Deck 7: Decision Making and Creativity

Question 1

One reason why the problem identification stage is imperfect is that various stakeholders try to "frame" the decision maker's view of the situation.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The rational choice paradigm states that effective decision makers begin at any step in the model.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Decision making is an unconscious process of moving toward a desirable state of affairs.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The decision maker's emotions play an important role in his or her identification of a problem or opportunity.

Question 5

The rational choice paradigm assumes that decision makers have limited information-processing capabilities and engage in a limited search for alternatives.

Question 6

According to bounded rationality theory,people make better decisions when their perceptions are "bounded" or framed by past experience.

Question 7

To choose the best solution,decision makers need clear organizational goals that do not conflict with each other.

Question 8

The textbook argues that problem identification is usually the least important step in the rational choice paradigm.

Question 9

Bounded rationality adopts the main assumptions of the rational choice paradigm of decision making.

Question 10

Decision makers have a need to reduce uncertainty,so they tend to focus on solutions before fully understanding the problem.

Question 11

Decision makers typically look at alternatives sequentially and compare each alternative to an implicit favourite.

Question 12

Ill-defined problems require a non-programmed decision process.

Question 13

The decision-making process is more effective when problems are defined in terms of their solutions.

Question 14

Subjective expected utility refers to how much the selected alternative benefits or satisfies the decision maker.

Question 15

Satisficing occurs when people continue on a failing course of action.

Question 16

When decision makers tend not to evaluate various alternatives when they find an opportunity.

Question 17

Decision makers can discover blind spots in problem identification by discussing the situation with other people.

Question 18

If a decision maker encounters the same problem several times,he or she can increasingly rely on non-programmed decision routines to solve the problem.

Question 19

Our mental models of the world can prevent us from recognizing emerging problems in the workplace.

Question 20

The last step in the rational decision-making model is to evaluate the decision outcomes.

Question 21

Intuition includes any emotional signals we experience regarding a situation.

Question 22

Employee involvement mainly refers to controlling resources for one's own job.

Question 23

Intuition allows us to draw on our tacit knowledge to guide our decision preferences.

Question 24

Post-decisional justification causes decision makers to forget what decision they made.

Question 25

When making important decisions,we "listen in" on our emotions to guide our preference among the decision alternatives.

Question 26

Whether or not the emotions we experience in a situation represent intuition depends largely on our level of experience in that situation.

Question 27

When in a positive mood,people pay more attention to details and follow a nonprogrammed decision routine

Question 28

Systematic evaluation of alternatives helps to increase the use of implicit favourites and satisficing in the decision process.

Question 29

Scenario planning is a structured process that helps decision makers explore potential problems and choose the best solutions under different future conditions.

Question 30

Intuition is the main strategy to minimize escalation of commitment.

Question 31

Escalation of commitment may be corrected by ensuring that those involved in choosing decision alternatives are also responsible for evaluating the implemented solution.

Question 32

Post-decisional justification gives people an excessively optimistic evaluation of their decisions,until they receive very clear and undeniable information to the contrary.

Question 33

The emerging emotional view of decision making states that people form preferences toward alternatives as soon as they receive information about those alternatives.

Question 34

Escalation of commitment occurs when employees increase their support for a decision because most of their colleagues also support that decision.

Question 35

Intuition is based on mental templates or models representing tacit knowledge about a situation.

Question 36

The higher the level of employee involvement,the more influence people have over the decision process.

Question 37

Escalation of commitment is more likely to occur when the perceived costs of terminating the project are high or unknown.

Question 38

Prospect theory and self-justification are the main causes of satisficing.

Question 39

The highest level of employee involvement occurs when employees are asked to make recommendations to managers,who then decide whether to implement them.

Question 40

According to almost all organizational behaviour research,intuitive decision making is a myth that should not be taken seriously.

Question 41

Employees are more likely to be committed to implementing a solution when they are involved in making the decision.

Question 42

The ideas that form during the insight stage of creativity need to be verified through conscious evaluation and experimentation.

Question 43

The highest level of employee involvement should occur when the problem is structured (i.e.it is a programmed decision).

Question 44

Employee involvement improves the number and quality of solutions.

Question 45

Creativity should be used only in cases of non-programmed problems.

Question 46

Employee involvement tends to weaken synergy in the decision-making process.

Question 47

The incubation stage of creativity is more effective when the decision maker sets aside all other activities and focuses attention on the issue or problem.

Question 48

The optimum level of employee involvement depends on the amount of information the leader possesses about the issue.

Question 49

People are creative because they work in creative environments,not because of any differences in their ability or personality.

Question 50

To make the best decisions,the number of employees involved should be minimized.

Question 51

Knowledge and experience can undermine creativity,because it can lead to routinization of that knowledge.

Question 52

Creative people tend to have a high need for social approval.

Question 53

Incubation is the stage of creativity in which the problem is simmering at the back of your mind while you are doing something else.

Question 54

Creativity occurs only in a few types of decisions.

Question 55

The ideas that appear during the insight stage of creativity are quickly forgotten unless documented.

Question 56

Employees should not make the final decision alone when conflict is likely among employees.

Question 57

Typically,creative people possess less knowledge and experience on the subject than experts in the field.

Question 58

Divergent thinking occurs when the individual has a fleeting inspiration that is usually forgotten before it can be written down.

Question 59

Two contingencies of employee involvement are decision commitment and risk of conflict.

Question 60

Employee involvement potentially improves decision-making quality and commitment.

Question 61

Creativity tends to suffer during times of downsizing and corporate restructuring.

Question 62

Creativity is related to both the characteristics of creative people and the situation in which they work.

Question 63

One reason why the rational choice model doesn't fit reality is that it focuses on logical thinking and completely ignores:

A) emotions.
B) alternatives.
C) evaluation of solutions.
D) subjective expected utility.
E) organizational politics.

Question 64

A potentially useful creative practice is to list different dimensions of a system and the elements of each dimension,then think through the potential commercial usefulness of each combination.

Question 65

The rational choice model of decision making begins with:

A) evaluating alternatives
B) recognizing and defining the problem
C) searching for alternatives
D) implementing the solution
E) searching for information about outcomes to each alternative

Question 66

A nonprogrammed decision is:

A) any routine situation where the company has a ready-made solution.
B) any decision that does not relate directly to the employee's job description.
C) any nonroutine situation in which employees much search for alternative solutions.
D) any decision that is clearly within the employee's job description.
E) any decision that affects the employee's performance.

Question 67

When should decision makers bypass the search for alternative solutions and development of new solutions?

A) Never; bypassing these stages results in poorer decisions.
B) When the decision has ethical implications.
C) In most nonprogrammed decision situations.
D) In most programmed decision-making situations.
E) Only under conditions of bounded rationality.

Question 68

The rational choice model of decision making is rarely practiced in reality because:

A) it ignores the fact that problems must be defined before alternatives are chosen.
B) it assumes that human beings make decisions based on their emotions.
C) it assumes that people are efficient and logical information processing machines.
D) it ignores the fact that people evaluate their decision after an alternative has been chosen and implemented.
E) All of these statements are correct.

Question 69

Morphological analysis is a test to identify people with a creative personality.

Question 70

Task significance and autonomy are important conditions for creativity in organizations.

Question 71

At what stage of the rational choice decision making model would we consider whether the decision is programmed or non-programmed?

A) Identifying the problem or opportunity.
B) Choosing the most appropriate decision style.
C) Developing alternative solutions.
D) Choosing the best alternative.
E) Evaluating decision outcomes.

Question 72

Art classes and improvisational theatre are two creative activities of associative play.

Question 73

For the past 2,500 years,scholars in most western countries have mainly followed the ____________ model of decision making.

A) implicit favourite
B) bounded rationality
C) rational choice
D) prospect theory
E) programmed decision

Question 74

Creativity occurs by redefining the problem,not just by finding a unique solution to the existing problem.

Question 75

Creative ideas can emerge when asking people unfamiliar with the problem to explore the problem with you.

Question 76

The rational choice paradigm of decision making does NOT assume that:

A) organizational goals are clear and agreed upon.
B) the outcomes of all alternatives are known.
C) all alternatives should be considered.
D) information is freely available.
E) decision makers tend to choose the first alternative exceeding the minimum standard.

Question 77

Creative people have a high degree of non-conformity and have less concern about social approval.

Question 78

Creative people value self-direction,but also have a strong need to follow rules.

Question 79

Employees tend to be less creative in organizations that punish failure.

Question 80

People are the most creative when management puts intense pressure on them to produce creative ideas.