Principles of MGMT: Mid-Term Study Guide

___ is defined as getting work done through others.

management

To reduce manual errors, Debroth Inc., a machinery manufacturing company, automated most of its production processes using Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machines. This reduced the labor cost, wastage of raw materials, and rejection of finished goods due to qaulity issues. In the context of management, the automation of production processes at Debroth Inc. exmplifies___.

efficiency

___ involves accomplishing tasks that help fulfill organizational objectives.

Effectiveness

In the context of management functions, organizing is about:

determining how things get done.

___are typically responsible for developing employees’ commitment to and ownership of the company’s performance.

Top managers

Debra is the day-shift supervisor at a company that manufactures and supplies plastic bottles to pharmaceutical companies. She is responsible for estimating the hiring needs for the day-shift at the factory. She also prepares the schedules for the training process of newly hired employees. Most importantly, she overlooks the entire day-shift production at the factory and reports to her manager on a regular basis. In this scenario, Debra is most likely a ____.

first-line manager

Which of the following is a difference between first-line managers and top managers?

Unlike top managers, first-line managers engage in plans and actions that typically produce results within two weeks.

Which of the following is a relatively new kind of management position that developed as companies shifted to self-managing groups?

A team leader

A team leader is responsible for:

fostering good relationships within his or her team.

In the context of managerial roles, which of the following is a difference between the figurehead role and the liaison role?

The figurehead role is the role that managers play when they perform ceremonial duties, whereas the liaison role is the role that managers play when they deal with people outside their units.

___ is defined as the process of choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal.

Planning

Which of the following statements is true of planning?

It intensifies the effort put in by managers and employees.

Which of the following is a benefit of planning?

It gives direction to managerial efforts.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of planning?

It creates a false sense of certainty.

A drawback of planning is that it:

causes detachment, which leads planners to plan for things they do not understand.

is defined as the determination to achieve an objective.

Goal commitment

The most popular approach to increase goal commitment is to:

encourage employee participation while setting goals.

Chad is the human resources manager of a chain of stationery stores. The company intends to open two new outlets, and Chad plans to recruit staff for both the outlets by the end of the month. In this scenario, Chad's staffing target serves as a____

Proximal goal

The main objective of_____is to keep choices open by making small, simultaneous investments in many alternative plans.

Options-based planning

_____are defined as a cushion of extra resources that can be used with options-based planning to adapt to unanticipated changes, problems, or opportunities.

Slack resources

In the context of maintaining flexibility while planning, unlike traditional planning, options-based planning:

involves maintaining slack resources.

In the context of planning from top to bottom, the top management is responsible for developing____.

Strategic plans

An organization's_______is defined as a more specific goal than the organization's purpose that unifies company-wide efforts, stretches and challenges the organization, and possesses a finish line and a time frame.

Strategic objectives

In an organization, _ are responsible for the creation of tactical plans.

Middle managers

In an organization,_____are responsible for developing and carrying out operational plans.

Lower-level managers

A_____is a type of operational plan that saves managers' time because once the plan is created, it can be used repeatedly to handle frequently recurring events.

Standing plan

____is a competitive advantage that other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate and have, for the moment, stopped trying to duplicate.

Sustainable competitive advantage

A competitive advantage becomes a sustainable competitive advantage when:

Other companies cannot duplicate the value of a firm is providing to costumers.

Which of the following conditions must be met if a firm's resources are to be used to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage?

The resources must be valuable, rare, and nonsubstitutable.

Unlike valuable resources, rare resources:

are not controlled or possessed by many competing firms.

Which of the following is the first step of a strategy-making process?

Assessing the need for strategic change

Which of the following best defines strategic dissonance?

It is a discrepancy between a company's intended strategy and the strategic actions taken by managers while implementing that strategy.

Which of the following best defines a distinctive competence?

It is what a company can make, do, or perform better than its competitors.

Which of the following is the last step of a strategy-making process?

Choosing strategic alternatives

_____are used by managers to measure whether their firm has developed the core competencies that it needs to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Strategic reference points

_____is a strategy for reducing risk by buying a variety of items so that the failure of one stock or one business does not doom the entire portfolio.

Diversification

Which of the following statements is true of a portfolio strategy?

It is a corporate-level strategy with the purpose of reducing risk in the entire collection of stocks.

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix,_____are companies that have a small share of a fast-growing market.

Question marks

____is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments, authority, and jobs within a company.

Organizational structure

____is a method of subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that take responsibility for completing particular tasks.

Departmentalization

Which of the following statements is true of functional departmentalization?

It allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists.

In the context of organizational structures, which of the following forms of departmentalization lowers costs by reducing duplication

Functional departmentalization

Which of the following is an advantage of product departmentalization?

It allows managers and workers to specialize in one area of expertise.

Cashvestment, a wealth management firm, renders services to various clients such as salaried employees, entrepreneurs, high-net-worth individuals, and retired employees. The employees of Cashvestment are organized based on the type of clients they are involved with. In this scenario, most likely follows ____

customer departmentalization

_____is a hybrid organizational structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used together.

Matrix departmentalization

____was the first to use witnesses in legal cases.

Hammurabi

The first individual to list managerial traits was____

Ghazali

In____, managers are supposed to influence employee behavior by fairly rewarding or punishing employees for compliance or noncompliance with organizational policies, rules, and procedures.

bureaucracies