UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

MEBS6003 Project Management

Additional exercises on Evolution of Management Theories

Multiple choice questions:

1) The assumption that people are complex with widely varying needs is mostly
associated with the ____________ management approaches.
A Classical
B Neoclassical
C Behavioral
D Modern

2) The father of scientific management is _____________.

A Weber
B Taylor
C Mintzberg
D Katz

3) When the registrar of a university deals with students by an identification

number rather than a name, which characteristic of bureaucracy is being
displayed and what is its intended benefit?
A Division of labour, competency
B Merit-based careers, productivity
C Rules and procedures, efficiency
D Impersonality, fairness

4) The requirement that a manager answers to a higher-level boss for

performance results achieved by a work team is called ______________.
A Dependency
B Accountability
C Authority
D Empowerment

5) One example of how scientific management principles are applied in

organizations today would be :
A Conducting studies to increase efficiencies in job performance.
B Finding alternatives to a bureaucratic structure.
C Training managers to better understand worker attitudes.
D Focusing managers on teamwork rather than individual jobs.

6) An effective manager achieves both high-performance results and high levels

of ___________ among people doing the required work.
A Turnover
B Effectiveness
C Satisfaction
D Stress

7) Advice to study a job, carefully train workers to do that job, and link financial
incentives to job performance would most likely come from ___________.
A Scientific management
B Contingency management

K.F. Chan (Mr.) Page 1 of 5 Jan 2022

 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
MEBS6003 Project Management

C Henri Fayol
D Abraham Maslow

8) Performance efficiency is a measure of the ______________ associated with

task accomplishment.
A Resource costs
B Goal specificity
C Product quality
D Product quantity

9) Productivity is a measure of the quantity and ___________ of work produced,

relative to the cost of inputs.
A Quality
B Cost
C Timeliness
D Value

10) Resource acquisition and customer satisfaction are important when an

organization is viewed as a/an _______________.
A Bureaucracy
B Closed system
C Open system
D Pyramid

11) The loan-processing department would be considered a ____________ of

your local bank or credit union.
A Subsystem
B Closed system
C Resource input
D Cost center

12) When a manager notices that Sheryl has strong social needs and assigns her
a job in customer relations and gives Kwabena lot of praise because of his
strong ego needs, the manager is displaying ___________
A Systems thinking
B Theory X
C Motion study
D Contingency thinking

13) The accounting manager for a local newspaper would be considered a

_______ manager, whereas the editorial director for sports would be
considered a _________ manager.
A General, functional
B Middle, top
C Staff, line
D Senior, junior

14) When managers try to avoid hearsay and make decisions based on solid facts
and information, this is known as ____________.
A Continuous improvement

K.F. Chan (Mr.) Page 2 of 5 Jan 2022

 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
MEBS6003 Project Management

B Evidence-based management
C TQM
D Theory X management

15) When a team leader clarifies desired work targets and deadlines for members
of a work team, he or she is fulfilling the management function of
____________.
A Planning
B Delegating
C Controlling
D Supervising

16) The management function of _______________ is being performed when a

retail manager measures daily sales in the women’s apparel department and
compares them with daily sales targets.
A Planning
B Agenda setting
C Controlling
D Delegating

17) Trends in the new workplace include which of the following?

A More emphasis by managers on giving orders.
B More attention by organizations to valuing people as human assets.
C Less teamwork
D Less concern for work-life balance among the new generation of
workers.

18) The systems approach to organizations is based on three major elements –

which of the following most accurately lists them
A) Target, output, feedback
B) Input, conversion and feedback
C) Effectiveness, efficiency and strategy
D) Control, coordination and feedback

19) Fayol listed fourteen “principles of management”. These are the precepts
which he applied the most frequently during his working life. He emphasized
that these principles were not absolutes but capable of adaptation, according
to need. He did not claim that his list was exhaustive, but only that it served
him well in the past.
One of the principles refers to the right to give orders – which principle does
this refer to?
A) Discipline
B) Authority
C) Unity of command
D) Subordination of individual interest to general interest

K.F. Chan (Mr.) Page 3 of 5 Jan 2022

 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
MEBS6003 Project Management

20) Which of the following persons is considered as a pioneer of ‘Scientific

Management’?
A) F.W. Taylor
B) Tom Burns
C) Robert L. Kahn
D) GM Stalker

21) Which item best describes what F.W. Taylor was passionately interested in?
A) Business strategy
B) The role of the external environment in management
C) The motivation of workers
D) The efficiency of working methods

22) Who is usually associated with the social research carried out at the
Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, USA, between
1927 and 1932, and named the Hawthorne Studies?
A) Mayo
B) Maslow
C) Herzberg
D) McClelland

K.F. Chan (Mr.) Page 4 of 5 Jan 2022

 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
MEBS6003 Project Management

Suggested answers to additional exercises on Evolution of Management

Theories

1) C Behavioural
2) B FW Taylor
3) D
4) B Accountability
5) A
6) C Satisfaction
7) A Scientific Management
8) A Resources Costs
9) A Quality
10) C Open System
11) A Sub-system
12) D Contingency Thinking
13) C
14) B Evidence Based Management
15) A Planning. There are more elements to delegation than just telling
subordinates the work targets and deadline, thus B is incorrect.
16) C Controlling
17) B
18) B) Input, conversion, feedback
19) B) Authority is the right to give orders
20) A) FW Taylor
Tom Burns, a sociologist, together with psychologist George Macpherson
Stalker, pioneered the Contingency Theory in management – they created
the terms “mechanistic” and “organic” organizations. Robert Louis Kahn, a
social scientist and psychologist, co-authored with Daniel Katz, also a
psychologist, the book “The social psychology of organizations” which was
considered to be a pioneer publication in the Open System school of thought.
Another pioneer in Open System View is James David Thomson.
21) D) Efficiency
22) A) Mayo

K.F. Chan (Mr.) Page 5 of 5 Jan 2022