For each of the following sub-questions, select the best answer. Each correct answer is worth
two marks.
1. Evelyn’s Internet search for information about ‘vendor for machine screws’ yielded
more than 100,000 items. Evelyn did not have time or resources to pursue each of these
so she limited her search to only vendors in her city. By doing this, Evelyn used
________.
A. perfect rationality
B. bounded rationality
C. satisficing
D. intuition
2. BDO Company requires that all employees taking sick leave should bring the medical
certificate from their doctor when returning to work. This is an example of a ________.
A. single-plan use
B. standing plan
C. programme
D. procedure
3. Which of the following factors would require a more decentralized organizational
structure?
A. When the lower-level managers want a voice in decisions
B. When the lower-level managers are not capable of making decisions
C. When the organization is facing a crisis
D. When the company is large
12 MGT B240 Principles and Practices of Management
4. Group A has been meeting for one month and is having some difficulty appointing its
leader. At least three individuals are qualified to keep the group’s focus on its objectives,
but the group has yet to decide which person will lead. Group A is at the ________
stage.
A. forming
B. performing
C. storming
D. norming
5. Which one of the following refers to independent formal groups whose members, in
addition to their regular jobs, take on traditional managerial responsibilities, such as
hiring, planning and scheduling, and evaluating performance?
A. Command groups
B. Task groups
C. Self-managed teams
D. Cross-functional teams
6. Andrew has been tracking how many positions he has to fill, and how many times he
fills the same position. He is concerned that so many people are leaving his
organization. Andrew is concerned about ________.
A. absenteeism
B. employee attitudes
C. turnover
D. productivity
7. Darren enjoys many genres of music and art. He has visited several European countries.
It is very likely Darren is high in ________.
A. emotional stability
B. openness to experience
C. conscientiousness
D. agreeableness
8. If Ben is tense, nervous, depressed and insecure, he would tend to be rated as low on
which of these factors?
A. Agreeableness
B. Conscientiousness
C. Emotional stability
D. Openness to experience
9. Doug is purposeful and an excellent planner. One thing that his team admires him for is
his ability to go through a whole lot of information to extract precisely what is needed
for a job at hand. He is also a quick decision maker. Which of the following personality
types does Doug fit into?
A. Sensing
B. Perceptive
C. Extraverted
D. Judging
Assignment File 13
10. The belief ‘I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.’ is consistent with
someone who ________.
A. is high in openness to experience
B. has an internal locus of control
C. has an external locus of control
D. is out of control
Question 2 (20 marks)
Maggie is the general manager of a pharmaceutical company which mainly sells medical
products to hospitals and private clinics. The company currently has about 30 sales
employees under the supervision of five sales managers. She has heard about the concept of
management by objectives (MBO). Knowing that you are currently studying a management
course, she seeks for your advice on how MBO could be implemented in the company.
Explain to her.
Question 3 (20 marks)
Recall a decision that you made that had important consequences for you. This decision
might be, for example, one on which job offer you should accept, or any other important
decision. Using the study materials in the section ‘Decision making’ of Unit 2, analyse the
way in which you made the decision by considering the following:
a. Identify the decision criteria that guided your decision making. Then list the two
alternatives that you considered. How much information did you have about each
alternative? Explain. (10 marks)
b. Do you think in retrospect that you made a reasonable decision? What might you need to
improve your future decision making? (10 marks)
Question 4 (40 marks)
Read the following case and answer the questions that follow.
Case: Making a flat organization work at Punchkick
If you get a job at Punchkick Interative – a digital agency that designs and builds
software in Chicago – you won’t have a boss. You’ll not be shown an organizational
chart of who reports to whom because such a chart doesn’t exist. You also will be
asked to choose your own job title.
As cofounder Zak Dabbas explains, growing up with no curfew taught him “that you
can treat those you work alongside with all the respect in the world and trust them to
make incredibly smart decisions from a place of empathy, not an organizational chart.”
Not having managers or a hierarchy worked well when there were about eight people in
the company. Once the company grew to more than twenty employees, however,
Punchkick’s founders realized that they needed to find ways to improve how people
work together.
Punchkick rolled out an “advice channel”, which allows employees to share expertise.
So, if employees are experiencing a challenge with a client project, they can reach out
to the entire company through the advice channel and ask who has encountered a
similar problem before. The company also asked employees to be sure to “touch base”
with anyone who might be impacted by a decision they are making. This is not the
14 MGT B240 Principles and Practices of Management
same as getting permission – it’s more about ensuring that communication has occurred
before any challenges arise. Employees are evaluated by other employees via a
feedback channel instead of being evaluated by only a manager.
Job titles sometimes emerge as part of using the advice channel. For instance, Abby
Gartner was the “go-to” person for handling clients. She was the first person employees
went to about how to address client needs. According to Dabbas, “Eventually, we said,
‘Abby, let’s face it; you’re our head of customer experience.’”
So far, Punchkinck is prospering. They have been on the Inc. 5000 list of fastestgrowing
privately held companies for five years in a row. Dabbas believes that having a
flat organizational structure is a key ingredient to their success… and complementing
that structure with transparency. “Everyone knows what our goals are every month and
how we’re tracking toward them.” Dabbas explained.
Other companies without official bosses have experienced problems. Valve, a computer
game development company in Settle, officially had no bosses, but as one former
employee stated, “There is actually a hidden layer of powerful management structure in
the company… which made it feel a lot like high school.” Another employee at Valve
explained, “To succeed at Valve you need to belong to the group that has more
decisional power and, even when you succeed temporarily, be certain that you have an
expiration date.”
Source: Robbins, S P and Coulter, M A (2021) Management, 15th Global edition, Pearson, 327.
Required:
a. Describe the elements of organizational design of Punchkick Interative. (10 marks)
b. Comment on the flat organizational structure at Punchkick. Do you think this kind of
organizational structure would work well in your company? Why? (20 marks)
c. What recommendations would you provide to Punchkick to ensure that they don’t
experience the problem that Valve had been facing? Explain. (10 marks