Deck 3: The Environment and Corporate Culture

Question 1

 The sociocultural dimension of the general environment includes societal norms and values.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

 Customers are the people and organizations in the environment that acquire goods or services from the organization.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

 The international dimension of the general environment includes events originating in foreign countries, as well as new opportunities for U.S. companies in other countries.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

 The raw materials that organizations use to produce its outputs are provided by customers.

Question 5

 The economic dimension of the general environment includes consumer purchasing power.

Question 6

 Labor market forces affecting organizations right now include the growing need for computer-literate knowledge workers and the necessity for continuous investment in human resources through recruitment, education, and training.

Question 7

 The labor market is made up by people in the environment who can be hired to work for an organization.

Question 8

 Current employees, management, and especially corporate culture are part of an organization's internal environment.

Question 9

 If Johnson Lumber provides trees for Westvaco Paper Manufacturing, then Johnson Lumber is considered a supplier for Westvaco.

Question 10

 The technological dimension of the general environment includes scientific and technological advancements in a specific industry, as well as in society at large.

Question 11

 The general environment affects organizations directly.

Question 12

 Customers and competitors are two important sectors of the economic dimension of a firm's general environment.

Question 13

 An example of part of the legal-political dimension of the general environment is a government's report on the decline of unemployment rate.

Question 14

 An ecosystem includes organizations in all the sectors of the task and general environments that provide the resource and information transactions, flows, and linkages necessary for an organization to thrive.

Question 15

 Boundary spanning is an increasingly important task in organizations because environmental shifts can happen quickly.

Question 16

 McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell are competitors since all three sell fast food to individuals.

Question 17

 The general environment and the task environment are the two components of an organization's external environment.

Question 18

 The external organizational environment includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization, including those events so far removed from the organization that their impact is not perceived.

Question 19

 The task environment includes all elements that occur naturally on Earth, including plants, animals, rocks, and natural resources such as air, water, and climate.

Question 20

 Organizations must manage environmental uncertainty to be effective.

Question 21

 Corporate culture plays a key role in creating an organizational climate that enables learning and innovative responses to threats from the external environment, challenging new opportunities, or organizational crises.

Question 22

 The set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization are combined to create the symbols of an organization.

Question 23

 A phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value is called a story.

Question 24

 Cultural values in organizations are rarely observed, but are rather deeply embedded to the extent that members are not consciously aware of them.

Question 25

 A joint venture involves a strategic alliance or program by two or more organizations.

Question 26

 The mythical sales representative at Robinson Jewelers who delivered a wedding ring directly to the church because the ring had been ordered late is an example of a hero.

Question 27

 The consistency culture has an external focus and a consistency orientation for a dynamic environment.

Question 28

 Culture can be defined as the ability to speak different languages.

Question 29

 An achievement culture is found in an environment that requires fast response and high-risk decision making.

Question 30

 Organizations within the same industry often reveal similar cultural characteristics because they are operating in similar environments.

Question 31

 The natural dimension is different from other sectors of the general environment because it has no voice of its own.

Question 32

 In determining what cultural values are important for the organization, managers should consider the external environment, as well as the company's strategy and goals.

Question 33

 Business intelligence and big data analytics are related to a growing area of boundary spanning known as artificial intelligence.

Question 34

 A results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, aggressiveness, personal initiative, cost cutting, and willingness to work long and hard to achieve results is called the achievement culture.

Question 35

 Physical symbols are associated with the surface level of organizational culture.

Question 36

 A narrative based on true events that is repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees is called a story.

Question 37

 In today's business environment, most companies operate in a stable and rigid environment.

Question 38

 Due to the stable environment and lack of technological change, mergers and joint ventures rarely occur in the United States.

Question 39

 As one of the numerous federal regulations included in the Dodd-Frank Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule requiring that both large public and private companies disclose the pay gap between their male and female employees.

Question 40

 A ceremony is a planned activity at a special event that is conducted for the benefit of an audience.

Question 41

 Which of the following is not a part of an organization's general environment?

A) Technological factors
B) Economic factors
C) Competitors
D) Legal-political factors
E) Sociocultural factors

Question 42

 The __________ environment includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization.

A) organizational 
B) internal 
C) task 
D) general 
E) technological 

Question 43

 Scientific and technological advancements in a specific industry, as well as in society at large, are included in which general environment dimension?

A) Sociocultural 
B) Legal-political 
C) Economic 
D) Technological 
E) Corporate culture 

Question 44

 The __________ environment represents the outer layer of the environment and affects organizations __________.

A) task; indirectly
B) general; directly
C) internal; directly
D) internal; indirectly
E) general; indirectly

Question 45

 __________ represents people in the environment who can be hired to work for the organization.

A) Competitors
B) The labor market
C) Suppliers
D) Customers
E) The government

Question 46

 Which dimension of the general environment represents the demographic characteristics, norms, customs, and values of the population within which the organization operates?

A) Legal-political 
B) Economic 
C) Technological 
D) Natural
E) Sociocultural 

Question 47

 All of the following are a part of an organization's task environment except: 

A) customers.
B) the labor market.
C) competitors.
D) employers.
E) suppliers.

Question 48

 The cultural leader articulates a vision for the organizational culture that employees can believe in.

Question 49

 A(n) __________ system draws resources from the external environment and releases goods and services back to it.

A) production
B) closed
C) open
D) information
E) management

Question 50

 SweetTooth Candies is a U.S.-based company that manufactures and distributes candy bars and snack foods globally. The company sources most of its cocoa and sugar from South American companies. This business relationship highlights which dimension of the task environment?

A) Customers
B) Competitors
C) Labor market
D) Culture
E) Suppliers

Question 51

 The __________ dimension of the external environment represents events originating in foreign countries, as well as new opportunities for U.S. companies in other countries.

A) national 
B) global 
C) international 
D) economic
E) legal-political

Question 52

 When an organization pays little attention to cultural values and instead focuses on business results, success will be difficult to sustain in the long run.

Question 53

 Quadrant A represents organizations that are focused primarily on bottom-line results and pay little attention to organizational values.

Question 54

 Ally's Applesauce is in the process of hiring 60 new workers. The personnel department has a large pool of unskilled labor to draw from due to the high unemployment rate in the local area. Which dimension of the external environment is involved here?

A) Sociocultural
B) Competitors
C) Technological
D) Labor market
E) Legal-political

Question 55

 In a high-performance culture, organizations put high emphasis on both culture and solid business performance as drivers of organizational success.

Question 56

 All of the following are part of an organization's general environment except:

A) changes in federal regulations.
B) shifting social attitudes toward how products are made.
C) an economic recession.
D) events that directly change day-to-day operations.
E) new technology products.

Question 57

 The internal environment within which managers work includes all of the following except:

A) corporate culture.
B) production technology.
C) organization structure.
D) physical facilities.
E) the labor market.

Question 58

 Costco has recently opened stores in Spain and plans to expand its operations to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. This is an example of Costco focusing on the __________ dimension of its general environment.

A) international
B) sociocultural
C) natural
D) business
E) economic

Question 59

 Companies in Quadrant D put high emphasis on both culture and solid business performance as drivers of organizational success.

Question 60

 __________ is(are) included in an organization's task environment.

A) Suppliers
B) Accounting procedures
C) Technology
D) Government
E) Demographic characteristics

Question 61

 A government inspection has required your company to upgrade the safety equipment in the manufacturing process of ice creamery. What dimension of the external environment has influenced these upgrades?

A) Technological
B) Legal-political
C) Task
D) Sociocultural
E) Economic

Question 62

 __________ means that managers do not have sufficient information about environmental factors to understand and predict environmental needs and changes.

A) Adaptation
B) Risk
C) Uncertainty
D) Knowledge
E) Education

Question 63

 A growing area of boundary spanning is __________, which refers to activities to get as much information as possible about one's rivals.

A) competitive intelligence
B) informational intelligence
C) business intelligence
D) big data analytics
E) artificial intelligence

Question 64

 Integrated Computers, Inc. wants to compile a profile of the customer it will target in its next promotional mailing. What environment would this be found in?

A) Internal 
B) Task 
C) Work 
D) General 
E) None of these

Question 65

 The people and organizations in the environment that acquire goods or services from the organization are:

A) competitors.
B) suppliers.
C) customers.
D) employees.
E) the labor market.

Question 66

 The __________ dimension of the general environment includes federal, state, and local government regulations.

A) technological
B) legal-political
C) economic
D) sociocultural
E) international

Question 67

 The __________ dimension of the general environment consists of demographic characteristics, such as population density.

A) technological
B) sociocultural
C) legal-political
D) internal
E) economic

Question 68

 Which of the following roles are assumed by people and/or departments that link and coordinate the organization with key elements in the external environment?

A) Figurehead
B) Liaison
C) Boundary spanning
D) Disturbance handler
E) Leader

Question 69

 Kristen's Jewelry Shop has just hired a comparative shopper to visit other local jewelry stores to gain product pricing information. What strategy is this describing?

A) Boundary spanning
B) A flexible structure
C) Lobbying
D) Merger
E) Joint venture

Question 70

 When the Miami Herald launches a Spanish-language newspaper, El Nuevo Herald, with articles emphasizing Hispanic, Cuban, and Latin American news and sports, it is responding to changes in the __________ dimension of the general environment.

A) sociocultural
B) technological
C) economic
D) international
E) natural

Question 71

 The general environment dimension that includes consumer purchasing power, the unemployment rate, and interest rates is called the __________ dimension.

A) legal-political 
B) sociocultural 
C) technological 
D) economic 
E) task 

Question 72

 In response to pressure from environmental advocates, organizations have become increasingly sensitive to diminishing __________ resources.

A) natural 
B) economic 
C) financial 
D) human 
E) technological 

Question 73

 Kyla works as an engineer at TechSystems, Inc. She regularly has to work more than 50 hours per week to meet her deadlines. Management at TechSystems runs monthly performance reports, and those employees who do not meet their deadlines and goals are terminated. Management pays little attention to cultural values. Based on this information, which organizational outcome does TechSystems belong in?

A) Quadrant A
B) Quadrant B
C) Quadrant C
D) Quadrant D
E) None of these

Question 74

 Roberta is a top-level executive at a banking institution. She spends a significant part of her day meeting with local government officials, everyday consumers, and federal banking officials to address key issues in the banking industry. Roberta's role can best be described as: 

A) boundary spanning.
B) adaptive.
C) interorganizational.
D) external.
E) internal.

Question 75

 Which of the following is not a part of adapting the organization to changes in the environment for coping with high environmental uncertainty?

A) Boundary spanning 
B) Advertising/public relations
C) Mergers and joint ventures
D) Attempts to influence the environment
E) All of these are a part of organizational response in adapting the organization to changes in the environment.

Question 76

 Three large electronics companies have recently formed a strategic alliance to develop an innovative new cell phone. This is an example of which managerial trend?

A) Outsourcing
B) Joint venture
C) Lobbying
D) Merger
E) Boundary spanning

Question 77

 Which of the following dimensions of the general environment includes all elements that occur naturally on Earth?

A) Sociocultural 
B) Technological 
C) Economic 
D) Natural 
E) Environmental 

Question 78

 __________ intelligence is an approach to boundary spanning which results from using sophisticated software to search through internal and external data to spot patterns, trends, and relationships that might be significant.

A) Merger 
B) Business 
C) Competitive 
D) Partnership 
E) Environment 

Question 79

 Which of the following statements regarding the current external business environment is true?

A) Corporate culture defines success.
B) The business environment is static.
C) Mergers are declining.
D) Joint ventures are on the rise.
E) All of these

Question 80

 Jefferson and Squire is an advertising firm that is viewed as having a fast-paced and posh corporate culture. The company uses bold coloring with expensive accents in all office décor. This exemplifies which level of corporate culture?

A) Visible artifacts
B) Underlying assumptions
C) Expressed values
D) Deeply embedded values
E) None of these