Chapter 5: Planning and Decision Making
TRUE/FALSE
1. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Meaningful, Active, Reachable, and Timely.
2. Tactical plans specify how a company will use resources, budgets, and people to accomplish specific
goals within its strategic objective.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. 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
2. __________ can help organizations to maintain flexibility as they plan.
a.
Environmental munificence
b.
Learning-based planning and options-based planning
c.
Formalization
d.
Liaisons
e.
Group cohesiveness
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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. As managers try to take a rational approach to decision making, they must contend with bounded
rationality, which means they are restricted by:
a.
real-world constraints
b.
benchmarking
c.
methodology validity
d.
information overload
e.
all of these
9. __________ 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
10. 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