Exam 15: Organizational Control in a Complex Business Environment

Bureaucratic control relies upon social values, flexible authority, and trust to assess performance and correct unacceptable deviations.

Jeff Imelt, the CEO of GE, is concerned that his company's control systems measure what is important now and what will be important in the future. Mr. Imelt is concerned that his control systems

It is highly likely that a control system will lend itself to the use of a single performance measure.

The manager of a women's shoe store in the mall recognizes that if she doesn't have the latest fashions in stock when her patrons visit the store, they will probably not return to the store later to purchase the shoes. Sales lost in this manner, between the time of recognizing the need for more shoes and ordering/receiving additional shipments of shoes, can be reduced by strengthening which of the following control system design factors?

As the level of control efforts __________, undesirable deviations from performance standards will __________. As a consequence, the costs associated with undesirable performance will also __________.

Wendy Reedy, an accountant for International Apparel, spends a considerable amount of time looking at her company's __________, which is a summary of an organization's financial performance over a given time interval, showing revenues, expenses, and bottom-line profit or loss.

A new faculty member at the college stated in his course syllabus that "students should be prepared for class. This statement was largely unenforceable during the course of the semester, and students largely ignored this rule. This course syllabus violated the __________ performance recommendation regarding setting standards of performance.

__________ is/are the things of value that a firm owns, __________ include the firm's debts and obligations, and __________ is/are the difference between the assets and liabilities.

In the context of control, __________ refers to the precision with which a control measure can be made.

Match each term with the correct statement below. -indicators of the relative effectiveness, or profitability, of the organization

Match each term with the correct statement below. -indicators of the firm's ability to meet its short-term debts and obligations

The top managers of Prodigy Communications put considerable thought into the number of activities, processes, and items that the company measures and controls. In other words, Prodigy's managers are concerned about the amount of __________ in their control system.

John Roach, the CEO of Tandy Corporation, spends a considerable amount of time reviewing the document that summarizes his firm's financial position at a given point in time, showing assets, liabilities, and owner's equity. The document that Mr. Roach spends a lot of time with is his company's

__________ are indicators of the relative effectiveness, or profitability, of an organization.

Control focuses on the __________ of the operating system.

Concurrent control focuses on detecting undesirable material, financial, or human resources that serve as inputs to the transformation process.

The key issue concerning timeliness is not whether feedback is provided quickly enough to permit a response to an unacceptable deviation, but how fast the feedback information is provided.

As the level of control effort increases, the information costs of the control system also increase.

A supervisor checks with an employee concerning a task being completed while the employee is working on that task. This represents

Which of the following types of control is particularly appropriate when there is a strong corporate culture and the values are shared by all employees?