Provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Multiple
Choice Questions | Relevance
Regained Main Page | Graduate
MA Course
1. What does Johnson mean by "management by remote control" and how did this management concept originate? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 summaries. See Schonberger's discussion of 2nd order and 3rd order metrics some additional ideas).
2. How did American management change the production environment to satisfy the need to produce more variety? He uses the term "decouple" the line. What does this mean? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 3 summary and Johnson & Broms Notes).
3. What was the objective of each process or cost center? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 3 summary).
4. What does Johnson say is the basic fallacy of the decoupling approach? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 3 summary and Johnson & Broms Notes).
5. In Johnson’s comparison of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to modern American management practice, who do the men chained to the wall represent? (See Johnson 1990 summary and see the Lev summary for some ideas related to outsiders).
6. What do the shadows on the wall represent in terms of modern American management practice? (See Johnson 1990 summary).
7. Who do the puppeteers represent in modern management? (See Johnson 1990 summary).
8. What is above ground outside the cave in the allegory? (See Johnson 1990 summary).
9. What is outside the cave in terms of modern American management? (See Johnson 1990 summary. Is this what Schonberger refers to as 1st order metrics? See Schonberger).
10. What does the light represent in terms of modern American management? (See Johnson 1990 summary.
11. What does Johnson say are the two main differences between top down and bottom up management? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 9 summary). Is GM following Johnson's recommendations? See the Bledsoe & Ingram summary. The Schonberger summary is also relevant to the top down vs. bottom up question).
12. What is Johnson’s response to the view that ABC is the answer to becoming globally competitive? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 8 summary).
13. In Johnson’s view, are reliable product costs needed for improvement? If not what is needed? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 8 summary).
14. According to Johnson, what is the language of business today? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 10 summary).
15. How should accounting information be used in Johnson’s view? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 7 summary. Compare Johnson's ideas to the Reilly & Reilly recommendations related to a Measure Network").
16. Johnson says don’t try to eliminate non-value added activities. What does he recommend instead? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 6 summary. Compare Johnson's recommendations to Goldratt's solution).
17. Johnson also says not to manage costs. What does he recommend instead? (See Johnson 89 and the Relevance Regained Chapter 7 summaries and compare Johnson's recommendations to Goldratt's solution).
18. According to Johnson, what is the most important information needed by management? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 7 summary).
19. What is Johnson’s attitude towards cost behavior analysis and the related concept of break-even or cost-volume-profit analysis? (See the Johnson 89 summary).
20. According to Johnson, do products cause costs? If not what does cause costs? (See the Johnson 89 summary).
21. From Johnson’s perspective, can cost be controlled by controlling output? If not how should cost be controlled? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 1 & Chapter 3 and Johnson 89 and 1990 summaries). Are companies in general doing what Johnson recommends? (See the Stivers, Covin, Hall & Smalt summary).
22. What does Johnson say that is related to the responsibility accounting concept? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 10 and Johnson 89 summaries).
23. Johnson indicates that professors must eliminate what two things from the management accounting curriculum? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 10, Johnson 89 and 90 summaries).
24. Does he mean that we should stop teaching budgeting? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 10 summary and the Johnson 88 summary). (See the Hope & Frazer summary for some related ideas).
25. Are Johnson’s views consistent with the views of Deming and Goldratt? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 1 summary).
26. What is the difference between lean production and limited production according to Ohno? (See the Relevance Regained Chapter 10 summary).
27. A number of authors promote various value measurements such as economic value added (EVA®), market value added (MVA) and Refined economic value added (REVA). What do you think Johnson's view of these measurements might be? (See the Kee, Dierks & Patel, Fera, Epstein & Young, Bacidore, Boquist, Milbourn & Thakor, Clinton & Chen and Jalbert & Landry summaries).
28. In Profit Beyond Measure Johnson describes a Toyota concept he refers to as "management by means". What is this concept? (See the Johnson & Broms, De Geus and Bonabeau and Meyer summaries).