MGT 9-12

Which of the following is a primary advantage of a centralized organization structure?

allows for quick decision making and strong leadership in crisis situations

Major changes in strategy

usually require above-average budget increases to organizational units launching new initiatives and below-average increases to remaining units.

long-term industry success can give rise to a(n)

insular, inwardly focused culture.

Change-resistant cultures encourage all the following undesirable and unhealthy behaviors, EXCEPT

executives exuding an "ends-justify-the-means" mentality in pursuing overambitious revenue and profitability targets.

A disadvantage of a simple structure reflects the

flat structure may be inadequate as the organization grows.

A company's corporate social responsibility strategy commonly does NOT include actions to

maximize returns for shareholders.

Business process reengineering involves

radical redesigning and streamlining how an activity is performed.

Which of the following statements adheres to the basic tenets of the school of ethical relativism?

What constitutes ethical or unethical behavior on the part of local businesspeople is properly governed by local ethical standards rather than the standards that prevail in other locations.

Which of the following exemplifies a decentralized organizational structure?

a company that draws on the combined intellectual capital of all its employees to outperform a command-and-control company

Which of the following receives a boost from corporate social agendas that address only social issues?

a company's reputation for corporate citizenship

Management's most powerful tool for winning employee commitment to good strategy execution and operating excellence is

a system of rewards and incentives tied tightly to the achievement of the targeted strategic and financial performance.

Company cultures that spawn an ethically corrupt or amoral work climate encourage

a tendency in employees to ignore "what's right" and engage in any behavior they think they can get away with.

The strongest signs that management is truly committed to installing a new culture include all the following, EXCEPT

appointing only insiders to high-profile positions.

Unethical and greed-driven cultures

are predominant in companies that are run by executives driven by arrogance, ego gratification, and an "ends-justify-the-means" mentality in pursuing overambitious revenue and profitability targets.

According to the school of ethical universalism, the most important concepts of what is right and what is wrong

are universal and transcend culture, society, and religion.

One of the most widely used and effective tools for gauging how well a company is executing pieces of its strategy entails:

benchmarking the company's performance of particular activities and business processes against "best-in-industry" performers.

An organizational structure that is common among companies pursuing some form of diversification strategy or global strategy is called a

multidivisional structure.

Socially responsible strategies that create value for customers and lower costs

can improve profits and shareholder value at the same time that they address other stakeholder concerns.

While many enterprises have used Six Sigma methods to improve the quality with which activities are performed, there is evidence that Six Sigma

can stifle innovation and creativity.

Businesses have a moral obligation to act in a socially responsible manner because

ordinary decency, civic-mindedness, and contributions to the well-being of society should be expected of any business.

Typically, key elements of corporate culture

originate with a founder or certain strong leader who articulated them as a set of business principles, company policies, operating approaches, and ways of dealing with employees, customers, vendors, shareholders, and local communities.

CSR strategies that are directed at improving a company's "triple bottom line" focus on what types of performance metrics?

economic, environmental, and social metrics

Electronic scorecards used by senior managers at some companies

gather daily or weekly statistics from different databases by inventory, sales costs, and sales trends.

Which of the following are unhealthy cultures that impede good strategy execution?

insular cultures, politicized cultures, and unethical cultures

Which of the following statements does NOT accurately describe corporate culture?

Corporate culture depends on how strongly its strategic vision is linked to the company's core values.

Which of the following accurately states the primary difference between business process engineering, TQM, and Six Sigma?

Business process engineering aims at quantum gains on the order of 30 to 50 percent or more, whereas programs like TQM and Six Sigma stress incremental progress.

Which of the following is NOT a step in the Six Sigma DMAIC process?

Adapt: adapt the different approaches in order to avoid goal conflicts.

Which of the following statements concerning benchmarking is NOT correct?

Benchmarking utilizes advanced statistical methods to improve quality by reducing defects and variability in the performance of business processes.

Which of the following is the first step that managers must perform when devising an action agenda for executing strategy?

Conduct a probing assessment of what the organization must do differently to carry out the strategy successfully.

Which of the following value chain activities is unlikely to be a primary building block in a company's organizational structure?

Critical value chain activities in automobile manufacturing include raw materials procurement, offshore sourcing, and customer service.

Which of the following is a primary disadvantage of decentralized organizational structures?

Decentralized organizational structures can impair cross-unit collaboration.

Which of the following statements does NOT describe high-performance cultures?

High-performance cultures are inwardly focused and discount the capabilities and accomplishments of rival companies.

What makes a politicized internal environment so unhealthy?

It consumes a great deal of organizational energy, often with the result that what is best for the company takes a backseat.

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of a matrix structure?

It flattens hierarchy and decreases layers of management, thereby decreasing bureaucratic costs and responding time.

Which of the following best describes the multidivisional structure?

It is a decentralized structure consisting of a set of operating divisions organized along business, customer, product, or geographic lines, and central corporate headquarters.

Which of the following statements accurately describes the term "best practice"?

It is a method of performing an activity that has been shown to consistently deliver superior results compared to other methods.

Which of the following is NOT one of the most important nonmonetary approaches companies can use to enhance motivation?

Provide employees with up-to-date information technology that they can use to perform their daily task to the employer's satisfaction.

Which of the following perspectives on structuring the work effort is NOT correct?

Set up an "ideal" organizational arrangement to accommodate various situational idiosyncrasies.

Which of the following is NOT a reason why the exercise of social and environmental responsibility may be good business as well? Multiple Choice Opportunities for revenue enhancement may also come from CSR and environmental sustainability strategies. Well-conceived CSR strategies and sustainable business practices are in the best long-term interests of shareholders. A strong commitment to socially responsible behavior reduces the risk of reputation-damaging incidents. Shifting environmental and other social costs associated with a company's activities onto society as a whole can reap large short-term profits. Correct Such actions can lead to increased buyer patronage.

Shifting environmental and other social costs associated with a company's activities onto society as a whole can reap large short-term profits.

Which of the following statements about total quality management (TQM) is NOT correct?

TQM aims at a one-time quantum improvement, while continuous improvement programs like Six Sigma aim at ongoing incremental improvements.

Which of the following statements is accurate concerning a company's environmental sustainability strategy?

The environmental strategy consists of its actions to protect the environment, provide for the longevity of natural resources, and maintain ecological support systems for future generations.

Which of the following is a major drawback of ethical relativism?

The adoption of ethical relativism can be dangerous and might lead to the conclusion that if a country's culture is accepting of bribery, environmental degradation, and exposing workers to dangerous conditions, then so much the worse for honest people, environmental protection, and safe working conditions.

According to the triple bottom line, which of the following statements is NOT accurate?

The term planet refers to the company's overriding legal obligation to incorporate protection of the environment into its mission.

Which of the following is a condition that does NOT necessarily give rise to unethical business strategies and behavior?

confusion over local ethical standards that conflict with those of the company

Which of the following is a hallmark of adaptive corporate cultures?

There is a high willingness on the part of organizational members to accept change and take on the challenge of introducing and executing new strategies.

Which of the following is an advantage of having well-conceived, state-of-the-art information and operating systems?

They enable better strategy execution and strengthen organizational capabilities.

Which of the following statements about incentives and rewards is NOT correct?

They serve primarily to improve the company's image in the eyes of the public.

Which of the following is NOT a reason the strategy execution process for new strategic initiatives is dependent on a company's ability to marshal adequate resources?

Tight budget control is management's most powerful tool for first-rate strategy execution.

To win employees' sustained, energetic commitment to the strategy execution process, management must

be resourceful in designing and using motivational incentives.

One of the big policy-making issues concerns

what activities need to be rigidly prescribed and what activities ought to allow room for independent action on the part of the empowered personnel.

One of Johan's responsibilities is to ensure proficient strategy execution within the company. In this regard, which of the following should Johan consider his most critical task?

ensuring that strategy-supportive resources and capabilities are in place

Which of the following is NOT a type of data commonly tracked by a company's information systems?

ethical conduct data

Cultures that tend to support good strategy execution include

high-performance and adaptive cultures.

The first step in fixing a problem culture is for top management to

identify facets of the present culture that are conducive to good strategy execution and those that are not.

Which of the following managerial tasks is NOT a principal part of the strategy execution process?

implementing a management development plan to groom future executives

Regardless of the organization's size and whether implementation involves sweeping or minor changes, the most important leadership trait is

knowing what to do and how to do it, while understanding the circumstances of the organization and the requirements for effective strategy execution.

The guidelines for designing an incentive compensation system that will help drive successful strategy execution include

making the financial incentives a major, not minor, piece of the total compensation package.

Which of the following defines the problem of short-termism?

managers focusing excessively on short-term performance objectives at the expense of long-term strategic objectives

Claire is establishing lines of authority and reporting relationships within the finance department in her company. Which of the following organization-building actions is Claire undertaking?

structuring the organization and work effort

Business ethics can be defined as

the application of ethical principles and standards to the actions and decisions of business organizations and the conduct of their personnel.

Which of the following statements about matching organizational structure to strategy execution is NOT correct?

Functional structures are common among companies pursuing some form of diversification strategy.

Which of the following statements does NOT accurately describe sustainability? Multiple Choice Sustainable business practices are those capable of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the world's ability to meet future needs. Sustainability requires that shareholders be prepared to accept lower returns to support environmental protection. Correct The term sustainability is used in a variety of ways and often is synonymous with corporate social responsibility. A company's environmental sustainable strategy consists of its deliberate actions to protect the environment, provide for the longevity of natural resources, maintain ecological support systems for future generations, and guard against ultimate endangerment of the planet. Often, sustainability concerns a firm's relationship to the environment and its use of natural resources.

Sustainability requires that shareholders be prepared to accept lower returns to support environmental protection.

Technology companies, software companies, and Internet-based companies are good illustrations of organizations with

adaptive cultures.

Which of the following is a common characteristic of unhealthy corporate cultures?

counterproductive cultural traits that adversely impact the work climate and company performance

Which of the following provides greater task specialization?

departmental structures, unitary structures, or U-forms

How can policies and procedures facilitate good strategy execution?

providing top-down guidance about how certain things need to be done, helping ensure consistency in strategy-critical activities, and promoting a work climate that facilitates strategy execution

Practices companies use to recruit, train, and retrain the most capable people they can find involve all of the following EXCEPT

putting employees through short-term training programs, but focusing on the top 10 percent and providing them with challenging, interesting, and skill-stretching assignments.

Which of the following defines a network structure?

the arrangement linking a number of independent organizations involved in some common undertaking, with one firm typically in a more central role

Which of the following is NOT one of the chief factors that defines a company's corporate culture?

the attractiveness and the competitive strength of the industry the company is operating in

Which of the following is an intangible or invisible cost that companies incur when ethical wrongdoing is disclosed? Multiple Choice administrative costs associated with ensuring future compliance legal and investigative costs incurred by the company the costs of taking corrective actions the costs of providing remedial education and ethics training to company personnel the costs of complying with often harsher government regulations

the costs of complying with often harsher government regulations

In high-performance cultures

there is a strong sense of involvement on the part of company personnel and an emphasis on individual initiative and effort.

For an enterprise to execute its strategy in truly proficient fashion and approach operating excellence

top executives must take the lead in the implementation/execution process and personally drive the pace of progress.

Enron, Countrywide Financial, and JPMorgan Chase are examples of companies whose culture became

unethical and greed-driven.

Integrated social contracts theory states that

universal ethical principles or norms are based on the collective views of multiple cultures, and societies combine to form a "social contract" that all individuals, groups, organizations and businesses in all situations have a duty to observe.

All the following are necessary in the creation of high-performance cultures, EXCEPT

managers must restrict collaboration with other organizational units to reduce the power of influential executives and/or coalitions among departments.

Self-dealing occurs when managers

take advantage of their position to further their own private interests rather than those of the firm.

Which of the following statements best describes the core concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Multiple Choice CSR consists of its deliberate actions to protect the environment, provide for the longevity of natural resources, maintain ecological support systems for future generations, and guard against endangering the planet. CSR is a company's duty to operate in an honorable manner, provide good working conditions for employees, encourage workforce diversity, be a good steward of the environment, and actively work to better the quality of life in the local communities and in society at large. Correct A CSR strategy is defined by the specific combination of financially beneficial activities the company opts to support, with its contributions of time, money, and other resources. CSR primarily focuses on fostering social betterment disregarding shareholder's expectations of maximum return. Incorrect CSR is the responsibility that top management has for ensuring that the company's actions and decisions are in the best interest of society at large.

CSR is a company's duty to operate in an honorable manner, provide good working conditions for employees, encourage workforce diversity, be a good steward of the environment, and actively work to better the quality of life in the local communities and in society at large.

Which of the following statements about recruiting, training, and retaining capable employees is NOT accurate?

It is important to let people to do what they do best rather than encourage them to experiment with different job functionalities.

Which of the following can help in changing a problem culture?

It takes concerted management action over a period of time to root out unconstructive behaviors and replace them with new ways of doing things.

What is the most important consideration when assembling a capable management team?

people who are clear thinkers, are capable of figuring out what needs to be done, are good at managing people, and are skilled in delivering good results