Organization and Administrative Theory Questionnaire

Tim Horton’s
The following questions refer to description of Tim Horton’s on pages 89-90 (4th edition) or 51and 52
(3rd edition) of the Daft and Armstrong textbook.
1) Which of Porter’s competitive strategies does Tim Horton’s pursue?
a. Broad low-cost leadership
b. Broad differentiation
c. Focused low-cost leadership
d. Focused differentiation
2) Which of Miles and Snow’s strategies best describes Tim Horton’s strategy?
a. Prospector
b. Defender
c. Analyzer
d. Reactor
3) Based on the description provided in the case, which of the following best describes Tim
Horton’s environment?
a. Simple and stable
b. Simple and unstable
c. Complex and stable
d. Complex and unstable
4) Given the level of uncertainty in Tim Horton’s environment, the company would be best served
by:
a. A mechanistic structure, few departments, no integrating roles, current operations
orientation
b. A mechanistic structure, many departments, few integrating roles, some planning
c. An organic structure, few departments, few integrating roles, planning orientation
d. An organic structure, many departments, many integrating roles, extensive planning
5) The sporting sponsorships mentioned in the case are an example of what tactic for controlling
the environment?
a. Ownership
b. Strategic alliance
c. Cooptation
d. Advertising and public relations
6) Tim Horton’s regularly experiments with their menu. Which of Mintzberg’s five organizational
parts would be responsible for experimenting with products?
a. Top Management
b. Administrative support staff
c. Technical support staff
d. Technical core
7) Tim Horton’s restaurants all look the same and are run similarly. This provides the organization
with the benefit of:
a. Economies of scale
b. Flexibility to respond to a changing environment
c. Improved quality of life for employees
d. Directing employees’ attention toward the customer
8) Tim Horton’s branding strongly aligns the company with traditional Canadian cultural values and
hobbies, but Canada is becoming more and more diverse as a result of immigration. This
represents a potential threat to the appeal of their brand from which sector of the general
environment?
a. Industry
b. Human resources
c. Market
d. Sociocultural
9) The case refers to McDonald’s challenging Tim Horton’s by aggressively trying to position itself
as a café offering coffee and pastries in addition to its traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner
menu. According to resource dependence, this is an example of McDonald’s trying to use which
strategy?
a. Cooptation
b. Change their domain
c. Advertising and public relations
d. Ownership
10) The first sentence of the case suggests that Tim Horton’s has “taken hold of everyday lives of
Canadians,” which means that the environment has selected and retained Tim Horton’s. Which
model of interorganizational relationships describes this process?
a. Resource dependence
b. Collaborative network
c. Population ecology
d. Institutionalism
Tim Horton’s
The following questions refer to description of Tim Horton’s pages 89-90 (4th edition) or 51and 52
(3rd edition) of the Daft and Armstrong textbook.
Which of Porter’s competitive strategies does Tim Horton’s pursue?
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
a. Broad low-cost leadership
b. Broad differentiation
c. Focused low-cost leadership
d. Focused differentiation
Which of Miles and Snow’s strategies best describes Tim Horton’s strategy?
a. Prospector
b. Defender
c. Analyzer
d. Reactor
Based on the description provided in the case, which of the following best describes Tim
Horton’s environment?
a. Simple and stable
b. Simple and unstable
c. Complex and stable
d. Complex and unstable
Given the level of uncertainty in Tim Horton’s environment, the company would be best served
by:
a. A mechanistic structure, few departments, no integrating roles, current operations
orientation
b. A mechanistic structure, many departments, few integrating roles, some planning
c. An organic structure, few departments, few integrating roles, planning orientation
d. An organic structure, many departments, many integrating roles, extensive planning
The sporting sponsorships mentioned in the case are an example of what tactic for controlling
the environment?
a. Ownership
b. Strategic alliance
c. Cooptation
d. Advertising and public relations
Tim Horton’s regularly experiments with their menu. Which of Mintzberg’s five organizational
parts would be responsible for experimenting with products?
a. Top Management
b. Administrative support staff
c. Technical support staff
d. Technical core
Tim Horton’s restaurants all look the same and are run similarly. This provides the organization
with the benefit of:
a. Economies of scale
1
b. Flexibility to respond to a changing environment
c. Improved quality of life for employees
d. Directing employees’ attention toward the customer
8) Tim Horton’s branding strongly aligns the company with traditional Canadian cultural values and
hobbies, but Canada is becoming more and more diverse as a result of immigration. This
represents a potential threat to the appeal of their brand from which sector of the general
environment?
a. Industry
b. Human resources
c. Market
d. Sociocultural
9) The case refers to McDonald’s challenging Tim Horton’s by aggressively trying to position itself
as a café offering coffee and pastries in addition to its traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner
menu. According to resource dependence, this is an example of McDonald’s trying to use which
strategy?
a. Cooptation
b. Change their domain
c. Advertising and public relations
d. Ownership
10) The first sentence of the case suggests that Tim Horton’s has “taken hold of everyday lives of
Canadians,” which means that the environment has selected and retained Tim Horton’s. Which
model of interorganizational relationships describes this process?
a. Resource dependence
b. Collaborative network
c. Population ecology
d. Institutionalism
2
Rose Co.
It was the quest to find a unique gift that led Suzy Susan to start Rose Co., an online
store launched four years ago that can put your favourite photos on just about anything,
from the standard coffee mugs and blankets to a plethora of more unexpected items
that you won’t find anywhere else like lamp shades, umbrellas, and socks. But it was
feedback from an early customer that gave Rose Co. a sense of purpose. “Just received
my new placemats showing the view from the deck at my cottage. Beautiful! I’m going to
treasure these like a family heirloom!” wrote Mary from Napanee on the company’s
Facebook page. Susan recounts, “It was that single comment that made me realize that
maybe if people’s things had treasured photos on them – their grandmother, their dog,
that photo from that amazing concert – maybe they’d be less likely to throw it away and
more likely to take care of it, to mend the socks instead of ditching them for a new pair.
And so maybe our little business could be helping to keep this stuff out of the landfills.”
When dealing with novelty products—an industry that has just a few important
elements but is notoriously fast-paced and unpredictable – you’ve got your work cut out
for you. “Setting up the manufacturing capability was actually pretty straightforward,”
noted Keisha Gordon, one of Rose Co.’s earliest employees and current Vice President.
“We partnered with a market research firm in the beginning to determine what kind of
products customers would be into, because we didn’t necessarily have that expertise. In
the end, we decided to focus on folks we lovingly call “Quirks” – the people that love
second-hand stores and making things themselves. Once we had that clear vision,
everything followed from that.”
With multiple product lines, and the need to be as cost-efficient as possible, the
company has chosen to hire managers to lead the functional roles like customer service,
HR, manufacturing, operations, accounting, and finance, while also having managers that
oversee each product. Cross-departmental collaboration is key to ensure that every team
is on the same page, which means that each manager has to be in constant contact with
every team that reports to them and has to also coordinate with each product manager
that oversees one of their teams.
At Rose Co., there’s a belief that open and honest feedback is crucial for the company’s
success, and so everyone, no matter their place in the hierarchy, is expected to give – and
receive – candid feedback from colleagues. When it comes to measuring organizational
success, the company primarily tracks sales figures, customer satisfaction ratings, and
profit. “We live and die by those numbers,” Gordon notes. When it comes to
performance evaluation and rewards for individual employees, managers are asked to
track employee performance using the 360-degree formalized feedback system.
With a few competitors but no single market leader, Susan believes that there is also
room to take risks. “We are trying to stand out in the minds of consumers and are always
looking for ways to take our business further.” The company is planning a tentative next
step is to get into the B2B space —to be the one supplying the logo-emblazoned swag
that companies give away as promotional items. Though the products may be similar,
Rose Co.’s leadership knows corporate customers will be a whole different picture. To
ease this transition, they’ve recently hired Milo French, who spent ten years working at
global advertising agency Monarch and has worked with some of the world’s largest
companies. The challenge will be carrying over their philosophy of reducing waste. A
separate innovation and product research department has been established to
spearhead the design and creation of these new products. “Can we come up with a way
to make corporate swag that people would want to treasure for years to come? It’s a
problem,” notes Susan. “But one that our people are passionate about solving. It’s the
next step in our mission.”
Goldman Sachs
Based on an article by Jen Wieczner published November 14, 2019 on Fortune.com. Edited
for instructional purposes.
In October 2019, Goldman Sachs celebrated its 150th birthday; it’s the oldest of the big
Wall Street banks to still operate under its original name. One year earlier, in October
2018, David Solomon was promoted to CEO. Solomon inherited an organization with a
storied history, but one that has also been implicated in scandals that have taken a
significant financial toll on the firm and jeopardized its reputation. He faces the
additional challenges of trying to jump-start revenue growth and adapt to new market
realities.
Over the last decade, volatility in stock markets and exchange rates around the world has
dampened profits at the bank. Market-making in assets like bonds and commodities has
shrank from 72% of the firm’s net revenues in 2009 down to just 37% in 2018, largely as
a result of greater instability.
In response, Goldman has been forging into new businesses the firm had previously
overlooked, from large-scale quant trading and managing corporate payments to being
banker to less wealthy consumers and doing deals with smaller companies. Goldman
also recently ventured into new territory with a partnership with Apple to produce a
credit card that works seamlessly with iPhones, a marriage of cool technology and sober
financial system know-how. The partnership grew out of an initiative in Goldman’s
consumer retail bank named “Marcus” which launched in 2016. Goldman had never
considered itself a retail bank, even after changes to banking regulations during the
financial-crisis allowed it to become one. Marcus has been growing at a significant pace,
and Goldman is now aiming to double its share of the retail banking market by 2022.
Solomon inherited a bank that was structured so that each business line, such as Equities
Sales, Investment Banking, and Asset Management, operated independently from one
another. Upon becoming CEO, he sent out a memo to all employees announcing a new
cross-division initiative that would see the creation of new positions tasked with
coordinating across multiple divisions to have a more integrated approach to serving
clients that use multiple services such as Securities, Investment Banking, Investment
Management and Merchant Banking. He declared that there would be “One Goldman
Sachs” and said that the firm would align the incentive system and culture “to maximize
our ability to address our clients’ priorities effectively and efficiently.”
When it comes to their existing businesses, Solomon needs to squeeze more efficiency
from the firm—and that may mean people will have to work harder to earn the
paychecks that have made Goldman’s upper echelons enormously wealthy. Solomon
turned Goldman’s investment banking playbook on itself, running the kind of front-toback review it has done for innumerable clients to achieve productivity, efficiency and
profit. Solomon has green-lit more automated trading and the consolidation of back-end
operations, which is expected to shave off some jobs. He also merged Goldman’s high-
net-worth and consumer businesses, with the aim of serving both sets of customers with
a single web platform.
Solomon is also trying to shake up the old culture and instill a more entrepreneurial
mindset that will lead to greater innovation and creativity by employees. In March, he
tore up the firm’s dress code, a 35-page dossier with outdated stipulations about suits,
ties, and shoe color. He insists that visiting colleagues bypass two layers of receptionists
and knock directly on his door. At a firm that has for decades primarily communicated
with its 38,000 employees via mass voicemail, Solomon asked his staff to find a way to
convene a global all-hands open town hall in Goldman headquarters. Moving forward,
Solomon says that he will focus on assessing growth and resource acquisition to make
sure that the firm is well-positioned to achieve its goals.
It all adds up to a pivotal moment for Goldman Sachs, and Solomon will help determine
whether the firm leads again or fades out of relevance.

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