Practice Questions Organizational Structure - International Business - Year 1 - RUG

Questions

1. Which external strategies for managing the environment do Robbins and Barnwell describe?

   1. Domain choice, bridging, advertising, smoothing

   2. Environmental scanning, rationing, smoothing, buffering

   3. Rationing, buffering, bridging, domain choice

   4. Insuring, lobbying, advertising, environmental scanning

2. At the periphery of an organisation, you could find boundary spanners.

   1. Correct

   2. Not correct

3. On the input side, buffering is evident when organisations stockpile materials and supplies, increase reliance on one supplier, undertake preventive maintenance or recruit and train new employees.

   1. Correct

   2. Not correct

4. Attending lunches, trade fairs, conferences and industry gatherings are ways of …

   1. manufacturing.

   2. research.

   3. development.

   4. environmental scanning.

5. Which type of change does the introduction of a major new technology involve?

   1. Adaptive change

   2. Systemic change

   3. Transitory change

   4. Chaotic change

6. Which statements about organizational change is correct?

   1. Evolutionary change deals with planned change.

   2. Revolutionary change involves incrementally changing existing production technologies.

   3. When change is planned properly, its success is guaranteed.

   4. It is not uncommon to have evolutionary changes after revolutionary changes.

7. Why do organizations resist change?

   1. Members fear losing what they already have.

   2. Most organisations are bureaucracies.

   3. Many organisations can manage their environment.

   4. All of the above.

8. According to Robbins and Barnwell, which techniques can a manager use to change an organisation’s culture?

A. Seeking political support

B. Implementing structural changes

C. Socialisation

D. Building subcultures

E. The need to be patient

F. Avoiding micro-managing the details

G. Participative leadership

1. All of above

2. A, B, C and D

3. A, B, E and F

4. B, C, E and G

9. Instrumental Values are desired outcome that people try to attain.
   

   1. Correct

   2. Not correct

10. Crisis in the environment makes it more difficult to manage a cultural change.

    1. Correct

    2. Not correct

11. The more subcultures, the stronger the resistance to changes in the dominant culture.

    1. Correct

    2. Not correct

12. Cultural changes could be implemented as quickly as possible in order to avoid resistance.

    1. Correct

    2. Not correct

13. The more routine an organisation’s technology and the more centralised its decisionmaking process, the more will employees in that organisation show individual initiative.

    1. Correct

    2. Not correct

14. Which behavioural factors can contribute to organisational decline?

    1. Technological obsolescence, loss of market share, groupthink

    2. Rigidity effect, privatization, globalisation

    3. Self-fulfilling prophecy, groupthink, rigidity effect

    4. Technological obsolescence, mature markets, self-fulfilling prophecy

15. Which of the following statements is false?

    1. Growth increases the likelihood of survival.

    2. The distinction between growth and decline in a company’s life cycle is not always clear.

    3. Usually bigger companies derive economies of scale.

    4. All of the above

16. Managing decline is the reverse of managing growth.

    1. Correct

    2. Not Correct

17. What is not a dysfunctional consequence of organisational decline?

    1. Change

    2. Low morale

    3. Centralisation

    4. Turnover

18. What environmental causes of decline do Robbins and Barnwell discuss?

    1. Rigidity effect, new and young organisation, framing, population ecology

    2. Rigidity effect, selective perception, framing, globalisation

    3. Globalisation, loss of market share, groupthink, rigidity effect

    4. Mergers, population ecology, loss of market share, technological obsolescence

19. Consider the following statements about organisational decline.

    I - Since environments never challenge an organisation’s legitimacy, all organisations will eventually face circumstances that can lead to decline.

    II - Once it reaches the Faulty Action stage, an organisation can no longer survive

    1. I is correct.

    2. II is orrect.

    3. Both are correct.

    4. Both are false.

20. If an organization declines, the administrative component usually …

    1. declines at the same speed.

    2. declines slower.

    3. increases quickly.

    4. increases slowly.

21. How does Greiner refer to periods of internal turmoil?

    1. Evolution

    2. Crisis

    3. Revolution

    4. Dissolution

22. When does audience learning occur?

    1. When the link between the individual action and organisational action is broken.

    2. When the link between organisational action and environment response is broken.

    3. When the link between an individual belief and action is broken.

    4. None of the above.

23. How can organisational knowledge be developed?

    1. By establishing a supportive culture

    2. By providing appropriate awards

    3. By supporting ideas regardless of their worth

    4. By creating boundary-spanning positions

24. Tacit knowledge may be transmitted in formal systematic language.

    1. Correct

    2. Not correct

25. Why do men promote other men in organisations?

    1. People tend to understand and trust others who are most like themselves.

    2. Men are reluctant to give responsibility to women.

    3. Too few women apply for senior management jobs.

    4. Because men are better in business.

26. To which management style have men been linked?

    1. Teamwork, empathy and relationship building

    2. Emphasising results, placing great importance on control and stressing the primacy of the task at hand.

    3. Teamwork, empathy and stressing primacy of the task at hand.

    4. Emphasising results, relationship building and placing great importance on control

27. What do psychoanalytic feminists believe?

    1. A good society is a sex-free society.

    2. Gender differences occur through social male domination.

    3. Sex is part of biological endowment.

    4. Gender is part of class relationships.

28. Which of the following is NOT a male management characteristic?

    1. Collaborative

    2. Strategic

    3. Analytical

    4. High control

29. Robbins and Barnwell propose that male and female management styles are the ends of a single continuum. Features of both styled are mutually exclusive.

    1. True

    2. False

30. The first stage of an organization’s evolution is characterised by:

    1. Creativity

    2. Control.

    3. Communication.

    4. Collaboration.

31. Heavy advertising expenditures are most likely to be used by firms pursuing which strategy?

    1. Cost-leadership

    2. Differentiation

    3. Reactor

    4. Evolutionary

32. Which one of the following is more of a problem in small businesses than in large organisations?

    1. achieving high efficiency

    2. conflict management

    3. stimulating innovation

    4. managing the administrative component

33. Which one of the following structural components would enhance the control of those in power?

    1. high formalisation; high centralisation

    2. high complexity; low centralisation

    3. high centralisation; low formalisation

    4. high complexity; high formalisation

34. What is true about Prospectors?

    1. they seek to minimise risk and maximise the opportunity for profit

    2. they are reluctant to commit themselves to a strategy

    3. they seek stability by producing a limited set of products

    4. they seek new products and market opportunities

35. According to Woodward, which technology had the lowest degree of vertical differentiation?

    1. mass

    2. process

    3. intensive

    4. unit

36. Which metaphor fits with the assumptions of the strategic constituencies approach? The organisation as a …

    1. machine

    2. brain

    3. political arena

    4. text

37. What is the definition of organisation size?

    1. The total number of employees in the organisation

    2. The total revenue of the organisation

    3. The total profit of the organisation

    4. A combination of spatial differentiation, the total number of employees and the industry the organisation is operating

Answers

1. A

2. B

3. B

4. D

5. B

6. D

7. D

8. C

9. B

10. B

11. A

12. B

13. B

14. C

15. B

16. B

17. A

18. D

19. D

20. B

21. C

22. B

23. A

24. B

25. A

26. B

27. B

28. A

29. B

30. A

31. B

32. A

33. A

34. D

35. D

36. C

37. A