GMS 200 Textbook Key Terms Midterm Review 2025/2026

Accountability

The requirement to show performance results to a supervisor.

Administrator

A manager in a public or non-profit organization.

Agenda setting

The development of action priorities for accomplishing goals and plans.

Board of directors

A group of people who are supposed to make sure an organization is well run and managed in a lawful and ethical manner.

Commitment

The degree to which one works to apply their talents and capabilities to important tasks.

Competency

One's personal talents or job-related capabilities.

Conceptual skill

The ability to think analytically to diagnose and solve complex problems.

Controlling

The process of measuring performance and taking action to ensure desired results.

Corporate governance

The active oversight of management decisions and performance by a company's board of directors.

Discrimination

The active denial of full benefits of organizational membership to members of certain groups.

Effective manager

A manager who helps others achieve high performance and satisfaction at work.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively.

Ethics

The moral standards of what is "good" and "right" in one's behaviour.

Fourth Industrial Age

Our current era, in which the cloud, mobile Internet, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence are the driving forces of change.

Free-agent economy

An economy in which people change jobs more often, and many work on independent contracts with a shifting mix of employers.

Functional managers

Managers who are responsible for one area, such as finance, marketing, production, personnel, accounting, or sales.

General managers

Managers who are responsible for complex, multifunctional units.

Glass ceiling effect

An invisible barrier limiting career advancement of women and members of visible minorities.

Globalization

The worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets, and business competition.

Human skill

The ability to work well in cooperation with other people.

Intellectual capital

The collective brainpower or shared knowledge of a workforce.

Job migration

What occurs when firms shift jobs from a home country to foreign ones.

Knowledge worker

Someone whose mind is a critical asset to employers.

Leading

The process of arousing enthusiasm and inspiring efforts to achieve goals.

Learning

A change in behaviour that results from experience.

Lifelong learning

Continuous learning from daily experiences.

Line managers

Managers who directly contribute to producing the organization's goods or services.

Management process

Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the use of resources to accomplish performance goals.

Manager

A person who supports, activates, and is responsible for the work of others.

Middle managers

Managers who oversee the work of large departments or divisions.

Networking

The process of creating positive relationships with people who can help advance agendas.

Open system

A system that transforms resource inputs from the environment into product outputs.

Organization

A collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose.

Organizing

The process of defining and assigning tasks, allocating resources, and providing resource support.

Performance effectiveness

An output measure of task or goal accomplishment.

Performance efficiency

An input measure of resource cost associated with goal accomplishment.

Planning

The process of setting goals and objectives and making plans to accomplish them.

Prejudice

The display of negative, irrational attitudes toward members of diverse populations.

Productivity

The quantity and quality of work performance, with resource utilization considered.

Quality of work life

The overall quality of human experiences in the workplace.

Reshoring

What occurs when firms move jobs back home from foreign locations.

Self-management

The ability to understand oneself, exercise initiative, accept responsibility, and learn from experience.

Shamrock organization

An organization that operates with a core group of full-time long-term workers supported by others who work on contracts and part-time.

Skill

The ability to translate knowledge into action that results in desired performance.

Social capital

A capacity to get things done with the support and help of others.

Social networking

The use of dedicated websites and applications to connect people having similar interests.

Staff managers

Managers who use special technical expertise to advise and support line workers.

Team leaders

Leaders who report to middle managers and supervise non-managerial workers.

Tech IQ

The ability to use technology and to stay updated as technology continues to evolve.

Technical skill

The ability to use expertise to perform a task with proficiency.

Top managers

Managers who guide the performance of the organization as a whole or of one of its major parts.

Upside-down pyramid

A view of organizations that shows customers at the top being served by workers who are supported by managers.

Workforce diversity

Workers' differences in terms of gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness.

Analytical competency

The ability to evaluate and analyze information to make actual decisions and solve real problems.

Analytics

The systematic gathering and processing of data to make informed decisions.

Anchoring and adjustment bias

Decision-making based on incremental adjustments from a prior decision point.

Availability bias

Decision-making based on recent information or events.

Behavioural decision model

Decision-making with limited information and bounded rationality.

Big data

Data that exist in huge quantities and are difficult to process without sophisticated mathematical and computing techniques.

Big-C creativity

What occurs when extraordinary things are done by exceptional people.

Bounded rationality

Making decisions within the constraints of limited information and alternatives.

Business intelligence

The process of tapping information systems to extract and report data in organized ways that are helpful to decision-makers.

Certain environment

An environment that offers complete information on possible action alternatives and their consequences.

Classical decision model

Decision-making with complete information.

Cognitive styles

The ways individuals deal with information while making decisions.

Confirmation error

What occurs when focusing only on information that confirms a decision already made.

Cost-benefit analysis

A comparison of the costs and benefits of each potential course of action.

Creativity

The generation of a novel idea or unique approach that solves a problem or crafts an opportunity.

Crisis decision

A decision required when an unexpected problem arises that can lead to disaster if not resolved quickly and appropriately.

Data

Raw facts and observations.

Data mining

The process of analyzing data to produce useful information for decision-makers.

Decision

A choice among possible alternative courses of action.

Decision-making process

A process that begins with identification of a problem and ends with evaluation of results.

Design thinking

Thinking that unlocks creativity in decision-making through a process of experiencing, ideation, and prototyping.

Escalating commitment

The continuation of a course of action even though it is not working.

Executive dashboard

Technology that visually displays graphs, charts, and scorecards of key performance indicators and information on a real-time basis.

Framing error

Trying to solve a problem in the context in which it is perceived.

Heuristics

Strategies for simplifying decision-making.

Information

Data made useful for decision-making.

Information competency

The ability to locate, gather, and organize information for use in decision-making.

integrative thinking

A process that seeks to understand the tension between two opposing ideas from which creative solutions can emerge.

Intuitive thinking

Thinking that approaches problems in a flexible and spontaneous fashion.

Lack-of-participation error

Failure to involve in a decision the persons whose support is needed to implement it.

Little-C creativity

What occurs when average people come up with unique ways to deal with daily events and situations.

Management information systems

Systems that collect, organize, and distribute data for use in decision-making.

Multidimensional thinking

An ability to address many problems at once.

Nonprogrammed decision

A decision that applies a specific solution crafted for a unique problem.

Optimizing decision

A decision that chooses the alternative giving the absolute best solution to a problem.

Performance opportunity

A situation that offers the chance for a better future if the right steps are taken.

Performance threat

A situation in which something is obviously wrong or has the potential to go wrong.

Problem avoiders

People who ignore information indicating a performance opportunity or threat.

Problem seekers

People who constantly process information looking for problems to solve, even before they occur.

Problem solvers

People who try to solve problems when they occur.

Problem solving

Identifying and taking action to resolve problems.

Programmed decision

A decision that applies a solution from past experience to a routine problem.

Representativeness bias

Basing a decision on similarity to other situations.

Risk environment

An environment that lacks complete information but offers "probabilities" of the likely outcomes for possible action alternatives.

Satisficing decision

The choice of the first satisfactory alternative that comes to one's attention.

Spotlight questions

Questions that test the ethics of a decision by exposing it to scrutiny through the eyes of family, community members, and ethical role models.

Strategic opportunism

The ability to remain focused on long-term objectives while being flexible in dealing with short-term problems.