Discovering The Social Organization Exam Prep Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Discovering the social organization

Test Bank

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 01

1) What are group norms?

a. The official groups that a manager places.

b. The official rules and norms that a manager tells the group they should follow.

c. The rules of conduct that group members must adhere to in order to fit in.

d. The normal ways of working that make a group work well.

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 02

2) What was Mayo’s view of Human nature? Please select all that apply.

a. That human beings are irrational and are governed by sentiment.

b. That human beings are economic animals who are only interested in cost-benefit analysis and work for their own rational ends.

c. That human beings are rational beings and always act in sensible ways based upon evidence and are governed by their rational best interests.

d. That human beings are social animals who have social and psychological needs.

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 05 Question 03

3) The experiments at the Hawthorne works examined the _______________ factors that shaped how people worked.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 04

4) Did Mayo think that workers were rational?

a. No. Mayo thought that workers were irrational and governed by sentiment.

b. No. Mayo thought that workers were not able to understand rationalization

c. Yes. Mayo thought that workers were rational and would always work in a way that would produce harmony with management.

d. Yes. Mayo thought that it is important for managers to understand the needs of workers and to design systems and procedures to work with them effectively.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 05

5) Did Mayo consider all workers to always be cooperative and harmonious? Please select all that apply.

a. No. Whilst Mayo considered that people are naturally cooperative and harmonious he argued that the industrial revolution had led to a fragmented society that meant that people lost a sense of individual significance. Workers were unhappy due to psychological reasons rather than economic ones.

b. No. Mayo believed that all workers were in conflict with one another and management by nature but with the right amount of management intervention they could be made more cooperative.

c. Yes. Mayo believed that all people are naturally cooperative and harmonious and that with the right level of support and development this could be harnessed effectively by organizations to make them run more effectively and efficiently.

d. Yes. Mayo believed that peoples are naturally cooperative but they can become less cooperative when they work in hierarchical organizations where there is a management structure that gets in the way of people’s individual freedom.

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 05 Question 06

6) The fundamental aim of the Hawthorne Studies was completely opposed to the aims of Taylorism?

a. True

From a critical viewpoint Mayo’s views therefore are less distinct from Taylor’s as they initially appear. Indeed his approach could be seen as a more subtle form of control.

b. False

From a critical viewpoint Mayo’s views therefore are less distinct from Taylor’s as they initially appear. Indeed his approach could be seen as a more subtle form of control.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 07

7) Complete this sentence: Group dynamics can result in workers… Please select all that apply.

a. …always increasing their output in order to do well for the group

b. …always decreasing their output in order to fit into the group

c. …working at the level that the manager wants them to

d. …working within the norms of the group

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 05 Question 08

8) Mayo’s interpretation of the Hawthorne studies led to the foundation of the _______________ movement.

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 09

9) What is the Hawthorne Effect? Please select all that apply.

a. Observing someone changes their behaviour.

b. Researchers can never really know what people do in reality.

c. Increasing productivity can come from understanding the psychological and social factors.

d. The power of hygiene factors.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 10

10) Mary Parker Follett believed that managers should act as ________? Please select all that apply.

a. administrators.

b. joint workers.

c. leaders.

d. facilitators.

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 05 Question 11

11) The results of the interview programme, the researchers argued, was that home life was irrelevant to their working life.

a. True

The research team argued that it was important for managers to be aware of people’s personal backgrounds and how this impact their working practice.

b. False

The research team argued that it was important for managers to be aware of people’s personal backgrounds and how this impact their working practice.

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 05 Question 12

12) The Hawthorne studies are credited with discovering the _______________ person.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 13

13) From a critical viewpoint did Mayo’s work help to give more freedom to workers? Please select all that apply.

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If Mayo did want to make a true break from Taylorism, as some of his writings indicated he was attempting to, then critical theorists argue that he could have used his theory to examine ways that increased human flourishing and spontaneity rather than as a more subtle way of increasing control and productivity.

a. Yes – the result of the Hawthorne Studies was that workers no longer had to work in Taylorist styles and therefore could always work in teams. This gave workers a lot more freedom.

b. Yes – Mayo’s work gave workers considerably more freedom that Taylorism as instead of just telling workers what to do workers were listened to.

c. No – whilst Mayo took into account wider human factors his purpose was not to increase freedom for employees but to give more power for managers in order to control them better.

d. No – whilst Mayo took into account wider human factors he used this knowledge to increase the motivation of the workers through factors such as understanding levels of fatigue or commitment levels that Taylor did not take into account.

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 14

14) What were Mayo’s views of the labour/capital relationship? Please select all that apply.

a. Mayo argued that managers have the right to manage and that workers are irrational and need managers to solve their problems.

b. Mayo argued that he had solved many of the excesses of Taylorism and therefore had solved the labour/capital dilemma. Mayo argued that people are naturally cooperative and that they want to work together.

c. Mayo argued that workers and managers have fundamentally different interests and that these interests cannot be reconciled.

d. Mayo argued that under human relations workers would be able to work with management as equals by developing good relations with each other.

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 05 Question 15

15) What were Mayo’s views on the role of managers? Please select all that apply.

a. Managers had the right to manage.

b. Managers should involve staff in all decision making and have a vote on the decisions that the organization takes.

c. Managers should listen to their staff.

d. Managers and staff are equal and should always work together cooperatively.