Questions and Answers of Contemporary Management

Ask a manager to recall the best and the worst decisions he or she ever made. Try to determine why these decisions were so good or so bad. [LO7-1, 7-2, 7-3]
Think about an organization in your local community or your university, or an organization that you are familiar with, that is doing poorly. Now think of questions managers in the organization should
Try to remember how you reached the decision.Did you sit down and consciously think through the implications of each alternative, or did you make the decision on the basis of intuition? Did you use
In retrospect, do you think your choice of alternative was shaped by any of the cognitive biases discussed in this chapter?
Either alone or in a group, think about the ethical implications of extreme decision making by groups.
When group decision making takes place, should each member of a group feel fully accountable for the outcomes of the decision? Why or why not?
Which type of decision making are Marines being taught in the Marine Maker training:programmed or nonprogrammed decisions? Explain.
Does the classical model or the administrative model of decision making better fit the decision process of the Marine Maker program? Why?
Which of the chapter’s ideas for creating a learning organization and promoting individual creativity support creative thinking by the Marines?
Why is it important for managers to pay close attention to value chain management if they wish to be responsive to their customers? [LO9-1, 9-2]
What is CRM, and how can it help improve responsiveness to customers? [LO9-2]
What are the main challenges in implementing a successful total quality management program? [LO9-3]
What is efficiency, and what are some strategies managers can use to increase it? [LO9-4]
What is innovation, and what are some strategies managers can use to develop successful new products? [LO9-5]
Ask a manager how responsiveness to customers, quality, efficiency, and innovation are defined and measured in his or her organization. [LO9-1, 9-2]
Go to a local store, restaurant, or supermarket; observe how customers are treated; and list the ways in which you think the organization is being responsive or unresponsive to the needs of its
Describe the value chain activities that the organization uses to produce this output.
Try to identify improvements that might be made to the organization’s value chain to boost its responsiveness to customers, quality, efficiency, and innovation.
What criteria would you use to decide which kind of strategy is ethical to adopt and how far to push employees to raise the level of their performance?
How big a layoff, if any, is acceptable? If layoffs are acceptable, what could be done to reduce their harm to employees?
Identify the product attributes that a typical sandwich shop customer wants the most.
In what ways do you think you will be able to improve on the operations and processes of existing sandwich shops and increase responsiveness to customers through better product quality, efficiency,
What kinds of techniques discussed in the chapter can help your functional managers to increase efficiency?
What measures did Brooks Brothers take to improve product quality? Suggest one other method it could employ to further improve quality.
How is information technology helping Brooks Brothers improve responsiveness to consumers?
With COVID-19 affecting most retail operations, how can a potential buyer refocus company operations to take advantage of online retail sales? Why is improving efficiency an important part of such
Would a flexible or a more formal structure be appropriate for these organizations? (a) a large department store, (b) a Big Four accounting firm, (c) a biotechnology company. Explain your reasoning.
Using the job characteristics model as a guide, discuss how a manager can enrich or enlarge employees’jobs. [LO10-2]
How might a salesperson’s job or an administrative assistant’s job be enlarged or enriched to make it more motivating? [LO10-2, 10-3]
When and under what conditions might managers change from a functional to (a) a product, (b) a geographic, or (c) a market structure? [LO10-1, 10-3]
How do matrix structure and product team structure differ? Why is product team structure more widely used? [LO10-1, 10-3, 10-4]
What is organizational culture, and how does it affect the way employees behave? [LO10-5]
Find and interview a manager, and identify the kind of organizational structure that his or her organization uses to coordinate its people and resources. Why is the organization using that structure?
With the same or another manager, discuss the distribution of authority in the organization.Does the manager think that decentralizing authority and empowering employees are appropriate? [LO10-1,
Interview some employees of an organization, and ask them about the organization’s values and norms, the typical characteristics of employees, and the organization’s ethical values and
Which contingencies are most important in explaining how the organization is organized? Do you think it is organized in the best way? Why or why not?
Using the job characteristics model, how motivating do you think the job of a typical employee is in this organization?
Provide examples of how a typical job could be enlarged or enriched in this organization.
How many levels are in the organization’s hierarchy?Is authority centralized or decentralized? Describe the span of control of the top manager and of middle or first-line managers.
Now that you have analyzed the way this organization is structured, what advice would you give its managers to help them improve how it operates?
What ethical rules (see Chapter 4) should managers use to decide which employees to terminate when redesigning their hierarchy?
Some people argue that employees who have worked for an organization for many years have a claim on the organization at least as strong as that of its shareholders. What do you think of the ethics of
Discuss how you can improve the way the current functional structure operates so it speeds website development.
Discuss the pros and cons of moving to a (a)multidivisional, (b) matrix, and (c) product team structure to reduce website development time.
Which of these structures do you think is most appropriate, and why?
How well does Ogilvy’s restructuring fit the principles of the contingency theory of organizational design? Explain.
What is the relationship between organizing and controlling? [LO11-1]
How do output control and behavior control differ? [LO11-2, 11-3]
Why is it important for managers to involve employees in the control process? [LO11-3, 11-4]
What kind of controls would you expect to find most used in (a) a hospital, (b) the U.S. Navy, and (c) a city police force? Why? [LO11-2, 11-3, 11-4]
What are the main obstacles to organizational change?What techniques can managers use to overcome these obstacles? [LO11-1, 11-5]
Ask a manager to list the main performance measures that he or she uses to evaluate how well the organization is achieving its goals. [LO11-1, 11-3, 11-4]
Ask the same or a different manager to list the main forms of output control and behavior control that he or she uses to monitor and evaluate employee behavior. [LO11-3, 11-4]
How important is behavior control in this organization?For example, how much of managers’ time is spent directly supervising employees? How formalized is the organization? Do employees receive a
Either by yourself or in a group, think about the ethical implications of organizations’ monitoring and collecting information about their employees. What kinds of information is it ethical or
Similarly, some organizations’ cultures seem to develop norms and values that cause their members to behave in unethical ways. When and why does a strong norm that encourages high performance
What kind of output controls will best facilitate positive interactions both within the teams and among the teams?
What kind of behavior controls will best facilitate positive interactions both within the teams and among the teams?
How would you help managers develop a culture to promote high team performance?
In general terms, according to the information provided, what measures of efficiency and effectiveness are important for controlling Stitch Fix’s corporate performance?
How can Stitch Fix’s organizational culture support the achievement of its goals?
How do you think the establishment of Stitch Fix might have created a need for organizational change at other clothing retailers? How might their responses create a need for organizational change at
Discuss why two people with similar abilities may have very different expectancies for performing at a high level. [LO13-2]
Describe why some people have low instrumentalities even when their managers distribute outcomes based on performance. [LO13-2]
Analyze how professors try to promote equity to motivate students. [LO13-2]
Describe three techniques or procedures that managers can use to determine whether a goal is difficult. [LO13-3]
Discuss why managers should always try to use positive reinforcement instead of negative reinforcement. [LO13-4]
Interview three people who have the same kind of job(such as salesperson, waiter/waitress, or teacher), and determine what kinds of needs each is trying to satisfy at work. [LO13-3]
Interview a manager in an organization in your community to determine the extent to which the manager takes advantage of vicarious learning to promote high motivation among employees. [LO13-3]
What needs would you strive to satisfy on this job?Why? What role would your manager play in helping you satisfy these needs?
What behaviors would your manager positively reinforce on this job? Why? What positive reinforcers would your manager use?
Either individually or in a group, think about the ethical implications of closely linking pay to performance.
Under what conditions might contingent pay be most stressful, and what steps can managers take to try to help their employees perform effectively and not experience excessive amounts of stress?
How could expectancy theory explain the success of DTE Energy’s approach to motivating employees during the Great Recession?
How well do need theories support Anderson’s approach to motivating employees?Would these models alone have prepared him to solve this challenge? Why or why not?
In DTE’s effort to motivate its employees, what were the goals?What kind(s) of reinforcement existed? Would you have expected these to be effective?Why or why not?
Which medium (or media) do you think would be appropriate for each of the following kinds of messages that an employee could receive from his or her boss: (a) a raise, (b) not receiving a
Discuss the pros and cons of using the Internet for communication within and between organizations. [LO16-1, 16-2, 16-3, 16-5]
How can collaboration software help managers and their teams communicate more efficiently? [LO16-5]
Why do some managers find it difficult to be good listeners? [LO16-6]
Explain why employees might filter and distort information about problems and performance shortfalls when communicating with their bosses. What steps can managers take to eliminate filtering and
Explain why differences in linguistic style, when not understood by message senders and receivers, can lead to ineffective communication. [LO16-6]
Interview a manager in an organization in your community to determine with whom he or she communicates on a typical day, what communication media he or she uses, and which typical communication
How could you have handled this situation differently so communication would have been effective?
Either individually or in a group, explore the ethics of using an organization’s Internet connection and email system for personal purposes at work and while away from the office. Should employees
Some companies track how their employees use the company’s Internet connection and email system. Is it ethical for managers to read employees’ personal email or to record websites that employees
A second group of resistant employees consists of middle managers. Some middle managers resist using your company’s intranet. Although these managers do not resist the technology per se and do use
What benefits do you think Reed Hastings and Patty McCord obtained from putting their vision for Netflix in writing in the Culture Deck? How effective do you think this medium was for this message?
What pros and cons do you see in managers following Netflix’s practice of being radically honest about their employees’performance?
Would you want to work for an organization that practices radical honesty in communication as Netflix does? Why or why not?
Discuss why too little conflict in an organization can be just as detrimental as too much conflict. [LO17-1]
Why are compromise and collaboration more effective ways of handling conflict than accommodation, avoidance, and competition? [LO17-2]
Why should managers promote integrative bargaining rather than distributive negotiation? [LO17-3]
How can managers promote integrative bargaining? [LO17-4]
Why do organizational politics affect practically every organization? [LO17-5]
Why do effective managers need good political skills? [LO17-5]
What steps can managers take to ensure that organizational politics are a positive force leading to a competitive advantage, not a negative force leading to personal advantage at the expense of
Think of a member of an organization whom you know and who is particularly powerful. What political strategies does this person use to increase his or her power? [LO17-5]
Why is it best to use power unobtrusively? How are people likely to react to power that is exercised obtrusively? [LO17-5]
Interview a manager in a local organization to determine the kinds of conflicts that occur in his or her organization and the strategies that are used to manage them. [LO17-1, 17-2]

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