Business Management Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A supervisor has 18 direct reports and rarely has time to coach them or review complex work. Which structural change most directly addresses the problem?
Centralize all operating decisions with senior executives.
Create team-lead roles so the supervisor has fewer direct reports.
Increase the number of goals assigned to each employee.
Move all employees into separate specialist departments.
2. A manager delegates responsibility for preparing a monthly report. Which approach best reflects effective delegation?
Let the employee define the required outcome after beginning the work.
Transfer the task and final accountability completely to the employee.
Specify every action the employee must take and require approval at each step.
Clarify the outcome, grant suitable authority, set checkpoints, and retain managerial accountability.
3. A product sells for $100 per unit, and its variable cost is $40 per unit. If monthly fixed costs are $24,000, how many units must be sold to break even?
400 units
343 units
240 units
600 units
4. A manufacturer finds that average cost per unit falls as output increases because fixed facility costs are spread across more units. What does this illustrate?
Economies of scale
Opportunity cost
Price discrimination
Diseconomies of scope
5. A company charges a premium price by offering distinctive product quality and unusually responsive service valued by its target customers. Which competitive strategy is it primarily using?
Cost leadership
Vertical integration
Differentiation
Market withdrawal
6. Which objective is written as a SMART goal?
Become the most respected company in the industry.
Increase repeat-customer purchases by 10% within the next six months.
Encourage employees to provide better service whenever possible.
Improve sales significantly in the future.
7. In a SWOT analysis, which item is classified as a weakness?
A competitor is preparing to enter the market.
A new customer segment is growing rapidly.
The company relies on outdated internal software that slows order processing.
New technology could reduce industry production costs.
8. A department budgeted $50,000 for a project but spent $65,000. What action best demonstrates the controlling function of management?
Set a broader mission statement for future projects.
Increase next year's budget by $15,000 without reviewing the spending.
Transfer responsibility for the project to another department.
Analyze the variance, identify its causes, and decide whether corrective action is needed.
9. Two experienced employees favor different ways to implement a project, and each has relevant evidence. The deadline allows time for discussion. What is the most appropriate initial response from their manager?
Facilitate a discussion that tests both proposals against the project's shared criteria.
Select the proposal supported by the more senior employee.
Postpone the decision until the employees independently reach agreement.
Divide the project equally between both approaches without checking compatibility.
10. A company has already spent $10,000 on an advertising campaign that is not performing well. When deciding whether to spend more, which information should carry the most weight?
The need to justify the original $10,000 expenditure
The amount competitors have spent on similar campaigns
The expected future incremental costs and benefits of continuing
The original campaign budget before any money was spent
11. A production process has three consecutive stages that can handle 50, 35, and 45 units per hour. Assuming demand exceeds capacity, what most directly limits the process's hourly output?
The first stage, because it begins the process
The second stage, because it has the lowest capacity
The average capacity of all three stages
The third stage, because finished units leave from there
12. A factory wants a leading indicator for its goal of reducing equipment-related defects. Which measure is most suitable?
The number of defective units found last month
The cost of warranty claims received this quarter
The percentage of finished goods rejected by inspectors
The percentage of scheduled preventive-maintenance tasks completed on time
13. A retailer sells an average of 20 units of an item per day, and replenishment takes five days. Ignoring safety stock, what is the reorder point?
25 units
400 units
200 units
100 units
14. A company wants candidate interviews to produce more consistent and comparable evidence. Which change would help most?
Ask every candidate the same job-related questions and use a defined scoring rubric.
Judge candidates mainly by the natural flow of conversation.
Allow each interviewer to explore whichever topics seem interesting.
Replace interviews with informal introductions to the team.
15. Which example most clearly reflects intrinsic motivation?
Working extra hours to qualify for a cash bonus
Persisting with a difficult task because mastering it is personally satisfying
Accepting a project primarily because it may lead to promotion
Meeting a target to avoid a formal warning
16. A profitable company repeatedly struggles to pay suppliers because customers take 90 days to settle invoices. What is the most immediate management issue?
Insufficient gross profit margin
Excessive depreciation expense
A cash-flow timing gap
An overstated market share