Exam 16: Evidence-Based Decision Making

Organizational effectiveness is a better measure of organizational performance than organizational productivity. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

The control process is a two-step process that compares actual performance against a standard and then taking managerial action to correct deviations or inadequate standards.

Organizational governance ________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Employee Theft (Scenario) Barbara is the product manager of an energy company which operates in the Americas. She is concerned about the increased employee theft observed in the factory. A study has shown that $30,000 worth of merchandise was accounted to employee theft in the year 2010. -Which of the following can be categorized as theft by an employee?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Improving Service Standards at AirCargo (Scenario) AirCargo is a regional airline that ships freight between communities in the four western provinces and the northern territories. Company president Mick Ward has asked his team of managers to investigate several complaints he has received about the company's services. Mick is particularly concerned about complaints that the company is not achieving its service commitment to customers. AirCargo promises delivery within 24 to 48 hours between larger centres, and 48 to 96 hours between smaller communities. Unfortunately, Mick has learned that the company is not achieving this standard, particularly in some northern communities, where shipments are often delayed by more than a week. Mick has made it clear to his managers that the status quo is not an option; either delivery times must be improved or their service promise must be adjusted. Ultimately, Mick would like to see AirCargo achieve the same standard as industry leader FastFreight, who promise 4 -Despite the best efforts of the management team, service problems continue at AirCargo. As a result, Mick decides it is time to examine the entire __________ chain, the service sequence from employees to customers to profit.

__________ is the overall output of goods or services produced divided by the inputs needed to generate that output.

Managers need to provide their employees with _________ so that the employees know where they stand in terms of their work.

When information is analyzed and processed, it becomes data.

In the control process, when a manager cannot find a quantifiable performance indicator, he or she should __________.

In order to increase the ratio of outputs to inputs, a manager would have to __________.

Constantly "putting out fires" refers to which type of corrective action?

If a manager investigates how and why performance has deviated beyond the acceptable range of variation, and then corrects the source of the deviation, she is using ________.

Control that prevents anticipated problems is __________ control.

The control process assumes that ________.

__________ ratios measure an organization's ability to meet its current debt obligations.

When a performance indicator cannot be stated in quantifiable terms, managers should look for and use subjective measures.

Types of Control (Scenario) Sam has not been receiving the information that he needs from his current control system. By the time Sam receives his reports, the activity has been completed and mistakes have already been made. Direct supervision is used extensively on the production floor now, so some activities are corrected before they become costly mistakes. But Sam would like to do better. Ideally, he would like to fix mistakes before they happen and anticipate more of the problems before they occur. -Direct supervision is the best-known form of __________ control.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Designing a Control System (Scenario) Gina realizes her department needs to make some changes in its control system. The department is one of five in her division, and she is not sure which approach will work best for the organization. She could base her department's performance on their distinct product, making it a profit centre and evaluating it against overall company results. She could also make better use of the policies, regulations, and procedures that are already in place. To date, Gina has not strictly enforced many of the regulations established by the head office because her department is self-regulating. The work groups set their goals and insure those goals are achieved. Everyone is well aware of the expected standards and work behaviours, and there is little tolerance for workers who do not meet the group norms. -Gina also recognizes that it is not enough to just set up the control system. As an effective manager, she also needs to ____________.

In the control process, changing strategy is an example of what course of action?

When employers establish specific policies defining theft and fraud and discipline procedures, this is an example of a concurrent control measure to control employee theft.