Deck 11: Strategy and Organizational Politics

Question 1

Strategies can go awry because of:

A) unforeseen externalities
B) organizational politics
C) both unforeseen externalities and organizational politics
D) neither unforeseen externalities nor organizational politics

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which thinker is associated with the political perspective:

A) Machiavelli
B) Mintzberg
C) Sun Tzu
D) Ansoff

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Organizational politics is the use of ______ to advance self-interest.

A) knowledge
B) position
C) networks
D) all of these

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Interests can be defined in terms of:

A) the relations between actors
B) discursive rationalities
C) structural positions
D) all of the above

Question 5

A strategic interest emerges when:

A) there is something at issue, which divides opinions
B) there is something at issue, on which people take sides
C) both there is something at issue, which divides opinions and there is something at issue, on which people take sides
D) neither there is something at issue, which divides opinions nor there is something at issue, on which people take sides

Question 6

In organizations, ______ have strategic interests.

A) all actors
B) only a few actors
C) some actors
D) only CEOs

Question 7

Mintzberg identified which of the following as political games played in organizations:

A) sponsorship games
B) legacy games
C) Machiavellian games
D) sporting games

Question 8

Fligstein found that the background of CEOs in the USA changed in the second half of the 20th century from ______ to ______.

A) finance to operations
B) operations to finance
C) finance to marketing
D) marketing to finance

Question 9

Power games played between organizational sub-groups are often referred to as:

A) in-fighting
B) micro-politics
C) face saving
D) point scoring

Question 10

Political skill entails:

A) using knowledge astutely in a manner that best serves the strategic interest one is seeking to advance
B) using knowledge to corner and belittle the opponent
C) always claiming to be right
D) never losing a battle

Question 11

Crick (2004) defined politics as:

A) the mobilization of support for a position
B) the mobilization of support for a decision
C) the mobilization of support for an action
D) all of these

Question 12

What do organizational politics arise from, according to Pettigrew?

A) structural divisions in the organization between different component elements and identities with different values, affective, cognitive and discursive styles
B) the complexity and the degree of uncertainty attached to the dilemma that strategy seeks to address
C) the salience of issues for different actors and identities in the organization
D) all of these

Question 13

What do organizational politics arise from, according to Pettigrew?

A) the external pressure coming from stakeholders or other actors or organizations in the environment
B) the history of past politics in the organizations in question
C) both the external pressure coming from stakeholders or other actors or organizations in the environment and the history of past politics in the organizations in question
D) neither the external pressure coming from stakeholders or other actors or organizations in the environment nor the history of past politics in the organizations in question

Question 14

Organizations are often lived and experienced as a series of 'turf wars' between:

A) different branches
B) different divisions and departments
C) different occupations and cultures
D) all of these

Question 15

Power is ultimately deployed in:

A) games of organizational symbolism
B) simulation games
C) both games of organizational symbolism and simulation games
D) neither games of organizational symbolism nor simulation games

Question 16

Power is:

A) something you have or possess
B) always relational
C) absent in an organization
D) not used in strategic decision-making

Question 17

Power only begins to be organizationally meaningful when:

A) stakeholders agree on specific decisions
B) stakeholders disagree on specific decisions
C) the relations of organizational power enable you to do certain things that others may be restricted from doing
D) none of these

Question 18

Organizational power involves a relation:

A) in which you can get another person to do something
B) in which you can get another person to do something in a manner that accords with your expressed intentions as to how it should be done
C) both in which you can get another person to do something and in which you can get another person to do something in a manner that accords with your expressed intentions as to how it should be done
D) neither in which you can get another person to do something nor in which you can get another person to do something in a manner that accords with your expressed intentions as to how it should be done

Question 19

Organizations are devices for:

A) distributing power relations
B) negating power relations
C) stopping power relations
D) transforming power relations

Question 20

Political competence means being the kind of manager who can get things done:

A) despite resistance
B) without resistance
C) ignoring resistance
D) none of these

Question 21

Power relations are typically thought of as being distributed spatially in organizations:

A) up
B) down
C) across the organization
D) all of these

Question 22

Internal tournaments occur where strategic proposals are based on specific:

A) spheres of competence
B) functional responsibilities
C) disciplinary knowledge
D) all of these

Question 23

Strategies need circuits of ______ to be implemented.

A) knowledge
B) power
C) communication
D) boundary objects

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT a dimension of power in Lukes' framework?

A) formal decision-making
B) non-decision-making
C) the existing order of things
D) empowerment

Question 25

Any successful strategy will be premised on:

A) knowledge
B) power
C) both knowledge and power
D) neither knowledge nor power

Question 26

What is the relationship between power and knowledge?

A) Power is based on knowledge.
B) Power uses knowledge.
C) Power reproduces knowledge.
D) all of these

Question 27

A strategic decision can be defined as a decision that:

A) has long-term organizational implications for key success factors, such as access and control of resources and effective performance
B) is sanctioned by those with power
C) gains approval of the top management team
D) is the outcome of political contests

Question 28

Who is credited with coining the term bounded rationality?

A) James March
B) Herbert Simon
C) Henry Mintzberg
D) Richard Cyert

Question 29

Who is credited with coining the term satisficing?

A) James March
B) Herbert Simon
C) Henry Mintzberg
D) Richard Cyert

Question 30

The garbage can is:

A) a metaphor of organizational decision-making
B) a flawed set of assumptions about organizational decision-making
C) a framework for improving organizational decision-making
D) none of these

Question 31

The garbage can model of organizational decision-making states that:

A) organizations need to gather lots of information from diverse sources to inform decisions
B) decisions should be made when solutions, problems, participants and choices are an optimal fit
C) decisions are made when solutions, problems, participants and choices coincide in often random ways
D) decisions are made when solutions, problems, participants and choices are brought together in carefully planned ways

Question 32

The garbage can seeks to capture the image of which of the following?

A) problems and solutions
B) rubbish
C) opportunities
D) threats

Question 33

A decision gets made when all elements of the garbage can:

A) coincide at a certain point
B) always coincide
C) never coincide
D) none of these

Question 34

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) The garbage can emphasizes the contingent nature of decision-making.
B) The garbage can emphasizes the anarchic nature of decision-making.
C) The garbage can emphasizes the random nature of decision-making.
D) The garbage can emphasizes the political nature of decision-making.

Question 35

Organizational subgroups form coalitions to try to frame ______ in decision-making according to their ______.

A) identities/ideas
B) issues/ideologies
C) politics/ideologies
D) issues/interests

Question 36

When a strategy proceeds that favours a dominant group this is known as:

A) the mobilization of will
B) the mobilization of elites
C) the mobilization of bias
D) the mobilization of vested interests

Question 37

The Top Decisions research at the University of Bradford was mainly interested in answering which of the following questions?

A) how strategic decisions are structured as processes
B) how strategic decisions should be made
C) why the decision made was a good decision
D) none of the above

Question 38

Which of the following was NOT an independent variable in the Top Decisions research, thought to have an impact on the nature of the decision-making process?

A) the gender of the managers
B) the type of organizational context
C) the level of politics associated with a decision
D) the complexity of the decision

Question 39

The Top Decisions research identified which of the following decision-making processes?

A) sporadic decisions
B) fluid decisions
C) constricted decisions
D) all of these

Question 40

The Top Decisions research found that the average time taken to make a strategic decision was:

A) one month
B) six months
C) twelve months
D) two years

Question 41

The Top Decisions research identified what time difference between decision-making in public sector and private sector organizations?

A) little difference
B) Public sector organizations took longer to make decisions.
C) Private sector organizations took longer to make decisions.
D) Public sector organizations never made decisions but kept putting them off.

Question 42

The Top Decisions research defined a sporadic decision as one that:

A) involves many interests and tends to move horizontally in the organization
B) tends to move vertically in the organization and exhibits stops and starts
C) both involves many interests and tends to move horizontally in the organization and tends to move vertically in the organization and exhibits stops and starts
D) neither involves many interests and tends to move horizontally in the organization nor tends to move vertically in the organization and exhibits stops and starts

Question 43

The Top Decisions research defined a constricted decision as one that:

A) deliberately constricts participation by those lower down in the organizational hierarchy
B) on matters of familiar problems and involving familiar interests requires little debate
C) tries to constrict the number of vested interests that vie to define a problem
D) keeps issues off the agenda through the use of power

Question 44

A non-decision means that:

A) important questions and issues are not raised
B) important decisions are forgotten
C) minor decisions are not made
D) minor decisions do not make it onto the agenda