Principles-of-Management WGU Principles of Management at Western Governors University(IAC1) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

Religious preference inappropriately affects decision making when a real estate agent uses her religious background as a basis for accepting bids on property that is for sale. This situation reflects discrimination and bias, as decisions are being influenced by personal religious beliefs rather than objective criteria. Such actions can lead to unethical practices and violate principles of fair treatment and equality​​.

When a company does something especially well in comparison to its competitors, this is evident through its core capabilities. Core capabilities refer to a firm's resources and skills that are fundamental to its business and competitive advantage. These capabilities enable the firm to differentiate itself from competitors, achieve better performance, and maintain a strong market position​​.

The purpose of value chain analysis is to enable a company to understand the various activities involved in producing and delivering a product or service and to identify opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. The concept of the value chain was introduced by Michael Porter and involves examining all activities a firm performs and how they interact to create a competitive advantage.

Definition and Purpose:

A value chain describes the series of activities that an organization carries out to create value for its customers.

The primary purpose is to systematically identify and analyze these activities to understand where value is added to the final product or service, which can then be leveraged to gain a competitive advantage​​.

Components of Value Chain:

Primary Activities: These include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and services. Each of these activities adds value directly to the production and delivery of the product.

Support Activities: These include procurement, technology development, human resource management, and firm infrastructure. These activities support the primary activities and add value indirectly​​.

Systematic Approach:

By analyzing each activity in the value chain, a firm can identify areas where efficiencies can be improved or where innovation can be introduced.

This systematic approach helps the firm to focus on optimizing these activities to reduce costs, improve quality, and differentiate its products from competitors, thus developing a competitive advantage​​.

In summary, value chain analysis allows a company to use a systematic approach in developing a competitive advantage by identifying and optimizing the activities that create value​​.

Equal employment opportunity laws are designed to ensure that people are considered for employment without regard to certain protected traits.

Race, Religion, and Ethnic Background(Answer D): These traits are protected under equal employment opportunity laws, ensuring that individuals are not discriminated against based on these characteristics​​.

Criminal Record(Answer A),Education(Answer B), andAbilities(Answer C): These are not protected traits under equal employment opportunity laws.

The strategy the corporation is using to overcome resistance to change is participation and involvement. This approach involves engaging employees who are affected by the change,soliciting their input, and incorporating their suggestions into the change process. By involving employees, the organization can reduce resistance and gain valuable insights that facilitate smoother implementation of changes​​.

The competitive force reduced by barriers such as government policies, capital requirements, brand identification, and cost disadvantages is the threat of new entrants. These barriers make it difficult for new firms to enter an industry and compete with established companies, thereby protecting existing firms from new competitors​​.

A characteristic of a person with an entrepreneurial personality is the motivation to excel.

Motivation to Excel(Answer A): Entrepreneurs are typically driven by a strong desire to achieve and excel. They are competitive, have a high need for achievement, and are constantly seeking ways to improve and succeed in their ventures​​.

Opportunity Tolerance(Answer B): While entrepreneurs need to tolerate risks and seize opportunities, the term "opportunity tolerance" is not specifically highlighted as a key characteristic of an entrepreneurial personality.

Laissez-faire(Answer C) andEmployee Empowerment(Answer D): These are management styles or strategies rather than personal characteristics of entrepreneurs.

A benefit of a boundaryless organization is that employees may express their opinions freely. Boundaryless organizations eliminate traditional barriers between departments and hierarchical levels, fostering open communication, collaboration, and a free flow of information across the organization. This openness encourages employees to share their ideas and opinions without fear of repercussions, enhancing innovation and problem-solving​​.

The process used to verify that deliverables are correct and complete is known as Quality Control. Quality control involves the operational techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality. It includes activities such as measuring, examining, and testing to gauge one or more characteristics of a product or service and the comparison of these with specified requirements to determine conformity.

Quality Control(Answer A): This process is a part of the quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements. It involves monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance​​.

Quality Assurance(Answer D): This process is about ensuring that quality standards and processes are adhered to, and that the final products meet those standards. While it helps prevent defects by focusing on the process used to make the product, it is not directly involved in verifying the deliverables themselves​​.

Quality Collaboration(Answer B) andQuality Cooperative(Answer C): These terms are not standard processes in quality management as defined in the principles of management, thus making them incorrect choices for this question.

The textbook clearly states that quality control involves the steps taken to monitor results and ensure that they meet the required standards, making it the correct choice for verifying that deliverables are correct and complete​​.

A company offering a no-frills product to be efficient is pursuing a low-cost strategy. This strategy focuses on minimizing costs and offering products at the lowest possible price to attract cost-conscious customers. This approach involves strict cost control and operational efficiency to maintain profitability while offering lower prices than competitors​​.

It is reasonable for an employer to accommodate the needs of a worker with a disability by providing a Braille keyboard for a worker who is visually impaired. This accommodation helps the employee perform essential job functions and is considered a reasonable adjustment under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to make accommodations that do not impose undue hardship on the operation of the business​​.

The main focus of SWOT analysis is to uncover an organization's strengths and weaknesses, along with identifying opportunities and threats. SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is a strategic tool used to understand the internal capabilities and external possibilities and risks facing an organization. This analysis helps in identifying what the organization does well and where it may need improvement, thus forming a basis for strategic planning​​.

Entrepreneurs who want to start a new business need to assess levels of risk and innovation involved in establishing a new venture. The tool commonly used to assess these dimensions is the Entrepreneurial Strategy Matrix.

Entrepreneurial Strategy Matrix(Answer D): This matrix helps entrepreneurs evaluate their business ideas by plotting the level of innovation (low to high) against the level of risk (low to high). This analysis aids in understanding the feasibility and potential success of the new venture by identifying which strategies are likely to succeed given the level of risk and innovation involved​​.

Collaboration Tracking Matrix(Answer A) andInnovation Creation Diagram(Answer B): These are not standard tools used to assess risk and innovation in entrepreneurship as described in the textbook.

Entrepreneurial Loss Function Diagram(Answer C): This is not a recognized tool for assessing risk and innovation in entrepreneurial ventures as per the principles of management.