Deck 4: The Internal Assessment

Question 1

The smile is one form of communication that works the same worldwide.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A ritual is a standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manage anxieties but seldom produce intended, technical consequences of practical importance.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In China, business behaviors revolve around guanxi, or personal relations.

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

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

Question 6

Organizing is the cornerstone of effective strategy formulation.

Question 7

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

Question 8

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

Question 9

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 10

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

Question 11

The U.S. understanding of Far Eastern cultures is a strength its firms have in competing with Pacific Rim firms.

Question 12

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

Question 13

In the U.S., personal achievement and accomplishments are more important than time spent with the family and the quality of relationships espoused by some cultures.

Question 14

In the United States, an amicable relationship is often mandatory before conducting business.

Question 15

In China, to show that you enjoyed your meal, you should completely finish your food.

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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 19

Punctuality, in general, is revered in all cultures of the world.

Question 20

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 21

GM spends more on advertising than any other firm in the U.S.

Question 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

The controlling function of management is synonymous to strategy formulation.

Question 26

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

Question 27

Distribution involves warehousing, marketing research, distribution channels, wholesaling and retailing.

Question 28

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

Question 29

A form of customer analysis is administering customer surveys.

Question 30

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

Question 31

Three areas, according to James Van Horne, comprise the functions or basic decision areas of finance: the investment decision, the financing decision and the earnings decision.

Question 32

Controlling is the management function that is most important for the evaluation stage of the strategic management process.

Question 33

During the 2007 Super Bowl, a 30-second advertisement cost over $2.5 million.

Question 34

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

Question 35

An opportunity analysis is an appraisal of the costs, benefits and risks associated with marketing decisions.

Question 36

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

Question 37

Newspaper advertising increased by 2.4 percent in 2006.

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

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 43

Spending on research and development is steadily decreasing in the United States.

Question 44

Financial ratio analysis rarely has to go beyond the actual calculation and interpretation of ratios.

Question 45

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

Question 46

The U.S. has the highest average hourly pay for auto workers

Question 47

Capacity decisions concern the design of the physical production system.

Question 48

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

Question 51

Four common approaches to determine R&D budget allocations used successfully 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 52

Value Chain Analysis can enable a firm to better identify its own strengths and weaknesses especially as compared to competitors' Value Chain Analyses.

Question 53

The functions of information systems are growing in importance because organizations are becoming more complex, decentralized and globally dispersed.

Question 54

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

Question 55

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

Question 56

Total assets turnover ratio is calculated by dividing sales by fixed assets.

Question 57

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

Question 58

Financial ratios are not applicable to nonprofit organizations.

Question 59

The percentage of companies among the S&P 500 that raised their dividends decreased in 2006.

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

What are historical narratives describing the unique accomplishments of a group and its leaders, usually in heroic terms.

A) rites
B) sagas
C) stories
D) myths
E) folktales

Question 62

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

Question 63

All of the following are basic duties of a manager except:

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

Question 64

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 65

Who should perform an internal audit?

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

Question 66

A standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manage anxieties, but seldom produce intended, technical consequences of practical results are called

A) folktales.
B) rites
C) metaphors
D) rituals
E) values

Question 67

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

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

Question 68

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

Question 69

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

A) top management
B) general management
C) middle management
D) lower management
E) all levels of management

Question 70

What is an up-front investment in success?

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

Question 71

Life-directing attitudes that serve as behavioral guidelines are called

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

Question 72

Which of the following is not a cultural product?

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

Question 73

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 74

A pattern of behavior developed by an organization as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration 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

Question 75

In Europe, it is generally true that the farther __________ on the continent, the more participatory the management style.

A) south
B) east
C) west
D) north
E) southeast

Question 76

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) special properties.
E) internal properties

Question 77

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 78

Organizational resources include all of the following except:

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

Question 79

The internal resource categories used in the resource-based approach are physical resources, human resources and

A) financial resources.
B) shareholder resources.
C) organizational resources.
D) natural resources.
E) technological resources

Question 80

Americans place an exceptionally high priority on __________ whereas many foreigners place more worth on __________.

A) time; relationships
B) relationships; time
C) silence; time
D) silence; relationships
E) close personal distance; ample personal distance