MGT 4479-Management Seminar Mid-Term Exam-Parts 1-8

MGT 4479-Management Seminar
Mid-Term Exam-Parts 1-8

Name_______________________

1. What does “critical thinking”
mean to you? Where have you learned to engage in it? Why might it be important
throughout your life and career?

2. How many managers do you know
have had formal academic training in the field of management? How well prepared
are they to assess the validity and value of management bestsellers?

3. What is the primary role of
the firm according to Drucker?

4. Could a Theory X–based tactic
be revamped into a Theory Y–based innovation? Can you think of any policies
that probably began with Theory Y assumptions but fell prey to implementation
that indicates conflicting or Theory X assumptions?

5. How do McGregor’s ideas about
training and development compare to what you have experienced or witnessed in
organizations? How does it compare to college courses in management topics?

6. According to Jim Collins,
technology alone is not a factor in achieving greatness. As we are clearly in
the technology age, do you agree with this statement? Can you think of an
example where the use of technology caused the success or demise of a company?

7. How do the traits of agility,
discipline, and focus position a company to control Michael Porter’s Five
Forces? How do the traits of diffuseness, rigidity, and ineptness hinder
efforts to gain control of the Five Forces?

8. Assume you were asked to
become CEO of a company whose board of directors wanted you to lead as a higher
ambition leader. What are some of the first things you’d consider doing? Why?

9. Discuss ways that management can provide employees who survive
organizational downsizing reasons to stay with the organization.

10. How would you go about
persuading your boss to adopt a strategy of “responsible restructuring”?
Provide specific examples of strategies and practices that you would advocate
and how they might help the organization meet competitive challenges.

11. Drawing upon (but not
repeating verbatim) Schein’s definition, explain (in your own words) what
organizational culture means to you.

12. What are the challenges to
achieving organizational transparency?

13. How would you go about
establishing transparency in a department that you manage? Provide specific
steps.

14. What are the benefits of an
organization that values and promotes camaraderie?

15. Why is the partnership method
effective?

16. Think about a time when you
were unsatisfied and unmotivated at work. Why were you feeling this way? Did
your compensation package play a part in your dissatisfaction?

17. How long could you survive in
a work environment that paid handsomely, but where you are bored, unchallenged,
and have little control over what you do?

18. What is your personal action
plan for success?

19. What are four positive
leadership strategies? Why are each of them uniquely important?

20. How is a positive climate
obtained? What might detract from it, or prevent it from succeeding?

21. Discuss and identify
situations where “bad” leadership has been effective, not in the sense of the end
point but in terms of the means employed.

22. Compare and contrast a real
life example of good leadership with “bad” leadership. How are they similar?
How are they different? Discuss.

23. Identify a time you (or a
friend) sabotaged your (their) own performance. Discuss strategies to
catch/avoid self sabotage.

24. Which of the costs of power
bothers/worries you the most? How could you mitigate this cost?

25. How are Collaborative Work
Systems different from team-based organizations?