For most business organizations long-term planning has a time horizon that is more than 3 years, whereas short-term planning is done for a period less than a year.

Making a decision does not necessarily guarantee its implementation. The main reason for that is resistance. Resistance to implement a decision can stem from the fact that the implementer of the decision did not take or was not given any part in making the decision. The more change is involved with the decision, the more resistance will come out. This is a natural human reaction. Moreover, the decision-making process does not end with implementation, because there is the possibility of not realizing expected results. The correct answer is D. 

Weber identified the basic principles of his theory of ideal bureaucracy as well as the advantages of these principles for the organization. Principles and advantages of Weber’s ideal bureaucracy are as follows:

• Division of labor
• Authority of hierarchy ?
• Formal selection ?
• Career orientation ?
• Formal framework of rules
• Impersonality ?

The general environment includes those factors that might not have a direct impact on the daily operations of a firm but will indirectly influence it.

In incremental budgeting the previous period’s budget is used as a starting point for the new budget of the upcoming period. A number of increases are made on the previous term’s budget like inflationary and salary increases. Sometimes, the previous period’s budget is increased by a certain amount of money or a predetermined percentage. Incremental budgeting is relatively easy to implement but it has some limitations.

Political forces are among the major factors that shape the competitive structure in an economy.

Effectiveness  shows an
organization’s performance in achieving pre-set
goals.

Efficiency is mainly about how organization uses its valuable resources.

Since 1990s, the world economy has gone through two major unanticipated financial crises:8 one originating from and contained in Asia and the other originating from the United States but impacting the world. The correct answer is Choice D.

Sources of capital are among the financial resources.

The sociocultural component is concerned with societal and cultural factors such as values, attitudes, trends, traditions, lifestyles, beliefs, tastes, and patterns of behavior. Sociocultural factors are shaped by national culture, religion, education, and ethnic elements. Business managers should understand and consider different life styles, values, and norms of the consumers they serve.

Corporate social responsibility is the idea that firms have obligations to society beyond their economic obligations to owners or stockholders and beyond those prescribed by law or contract. Corporate social performance is the extent to which a firm answers to the demands of its stakeholders to behave in a socially responsible way.

Feedforward control

The second and third executives are right about the strong organizational cultures, but the first executive not. Because a strong culture also might prevent employees from trying new approaches especially when conditions are changing rapidly.

High-level managers deal with long-term planning, whereas low-level managers plan for the short term. However, this does not necessarily mean that middle-level managers do not deal with long- or short-term planning, or low-level managers do not deal with medium-term planning. In fact, they do. Even though the time horizons for long-term and short-term might change from one sector to the other and from one company to the other, for most business organizations long-term planning has a time horizon that is more than 3 years, whereas short-term planning is done for a period less than a year. For medium-term planning, which is dealt with by the middle management, it is more than a year- 3 years. The correct answer is Choice E.

The stakeholder viewpoint contends that firms must be responsible for the quality of life of the many groups affected by the firm’s actions. The correct answer is A.

Structural changes denote the changes that significantly effect the dynamics of the economy now and in the future.

• In strong cultures:
• Values widely shared
• Culture conveys consistent messages about what’s important
• Most employees can tell stories about company history or heroes
• Employees strongly identify with culture
• Strong connection between shared values and behaviors

On the other hand, in weak cultures:

• Values limited to a few people—usually top management
• Culture sends contradictory messages about what’s important
• Employees have little knowledge of company history or heroes
• Employees have little identification with culture
• Little connection between shared values and behaviors

Tactical plans translate strategic plans into specific goals for specific parts of the organization. They specify how the organization’s resources can be used to put strategies into action. Tactical plans in business often take the form of functional plans that indicate how different operations within the organization will contribute to the overall strategy. Such functional plans might include:

Production plans (deal with work methods and technologies)

Logistics plans (deal with suppliers and acquiring resources) ?

Financial plans (deal with money and capital investments) ?

Marketing plans (deal with selling and distributing goods or services) ?

Human resource plans (deal with building a talented workforce)

Decisions about critical issues such as which departments are needed is a part of Organizing Function.