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Test Yourself—Donna Kaluzniak
Test Yourself What Do You Know About Water and Wastewater Management?
Donna Kaluzniak
1. Per California State University at
Sacramento’s “Manage for Success – Effective Utility Leadership
Practices” (Manage for Success), when interviewing an applicant for employment, managers should structure the interview so that the candidate is speaking more than half the time by answering what type of questions?
a. Questions about how the candidate spends their personal time. b. Questions about work experience that elicit a yes or no answer. c. Questions that are open-ended, dealing with the candidate’s work experience. d. Questions about a candidate’s family.
2. Per “Manage for Success,” what would be an acceptable pre-employment inquiry or statement during the job interview?
a. Have you ever been arrested? b. Do you have any physical disabilities? c. Do you attend religious services on
Sundays? d. What languages do you read, write, or speak fluently?
3. Per “Manage for Success,” what type of management style is defined as, “The manager maintains a nonthreatening, regular presence in employee work areas, personally communicating with the employees on work items of mutual interest and or concern.”
a. Management by Development b. Management by Communication c. Management by Expertise d. Management by Walking Around
4. Per “Manage for Success,” which management assessment program is a voluntary American Water Works
Association (AWWA) benchmarking program to help utilities achieve total quality performance in all areas of their operations?
a. Environmental Management System (EMS) b. Management Assessment Profile (MAP) c. QualServe d. Six Sigma
5. Per “Manage for Success,” decisions can be classified based on their purpose or the level of impact to the organization.
What decisions are described as those that set, change, or directly affect the objectives, resources, and policies of the organization, and affect the utility’s mission, vision, and goals?
a. Management control decisions b. Operational decisions c. Strategic decisions d. Transactional decisions
6. Per the Water Effective Utility
Management website, the Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector
Utilities describe desired outcomes that are applicable to all water and wastewater utilities. One of the ten attributes, “Ensures utility leadership and staff work together to anticipate and avoid problems,” would be described as
a. Employee Leadership and
Development. b. Operational Optimization. c. Operational Resiliency. d. Infrastructure Stability.
7. Per the Water Effective Utility
Management website, there are five keys to management success:
Leadership, Strategic Business
Planning, Organizational Approaches,
Measurement, and
a. Financial Assessment. b. Employee Recruitment and Retention. c. Continual Improvement Management
Framework. d. Community Sustainability. 8. Per the Water Effective Utility
Management website, there are two general approaches to performance measurement: benchmarking and
a. environmental management systems. b. internal performance measurement. c. target completion measurement. d. statistical quality control.
9. Per “Manage for Success,” the first step in developing managerial technical skills is understanding how and why the facility was designed. Managers must then ensure that it operates the way it was designed by developing a formalized
a. operating protocol (OP). b. process control program (PCP). c. troubleshooting guide (TG). d. standard operating procedure (SOP).
10. Per “Manage for Success,” the selection and scheduling of multi-year physical improvements, such as the phased replacement of wastewater pumping stations, is
a. a capital expenditure. b. capital improvement planning. c. part of the operating budget. d. strategic planning.
Answers on page 86
References used for this quiz:
• Campbell, Dan and Cherniak, Mike.
California State University, Sacramento.
“Manage for Success – Effective Utility
Leadership Practices.” 1st Edition, 2005. • Effective Utility Management
Collaborative Effort Website. Effective
Utility Management. https://www.watereum.org/
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