Tasks and Designing Jobs Quiz :Managing Social and Human Capital (Business Foundations Specialization) Answers 2026

Question 1

The pioneering change that Scientific Management brought into factories were:

❌ Providing employees more control of their jobs
✅ Breaking jobs down into the simplest, repetitive segments
❌ Initially defining the role of managers in factories
❌ Allowing employees to interact with other professional groups

Explanation:
Scientific Management (Taylorism) focused on task simplification and standardization to improve efficiency.

Question 2

How did work in factories look as a result of Scientific Management?

❌ More controlled by employees
✅ None of the other options are correct
❌ Less structured
❌ Less routine

Explanation:
Scientific Management made work more structured, more routine, and more manager-controlled, so none of the other options apply.

Question 3

One of the outcomes of implementing Frederick Winslow Taylor’s method is:

❌ Increasing social interactions among employees
❌ Increasing employees’ well-being
❌ Decreasing efficiency
✅ Increasing efficiency

Explanation:
Taylor’s methods were designed to maximize productivity and efficiency, not employee satisfaction.

Question 4

According to the human perspective, designing jobs is characterized by providing employees:

✅ Autonomy, variety, and a sense of significance
❌ A sense of significance, feedback, and career advancement
❌ Autonomy, variety, and fairness
❌ Social interactions, control, and job security

Explanation:
The human perspective emphasizes meaningful, varied work with autonomy.

Question 5

Motivating employees by providing them a sense of significance means:

✅ Their job will impact the overall organizational picture and outcomes
❌ Their job will be highly meaningful for them
❌ Their job will be powerful for their professional development
❌ Their job will impact their career advancement

Explanation:
Significance refers to understanding how one’s work contributes to organizational success.

Question 6

What lesson can we gain from Professor Cappelli’s Junior Analyst job illustration?

❌ High salary is the beneficial solution for motivating employees in technical jobs
✅ Even a well-known technical job can be redesigned and enriched
❌ There are fundamentally systematical jobs that cannot be redesigned
❌ None of the other options are correct

Explanation:
The example shows that job redesign and enrichment can increase motivation, even in technical roles.

Question 7

Why was Toyota production in the USA more qualitative and productive than General Motors?

❌ Toyota designed more interesting jobs for its employees
❌ The Japanese employees were more disciplined
✅ Toyota gave its employees more control over the job
❌ Toyota enlarged the authority of its supervisors

Explanation:
Toyota empowered employees with greater control and responsibility, improving quality and productivity.

Question 8

According to Professor Cappelli’s lecture, the key elements to motivating employees are: (Select all that apply)

❌ Providing them job security
✅ Intensifying their participation and involvement in decision making
❌ Intensifying their involvement in establishing the organization’s vision
❌ Increasing their profit sharing

Explanation:
Employee motivation is driven by participation and involvement, not just security or financial incentives.

Question 9

What was the problematic change in Holt Chemical Company’s people-management practices?

❌ Replacing customer support employees
❌ Increasing product prices
✅ Launching an incentive plan for customer support employees
❌ Decreasing employee incentives

Explanation:
The incentive plan led to unintended behaviors, illustrating “rewarding A while hoping for B.”

Question 10

Nordstrom competes through better customer service tailored to individual customers. How did they achieve that?

❌ Not having a single, official way of servicing customers
❌ No specific selection filters except enthusiasm
❌ High financial incentives
✅ All of the options are correct

Explanation:
Nordstrom combines employee discretion, cultural fit, and incentives to deliver personalized service.

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