Questions and Answers of Fundamentals Of Management

Evaluate the reliability and validity of one of the written tests used in the selection of the police officers.
The Hong Kong Police Force successfully nurtures a learning culture in the organization. Identify various training and development activities that help to shape the culture.
How does an innovative culture make an organization more effective? Could an innovative culture ever make an organization less effective? Why or why not?
Increased work load, 24/7 communication access, cutbacks, and work-life conflict are some of the forces that increase on-the-job stress. Some organizations may have noticed this problem and addressed
What factors would highlight the need to revise or majorly restructure a department or organization?
The case mentioned that there were some motivation of change agents too in this split and the creation of a School. In your view, what do you think could have been the internal factors that motivated
Why do you think the third option was rejected?
In your opinion, why do you think the fourth option was implemented?
What external forces for change do you see described in this case? Would you describe Avon’s environment as more “calm waters” or “white-water rapids?” Explain.
Why would it be important for the CEO to look at those external forces when planning organizational change?
Why might it be difficult to change a company that’s over 130 years old?
Avon is truly a global company. How might this affect the CEO’s efforts to implement organizational change?
What is your reaction to the situation described in this case?What factors, both inside the company and externally, appear to have contributed to this situation?
What appeared to be happening in France Télécom’s workplace?What stress symptoms might managers have looked for to be alerted to a problem?
Should managers be free to make decisions that are in the best interests of the company without worrying about employee reactions?Discuss. What are the implications for managing change?
What are France Télécom’s executives doing to address the situation? Do you think it’s enough? Are there other actions they might take? If so, describe those. If not, why not?
What could other companies and managers learn from this situation?
How might a manager use personality traits to improve employee selection in his or her department? Emotional intelligence? Discuss.
Why is it important for managers to have an understanding of organizational behavior?
What possible OB topics do you see in this story? Explain.
What do you think about this pairing-up idea? Would you be comfortable with such an arrangement? Why or why not?
What personality traits would be most needed for this type of work arrangement? Why?
What types of issues might a Gen Y employee and an older, more-experienced employee face? How could two people in such a close-knit work arrangement deal with those issues?That is, how could both
What is your impression of an “employees first” culture? Would this work in other organizations? Why or why not? What would it take to make it work?
How might an understanding of organizational behavior help CEO Vineet Nayar lead his company? Be specific. How about first-line company supervisors? Again, be specific.
What aspects of personality do you see in this story about HCL?How have the personality traits of HCL employees contributed to make HCL what it is?
How do you think scientific management theorists would react to the increased use of teams in organizations? How would behavioral science theorists react?
How does the St. Louis Cardinals organization epitomize teamwork?
Do you think sports teams, like the St. Louis Cardinals, go through the stages of group development? Why or why not?
Using Exhibit 10–6 as your guide, discuss how the St. Louis Cardinals organization creates effective teams.
What could other organizations (even non-sports ones) learn from the St. Louis Cardinals?
What type of team(s) do these employee teams appear to be?Explain.
As this story illustrated, sometimes it may take a long time for a team to reach its goal. As a manager, how would you motivate a team to keep on trying?
What role do you think a team leader needs to play in this type of setting? Explain.
Using Exhibit 14–10, what characteristics of effective teams would these teams need? Explain.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is a flawed model.Discuss this statement using examples to support your answer.
What role would money play in (a) the hierarchy of needs theory, (b) two-factor theory, (c) equity theory,(d) expectancy theory, and (e) motivating employees with a high nAch?
What are some advantages of using pay-for-performance programs to motivate employee performance? Are there drawbacks? Explain.
What economic and cross-cultural challenges face when motivating employees?
What problem(s) might managers face under this new pay approach and how could they use knowledge about employee motivation to help them deal with those problem(s)?
Alibaba has a vision to be a 102 year old company. How could a manager motivate an employee to stay and effectively contribute for more than 30 years? Consider Alibaba’s founding ideals.
How would you retain employees who are sitting on lucrative stock options and could walk out the door tomorrow knowing that they would never have to work another day in their life?use various
Can Jack Ma’s statement suggesting he was happier earning$12 a month as a school teacher be justified? Explain your answer using the motivational theories.
Where would equity theory be relevant in Alibaba’s history?
Having read this case, which motivational theory do you feel most represents Ma’s ability to lead his team to overcome all odds?
What is your opinion on DTO? What motivation theory do you think it has been inspired by? Explain whether or not you would adopt it in your organization.
What is fundamental for the DTO policy to be effectively implemented in organizations? Do you think there might be some equity problems in the management of personnel?
Do you think that DTO can be applied in every industry or is it only applicable for tech companies? Explain the reasons for your answer.
Should this unlimited vacation policy be adopted in all countries or do you think it won’t work well in certain countries?Explain your answer using examples.
What behaviors do leaders exhibit that non-leaders do not?
“A leader’s effectiveness depends on their follower’s ability.” Which theory states this and why?
Does management style affect the way leaders lead?Consider McGregor’s Theory X-Y and explain whether or not the leadership styles between a Theory X manager and a Theory Y manager would differ.
Do you think trustworthy leaders be more effective in getting results from followers? Explain.
Take each of the six leadership attributes that 3M feels is important.Explain what you think each one involves. Then discuss how those attributes might be developed and measured.
Three different types of organizations are described here:3M is primarily a manufacturing organization. Ernst & young and Deloitte are professional services organizations. Facebook is a tech company.
What leadership theories do you feel Ferguson’s actions support?
What leadership traits can you see being demonstrated in the case?
To what degree has emotional intelligence played a part in Alex Ferguson’s success?
What do you see as the possible problems of varying the leadership approach with different players?
After reading this case, how would you best describe Shih’s leadership style?
What should be done by top level managers in order to carry out management without interference?
Do you think Shih’s management or leadership style can be applied to other industries? Explain using examples.
Shih stated that glory only comes from self-accomplishment.Explain whether you agree or disagree with Shih.
Explain why the different types of communication are effective across an organization’s hierarchy.
Examine the communication process as illustrated in Exhibit 13-1. What constitutes noise? Do you think noise can be prevented? Explain the reasons for your answer.
In your opinion, will information technology cause information overload for managers in future?
Looking at the rules and regulations that universities are establishing, do you think that business organizations should have rules for employees using social media? What types of rules do you think
Were you surprised at the volume of e-mail an average employee receives daily? What are the challenges of dealing with this volume of e-mail? How much e-mail would you say you receive daily? Has your
What do you think of the e-mail “replacement” some businesses are using—more of a social media tool? In what ways might it be better? Worse?
Based on the two examples from the case, what do you think are the main communication issues? Did the managers of these organizations communicate effectively? Why or why not?
How would you feel if you were working in these organizations and were affected by such miscommunication through social media platforms?
What would you do differently if you were a manager for the companies mentioned in the examples?
What do you think other mangers should learn from these examples of miscommunication?
Planning and controlling are the opposite sides of the same coin. Do you think this statement is true at all levels of organizational hierarchy? Why or why not?
In Chapter 8 we discussed the “white-water rapids”view of change. Do you think it’s possible to establish and maintain effective standards and controls in this type of environment? Discuss.
What are some work activities in which the acceptable range of variation might be higher than average? What about lower than average? (Hint: Think in terms of the output from the work activities,
Why is it important for managers to understand the control process?
Why is this level of managerial controls necessary?
Why should managers focus on positive feedback?
What are the risks associated with providing employees only positive feedback and providing limited feedback on areas of improvement?
Where would you be more comfortable? An organization with a performance review approach more like the Boston Consulting Group or more like Netflix? Why?
What type (or types) of control—feedforward, concurrent, or feedback—do you think would have been helpful in this situation?Explain your choice.
Using Exhibit 14–2, discuss if and how this situation could have been prevented.
Could Lululemon’s controls have been more effective? How?
What role would information controls play in this situation?Customer interaction controls? What other controls do you think might have been useful?
Why is operations management important to business organizations?
Discuss the importance of effective operations management from the manager’s perspective.
Do you think that manufacturing or service organizations have greater need of operations management? Explain.
What is a value chain? What is value chain management?What is the goal of value chain management?
What types of organizational benefits does value chain management provide? What obstacles stand in the way of successful value chain management?
How could you use value chain management in your everyday life? Be specific.
How does technology affect operations management decisions?
Discuss this from a value chain management perspective.What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen?
How do incidents like this affect how managers work with a value chain?
Do some research on offshoring. What is it? What are the benefits and the drawbacks of offshoring as far as managing the operations system?
What can managers learn about managing operations from this situation?
Societal moral issue: Although enforcement of worker safety in Bangladesh is clearly lax, government officials clearly don’t want global businesses withdrawing from the country (and moving the
Personal moral issue: Would you pay a higher price for“ethical” clothing? Why or why not? Discuss.
What role does innovation play in managing an organization’s operations?
What role does technology play in managing an organization’s operations? (Take a look back at the Technology and the Manager’s Job box on p. 487.)

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