MGMT 3303
Midterm Questions (Short Answer)
The exam is short-answer format; you will be given five of the eight questions listed below during the exam. I advise you to use a Word document to answer each of the questions BEFORE opening the exam as your time is limited to 50 minutes. Canvas will randomly select your exam questions.
QUESTIONS
What are the key benefits of studying management, both personally and professionally? How do you anticipate applying the knowledge and skills gained in this course to your future workplace experiences?
Read the following business scenario and answer the questions provided.
A visiting American executive finds that a foreign subsidiary in a poor nation has hired a 12-year-old girl to work on a factory floor, in violation of the parent company’s prohibition on child labor. He tells the local manager to replace the child and tell her to go back to school. The local manager tells the American executive that the child is an orphan with no other means of support, and she will probably become a street child if she is denied work.
Question: What should the American executive do in this situation? In your response include an explanation for which of the Four Approaches to Deciding Ethical Dilemmas (utilitarian, individual, moral-rights, justice) your response is reflective of. Then discuss which of the types of managers your response choice makes you – ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric.
Read the following situation and answer the questions provided.
Mark and Cindy started Premium Sport Experiences five years ago. At that time, they were the company. It was an adventure tour company located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. They specialized in guided hiking tours and overnight camping experiences.
When they started, they were able to manage the bookings, the marketing, the finances, and the tours themselves. They were a small start-up with an idea. After their first season, however, their reputation for providing amazing experiences meant a significant increase in bookings for the following year. They increased over 200 percent in that first year alone.
They hired new guides, a customer services agent, and someone to help with digital marketing. This growth continued and after the 4th year, they found themselves with 37 employees (20 guides, 5 customer service agents, 1 bookkeeper, 3 marketing personal, 1 human resource generalist, 3 logistics personal to manage equipment, 2 maintenance personnel, and 2 cleaners). They began to feel completely overwhelmed trying to manage all of them. The employees did not know who to talk to about questions, there was limited time for planning to provide direction, and things were starting to fall through the cracks.
Question: Based on your knowledge of levels and types of management, what advice could you provide Mark and Cindy to help them better manage their organization? How do you suggest they organize their company?
Examine Toyota’s business environment using the six components of the General Environment. Describe how each factor influences Toyota’s strategy in the automotive industry.
Reflect on your education and career aspirations. Develop three SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals that will help you progress toward your objectives. Explain why each goal is important and how you plan to achieve it.
Analyze Apple’s product portfolio using the BCG Matrix. Identify one product for each quadrant, and explain your reasoning based on market share and industry growth. How does Apple’s strategy reflect the principles of the BCG Matrix?
Describe each of the 10 common decision-making biases and explain their impact on business decisions. Then, choose one bias and provide a real-life example of when you experienced it—either in your own decision-making or when someone used it against you. Reflect on how it influenced the outcome and what could have been done differently.
The statement “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch” was made popular by a book published in 2012. It is an expression that many of today’s CEOs would agree with. Please explain what you think is meant by the expression. Then provide an example of a place where you worked where the culture either motivated or demotivated you to perform your job.
