MGMT 330-Exam 2

The organizational planning process

1. Develop the plan 2. Translate the plan 3. Plan operations 4. Evaluate the plan 5. Monitor and learn

The organization chart:

All of the above

Which of the following provides a safe harbor where ideas from employees throughout the company can be developed without interference from company bureaucracy or politics?

An idea incubator

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a creative individual?

Authorization and dependent

A forecasting technique to look at current trends and discontinuities and visualize future possibillities

Building scenarios

The BCG matrix organizes along which of the following dimensions?

Business growth rate and market share

How do we compete?

Business level strategy

Structure follows strategy

Business performance is influenced by structure, Strategic goals should drive structure, structure should facilitate strategic goals

Limitations of planning

Can create a false sense of certainty, may cause rigidity in a turbulent environment, can get in the way of intuition and creativity

_____ means that decision authority is located near the _____ of the organization.

Centralization; top

An unbroken line of authority that links all individuals in the organization and specifies who reports to whom

Chain of command

Jacob was recently looking at his company's organization chart in an attempt to discover who reports to whom. Jacob is studying his organization's:

Chain of command

A condition or circumstance that puts a company in a favorable or superior business position.

Competitive advantage

Jerrica, a finance manager at LRV industries, is asked by her boss to develop a plan in the event that company sales drop by 20 percent or more. This type of plan is known as a _____.

Contingency Plan

Planning for emergencies, setbacks, or unexpected conditions

Contingency planning

The innovation strategy for changing products and technologies that involves creating conditions and systems to facilitate internal and external coordination and knowledge sharing is known as _____.

Cooperation

what business are we in?

Corporate level strategy

Darren set goals for each of his employees. Each employee ended up with at least twenty-five goals. This process violates which of the following criteria for effective goals?

Covers key result areas

Unexpected events that are sudden and devestating

Crisis planning

Decision authority is pushed downward to all levels

Decentralization

The use of teams may lead to too much:

Decentralization

The crisis management plan should be a _____ that specifies the actions to be taken, and by whom, if a crisis occurs.

Detailed, written plan

All of the following are Porter's competitive forces except:

Differentiation

With a(n) _____ strategy, the organization attempts to develop innovative products unique to the market.

Differentiation

Implementing change

Disparity between existing and desired performance levels, understand the resistance to change (self interest, uncertainty, lack of understanding and trust)

When departments are grouped together on the basis of organizational outputs, the organization is using a:

Divisional structure

Problems or opportunities that provide motivation for change

Driving forces

Innovation stages

Exploration (Creativity, idea incubator), Cooperation (open innovation, horizontal linkage model), Innovation roles (Idea champions, sponsors)

How do we support the business level strategy?

Functional level strategy

_____ refers to a desired future state that an organization attempts to realize.

Goal

Meet fast shifting environment, break down barriers between departments, need integration and coordination

Horizontal coordination

Ashley has average technical skills but her real strengths lay in visualizing the benefits of other's ideas and in finding financial and political support for these ideas. Ashley is an excellent example of a(n) _____.

Idea champion

A safe harbor where employees can develop ideas without interference from company bureaucracy or politics

Idea incubator

Diversity initiatives and programs

Increasing creativity, improving morale, decreasing interpersonal conflict. Multicultural teams, encouraging employee affinity groups (based on gender, race)

A new method, idea or product

Innovation

Classy Clay has extremely creative employees who, in the opinion of the organization, keep the company ahead of the competition. The creativity of these employees would be classified as a(n) _____.

Internal strength

Which of these is true about the cash cow?

It has a large market share in a slow growth industry.

Kent works at the Tick Tock, Inc. He has two bosses, one a functional manager and the other a divisional manager. Tick Tock, Inc. has a _____ structure.

Matrix

A statement that identifies distinguishing characteristics of an organization is known as a(n):

Mission statement

Levels of goals and plans

Mission statement, Strategic goals/plans (Senior management- organization as a whole), tactical goals/plans (Middle Management- major dimensions, functions), Operational goals/plans (Lower management-department, individuals)

Silver Star Automobiles holds monthly planning and operational reviews to ensure that it is on track for meeting organizational goals. This involves which stage of the organizational planning process?

Monitoring and Learning

Relative to a flat organizational structure, a tall structure has a _____ span of management and _____ hierarchical levels.

Narrow; more

Sherry is a first-line supervisor at Rooftop Corporation. She is most concerned with which level of goals?

Operational goals

The organization's reason for existence

Organizational mission

The opening, body and ending

Organizing the presentation

Which of the following is not a step in the organizational planning process?

Plan Marketing tactics

_____ is the act of determining the organization's goals and the means for achieving them.

Planning

Supplier power, buyer power, competitive rivalry, threat of substitution, threat of new entry

Porter's five forces

Factors shaping personal bias

Prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes

A change in the organization's product or service outputs. What the customer sees

Product change

Benefits of planning

Provide a source of motivation and commitment, guide resource allocation, are a guide to action, set a standard of performance

Which of the following is the reinforcement stage of organization development in which individuals acquire a desired new skill or attitude and are rewarded for it by the organization?

Refreezing

Barriers to change

Restraining forces

High Fence Corporation is currently implementing an MBO program. Managers and employees jointly set objectives and develop action plans, and goal achievement is evaluated on an annual basis. High Fence is missing which major activity that must occur in order for MBO to be successful?

Reviewing process

All of the following are critical innovation strategies for changing products and technologies EXCEPT _____.

Risk propensity

Internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats

SWOT analysis

Highly ambitious, clear compelling and imaginative, require innovation, goals must be seen as achievable,as times move faster and become more turbulent they are important

Set stretch goals for excellence

BCG matrix

Stars (rapid growth), Question marks (New ventures), Cash cows (Finance ? and stars), Dog (New investment)

Gatekeep Utilities is a subsidiary of GW Enterprises. Gatekeep has a mission and product line that is unique from GW. Gatekeep's competitors are also very different from those of its parent, and the subsidiary markets to a very different group of customers. As such, Gatekeep can be described as a(n) _____.

Strategic Business Unit

Official goals, broad statements describing the organization's future

Strategic goals

Decisions and actions used to formulate and execute strategies that will provide competitively superior fit between the organization and its environment to achieve organizational goals

Strategic management

Define the action steps the company will take

Strategic plans

Which of the following refers to the planning and decision making that lead to the establishment of the organization's goals and of a specific strategic plan?

Strategy Formulation

After Sunshine Systems merged with RTD Enterprises, company executives noticed that due to increased employee collaboration between the two units, costs were down and revenues increased within both areas. This is an example of what business phenomenon?

Synergy

A change in the organizations production process

Technology change

Which of the following refers to the number of employees reporting to a supervisor?

The span of management

When an organization expands into a totally new line of business, it is implementing a strategy of:

Unrelated diversification

Kara's department is made up of people with similar skills and work activities. Her organization uses the _____ approach to departmentalization.

Vertical Functional

Grouping of positions into departments based on skills, expertise, work activities, and resource use

Vertical functional approach

Janessa is the CEO of a privately-held software company. In defining corporate-level strategies, which of the following questions would she most likely be concerned with?

What Business are we in?

The degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into individual jobs; also called division of labor

Work specialization

All of the following are characteristics of creative organizations EXCEPT_____.

centralization

Decision authority is located near the top of the organization

centralization

Changing people and cluture

changes in how employees think, changes in mind-set. People change-training and development Culture change-organizational development

The role of the _____ is to prevent people in other roles from adopting a bad idea.

critic

Race, gender, age, lifestyle

diversity

The final step to be managed in the change process is:

implementation

Fred has been assigned to conduct a SWOT analysis for his organization, Acme, Inc. As part of this assignment, Fred will:

search for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that impact his firm.

"The Brain" is a permanent secret group within one of the nation's largest auto manufacturers. Members of this elite group focus intently on developing new and innovative automobile technologies. "The Brain" can best be described as what type of group or team?

skunkwork

Effective Goal setting

specific and measurable, Linked to rewards, challenging but realistic, cover key result areas, have a defined time period