ACCA F4 flashcards – set 2

• A post-project review. This is about the project.
• A post-implementation review. This is about what the project achieved.

The expected time is:       (o + 4m + p)/6

25 weeks.

The critical path is the longest way through a pathway.

It breaks down a large project into separate tasks and for each task defines:

• The task name and its description
• The cost budget
• The duration of the task and start/end dates
• The person responsible

This is what the project will do and accomplish. What are its deliverables? Scope should be decided in detail before projects are started.

• Observable
• Measurable
• Quantifiable
• Financial

• Financial (cost v benefit)
• Technical (will it work?)
• Operational (will it help with operations?)
• Social (will it be acceptable to staff, customers etc)

• Transfer
• Avoid
• Reduce
• Accept

(or the 4Ts: transfer, terminate, treat, tolerate)

• Non-routine with specific start and end points
• Address novel and unique challenges
• Project teams often composed of disparate individuals
• Usually no benefit until the project is successfully completed.

• Assertiveness
• Co-operation

Negotiation

• Inappropriate language
• Status
• Emotion
• Wrong medium
• Not wanting to transmit/receive
• Information overload

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Dorming

A plant

A completer/finisher

• A sense of purpose; an aim
• An identity
• Group norms
• Communication between members

• Artifacts
• Espoused values
• Underlying assumptions

• Power
• Role
• Task
• Person

• Organisational assumptions/paradigm
• Symbols and titles
• Power relations
• Organisational structure
• Control systems
• Rituals and routines
• Myths and stories

Employees’ departments’ objectives are agreed and set. Then management takes a relatively hands-off approach thus allowing employees to decide how best to meet the objectives.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-limited

Job enrichment is a vertical change. It gives people more responsibility and more challenge in their job.

• Intrinsic rewards come from within – a feeling of achievement, challenge, personal advancement, self-fulfilment.
• Extrinsic rewards come from outside. Typically, they would be pay, praise and recognition

Theory X: strict; does not trust employees; watches employees very carefully.

Theory Y: believes employees want to do well and that they are enthusiastic. A much higher level of trust between manager and staff.

McGregor

• Reinstatement in the original job
• Re-engagement in a similar job
• Damages

• Retirement
• Resignation
• Dismissal

False: employees have responsibilities too.

A means of dispute resolution that can be used by a company to address complaints by employees, suppliers, customers, and/or competitors.

Gross misconduct

• For example, a job advert saying ‘Salesman required’ would be direct sex discrimination.
• For example, a job advert saying ‘Sales representative requires: must be over 2m tall and have a large black beard’ would be indirect sex discrimination because the requirements favour male candidates.
• This is where an employee is treated less favourably because he or she took legal action against the employer.

• Confrontation
• Judgement
• Chat
• Bureaucracy
• Event
• Unfinished business

An employee is appraised by his/her superior and by colleagues. The employee also appraises the superior.

• Formal courses
• Coaching
• Mentoring

Delegation is the transfer of authority.

It is not the transfer of responsibility.

Responsibility = accountability = ‘the buck stops here’

Authority is the right to exercise power.

Power is the ability to influence people or events. It can arise from:

• Rational-legal
• Coercion
• Rewards
• Knowledge
• Charisma

• Leadership style – that’s the leader’s own attributes, and the leader can either be psychologically close or psychologically distant.
• Situational favourableness, the degree to which a situation gives the leader control and influence.

• Leader
• Subordinate
• Task
• Environment

• Concern for individuals
• Concern for the task
• Concern for the group

• Concern for people
• Concern for the task

• Tells
• Sells
• Consults
• Joins with

• Interpersonal roles (figurehead, liaison, leader)
• Information processing roles (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson)
• Decisional roles (improver/changer. Disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator)

• Setting objectives
• Organising the group
• Motivating and communicating
• Measuring performance
• Developing people

Elton Mayo

Frederick Taylor

• Planning
• Organising
• Commanding
• Coordinating
• Controlling

• “Getting things done through other people”
• “A social arrangement with a controlled performance of collective goals”

• Customer-centric
• Extra-frugal
• Data-powered
• Skynet
• Open and liquid

• Build
• Buy
• Partner
• Invest
• Incubate/accelerate

• Volatile
• Uncertain
• Complex
• Ambiguous

Strategic drift occurs when the strategy of a business is no longer relevant to the external environment it faces.

• Cost model
• Revenue model
• Sharing residual value

• Power
• Legitimacy
• Interest
• Urgency

Any party affected by (or affecting) an organisation.

1. Defining value: understand what customers need and want.
2. Create a matching product or service must then be created: the solution to customer requirements.
3. Delivering the goods or services. It is only upon delivery that customers finally enjoy the value created.
4. Capturing value (getting paid).

An ecosystem

• Competitors/rivals
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Potential entrants
• Substitutes

A framework for listing macro-environmental influences:

• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Environment/ecological
• Legal

Core business, extended enterprise

A business ecosystem