Deck 5: Interorganizational Relationships

Question 1

Which of the following is a basic assumption of the population ecology model?

A) Management competence is the biggest factor in the survival of organizations.
B) The environment determines which organizations survive or fail.
C) Principles of evolution are not applicable to organizations because the fittest don't survive.
D) A community of organizations is a closed system.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which term refers to relatively enduring resource transactions, flows, and linkages that occur among two or more organizations?

A) intranet
B) interorganizational relationships
C) resource dependence
D) institutional environment

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which term is used to describe organizations with a wide domain-i.e., those that offer a broad range of products and services or that serve a broad market?

A) specialists
B) generalists
C) niches
D) legitimate

Answer 3

B

Question 4

As new organizational forms continue to emerge some fail and some last. Which of the following is the best label for this process?

A) retention
B) variation
C) legitimacy
D) selection

Question 5

Which statement best describes the affect on organizational survival, as a principle underlying the population ecology model?

A) Specialists are able to reallocate resources internally to adapt to a changing environment, whereas generalists are not.
B) Generalists are more competitive than specialists in the narrow area in which their domains overlap.
C) The toy company Mattel, which markets a broad range of toys, is considered a specialist.
D) New organizations have lower survival rates due to environmental factors that tend to select them out of existence more often than existing organizations.

Question 6

Why do established organizations have a difficult time adapting to a rapidly changing environment?

A) They are inherently resistant to change.
B) There is often a heavy investment in plant and equipment and leadership has an established viewpoint that has been successful.
C) When the environment changes, no one can predict if the changes will affect them.
D) Leadership could change its approach, but it does not want to change.

Question 7

Which approach focus(es) on organizational diversity and adaptation within a population of organizations?

A) collaborative networks
B) population ecology
C) interorganizational relationships
D) institutional perspective

Question 8

Which of the following did the traditional orientation to other organizations involve?

A) long-term contracts
B) participation in partner's product design and production
C) legal resolution of conflict
D) electronic linkages to share key information

Question 9

What is an organization engaging in if it joins a trade association because it is having difficulty securing the main raw material for its production process?

A) interlocking directorships
B) a power strategy
C) a resource strategy
D) collaborative networks

Question 10

What does the institutional view argue?

A) Organizations do not have legitimacy from their stakeholders.
B) A market-based economy was not constructed in Russia because its institutions were corrupt.
C) When an organizational field is new, diversity is the norm, but later there is a pressure for them to be more similar.
D) Organizations have two essential dimensions: institutional and public.

Question 11

Which term refers to an entity formed by the interactions of a community of organizations and their environment?

A) interorganizational relationship
B) organizational ecosystem
C) collaboration network
D) institutional environment

Question 12

Which of the following best defines resource dependence theory?

A) A small supplier should count on price competition for locking in accounts.
B) A small supplier should lock in a single large company for the bulk of its sales.
C) Organizations will do whatever is needed to avoid dependence on the environment and increase their autonomy.
D) Organizations will set up dependencies when they become more self-reliant.

Question 13

Which perspective in the framework of interorganizational relationships represents the rational view?

A) population ecology
B) institutionalism
C) collaborative network
D) resource dependence

Question 14

Which term is defined as the general perspective that an organization's actions are desirable, proper, and appropriate within the environment's system of norms, values, and beliefs?

A) generalist strategy
B) legitimacy
C) niche
D) collaborative network

Question 15

Which of the following is composed of norms and values from stakeholders?

A) the institutional environment
B) population ecology theory
C) the organizational ecosystem
D) institutional isomorphism

Question 16

Which of the following is a characteristic of the current orientation toward partnerships between other organizations?

A) equity and fair dealing
B) contracts limiting the relationship
C) minimal up-front investment
D) efficiency and the organization's own profits

Question 17

Why might organizations enter into interorganizational collaborations?

A) to share risks when entering new markets
B) to assert power over larger suppliers
C) to lock-in necessary resources
D) to minimize interpersonal conflicts

Question 18

Which of the following do managers need to manage in an environment of a community of organizations?

A) profit making
B) stakeholders
C) horizontal structures
D) competition

Question 19

Which of the following provides the best description of an organizational niche?

A) Once found, it makes the process of retention occur.
B) It is a person within an organization who is highly specialized.
C) It is a domain of unique environmental resources and needs.
D) It is found only in Japanese organizations.

Question 20

Which theory argues that organizations try to minimize their reliance on other organizations for the supply of important materials and try to influence the environment to make sure the materials they need are available?

A) interorganizational theory
B) environmental resource theory
C) resource-dependence theory
D) economic-supply theory

Question 21

What is the reason for organizational structural adaptation due to coercive forces?

A) dependence
B) duty
C) uncertainty
D) professionalism

Question 22

Which of the following is an example of a coercive force?

A) professionalism
B) innovation
C) environmental visibility
D) political law

Question 23

What is the social basis for normative forces?

A) legal
B) culture
C) moral
D) diversity

Question 24

The prevailing philosophy is that organizations consider themselves to be autonomous and separate, and are trying to outdo other companies in order to grow and prosper.

Question 25

The four perspectives of a framework of interorganizational relationships include resource dependency, population ecology, collaborative network, and re-engineering.

Question 26

The major reasons for collaboration between organizations are sharing risks when entering new markets, mounting expensive new programs, reducing costs, and enhancing organizational profile in selected industries or technologies.

Question 27

Which of the following perspectives is included in institutional similarity?

A) Common structures emerge among organizations in the same field.
B) Common training of professionals (managers) results in common analytic processes among organizations in the same field.
C) Divergent structures are driven among organizations in the same field for the sake of diversity.
D) Divergent analytic processes among organizations in the same field emerge due to managers' training in widely varying functional areas and varying degree programs.

Question 28

The population ecology model focuses on organizational diversity and adaptation within a population of organizations.

Question 29

Which of the following do coercive forces result in?

A) efficiency
B) professionalism
C) effectiveness
D) the appearance of legitimacy

Question 30

Many organizations are changing from a partnership orientation mindset to a traditional adversarial mindset.

Question 31

Which institutional process is being followed if an organization is engaged in benchmarking?

A) mimetic process
B) coercive process
C) normative process
D) isomorphic process

Question 32

The resource dependence perspective argues that while organizations may attempt to control environmental resources, they also try to maintain their independence.

Question 33

In the population ecology model, large dependent companies have power over small suppliers.

Question 34

Which statement best describes the institutional view of the two essential dimensions of organization?

A) The institutional structure is that part of the organization most visible to the outside public.
B) The public dimension of the institutional structure is governed by norms of efficiency.
C) The technical dimension of the institutional structure will reflect environmental expectations rather than the demands of work activities.
D) The formal institutional structure and design process is rational with respect to workflow and products.

Question 35

Which of the following are organizations trying to gain when they become influenced by mimetic, coercive, or normative forces in the institutional environment??

A) greater profit
B) greater market share
C) greater resource dependency
D) greater legitimacy

Question 36

Collaboration is being practised when companies join together to become more competitive as a bloc.

Question 37

Within business ecosystems, managers learn to move beyond the traditional responsibilities of corporate strategy and designing hierarchical structures and control systems.

Question 38

In the positive view of partnerships, dependence on another company is seen to increase risk rather than reduce it.

Question 39

Which of the following perspectives is included in mimetic forces?

A) Because of heavy interorganizational linkages, organizations are forced to behave similarly in order to maintain productive relationships.
B) Political and governmental processes, which organizations are subject to, force organizations to become similar.
C) In the face of uncertainty, organizations copy or model each other.
D) Diversity is maintained in order for organizations to find and maintain a marketing niche.

Question 40

Which of the following is one example of mimetic force?

A) re-engineering
B) accounting standards
C) pollution controls
D) consultant training

Question 41

Organizations use mechanisms of mimetic, coercive, or normative forces when they are acting under conditions of certainty.

Question 42

Generalists are generally more competitive than specialists in the narrow area in which their domains overlap.

Question 43

In North America we have seen a history of powerful organizations exploiting the dependence of small companies. Would you anticipate an end to this phenomenon? Why or why not?

Question 44

Coercive forces refers to organizations changing to achieve standards of professionalism.

Question 45

The institutional perspective explains why organizational diversity continuously increases with the appearance of new organizations filling niches left open by established companies.

Question 46

Institutional similarity is the emergence of a common structure and approach among organizations in the same field.

Question 47

Describe the framework of interorganizational relationships, using the following two questions to help guide your answer: If organizational relationships are competitive, under what perspectives are the organizational types similar versus dissimilar? If organizational relationships are cooperative, under what perspectives are the organizational types similar versus dissimilar?

Question 48

The population ecology model tells us that even institutionalized organizations like McDonald's are NOT permanent in the long run.

Question 49

Variation, formation, and selection are the stages in the process of change in the environment.

Question 50

Why is the following question asked, in the context of a discussion on interorganizational relationships: "Is competition dead?"

Question 51

A niche is a domain of unique environmental resources and needs.

Question 52

Because of the diversity of products, services, and customers, generalists are able to reallocate resources internally to adapt to a changing environment, whereas specialists are not.

Question 53

Given their flexibility, specialists are able to reallocate resources internally to adapt to a changing environment, whereas generalists are not.

Question 54

Universities, consulting firms, and professional training institutions develop norms among professional managers.

Question 55

The technical dimension of an organization is governed by expectations from the external environment.

Question 56

What is an organizational ecosystem? How does this concept impact the changing role of management?

Question 57

Mimetic forces refers to the similarity that is brought between organizations from environmental influences such as governmental laws and legislative requirements.

Question 58

When organizations become aware of resource dependence and begin to develop strategies to reduce their dependence on the environment, what alternatives would be considered? Explain at least two different approaches.

Question 59

The outcome of the mechanisms of mimetic, coercive, or normative forces is that organizations become more heterogeneous, to reflect the natural diversity among managers and environments.

Question 60

The population ecology model claims that large companies cannot adapt to meet a changing environment, so new companies emerge with the appropriate form and skills to serve new needs.

Question 61

When the computer industry first reached the everyday consumer, Commodore computers were extremely popular, and the first computers ever purchased by many people. As other personal computers such as Apple and IBM entered the marketplace with word processing, database programs, and a few games, Commodore kept its focus on games. From the perspective of the population ecology model, explain what happened to these organizations over the long run, and why.

Question 62

What kind of education and training do you think would help prepare you for the reality of being a manager who has to manage a set of interorganizational relationships as well as managing the internal affairs of your own company?

Question 63

Does the desire for legitimacy result in organizations being more similar or being more different? Take a position, and defend your position.

Question 64

Is the use of management fads any different, in your opinion, from the pursuit of legitimacy through mimetic processes?

Question 65

A mentor from an established organization in your industry told you "to reach out and control external sectors that threaten needed resources." How could that be done? In your answer, apply principles from the textbook.

Question 66

Explain and contrast the various processes by which institutional similarity occurs.

Question 67

Develop your own explanation/theory of why organizations today find collaboration as important as competition, and why collaborating organizations tend to take on similar characteristics. Would collaboration be enhanced just as easily between organizations that had different characteristics?

Question 68

Identify a firm in each stage of the process of ecological change: variation, selection, and retention. Explain why you classified each firm as you did.

Question 69

We studied the notion of institutional similarity and the reasons for it. Develop your own theory about the effects of the tendency for institutional similarity on business success.

Question 70

Why is the mindset in North American companies changing away from a traditional adversarial relationship with other companies?

Question 71

List the characteristics of the traditional theory of organizational relationships.

Question 72

Describe and illustrate the generalist and specialist strategies that organizations use for their struggle for existence.

Question 73

Discuss how the adversarial versus partnership orientations work among students in class. What carryover from the classroom settings at your university will help or hinder interorganizational relationships you may be managing in the future?