Deck 6: Applied Performance Practices

Question 1

Scientific management is the process of systematically dividing work into its smallest possible elements and standardising work activities to achieve maximum efficiency.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Job specialisation increases training costs and makes it more difficult for companies to match employee aptitudes to jobs for which they are best suited.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Skill-based pay plans give an employee a higher pay rate for those days that he or she performs two or more jobs at the same time.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The level of work quality tends to increase with the level of job specialisation.

Question 5

Job status-based rewards potentially motivate employees to compete with each other.

Question 6

Job status-based rewards discourage status differences.

Question 7

Task identity is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the organisation and/or larger society.

Question 8

According to the job characteristics model,experienced meaningfulness increases with the level of job feedback.

Question 9

Competency-based rewards pay employees based on their performance results.

Question 10

The more that employees see a direct connection between their daily actions and the reward,the more they are motivated to improve performance.

Question 11

Some critics argue that financial rewards discourage creativity and distract employees from the meaningfulness of the work itself.

Question 12

People with a high power distance give money a low priority in their lives.

Question 13

Team rewards increase employee preferences for team-based work arrangements.

Question 14

Employee share ownership plans and share options tend to create an 'ownership culture' in which employees feel aligned with the organisation's success.

Question 15

Job specialisation usually reduces the employee's work efficiency.

Question 16

Jobs with a high level of task significance provide freedom,independence and discretion in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used to complete the work.

Question 17

Employee stock ownership plans and stock options tend to create an 'ownership culture' in which employees feel aligned with the organisation's success.

Question 18

One problem with seniority-based rewards is that they cause higher turnover.

Question 19

Increasing the core job characteristics will not increase employee motivation for those who lack the required skills.

Question 20

The philosophy behind scientific management is to increase job enrichment and decrease job specialisation.

Question 21

Job enlargement increases an employee's growth need strength.

Question 22

Companies sometimes introduce job rotation for reasons other than reducing job boredom.

Question 23

Job enrichment tends to increase the quality of products or services.

Question 24

Job enlargement increases skill variety.

Question 25

Self-leadership includes the practice of self-reinforcement.

Question 26

Self-leadership suggests that goals should be set by the employee's supervisor with or without the employee's involvement.

Question 27

Most employee benefits are based on which type of reward system?

A) Membership of the organisation
B) Job status
C) Individual job performance
D) Competency

Question 28

All employees feel more motivated to perform their jobs when the core job characteristics are increased.

Question 29

Employees are less likely to engage in self-monitoring in companies that emphasise continuous measurement of performance.

Question 30

Forming natural work units tends to increase task identity and task significance.

Question 31

Employees assembling complete computer modems would have lower task identity than those assembling only one component and passing it along to others for further assembly.

Question 32

Mental imagery excludes visualising completion of a task.

Question 33

Mental imagery is one of the most beneficial outcomes of job enrichment.

Question 34

Positive self-talk motivates employees by increasing their effort-to-performance expectancy.

Question 35

Self-leadership is dependent solely on the individual.

Question 36

Two ways to enrich jobs are by clustering jobs into natural groups and by establishing client relationships.

Question 37

Scientific management is the process of systematically dividing work into its smallest possible elements and standardising work activities to achieve maximum efficiency.

Question 38

Employees are more likely to feel empowered in jobs with a high degree of autonomy,task identity and task significance.

Question 39

Employees are more likely to feel empowered in jobs with a high degree of autonomy,task identity and task significance.

Question 40

According to Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory,only characteristics of the job (and not the work environment)motivate employees.

Question 41

Which of the following systematically evaluates the worth of each job within the organisation?

A) Job enlargement
B) Job enrichment
C) Job evaluation
D) Job rotation

Question 42

When jobs are highly interdependent,employers should:

A) Avoid using any form of performance-based reward system
B) Use a team-based reward
C) Use an organisational-based reward system
D) Use a team-based reward and use an organisational-based reward system

Question 43

___________ are often 'golden handcuffs' that potentially increase continuance commitment.

A) Gainsharing rewards
B) Team-based rewards
C) Competency-based rewards
D) Membership/seniority rewards

Question 44

Scientific management is most closely associated with:

A) Self-leadership
B) Employee motivation
C) Job design
D) Reward systems

Question 45

A gainsharing plan:

A) Encourages individuals to work independently rather than rely on team members
B) Rewards employees for the status they have gained in the organisation
C) All of the options listed here are correct
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 46

Performance-based rewards have been criticised on the grounds that:

A) They undermine the employee's motivation for the work itself and they tend to discourage creativity
B) They potentially distance employees and management from each other
C) They are used as quick fixes for problems
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 47

Which of these performance-based rewards tends to create the lowest E-to-P expectancy?

A) Share options
B) Individual piece rates
C) Gainsharing
D) Individual commissions

Question 48

Skill-based pay plans:

A) Discourage employees from learning new jobs
B) Create a psychological distance between employees and managers
C) Discourage poor performers from leaving the organisation
D) Can be expensive because they motivate employees to spend more time learning new jobs

Question 49

Which of the following are potential problems with performance-based pay plans?

A) Employers offer rewards that employees don't value
B) Some plans reward individual performance when the employee's work is highly interdependent
C) It is difficult to anticipate the unintended consequences of performance-based rewards
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 50

Which of the following job design strategies tends to increase work efficiency?

A) Job enlargement
B) Job rotation
C) Job enrichment
D) Job specialisation

Question 51

Share option plans:

A) Are illegal in Australia
B) Give employees the right to purchase company shares at a future date at a predetermined price
C) Directly award bonuses to employees based on cost savings and increased labour productivity
D) Tend to weaken employee commitment to the organisation

Question 52

Gainsharing plans tend to:

A) Increase efficiency without paying employees any financial reward
B) Tie employee pay directly to company profits
C) Create a reasonably strong effort-to-performance expectancy
D) Reward individuals for their own personal performance rather than team or organisational performance

Question 53

Which of the following is an advantage of job specialisation?

A) The quality of work increases
B) Jobs can be mastered quickly
C) Employees are more involved with their jobs
D) The work is less repetitive

Question 54

______ and ______ are typically organisational-level rewards.

A) Commissions,bonuses
B) ESOPS,profit sharing
C) Gainsharing,balanced scorecards
D) Piece rate,gainsharing

Question 55

Which of the following is an individual incentive?

A) Gainsharing
B) Piece rate
C) Share options
D) Share ownership

Question 56

Job evaluations are used in which type of reward system?

A) Competency-based rewards
B) Job status rewards
C) Individual performance rewards
D) Seniority-based rewards

Question 57

The problem with membership and seniority-based rewards is that:

A) They discourage people from remaining with the organisation
B) They are difficult to use in organisational settings
C) They do not directly motivate job performance
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 58

Job status-based rewards:

A) Try to ensure that employees believe their pay is equitable compared to other people in the organisation
B) Motivate employees to compete for positions further up the organisation
C) Tend to encourage bureaucratic hierarchy
D) All of the options listed here are correct

Question 59

Which of the following is LEAST likely to create an ownership culture?

A) Employee share ownership
B) Profit sharing
C) Share option
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 60

Which of the following is an individual incentive?

A) Gainsharing
B) Share options
C) Share ownership
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 61

How do growth needs relate to the job characteristics model?

A) Growth needs are the critical psychological state resulting from skill variety and task identity
B) High growth needs are one of the psychological states in the job characteristics model
C) Job enrichment might motivate those with high growth needs more than those with low growth needs,but recent studies suggest this relationship is weak,at best
D) Growth needs increase with the level of autonomy offered in the job

Question 62

Mental imagery helps employees to:

A) Forget about the task before they actually perform it
B) Anticipate obstacles to goal accomplishment and work out solutions to those obstacles
C) Keep track of their progress towards the goal and design artificial feedback where natural feedback does not occur
D) Make the job itself more motivating by altering the rewards received during job performance

Question 63

Employees are empowered when they:

A) Practice job specialisation
B) Experience self-reinforcement
C) Engage in positive self-talk
D) Experience freedom and discretion

Question 64

Self-monitoring and designing natural rewards are both:

A) Constructive thought pattern practices
B) Forms of job specialisation
C) Discouraged by organisational behaviour scholars
D) Part of the self-leadership process

Question 65

Forming natural work units tends to:

A) Reduce autonomy and increase task significance
B) Reduce skill variety and increase job feedback
C) Reduce job feedback and increase skill variety
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 66

Which of these job design actions is mainly a form of job enlargement?

A) Increasing the number of tasks within the job
B) Establishing client relationships
C) Empowering employees
D) Forming natural work units

Question 67

In self-leadership,constructive thought patterns include:

A) Self-talk and mental imagery
B) Gainsharing
C) Personal goal setting and self-monitoring
D) Job rotation and job enrichment

Question 68

A high degree of autonomy,task identity and task significance are important conditions for:

A) Job specialisation
B) Competency-based pay
C) Empowerment
D) Scientific management

Question 69

Work quality tends to increase with:

A) Job enrichment
B) Empowerment
C) Competency-based rewards
D) Natural grouping of tasks into one job

Question 70

The first step in self-leadership is:

A) Establishing client relationships
B) Practising gainsharing
C) Personal goal setting
D) Constructive thought patterns

Question 71

Which of the following is NOT a core job characteristic in the job characteristics model?

A) Skill variety
B) Task significance
C) Job feedback
D) Experienced meaningfulness

Question 72

Which of these factors,according to Herzberg,is a hygiene factor?

A) Autonomy
B) Job security
C) Responsibility
D) Personal growth

Question 73

Performance tends to decrease at very high levels of task specialisation because:

A) Employees are less able to perform the job
B) Employees in specialised jobs lack sufficient resources to perform their jobs
C) High task specialisation is associated with bad management
D) Employees tend to become bored and less motivated to perform well

Question 74

A video journalist's job consists of operating the camera,reporting the story and often editing the work,whereas these three tasks are traditionally performed by three people.Video journalism is an example of:

A) Self-leadership
B) Job enrichment
C) Job enlargement
D) Job specialisation

Question 75

Job enlargement primarily changes which of the following?

A) Autonomy
B) Working conditions
C) Growth need strength
D) Skill variety

Question 76

Which of these statements about empowerment is FALSE?

A) Empowerment is a psychological concept representing more than one dimension
B) Empowerment is the same as employee involvement
C) Empowerment is not a personality trait
D) Empowerment is related to job enrichment

Question 77

Which of the following is NOT a component of empowerment?

A) Impact
B) Meaning
C) Mental imagery
D) Self-determination

Question 78

Job enrichment usually:

A) Reduces product and service quality
B) Increases error rates and defects
C) Reduces job satisfaction among qualified employees with high growth need strength
D) None of the options listed here is correct

Question 79

Which of the following practices explicitly includes self-reinforcement?

A) Self-leadership
B) Empowerment
C) Job rotation
D) Job enrichment

Question 80

Self-leadership includes several elements,including:

A) Job specialisation and self-reinforcement
B) Task identity and task significance
C) Job evaluation and self-monitoring
D) Positive self-talk and personal goal setting