Self-Test Answers
Chapter 1
1.d
2.c
3.a
4.b
5.a
6.a
7.c
8.a
9.b
10.b
11.c
12.a
13.b
14.c
15.c
16.Managers must value people and respect subordinates as mature, responsible, adult human beings. This is part of their ethical and social responsibility as persons to whom others report at work. The work setting should be organized and managed to respect the rights of people and their human dignity. Included among the expectations for ethical behavior would be actions to protect individual privacy, provide freedom from sexual harassment, and offer safe and healthy job conditions. Failure to do so is socially irresponsible. It may also cause productivity losses due to dissatisfaction and poor work commitments.
17.The manager is held accountable by her boss for performance results of her work unit. The manager must answer to her boss for unit performance. By the same token, the manager’s subordinates must answer to her for their individual performance. They are accountable to her.
18.If the glass ceiling effect operates in a given situation, it would act as a hidden barrier to advancement beyond a certain level. Managers controlling promotions and advancement opportunities in the firm would not give them to African-American candidates, regardless of their capabilities. Although the newly hired graduates may progress for a while, sooner or later their upward progress in the firm would be halted by this invisible barrier.
19.Kenichi Ohmae uses the term “borderless world” to describe how more businesses are operating on a global scale. Globalization means that the countries and peoples of the world are increasingly interconnected and that business firms increasingly cross national boundaries in acquiring resources, getting work accomplished, and selling their products. This internationalization of work will affect most everyone in the new economy. People will be working with others from different countries, working in other countries, and certainly buying and using products and services produced inwhole or in part in other countries. As countries becomemore interdependent economically, products are sold and resources purchased around the world, and business strategies increasingly target markets in more than one country.
20.One approach to this question is through the framework of essential management skills offered by Katz. At the first level of management, technical skills are important and I would feel capable in this respect. However, I would expect to learn and refine these skills through my work experiences. Human skills, the ability to work well with other people, will also be very important. Given the diversity anticipated for this team, I will need good human skills. Included here would be my emotional intelligence, or ability to understand my emotions and those of others when I am interacting with them. I will also have a leadership responsibility to help others on the team develop and utilize these skills so that the team itself can function effectively. Finally, I would expect opportunities to develop my conceptual or analytical skills in anticipation of higher-level appointments. In terms of personal development, I should recognize that the conceptual skills will increase in importance relative to the technical skills as I move upward in management responsibility. The fact that the members of the team will be diverse, with some of different demographic and cultural backgrounds from my own, will only increase the importance of my abilities in the human skills area. It will be a challenge to embrace and value differences to create the best work experience for everyone and to fully value everyone’s potential contributions to the audits we will be doing. Conceptually I will need to understand the differences and try to utilize them to solve problems faced by the team, but in human relationships I will need to excel at keeping the team spirit alive and everyone committed to working well together over the life of our projects.
Chapter 2
1.d
2.b
3.b
4.a
5.c
6.a
7.a
8.b
9.c
10.c
11.a
12.d
13.c
14.c
15.a
16.Theory Y assumes that people are capable of taking responsibility and exercising self-direction and control in their work. The notion of self-fulfilling prophecies is that managers who hold these assumptions will act in ways that encourage workers to display these characteristics, thus confirming and reinforcing the original assumptions. The emphasis on greater participation and involvement in the modern workplace is an example of Theory Y assumptions in practice. Presumably, by valuing participation and involvement, managers will create self-fulfilling prophecies in which workers behave this way in response to being treated with respect. The result is a positive setting where everyone gains.
17.According to the deficit principle, a satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior. The social need will only motivate if it is deprived or in deficit. According to the progression principle, people move step by step up Maslow’s hierarchy as they strive to satisfy needs. For example, once the social need is satisfied, the esteem need will be activated.
18.Contingency thinking takes an “if–then” approach to situations. It seeks to modify or adapt management approaches to fit the needs of each situation. An example would be to give more customer contact responsibility to workers who want to satisfy social needs at work, while giving more supervisory responsibilities to those who want to satisfy their esteem or ego needs.
19.The external environment is the source of the resources an organization needs to operate. In order to continue to obtain these resources, the organization must be successful in selling its goods and services to customers. If customer feedback is negative, the organization must make adjustments or risk losing the support needed to obtain important resources.
20.A bureaucracy operates with a strict hierarchy of authority, promotion based on competency and performance, formal rules and procedures, and written documentation. Enrique can do all of these things in his store, since the situation is probably quite stable and most work requirements are routine and predictable. However, bureaucracies are quite rigid and may deny employees the opportunity to make decisions on their own. Enrique must be careful to meet the needs of the workers and not to make the mistake—identified by Argyris—of failing to treat them as mature adults. While remaining well organized, the store manager should still be able to help workers meet higher-order esteem and self-fulfillment needs as well as assume responsibility as would be consistent with McGregor’s Theory Y assumptions.
Chapter 3
1.b
2.a
3.d
4.c
5.c
6.d
7.b
8.a
9.c
10.b
11.d
12.c
13.a
14.c
15.d
16.The individualism view is that ethical behavior is that which best serves long-term interests. The justice view is that ethical behavior is fair and equitable in its treatment of people.
17.The rationalizations are believing that: (1) the behavior is not really illegal, (2) the behavior is really in everyone’s best interests, (3) no one will find out, and (4) the organization will protect you.
18.The socioeconomic view of corporate social responsibility argues that socially responsible behavior is in a firm’s long-run best interests. It should be good for profits, it creates a positive public image, it helps avoid government regulation, it meets public expectations, and it is an ethical obligation.
19.Government agencies implement and enforce laws that are passed to regulate business activities. They act in the public’s behalf to ensure compliance with laws on such matters as occupational safety and health, consumer protection, and environmental protection.
20.The manager could make a decision based on any one of the strategies. As an obstructionist, the manager may assume that Bangladesh needs the business and that it is a local matter as to who will be employed to make the gloves. As a defensive strategy, the manager may decide to require the supplier to meet the minimum employment requirements under Bangladeshi law. Both of these approaches represent cultural relativism. As an accommodation strategy, the manager may require that the supplier go beyond local laws and meet standards set by equivalent laws in the United States. A proactive strategy would involve the manager in trying to set an example by operating in Bangladesh only with suppliers who not only meet local standards but also actively support the education of children in the communities in which they operate. These latter two approaches would be examples of universalism.
Chapter 4
1.a
2.c
3.b
4.b
5.d
6.c
7.c
8.a
9.b
10.a
11.a
12.b
13.a
14.d
15.b
16.Possible operating objectives reflecting a commitment to competitive advantage through customer service include: (1) providing high-quality goods and services, (2) producing at low cost so that goods and services can be sold at low prices, (3) providing short waiting times for goods and services, and (4) providing goods and services meeting unique customer needs.
17.External customers are the consumers or clients in the specific environment who buy the organization’s goods or use its services. Internal customers are found internally in the workflows among people and subsystems in the organization. They are individuals or groups within the organization who utilize goods and services produced by others also inside the organization.
18.The core culture of the organization consists of the values that shape and direct the behavior of members. Examples would be “honesty” and “quality” in everything that people do. Value-based management actively models such core values, communicates them, and encourages others to live up to them in their work. Responsibility for value-based management is shared by all managers from senior executives tofirst-level supervisors and team leaders.
19.Subcultures are important in organizations because of the many aspects of diversity found in the workforce. Although working in the same organization and sharing the same organizational culture, members differ in subculture affiliations based on such aspects as gender, age, and ethnic differences, as well as in respect to occupational and functional affiliations. It is important to understand how subculture differences may influence working relationships. For example, a 40-year-old manager of 20-year-old workers must understand that the values and behaviors of the younger workforce may not be totally consistent with what she or he believes in, and vice versa.
20.I disagree with this statement since a strong organizational or corporate culture can be a positive influence on any organization, large or small. Also, issues of diversity, inclusiveness, and multiculturalism apply as well. In fact, such things as a commitment to pluralism and respect for diversity should be part of the core values and distinguishing features of the organization’s culture. The woman working for the large company is mistaken in thinking that the concepts do not apply to her friend’s small business. In fact, the friend as owner and perhaps founder of the business should be working hard to establish the values and other elements that will create a strong and continuing culture and respect for diversity. Employees of any organization should have core organizational values to serve as reference points for their attitudes and behavior. The rites and rituals of everyday organizational life are also important ways to recognize positive accomplishments and add meaning to the employment relationships. It may even be that the friend’s roles as creator and sponsor of the corporate culture and diversity leader are more magnified in the small-business setting. As the owner and manager, she is visible every day to all employees. How she acts will have a great impact on any “culture” that is established in her business.
Chapter 5
1.c
2.b
3.b
4.d
5.b
6.a
7.a
8.c
9.a
10.d
11.d
12.a
13.c
14.d
15.c
16.The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, provides the framework for Mexico, the United States, and Canada to free the flows of investments, products, and workers across their borders. This agreement creates a large consumer market and is an opportunity for business in all three countries to take full advantage of the entire North American region as a resource and customer base.
17.The relationship between an MNC and a host country should be mutually benefi-cial. Sometimes, however, host countries complain that MNCs take unfair advantage of them and do not include them in the benefits of their international operations. The complaints against MNCs include taking excessive profits out of the host country, hiring the best local labor, not respecting local laws and customs, and dominating the local economy. Engaging in corrupt practices is another important concern.
18.The power-distance dimension of national culture reflects the degree to which members of asociety accept status and authority inequalities. Since organizations are hierarchies with power varying from top to bottom, the way power differences are viewed from one setting to the next is an important management issue. Relations between managers and subordinates or team leaders and team members will be very different in high-power-distance cultures than in low-power-distance ones. The significance of these differences is most evident in international operations when a manager from a high-power-distance culture has to perform in alow-power-distance one, or vice versa. In both cases, the cultural differences can cause problems as the manager deals with local workers.
19.For each region of the world you should identify a major economic theme or issue or element. For example: Europe—the European Union should be discussed for its economic significance to member countries and to outsiders; the Americas—NAFTA should be discussed for its current implications as well as potential significance once Chile and other nations join; Asia—the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum should be identified as a platform for growing regional economic cooperation among a very economically powerful group of countries; Africa—the new nonracial democracy in South Africa should be cited as a stimulus to broader outside investor interest in Africa.
20.Kim must recognize that the cultural differences between the United States and Japan may affect the success of group-oriented work practices such as quality circles and work teams. The United States was the most individualistic culture in Hof-stede’s study of national cultures; Japan is much more collectivist. Group practices such as the quality circle and teams are natural and consistent with the Japanese culture. When introduced into a more individualistic culture, these same practices might cause difficulties or require some time for workers to get used to. At the very least, Kim should proceed with caution, discuss ideas for the new practices with the workers before making any changes, and then monitor the changes closely so that adjustments can be made to improve them as the workers gain familiarity with them and have suggestions of their own.
Chapter 6
1.d
2.a
3.b
4.b
5.b
6.a
7.d
8.a
9.b
10.a
11.b
12.d
13.c
14.b
15.a
16.Entrepreneurship is rich with diversity. It is an avenue for business entry and career success that is pursued by many women and members of minority groups. Data show almost 40 percent of U.S. businesses are owned by women. Many report leaving other employment because they had limited opportunities. For them, entrepreneurship made available the opportunities for career success that they lacked. Minority-owned businesses are one of the fastest-growing sectors, with the growth rates highest for Hispanic-owned, Asian-owned, and African-American–owned businesses in that order.
17.The three stages in the life cycle of an entrepreneurial firm are birth, breakthrough, and maturity. In the birth stage, the leader is challenged to get customers, establish a market, and find the money needed to keep the business going. In the breakthrough stage, the challenges shift tobecoming and staying profitable, and managing growth. In the maturity stage, a leader is more focused on revising/maintaining a good business strategy and more generally managing the firm for continued success and possibly more future growth.
18.The limited partnership form of small business ownership consists of a general partner and one or more “limited partners.” The general partner(s) play an active role in managing and operating the business; the limited partners do not. All contribute resources of some value to the partnership for the conduct of the business. The advantage of any partnership form is that the partners may share in profits, but their potential for losses is limited by the size of their original investments.
19.This is the realm of “intrapreneurship,” or entrepreneurship that takes place within the context of a large organization. One of the ways to stimulate entrepreneurship in such settings is to make it a valued part of the culture—in other words, to reward entrepreneurial behavior, not discourage it. Another way is to set up entrepreneurial units, sometimes called skunkworks, that are allowed to operate free from any constraints of the larger organization. The creative teamwork in these units can be a major force for entrepreneurship.
20.My friend is right—it takes a lot of forethought and planning to prepare the launch of a new business venture. In response to the question of how to ensure that I am really being customer-focused, I would ask and answer for myself the following questions. In all cases I would try to frame my business model so that the answers are realistic but still push mybusiness toward a strong customer orientation. The “customer” questions might include: “Who are my potential customers? What market niche am I shooting for? What do the customers in this market really want? How do these customers make purchase decisions? How much will it cost to produce and distribute my product/service to these customers? How much will it cost to attract and retain customers?” Following an overall executive summary, which includes a commitment to this customer orientation, I would address the following areas in writing up my initial business plan. The plan wouldaddress such areas as company description—mission, owners, and legal form—as well as an industry analysis, product and services description, marketing description and strategy, staff-ing model, financial projections with cash flows, and capital needs.