Questions and Answers.
Plan - Answer A blueprint for goal achievement and specifies the necessary resource
allocations, schedules, tasks, and other actions necessary for attaining goals.
Goal - Answer A desired future state that the organization wants to realize.
Level of Goals and Plans - Answer 1. Mission statement
2. Strategic Goals/Plans senior management (organization as a whole)
3. Tactical Goals/Plans middle management (major divisions, functions)
4. Operational Goals/Plans lower management (departments, individuals)
Organizational mission/mission statement - Answer - An organization's purpose or reason for
existence. It describes the organization's values, aspirations, and reason for being.
-A broadly stated definition of purpose that distinguishes the organization from others of a
similar type.
Strategic goals - Answer broad statements describing where the organization wants to be in
the future. They pertain to the organization as a whole rather than to specific divisions or
departments.
Strategic plans - Answer They define the action steps by which the company intends to attain
strategic goals. It is the blueprint that defines the organizational activates and resource
allocations.
Management by Objectives (MBO) - Answer A method whereby managers and employees
define goals for every department, project, and person and use them to monitor subsequent
performance.
Contingency plans - Answer identifies important factors in the environment and defines a
range of alternative responses to be taken in the case of emergencies, setbacks, or unexpected
conditions.
Crisis Planning - Answer involves reacting to sudden changes in the environment
, -Crisis prevention: Involves activities that managers undertake to try to prevent crises and to
detect warning signs of potential crises
-Crisis preparation: Includes all the detailed planning to handle a crisis when it occurs.
1. Designating a crisis management team and spokesperson
2. Creating a detailed crisis management plan, and
3. Setting up an effective communications system
SWOT analysis - Answer An audit or careful examination of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats that affect organizational performance.
Porter's Competitive Strategies - Answer differentiation - Acts in a flexible, loosely knit way;
strong coordination among departments.
cost leadership - Strong central authority; tight cost controls
focused differentiation - Uses characteristics of differentiation strategy directed at particular
target customer
focused cost leadership - Uses characteristics of cost leadership strategy directed at particular
target customer
Decision-making - Answer the process of identifying problems and opportunities and then
resolving them.
Decision - Answer A choice made from available alternatives.
Programmed decisions - Answer A decision made in response to a situation that has occurred
often enough to enable managers to develop decision rules that can be applied in the future.
Nonprogrammed decisions - Answer A choice made in response to a situation that is unique, is
poorly defined and largely unstructured, and has important consequences for the organization.
Certainty - Answer a situation in which all the information the decision maker needs is fully
available
Uncertainty - Answer Occurs when managers know which goals they want to achieve, but
information about alternatives and future events is incomplete.
Ambiguity - Answer A condition in which the goals to be achieved or the problem to be solved
is unclear, alternatives are difficult to define, and information about outcomes is unavailable.