Planning and Decision Making

Planning is ultimately based upon:

• how a planner deals with bounded rationality
• choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal
• the relationship between organisational line and staff personnel
• whether the mission statement is internally or externally oriented

The last step in effective planning is to:

• maintain flexibility in planning
• develop long-term action plans
• develop goal commitment
• acculturate the employees

The most popular approach to increasing goal commitment is:

• encouraging workers’ participation in goal setting
• making goals public
• getting top management’s support
• assigning realistic and attainable goals

What part of SMART is missing from this goal? I will improve my grade in science by the end of the semester.

• Not time-bound
• Not attainable
• Not specific enough
• Not measurable

A(n) _________ lists the specific steps, people, resources and time period for accomplishing a goal.

• strategy

• proximal goal

• distal goal

• action plan

An accepted method for tracking progress toward goal achievement is to

• set response and stimulus goals

• gather and provide performance feedback

• use operant and classical conditioning

• use mechanistic and dynamic feedback

________ can help organisations to maintain flexibility as they plan.

• Environmental munificence

• Options-based planning

• Formalisation

• Liaisons

________ is the process of choosing a solution from available alternatives.

• Decision making

• Problem identification

• Heuristics

• Multivariable selection

A ________ exists when there is a gap between a desired state (what managers want) and an existing state (the situation that the managers are facing).

• service gap

• benchmark

• condition of uncertainty

• problem

Which of the following is one of the six steps in the rational decision-making process?

• choose a minimally acceptable alternative solution

• evaluate the effectiveness of the decision

• weight the criteria

• introduce the decision to those who will be impacted by it