Business Leadership Exam

Groupthink

A psychological phenomenon that occurs in groups of people, the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

Illusion of Invulnerability

Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks

Unquestioned Belief in Inherent Morality

Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions

Collective Rationalization

Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions

Direct Pressure on Dissenters

Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views

Self-Censorship

Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed

Self-Appointed “Filtering”

Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, views, and/or decisions

symptoms of groupthink

illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in inherent morality, collective rationalization, direct pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, self appointed “filtering”

causes of groupthink

high group cohesiveness, structural faults, situational context

High group cohesiveness

Degree or strength of bonds linking members of a social group to one another

Structural faults

insulation of the group, lack of impartial leadership, lack of norms requiring methodological procedures

Situational Context

Highly stressful external threats, recent failures, excessive difficulties on the decision-making task, moral dilemmas

Blake and Mouton Model

a behavioural leadership model that assesses a leader’s style based on two dimensions; concern for people and concern for product

Authoritarian

low concern for people, high concern for product, a leader that independently makes decisions, wants to get the job done no matter the cost, and is typically hard on its workers/followers

Team Leader

high concern for people, high concern for product, a leader that sets a positive example and encourages their followers to reach their highest potential

Country Club Leader

high concern for people, low concern for product, these leaders mostly use rewards to maintain discipline and achieve goals, have difficulty being tough on followers

Impoverished Leader

low concern for people, low concern for product, these leaders give instructions and leave it to their followers to deliver

Corporate Social Responsibility

The obligation of an organization to act in ways that serve both its own interests and the interests of its many external stakeholders

Organizational Stakeholder

People, groups, and other organizations directly affected by the behaviour of the organization and holding a stake in its performance

zone of compliance

a criteria for evaluation CSR performance, includes economic and legal responsibility

Zone of Conviction

a criteria for evaluation CSR performance, includes ethical and discretionary responsibility

Group Dynamics

Phenomenon that occurs in groups based upon their interactions and relations, individual behaviours may differ from their behaviour in a group, depending on the individuals connection to the group

Forming

1st stage of group dynamics, a stage of initial orientation and interpersonal testing

Storming

2nd stage of group dynamics, a stage of conflict over tasks and high emotions

Norming

3rd stage of group dynamics, a stage of consolidation around operating agendas where the team becomes coordinated as a working unit, operates with shared rules of conduct

Performing

4th stage of group dynamics, a stage of teamwork and focus task performance, members are motivated by team goals

Adjourning

final stage of group dynamics, a stage of task completion and disengagement, team members prepare to achieve closure, disband from each other

Shared norms

expectations of one another; includes performance, timeliness, and quality

Cohesiveness

degree of motivation to remain a part of the team

Diversity

differing opinions, conflict, ideas can sometimes have a harder time working well together and struggle more in the group development phases

Social Loafing

The tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by ‘free-riding’ in groups

Quiet quitting

doing the minimum requirements of one's job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary

Planning

Process of setting objectives and dEtermining how to best accomplish them

Setting Objectives

identify the specific results or desired outcomes that one intends to achieve

benefits of planning

focus, ability to adapt, increased coordination, motivates staff

short range plan

an goal that will take less than one year

long range plan

an goal that will take more than one year

operational plan

What needs to be done in specific areas to implement the strategic plan; ex. production plans, financial plans, marketing plans

single-use plans

a plan that is used only once and created for unique stations

standing use plan

a plan that is designed to be used again and again, such as rules and procedures

Participative Planning

Including all the people impacted by a decision in the planning process, increases understanding commitment, and creativity

Benchmarking

Using external comparisons to understanding what is occurring in your company

Contingency Planning

Planning for alternative courses of action should your plan fail or situations change, worst case scenario planning

Setting Timelines

Establishing when each phase is to be completed and evaluated

Forecasting

predicting what future conditions will be like

SMART Goals

a framework for setting goals that ensures they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely

Specific goal

well defined, clear and unambiguous

Measurable goal

specific criteria for measuring progress toward the accomplishment of each goal is set

Attainable goal

Goals must be achievable, a challenge but not impossible

Realistic goal

it can be accomplished and you can commit to it

Timely goal

there is a deadline and a clearly defined time frame

plan

a statement or action that aims to accomplish a specific goal or desire

Planning

Process of setting realistic goals for a business - short term and long term

Directing

Managers that focus employees on achieving their objectives and motivates their staff to accomplish these objectives

Autocratic leader

Manager retains as decisions making authority as possible and doesn’t consult employees, employees are expected to obey orders without feedback from employees

Democratic Leader

Employees are part of the decision making and are kept informed about everything that affects their work, leader is a coach who has final say

3 aspects of directing

motivating, communicating, and encourage participation

Controlling

This is the method managers use to increase, maintain, or decrease the resources they are allocated, managers need to be in control of inventory, sales, expenses, employees and production

Staffing

The process of hiring the right people for the right job at the right time

Organizing

Refers to how managers arrange people and tasks to ensure that they are meeting the business’s plans

Preliminary Controls

Occurs prior to work, provide correct instructions and training for employees, providing the correct resources, requires proactive management

Concurrent Controls

Happens while work is occurring, monitors ongoing operations and activities to make sure things are being done according to plan, mistakes are fixed continuously

Post action Controls

Occur after the work has taken place, focus on the quality of end results, provide info for the future, determines rewards

Locus of Control

A theory in personality psychology referring to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them

Internal Locus of Control

the level of which that a person believes that they have autonomy and control over their own destinies

External Locus of Control

the level of which that a person believes that their destinies are determined by fate, chance, or other outward forces

Taylorism

a management theory that emphasizes efficiency and productivity by breaking down complex tasks into simpler, standardized steps, optimizing workflows, and using scientific methods to determine the "one best way" to perform each task

Behavioural Learning theory

the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice

classical conditioning

a type of learning where an association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus, leading to a learned response

Behaviourism

a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning

Learning

Acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing existing knowledge

operant conditioning

a type of learning where behaviours are modified through consequences, either reinforcement

Positive reinforcement

 favourable events or outcomes that are presented after the behavior

Reinforcement

Something that happens after a behavior or event that strengthens or increases behavior likely to occur again

Negative reinforcement

a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant

Punishment

The presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows

Shaping

A process of reinforcing a series of responses that increasingly resemble the desire behavior

Performance Appraisal

the process of formally evaluating performance and providing feedback to an employee

Graphic rating scale

Uses a checklist of traits or characteristics to evaluate performance, manager rates the individual on each item using a numerical score, quick and easy to complete

Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

Uses specific descriptions of actual behaviours to rate various levels of performance

Critical Incident Technique

a running log of someones effective and ineffective job behaviours

Multiperson comparison

Comparing one person’s performance with that of others, the best performer goes to the top of the list, worst goes to bottom

360 Feedback

Includes all of those that are directly in contact with the employee, such as peers, subordinates and customers are going to give feedback to the managers

Growth strategy

 the means through which an organization plans to achieve its objective to grow in turnover and volume

Market pull

market’s demand for a product or service drives its development and innovation

Market push

a strategy where businesses actively promote their products or services to consumers

Market development

involves expansion of the organization’s current operations, adding new consumers to current markets, discovering new markets to sell current products

Product development

Inventing new products or innovating existing ones

Horizontal Integration

expanding a company by buying or merging with other corporations in the same industry

Vertical integration

Company buys its suppliers (backward integration) or distributors (forward integration)

Conglomerate Integration

a process whereby a business acquires a substantial number of unrelated businesses in order to form a large and highly diversified corporation

Strategic Alliances

expand internationally by partnering with other companies in other countries, a relationship between two or more parties to pursue aq set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organizations

E-Business

expand operations by using the Internet

Restructuring

Change in operations to achieve efficiencies and increase performance

Downsizing

Decreasing the size of the company by laying off workers to reduce costs

Rightsizing

The process of a corporation reorganization or restructuring their business by cost-cutting, reduction of workforce, or reorganizing upper-level management

Divestiture

Selling off part of the company to refocus on core competencies, cut costs, and improve operating efficiency

SWOT analysis

A framework used for analysis that is used to strategize by looking at a company’s strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

PEST + C Analysis

Type of strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations, looks at politics, economics, social, technological, and competitive factors

Porter's 5 Forces Model

Used to determine how attractive your market is when making strategic decisions in business