Business Management Exam 1

The basic tenets of capitalism were set forth in a well-known book, The Wealth of Nations, written by

Adam Smith.

Which of the following refers to using resources in a way that produces a desired result?

Effectively

All the following are referred to as industrialized nations EXCEPT

Mexico

What name is given to the obligation a business assumes to maximize its positive impact and minimize its negative impact on society?

Social responsibility

What name is given to the political and economic agreement among the countries of Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Paraguay?

Southern Common Market

Which of the following refers to a person or group that can affect, or is affected by, an organization's goals or the means to achieve those goals?

Stakeholder

What is the name given to degree to which a firm understands and addresses stakeholder demands?

Stakeholder orientation

Which of the following refer to a partnership formed to create competitive advantage on a worldwide basis?

Strategic alliance

What is meant by consumerism?

The activities undertaken by independent individuals, groups, and organizations to protect their rights as consumers.

If you manage people using a traditional method of strong direction and tight control, you probably believe in the management assumptions of

Theory X.

Two major automobile manufacturers enter into an agreement to jointly produce a new subcompact car. They are using the interactive technique known as

alliances.

A tariff that is based on the value of an item describes

an ad valorem tariff.

When a manager engages in activities that involve interacting with others who may be external or internal to the orginization, and at the same or different level as the manager, he or she is preforming

an interpersonal role.

When Reebok has some of its athletic shoes produced by a Korean company, but the Reebok name still appears on the shoes, this illustrates

contract manufacturing.

The so-called "Protestant ethic" held that

hard work and self-denial would lead to a better afterlife.

Drucker predicted that would become increasingly important in the future, a prediction that became reality in the twenty-first century.

knowledge workers

The phrase caveat emptor means

let buyer beware.

The major timber companies in Oregon ask for a meeting with their state senators to persuade them to increase the timber-cutting quota in the Oregon forests. They are using the interactive technique known as

lobbying.

In terms of the organization and it's resources, managers are individuals who

make decisions about the organization's resources.

In evaluating criticisms of Taylor's system of scientific management, the evidence is that

many of his ideas, such as precise measurement, remain in use today.

Compounding the waste disposal problem is the fact that more then 50 percent of all solid waste is comprised of, which do not decompose.

plastic goods

When an industry is profitable, firms in the industry must be alert to

potential new competitors.

According to the text, many foreign nations have laws that are different from those in the United States, including all of the following EXCEPT

prohibition of foreign investment.

Which of the following characteristics relates to countertrade agreements?

Exporting that involves bartering products for other products instead of for currency.

Which of the following refers to all of the factors outside the organization that may affect the managers' actions?

External environment

When confronted with an ethical issue, the manager weighs the costs and benefits of the consequences of all possible alternatives, and then chooses the one that benefits the most people.

Utilitarian

Customer surveys, economic forecasting, and trend analysis are all methods businesses use to

gather information about stakeholders.

An activity that seems to be important for the effective performance of all major management functions is

gathering and processing appropriate information.

As defined in the text, organization's are groups of individuals who work together to achieve

goals and objectives important to them.

Social responsibility is the obligation a business has to

maximize its positive impact on society and minimize its negative impact.

A set of principles that describes what a person believes is the right way to behave is called

moral philosophy.

Although your employees are sometimes rude, abrasive, loud, and obnoxious, you unfailingly treat them with courtesy and respect. You have learned in your childhood to turn the other cheek. Your courteous behavior is the result of your

moral philosophy.

For a company to maintain ethical behavior, its policies, rules, and standards to encourage ethical decision making

must be enforced by rewards for proper behavior and punishments for unacceptable behavior.

When a number of Chinese firms were found guilty of defects related to lead paint in toys, an ethical issue arose in the area of

operations and communications.

You lay off two-thirds of the middle managers at your Michigan Marvelous Marshmallow Manufacturing planet, so you will be leaner and meaner and more competitive. The technique you have used to interact more effectively with your environment is

organizational restructuring.

Chester fires all of his bartenders and replaces them with a computerized drink dispenser operated by a busperson. Chester has used the interactive technique known as

orginization always restructuring.

You are the executive Vice President of Banana Computer, Inc. you have a competitive machine, but your major competitor has the benefit of a large scale production, making its products less expensive to manufacture. In order to remain price-competitive, you send your parts and sub assemblies to Mexico for the final stage of assembly, thereby taking advantage of

outsourcing.

What is the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

A global association of member countries that promotes free trade

Which of the following characteristics relates to business ethics?

Principles, values, and codes of conduct the define acceptable behavior in business

What name is given to managers who schedule and monitor the work process that turns out the goods or services of the orginization?

Production and operations managers

What is meant by entropy?

The tendency of systems to deteriorate or break down over time

What is meant by leading?

Influencing others' activities to achieve set goals

You are the operations manager of the North American division of a Brazilian soft-drink makes. It's newest product is Yukka Coke, which is flavored with an extract of the yucca plant. The new drink has received less than enthusiastic reception. What would you advice?

Adopt a more appealing name.

Which of the following characteristics relates to the nature of the management environment?

All of the factors that affect the operation of the organization

Which of the following characteristics relates to the U.K. bribery Act?

All organizations with business operations in the United Kingdom can be held liable for bribery, even if the bribery did not occur within the United Kingdom.

Which of the following is NOT a basic tenet of capitalism as set forth in The Wealth of Nations?

All rights of ownership are assigned to the government, the church, and the wealthy few.

Which of the following agencies does NOT operate in the regulatory element of the political-legal dimensions?

American Red Cross

Which of the following is NOT a basic stake in an organization?

An environmental interest, possessed by outside groups

Your boss again asks you to complete three projects simultaneously, but you tell him the last time he did this you got a headache. You ask him to assign you one at a time, and he agrees. What specific management skill have you I displayed?

Assertiveness

Which of the following is NOT a weakness of the rationalization, "I was just following orders" that employees sometimes use to justify unethical conduct?

Authority figures in the organization are s powerful influence.

You have an employee-of-the-year award in your insurance business for the man or woman who consistently has the best attitude and gives the best service to your customers, as measured by their compliments. Which approach to management is your award based on?

Behavioral

You are the manager of the Fernwood Flailers, a professional baseball team. Feckless Fred, your slugger, has not hit a home run in his last 200 at bats. You call him in, discuss his home-run drought, and show him an inspirational videotape of Ken Griffey Jr., hitting long home runs. You are

Both leading and controlling.

What term describes the physical facilities that support a country's economic activities such as railroads, highways, ports, airfields, utilities and power plants, schools, hospitals, communications systems, and commercial distribution centers?

Infrastructure

What term describes an approach to management theories that emphasizes identifying the key variables in each management situation, understanding the relationships amount these variables, and recognizing the complex system of cause and effect that exists in each and every managerial situation?

Contingency approach

The manager of the Boston Red Sox notices that his star, Fenway Fred, has gone hitless in his last ten at bats. Which management function is he performing?

Controlling

Your managerial planning group meets for a happy harmonious hour, under your direction, and you decide on a price penetration strategy for your new blender. What specific management skill have you used?

Cooperativeness

Which of the following refers to those who purchase an organization's goods and/or services?

Customers

The period of time between 600 A.D. and 1500 A.D. is often described by historians as the

Dark Ages.

You develop a new method of assembling cardboard boxes at Carlton Cardboard Box Company that requires two new computerized box-gliders but saves the firm a thousand square feet of space. What general managerial role category do your actions fall into?

Decisional

judge an action by whether it infringes on individual rights or universal principles, such as the Golden Rule, equality, or justice.

Deontologists

You own and operate your own hamburger stand. One of your employees makes the hamburger patties, a second grills them, a third slaps them in buns and a forth sells them to customers. You are utilizing what management concept or theory?

Division of labor, or specialization

Which of the following is NOT a significant or high barrier to entry in an industry?

Existing businesses operating very inefficiently

You are working for a U.S? Oil producer in the tiny oil-rich kingdom of Freedonia. It is the local business practice to provide payoffs in cash and expensive gifts to government officials for the rights to extract crude oil for export. To engage in this practice would be a violation of the

Foreign Corruptions Practices Act.

You watch a painter paint a house, and you videotape her movements. Later, you make specific recommendations for reducing her painting motions so she can be more efficient, and you also design a moveable ladder for her to reduce fatigue. You are a disciple of

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

The fact that U.S. businesses now frequently engage in international trading relations is an illustration of what dimension of the general environment?

Global

Which of the following refers to the market value of a nation's total output of goods and services for a given period?

Gross domestic product (GDP)

You fabricate a fabulous flivver that flies and floats with flair and finesse. It is the finest and fastest flying and floating flivver ever. Despite its fine safety record, both flying and floating, one day you tell your 40 flivver-fabricating employees that the time has come to install seat belts in the fabulous flivver. You do this because you

Hope to head of increased government regulation.

Which of the following statements about business ethics is false?

It concerns the impact of a business's activities on society.

Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor both advocated which of the following approaches to management?

It should be more humanistic.

The poorer and less economically advanced, less-developed countries, characterized by their low per capital income, include all of the following EXCEPT

Japan

What name is given to individuals who work primarily with information or who develop and use knowledge in the workplace?

Knowledge workers

The functions of a trading company include all of the following EXCEPT

Licensing company names, products, and patents.

Which of the following refers to a systematic statement, based on observations, of how the management process might best occur, given stated underlying principles?

Management theory

Which of the following characteristics relates to Human Resources managers?

Managers concerned with developing and carrying out systems that are used to make decisions about employees such as selection, training, and compensation

What are loser or first-line managers?

Managers concerned with the direct production of items or delivery of service

The religious movement that argued that each person should consider himself or herself a member of the "elect" was led by

Martin Luther and John Calvin

At the age of 45, having made your fortune in the hamburger business, you sell the business, retire, and then take up full-time the hobby you love: painting. Whose theory or concept best describes your decision?

Maslow's self-actualization

When you verbally tell your work team that the job needs to be completed by noon, and they all agree this means 12:00 p.m., you have used which of the following specific management skills?

Oral communication

What term describes an international economic orginization comprised of 30 countries that accept the basic principle of free-market economies and represent democracy, and that recommend and promote the well-being of consumers and societies across the world?

Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Which of the following is NOT a main component of an organization's culture?

Organizations size

What is global dimension?

Pertaining to the general environment, those factors in other countries that affect the organization

What term describes determining what the organization will specifically accomplish and deciding how to accomplish these goals?

Planning

Within the general environment, which of the following refers to the nature of the relationship between various areas of government and the organization's?

Political-legal dimension

What name is given to an interpretation of the purpose of life, stating that, instead of merely waiting on earth for release into the next world, people should pursue an occupation and engage in high levels of worldly activity so that they can fulfill their calling?

Protestant ethic

The all-expenses-paid trip to Belgium that Colorado-based sustainable brewery New Belgium offers to 5-year employees is an example of an organization's

Rites and rituals.

What term best describes goods or services that may be used in place of those furnished by a given business?

Substitutes

has become a leading issue in the 21st century as both business and public acknowledge the damage done to the environment by past generations.

Sustainability

Which of the following was NOT a characteristic of the "productivity problem" in the early twentieth century?

The fundamental inefficiency of standardized mass-production techniques

Which of the following characteristics relates to the division of labor?

The idea of breaking an entire job into its component parts and assigning each specific task an individual worker; also called a specialization

What is an embargo?

The suspension of trade in a particular product by the government.

You are the Vice President of the sales of Walker Shoe Corp., manufacturer and marketer of high quality durable shoes. You would like to gain a foothold in the developing market in the country of Bengala, but lack the resources and expertise. The Begalese government has made an offer to share the cost and operation of the project. This is an example of

a joint venture.

Like many of the early scientific management theorists and management writers, Henry Towne was

an engineer.

The consumers of Enviroconscious, a Midwest City, demand a reduction in solid waste in their community, since the landfill is 90 percent full and leaking toxins into their water supply. They protest, however, when s recycling program increases their garbage pickup costs by 25 percent. This is an example of

an environmental tradeoff.

You are a kid who loves cookies, and your parents are gone for at least an hour. The cookie jar is full and is within easy reach on the shelf. Like every cookie-loving kid in the world, you can recognize

an opportunity.

When John Scully, former CEO of Apple Computer, said, "The issue is how do I get all the information I want without getting all the other junk that is out there," he was talking about

appropriate information processing.

Mintzberg's description of the roles that managers actually preform is probably most valuable because it is

based on observation and very specific activities.

Understanding the Arab businessmen tend to stand face to face with the object of their conversation reveals the important of knowing another culture's use of

body language.

In analyzing the external environment, most organizations find that it presents

both threats and opportunities.

All of the following are arguments in favor of social responsibility EXCEPT

businesses may lose their focus on profit-making.

When a manager reasons well, processes information intelligently, and evaluates which strategic option is potentially most profitable, he or she is displaying

conceptual skills.

The night Chester opened his bar for business, Pete's Tofu Hut offered a two-for-one drink special, and The Grilled Turkey expanded its "Ladies Night." They were acting as

determined competitors.

Leading is an especially complex task for managers working outside their own country for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

different styles of native dress.

The groups of managers that is concerned with the value of the assets of the organization and the wisdom of investment strategies is

finance managers.

When Henry Fayol said the management's role is to "forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate, and to control," he was stating the

functional definition of management.

An area in which businesses are beginning to take more responsibility for training and placement is with the

hard-core unemployed.

Because there are numerous suppliers of potatoes for such major fast-food chains as McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King, the suppliers

have little control over the restaurants.

Morris Cooke's unique contribution to scientific management was that he attempted to apply its theory of efficiency to

higher education, government, and the management of World War I.

The external environment is usually thought of as differing on two basic dimensions:

homogeneity and change.

In Japan, if a businessperson failed to bring a gift to a prospective client on their first meeting, he or she would be considered

impolite.

Public relations, boundary spanning, negotiations, alliances, and restructuring are all techniques an organization may use to

interact more effectively with the environment.

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, some national cultures like Japan have a very time horizon, while other countries, such as the United States, wants things to happen.

long; very quickly

You are the CEO of a money-losing lead-plating company, and you are a heavy polluter. A local EPA official tells you to begin cleaning up your pollution act, but two major stakeholders tell you to clean up your financial act. Your first priority will probably be to

make a profit.

If a Mexican plant assembles ,processes, or repairs components for a U.S. company, on which the company pays a tariff only on the value added to the product in Mexico, the Mexican plant is a

maquila.

Perhaps the most basic assumption about the nature of people in Taylor's system of scientific management is that

people are rational beings and are economically motivated.

The Sierra Club makes a major effort in Washington to pass s law banning the logging of old growth forest in Oregon through its political action committee (PAC). It is operating in the

political element of the political-legal dimension.

Some Americans argue that should be used to keep domestic wages high and unemployment low.

protective tariffs

After the "Citizens to Keep Students from Having a Good Time" group opposed the opening of Chester's bar, Chester had a

secondary stakeholder.

Your company has hired a group of 50 homeless persons as assembly-line workers. You talk to your managers about this program, and they tell you the formerly homeless workers are productive and fit in well, despite higher initial training costs. You have conducted an informal

social audit.

The translation of product names can be crucial factor in the success or failure of a foreign marketing effort because of

sociocultural differences.

When the manager of the accounting department has the knowledge to answer his employees' questions about current tax regulations, he is displaying

technical skills.

A reality or fact of life in many corporations is that

the CEO manipulates the board of directors.

Electronic business (e-business) involves achieving management goals through the use of

the internet.

Your fellow employees regularly take home company supplies such as paper, tape, and glue for their personal use. Although you feel it is wrong to do so, you begin taking home company supplies too. The strong influence on your behavior is

the overall moral climate of your organization.

The decline of slavery after the fall of the Roman Empire was largely due to the fact that it was

uneconomical

According to research, most important factors affecting daily ethical decisions at work is the

work group or the perceived ethicalness of the work group.