The advertising agency Positive Impressions lands a large new corporate client. The accounts manager, Julie, assembles a team of 12 people from across the company's many departments to assess and plan how best to serve the client's needs. Weeks pass, and things seem to be going well. Julie holds some off-site meetings at a local brew pub, and as a result, the team members appear comfortable with each other, telling occasional jokes and engaging in friendly competition at the company's foosball table during breaks. Meetings are often productive, with a variety of viewpoints expressed, and while not everyone agrees with every idea, mutual respect within the team is evident, with one small exception. Josephine, from accounting, and Eric, from operations, argue over small details. They
typically have heated discussions outside of team meetings, with Eric coming to Josephine's desk to complain about her requests for what Eric perceives as excessive paperwork and unnecessary budgetary constraints. Julie is concerned that the tension between Eric and Josephine might affect the overall productivity of the team. Keeping the concepts behind interpersonal processes in mind, which of the following actions should Julie take?
A. introduce an incentive program that rewards the top 25 percent of team members with bonuses and threatens the bottom 25 percent with termination
B. hire a consultant to facilitate team-building exercises that promote group effort over individual achievement
C. refrain from interfering in the team's established dynamic, but monitor Josephine and Eric's working relationship for any escalation
D. divide the group into smaller pairings, making sure that Josephine and Eric have no shared duties or unnecessary interactions
E. create a team hierarchy that requires Josephine and Eric to report to senior team members who are empowered to issue reprimands
Answer: C
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Which of the following is a characteristic of a job order costing system?
A) Uses several Work in Process Inventory accounts B) Uses job cost cards to keep track of each job in process C) Assigns costs to specific processes D) Recognizes cost of materials when products are sold
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Indicate whether the statement is true or false
Strategic alliances are more likely to be long lasting when they involve
A. collaboration with suppliers or distribution allies, or when both parties conclude that continued collaboration is in their mutual interests. B. joining forces in R&D to develop new technologies cheaper than a company could develop the technology on its own. C. partners that respectively have considerable resource weaknesses in the marketplace. D. partners based in countries with distinctly different cultures and consumer buying habits and preferences. E. partners that are not only experienced with strategic alliances, but who also routinely enter into collaborative agreements with firms in peripheral industries.