MGMT Midterm
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Purposefully composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization
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Cross Functional Team
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Occurs when workers withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work
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Social Loafing
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A useful guideline for successful management of virtual teams?
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Keep team interaction upbeat and action-oriented
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The least amount of team autonomy is found in
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Traditional Work Teams
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How are organizations using teams to help increase customer satisfaction?
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By creating problem-solving teams to study ways to improve customer satisfaction and make recommendations for improvements
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A method used for compensating employees for team participation and accomplishments?
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Gainsharing
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An organization that rewards its team members through gainsharing is
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Sharing the financial value of performance gains
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NOT necessary for stretch goals to effectively motivate teams?
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Conflict management training
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A reason teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work?
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All of these are reasons why teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work
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Teams can be broadly classified as either__
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functional or cross functional
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Minority domination tends to be a particular problem in ___
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Groups of ten or larger
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The only type of responsibility given to traditional work groups
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Execute the task
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Group cohesion tends to be relatively strong at the ____ stage of team development.
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Norming
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The highest level of team autonomy is found in ____
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Self designing teams
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Team rewards that depend on ____ are the key to rewarding team behaviors and efforts.
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Team performance rather than individual performance
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Minority domination tends to be a particular problem in ____
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Groups of ten or larger
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A useful guideline for successful management of virtual teams?
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Keep team interaction upbeat and action-oriented
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A group in Great Britain has been established to improve the employment, retention, and promotion prospects of black and other ethnic minorities as well as women in the Fire and Rescue Service, which at present has a largely white, male demographic. At its inception, this group was in the ____ stage of team development.
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Forming
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Affective conflict ____
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typically decreases team cohesiveness
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With ____, teams no longer have to go through the frustratingly slow process of multilevel reviews and signoffs to get management approval before making changes
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Bureaucratic immunity
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Which of the following is one of the stages that teams pass through as they develop and grow, rather than decline?
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Performing
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Many orthopedic parts are almost identical in size and shape. Stryker Howmedica Osteonics in New Jersey used a semi-autonomous work group to develop Product Recognition Technology that makes sure parts are identified correctly and orders are filled correctly. This group would be classified as a(n) ____.
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Project Team
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The achievement of stretch goals is made easier when the team members have ____.
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Bureaucratic Immunity
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Which of the following statements about team training is true?
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Cross-training is less appropriate for teams of highly skilled workers.
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____ describes the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team
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Team Level
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Which of the following types of conflict is most strongly associated with improvements in team performance?
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Cognitive conflict
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In the autonomy continuum (which shows how five kinds of teams differ in terms of autonomy), the correct sequence, from low team autonomy to high team autonomy, is ____
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traditional work groups, employee involvement teams, semi-autonomous work groups, self-managing teams, and self-designing teams
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The city of College Station, Texas has implemented a program to reward employees for finding ways to save money for the city through improved operations and innovations. The city government is using ____
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Gainsharing
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The last step in effective planning is to ____
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maintain flexibility in planning
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Neither Chile nor Peru have a mass-market café culture, but that fact has not stopped Starbucks from engaging in ____ to determine how best to expand into those markets
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Decision Making
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Top management is responsible for developing long-term ____ that make clear how the company will serve customers and position itself against competitors in the next two to five years.
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Strategic Plans
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Which of the following is a commonly used method for increasing goal commitment?
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encouraging worker participation in goal setting
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The basic purpose of ____ planning is to leave commitments open by maintaining slack resources
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options based planning
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There are three kinds of ____ plans. They are single-use plans, standing plans, and budgets
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operational
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A(n) ____ lists the specific steps, people, resources, and time period for accomplishing a goal
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Action plan
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The ____ approach to decision-making is a method in which an individual or a subgroup is assigned the role of a critic
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Devil's advocacy
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An Australian manufacturer of surfboards wants to increase awareness of its brand in the U.S. market. A ____ plan to accomplish this objective might be to host a series of surfboard competitions in California
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Tactical
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The goal of a company was to reduce the expenses incurred by the sales force. A manager examining weekly expense sheets would be using which of the accepted methods for tracking progress toward goal achievement?
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gathering and providing performance feedback
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According to the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines, goals should be ____
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Measurable
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Which of the following is NOT a step in the management by objectives (MBO) process?
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jointly develop operational plans
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One of the benefits of planning is how it ____
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encourages people to work harder for extended periods
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Neither Chile nor Peru has a mass-market café culture, but that fact has not stopped Starbucks from trying to determine what can be done to make its coffee houses successful in those markets. By recognizing that people in these two South American countries do not drink coffee like people in the United States and that they should change this habit, Starbucks has begun a ____ process with problem identification
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rational decision making
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According to the text, which of the following is a pitfall of planning?
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a false sense of certainty based on faulty assumptions
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A ____ exists when there is a gap between a desired state (what managers want) and an existing state (the situation that the managers are facing)
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problem
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____ plans are plans that specify how a company will use resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific goals within its mission.
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tactical
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What type of planning would be used to create the festivities necessary to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of a furniture manufacturer?
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single use plan
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Marie-Helene de Taillac is a well-known European designer of understated, very delicate jewelry. Once she determined that further growth was impossible without changing how she distributed her product, she decided to open her own retail outlet to sell her products rather than letting department stores sell it. Since she made the decision without really examining how much the costs involved in implementing her decision, she has engaged in ____ behavior
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satisficing
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In an attempt to stop declining profitability, ICI, a British chemical company, deleted petrochemical products from its production and concentrated on specialty chemicals, a less capital-intensive, less cyclical business. If ICI is successful in making the needed changes, it will more than likely implement a ____ strategy.
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Recovery
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When The Home Depot opened stores in Canada, it ran a series of ads featuring an animated hammer that showed that the U.S.-based home improvement store had the lowest prices. According to Michael Porter, which of the following positioning strategies did The Home Depot adopt to deal with existing Canadian stores that sold similar products?
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cost leadership
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Clorox Corporation controls 60 percent of the bleach market. Imagine you are an entrepreneur who was considering developing and marketing a new brand of bleach. Which of Michael Porter's industry forces should you be most concerned about?
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character of the rivalry
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Deutsche Bank became the world's largest bank through mergers with Bankers Trust, a transatlantic banking operation. Since both banking companies had similar core capabilities, this would be classified as an example of ____.
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related diversification
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Resource similarity and ____ are factors that determine the extent to which firms will be in direct competition with each other.
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market commonality
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NTL is the largest cable company in the United Kingdom. The company has recently declared bankruptcy and needs to engage in restructuring in order to give it more flexibility and allow it to raise capital. Since it has identified the need for strategic change, what would be the organization's next step in this strategy-making process?
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conducting a situation analysis
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When the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers is high, companies in the industry will ____.
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find it more difficult to be profitable
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Because of slowing sales, Arm & Hammer started promoting innovative uses for its baking soda. By searching for new market opportunities, the manufacturer of Arm & Hammer is using which type of adaptive strategy?
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prospecting
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Under conditions of ____, a competitive attack by the stronger rival is more likely to produce sustained competitive advantage.
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low resource similarity
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A sustainable competitive advantage exists for an organization when other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate the advantage and ____.
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those companies have, for the moment, stopped trying to duplicate the advantage
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Hohner is a company that manufactures and markets harmonicas, a product with a steady demand rate. It is so successful at what it does that the company controls 85 percent of the world's harmonica industry. In terms of the adaptive strategies, Hohner would most likely be categorized as a(n) ____.
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defender
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The purpose of a ____ strategy is to turn around very poor company performance by shrinking the size or scope of the business.
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retrenchment
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A(n) ____ strategy is a corporate strategy that addresses the question \"How should we compete in this industry?\"
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industry level
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Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc. introduced the first major production mountain bike in 1980. Since then, the company has maintained a technological leadership in the production of bike and bike accessories and an organizational culture that encourages innovation. Technological leadership, as well as its organizational culture, are the company's ____.
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core capabilities
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When Coca-Cola acquired a water-treatment and bottling plant so it could produce and market Dasani brand bottled water, it was an example of ____.
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external growth
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Companies in the chemical industry are struggling to attract the most talented college graduates. One of the biggest challenges facing these companies is attracting new talent to organizations with an \"old economy\" image. A situational analysis would term this challenge a(n) ____.
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internal weakness
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For companies whose main products will not be seen by consumers and whose skills lie in productivity anonymity, a ____ could be to create a brand image to create a distinctive competence.
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strategic reference point
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The positioning strategies identified by Michael Porter are ____.
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focus, cost leadership, and differentiation
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While ____ are tangible, ____ are not
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distinctive competencies; core capabilities
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The research on diversification in portfolio management indicates that the best approach is probably ____.
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related diversification
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Which of the following is a mechanism used to examine external threats and opportunities facing a firm as well as its internal strengths and weaknesses?
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situational analysis
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Companies can achieve growth mainly by ____.
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growing internally through direct expansion or creating new businesses
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Cost leadership, differentiation, and focus are the three types of ____ strategies discussed in the text.
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positioning
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The positioning strategy that is always paired with one of the other two positioning strategies to produce a specialized product or service is ____.
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focus
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When doing an analysis of strategic groups to assess external environmental threats and opportunities, ____ firms are firms that use related but somewhat different strategies than ____ firms.
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secondary; core
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____ are the targets that managers use to measure whether their firm has developed the core competencies that it needs to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
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strategic reference points
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Glassmaker AFG Industries positions itself as the primary supplier of glass used in microwave doors, shower doors, and patio tables. What type of a positioning strategy does the glass manufacturer use?
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focus
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____ is the measure of the intensity of competitive behavior between companies in an industry.
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character of rivalry
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An organization is experiencing ____ when it is reluctant to change strategies or competitive practices that have been successful in the past.
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competitive inertia
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According to the text, valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable resources can produce sustainable competitive advantage only if they are ____ resources.
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nonsubstitutable
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Companies that are following a ____ strategy would be most likely to try to improve the way in which they sell the same goods or services to the same customers.
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stability
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Starbucks, the operator of Starbucks coffeehouses, also markets a line of compilation CDs and other non-coffee items. The making and marketing of the CDs and other non-coffee products would be an example of ____.
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unrelated diversification
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The ____ strategy is analogous to pruning flowers.
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retrenchment/recovery
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A competitive advantage that other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate an shave, for the moment, stopped trying to duplicate
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Sustainable competitive advantage
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Rare resource
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a resource that is not controlled or possessed by many competing firms
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Imperfectly imitable resource
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a resource that is impossible or extremely costly or difficult for other firms to duplicate
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Nonsubstitutable resource
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a resource that produces value or competitive advantage and has no equivalent substitutes or replacements
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Competitive inertia
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A reluctance to change strategies or competitive practices that have been successful in the past
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Shadow strategy task force
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a committee within a company that analyzes the company's own weaknesses to determine how competitors could exploit them for competitive advantage
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Strategic dissonance
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a discrepancy between a company's intended strategy and the strategic actions managers take when implementing that strategy
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Situational (SWOT) analysis
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an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in an organizations internal environment and the opportunities and threats in its external environment
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Distinctive competence
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what a company can make, do, or perform better than its competitors
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Core capabilities
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the internal decision making routines, problem solving processes, and organizational cultures that determine how efficiently inputs can be turned into outputs
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Strategic group
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a group of companies within an industry against which top managers compare, evaluate, and benchmark strategic threats and opportunities
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Core firms
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the central companies in a strategic group
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Secondary firms
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the firms in a strategic group that follow strategies related to but somewhat different from those of the core firms
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Strategic reference points
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the strategic targets managers use to measure whether a firm has developed the core competencies it needs to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage
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Corporate level strategy
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the overall organizational strategy that addresses the question \"what businesses are we in or should we be in?\"
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Diversification
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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
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Acquisition
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the purchase of a company by another company
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unrelated diversification
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creating or acquiring companies in completely unrelated businesses
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related diversification
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creating or acquiring coma pies that share similar products, manufacturing, marketing, technology, or cultures
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grand strategy
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a broad corporate level strategic plan used to achieve strategic goals and guide the strategic alternatives that mangers of individual businesses or subunits may use
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growth strategy
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a strategy that focuses on increasing profits, revenues, market share, or the number of places in which the company does business
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stability strategy
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a strategy that focuses on improving the way in which the company sells the same products or services to the same costumer
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retrenchment strategy
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a strategy that focuses on turning around very poor company performance by shrinking the size or scope of the business
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recovery
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the strategic actions taken after retrenchment to return to a growth strategy
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industry level strategy
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a corporate strategy that addresses the question, \"how should we compete in this industry?\"
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character of the rivalry
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a measure of the intensity of competitive behavior between companies in an industry
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threat of new entrants
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a measure of the degree to which barriers to entry make it easy or difficult for new companies to get started in an industry
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threat of substitute products or services
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a measure of the ease with which customers can find substitutes for an industry's products or services
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bargaining power of suppliers
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a measure of the influence that suppliers of parts, materials, and services to firms in an industry have on the prices of these inputs
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bargaining power of buyers
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a measure of the influence that customers have on a firm's prices
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cost leadership
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the positioning strategy of producing a product or service of acceptable quality at consistently lower production costs than competitors can, so that the firm can offer the product or service at the lowest price in the industry
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Differentiation
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the positioning strategy of providing a product or service that is sufficiently different form competitors' offerings that customers are willing to pay a premium price for it
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Focus strategy
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the positioning strategy of using cost leadership or differentiation to produce a specialized product or service for a limited, specially targeted group of customers in a particular geographic region or market segment
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defenders
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companies using an adaptive strategy aimed at defending strategic positions by seeking moderate, steady growth and by offering a limited range of high-quality product and services
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Prospectors
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companies using an adaptive strategy that seeks fast growth by searching for new market opportunities, encouraging risk taking, and being the first to bring innovative new products to market
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analyzers
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companies using an adaptive strategy that seeks to minimize risk and maximize profits by following or imitating the proven successes of prospectors
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reactors
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companies that do not follow a consistent adaptive strategy, but instead react to changes in the external environment after they occur
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firm level strategy
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a corporate strategy that addresses the question, \"how should we compete against a particular firm?\"
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market commonality
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the degree to which two companies have lapping products, services, or customers in multiple markets
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resource similarity
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the extent to which a competitor has similar amounts and kinds of resources
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traditional work group
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a group composed of two or more people who work together to achieve a shared goal
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employee involvement teams
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team that provides advice or makes suggestions to management concerning specific issues
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semi-autonomous work group
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a group that has the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks of producing a product or service
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self managing teams
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a team that manages and controls all of the major tasks or producing a product or service
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self designing team
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a team that has the characteristics of self managing teams, but also controls team design, work tasks, and team membership
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cross functional team
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a team composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization
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virtual team
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a team composed of geographically and or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use telecommunication and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task
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project team
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a team created to complete a specific, one time projects or tasks within a limited time
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Forming
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the first stage of team development, in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin to establish team norms
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storming
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the second stage of development characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it
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norming
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the thirst stage of development, team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop
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performing
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the fourth and final stage of team development, in which performance improves b/c the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team
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structural accomodation
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ability to change organizational structures, polocies, and practices in order to meet stretch goals
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bureaucratic immunity
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ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization
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individualism collectivism
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the degree to which a person believes that people should be self sufficient and that loyalty to one's self is more important than loyalty to team or company
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team level
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the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team
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skill based pay
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compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge
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gainsharing
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compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as increased productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers
