Exam 8: Control, Change, and Entrepreneurship

Top managers at Swirly Sweets, a candy manufacturer, consult with middle and first-line managers to revise their marketing strategy. This approach will lead to

The control system that is typically used in a garment plant to solve problems like substandard inputs, broken machine parts, or a worker's skill deficiency to produce a particular type of garment is ________ control.

Output control procedures are used at every management level of an organization.

TruLife Health Systems has opted for a top-down approach to changing how the company functions so that efficiency is increased. What is the change likely to entail?

The first step in the control process is to evaluate results in terms of performance standards.

Identify and discuss the two activities that are important for assessing the need for change in an organization.

Control by means of a comprehensive system of rules and standard operating procedures that shape and regulate the behavior of divisions, functions, and individuals is known as bureaucratic control.

The sales of Audiophile, a manufacturer of home and professional audio systems, have been declining noticeably over the last several quarters. Muaad, the CEO, meets with several managers, including Bruno, the head of the customer service department, and Ilya, a customer response team leader. It is determined that, while the company's quality and innovation standards are being met and even exceeded, its customer service is not performing as well as it should be. Muaad decides to implement a goal of raising the quality of Audiophile's interactions with customers by their next quarterly meeting. Given what you know about the control process, what should the team at Audiophile do next?

When actions are performed by employees the same way time and time again and the outcomes of their work are predictable, employee behavior is

Managers use feedforward control to anticipate problems.

Rules and SOPs are used to regulate the behavior of workers within the organization with a ________ control system.

Discuss how managers evaluate the results of the control process and the corrective measures they can take if the standard is not being achieved.

Entrepreneurship is the mobilization of resources to

The control system that managers use at the conversion stage of transforming raw materials into finished goods is ________ control.

The ratio that is computed by dividing the difference between current assets and inventory by current liabilities is the ________ ratio.

Describe how managers use feedforward control.

Discuss the reasons why it is important for managers to be sensitive about the way they use bureaucratic control.

Discuss the challenges sometimes encountered by founding entrepreneurs and the skills needed to address these challenges.

The managers of Sputnik Diner, a fast food restaurant, record outputs on a daily basis by counting how many customers their employees serve, the time each transaction takes, and how much money each customer spends every day. With reference to the control process, the managers of Sputnik are

The step of the control process utilized by managers to evaluate whether the actual performance of the organization differs significantly from the standards of performance that assess the organization is