BMGT 1327 Test two study guide

Which of the following refers to a definition of an organization's fundamental purpose and its basic philosophy?

Mission

What term is used to describe a formal written declaration of the organization's mission that often includes the firm's philosophy, its primary products and markets, the intended geographic scope, and the nature of the relationships between the firm, its stakeholders, and society?

Mission statement

A decision to build a new plant, acquire another company, create a new position, enter into a strategic alliance, invest in enhancing operations, or develop a new product is a type of decision.

Non-programmed

What term is based on the idea that certain individuals or groups will be able to influence others to achieve their goals?

Political model of decision making

What term describes a technique that allows managers to visualize their businesses as a set or portfolio using certain common criteria, such as profitability or growth potential?

Portfolio analysis

What name is given to the evaluation of the organization's internal strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats associated with the business's external environment?

SWOT analysis

Which of the following refers to the decision maker's decision to choose the first alternative that appears to resolve the problem satisfactorily?

Satisficing

What name is given to those businesses that have high market shares and operate in industries experiencing major growth?

Stars

Which of the following characteristics relates to a business-level strategy?

The area of responsibility usually assigned to the divisional-level managers

If the decision making process fails, which of the following questions would normally NOT be asked to determine why it failed?

Were enough alternatives generated and considered?

Which of the following is NOT a step in the nominal group decision process?

Each idea is rank ordered by the group leader.

Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the classical model of decision making?

Emotion and stress will affect the decision making process.

Which of the following refers to the tendency to persist with a failing course of action?

Escalation of commitment

What are conglomerates?

Firms that pursue unrelated diversification strategies

In the administrative model of decision making, which of the following is NOT a characteristic of satisficing?

Managers will allow for the fact that stress and emotion inevitably affect their judgment.

What name is given to a prescriptive approach--asserting that managers are logical, rational individuals who make decisions that are in the best interests of the organization--that outlines how managers should make decisions?

Classical model of decision making

What term describes a person's faith that his or her decisions are reliable and good?

Confidence

What are non-programmed decisions?

Decisions made in response to situations that are unique, relatively unstructured, undefined, and/or of major consequence to the organization

What name is given to a business strategy in which the strategic business unit offers a unique good or service to a customer at a premium price?

Differentiation

Which of the following characteristics relates to strategic management?

All the processes an organization undertakes to develop and implement its strategic plan

Which of the following characteristics relates to the nominal group technique?

A process that involves the use of a highly structured meeting agenda and restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision making process

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a strategy?

A relatively permanent statement of mission based on constancies and stabilities in the environment

Which of the following is NOT normally considered a disadvantage of group over individual decision making?

Groups generally take less time to make a decision.

The administrative model of decision making is a descriptive approach based on the work of Nobel Prize winning economist

Herbert Simon.

Which of the following characteristics relates to bounded rationality?

The idea that people have limits to their rationality

What is meant by intuition?

The immediate comprehension that something is the case, seemingly without the use of any reasoning process or conscious analysis

What is meant by corporate strategy?

The scope and resource deployment components of strategy for the enterprise as a whole

According to the Boston Consulting Group, what are question marks?

Those businesses that are viewed positively in the sense that they are located in attractive, fast-growing markets, but for which there is a question as to their ability to compete, given their low market share

"Improving people's lives by providing gas and electric services in a sustainable way -- affordable, reliable and clean" is an example of

a mission statement.

In plain language, diversification is

acquiring other businesses.

Even when the most thorough evaluation of alternatives has been done, decision makers may end up

assigning a probability of success to each alternative.

The other side of disastrous escalation of commitment is

bailing out of a course of action too soon.

The first step in strategic planning is

determining the mission and strategic goals.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company has doubled its wind energy capacity by installing windmills and high-tech batteries to make it a "cleaner" utility company. In high-tech renewable energy, this company has a

distinctive competence.

When a manager persists in a failing course of action and discounts negative information, he or she is engaging in

escalation of commitment.

When a company fails to achieve its intended performance, it can use the strategic control process as a means of

feedback to help understand deficiencies.

One of the major advantages of the newer GE matrix for business portfolio assessment is that it

gives organizations a basis for plotting strategy.

Generally speaking, the more confident a person is

he greater his or her willingness to take risks.

In answer to the question, "Do groups or individuals make better decisions?" we can say

it depends on several factors, such as the type of task and the ability of the group members.

At even the largest and most affluent corporation, the strategic management process begins with

limited resources.

As it relates to decision making, uncertainty may be said to be the condition that exists when

little or no reliable information is available.

Generally, if the company can reliably assume that the organization and the external environment will remain relatively stable and similar to that of the recent past,

planning is much easier.

All of the following are steps in the planning process EXCEPT

request input from potential customers.

When an organization sets out to evaluate a strategy that it has implemented, it must often rely on

short-term indicators.

Intermediate goals that are more specific and that are usually written by and directed to middle-level managers are

tactical goals.

Strategic planning differs from general planning in that it focuses on

the external environment and long-term goals.

In stating a goal, the volume of sales or the extent of management training to be accomplished is

the target to be achieved

All of the following describe managers with a directive style of decision making EXCEPT

they prefer to take their time analyzing data and examining different alternatives completely before making a decision.

One of the justified criticisms of the classical model of decision making is that it is

too unrealistic and time consuming to be applied to real situations.

The effectiveness of group decision making can be enhanced by

using an appropriate group decision making technique and by how effectively the group capitalizes on the advantages and minimizes the disadvantages of group decision making.