Deck 3: Public Administration and Organization Theory: The Structural Foundation

Question 1

Who is said to have coined the term bureaucracy?

A)Vincent de Gournay
B)Maltin Albrow
C)Lyndall Urwick
D)Luther Gulick

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the term for the physical dispersal of operating units with only limited delegation of decision-making authority?

A)decentralization
B)contingency
C)span of control
D)deconcentration

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The acronym POSDCORB refers to the various tasks associated with the job of a manager or executive in an organization.What are they?

A)planning, organizing, serving, directing, co-ordinating, reporting, and budgeting
B)planning, organizing, staffing, directing, co-ordinating, reporting, and budgeting
C)planning, ordering, staffing, directing, co-ordinating, reporting, and borrowing
D)planning, outlining, sourcing, directing, co-operating, reporting, and budgeting

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What is the name of the organizational theory that is most associated with Frederick W.Taylor?

A)new public management
B)scientific management
C)new public service
D)principles of management

Question 5

The Civil Service Commission (CSS) was established in 1908 to act as a guardian of the patronage principle.

Question 6

Who criticized the idea of organizing by purpose, process, people, and place?

A)Gulick
B)Urwick
C)Simon
D)Selznick

Question 7

Which of the following best describes the bureaucratic principle that states that there should be only one leader and one plan for organizing activities to accomplish an objective?

A)esprit de corps
B)scalar chain
C)span of control
D)unity of direction

Question 8

The Canadian federal government eventually moved toward the Weberian concept of bureaucracy.

Question 9

Job classifications are still part of the human resource management regime governing public service.

Question 10

Frederick Taylor's main contribution to organization theory was his emphasis on the scientific approach to work management.

Question 11

Which of these terms translates literally to "rule by desks or offices"?

A)organization
B)administration
C)bureaucracy
D)institutions

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT an ideal type of bureaucracy as outlined by Max Weber?

A)office management based on arbitrary decisions
B)full-time employment
C)system of hierarchical authority
D)use of written files

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an aspect of Fayol's Principle of Management?

A)technical
B)cultural
C)financial
D)commercial

Question 14

Which characteristic of span of control is more significant at the lower levels of the organization than the upper levels?

A)the nature of work supervised
B)the overall stability/instability of the organization
C)the level of training of the subordinates
D)the extent of the geographical decentralization of work

Question 15

Who introduced the concept of "trained incapacity" to highlight flaws associated with the bureaucratic structure?

A)Philip Selznik
B)Chester Barnard
C)Robert K.Merton
D)Herbert Simon

Question 16

Which of the following theorists is NOT a neo-classical theorist?

A)Frederick Taylor
B)Herbert Simon
C)Chester Barnard
D)Philip Selznick

Question 17

According to Max Weber, which type of authority is legitimated by rules and regulations obeyed by both the ruled and the rulers?

A)charismatic authority
B)traditional authority
C)rational-legal authority
D)formal authority

Question 18

According to Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, what does the concept of span of control in an organization refer to?

A)the rules and regulations necessary to control the actions of employees
B)no subordinate reporting to more than one supervisor
C)authority and responsibility co-existing
D)the number of subordinates who report to one supervisor

Question 19

One of the main criticisms of Weber's work was that he spent too much time on the human side of organizations and not enough on the structural aspects of bureaucracy.

Question 20

What are Public Health Nurses an example of?

A)line function
B)staff function
C)service function
D)control function

Question 21

For organizations whose primary division is by purpose, the senior managers are responsible for each function to remain in the head office.

Question 22

"One head, One Plan" is a term that is often associated with the unity of command.

Question 23

A staff function is directly involved in producing and distributing the goods and services provided by an organization.

Question 24

Gulick and Urwick contributed to the theory of organizational behaviour by publicising other people's ideas.

Question 25

POSDCORB was a term identified by Henri Fayol.