After Extensive Job Cuts to Reduce Costs, Upper Level Managers

question 2

Multiple Choice

After extensive job cuts to reduce costs, upper level managers are spending significant amounts of time solving problems in the production units. Lower level managers are resentful that they cannot make decisions for their own units. What recommendation would you make for this firm?

• A) Reorganize; departmentalize around customers instead of products.
• B) Formalize; write explicit job descriptions, rules, and procedures so the upper managers won't have to decide each case individually.
• C) Centralize; create a department that does nothing but make decisions.
• D) Decentralize; give authority to the lower level managers regarding events in their own units.

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Definitions:

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Expectations about a situation or person that lead to behaviors which cause the expectation to come true.

Cognitive Dissonance

A psychological concept describing the discomfort felt when holding conflicting cognition, beliefs, or values, prompting individuals to seek consistency.

Festinger

Leon Festinger was a social psychologist known for the theory of cognitive dissonance, which describes the discomfort felt when holding conflicting beliefs or values.

Communicator

A person or device that conveys information or facilitates communication between parties.