The answer to the question of what is the most frequent activity performed by managers in a day on behalf of organizations may be decision-making. In many respects, organizational life is essentially made up of a series of decisions taken on the basis of certain practices and activities. The correct answer is B.

The M-form groups functions according to the specific demands of products, markets, or customers.

Contingency theorists were more interested in technical aspects of organizational environment, and they ignored societal influences. Resource dependency theory emphasized power relations in environment and importance of managing demands of multiple interest groups. Finally, population ecology theory explained environmental dynamics with the perspective of evolutionary biology. Internal factors were the concern of more traditional approaches to organizations. Choice (d) is the correct answer.

Non-programmed decision-making includes the most creative, original and unstructured decisions by which managers help organizations to produce solutions to changing and uncertain situations.2 Such decisions cannot be made in advance. No rule, procedure or written norms alone are sufficient to pre-determine how to make these decisions. Every situation, problem or solution is unique and emerges at its own particular time. There is a need for more comprehensive information to make such decisions. Greater coordination between departments of the organization is expected. There is also greater cooperation between departments. It is often impossible to know whether such decisions are correct. Managers make such decisions on the basis of their past experience and predictions. Therefore, this decision-making process is a process that requires managers to make decisions by relying on their intuition and creativity.

The tools used for the section process are portfolio management and value analysis. The correct option is E.

Routine (incremental) innovation is based on having the existing business model, exploiting the existing knowledge base and small improvements of existing products.

As the first author of these three, F. Taylor is the founder of scientific management.

Cognitive bias means a tendency to make irrational decisions about other people and situations. Cognitive biases are really common since they are produced by human nature. Habits, educational background, experience, business culture and similar components reflect cognitive bias of decision-maker in organizational decisions. Knowledge level and automatic behaviors of managers and routines are examples of cognitive biases in strategic decisions. Shortly, especially intuitional decisions made by managers are influenced by these biases. Many patterns for bias have been defined in the current literature. The most frequently encountered types of bias in organizational decisions are as follows.

Subculture is defined as groups sharing overall cultural values of the society but diverges from these groups by holding different values brought by their lifestyles, values, and norms.

There are six particularly important strategies of control in organizations. 
1. Personal centralized control
2. Bureaucratic control
3. Output control
4. Control through electronic surveillance,
5. HRM control 
6. Cultural control

Ouchi describes three types of organizations which are called Type J, Type A, and finally Type Z. As the names denote, Type J depicts features of the typical Japanese firm, on the other hand, Type A depicts characteristics of the average American firm. Type Z, offered by Ouchi, is the blended version of Type J and Type A in which suitable elements of Japanese firms are adapted to the US context. Table 8. 5 shows peculiar features of each type. Shortly, Ouchi describes an organization that can quickly adopt environmental changes while fulfilling employees’ needs. The characteristics of them are briefly listed below:

Type J:Lifetime employment - Consensual decision-making - Collective responsibility - Slow evaluation and promotion - Implicit, informal control - Non-specialized career path - Holistic concern

Type A:Short-term employment - Individual decision-making - Personal responsibility  - Rapid assessment and promotion - Explicit, formalized control -  Specialized career path - Segmented concern

Type Z: Long-term employment - Consensual decision - Individual responsibility -  Deliberate evaluation and promotion  - Inherent, informal control with explicit, formalized measures - Moderately specialized career path  -  Holistic concern, including family

The rational decision-making steps are listed below:

1. Define the problem
2. Determine the requirements that the solution to the problem must meet
    
3. Establish goals that solving the problem should accomplish
4. Identify alternatives that will solve the problem
5. Develop evaluation criteria based on goals
6. Select a decision-making tool
7. Apply the tool to select a preferred alternative
8. Check the answer to make sure it solves the problem

The correct option is C.

Among the options, B and C might belong to organization’s Inputs, while finished goods and value for stakeholders might belong to Organization’s Outputs. The correct answer is A since human skills and abilities is regarded as a factor in Organization’s Conversion Process.

The Behavioral School: The basic contribution of the behavioral school to the classical management theory is the emphasis on the informal aspects of organizations. While the classical management thought tackles the structural and physical design of organizations, the behavioral school focuses on human relations within organizations. The starting point of the behavioral school is the criticism that the classical school was not humanist and it regarded the human being as a machine, which makes it harder to increase productivity. So, choice (c) is the correct answer.

A reactor strategy is not really a strategy as firms inconsistently respond to the environment.

• No clear strategy with design characteristics for current needs

Competitive advantage is a firm’s ability to generate superior economic performance and outperform its competitor because managers are able to create more value and meet customer needs in the marketplace. There are five general categories of organizational resources and capabilities, which lead to competitive advantage:

Since the given case describes the firm’s good impression which will eventually lead to a good reputation and its relationships with stakeholders, choice (e) is the correct answer.