Practice Questions

Strategic Management

NOTE: The answers to these questions are provided at the end of the page.

1. The four stages in the life cycles of a business are:

  1. Recruiting, hiring, promotion, evaluation
  2. Introduction, growth, maturity, decline
  3. Job analysis, job design, description, job evaluation
  4. Planning, implementing, evaluating, revision
2. The job characteristics model includes:
  1. Implementation, attitude surveys, responses, feedback
  2. Motivation factors and incentives
  3. Skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback
  4. Job analysis, task significance, feedback
3. The dimensions from Hoffstede’s famous study on IBM employees are:
  1. Power distance, individualism, masculine/feminine, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation
  2. Internal standards, training, quality
  3. Management commitment, individualism, masculine/feminine, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation
  4. Jobs, teams, training, quality, feedback
4. Which is not an example of the life cycle stages of Human Resource development?
  1. Introduction
  2. Growth
  3. Middle Age
  4. Maturity
5. The strategic role of HR Management includes:
  1. Planning
  2. Attainment of organizational objectives
  3. Viewing the strategic role of HR management in the same context as financial, technological, and other resources
  4. All of the above
6. Employers must consider which one of the following geographic and competitive concerns in making HR plans?
  1. Employee resistance to geographic relocation
  2. Organizational restructuring
  3. Balancing work and family
  4. Education and employment shifts
7. Human resource management is conducted to achieve_______________ goals.
  1. management
  2. supervisory
  3. individual
  4. organizational
  5. individual and organizational
8. Which is an HR practice typical of an organization that can be defined as "prospector"?
  1. promote from within
  2. external staffing
  3. less training
  4. extensive training
  5. b and c
9. Which of the following methods is not a mathematical method for forecasting HR demand?
  1. simulation models
  2. productivity ratios
  3. estimates
  4. statistical regression analysis
10. In the future, HR managers will have to deal with all of the following workforce changes, except.
  1. a more racially diverse workforce
  2. a skills shortfall among workers
  3. an abundance of entry level workers
  4. an older workforce
11. All of the following could be considered steps in forecasting, except:
  1. Understanding external conditions
  2. Projecting future staffing requirements
  3. Projecting the supply of labor
  4. a job analysis
12. Which one of Hefstede’s cultural dimensions describes how cultures seek to deal with the fact that the future is not perfectly predictable?
  1. individualism/collectivism
  2. power distance
  3. uncertainty avoidance
  4. masculinity/femininity
13. What is a cooperative form of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both labor and management to continually improve quality and productivity?
  1. scientific management
  2. total quality management
  3. continuous learning
  4. trickle-down management
14. What is the planned elimination of large numbers of personnel designed to enhance organizational effectiveness?
  1. merger
  2. downsizing
  3. consolidation
  4. buy-out
15. The process of analyzing and identifying the need for availability of human resources so that the organization can meet its objectives is known as:
  1. Strategic Planning
  2. SWOT Analysis
  3. Human Resource Planning
  4. Organization Planning
16. A workweek in which a full week’s work is accomplished in fewer than five days is known as:
  1. Flextime
  2. Virtual Offices
  3. Compressed Workweek
  4. Telecommuting
17. A reduction in the size of an organizational workforce is known as:
  1. Downsizing
  2. Layoff
  3. Outplacement
  4. Termination
18. Development of a business strategy includes:
  1. External scan
  2. Internal scan
  3. Employee dislikes
  4. A and B
19. A unique capability in the organization that creates high value and that differentiates the organization from its competition:
  1. SWOT
  2. Organizational culture
  3. Core competency
  4. None of the above
20. What organization/industry life-cycle is high risk and entrepreneurial spirited:
  1. Shakeouts
  2. Embryonic
  3. Growth
  4. None of the above
21. What is the primary purpose of an HR audit?
  1. To measure turnover.
  2. To evaluate the effectiveness of an organization.
  3. To compare results to industry standards.
  4. None of the above.
22. In an organizational structure, what is centralization?
  1. The degree to which decision-making authority is restricted to higher levels of management.
  2. The degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization’s hierarchy.
  3. The hierarchical division of labor that distributes formal authority and established how critical
  4. decisions will be made.
  5. A combination of A and C.
23. What three categories is organization development divided into?
  1. Interpersonal, personal, executive.
  2. Interpersonal, technological, structural.
  3. Technological, specializations, interpersonal
  4. Processes, structural, groupings.
24. In general, organizational development focuses on change. Which of the following are common characteristics of change?
  1. Organizational change moves away from the familiar.
  2. People resist having change imposed on them.
  3. People see change as a loss of something.
  4. All of the above.
25. What are line units?
  1. Work groups that perform specialized services for the company (example: accounting).
  2. Work groups that assist the specialized service departments.
  3. Work groups that conduct the major business of the organization (example: production workers).
  4. Work groups that assist the employee’s who perform the major business of the organization.
26. What is the goal of diversity training?
  1. To create sensitivity.
  2. To help people be aware of cultural differences.
  3. To teach people to respect the rights and ideas of people who are not like them.
  4. All of the above
27. According to the DOL (Department of Labor), which of the following is not an important characteristic of a profession?
  1. Research
  2. Credentialing
  3. Opportunity for advancement
  4. Code of ethics
28. In the strategic HR planning process, which of the following should be completed first?
  1. Define the organizational mission
  2. Scan the environment
  3. Forecast internal HR supply and demand
  4. Complete a human resource inventory
29. Succession Plans...
  1. Examine employee flows in, up, down, across and out of the organization.
  2. Are a snapshot of key positions and the availability of replacements from current workforce.
  3. Anticipate managerial staffing requirements and develop high quality employees to satisfy these needs
  4. Are used to justify the cost of developing and implementing HR programs.
30. What is the most important step of setting up an HRIS (human resource information system)?
  1. Prepare a request for proposal.
  2. Analyze needs
  3. Select a system
  4. Implement the system
31. Which of the following is not a way that a company can set up its departments?
  1. Structural
  2. Functional
  3. Divisional
  4. Customer

ANSWERS:
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. C
5. D
6. A
7. E
8. E
9. C
10. C
11. D
12. C
13. B
14. B
15. C
16. C
17. A
18. D
19. C
20. B
21. B
22. A
23. B
24. D
25. C
26. D
27. C
28. A
29. C
30. B
31. A

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