Exam 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership

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The foundation of a company's corporate ...

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A) be very personable,effective communicators,and skilled in the empowerment of company personnel.
B) personally lead the implementation process and drive the pace of progress.
C) delegate little to subordinates and,instead,personally exert a strong,highly visible influence on the company's approaches to strategy execution.
D) be creative in establishing policies and procedures that will instill high standards of operating excellence.
E) be charismatic,decisive decision-makers,and make inspiring speeches at company events.

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A) Managing by walking around
B) Managing business with action
C) Multi-business warning actions
D) Managers being well-advised
E) Multi-business walking ahead

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A) Treating employees as valued partners
B) Utilizing people-management practices to build morale and foster pride
C) Setting stretch objectives and clearly communicating expectations for reaching targets
D) Using motivational techniques and compensation incentives to inspire employees
E) Following a must-be-invented-here mindset

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A) executives have usually personally written the statement of core values and the code of ethics.
B) company's pursuit of higher profits is tempered,so that the company will not come across to customers and the general public as greedy.
C) company's chances for strategic success and market leadership are substantially reduced because company personnel are hesitant to engage in business practices that are unethical.
D) stated core values and ethical principles are the foundation of the corporate culture.
E) core values and ethical standards are made a prominent and visible part of the company's strategic intent and strategy.

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D

A) communicate the company's good intentions and establish a corporate conscience.
B) confirm the integrity of company personnel and signal the above-board nature of the company's business principles and operating methods.
C) steer company personnel toward doing the right thing and convince outsiders that the company is socially responsible.
D) foster a work climate where company personnel share common and strongly held convictions about how the company's business is to be conducted and to provide them with guidance about how to do their jobs,steering them toward both doing things right and doing the right things.
E) provide a basis for designing culture-supportive incentive compensation plans and reinforcing the appropriateness of particular ethical and moral actions.

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A) the presence of counterproductive cultural traits that adversely impact the work climate and company performance.
B) a preoccupation with risk management and capitalizing on related market opportunities.
C) a decision-making effort that is subject to pressure from many different cliques.
D) ethical behavior that is driven by subcultures.
E) a strong fixation on attending to what customers are saying and how their needs and expectations are to be met.

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E

A) knowing when to continue with the present corporate culture and when to shift to a different and better corporate culture.
B) being good at figuring out whether to arrive at decisions quickly or slowly in choosing among the various alternative adjustments.
C) thoroughly analyzing the situation and exercising good business judgment in deciding what actions to take.
D) deciding whether to try to fix the problems of poor strategy execution or simply shift to a strategy that is easier to execute correctly.
E) deciding how to identify the problems that need fixing.

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A) selecting a team of key employees to lead the culture change effort and design a plan for cultural change.
B) identifying facets of the present culture that are supportive of good strategy execution and which ones are not and then specifying what new actions,behaviors,and work practices are needed in the new culture to improve performance.
C) drawing up an action plan to change the present culture and then persuading company personnel why this plan of action is good and will be successful.
D) conducting an employee survey to determine the organization's cultural norms and what company personnel like and dislike about the current culture.
E) employing a consultant with expertise in culture change and following his or her advice on how to proceed.

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A) the company's strategic vision and strategic intent.
B) the stories that get told over and over again to illustrate the importance of certain values and the depth of commitment that various company personnel have displayed.
C) how much stretch is built into the company's financial and strategic performance targets.
D) the vigor and enthusiasm with which it engages in benchmarking and seeks out best practices.
E) the company's track record in taking market share away from rivals.

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If the organization's strategy involves ...

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A) Word-of-mouth indoctrination of new members in the culture's fundamentals
B) Frequent reiteration of core values by senior managers and group members
C) Visibly rewarding those who display cultural norms and penalizing those who don't
D) Maintaining a consistent strategic vision and strategic intent over time
E) Telling and retelling of company legends and regular ceremonies honoring members who display desired cultural behaviors

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A) Promoting individuals who are known to possess the desired cultural traits,who have stepped forward to advocate the shift to a different culture,and who can serve as role models for the desired cultural behavior
B) Appointing outsiders with the desired cultural attributes to high-profile positions
C) Screening all candidates for new positions carefully,and hiring only those who appear to fit in with the new culture
D) Urging company personnel to search outside the company for work practices and operating approaches that may be an improvement over what the company is presently doing,and paying sizable bonuses to those employees who identify practices that the company ends up adopting
E) Designing compensation incentives that boost the pay of teams and individuals who display the desired cultural behaviors and hitting change-resisters in the pocketbook

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A) Never,because the actions and behaviors needed to execute the new strategy successfully are well entrenched,and thus are not changeable
B) Only rarely,because it is natural for company personnel to cling to existing practices and to be wary of new approaches
C) When a company decides on any innovations to its products or services
D) When a strong culture is unhealthy or otherwise out of sync with the actions and behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully
E) When the case for cultural reform is not credible,symbolic,nor substantive

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A) Making a compelling case for why the company's new strategic direction and culture-remodeling efforts are in the organization's best interests and why company personnel should wholeheartedly join the effort to doing things somewhat differently
B) Replacing senior executives who are strongly identified with the old culture and who may be stonewalling needed organizational and cultural changes
C) Promoting individuals who are known to possess the desired cultural traits,who have stepped forward to advocate the shift to a different culture,and who can serve as role models for the desired cultural behavior
D) Revising policies and procedures in ways that will help drive cultural change
E) Shifting from decentralized to centralized decision-making so as to give senior executives more authority and control in driving the cultural change

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E

A) Results-oriented,high-performance cultures are permeated with a spirit of achievement and have a good track record in meeting or beating performance targets.
B) High-performance cultures often have a low regard for high ethical standards,a strong preference for high-risk strategies,and a slow and methodical approach to responding to changes in the marketplace.
C) The challenge in creating a high-performance culture is to inspire high loyalty and dedication on the part of employees,such that they are both energized and preoccupied with putting forth their very best efforts to do things right and be unusually productive.
D) In a high-performance culture,the clear and unyielding expectation is that all company personnel,from senior executives to front-line employees,will display high-performance behaviors and a passion for making the company successful.
E) In high-performance cultures,there's a strong sense of involvement on the part of company personnel and emphasis on individual initiative and creativity.

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A) A lack of values and principles that are consistently preached or widely shared
B) A tendency among employees to view their jobs as just a way of making a living
C) Co-worker peer pressure to do things in a particular way
D) Few widely revered traditions and few culture-induced norms
E) No strong employee allegiance to what the company stands for or to operating the business in well-defined ways

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A) treating employees as individuals with no regard for their rank or contributions.
B) building morale and fostering pride.
C) setting stretch objectives and clearly communicating expectations for reaching targets.
D) using motivational techniques and compensation incentives to inspire employees.
E) using the tools of benchmarking,best practices,business process reengineering,TQM,and Six Sigma to focus attention on continuous improvement.

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