- •International Management: Exam Questions
- •International management: an overview.
- •How would you define management?
- •What are the managerial functions?
- •What are the basic managerial jobs?
- •In what fundamental way are the basic goals of all managers at all levels and in all kinds of enterprises the same?
- •What is the nature of today’s global business environment? How does this environment facilitate international business activities? Provide examples.
- •How do the legal–political, economic, and cultural environmental differences within a country affect a firm’s international business transactions? Provide examples.
- •What is international business? How does the management of an international business differ from that of a domestic one? Provide examples with specific firms and countries in mind.
- •International transactions involve money converting into different currencies
- •Define globalization. What are the pros and cons of globalization? Provide examples.
- •What is the globalization of markets? Of production? Provide examples.
- •Why do we study international business? Why has studying it become more important today than ever before?
- •How would you define the nature and purpose of international management?
- •What advantages do multinational corporations have? What challenges must they meet? Give examples.
- •What are the major forms of internationalizing? How do firms choose the market entry modes?
- •Why is managing an international business different from managing purely domestic business?
- •International economic environment
- •What are the major objectives for the international economic environment scanning? Name the elements of international economic environment that require special attention of the firms. Why?
- •What are the stages of the country economic analysis? What are the major objectives of this analysis?
- •Compare and contrast the theories of absolute and comparative advantage. How do they stand today? Does one stand more than the other? Why or why not? Support your answer with examples.
- •What do the contemporary trade theories state? Provide examples.
- •Explain the difference between autonomous and offsetting (or accommodating) transactions.
- •Since the balance of payments must always balance, how do balance of payments deficits or surpluses emerge?
- •How will the dollar/euro exchange rate be affected if American consumers consider that it is fashionable to own a bmw car?
- •What are the causes of globalization?
- •What is the difference between a free-trade area and a customs union?
- •What are the costs and benefits of economic and monetary union?
- •International cultural environment
- •Define culture. Which definition in your opinion, is the most appropriate and why? Provide examples?
- •Which needs must be satisfied by culture? Briefly explain each and provide examples.
- •Present culture and its elements. Provide examples and relate them to international business.
- •What is the role of each major religion in conducting international business? What do Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism declare in terms of business?
- •Describe Trompenaar’s value dimensions and discuss their use in international business.
- •Compare and contrast the Kluckhohn–Strodtbeck and Hofstede frameworks and their application in understanding culture.
- •What is parochialism? Culture shock? Ethnocentrism? Provide examples.
- •What are the phases of the culture shock? Explain the methods of dealing with culture shock
- •What do we mean by cross-cultural management and training?
- •How employers can help bridge the cultural divide in the workplace?1
- •How would you train an international business manager?
- •Which practical tips would you provide as the most appropriate when it comes to international business, and why?
- •What is social capital? In your opinion, how cross-cultural management can benefit the business from the point of view of its intangible assets and the income statement?
- •International political and legal environment
- •Define and describe the international political environment. Name its key elements. How should the international managers deal with the foreign political environments?
- •What is political risk? What are the sources of political risk for international companies? How are they connected with the types of political risks?
- •Define the categories of international political risk. Provide examples.
- •What are the objectives of political risks analysis? Are they different from the objectives of international political environment analysis?
- •What are the elements of risks that should be formalized? Explain the methods of political risks analysis.
- •What are the factors and variables of political risks rating, modeling and forecasting suggested by the prs Group and The Economist Intelligence Unit, and beri?
- •What are the best information sources for the political risks analysis?
- •What are the basic strategies to manage political risk?
- •How should international managers minimize the political risk?
- •How does the political environment affect the economy?
- •How does the legal environment affect international business? How should the international managers address the various legal challenges in different countries?
- •What ways are there in resolving international disputes?
- •What are the differences between Common, Civil, and Theocratic Law? How do international managers deal with these different types of laws?
- •What is corruption and how does it affect international business?
- •What is bribery and how is it being addressed by international agencies?
- •Strategic planning in the multinational company.
- •Why strategic planning is important?
- •What are the limitations for strategic planning?
- •How to organize the strategic planning process?
- •Why strategic planning process might be different in different organizations? Provide examples.
- •What are the existing approaches and methods to strategic management?
- •Organizing in the multinational company.
- •What kinds of authority relationships exist in organizations?
- •How authority is dispersed throughout the organization structure, and what determines the extent of this dispersion?
- •What explains the differences in organizing practices between countries? How these differences might be managed?
- •Fundamentals of international hr management. Leadership and motivation in international context.
- •What are the different approaches to international staffing? Outline their main characteristics.
- •What are the functions of international assignments?
- •What are the reasons for using international assignments?
- •What are the positive and negative aspects of a Parent Country National?
- •What elements would you include in a repatriation program?
International Management: Exam Questions
International management: an overview.
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How would you define management?
Management is the process of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling in order to formulate and attain organizational objectives. It was Miss Follett who originally defined management as "getting work done through others
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What are the managerial functions?
Planning
Organizing
Motivating
Controlling
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What are the basic managerial jobs?
Account manager/Business Consultant
Key activities: business development within allocated territory; development long term relationships with new and existing clients; facilitate business strategy and planning processes; develop marketing and business activities to support business plans and targets; introduce financial disciplines- including budget and cost controls; act as business mentor.
Commercial Operations Manager
Key activities: managing team of account executives, mentoring and motivating; completion of campaign notes and reports; responsible for introduction of new product campaigns, ensuring they are scheduled and completed in appropriate manner; provide assistance to Operations Director and Sales Director; identifying new business opportunities.
Marketing manager
Key activities: analysis of product market (competitors, demand, prices); organization of arrangements on forming of product fame; organization of arrangements on stimulating of product sales; product trainings,
PR manager
Key activities: organization of conferences, seminars; creation of press releases, comments, texts for mass media; conducting of special arrangements (мероприятия) for mass media (СМИ); informational support of company web site; preparation of analytical inquiries, reviews, reports, working out of letters to bodies of power.
Light-manager (Лайт-менеджер)
Key activities: working out of product strategy promotion on the market; preparation of information about the product ; conducting of presentations and conferences; conducting of trainings on product; SWOT analysis and competitive analysis.
Event-manager
Key activities: working out of strategies of client corporative arrangements, conferences, seminars, special travels, planed by companies-customer for they clients, workers, etc ; working out detailed program of arrangement; making preliminary accounting of budget for it; conducting of permanent negotiations with client; organizing and control under operational part of project (visa formalities, flight, living conditions, equipment for conducting of conferences and seminars); control under the work of subordinates involved in the project; working out of the most optimal financial and organizational schemes and management methods in area of corporative events and travels.
How do the required managerial skills differ in the organizational hierarchy?
The managerial skills are the quality of the manager which are found in the managers. The work need of the different organization and business requires the different skills in the managers in order to handle the business environment and to make it successful in the market. So there are different types of skills which the managers need in order to exercise the skills in the person in the different people. So managers have to deal with the lot of problem which requires special skills of the mangers in order to solve them.
Katz theory of managerial skills are:
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conceptual skill
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interpersonal skill
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technical skill
Those 3 managerial skills are used by different managers. Top manager needs to have more conceptual skill than technical skill. They have to think about the future of the company (goal and objectives). Any small activities that support to achieve the goal and objectives are done by their employee. Top managers always think about the life of the business.
Middle manager is doing more in the interpersonal skill. They have to meet many people, so they need interpersonal skill to communicate with people. Example: negotiators.
The last one is Lower manager which need technical skill in their job. The lower manager is dealing with small activities that may lead to achieve the goal and objectives.
These 3 managers must have a good relationship each other, so that the objective and goal can be achieved.
Relative Significance of Managerial Skills
For Top-level managers (overall activities of an organization - establishment of plans and goals that influence that entire organization; few in number and occupy the posts of ‘Chief Executive officer’, ‘President’, ‘Vice President’, ‘Director’ etc.): - Conceptual skills (The conceptual skill means the ability to see the big picture - the complexity of the overall organization and how the various parts fit together. The importance of knowing how each part of the organization interrelates and contributes to the overall objectives of the organization. Include: Formulating strategy, Sense of vision, Understanding & relating external environments to the organization or business. Examples of situations that require conceptual skills include the passage of laws that affect hiring patterns in an organization, a competitor's change in marketing strategy, or the reorganization of one department which ultimately affects the activities of other departments in the organization.)
For Middle-level managers (directly responsible for managing the performance of first-level managers, for the operational efficiency of various departments in an organization. They hold designations such as ‘Department Heads’, ‘Project Leader’, ‘Plant Manager’ and ‘Divisional Head’) and First-level managers (responsibility to manage the performance of the non-managerial personnel in an organization and ensure implementation of operational plans. They are also called supervisors. They are given different titles in different companies’ life ‘Foremen’, ‘Clerical Supervisor’, ‘Technical Supervisor’, etc.):
- Technical skills (it involves the manager’s understanding of the nature of job that people under him have to perform. It refers to a person’s knowledge and proficiency in any type of process or technique. Examples of technical skills are writing computer programs, completing accounting statements, analyzing marketing statistics, writing legal documents, or drafting a design for a new airfoil on an airplane. Technical skills are usually obtained through training programs that an organization may offer its managers or employees or may be obtained by way of a college degree) the highest importance is for lower level managers, since these managers are dealing with employees doing the organization’s work..
- Human skills (ability to work with other people as individuals and its groups. They help employees to communicate, motivate, lead and inspire others in an organization. Some human skills examples that are often necessary for managers to display are effective communication (writing and speaking), creation of a positive attitude toward others and the work setting, development of cooperation among group members, and motivation of subordinates).These skills are equally important for all managerial levels.