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Introduction to Sociology 4th Edition

Ritzer Test Bank


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Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018

Chapter 6: Organizations, Societies, and Global


Relationships
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

2. Yahoo and the March of Dimes are examples of ______.


A. organizations
B. corporations
C. micro-level systems
D. bureaucracies
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Organizations
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

4. A(n) ______ is a highly rational and efficient organization.


A. Internet site
B. corporation
C. network
D. bureaucracy
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

Cognitive Domain: Application


Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Hard

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

9. There are three different types of authority that vary by ______.


A. what type of domination they represent
B. what makes the authority legitimate
C. how many people are subject to the authority
D. how peaceful or violent they are
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The prime minister of Canada is an example of which type of authority?


A. traditional
B. rational-legal
C. charismatic
D. bureaucratic
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

11. The Catholic pope is an example of which type of authority?


A. traditional
B. rational-legal
C. charismatic
D. bureaucratic
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018

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

12. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of which type of authority?


A. traditional
B. rational-legal
C. charismatic
D. bureaucratic
Ans: C
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

14. What is the only type of authority associated with bureaucracy?


A. traditional
B. charismatic
C. rational-legal
D. organizational
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal


organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Hard

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

Difficulty Level: Hard

22. Which of these best describes the Peter Principle?


A. The more a bureaucracy tries to be efficient, the more forms there are to fill out.
B. Never underestimate the power of the secretary.
C. Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence.
D. Work expands to fill the available time.
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Which of these best describes Parkinson’s Law?


A. The more a bureaucracy tries to be efficient, the more forms there are to fill out.
B. Never underestimate the power of the secretary.
C. Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence.
D. Work expands to fill the available time.
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Rationality and Irrationality
Difficulty Level: Medium

24. A major 20th-century theorist on bureaucracy who defined the bureaucratic


personality is ______.
A. Max Weber
B. Robert Merton
C. Talcott Parsons
D. Manuel Castells
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

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

Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.


Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Contemporary Organizational Realities
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

35. Which of the following is true regarding informationalism?


A. The new technologies are not flexible and can't adapt.
B. Technologies act on information.
C. Some organizations are not defined by networking logics.
D. The specific technologies associated with information are not merging into a highly
integrated system.
Ans: B
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

37. Which sociologist differentiated between gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies?


A. Émile Durkheim
B. Robert Merton
C. Ferdinand Töennies
D. Manuel Castells
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy

38. A very small, tight-knit neighborhood that is characterized by a strong sense of


community would be referred to as a ______.
A. gemeinschaft society
B. gesellschaft society
C. gazelle-like society
D. primitive society
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

Difficulty Level: Easy

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

42. To say we are a “risk society” means ______.


A. our main issue is risk and how to minimize or prevent it
B. we take more risks than we have in the past
C. we think of risk taking as more desirable than we have in the past
D. one society risks things for other societies
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

Difficulty Level: Medium

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

47. A characteristic of a space of place is ______.


A. it has clear defensible borders
B. it allows unlimited flows of people
C. it has settings with well-defined borders
D. people feel very disconnected there
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 6-4: Describe global social organization and global flows.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Controlling Global Flows and Mobilities
Difficulty Level: Easy

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

Difficulty Level: Easy

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

Answer Location: Global Barriers


Difficulty Level: Medium

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

2. According to Max Weber, bureaucracies are always rational organizations.


Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium

3. The development of bureaucracy is one of the defining characteristics of Western


society.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Bureaucracies
Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Potency refers to the likelihood that commands will be obeyed by subordinations.


Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Authority Structures and Bureaucracy
Difficulty Level: Easy

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

8. A customer service agent who is more interested in obtaining a customer's Social


Security number rather than helping him or her resolve a particular issue has a
bureaucratic personality.
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

9. Most bureaucratic organizations become oligarchical.


Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-1: Describe the features of bureaucracies and informal
organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Informal Organization
Difficulty Level: Hard

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

14. A network organization can be composed of several "interconnected nodes" with a


horizontal structure and fuzzy boundaries.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Characteristics of the Network Organization
Difficulty Level: Medium

15. According to Ferdinand Töennies’s criteria, the Amish community is an example of a


gesellschaft community.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy

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

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge


Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Easy

17. Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies are ideal types.


Ans: T
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Societies
Difficulty Level: Medium

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

5. According to gendered organization theorists, there are many ways that


bureaucracies do not treat all workers--especially women workers--equally. Provide two
of the reasons that the text presents to support this assertion.
Ans: Correct answer varies, but could include that work is designed for an idealized
worker, but women are also responsible for childrearing, and this is difficult to fit into the
idealized worker model. This is called “competing devotions.” Organizations may also
discriminate with or without knowing they are doing it by hiring and promoting mainly
white men over minorities and women because they are the people they are used to
seeing in high-level positions within bureaucratic hierarchies. This limitation for women
is called “the glass ceiling,” where they cannot get promoted to a higher level. By
contrast, men ride the “glass escalator” to the top because invisible forces work in their
favor to propel them past equally competent candidates. There is the “double-paned”
glass ceiling in which women face difficulty getting placed in a company’s foreign-based
offices. The “glass cage” is the idea that women are horizontally segregated--in other
words, they have a more difficult time moving across segregated parts of an
organization. There is also the “glass cliff” in which women get promoted in hard times,
but the economic situation after a quick rise may create a precarious position to hold
onto.
Learning Objective: 6-2: Discuss challenges that arise in contemporary organizations.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Gendered Organizations
Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Discuss the concepts of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft according to Ferdinand


Töennies and give an example of each.
Ans: Correct answer varies, but should include a description of gemeinschaft society
as a traditional society characterized by face-to-face relations, being rather small, and
based on intimate interaction. A really small mountain town or a native North American
Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018

tribe might be examples. By contrast, a gesellschaft society is characterized by social


relations that are impersonal, distant, and limited. They can be small or large. An
example could be a city such as Los Angeles, or it could be a workplace where people
work mostly independent of one another and then go home to their “real lives” where
they have intimate relationships. These are ideal types.
Learning Objective: 6-3: Contrast gemeinschaft and gesellschaft societies.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Societies
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

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