MGT 550 Week 4 Chapter 4 Quiz

An increase in the complexity and uncertainty in the external environment increases the number of positions and departments within an organization.

An intelligence team is a cross-functional group of managers and employees, usually led by a competitive intelligence professional.

Resource dependence means that organizations depend on the environment but strive to acquire control over resources to minimize their dependence.

A first response for many organizations faced with declining financial resources is to hire employees and increase production.

To maintain autonomy, organizations that already have abundant financial resources will develop links with other organizations.

Boundary spanners prevent an organization from stagnating by keeping top managers informed about environmental changes.

Soft drink bottlers function in the complex, unstable organizational environment.

A merger involves the purchase of one organization by another so that the buyer assumes control.

In organizations characterized by very simple, stable environments, almost no managers are assigned to integration roles.

Advertising is of great importance only in companies that face less competition and have low sales.

Uncertainty means that decision makers do not have sufficient information about environmental factors.

Contracts and joint ventures increase uncertainty as there is no legal relation involved.

Cooptation occurs when leaders from important sectors in the environment are made part of an organization.

The raw materials sector is included within the task environment.

In rapidly changing environments, the internal organization was much looser, free-flowing, and adaptive, with a loose hierarchy and decentralized decision making.

The greatest uncertainty for an organization occurs in the complex, stable environment.

Contracts can provide long-term security by tying customers and suppliers to specific amounts and prices.

One outcome of high organizational differentiation is that coordination and collaboration among departments become difficult.

Environmental complexity refers to heterogeneity, or the number and dissimilarity of external elements that affect an organization’s operations.

Greater information uncertainty is resolved through greater structural flexibility.