BUS 4385 COMPREHENSIVE EXAM UPDATED
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Tyranny of the strategic business units - ✔✔Non-cooperation between competing
managers of the firm's units
✔✔Overcoming tyranny of the SBU - ✔✔-Emphasize core competency as resources of
entire firm
-Incentives reward cooperation
-Create exchanges of employees & technologies
-Expose employees to all levels and functions
✔✔What 2 things can a manager do to improve an operation's ROA? - ✔✔Increase
return
Decrease assets
✔✔Avoiding denominator management - ✔✔-Do not just decrease assets to increase
ROA
-Assess 2 gaps between firm is and where it should be
-Performance gap
(financial)
-Opportunity gap (create
opportunity)
✔✔McGill and Slocum's 4 general organizational types - ✔✔-Knowing
-Understanding
-Thinking
-Learning
✔✔Knowing organization - ✔✔-Learn through practice
-1 best way to do things
-McDonald's Model
✔✔Understanding organization - ✔✔-Emerges from knowing organization
-Learning leads to core beliefs that leads to practice
-Replace rigid rules with strong core beliefs
-Wal Mart model
✔✔Thinking organization - ✔✔-Reactive approach
-Problem identification, solution analysis, rapid response
-Learning to practice to problem to solution
-Manager as firefighter
✔✔Learning organization - ✔✔-Process experiences and way experienced
-Commit to learning across organization
, -Examination, experimentation, constructive contention
-Home depot model
✔✔Matthew Kiernan's strategic architecture - ✔✔Invisible, intellectual, philosophical,
DNA that programs and lends coherence to virtually all important biz decisions
✔✔7 pillars of strategic architiecture - ✔✔1. Empowerment/diffused leadership
2. Optimized resource leveraging
3. Innovation, experimentation
4. Sustainability
5. Strategic reframing
6. Constructive contention
7. Organizational learning
✔✔Peter Senge - ✔✔-Competitive advantage results from the continuous learning of
individuals and the organizations they serve
-Personal change needed to be part of a learning organization
✔✔Tools of the learning organization - ✔✔-Left hand/right hand columns
-Ladder of inference
-The container
-The causal loop
✔✔Left hand/right hand columns - ✔✔-Get in touch w/ personal biases
-Write what you were thinking in the left column and across from it, what you actually
said in the right column
✔✔Ladder of inference - ✔✔Start at the end result and work backwards to the origin
1. Actions based on beliefs
2. Adopt beliefs
3. Draw conclusions
4. Make assumptions
5. Add meanings
6. Select data
7. Observe data/experiences
✔✔The container - ✔✔-Imaginary safe place for people to put their anger and fear
during meetings
-Depersonalize conflict and diffuse tension
✔✔Causal loop - ✔✔Positive word of mouth--> Sales-->Satisfied customers-->
(beginning of loop)
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Tyranny of the strategic business units - ✔✔Non-cooperation between competing
managers of the firm's units
✔✔Overcoming tyranny of the SBU - ✔✔-Emphasize core competency as resources of
entire firm
-Incentives reward cooperation
-Create exchanges of employees & technologies
-Expose employees to all levels and functions
✔✔What 2 things can a manager do to improve an operation's ROA? - ✔✔Increase
return
Decrease assets
✔✔Avoiding denominator management - ✔✔-Do not just decrease assets to increase
ROA
-Assess 2 gaps between firm is and where it should be
-Performance gap
(financial)
-Opportunity gap (create
opportunity)
✔✔McGill and Slocum's 4 general organizational types - ✔✔-Knowing
-Understanding
-Thinking
-Learning
✔✔Knowing organization - ✔✔-Learn through practice
-1 best way to do things
-McDonald's Model
✔✔Understanding organization - ✔✔-Emerges from knowing organization
-Learning leads to core beliefs that leads to practice
-Replace rigid rules with strong core beliefs
-Wal Mart model
✔✔Thinking organization - ✔✔-Reactive approach
-Problem identification, solution analysis, rapid response
-Learning to practice to problem to solution
-Manager as firefighter
✔✔Learning organization - ✔✔-Process experiences and way experienced
-Commit to learning across organization
, -Examination, experimentation, constructive contention
-Home depot model
✔✔Matthew Kiernan's strategic architecture - ✔✔Invisible, intellectual, philosophical,
DNA that programs and lends coherence to virtually all important biz decisions
✔✔7 pillars of strategic architiecture - ✔✔1. Empowerment/diffused leadership
2. Optimized resource leveraging
3. Innovation, experimentation
4. Sustainability
5. Strategic reframing
6. Constructive contention
7. Organizational learning
✔✔Peter Senge - ✔✔-Competitive advantage results from the continuous learning of
individuals and the organizations they serve
-Personal change needed to be part of a learning organization
✔✔Tools of the learning organization - ✔✔-Left hand/right hand columns
-Ladder of inference
-The container
-The causal loop
✔✔Left hand/right hand columns - ✔✔-Get in touch w/ personal biases
-Write what you were thinking in the left column and across from it, what you actually
said in the right column
✔✔Ladder of inference - ✔✔Start at the end result and work backwards to the origin
1. Actions based on beliefs
2. Adopt beliefs
3. Draw conclusions
4. Make assumptions
5. Add meanings
6. Select data
7. Observe data/experiences
✔✔The container - ✔✔-Imaginary safe place for people to put their anger and fear
during meetings
-Depersonalize conflict and diffuse tension
✔✔Causal loop - ✔✔Positive word of mouth--> Sales-->Satisfied customers-->
(beginning of loop)
