Practice Final Part 7

Which of the following techniques are utilized by leaders to stay informed on how well strategy execution process is progressing? A. Managing by walking around (MBWA). B. Managing business with action (MBWA). C. Multi-business warning actions (MBWA). D. Managers being well-advised (MBWA). E. None of these.

A. Managing by walking around (MBWA)

Which of the following topics would least likely be contained in a company's code of ethics? A. Prohibiting giving or accepting bribes, kickbacks, or gifts. B. Expecting all company personnel to display honesty and integrity in their actions and avoid conflicts of interest. C. Barring dealing with suppliers that employ child labor or engage in other unsavory practices. D. Committing to a no-layoff policy and to adequate funding of employee retirement programs. E. Avoiding use of company assets, resources, and property for personal or other inappropriate purposes.

A. Prohibiting giving or accepting bribes, kickbacks, or gifts

Which one of the following is a typical characteristic of a weak company culture? A. Very little cultural support for the company's strategic vision and strategy. B. No code of ethics and deep hostility to change and to people who champion new ways of doing things. C. A complicated value chain that acts to create multiple subcultures. D. A lack of values and principles that are consistently preached or widely shared. E. No strong sense of teamwork.

A. Very little cultural support for the company's strategic vision and strategy

A company's values statement and code of ethics: A. helps to mold the culture and communicate what kinds of actions and behaviors are expected of all company personnel. B. helps prevent it from coming across to customers and the general public as greedy. C. serve the valuable purpose of making its suppliers hesitant to engage in business practices that are unethical. D. are the most important factors determining its reputation with customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and society at large. E. should always be made a prominent and visible part of the company's strategic intent and strategy.

A. helps to mold the culture and communicate what kinds of actions and behaviors are expected of all company personnel

The place for management to begin in trying to change a problem culture is A. identifying facets of the present culture that are obstacles to executing the company's strategy and meeting performance targets. B. by spending heavily on programs to train employees in the ways and beliefs of the new culture to be implanted. C. to visibly praise and reward people who exhibit traits and behaviors that undermine the existing culture. D. writing a new values statement and describing in highly motivating terms the kind of culture that is needed. E. to institute incentive compensation programs that generously reward employees for adopting best practices.

A. identifying facets of the present culture that are obstacles to executing the company's strategy and meeting performance targets

The most important symbolic actions are those that top executives take to A. lead by example. B. lead by influence. C. follow by example. D. follow the majority. E. lead to the contrary.

A. lead by example

Changing a problem culture is A. never a short-term exercise. B. always a short-term exercise. C. requires a determined effort by a limited number of employees. D. usually easier than it is to instill a strategy-supportive culture from scratch. E. achieved by overnight transformations.

A. never a short-term exercise

In a strong culture company, A. values and behavioral norms are like crabgrass—deeply rooted and hard to weed out. B. there is wide support for high ethical standards among both managers and employees. C. a company has more strategy flexibility because it can change its strategy and be confident that the culture will welcome the strategy changes and be an ally in implementing whatever changes are called for. D. there is little room for employee empowerment, because independent-thinking empowered employees may well make decisions or engage in actions that weaken the culture. E. management insists that official policies and procedures be followed religiously.

A. values and behavioral norms are like crabgrass- deeply rooted and hard to weed out

The hallmarks of a high performance corporate culture include: A. a deep commitment to employee training, and unusually attractive fringe benefit packages for company personnel and frequently revised and updated values and ethics statements,. B. a "can-do" spirit, pride in doing things right, no-excuses accountability, and a pervasive results-oriented work climate where people go the extra mile to meet or beat stretch objectives. C. a strong emphasis on teamwork, strict enforcement of company policies and procedures, and incentive compensation for all employees aligned with a balanced scorecard approach to measuring performance,. D. a deep commitment to pioneering new best practices, a preference for being a fast-follower as opposed to a first-mover or late-mover, and across-the-board bonuses for all personnel when the company meets or beats stretch objectives. E. a deep commitment to top-notch quality and superior customer service, dedicated use of TQM and/or Six Sigma quality control programs, and the payment of big performance bonuses and stock options.

B. a "can-do" spirit, pride in doing things right, no-excuses accountability, and a pervasive results-oriented work climate where people go the extra mile to meet or beat stretch obejctives

The single most visible factor that distinguishes successful culture-change efforts from failed attempts is A. forceful management actions to empower employees to adopt new operating practices. B. competent leadership at the top. C. de-layering the management hierarchy. D. developing a new values statement that inspires company personnel to put forth their best efforts to achieve performance targets. E. convincing employees that top management is genuinely committed to high ethical standards and the exercise of corporate social responsibility.

B. competent leadership at the top

When trying to change a problem culture, management should undertake such steps as A. selecting a team of key employees to lead the culture change effort and design a plan for cultural change. B. identifying facets of the present culture that are supportive of good strategy execution and which ones are not and then specifying what new actions, behaviors, and work practices are needed in the new culture to improve performance. C. drawing up an action plan to change the present culture and then persuading company personnel why this plan of action is good and will be successful. D. conducting an employee survey to determine the organization's cultural norms and what company personnel like and dislike about the current culture. E. employing a consultant with expertise in culture change and following his/her advice on how to proceed.

B. identifying facets of the present culture that are supportive of good strategy execution and which ones are not and then specifying what new actions, behaviors, and work practices are needed in the new culture to improve performance

Codes of ethics and statements of core values: A. are the single most effective measure of enforcing ethical behavior and cultural norms, provided they are written down and every employee is given a copy. B. serve as yardsticks for gauging the appropriateness of particular actions, decisions and behaviors. C. serve as the best benchmarks for judging whether the corporate culture is deeply ingrained, planted and accepted or not. D. need to be personally written and presented by the CEO to reinforce the company values and convictions so that employees will take it seriously. E. serve to give top priority emphasis to every employee in training program a company conducts.

B. serve as yardsticks for gauging the appropriateness of particular actions, decisions, and behaviors

Which of the following is a benefit of closely aligning the corporate culture with the requirements for proficient strategy execution? A. A good strategy-culture alignment makes it possible to establish a much bolder strategic vision and strategic intent. B. A good strategy-culture alignment enhances a company's cost competitiveness. C. A tight strategy-culture fit steers company personnel into displaying behaviors and adopting operating practices that promote good strategy execution. D. A tight strategy-culture alignment enhances the creation of core competencies and distinctive competencies. E. A tight strategy-culture alignment makes it easier to change a company's culture over time—as a company's strategy evolves, the culture automatically evolves also.

C. A tight strategy-culture fit steers company personnel into displaying behaviors and adopting operating practices that promote good strategy execution

Which of the following topics would least likely be contained in a company's statement of its core values? A. A commitment to having fun and creating a fun work environment. B. A commitment to operating excellence and superior results. C. Mandating full compliance with all laws and regulations. D. Exhibiting such qualities as integrity, fairness, trustworthiness, pride of workmanship, Golden Rule behavior, respect for co-workers, and ethical behavior. E. Exhibiting teamwork and cooperative attitudes.

C. Mandating full compliance with all laws and regulations

Unhealthy company cultures typically have such characteristics as: A. tight budget controls, overly strict enforcement of longstanding policies and procedures, and low ethical standards. B. a preference for conservative strategies, an aversion to incentive compensation, and excessive emphasis on profitability. C. a politicized internal environment, hostility to change and an aversion to looking outside the company for best practices, new managerial approaches, and innovative ideas. D. overemphasis on employee empowerment, a complacent approach to building competencies and capabilities, no coherent business philosophy, and excessively bureaucratic policies and procedures. E. too little emphasis on innovation, a strong preference for hiring managers from outside the company, very few core values and traditions, and a weakly enforced code of ethics.

C. a politicized internal environment, hostility to change and an aversion to looking outside the company for best practices, new managerial approaches, and innovative ideas

The leadership challenges that top executives face in making corrective adjustments when things are not going well include A. knowing when to replace poorly performing workers and when to do a better job of coaching them to do the right things. B. being able to discern whether to emphasize adjustments that will promote better achievement of strategic performance targets or whether to emphasize adjustments that will promote better achievement of financial performance targets. C. undertaking a thorough analysis of the situation, exercising good business judgment in deciding what actions to take and then ensuring good implementation of the corrective actions that are initiated. D. having the analytical skills to separate the problems due to a bad strategy from the problems due to bad strategy execution. E. deciding whether the company would be better off making adjustments that curtail the achievement of strategic objectives or that curtail the achievement of financial objectives or that curtail the achievement of some of both.

C. undertaking a thorough analysis of the situation, exercising good business judgment in deciding what actions to take and then ensuring good implementation of the corrective actions that are initiated

What makes a politicized internal environment so unhealthy? A. The fact that political infighting consumes a great deal of organizational energy. B. The continuous empire-building is common practice as managers pursue their own agendas. C. The building of autonomous fiefdoms pervades the work climate. D. The overabundance of political maneuvering takes away from efforts to execute strategy. E. All of these.

E. All of these

Which of the following is the best test of good strategic leadership? A. Whether the company has a good strategy and business model. B. Whether the enterprise is meeting or beating its performance targets. C. Whether the strategy is being completely executed. D. All of these. E. None of these.

D. All of these

Which of the following statements about a strong-culture company is false? A. In a strong-culture company, culturally-approved behaviors and ways of doing things are nurtured while culturally-disapproved behaviors and work practices get squashed. B. In strong culture companies, senior managers make a point of reiterating key principles and core values to organization members; more importantly, they make a conscious effort to display these principles and values in their own actions and behavior and they insist that company values and business principles be reflected in the decisions and actions taken by all company personnel. C. Continuity of leadership, small group size, stable group membership, geographic concentration, and considerable organizational success all contribute to the emergence and sustainability of a strong culture. D. Centralized decision-making, strict enforcement of company policies, diligent pursuit of a distinctive competence, and a bold strategic intent are the hallmarks of a strong-culture company. E. In a strong-culture company, values and behavioral norms are like crabgrass: deeply rooted and hard to weed out.

D. Centralized decision-making, strict enforcement of company policies, diligent pursuit of a distinctive competence, and a bold strategic intent are the hallmarks of a strong-culture company.

Which one of the following is NOT a fundamental part of a company's culture? A. The work practices and behaviors that define "how we do things around here". B. The company's standard of what is ethically acceptable and what is not, along with the "chemistry" and "personality" that permeates its work environment. C. The core values and business principles that management preaches and practices. D. The company's strategic vision, strategic intent, and culture strategy. E. The legends and stories that people repeat to illustrate and reinforce the company's core values, traditions, and business practices.

D. The company's strategic vision, strategic intent, and culture strategy

Which one of the following is NOT a substantive culture-changing action that a company's managers can undertake to alter a problem culture? A. Promoting individuals who are known to possess the desired cultural traits, who have stepped forward to advocate the shift to a different culture, and who can serve as role models for the desired cultural behavior B. Appointing outsiders with the desired cultural attributes to high-profile positions C. Screening all candidates for new positions carefully, hiring only those who appear to fit in with the new culture D. Urging company personnel to search outside the company for work practices and operating approaches that may be an improvement over what the company is presently doing and paying sizable bonuses to those employees who identify practices that the company ends up adopting E. Designing compensation incentives that boost the pay of teams and individuals who display the desired cultural behaviors and hit change-resisters in the pocketbook

D. Urging company personnel to search outside the company for work practices and operating approaches that may be an improvement over what the company is presently doing and paying sizable bonuses to those employees who identify practices that the company ends up adopting

Which of the following is NOT one of the leadership roles that senior managers have to play in pushing for good strategy execution and operating excellence? A. Learning the obstacles in the path of good execution and clearing the way for progress. B. Being out in the field, seeing how well operations are going. C. Being out front personally leading the execution process and driving the pace of progress. D. Weeding out managers who are consistently in the ranks of the lowest performers (the bottom 10 percent) and who are not enthusiastic about the strategy or how it is being executed. E. Delegating authority to middle and lower-level managers and creating a sense of empowerment among employees to move the implementation process forward.

D. Weeding out managers who are consistently in the ranks of the lowest performers (the bottom 10 percent) and who are not enthusiastic about the strategy or how it is being executed

When should a culture be changed as rapidly as it can be managed? A. Never, because the actions and behaviors needed to execute the new strategy successfully are well entrenched, and thus are not changeable. B. Changing a culture is among the toughest management tasks and therefore it should not be done hastily for it is natural for company personnel to cling to existing practices and to be wary of new approaches. C. When the leadership at the top wants to establish a new culture that replicates the existing cultural behaviors in meeting the needs of successful strategy-execution. D. When a strong culture is unhealthy or otherwise out of sync with the actions and behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully. E. When the case for cultural reform is not credible, symbolic nor substantive.

D. When a strong culture is unhealthy or otherwise out of sync with the actions and behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully

The retelling of legendary stories does a lot for establishing a company's core values, but they should NOT: A. place pressure on company personnel to display core values and to do their part in keeping the companies traditions alive. B. illustrate the kind of behavior the company reveres. C. inspire company personnel to perform similarly and reinforce the depth of commitment that people have displayed. D. communicate the company's good intentions towards ethical behavior. E. steer company personnel toward both doing things right and doing the right thing.

D. communicate the company's good intentions towards ethical behavior

A company's culture is typically grounded in and shaped by: A. its core competencies and competitive capabilities. B. its long-term strategic success or lack thereof. C. the degree to which top management is committed to achieving market leadership. D. its core values and the bar it sets for ethical standards. E. its strategic intent and its reward system.

D. its core values and the bar it sets for ethical standards

In adaptive corporate cultures, A. the prevailing view is that the best way of looking out for the interests of employees is to change core values and cultural norms in whatever ways are needed to fit the changing requirements of an evolving strategy. B. company personnel are amenable to changing policies and operating practices as long as the core elements of the company's strategic vision and strategy remain intact. C. members are willing to embrace a proactive approach to trying new ideas, altering operating practices, and changing pieces of the strategy provided it doesn't imperil their job security, entail cuts in compensation, or require different work practices. D. there's a spirit of doing what's necessary to ensure long-term organizational success provided that core values and business principles are not compromised and provided top management undertakes the changes in a manner that exhibits genuine concern for the legitimate interests of stakeholders. E. there is little need for policies and procedures because group members willingly accept experimentation and innovation.

D. there's a spirit of doing what's necessary to ensure long-term organizational success provided that core values and business principles are not compromised and provided top management undertakes the changes in a manner that exhibits genuine concern for the legitimate interests of stakeholders

Symbolic culture changing actions include A. displaying a "lead by example" philosophy. B. reinforcing and celebrating culture-change successes. C. praising individuals and groups that exemplify the new desired behavior. D. ensuring actions match the rhetoric E. All of these.

E. All of these

The character of a company's corporate culture is a product of: A. the shared values and core business principles and beliefs that management preaches and practices. B. its standards of what is ethically acceptable and what is not and the stories that get told over and over to illustrate and reinforce the company's shared values, business practices, and traditions. C. the company's approach to people management and the "chemistry" and "personality" that permeates its work environment. D. the work practices and behaviors that define "how we do things around here." E. All of these.

E. All of these

The characteristics of a strong culture company include: A. deeply-rooted values and operating approaches that "regulate" the conduct of a company's business and the climate of its workplace. B. strong managerial commitment to display company values and principles in their own actions and behavior. C. dedicated efforts on the part of management to communicating values and business principles to organization members and explaining how they relate to the company's business environment. D. ingrained shared values and business principles guide management in making decisions. E. All of these.

E. All of these

Which of the following is not an example of an unhealthy company culture? A. Insular inwardly-focused cultures. B. Change-resistant cultures. C. Unethical and greed-driven cultures. D. Politicized cultures. E. Hyper-adaptive cultures.

E. Hyper-adaptive cultures

The corporate strategy process does NOT entail A. crafting, implementing and executing plans. B. fine-tuning and adjusting corporate vision and objectives. C. a continuous process of crafting and executing strategy to fit changing circumstances. D. recycling the linked stages of executing strategy. E. None of these.

E. None of these

The menu of actions management can take to change problem culture does NOT include which one of the following? A. Making a compelling case for why the company's new strategic direction and culture-remodeling efforts are in the organization's best interests and why company personnel should wholeheartedly join the effort to doing things somewhat differently. B. Replacing senior executives who are strongly identified with the old culture and who may be stonewalling needed organizational and cultural changes. C. Promoting individuals who are known to possess the desired cultural traits, who have stepped forward to advocate the shift to a different culture, and who can serve as role models for the desired cultural behavior. D. Revising policies and procedures in ways that will help drive cultural change. E. Shifting from decentralized to centralized decision-making so as to give senior executives more authority and control in driving the cultural change.

E. Shifting from decentralized to centralized decision-making so as to give senior executives more authority and control in driving the cultural change