Question 1

In 2015, approximately what percentage of the U.S. population was foreign-born?

Accepted Answer

In 2015, approximately 13.4 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born. By 2020, the number is expected to be 14.3 percent, and by 2060, 18.8 percent.

Question 2

The owners of a local coffee shop routinely try to develop new menu items and seek better ways of helping their customers. ________ is the result of their efforts.

Accepted Answer

Finding ways to deliver new or better goods or services is called innovation. No organization, for-profit or nonprofit, can allow itself to become complacent, especially when rivals are coming up with creative ideas. "Innovate or die" is an important adage for any manager.

Question 3

According to the theory of ________, noted by The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, there is an urge to address the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy.

Accepted Answer

American firms have been going out into the world in a major way, even as the world has been coming to us. This has led to what The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has called, in his book The World Is Flat, a phenomenon in which globalization has leveled (made "flat") the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging-market countries.

Question 4

Being a manager can be one of the greatest avenues to a meaningful life, particularly if the manager

Accepted Answer

Meaningfulness is the sense of "belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self."

Question 5

When the manager of a local bakery sets goals and then develops a blueprint for how to achieve them, she is

Accepted Answer

Planning is defined as setting goals and deciding how to achieve them.

Question 6

Davidson Production is keenly aware of the need to strive daily to produce goods and services more effectively than its competitors. Therefore, Davidson's management strives to ________ in order to achieve this standard.

Accepted Answer

Competitive advantage is the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than competitors do, thereby outperforming them. This means an organization must stay ahead in four areas: (1) being responsive to customers, (2) innovation, (3) quality, and (4) efficiency.

Question 7

According to the ________, taking care of customers is essential to obtaining a competitive advantage.

Accepted Answer

The first law of business is: take care of the customer. Without customers, whatever they're called, sooner or later there will be no organization.

Question 8

What are the four principal functions of management?

Accepted Answer

Managers perform what is known as the management process, also called the four management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Question 9

Dennis, a marketing manager, recently attended a management workshop where he learned of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's view that the ideal state that many people seek is

Accepted Answer

The ideal state that many people seek is an emotional zone somewhere between boredom and anxiety, in the view of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Boredom, he says, may arise because skills and challenges are mismatched: You are exercising your high level of skill in a job with a low level of challenge, such as licking envelopes. Anxiety arises when one has low levels of skill but a high level of challenge, such as suddenly being called upon to give a rousing speech to strangers.

Question 10

Even for nonprofits, sooner or later there will be no organization without

Accepted Answer

Without customers-buyers, clients, consumers, shoppers, users, patrons, guests, investors, or whatever they're called-sooner or later there will be no organization.

Question 11

________ employs state-of-the-art computer software and hardware to help people work better together.

Accepted Answer

Using state-of-the-art computer software and hardware to help people work better together is known as collaborative computing. Many hospitals, for example, now knit various functions together-patient histories, doctors' orders, lab results, prescription information, billing-in a single information system, parts of which patients can access themselves to schedule appointments, question doctors, and request prescription refills.

Question 12

In February, Pedro, the manager of a pool supply and cleaning company, is looking at the upcoming need for more workers to handle the increased customers in spring and summer. Which of the four key management processes is he using?

Accepted Answer

Organizing is defined as arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work. Organizing includes determining the tasks to be done, by whom, and what the reporting hierarchy is to be.

Question 13

________ is the discipline concerned with creating computer systems that simulate human reasoning and sensation.

Accepted Answer

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the discipline concerned with creating computer systems that simulate human reasoning and sensation, as represented by robots, natural language processing, pattern recognition, and similar technologies.

Question 14

Cheyanne, the regional manager of a global sales organization, gives freedom to the sales representatives on the amount spent on gifts for prospective Asian and European customers. Cheyanne is managing for

Accepted Answer

Under pressure to meet sales, production, and other targets, managers can find themselves confronting ethical dilemmas.

Question 15

Studies show that dealing with excessive and unimportant e-mail and text messages in the workplace can lead to

Accepted Answer

Ed Reilly, who heads the American Management Association, says all the e-mail, cell-phone calls, text messaging, and so on can lead people to end up "concentrating on the urgent rather than the important."

Question 16

A national sales organization has implemented a set of training courses on its intranet, with a link that allows employees to find and share answers to questions that arise with customers. ________ is the system that allows the sharing of knowledge and information throughout an organization.

Accepted Answer

Knowledge management is the implementing of systems and practices to increase the sharing of knowledge and information throughout an organization.

Question 17

Because Delta Development Services is the only company that supplies a critical product for clients, customers of Delta are likely to

Accepted Answer

If your organization is the only one of its kind, customers may put up with products or services that are less than stellar only because they have no choice. But if another organization comes along and offers a better-quality product, you may find your company falling behind.

Question 18

Omega Manufacturing employs some of the top professionals in its field, and because of their skills and experience, Omega is highly efficient and outperforms its competitors. Omega Manufacturing has a(n) ________ over its competition.

Accepted Answer

Competitive advantage is the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than competitors do, thereby outperforming them.

Question 19

Today, companies emphasize ________ with production.

Accepted Answer

A generation ago, organizations rewarded employees for their length of service. Today, however, the emphasis is on efficiency. Companies strive to produce goods or services as quickly as possible using as few employees (and raw materials) as possible.

Question 20

When building a new residential development or mall, a national real estate organization typically does not remove many trees, basing its decision on the belief that natural resources are limited and the company must not compromise the ability of future generations to meet its own needs. To which philosophy is the company adhering?

Accepted Answer

Sustainability is defined as economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Quiz 1: The Exceptional Manager: What You Do, How You Do It