Deck 12: Strategic Leadership

Question 1

When determining strategic direction, look no longer than five years into the future.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Selection of an insider as a new CEO indicates a firm's desire to encourage innovation and strategic change.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Effective strategic leaders must shape the formation of:

A)employee attitudes and corporate culture
B)strategic change and performance trends
C)goals and objectives
D)strategic vision and strategic mission

Answer 3

D

Question 4

While strategic leaders have significant decision-making responsibilities, some of these responsibilities can be delegated in order to relieve them of their workload.

Question 5

The more homogeneous a top management team, the more likely those managers will be innovative and willing to pursue strategic change.

Question 6

The ideal long-term strategic direction has two parts: a core ideology and an envisioned future.

Question 7

Heterogeneous top management teams are more likely to change their firm's strategies when necessary and to support innovation.

Question 8

The more heterogeneous and the larger the top management team, the easier it is to implement strategy effectively.

Question 9

A firm is likely to adopt a disruptive strategy with innovation when the new CEO is appointed from internal hierarchies and when the top management team is homogenous.

Question 10

When a new CEO is selected from outside the firm, a change of strategy is likely, especially if the top management team is homogeneous and can coalesce around the plan for change.

Question 11

A manager's decision making is influenced by personal characteristics, environmental sources external to the firm and characteristics of the board of directors.

Question 12

It is not unusual for employees to have a strong preference for using the internal managerial labour market to select top management team members and the CEO.

Question 13

The five dimensions that characterise a firm's entrepreneurial mind-set are autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness.

Question 14

Strategic leaders manage a firm's portfolio of resources by exploiting and maintaining the firm's core competencies and developing and retaining the firm's human and social capital.

Question 15

Authoritarian leadership is the most effective strategic leadership style.

Question 16

External environmental factors that may affect managerial discretion include the stock of firm resources and capabilities at hand and the level of global economic stability.

Question 17

Corporate cultures emerge in organisations, but their development is so subtle that top managers cannot influence their formation.

Question 18

Strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility and empower others to create strategic change as necessary.

Question 19

Transformational leadership is the most effective strategic leadership style.

Question 20

The balanced scorecard is a framework that firms can use to verify that they have established both strategic and financial controls to assess their performance.

Question 21

Human capital refers to the:

A)number of employees employed by a firm
B)resources available to the human resources department
C)number of individuals comprising the top management team
D)knowledge and skills of the firm's workforce

Question 22

Organisational culture is:

A)a complex set of ideologies, symbols and core values that is shared throughout a firm and influences the way it conducts its business
B)the support the organisation provides to the arts in the community
C)defined by the values of a firm's top management team
D)a direct result of the attitudes of the workforce towards the demands of the workplace

Question 23

The effective development and management of a firm's ________ may be the primary determinant of its ability to formulate and implement strategies effectively.

A)technology
B)competitive edge
C)human capital
D)capital base

Question 24

The ability to manage ________ may be the most critical of the strategic leader's skills.

A)knowledge
B)employee commitment
C)technological innovations
D)human capital

Question 25

A new CEO selected from outside the firm:

A)will likely guide the company to higher profits
B)has a narrower perspective of the firm and its competitive environment
C)usually encourages innovation and strategic change
D)will likely not be inclined to change the strategic direction of the firm

Question 26

Social capital refers to the:

A)resources available to the human resources department
B)number of individuals comprising the top management team
C)relationships inside and outside a firm that help it accomplish tasks
D)number of employees employed by a firm

Question 27

________ is the strategy often adopted when the CEO successor is external and when the top management is heterogeneous.

A)Strategic change
B)Stable strategy
C)Strategic change, including a change in the top management team
D)Stable strategy with innovation

Question 28

Which of the following statements is true regarding effective organisational cultures?

A)Once a corporate culture has developed, strategic leaders can focus on other activities.
B)It is not possible to develop a corporate culture into a core competency.
C)A central task of strategic leaders is to change the corporate culture on an annual basis after analysing the changes occurring in the competitive environment.
D)Organisational culture can be a source of competitive advantage because it influences employee behaviour and the firm's conduct in the marketplace.

Question 29

Regardless of title and organisational function, strategic leaders:

A)must learn to delegate their decision-making responsibilities
B)need to focus on their leadership responsibilities only in relation to key functions
C)cannot delegate their decision-making responsibilities
D)should delegate only secondary decision-making responsibilities

Question 30

Which of the following is not a factor determining the amount of decision-making discretion held by a manager?

A)External environmental sources
B)Characteristics of the organisation
C)Expectations of shareholders
D)Characteristics of the manager

Question 31

The top management team is composed of the:

A)top three officers in a firm
B)CEO and CFO
C)key managers responsible for formulating and implementing a firm's strategy
D)officers listed in a firm's annual report

Question 32

In general, the ________ heterogeneous and ________ the top management team is, the more difficult it is for the team to effectively implement strategies.

A)more; larger
B)less; smaller
C)more; smaller
D)less; larger

Question 33

An external managerial labour market:

A)consists of opportunities for managerial positions within a firm
B)is a collection of career opportunities for managers in organisations outside the one for which they currently work
C)is the relationship between the CEO and its subordinates
D)influences the building of a homogeneous top management team

Question 34

The most effective leadership style used by strategic leaders is:

A)emotional intelligence
B)transformational leadership
C)network-based leadership
D)performance-oriented leadership

Question 35

Competitive aggressiveness describes a firm's:

A)tendency to engage in new ideas and creative processes
B)tendency to allow employees to take actions free of organisational constraints
C)ability to be a leader in the marketplace
D)propensity to take actions that allow it to outperform rivals consistently and substantially

Question 36

In the twenty-first century, ________ affect(s) a strategic leader's success.

A)the ability to perform at peak efficiency and coordinate stakeholders
B)interpersonal skills and educational level
C)the ability to manage knowledge and commercialise innovation
D)the ability to delegate decision-making responsibilities

Question 37

A firm that has the ability to be a market leader rather than a follower is said to be:

A)innovative
B)a risk taker
C)proactive
D)competitively aggressive

Question 38

________ refers to the circumstance when top executives become arrogant and have a false belief in their own invincibility.

A)Managerial hubris
B)Managerial ambiguity
C)Managerial arrogance
D)Managerial discretion

Question 39

Top-level managers determine:

A)reward systems and organisational culture
B)industry structure
C)ratios on return on investment
D)capital market fluctuations

Question 40

Strategic leadership does not involve:

A)coping with change
B)managing functional units
C)managing through others
D)managing an entire enterprise

Question 41

What is strategic leadership and how important are top-level managers as an organisational resource?

Question 42

Which of the following is not an action that strategic leaders can take to develop an ethical organisational culture?

A)Establish specific goals to describe the firm's ethical standards
B)Encourage the protection of group interests within the organisation
C)Update the code of conduct
D)Create a work environment in which people are treated with dignity

Question 43

Internal business processes are concerned with:

A)the amount of value customers perceive to be created by a firm's products
B)a firm's effort to create a climate that supports change, innovation and growth
C)growth, profitability and risk from the shareholders' perspective
D)the priorities for various business processes that create customer and shareholder satisfaction

Question 44

Discuss how the managerial labour market and the top management team composition interact to affect strategy.

Question 45

Discuss the relationship between ethical practices and effective strategic leadership.

Question 46

Research has found that a ________ culture is the most effective means of ensuring that employees comply with a firm's ethical requirements.

A)trust-based
B)value-based
C)commitment-based
D)quality-based

Question 47

Define social capital and its importance to a firm's efforts if they are to be successful.

Question 48

Define organisational culture and discuss the ways in which a firm's culture can be changed.

Question 49

What are some of the key strategic leadership actions?

Question 50

Define strategic direction.What are the two parts of a long-term strategic direction? What is the relevance of each of these parts?

Question 51

Risk taking reflects a(n):

A)willingness by employees and their firm to accept risks when pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities
B)tendency to allow employees to take actions free of organisational constraints
C)ability to be a leader in the marketplace
D)propensity to take actions that allow a firm to outperform rivals consistently and substantially

Question 52

The financial perspective of the balanced scorecard is concerned with:

A)the amount of value customers perceive to be created by a firm's products
B)a firm's effort to create a climate that supports change, innovation and growth
C)growth, profitability and risk from the shareholders' perspective
D)the priorities for various business processes that create customer and shareholder satisfaction

Question 53

Discuss the complexity of CEO duality.

Question 54

Which one of the following is not part of the balanced scorecard framework?

A)Internal business processes
B)Customer
C)Financial
D)Operations and information systems

Question 55

An emphasis on ________ produces short-term and risk-averse managerial decisions.

A)strategic control
B)corporate culture
C)financial control
D)balanced organisational control

Question 56

What is managerial discretion and what determines the amount of managerial discretion?

Question 57

What is a balanced scorecard? What are the dimensions that make up the balanced scorecard framework?