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Introduction To Sociology 4th Edition Ritzer Test Bank
Introduction To Sociology 4th Edition Ritzer Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Due to the explosive growth of digital communication, micro-level and macro-level
phenomena ______.
A. are more segregated
B. are more intertwined
C. are reducing the expansion of globalization
D. are more separate from individual influence
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Organizations, Societies, and the Global Relationships
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Societies are filled with ______, which are collectives purposely constructed to
achieve particular ends.
A. governances
B. organizations
C. formations
D. systems
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
5. Capitalism and bureaucracy best exemplify what Max Weber meant by ______.
A. rationalization
B. ethnomethodology
C. systemization
D. organization
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. According to Max Weber, a(n) ______ is a model in which the degree of rationality is
greatly exaggerated.
A. prototype
B. ideal type
C. real type
D. model type
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. John is a boss who is very stern with his employees, and they follow every command
he gives to them. John is someone who exemplifies ______.
A. weak domination
B. strong domination
C. rational-legal authority
D. strong subordination
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
8. The president and a police officer are examples of people who have positions of
______.
A. legitimate authority
B. rational-legal authority
C. charismatic authority
D. rationalized dominance
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Hard
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Hard
13. The order of succession to the British throne is an example of ______ authority.
A. rational
B. charismatic
C. organizational
D. traditional
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Hard
15. The fact that rationality is limited by the instabilities and conflicts that exist in most
organizations is referred to as ______.
A. limiting rationality
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
B. political rationality
C. technical rationality
D. bounded rationality
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Easy
16. ______ is a problem in bureaucracies where rules are required needlessly and often
slow progress or increase amount or complexity of work.
A. Red tape
B. The Peter Principle
C. Bounded rationality
D. Informationalism
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Easy
17. Joan calls a computer company for assistance and is transferred to several people.
After she is on the phone for thirty additional minutes, she is disconnected. What has
Joan just experienced?
A. the Peter Principle
B. red tape
C. legal-rational authority
D. informationalism
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Easy
18. Peter works in a college office. He spends most of his day sending back forms to
students when they have filled a form out incorrectly, even when it contains all the
information needed to complete the task. Peter has a ______ personality.
A. charismatic
B. traditional
C. bureaucratic
D. tedious
Ans: C
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
19. Daniel works for a company where employees ask each other for guidance in
certain situations rather than ask their supervisors. This company is an example of a(n)
______ bureaucracy.
A. informal
B. formal
C. collegial
D. ideal
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Hard
20. When a country is ruled by a small group of people at the top who exercise a great
deal of power, often obtained through illegitimate means, this is referred to as a(n)
______.
A. capitalist dictatorship
B. informal bureaucracy
C. oligarchy
D. democracy
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Hard
21. Which of these accurately describes how a problem has changed from the past in
the digital age?
A. People are expected to do less than they did in the past.
B. Employees used to be monitored less carefully than they are now.
C. Interaction can be more easily controlled in a centralized way.
D. There used to be a problem with too little information in writing; now there is the
danger of too much in written form.
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
25. Which of these sociological concepts address the new realities of organizations
supplementing bureaucracies?
A. informal organizations; anomic organizations
B. gendered organizations; network organizations
C. atomic organizations; classed organizations
D. nature versus nurture
Ans:
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
26. According to the examples provided in the book, which of these organizations has
faced major problems in conforming to contemporary realities?
A. the NFL
B. Ford
C. Netflix
D. Microsoft
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Other Problems in Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium
27. Women face the ______, in which they cannot get promoted past a certain level in
bureaucratic organizations despite their qualifications.
A. glass ceiling
B. glass escalator
C. pink elevator
D. pink ceiling
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Gendered Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium
28. Sexual harassment can consist of many types of unwanted sexual attention such as
jokes, remarks, or sexual advances, but in order to be illegal, ______.
A. it must come from a high-ranking man to a lower ranking woman
B. it must be offensive not just to the victim but to the workplace culture as a whole
C. it must be recurrent or severe enough to create a hostile workplace
D. it must directly influence someone’s pay or promotion
Ans: C
Learning Objective 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Other Problems in Organizations
Difficulty Level: Hard
29. Companies, such as Dell, have organizations located in other counties besides the
United States, where customer service questions are handled. This is referred to as
______.
A. downsizing
B. offshore outsourcing
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
C. informationalism
D. McDonaldization
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Globalization and Organizations
Difficulty Level: Hard
30. Many people are now filling out their own tax forms and printing out their own
postage stamps at home. The people who are doing so are referred to as ______.
A. consumers
B. producers
C. prosumers
D. orientators
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Contemporary Changes in Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
31. One strategy of companies who use offshore outsourcing for customer service calls
for U.S. customers is “national identity management.” This means ______.
A. helping to educate people on calls about their home country
B. selecting national identities with accents that sound trustworthy to Americans
C. cross marketing products to the outsource country and the United States
D. posing as an American on calls, complete with an adopted American hometown and
Americanized name
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Globalization and Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
32. McDonaldized systems in the realm of consumption must be more ______ than the
traditional bureaucracy.
A. bureaucratic
B. flexible
C. customer-friendly
D. ruthless
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: McDonaldization and Bureaucratic Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium
33. The network organization came into existence during which decade?
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
A. 1960s
B. 1970s
C. 1980s
D. 1990s
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Network Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
34. Many factories and companies are linked through knowledge and information. This
is referred to as ______.
A. knowledge inferential
B. information sourcing
C. informationalism
D. intelligence systems
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Informationalism
Difficulty Level: Easy
36. A ______ is a complex pattern of social relationships that is bounded in space and
persists over time.
A. society
B. social structure
C. bureaucracy
D. hierarchy
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
39. People who live in a large city, such as Los Angeles, may feel a sense of being
disconnected from each other. People living in these cities, according to the text, would
be living in a ______.
A. gemeinschaft society
B. gazelle-like society
C. gesellschaft society
D. primitive society
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Medium
40. As a leading ______ theorist, Talcott Parsons had a ______ view of macro-level
societies.
A. symbolic interaction; constructionist
B. conflict; negative
C. structural functionalist; positive
D. ethnomethodologist; dismissive
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
41. Ulrich Beck argued that we have moved from an industrial society to a(n) ______
society.
A. unequal
B. risk
C. oligarchic
D. technocratic
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy
43. ______ is the major reason there are greater risks to society than ever before.
A. McDonaldization
B. Cultural imperialism
C. Globalization
D. Informationalism
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy
44. The Irish are an example of a ______, as they are a large group of people who are
linked through common descent.
A. nation-state
B. state
C. race
D. nation
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Global Relationships
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
45. Japan and Israel are examples of ______ because they encompass a population
that defines itself by its political organizational structure and its people.
A. nations
B. states
C. oligarchies
D. nation-states
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Global Relationships
Difficulty Level: Medium
46. According to the text, the U.S. government is an example of a(n) ______.
A. state
B. nation
C. nation-state
D. oligarchy
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Global Relationships
Difficulty Level: Medium
48. According to Arjun Appadurai, there are fluid, irregular, and variable global flows
that produce different results throughout the world. Appadurai calls these ______.
A. landscapes
B. globules
C. glo-flows
D. gesellschaft societies
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Landscapes
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
49. During times of financial depression, which type of landscape might be the main
focus of economists?
A. ethnoscapes
B. financescapes
C. ideoscapes
D. mediascapes
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Landscapes
Difficulty Level: Medium
50. Some countries distribute negative information about other countries, hoping to gain
favor in the eyes of the public. This is an example of a(n) ______.
A. ideoscape
B. mediascape
C. technoscape
D. financescape
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Landscapes
Difficulty Level: Medium
51. The most important and obvious barriers to global flows are constructed by ______.
A. nation-states
B. nations
C. continents
D. corporations
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Global Barriers
Difficulty Level: Medium
52. Which of these defines the main difference between Microsoft and Linux?
A. One is proprietary and only people at the company work on it; the other one is open-
source and anyone in the world can contribute to it.
B. One is only sold in the United States and the other one is sold globally.
C. One can be used on any device and the other one only works on laptops.
D. One is priced for individual use and the other one is only for commercial use.
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
True/False
1. Organizations refer to collectives, which are purposely constructed to achieve
particular ends.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. The president of the United States is someone who exhibits traditional authority.
Ans: F
Learning Objective 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Medium
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
6. The leaders of cults often have outgoing and engaging personalities and therefore
are referred to as people who exert charismatic authority.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. Catch-22 comes from the name of a novel that was about how rules in bureaucracies
are written to be contradictory, such that it is impossible to follow one rule without
breaking another.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. Theories of glass ceilings for women have been based on studies of American
organizations and are unlikely to apply globally.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Medium
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
11. Cases of sexual harassment often get widespread publicity, leading to overreporting
of sexual harassment to company management.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Medium
12. Contemporary organizations have been forced to become more flexible and agile
than the ideal type of a bureaucracy.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Contemporary Changes in Organizations
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. Bureaucratization is mostly invisible to the consumers of the goods and services it
produces.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: McDonaldization and Bureaucratic Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. Talcott Parsons was a structural functionalist who had a very positive view of macro-
level societies.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
18. Spaces of places are settings that have well-defined borders, can limit flows of all
kinds, and are likely to have some solidity.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Spaces of Flows
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Spaces of flows are likely to have clear and defensible borders and are permanent
in nature.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Spaces of Flows
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. Some of the most important and most obvious barriers to global flows are those
constructed by nation-states, but nation-states have been losing control over a number
of global flows.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Controlling Global Flows and Mobilities
Difficulty Level: Easy
Essay
1. Discuss three components of a bureaucracy according to Max Weber. What did
Weber mean by the term ideal type?
Ans: Varies, but should include three of the following components: Positions within the
organization have official functions and are bound by a set of rules; each office has a
sphere of competence and the authority to handle specific tasks in that sphere;
positions exist in a vertical hierarchy; positions have technical requirements, and those
who hold those offices must undergo the needed training; those who occupy positions
do not own the equipment needed for the job, as it is provided by the company; those
who occupy particular offices--CEOs, for example--do not get to keep them when they
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
leave, as they remain part of the organization; everything with any formal importance is
documented in writing. An ideal type is a pure type of a category within a conceptual
system. A pure example of an ideal type is not expected to be found in the real world,
but typologies with such clearly defined categories help to simplify understanding of the
real world.
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Bureaucracies
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Identify and explain the characteristics of the three types of authority in Max Weber’s
theory of authority. What differentiates the types of authority? Give an example of each
type.
Ans: Varies, but should include rational-legal authority, traditional authority, and
charismatic authority. Types are differentiated by how they achieve legitimacy.
Rational-legal is legitimized based on legal rules or rights. The U.S. president is an
example. Traditional authority draws its legitimacy from long-running traditions. An
example is the queen of England. Charismatic authority draws its legitimacy from the
exceptional charisma of the leader. Gandhi is an example.
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Discuss the concept of landscapes according to Arjun Appadurai and list three types
of landscapes.
Ans: Correct answer varies, but should include a definition of landscapes or “scapes”:
fluid, irregular, and variable global flows that produce different results throughout the
world. Types could be any of these five: Ethnoscapes allow movement of groups such
as tourists and refugees. Technoscapes include mechanical technologies that move
around the world, such as Internet or material goods such as refrigerators.
Financescapes are how financial instruments allow huge sums of money or other items
of high economic value such as gold or precious metals to move around the world
swiftly. Mediascapes are how information and images are transmitted around the world
and include old-fashioned media such as newspapers as well as new forms such as
YouTube.com. Ideoscapes are political ideologies that may include propaganda in
written or image form that either supports one idea or tries to disparage another
unfavorable view. It is how these items move around the world’s mediascapes and
technoscapes.
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Landscapes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
4. According to the text, formal organizations have some inadequacies, but informal
organization can help compensate for these. What is informal organization? After
defining this term, name one way that informal organization might compensate for
formal organizations.
Ans: Answer varies, but needs to include a definition of informal organization as how
organizations actually work, as opposed to the way they are supposed to work based on
their formal rules and regulations. Some ways informal organization can compensate for
formal organization inadequacies include useful actions that employees can take that
are ignored by the formal organization, such as students offering advice on faculty
members who make the best (and worst) advisers. Another example from the text is
solving problems without putting things down in writing in order to avoid the time-
consuming documentation or the rigid protocols required once it is in writing.
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. Manuel Castells argued that there was a change in the flow of places over time,
saying we have gone from “spaces of places” to “spaces of flows.” Define these two
terms, and provide one example of each.
Ans: Correct answer varies, but should include a definition of spaces of places as
settings that have well-defined borders and can limit flows across borders, have solidity,
and are long-lasting, such as walled cities in the Middle Ages, to spaces of flows,
which do not have clear, defensible borders and have fluidity. An example is an airport.
Other examples are fast-food restaurants and shopping malls.
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. The text suggests that organizations that seek to control global flows face competition
from organizations that are fluid and open. What is meant by this? Provide an example
of competition between a traditional and open organization. Give one example of criteria
that limit the effects of openness.
Ans: Varies, but should include a discussion of how open systems such as Linux (in
book), Wikipedia (in book), or Uber (not in book) are challenging traditional systems like
Microsoft, encyclopedias, or taxis, because open systems gain cheaper development
and refinement from experts by letting down the gates for participation and ownership.
Traditional systems sell their items at a high cost and are created by employees only,
but this limits the intelligence and ideas that can be drawn upon for creation or
correction. There is a limit to openness because those in lower classes or in the Global
South may not have access to Internet or computer equipment to be able to effectively
participate.
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: More Open Organizations?
Difficulty Level: Medium