MAN3022

Simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs is known as: restructuring. outsourcing. empowering. innovating. telecommuting.

restructuring. Restructuring involves simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs. It can be done by eliminating product teams, shrinking departments, and reducing levels in the hierarchy, all of which result in the loss of large numbers of jobs of top, middle, or first-line managers, as well as nonmanagerial employees.

Susan, the CEO of United Group Ltd., reviews the performance of her company in the past month's Profit & Loss Statement to determine if the company is on pace to meet the planned sales and profitability goals. Susan is engaged in which of the following managerial functions? Planning Organizing Staffing Controlling Leading

Controlling In controlling, the task of managers is to evaluate how well an organization has achieved its goals and to take any corrective actions needed to maintain or improve performance. The outcome of the control process is the ability to measure performance accurately and regulate organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Which of the following refers to a cluster of decisions concerning what organizational goals to pursue, what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve these goals? Synergy Value Strategy Mission Business model

Strategy Strategy refers to a cluster of decisions concerning what organizational goals to pursue, what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve these goals.

Organizations that operate and compete in more than one country are known as: domestic organizations. central organizations. holding organizations. quasi-autonomous organizations. global organizations.

global organizations. Global organizations are organizations that operate and compete in more than one country. The rise of such organizations has pressured many organizations to identify better ways to use their resources and improve their performance.

The process of creating new or improved goods and services that customers want or developing better ways to produce or provide goods and services is known as: invention. diffusion. innovation. differentiation. integration.

innovation. Innovation, the process of creating new or improved goods and services that customers want or developing better ways to produce or provide goods and services, poses a special challenge. Managers must create an organizational setting in which people are encouraged to be innovative.

How to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that attain set goals, is a question addressed during: regulating. planning. leading. controlling. commanding.

planning. To perform the planning task, managers identify and select appropriate organizational goals and courses of action; they develop strategies for how to achieve high performance. The three steps involved in planning are (1) deciding which goals the organization will pursue, (2) deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals, and (3) deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that attain those goals.

A formal system of reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates organizational members so that they work together to attempt to achieve organizational goals is called an organizational: culture. psychology. structure. assimilation. chart.

structure. Organizing is structuring working relationships so organizational members interact and cooperate to achieve organizational goals. Organizing people into departments according to the kinds of job-specific tasks they perform lays out the lines of authority and responsibility among different individuals and groups.

Fresh Farms, Inc., is facing financial problems. In order to tackle the situation, the management has decided to reduce the number of middle managers by 20 percent to help them cut costs. This is an example of: telecommuting. restructuring. outsourcing. empowering. innovating.

Restructuring Restructuring involves simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs. It can be done by eliminating product teams, shrinking departments, and reducing levels in the hierarchy, all of which result in the loss of large numbers of jobs of top, middle, or first-line managers, as well as nonmanagerial employees.

The four building blocks of competitive advantage are superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers. True False

True Competitive advantage is the ability of one organization to outperform other organizations because it produces desired goods or services more efficiently and effectively than its competitors. The four building blocks of competitive advantage are superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers.

The middle managers supervise the supervisors. True False

True The first-line managers are often called supervisors. Supervising the first-line managers are middle managers, responsible for finding the best way to organize human and other resources to achieve organizational goals.

A bank allows its tellers to not only handle deposits and disbursement, but also distribute traveler's checks and sell certificates of deposit. This is an example of: innovation. restructuring. total quality management. empowerment. outsourcing.

Empowerment Empowerment is a management technique that involves giving employees more authority and responsibility over how they perform their work activities. Information technology is being increasingly used to empower employees because it expands employees' job knowledge and increases the scope of their job responsibilities.

Restructuring involves contracting with another company, in a low-cost country abroad, to have it perform a work activity the organization previously performed itself. True False

False Restructuring involves simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs. Restructuring can be done by eliminating product teams, shrinking departments, and reducing levels in the hierarchy, all of which result in the loss of large numbers of jobs of top, middle, or first-line managers, as well as nonmanagerial employees.

The array of technical skills managers need is independent of the position they hold in their organizations. True False

False Managers need a range of technical skills to be effective. The array of technical skills managers need depends on their position in their organizations.

An organization's efficiency decreases when it reduces the quantity of resources it uses to produce goods or services. True False

False Organizations increase their efficiency when they reduce the quantity of resources they use to produce goods or services. In today's competitive environment, organizations continually search for new ways to use their resources to improve efficiency.

Planning strategy is clear and easy, especially because planning is done under certainty when the result is known. True False

False Planning strategy is complex and difficult, especially because planning is done under uncertainty when the result is unknown so that success or failure are both possible outcomes of the planning process. Managers take major risks when they commit organizational resources to pursue a particular strategy.

_____ refers to the ease with which a company changes or alters the way it performs its activities to respond to actions of its competitors. Speed Flexibility Innovativeness Stability Differentiation

Flexibility Today companies can win or lose the competitive race depending on their speed—how fast they can bring new products to market—or their flexibility—how easily they can change or alter the way they perform their activities to respond to actions of their competitors.

Which of the following is an accurate definition of a self-managed team? It is a group of people who work interdependently and with shared purpose across space, time, and organization boundaries using technology to communicate and collaborate. It involves several professionals who independently address various issues that an organization may have, focusing on the issues in which they specialize. It lessens the autonomy enjoyed by the employee. It refers to a group of employees who assume collective responsibility for organizing, controlling, and supervising their own work activities. It refers to a team used only for a defined period of time and for a separate, concretely definable purpose.

It refers to a group of employees who assume collective responsibility for organizing, controlling, and supervising their own work activities. Information technology facilitates the use of a self-managed team, a group of employees who assume collective responsibility for organizing, controlling, and supervising their own work activities. Using IT designed to give team members real-time information about each member's performance, a self-managed team can often find ways to accomplish a task more quickly and efficiently.

Which of the following strategies helps an organization to obtain customers by making decisions that allow it to produce goods or services more cheaply than its competitors? Disintermediation strategy Centralization strategy Penetration strategy Low-cost strategy Differentiation strategy

Low-cost strategy A low-cost strategy is a way of obtaining customers by making decisions that allow an organization to produce goods or services more cheaply than its competitors so it can charge lower prices than they do.

The company for which Margaret works has announced that due to declining global sales, it will lay off 12 percent of its labor force. This is an example of: innovating. telecommuting. restructuring. outsourcing. empowering.

Restructuring Restructuring involves simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs. It can be done by eliminating product teams, shrinking departments, and reducing levels in the hierarchy, all of which result in the loss of large numbers of jobs of top, middle, or first-line managers, as well as nonmanagerial employees.

Which of the following is true of top managers? They are responsible for finding the best way to organize human and other resources to achieve organizational goals. They are responsible for daily supervision of the nonmanagerial employees who perform the specific activities necessary to produce goods and services. They find ways to help first-line managers and nonmanagerial employees better use resources to reduce manufacturing costs or improve customer service. They have cross-departmental responsibility. They are responsible for a single department.

They have cross-departmental responsibility. In contrast to middle managers, top managers are responsible for the performance of all departments. They have cross-departmental responsibility. Top managers establish organizational goals, such as which goods and services the company should produce; they decide how the different departments should interact; and they monitor how well middle managers in each department use resources to achieve goals.

The controlling task helps managers evaluate how well they themselves are performing the other three tasks of management—planning, organizing, and leading—and take corrective action. True False

True To exercise control, managers must decide which goals to measure and then they must design control systems that will provide the information necessary to assess performance. The controlling task also helps managers evaluate how well they themselves are performing the other three tasks of management—planning, organizing, and leading—and take corrective action.

Restructuring results in the loss of jobs. True False

True Restructuring can be done by eliminating product teams, shrinking departments, and reducing levels in the hierarchy, all of which result in the loss of large numbers of jobs of top, middle, or first-line managers, as well as nonmanagerial employees.

Which of the following is NOT true about management and organizational resources? Organizations are collections of people who work together to achieve a wide variety of goals. Managers are responsible for making the most of an organization's human resources to achieve its goals. Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. An organization's resources include assets such as machinery, raw materials, and computers and information technology. Organizational performance increases in an indirect proportion to increases in efficiency and effectiveness.

Wrong answer: Organizational performance increases in an indirect proportion to increases in efficiency and effectiveness. Organizational performance is a measure of how efficiently and effectively managers use available resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals. Organizational performance increases in direct proportion to increases in efficiency and effectiveness.

The strategy of delivering new, exciting, and unique products to the customers is known as a _____ strategy. low-cost disintermediation centralization penetration differentiation

differentiation The strategy of delivering new, exciting, and unique products to the customers is known as a differentiation strategy.

Being a part of top management at a large fast food chain, Donald is most likely to spend more of his time in: planning and organizing resources. planning and controlling nonmanagerial employees. planning and leading first-line managers. organizing resources and controlling nonmanagerial employees. organizing resources and leading first-line managers.

planning and organizing resources. The amount of time managers spend planning and organizing resources to maintain and improve organizational performance increases as they ascend the hierarchy. Top managers devote most of their time to planning and organizing, the tasks so crucial to determining an organization's long-term performance. The lower that managers' positions are in the hierarchy, the more time the managers spend leading and controlling first-line managers or nonmanagerial employees.