Exam 10: Decisions Making in Organizations

When making a decision, if an individual is more willing to consider complex solutions based on ambiguous information after carefully studying the data, and enjoys solving problems, his/her decision style is most likely to be:

The first indicator that groupthink could develop is:

What is the difference between programmed and nonprogrammed decisions?

The ________ describes how decision makers ideally ought to behave so as to make the best possible decisions.

A limitation of the nominal group technique is that:

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 approach for the second case would be:

The tendency for members of highly cohesive groups to conform to group pressures so strongly that they reject the potentially correcting influence of outsiders is known as:

Table 10.1 Brian, Chen, Adrienne, Sandra, and Jill are working on a company problem. Jill is deeply concerned for the company and how the solution will affect the personal development of employees. She is open to the others' suggestions and will tend to make her decision in the meeting. On the other hand, Brian wants a simple, clear, quick solution. He only gathers the minimum necessary information and tends to rest on rules or precedent to make his decision. Adrienne has just retired from a successful 20-year career in the Army as a logistics officer.In contrast to Brian, Chen enjoys the problem-solving process. He wants to look at a complex solution because he wants the best possible solution. Sandra is the facilitator of the group. She reminds the group to think of the solution's impact on the employees. Sandra has a strong future orientation and enjoys her role as facilitator because it allows her to initiate new ideas. -Refer to Table 10.1. Brian's decision style is:

The superiority of the group or an individual depends on:

When a decision is based on personal beliefs or hunches it is called:

________ is the tendency for people to give too little credit to others when things are going poorly and too much credit when things are going well.

Which of the following describes the tendency for people to perceive others in stereotypical ways if they appear representative of the category to which they belong?

The level of uncertainty in a decision can be reduced by:

The analytical model of the decision-making process focuses on which key aspects of decision-making:

When managers make decisions they rely most heavily on:

If a decision is required on a simple problem and the answer is readily verifiable, ________.

________ is an organizational impediment to decision-making where moral and ethical limitations impact the decision.

Table 10.1 Brian, Chen, Adrienne, Sandra, and Jill are working on a company problem. Jill is deeply concerned for the company and how the solution will affect the personal development of employees. She is open to the others' suggestions and will tend to make her decision in the meeting. On the other hand, Brian wants a simple, clear, quick solution. He only gathers the minimum necessary information and tends to rest on rules or precedent to make his decision. Adrienne has just retired from a successful 20-year career in the Army as a logistics officer.In contrast to Brian, Chen enjoys the problem-solving process. He wants to look at a complex solution because he wants the best possible solution. Sandra is the facilitator of the group. She reminds the group to think of the solution's impact on the employees. Sandra has a strong future orientation and enjoys her role as facilitator because it allows her to initiate new ideas. -Refer to Table 10.1. Chen has a ________ decision style.

Table 10.3 Nancy recently tried to talk her executive management team into moving into international markets. She emphasizes the positive opportunities that were possible, but her supervisors turn her idea down because they fear the risks involved. They preferred expanding existing markets to entering new markets. Nancy reviews the meeting with her supervisor later to see how she could improve it. Her supervisor says that she didn't provide sufficient information prior to the meeting and several of the executives were drawing on information currently on their desks, showing the international market was a dangerous place to be, rather than the exciting opportunity Nancy tried to present. Gail, Nancy's friend, suggested at lunch that the 'old-boys' network was functioning, and she was turned down because they weren't going to let some pushy woman tell them what they should be doing. About four months after the presentation, the executive management team meets again to decide about the investment of capital and effort. Existing markets are drying up, and if the company doesn't move into new markets, especially internationally, it may well fail. Obsolescence of the product line and the growth of competition is destroying their market share and profitability. However, the management team decides to invest more money and effort into existing markets and to let the international idea sit. -Refer to Table 10.3. How could the management team's decision to continue to invest in existing markets be explained?

When people in an organization make decisions in order to make themselves look good, the organizational barrier of ________ is interfering with rational decision-making.