Chapter 12 MIS

Which of the following statements best describes the business value of improved decision making?
A) Improved decision making creates better products.
B) Improved decision making results in a large monetary value for the firm as numerous small daily decisions affecting efficiency, production, costs, and more add up to large annual values.
C) Improved decision making enables senior executives to more accurately foresee future financial trends.
D) Improved decision making strengthens customer and supplier intimacy, which reduces costs.
E) Improved decision making creates a better organizational culture.

B

When there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making a decision, it is said to be:
A) undocumented.
B) unstructured.
C) documented.
D) semi-structured.
E) ad-hoc.

B

If you can follow a definite procedure to make a business decision, you are making a(n) ________ decision.
A) ad-hoc
B) procedural
C) unstructured
D) semi-structured
E) structured

E

Which type of decision is calculating gross pay for hourly workers?
A) Semi-structured
B) Procedural
C) Structured
D) Unstructured
E) Ad hoc

C

Which type of decision is deciding whether to introduce a new product line?
A) Structured
B) Unstructured
C) Recurring
D) Nonrecurring
E) Procedural

B

The decision to approve a capital budget is an example of a(n) ________ decision.
A) structured
B) ad hoc
C) semi-structured
D) undocumented
E) unstructured

E

The decisions involved in creating and producing a corporate intranet can be classified as ________ decisions.
A) semi-structured
B) procedural
C) ad hoc
D) structured
E) unstructured

A

Checking store inventory is an example of a(n) ________ decision.
A) procedural
B) structured
C) ad hoc
D) unstructured
E) semi-structured

B

The ________ phase of decision making finds or recognizes a problem, need, or opportunity.
A) choice
B) design
C) implementation
D) analysis
E) intelligence

E

Which of the following is not one of the Simon’s four stages of decision making?
A) Implementation
B) Intelligence
C) Analysis
D) Choice
E) Design

C

Improving the quality of high-value decision making by an executive will save an organization far more money than improving the quality of lesser-value decisions made at a lower level.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

A structured decision cannot be made by following a well-defined set of procedures. "Feel" or intuition is necessary.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

Structured decision making is most prevalent at lower organizational levels.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

The design phase of decision making consists of discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the organization.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

The choice phase of Simon’s decision-making model includes choosing among solution alternatives.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

The first stage in Simon’s decision-making process model is the design stage.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

A structured decision is repetitive and routine, for which known procedures provide solutions.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

The third stage in Simon’s description of decision making is implementation.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

Which of the following is not one of the five observed ways in which managerial behavior differs from the classical description of managers?
A) Managers perform a great deal of work at an unrelenting pace.
B) Managers perform a low number of activities for a high percentage of time.
C) Managers prefer current, specific, ad-hoc information.
D) Managers prefer oral forms of communication.
E) Managers give high priority to maintaining a diverse web of contacts.

B

The role of liaison falls into which of Mintzberg’s managerial classifications?
A) Decisional
B) Informational
C) Interpersonal
D) Symbolic
E) Leading

C

Mintzberg outlined three categories of managerial roles:
A) interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
B) control, leadership, oversight.
C) operational, management, and executive.
D) cultural, organizational, and technical.
E) middle management, senior management, executive.

A

The role of entrepreneur falls into which of Mintzberg’s managerial classifications?
A) Decisional
B) Informational
C) Interpersonal
D) Symbolic
E) Leading

A

According to Mintzberg, managers in their informational role act as:
A) figureheads for the organization.
B) leaders.
C) nerve centers of the organization.
D) negotiators.
E) liaisons.

C

Which of the following systems support a manager’s role as leader of an organization?
A) DSS
B) Telepresence systems
C) E-mail
D) MIS
E) ESS

B

All of the following managerial roles can be supported by information systems except:
A) liaison.
B) resource allocator.
C) nerve center
D) disseminator.
E) negotiator.

E

When managers represent their company in the outside world and perform symbolic duties, they are acting in their:
A) decisional role.
B) managerial role.
C) informational role.
D) interpersonal role.
E) leadership role.

D

As discussed in the chapter text, the three main reasons that investments in information technology do not always produce positive results are:
A) management support, technical logistics, and user compliance.
B) organization, environment, culture.
C) information quality, information integrity, and information accuracy.
D) information quality, organizational culture, and management filters.
E) organization, culture, and technology.

D

The concept of management ________ describes situations in which managers act on preconceived notions that reject information that does not conform to their prior conceptions.
A) filters
B) backgrounds
C) biases
D) inefficiency
E) politics

A

Which quality dimension of information is concerned that the data values of an information source fall within a defined range?
A) Timeliness
B) Consistency
C) Completeness
D) Accessibility
E) Validity

E

The dimension of ________ describes whether data elements are consistently defined.
A) completeness
B) accuracy
C) validity
D) consistency
E) integrity

D

High-velocity decision making systems are growing rapidly for decisions classed as:
A) semi-structured.
B) financial.
C) ad hoc.
D) predefined.
E) highly structured.

E

Which of the following describes how the Simon framework of decision-making works in high-velocity decision environments?
A) Only the initial step is performed by the software; the final three steps are handled by humans.
B) The first two steps of Simon’s framework are eliminated and the final two steps are handled by software algorithms.
C) The first three steps of the process are handled by software algorithms and the final step is handled by experienced managers.
D) All four steps are performed by humans with the support of high-speed, high-volume DSS and ESS.
E) All four steps of the process are handled by software algorithms; humans are eliminated from the decisions because they are too slow.

E

A drawback to high-velocity, automated decision-making systems is that they are unable to:
A) handle high volumes of decisions.
B) handle structured decisions.
C) handle semi-structured decisions.
D) control themselves and respond to new environments.
E) be applied to situations outside of the financial world.

D

Behavioral models of management see managers as being ________ than does the classical model.
A) more systematic
B) more informal
C) more reflective
D) more well organized
E) less reactive

B

Which of the following is not one of the five classical functions of managers?
A) Leading
B) Deciding
C) Planning
D) Organizing
E) Controlling

A

The dimension of ________ in information quality describes whether the structure of data is consistent.
A) integrity
B) accuracy
C) timeliness
D) completeness
E) consistency

A

The classical model of management does not address what exactly managers do when they plan, decide things, and control the work of others.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

Experts from a variety of fields have found that managers are poor at assessing risk.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

Which of the following BI tools or abilities has been driving the movement toward "smart cities?"
A) OLAP
B) Chi-square analysis
C) Predictive analytics
D) Data mining
E) Big data analytics

E

Which of the following statements best describes the term business intelligence?
A) Software developed exclusively for business management
B) The tools and techniques used to analyze and understand business data
C) The infrastructure for collecting and managing business data
D) Information systems involved in business decision making
E) Enterprise systems used to make business decisions

A

Decisions regarding managing and monitoring day-to-day business activities are referred to as ________ intelligence.
A) business
B) analytical
C) operational
D) transactional
E) production

C

Which of the following companies is not identified in the text as one of the leading producers of business intelligence and analytics products?
A) Google
B) Microsoft
C) SAP
D) IBM
E) SAS

A

Which of the following is not one of the six main elements in the business intelligence environment discussed in this chapter?
A) Managerial users and methods
B) Organizational environment
C) User interface
D) Data from the business environment
E) Delivery platform

B

Which of the following is not one of the six main analytic functionalities of BI systems for helping decision makers understand information and take action?
A) Production reports
B) Parameterized reports
C) Business case archives
D) Forecasts, scenarios, and models
E) Drill down

C

________ are visual tools for presenting performance data in a BI system.
A) Dashboards and scorecards
B) Parameterized reports
C) Reports and the drill-down feature
D) Scenarios and models
E) Ad hoc report creation

A

Which of the following are most likely to rely primarily on the drill-down functionality of BI for their decision-making needs?
A) IT developers
B) Middle managers
C) Operational employees
D) Business analysts
E) Senior executives

B

A(n)________ report is produced when a user enters various values in a pivot table to filter data.
A) drill-down
B) SQL
C) ad hoc
D) production
E) parameterized

E

A(n) ________ is a BI feature that presents performance data defined by users.
A) ad hoc query
B) parameterized report
C) interface
D) portal
E) dashboard

E

BI that is designed to determine the most likely effects of changes in the business environment is called:
A) statistical modeling.
B) environmental analytics.
C) predictive analytics.
D) big data analytics.
E) parameterized reports.

C

Which of the following are most likely to rely primarily on production reports for their decision-making needs?
A) Operational supervisors
B) Senior managers
C) Analytic modelers
D) Business analysts
E) Executives

A

Which type of information system uses data visualization technology to analyze and display data for planning and decision making in the form of digitized maps?
A) GIS
B) DSS
C) Location analytics
D) Executive support systems
E) GDSS

A

Predictive analytics is used for all of the following except:
A) anticipating customer response to price changes.
B) identifying the most profitable customers.
C) determining the best routes for product delivery.
D) establishing consumer credit scores.
E) forecasting driver safety.

C

Which of the following is not an example of a BI predefined production report?
A) Workforce demographics
B) Order cycle time
C) Revenue forecasts
D) Supplier performance
E) Direct and indirect spending

C

You can use location analytics to determine how best to route your deliveries of products to retail outlets.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

A GIS is a DSS designed specifically to work with spatial information.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

Big data is too unwieldy to analyze for consumer preferences.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

Data visualization technologies are used to help human users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

GIS are useful for businesses, but not as much for state and local governments.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

MIS typically produce:
A) new ways of looking at data that emphasize change, flexibility, and rapid response.
B) fixed, regularly scheduled reports based on data extracted from the organization’s TPS.
C) solutions to semi-structured problems appropriate for middle management decision making.
D) assumptions, responses to ad-hoc queries, and graphic representations of existing data.
E) scorecards of overall firm performance along predefined key indicators.

B

An information system for a building company that tracks construction costs for various projects across the United States would be categorized as a type of:
A) BPM.
B) MIS.
C) KPI.
D) GSS.
E) GDSS.

B

A pivot table is a(n):
A) spreadsheet tool that displays two or more dimensions of data in a convenient format.
B) type of relational database.
C) chart tool that can rotate columnar data quickly and visually.
D) tool for performing sensitivity analysis.
E) integral data visualization tool used in digital dashboards and scorecards.

A

An information system that combines data from internal TPS with information from financial systems and external sources to deliver reports such as profit-loss statements and impact analyses, is an example of:
A) DSS.
B) ESS.
C) CDSS.
D) MIS.
E) GIS.

B

The leading methodology for understanding the really important information needed by a firm’s executives is called the ________ method.
A) digital dashboard
B) balanced scorecard
C) KPI
D) data visualization
E) predictive analytics

B

Which of the following types of systems would be used to present senior marketing executives with in-depth information about customer retention, satisfaction, and quality performance?
A) CDSS
B) MIS
C) DSS
D) TPS
E) ESS

E

Measures defined by management and used to internally evaluate the success of a firm’s financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth are called:
A) benchmarks.
B) KPIs.
C) the balanced scorecard method.
D) BPM.
E) parameters.

B

A(n) ________ facilitates the solution to unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group.
A) DSS
B) ESS
C) CDSS
D) GIS
E) GDSS

E

The management methodology of using a firm’s strategy to generate operational targets for the business and measuring progress towards them using the firm’s enterprise systems is called:
A) benchmarks.
B) KPIs.
C) the balanced scorecard method.
D) BPM.
E) business intelligence.

D

ESS:
A) support the structured decision making of senior executives.
B) have the ability to drill down into lower levels of detail.
C) easily integrate data from different systems.
D) are primarily driven by information derived from a company’s transaction processing systems.
E) enable operational managers to create parameterized reports.

B

A well-designed ESS will allow management to:
A) create routine production reports as well as view overall business performance.
B) facilitate group decision making.
C) create pivot charts.
D) analyze big data.
E) track the activities of competitors.

E

GDSS:
A) are designed to allow meeting attendees to share their thoughts in real-time with their peers.
B) support decisions that require knowledge about the geographic distribution of resources.
C) are only used with geographically dispersed attendees.
D) facilitate the solution of unstructured problems.
E) provide tools that allow managers to visualize data.

D

GDSS capabilities have improved along with all of the following except:
A) improved power of desktop PCs.
B) explosion of mobile computing.
C) growth of cellular networks.
D) increase in dedicated conference rooms.
E) expansion of Wi-Fi bandwidth.

D

GDSS such as Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms Hybrid can handle up to:
A) 5 participants.
B) 50 participants.
C) 500 participants.
D) 1000 participants.
E) 5000 participants.

C

Middle management face primarily structured decisions.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

DSS primarily address structured problems.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

MIS typically produce fixed, regularly scheduled reports based on data extracted and summarized from the firm’s underlying transaction processing systems.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

DSS are a special category of location analytics.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

What-if analysis works forward from known or assumed conditions.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

Sensitivity analysis predicts outcomes from constant inputs.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

GDSS facilitate the solution of unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group in either the same location or different locations.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

A

GDSS requires a dedicated conference room with special hardware and software tools.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

GDSS are designed to display data in the form of digitized maps.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B

KPI analysis is the leading methodology for understanding the most important information needed by a firm’s executives.
A) TRUE
B) FALSE

B