Exam 16: Decision Making

When the project was initiated,the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant had an estimated cost of $75 million and a construction timeline of seven years.The project was eventually completed 23 years later at a cost of over $5 billion.The continuing allocation of resources to this project which ended up costing over 66 times its original estimate may be an example of ______.

Escalation of commitment refers to the allocation of additional resources to support continuing favorable results.

One person is not likely to be equally proficient in all phases of the decision-making process.

When managers "zero-out risks," they attempt to gather more information.

Middle managers are typically focused equally on programmed and non-programmed decisions.

Value judgments,while pervasive in the decision making process,typically have a limited influence in the "control and evaluation" phase of the process.

When can group decision making produce better outcomes than individual ones? Provide examples and justifications.

Decision making is a responsibility shared by all managers,regardless of functional area or management level.

Distortion of information and the minimizing negative aspects of a decision may be the result of cognitive dissonance.

While unethical decisions by co-workers and supervisors have been found to negatively impact trust levels,productivity has actually been found to typically increase.

Both the Delphi process and the nominal group technique do not require face-to-face communication.

Brainstorming has proven to be more effective than both the Delphi process and the nominal group technique.

Michelle is supervisor at WidgetTech.Over the past year her manager and a fellow supervisor have been fired for implementing processes which were ultimately ineffective.Senior management may have __________.

Nonprogrammed decisions are typically handled most at what management level of the organization?

Research indicates a(an)__________ link between the number of alternatives considered and the speed at which decisions are reached.

Describe four important conclusions concerning the influence of personality on the decision-making process?

Risk describes __________.

Describe the decision-making process and justify the statement that the process is "more of a sequential process rather than a series of steps."

Without knowing all of the possible alternatives or their outcomes,managers frequently approach the selection of alternatives as satisficers rather than optimizers.

The control step of the decision making process involves both the evaluation of results against objectives and the implementation of change should deviations exist.