Deck 4: The Internal Assessment

Question 1

While interesting, organizational culture does not significantly affect business decisions.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A ritual is a standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviors used to manage anxieties.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The subtle, elusive and largely unconscious forces that shape the workplace are captured by the organizational culture.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

An internal audit task force of managers could be charged with determining a specific number (usually 10 to 20) of the most important strengths and weaknesses.

Question 5

At Google the culture is very rigid, while in contrast the culture at Proctor & Gamble is very informal.

Question 6

Organizing is the cornerstone of effective strategy formulation.

Question 7

Proponents of the resource-based view argue that external factors are more important than internal factors for a firm in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.

Question 8

Allocating resources is one of the five basic activities (functions) performed by managers.

Question 9

Opportunities are a firm's distinctive competencies that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors.

Question 10

The basic premise of the research-based view is that the mix, type, amount, and nature of a firm's internal resources should be considered first and foremost in devising strategies that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 11

Linkages between a firm's culture and strategies often determine success.

Question 12

Resources that are common are never considered valuable.

Question 13

For a resource to be valuable, it must be either rare, hard to imitate, or not easily sustainable.

Question 14

The process of performing an internal audit, compared to the external audit, provides more opportunity for participants to understand how their jobs, departments and divisions fit into the whole organization.

Question 15

An organization's culture compares to an individual's personality in the sense that no two organizations have the same culture and no two individuals have the same personality.

Question 16

The only certain thing about the future of any organization is change.

Question 17

Cultural products include values, beliefs, stories, and language.

Question 18

The RBV theory asserts that it is advantageous for a firm to pursue a strategy that is not currently being implemented by any competing firm.

Question 19

Established companies are coming to realize that their next generation of potential customers spends more time online than watching TV.

Question 20

Metaphors are handed-down narratives of some wonderful event that are based on history but have been embellished with fictional detail.

Question 21

Motivation is one explanation why some people work hard and others do not.

Question 22

Most producers today sell their goods directly to consumers.

Question 23

Planning should be performed mostly by middle management and then presented to top management for analysis and approval.

Question 24

The management function of organizing is included in human resource management.

Question 25

Distribution becomes especially important when a firm is striving to implement a product development or backward integration strategy.

Question 26

According to James Van Horne the basic decision areas of finance are: the investment decision, the financing decision, and the dividend decision.

Question 27

A cost/benefit analysis is an appraisal of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with marketing decisions.

Question 28

There are seven basic functions of marketing: customer analysis, selling products/services, product and service planning, pricing, distribution, marketing research, and opportunity analysis.

Question 29

One aspect of ads in a recession is that they generally take more direct aim at competitors.

Question 30

Five major stakeholders that affect pricing decisions are consumers, governments, suppliers, distributors, and competitors.

Question 31

A form of customer analysis is administering customer surveys.

Question 32

Test marketing is used more frequently by industrial companies than consumer goods companies.

Question 33

A new trend with regard to advertising products or services on the Internet is to base advertising rates solely on sales rates.

Question 34

During the 2011 Super Bowl, a 30-second advertisement cost between $2.8 and $3 million.

Question 35

Total advertising expenditures in the U.S. in 2011 is expected to be down 2.5 percent from the prior year.

Question 36

The controlling function of management is synonymous with strategy formulation.

Question 37

The controlling function of management is especially important for effective strategy evaluation.

Question 38

Successful strategy formulation generally rests upon the ability of an organization to sell some product or service.

Question 39

The purpose of organizing is to achieve coordinated effort by defining task and authority relationships.

Question 40

Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing, of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.

Question 41

Constructing an Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix is a summary step when conducting an internal strategic-management audit.

Question 42

Financial ratios are not applicable to nonprofit organizations.

Question 43

Increased efficiency, quality, productivity, and job satisfaction can come from cross-training workers.

Question 44

Activity ratios measure how effectively a firm is using its resources.

Question 45

Internal R&D and contract R&D are the two basic forms of R&D in organizations.

Question 46

Capacity decisions concern distances from raw materials to production sites to customers.

Question 47

Four common approaches to determine R&D budget allocations are: 1) finance as many project proposals as possible; 2) use a percentage-of-sales method; 3) budget for R&D about what competitors spend; or 4) decide how many successful new products are needed and work backwards to estimate the required R&D investment.

Question 48

The heart of an information system is a database containing the kinds of records and data important to managers.

Question 49

Financial ratio analysis really should not go beyond the actual calculation and interpretation of ratios.

Question 50

Value chain analysis can enable a firm to better identify its own strengths and weaknesses especially as compared to competitors' value chain analyses.

Question 51

Dividend decisions concern issues such as the percentage of earnings paid to stockholders, the stability of dividends paid over time, and the repurchase or issuance of stock.

Question 52

The idea that paying dividends results in a higher stock price is a myth.

Question 53

Honda Motor, long considered the industry's fastest producer, fills a buyer's new car order in just 5 days.

Question 54

S&P expects that more than 50 percent of S&P 500 firms will raise their dividend payout in 2011.

Question 55

Leverage ratios measure a firm's ability to meet maturing short-term obligations.

Question 56

Benchmarking is an analytical tool used to determine whether a firm's value chain activities are competitive compared to rivals.

Question 57

A limitation of financial ratios is the fact that they are based on accounting data.

Question 58

Although a useful step in the strategic management process, value chain analysis does little to help a firm monitor whether its prices and costs are competitive.

Question 59

The total assets turnover ratio is calculated by dividing sales by fixed assets.

Question 60

In most industries, only minor costs of producing a product or service are incurred within operations, so production/operations does not have great value as a competitive weapon in a company's overall strategy.

Question 61

A firm's strengths that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors are called

A) internal audits.
B) distinctive competencies.
C) external audits.
D) interrelated properties.
E) internal properties.

Question 62

What is the term for a historical narrative describing the unique accomplishments of a group and its leaders?

A) Rite
B) Saga
C) Story
D) Myth
E) Folktale

Question 63

________ exemplifies the complexity of relationships among the functional areas of business.

A) Government auditing
B) External auditing
C) Financial ratio analysis
D) Environmental scanning
E) Distribution strategy

Question 64

Who should perform an internal audit?

A) A private auditing firm
B) The organization's accounting department
C) Representative managers and employees from throughout the firm
D) A small team of top-level managers
E) The chief executive officer

Question 65

Which of the following does the text call an up-front investment in success?

A) Planning
B) Organizing
C) Motivating
D) Staffing
E) Controlling

Question 66

Who does a planning horizon of two to five years apply to?

A) Top-level management
B) General management
C) Middle-level management
D) Lower-level management
E) All levels of management

Question 67

What is the essential bridge between the present and the future that increases the likelihood of achieving desired results?

A) Motivating
B) Planning
C) Controlling
D) Staffing
E) Organizing

Question 68

The Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix should include from 10 to 20 internal factors.

Question 69

The three all-encompassing internal resource categories used in the Resource-Based View are physical resources, human resources, and

A) financial resources.
B) shareholder resources.
C) organizational resources.
D) non-renewable resources.
E) technological resources.

Question 70

A standardized set of behaviors used to manage anxieties is called a

A) folktale.
B) rite.
C) metaphor.
D) ritual.
E) value.

Question 71

All of the following are basic duties of management EXCEPT

A) staffing
B) planning
C) consolidating
D) organizing
E) motivating

Question 72

Which function of management includes areas such as job design, job specification, job analysis, and unity of command?

A) Planning
B) Organizing
C) Motivating
D) Staffing
E) Controlling

Question 73

Life-directing attitudes that serve as behavioral guidelines are called

A) values.
B) rites.
C) beliefs.
D) metaphors.
E) legends.

Question 74

Empirical indicators are resources that are either rare, hard to imitate, or

A) expensive.
B) inexpensive.
C) easily substitutable.
D) not easily substitutable.
E) inefficient.

Question 75

Metaphors are

A) several rites connected together.
B) shorthand of words used to capture a vision or to reinforce old or new values.
C) narratives based on true events.
D) fictional stories.
E) any objects, acts, events, qualities, or relations used to convey meaning.

Question 76

Any object, act, event, quality, or relation used to convey meaning is known as a

A) myth.
B) rite.
C) value.
D) symbol.
E) metaphor.

Question 77

Synergy

A) is the 2 + 2 = 5 effect.
B) can result in powerful competitive advantages.
C) can be developed by an organization through planning.
D) exists when everyone pulls together as a team that knows what it wants to achieve.
E) all of the above

Question 78

Which of the following were NOT mentioned as an example of cultural products?

A) Rites
B) Emotions
C) Rituals
D) Sagas
E) Symbols

Question 79

Organizational resources include all of the following EXCEPT

A) employee training
B) firm structure
C) planning processes
D) information systems
E) copyrights

Question 80

A pattern of behavior developed by an organization as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that has worked well enough to be considered valid and to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel is called

A) dysfunctional behavior.
B) groupthink.
C) behavior modification.
D) organizational culture.
E) internal audit effect.