Essential Management Principles and Business Strategy

Core Concepts of Business Management

1. Which department makes decisions regarding research and development? Top Managers.
2. Who are first-line managers and what do they do? They coordinate the activities of operating employees; common titles are supervisors and coordinators.
3. What are the differences in environmental dimensions? Define the legal dimension and the sociological dimension.
4. What is the difference between task environments and general environments? A task environment involves specific groups or organizations, while a general environment is the set of broad dimensions and forces in an organization's surroundings that determine its overall context.
5. Who sets tactical goals? Middle management.
6. Who sets operational goals? Operations managers or first-line managers.
7. What type of decision is relatively structured and recurs with some frequency? Programmed decisions.
8. Decision making regarding information ambiguity and uncertainty: A state of uncertainty can be threatened by job security.
9. What are the characteristics or nature of entrepreneurs? The process of planning, organizing, operating, and assuming the risk of a business venture.
10. Which industry offers a high return on time investments? The service industry.
11. In the job characteristic approach, how well the job is performed is measured by: Feedback.
12. Define the chain of command: A clear and distinct line of authority among the positions in an organization.
13. What type of forces consider consumer tastes and price? Market forces.
14. Which law forbids discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, and national origin? EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity).
15. To what age group does the Age Discrimination Act apply? 40 years or older.
16. Identify why organizations are unable to achieve the right person for the job: Imperfect selection.
17. The use of medals and ribbons (military) is an example of what? Promotion.
18. Motivation: After a worker feels an unfulfilled need, what is the next step?
19. When giving salary increases, which type of power is used? Reward power.
20. What reward options does a manager have to execute the right rewarding? Various incentive systems and recognition.
21. What is meant by "accurate"? Precision and correctness of information.
22. What is the need for information to be complete? So the task can be done correctly.
23. What is a disadvantage of oral communication? As information is passed on, there are more chances of changes happening to it.
24. What is a characteristic of a functional group? Shared specialized tasks.
25. What kind of group is created for a 26. specific goal or time? SMART.
26. What is the characteristic of organizational control? Monitoring and adjusting activities.
27. What type of control do performance appraisals fall into? Management performs them for training, development, and developing HR.
28. To what type of industry does a convenience store belong? Retail.
29. In the US, what steps did the manufacturers use to recover from a business decline? Strategic restructuring and innovation.