Peck: Our new incentive system is the best way to encourage high performance out of each employee. It specifies the things that employees should do and the results that will lead to rewards.

Witt: You ignore a key issue: no matter what else is going on, employees will not be motivated if they do not feel that they are being treated fairly. Workers who feel that they are paid less than others for the same work will not feel that they are being treated fairly unless the organization provides some kind of persuasive justification. For example, Robin cannot possibly be motivated given that she is paid much less than Jonaki.

111) All of the following are assumed by Peck’s argument EXCEPT:

A) Employees can understand the new incentive system.

B) Employees are capable of achieving the results specified by the new incentive system.

C) Employees who exhibit a similar level of effort will receive similar rewards.

D) Employees will perceive that the rewards offered by the new incentive system are worth the effort required to achieve the results that lead to those rewards.

E) Employees believe that the things that the new incentive system calls for them to do are likely to have an effect on the outcomes that affect their rewards.

112) Witt’s claim that Robin must be dissatisfied assumes what?

A) Jonaki is aware of Robin’s salary.

B) Most people in the organization would agree that Robin and Jonaki do comparable work.

C) Jonaki receives more favorable employee reviews than Robin does.

D) Robin has met all of the goals specified by the organization’s incentive system.

E) Robin has not been provided with a persuasive justification for the difference in salary.

113) If all of Witt’s statements are true, which of the following must also be true?

A) If Robin were paid more than Jonaki, she would be motivated.

B) All employees who are motivated and feel that they are paid less than employees who do the same work have received a persuasive justification.

C) If Robin felt that she is being treated fairly, then she would be motivated.

D) Workers who are provided with a persuasive justification for differences in pay will be motivated.

E) Any employees who are not motivated and feel that they have been treated unfairly must not have received a persuasive justification.

Gordon: Our experimentation with a teams-focused product development process is complete, and the evidence clearly supports adopting this process across our organization. We picked a test project to see if productivity would be better under shared leadership, team accountability, and collaborative work. That project, Zen Park Frantic, was a market success. What more do we need to know?

Linda: You are jumping to conclusions. If Zen Park Frantic went especially well, then that improvement was probably caused by the Hawthorne effect: Almost any change from the normal procedures would have produced a benefit.

114) Which of the following is a point at issue between Gordon and Linda?

A) Was Zen Park Frantic a market success?

B) Would Zen Park Frantic have been as successful if it had followed the organization’s normal procedures?

C) Are team-based product development processes successful in any organizational setting?

D) Is the Hawthorne effect an important concept in explaining the causes of increased productivity?

E) Does the evidence support a move to team-based product development?

115) Which of the following, if true, weakens Gordon’s argument?

A) The team members for the Zen Park Frantic project were chosen based on their interest in a more collaborative working environment.

B) On the Zen Park Frantic project, the benefits of shared leadership were more important than the benefits of team accountability.

C) The Zen Park Frantic project needed to be completed quickly, which left little time for deliberation among the team members.

D) Historically, the organization has tended to predict that projects would be more successful than they turned out to be.

E) The team-based product development project would not have been a reasonable choice had it not been for the development of modern telecommunications technology.

116) Which of the following contains reasoning most similar to Linda’s?

A) It would be a mistake to move all the employees to offices that match those of the new call center. The call center has been more productive since the move, but that is probably because of the excitement surrounding the move and not the new office design.

B) Since the customer service staff began using the new technology, they have taken more calls per staff hour; however, a number of staff members have quit because they were unable to use the new technology, and so the overall effect of the technology on productivity is unclear.

C) The increased productivity of the customer service staff does not show that Albelli is an effective manager. Albelli has been managing the customer service staff for years, and so she is responsible for their low productivity in other times.

D) The customer service ratings of the staff have improved since we began playing pleasant music in the call center. The pleasant music has most likely improved the mood of the staff, which explains why they are providing better service.

E) The performance of the call center improved after the peak season. But after the peak season, the call center dismissed its worst-performing employees. Therefore, the call center could see even greater improvement by dismissing the worst-performing employees among those who remain.

Mini-Glee is a firm that develops nursery toys for infants and toddlers. Recently, it developed a line of products intended to stimulate the intellectual growth of youngsters up to age three. The new products have gotten good reviews from developmental psychologists and pediatricians. Nevertheless, the firm has experienced flat-to-declining profits for the past decade. The company has cut corners in as many ways as possible, outsourcing production of the toys to developing countries and consolidating its locations in the United States; however, Mini-Glee continues to lag behind its competitors in domestic and foreign markets, and its disappointing performance has been accompanied by a higher-than-usual attrition rate of employees at its main corporate location.

Mini-Glee’s Executive Board is impatient and wants to make changes that will pull the firm out of its lagging performance. Its CEO, Alberta Carlson, has discovered that there is a series of webinars available from an external source that covers the topics usually covered in Mini-Glee’s current stand-alone training and development (T&D) program. The cost of licensing the webinars is much less than what Mini-Glee currently spends on T&D. This, Carlson feels, would justify trimming the firm’s T&D budget substantially. The saved costs would support a full-court-press effort to market its newest nursery toys and, hopefully, lead to a turnaround of Mini-Glee’s mediocre sales.

The HR director, Theodore Behr, is skeptical. He points to the rate at which managers and supervisors have left Mini-Glee, resulting in the need for constant recruitment and screening to replace these employees. He contends that, if anything, the T&D budget needs to be expanded, in the hopes of stemming the attrition rate and making the workforce more stable and cohesive. Carlson replies that this move would bring results, if at all, in the medium-to-long range. She wants to turn around the company’s profit line now.

117) Which of the following, if true, least supports Carlson’s position to cut the T&D budget?

A) Redirecting Mini-Glee’s emphasis to toys that support young children’s intellectual development would involve changes in nearly every division.

B) Experts have recently begun to question whether nursery toys really do have an impact on children’s intelligence.

C) A previous change in marketing strategy had no appreciable impact on sales of Mini-Glee toys.

D) A recent survey of Mini-Glee employees indicated high levels of job satisfaction among employees.

E) The advertising campaign in foreign markets will involve using different strategies from those directed at American consumers.

118) Which of the following, if true, least supports Behr’s position to increase the T&D budget?

A) The money saved from the T&D budget would be enough to fund a well-produced advertising campaign directed at the target audience.

B) There is a lack of qualified applicants available in Mini-Glee’s job market who could readily replace employees who leave.

C) Exit interviews showed that increased salary and benefits were the main motivations for employees to go work for one of Mini-Glee’s competitors.

D) Feedback on previous training sessions from employees suggests that the skills taught are often new and helpful.

E) In-house T&D requires constant supervision to keep it current with technological advances and the firm’s evolving agenda.

119) Which of the following, if true, most supports Carlson’s suggestion that Mini-Glee rely on Internet-based learning, using an external vendor?

A) Mini-Glee’s competitors are also looking into the use of webinars in their T&D programs.

B) Licensing Internet-delivered training programs allows them to be delivered simultaneously at all of Mini-Glee’s locations.

C) Most of Mini-Glee’s employees are computer literate.

D) The vendor has won several industry awards for their webinars’ quality of production.

E) Mini-Glee’s operating procedures do not differ substantially from other production-oriented companies.

120) Which of the following, if true, most supports following Behr’s suggestion that Mini-Glee keep its training and development in house, even at added expense?

A) The company would have to build a studio if it wanted to develop its own T&D webinars.

B) Many of the most experienced people who’ve presented the training programs at Mini-Glee in the past have recently left the company.

C) Studies have shown that classroom instruction is as effective as Web-based instruction in teaching new skills.

D) Mini-Glee’s newest lines of nursery toys embody newly developed theories relating to how preschool children perceive the world and acquire language.

E) Webinars are most effective when trainees have control over their content and pace.