Directing — Supervision, Motivation, Leadership and Communication

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

1. In Maslow’s hierarchy, which need sits at the TOP?

   1. Esteem needs
   2. Safety needs
   3. Self-actualisation needs
   4. Affiliation needs
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   Answer: C — Self-actualisation needs

   The order from the bottom is physiological, safety, affiliation, esteem and self-actualisation, so self-actualisation — becoming what one is capable of becoming — is the highest. Esteem is the level just below it and the most frequent wrong answer. Safety and affiliation are the second and third levels.

2. A company that pays its staff well enough to meet their basic living costs now introduces a pension scheme and guarantees that no one will be laid off for the next five years. Which level of Maslow’s hierarchy is it addressing?

   1. Safety or security needs
   2. Esteem needs
   3. Physiological needs
   4. Self-actualisation needs
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   Answer: A — Safety or security needs

   Job security, stability of income and pension plans are Maslow’s safety or security needs — protection against future physical and economic harm. Physiological needs are the basic living costs the company already meets, which is why the case mentions them: by Maslow’s logic, once those are satisfied the next level becomes the motivator. Esteem concerns status and recognition, and self-actualisation concerns growth.

3. Finding that clerks were bored doing one repetitive entry all day, a manager redesigned their jobs to include more variety, a say in how the work is done, and responsibility for a whole client account. Which incentive is this?

   1. Perquisites
   2. Co-partnership
   3. Profit sharing
   4. Job enrichment
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   Answer: D — Job enrichment

   Redesigning a job to give more variety, autonomy and responsibility is job enrichment, a non-financial incentive. The other three are financial: perquisites are benefits such as a car or housing, co-partnership gives employees a share in ownership, and profit sharing gives them a share in profit. None of those changes the work itself, which is what the case describes.

4. A production head decides everything himself, gives orders without explanation, and expects them to be carried out without question. His leadership style is:

   1. Democratic
   2. Autocratic
   3. Laissez-faire
   4. Participative
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   Answer: B — Autocratic

   Deciding alone, giving orders and expecting unquestioning obedience is the autocratic or authoritarian style, with one-way communication. Democratic and participative are two names for the same style, in which the leader consults subordinates — the opposite of the case. Laissez-faire gives subordinates freedom to decide, which this head plainly does not.

5. An engineer posts a notice for shop-floor workers full of technical terms they have never been taught, and most of them misunderstand what they are supposed to do. Which type of communication barrier is this?

   1. Semantic barrier
   2. Psychological barrier
   3. Organisational barrier
   4. Personal barrier
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   Answer: A — Semantic barrier

   Technical jargon that the receiver cannot decode is a semantic barrier — the trouble lies in the words used to encode the message. A psychological barrier would lie in the receiver’s state of mind, such as inattention or distrust, and the workers here are trying to understand. Organisational barriers come from structure, rules and status, and personal barriers from the attitudes of a superior or subordinate.

6. Halfway through a subordinate’s presentation of a new idea, the manager decides it will not work and stops listening, though the remaining part answered his objection. Which barrier to communication is this?

   1. Semantic — badly expressed message
   2. Organisational — complexity of the structure
   3. Personal — lack of incentives to communicate
   4. Psychological — premature evaluation
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   Answer: D — Psychological — premature evaluation

   Judging a message before it is complete is premature evaluation, which the book lists among psychological barriers because it lies in the receiver’s state of mind. The message itself was clear, so it is not semantic. Nothing in the case concerns structure, and the subordinate was willing to communicate, so the personal barrier of missing incentives does not apply either.

7. The head of a research laboratory leads a team of experienced scientists. She sets the broad goal, provides funds and equipment, and then lets the scientists decide for themselves how to pursue the work, stepping in only when asked. Her leadership style is best described as:

   1. Autocratic
   2. Democratic
   3. Laissez-faire
   4. Close supervision
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   Answer: C — Laissez-faire

   Using power only minimally, giving competent subordinates the freedom to solve problems themselves and supporting them with resources is the laissez-faire or free-rein style. Democratic is the close distractor, but there the leader decides jointly with the group; here the scientists decide on their own. Autocratic and close supervision are the opposite of the freedom described.

8. In a sales team, every salesperson communicates only with the team leader, who acts as the centre through which all information passes; the salespeople do not communicate with each other. This formal communication network is the:

   1. Single chain
   2. Wheel
   3. Circular
   4. Free flow
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   Answer: B — Wheel

   In the wheel network all subordinates communicate through one superior at the hub and not with each other — exactly the case. A single chain runs from each person to the one directly above, level by level. In a circular network each person communicates with the neighbours on either side, and in free flow anyone may communicate with anyone, which the case rules out.