MGT300 Test 2 True/False Questions
Two types of forecasting are trend analysis and competitive intelligence.
FALSE
A defensive strategy is sometimes called retrenchment strategy.
TRUE
A formal vertical hierarchy shows a company's most typical channels of communication.
TRUE
Strategic planning determines goals for an organization for a period of 1-5 years.
TRUE
Southwest Airlines' goal of making arrival times more reliable is a tactical goal.
TRUE
The process of fitting the organization to its environment is called contingency design.
TRUE
The operating plan defines the course of action needed to achieve a stated goal.
FALSE
The use of hedging to manage the cost of aviation fuel is an example of trend analysis.
FALSE
Confidential matters and issues involving discipline cannot be effectively delegated.
TRUE
In Porter's model for industry analysis, there are three primary competitive forces in a firm's environment.
FALSE
Research shows that organizations with market cultures report higher profits and financial growth.
TRUE
A formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinate and motivate an organization's members is known as an organizational configuration.
FALSE
A mission statement should be ambitious.
FALSE
A policy includes more specifics than does a rule.
FALSE
A ritual is a narrative based on true events, which is repeated—and sometimes embellished upon—to emphasize a particular value of an organization.
FALSE
A small florist most likely follows a diversification strategy.
FALSE
A steady-state career entails a slow-but-steady growth in level of responsibility and compensation.
FALSE
A strategic position may be based on serving the few needs of a few customers.
FALSE
Execution is tactical in nature, rather than part of a company's strategy.
FALSE
Horizontally on an organizational chart are the various companies outside of the firm, such as suppliers and distributors.
FALSE
If a marketing person reports to both the Vice President of Marketing and also to the project manager for the Ford Mustang, she works in a network organization.
FALSE
If your boss asked you to take care of a task, productivity expert Odette Pollar says it is still OK to delegate it.
FALSE
In single-use plans, a program is another name for a project.
FALSE
Strategy actualization is the term for putting strategic plans into effect.
FALSE
A good organizational culture can facilitate a low turnover rate.
TRUE
Decisions that are predictable, following a well-defined set of procedures are typical of operational planning.
TRUE
Facebook strives to be on the cutting edge of social media, and is experiencing phenomenal growth. It encourages what it calls a "hacker" mindset, always looking to break down the old in favor of something better. Of Miles and Snow's basic strategy types, Facebook would be described as a prospector.
TRUE
Ford Motor Co. has what is known as a divisional structure because it has different divisions for passenger car dealers, large trucking customers, and farm products customers.
TRUE
Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy.
TRUE
Hierarchy of authority is also referred to as the chain of command.
TRUE
In the planning/control cycle, comparing the results with the plan is one of the control steps.
TRUE
Sharing stories, legends, or myths are good ways to develop an organizational structure.
FALSE
A functionally-organized company can also use team-based structure to work on particular problems.
TRUE
A hero is a person whose accomplishments embody the values of the organization.
TRUE
A market culture has a strong external focus and values stability and control.
TRUE
A marketing plan is an example of an action plan.
TRUE
A sustainable competitive advantage is the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than its competitors and outperform them.
TRUE
Many good mission statements include descriptions of an organization's customers, as well as its major products or services.
TRUE
Organizational culture can vary widely across organizations on dimensions of treatment of employees, teamwork, and risk taking.
TRUE
Organizations may turn to the strategic-management process after a crisis.
TRUE
The process of a business cycling through decisions first to select products and markets, then about producing and delivering the products, and finally to establish roles and processes is known as the discovery cycle.
FALSE
The starting point in establishing a grand strategy is usually an analysis of Porter's competitive forces.
FALSE
Those who found a business and the managers who follow them primarily use power and coercion to embed the culture into the organization.
FALSE
One advantage of decentralized organizations is that procedures are uniform and thus easier to control.
FALSE
One of the ways to keep a strategic plan on track is to make it very comprehensive, covering as many scenarios for the future as you can.
FALSE
Only for-profit organizations can be represented by an organization chart.
FALSE
Operational goals are set by middle managers and focus on the actions needed to achieve strategic goals
FALSE
Operational planning is normally performed by middle management.
FALSE
Organization-wide, the best structure for objectives in MBO is known as a diversity pattern.
FALSE
Organizational culture appears as three layers: observable artifacts, token values, and foundational beliefs.
FALSE
Planning is usually a straightjacket for new ideas, since it effectively blocks peripheral vision in favor of a predetermined course.
FALSE
Planning occurs only at the highest levels of an organization, being done by top managers.
FALSE
Policies, procedures, and rules are types of single-use plans.
FALSE
Power refers to the rights inherent in a managerial position to make decisions, give orders, and utilize resources.
FALSE
Sometimes an organizational structure can be strong enough to take the place of organizational culture.
FALSE
Strategic conservation attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company.
FALSE
Synergy is one of the benefits of a single-product strategy.
FALSE
Tactical planning is done by first-line managers and looks forward to the next 1-8 weeks.
FALSE
The "social glue" that binds customers to a particular firm is called organizational culture.
FALSE
The 'R' in a SMART goal stands for 'reachable'.
FALSE
The BCG matrix is a means of evaluating strategic business units on the basis of both their business growth rates and their profitability.
FALSE
The division of labor means that an employee should report to no more than one manager.
FALSE
The first stage of in an organization's life cycle is known as creation.
FALSE
The fit perspective assumes that the most effective cultures help organizations anticipate and adapt to environmental changes.
FALSE
The founder of McDonald's, Ray Kroc, intended that a Big Mac should taste the same anywhere, and accordingly the company has many specific procedures, making it a formulaic organization.
FALSE
The four stages of organization life cycle include birth, growth, stability, and maturity.
FALSE
The functional structure is the most typical type for small firms.
FALSE
The pink Cadillac that Mary Kay presents to the best salespeople of its cosmetic line is an example of an emblem.
FALSE
As you are promoted to higher levels in an organization, you may have to actively resist isolation.
TRUE
At 3M the Gold Step award, a trophy for successful new products, is an example of a symbol.
TRUE
Because it is unrealistic for SMART goals to be accomplished overnight, they should have target dates.
TRUE
Bombardier builds jets from 12 separately-sourced portions which can be put together in four days. This is an example of a modular organizational structure.
TRUE
Burberry makes outerwear, accessories like umbrellas, and children's clothing, which is called a related diversification strategy.
TRUE
Cash cows in the BCG matrix have slow growth but high market share.
TRUE
Companies that must respond to fast-changing customer tastes often favor an organic structure to a mechanistic one.
TRUE
Contingency planning can also be called scenario planning
TRUE
Culture exists on visible and unobservable levels.
TRUE
Deadlines can help one concentrate the mind, in order to make decisions rather than put them off.
TRUE
Determining an organization's mission is the responsibility of top management and the board of directors.
TRUE
Forecasting is a strategic-planning tool used to make long-term strategy.
TRUE
In general, organizations become more bureaucratic over their lifetimes.
TRUE
Individuals who don't want the responsibility that comes with promotion may follow a transitory career path.
TRUE
Integration is the tendency of the parts of an organization to draw together to achieve a common purpose.
TRUE
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is now challenged by new competitors such as Annie's and other store brands, which Porter's model for industry analysis calls the threat of new entrants.
TRUE
Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has a focused-differentiation strategy
TRUE
Maintenance objectives are one type of objective used in MBO.
TRUE
Managers must be willing to make large, painful decisions to suddenly alter strategy.
TRUE
Managers who execute well insist on realism.
TRUE
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, with its culture that manages failure and disappointment, and of helping drug researchers live for the small victories in discovering new drugs for various diseases, is an example of an adhocracy.
TRUE
Planning gives you expectations against which you can compare your performance.
TRUE
Roberto opened a new restaurant in Miami called Cuban Isle. He wanted to be sure a culture of service and excellence was embedded in his new organization so he posted the values of the organization in the kitchen and in the dining room. Roberto is teaching his organization the culture through this action.
TRUE
Staff personnel have authority functions in that they provide advice, recommendations, and research to line managers.
TRUE
The U.S. government space program is an example of a single-use plan
TRUE
The administrative part of the adaptive cycle focuses on establishing roles and organizational processes.
TRUE
The purpose of MBO is to motivate subordinates.
TRUE
The reporting relationships on an organizational chart are known as the vertical hierarchy of authority.
TRUE
The strategic-management process has five steps and a feedback loop.
TRUE
The type of training provided to new hires and the frequency of performance evaluations contribute to their understanding of the organization's culture.
TRUE
There are seven leader behaviors that help a manager successfully execute a strategy.
TRUE
Too little or unreliable historical data may result in erroneous trend analyses
TRUE
When employees are forced to adhere to an organization's values through extensive procedures and bureaucracies, its culture is said to be weak.
TRUE
When the National Football League annually presents the winners of the Superbowl with rings in a ceremony, it is an example of a ritual.
TRUE
According to Miles and Snow's basic strategy types, a defender protects its strong position in an industry by constantly seeking new opportunities for growth.
FALSE
An organization with different grouping of people based on its products, customers, or geographic regions has a functional structure.
FALSE
Bad planning is usually a result of top managers' inability to gather enough information.
FALSE
By definition, an organization includes 10 or more people
FALSE
Good strategy allows a company to be everything to everyone.
FALSE
Guthrie Community College has done a SWOT analysis and discovered that the number of college-bound high-school juniors in its state has grown by nearly 20% in the past few years. This is a strength for Guthrie.
FALSE
In this time of Internet connections and speedy-access computer databases, one typically has complete information for planning and decision making.
FALSE
Planning helps managers to cope with events that can be predicted, but is not particularly helpful when conditions are uncertain.
FALSE
SMART goals that are challenging yet can be met within the available scope of time, equipment, and financial support are known as achievable, the 'A' in SMART.
FALSE
Southwest Airlines' goal of being highly profitable is a tactical goal.
FALSE
Strategic planning is appropriate for large companies, but does not help the performance of small companies.
FALSE
Strategic goals focus on objectives for the organization as a whole.
TRUE
Formal business plans can be dangerous to the survival of new businesses; many who try them fail because of the resources required to write and agree upon the plan.
FALSE
In MBO, objectives that employees fail to meet should be put aside for the next period in favor of ones that they can achieve.
FALSE
In a world of rapid and discontinuous change, the ability to please nonmanagerial employees has been called the golden trait among managers.
FALSE
In the planning/control cycle, carrying out the plan is one of the control steps.
FALSE
MBO was developed by Frederick Taylor as part of scientific management.
FALSE
Marriot Hotel's statement in which it states its desire "to be the world's leading provider of hospitality services" is a mission statement.
FALSE
Microsoft has been accused of adapting competitors' products after those firms spent the resources and took the risks to develop them. Companies with this strategy are known as analyzers by Miles and Snow.
FALSE
Mission and vision statements should be created once the strategic planning process is complete.
FALSE
Strategic management is the process of involving select managers from the executive leadership of the organization in the formulation and implementation of strategies and strategic goals.
FALSE
The first step in an MBO program is for the manager to set objectives for her subordinate.
FALSE
The first step of the strategic-management process is to establish the grand strategy
FALSE
The planning/control cycle has three planning steps and three control steps.
FALSE
The career path that most resembles the traditional view of climbing the stairs in a corporate hierarchy is the linear career
TRUE
Obsolete technology and outdated facilities are examples of organizational threats.
FALSE
A clan culture has an external focus and values flexibility rather than stability and control.
FALSE
A company must be able to execute three core processes of business including people, products, and administration.
FALSE
A company with a formalized, structured work environment aimed at achieving efficiency, timeliness, and reliability in the creation and deliver of products has a clan culture.
FALSE
A corporation that uses a network structure is often called matrix corporation.
FALSE
A hospital is an example of a mutual-benefit organization
FALSE
Allowing business-casual dress in the workplace is an example of the espoused values portion of organizational culture.
FALSE
An organization chart it is most often illustrated with a tall, slender rectangle showing each level of the company
FALSE
Corporate culture is as also known as organizational structure.
FALSE
Director of operations is an example of a staff position.
FALSE
Espoused values represent the values and norms actually exhibited in the organization.
FALSE
General Electric sells lighting products and is also involved in plastics, broadcasting, and financial services. GE uses a related diversification strategy
FALSE
In a cost-leadership strategy, an organization targets a wide market and offers products of services of unique and superior value compared to competitors.
FALSE
Lawrence and Lorsch's term for the tendency of an organization's parts to disperse and fragment is demarcation.
FALSE
A common challenge to strategy implementation is resistance by people within the organization.
TRUE
A grand strategy can be established by using tools like SWOT analysis and forecasting.
TRUE
A procedure is a standing plan that outlines the response to particular problems or circumstances.
TRUE
A single-product strategy can be described as focused but vulnerable.
TRUE
An adhocracy culture attempts to create innovative products by being adaptive, creative, and quick to respond to the environment.
TRUE
An advantage in using centralized authority is that there is less duplication of work, because fewer employees perform the same task.
TRUE
An investigation of companies with different organizational cultures showed that long-term financial performance was highest for those with an adaptive culture.
TRUE
An organization is said to be flat when there are only a few levels with wide spans of control.
TRUE
An organization's basic assumptions are difficult to change.
TRUE
A strategy is a large-scale action plan that sets direction for an organization
TRUE
A vision has a clear sense of the future and the actions needed to get there.
TRUE
In order for MBO to be successful, it must be implemented throughout the entire organization.
TRUE
In the planning/control cycle, part of the control process can be to improve future plans.
TRUE
Management of a small company in an industry that is not very competitive should not engage in strategic planning because the small gains in performance may not be worth the effort.
TRUE
Organizational threats are the environmental factors that hinder an organization's ability to achieve a competitive advantage.
TRUE
Planning and strategic management derive from an organization's mission and vision about itself.
TRUE
SWOT analysis helps management to develop a realistic understanding of the organization in relation to internal and external environments.
TRUE
Strategic positioning can be achieved by performing similar activities to rivals, but in different ways.
TRUE
Strategy formulation is the process of choosing among different strategies and altering them to best fit the organization's needs.
TRUE
A vision statement expresses what the organization should become and where it wants to go strategically.
TRUE
An organization should adopt strategic management and strategic planning to encourage new ideas
TRUE
An organization's goals arranged from low-level to high-level can be termed a means-end chain.
TRUE
Best Buy plans to keep its prices low and make few changes in the near future, which is an example of a stability strategy.
TRUE
Competitive intelligence challenges the brains of employees to make them better equipped to produce novel ideas for business.
FALSE
Contingency planning is a hypothetical extension of a past series of events into the future.
FALSE
Ford's Sync in-dash communications platform, despite its high level of technology, has been unable to provide the company with a distinct competitive advantage.
FALSE
A bike messenger company that operates in the downtown area of a large city recently set the following goal: "All deliveries should be completed as quickly as possible." This example meets the criteria for a SMART goal.
FALSE
A business plan is a document with the purpose of outlining a proposed firm's profit and loss statements for its first operating cycle.
FALSE
A comprehensive strategy assesses current organizational performance and then explains how its mission is to be accomplished.
FALSE
A continuity strategy is a grand strategy that involves little or no significant change.
FALSE
A development strategy is a grand strategy that involves expansion.
FALSE
A good vision statement should describe a company's major strengths and competitive advantage in its industry
FALSE
A target is a specific commitment to achieve a measurable result within a stated period of time.
FALSE
A vision will be demoralizing to employees if it describes a future state that appears beyond the reach of the organization.
FALSE
According to Burt Nanus, good vision statements are useful because they help people to consider all interesting elements in their environments.
FALSE
Blockbuster Video was slow to adapt to the latest trends in its industry, such as DVD-by-mail and movie downloads online. When it tried to incorporate the same into its business model, it was well behind competitors like Netflix. Blockbuster might be defined as a defender, according to Miles and Snow.
FALSE
