MANA ch 9, 10, 11

Virtual organizations ___ whereas modular organizations ___.

a. give up part of their strategic control; retain full strategic control

b. accept interdependent destinies; pursue collective strategies

c. are usually permanent; are usually temporary

d. pursue collective strategies; forfeit strategic control

a. give up part of their strategic control; retain full strategic control

The primary participants in corporate governance do not include the

a. board of directors

b. shareholders

c. management (led by the chief executive officer)

d. financial institutions

d. financial institutions

Which of the following activities is not identified by organizational structure?

a. managerial

b. social responsibility

c. administrative

d. executive

b. social responsibility

What advantages does outsourcing not provide an organization?

a. enabling rapid expansion with relatively low capital investment

b. improved buyer positioning

c. focusing scarce resources on core competencies

d. accessing best in class goods and services

b. improved buyer positioning

Research suggests that compensation is most effective in motivating behavior when the reward is issued long after the desired behavior. T/F

False

According to author Jeffrey Pfeffer, the advantage of teams are that employees control themselves, develop more creative solutions to problems, and permit the absorption of administrative tasks previously performed by specialists. T/F

True

CEO duality refers to a situation in which the CEO

a. is responsible for for acting as CEO & Chief Operating Officer (COO)

b. formulates & implements strategies

c. serves as both the CEO & the chair of the board of directors

d. is responsible for acting as CEO & serving on the compensation committee

c. serves as both the CEO & the chair of the board of directors

Chesapeake Energy set a goal to improve workplace safety. To reinforce this, one year it gave out over 8 million USD in safety bonuses to over 6,000 employees for following safe work practices. This served to create

a. happy employees because they got more free time

b. a new mission statement for the company

c. an effective reward and incentive program because it reinforced commitment to goals

d. an effective incentive program because employees worked harder

c. an effective reward and incentive program because it reinforced commitment to goals

The traditional approach to strategic control relies on feedback from performance measurement to formulate strategy. T/F

True

If an international firm has a multidomestic strategy and a relatively high level of product diversity, the best choice for its organizational structure is a(n) ___ structure.

a. worldwide product division

b. international division

c. worldwide matrix

d. worldwide functional

c. worldwide matrix

A study by Great Places to Work, a research and consulting firm, highlights the benefits of breaking down boundaries to get all employees interested in innovative opportunities. Firms in the ___ quartile on the inclusiveness ranking had experienced growth, on average, five times greater than firms ranked in the ___ quartile.

a. top; bottom

b. third; bottom

c. second; top

d. bottom; top

a. top; bottom

Director independence and non-interlocking directorships are desirable traits of top-ranked boards. What does this mean?

a. top managers cannot be on the board of directors

b. the CEO can serve as a director on the other director boards

c. directors can serve on the board of directors of other related companies

d. directors are free of all ties to the CEO and the company

Continuous monitoring, in the contemporary approach, is beneficial because

a. organizational flexibility is reduced

b. it increases the time it takes to detect changes in the competitive environment

c. it reduces time lags

d. organization response time is increased

c. it reduces time lags

Ambidextrous organizational designs are useful for firms that wish to create modest, incremental innovations at the same time as dramatic, breakthrough innovations. This is done by maintaining adaptability and alignment of values and coordination across organizational activities. T/F

True

Generally speaking, discussions of the relationship between strategy & structure strongly imply that

a. strategy follows structure

b. structure follows strategy

c. strategy can effectively be formulated without considering structural elements

d. structure typically has a very small influence on a firm’s strategy

b. structure follows strategy

What advantages does outsourcing provide an organization?

a. Access to the best-in-class goods and services

b. The ability to expand rapidly with a relatively low capital investment

c. The opportunity to focus scarce resources on existing core competencies

d. All of these are correct

d. All of these are correct

According to a study by O’Reilly and Tushman, effective ambidextrous structures had all of the following attributes except:

a. a clear and compelling vision

b. managerial efforts that were highly focused on revenue enhancement

c. cross-fertilization among business units

d. established units that were shielded from the distractions of launching new businesses

b. managerial efforts that were highly focused on revenue enhancement

Top managers at ABC Company meet every Friday to review daily operational reports and year-to-date data. This is an example of:

a. behavioral control

b. informational control

c. strategy formulation

d. strategy implementation

b. informational control

Which of the following is not one of the characteristics of a contemporary control system?

a. It is a key catalyst for an ongoing debate about underlying data, assumptions, and action plans.

b. It must focus on constantly changing information that is strategically important.

c. It circumvents the need for face-to-face meetings among superiors, subordinates, and peers.

d. It generates information that is important enough to demand regular and frequent attention.

c. It circumvents the need for face-to-face meetings among superiors, subordinates, and peers.

Rules and regulations, rather than culture or rewards, would probably be used for strategic control at what type of company?

a. software developer

b. stock brokerage firm

c. manufacturer of mass-produced products

d. high-tech research facility

c. manufacturer of mass-produced products

XYZ’s CEO scrapped the company’s commission-based reward system because it was rewarding employees for inappropriate behavior. This is an example of

a. setting a direction

b. designing the organization

c. unethical behavior

d. failure to maintain the status quo

b. designing the organization

Complete the following sentence. “Inspiring and motivating people with a mission or purpose are a ___ for developing an organization that can learn and adapt.”

a. necessary and sufficient condition

b. necessary, but not a sufficient condition

c. goal, but not a necessary condition

d. goal and a required pre-condition

b. necessary, but not a sufficient condition

Proactive measures to prevent organizational ethics problems include all of the following except

a. instituting a reward system which considers outcomes as its primary criterion.

b. using leaders as role models of ethical behavior.

c. issuing statements describing the organization’s commitment to certain standards of behavior.

d. using the organization’s information systems as a control

system.

a. instituting a reward system which considers outcomes as its primary criterion.