IIA IIA Certifications IIA-CIA-PART4 Questions & Answers

• Question 311:

  When determining the appropriate span of control, the most important consideration is:

  A. The set of policies and procedures currently in effect.

  B. The typical span of control used by other entities.

  C. The preference of the company's creditors.

  D. That all departments will be evaluated, whether or not they will be affected.

  Correct Answer: A

  The most important factors to consider are the employees' and manager's preferences and skills, the firm's culture, the tasks involved, physical location of the department, and established policies and procedures.

• Question 312:

  Which of the following is generally true regarding a manager's span of control?

  A. Narrow spans of control are typically found in flat organizations, those with few hierarchical levels.

  B. An organization with narrow spans of control needs more managers than those with wide spans.

  C. Wider spans of control mean higher administrative expense and less self-management.

  D. Wider spans of control help ensure good internal controls and policy compliance throughout an organization.

  Correct Answer: B

  Span of control span of management or span of authority) is an upper limit to the number of people who can be effectively and efficiently supervised by one person. Narrow spans of control mean that the ratio of those supervised subordinates) to those doing the supervision managers) is lower. Hence, more managers are required.

• Question 313:

  Which of the following factors is least likely to affect a manager's direct span of control?

  A. Frequency of supervisor-subordinate contact.

  B. The manager's willingness to delegate authority.

  C. The manager's training and communication skills.

  D. Number of people in the corporation.

  Correct Answer: D

  The optimal span of control is the number of subordinates that a given manager can effectively supervise. It is a function of many situational factors. However, the total number of people in an organization has no bearing on the optimal span of control of a particular manager.

• Question 314:

  As an organization increases the number of employees, its structure becomes more complex. Rules become more formalized and more supervisors are hired to direct the increased numbers of subordinates. What is the nature of the size-structure relationship?

  A. The size-structure relationship is linear.

  B. The structure becomes fixed once an organization attains a level of about 200 employees.

  C. The size-structure relationship is concave.

  D. None of the answers are correct.

  Correct Answer: D

  As an organization increases in size, its structure tends to become more formal and mechanistic. More policies and procedures are necessary to coordinate the increased number of employees, and more managers must be hired. However, the relationship between size and changes in structure is linear only within a certain range. For example, adding 100 employees to a company with 100 employees is likely to cause significant structural change, but adding the same numberto a workforce of 10,000 is unlikely to have little impact. By the time a company reaches a certain size 1,500 to 2,000 or more), it usually has most of the qualities of a mechanistic structure.

• Question 315:

  Line and staff positions are most likely to be in conflict because:

  A. Line managers have no authority over staff employees.

  B. Staff managers consider line managers' functional authority threatening to staff managers' own authority.

  C. Line managers believe that staff managers are resistant to line managers' advice.

  D. Staff managers dislike relying on line expertise.

  Correct Answer: A

  Line managers are directly responsible for achieving the organization's objectives, but staff managers are not directly accountable. However, line managers may have no authority to influence staff behavior when it is inconsistent with the achievement of objectives.

• Question 316:

  A line position:

  A. Is indirectly responsible for achieving the organization's basic objectives.

  B. Makes administrative and operating decisions.

  C. Advises and assists staff positions.

  D. Is indirectly involved with the organization's product(s) and/or services.

  Correct Answer: B

  A line position is in the direct chain of command and is responsible for administering policy and making operating decisions. People in line positions have direct responsibility for achieving the organization's basic objectives and thus have formal or legitimate authority.

• Question 317:

  The manager of customer service checking at the bank is most likely to encounter conflicts) because of:

  A. The department's reliance on the savings manager and the money market manager.

  B. The manager of customer service checking providing services for customers who do not have checking accounts.

  C. The requirement that the manager of customer service checking must report directly to both the president and the vice president for customer accounts.

  D. A potential disagreement with the director of personnel about a subordinate's performance appraisal.

  Correct Answer: D

  The director of personnel DP) must coordinate all employee evaluations. Although the manager of checking services is in a line position that is not under the DP, s)he works with the DP when hiring, dismissing, transferring, or evaluating employees.

• Question 318:

  Which of the following is a staff position in the bank?

  A. The manager of customer service-checking, the department that handles checking account inquiries and transactions.

  B. The directory of personnel, the department that handles the hiring, firing, promotion, etc., of all employees.

  C. The chief loan officer, who is in charge of final approval of all loans.

  D. The vice president in charge of the mortgage department, which handles mortgages on business and residential property.

  Correct Answer: B

  Staff positions in any organization advise and support the line positions. They indirectly help to achieve the organization's basic objective. Each staff position's authority is, at most, functional. Such authority is exercised only over activities related to the staff's function or specialty.

• Question 319:

  Which of the following elements of an organization requires people to be accountable to superiors?

  A. Coordination of effort.

  B. Division of labor.

  C. Common goal or purpose.

  D. Hierarchy of authority.

  Correct Answer: D

  A hierarchy of authority requires people to be accountable to their superiors in the hierarchy.

• Question 320:

  In what form of organization does an employee report to multiple managers?

  A. Bureaucracy.

  B. Matrix.

  C. Departmental.

  D. Mechanistic.

  Correct Answer: B

  A matrix organization project management) is characterized by vertical and horizontal lines of authority. The project manager borrows specialists from line functions as needed. This manager's authority is limited to the project, and the specialists will otherwise report to the line managers.