Strategic Management Module

Potential Test Questions

By Keith Robbins

Strategic Management Deals with the ________ of the organization.

• Human capital

• Financial accounting

• Interpersonal skills

• Entrepreneurial work

Which of the following was not one of the historical HR Roles?

• Environmental

• Service

• Control

• Advisory

Historically, the ______ role deals with implementation of policies,

procedures and rules

• Environmental

• Service

• Control

• Advisory

Current roles of HR include

• Strategic, operational, administrative

• General, industry and competitive

• Formulation, implementation and control

• Legal, social, and demographic

Currently, the ________ role deals with day-to-day aspects of running

the organization

• Administrative

• Operational

• Strategic

• Global

The SHRM has two priorities serving the HR professional and

• Encouraging the promotion of HR professionals into line operations

• Performing research that shows HR’s importance

• Advancing the HR profession

• Becoming the world’s largest association dedicated to HRM

Characteristics of a profession include all of the following except

• Research

• A code of ethics

• A national organization

• A median national income among its members of at least $30K

Certifying that individuals exhibit proficiency in a profession’s body of

knowledge is referred to as

• Testing

• Licensing

• Initiation

• Certification

• credentialling

Which of the following was not included among the primary functions of management

• Coordinating

• Strategizing

• Directing

• Controlling

This HR Dimension of Change refers to HR becoming more strategic and less support.

• New technology

• Measurement and quantification

• Mergers and acquisitions

• Business partnering

A project has all of the following except

• Dedicated resources

• Funding or budget limits

• Defined start and end date

• A specific objective

• A project has all of the above

The phase during the project life cycle where peak effort level is

reached is

• Selection

• Evaluation

• Planning, scheduling, monitoring, control

• Conception

Which of the following is not one of the project roles

• Sponsor

• Originator

• Champion

• Manager

• Team

A ________ is also known as horizontal bar chart

• Gantt chart

• Pert Network

• Project life cycle

• CPM Network

PERT stands for

• Project evaluation and review technique

• Performance evaluation and review technique

• Program evaluation and review technique

• Productivity Employee Reward Technique

The Primary Difference between Gantt Charts and PERT Networks

is

• Gantt charts are primarily for scheduling

• Gantt charts specify predecessor relationships

• PERT networks specify predecessor relationships

• No difference the techniques are identical

Which of the following is not a component of Conner’s change

model

• Skills

• Commitment

• Culture

• Roles

• nature

Utilizing third party contractors is also referred to as

• Privatizing

• Outsourcing

• Vertical integration

• Licensing

• Strategic alliances

Strategy refers to

• Where is the company now

• Where does the company want to go

• How will the company get there?

• Rules and procedures

The second phase of the strategic planning process is

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Development

• formulation

Mission/Vision statement development occurs during the

________ phase

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Control

• Formulation

Values statement development occurs during the ________ phase

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Control

• Formulation

The SWOT Analysis is developed during the _____ phase

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Development

• Formulation

Strategies are developed in ______ phase

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Development

• Formulation

Short Term Objectives trigger the beginning of the ________ phase

• Evaluation

• Implementation

• Development

• Formulation

Which of the following is not a perspective included in the

Balanced Scorecard

• Finance

• Information technology

• Internal business processes

• Customers

Step 2 of in the balanced scorecard process would include:

• Confirming the scope and project time line

• Determining organizational participation

• Refining measures of the scorecard

• Developing an action plan

In the Growth stage of the organizational life cycle, the

company would be involved in:

• Labor cost control efforts

• Cross-training employees

• Setting basic employee policies

• Recruitment and selection efforts

Training is emphasized in the _____ stage of the organizational life cycle

• Introduction

• Growth

• Maturity

• Decline

A cost leadership strategy requires:

• Centralized decision-making

• Customer service oriented employees

• Strong marketing department

• Product knowledge and quality training

A differentiation strategy should focus on:

• Efficiency and productivity

• Cross-training and job rotation

• Innovative process improvements

• Strong research and development

The strategy of developing a competitive advantage through the culture and spirit of the organization

is called _______

• Cost leadership

• Differentiation

• Human capital advantage

• Focus

Centralization is recommended under which situation?

• Need for quick responses to problems exists

• Organizational tasks are unique to the product and market

• Uncertainty and complexity exist

• Need for contractual negotiations with external agents exists

A field HR unit reports directly to regional or corporate headquarters

under a ______ structure.

• Functional

• Divisional

• Customer

• Matrix

Which is not a disadvantage of the divisional structure:

• Loss of economies of scale

• Employees become specialized in their product

• Isolates employees from colleagues with similar expertise

• Can miss seeing improvement in other product areas

_____ structures are built around easily identifiable, distinct markets.

• Matrix

• Customer

• Divisional

• Functional

An employees who designs and develops sales training programs

reports to the executive VP of sales and the VP of human resources

under which structure?

• Customer

• Divisional

• Matrix

• Functional

Concentrated structures include all of the following except:

• Committees

• Task forces

• Line units

• Project teams

Which is not a goal of an HR audit:

• Analyze HR effectiveness and efficiency

• Help decision-makers understand what is happening with HR activities

• Measure attainment of marketing goals

• Allow HR managers to cut or enhance programs

The calculation showing the value of expenditures on HR activities is

called:

• Return on investment

• Cost benefit analysis

• Break even analysis

• Training investment factor

Which is not a step in a cost-benefit analysis:

• Differentiating between legally required and not legally required programs

• Measuring the cost of employee turnover

• Prioritizing programs

• Identifying each program in the HR plan

To determine the point in time at which money put into an HR

program is equal to or greater than its return, a manager should:

• Conduct a cost-benefit analysis

• Calculate the return on investment

• Conduct a break-even analysis

• Calculate turnover cost

Primary research includes:

• Informal communications

• HR records

• Observation

• Best-practices reports

Examples of secondary research include:

• Professional publications

• Testing

• Surveys

• Pilot projects

Which is not a step in the scientific method:

• Strategic analysis

• Hypothesis formulation

• Experimental design

• Data analysis

Stating the relationship between two variables to be tested occurs in the _______ stage of the scientific

method:

• Problem analysis

• Hypothesis formulation

• Experimental design

• Data collection

• Data analysis

Which of the following reliability measures uses a pre-test and a

post-test with the same information but different questions:

• Parallel forms

• Rater agreement

• Test/retest

• Internal consistency

Which is not a characteristic of true experiments:

• Give treatment only to the control group

• Rule out as many alternative explanations as possible

• Provide cause-and-effect knowledge of relationships

• Randomly assign subjects to two groups

The most basic experimental design is called the classic design

or the _______:

• Nonequivalent group design

• One-factor-at-a-time design

• Control group design

• Quasi-experimental design

Which method of data collection provides fixed quantitative

responses:

• Panel interviews

• Questionnaires

• Observation

• File studies

______ involves looking at a set of observations and designing a rule that characterizes or explains an

underlying pattern

• Quantitative analysis

• Qualitative analysis

• Inductive reasoning

• Deductive reasoning

Which is not a type of descriptive statistics:

• Charts and graphs

• Normal distribution

• Measures of central tendency

• Measures of association

Given the following data,3 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 8

which of the following is the mode?

• 3

• 5

• 6

• 9

Which measure of variation shows how scores are spread out around

the mean or average:

• Median

• Range

• Percentile

• Standard Deviation

If the correlation coefficient between two numbers is – 1, then

as the value of one variable increases, the value of the other:

• Increases

• Decreases

• Stays the same

• Cannot be predicted

A sample includes:

• All the employees in an organization

• 50 of 300 attendees at a conference

• All the parts produced in a given day

• All the test scores of eighth-grade math students in a given district

Which of the following is not a characteristic of qualitative

analysis:

• Uncovers attitudes, opinions, feelings, and behavior

• Uses open-ended interviewing

• Employs statistical methods

• Is commonly used for brainstorming and idea generation

Which would be LEAST effective for an organization that wants to establish an ethical workplace:

• Conduct ethical awareness training

• Permit retribution against those who voice ethical concerns in good faith

• Encourage open discussion about ethical issues

• Establish a code of ethics

Employees who disclose illegal employer conduct to appropriate government agencies are called:

• Chief Ethics Officers

• Ombuds

• Whistle blowers

• Insiders

Additional resources such as staff time, donated products, and access

to company facilities are given in what phase of the development of corporate citizenship programs:

• Reactive corporate philanthropy

• Strategic contributions

• Mainstream involvement

• Corporate accountability

The most effective corporate citizenship program is one that:

• Is tied to the company’s strategic plan

• Requires involvement of less senior employees

• Has no relationship to the company’s bottom line

• Creates visibility for the company

A legislative measure that must be passed by both houses and approved

by the chief executive to become effective is called a(n):

• Amendment

• Bill

• Quorum

• Joint resolution

An example of lobbying is:

• A lawmaker attempts to talk a bill to death by filibustering

• An environmental organization boycotts a company causing water pollution

• A committee chairman instructs his staff to prepare a written report on a bill

• A computer keyboard manufacturer attempts to influence the passage of a new ergonomics standard