Chapter Test #2

Stark Knives has been manufacturing excellent cutlery for over 50 years. Management wants to hang a banner in the employee break room with their mission statement. Which of the following statements would be on that banner?

"We will always provide the highest-quality cutlery at the lowest cost to our customers and always give honest, winning customer service, thereby earning a fair profit for our stakeholders."

Stores of data that are so vast that conventional database management systems cannot handle them, and very sophisticated analysis software and supercomputing-level hardware are required, are known as ____. These data include not only data in corporate databases but also web-browsing data trails, social network communications, sensor data, and surveillance data.

Big Data

In defensive avoidance, when managers can't find a good solution, their usual response(s) is (are)

procrastination, passing the buck, or denying the risk of any negative consequences.

An organization should adopt planning and strategic management to

provide direction and momentum, encourage new ideas, and develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

Sophie, a shift manager in a shoe store, has 40 employees on her shift that she directly supervises. The 40 workers who report directly to Sophie represent her

span of control.

A music teacher asked her students to set a really hard goal, such as increasing their practice time by 10 hours per week, which would cause her students to reach beyond what they think is possible. This is known as a(n)

stretch goal.

The chain of command is also known as the

vertical hierarchy.

The planning/control cycle is an order planning system in which employees work with customers to plan orders and discuss delivery times.

False

_______ involves gathering information about your competitors' activities so that you can anticipate their moves and react appropriately. For example, you may attend a trade show to learn what types of new products and new iPhone apps your competitors are planning to launch in the next six months.

Competitive intelligence

Critical thinkers make quick or rash decisions during the planning process.

False

Evidence-based management includes treating your organization as a finished prototype.

False

Strategic position emerges from three sources:

(1) few needs, many customers; (2) broad needs, few customers; and (3) broad needs, many customers.

Max, an employee for a government shipping contractor, likes the strict culture that he finds with Trask Industries, which supplies equipment parts to several naval bases. There is very little focus on the external environment and little company flexibility due to the type of customers that Trask serves. Because the product it sells needs little improvement and there is virtually no competition, Trask Industries takes few risks. Trask Industries is an example of an adhocracy culture.

False

The organizational-management process consists of seven steps: (1) doing research, (2) establishing the mission and vision, (3) assessing the current reality, (4) formulating the grand strategy, (4) implementing the strategy, (6) maintaining strategic control, and (7) maintaining the feedback loop.

False

________ is setting goals and deciding how to achieve them

Planning

It is important to keep an open mind and suspend judgment when developing a proactive learning orientation. Which of the following is not a key skill that would demonstrate your open-mindedness?

Show your emotions and challenge tasks.

______________ require(s) a long-term orientation.

Strategic planning

A corporate culture is a defined set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments.

True

A stability strategy is a grand strategy that involves little or no significant organizational change. For example, Forever and Ever is a jewelry store that sells only one type of item: engagement and wedding rings. The management of Forever and Ever does not plan to branch out into selling different types of jewelry; the company has a reputation for being the go-to store to purchase wedding rings, and it plans to maintain that strategy.

True

Dynamic Apps is an organization specializing in highly specialized technology software, but it found that its original business idea is not working. Rather than failing as a company, it chose a new direction and rewrote its business plan. Dynamic Apps is an example of how managers need to think and act as if their organization is an unfinished, changeable prototype.

True

Optimistic people attempt to change or influence a decision or they adapt and move on.

True

Research shows that most managers have characteristics that fall into two or three decision-making styles, and that decision-making styles vary across occupations, job level, and countries.

True

To start work every day, Tran sits down and sets his goals for the day and then he decides how to achieve them, formulating future courses of action to achieve the specified results. This is the definition of planning.

True

When managers and employees within the same department are brought together in cross-functional teams to solve particular problems, their company is using a team-based design.

True

Mr. Gonzalez, the sales manager, told his sales team that he wanted them to write down their work goals for the year. To help his team achieve their stated goals, the next thing that he should ask for are each team member's

action plan.

To help with hiring decisions during peak seasons and holidays, Cards for All Seasons uses time-series forecasts, like sales from last Valentine's Day and Christmas, to predict future sales based on patterns of historical data. Cards for All Seasons is making use of

analytics.

Cynthia, the human resources manager, has significant experience handling ethical issues in the workplace. Over the years she has received extensive training in matters of workplace ethics. Due to Cynthia's legal background (she is a member of the local bar association), the management of her company rely on Cynthia to assist them with legal issues, especially with ethical dilemmas. The ideal role for Cynthia within the organization is

ethics officer.

Quality Vacuum has been manufacturing excellent vacuum cleaners for over 50 years. In the employee break room is a banner that reads, "We will always provide the highest-quality vacuums at the lowest cost to our customers and always give honest, winning customer service, thereby earning a fair profit for our stakeholders." This statement is Quality Vacuum's

mission statement.

As a first-line manager, Samantha is the return desk coordinator in a department store, and she has set a goal this month of finishing her daily office work quicker so she can assist at the Return Desk earlier in the morning. She knows this will also help decrease theft, which will assist the company in achieving its goal of decreasing costs. Samantha's goal of finishing her office work quicker is a(n)

operational goal

Stars are _____, according to the BCG matrix. Stars have included Apple and the diamond company DeBeers.

organizations with high growth and high market share which are definite keepers