chapter 4 practice questions

Question 1

Employers face many challenges when searching for talent. Which of the following is not one of
those challenges?

A) Cutting-edge skills are evolving faster than universities can train people.
B) The supply of talented young professionals in software is saturated.
C) The willingness of talent to be mobile has declined.
D) Young professionals in advanced technologies are limited

Answer 1

B) The supply of talented young professionals in software is saturated.

Question 2

As the competitive environment changes, strategic management must focus on different aspects of the organization. Recently, strategic management has moved from focusing on tangible resources to

A) fixed capital.
B) working capital.
C) intangible resources.
D) investment capital.

Answer 2

C) intangible resources.

Question 3

Changes in our economy have forced firms to be ________ concerned with protecting their
knowledge workers, social capital, and intellectual capital.

A) less
B) more
C) potentially
D) not

Answer 3

B) more

Question 4

intangible assets derived mostly from human capital are on the rise, according to the advisory firm
Ocean Tomo. A study of the Standard and Poors’ 500 index from 1975 to 2015 demonstrated a 17
percent increase in market value of intangible assets over this time period. Companies such as Stryker
get 70 percent of its value from intangibles. Intangible assets are

A) equipment.
B) land.
C) money.
D) non-physical

Answer 4

D) non-physical

Question 5

Creativity and problem-solving ability are considered to be part of ________ capital.

A) physical
B) social
C) human
D) emotional

Answer 5

C) human

Question 6

________ is the network of relationships that individuals have throughout the organization.

A) Human capital
B) Social capital
C) Intellectual capital
D) Tacit knowledge

Answer 6

B) Social capital

Question 7

New knowledge involves the continual interaction between ________ and ________ knowledge.

A) intellectual; pragmatic
B) theoretical; practical
C) tacit; explicit
D) detailed; tacit

Answer 7

C) tacit; explicit

Question 8

Two software engineers working together on a computer code share their ________ knowledge to create new knowledge.

A) explicit
B) theoretical
C) tacit
D) easily reproduced

Answer 8

C) tacit

Question 9

Today, the loyalty of a knowledge worker to his or her employing firm has ________ compared to his or her loyalty to his or her profession and colleagues.

A) increased
B) remained the same
C) decreased
D) no correlation when

Answer 9

C) decreased

Question 10

The text discusses three areas a firm must be concerned with to keep their best and brightest
employees from leaving. These include all the following except

A) hiring/selecting.
B) developing.
C) sorting/absorbing.
D) retaining

Answer 10

C) sorting/absorbing.

Question 11

Firms must compete for top talent. In attracting and selecting employees, firms must strive to select
the best fit for both the employee and the firm. In an attempt to reduce wasted time and effort in
interviewing too many candidates while assuring a good candidate pool, a firm should

A) run employment ads in the newspaper.
B) only let lower-level employees interview job candidates.
C) use a pre-interview quiz.
D) refrain from hiring by referrals from present employees

Answer 11

C) use a pre-interview quiz.

Question 12

Companies that want to attract top talent often receive thousands of applications each year. Today,
________ and ________ ________ are used increasingly to improve talent selection.

A) HR specialists; motivational interviews
B) onboarding techniques; consultants
C) technology; data analytics
D) newspaper ads; television commercials

Answer 12

C) technology; data analytics

Question 13

The environmental sustainability strategy of a firm might be used to retain high-performing
employees because recent college graduates

A) seek to make a social or environmental difference in the world.
B) want a job in a company that is committed to corporate profit.
C) feel that profitability is not important.
D) are loyal to firms that are concerned with employee education

Answer 13

A) seek to make a social or environmental difference in the world.

Question 14

Employers must provide ________ to attract and retain young workers because otherwise they will
be at a competitive ________.

A) training; status-quo
B) rewards; advantage
C) incentives; disadvantage
D) education; advantage

Answer 14

C) incentives; disadvantage

Question 15

Developing human capital is essential to maintaining a competitive advantage in the current
knowledge economy. Efforts and initiatives to develop human capital should be directed

A) at top managers.
B) at human resource departments.
C) throughout the firm at all levels.
D) at the employees themselves

Answer 15

C) throughout the firm at all levels.

Question 16

Boomerang employees, according to a study published in Personnel Psychology, are statistically
more likely to leave a firm if they experienced a negative life event or if they

A) received a better alternate job offer.
B) did not feel appreciated in their current job.
C) were inadequately trained for their current position.
D) had friends at the alternate company offering the job.

Answer 16

A) received a better alternate job offer.

Question 17

Maintaining a competitive workforce is very challenging in the current economy. The role of
evaluating human capital, in recent years, has

A) remained the same.
B) increased.
C) become less important.
D) decreased

Answer 17

B) increased.

Question 18

Training and development at all levels of the organization are necessary if employees are to remain
current throughout the duration of their employment. Which of the following activities would also be
necessary?

A) monitoring and tracking employee development
B) monitoring only key managers
C) tracking only key managers
D) sharing employee tracking information only with key managers

Answer 18

A) monitoring and tracking employee development

Question 19

In a 360-degree evaluation and feedback system, which of these does not rate the skills and
performance of an individual?

A) superiors
B) family
C) direct reports
D) colleagues

Answer 19

B) family

Question 20

Attracting and retaining human capital is a challenge for many firms today. Firms experiencing high
turnover should

A) focus on increased recruiting.
B) decrease money spent on human capital.
C) adopt effective retention strategies.
D) make their work environment less stimulation

Answer 20

C) adopt effective retention strategies.

Question 21

The least effective way to retain human capital is to

A) encourage employee identification with organizational mission and goals.
B) provide employees with a challenging and stimulating work environment.
C) require employees to sign agreements that prevent them from working for competitors in
the future.
D) provide employees with financial and nonfinancial rewards and incentives

Answer 21

C) require employees to sign agreements that prevent them from working for competitors in
the future.

Question 22

It is anticipated that the worldwide shortage of highly skilled, college-educated workers will
increase significantly by 2020, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute. Some companies are
going as far as to redefine the jobs of their experts and are transferring some of their tasks to lower-
skilled people inside and outside of their companies. By redefining these ________ knowledge jobs, they
address ________ shortages and ________ costs while enhancing job satisfaction.

A) high-value; skill; lower
B) low-value; monetary; decrease
C) high-value; personnel; increase
8
D) high-value; skill; increase

Answer 22

A) high-value; skill; lower

Question 23

The effective management of diversity can enhance the social responsibility goals of an
organization. Other areas where sound management of diverse workforces can improve the
effectiveness of an organization and its competitive advantages include all but one of the following

A) resource acquisition
B) marketing
C) organizational flexibility
D) problem creation

Answer 23

D) problem creation

Question 24

Another example of social relationships causing human capital mobility is the ________ of talent
from an organization to form ________.

A) stability; bail-outs
B) emigration; bail-outs
C) relocation; new business units
D) emigration; start-up ventures

Answer 24

D) emigration; start-up ventures

Question 25

Professionals frequently leave Microsoft en masse to form venture capital and technology start-ups,
called Baby Bills, built around teams of software developers. This is an example of ________ causing
human capital mobility.

A) formal relationships
B) social relationships
C) tacit knowledge
D) intellectual capital

Answer 25

B) social relationships

Question 26

According to the resource-based view of the firm, competitive advantages are ________ for
competitors to copy, if they are based on unique bundles of resources.

A) easier
B) faster
C) harder
D) more reliable

Answer 26

C) harder

Question 27

If employees are working effectively in teams and sharing their knowledge and learning from each
other, they will be ________ to add value to the firm and they also will be ________ to leave the
organization because of the loyalties and social ties that they develop over time.

A) more likely; more likely
B) less likely; more likely
C) less likely; less likely
D) more likely; less likely

Answer 27

D) more likely; less likely

Question 28

Knowledge-based resources tend to be more ________ in nature and therefore they are ________
difficult to protect against loss (i.e., the individual quitting the organization) than other types of capital,
such as equipment, machinery, and land.

A) explicit; less
B) explicitly; more
C) tacit; more
D) tacit; less

Answer 28

C) tacit; more

Question 29

The ________, ________, and ________ talent is a necessary but not sufficient condition for
creating competitive advantages.

A) attraction; laissez-faire; retention of
B) observance; laissez-faire; regard for
C) attraction; development; retention of
D) observance; development; hands-off approach to

Answer 29

C) attraction; development; retention of

Question 30

Tying knowledge workers to a firm is part of the objective of the development of

A) intellectual capital.
B) explicit knowledge.
C) human capital.
D) social capital

Answer 30

D) social capital

Question 31

In social network analysis, the importance of ties connecting heterogeneous people that help to
ensure a wide range of diversity in information and perspective is known as

A) closure.
B) social supports.
C) redundancy.
D) bridging relationships

Answer 31

D) bridging relationships

Question 32

The power of a manager, traditionally, was embedded in the hierarchy of the firm. As organizational
structures flatten, this power is repositioned in the ________ of the network. These people are not
necessarily at the top of the hierarchy or even experts in their fields.

A) clients
B) brokers
C) employees
D) suppliers

Answer 32

B) brokers

Question 33

One of the important limitations of social capital is that it can lead to ________ whereby people do
not question shared beliefs.

A) skunkworks
B) think tanks
C) isolation
D) groupthink

Answer 33

D) groupthink

Question 34

The use of information technology (e.g., email) has increased in recent years in many organizations.
This has helped to

A) make more effective use of time in every situation.
B) communicate information efficiently.
C) restrict social network growth.
D) create smaller social networks

Answer 34

B) communicate information efficiently.

Question 35

Top executives can use email effectively for all of the following except

A) updates on company strategy.
B) executive perspectives on key issues.
C) overview of the executive work for the month.
D) updates on corporate intelligence

Answer 35

D) updates on corporate intelligence

Question 36

The use of sophisticated information sharing platforms has increased in recent years in many
organizations. This has helped to

A) facilitate internal and external collaboration.
B) keep employees satisfied with social networks.
C) override the need for email.
D) increase paperwork

Answer 36

A) facilitate internal and external collaboration.

Question 37

The Cisco Integrated Workforce Experience (IWE) platform is a social business platform designed to
facilitate ________ and ________ collaboration and decentralize decision making.

A) internal; network-side
B) external; personal
C) external; individual
D) internal; external

Answer 37

D) internal; external

Question 38

The Cisco Integrated Workforce Experience (IWE) platform makes recommendations based on all
the following except

A) what you are doing.
B) the role you are in.
C) the choices of people like you.
D) competitor choices

Answer 38

D) competitor choices

Question 39

Technology can be used to leverage ________ and ________ within organizations as well as with
customers and suppliers beyond their boundaries.

A) human capital; intellectual capital
B) human capital; knowledge
C) knowledge; social capital
D) communication; social capital

Answer 39

B) human capital; knowledge

Question 40

There are multiple advantages of e-teams. Which of the following is not an advantage?

A) E-teams are less restricted by the geographic constraints that are placed on face-to-face
teams.
B) E-teams can be more flexible in responding to unanticipated work challenges and
opportunities.
C) Process losses result from identification and combination activities.
D) E-teams can be effective in generating social capital

Answer 40

C) Process losses result from identification and combination activities.

Question 41

In general, teams suffer process loss because of ________ cohesion, ________ trust among
members, a lack of appropriate norms or standard operating procedures, or a lack of shared
understanding among team members about their tasks.

A) high; high
B) low; high
C) high; low
D) low; low

Answer 41

D) low; low

Question 42

Access Health, a call-in medical center, uses technology to capture and share knowledge. When
someone calls the center, a registered nurse uses the company clinical decision architecture to assess
the caller symptoms, rule out possible conditions, and recommend a home remedy, doctor visit, or trip
to the emergency room. This is an example of using

A) tacit knowledge.
B) a knowledge asset.
C) a non-codified asset.
D) groupthink

Answer 42

B) a knowledge asset.

Question 43

The management of intellectual property involves all of the following except

A) copyrights and trademark.
B) contracts with confidentiality and non-compete clauses.
C) converting explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge.
D) patents

Answer 43

C) converting explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge.

Question 44

Which of the following is not an example of an IP-related litigation?

A) IBM sues Groupon for patent violation.
B) Apple sues smartphone makers running Android, the Google mobile operating system.
C) China is sued by U.S. manufacturers of video games.
D) The United States sues to get access to physical plant assets in China

Answer 44

D) The United States sues to get access to physical plant assets in China

Question 45

Intellectual property rights are ________ to define and protect than property rights for physical
assets (e.g., plant, equipment, and land).

A) easier
B) more costly
C) more difficult
D) less difficult

Answer 45

C) more difficult

Question 46

IP is characterized by ________ development costs and very ________ marginal costs.

A) insignificant; low
B) expensive; high
C) significant; low
D) insignificant; high

Answer 46

C) significant; low

Question 47

Which of the following is not a dynamic capability?

A) the ability to sense and seize new opportunities
B) the ability to generate new knowledge
C) the ability to reconfigure existing assets
D) the ability to submit to conventional industry and market wisdom

Answer 47

D) the ability to submit to conventional industry and market wisdom

Question 48

By using AI in its hiring process, Unilever has improved its hiring process for many reasons except
which one of the following?

A) AI is fast and accurate.
B) 80 percent of applicants who make it to job interviews are not offered jobs.
C) AI permitted Unilever to hire a diverse class of employees.
D) Recruiters spent less time reviewing applicants

Answer 48

B) 80 percent of applicants who make it to job interviews are not offered jobs.