C483 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Accommodation - A style of dealing with conflict involving cooperation on behalf of the
other party but not being assertive about one's own interests
Accountability - The expectation that employees will perform a job, take corrective action
when necessary, and report upward on the status and quality of their performance
Accounting audits - Procedures used to verify accounting reports and statements
Acquisition - One firm buying another
Activity-based costing (ABC) - A method of cost accounting designed to identify streams
of activity and then to allocate costs across particular business processes according to the
amount of time employees devote to particular activities
Adapters - Companies that take the current industry structure and its evolution as givens,
and choose where to compete
Adverse impact - When a seemingly neutral employment practice has a
disproportionately negative effect on a protected group
Advertising support model - Charging fees to advertise on a site
Affective conflict - Emotional disagreement directed toward other people
Affiliate model - Charging fees to direct site visitors to other companies' sites
Affirmative action - Special efforts to recruit and hire qualified members of groups that
have been discriminated against in the past
After-action review - A frank and open-minded discussion of four basic questions aimed
at continuous improvement
Alderfer's ERG theory - A human needs theory postulating that people have three basic
sets of needs that can operate simultaneously (Existence, Relatedness and Growth)
Arbitration - The use of a neutral third party to resolve a labor dispute
Assessment center - A managerial performance test in which candidates participate in a
variety of exercises and situations
Assets - The values of the various items the corporation owns
,Authentic leadership - A style in which the leader is true to himself or herself while
leading
Authority - The legitimate right to make decisions and to tell other people what to do
Autocratic leadership - A form of leadership in which the leader makes decisions on his or
her own and then announces those decisions to the group
Autonomous work groups - Groups that control decisions about and execution of a
complete range of tasks
Avoidance - A reaction to conflict that involves ignoring the problem by doing nothing at
all or deemphasizing the disagreement
Balanced scorecard - Control system combining four sets of performance measures:
financial, customer, business process, and learning and growth
Balance sheet - A report that shows the financial picture of a company at a given time
and itemizes assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity
Barriers to entry - Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
Behavioral approach - A leadership perspective that attempts to identify what good
leaders do—that is, what behaviors they exhibit
Benchmarking - The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies
with those of other companies
Bootlegging - Informal work on projects, other than those officially assigned, of
employees' own choosing and initiative
Boundaryless organization - Organization in which there are no barriers to information
flow
Boundary-spanning - Interacting with people in other groups, thus creating linkages
between groups
Bounded rationality - A less-than-perfect form of rationality in which decision makers
cannot be perfectly rational because decisions are complex and complete information is
unavailable or cannot be fully processed
Brainstorming - A process in which group members generate as many ideas about a
problem as they can; criticism is withheld until all ideas have been proposed
, Broker - A person who assembles and coordinates participants in a network
Budgeting - The process of investigating what is being done and comparing the results
with the corresponding budget data to verify accomplishments or remedy differences; also
called budgetary controlling
Buffering - Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs
Bureaucratic control - The use of rules, regulations, and authority to guide performance
Business accelerators - Organization that provides support and advice to help young
businesses grow
Business ethics - The moral principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of
business
Business incubators - Protected environments for new, small businesses
Business plan - A formal planning step that focuses on the entire venture and describes
all the elements involved in starting it
Business strategy - The major actions by which a business competes in a particular
industry or market
Cafeteria benefit program - An employee benefit program in which employees choose
from a menu of options to create a benefit package tailored to their needs
Carbon footprint - The output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases
Caux Principles - Ethical principles established by international executives based in Caux,
Switzerland, in collaboration with business leaders from Japan, Europe, and the United States
Centralized organization - An organization in which high-level executives make most
decisions and pass them down to lower levels for implementation
Certainty - The state that exists when decision makers have accurate and comprehensive
information
Charismatic leader - A person who is dominant, self-confident, convinced of the moral
righteousness of his or her beliefs, and able to arouse a sense of excitement and adventure in
followers
Chief information officer (CIO) - Executive in charge of information technology strategy
and development
Accommodation - A style of dealing with conflict involving cooperation on behalf of the
other party but not being assertive about one's own interests
Accountability - The expectation that employees will perform a job, take corrective action
when necessary, and report upward on the status and quality of their performance
Accounting audits - Procedures used to verify accounting reports and statements
Acquisition - One firm buying another
Activity-based costing (ABC) - A method of cost accounting designed to identify streams
of activity and then to allocate costs across particular business processes according to the
amount of time employees devote to particular activities
Adapters - Companies that take the current industry structure and its evolution as givens,
and choose where to compete
Adverse impact - When a seemingly neutral employment practice has a
disproportionately negative effect on a protected group
Advertising support model - Charging fees to advertise on a site
Affective conflict - Emotional disagreement directed toward other people
Affiliate model - Charging fees to direct site visitors to other companies' sites
Affirmative action - Special efforts to recruit and hire qualified members of groups that
have been discriminated against in the past
After-action review - A frank and open-minded discussion of four basic questions aimed
at continuous improvement
Alderfer's ERG theory - A human needs theory postulating that people have three basic
sets of needs that can operate simultaneously (Existence, Relatedness and Growth)
Arbitration - The use of a neutral third party to resolve a labor dispute
Assessment center - A managerial performance test in which candidates participate in a
variety of exercises and situations
Assets - The values of the various items the corporation owns
,Authentic leadership - A style in which the leader is true to himself or herself while
leading
Authority - The legitimate right to make decisions and to tell other people what to do
Autocratic leadership - A form of leadership in which the leader makes decisions on his or
her own and then announces those decisions to the group
Autonomous work groups - Groups that control decisions about and execution of a
complete range of tasks
Avoidance - A reaction to conflict that involves ignoring the problem by doing nothing at
all or deemphasizing the disagreement
Balanced scorecard - Control system combining four sets of performance measures:
financial, customer, business process, and learning and growth
Balance sheet - A report that shows the financial picture of a company at a given time
and itemizes assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity
Barriers to entry - Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
Behavioral approach - A leadership perspective that attempts to identify what good
leaders do—that is, what behaviors they exhibit
Benchmarking - The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies
with those of other companies
Bootlegging - Informal work on projects, other than those officially assigned, of
employees' own choosing and initiative
Boundaryless organization - Organization in which there are no barriers to information
flow
Boundary-spanning - Interacting with people in other groups, thus creating linkages
between groups
Bounded rationality - A less-than-perfect form of rationality in which decision makers
cannot be perfectly rational because decisions are complex and complete information is
unavailable or cannot be fully processed
Brainstorming - A process in which group members generate as many ideas about a
problem as they can; criticism is withheld until all ideas have been proposed
, Broker - A person who assembles and coordinates participants in a network
Budgeting - The process of investigating what is being done and comparing the results
with the corresponding budget data to verify accomplishments or remedy differences; also
called budgetary controlling
Buffering - Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs
Bureaucratic control - The use of rules, regulations, and authority to guide performance
Business accelerators - Organization that provides support and advice to help young
businesses grow
Business ethics - The moral principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of
business
Business incubators - Protected environments for new, small businesses
Business plan - A formal planning step that focuses on the entire venture and describes
all the elements involved in starting it
Business strategy - The major actions by which a business competes in a particular
industry or market
Cafeteria benefit program - An employee benefit program in which employees choose
from a menu of options to create a benefit package tailored to their needs
Carbon footprint - The output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases
Caux Principles - Ethical principles established by international executives based in Caux,
Switzerland, in collaboration with business leaders from Japan, Europe, and the United States
Centralized organization - An organization in which high-level executives make most
decisions and pass them down to lower levels for implementation
Certainty - The state that exists when decision makers have accurate and comprehensive
information
Charismatic leader - A person who is dominant, self-confident, convinced of the moral
righteousness of his or her beliefs, and able to arouse a sense of excitement and adventure in
followers
Chief information officer (CIO) - Executive in charge of information technology strategy
and development
