Principles Of Management Study Questions

From the profiles below, identify the person who is most likely to become a successful entrepreneur

Percy enjoys challenges, has a strong social network, has good knowledge of management techniques, and possesses excellent business skills.

Jim's manager & mentor, Naomi, helped Jim develop his first business plan. Naomi said, "Jim, one of the most powerful tools that you can use in developing a strategic plan for your division is to analyze the external environment & your internal resources. I will help you formulate this strategy by using a technique called

SWOT analysis

Josiah, a new manager at Super Sandwiches, has been asked to focus on the competitive environment of the organization. Which of these factors is among those that Josiah should focus on?

Suppliers

________ are conditions that prevent new companies from setting foot in an industry.

Barriers to entry

A popular low-cost airline, Budget Airways, has gone out of business. Although the service and price provided by the airline was what customers wanted, the larger airlines were able to drive the low-cost airline out of business through an aggressive price war. Which component of the competitive environment does this illustrate?

Competitors

Choose the statement that is true of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs take careful, calculated risks and are not afraid to act on those decisions.

________ refers to the moral principles & standards that guide the behavior of an individual or group.

Ethics

In an organization, the process of planning moves in a linear fashion.

False

Individuals usually make higher-quality decisions when compared to groups, provided there is enough time.

False

Making decisions about an organization's short-term goals & tactics is known as strategic planning.

False

Open systems are all relevant forces outside an organization's boundaries.

False

The best managers prioritize efficiency over effectiveness.

False

The four fundamental management principles include analyzing current situations, determining objectives, choosing corporate, and business strategies, and determining the resources needed to achieve the organization's goals.

False

Top-level managers are also called tactical managers because they must translate general goals into specific objectives and activities.

False

A small business differs from an entrepreneurial venture.

True

Life cycle analysis (LCA) quantifies the total use of resources & the releases into the air, water, & land.

True

Roberto owns a janitorial service company. Over the past five years, the bulk of his business, about 80 percent, has derived from a long-term service contract with the federal government. He learned today that his company will not be awarded an extension of the contract, and thus his company's work for the government client must cease within 30 days. The very negative impact of this decision on Roberto's company is a reminder that

an organization is at a disadvantage if it depends too heavily upon powerful customers

Planning involves

analyzing current situations.

The step in the formal planning process known as ________ involves studying past events, examining current conditions, & forecasting future trends.

analyzing the situation

At Susan's retirement party, she reflected upon her long career in starting up successful companies. She said, "I salute my long-time mentor, Milton, who counseled me early in my career about risk. He told me, 'Susan, when you are confronted with risk when making management decisions, you should

anticipate it, minimize it, and control it

Tommy, engineering manager at APC Systems, Inc., is struggling to maintain a competitive advantage in APC's marketplace. He wants to hire and retain the best staff that he can, but the best staff command high salaries. Tommy knows that high staff salaries can erode his company's profitability. But passing along these higher costs to his clients means they will start doing less business with higher-priced APC and more business with Tommy's lower-priced competitors. Tommy is struggling to

be cost competitive.

Susan has been planning to open a child care center and has been asked by the small business center to create a document that includes the market, strategies, and future directions. This document is a(n)

business plan

Which of the following organizational cultures is strongly characterized by cohesiveness, participation, and sense of family?

clan

Managers will utilize ________ skills with increasing frequency as they rise within an organization.

conceptual and decision

When Alex, the marketing manager of FrontStreet Inc., realized that his plan to increase sales levels was not producing the results he desired, he took quick action to make necessary adjustments. According to this scenario, Alex was exercising the management function of

controlling

Which approaches should an organization adopt for managing uncertainty in a complex and dynamic environment?

decentralized and organic approach, with mutual adjustment

A function of a business plan is to

determine the viability of one's enterprise

Tomas was a manager at a company that produced household appliances. He had many innovative ideas to increase profits. However, his ideas were not received well by the company. So, he left the company to pursue his own business, thus creating a(n)

entrepreneurial venture

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

established strict accounting & reporting rules to make senior managers more accountable & to improve & maintain investor confidence

"I am so proud of my former marketing students," said Dr. Sarah Markham. "So many have become successful entrepreneurs because they were able to spot, create, or exploit ________ in a variety of ways."

opportunities

Flatiron Inc. recently embarked on an effort to increase coordination and cooperation within the company. During the process, the managers of the organization reviewed and specified job responsibilities, grouped jobs into work units, and reallocated resources within the company. The managers were exercising the management function of

organizing

Management is the

process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals.

Sheila usually makes decisions based on what her friends would expect her to do. Therefore, Sheila's actions usually reflect her use of the ________ ethical system.

relativism

Belinda has to select the right paper clips to purchase for her office. She looks at the office supply catalog & picks the first one that is priced reasonably. Belinda is using the ________ method of decision making.

satisficing

Forge Right Inc., a manufacturing company, developed a strategic plan that assumed improved growth in its industry. Additionally, it generated several ________ for different economic settings. When a recession started, Forge Right Inc. quickly implemented the plan based on those conditions. As a consequence, it survived more easily than other firms in the industry.

scenarios

Advances in genetic engineering are expected to produce some food products that will become available all year round even in continental climates. These changes will provide grocers with an opportunity to reduce their shipping costs while offering fresher produce to their customers. These advances are examples of changes in the ________________ environment.

technological

___________________ is/are composed of all relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy.

the external environment

At the deepest level of organizational culture are

unconscious assumptions

A supervisor of a retail outlet is facing an ethical dilemma. She uses the formal process of ethical decision-making to resolve the issue. Her first step will be

understanding all the moral standards

Alejandra, owner of a small craft shop, inadvertently sold decorative wall hangings that included hazardous lead-based paint. The paint was a very small part of the finished product, and the crafts were intended to hang well above the reach of small children and pets. Nonetheless, when Alejandra learned that the crafts contained the hazardous paint, she contacted each buyer, took back the crafts she had sold them, & replaced the crafts with products that did not contain the hazardous paint. She acted as a mature businessperson with good moral character by using the ________ approach to ethical decision making.

virtue ethics

The ____ model is a theory of corporate social responsibility that holds that managers are agents of stockowners whose primary objective is to maximize profits.

Shareholder

Entrepreneurs experience stress, but they also have high job satisfaction. They tend to be ________ healthy and ________ likely to retire than those who work for others.

more; less

The manager of a restaurant noticed that the number of customers in the evening was decreasing. She promptly ordered the chef to revise the evening menu. Later, customer feedback indicated that the problem was not the menu but poor service from the waitstaff. The manager's decision to have the menu revised suggests that she failed to

identify and diagnose the problem

"As a budding entrepreneur 40 years ago, I naively looked forward to being my own boss and ________," said Joe Martini, CEO of Martini & Sons, to his son, Buddy. "I didn't realize that, in fact, I would have to answer to many ________, including partners, customers, suppliers, creditors, employees, and families."

independent; stakeholders

A company was required by law to change its physical work environment in such a way so as to enable disabled people to function properly. Because the company followed a(n) _____ ethics program, it did not stop at just making changes that would help it stay out of trouble with the law. It went further & trained its employees to be sensitive toward disabled people.

integrity-based

When working for a software company, and because Tomas is a(n) ________, he created a new venture based solely on his idea while using his company's proprietary technology.

intrapreneur

The need for interpersonal and communication skills

is important at every level of management.

Two basic ethical ideals underpin the Caux Principles for Business. They are

kyosei & human dignity

Businesses using a ________ strategy try to be efficient & offer a standard, no-frills product.

low-cost

According to current business & academic thinking about ethics & corporate responsibility,

managers can benefit their organizations by growing profits as well as behaving ethically toward stakeholders