Deck 10: Strategy Formation

Question 1

According to which view/school of thought does strategic planning consists of four separate elements: (1) analysis, (2) strategy formulation, (3) strategy implementation and (4) control/ monitoring?

A) Contingency School
B) Learning School
C) Serving School
D) Planning School

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which view/school of thought values the significance of power distribution, politics and organizational culture in the strategy formation process?

A) Emergent (Learning) School
B) Complexity School
C) Design School
D) The Environmental (Contingency) School

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which view/school of thought offers a holistic view of strategic management, combining all theories offered to explain the strategy process?

A) The 'Learning' or 'Emergent' Approach
B) The Configurational Approach
C) The Contingency Approach
D) None of the above

Answer 3

B

Question 4

After the recession and the oil crises in the early 1970s the 'planning' school was heavily criticized by scholars because:

A) It sees the external environment as simple and stable
B) It separates strategy formulation from strategy implementation
C) It does not consider organizational culture and politics
D) All of the above

Question 5

Which view/school of thought claims that there is no need to have clear objectives because along the way new objectives and issues will emerge?

A) Configurational approach
B) B) Contingency approach
C) Complexity approach
D) Learning approach

Question 6

The learning approach/school of thought strategy is developed by the following process:

A) Neat, Sequential, and Rational processes
B) Trial and error
C) The board of directors, Executives, and Shareholders
D) Scholars, academics, and educators

Question 7

What is the "butterfly effect"?

A) When nonlinear feedback loops, any small change or development, both within and outside the organization, can have significant and unexpected implications for the firm.
B) When people believe that they are being noticed for their leadership in a positive manner; when they are negatively affecting the operation.
C) When new technology is integrated into the firm and worker performance increases due to an interest in the technology and not the assigned tasks.
D) When an individual's first assessment of another co-worker is ambiguous and not based on relevant information.

Question 8

The Planning School is known for using what level of management for formulating strategies?

A) Top Management
B) Entry Level Management
C) Senior Management
D) Middle and Front-Line Management

Question 9

The learning school is known for being what style of strategy development?

A) Episodic
B) Crafted and emergent
C) Formal and Crafted
D) Episodic and Complex

Question 10

What approach/school of thought uses a PEST and SWOT analysis?

A) Planning school
B) Learning School
C) Complexity School
D) Contingency School

Question 11

What does the complexity school focus on?

A) Speedy response to emerging patterns and implications of the process on the company, customers, and competitors
B) Politics, culture, resources and implementation
C) It depends on the situation
D) Everything

Question 12

What are the aims of the contingency school?

A) It depends on the situation
B) All kinds of objectives
C) More on financial results and market share
D) No clear aims or objectives

Question 13

Which school of thought claims that there is no need to have clear objectives because along the way new objectives and issues will emerge?

A) Configurational approach
B) Contingency approach
C) Learning approach
D) Complexity approach

Question 14

Strategy formulation and implementation are two independent activities.

Question 15

Strategy formation is defined as strategy formulation and strategy implementation.

Question 16

The learning school suggests formal analysis, financial resources, planning, clear top-down communication, and monitoring for strategy formation.

Question 17

All schools of thought in the strategic management field indicate and emphasise the need for critical consideration of multiple issues and factors when developing and implementing strategies.

Question 18

The 'planning' school is the most dominant approach in the strategic management field, perhaps because it puts forward certain guidelines and analytical tools.

Question 19

There is a hierarchical and integrative relationship among the schools of thought in the strategic management field and they are rarely found in their pure form.

Question 20

The premise of the "contingency school" is that strategy formation cannot be uniform for all situations.

Question 21

According to the complexity view, managers identify emerging patterns and then develop and implement strategies rapidly.

Question 22

The configurational school claims that it is necessary to achieve a 'fit' between contradictory tensions, and sustaining this coherence in dynamic and complex situations.

Question 23

According to the complexity view, the only feasible solution to strategy formation for companies is to aim to achieve and maintain a 'fit' between their external environment and their internal resources.

Question 24

The complexity approach identifies the "butterfly effect" explicating that the impact on an organization of even a small change in the environments in which it operates can be indeed significant.

Question 25

The learning school is uses, a rational top-down approach.

Question 26

What is strategy formulation?

Question 27

What is strategy implementation?

Question 28

What is strategy formation?

Question 29

What are the advantages of looking strategy formation from different schools of thought?

Question 30

Can you give examples of the "butterfly effect"?

Question 31

Discuss potential challenges in strategy formation in the international context.