OB - Chapter 6: Performance Practises

1) Which reward system tends to discourage poor performers from voluntarily leaving the organization?
a) Membership and seniority-based pay
b) Skill-based pay
c) Piece-rate rewards
d) Competency-based pay
e) All the answers are correct.

2) Job status rewards usually offer which of the following benefits to organizations?
a) They encourage employees to focus their attention on customer service.
b) They discourage organizational politics.
c) They make organizations more market responsive.
d) They encourage employees to focus their attention on customer service and they make organizations
more market responsive.
e) None of the answers apply.

3) Steelweld, a car parts manufacturer, pays employees a higher hourly rate as they learn to operate more parts
of the work process. Employees earn $10 per hour when they are hired, and they can earn up to $20 per hour
if they master all 12 work units in the production process. Steelweld is applying which of these reward
systems?
a) Skill-based pay
b) Piece-rate pay
c) Job evaluation system
d) Seniority-based pay
e) None of the answers apply.

4) Which of the following is considered an individual incentive?

a) Gainsharing plans
b) Balanced scorecards
c) Share options
d) Share ownership
e) Commissions

5) A mid-sized city introduced a reward system whereby employees would find ways to reduce costs and
increase work efficiency. Every employee would receive a portion of the surplus budget resulting from these
cost savings. This city is using:
a) a gainsharing plans.
b) a commission system.
c) a piece-rate plan.
d) a share option plan.
e) None of the answers apply.

6) ______ and ______ are typically organizational-level rewards.

a) Commissions; bonuses
b) ESOPS; profit sharing
c) Gainsharing; commissions
d) Piece rate; gainsharing
e) Balanced scorecards; commissions

7) 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
e) Team bonuses

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8) In 1436, the waterways of Venice were used to fully load 10 galleons with supplies in just six hours. As each
vessel was towed along the narrow waterway, people at each house transferred munitions and other supplies
to the passing vessel. By the end of the street, each vessel was fully loaded and ready for sailing. This event,
known as the 'Arsenal of Venice', is an early example of:
a) self-leadership
b) gainsharing
c) job specialization
d) constructive thought patterns
e) job rotation

9) Scientific management includes which of the following?

a) Assigning employees to fixed hourly wages.
b) Systematically dividing a job into its smallest possible elements and assigning these divided tasks to
employees who are best qualified to perform them.
c) Combining tasks so employees perform an entire work process from beginning to end.
d) Encouraging employees to set their own goals and have positive thoughts about their work performance.
e) All the answers are correct.

10) Performance tends to decrease at very high levels of task specialization because:
a) employees are less able to perform the job.
b) employees in specialized jobs lack sufficient resources to perform their jobs.
c) high task specialization is associated with bad management.
d) employees tend to become bored and less motivated to perform well.
e) All the answers are correct.

11) Employees at CyberTech perform repetitive jobs that has resulted in boredom as well as repetitive strain
injury. Technology makes it difficult to combine existing jobs, but the company wants to make employees
more multiskilled. Which of the following would best help CyberTech to improve this situation?
a) Introduce job rotation.
b) Introduce job specialization.
c) Introduce a gainsharing plan for all production employees.
d) Encourage employees to engage in mental imagery.
e) Introduce job enrichment by having each employee produce the entire product rather than a small part of
it.

12) A large retail organization previously divided work among its four-employee benefits staff into distinct
specializations. One person answered all questions about superannuation (pension plans), another answered
all questions about various forms of paid time off (e.g. vacations), and so on. These jobs were recently
restructured so that each employee benefits person answers all questions for people in a particular geographic
area. For example, one staff member is responsible for all employee benefits inquiries from anyone in a
particular geographic region. This job restructuring is an example of:
a) self-leadership
b) job enrichment
c) job rotation
d) scientific management
e) job specialization