BCS Written Management key terms

The gradual failure of an organisation's strategy to keep pace with a changing environment, often because past success breeds complacency and incremental adjustments replace fundamental repositioning.

The degree of alignment between an organisation's resources and capabilities, its external environment, and the expectations of stakeholders, so that chosen actions remain coherent and viable.

A bundle of skills and technologies that is difficult for competitors to imitate, contributes significantly to customer value, and can be deployed across several products or markets.

A perspective holding that sustained competitive advantage comes from resources that are valuable, rare, hard to imitate and not readily substitutable, rather than from market position alone.

An analytical test asking whether a resource or capability is valuable, rare, costly to imitate and supported by the organisation, used to judge whether it can yield lasting advantage.

A structured scan of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that may affect an organisation, used to inform strategy and risk identification.

A summary technique that pairs internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats to prompt strategic options; it is descriptive unless linked to specific decisions.

A model assessing industry attractiveness through rivalry among existing firms, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers.

The sequence of primary and support activities through which an organisation converts inputs into customer value, analysed to locate where cost or differentiation advantage is created.

A moment when a fundamental shift in technology, regulation or competition means old ways of working will no longer succeed, demanding decisive strategic change.

A method of constructing several plausible, internally consistent futures to test strategy robustness and to surface assumptions that might otherwise go unchallenged.

The number of subordinates for whom a manager is directly responsible; wide spans reduce management layers but may limit coaching and supervision.

The formal arrangement of roles, reporting lines and coordination mechanisms that determines how authority flows and how work is divided and integrated.

A structure in which staff report to both a functional head and a project or product manager, gaining flexibility at the cost of dual authority and potential conflict.

The unwritten set of mutual expectations between an employee and the employer about effort, loyalty, reward and treatment, whose breach erodes engagement and trust.

The extent to which employees feel committed to, and discretionary effort for, their work and organisation, shaped by leadership, voice, recognition and fair treatment.

The internal and external forces that initiate, direct and sustain effort toward goals; theories distinguish intrinsic satisfaction from extrinsic rewards and hygiene factors.

The assignment of authority and responsibility for a defined task to a subordinate while accountability for the outcome remains with the delegating manager.

A budgeting method in which every activity must be justified from a nil base each cycle, rather than rolling forward prior spending, encouraging scrutiny but consuming time.

The comparison of actual results with budgeted or standard figures, decomposed into price and volume causes, to explain performance and trigger corrective management action.

A quantified financial plan for a defined period, expressing expected income, expenditure and resource use, and providing a basis for control and accountability.

The level of sales at which total revenue equals total cost, so neither profit nor loss arises; it indicates the volume needed before contribution starts to accumulate.

A structured justification for an investment, setting out options, expected benefits, costs, risks and a recommended choice, used to authorise funding and later to test outcomes.

The disciplined process of defining, tracking and evidencing the outcomes an investment was meant to deliver, usually owned by business managers rather than the delivery team.

The coordinated direction of a group of related projects and change activities to achieve outcomes that could not be obtained by managing each project separately.

The senior individual who champions a project, secures resources, chairs governance decisions and is accountable to the organisation for the project's outcomes.

The longest sequence of dependent activities in a schedule, which determines the shortest possible duration; delay on it delays the whole project unless compressed.

The framework of decision rights and accountability ensuring that information technology investments and risks are directed and controlled in line with organisational objectives.

A widely used framework of governance and management objectives for enterprise information and technology, linking stakeholder needs to processes and control activities.

The systematic protection of information confidentiality, integrity and availability through policy, risk assessment, controls and incident response, typically organised under an ISO/IEC 27001 system.

A model describing typical emotional stages people pass through during disruptive change, such as shock, resistance, exploration and acceptance, guiding supportive leadership timing.

The identification of parties affected by or able to affect an initiative, assessed for interest and influence to plan appropriate engagement and communication.

A sequence for leading major change, from creating urgency and a guiding coalition through vision, communication, short-term wins and embedding new practice in culture.

Documented arrangements for maintaining or restoring critical activities to acceptable levels within set timeframes after disruption, based on prior business impact analysis.

The amount and type of risk an organisation is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives, expressed in policy and used to calibrate tolerance limits and decisions.

A documented agreement between a service provider and its customer specifying service scope, performance targets, responsibilities and remedies for shortfall.

The obligation of a named individual to answer for a decision or outcome to a higher authority; it cannot be delegated away even when work is performed by others.