Deck 2: Strategy, Organizational Design, and Effectiveness

Question 1

Which of the following are models for formulating organizational strategies?

A) Perrow's typology and Porter's model
B) Perrow's typology and Pfeiffer's typology
C) Porter's model and Miles and Snow's typology
D) Pfeiffer's typology and Miles and Snow's model

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following researchers' work refers to the differentiation strategy?

A) Frederic Taylor's scientific management.
B) Henri Fayol's Hawthorne Studies.
C) Michael Porter's competitive strategies.
D) K. D. Bowerman's "Strategy for Empowerment."

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is top management doing when looking for strengths and weaknesses?

A) assessing the external environment
B) analyzing the competition
C) evaluating the internal situation in order to define its distinctive competence
D) determining the effectiveness of operational outcomes

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which term refers to a plan for interacting with the competitive environment to achieve organizational goals?

A) strategy
B) design
C) culture
D) structure

Question 5

What most commonly occurs when setting goals and selecting a strategy?

A) The environment is ignored but the organization's strengths and weaknesses are evaluated to determine the appropriate goals and strategy.
B) Goals are set so high that they can rarely be attained.
C) New goals and strategies are chosen on the basis of environmental needs and the organization is redesigned accordingly.
D) Environment and current structure and goals are considered simultaneously.

Question 6

Which of the following is another term for mission?

A) operative goals
B) decision guidelines
C) official goals
D) performance standards

Question 7

The chief of one police force emphasizes the number of arrests while another police chief emphasizes community outreach. Which effectiveness value is the second police chief most likely using?

A) human relations
B) open-systems
C) rational-goal
D) internal-process

Question 8

What do the choices top managers make about goals, strategies, and organizational design have a tremendous impact on?

A) organizational profitability
B) organizational efficiency
C) organizational effectiveness
D) organizational market share

Question 9

Top managers have a number of roles in the achievement of organizational effectiveness. Which of the following is included in an examination of the internal environment?

A) opportunities
B) weaknesses
C) uncertainty
D) resource availability

Question 10

Mini-Markets wants to capture 25% of the convenience market business in PEI. What type of goal is illustrated by this example?

A) official
B) operative
C) generic
D) legitimacy

Question 11

Which of the following is traditionally defined as the extent to which goals are obtained in the organization?

A) efficiency
B) scientific management
C) strategy
D) effectiveness

Question 12

What kind of strategy can reduce rivalry with competitors and fight off the threat of substitute products because customers are loyal to the company's brand?

A) low-cost leadership
B) focused
C) defensive
D) differentiation

Question 13

Which of the following includes the training, promotion, safety, and individual personal growth?

A) market share
B) innovation
C) productivity of the industry
D) employee development

Question 14

Which of the following represents the best way to measure the overall performance of for-profit organizations?

A) efficiency
B) earnings per share
C) innovation
D) productivity

Question 15

What kind of strategy is concerned primarily with stability rather than taking risks or seeking new opportunities for innovation and growth?

A) focused
B) low-cost leadership
C) differentiation
D) intensive

Question 16

What kind of carefully balanced goals do successful organizations use?

A) operative
B) innovation
C) visionary
D) generic

Question 17

Top managers have a number of roles in achieving organizational effectiveness. Which of the following is included in an examination of the external environment?

A) threats
B) mission
C) production technology
D) strengths

Question 18

When Google states its official goal is to not be evil, what does this provide them with in the eyes of stakeholders?

A) measurable objectives
B) legitimacy
C) employee direction
D) decision guidelines

Question 19

What is the primary responsibility of top management?

A) to perform the organization's SWOT analysis
B) to determine goals, strategy, and design, in adaptation to the environment
C) to set a motivating culture for all employees
D) to formalize and centralize the firm

Question 20

Which of the following best explains Porter's differentiation strategy?

A) Differentiation strategies address whether the market scope is broad or narrow.
B) Differentiation can be broken down into low-cost or broad-scope categories.
C) An airline using the differentiation strategy would be likely to offer travellers refreshments at a reasonable price rather than serve free meals.
D) The statement by Starbucks's international president that "We're not in the business of filling bellies, we're in the business of filling souls" is indicative of a differentiation strategy.

Question 21

Which of the following is a contingency approach to the measurement of organizational effectiveness?

A) whether the organization's internal activities and processes are efficient
B) the system resource approach, which examines product and service outputs
C) stakeholders' views on effectiveness
D) which competing values are applicable

Question 22

When using the goal approach to effectiveness evaluation, what kind of goals is it best to use?

A) operational
B) official
C) low-level
D) nonmeasurable

Question 23

The Stevens Corporation has goals that reflect deeply rooted values of growth and resource acquisition. In the competing-values approach to effectiveness evaluation, primarily which quadrant would the company be considered to be in?

A) rational-goal emphasis
B) internal-process emphasis
C) open-systems emphasis
D) human relations emphasis

Question 24

Which two dimensions (i.e., axes) are the competing-values approach to effectiveness based on?

A) open/closed system and values/beliefs of managers
B) internal/external focus and flexible/structured control
C) high/low analyzability and high/low variety
D) environmental change and environmental complexity

Question 25

The primary responsibility of top management is to determine an organization's goals, strategy, and design, therein adapting the organization to a changing environment.

Question 26

Which of the following need(s) to support a firm's competitive approach?

A) its financial standings
B) its organizational design characteristics
C) its informal communication channels
D) its environment for green movement

Question 27

Which statement best describes the focus strategy?

A) It is known for its creative flair.
B) It utilizes strong central authority.
C) It involves detailed control reports for targeting areas of emphasis.
D) It concentrates on a specific regional market or buyer group.

Question 28

Which strategy type from Miles and Snow's typology best matches with a strong capability in research, a decentralized structure, and an emphasis on flexibility?

A) reactor
B) low-cost leadership
C) prospector
D) analyzer

Question 29

Which of the following notions is Miles and Snow's strategy typology based on?

A) Strategy should correspond to technology.
B) Strategy should be congruent with external environment.
C) Strategy should be based on human resource capability.
D) Strategy should be a "fit" to the economic resource base.

Question 30

If one is measuring work climate, group loyalty, and worker-management communication as an indication of effectiveness, what approach is most likely being used?

A) internal process
B) strategic human resources
C) quality control
D) stakeholder approach

Question 31

Which of the following strategies is exemplified by the slogan "We're a no-frills business! When we save, you save!"?

A) low-cost leadership
B) differentiation
C) focus
D) legitimacy

Question 32

Which competing-values approach provides management with structural control and an external focus?

A) open-systems emphasis
B) rational-goal emphasis
C) internal-process emphasis
D) human relations emphasis

Question 33

Which of the following best describes the prospector strategy in Miles and Snow's typology?

A) It attempts to maintain a stable business environment by finding a middle ground between stability and innovation.
B) It most closely resembles Porter's low-cost leadership strategy.
C) It responds to environmental threats in an ad hoc fashion without revealing a clear strategy.
D) It seeks innovation or risk taking and is therefore best suited to the dynamic environment.

Question 34

What does the resource-based approach emphasize?

A) input into an organization
B) output of an organization
C) achievement of profitability
D) amount of inventory left idle by the organization

Question 35

What kind of approach to organizational effectiveness is concerned with the output side and whether the organization achieves effectiveness in terms of desired levels of output?

A) goal
B) resource-based
C) analytical
D) internal process

Question 36

Which of the following best describes the goal approach to measuring effectiveness?

A) Full assessment of effectiveness should consider several goals simultaneously because high achievement on one goal may mean low achievement on another.
B) Priority setting requires that only one goal at a time can be achieved.
C) Examine the beginning of a process and evaluate if the organization effectively gains its needed resources.
D) Assess the organization's activities and assess effectiveness based on efficiencies.

Question 37

Which of the following is a strength of the internal process approach?

A) It tells management how well the internal processes mesh with the external environment.
B) It considers human resources and employee-oriented processes.
C) It emphasizes inputs into the organization.
D) It emphasizes outputs of the organization.

Question 38

Which of the following best describes the big questions that strategy researchers are looking at today?

A) Which organizational types are best suited for different organizational strategies?
B) What are the effects of different organizational strategies on sociopolitical institutions?
C) How do organizations change and function in our society and around the world?
D) Why do particular industries follow particular strategies?

Question 39

What kind of strategy tries to maintain a stable business while innovating on the periphery?

A) reactor
B) prospector
C) analyzer
D) defender

Question 40

Which of the competing-values approaches to effectiveness evaluation would be used by a firm whose goals revolve around employee training, empowerment and autonomy?

A) human relations emphasis
B) rational-goal emphasis
C) open-systems emphasis
D) internal-process emphasis

Question 41

If an organization has well-developed goals for profitability, that is all it needs to determine its effectiveness.

Question 42

A differentiation strategy calls for a learning approach, whereas a low-cost strategy should be paired with an efficiency approach.

Question 43

Before the mission is defined and goals are set, top management should assess the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well as its own.

Question 44

Experienced managers are likely interpret the environment similarly and therefore end up with similar strategic goals, thus causing a cooperative situation to occur.

Question 45

Official goals represent the reason for an organization's existence and the outcomes it seeks to achieve.

Question 46

Organizational mission and operational goals are the same thing.

Question 47

A market goal would typically be stated in terms of net income, earnings per share, or return on investment.

Question 48

One would expect the effectiveness criteria of a football team to be affected by goal measurability.

Question 49

Differentiation is the strategy that is specifically designed for organizations to innovate, take risks, and grow.

Question 50

The low-cost leadership strategy is known for requiring skills based on strong marketing ability, creative flair, strong capability in basic research, and corporate reputation for technological leadership.

Question 51

A strategy is a plan for achievement of organizational goals.

Question 52

Official goals address issues pertaining to corporate legitimacy.

Question 53

The reactor strategy is a strategy because it responds to environmental threats and opportunities in a strategic fashion.

Question 54

Organizations using the differentiation strategy try to distinguish their products or services from others in the industry.

Question 55

Operative goals refer to the formally stated definition of business scope and outcomes the organization is trying to achieve.

Question 56

Innovation and change goals are decreasingly important, even though they initially cause a large increase in profits.

Question 57

A productivity goal could be stated in terms of "cost for a unit of production," "units produced per employee," or "resource cost per employee."

Question 58

Growth and output volume are examples of overall performance goals.

Question 59

Goals and strategies are usually fixed and remain unchanged once top management agrees upon them.

Question 60

A defender strategy is concerned with internal efficiency and control to produce reliable, high-quality products for steady customers.

Question 61

Define and describe each of the contingency effectiveness approaches.

Question 62

What is the difference between a differentiation strategy and a focus strategy?

Question 63

In an introductory management course, the professor was quoted as saying that "organizational effectiveness is simply the degree to which the organization achieves its pre-set goals." Is he correct?

Question 64

The competing values approach to effectiveness demonstrates that only one managerial value (or effectiveness criterion) can be used, and managers must decide which of the four competing values they will follow.

Question 65

Based on the following description, put the strategy of Granite Rock Company into a theoretical context and explain its approach in "textbook terms." We know that Granite Rock tracks its actual operations in at least 40 measurable ways, each plotted and posted on graphs and charts at every plant. The company surveys customers to rate itself and competitors, and aims to outperform the group average by 33%. When Granite Rock doesn't achieve its goal, management charts the daily operations, and are assured that their employees will see a negative and want to do something about it.

Question 66

List and describe Porter's competitive strategies.

Question 67

The rational goal emphasis incorporates the values of an internal focus and a flexible structure, whereas the internal process emphasis reflects the values of internal focus and structural control.

Question 68

Some people believe that athletics is overemphasized in universities; others believe that it is underemphasized. How would you go about measuring the effectiveness of a university relative to its athletics program?

Question 69

Assume that a non-profit organization is very successful at obtaining grants to support its activities. However, employees believe that a hostile work environment exists. You have heard that recipients of the organization's services run the range of satisfaction with services provided. If you came in as an outside evaluator to this situation, describe and defend the method would you use for assessing effectiveness.

Question 70

Contrast official goals and operative goals, and provide an example that illustrates each.

Question 71

You have just been hired by a large organization to serve as a first-line supervisor, but because you are in an influential department, you have the opportunity to meet the top managers at a company party and to speak with the CEO about his or her responsibilities. Knowing the responsibilities and types of decisions made by top management as we studied them in organizational theory, what would you discuss about the organization with the CEO?

Question 72

What is the specific overlap between effectiveness and efficiency?

Question 73

What is the difference between a goal and a strategy? Give an example that illustrates each.

Question 74

The internal process approach to effectiveness utilizes both cultural and economic measures.

Question 75

The new general manager of a (Broadway-style) theatre in Toronto wants to assess the theatre's effectiveness as an organization. Although the theatre has grown because of its stylish productions, management from a business perspective has been relatively absent. Based on our study in organizational theory, how should this assessment of effectiveness be approached?

Question 76

Describe the internal-process effectiveness measure of economic efficiency.

Question 77

Apply Porter's model for formulating strategies to the following situation: Quebecor Printing is a commercial printing company that is expanding, acquiring ailing printing companies, and moving into international markets. It has completed more than 100 mergers and buyouts since 1972, and has focused on customized service by using "selective binding" to print,
e.g., two dozen versions of Reader's Digest for different urban and regional markets.

Question 78

When would you recommend that the resource-based approach be used to gauge organizational effectiveness?

Question 79

You are talking at a social event with a top manager of another company about her company's effectiveness. She says flippantly, "Effectiveness is not an issue for me, because effectiveness is however I define it." Evaluate her claim.

Question 80

What does a competing-values approach have to do with organizational effectiveness?