Question 1

A strong organization culture is one in which lower-level employees do not concern themselves with the firm's goals, priorities, and practices because management deals with those issues.

Accepted Answer

Cultures can be strong or weak; strong cultures can have great influence on how people think and behave. A strong culture is one in which everyone understands and believes in the firm's goals, priorities, and practices.

Question 2

Organizations are open systems that affect and are affected by their external environments.

Accepted Answer

Organizations are open systems-that is, they are affected by and in turn affect their external environments. For example, they take in inputs from their environment and use them to create products and services that are outputs to their environment.

Question 3

Environmental uncertainty refers to the lack of information needed to understand or predict the future.

Accepted Answer

Environmental uncertainty refers to the lack of information needed to understand or predict the future.

Question 4

How is immigration affecting U.S. demographics?
A)It is increasing the diversity of the workforce.
B)It is decreasing the number of workers.
C)It is decreasing the number of consumers.
D)It is making the educational levels of the workforce more similar.
E)It is decreasing the amount of paperwork needed to hire workers.

Accepted Answer

A factor that significantly influences the U.S. population and labor force is immigration. Immigrants represent over 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, although immigrants are a stronger presence in the West (almost 24 percent of the workforce) than in the Midwest (less than 8 percent). Immigration is one reason the labor force of the future will be more ethnically diverse than it is today.

Question 5

Which of the following was introduced as the result of an evolving societal trend?
A)Shares of stock
B)Hourly wages
C)Levels of management
D)Offshoring
E)Family leave

Accepted Answer

Societal trends regarding how people think and behave have major implications for management of the labor force, corporate social actions, and strategic decisions about products and markets. For example, today more women are having children and then returning to the workforce. As a result companies have introduced more supportive policies, including family leave, flexible working hours, and child care assistance.

Question 6

Although a top executive team may have unique _____ strengths and ideas about its goals, it must consider _____ factors before taking action.
A)external; internal
B)internal; external
C)traditional; unconventional
D)unconventional; traditional
E)past; future

Accepted Answer

All organizations operate in a macroenvironment, which is defined by the most general elements in the external environment that potentially can influence strategic decisions. Although a top executive team may have unique internal strengths and ideas about its goals, it must consider external factors before taking action.

Question 7

April, a manager in a call center, encourages her employees to solve customers' problems without her approval of the particular situation. In this case, April is trying to empower her employees.

Accepted Answer

The process of sharing power with employees, thereby enhancing their confidence in their ability to perform their jobs and their belief that they are influential contributors to the organization is called empowerment.

Question 8

Which of the following statements about the impact of the stock market is true?
A)The stock market has little effect on the amount of capital a company has.
B)If a company exceeds its performance expectations, its stock price will often drop.
C)Publicly held companies are more insulated from the stock market than privately held companies.
D)The stock market may have a profound effect on the behavior of individual managers.
E)Stock market fluctuations have little effect on the compensation of managers.

Accepted Answer

An important economic influence on a company is the stock market. When investors bid up stock prices, they are paying more to own shares in companies, which means the companies have more capital to fuel their strategies. The stock market can also have a profound effect on the behavior of individual managers. In publicly held companies, managers throughout the organization may feel required to meet the stock market's earnings expectations.

Question 9

A failure to develop a strategy that incorporates _____ may doom a firm to obsolescence.
A)hierarchical bureaucracy
B)many layers of middle management
C)classic production methods
D)technological advances
E)closed communication systems

Accepted Answer

Today a company cannot succeed without incorporating into its strategy the astonishing technologies that exist and continue to evolve. Technological advances create new products, advanced production techniques, and better ways of managing and communicating.

Question 10

What term is used to describe all the relevant forces outside an organization's boundaries?
A)Environmental scanning
B)Competitive intelligence
C)External environment
D)Competitive environment
E)Organizational climate

Accepted Answer

The term external environment means more than an organization's clients or customers. The external environment includes all relevant forces outside the organization's boundaries.

Question 11

When investors bid up stock prices, companies have less capital to fuel their strategies.

Accepted Answer

An important economic influence on a company is the stock market. When investors bid up stock prices, they are paying more to own shares in companies, which means the companies have more capital to fuel their strategies.

Question 12

Enrico has used environmental scanning to gather information that will help him make his company more competitive. This is an example of cognitive intelligence.

Accepted Answer

Competitive intelligence is the information that helps managers determine how to compete better. Using environmental scanning, managers develop competitive intelligence, the information necessary to decide how best to manage in the competitive environment they have identified.

Question 13

A more diverse workforce presents managers with challenges as well as opportunities.

Accepted Answer

A more diverse workforce has many advantages, but managers have to make certain they provide equality for women and minorities with respect to employment, advancement, opportunities, and compensation.

Question 14

Which of the following is a U.S. government policy or action that is most likely to provide an opportunity for businesses?
A)deductions in the tax code
B)fines on heavy polluters
C)laws against bribing officials
D)court rulings against monopolies
E)failure to rule a new product as safe

Accepted Answer

U.S. government policies impose strategic constraints on organizations but may also provide opportunities. The government can affect business opportunities through tax laws, economic policies, and international trade rulings. An example of restraint on business action is the U.S. government's standards regarding bribery.

Question 15

Stylin' Footwear buys leather and lesser quantities of cork, elastic, metal buckles, and other materials to manufacture shoes. Which of the following is Stylin's Footwear's output?
A)Leather
B)Cork
C)Elastic
D)Buckles
E)Shoes

Accepted Answer

Inputs are the goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services. Outputs are the products and services organizations create.

Question 16

Organizations are at an advantage if they depend on a single powerful supplier because such dependency ensures consistency.

Accepted Answer

Organizations are at a disadvantage if they become overly dependent on any powerful supplier. A supplier is powerful if the buyer has few other sources of supply or if the supplier has many other buyers.

Question 17

A firm's _____ includes its rivals, suppliers, customers, new entrants, substitutes, and complementary products.
A)environmental scanning
B)competitive intelligence
C)external environment
D)competitive environment
E)organizational climate

Accepted Answer

An organization exists in its competitive environment, which is composed of the firm and its rivals, suppliers, customers (buyers), new entrants, and substitute or complementary products.

Question 18

What are demographics?
A)Trends regarding how the people within a society think and behave
B)Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
C)Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up social units
D)The fixed costs that buyers face if they change suppliers
E)The lack of information needed to understand or predict the future

Accepted Answer

Demographics are measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units. Work groups, organizations, countries, markets, and societies can be described statistically by referring to demographic measures, such as their members' age, gender, family size, income, education, and occupation.

Question 19

Raw materials are an example of inputs.

Accepted Answer

Inputs are the goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services. Outputs are the products and services organizations create.

Question 20

According to Michael Porter's model, the competitive environment includes rivalry among current competitors and the impact of new entrants, substitute and complementary products, suppliers, and customers.

Accepted Answer

Michael Porter's model says that the competitive environment includes rivalry among current competitors and the impact of new entrants, substitute and complementary products, suppliers, and customers. According to Porter, successful managers do more than simply react to the environment; they act in ways that actually shape or change the organization's environment.

Quiz 2: The External and Internal Environments

A strong organization culture is one in which lower-level employees do not concern themselves with the firm's goals, priorities, and practices because management deals with those issues.

Organizations are open systems that affect and are affected by their external environments.

Environmental uncertainty refers to the lack of information needed to understand or predict the future.

How is immigration affecting U.S. demographics?

Which of the following was introduced as the result of an evolving societal trend?

Although a top executive team may have unique _ strengths and ideas about its goals, it must consider _ factors before taking action.

April, a manager in a call center, encourages her employees to solve customers' problems without her approval of the particular situation. In this case, April is trying to empower her employees.

Which of the following statements about the impact of the stock market is true?

A failure to develop a strategy that incorporates _____ may doom a firm to obsolescence.

What term is used to describe all the relevant forces outside an organization's boundaries?

When investors bid up stock prices, companies have less capital to fuel their strategies.

Enrico has used environmental scanning to gather information that will help him make his company more competitive. This is an example of cognitive intelligence.

A more diverse workforce presents managers with challenges as well as opportunities.

Which of the following is a U.S. government policy or action that is most likely to provide an opportunity for businesses?

Stylin' Footwear buys leather and lesser quantities of cork, elastic, metal buckles, and other materials to manufacture shoes. Which of the following is Stylin's Footwear's output?

Organizations are at an advantage if they depend on a single powerful supplier because such dependency ensures consistency.

A firm's _____ includes its rivals, suppliers, customers, new entrants, substitutes, and complementary products.

What are demographics?

Raw materials are an example of inputs.

According to Michael Porter's model, the competitive environment includes rivalry among current competitors and the impact of new entrants, substitute and complementary products, suppliers, and customers.