1. According to Katzenbach and Smith, what three components do teams need in order to become high performing?
(A) Skills, accountability, and commitment
(B) Skills, accountability, and autonomy
(C) Skills, autonomy, and commitment
(D) Skills, constant feedback, and commitment
(E) Skills, constant feedback, and autonomy
2. Which of the following is the term for someone appointed to a group to argue against the group’s position in an attempt to avoid groupthink?
(A) Outsider
(B) Devil’s advocate
(C) Mind-guard
(D) Leader
(E) Second-in-command
3. Which of the following is NOT a type of leader behavior specified by House’s path-goal theory?
(A) Directive
(B) Supportive
(C) Selling
(D) Achievement
(E) Participative
4. Which of the following is NOT a source of power that leaders may exercise?
(A) Legitimate
(B) Illegitimate
(C) Coercive
(D) Expert
(E) Referent
5. Which of the following is the average percentage of work time managers spend dealing with conflict?
(A) 5%
(B) 10%
(C) 15%
(D) 20%
(E) 25%
6. Which of the following is a condition that can lead to conflict?
(A) Role ambiguities
(B) Scarce resources
(C) Task interdependencies
(D) Competing goals
(E) All of the above
7. Which form of communication is the “richest”?
(A) Email
(B) Telephone
(C) Face-to-face
(D) Handwritten note
(E) Fax
8. Which of the following terms describes communication between individuals in different units and at different levels in a company?
(A) Vertical
(B) Horizontal
(C) Top-down
(D) Bottom-up
(E) Diagonal
9. What management goal did Peter Drucker define as “doing the right job”?
(A) Efficiency
(B) Effectiveness
(C) Performance
(D) Progress
(E) Leadership
10. Which of the following requires the application of specific, learned knowledge?
(A) Human skills
(B) Conceptual skills
(C) Management skills
(D) Technical skills
(E) Team work skills
CLEP Management Practice Question Answer Key
- (A) Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith studied groups and team work. According to their findings, teams need skills, accountability, and commitment to the project in order to be successful.
- (B) To avoid the problems with groupthink, one step a leader can take is to appoint a devil’s advocate to argue against the group’s position.
- (C) Robert House’s path-goal theory identified four different types of leader behavior: directive, supportive, achievement, and participative.
- (B) Legitimate power comes from the belief of employees that their supervisors have the right to ask things of them. Coercive power comes from the threat of negative consequences. Expert power comes from the expertise, or richer knowledge and information, that a leader possesses. Referent power comes from the desire of an employee to be like his/her supervisor.
- (D) Managers average about 20% of their time dealing with conflict.
- E) All of the answer options can give rise to conflict. Lack of clear definition of roles can create confusion and conflicting expectations; inadequate resources and different goals can create conflict over resources or over focus of effort; and the need to rely on others to complete tasks can create conflict over timing or quality of work.
- (C) The term richness describes the quantity and quality of information a medium can convey. The richest medium is face-to-face. In addition to the actual words spoken, face-to-face communication gives the communication receiver information in the form of non-verbal language and vocal inflection.
- (E) Vertical communication refers to information sharing between staff in the same unit. Horizontal communication refers to information sharing between staff at the same level. Diagonal communication refers to the sharing of information between people in a company who are neither in the same unit nor at the same level.
- (B) Writer and management consultant Peter Drucker said that efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things.
- (D) Technical skills rely on the use of specifically applicable knowledge gained from either formal education or on-the-job experience.