Kt 14: 3.4.1 Corporate Influences, 3.4.2 Corporate Culture

Question 1

Corporate influences

Answer 1

internal factors affecting business decisions including short versus long-term horizons and scientific versus intuitive approach to decision-making.

Question 2

Earnings per share

Answer 2

company profits after tax divided by the number of shares issues; a rising EPS makes it easy to pay out rising dividends to shareholders.

Question 3

Intuition

Answer 3

deducing something from circumstances without any direct evidence.

Question 4

Mittelstand

Answer 4

the family-owned small and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of the German economy.

Question 5

Stock market index

Answer 5

a weighted average of the share prices of many companies are added together, adjusted to equal 100, then measured for percentage change over time.

Question 6

Corporate culture

Answer 6

the spirit, attitudes, behaviours and ethos of an organisation. It is embodied in the people who work there via traditions that have built up over time.

Question 7

Bureaucratic

Answer 7

an organisation in which initiative is stifled by paperwork and excessive checking and rechecking of decisions and actions.

Question 8

Person culture

Answer 8

an organisation such as a legal practice, where common training practices mean everyone is trusted to get on with their jobs with minimal supervision.

Question 9

Power culture

Answer 9

the boss as spider in the web, with every decision going through him/her. Power is kept at the top.

Question 10

Psychometric tests

Answer 10

designed to test the psychological make-up of a candidate - that is, the personality and character of an individual.

Question 11

Role culture

Answer 11

where the job role is treated as of more importance than the individual; this will be a bureaucratic, risk-avoiding culture.

Question 12

Task culture

Answer 12

making the task or project the focus, with staff brought into form a temporary team empowered to get the task completed successfully.