Exam 10: Decisions Making in Organizations

Henrietta thinks that the dip in stock prices is a good sign she should buy because her broker describes the dip as an opportunity rather than as a downturn. Henrietta's behavior is an example of:

Programmed decisions are routine decisions that are made by lower personnel.

Decision makers who use as much data as possible in considering complex solutions based on ambiguous information are using a directive decision-making style.

If Danny Poe is conducting a group interview for a management position at his firm, SencorTeck, and he chooses a candidate within the first 5 minutes of the interview, then Danny could be using an the explicit favorite option.

What is a heuristic? Describe two common types of heuristics used in organizational decision-making.

The process of making choices from several alternatives is called:

Discuss the three predominate models of individual decision-making.

A group is more effective than an individual at problem solving when the ________.

________ allows employees to make the decisions required to do their jobs without first seeking supervisory approval.

Sometimes it may help to play the role of devil's advocate, to intentionally find fault with a proposed solution. This would be most useful for which of the following strategies for avoiding groupthink?

Explain the eight-step traditional, analytical model of decision-making.

Table 10.2 Decision makers have a number of options available to them as to how to categorize and make decisions. Ray selected his job because he thought it simply felt like the right place to work. The organization and job seemed to fit his values and career goals. When the secretary that reports to Ray in his new job decides that she needs office supplies, she calls up central purchasing and places an order. But in order to get the new computer software she wants for her job, she has to get Ray to sign off on the purchase. After six months on the job Ray concludes that he needs an assistant. He writes up the job description, receives permission to recruit for the position. He receives about 150 resumes in the mail. He sets up interviews with the top 10 candidates. As he is interviewing candidate number four, he decides he meets all the criteria and offers him the job, which he accepts. -Refer to Table 10.2. Ray's decision-making process about his job seems to fit which of the following descriptions the best?

Suppose you recommend hiring a certain individual for a new job in your department, and on the strength of your recommendation, she gets the job. As time goes on, the new hire proves to be a poor employee. Some of your colleagues even recommend dismissing her. However, because you were the person who recommended hiring her, you stand by your recommendation and argue that she should be given more time to prove herself on the job. Your behavior reflects the phenomenon of:

If Alonso Lopes continually checks up on his counter parts everyday to make sure that they are consistently present and working, then he would be using:

The rational-economic model exemplifies how decision makers actually behave in most circumstances.

The method of systematically presenting and discussing ideas before voting on them in face-to-face groups is known as:

When using the nominal group technique, a group solicits the opinions of experts by mail and then compiles those opinions in order to discover the best solution to a problem.

The tendency for people to make decisions based on how the problem is presented is the framing effect.

A person who has a deep concern for the organization and the development of the workers, and is highly concerned about others' achievement, mostly likely has a ________ decision style.

Table 10.4 B.F.E., Inc. has to assign several problems to different groups. In the first case, the group consists of a number of experts who have offices across the country and have difficulty getting together. The problem they are working on is a problem that needs to be solved over the next six to nine months. In the second case, management is concerned that people might be intimidated by their leaders. The team is located in the same building as the corporate headquarters. Genuine consensus is important, and a trained facilitator is available to lead the group. In the third and final situation, management has observed that the people selected to participate seem hesitant to do so. Plus, the lengthy nature of the work to be done means new people will need to be added to the group periodically. Time is not an issue. -Refer to Table 10.4. The best problem-solving technique in the third situation would be: