WGU C483 Principles of Management

A value chain is the sequence of activities that begins with raw materials.

What result does a value chain end with?

Delivery of products or services

What happens when an effective value chain is created?

Profit margins are increased

Industry and market analysis, competitor analysis, and social analysis are examples of which step in the strategic planning process?

Analysis of external opportunities and threats

Skilled management, positive cash flow, and well-known brands are examples of which component of the SWOT analysis?

Strengths

What denotes skills or expertise in an activity that constitutes the roots of competitiveness in an organization?

Core competencies

According to Michael Porter's competitive environment model, how can suppliers influence strategic planning?

Suppliers can reduce manufacturing time and increase product quality

A company offers unique products in its industry to create a competitive advantage.

Which type of strategy is the company using?

Differentiation

Happy Inc. is a leading provider of family entertainment and BCD is a broadcasting company with news, cable, and entertainment networks. Happy Inc. recently acquired BCD in hopes of boosting its primary business of family entertainment.

Which type of corporate strategy is represented by Happy Inc.'s purchase of their distribution network?

Vertical integration

A local business has provided services to its customers for 40 years. The business's mission is "To give our customers the best service in town." The owner of the business has had a long-standing dream to franchise the business and become the best provider of its service in the United States.

What describes the owner's dream?

Strategic vision

What is the first step of organizational strategic planning?

Developing a strategic mission

The introduction of statistical tools to analyze the causes of product defects is associated with which quality improvement approach?

Six Sigma

What is the principal idea of reengineering?

To revolutionize key organizational systems and processes

How many defects per million are there at Six Sigma, assuming a product or process is defect-free 99.99966% of the time?

Less than 3.4

What is the last step to Deming's 14 points of quality management?

To take action to accomplish the transformation

Process checklists and project audits are components of which management process?

Quality Assurance

What is the main objective of an internal quality audit?

To measure effectiveness of an organization's quality management system

A company is trying to systematically improve processes by eliminating nonconformity of their products to product specifications. The company believes their continuous effort to reduce variation in their process outputs is key to their business success.

Which quality process is the company utilizing?

Six Sigma

Which concept entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers in both sales and service-related environments?

Customer relationship management

Dr. Ohmae indicates that customer, corporation, and competitors should be integrated in a strategic triangle.

What does Dr. Ohmae indicate that an organization can obtain by doing this?

Sustained competitive advantage

What designates those who take hands-on responsibility for creating innovation such as new ideas, products, or methods within an organization?

Intrapreneur

Why is innovation an important element of entrepreneurship?

Creates unique and different products or services

Most successful entrepreneurs exhibit certain characteristics. Some entrepreneurs are open-minded, able to learn quickly, and skilled at conceptualizing.

Which entrepreneurial personality trait is this?

Creativity, self-reliance, and ability to adapt

Which personality characteristics are believed to contribute to an entrepreneur's success?

Determination

Why would an entrepreneurial business choose to use its own resources versus seeking outside resources in financing a business venture?

To maintain control

Which activity should management use to encourage intrapreneurship within an organization?

Encourage employees to work on informal job assignments

What can managers do to encourage useful conflict during a meeting to lessen inhibition about disagreeing and make the conflict less personal?

Provide a devil's advocate

Why is consideration of intentions important in conflict situations?

People respond based on their interpretation of others' intentions

What describes dimensions of conflict-handling intentions?

Cooperativeness and assertiveness

A supervisor assigned office space to three new employees. The employees were upset by the offices they were given. The first had a large office but wanted a window, the second had a new computer but wanted room for some plants, and the third had a window but needed high-speed computing to perform the job well.

Which conflict resolution technique can the supervisor use to create a win-win solution for these employees?

Expansion of resources

A corporation is experiencing dysfunction in their work teams. The team leader plans to realign work groups based on employees' work locations, and also to alter rules and regulations in the groups and make additional changes to "shake things up a bit."

Which conflict-stimulation technique is the team leader applying?

Restructuring the organization

Which type of control system is being implemented when management uses prices, profit centers, and exchange relationships as a control?

Market control

What is the fourth step of the control process which ensures that operations are adjusted to achieve planned results?

Taking corrective action

A corporation recently disbanded its flex time schedule for employees and now requires that all employees work 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The employees banded together in opposition of the change.

What were the employees of the corporation experiencing?

Peer pressure

The manager of the human resources department at a corporation agreed to authorize one-hour lunch breaks for all employees of the organization as long as the production manager agreed to shorten the morning and afternoon breaks of all employees to 15 minutes.

Which approach were the managers using to enlist cooperation for the change?

Negotiation and reward

A corporation offers concrete incentives such as higher wages for cooperation with change.

Which strategy is the corporation using to overcome resistance to change?

Negotiation and reward

During a final job interview, the hiring manager asks candidates about age and national origin. Some of the rejected candidates suspect they did not get the job because of their age.

Which law covers this type of discrimination?

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

After a major budget increase, a company finds itself in a position to hire 50 new employees.

How can strategic human resource planning benefit the company in this situation?

By organizing staffing needs and looking for people with the right skills

In the five dimensions of Hackman and Oldham's model of job design, what does autonomy describe?

Independence and discretion in making decisions

A store that has had a high rate of employee theft wants to use an employee selection technique to hire new employees who are less likely to steal from them.

Which type of employee selection instrument is most appropriate in this situation?

Integrity test

When selecting an organizational structure, which key elements should be considered?

Differentiation and integration

What is the best way to succeed in a matrix organizational structure?

Collaboration

What is a reason to create a boundaryless organizational structure?

To make information available as needed

Four small, independent organizations, each with its own type of expertise, plan to work together for six months for the sole purpose of developing a new product that will help each of them improve their ability to compete with larger organizations.

Which type of organization does their relationship characterize?

Virtual organization

Which formal structure allows job holders to have broad responsibilities, accommodates decentralized and informal decision making, and values expertise?

Organic

One manager is responsible for all functional areas allowing the company to sell Product A, and another manager is responsible for all functional areas that allow the company to sell Product B.

Which type of design does this corporation use?

Divisional

Which entities protect the rights of employees and potential employees from discrimination in the workplace?

Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action

During an international executive meeting, an executive used a word that did not translate into English.

What type of cross-cultural communication barrier is this?

Barrier caused by word association

A younger employee becomes irritated by the sound of an older employee's voice and finds it difficult to work on projects with the older employee. This has caused conflict in the department.

What is the source of conflict between the older and younger employees?

Personal variables

In which situation does religious preference inappropriately affect decision making?

A publicly-held company has a policy limiting financial donations to one religious group

A visually-impaired person has been hired to work in the human resources department of a small company.

Which workplace accommodations would be reasonable in this situation?

The company will purchase a large computer screen and a Braille keyboard

What is a common component of effective diversity training programs?

Building awareness

The goal-setting theory states that:

People have conscious goals that energize them and direct their thoughts and behaviors toward a particular end

A psychological contract is described as:

A set of perceptions of what employees owe their employers, and what their employers owe them

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following needs would one seek to satisfy first?

Physiological

Following Herzberg's model, Hackman and Oldham proposed a more complete model of ___.

Job design

Herzberg's two-factor theory highlights the distinction between:

Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

According to the expectancy theory, ___ is the link between performance and outcome.

Instrumentality

Which of the following best describes extinction?

It refers to withdrawing or failing to provide a reinforcing consequence

The use of reinforcement or punishment in organizational settings is an integral part of:

Organizational behavior modification

Key beliefs in the expectancy theory include expectancy and ___.

Instrumentality

According to McClelland's needs theory, the need for ___ involves a strong desire to be liked by other people.

Affiliation

Alderfer's ERG theory postulates that people have three basic sets of needs: ___, relatedness, and growth, which can operate simultaneously.

Existence

Which of the following best describes motivation?

Forces that energize, direct, and sustain a person's efforts

Which of the following is one of the eight categories of quality of work life programs?

Fair compensation

Harry has been promoted because of his hard work. Judy, his colleague, feels that it is unfair and that he does not deserve the promotion.
In this case, Judy illustrates ___.

Negative valence

Motivation for employees can come from an interesting project, a completed sale, or the discovery of a perfect solution, all of which
are examples of:

Intrinsic rewards

A person can restore ___ in a number of ways by behaviorally or perceptually changing inputs and outcomes.

Equity

Targets that are particularly demanding and sometime even thought to be impossible are known as ___ goals.

Stretch

Job enrichment would be more successful for people with:

High growth need strength

Rachel has been exceeding her targets for the past two months, and therefore her boss decided to give her a bonus. This is an example
of ___ reinforcement.

Positive

_ performance goals can be dysfunctional when people work in a group if the goals create competition among team members.

Individual

Which of the following helps managers to manage the change process by investigating specific factors that prevent people from changing
and those that drive people toward change?

Force-field analysis

Realizing that current practices are inappropriate and that new behavior must be enacted is a required stage for managing resistance called ____.

Unfreezing

Which of the following is true of shared leadership in change efforts?

It occurs when people not only support a change but also help implement it

Which of the following is a change-specific reason for resistance to change?

Misunderstanding

According to a study, the four key factors that lead to sustained, superior performance of companies include strategy, execution,
structure, and ___.

Culture

Which of the following steps of motivating people to change begins with establishing a vision of where the company is heading?

Moving

Which of the following best indicates the three basic stages of managing resistance and motivating change within an organization?

Unfreezing, moving to institute the change, and refreezing

Too much happy talk from senior management, an absence of a major crisis, many visible resources, and low overall performance standards
often lead to:

A sense of complacency

Which of the following methods for managing resistance to change is relatively easy but has a drawback of being too expensive in many
cases?

Negotiation and rewards

Which of the following methods for managing resistance to change is most likely to work best when there is a lack of information or
inaccurate information and analysis about the change?

Education and communication

Which of the following refers to a systemwide application of behavioral science knowledge to improve and reinforce the strategies,
structures, and processes that lead to organization effectiveness?

Organization development

Which of the following change-specific reasons for resistance is likely to occur when people think a change will cause them to lose something of value?

Self-interest

The final step in managing resistance involves strengthening new behaviors that support a change and is referred to as ____.

Refreezing

In leading change in an organization, ___ refers to putting together a group with enough power to lead a change.

Creating a guiding coalition

Which of the following is a difference between reactive and proactive changes?

Reactive change involves responding to a problem, whereas proactive change involves preparing for an uncertain future

To be world class, an organization should:

Use the best and latest knowledge and ideas

In managing resistance to organizational changes, facilitation and support method is most likely to be used when:

People are resisting because of adjustment problems

Which of the following is true about resistance to change?

People at all levels of their organizations, from entry-level to executives, resist change

Strategic, technostructural, human resources management, and human process are types of:

Organization development interventions

In a SWOT analysis, the absence of reliable suppliers would be considered as a(n):

Weakness

___ include sets of actions to be taken when a company's initial plans have not worked well or if events in the external environment require a sudden change.

Contingency plans

A(n) _ illustrates the four key drivers of a firm's long-term success, and shows how goals in each area are linked to others.

Strategy map

Which of the following is one among the six components of the strategic management process?

SWOT analysis

The strategy an organization uses to build competitive advantage by being unique in its industry or market segment along one or more dimensions is known as a(n) _ strategy.

Differentiation

Which of the following takes place after a firm formulates its strategy?

Strategy implementation

Benchmarking is the process of assessing how well one company's basic functions and skills compare with:

Those of another company

A ___ system is a component of the strategic management process designed to support managers in evaluating the organization's progress
with its strategy and, when discrepancies exist, taking corrective action.

Strategic control

The planning process is similar to the ___ process in that both have a series of steps that are typically repeated in a cycle.

Decision-making

___ provides individuals and work units with a clear map to follow in future activities.

Planning