Deck 11: Strategic Leadership and Change Management

Question 1

An organization's external environment presents strengths and weaknesses, while it internal environment presents opportunities and threats.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The effectiveness of an organization's strategies is influenced by the degree of alignment between the organization's internal capabilities, resources, and its environmental opportunities.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A basic distinction between strategic leadership and strategic management is that strategic management envisions where the organization would like to be in five to ten years while strategic leadership focuses on how to achieve the vision.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A strategic vision is a view of the future that is readily attainable.

Question 5

Strategic leadership is a person's ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for the organization.

Question 6

Vision creation should be top management's responsibility.

Question 7

Strategic leadership must involve managers at the top, middle, and lower levels of the organization.

Question 8

Strategic leadership is the set of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement specific strategies that will achieve a competitively superior fit between the organization and its environment, so as to achieve organizational goals.

Question 9

Environmental scanning is the first step in the strategic management process.

Question 10

Examples of the "S" in SWOT analysis are brand name, reputation, and patents.

Question 11

The underlying tenet of strategic management is that organizations need to formulate strategies to take advantage of external opportunities and to avoid or reduce the negative impact of external threats.

Question 12

The loss of market focus is a leading cause of business failures.

Question 13

As the business environment becomes increasingly complex, the demand for environmental decreases.

Question 14

Executive intuition is the instinctive ability to identify weak signals in the environment and respond without the benefit of concrete facts and information.

Question 15

The combined analysis of the external environment and internal environment is commonly referred to as SWOT analysis.

Question 16

A vision statement specifies an organization's present purpose.

Question 17

The first step in the strategic management process is strategy formulation.

Question 18

The vision statement answers the question, "What is the organization's purpose?"

Question 19

A strategic leader should concentrate decision-making power at the executive level rather than spread it throughout the organization.

Question 20

Leaders who rely too much on rational analysis to the exclusion of intuition tend to experience strategic leadership failures.

Question 21

A core competence is a capability that allows an organization to perform extremely well in comparison to competitors.

Question 22

Learning anxiety is the feeling that unless an organization makes a change, it is going to be out of business or fail to achieve some important goals.

Question 23

Prior to formulating a strategy the leader should know the mission, vision, and objectives of the organization.

Question 24

A popular tool used to measure the effectiveness of the strategic management process is the balance scorecard.

Question 25

Effective strategy evaluation involves four fundamental activities.

Question 26

Survival anxiety is a sufficient but not necessary stimulus to change.

Question 27

A company pursuing a strategy of differentiation through innovation in a bureaucratic, hierarchical organizational structure is an example of a mismatch between strategy and structure.

Question 28

Strategy evaluation has been described as the most important and most difficult part of the strategic management process.

Question 29

Value is the ratio of costs in the present and benefits in the future.

Question 30

The most distinctive and hard to imitate resource available to firms is knowledge.

Question 31

Strategies may fail for lack of appropriate or adequate resources.

Question 32

Two components that are often featured in a mission statement are the core values and the core purpose.

Question 33

Goals are the desired short-term outcomes that an organization seeks to achieve for its various stakeholders.

Question 34

"To crush the enemy" is an example of Nike's inspiring vision.

Question 35

Effective change agents must be good listeners.

Question 36

A comprehensive analysis that gives a clear and accurate assessment of prevailing conditions in the organization's internal and external environments should be a prerequisite step before any change in the management process is initiated.

Question 37

Resistance to change and the absence of effective leadership are major reasons for why most transformation efforts fail.

Question 38

The force-field model proposes that the change process is divided into three phases: freezing, unfreezing, and refreezing.

Question 39

A mission statement provides the foundation for developing an organization's vision statement, which describes the general purpose of the organization.

Question 40

A mission statement is the organization's core purpose and reason for existence.

Question 41

The effective strategist must be capable of which of the following?

A) Communicating effectively.
B) Deciding on appropriate goals and priorities.
C) Anticipating and forecasting events in the external environment.
D) all of the above.

Question 42

To overcome resistance to change, effective managers must think in terms of people actions rather than task actions.

Question 43

One of the most common reasons why people resist change is because of the threat to their personal safety.

Question 44

To reduce or eliminate resistance to change, effective leaders communicate the need and urgency for change to just top management.

Question 45

Learning anxiety is the prospect of learning something new in itself.

Question 46

The first step of the eight-stage model of planned organizational change is to develop a compelling vision.

Question 47

In the unfreezing phase of the three stage model of change, the key is to identify the problems or threats facing the organization, creating an urgency for change.

Question 48

Strategic ____ is the set of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement specific strategies that will achieve a competitively superior fit between the organization and its environment, so as to achieve organizational goals.

A) leadership
B) analysis
C) management
D) vision

Question 49

Any proposed change must take into account its impact on the values of those who are affected by the change.

Question 50

Ensuring that change efforts are adequately staffed and funded is a recommendation for minimizing resistance to change.

Question 51

Which of the following is considered to be a leading cause of business failures?

A) the loss of market focus
B) the use of failure-prone practices
C) unwise allocation of time and money
D) unethical conduct

Question 52

Effective strategic leaders are skilled at:

A) building a highly effective, efficient, and motivated team of employees.
B) finding and sustaining competitive advantage by building core competencies and selecting the right markets in which to compete.
C) being an effective communicator.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 53

Showing relentless support and questioning commitment to the change process is a recommendation for minimizing resistance to change in order to motivate the rank and file.

Question 54

Strategic ____ is the process of providing the direction and inspiration necessary to create and implement a firm's vision, mission, and strategies to achieve organizational objectives.

A) management
B) leadership
C) necessity
D) vision

Question 55

The underlying tenet of strategic management is that organizations need to formulate strategies to:

A) take advantage of external opportunities.
B) avoid the negative impact of external threats.
C) reduce the negative impact of external threats.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 56

Effective leaders downplay employees' resistance to change and realize that it is a discipline problem.

Question 57

In the three stage model of change, the unfreezing phase is where the actual changes take place.

Question 58

An example of an incremental change is a redefinition of an organization's vision and mission.

Question 59

____ is the instinctive ability to identify weak signals in the environment and respond without the benefits of concrete facts and information.

A) Rational analysis
B) Strategic focus
C) Executive intuition
D) SWOT analysis

Question 60

____ is an organization's capability to identify major changes in the external environment and respond promptly.

A) Portfolio agility
B) Operational agility
C) Strategic agility
D) Core competency

Question 61

Which of the following statements is true about strategy and execution?

A) A poorly executed strategy will yield the same poor results as a bad strategy.
B) An excellent strategy poorly executed will yield the same results as a bad strategy.
C) An excellent strategy well executed will yield the same results as a well executed bad strategy.
D) Strategy and execution operate independently of one another.

Question 62

A ____ is an integrated, overarching plan of how an organization will achieve its objectives.

A) strategic vision
B) mission statement
C) strategy
D) core competence

Question 63

Strategy evaluation involves:

A) reviewing internal and external factors that are the bases for the current strategy.
B) measuring performance against stated objectives.
C) taking corrective action.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 64

____ change is an alteration in an organization's alignment with its external environment.

A) Strategic
B) Organizational
C) Functional
D) none of the answers are correct

Question 65

SWOT analysis includes all of the following EXCEPT:

A) senses.
B) weaknesses.
C) opportunities.
D) threats.

Question 66

____ has been described as the most important and difficult step of the strategic management process.

A) implementation
B) motivation
C) Evaluation
D) leadership

Question 67

A clear and inspiring vision serves all of the following functions EXCEPT:

A) facilitates decision making.
B) gives meaning to work.
C) establishes a standard of excellence.
D) distinguishes the organization from other similar enterprises.

Question 68

____ is a capability that allows an organization to perform extremely well in comparison to competitors.

A) A core competence
B) Synergistic opportunity
C) Value
D) Comparative advantage

Question 69

An organization's core purpose and reason for existence is contained in its:

A) strategic vision.
B) mission statement.
C) strategy.
D) core competence.

Question 70

Organizations must take the time to establish ____ objectives.

A) measurable
B) results-based
C) specific
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 71

____ anxiety is the feeling that unless an organization makes a change, it is going to be out of business or fail to achieve some important goals.

A) Learning
B) Organizational
C) Survival
D) Functional

Question 72

All of the following questions embody the essence of a strategic vision and mission statement EXCEPT:

A) What inspires us?
B) What do we believe in?
C) Who are our competitors?
D) Why do we exist?

Question 73

The two components that are often featured in a mission statement are the core ____ and the core ____.

A) purpose; strategy
B) values; purpose
C) aspirations; values
D) strategy; values

Question 74

Effective strategic leaders develop strategies that:

A) enhance value to the customers.
B) create synergistic opportunities.
C) build on the company's core competence.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 75

Competitive advantage is improved when a firm's:

A) core competencies match external environmental opportunities.
B) vision is benchmarked from industry-best practices.
C) strategic moves match those of its best competitors.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 76

External factors in a firm's strategic environment which have a potential negative impact are called ____.

A) hindrances
B) weaknesses
C) alarms
D) threats

Question 77

Goal-setting theory asserts that people with ____ goals perform better than those with ____ goals.

A) strategic; corporate
B) vague; strategic
C) specific; strategic
D) stretch; vague

Question 78

Value is:

A) the ratio of benefits received to the cost incurred by the customer.
B) what differentiates an organization from its competitors in the industry.
C) a capability that allows an organization to perform extremely well in comparison to others.
D) defined as the "quantification of luxury."

Question 79

Core competencies are a source of competitive advantage when they are:

A) not easily sustainable.
B) hard to imitate.
C) rare.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 80

Strategy ____ has been described as the most important and most difficult part of the strategic management process.

A) formulation
B) implementation
C) evaluation
D) analysis