C483 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Open Systems - Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment.
Inputs - Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services.
Outputs - The products and services organizations create.
External Environment - All relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as
competitors, customers, the government, and the economy.
Competitive Environment - The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes
suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like.
Macroenvironment - The general environment; includes governments, economic
conditions, and other fundamental factors that generally affect all organizations.
Demographics - Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups
or other social units.
Barriers to Entry - Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry.
Switching Costs - Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers.
Supply Chain Management - The managing of the network of facilities and people that
obtain materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute
them to customers.
Final Consumer - A customer who purchases products in their finished form.
Intermediate Consumer - A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale
products before selling them to final customers.
Environmental Scanning - Searching for and sorting through information about the
environment.
Competitive Intelligence - Information that helps managers determine how to compete
better.
Scenario - A narrative that describes a particular set of conditions.
Forecasting - Method for predicting how variables will change the future.
, Benchmarking - The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies
with those of other companies.
Strategic Maneuvering - An organization's conscious efforts to change the boundaries of
its task environment.
Domain Selection - Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise.
Diverisfication - A firm's investment in a different product, business, or geographic area.
Merger - One or more companies combining with another.
Acquisition - One firm buying another.
Divestiture - A firm selling one or more businesses.
Prospectors - Companies that continually change the boundaries for their task
environments by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new
enterprises.
Defenders - Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver.
Independent Strategies - Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change
some aspect of its current environment.
Cooperative Strategies - Strategies used by two or more organizations working together
to manage the external environment.
Empowerment - 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.
Buffering - Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs.
Smoothing - Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment.
Flexible Processes - Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the
environment.
Organization Culture - The set of important assumptions about the organization and its
goals and practices that members of the company share.
Organizational Climate - The patterns of attitudes and behavior that shape people's
experience of an organization.
Open Systems - Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment.
Inputs - Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services.
Outputs - The products and services organizations create.
External Environment - All relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as
competitors, customers, the government, and the economy.
Competitive Environment - The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes
suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like.
Macroenvironment - The general environment; includes governments, economic
conditions, and other fundamental factors that generally affect all organizations.
Demographics - Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups
or other social units.
Barriers to Entry - Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry.
Switching Costs - Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers.
Supply Chain Management - The managing of the network of facilities and people that
obtain materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute
them to customers.
Final Consumer - A customer who purchases products in their finished form.
Intermediate Consumer - A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale
products before selling them to final customers.
Environmental Scanning - Searching for and sorting through information about the
environment.
Competitive Intelligence - Information that helps managers determine how to compete
better.
Scenario - A narrative that describes a particular set of conditions.
Forecasting - Method for predicting how variables will change the future.
, Benchmarking - The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies
with those of other companies.
Strategic Maneuvering - An organization's conscious efforts to change the boundaries of
its task environment.
Domain Selection - Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise.
Diverisfication - A firm's investment in a different product, business, or geographic area.
Merger - One or more companies combining with another.
Acquisition - One firm buying another.
Divestiture - A firm selling one or more businesses.
Prospectors - Companies that continually change the boundaries for their task
environments by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new
enterprises.
Defenders - Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver.
Independent Strategies - Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change
some aspect of its current environment.
Cooperative Strategies - Strategies used by two or more organizations working together
to manage the external environment.
Empowerment - 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.
Buffering - Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs.
Smoothing - Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment.
Flexible Processes - Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the
environment.
Organization Culture - The set of important assumptions about the organization and its
goals and practices that members of the company share.
Organizational Climate - The patterns of attitudes and behavior that shape people's
experience of an organization.
