MGMT Ch. 5 +6 – Flashcards
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____ are a type of operational plan.
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Single-use plans
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____ can help organizations to maintain flexibility as they plan.
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Options-based planning
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____ is the process of choosing a solution from available alternatives.
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Decision making
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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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Who is primarily responsible for developing operational plans?
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lower-level managers
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One method of weighing decision criteria uses ____, which is a process where each decision is compared directly to every other criterion.
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relative comparisons
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After earning $8 billion in profit, Royal Dutch/Shell decided to strive to double its profits within the next five years. Which classical management function would be instrumental in achieving this goal?
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planning
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Who is responsible for the creation of tactical plans?
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middle managers
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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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____ is a systematic process of defining problems, evaluating alternatives, and choosing optimal solutions.
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Rational decision making
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Planning works best when the goals and action plans at the ____ of the organization support the goals and action plans at the ____ of the organization.
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bottom and middle; top
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According to the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines, goals should be ____.
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none of these
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Planning is ultimately based upon ____.
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choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal
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____ planning keeps options open by making small, simultaneous investments in many alternative plans.
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Options-based
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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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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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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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____ 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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Which of the following is the most specific type of standing plan?
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rules and regulations
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____ is responsible for developing strategic plans 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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Top management
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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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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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Which of the following is a commonly used method for increasing goal commitment?
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make goals public
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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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Which of the following is NOT one of the characteristics of S.M.A.R.T. goals?
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Synergistic
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An organization is experiencing ____ when there is a discrepancy between upper management's intended strategy and the strategy actually implemented by the lower levels of management.
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strategic dissonance
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A(n) ____ resource is a resource that is not controlled or
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possessed by many competing firms. 999 rare
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According to Michael Porter, five industry forces determine an industry's overall attractiveness and potential for long-term profitability. Which of the following is one of those forces Porter identified?
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bargaining power of suppliers
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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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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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Companies often choose a ____ strategy when their external environment doesn't change much or after they have struggled with periods of explosive growth.
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stability
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An ad for a major brand of clothes washer reads, "Since our humble beginnings back in 1950, we have been dedicated to building machines with superior cleaning power, reliability, and style." This manufacturer is more than likely using which kind of positioning strategy?
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differentiation
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Which of the following must be met if a firm's resources are to be used to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage
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imperfectly imitable resources
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Which of the following statements is true about how the portfolio strategy can be used to help managers acquire companies that fit well with the rest of their corporate portfolio?
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Risk can be reduced through related diversification (creating or acquiring companies in related businesses).
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The first step in the strategy-making process is to ____.
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assess the need for strategic change
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While ____ are tangible, ____ are not.
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distinctive competencies; core capabilities
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The highly fragmented chemical industry in Europe has experienced decreasing profits in an industry reluctance to change the way it conducts business, especially in how it competes against lower-priced U.S. imports. This is an example of ____.
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competitive inertia
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Aveda is a manufacturer and marketer of cosmetics, perfumes, hair-care, and skin-care products. To differentiate its products from other similar brands, Aveda focuses on educating its customers on general skin and hair care. Its salespeople are trained to answer questions and help customers find solutions. Aveda has used customer education and employee training to ____.
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create a competitive advantage
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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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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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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. What type of a grand strategy was ICI using?
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retrenchment
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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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a situational analysis
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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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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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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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A(n) ____ is a resource that is impossible or extremely costly or difficult for other firms to duplicate.
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imperfectly imitable
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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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The two major approaches to corporate-level strategy are ____.
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grand strategies and the portfolio strategy
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Which of the following is NOT one of the five industry forces that determine an industry's overall attractiveness and potential for long-term profitability?
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existing complementary products
