Exam 12: Strategic Leadership

When a new CEO is selected from outside the firm, a change of strategy is likely, especially if the top management team is homogenous and highly cohesive.

Incremental changes to a firm's culture can be used to implement strategies effectively.

To influence employees' judgment and behavior, ethical practices must shape the firm's decision-making process, but should be a peripheral part of organizational culture.

Actions that effective strategic leaders can take to develop an ethical organizational culture include all of the following EXCEPT:

Criteria such as asset utilization improvements and changes in employee turnover rates are part of the internal business processes perspective of the balanced scorecard.

Executive headhunters have approached Charles about taking the position of senior vice president of marketing for a well-known company. Although this company has been highly successful since 1995, Charles has heard persistent rumors of overly aggressive marketing tactics, questionable reporting of sales data, and an atmosphere of intolerance of criticism. The CEO is a powerful and charismatic individual, who built the company from a small regional firm to an international powerhouse in only a decade. The other top managers have been hand-picked by the CEO, as have a number of the members of the Board of Directors. The salary for this position is very high and includes generous stock options. It would be a major step up in Charles's career and would position him to move to CEO of another company in the future. Charles has prided himself on his high moral values and is viewed as an exceptionally ethical person by his peers. What should Charles do?

The firm of Bergeron has existed for hundreds of years, having made exquisite clocks and watches. In its advertising it refers to clocks the firm made for such past royalty as Marie Antoinette and the Czars of Russia. Employees are constantly reminded of the firm's rich history and its long tradition of excellence of design and execution. Bergeron is motivating its employees through its:

The most critical ability of a strategic leader is the ability to attract and then manage human capital.

Compared to homogeneous top management teams, heterogeneous top management teams with an internally promoted CEO are more likely to change their firm's strategies when necessary and to support innovation.

Rewarding those who use proper channels and procedures to report observed wrongdoings is an example of an action that should be taken by a strategic leader to develop an ethical organizational culture.

A CEO gains power from all of the following circumstances EXCEPT:

Strategic control focuses on the content of strategic actions rather than their outcomes.

Human capital refers to:

Strategic control focuses on the ________ of strategic actions, whereas financial controls focus on the _____ of strategic actions.

The ability to attract and manage ____ may be the most important skill a strategic leader must have.

As a strategic leader, what actions could you take to establish and emphasize ethical practices in your firm?

Strategic leaders are most likely to integrate ethical values into their decisions when the company has explicit ethics codes that are integrated into the business through extensive ethics training.

GM's previous CEO, Dan Akerson, was building new capabilities in technology development and marketing, especially in customer service. This is an example of a CEO developing capabilities into core competencies.

The more heterogeneous and the larger the top management team, the easier it is to implement strategy effectively.

In the balanced scorecard framework, ____ controls are used to assess the organization's success in creating a climate that supports change and innovation.