DBA Doctor of Business Administration/Business Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which organizational structure gives functional managers authority over resources while project managers coordinate work across functions?
- Pure project structure
- Matrix structure (Correct answer)
- Flat hierarchy
- Divisional structure
Correct answer: Matrix structure
A matrix structure shares authority between functional and project managers, enabling resource flexibility but creating dual-reporting complexity.
Question 2: In Porter's Five Forces model, which force is most directly reduced when a company achieves high customer switching costs?
- Threat of new entrants
- Bargaining power of suppliers
- Bargaining power of buyers (Correct answer)
- Threat of substitutes
Correct answer: Bargaining power of buyers
High switching costs reduce buyers' bargaining power because customers face significant costs or effort when changing to a competitor.
Question 3: A company's WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) is best described as:
- The return required by equity holders only
- The blended required return across all capital sources weighted by market value (Correct answer)
- The interest rate on the firm's most recent debt issuance
- The dividend yield on common stock
Correct answer: The blended required return across all capital sources weighted by market value
WACC weights the cost of each capital component (debt, equity, preferred) by its proportion of total market-value capital.
Question 4: Which decision-making framework explicitly maps decisions by their certainty of outcomes and agreement on goals?
- Rational decision model
- Cynefin framework (Correct answer)
- Bounded rationality model
- Vroom-Yetton model
Correct answer: Cynefin framework
The Cynefin framework categorizes decision contexts as simple, complicated, complex, or chaotic based on cause-effect clarity and consensus.
Question 5: In operations management, 'takt time' is defined as:
- The time required to complete one production cycle
- Available production time divided by customer demand rate (Correct answer)
- The bottleneck cycle time in a process
- Total setup time plus run time per unit
Correct answer: Available production time divided by customer demand rate
Takt time sets the production rhythm by dividing available work time by units demanded, aligning output to customer pull.
Question 6: Which leadership theory proposes that effective leadership style should vary based on followers' competence and commitment levels?
- Transformational leadership
- Situational leadership theory (Correct answer)
- Path-goal theory
- Leader-member exchange theory
Correct answer: Situational leadership theory
Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model prescribes directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating based on follower development level.
Question 7: A firm pursues a 'blue ocean strategy' when it:
- Competes aggressively on price in saturated markets
- Creates uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant (Correct answer)
- Acquires competitors to consolidate market share
- Focuses narrowly on the most profitable customer segment
Correct answer: Creates uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant
Blue ocean strategy, developed by Kim and Mauborgne, emphasizes value innovation to open new demand rather than fighting in overcrowded markets.
DBA Doctor of Business Administration/Business Management 2
Which organizational structure gives functional managers authority over resources while project managers coordinate work across functions?