Question 1

Netflix's business suffered when it failed to use an open system in its decision to introduce a large price increase while simultaneously splitting its DVD mail service from its streaming one.

Accepted Answer

Netflix used a closed system when, in July 2011, with no consumer feedback, it announced price increases of as much as 60%, a move intended to force subscribers to drop the DVDs by mail in favor of an $8-per-month streaming plan.

Question 2

The manager following the contingency viewpoint would ask, "What management method is the best to use under these particular circumstances?"

Accepted Answer

The manager following the contingency viewpoint would ask, "What method is the best to use under these particular circumstances?"

Question 3

The contingency viewpoint began to develop when managers discovered that a variety of different mathematical models can be applied for problem solving and decision making.

Accepted Answer

The contingency viewpoint began to develop when managers discovered that under some circumstances better results could be achieved by breaking the one-best-way rule.The contingency viewpoint emphasizes that a manager's approach should vary according to, or be contingent on, the individual and the environmental situation.

Question 4

Facilities management is concerned with work scheduling, productions planning, and optimal levels of inventory.

Accepted Answer

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

Question 5

Sales data would be considered feedback in a system.

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? That information is feedback.

Question 6

Continuous learning in an organization is more likely to occur in an open system than in a closed one.

Accepted Answer

The concept of open systems, which stresses feedback from multiple environmental factors, both inside and outside the organization, attempts to ensure a continuous learning process in order to correct old mistakes and avoid new ones.

Question 7

A learning organization is one that actively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge within itself and is able to modify itself to reflect new knowledge.

Accepted Answer

A learning organization is an organization that actively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge within itself and is able to modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge.

Question 8

For a jewelry designer, gold and silver rings, earrings, and bracelets are considered system inputs.

Accepted Answer

For a jewelry designer, gold and silver rings, earrings, and bracelets are considered system outputs, which are the products produced by the organization.

Question 9

Oscar is a manager of a downtown hotel and is currently considering the pricing of rooms for the upcoming holiday season.He would be wise to use the mathematical tools of management science to help him with this decision.

Accepted Answer

Management science stresses the use of rational, science-based techniques and mathematical models to improve decision making and strategic planning such as what price to charge for a hotel room at a given time.

Question 10

Over the years, Toyota has used a variety of operations management-based "lean management" techniques to sell its cars on the basis of superior quality.

Accepted Answer

Over the years, Toyota Motor Corp.developed a variety of production techniques that drew in part on operations management.These efficient techniques, all of which come under the term "lean management," enabled Toyota to sell its cars on the basis of their superior quality.

Question 11

A set of interrelated parts that operate together to achieve a common purpose is called a system.

Accepted Answer

A system is a set of interrelated parts that operate together to achieve a common purpose.

Question 12

Quality control focuses on the performance of workers, urging employees to strive for "zero defects."

Accepted Answer

Quality control is a strategy for minimizing errors by managing each state of production.Quality assurance focuses on the performance of workers, urging employees to strive for "zero defects."

Question 13

Feedback is one of the four parts of a system.

Accepted Answer

The four parts of a system are inputs, outputs, transformational processes, and feedback .

Question 14

One reason for the success of the Tommy Hilfiger clothing brand in the 1990s was maintaining a closed system with respect to young consumers' feedback by conducting research in music clubs.

Accepted Answer

"When Hilfiger's distinctive logo-laden shirts and jackets started showing up on urban rappers in the early '90s," says one account, "the company started sending researchers into music clubs to see how this influential group wore the styles." By having constant feedback, an open system, with young consumers, Hilfiger was rewarded: In the late '90s, its jeans became the No.1 brand in this age group.

Question 15

The total ability of a product or service to meet customer needs is known as functionality.

Accepted Answer

Quality refers to the total ability of a product or service to meet customer needs.

Question 16

Deming and Juran were part of the quality-management movement.

Accepted Answer

In the years after World War II, the imprint "Made in Japan" on a product almost guaranteed that it was cheap and flimsy.That began to change with the arrival in Japan of two Americans, W.Edwards Deming and Joseph M.Juran, pioneers of the quality management movement.

Question 17

In a closed system, an organization's outputs are recycled to become inputs.

Accepted Answer

A closed system has little interaction with its environment; that is, it receives very little feedback from the outside.

Question 18

Gary Hamel, cofounder of the Management Innovation Lab, believes than management innovation can be improved by identifying and sometimes challenging core beliefs that people have about an organization.

Accepted Answer

To get the ball rolling in management innovation, particularly in a traditional, conventional company, Hamel believes that the answer can be found by identifying core beliefs that people have about the organization, especially those that detract from the pursuit of management innovation.

Question 19

According to Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer, one barrier to flexibility is mindlessness.

Accepted Answer

One barrier to being flexible is mindlessness.Instead we need to adopt the frame of mind that Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer has called mindfulness, a form of active engagement.

Question 20

An important source of information about quality in total quality management is competitors.

Accepted Answer

One component of TQM is to listen to and learn from customers and employees.TQM companies pay attention to their customers, the people who use their products or services.In addition, employees within the companies listen and learn from other employees, those outside their own work areas.

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