Accounting
Anthropology
Archaeology
Art History
Banking
Biology & Life Science
Business
Business Communication
Business Development
Business Ethics
Business Law
Chemistry
Communication
Computer Science
Counseling
Criminal Law
Curriculum & Instruction
Design
Earth Science
Economic
Education
Engineering
Finance
History & Theory
Humanities
Human Resource
International Business
Investments & Securities
Journalism
Law
Management
Marketing
Medicine
Medicine & Health Science
Nursing
Philosophy
Physic
Psychology
Real Estate
Science
Social Science
Sociology
Special Education
Speech
Visual Arts
Business Development
Q:
Which of the following is true about a cash cow?
A) Cash cows can barely support themselves; in some cases, they actually drain off cash resources generated by other SBUs.
B) An SBU that is a cash cow has a small share of a high-growth market.
C) An SBU that is a cash cow has a large share of a market that is growing only slightly.
D) An SBU that is a cash cow has a high share of a high-growth market and typically needs large amounts of cash to support rapid and significant growth.
E) Cash cows generate large amounts of cash for the organization and are usually segments in which management can make additional investments and earn attractive returns.
Q:
GenEx Group manufactures a variety of products for different markets. One of its SBUs, GenEx Textiles, is one of its leading revenue generators. GenEx Textiles is the leading player in the market for textiles, far ahead of its competitors. However, the parent company has realized that growth prospects in the textile industry are limited. The company has already exploited the market to the fullest and sustained growth in the future is unlikely. In fact, a substantial amount of the revenue generated from this textile business is used to fund other SBUs of the parent company. GenEx Textiles is an example of a ________ for the GenEx Group.
A) star
B) dog
C) cash cow
D) question mark
E) cost-leader
Q:
An SBU of FlexiTech Inc., manufactures CD drives. Although it has a large share in the market and the product makes significant profits for the company, market growth potential is limited. Under which quadrant of the BCG Growth-Share Matrix does the CD manufacturing unit fall?
A) dog
B) question-mark
C) star
D) cash cow
E) low-cost leader
Q:
An SBU with a large market share of a low-growth market is a ________.
A) star
B) dog
C) cash cow
D) question mark
E) low-cost leader
Q:
Which of the following is true about a star SBU?
A) Star SBUs may barely support themselves; in some cases, they actually drain off cash resources generated by other SBUs.
B) Star SBUs provide the organization with large amounts of cash because their market is not growing significantly.
C) An SBU that is a star has a small share of a high-growth market.
D) An SBU that is a star has a high share of a high-growth market and typically needs large amounts of cash to support rapid and significant growth.
E) Because the market of star SBUs is not growing significantly, the cash is generally used to meet the financial demands of the organization in other areas.
Q:
The answer to which of the following critical questions indicates whether the organization is progressing satisfactorily or not?
A) What are the purposes and objectives of the organization?
B) Where is the organization presently going?
C) In what kind of environment does the organization now exist?
D) What can be done to better achieve organizational goals in the future?
E) What does our SWOT analysis show?
Q:
________ is the process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose.
A) Establishment of organizational direction
B) Strategy implementation
C) Strategy control
D) Strategy formulation
E) Environmental analysis
Q:
Which of the following statements accurately reflects the relationship between the mission and the objectives?
A) The mission statement reflects and flows naturally from the objectives.
B) The objectives reflect and flow naturally from the mission.
C) There is no direct relationship between the mission and the objectives.
D) The mission statement stands alone and has no influence on the objectives.
E) The mission and the objectives influence each other.
Q:
The document that is written by management and describes the purpose for which the organization exists is the ________.
A) mission statement
B) strategic plan
C) operating plan
D) annual budget
E) vision statement
Q:
________ is the purpose for which - and the reason why - an organization exists.
A) Organizational objective
B) Organizational strategy
C) Organizational mission
D) Organizational policy
E) Organizational rule
Q:
Which level of the organization's environment includes planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling within the organization?
A) the general environment
B) the internal environment
C) the operating environment
D) the external environment
E) the political environment
Q:
According to Porter, ________ refers to the power that customers have over the firms operating in an industry.
A) the threat of new entrants
B) buyer power
C) supplier power
D) the threat of substitute products
E) intensity of rivalry
Q:
According to Porter, threat of new entrants refers to ________.
A) the power that customers have over the firms
B) the power that suppliers have over the firms
C) the extent to which customers may use services from another industry instead of the focal industry
D) the ability of new firms to enter an industry
E) the intensity of competition among the organizations
Q:
Porter's model emphasizes ________.
A) strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
B) stars, dogs, cash cows, and question marks
C) competitive forces in an industry
D) business strength and industry attractiveness
E) environmental analysis
Q:
The level of an organization's external environment that contains components normally having relatively specific and immediate implications for managing the organization is the ________ environment.
A) demographic
B) general
C) industry
D) international
E) internal
Q:
Which of the following components includes new approaches to producing goods and services?
A) the technology component
B) the political component
C) the labor component
D) the legal component
E) the productive component
Q:
Lobbying efforts by interest groups and progress on the passage of laws are examples of the ________ component of the general environment.
A) social
B) political
C) legal
D) technological
E) international
Q:
Which of the following is true about social values?
A) Social values are the statistical characteristics of a population.
B) It includes changes in numbers of people among various population segments.
C) Changes in social values can influence the reception of goods and services within the organization's environment.
D) Social values are helpful for developing a strategy aimed at recruiting new employees to fill positions within an organization.
E) The relative degrees of worth that society places on the ways in which it functions can change dramatically over time.
Q:
The relative degrees of worth that society places on the way in which it exists and functions are ________.
A) political ideologies
B) economic conditions
C) demographics
D) social values
E) environmental factors
Q:
The ________ component is that part of the general environment that indicates how resources are being distributed and used within the environment.
A) social
B) economic
C) political
D) international
E) legal
Q:
The level of an organization's external environment that contains components having broad long-term implications for managing the organization is the ________.
A) general environment
B) financial environment
C) demographic environment
D) internal environment
E) operating environment
Q:
The first step of strategic management is designed to ________.
A) establish an organizational direction
B) formulate strategy
C) study the organizational environment
D) advise managers to commit funds for planning
E) control the environment
Q:
The last step in the strategic management process is ________.
A) establishment of an organizational direction
B) environmental analysis
C) strategy formulation
D) strategy implementation
E) strategic control
Q:
________ is the process of ensuring that an organization possesses and benefits from the use of an appropriate organizational strategy.
A) Strategic planning
B) Strategy visualization
C) Decision making
D) Strategic management
E) Integrated business planning
Q:
BestWash, a laundry chain, has realized that if it wants to beat its leading competitor and improve market share, it must improve its productivity. Which of the following strategies is most likely to help BestWash to achieve this objective?
A) reassess their market
B) downsize
C) decrease machine efficiency
D) develop valuable real estate holdings
E) increase people efficiency
Q:
Axis Cars is an automobile company based out of Delaware. They need to follow an organizational strategy to regain the market share they recently lost to Toyota. Which of the following strategies will accomplish this objective?
A) They should increase people efficiency.
B) They should resize and downsize present models.
C) They should increase machine efficiency.
D) They should modernize the car batteries.
E) They should merge with another top-selling automobile brand.
Q:
Which of the following is true about strategy?
A) Strategy is a general plan developed to reach short-term goals.
B) Organizational strategy focuses on the marketing and financial aspects of a business.
C) Smaller organizations are more precise than large organizations in developing organizational strategy in order to meet their goals sooner.
D) Strategy is actually the end result of strategic planning.
E) Research and development are not a part of an organization's strategy.
Q:
A broad and general plan developed to reach long-term organizational objectives is a(n) ________.
A) tactic
B) scenario
C) operational plan
D) organizational goal
E) strategy
Q:
A management guideline that advises managers to commit funds for planning only if in the foreseeable future they can anticipate a return on planning expenses as a result of the long-range planning analysis is termed ________.
A) strategic planning
B) the commitment principle
C) organizational planning
D) tactical planning
E) the principle of the objective
Q:
In strategic planning, managers consider the organization as a total unit and ask themselves what must be done in the long term, which is usually ________.
A) three to five years into the future
B) in the coming year
C) one to two years into the future
D) five to ten years from now
E) five to twenty years from now
Q:
Long-range planning that focuses on the organization as a whole is ________.
A) operational planning
B) organizational planning
C) strategic planning
D) tactical planning
E) managerial planning
Q:
Competitor capability refers to a firm's ability to undertake an action.
Q:
Competitor motivation refers to the incentives that an organization has to take action.
Q:
Because strategic planning focuses on the long term and tactical planning on the short term, strategic plans cover a relatively long period of time whereas tactical plans cover a relatively short period of time.
Q:
Because tactical plans are based primarily on a prediction of the future, and strategic plans are based on known circumstances that exist within the organization, tactical plans are generally less detailed than strategic plans.
Q:
Tactical planning is long-range planning that emphasizes the current operations of various parts of the organization.
Q:
Strategic implementation is the last step of the strategic management process.
Q:
According to the GE Multifactor Portfolio Matrix, businesses falling in cells that form a diagonal from lower left to upper right are the strongest and the ones the company should invest in and help to grow.
Q:
The GE Multifactor Portfolio Matrix was designed to be more complete than the BCG Growth-Share Matrix.
Q:
SWOT is an acronym for a firm's strengths, weaknesses, objectives, and threats.
Q:
"In what kind of environment does the organization now exist?" is one of the four basic questions required for critical question analysis.
Q:
Motivations, status symbols, and attitudes of the other country are all important aspects of the international component of the organization's operating environment.
Q:
The legal component of the general environment is related to government affairs.
Q:
Demographics are the statistical characteristics of a population.
Q:
The general environment of an organization's external environment contains international, labor, customer, competitor, and supplier components.
Q:
Managers only perform environmental analysis to help them understand what is happening outside their organization.
Q:
The first step in the strategic management process is the establishment of organizational direction.
Q:
In general, the strategic management process is generally thought to consist of sequential and continuing steps.
Q:
Explain brainstorming as a group decision process.
Q:
What are the disadvantages of group decision-making?
Q:
Discuss the advantages of group decision-making.
Q:
What is the probability theory? Define probability and expected value. How are they related to each other?
Q:
What are heuristics and biases?
Q:
What is bounded rationality?
Q:
Discuss briefly the steps in the decision-making process.
Q:
What are the orientations of weak decision makers?
Q:
What is consensus?
Q:
What is a decision? Explain the difference between programmed and nonprogrammed decisions.
Q:
A disadvantage of the Delphi technique is that ________.
A) it wastes the group's time on wildly impractical ideas
B) it does not provide anonymity to members
C) members tend to constantly redefine the problem itself
D) members are highly susceptible to groupthink
E) members are unable to ask questions of one another
Q:
The advantage of the Delphi technique is that ________.
A) it allows members to come up with wildly impractical ideas
B) it allows members to know why individuals voted the way they did
C) it allows members to discuss ideas in person
D) it is suitable for gathering ideas from group members who are too geographically separated
E) it takes the least amount of time compared to the other decision-making techniques
Q:
A disadvantage of the nominal group technique is that ________.
A) it wastes the group's time on wildly impractical ideas
B) it works best only in teams with geographically dispersed members
C) it does not allow members to know why individuals voted the way they did
D) members cannot support or reject an idea without fear of recrimination
E) it does not allow members to question one another
Q:
An advantage of the nominal group technique is that ________.
A) it prevents members from questioning the validity of others' ideas
B) it allows members to know why individuals voted the way they did
C) it allows members to come up with even wildly impractical ideas
D) it is suitable for teams whose group members are geographically dispersed
E) it provides the option of supporting or rejecting an idea without fear of recrimination
Q:
A disadvantage of brainstorming is that ________.
A) it seldom results in novel, useful ideas
B) it wastes the group's time on wildly impractical ideas
C) employees cannot support or reject an idea without fear of recrimination
D) it does not allow members to know why individuals voted the way they did
E) it does not facilitate an open discussion on the problem at hand
Q:
An advantage of brainstorming is that ________.
A) it allows members to know why individuals voted the way they did
B) it provides the option of supporting or rejecting an idea without fear of recrimination
C) it supports the expression of as many useful ideas as possible
D) it is suitable for teams whose group members are geographically dispersed
E) members are not required to defend their ideas
Q:
Sid wants to involve his team of remotely located architects in a decision making exercise. His plan is to circulate a questionnaire on the problem at hand, share the questionnaire results, and continue to recirculate and redefine individual responses till a consensus is reached. Which type of decision-making technique is Sid planning to implement?
A) groupthink
B) brainstorming
C) the Delphi technique
D) the nominal group technique
E) the devil's advocate technique
Q:
Decision making using the Delphi technique ends ________.
A) with a secret ballot which allows members to support their favorite ideas
B) when group members are allowed to finally meet face to face
C) after all the responses of all the group members have been consolidated
D) once a consensus problem solution is reached
E) after all questionnaires have been scored and tallied
Q:
The first step in the Delphi technique is ________.
A) asking group members to offer solutions
B) identifying a problem
C) allowing group members to meet face to face
D) preparing a questionnaire on the problem at hand
E) identifying experts on the matter being discussed
Q:
The group decision-making process that involves the circulation of questionnaires on a specific problem among group members is known as ________.
A) groupthink
B) brainstorming
C) the Delphi technique
D) the nominal group technique
E) the devil's advocate technique
Q:
Naomi leads a team of software developers. Because of the sudden increase in the number of projects over the last few weeks, the team will need to work additional hours in order to meet the various deadlines. She asks her team members to write down their individual ideas on whether they should extend their daily work hours, or simply work on Saturday for the next couple of months. They are also encouraged to come up with other solutions that can help them solve the problem. Which of the following methods of decision-making is Naomi most likely using?
A) the Delphi technique
B) the nominal group technique
C) brainstorming
D) groupthinking
E) controlled creativity
Q:
In the nominal group technique of decision-making, after all the members have discussed the ideas, they ________.
A) discuss their ideas one-to-one with the group leader
B) present their personal views on each of the ideas discussed
C) write down each idea on the board for all the other members to refer to
D) take out a secret ballot to support their favorite idea
E) adopt and implement the most cost effective idea
Q:
The nominal group technique of decision-making begins with ________.
A) members presenting their individual ideas orally
B) the entire group discussing their ideas simultaneously
C) group members writing down individual ideas on the matter being discussed
D) members writing their ideas on a board for all other members to see
E) a secret ballot which allows members to support their favorite ideas without fear
Q:
Becky is leading her team in an open discussion on the possibilities of implementing flexible work hours for her department. One of the team members keeps interrupting with negative feedback on the suggested ideas. He is breaking the cardinal rule of ________, one of the methods of decision-making.
A) scapegoating
B) brainstorming
C) crowdsourcing
D) groupthinking
E) the Delphi technique
Q:
Which of the following is the first step in the process of brainstorming?
A) members comment on ideas
B) group leader chooses members
C) ideas are evaluated
D) group members state ideas
E) ideas are recorded
Q:
A group decision-making process which forbids negative feedback on any suggested alternative by any group member until all members have presented alternatives is known as ________.
A) groupthinking
B) brainstorming
C) doublethink
D) mindmapping
E) scapegoating
Q:
The phenomenon of compromising the quality of a decision to maintain relationships within a team is referred to as ________.
A) doublethink
B) crowdsourcing
C) brainstorming
D) groupthink
E) scapegoating
Q:
Which of the following is an advantage of group decision-making?
A) Groups take lesser time than individuals to arrive at a decision because of the collective and diverse mentality of groups.
B) Group decisions do not cost the organization as much as individual decisions do.
C) Group decisions are often of a higher quality than individual decisions because of the friendly relationships that exist within the group.
D) Group decisions can be effectively controlled and influenced by the dominant members of the group.
E) Members of the group tend to support the implementation of the decision more fervently than they would if the decision had been made by an individual.
Q:
A graphic decision-making tool used to evaluate decisions containing a series of steps is known as a(n) ________.
A) decision support system
B) decision theory
C) morphological box
D) decision tree
E) Delphi chart
Q:
When decisions are reached using probability theory, the alternative normally chosen is the one with ________.
A) the lowest expected value
B) the highest expected value
C) the lowest cost/benefit ratio
D) the lowest risk
E) the highest risk
Q:
If (I) = $57,500 and (P) is .3, what is the expected value (EV)?
A) $17,250
B) $191,666
C) $74,750
D) $40,250
E) $131,466
Q:
Lisa is trying to decide on the location of her entrepreneurial ventureFlower Power, a specialty wedding flower service. She has three possible locations (A, B, C) in mind. Lisa has projected that in the first year of operation, under ideal conditions, her company would generate $80,000 at Location A, $55,000 at Location B, and $45,000 at Location C. However, after further analysis, Lisa has determined that there is only a 20 percent chance of ideal conditions occurring during the first year of operation in Location A. Locations B and C have a .4 and a .8 probability, respectively, for ideal conditions during the first year of operations. Based on this information, the expected value for Location A is ________, while for Location B it is ________.
A) $400,000; $137,500
B) $16,000; $22,000
C) $64,000; $33,000
D) $96,000; $77,000
E) $320,000; $82,500