The advantages of effective delegation include which THREE of the following?

K has recently qualified as a chartered management accountant after seven years in the military serving as a front-line infantry officer. He thrives in difficult situations requiring decisive action, and is accustomed to giving orders to subordinates and having them obeyed immediately. 

He is known to give his staff big bonuses and hand out harsh punishments in equal measure.  Although not particularly well liked by his team and as yet not very experienced in accountancy, he is regarded as useful by the company directors as someone who will not back away from a difficult task.

Based on the French and Raven model, which are the sources of power that K draws upon in the course of his work.

Select ALL that apply.

Which THREE of the following are advantages of empowerment?

The Managing Director of a large golf complex is using Drucker's five questions to help develop a new strategy.

Which of the following statements does not answer one of Drucker's questions?

Identify ways in which an orgnisation can undertake qualitative research.

Select ALL that apply.

The Phase model of change, otherwise known as 'N step recipes for change', has come in for considerable criticism.

Which THREE of the following are common criticisms of this model of change?

In order to compete successfully Company A needs to change. It needs to become more innovative and generate new ideas to get ahead of the competition.

Which of the strategies below, relating to conflict management (Mainwaring 1991), would help Company A to achieve this?  

There are many implications for an organisation when using PRINCE 2 for managing projects. Which of the following statements are correct?

X is a manufacturing company that has achieved long term success by understanding the structure of its industry, and where necessary changing its strategy in order to achieve improved performance by outperforming its competitors.

Success has depended on the company exploiting the underlying economic factors (such as economies of scale) better than its competitors and maintaining this over time, so achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

Researchers would call this an "outside-in" approach to strategy, with the company choosing a strategy that responds to the challenges and changes posed by the external environment.

Which type of strategy is X adopting?

The advantages of embedding the finance function within the business unit include which THREE of the following?

Meredith Belbin carried out some notable research which concluded that successful teams need a good balance of complementary roles and personalities. His work concluded with the definition of nine distinctive roles that people adopt when working together in a team.

Applying this research, place the correct designated Belbin role label against the relevant personal characteristics.

A project manager is calculating the budget cost of a single project task called "Server Configuration".

This task is estimated to last 8 weeks and requires the full-time services of two software consultants, both for the entire duration of the task.

One consultant commands an inclusive rate of $400/day and the other $40/hour based on an eight hour day. Fixed hardware costs of $12,000 have also been estimated for the task.

Calculate the total budget cost for the task (ignoring any other resources or costs) - assuming a five day working week.

Give your answer as a whole number.

The total cost is $    .

A large firm of chartered accountants decide to outsource all its IT and network support services to a specialist IT service provider based in a neighbouring town. From the list below, which are potential outcomes to the firm as a result of this decision?

Select ALL that apply.

A Company is undertaking a project for the first time and has given the Finance Manager the task of managing the project. He has been advised to use PERT, as it will help him with his Critical Path Analysis (CPA).

What information will the calculation using PERT provide the Finance Manager with to use in his CPA?

According to Kotter's process of change, what is the purpose of building a guiding coalition?

Which of the following statements are not true about Gantt Charts, Resource Histograms and Work Breakdown Structures?

Select ALL that apply.

H is the owner of a motorcycle dealership in Los Angeles which provides sales, repair and servicing of very large motorcycles, typically with engines larger than 1000cc. Over the years H has built up a renowned team of highly skilled technicians that are experts in this particular size of motorcycle. H believes that their skills are rare and difficult, if not impossible, to imitate by any competitor in the region.

Despite this advantage the company has been suffering from declining profits in the past three years and the marketing consultant has advised H to change the focus of the company towards small 50cc mopeds and scooters - because that "is clearly what the market is now wanting".

The change being proposed is:

The manager of Company A has decided to upgrade the IT systems in 18 months time. Although the employees understand the need and benefits from the change there is still some resistance from fear of the unknown and a question mark over the security of their jobs.

Which TWO of the methods below for dealing with change are most appropriate under these circumstances?

Bob is the Finance Director of a manufacturing business selling luggage sucn as suitcases. He decides to undertake a business process re-engineering of the credit control function in order to achieve dramatic

improvements.

What wouldn't be classed as the main improvements bob expects to deliver?

Select ALL that apply.

Harvey Maylor defined four stages in the life cycle of a project. This became known as the 4D model.

Match the correct stage to each activity.

An organisation manufacturing cosmetics was set up five years ago and has since grown considerably.

The organisation did not have clear strategies and as such any approaches emerged. The directors feel a new way to strategy setting would be more appropriate; one that could offer a more thorough, intended, deliberate approach.

Which of the following is a suitable approach to developing strategy for this organisation?

Many companies use Critical Path Analysis (CPA) to manage projects.

Which TWO of the options below could be identified from a CPA diagram? 

A major innovation has occurred in the automotive industry. Wheels are now available which are guaranteed to not wear for at least five years.

Ben runs a chain of garages that sell new and second hand parts for cars, buses, trains and planes. His competitors are slow to react to the new innovation so Ben decides to follow an emergent approach to strategy.

Which of the following actions is Ben likely to take?

Select ALL that apply.

P is an experienced engineer and project manager that has just been appointed to manage a complex multi-million pound engineering project. It is the start-up stage of the project and nothing at all has been done so far except for the design work. No other team members have been appointed.

P decides to start by firstly decomposing the full scope of the project into a hierarchy of work packages.

Secondly P intends to create a structure showing the reporting relationships and communications channels for the entire project team.

Thirdly, P  plans to embark on a systematic process of identifying all the individual elements that comprise the total cost of the project in order to calculate a bottom-up budget.

Select the structures that P will adopt in the correct order.

A mission statement describes the organisation's basic function in society. Which of the following is NOT an element of a mission statement?

The PRINCE2 project management methodology has consistent principles governing roles, plans, processes and risks. Which TWO of the following statements are correct?

A project team is engaged in a risk assessment process prior to the execution of a major project. One risk is assessed to be of low impact but medium likelihood (probability). In these circumstances the appropriate response is:

Every project has constraints. When running a project it is critical that the constraints are known.

What are the primary constraints in a project?