Brand equity, reputation, and intellectual property are examples of intangible resources.

Esteem needs can be internal such as self-respect and self-image, and extrinsic such as recognition and respect by others. Thus, managers can satisfy the extrinsic needs through visible symbols such as titles and nice physical conditions; intrinsic esteem needs through assigning challenging tasks or providing opportunities for accomplishment. The correct answer is B.

A business process denotes a sequential set of activities to accomplish a specific organizational goal. For example, the procurement process involves steps such as investigation of appropriate suppliers, selecting suppliers, negotiating with the suppliers regarding price, delivery, quality, placing the order, and receiving the order. In a typical business organization, there are many different processes such as product assembly, quality control, maintenance, accounting transactions, recruitment of human resources, procurement, and sales. Designing and managing the organizational and managerial processes in a way to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the organization is very critical. Processes having repetitive, unnecessary and illogical steps may cause longer work times, increased stress and conflicts, low performance and motivation levels among employees, losses in time and money, longer cycle times, longer delivery times, unsatisfied customers, and deteriorated financial positions. More and more, businesses are realizing the importance of processes for success in starting restructuring projects.

The norming stage is reached when conflict is resolved and agreements about the roles of members, values, and acceptable behaviors are reached. The team leader should emphasize unity and harmony within the team. The correct answer is C. 

Contingency models of leadership focus on the match between environmental factors and leader’s behaviors. Some of the factors examined are organizational goals, leader- employee relations, task structure, and position power. 

We can readily see in a production process such as an automobile assembly line where each worker works on only certain parts of a car (and not the whole car). Since workers concentrate on one small aspect of production, this helps them to be more efficient as their skills at performing those tasks tend to increase. Further, workers with different skill-levels can be assigned to work on parts of the tasks which match their particular skill levels. Since highly skilled workers are more expensive than unskilled workers, managers can assign sophisticated tasks to only highly skilled workers to avoid inefficient use of resources. Although the division of labor is advantageous, too much specialization leads to problems as the job tasks can become repetitive and boring. The correct answer is C. 

The root of the word of strategy is found in the Greek: strategia, which means “office or command of a general”. Strategia’s root is strategos, “general, commander of an army”, also the title of various civil officials and magistrates, which is composed of stratos, “multitude, army, expedition, encamped army”, and agos, “leader”.5 As we see from the etymology of the word, strategy relates to competition, leading, and achieving a particular goal. 

To control an organization effectively managers will need information about performance standards and also actual performance. To effectively control an organization, managers decide what information is essential, how they will obtain that information, and how they can respond to it. As you can imagine, getting the correct, accurate and timely data will be essential. Managers decide which standards, measurements, and metrics are needed to effectively monitor and control the organization.

Authority, responsibility and delegation are the key concepts of chain of command.

The more committed and competent subordinates are the more flexible and delegating the leadership style is.

Internal stakeholders are stockholders, board of directors, executive officers, other managers, and employees.

Planning is the process of determining where to go by doing what. Planning is intertwined with e effectiveness, which is defined as the achievement of organizational goals. In fact, the planning process involves determining those goals and how to reach them. After some time, if managers do not see any progress or any fulfillment then the need for changing plans arises.

The steps in managerial control are:

I- Setting performance standards

II- Measuring actual Performance

III- Comparing actual standards with the performance standards

IV- Taking corrective actions if necessary

Formalization refers to the use of written or computerized documents to describe and guide behavior and activities of employees.

A manager’s qualities are as follows:

• Tool is her/his legal authority
• Does things right
• Does the planned and required
• Complies with rules and regulations
• Assigned, formal, and impersonal
• Manages hierarchy
• Visible in the organization chart

Reward Power is based on a person’s ability to compensate another for compliance. Expert Power is based on a person’s skill and knowledge. Referent Power is based on a person’s perceived attractiveness, worthiness and a right to others’ respect. Coercive Power is based on the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance. Informational Power is based on a person’s ability to control the information that others need to accomplish something.

Another issue in designing organization structure is the span of control or span of management which refers to the number of employees directly supervised by a manager. The question is the appropriate number of subordinates each manager can efficiently and effectively manage in the hierarchy. To use human resources effectively, managers should manage as many employees as they can. However, if they supervise too many subordinates then they may lose part of their effectiveness. Therefore, managers should limit the size in order to maintain closer control. There is no magic number of how many employees a manager should supervise. In today’s organizations, the span of control is believed to be determined by various contingency variables. In other words, organizations, employees and situations are different therefore require different spans of control for managers. 

In a mass production setting for example, workers perform similar tasks and those tasks are simple. In this case, a supervisor can manage larger numbers of workers. However, a CEO of a large firm probably cannot effectively manage many top executives all at once as their work is complex and interrelated. Therefore, in general, a manager’s ability to directly control subordinates is limited by the complexity of tasks and the interrelatedness of the subordinates’ tasks.1

If the physical locations of subordinates are distant or if they need much coordination then the spans of control should be narrow. Also, when subordinates and/or supervisor are knowledgeable these factors would tend to widen the span of control. Managers can further implement some other forms of control within the company’s information systems used by employees in their jobs. This way, managers are able to widen the spans of control. For the same reason, the use of standard operating procedures would lead to a higher level of standardization of work activities and allow managers to supervise larger numbers of employees. 

Global integrationlocal responsiveness framework indicates that cost pressure often require global integration and local responsiveness press companies to adapt locally. In both domestic and international competition, pressures for cost reductions are almost universal. What is unique in international competition is the pressure for local responsiveness, which is reflected in different consumer preferences and host country demands. Consumer preferences vary extremely around the world.

A home replication strategy includes selling the same products in both domestic and foreign markets. It enables companies to leverage their home-based core competencies in foreign markets. A home replication strategy is either the first step companies take when beginning to conduct business abroad, or adopted by companies which own luxury brands.

A localization strategy requires maximizing local responsiveness hoping that local consumers will perceive the products as local ones. A localization strategy results from the combination of high pressure for local responsiveness and low pressure for cost reductions.

A global-standardization strategy is composed of achieving significant economies of scale and low cost inputs by pursuing a global division of labor based on wherever best-of-class capabilities reside at the lowest cost. This strategy results from the combination of high pressure for cost reductions and low pressure for local responsiveness.

A transnational strategy combines the benefits of a localization strategy (high local responsiveness) with those of a global-standardization strategy (lowest-cost position attainable). This strategy is generally used by companies that adopt an integration strategy at the business level by attempting to reconcile product differentiations at low cost. Moreover, global learning and diffusion of innovations (from home country to host countries and vice versa) are important elements of a transnational strategy.

According to the Ohio State studies,  consideration behavior is a form of people orientation and indicates the extent of concern for the relationships with subordinates and their feelings.

Human, financial, physical, and information are the main resources for a business. Thus, strategic is not a type of resource but can be considered as a quality of a business resource.