Final Study guide

Organization structures are "tools" for accomplishing the strategy and leaders should feel free to use one or more are a combination of structures when the strategy justifies different approaches to organizing.

True

Personal selling has been used more extensively in health care as various organizations compete to be the provider of choice in managed care plans.

True

Point-of-service is a transformational process that incorporates an organization's resources - human and non-human, competencies, and capabilities and its assets - into value-added service delivery.

True

Pre-service entails the planning and activities that enable the organization to determine its customers and the services that will be offered to them as they enter the system.

True

Pre-service pricing decisions concentrate on the services offered, the ability of the consumer to pay, and the cost to deliver the service.

True

Which of the following are potential disadvantages of functional structures:

All the above. Answers: a. Encourages silo thinking. b. Slows down decision-making. c. Makes horizontal communication difficult. d. All the above.

Which of the following is an advantage of matrix structures:

All the above. Answers:a. Consolidation of expertise. b. Focus on the problem to be solved. c. Rapid product or service development. d. All the above.

When a health care organization decides to "ride the decline" and allow the service to generate as much revenue as possible without additional investment it is an example of harvesting. T/F

True

Which of the following is NOT a method for evaluating adaptive strategies:

Value Chain analysis

A Balanced Scorecard is an effective tool for:

All the above. Answers:a. Defining what is important to the organization. b. Developing ways to measure strategic goals. c. Focusing the organization on its strategic direction. d. All the above.

Strategic control is the process of:

c. Determining whether the strategies are successful and taking corrective action.

Which of the following is an expansion of scope strategy:

c. Vertical development

The organizational structure decision is one of prioritizing which characteristics:

c. Standardization and flexibility

Which of the following is an advantage of the functional structure:

All the above. Answers:a. Fosters efficiency. b. Allows a high degree of specialization. c. Centralizes control and decision-making. d. All the above.

The process of developing value-adding strategies involves which of these comparisons:

Compare strategy requirements with internal analysis.

Which of the following are positioning strategies:

Cost leadership and differentiation

Which of the following is NOT one of the areas of short-term activity not specifically linked by the overall strategy as measured by the Balanced Score Card:

Cultural Perspective

Market development is a directional strategy that an organizational unit or division can use to enter new markets with present products or services. T/F

False

Market development is a strategy aimed at developing new products and/or services and marketing them to established customers. T/F

False

Market entry strategies are used for reduction of scope of an organization. T/F

False

Market research provides information only about potential customers

False

Marketing research is NOT a pre-service activity.

False

Matrix structures require a clearly defined chain of command whereby individuals report to a single individual and focus their attention exclusively on the unit's roles and responsibilities.

False

Normative behaviors are NOT part of organizational culture

False

Normative behaviors are NOT part of organizational culture.

False

Objectives should easily be accomplished.

False

Of the adaptive strategies (expansion, reduction, and maintenance of scope), only expansion of scope requires explicit strategic posture and positioning strategies. T/F

False

Once developed and implemented, action plans operate on "autopilot," without the need for managerial monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment.

False

One of the important things about market entry strategies is that regardless of the strategy selected they all require the same resources, competencies, and capabilities.

False

One of the reasons not-for-profit organizations use program evaluation is because it is relatively easy to consider the relationship between revenue and market share in the not-for-profit setting. T/F

False

One of the valid criticisms of the Balanced Scorecard is that it evaluates strategy exclusively on financial criteria and neglects some of the "softer" aspects of strategic success.

False

Only a few organizational strategies have financial implications and most likely will require an assessment of needed capital and a method to access capital.

False

Organizational culture has limited effects on recruiting, efficiency, and innovation.

False

Physicians are a minor target for marketing efforts because they recommend other health care providers for their patients.

False

Prospectors remain essentially in their own competitive space and resist efforts to move into and out of new services and markets. T/F

False

Regardless of the level at which the strategic plan is developed, all action plans are required only at the unit level.

False

Strategic alliances are special variants of venture capital investments in which several venture capital firms pool an investment in a single entity. T/F

False

Strategic decisions are relatively easy to understand because they provide a clear set of independent choices and only rarely represent a relational hierarchy. T/F

False

Strategic managers are not responsible for ensuring that the pre-service, point-of-service and after-service strategies are compatible - that is the work of functional level managers.

False

Strategic plans are based on assumptions that are considered less likely because in this way plans may always allow the health care leader to make less risky strategic decisions.

False

The basic logic behind the development of matrix structures is to organize around the functions in order to resolve recurring issues and problems

False

The difference between the term "business plan" and "action plan" as descriptors of implementation strategies is that business plan is strategic and action plan is tactical.

False

The establishment of measurements for results is not an element of developing an action plan.

False

The evaluation of products and services in portfolio analysis is a static process. T/F

False

The functional structure builds a high degree of specialization in a given function and is particularly useful when the tasks to be performed are variable and rapidly changing.

False

The human resources unit of a health care organization is generally considered to be engaged in value-adding service activities.

False

The human resources unit of a health care organization is generally considered to be engaged in value-adding service activities. T/F

False

The three major methods of market entry are: purchase (e.g., acquisition), cooperation (e.g., joint venture), and market segmentation (e.g., cost leadership). T/F

False

Third-party payers can do little to influence the efficiency with which patients are treated because they have limited financial power.

False

When using needs/capacity analysis the only major consideration for the value of a program is the needs of the community. T/F

False

With well-defined directional strategies, there is little need to translate the strategic plans into specific actions because the directional strategies will make the implementation clear.

False

Which of the following are stages in product life cycle analysis:

Growth

In SPACE analysis, which of the following would not be considered a competitive strategy:

Harvesting

Which of the following is a reduction of scope strategy:

Harvesting

Self-managed teams attempt to eliminate which of the following:

Hierachy

Which of the following is NOT an expansion of scope strategy?

Horizontal integration

Which of the following is NOT a fundamental hierarchical design for an organization:

Inversion structure

Which of the following is central to developing pre- service strategies

Marketing

Strategic resources do NOT include which of the following

Natural resources

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic that should be demonstrated by unit objectives?

Objectives should acknowledge the weaknesses of the organization and the strengths of the action plan to be implemented.

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic that should be demonstrated by unit objectives?

Objectives that are easy to accomplish do not require stretch objective that are impossible to attain are not motivational.

Which of the following are components of action plans?

Objectives, activities, timetables, and responsibilities.

The matrix structure is most appropriate for organizations exhibiting which of the following characteristics:

Organizations with numerous products or projects that draw on common functional expertise.

In a focused factory strategy, an organization:

Performs only one function in order to likely perform it better.

Which of the following is NOT part of the organization's value-adding service activities:

Point-of-service activities

Successive layers of management must communicate the overall strategy by doing which of the following?

Provide "maintain or change" guidance.

Strategic goals should:

Related specifically to mission-critical activities

Which of the following is NOT a step in the development of action plans:

Scanning the environment to ensure changing conditions have been incorporated into the action plan.

Which of the following terms is defined as "the process of identifying recognizable groups that make up the market and then selecting a group as the target market:

Segmentation

Product life cycle (PLC) analysis can be useful in:

Selecting strategic alternatives based on theprinciple that all products and services go through several distinct stages.

Which of the following terms does NOT refer to implementation strategies?

Sequential plans

Based on the results of the comparison of the current situation and what strategic managers want the organization to be, value chain components may need to be maintained or changed to carry out the strategy.

True

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) portfolio analysis graphically portrays differences among the various products/services (stars, cash cows, problem children, and dogs) in terms of relative market share and market growth rate. T/F

True

Central to point-of-service delivery are issues such as quality, efficiency/speed, innovation, and flexibility (mass customization) of the service.

True

Clinical pathways are developed in order to customize the best known way to treat a given condition or patient.

True

Combination strategies are often used, especially in larger complex organizations, because no single strategy alone may be sufficient. T/F

True

Community need is a function of (1) clear community requirements (environmental, sanitation, disease control, and so on) and personal health care (primary care) gaps, (2) the degree to which other institutions (private and public) fill the identified health care gaps, and (3) public/community health objectives. T/F

True

Competitive strategies are of two types: one that determines an organization's strategic posture and one that positions the organization vis- à-vis other organizations within the market. T/F

True

Contingency planning may be incorporated into the normal strategic management process at any level and is a part of managing the strategic momentum.

True

Differentiation is a strategy to make the product or service different (or appear so in the mind of the buyer) from competitors' products or services. T/F

True

Divisional structures are common in organizations that have grown through diversification, vertical integration, and aggressive market or product development.

True

Divisional structures are successful in breaking a complex organization into manageable or focused parts that frequently form semi-autonomous strategic service units.

True

Divisional structures sometimes create intentional or unintentional competition for resources among the divisions.

True

Effective strategy implementation requires the same determination and effort as situation analysis and strategy formulation

True

Evaluation and understanding of the external environment are necessary to successfully implement a market entry strategy. T/F

True

Functional structures organize activities around the mission-critical activities or processes of the organization and are the most prevalent structures for single product/service and narrowly focused organizations.

True

Health care providers have a great deal of difficulty determining their costs and then deciding on a price given the variability of the human condition.

True

Identifying objectives, determining who is responsible to accomplish them, the resources required, and how results will be measured is an approach that keeps the strategic plan straightforward and comprehensible.

True

If the managers do not have a map it is difficult to start the journey.

True

Implementation strategies are the most specific class of strategies and are directed toward value-added service delivery and value-added support activities. T/F

True

In general, venture capital investments are used to become involved in the growth and development of a small organization that has the potential to develop a new or innovative technology. T/F

True

In health care quality is extremely important - if high quality is not perceived the remainder of service delivery factors are less important.

True

In health care quality is extremely important - if high quality is not perceived the remainder of service delivery factors are less important. T/F

True

In health care, patients often do not participate as customers in the truest sense because they abdicate the purchasing decision to their doctors.

True

Information systems (ISs) are an essential competitive resource for health care organizations and are critical in supporting strategic decision making, administrative operations, and patient care in an increasingly information-intensive industry.

True

Interpretations of "facts" mean different things to different people because they are colored by beliefs, values, and biases. T/F

True

Market entry/exit strategies are the means for accomplishing the ends of adaptive strategies. T/F

True

Marketwide positioning strategies can be based on differentiation or cost leadership. T/F

True

Matrix structure is an organizational hierarchical design that forms the basic building blocks for organizations.

True

Most health care organizations are rarely organized using just a single structural building block design.

True

Needs/capacity assessment and program priority setting are two program evaluation methods.

True

Objectives should be formulated with the assistance of the individuals who will be responsible for accomplishing the work.

True

Often organizations, when they modify their structure, require some form of a collateral organization (teams task forces, committees, and so on) to supplement the basic structure and bring diverse ideas to the decision-making process.

True

Which of the following is NOT one of the fundamental organizational hierarchical designs

Circular structure

What are the generic competitive strategies:

. Cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.

Within an organization, what is the best choice for developing action plans?

. The organizational unit.

What is the basis for determining price by health care organizations:

A health care organization determines a price based on the services offered, the ability of the consumer to pay, and the cost to deliver the service.

Brand equity is most accurately defined as:

A perceptual predisposition of a consumer to support a product or service based on stored knowledge.

Specific milestones in the strategic planning process should be communicated to which of the following groups?

All employees

Which of the following are accurately considered to be health care customers:

All of above a.Physicians. b. Patients. c. Insurance companies d. All the above.

Budget requests associated with unit objectives should include which of the following?

All of above: expected revenue, cost of personnel, cost of all resources

Budget requests associated with unit objectives should include which of the following?

All of the above. Answers:a. Expected revenues. b. Costs of personnel. c. Costs of all resources associated with implementing each activity. d. All of the above.

Which of the following should strategic managers do if they wish to maintain a productive culture:

All the above. Answers:a. Review and discuss values and behavioral norms periodically. b. Regularly communicate the mission, vision and values. c. Reward and promote behaviors that reinforce the directional strategies. d. All the above.

Planning implementation includes which of the following:

All the above. Answers:a. Setting organizational unit objectives. b. Developing plans. c. Assigning responsibilities.

Which of the following provides tangible evidence of a health care organization's patient and family-oriented care?

Ans: ALl of above a. Patients and families are represented on the organization's board of advisors. b. Health care organization policies and programs are consistent with family and patient friendliness. c. Systems are in pace to provide patients and families with better information to make medical decisions. d. All the above.

Which of the following are steps in the development of service delivery strategies:

Ans: All of above a.Decide to maintain or change pre-service activities. b. Decide to maintain or change point-of-service. c. Compare strategy requirements with the results of the service delivery internal analysis. d. All the above.

Which of the following things must happen to have effective service delivery:

Ans: All of above a.Service delivery managers must translate broader organization-wide strategies into implementation plans. b. Service delivery strategies must be developed and managed. c. Organizations must demonstrate an ability to learn. d. All the above.

Which of the following are part of the cognitive assumptions of an organization:

Ans: All of above a.Who we are as a health care organization? b. What we are trying to do as a health care organization? c. What do we collectively believe in as a health care organization? d. All of the above.

Strategies selected by the organization should address external issues, draw on competitive advantages, and:

Ans: All of the above Keep the organization within the parameters of the mission and values. b. Move the organization toward the vision. c. Make progress toward achieving one or more of the organization's strategic goals. d. All of the above

Which of the following are reasons why organizations adopt a reactor posture:

Ans: All the above a. Top management has not clearly articulated the organization's strategy. b. Management does not shape the organization's structure and processes to fit the strategy. c. Management tends to maintain its current strategy-structure relationship despite environmental changes. d. All the above.

Which of the following is an advantage of matrix structures:

Ans: All the above a.Consolidation of expertise. b. Focus on the problem to be solved. c. Rapid product or service development. d. All the above.

Which of the following is NOT an important question when attempting to link strategic alternatives and situational analysis:

Ans: None of the above. a. Does the proposed alternative fit with the organizations mission? b. Does the proposed alternative move the organization toward the accomplishment of its vision? c. Does the proposed alternative address an external issue? d. None of the above.

Which of the following weaknesses of SWOT analysis and the TOWS matrix give rise to the strategic thinking map for matching external issues and internal competitive advantages and disadvantages:

Ans; all of above The designation of external issues as opportunities or threats is often arbitrary. b. Opportunities are often presented as strategic alternatives rather than independent external issues affecting the organization. c. Many external issues may be both opportunities and threats. d. All of the above.

Which of the following is NOT a market entry strategy:

Answer : None of the above. a. Purchase b. Cooperation with other organizations. c. Make internal investments d. None of the above are market entry strategies.

Which of the following are important components of organizational capacity?

Answer: All the above. a. The programs fit with regard to the mission and vision of the organization. b. Funds necessary to support the program. c. All relevant resources and skills. d. All the above.

Which of the following is NOT an important question when attempting to link strategic alternatives and situational analysis:

Answers: None of the above. a. Does the proposed alternative fit with the organizations mission? b. Does the proposed alternative move the organization toward the accomplishment of its vision? c. Does the proposed alternative address an external issue? d. None of the above.

The process of developing value-adding strategies involves which of these comparisons:

Answers:a. Compare strategy requirements with internal analysis.

Which of the following is likely to favor the use of the matrix structure:

Answers:a. Focus is on problem to be solved.

Which of the following is the primary responsibility of the strategic planning team:

Broad strokes of the strategy

Which of the following is NOT true regarding defenders:

Defenders are not concerned about cost efficiency

Disruptive innovations:

Disruptive innovations

Which of the following organization structures facilitates the development of strategic service units:

Divisional structure

Which of the following is NOT part of strategy formulation:

External analysis

A brand is a tangible asset that provides explicit guarantees of quality and consistency

False

A brand is a tangible asset that provides explicit guarantees of quality and consistency.

False

A matrix structure is a whimsical organizational structure that permits strategic managers to demonstrate creative alignments of authority and responsibility in an organization

False

All communication within the organization concerning strategies and strategic implementation should be "top down."

False

Although there are many strategies available to health care organizations it is critically important that they focus on a single strategy and not pursue more than one strategy simultaneously. T/F

False

An attempt to serve customers in a new geographical area with our existing services is an example of a penetration strategy. T/F

False

An effective strategic manager will always view the organizational structure as an impediment to strategy implementation.

False

An example of market development would be a chain of urgent care organizations opening a surgical rehab unit next door. T/F

False

Analytical strategic thinking maps are primarily used to obtain answers because by following them the correct strategic choice is made correctly. T/F

False

Because of their involvement in the development of the strategic plan, every employee within the organization knows the underlying issues and assumptions that were used to develop the strategy and the associated goals for the strategic plan.

False

Cognitive culture consists of intellectual values but does not usually result in behaviors relating to factors such as customer focus, teamwork and quality.

False

Continuity of operations planning is not an example of contingency planning

False

Cost leadership is an adaptive strategy for the expansion of an organization's scope. T/F

False

Diversification is removing a new related or unrelated product or service which is outside the organization's core business. T/F

False

Diversification strategies are directed toward providing services of equal or better quality at a lower cost than competitors. T/F

False

During the growth stage of the product life cycle, prices increase in order to solidify the market position of specific brands. T/F

False

Even in situations where there is a good match between the characteristics of the current organizational structure and the requirements of the strategy, the present basic structure should not be maintained.

False

Executive committees are created to provide members of the board of directors an active role in strategy formulation and implementation

False

Extended portfolio matrix analysis includes a sustainability dimension to the market share and market growth dimensions of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) portfolio analysis. T/F

False

Following the completion of strategy formulation decision, program evaluation is used to measure the logic and fit of the strategies. T/F

False

For health care organizations, revenue expectations from plan implementation are more important than cost estimates since the revenues will offset the costs.

False

Health care marketing is simplified by the need to focus on a single class of customer - health care consumers (patients). T/F

False

Implementation strategies are developed to activate competitive strategies but do not serve this purpose for adaptive and market entry/exit strategies. T/F

False

In general, major culture change in an organization can be accomplished in a matter of months because people in the organization will naturally pursue cultural changes.

False

In portfolio analysis, black holes have high market growth, a low market share, and low profitability.

False

In program priority setting the graphics are useful to differentiate between those programs that are important and those that are not important. T/F

False

In the maturing stage of the product life cycle rapid growth accelerates and organizations begin spinning off unprofitable units. T/F

False

Insignificant branding activity in health care has focused on the abstract concepts of promoting and creating identities for health care organizations.

False

Many, perhaps most, organizational strategies have little to do with finances but rather simply depend on the dedication and passions of persistent leaders to be successful

False

Which of the following is not a market exit strategy:

Status Quo

Awareness, anticipation, analysis, interpretation, synthesis and reflection are part of which of the following:

Strategic thinking

Which of the following is a disadvantage of merger as market entry strategy:

Takes a long time to merge cultures.

Which of the following is NOT true regarding a retrenchment strategy:

The market is no longer considered viable.

Implementation strategies include objectives and plans for:

The organizational units to accomplish the strategies (managing strategic momentum)

By pursuing maintenance of scope strategies, management believes which of the following

The past strategy has been appropriate and few changes are required in the target markets or the organization's products/services.

The primary value of the Balanced Scorecard approach is:

To focus the health care organization on those aspects of its operations that most directly impact the accomplishment of its strategies.

A brand represents three things: what an organization offers to the market, what an organization does, and what an organization is.

True

A canon of strategic management is the need to change strategies over time. T/F

True

A major advantage of the differentiation positioning strategy is that it gives the organization greater control over pricing. T/F

True

A matrix structure may be most appropriate when organizations have numerous products or projects that draw on common functional expertise

True

A primary reason why strategies are not implemented is because, in many health care organizations, effective or ineffective implementation makes little or no difference in resource allocation and reward distribution

True

A primary responsibility of health care leaders is to shape the organizational culture in a way that encourages and rewards high performance.

True

A problem with divisional structures is that they may create competition for resources among the divisions

True

A process is a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of inputs and creates and output that is valuable to an organizational stakeholder.

True

Adaptive strategies involve decisions about whether an organization should expand, reduce, or maintain its scope. T/F

True

An action plan identifies actions required to accomplish objectives and the sequence in which the actions should be undertaken.

True

An attractive location for a health care provider offers convenient proximity to patients' homes and work.

True

An effective action plan, regardless of level, consists of objectives that specify how the unit (division, hospital, pharmacy) is going to contribute to the strategy, what actions will be required to achieve the objectives and within what time period, who is responsible for the actions, the resources required to achieve the objectives, and how results will be measured.

True

An organization that uses internal resources for entering a new market is deploying a development strategy. T/F

True

Program priority setting is significant because community needs (both the need itself and the severity of the need) are constantly changing and organizational resources, in terms of funding and organization capacity, are almost always limited. T/F

True

Project and product teams are created to undertake well-focused projects (typically short term) or to develop new products.

True

Promotion includes: advertising; public relations events (baby birthday parties, health fairs, cancer survivor celebrations, and so on); personal selling; sales promotion (contests, participation in trade shows, and so on); and customer information gathering (surveys, data mining, and so on).

True

Q-sort is a formal method of differentiating the importance of programs through a ranking procedure that forces choices along a continuum in situations where the difference between the choices may be quite small. T/F

True

SWOT analysis has no provision for prioritizing or evaluating the internal strengths or weaknesses as being competitive relevant - competitive advantages or competitive disadvantages. T/F

True

SWOT is a systematic investigation that considers the organization's internal strengths and weaknesses and external issues and displays them in a matrix. T/F

True

Segmentation is the process of identifying recognizable groups that make up the market and then selecting a group as the target market.

True

Service delivery strategies and support strategies are not separate but, rather, interact and complement each other

True

Specialization and cost pressures have taken health care from being totally customized for the individual patient in his or her home to an attempt to treat patients more similarly so as to develop economies of scale.

True

Strategic control is the process of determining if the strategy is successful and, where appropriate, taking corrective action.

True

Strategic facilities is the broad term used to delineate the physical environment of the health care organization. It is the "shell" in which health care is delivered.

True

Strategic leaders must focus on both the cognitive and emotional cultures to successfully shape and create an adaptive organizational culture.

True

Strategic managers must decide if the organization's culture will contribute to the accomplishment of the strategy or must change over time.

True

Strategic position and action evaluation (SPACE) analysis suggests the appropriateness of strategic alternatives based on factors relating to four dimensions: service category strength, environmental stability, the organization's relative competitive advantage, and the organization's financial strength.T/F

True

Strategic posture concerns the relationship between the organization and the market and describes the pattern of strategic behavior. T/F

True

Strategy formulation includes development of strategic alternatives, evaluation of alternatives, and strategic choice. T/F

True

Successful strategy requires a willingness to seek the good of the entire organization over any individual division or unit

True

The Balanced Scorecard approach to strategy implementation is compatible with, and complementary to, the value chain concept.

True

The decomposition and critical review of market characteristics in conjunction with the PLC can serve as a guideline for strategy development. T/F

True

The development of the initial strategic plan is usually the product of a relatively few informed and engaged strategic thinkers that can focus on the big picture.

True

The initial strategic plan for an organization is usually the product of a relatively small number of strategic thinkers.

True

The organization cannot be sold as a viable on-going operation. T/F

True

The purpose of market entry strategies is to break into or capture more of a market. T/F

True

The purpose of vertical integration is to increase the continuity of care while simultaneously controlling the channel of demand for health services. T/F

True

The strategies selected by the organization should address external issues, draw on competitive advantages or fix competitive disadvantages, keep the organization within the parameters of the mission and values, move the organization toward the vision, and make progress toward achieving one or more of the organization's strategic goals. T/F

True

The value chain consists of value-adding service delivery strategies that are primarily operations (clinical) and marketing oriented as well as value-adding support strategies that include organizational culture, organizational structure, and strategic resources. T/F

True

Unit manager action plans in aggregate represent the implementation plan for the organization

True

Unit manager action plans in aggregate represent the implementation plan for the organization.

True

Value-adding support strategies are implementation strategies directed toward the accomplishment of all other strategies.

True

Value-adding support strategies are instrumental in creating and shaping the work environment and behavioral norms necessary for getting the work done in health care organizations.

True

Venture teams are created outside the normal organizational structure; they are not bound by the normal "rules" of the organization

True

Vertical integration strategies involve decisions to grow along the channel of distribution or stages in the continuum of care. T/F

True

The process of developing value-adding support strategies involves which of these comparisons:

a. Comparison of strategy requirements with internal analysis.

Which of the following is NOT a pre-service activity?

a. Formalized billing system

Which of the following is NOT what a brand represents:

a. How an organization is structured.

Which of the following is NOT a factor in determining community need

a. Number of regulatory agencies.

Program evaluation is appropriate for organizations with which of the following sets of characteristics:

a. Organizations where market share, service category strength, and competitive advantage are not particularly important or not relevant.

Which of the following would favor a defender posture:

a. Relatively long product life cycle.

Which of the following questions would NOT be helpful in monitoring signals that the basic strategy for the organization needs to be changed:

a. What is the relative market share?

Within the context of BCG portfolio analysis, how are cash cows identified:

b. Products and services that appear in the low market growth and high market share quadrant.

Decisions concerning five categories of strategies - directional strategies, adaptive strategies, market entry/exit strategies, competitive strategies, and implementation strategies - should be addressed how:

b. Sequentially with each subsequent decision more specifically defining the activities of the organization.

How does clinical process improvement (CPI) differ from continuous quality improvement (CQI):

b. CQI focuses on improving existing clinical processes for performance improvement while CPI is a contextual and critical appraisal of current clinical processes to identify opportunities for more effectively providing care.

Which of the following is NOT an appropriate question for evaluating support strategies

b. Is the competitor's organizational structure more appropriate for the market environment?

In terms of matching organizational culture and strategy, an organization with culture viewed as a strength and an internal environmental analysis of culture result of HNEY (high value, not rare, easy to develop, and sustainable) should do which of the following:

b. Maintain the organizational culture.

Which of the following methods provides guidance to selecting an aggressive profile, a competitive profile, a conservative profile and a defensive profile:

b. Strategic position and Action Evaluation technique.

Satisfied patients may become loyal customers and in doing so they do all but which one of the following:

b. Switch from one provider to another that are associated with high quality services

Which of the following is NOT a quadrant in the BCG Portfolio:

black hole

Which of the following statements is TRUE of change in value-adding strategies:

c. Successful change in the value-adding strategies requires leaders to establish a sense of urgency for change and to clearly articulate the connections between the new ways of doing things and success of the selected strategies.

Which of the following are after-service activities:

d. All of the above. Answers:a. Clinical and marketing follow-up. b. Billing. c. Follow-on activities. d. All of the above.

What is the characteristic of health care organizations that suggests using extended portfolio matrix analysis rather than BCG portfolio analysis:

d. An underlying assumption of BCG portfolio analysis is that high market share means high profitability; however, for health care organizations it is quite possible to have a high market share and no profit.

Considering the ends/means chain, the ends refer to:

d. Mission, vision, values, and strategic goals.

Which of the following is the underlying assumption when selecting the liquidation strategy:

d. The organization cannot be sold as a viable on-going operation.

The Q-sort method is one of the methodologies used in what process:

program priority setting.