Exam 8: Foundations of Planning

Refer to the scenario given to answer the following questions. MBO (Scenario) Kay was excited. She had just returned from a manager's retreat where MBO was discussed. MBO had never been used in her organization before, and Kay was enthusiastic about implementing it in her department. She received permission from her manager, the division head, who vaguely remembered learning about MBO in university several years earlier. Kay looked over the information she had received but was still confused about who was to choose the goals for the employees. However, she knew that once the goals were chosen they needed to be specific and have explicit time periods attached. Even though it would take a lot of work to implement the program, Kay was confident that MBO would prove to be very beneficial to the organization. -However, Kay was also aware that a potential problem of MBO is that ______.

Which of the following is an example of a standing plan?

Goals are different from plans because _____________.

Rachel makes $80,000 a year as an accountant. Based on her income, she is trying to figure out how she can build an investment portfolio worth $1 million by the time she retires. Rachel is at which step of the goal-setting process?

Refer to the scenario given to answer the following questions. MBO (Scenario) Kay was excited. She had just returned from a manager's retreat where MBO was discussed. MBO had never been used in her organization before, and Kay was enthusiastic about implementing it in her department. She received permission from her manager, the division head, who vaguely remembered learning about MBO in university several years earlier. Kay looked over the information she had received but was still confused about who was to choose the goals for the employees. However, she knew that once the goals were chosen they needed to be specific and have explicit time periods attached. Even though it would take a lot of work to implement the program, Kay was confident that MBO would prove to be very beneficial to the organization. -Kay knew that the goals established for the MBO program should __________ employees, rather than __________ them.

Planning reduces uncertainty regarding current events but often leaves rule-bound managers unable to anticipate change and develop appropriate responses to future events.

Refer to the scenario given to answer the following questions. A-Z Goal Setting and Planning (Scenario) Organizations ABC and XYZ are both in the same industry and vie for the same set of customers in the marketplace. At ABC, goals are set at the top level of management each year and then broken into subgoals for each organizational level. Similarly, plans are developed at the top level and then reformulated and delegated to managers at the middle and lower levels. At XYZ, goals are developed at the top level, and then those managers meet with their subordinates at the next lower level to establish mutually agreeable goals. The middle managers then meet with the first-level managers to establish mutually agreeable goals. Finally, the first-level managers meet with each of their employees and establish mutually agreeable goals. Annual plans are then developed by organization members at all levels to meet their specific needs. -Because these plans only cover a one-year period, they would most likely be classified as __________ plans.

Which type of plan is flexible and provides general guidelines?

Refer to the scenario given to answer the following questions. MBO (Scenario) Kay was excited. She had just returned from a manager's retreat where MBO was discussed. MBO had never been used in her organization before, and Kay was enthusiastic about implementing it in her department. She received permission from her manager, the division head, who vaguely remembered learning about MBO in university several years earlier. Kay looked over the information she had received but was still confused about who was to choose the goals for the employees. However, she knew that once the goals were chosen they needed to be specific and have explicit time periods attached. Even though it would take a lot of work to implement the program, Kay was confident that MBO would prove to be very beneficial to the organization. -Who should develop the employees' goals for the MBO program?

Refer to the scenario given to answer the following questions. The Sea to Sky Collaborative (Scenario) Nadia Mainardi is the senior planner for the Whistler-Blackcomb Regional Development Council. She has met with a group of stakeholders, including the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation, Tourism B.C., and others who are interested in working together to improve the Sea to Sky Highway between North Vancouver and Whistler. To date, Nadia has successfully obtained a Technical Assistance Grant from the province to help organize several small communities along the Sea to Sky Highway into an intergovernmental unit, all sharing the same mission and goals. Nadia is now charged with developing a strategic plan for this group, called the Sea to Sky Collaborative. -Nadia told the Collaborative's members that the more current the plans are that affect future commitments, the longer the time frame is for which managers must plan. This concept is also known as the __________.

Which of the following is an example of a single-use plan?

Governmental regulations, powerful labour unions, and other critical environmental forces constrain managers' options and _____________.

In the traditional approach to planning, planning is done entirely by top-level managers who are often assisted by ______________ .

Operational plans specify the details of how the overall goals are to be achieved.

__________ dominates managers' planning efforts at lower levels of the organization.

MBO programs use goals to __________ employees rather than to _____________ them.

A well-designed goal should be measurable and easily attainable.

Competitor intelligence is about gathering information about competitors.