Deck 5: Planning and Decision Making: Part B

Question 1

__________ can help organizations to maintain flexibility as they plan.

A) Environmental munificence
B) Options-based planning
C) Formalization
D) Liaisons
E) Group cohesiveness

Answer 1

B
The goal of options-based planning is to keep options open by making small, simultaneous investments in many options or plans.

Question 2

The __________ approach to decision making is a method in which an individual or a subgroup is assigned the role of a critic.

A) dialectical inquiry
B) groupthink
C) devil's advocacy
D) Delphi
E) dyadic communications

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Top management is responsible for developing long-term __________ that make clear how the company will serve customers and position itself against competitors in the next two to five years.

A) standing plans
B) tactical plans
C) operational plans
D) strategic plans
E) mission statements

Answer 3

D
Strategic plans make clear how the company will serve its customers and position itself against competitors.

Question 4

Which of the following is the most specific type of standing plan?

A) policies
B) procedures
C) rules and regulations
D) forecasts
E) MBO plans

Question 5

One method of weighting decision criteria uses ______, which is a process where each decision criterion is compared directly to every other criterion.

A) absolute comparisons
B) relative comparisons
C) valences
D) minimum threshold rule
E) comparative ranking scales

Question 6

Management by objectives (MBO) is a management technique often used to develop and carry out:

A) single-use plans
B) standing plans
C) operational plans
D) tactical plans
E) hierarchical plans

Question 7

Tactical plans specify how a company will use resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific goals within its mission.

Question 8

To make completely rational decisions, managers would have to operate in a perfect world with no:

A) constraints
B) benchmarking
C) methodology validity
D) information overload
E) all of these

Question 9

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Meaningful, Active, Reachable, and Timely.

Question 10

__________ occurs when managers choose an alternative that is good enough, rather than the best possible alternative.

A) Maximizing
B) Optimizing
C) Availability bias
D) Negative frame
E) Satisficing

Question 11

Managers can monitor __________ to track progress toward goal achievement.

A) action plans and their implementation
B) proximal and distal goals
C) one-way and two-way evaluative techniques
D) framing and non-framing goals
E) open-ended and close-ended techniques

Question 12

The first step in rational decision making is to:

A) conduct a systematic environmental analysis
B) define the problem
C) evaluate the alternatives
D) choose the solutions
E) create a management team