Lesson 1 Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is Management by Objectives (MBO)?
A strategic management approach where organizational goals are defined and communicated to employees, and their performance is measured based on their contribution to these goals.
What are the key elements of MBO?
- Goal specificity
- Participative decision making
- An explicit performance/evaluation period
- Feedback
What is the role of planning in organizational success?
Planning is the process of setting goals, defining strategies, and outlining tasks and resources needed to achieve organizational objectives.
What are the main components of planning?
- Setting Objectives
- Developing Strategies
- Allocating Resources
- Establishing Timelines
Define environmental scanning.
The screening of large amounts of information to anticipate and interpret changes in the environment.
What is competitor intelligence?
An environmental scanning activity by which organizations gather information about competitors.
What are the two types of forecasting techniques?
- Quantitative forecasting
- Qualitative forecasting
Define benchmarking.
The search for the best practices among competitors or non-competitors that lead to their superior performance.
What is a Gantt chart?
A scheduling chart developed by Henry Gantt that shows actual and planned output over a period of time.
What does PERT stand for?
Program Evaluation and Review Technique.
What is slack time in a PERT network?
The amount of time an individual activity can be delayed without delaying the whole project.
What is critical path in a PERT network?
The longest sequence of activities in a PERT network.
What is breakeven analysis?
A technique for identifying the point at which total revenue is just sufficient to cover total costs.
What is the first step in the decision-making process?
Identifying a problem and decision criteria and allocating weights to the criteria.
What defines structured problems?
Straightforward, familiar, and easily defined problems.
What are unstructured problems?
Problems that are new or unusual and for which information is ambiguous or incomplete.
What is the maximax decision-making approach?
The optimistic manager’s choice to maximize the maximum payoff.
What is the maximin decision-making approach?
The pessimistic manager’s choice to maximize the minimum payoff.
Fill in the blank: A _____ is an obstacle that makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal or purpose.
problem
What is a budget in the context of resource allocation?
A numerical plan for allocating resources to specific activities.
What is the purpose of scheduling?
Detailing what activities have to be done, the order in which they are to be completed, who is to do each, and when they are to be completed.
What does the decision-making process involve after selecting an alternative?
Putting the chosen alternative into action and evaluating the decision’s effectiveness.
What is qualitative forecasting?
Forecasting that uses the judgment and opinions of knowledgeable individuals to predict outcomes.
