ACCA BT · Chapter 9
Leadership, management and supervision MCQs with Answers
11 multiple-choice questions on Leadership, management and supervision for ACCA BT Business and Technology. Try each one before revealing the answer and explanation.
Practise this chapter interactivelyQuestion 1
Fayol's principle of 'unity of command' states which of the following?
- A) Each employee should receive orders from only one superior
- B) All managers should share a common set of objectives
- C) There should be a clear line of authority from the top to the bottom of the organisation
- D) Activities with the same objective should be directed by one plan
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Answer: A) Each employee should receive orders from only one superior
Unity of command means each employee reports to and takes orders from one boss, avoiding conflicting instructions. A clear line of authority from top to bottom is the scalar chain, and directing activities with the same objective under one plan is unity of direction.
Question 2
Which writer is associated with 'scientific management', which involved studying tasks to find the 'one best way' of performing them and paying workers according to output?
- A) Henri Fayol
- B) F W Taylor
- C) Elton Mayo
- D) Henry Mintzberg
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Answer: B) F W Taylor
Taylor developed scientific management, using work study to standardise tasks, selecting and training workers scientifically, and linking pay to output. Fayol set out administrative functions and principles of management, Mayo's Hawthorne studies led to the human relations school, and Mintzberg studied what managers actually do.
Question 3
Henri Fayol identified five functions of management. Which of the following is one of them?
- A) Motivating through hygiene factors
- B) Co-ordinating
- C) Negotiating
- D) Disseminating
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Answer: B) Co-ordinating
Fayol's five functions of management are planning (forecasting), organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling. Hygiene factors come from Herzberg, while negotiator and disseminator are roles in Mintzberg's analysis of managerial work.
Question 4
According to Mintzberg, a manager who represents the organisation at a trade association dinner and signs official documents is performing which role?
- A) Liaison
- B) Figurehead
- C) Disseminator
- D) Resource allocator
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Answer: B) Figurehead
The figurehead role is an interpersonal role involving ceremonial and symbolic duties performed by virtue of the manager's position. The liaison role involves building networks of contacts outside the manager's own unit, the disseminator role involves passing information to subordinates, and the resource allocator role involves deciding where resources should go.
Question 5
A production manager deals with an urgent machine breakdown that threatens to halt production, and resolves a dispute between two shift supervisors. Under Mintzberg's classification, which category of role is being performed?
- A) Interpersonal - leader
- B) Informational - monitor
- C) Decisional - disturbance handler
- D) Decisional - entrepreneur
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Answer: C) Decisional - disturbance handler
Responding to unexpected crises and conflicts is the disturbance handler role, one of Mintzberg's four decisional roles (with entrepreneur, resource allocator and negotiator). The entrepreneur role is about initiating improvements and change, the leader role concerns motivating and directing staff, and the monitor role concerns scanning for information.
Question 6
John Adair's action-centred leadership model states that an effective leader must balance three overlapping areas of need. What are they?
- A) Concern for production, concern for people and concern for profit
- B) Telling, selling and consulting
- C) Task needs, team maintenance needs and individual needs
- D) Physiological, safety and social needs
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Answer: C) Task needs, team maintenance needs and individual needs
Adair's model shows three overlapping circles: achieving the task, building and maintaining the team, and developing the individual. The leader must attend to all three, adapting to the situation. Concern for production and people comes from Blake and Mouton, telling and selling from the Ashridge model, and physiological, safety and social needs from Maslow.
Question 7
On Blake and Mouton's managerial grid, a manager rated 9,1 would be described as having which style?
- A) A task-oriented (authority-compliance) style with high concern for production and low concern for people
- B) A country club style with high concern for people and low concern for production
- C) An impoverished style with low concern for both production and people
- D) A team style with high concern for both production and people
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Answer: A) A task-oriented (authority-compliance) style with high concern for production and low concern for people
The grid rates concern for production on the horizontal axis and concern for people on the vertical axis, each from 1 to 9. A 9,1 manager has maximum concern for production and minimal concern for people. The country club style is 1,9, impoverished is 1,1 and team management is 9,9.
Question 8
A manager decides on a course of action and then tries to persuade the team that it is the right decision, explaining the benefits before implementing it. According to the Ashridge Management College model, which style is this?
- A) Tells
- B) Sells
- C) Consults
- D) Joins
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Answer: B) Sells
In the Ashridge model the 'sells' style involves the manager making the decision but seeking to persuade subordinates to accept it. 'Tells' simply announces decisions, 'consults' invites input before the manager decides, and 'joins' involves the manager and team deciding together on an equal basis.
Question 9
According to Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model, which style is most appropriate for a team that is highly competent and highly committed?
- A) Telling
- B) Selling
- C) Delegating
- D) Participating
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Answer: C) Delegating
Hersey and Blanchard match leadership style to follower readiness. Followers who are both able and willing need little direction or support, so the leader can delegate responsibility. Telling suits those who are unable and unwilling or insecure, selling suits willing but unable followers, and participating suits able but unwilling or insecure followers.
Question 10
Which of the following is the best description of the difference between leadership and management?
- A) Leadership is only exercised by the most senior directors, while management is exercised by supervisors
- B) Leadership relies purely on formal authority, while management relies on personal charisma
- C) There is no difference: the terms are interchangeable
- D) Leadership focuses on influencing people and creating a vision for change, while management focuses on planning, organising and controlling resources
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Answer: D) Leadership focuses on influencing people and creating a vision for change, while management focuses on planning, organising and controlling resources
Writers such as Kotter distinguish management, which copes with complexity through planning, budgeting, organising and controlling, from leadership, which copes with change by setting direction, aligning people and inspiring them. Leadership can be exercised at any level, and it often depends on personal influence rather than formal authority.
Question 11
Which of the following best describes the role of a supervisor?
- A) A first-line manager who oversees the day-to-day work of operational staff and also often performs operational work
- B) A non-executive director who monitors the board on behalf of shareholders
- C) A senior manager responsible for long-term strategic planning
- D) An external consultant who designs the organisation structure
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Answer: A) A first-line manager who oversees the day-to-day work of operational staff and also often performs operational work
Supervisors are the first level of management, bridging management and the workforce. They allocate and monitor daily work, deal with immediate problems and often carry out operational tasks alongside their team. They are not involved in board monitoring or long-term strategy, and they are internal staff rather than external consultants.