Deck 12: The Learning Organization and Crisis Leadership

Question 1

The first step in the risk assessment process is risk reduction.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Risk assessment is a common tool used in crisis planning.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Experience reveals that dividing the duties of crisis management throughout the organization without a central command is often more successful than the team approach.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

It is generally believed that it does make a difference whether the company representative or spokesperson is a senior-level manager or someone at a lower level of responsibility.

Question 5

It is generally believed that within an hour of becoming aware that a crisis situation may exist, company officials must be prepared to issue an initial statement to the media and other key stakeholder groups.

Question 6

Technological advances have diminished organizations' attempts to control crisis communications.

Question 7

In pre-crisis planning, it is important that crisis management responsibilities be divided and spread across the organization without a central command to avoid turf wars and conflict.

Question 8

Rational analysis and planning is a tool that helps leaders prevent or respond to crises through decision-making skills based on possible outcomes or crises.

Question 9

Pre-crisis planning entails three components that every organization should address when putting together a comprehensive crisis response plan: (1) appointing a crisis leader, (2) creating a crisis response team, and (3) creating a risk assessment team.

Question 10

Effective crisis management depends on planning and people.

Question 11

Crises come in many forms including succession crisis, product failures, human error disasters, and sexual harassment.

Question 12

A pre-crisis plan is the best way to lessen the negative consequences of any crisis.

Question 13

A pre-crisis plan is the first step of any crisis management program.

Question 14

One of the short-term benefits of developing an effective crisis communication system with employees is that the organization will have won over the confidence, loyalty, and commitment of the employees, who appreciate being involved and listened to during a crisis.

Question 15

In most small organizations, the crisis management team is led by a senior-level executive.

Question 16

One of the primary duties of the crisis leader includes requiring individuals or departments to keep logs of complaints or incidents.

Question 17

Your leader has appointed you to supervise the risk assessment part of precrisis planning, and, therefore, your first step in the five step process is to assess and rank risks.

Question 18

Developing a bunker mentality is a recommended strategy for senior leaders to use when dealing with a crisis.

Question 19

SWOT analysis is used in the risk reduction step in the risk assessment process.

Question 20

A crisis is a high-probability, low-impact event that threatens the viability of the organization and is characterized by ambiguity of cause, effect, and means of resolution, as well as by a belief that decisions must be made swiftly.

Question 21

Leaders in learning organizations face a single challenge of creating flexible and adaptive organizations.

Question 22

As related to organizational culture, researchers are finding that the higher the level of learning and knowledge acquisition, the greater the level of financial performance, but the lower the level of nonfinancial performance.

Question 23

A learning organization is one that is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

Question 24

A press release is a printed statement that describes how an organization is responding to a crisis and who is in charge.

Question 25

The learning organization embraces the idea that people will learn if encouraged to face challenges, experiment, fail, and reflect on their experiences.

Question 26

The traditional organization is based on the bureaucratic model that emphasizes a command-and-control structure, decentralized decision making, highly formalized systems, specialized tasks, and an adaptive culture.

Question 27

The purpose of using benchmarking is to imitate competitors' best practices which leads to a competitive advantage for a company.

Question 28

Leaders in learning organizations face the dual challenge of encouraging creativity and flexibility and maintaining organization-wide standards that emphasize efficiency and accountability.

Question 29

Discontinuous change occurs when anticipated or expected changes bear no resemblance to the present or the past.

Question 30

Some experts have argued that failed efforts to create a learning organization should be, at least in part, blamed on lack of resources.

Question 31

A learning organization is more appropriate for a stable environment where change is slow and incremental.

Question 32

In terms of a learning organization, employees who engage in continuous learning activities are more likely to be a source for their organizational and competitive advantage.

Question 33

Benchmarking yields a comparative advantage by allowing a company to imitate the best practices of others.

Question 34

Encouraging systems thinking in a learning organization means that boundaries are increased with other companies.

Question 35

In the aftermath of a crisis, it is recommended that top management form a crisis evaluation team to evaluate the organization's effectiveness in managing the crisis.

Question 36

The traditional organization fosters competition among individuals.

Question 37

It is critical during a press conference to involve technical specialists to provide more expert and detailed background information.

Question 38

Explicit knowledge is the instinct and intuition that an experienced practitioner possesses.

Question 39

The mindset of leaders in a learning organization is that there is a "right way" to do things.

Question 40

Organizational learning involves external and internal sources.

Question 41

Learning is more likely to take place in an organization in which experimentation on a large scale is encouraged and permitted.

Question 42

Creating a culture that rewards those who succeed, as well as occasionally rewarding those who fail, sends a message that the organization encourages risk-taking.

Question 43

One way to encourage experimentation is to create a sense of urgency in the organization.

Question 44

Emerging trends in the current business environment that make crisis management especially important among the skills of leadership include:

A) technological advances.
B) the economic downturn.
C) the overall desirability of learning about risk matrices.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 45

An effective crisis management plan is one that is:

A) supported by training and periodic drill sessions.
B) coordinated and controlled across levels and units of the organization.
C) upgraded frequently.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 46

All of the following are questions that often emerge after a crisis EXCEPT:

A) What happened?
B) What are you going to do to ensure it never happens again?
C) When did it happen?
D) How did it happen?

Question 47

Encouraging systems thinking is a guideline for enhancing organizational learning.

Question 48

Pre-crisis planning entails all of the following components EXCEPT:

A) appointing a crisis leader.
B) assessing risk.
C) analyzing the environment.
D) creating a crisis response team.

Question 49

It is generally believed that within ____ of becoming aware that a crisis situation may exist, company officials must be prepared to issue an initial statement to the media and other key stakeholder groups.

A) 24 hours
B) 30 minutes
C) an hour
D) 48 hours

Question 50

The best gauge to determine an organization's readiness to respond to a crisis is how it rates according to which of the following factors?

A) awareness and access to crisis management information
B) readiness for a quick response
C) effective communication plan in place
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 51

The best way to mitigate the negative consequences of any crisis is by:

A) top management support.
B) a pre-crisis plan.
C) a capable and supportive staff of employees.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 52

Which of the following is (are) crises with which organizations may need to respond?

A) natural disasters.
B) terrorist attacks.
C) human error disasters.
D) executive misconduct.
E) all of the above

Question 53

Pre-crisis planning

A) allows leaders and followers to develop a mental detachment from the issue.
B) allows leaders and followers to make good decisions under low pressure circumstances.
C) is the best way to eliminate the negative consequences of a crisis.
D) allows leaders and followers to make good decisions under severe pressure in the most difficult circumstances.

Question 54

Which of the following is NOT one of the key tenets of crisis leadership, according to some experts?

A) work with your crisis management team
B) play not to lose and develop a bunker mentality
C) stay engaged and lead from the front
D) focus on the big picture and communicate the vision.

Question 55

Which of the following is NOT one of the steps in the risk assessment process?

A) risk reduction
B) risk identification
C) crisis management
D) risk analysis

Question 56

A crisis response team should:

A) draw on critical internal resources rather than external resources.
B) involve a good mix of representatives from all sectors of the organization.
C) not emphasize diversity due to the critical nature of crises and the likelihood of disagreement with diverse individuals.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 57

Strategic crisis leadership requires all of the following EXCEPT:

A) integrating crisis management into the strategic management process so it remains a regular part of the overall strategy-evaluation process.
B) using environmental monitoring techniques to identify events that could trigger crises in the future.
C) identifying emerging patterns or trends in the regulatory environment, competitive landscape, and social environment.
D) establishing a culture that embraces crisis awareness and preparation as a way of life.

Question 58

The primary duties of the crisis leader may include activities such as:

A) coordinating the activities of the crisis management team to ensure that the members work well together.
B) requiring individuals or departments to keep logs of complaints or incidents.
C) monitoring customer and employee complaints and behavior.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 59

The crisis leader shares the risk chart created during risk assessment and ranking during the ____ step of the risk assessment process.

A) risk identification
B) risk reduction
C) crisis management
D) crisis prevention

Question 60

A risk assessment process begins with a "what-if" scenario analysis which asks which of the following questions?

A) What could happen?
B) Where are we vulnerable?
C) How much will it cost the company?
D) A and b.

Question 61

The traditional organization is based on the bureaucratic model that emphasizes:

A) highly formalized systems.
B) a rigid, closed culture.
C) specialized tasks.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 62

Which of the following is (are) internal sources of organizational learning?

A) customers
B) competitors
C) Academic publications
D) employees

Question 63

In learning organizations:

A) the horizontal structure is constituted around functional specialities rather than work flows or processes.
B) few strict rules and procedures prescribe how things are done.
C) rewards are individualized.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 64

A ____ is a printed statement that describes how an organization is responding to a crisis and who is in charge.

A) press release
B) crisis bulletin
C) press kit
D) crisis release

Question 65

Explicit or tacit knowledge is:

A) highly personal.
B) strongly rooted in action.
C) the instinct and intuition that an experienced practitioner possesses.
D) expressed in a system of rules.

Question 66

The press kit:

A) is a package of information about a company.
B) should include a specific press release related to the current incident.
C) should be distributed to the media when a crisis breaks.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 67

A ____ organization is one that is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

A) traditional
B) learning
C) diverse
D) dynamic

Question 68

In the aftermath of a crisis, top management should launch an evaluation that pertains to:

A) how effectively the crisis team and the crisis management plan performed.
B) what worked least in mitigating the problem.
C) how effectively the organization handled victims and family members.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 69

Which of the following is NOT one of the guidelines for enhancing organizational learning?

A) broaden employees' scope of reference
B) encourage systems thinking
C) create a shared vision for learning
D) create a climate in which experimentation is encouraged

Question 70

Tacit knowledge is acquired from

A) manuals regarding an organization's culture.
B) databases acquired from other sources.
C) intuition based on experience.
D) genetics

Question 71

Benchmarking:

A) allows a company to imitate the best practices of others.
B) is a leader strategy.
C) yields a comparative advantage.
D) is not recommended to develop creative thinking skills.

Question 72

Which of the following is a characteristic of a learning organization?

A) strategy is formulated from the top and passed down
B) formal systems of communication tied to the vertical hierarchy with lots of filters
C) stable environment
D) loose, flexible, and adaptive roles

Question 73

____ change occurs when anticipated or expected changes bear no resemblance to the present or the past.

A) Acquisitional
B) Radical
C) Organizational
D) Discontinuous

Question 74

All of the following are characteristics of traditional organizations EXCEPT:

A) adaptive culture that encourages continuous improvement and change.
B) stable environment.
C) vertical structure.
D) rigid culture that is not responsive to change.

Question 75

Organizational knowledge:

A) is developed through training sessions.
B) is both tacit and explicit.
C) cannot exist without the emphatic sponsorship of top management.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 76

Under which of the following conditions is a learning environment most needed?

A) a stable environment where change is slow and incremental.
B) a rapidly changing environment where employee skills and abilities remain unchanged.
C) an environment with increasing pressure for employees to upgrade their skills and where there are no guarantees of job security
D) in a rapidly changing environment with increasing globalization, competition, and technological shifts.

Question 77

Effective crisis communication requires:

A) providing some detail regarding how the organization will avoid a repeat in the future.
B) assembling all stakeholders together and presenting the same message.
C) keeping the crisis leader informed about how the organization is handling the crisis.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 78

All of the following are characteristics of learning organizations EXCEPT:

A) flat horizontal structure.
B) centralized decision making.
C) adaptive culture that encourages continuous improvement and change.
D) strategy is a collaborative effort within the organization and with other companies.

Question 79

In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge makes a compelling case that an organization's survival is linked to its:

A) top management.
B) employees' dedication.
C) ability to learn and adapt.
D) all of the answers are correct

Question 80

Which of the following is a characteristic of a traditional organization?

A) flat horizontal structure
B) personal and group networks of free, open exchanges with no filters
C) centralized decision making
D) loose, flexible, and adaptive roles