, and decisional
B) symbolic, decisional, and interpersonal
C) symbolic, interpersonal, and technical
D) technical, interpersonal, and informational

Question 55

Business intelligence would be useful for analyzing and decision making in which of the following situations?

A) deciding what marketing techniques are most successful with high-value customers
B) identifying the most efficient methods for packing and delivering finished products to destinations
C) forecasting the effect on sales given projected future variations in weather and other environmental variables
D) all of the above

Question 56

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.

Question 57

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

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

Question 58

Which of the following managerial roles is not supported by information systems?

A) liaison
B) nerve center
C) leader
D) negotiator

Question 59

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

Question 60

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

Question 61

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) managers
C) operational employees
D) business analysts

Question 62

________ 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

Question 63

There are two different strategies for adopting BI and BA capabilities for the organization: ______________________________________.

A) multiple integrated solutions versus multiple best-of-breed vendor solutions.
B) one-stop integrated solutions versus one-stop best-of-breed vendor solutions.
C) multiple integrated solutions versus one-stop best-of-breed vendor solutions.
D) one-stop integrated solutions versus multiple best-of-breed vendor solutions.

Question 64

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.

Question 65

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.

Question 66

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.

Question 67

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

A) operational employees and supervisors
B) senior managers
C) analytic modelers
D) business analysts

Question 68

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.

Question 69

A pivot table is a

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.

Question 70

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.

Question 71

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.

Question 72

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) ESS

Question 73

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.

Question 74

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

Question 75

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.

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

Question 77

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.

Question 78

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.

Question 79

A well-designed ESS will allow management to

A) have greater span of control.
B) assign lower levels of management greater control.
C) reduce their need to review lower levels of operation.
D) all of the above.

Question 80

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) MIS
D) TPS