1. List four specific ways managers can lower costs and/or increase differentiation to obtain a competitive advantage.
2. Managers should continuously strive to understand what customers want. List what most customers prefer about the products/services they purchase in terms of characteristics, such as: price, quality, service and features.
3. What do the following acronyms mean?
a. CRM
b. TQM
c. JIT
4. How can the use of cross-functional teams contribute to the successful implementation of TQM?
5. What technique uses "green belts" or "black belts" to improve quality?
6. An assembly line is an example of which facilities layout?
7. Select a job in a field with which you are familiar (i.e., teacher, accountant, loan officer, machine operator, etc.). If a worker performing the job you selected has become bored or unhappy with his/her job, provide examples of how the worker's manager could use "job enlargement" and "job enrichment" to make the job more interesting and motivating.
8. According to Hackman and Oldham, there are five characteristics that determine how motivating a job is. List and briefly describe the five characteristics.
9. Briefly define each of the following types of organizational structures:
a. Functional
b. Divisional
c. Matrix
10. List four main factors that work together to a create and shape organizational culture.
11. According to your MOT book (#17), what is the central question that institutional theory attempts to answer?
12. Based on social network theory (#36 MOT), why might weak ties be more important/influential on organizational members than strong ties?
13. List the four steps outlined in your textbook that can help a manager with the control process.
14. Provide brief examples to demonstrate how a manager might use each of the following to monitor and regulate organizational activities and members.
a. Output control
b. Behavioral control
c. Clan control
15. According to Lewin's force field theory of change, what two forces are always in opposition in an organization?
16. What a manager can do to improve innovation, quality, efficiency, or responsiveness to customers through ?
17. What is the organizational structure that her organization uses to coordinate its people and resources? Why is the organization using that structure?