Two attempts and still cannot pass Principle of Management CLEP...

[dcan]

Ok so I got a 75 today, not bad. Took about 45 minutes.

Here's what I recall of the breakdown, all approximate:

10% Marketing (i.e. I knew it from the Marketing CLEP)
10% HR & Labor Relations
10% Leadership, Power, & Authority
10% Theory (esp. Hawthorne, just beat a dead horse already)
20% Organizational Structure & Communication (i.e. divisional structure, communication lines, etc)

Study guides: Very old 1992 management textbook, Cliff's Notes site, and IONA College Principles of Management audio course on iTunesU. Plus I already have a background in management.

The questions were less like the expected "Who is considered the head of the Behavioral School?" and more like "If Jane wanted to increase productivity in her workcenter, her best approach would be to (a) flog them (b) offer them more money © consider job enlargement (d) pay more attention to the workers."

If you understand the theories you can reason through it like this:

(a) This is coercive power and is much less effective, since leadership is the art of getting people to want to do what you want them to do.
(b) This is more of a hygiene/satisfier and not a motivator.
© This may make them more interested, but not necessarily more productive.
(d) Let's beat that dead horse again. And again. And again.

So if you understand the Hawthorne Studies you know the answer. Of course this is a made up question, but you get the idea.

I'd say probably half the questions were like this. Don't just regurgitate, understand and apply.

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