Managing Social and Human Capital Coursera Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Managing Performance, Motivation and Hiring Quiz

Q1. What is the fundamental tenet of Efficiency Wages application?

The organization pays its employees more than its competitors.
Paying the employees the same as competitors to keep efficiency.
Encouraging a competition among employees by high wages.
Motivating employees by wages to do the right things.

Q2. The Mir Space Station Case is a good illustration of:

Conformity.
Goal Setting.
Attribution Bias.
Rewarding A while hoping for B.

Q3. According to Professor Cappelli’s lecture, the biggest challenge with designing incentive systems is:

Different employees are motivated by different incentives.
Incentives can create competition among employees.
The ability to capture and measure employee performance.
Constant incentives demotivate employees.

Q4. According to research, organizational-level incentives:

Are effective for employees in the same manner as individual-level incentives.
Are more effective for employees than for executives.
Are more effective for employees than individual-level incentives.
May create a “rewarding A while hoping to B” problem.

Q5. According to Path Goal Theory, the key element for motivating employees is through:

Providing a clear direction to achieve the goals.
Providing autonomy in how to achieve the goals.
Providing challenging goals.
Providing constructive and close guidance.

Q6. Conformity is likely to be most effective for organizations during:

Onboarding among newcomers.
Performance appraisals.
Hiring process.
Recruiting stage.

Q7. The Milgram Study is a powerful illustration of:

Compliance.
Conformity.
Behavior Modification.
Imitation.

Q8. The Pygmalion Effect is characterized by:

Shaping individuals’ behavior by providing clear and specific goals.
Shaping individuals’ behavior through role models.
Shaping individuals’ behavior through high compliance.
Shaping individuals’ behavior by providing high expectations.

Q9. According to Professor Cappelli’s lecture, the biggest reason employee’s leave their job is:

An imbalance between promised career progress and actual promotion.
An imbalance between expected and received salary.
All the above reasons are equally significant and influential.
An imbalance between proposed job description and actual job content.

Q10. The common biases of supervisors during performance appraisals are:

Overconfidence and fundamental attribution error.
Fundamental attribution error, self-fulfilling prophecy, and similarity effect.
Similarity effect, attractiveness, and cognitive dissonance.
Fundamental attribution error, self-fulfilling prophecy, and Pygmalion effect.

Quiz 1: Tasks and Designing Jobs Quiz

Q1. The pioneering change that Scientific Management brought into factories were:

Initially defining the role of managers in factories.
Breaking jobs down into the simplest, repetitive segments.
Allowing employees to interact with other professional groups.
Providing employees more control of their jobs.

Q2. How did work in factories look as a result of the Scientific Management?

None of the other options are correct.
Less structured.
Less routine.
More controlled by employees.

Q3. One of the outcomes of implementing Frederick Winslow Taylor’s method is:

Decreasing efficiency
Increasing social interactions among employees
Increasing efficiency
Increasing employees’ well-being.

Q4. According to human perspective, designing jobs is characterized by providing employees the following ingredients:

Autonomy, variety, and a sense of significance.
A sense of significance, feedback, and career advancement.
Social interactions, control, and job security.
Autonomy, variety, and fairness.

Q5. Motivating employees by providing them a sense of significance means:

Their job will impact the overall organizational picture and outcomes.
Their job will be highly meaningful for them.
Their job will impact their career advancement.
Their job will be powerful for their professional development.

Q6. What lesson can we gain from Professor Cappelli’s Junior Analyst job illustration?

None of the other options are correct.
Even a well-known technical job can be redesigned and enriched.
There are fundamentally systematical jobs that cannot be redesigned.
High salary is the beneficial solution for motivating employees in technical jobs.

Q7. Why was Toyota production in the USA more qualitative and productive than that of General Motors?

Toyota enlarged the authority of its supervisors.
The Japanese employees were more disciplined.
Toyota gave its employees more control over the job.
Toyota designed more interesting jobs for its employees.

Q8. According to Professor Cappelli’s lecture the key element to motivating employees is: (please check all that apply)

Providing them job security.
Intensifying their participation and involvement in decision making.
Increasing their profit sharing.
Intensifying their involvement in establishing the organization’s vision.

Q9. What was the problematic change in Holt Chemical Company’s managing people practices?

Launching an incentive plan for their customer support employees.
Replacing their customer support employees which damaged clients’ trust.
Increasing their product prices which demotivated their employees.
Decreasing employee incentives, thereby increasing employee turnover.

Q10. Nordstrom competes through better customer service tailored to individual customers. How did they achieve that?

All of the options are correct.
Not having a single, official way of servicing customers.
High financial incentives.
No specific selection filters except for being enthusiastic.

Quiz 1: Decision Making Quiz

Q1. What profound lesson can be learned from Cisco’s CEO John Chambers about good and timely decision making?

Decision-making processes are not always rational and analytical as we tend to think.
Seeking external advice is crucial for good and timely decision making.
None of the other options are correct.
A manager needs to independently decide crucial organizational decisions.

Q2. According to the Stanford University study, one of the saliently characterized factors of fast vs slow organizations in decision making is:

Seeking the advice of an outside, experienced counselor.
Gathering narrow information.
Focusing on planning.
Not spending enough time on establishing alternatives.

Q3. According to the U.S. Marine Corps doctrine, the key element to good and timely decision making is:

Indecisiveness is a fatal flaw.
First-time mistakes are tolerated.
All of the options are correct.
Reaching to 70% solution, not 100% consensus.

Q4. Which key element of good decision making is illustrated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s case?

The crucial role of experienced, outside counselors’ advice.
First-time mistakes are tolerated.
Indecisiveness is a fatal flaw.
Seeking a 70% solution, not a 100% consensus.

Q5. According to research, what factor increases the potential for sub-optimal decision making?

High optimism.
High confidence.
All of the options are correct.
Seeking confirming evidence.

Q6. To minimizing sub-optimal decision making, it is recommended to:

Rely on early information in inexperienced areas.
Seek confirming evidence.
Narrow collection of information in order to maintain focus.
Seek conflicting data.

Q7. What key lesson for managers can be taken from the case of Fighting a Fire in Mann Gulch in regards to behaving in stressful situations?

Do not express hesitation in front of your subordinates.
Continuously share and explain your decision making.
Continuously seek other suggestions and opinions.
Make decisions independently.

Q8. According to research, a cohesive team will perform better:

In any organizational situation.
Under stress conditions, only.
None of the other options are correct.
In normal organizational situations, only.

Q9. What is the key recommendation for managers in terms of reaching good and timely decisions?

Build a cohesive team.
Develop allies and build credibility.
Empower others to make decisions.
All of the other options are correct.

Q10. What key lesson can be taken from the exercise of the jewelry store in regards to making a good and timely decision?

A collective decision is more accurate than an individual one.
Time pressure narrows the accuracy of decision-making.
Broad knowledge always generates accurate decision-making.
An individual decision is more accurate than a collective one.

Quiz 1: Organization Design, Architecture, and Managing Quiz

Q1. The organizational architecture of Rose Company is grouped by:

Functional Structure.
Geographic Structure.
Product Structure.
Regional Structure.

Q2. In the Hausser Food Products case, which type of organizational structure might have prevented the Florida sales team from withholding information from other sales teams?

Functional Structure.
All of the options are correct.
Regional Structure.
Geographic Structure.

Q3. According to the Equity Theory, which of the following statements is correct?

Under-rewarded will decrease their performance while over-rewarded will not change their performance.
Under-rewarded will increase their performance while over-rewarded will decrease their performance.
Both under-rewarded and over-rewarded will not change their performance.
Under-rewarded will decrease their performance while over-rewarded will increase their performance.

Q4. According to research, which of the following statements is correct?

Under-rewarded will be more collaborative.
Over-rewarded will be more collectivistic.
Over-rewarded will be more competitive.
Both over-rewarded and under-rewarded will be competitive.

Q5. Why does organizational change often not work?

Mismatch with the current organizational structure.
The urgency for the change that was not communicated.
Lack of sufficient financial resources.
Lots of resistance among executive management.

Q6. According to John Kotter, what must a manager do in order to successfully generate organizational change?

Assimilate the change, culturally.
Continuously communicate vision.
All of the options are correct.
Create a powerful coalition.

Q7. What was David Pottruck’s major challenge when he decided that change must be generated?

Establishing a new vision and communicating it.
Locating the necessary financial resources.
Building a powerful coalition among executive management.
Creating a sense of urgency among management and employees.

Q8. When David Pottruck presented his decision to Charles Schwab, which good and timely decision making principle did he use?

Share information and explain the decision.
Avoid conflicting data and seek confirming information.
Build multiple, simultaneous alternatives.
Seek the advice from experienced counselors

Q9. David Pottruck October 15 meeting at the hotel in SF was designed to:

Establish a mindset of urgency.
Anticipate obstacles and resistance.
All of the options are correct.
Present a vision for a better world.

Q10. Of the Eight-Step Model for Leading Change by Kotter and Cohen, which steps were demonstrated through the Charles Schwab case? Please check all that apply.

Articulating a vision for a better world and empowering action by change agents.
Establishing a mindset of urgency and creating a leadership team to drive the change.
Identifying short-term gains for reinforcing the long-term agenda.
Fostering a culture of persistence and culturally reinforcing and institutionalizing the change.