Deck 4: Strategic Management and Corporate Public Affairs

Question 1

Public affairs is a highly specialized corporate function and it cannot be integrated into every manager's job.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

As an overall concept, corporate public affairs is quite different and distinct from corporate public policy and issues management.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

For business ethics to have any meaning it must be linked to business strategy.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Enterprise-level, corporate-level, business-level and functional-level are key enterprise strategy levels.

Question 5

Public affairs is intimately linked to corporate public policy, environmental analysis, issues management, and crisis management.

Question 6

The extent to which corporations have established board or senior management committees is a major indicator of the level of enterprise-level strategic thinking.

Question 7

The Citizen's Bank of Canada is one example of a company that instituted a formal public policy in order to set a systematic course for "doing well by doing good".

Question 8

The extent to which a firm attempts to identify social or public issues, analyze them and integrate them into its strategic management processes is another major indicator of enterprise-level strategic thinking.

Question 9

In a study of external affairs strategy, Miles found that firms with high business exposure to the social environment require more simple external affairs units.

Question 10

Public relations (PR) and public affairs (PA) are the same in terms of emphasis, interest, and direction.

Question 11

Political legitimacy of the organization is addressed in the enterprise level strategy.

Question 12

The public affairs function is a logical and increasingly frequent outcome of the overall strategic management process.

Question 13

"What is the role of our organization in society?" is an important enterprise-level strategy.

Question 14

There are two key strategy levels.

Question 15

In a study of external affairs strategy, Robert Miles found that the companies that ranked best in corporate social performance employed an individual or adversarial external affairs strategy.

Question 16

Enterprise-level strategy has no relationship with societal-level strategy.

Question 17

All companies that have public affairs departments have already addressed the issue of enterprise-level strategy.

Question 18

It has been found that the complexity of the environment has required PA officers to focus more on management and less on PA specialty work such as lobbying.

Question 19

Coca Cola's disastrous recall in Belgium and France and Firestone's tire fiasco several years ago, illustrate the importance of ethical issue for top decision makers.

Question 20

Companies such as IBM, Avon, and Dow Corning are so well managed that they have not seen a need for developing an international public affairs program.

Question 21

Two important planning aspects of corporate public policy include

A) external and internal scanning.
B) short-term goals and long-term objectives.
C) issues management and crisis management.
D) task forces at the board level and top management level.

Question 22

The public affairs function is a logical and increasingly frequent outcome of

A) the overall strategic management process.
B) increased levels of business school education in the United States.
C) a corporate code of ethics.
D) none of the above.

Question 23

It is generally the case that

A) most PA departments do not report directly to top management.
B) most PA departments report directly to top management.
C) most PA departments evolved from Personnel Departments.
D) none of the above.

Question 24

A study found that all of the below, except one, to be activities being emphasized by public affairs departments of major corporations. Which does not belong?

A) Environmental affairs
B) Employee rights
C) Education affairs
D) Grassroots activities

Question 25

The questions "What is the role of the organization in society?" refers to which key strategy level?

A) enterprise-level strategy
B) corporate-level strategy
C) business-level strategy
D) functional-level strategy

Question 26

Which of the following statements makes a correct distinction between PA and PR?

A) PR professionals are experts on government whereas PA deals with government as one of many publics.
B) PR professionals think PA is on the decline as a professional field.
C) The Boston University study on public affairs is of questionable validity due to the questionnaire used.
D) Whereas PR has many communication responsibilities, PA deals with issues management and serves as a corporate conscience.

Question 27

In the hierarchy of strategy levels which strategy follows the corporate-level strategy?

A) enterprise-level strategy
B) corporate-level strategy
C) business-level strategy
D) functional-level strategy

Question 28

A systematic approach by which a public affairs unit measures and compares itself with higher performing units in order to generate knowledge leading to improved performance is referred to as

A) benchmarking.
B) scanning.
C) monitoring.
D) recruiting.

Question 29

Which one of the following follows the strategy formulation stage in the strategic management process?

A) goal formulation
B) strategy evaluation
C) strategy implementation
D) strategic control

Question 30

Which of the following is not one of the four major components of the strategy formulation?

A) identification and appraisal of the firm's strengths and weaknesses
B) identification and appraisal of opportunities and threats in the environment
C) identification and appraisal of personal values and aspirations of management
D) all of the above

Question 31

All the following are major PA activities except

A) community relations.
B) media relations.
C) employee benefits.
D) corporate contributions.

Question 32

Miles concluded that a firm's corporate social performance is a function of

A) the complexity of the environment.
B) business exposure, top-management philosophy, external affairs strategy, and external affairs design.
C) external affairs design only.
D) the size of the external affairs department.

Question 33

In a study by Miles, he found that companies that ranked best in corporate social performance

A) Employed an individual or adversarial external affairs strategy.
B) Employed public affairs consultants.
C) spent the least on their public affairs departments.
D) none of the above.

Question 34

Environmental monitoring involves

A) Videotaping employees.
B) Cost-benefit analysis.
C) Tracking of specific trends.
D) Forecasting change.

Question 35

The public affairs function as we know it today

A) is outmoded.
B) is an outgrowth of the social activism of the 1960s.
C) is a product of post-World War II preoccupation with management professionalism.
D) was first introduced by Ralph Nader.

Question 36

"The management function responsible for monitoring the interpreting the corporation's noncommercial environment and managing the company's response to those factors" is a definition of

A) strategic issues management.
B) corporate social responsiveness.
C) corporate public affairs.
D) Stakeholder management.

Question 37

A study of international public affairs revealed that

A) the international realm is less important than it was initially thought.
B) most firms felt their international PA programs were "less than adequate."
C) issues management does not work in the international arena.
D) PA units headed up by non-U.S. citizens were more effective than those headed up by United States citizens.

Question 38

The question "What business are we in or should we be in?" refers to which key strategy levels?"

A) enterprise-level strategy
B) corporate-level strategy
C) business-level strategy
D) functional-level strategy

Question 39

Which one of the following is not one of the six core values?

A) Integrity
B) safety and health
C) quality of work
D) all of the above

Question 40

The following are all key stages of environmental analysis except

A) scanning
B) monitoring.
C) forecasting.
D) costing.

Question 41

Which one of the following is not one of the three levels of environmental analysis?

A) task environment
B) Competitive or industry environment
C) general environment
D) all of the above

Question 42

Which of the following follows the monitoring stage in the environmental analysis?

A) Scanning
B) Forecasting
C) Assessing
D) none of the above

Question 43

David Blake has taken the position that we ought to incorporate which of the following into every operating manager's job?

A) Integration
B) Breadth
C) public affairs
D) corporate social policy

Question 44

As a management function, which of the following evolved out of isolated company initiatives to handle such diverse activities as community relations, corporate philanthropy, and government affairs?

A) public affairs
B) corporate strategy
C) issues management
D) crisis management

Question 45

Which of the following is not one of the four dimensions of external affairs design identified by Miles?

A) Breadth
B) Depth
C) Influence
D) Responsiveness

Question 46

Another name for external affairs strategy is

A) corporate strategy.
B) public affairs strategy.
C) environmental scanning.
D) enterprise-level strategy.

Question 47

The modern view of a public affairs department is clearly one in which

A) public relations is stressed.
B) corporate philanthropy is stressed.
C) the management function is stressed.
D) customer relations are given a high priority relative to other functions.

Question 48

Which of the following is not one of the four primary reasons that public affairs blossomed in the 1960s?

A) growing magnitude and impact of government
B) changing nature of the political system
C) growing recognition by business that it was being outflanked by interests that were counter to its own on a number of policy matters
D) all of the above

Question 49

Which of the following is not a components of the social audit?

A) Identification
B) Measurement
C) Monitoring
D) all of the above

Question 50

The trend towards public affairs benchmarking had its origins in

A) companies' dissatisfaction with their PAC activities.
B) strategic philanthropy.
C) the total quality movement.
D) international public affairs initiatives.