Administrative Thought Questions and Answers

Answer: C

According to Elton Mayo, a worker's performance is primarily related to the interaction setting in an organization. The Hawthorne studies showed that output depended on group norms, informal relations and the social setting of work more than on pay or physical conditions.

Personality variables and the worker's attitude acquired in society are also mentioned in human relations writing, but Mayo's emphasis was on the social group at work. Technological tools are stressed by scientific management, not by Mayo.

Answer: B

The official key gives (ii), that scientific management is mechanical, as the statement linked to F. W. Taylor. I could not confirm that Taylor himself said this, since it is mostly the view of critics that his method treats work in a mechanical way, so the key is followed with that caution.

Taylor did not hold that trade unionism is unacceptable in the extreme form of (i), though he thought it unnecessary where management did its job, and his scheme was a differential piece rate plan, so statement (iv) is the reverse of his view.

Answer: D

Urwick and Gulick favoured a single top executive. In their principles of organisation, which are part of the classical school, authority should be vested in one chief executive and not in a board or commission, since unity of command and clear responsibility are needed.

Gulick's 'Notes on the Theory of Organization' argues for a single executive, as against plural bodies and commissions. Decentralised organisation is not the point of their writing. The fourth option is therefore the answer.

Answer: A

Both statements are correct and (R) explains (A). The principle of unity of command, under which an employee takes orders from only one superior, cannot be followed strictly in practice, because staff are often under dual control: technical direction from a specialist and administrative direction from the line superior.

The reason gives exactly the practical condition which makes strict unity of command difficult, so it is the correct explanation. The first option is therefore the answer, and the options that call either statement false are wrong.

Answer: C

The view that organisational objectives should reflect the manifestation of individual goals is advocated by Chris Argyris. In his theory of the individual and the organisation, he argued that the needs of a mature individual conflict with formal organisation, and that the organisation should be adapted so that individual and organisational goals are integrated.

Chester Barnard stressed cooperation and the acceptance of authority, Elton Mayo the human relations of the Hawthorne studies, and Peter Drucker management by objectives. So the third option is correct.

Answer: C

The term 'grapevine' is associated with communication. It is the informal network through which news and rumours spread in an organisation, outside the formal channels of the hierarchy.

Supervision, control and command are other managerial functions and are exercised through the formal structure of authority. The grapevine is an informal communication channel, so the third option is correct.

Answer: D

The correct matching is a-iv, b-iii, c-ii and d-i. Eva Etzioni-Halevy wrote 'Bureaucracy and Democracy: A Political Dilemma', Frederick Herzberg wrote 'Work and the Nature of Man', Ernest Dale wrote 'Management: Theory and Practice', and E.N. Gladden wrote 'An Introduction to Public Administration'.

The other codes give each of these books to the wrong author, so the fourth option is correct.

Answer: B

The pairing 'Integration: dealing with conflict through compromise' is not a correct match with Follett's views. For Mary Parker Follett, integration is the creative resolution of conflict in which both sides' desires find a place, and she contrasted it with domination and compromise, which she considered inferior ways of settling differences.

The other pairs are in line with her ideas: conflict is not warfare but the appearance of differences that can be used constructively, depersonalising orders by obeying the law of the situation, and the obstacle to integration is people's habit of enjoyment. So the second option is the answer.

Answer: C

The behavioural approach is criticised on the grounds (i), (ii) and (iv): it has an inadequate conceptual framework to explain organisational phenomena, it takes an autonomous view of the administrative system, ignoring its environment, and it adopts an idealistic view of human behaviour.

Statement (iii) is not a criticism, since the claim that it offers definite suggestions for improving decision making is not a weakness, and critics said that the approach gave too few practical prescriptions. So the third option is correct.

Answer: D

In the motivational model of Laurie J. Mullins, the sequence is needs or expectations (iii), driving force (i), desired goals (ii) and fulfilment (iv), which is (iii) (i) (ii) (iv).

A person's unsatisfied need creates a driving force, which is directed to a desired goal, and attaining the goal gives fulfilment. The other orders put the goal or fulfilment before the need, which cannot be, so the fourth option is correct.