CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
1. The view of quality as the satisfaction of customer needs is often called fitness for use.
Answer: True
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2. Pursuant to the development of “scientific management,” quality control was carried out by skilled craftspeople, who served both as manufacturers and inspectors, building quality into their products.
Answer: False
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3. In 1984, the U.S Government designated November as the National Quality Month.
Answer: True
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4. Tolerances are acceptable deviations from targets.
Answer: True
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5. Performance excellence can be defined as “any primary or complementary activity that does not directly produce a physical product.”
Answer: False
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6. Unlike services, manufacturing is performed away from the customer.
Answer: True
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7. For an airline company, “on time arrival” for an airline is a measure of service performance while frequent flyer awards and “business class” sections represent features.
Answer: True
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8. Not-for-profit organizations are adopting quality principles because of their impact on the bottom line.
Answer: False
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9. From a total quality perspective, all strategic decisions a company makes are “customer-driven.”
Answer: True
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10. TQ views everyone inside the enterprise as a customer of an internal or external supplier and a supplier of an external or internal customer.
Answer: True
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11. The “voice of the customer” refers to both near-term and longer-term customer needs and expectations.
Answer: True
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12. The traditional way of viewing an organization is by surveying the horizontal dimension.
Answer: False
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13. “Continuous improvement” refers to both incremental and “breakthrough” improvement.
Answer: True
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14. Considering the three classes of needs suggested by Noriaki Kano, the required safety features in an automobile is an example of a satisfier.
Answer: False
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15. Process time refers to the time it takes to accomplish one cycle of a process.
Answer: False
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16. A firm that is characterized by flexibility and short cycle times is considered to be agile.
Answer: True
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17. Employee engagement is manifest by empowerment.
Answer: True
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18. Competitive behavior—one person against another or one group against another—is one of the basic principles of TQ.
Answer: False
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19. Agency theory views the management system as one based on social and human values, whereas total quality is based on an economic perspective.
Answer: False
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20. Agency theory suggests that information may be concealed to advance self-interests.
Answer: True
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21. Agency theory assumes that risks are to be minimized and shared between the two parties.
Answer: True
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22. In the organismic model, organizations are autonomous entities.
Answer: False
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23. In the organismic model of organizations, work is reduced to elementary tasks with a focus on efficiency, conformity, and compliance.
Answer: False
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24. The mechanical organizational model assumes that systems goals, such as the need to survive, displace performance goals, such as profit.
Answer: False
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25. In the cultural organizational model, managers relinquish control and share power in order to meet the needs of the many individuals
Answer: True
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MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
26. The term _____ refers to an integrated approach to organizational performance management that results in delivery of ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders.
a. fitness for use
b. exceeding customer expectations
c. performance excellence
d. empowerment
Answer: C
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27. Which of the following statements is not true regarding the history of quality in organizations?
a. Before the Industrial Revolution, skilled craftspeople served both as manufacturers and inspectors.
b. Statistical approaches to quality control had their origins at General Electric.
c. Scientific management led to “quality control” which basically meant the separation of good from the bad product.
d. Deming and Juran introduced statistical quality control to Japan as part of General MacArthur’s rebuilding program.
Answer: B
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28. _____ was the first non-Japanese company to win Japan’s coveted Deming Prize for quality.
a. Florida Power and Light
b. General Electric
c. Bell Telephone Laboratories
d. Ford Motor Company
Answer: A
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29. As part of the evolving understanding of quality management, many began to use the term _____ to contrast the difference between managing for quality in all organizational processes and focusing solely on manufacturing quality - _____.
a. strategic quality; operational quality
b. macro-quality; micro-quality
c. Big Q; Little Q
d. total quality; product quality
Answer: C
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30. _____ refer(s) to the “bells and whistles” of a product.
a. Aesthetics
b. Conformance
c. Features
d. Benefits
Answer: C
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31. _____ refers to the degree to which physical and performance characteristics of a product match preestablished standards.
a. Conformance
b. Features
c. Performance
d. Reliability
Answer: A
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32. _____ is the subjective assessment resulting from image, advertising, or brand names.
a. Reliability
b. Perceived quality
c. Performance
d. Aesthetics
Answer: B
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33. Quality control in manufacturing is usually based on:
a. Six Sigma standards.
b. equipment standards.
c. customer expectations.
d. conformance to specifications.
Answer: D
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34. In an ancillary manufacturing unit, the bolt manufacturing section has a value of 0.095 as the target, 0.005 as the tolerance. Which of the following is the acceptable range of values in production?
a. Between 0.090 and 0.100
b. Between 0.900 and 0.010
c. Between 9.500 and 1.005
d. Between 0.009 and 0.001
Answer: A
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35. Which of the following is not a difference in the management of quality in services and manufacturing?
a. Customer needs and performance standards are often difficult to identify and measure.
b. The production of services typically requires a higher degree of customization than does manufacturing.
c. Customers often are involved in the service process and present while it is being performed.
d. Services are generally capital intensive, whereas manufacturing is more labor intensive.
Answer: D
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36. Which of the following is not one of the critical service dimensions?
a. Conformity
b. Consistency
c. Courtesy
d. Accessibility
Answer: A
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37. _____ is the term used in the health care profession to denote quality initiatives methods.
a. Total health quality
b. Continuous quality improvement
c. Medical quality improvement
d. Comprehensive health initiative
Answer: B
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38. The _____ is the highest award given to executive branch agencies for management excellence.
a. Deming Prize
b. Malcolm Baldrige Award
c. National Quality Improvement Award
d. President’s Quality Award
Answer: D
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39. In 1992, the chairs and CEOs of nine major U.S. corporations in cooperation with deans of business and engineering departments of major universities, and recognized consultants endorsed a definition of _____ as a people-focused management system that aims at continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost.
a. Performance excellence
b. Total quality
c. Six Sigma
d. Continuous improvement
Answer: B
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40. Which of the following is not one of the basic principles of total quality?
a. Customer and stakeholder focus
b. Employee engagement and teamwork
c. Management by objectives
d. A view of performance excellence as an integrated system
Answer: C
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41. In a total quality environment, internal customers are the:
a. customers who are part of the product testing panel.
b. immediate customers, but not the end users.
c. recipients of any work output.
d. designated team members of the quality control team.
Answer: C
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42. A(n) _____ is a sequence of activities that is intended to achieve some result.
a. process
b. operation
c. methodology
d. array
Answer: A
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43. Noriaki Kano suggests that three classes of customer needs exist. Which of the following is not one of them?
a. Essentials
b. Dissatisfiers
c. Delighters/exciters
d. Satisfiers
Answer: C
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44. _____ refer to those needs that are expected in a product or service.
a. Essentials
b. Dissatisfiers
c. Delighters/exciters
d. Satisfiers
Answer: A
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45. _____ are the needs that customers say they want.
a. Essentials
b. Dissatisfiers
c. Delighters/exciters
d. Satisfiers
Answer: D
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46. The importance of Noriaki Kano’s classification is realizing that although _____ are relatively easy to determine through routine marketing research, special effort is required to elicit customer perceptions about _____.
a. dissatisfiers; satisfiers
b. delighters; exciters
c. satisfiers; dissatisfiers
d. delighters; satisfiers
Answer: C
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47. Over time, _____ become _____ as customers become used to them.
a. delighters/exciters; satisfiers
b. dissatisfiers; satisfiers
c. satisfiers; delighters/exciters
d. dissatisfiers; delighters/exciters
Answer: A
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48. Sylvia orders a security system to be installed at her house. After placing the order, the company took three days to install it. The time taken for the order to be delivered is referred to as:
a. delivery time.
b. execution gap.
c. turnaround time.
d. cycle time.
Answer: D
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49. McGregor’s Theory X model of motivation says that:
a. workers dislike work and require close supervision and control.
b. workers are self-motivated, seek responsibility, and exhibit a high degree of imagination and creativity at work.
c. workers are motivated mainly by monetary progress and replenishments.
d. workers are motivated if they are part of a motivated team.
Answer: A
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50. Which of the following is not a classification of teamwork?
a. Vertical
b. Horizontal
c. Interorganizational
d. Multiorganizational
Answer: D
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51. At the _____ level, data provide real-time information to identify reasons for variation, determine root causes, and take corrective action as needed.
a. work
b. process
c. strategic
d. organizational
Answer: A
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52. Which of the following is not performance data at the process level?
a. Yields
b. Cycle times
c. Productivity measures
d. Market indicators
Answer: D
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53. Agency theory makes the assumption that individuals in agency relationships are:
a. utility maximizers.
b. negotiators.
c. type A individuals.
d. type X individuals.
Answer: A
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54. _____ is a central issue in agency theory, because it is a primary mechanism used by both parties to maintain and govern the relationship.
a. Motivation
b. Monitoring
c. Authority
d. Hierarchy
Answer: B
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55. Which of the following is not true regarding the agency theory?
a. It takes a long-term perspective based on continuous improvement.
b. It is based on an economic perspective.
c. It propounds the belief that people are self-interested and opportunistic.
d. It suggests that information may be concealed to advance self-interests.
Answer: A
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56. In the _____ organizational model, work is reduced to elementary tasks with a focus on efficiency, conformity, and compliance.
a. mechanistic
b. organismic
c. environmental
d. cultural
Answer: A
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57. The _____ model assumes that systems goals, such as the need to survive, displace performance goals, such as profit.
a. mechanistic
b. organismic
c. environmental
d. cultural
Answer: B
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58. Which model does Total Quality share most similarities with?
a. Mechanistic
b. Organismic
c. Environmental
d. Cultural
Answer: B
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59. The _____ model views an organization as a collection of cooperative agreements entered into by individuals with free will.
a. mechanistic
b. organismic
c. environmental
d. cultural
Answer: D
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60. In the cultural model, all of the following are true except:
a. managers take on a more distinctive leadership role.
b. employees have greater voice in establishing organizational goals.
c. all structural decisions are value-based.
d. learning needs are driven by adaptation to environmental forces.
Answer: D
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ESSAY QUESTIONS
61. What is performance excellence?
Answer: The term performance excellence refers to an integrated approach to organizational performance management that results in delivery of ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders, contributing to organizational sustainability; improvement of overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities; and organizational and personal learning. Performance excellence is a characteristic of today’s most outstanding organizations and is a requisite for providing high quality goods and services.
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62. Describe the significance of Big Q and Little Q.
Answer: Despite quality initiatives on defect reductions, organizations began to recognize that lasting improvement could not be accomplished without significant attention to the quality of the management practices used on a daily basis. In other words, they recognized that the “quality of management” is as important as the “management of quality.” This led to the use of the terms Big Q and Little Q to contrast the difference between managing for quality in all organizational processes (Big Q) and focusing solely on manufacturing quality (Little Q).