BA 301 Organizations & Management

The physical infrastructure in Borneo is weak.

Rooney, Inc. is a company that manufactures sugar. It is based in South Africa. The company follows the just-in-time approach in which it does not believe in stocking raw materials and maintaining an inventory, but instead relies on a strong supply chain to deliver materials in time. As a part of recent business development plans, the company decided to begin importing raw materials from Borneo. Which of the following, if true, would force the company to question its reliability on the JIT approach?

True

Technical skills involve specialized knowledge about procedures, processes, and equipment and the related abilities of knowing when and how to use that knowledge. True or False

The company can hire employees with high levels of formal education.

Textronic Technologies, a large software company, believes that close supervision is not essential to manage the software developers. The company wants to find an alternative for using direct supervisors to manage the engineers. Which of the following techniques can the company use to achieve this goal?

False

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed in 1977 in order to prevent foreign government officials from making payments to U.S. firms.

An example of an accomodator firm

The Hardley Accounting Firm changes its accounting practices after the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002.

Efficiency

The ________ perspective of social responsibility states that a manager's responsibility is to maximize profits for the owners of the business.

Monitor

The ________ role involves extensive information seeking in which managers engage to remain aware of crucial developments that may affect their units and their own work.

True

The category of motivational forces that relates to both internal and external forces focuses on the characteristics of a person's job or task. True or False

Legitimate power

The employees of a firm reports to line managers and they are responsible for controlling the work of the employees. What kind of power does the line managers enjoy in this example?

Cognitive differentation

The extent to which people in different units within an organization think about different things or about similar things differently is termed as ________.

True

The greater the psychological and emotional involvement of participants in ethics training, the greater their retention of learning points will be. True or False

Unity of command

The idea that every employee should have one and only one boss

Forecasting

The manager of a residential construction business plans to build more houses next year because interest rates are falling and more people will be able to afford new homes. This plan is an example of _______

Directing

The managerial function of ________ is the process of attempting to influence other people to attain the objectives of an organization.

False

The setting of organizational objectives must be preceded by the development of organizational plans. True or False

Society grants existence to firms

The social responsibility perspective argues that ________.

the exclusion of host nationals from strategic decision making in centrally controlled Japanese subsidiaries

The term bamboo ceiling refers to ________.

Plans, controls, and evaluates

The term manager refers to anyone who ________.

True

The term member refers to all employees of the organization True or False

Effective managers

Use resources to maximize the achievement of the organizations goal

The principles of scientific management

What is the primary legacy of Frederick Taylor?

High power distance

When Maria arrived from Mexico to study in the U.S., she noticed a difference between the students in Mexico and the students in the U.S. The American students felt comfortable asking questions, they were eager to share a thought or an opinion, and in some instances they even contradicted the teacher. Maria comes from a country that has ________.

creates a new, wholly-owned subsidiary in

When a company ________ a foreign country, it makes a direct investment to establish a business that it solely owns and controls there.

global approach; local approach

When designing an organizational structure for an international environment, management must choose between a ________, which integrates activities on a coordinated worldwide basis, and a ________, which differentiates activities in each country served.

Outside-In

When managers can look outside the company at issues the company can influence, they are following the ________ approach to strategic corporate social responsibility.

Informational roles

Which of the following types of managerial roles includes acting as a monitor, disseminator, and a spokesperson?

True

Whistleblowers tend not to be disgruntled employees. True or False

Unintended consequences

Within the context of the efficiency perspective of social responsibility, externalities involve ________.

Marketing and Sales

________ activities are designed to inform potential customers about the products and services the firm has available and entice them to purchase them.

Uncertainty avoidance

________ is when cultures differ in the extent to which they need clarity or can tolerate ambiguity.

Pooled Interdependance

________ occurs when several groups, that are largely independent in their functions, collectively contribute to a common output.

Position

________ power is based on a manager's rank in an organization.

Tactical planning

________ translates long-term plans into actions designed to achieve specific and shorter-term goals and objectives.

Process technological changes

________ typically relate to alterations in how to make products or how to manage enterprises.

Matrix structure

A ________ consists of two organizational structures superimposed on each other. As a consequence, one person essentially reports to two bosses.

Boundary Spanner

A ________ is a person who is either formally or informally designated to coordinate the activities across units or even sometimes across organizations. The role of this person is to build effective relationships between the groups involved.

Number of airports

A dimension of the country's physical infrastructure

Externality

A major concern with the efficiency perspective is that corporations can impose indirect consequences that may not be completely understood or anticipated. In economic terms, such an unintended consequence is called a(n) ________.

Business

A manager of a local flower franchise is investigating her own company's strengths and weaknesses and comparing them with those of her competitors. She is operating at the ________ level.

True

A manager's interpersonal skills include empathy, persuasiveness, and sensitivity. True or False

Cost leadership strategy

A manufacturer striving to be the lowest-cost producer of a product or service, while charging slightly less than industry-average prices, is pursuing a(n) ________.

Barriers to entry

A newly established company, The Malt Company, wishes to enter the beer market in Country A by building a new brewery there. Many companies already have breweries in Country A. These companies spend heavily on advertising, which Malt is finding difficult to afford. This is an example of ________.

False

A relatively transitory characteristic of a person is referred to as a trait. True or False

Maturity

A stage in the development of leader-member relationships associated with almost unlimited amounts of reciprocal influence

Mission statement

A(n) ________ articulates the fundamental purpose of the organization and often contains several components.

Proposed

A(n) ________ budget outlines how much money an organization needs, and it is submitted to a superior or a budget review committee.

Approved budget

A(n) ________ specifies the amount of money the manager is authorized to spend and what items can be purchased or what expenses are allowed.

Expense budget

A(n) ________ typically includes all primary activities on which the unit or organization plans to spend money and the amount allocated for each item during the year.

sequential interdependence

ABC Corp. produces widgets. Timely delivery to XYZ Corp. is critical since the widgets are essential to the production of XYZ Corp.'s gadgets. This is an example of ________.

True

Accommodator companies obey the letter of the law but do not make changes that might restrict profits unless they are required to do so. True or False

Demands

According to Rosemary Stewart, ________ involve(s) activities or duties that must be accomplished and standards or levels of minimum performance that must be met.

Moral Rights

According to the ________ approach to ethical decision making, some things are just right or wrong, independent of their consequences.

More than eighty percent of the employees in the team have five or more years of experience in performing the tasks.

Altdoor International Corp. manufactures and markets commercial trucks, buses, diesel engines, and military vehicles. The company manufactures the engines and assembles the vehicles from a large factory located in southern California. Lynn is the supervisor of one of the teams that function in the production line and most of the tasks that the members perform are structured and routine. Lynn believes that the supportive leadership style is most suited to manage his team. Which of the following information, if true, would most support Lynn's belief?

Referent Power

An example of personal power

Utilitarian

An executive who justifies paying a bribe because it allows his company to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people adheres to the ________ approach to ethical decision making

Whistleblower

As an employee of an international aid organization, Cynthia is often required to travel to countries where natural disasters have recently occurred. During a visit to a city destroyed by an earthquake, Cynthia learns that her organization has hired child laborers to help rebuild the ruined city. She quits the organization and brings this information to the notice of the public. Cynthia is a(n) ________.

False

As the general manager of a steel plant, Frederick Ivanovic has to divide his time between supervising the overall functioning of the plant, resolving conflicts between workers, preparing production reports, and meeting with his seniors to provide them with regular updates. This reflects the constraint dimension of management. True or False

Distributive justice

At Pixel Inc, all promotions, pay raises, and bonuses are based on employees' attainment of their goals and the extent to which they help the organization reach its objectives. Managers are strictly instructed to disregard irrelevant criteria such as the employee's age, gender, race, and so on when allocating rewards. This is indicative of ________.

True

Budgeting processes do not guarantee that managers will make good decisions about organizational priorities. True or False

integrated differentiation-cost leadership strategy

Campacola is a soda company that is seeking to enter the market by introducing an unusual line of sodas that contain granules that pop in the mouth. It intends to sell these sodas at no greater cost than normal sodas. What strategy is the company using in entering the soda market?

Probability of effect

Cigarette ads and smoking have not been completely outlawed in part because the ________ is not 100 percent

balanced regulatory control and political rights

Cluster 4 countries have the most developed institutional infrastructure, with ________.

The components of a mission statement

Company philosophy, customers and markets, and geographic focus

Obtaining

Corporations react to the various pressures and constituencies connected to the topic of social responsibility in different ways. Reactor firms focus on ________ profits.

Anticipaters

Corporations react to the various pressures and constituencies connected to the topic of social responsibility in different ways. ________ tend to believe that they are obligated to a variety of stakeholders not to harm them independent of laws or pressures that restrict or regulate their actions.

Choice

Daniel is the manager of a luxury resort in the Bahamas. It is his responsibility to ensure that his subordinates do all that it takes to meet customer requirements and make their stays memorable. As a result, when one of their major customers voiced his dissatisfaction with the receptionist at the front desk, Daniel decided to change the receptionist's shift while the guest was staying at the resort. His authority to make this change reflects the ________ aspect of a manager's job.

The principal managerial functions applicable to modern organizations

Directing involves leading and motivating those for whom the manager is responsible

False

Global events have little effect on the goals that managers set, the decisions they make, and how they coordinate and lead the work of other people. True or False

Task Identity

Hackman and Oldham proposed that ________ is the degree to which a job requires the completion of a "whole" and identifiable piece of work.

Task significance

Harry, a finance manager of an IT company, devises a new child education benefit plan to partly sponsor the primary education of their employees' children. Within the context of the job characteristics model, this is an example of ________

Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model

Has its primary emphasis on followers' readiness to engage in learning new tasks

Ethical dilemma

Having to make a choice between two competing but arguably valid options is known as an:

d. Employees have become complacent after a few successful campaigns, are highly demotivated and lack creativity.

Ibiz is an ad agency that specializes in creating advertisements targeted at kids. After a dip in profits, managers are planning to implement the SWOT analysis approach to understand where they are going wrong. Refer to the scenario above. Which of the following, if true, would suggest that the company should concentrate on its strengths? a. The barriers to entry for this industry are low and the bargaining power of suppliers is increasing. Incorrect b. The managers make sure that they get the best talent in the market, even if they have to pay a high price for it. c. With access to technology, the firm is able to produce some of the best ads in the market. d. Employees have become complacent after a few successful campaigns, are highly demotivated and lack creativity.

True

If a country's laws related to intellectual property rights are weak, then firms with valuable technologies will be reluctant to bring them into that country. True or False

True

In Mintzberg's management model, the negotiator role often requires managers to make accommodations with other units or other organizations. True or False

Low-context cultures

In ________, contextual variables have much less impact on the determination of appropriate behaviors.

High-context cultures

In ________, people pay close attention to the situation and its various elements.

Profit center

In a product structure, each product is treated as a ________; that is, the expenses related to a product are subtracted from the revenues generated by selling it.

Uncertainty Avoidance

In a steel mill in Japan, all tasks take place only after careful planning. The employees rely on the rules, laws, and regulations set by the authorities. They proceed to make changes step by step. The managers of the mill believe this reduces risks to a minimum. This is an example of ________.

Spokesperson

In his capacity as the regional production manager, Mark Brown is required to address the regional heads from across the country in a quarterly meeting organized by his company. At this meeting, Mark presents the detailed production figures of his region and also outlines the changes he plans to implement in order to improve productivity. Mark is playing the role of a ________.

True

In low-context cultures, the situation itself may or may not affect what is considered to be appropriate behavior. True or False

False

In the "outside-in" approach of the strategic corporate social responsibility perspective, managers look at social issues in general terms of the extent to which they are problematic

True

In the context of an organization, all managers are members but all members are not managers. True or False

Organizational management

Include tasks that don't directly involve influencing people

Competitor

Indian Railways enjoys a monopoly in the country with regard to rail transportation as there is no other player in this segment. Based on this, it can be concluded that Indian Railways enjoys a fairly simpler ________ environment as compared to the numerous road transport service providers in the country.

Global focus

Jenson Foods is headquartered in New Jersey and has subsidiaries in many countries across the world. The home office has centralized authority and the international subsidiaries follow the same or a similar strategy in each of their markets. Jenson Foods is following a ________.

Transformational

Leadership that motivates followers to ignore self-interests and work for the larger good of the organization to achieve significant accomplishments is called ________ leadership.

Entrepreneurial

Managers in the ________ role not only make routine decisions Not only make decisions in their jobs but also frequently engage in activities that explore new opportunities and start new projects

False

Managers rarely have to manage multicultural teams within one organization in one location. True or False

Utilitarian

Mark heads his firm's international division in China and has been approached by local officials on several occasions to pay a bribe. After countless failed attempts, the officials are now threatening to shut down the facility if Mark doesn't pay up. Realizing that this would render thousands of employees jobless, Mark decides to pay the bribe. Mark adopted the ________ approach in arriving at this decision.

The leader role

Matt is known to have substantial influence over his team. He has regular meetings with them to ensure that they do not lose sight of what they are trying to accomplish. He also motivates them to set challenging targets for themselves and achieve those targets. What role is Matt playing?

Network Structure

One of the greatest potential advantages of using a ________ is that it allows managers to focus on core competencies.

Environmental Dynamism

Over the past 30 years, significant advancements have been made in technology, R&D, and applications relating to the IT industry. This factor can be attributed to ________ contributing to the overall uncertainty of the environment in the IT industry.

True

Planning involves estimating future conditions and circumstances, and based on these estimations, making decisions about the work of the manager and for all employees for whom she or he is responsible. True or False

True

Power distance is the extent to which people accept power and authority differences among people. True or False

the right to administer punishments

Power obtained due to ________ is an example of positional power.

Analyzing the external enviroment

Prior to entering the Eastern European markets, Procter & Gamble assessed the strengths and weaknesses of possible competitors and non competitors in those markets. Procter & Gamble's actions can be classified as ________.

Example of a reactor firm

Ramen's retail store decides to stop using plastic bags after customers threatened to boycott its products.