1) A firm is operating in various different geographical regions that vary vastly in terms of customer tastes and preferences, cultural and political climate, etc. Given this infformation, what type ofdepartmental groupingmay be best suited for the firm to be able to deal with these region-specific differences in customer preferences, culture, regulation etc.?

		Functional grouping
		Geographic grouping
		Holacracy
		Vertical Grouping

2) Consider the following two firms -Firm A andFirm B.

Firm A-->Firm A delivers flowers for special occasions. Its operations are entirely online. Customers go to its website, order the type of flowers they want, and select the day and date of delivery. The firm then sources these flowers from its vendors and delivers them to the customer. So, the main stake-holders the firm interacts with are (a) the flower vendors and (b) the customers. Typically, the supply of flowers is pretty consistent and even the demand from customers has also remained the same over the years.

Firm B --> Firm B is a designer clothing store. It also has a similar 'online' business model. Customers browse through its website and order clothes, which are then delivered by the firm. However, customer preferences change frequently. Also, fashion trends and the demand for different types of clothes change with the seasons - clothes in demand in winter are different from those in demand in the summer. To ensure that the firm is able to retain its customers, the firm works with several designers who design clothes based on the latest fashion trends. The firm then needs to work with weavers and cloth manufacturers to make the clothes. Because the competition is very strong, the firm also uses the services of a marketing firm to advertise its products creatively. Another issue is the website itself. Since other competitors also operate online, firm B needs to make the online experience of customers hassle free. As technology related to website design keeps on changing constantly, firm B has hired a software firm to manage its website operations.

Overall, Firm B interacts with various stakeholders including (a) customers, (b) designers, (c) weavers/vendors, (d) Marketing firm, (e) Software firm and operates in an environment where customer demands & preferences, technology, and marketing needs are constantly changing.

FROM THE BELOW LIST OF STATEMENTS,SELECT ALL THE STATEMENTS THAT ARE CORRECT BASED ON THE INFORMATION GIVEN ABOVE.

		Of the two firms, Firm B needs to have a higher speed of responding to environmental changes than firm A
		The use of scenario planning is likely to bemore beneficial to firm B than to firm A
		Firm B operates in an environment that ismore uncertain than the environment in which Firm A operates
		Use of 'Boundary Spanning' roles is likely to benefit Firm B more than firm A
		With regard to the stable-unstable dimension of external environment, we can say that Firm A operates in an environment that is more unstable than the environment of Firm B

3) SelectALL the operational goals from the below list that are bothspecific andmeasurable:

		Increase profit margin for product A from 10% to 14% and for product B from 5% to 8%
		Ensure that by 31st March, 2020,ALL employees in level 4 and 5 in the organization are provided the training on interpersonal skills.
		Reduce assembly cycle time for product A from 3 days to 2 days by 31st Dec. 2020
		Improve production of part A by 31st Dec 2020

4) Please match the appropriate pairs based on what we have discussed and studied in the class:

- A. B. C. D. E. F. G.	A technical support employee is given a goal of resolving 100 tickets related to technical issues raised by the client by the end of the year.
- A. B. C. D. E. F. G.	A technical support employee is given a goal of achieving a score of at least 3.5/5 on client's evaluation of the employee's communication skills and ability to keep the client updated about reslolution of issues.
- A. B. C. D. E. F. G.	Arturo works in a firm that has no teams or managers. Instead, employees work in 'circles' that are focused on addressing different issues related to the organization. This is an example of:
- A. B. C. D. E. F. G.	Outsourcing of activities to outside contractors who perform those activities better than the focal firm is an important component of what type of grouping

A.	Functional Grouping
B.	Behavior focused goal
C.	Virtual Network Grouping
D.	Holacracy
E.	Outward Focused Goal
F.	Outcome focused Goal
G.	Product/Services Grouping

5) A complex and unstable environment will be high in uncertainty.

Agree

Disagree

6) An organization's stakeholder is defined as any group inside or outside of the organization that has a stake in the organization's performance and can be affected by it. Stakeholders can include investors, shareholders, customers, suppliers, vendors, the community the firm operates in, employees, etc. Based on what we have discussed, these stakeholders almost always have very similar expectations from the firm. Hence, it is may be relatively easy for managers to set goals that meet these expectations.

True

False

7) As the uncertainty in the external environment of the firm increases, continuous and ongoing scanning and evaluation of the external environment becomes more important

True

False

8) Firm A has:

a) Smaller span of control and more organizational levels

b) Higher formalization

c) Moderate level of centralization

d) Higher specialization

Firm B has:

a) Larger span of control and less number of organizational levels

b) Lower formalization

c) Moderate level of centralization

d) Lower specialization

Based on just the above information, whichone of the following statements is correct?

Relatively speaking, Firm B can be said to be more mechanistic than Firm A

None of the above

Relatively speaking, Firm A can be said to be more mechanistic than Firm B

Relatively speaking, Firm A and Firm B are equal as far as the mechanistic-organic structural design is concerned

9) Saucony shoes ran an advertisement in which they claimed to be developing "Bio-degradable" shoes. They are positioning these shoes as a unique type of environment-friendly product that is not yet available with any of the other shoe companies like Nike, Adidas etc. Saucony is investing substantial amount of money in R&D for these type of shoes and also spending considerable amount on advertising. The aim is to capture a loyal customer base of people who are highly conscious about sustainability issues and will appreciate this unique characteristic of the shoes. One possibility is that due to substantial investment in innovative R&D and marketing, the price of the shoes might be slightly higher than other shoes on the market.

Select the option that represents the type of organizational strategy that Saucony has adopted in this case:

		Porter's low cost leadership strategy
		Miles & Snow Reactor Strategy
		Porter's differentiation strategy
		Miles & Snow Attacker strategy

10) A trade association of firms in a given industry can at times use collective resources to lobby for government policies to protect that industry or to set standards and protocols to be followed by everyone in that industry

True

False

11) A firm'smission or official goals that outline its long term plans about what it is trying to achieve and where it wants to head in the long run, can help the firm gain legitimacy in the eyes of different stakeholders.

True

False

12) We have discussed different types of inter-organizational relationships. Which of the following is NOT a type of an inter-organizational relationship?

		Mechanistic
		Merger
		Strategic Alliance
		Joint Venture

13) Firm A depends on Firm B for a resource that is very rare and not widely available elsewhere. Based on the concepts we studied in the class on inter-organizational relationships, we can say that firm A has higher power in the relationship between these two firms.

True

False

14) Amazon has recently started selling various everyday products under its own label of 'Amazon Basics.' By focusing on extremely efficient production and logistics processes, Amazon has been able to reduce the cost of production of these items. As a result, it is able to sell these items at a price that is substantially lower than the price at which other brands sell similar items.

Thus, by reducing the cost of production, offering lowest prices on the products, and focusing on large volume of production and sales, Amazon hopes to gain profits based on the large quantity of items that it sells. A point to note is that these items do not necessarily have any unique feature or quality that sets them apart from items sold by other brands, except for their low price.

What type of strategy is Amazon using in this case?

		Miles and Snow Reactor Strategy
		Porter's differentiation strategy
		Porter's low cost leadership strategy
		Expansion strategy

15) The task environment is that part of a firm's external environment with which the firm interacts directly & which can have a direct impact on the firm's ability to achieve its goals

True

False

16) In afunctional grouping of the firm's departments, employees with similar professional qualifications in functional areas (e.g., Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations etc.) are grouped together to consolidate their skills and knowledge.

True

False

17) When centralization is low, even employees in the lower levels of the organization will have a large amount of decision making authority and can feel empowered due to it.

True

False

18) Let us assume that Facebook views any kind of dependence on another firm as necessarily a bad thing. Hence, any time that Facebook executives feel that the firm may be getting too dependent on another firm, they simply go out and acquire that firm. This is an example of a resource dependence approach.

True

False

19) Ford Motors announced last year that it will work with the popular home security firm ADT to setup a company called 'Canopy' that will be specifically focused on developing products aimed at preventing car thefts. Canopy will combine ADT's professional security monitoring experience with Ford's AI-driven video camera technology to help customers strengthen security of new and existing vehicles across automotive brands. As per our class discussions, Canopy, which operates as a separate entity focused specifically on preventing car thefts is an example of:

		Acquisition
		Supply Sourcing
		Merger
		Joint Venture

20) Match the correct pairs based on the concepts we have covered in class

- A. B. C. D. E. F.	Laura works in a small firm where the different departments are arranged according to the professional specialization of employees (e.g., Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations) etc. What type of departmental grouping does the firm have?
- A. B. C. D. E. F.	Eni is a sales executive working in a firm that makes different video games. His organization is structured such that he reports to two bosses - one is the Marketing Manager and the other is Product Manager for the video game that Eni's team sells. Thus, there is dual reporting present in Eni's firm due to the way the departments are grouped in it. What type of departmental grouping is it?
- A. B. C. D. E. F.	Raj is a member of the board of directors at Firm A and also at Firm B. What kind of inter-organizational relationship do these two firms have based on this information?
- A. B. C. D. E. F.	Alex works in a firm where there are extensive written down rules and policies about work processes and employee benefits. Almost every employee action in the firm is driven by some or the other policy. Based on this information, which of the organizational structural dimension is high in this firm?

A.	The firm has complex grouping
B.	The two firms have a board interlock
C.	The firm has a matrix grouping
D.	The firm has high Formalization
E.	The two firms have a linear relationship
F.	The firm has functional grouping

21) Assuming that the number of employees in a firm remains constant, what will happen if we increase the span of control?

		Cannot be predicted
		The number of levels in the organization will decrease and thus the organization will become more organic in design
		The number of levels in the organization will increase and thus the organization will become more mechanistic in its design
		It has no effect on the design of the organization

22) A Balanced Score Card is a tool to establish organization-level strategy for the firm. It focuses ONLY on the financial goals of the firm and its profit motive - and can provide a framework for lower, department level operational goals.

True

False

23) Bed, Bath and Beyond has been struggling to maintain its markst share for a long time now. It just narrowly avoided bankruptcy recently but it still does not seem to have a well defined long-term strategy in place. Rather it seems to be just responding to external events in an ad-hoc manner to meet its immediate needs. Its actions seem rather erratic and not well thought out. According to Miles and Snow model, what type of strategy does the firm have?

		Reactor strategy
		Analyzer strategy
		Defender strategy
		Prospector strategy

24) A firm operating in an unstable and complex environment may generally benefit by adopting an organic structure

True

False

25) Toyota has an interesting strategy of targeting different types of customers:

On the one hand, it sells cars such as Prius that are (a) manufactured via a highly efficient process, (b) have the basic features that you would expect in a car, and (c) are verylow priced as compared to competitors. This allows Toyota to target price sensitive customers and also the low price of the car helps them sell a large volume of these cars.

On the other hand, Toyota also operates the luxury car divison Lexus that offers more stylish, high-end cars. Lexus cars have unique and distinct features that set them apart from others. A lot of investment in R&D, marketing and advertising is done to create the stylish look and superior features of these cars. As a result, the price of these cars is on the higher side and these cars are targeted at loyal customers who are less price sensitive but who value the experience and unique features of the car.

In sum, one set of Toyota's products such as Prius are very affordable, with basic features and targeted at stable markets with high volumes of sales, and the other set of its products such as Lexus cars are more high-end, with unique features and styles, and are targeted at less price sensitive customers in growing markets who value unique features.

Based on this information, which of the Miles and Snow Strategy Types would you say Toyota is following?

		Defender
		Analyzer
		Prospector
		Reactor