Sample/practice exam, questions -Outline, Introduction to Business PDF

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outline of what information will be tested on the midterm exam...

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10/12/2012 1st question- what is management? Explain the different parts of the formal definition  management is a process involving a series of activities and operations such as planning, organizing, and controlling (2 marks) an enterprise’s financial, physical, human and information resources (2 marks) to 

achieve the organization’s goals of supplying various products and services to consumers. (2 marks)  areas of financial, human resources, operation, marketing and information organizational functions. (2 marks)  (POLC, FHIP, areas)   

What creates the “personality” of an organization? Each org. has its own personality, created by the experiences, skills, personalities & mannerisms among the people who make up the org.  

Complete this sentence: The rational decision making process requires managers to… 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of their decision 2. Make sure that the chosen alternative has served its original purpose 3. Adopt an alternative that had previously been discarded 4. Recognize that the situation was not correctly defined to begin with and start the process all over again if necessary (4 marks) What is the importance of each of Mintzberg’s 10 managerial roles? Name and present a short explanation for each of them. (10 marks)* What are the 4 behavioural aspects of decision making? (2 marks)  Organizational politics  Intuition  Escalation of commitment

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Risk propensity

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What are the main purposes in organizational goal setting? (2 marks)

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Provides direction, guidance, & motivation for all managers. Helps firms allocate resources

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Helps to define corporate culture Helps managers assess performance

What is the difference between the mission statement and corporate culture? (2 marks)   The corporate culture is shaped by 4 forces which are fundamental. Identify each of those forces (2 marks)  Values held by top management  Firm’s history  

Stories & legends Strong behavioural norms

Define entrepreneurship, in your own words (2 marks)  Identifying an opportunity in the marketplace  Accessing the resources necessary to capitalize   Difference between sales forecast and boot strapping? (4 marks) ch 3

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Name 2 advantages & 2 disadvantages of the sole proprietorship (2 marks)   Name 4 reasons for failure in small business  Managerial incompetence or inexperience, neglect, weak control systems, insufficient capital  

Define the “task environment” and identify 4 “task environment components” (6)  Forces that have a high potential for affecting the organization on an immediate basis. o Competitors, customers, suppliers, strategic partners, labour, regulators

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What are the Porter’s 5 forces? Give a short explanation of those. (10)  Nature of competition or rivalry among existing competitors  Threat of potential entrants  Substitues  Suppliers  Buyers Important to study this chapter, and content involving Porter

About the ethical origins, what are the standards of behaviour that guides individual manager’s n their work? Support your answer with a short explanation. (6)  Societal ethics: based on values and standrads, codified in the form of law  Professional ethics

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Individual ethics

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The degree to which people see an issue as an ethical one is called “moral intensity”. Define the concept and then identify and shortly describe each of the components involved in this process. (6)  Magnitude of consequences  

Social consensus Probability of effect

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Temporal immediacy Proximity

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Concentration of effect

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What is the code of ethics and what are the cources of an organization’s code of ethics? Briefly support your answer. (6)  Formal statement outlining these 3 issues o Being a good “organization citizen” o Guiding employee behaviour away from unlawful or improperacts that could harm the org

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What are the areas of social responsibility?  Local communities and environment  Employees  

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Customers Investors

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There are many ways managers respond to the social responsibility. Name and briefly describe the 4 approaches presented in this class.  Obstructionist  Defensive  

Accommodative Proactive

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Identify 3 arguments for social responsibility (3)

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Can you name 4 factors that inhibit accurate problem identification and analysis within the decision making process? (2)  Information bias  Uncertainty absorption  Selective perception  

Stereotyping Cognitive complexity

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Stress

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What are the symptoms of Groupthink?  Illusion of invulnerability  Collective rationalization  Illusion of morality  Stereotyping

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Illusion of unanimity Mindguards

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What are the guidelines for the company and for the leader for overcoming Groupthink while the group decision-making process?  For the company:   

Establish several independent groups to evaluate the problem Train managers in groupthink prevention

For the leader:  Assign everyone the role of critical evaluator  Use outside experts  Assign a devil’s advocate role to one member of the group  Try to be impartial and refrain from stating your own views

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The strategy formulation involves three basic steps including five key goals and the entire environment. What are the steps, the goals and the environments involved in the strategy formulation? (15)  1 – setting SMART goals  2 – analyzing the org and its environment (SWOT)  3 – matching the organization and its environment 

this process may determine whether an organization/company/firm takes risks or behaves more conservat...