Chapter 2: Strategic Management, Innovation and Leadership

Question 1

strategy (aka long-term planning)

These definitions vary by person and their outlook

Answer 1

a specific pattern of behaviour undertaken by upper-echelon leaders with power in order to accomplish organizational goals

Question 2

________ is therefore the essence of managerial activity

Answer 2

Strategy

Question 3

Strategic management

Answer 3

best defined as a continuous process that requires the constant adjustment of three major, interdependent poles:

1) the values of senior management,
2) the resources available,
3) and the environment

Question 4

the environment operates at two levels

Answer 4

One is the macro or societal environment that is external to an organization

The other is the micro or specific environment.

Question 5

macro environment

Answer 5

Forces that profoundly impact at the level of industry, and include the economy, demographics, politics, technological developments, national culture and ideologies

Question 6

micro environment

Answer 6

Forces that affect processes within the organization, and include local labour markets, suppliers, customers and specific technologies

Question 7

The distinction between macro and micro environments is _______

Answer 7

dynamic

Elements in the macro environment constantly penetrate into the micro environment, and affect an individual organization

Question 8

Strategic management process

Answer 8

Mission and goals
Environmental analysis
Strategic formulation
Strategy implementation
Strategy evaluation.

Question 9

Mission and goals

Answer 9

involves top hierarchical leaders evaluating their position in relation to the organization’s raison d’être (mission), which indicates the direction in which senior management is going and the outcomes the organization is trying to accomplish (goals).

Question 10

Environmental analysis

Answer 10

involves identifying various factors that might impact on the organization

Question 11

STEEPLE analysis

Answer 11

common tool for classifying macro environmental influences into seven categories

Question 12

Seven categories of STEEPLE analysis

Answer 12

socio-cultural, 
technological, 
economic, 
ecological, 
political, 
legal
ethical

Question 13

SWOT analysis

Answer 13

Micro environment: Strengths and weaknesses

Macro environment: Opportunities and threats

Question 14

PRIMO-F

Answer 14

People, 
Resources, 
Innovation, 
Marketing, 
Operations, 
Finance 
– framework

Question 15

Strategic formulation

Answer 15

involves upper-echelon leaders evaluating the interaction between strategic factors and making strategic choices that enable the organization to meet its business goals.

Question 16

Strategy implementation

Answer 16

an area of activity that focuses on the role of leadership, as implementation often involves the adaptation and development of a strategy, as well as gaining support and commitment from those who are expected to carry it out.

Question 17

Strategy evaluation

Answer 17

an activity that determines to what extent the actual change and performance match the desired change and performance

Question 18

Figure 2.2, consists of five parts:

Answer 18

(1) the external or macro environment,
(2) the internal or micro environment,
(3) a hierarchy of strategy,
(4) levels of leadership and
(5) corporate performance.

Question 19

1. The external or macro environment

Answer 19

Applies STEEPLE framework to illustrate

Question 20

Socio-cultural

Answer 20

factors include demographic trends, social mobility, levels of education, societal beliefs, customs, conventions, attitudes to paid work and values.

Question 21

Technology

Answer 21

defining feature of modernity

Technologies are intertwined with innovation; they are also complicit in the greatest challenges we face today

Question 22

Economic

Answer 22

Economic globalization underscores the need to examine the organization within its totality

Globalization impacts buyer–supplier and inter-organizational relationships, business cycles and unemployment

Question 23

Ecology

Answer 23

refers to the way human activities impact the natural world.
.
The science is clear: on current trends in global warming, humanity faces an ‘existential crisis’

Question 24

Politics

Answer 24

all levels of government impacting on work organizations, including fiscal policy, trade regulations, consumer protection, EU policies and directives, exchange rate policy, and geopolitical factors like military conflicts and cross-border terrorism.

Question 25

Legal

Answer 25

includes employment legislation, consumer protection laws, and occupational health and safety legislation

Question 26

Ethical

Answer 26

Ethical considerations reflect the growing concern for conducting business in an ethical way.

Question 27

(2) the internal or micro environment,

Answer 27

The regular, patterned nature of work-related activities, technology and processes that is repeated day in and day out in the organization.

can be analysed through a PRIMO-F model

Question 28

3. A hierarchy of strategy

Answer 28

Conventional wisdom identifies a hierarchy of strategy: corporate, business and functional

They added a fourth: TEAM

Question 29

Corporate-level strategy

Answer 29

Describes an organization’s overall direction in terms of its general philosophy towards the growth and the management of its various operating units

Question 30

Corporate-level strategy involves at least four types of leadership initiative:

Answer 30

1) establishing investment priorities;
2) initiating actions to improve the performance of those business units;
3) finding ways to improve the synergy between related business units;
4) making decisions dealing with diversification.

Question 31

Business-level strategy

Answer 31

deals with decisions and actions pertaining to each business unit, the main objective being to make the unit more competitive, or in non-profit organizations to improve or maintain services at reduced costs.

This level of strategy addresses the question ‘How do we compete?’.

Question 32

Functional-level strategy

Answer 32

relates to the major functional operations within the business unit, including R&D, marketing, manufacturing, finance and HR.

Primarily concerned with maximizing resource productivity and addresses the question ‘How do we support the business-level strategy?’.

Question 33

Team-level strategy

Answer 33

relates to unit or team operations and activities within major functional operations and is typically concerned with implementing the functional strategy and addresses the question ‘How do we support the functional-level strategy?’.

Question 34

4. Levels of organizational leadership

Answer 34

Vertical levels of leadership in the organization, from executive to first-order, second-order and team leadership

Different levels of leadership match this hierarchy of decision making.

Question 35

5. Organizational performance

Answer 35

‘Do certain leadership behaviours actually improve and sustain performance outcomes at the individual, group, and organizational levels?’

Question 36

Innovation

Answer 36

defined as the process of coming up with good new ideas and making them work technically and commercially

only counts as innovation if it produces something that ultimately will be sold to customers, or, in the public sector, that will result in ‘more for less’

Question 37

Incremental innovations

Answer 37

improve existing goods, services, processes and management practices, techniques and structures: a more efficient vacuum

Question 38

Breakthrough innovations

Answer 38

enable organizations to ‘do things differently’. Breakthrough innovations introduce wholly new products and services, such as the iPhone

Question 39

The OECD identifies two main types of innovation:

Answer 39

Product innovation:

Process innovation:

Question 40

Product innovation:

Answer 40

the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses. This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.

Question 41

Process innovation:

Answer 41

the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in management practices, techniques, equipment and/or software.

Question 42

Disruptive innovation

Answer 42

occurs when a company – usually smaller and with fewer resources than the market leaders – is able to enter a market and mount a successful challenge to those who have dominated it.

Question 43

Enablers of innovation within an organization

Answer 43

include the available human knowledge and resources, positive innovation strategies, organizational cultures and practices that encourage and facilitate creativity and innovation and leadership

Question 44

Organizational creativity

Answer 44

the generation of ideas that are both novel and useful

Question 45

Three main factors contribute to individual or small team creativity:

Answer 45

expertise, creative-thinking skills, and intrinsic motivation

Question 46

The main factors within the wider work environment that influence employee creativity are:

Answer 46

managerial and supervisory direction and encouragement, the organizational ambition to innovate, and the availability of resources

Question 47

Innovation involves a number of different processes:

Answer 47

creative thinking and action in order to produce new ideas; evaluation of the outcomes of this creative thinking and making decisions about whether to proceed and, if so, how; and development and implementation of the ideas so that they become innovations that are technically and commercially viable

Question 48

Stages of the innovation process

Answer 48

Creative ideas, selection and development, implementing, marketing

Question 49

Followership

Answer 49

refers to the behaviours of followers, which emerges from the leader–follower influence relationship

Question 50

ambidexterity

Answer 50

Maintaining a balance between exploration and exploitation

Question 51

Evaluation and Criticism of the core concepts and strategic decision-making process

Answer 51

1) neoliberalism is more than just an economic system
2) the research and narrative to be power blind
3) tendency to fetishize the role of charismatic leaders in enabling innovation, while the mediating effect of employees with creativity or the state is ignored or downplayed.

Question 52

corporate ideology

Answer 52

the major beliefs and values expressed by upper-echelon leaders that provide leaders and followers with a frame of reference for decision making and action