Ch13 Decision Rights Bundling Tasks into Jobs and Test Bank

Student name:__________

MULTIPLE CHOICE - Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
1) Which of the following is not a cost of specialized task assignment?

A) foregone complementarities across tasks
B) functional myopia
C) comparative advantage of specialization
D) reduced flexibility

2) Dan Unowsky manages a production group in a PC repair shop. He has noticed that the speed of repair is based on each worker doing one task. However, if an employee is out sick, then the entire repair process slows down. This is an example of

A) coordination costs.
B) the trade-off between low cross-training costs and reduced flexibility of the employees.
C) the absolute need for every employee to be trained in all aspects of PC repair.
D) managerial ineptitude.

3) Specialized task assignment's greatest cost is ignoring the forgone ________ across tasks.

A) comparative advantage
B) flexibility
C) complementarities
D) lower cross-training costs

4) Two tasks are said to be ________ if performing more of one task increases the benefit or reduces the cost of performing another task.

A) substitutes
B) complements
C) bundled
D) flexible

5) When a worker specializes in one task, he focuses on that one function in the production process, ignoring the whole system. This is likely to

A) increase the cross-training costs.
B) eliminate trade-offs since only one task is undertaken by each employee.
C) lead to greater complementarity between one task and another.
D) result in functional myopia that reduces overall productivity.

6) The most famous story about organizing tasks into jobs comes from Adam Smith's tale of the pin factory. In that story, he argues that

A) specialization of jobs into simple tasks increases productivity.
B) cross-training is critical for productivity.
C) coordination is the biggest problem for factory efficiency.
D) one worker should be assigned all the tasks in pin construction.

7) Dan Unowsky assigns his computer repairers four tasks: customer service, replacement of broken parts, clean-up of equipment, and sale of used equipment to customers. If the company provides a 10% commission for all sales made by employees, then

A) employees will clearly emphasize the clean-up task.
B) employees may ignore other tasks when faced with a potential sale.
C) replacement of broken parts will clearly be favored by employees.
D) the entire production process will be speeded up by the sales incentive.

8) The choice between specialized and broad task assignments depends on

A) politicking and other influencing activities carried on within an organization.
B) the principle of separation of decision management and control.
C) the principle of comparative advantage to increase the output level.
D) technological, informational, and incentive issues.

9) Grouping people together within a subunit is likely to

A) lower the communication and coordination costs within the subunit.
B) increase the communication and coordination costs within the subunit.
C) lead to empowerment.
D) lead to boundary setting.

10) Which of the following is not a benefit of the unitary form (U form) of an organization?

A) improved coordination among functional specialists
B) higher level of functional expertise
C) well-defined promotion path
D) opportunity costs of the time of senior management

11) A disadvantage associated with grouping jobs on the basis of functional specialty is that

A) managers rely on implicit understanding and informal relationships.
B) managers tend to ignore the interdependencies among units that might lower a firm’s value.
C) employees concentrate more on achieving departmental goals rather than customer satisfaction.
D) employees have to seek ratification from managers for initiation and implementation of decisions.

12) Which of the following is not a benefit of the M form of an organization?

A) improved coordination among functional specialists
B) use of local product or geographic information
C) focus across the entire product line
D) improved use of senior management's time

13) Dan Unowsky, director of remanufacturing for the Southern division of Enhanced Computers, finds that communication with marketing is very difficult. This is a ________ of separating marketing from production.

A) benefit
B) cost
C) necessary component
D) potential opportunity

14) Functional U form subunits work best in

A) large, geographically spread-out companies.
B) companies that produce many products.
C) small, specialized companies.
D) industries with rapidly changing technology.

15) Alfred Chandler, the noted business historian, indicated that "the administrative load of the senior executives increased to such an extent that they were unable to handle their entrepreneurial responsibilities efficiently." He was speaking of the

A) U form of business organization.
B) M form of business organization.
C) matrix form of business organization.
D) mixed design.

16) The initial companies in the United States in the 1800s failed after following the design of the railroad system because

A) global competition made labor cheaper abroad.
B) monitoring costs increased rapidly.
C) managers became greedy and workers began to shirk.
D) their organizational architectures did not fit their changing environments.

17) A matrix organization is organized on the basis of

A) functional areas of expertise.
B) geographic region.
C) product line.
D) both functional specialty and product line.

18) Defense, construction, and management consulting are usually set up as

A) M forms of business organizations.
B) U forms of business organizations.
C) network designs.
D) matrix designs.

19) Which of the following is true of matrix organizations?

A) Employees are more likely to focus on the overall business process rather than on their functional specialty.
B) Employees have strong incentives to cooperate with other teams within a company.
C) Influence costs are low as there are separate product and functional managers.
D) There are well-defined lines of authority, eliminating scope of interdependence and lack of incentives.

20) Matrix organizations may

A) decrease influence costs.
B) reduce employee focus on the overall business.
C) reduce functional supervision.
D) increase influence costs.

21) Some of the activities of Chase Manhattan are organized by product, some by geography, and some by customer. Therefore, Chase Manhattan is said to have a(n)

A) U form of business organization.
B) M form of business organization.
C) network organization.
D) mixed design.

22) Large multinational corporations are usually set up as

A) U form of business organizations.
B) M form of business organizations.
C) network organizations.
D) mixed designs.

23) Network organizations depend upon

A) formal lines of authority.
B) intersecting lines of authority.
C) decentralization of operating decisions to the business-unit level.
D) work groups and specific projects without any formal lines of authority.

24) The Japanese keiretsu is an example of a(n)

A) U form of organization.
B) M form of organization.
C) mixed design.
D) network organization.

25) Which of the following is not a type of an organization?

A) the U form
B) the M form
C) mixed design
D) trade-off free bundled mixed design

26) During the 1990s, many companies shifted from

A) the M form to functional subunits.
B) the M form to product-oriented organizations.
C) product-oriented organizations to functional subunits.
D) functional subunits toward more product-oriented organizations.

27) Starting from the 1990s there was a significant shift toward

A) granting employees broader decision authority and more specialized task assignments.
B) granting employees narrower decision authority and more specialized task assignments.
C) granting employees narrower decision authority and less specialized task assignments.
D) granting employees broader decision authority and less specialized task assignments.

28) The BankInc case shows the potential of shifting from ________ tasks to ________ task assignments.

A) broad; specialized
B) specialized; broad
C) functional; geographic
D) broad; functional

29) In the BankInc case, the change in assignment for caseworkers was made practical by

A) centralized functional management systems.
B) computerization of task input for managerial oversight.
C) elimination of cross-training among credit tasks.
D) integrating credit checking with pricing, but maintaining document preparation in a separate department.

30) Industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor was particularly rude in his recommendation that jobs be kept simple. He argued that the characteristics of lower-level workers were such that they should be assigned very limited decision rights and a narrow set of tasks. While certainly crude by today's standards, Taylor recognized that

A) broad task assignment is necessary for complex jobs.
B) simple task assignment is always dehumanizing.
C) broad task assignment eliminates the need for coordination.
D) simple task assignment may improve overall productivity.

31) You are a manager of a small coal mining operation. Your best way to design tasks would be

A) narrow task assignment to workers and limited interest in specialized task.
B) narrow specialization among workers without any task assignment.
C) narrow task assignment and functional specialization among workers.
D) broad allocation of decision rights and empowerment via delegation.

ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
32) Incentives are an important aspect to determine whether multiple tasks should be combined into one job or not. How can monetary incentives help and/or hinder the process of getting a job done, particularly if it is made up of several tasks?

33) Historically, many businesses have preferred specialized task assignment for employees over broad task assignments. Why has this been the case?

34) What do you mean by a specialized task assignment and what are its advantages?

35) Enhanced Computers specializes in rebuilding computers. Recently reorganized into geographic divisions, the Southern division headed by Dan Unowsky is outperforming the other divisions in sales and profits. However, corporate executives have noticed that Unowsky no longer sends refurbished computers to other divisions, and he has instituted special warranties and pricing systems unavailable in the rest of the company. Should Unowsky be promoted or fired?

36) What do we mean by the U form?

37) What do we mean by the M form?

38) What is a matrix organization?

39) In the Bagby Copy Company case study, the executives are faced with wiring ten different copiers that they make in five separate European countries. They must choose between specializing by country or specializing by manufacturing of copier type. The executives hire a lobbyist to work for a standard regulatory and sales environment across the entire European Union. Why?

40) What are the recent trends in organization design?