Chapter 6 Decision Making: The Essence of the Manager
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
s Job
1. Problem identification is purely objective.
2. The second step in the decision-making process is identifying a problem. 3. A decision criterion defines what is relevant in a decision.
4. The fourth step of the decision-making process requires the decision maker to list viable
alternatives that could resolve the problem. 5. Once the alternatives have been identified, a decision maker must analyze each one. 6. The step in the decision-making process that involves choosing a best alternative
is termed implementation.
THE MANAGER AS DECISION MAKER
7. Making decisions is with the essence of management. 8. Managerial decision making is assumed to be rational.
9. One assumption of rationality is that we cannot know all of the alternatives. 10. Managers tend to operate under assumptions of bounded rationality.
11.Studies of the events leading up to the Challenger space shuttle disaster point to an escalation of
commitment by decision makers . 12. Managers regularly use their intuition in decision making.
13. Rational analysis and intuitive decision making are complementary. 14. Programmed decisions tend to be repetitive and routine. 15. Rules and policies are basically the same.
16. A policy is an explicit stateme nt that tells a man ager what he or she ought or ought not to do. 17. The soluti on to non programmed decisi on
policies.
making relies on procedures, rules, and
18. Most man agerial decisi ons in the real world are fully non programmed. 19. The ideal situation for making decisions is low risk. 20. Risk is the condition in which the decision
likelihood of certa in outcomes. 21. Risk is a situation in which a decision maker has neither
reas on able probability estimates.
22. People who have a low tolera nee for ambiguity and are rati onal in their way of
thi nki ng are said to have a directive style.
23. Decisi on makers with an an alytic style have a much lower tolera nee for ambiguity tha n do
directive types. 24.ln dividuals with a con ceptual style tend to be very broad in their outlook and
will look at many alter natives. 25. Behavioral-style decisi on makers work well with others.
26. Most man agers have characteristics of an alytic decisi on makers.
27. Accordi ng to the boxed feature, “ Managing Workforce Diversity, ” diverse
employees tend to make decisi ons faster tha n a homoge neous group of employees. 28. The an chori ng effect describes whe n decisi on makers fixate on in itial in formatio n
as a starting point and then, once set, they fail to adequately adjust for subseque nt in formati on.
29. The availability bias describes whe n decisi on makers try to create meaning out of ran dom eve
nts. 30. The sunk cost error is whe n decisi on makers forget that curre nt choices cannot correct the past.
DECISION MAKING FOR QDAY S WORLD
maker is able to estimate the
certainty nor
31. Today ' s bus in ess world revolves around making decisi ons, usually with complete or adequate
information, and under minimal time pressure.
32. Ma nagers n eed to un dersta nd cultural differe nces to make effective decisi ons in today ' s fast -moving world.
33. According to the boxed feature, “ Focus on Leadership, ”
when identifying
problems, man agers might be from a culture that is focused on problem sol ving, or their culture might be one of situatio n accepta nee. 34. According to the boxed feature,
“ Focus on Leadership, ” findings from studies by
Geert Hofstede and from GLOBE researchers show that in high un certa inty avoida nee countries, decision making tends to be based more on intuition than on formal an alysis.
35. Highly reliable orga ni zati ons (HROs) are easily tricked by their success.
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS For each of the following choose the answer that most completely answers the
questio n.
THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
36. Decisi on maki ng is typically described as _____________ , which is a view that
is too simplistic.
a. deciding what is correct
b. putting preferences on paper c. choos ing among alter natives
d. processing information to completion 37. A series of eight steps that beg ins with ide ntify ing a problem and con cludes with
evaluating the decision ' s effectiveness i s the _______________________ . a. decision-making process b. man agerial process c. maximin style
d. boun ded rati on ality approach 38. ______________ is the existenee
desired state of affairs.
of a discrepancy
between an existing
and a
a. b. c. d. An opport unity A solution A weakness A problem
39.ln ide ntify ing the problem, a man ager________________ .
a. compares the current state of affairs with where they would like to be b. expects problems to be defined by neon lights c. looks for discrepancies that can be postponed
d. will not act when there is pressure to make a decision 4O.Which of the followi ng stateme nts is true con cerning problem ide ntificati on? a. Problems are gen erally obvious.
b. A symptom and a problem are basically the same.
c. Well-trai ned man agers gen erally agree on what is con sidered a problem.
d. The problem must be such that it exerts some type of pressure on the manager to act. 41. What is the sec ond step in the decisi on-mak ing process?
a. identifying decision criteria
b. allocating weights to the criteria c. an alyz ing alter natives d. identifying a problem
42. To determ ine the _______________, a man ager must determ ine what is releva nt
importa nt to resol ving the problem. a. geocentric behavior needed
b. nu mber of allowable alter natives c. weighting of decision criteria d. decision criteria 43. What is the third step in the decision-making process?
a. allocating weights to the criteria b. an alyz ing the alter natives c. select ing the best alter native d. impleme nting the alter native 44.If all criteria in the decision
making are equal, weighting the criteria
or
a. improves decision making when large numbers of criteria are invoIved b. is not needed
c. produces excellent decisions
d. improves the criteria
45」n allocating weights to the decision criteria, which of the following is helpful to remember?
a. All weights must be the same.
b. The total of the weights should sum to .
c. Every factor criterion considered, regardless of its importanee, must receive some weighti ng. d. Assign the most important criterion a score, and then assign weights against that sta ndard. 46. What is the step where a decision maker wants to be creative in coming up with possible alter
native?
a. allocating weights to the criteria b. an alyz ing alter natives c. develop ing alter natives d. identifying decision criteria 47. When an alyz ing alter natives, what becomes evide nt?
a. the stre ngths and weak nesses of each alter native b. the weight ing of alter natives c. the list of alter natives d. the problem
48. Whe n develop ing alter natives in the decisi on-mak ing process, what must a man ager do?
a. list alter natives
b. evaluate alter natives c. weight alter natives d. impleme nt alter natives 49.Selecti ng
an alter native
in the decisi on-mak ing process is accomplished
a. choos ing the alter native with the highest score b. choosing the one you like best
c. selecti ng the alter native that has the lowest price d.
selecti ng the alter native that is the most reliable
5O.ln Step 6 of the decisi on-mak ing process, each alter native
is evaluated
apprais ing it aga inst the ___________ . a. subjective goals of the decision maker b. criteria
c. assessed values
d. implementation strategy
51. _____________ in eludes con vey ing a decisi on to those affected and gett ing their
by
by