Exam 4: The External Environment

Case 4.0 AligatorAde, a regional soft drink bottling plant, produces according to the forecast it receives from corporate headquarters. The company uses the focus strategy, designating a market of persons involved in athletic sports. AligatorAde sponsors a local lacrosse team and has a reputation for positive support of sports activities. On the few occasions when production exceeds demand, corporate warehousing juggles the distribution so that the regional producers such as AligatorAde experience no significant loss. Although competitors have switched formulas several times, AligatorAde has not changed its formula because market demand for its product is stable. (Top management at corporate headquarters is considering adding a more fruity-flavoured drink to its product line, but a final decision has not yet been made.) On the line, the manufacturing department produces large batches of its drink. The product is prepared for distribution in both cans and bottles. Occasionally at the end of a run, some bottles will have special team labels affixed by machine; profitability on those few special runs is particularly high. The plant's organizational chart shows that there is a plant manager with four department heads reporting to her: manufacturing manager, administrative manager, marketing manager, and warehousing and distribution manager. The purchasing function is carried out in manufacturing, and what little R&D takes place at the regional plant is done in marketing. -Refer to Case 4.0. Using the framework for environmental uncertainty, analyze AligatorAde's environment, and then make recommendations to the regional management of the plant based on your application of the framework.

A hardware store would be in a complex environment.

When Johnson & Johnson had to cope with the Tylenol poisoning issue, which dimension of its environment was most affected?

Dave Dunn is a militant member of a faculty union. When the union's negotiating committee is reporting to a meeting of the faculty, he always finds fault with the work of that committee and strongly advocates striking. When a member of the negotiating committee resigns because of illness, the union's executive committee appoints Dave to take his place. What is this is an example of?

The boundary-spanning role is designed to bring information to the organization about changes in the environment, but not to work in reverse to take information into the environment about the organization.

Joe Fresh Style is known for its ability to stay in close contact with its environment and its customers.

Assessment of environmental uncertainty of an organization is based primarily on analysis of which two of the following dimensions?

Rather than establish buffer departments, a newer approach in many organizations is to drop the buffers and expose the technical core to its uncertain environment.

Which of the following is a dimension of the framework for assessing environmental uncertainty?

Explain the five ways of establishing interorganizational linkages.

Bobby Barista is a researcher in the R&D department at 3M. Part of her job is to read technical and scientific journals, and to attend conferences to find out what new developments are occurring. What sort of role is she carrying out in this part of her job?

Which term refers to the idea that organizations need the environment but strive to minimize their vulnerabilities?

What is the term for a formal linkage that occurs when a member of the board of directors of one company sits on the board of directors of another company?

Which of the following is especially important in highly competitive consumer industries and in industries that experience variable demand?

Most e-commerce companies focus on a specific competitive niche and operate in simple but unstable environments.

Once an organization relies on other organizations for valued resources, those other organizations can influence managerial decision making in the original organization.

What is the task environment?

Which term refers to the purchase of one organization by another so that the buyer assumes control?

What methods are suggested for dealing effectively with resource dependence?

As the complexity in the external environment increases, so does the number of positions and departments within the organization, which in turn increases internal complexity.