Deck 5: Planning and Decision Making

Question 1

Which of the following is the most specific type of standing plan?

A) policies
B) procedures
C) rules and regulations
D) forecasts
E) MBO plans

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Managers can monitor to track progress toward goal achievement.

A) action plans and their implementation
B) proximal and distal goals
C) one-way and two-way evaluative techniques
D) framing and non-framing goals
E) open-ended and close-ended techniques

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The process of decision making emphasizes the use of systematic procedures to arrive at optimal solutions.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Which of the following is the most specific type of standing plan?

A) policies
B) procedures
C) rules and regulations
D) forecasts
E) MBO plans

Question 5

To make completely rational decisions, managers would have to operate in a perfect world with no:

A) constraints
B) benchmarking
C) methodology validity
D) information overload
E) all of these

Question 6

One method of weighting decision criteria uses compared directly to every other criterion.

A) absolute comparisons
B) relative comparisons
C) valences
D) minimum threshold rule _{e. comparative ranking scales}
, which is a process where each decision criterion is

Question 7

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Meaningful, Active, Reachable, and Timely.

Question 8

can help organizations to maintain flexibility as they plan.

A) Environmental munificence
B) Options-based planning
C) Formalization
D) Liaisons
E) Group cohesiveness

Question 9

Management by objectives (MBO) is a management technique often used to develop and carry out:

A) single-use plans
B) standing plans
C) operational plans
D) tactical plans
E) hierarchical plans

Question 10

Tactical plans specify how a company will use resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific goals within its mission.

Question 11

Both absolute comparisons and relative comparisons are methods for identifying decision criteria.

Question 12

In the Dephi technique, the members of a panel of experts respond to questions and to each other until reaching agreement on an issue.

Question 13

_{5. 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.

A) standing plans
B) tactical plans
C) operational plans
D) strategic plans
E) mission statements

Question 14

Managers can monitor to track progress toward goal achievement.

A) action plans and their implementation
B) proximal and distal goals
C) one-way and two-way evaluative techniques
D) framing and non-framing goals
E) open-ended and close-ended techniques

Question 15

Tactical plans specify how a company will use resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific goals within its mission.

Question 16

Management by objectives (MBO) is a management technique often used to develop and carry out plans.

A) single-use
B) standing
C) operational
D) tactical
E) hierarchical

Question 17

The _{of a critic.}
Approach to decision making is a method in which an individual or a subgroup is assigned the role

A) dialectical inquiry
B) groupthink
C) devil's advocacy
D) Delphi
E) dyadic communications

Question 18

The first step in rational decision making is to:

A) conduct a systematic environmental analysis
B) define the problem
C) evaluate the alternatives
D) choose the solutions
E) create a management team

Question 19

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Meaningful, Active, Reachable, and Timely.

Question 20

Top management is responsible for developing long-term:

A) standing plans
B) tactical plans
C) operational plans
D) strategic plans
E) mission statements

Question 21

Both proximal and distal goals are used to provide additional motivation and rewards for employees.

Question 22

Encouraging worker participation in goal setting, making goals public, and getting top management's support are all recommended ways to increase goal commitment in a company.

Question 23

Management by objectives is a two-step process in which managers and their employees discuss possible goals and then meet regularly to review progress toward the accomplishment of those goals.

Question 24

Tactical plans and objectives are used to direct behavior, efforts, and attention over the next six months to two years.

Question 25

The three kinds of operational plans are single-use plans, standing plans, and budgets.

Question 26

On average, companies that create plans have larger profits and grow much faster than companies that don't.

Question 27

Creating and executing a plan is one of the most important tasks of a manager.

Question 28

Tactical plans specify how a company will use its resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific goals within its mission.

Question 29

Planning is a three-step process which involves setting goals, then next developing effective action plans, and finally tracking progress toward goal achievement.

Question 30

Planning is one of the best ways to improve organizational and individual performance.

Question 31

For planning to be effective, workers need a specific, challenging goal as well as regular feedback to track their progress.

Question 32

A strategic objective is a statement of a company's purpose or reason for existing.

Question 33

Which of the following statements explains why groups can produce better solutions than individuals in decision- making situations?

A) Formal groups have no group norms.
B) Groups cannot experience information overload.
C) Groups become committed to solutions they help choose.
D) Groups take additional time to carefully evaluate all options.
E) All of these are reasons why groups can produce better solutions than individuals in a decision-making situation.

Question 34

Developing a purpose statement is the sole responsibility of middle management.

Question 35

One method of weighting decision criteria uses compared directly to every other criterion.

A) absolute comparisons
B) relative comparisons
C) valences
D) minimum threshold rule _{e. comparative ranking scales}
, which is a process where each decision criterion is

Question 36

Planning works best when the goals and action plans at the bottom and middle of the organization supports the goals and action plans at the top of the organization.

Question 37

The two approaches to maintaining flexibility in organizations while they plan are outcome-based planning and change-based planning.

Question 38

Planning can impede change, create a false sense of certainty, and lead to the detachment of planners.

Question 39

An organization's purpose must regularly change to adapt to changes in the environment over time.

Question 40

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Meaningful, Active, Reachable, and Timely.

Question 41

The use of planning.

A) assumptions
B) commitment
C) detachment
D) tactics _{e. benchmarking}
In planning produces a false sense of certainty and is often cited as one of the major pitfalls of

Question 42

Planning is ultimately based upon .

A) how a planner deals with bounded rationality
B) choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal
C) the relationship between organizational line and staff personnel
D) whether the mission statement is internally or externally oriented
E) the personality type of the individual engaged in planning

Question 43

According to the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines, goals should be .

A) Service-oriented
B) Measurable
C) Rational
D) Tactical
E) Actionable

Question 44

One of the benefits of planning is how it .

A) improves vertical integration of departments
B) encourages people to engage in behaviors directly related to goal accomplishment
C) encourages people to remain with the company, rather than go to work for the competition
D) eliminates the need for change agents
E) makes a long-term mission statement redundant

Question 45

Budgeting is a critical management task, one that most managers could do better.

Question 46

The process of rational decision making emphasizes the use of systematic procedures to arrive at optimal solutions.
Not all processes of decision making follow suit.

Question 47

The term decision making is used to refer to the process of choosing a solution from available alternatives.

Question 48

All decision making by management is rational.

Question 49

The six steps in the rational decision-making process are as follows: (1) frame the problem, (2) identify decision criteria, (3) weight the criteria, (4) generate alternative courses of action, (5) evaluate each alternative, and (6) compute the optimal decision.

Question 50

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?

A) motivating
B) research and development
C) planning
D) marketing
E) optimizing

Question 51

The last step in effective planning is to .

A) maintain flexibility in planning
B) develop long-term action plans
C) develop goal commitment
D) acculturate the employees
E) track progress toward goal achievement

Question 52

Groupthink is more likely to occur in a highly cohesive group that is insulated from others and has no established procedure for systematically defining problems and exploring alternatives.

Question 53

One of the benefits of planning is how it .

A) encourages people to work harder for extended periods
B) encourages people to try a variety of different ways to do others' jobs
C) reduces employee turnover
D) creates a mechanistic environment
E) does none of these

Question 54

Both absolute comparisons and relative comparisons are methods for identifying decision criteria.

Question 55

One of the benefits of planning is how it .

A) encourages people to work faster
B) encourages people to try a variety of different ways to do others' jobs
C) reduces employee turnover
D) eliminates all discriminatory practices
E) does none of these

Question 56

According to the text, which of the following is a pitfall of planning?

A) the acceptance of sacrificing solutions
B) a false sense of certainty based on faulty assumptions
C) the inability of organizational line personnel to accept the long-term benefit of planning
D) the requirement for expensive employee training before plans can be effectively implemented
E) outsourcing

Question 57

Standing plans deal with unique, one-time-only events.

Question 58

The three kinds of standing plans are policies, procedures, and rules and regulations.

Question 59

Which of the following is a possible outcome of planning?

A) Planning may lead to a mechanistic organizational chart.
B) Planning may harm individual and organizational performance.
C) Planning can eliminate the need for formalization.
D) Planning will allow the company to know about all changes in its external environment before they occur.
E) All of these are possible outcomes of planning

Question 60

How does a company benefit from planning?

A) increased use of groupthink
B) less solidified group cohesion
C) more compliance with organizational culture
D) intensified effort, persistence, direction, and creation of task strategies
E) the ability to make greater use of devil's advocacy

Question 61

The basic purpose of planning is to leave commitments open by maintaining slack resources.

A) options-based planning
B) learning-based planning
C) traditional planning
D) operant planning
E) the establishment of planning windows

Question 62

A(n) lists the specific steps, people, resources, and time period for accomplishing a goal.

A) strategy
B) proximal goal
C) distal goal
D) action plan
E) subordinate objective

Question 63

Who is responsible for the creation of tactical plans?

A) team leaders
B) lower-level managers
C) middle managers
D) top managers
E) staff advisors

Question 64

can help organizations to maintain flexibility as they plan.

A) Environmental munificence
B) Options-based planning
C) Formalization
D) Liaisons
E) Group cohesiveness

Question 65

Which of the following is a commonly used method for increasing goal commitment?

A) reward whistleblowing
B) make goals public
C) get the union's support
D) use the equity theory
E) establish a median goal for all employees

Question 66

Which of the following is NOT one of the characteristics of S.M.A.R.T. goals?

A) Synergistic
B) Measurable
C) Timely
D) Attainable
E) Realistic

Question 67

For options-based planning to work, the organization must .

A) have slack resources
B) use cross-functional teams
C) have broad spans of management
D) have tall organizational structures
E) use decentralization

Question 68

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?

A) setting realistic and attainable goals
B) gathering and providing performance feedback
C) developing concrete action plans
D) making sure goals are measurable
E) comparing dynamic with mechanistic goals

Question 69

A department store is experiencing greater than usual losses due to theft and management wants it stopped. Middle management decided to hire a security company to study the problem and develop the best plan for dealing with it. Middle management have implemented a(n) plan.

A) contingency
B) strategic
C) operational
D) visionary
E) tactical

Question 70

Which of the following is an accepted method for tracking progress toward goal achievement?

A) setting response and stimulus goals
B) gathering and providing performance feedback
C) using operant and classical conditioning
D) mechanistic and dynamic feedback
E) data warehousing and data mining

Question 71

_{54. 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.

A) standing plans
B) tactical plans
C) operational plans
D) strategic plans
E) mission statements

Question 72

Which of the following is a commonly used method for increasing goal commitment?

A) encouraging worker participation in goal setting
B) keeping goals private
C) setting ethical goals
D) using ombudsman to set goals
E) all of these

Question 73

planning keeps options open by making small, simultaneous investments in many alternative plans.

A) Learning-based
B) Options-based
C) Conditioned
D) Functional
E) Operant

Question 74

According to the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines, goals should be .

A) Synergistic
B) Maximized
C) Accelerated
D) Role-related
E) none of these

Question 75

What type of planning would be used to create the festivities necessary to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of a furniture manufacturer?

A) single-use plan
B) contingency plan
C) scenario plan
D) standing plan
E) role-model plan

Question 76

_{53. 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.}

A) bottom and top; middle
B) top and middle; bottom
C) bottom and middle; top
D) group level; individual level
E) staff level; line level

Question 77

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 .

A) contingency
B) single-use
C) standing
D) visionary
E) tactical

Question 78

_{48. A manufacturer of suntan lotion could set a(n) goal to increase revenues by 8 percent over the next five}
Years and a(n)
_{a. tactical; strategic}
Goal to increase sales next June in the Miami Beach area by 3 percent.
B) operational; tactical
C) distal; proximal
D) operational; strategic
E) proximal; distal

Question 79

The most popular approach to increasing goal commitment is .

A) encouraging workers' participation in goal setting
B) making goals public
C) getting top management's support
D) assigning realistic and attainable goals
E) management by mentoring

Question 80

According to the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines, goals should be .

A) Aggregated
B) Reliable
C) Timely
D) Motivated
E) all of these