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BCS Written Management study materials
BCS Written Management study resources

BCS Written Management practice questions

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Question 1Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's stated purpose and reason for existing, distinguishing it from competitors, is best described as its:

  1. Tactical plan
  2. Budget
  3. Job description
  4. Mission Correct answer.

Explanation

A mission statement defines the organisation's fundamental purpose and scope, telling stakeholders why the firm exists and what it seeks to achieve. It is enduring and strategic, unlike short-term operational documents.

Question 2Strategic Management and Business Planning

Which element of a SWOT analysis captures favourable external conditions a firm might exploit?

  1. Weaknesses
  2. Strengths
  3. Opportunities Correct answer.
  4. Threats

Explanation

SWOT separates internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) from external ones (opportunities and threats). Opportunities are favourable conditions in the external environment, such as new markets or changing regulation.

Question 3Strategic Management and Business Planning

In Porter's generic strategies, a firm that targets a narrow customer segment while offering premium value is pursuing:

  1. Differentiation focus Correct answer.
  2. Stuck in the middle
  3. Broad differentiation
  4. Cost leadership

Explanation

A focus strategy targets a narrow segment, and combining that with superior perceived value yields differentiation focus. Cost focus would instead target the niche with low cost.

Question 4Strategic Management and Business Planning

The five forces framework analyses industry attractiveness by examining rivalry, buyer power, supplier power, threat of new entrants, and:

  1. Government subsidies
  2. Brand loyalty
  3. Employee morale
  4. Threat of substitutes Correct answer.

Explanation

Porter's fifth force is the threat of substitute products or services that can meet the same need differently. The five forces together determine the intensity of competition and profit potential.

Question 5Strategic Management and Business Planning

A company decides to expand by acquiring a supplier of its key raw materials. This is an example of:

  1. Conglomerate diversification
  2. Market penetration
  3. Backward vertical integration Correct answer.
  4. Horizontal integration

Explanation

Backward vertical integration means moving upstream toward the source of supply by taking ownership of a supplier. It can reduce supply risk and capture margin previously paid to the supplier.

Question 6Strategic Management and Business Planning

Ansoff's growth matrix classifies strategies by product and market. Selling existing products to new geographic markets is:

  1. Diversification
  2. Product development
  3. Market development Correct answer.
  4. Market penetration

Explanation

Market development takes current products into new markets such as new regions or segments. Product development instead creates new products for existing markets.

Question 7Strategic Management and Business Planning

A strategic business unit is best characterised as:

  1. A distinct unit with its own mission, competitors, and profit responsibility Correct answer.
  2. A temporary project team dissolved after each task
  3. A support function such as payroll serving the whole firm
  4. The board committee that approves annual accounts

Explanation

An SBU is a semi-autonomous unit serving a defined market, with its own strategy and profit accountability. This structure lets large firms plan and control diverse businesses separately.

Question 8Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's core competence is best understood as:

  1. A skill or capability that is valuable, rare, and hard for rivals to imitate Correct answer.
  2. A legal licence held by a single employee
  3. A product line scheduled for discontinuation
  4. The largest single item in its annual budget

Explanation

Core competences are distinctive capabilities that create customer value and are difficult for competitors to copy. They underpin sustainable advantage and guide which businesses a firm should enter.

Question 9Strategic Management and Business Planning

In the BCG growth-share matrix, a business with high market growth and high relative market share is classified as a:

  1. Question mark
  2. Cash cow
  3. Star Correct answer.
  4. Dog

Explanation

Stars combine high growth with high relative share, so they typically need investment but promise strong future cash generation. Cash cows have high share in low-growth markets.

Question 10Strategic Management and Business Planning

A strategic plan sets a target of 15 percent revenue growth, but the firm has no measure of progress and no assigned owner. Which planning principle is most clearly violated?

  1. Planning should occur only after the year ends
  2. Plans should be kept confidential from staff
  3. Objectives should be deliberately vague to allow flexibility
  4. Objectives should be specific, measurable, and assigned Correct answer.

Explanation

Effective objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, with clear ownership. A target lacking metrics and accountability cannot be monitored or corrected.

Question 11Strategic Management and Business Planning

The main purpose of a formal strategic planning process in a large organisation is to:

  1. Replace the need for managerial judgement
  2. Align resources and decisions with long-term direction Correct answer.
  3. Guarantee that forecasts will be accurate
  4. Eliminate all competition in the market

Explanation

Strategic planning coordinates goals, resource allocation, and decisions across the organisation over the long term. It improves coherence and commitment but cannot guarantee forecast accuracy or remove uncertainty.

Question 12Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm using a deliberate strategy discovers that unplanned bottom-up initiatives have produced most of its growth. Mintzberg would describe the realised pattern as:

  1. Purely deliberate strategy
  2. Strategic drift
  3. Corporate governance
  4. Emergent strategy Correct answer.

Explanation

Mintzberg distinguishes intended, deliberate, and emergent strategy; realised strategy is often a blend. Emergent strategy arises from patterns of decisions not planned in advance.

Question 13Strategic Management and Business Planning

PESTLE analysis is primarily used to:

  1. Set individual performance targets
  2. Scan the macro-environment for external influences Correct answer.
  3. Assess internal staff competences
  4. Rank products by profitability

Explanation

PESTLE examines political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors in the wider environment. It informs strategy by identifying external change beyond the firm's control.

Question 14Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's value chain analysis is most useful for:

  1. Selecting which auditors to appoint
  2. Determining the tax rate applicable to profits
  3. Calculating the share price
  4. Identifying where cost or differentiation advantage is created across activities Correct answer.

Explanation

Value chain analysis breaks the business into primary and support activities to show where value is added. Managers can then target cost reduction or differentiation in specific activities.

Question 15Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's strategy requires capabilities it does not possess. According to resource-based thinking, the most appropriate first step is to:

  1. Immediately reduce prices
  2. Assess whether the capability can be built internally or must be acquired Correct answer.
  3. Ignore the gap and proceed with the plan
  4. Cancel all existing projects

Explanation

Resource-based analysis matches required capabilities to those held, exposing gaps that must be closed. Managers then choose between internal development, partnership, or acquisition.

Question 16Strategic Management and Business Planning

A strategic group is best defined as:

  1. A committee of directors overseeing risk
  2. A group of customers with identical needs
  3. A trade association negotiating with government
  4. A set of firms in an industry following similar strategies on key dimensions Correct answer.

Explanation

Strategic groups cluster competitors with similar strategic characteristics, such as price positioning or distribution. Mobility barriers between groups help explain differing profitability within an industry.

Question 17Strategic Management and Business Planning

Scenario planning is most valuable to a strategist because it:

  1. Prepares the organisation for several plausible futures Correct answer.
  2. Predicts the single most likely future with precision
  3. Ensures competitors reveal their plans
  4. Removes the need for contingency budgets

Explanation

Scenario planning builds several plausible futures to test strategy robustness and prompt contingency thinking. It accepts uncertainty rather than claiming precise prediction.

Question 18Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's planned strategy becomes progressively misaligned with its environment over several years because managers avoid uncomfortable change. This pattern is known as:

  1. Benchmarking
  2. Strategic drift Correct answer.
  3. Synergy
  4. Outsourcing

Explanation

Strategic drift is the gradual erosion of fit between strategy and environment when inertia delays adaptation. It often ends in a crisis requiring transformational change.

Question 19Strategic Management and Business Planning

Stakeholder mapping using power and interest typically suggests that a stakeholder with high power and high interest should be:

  1. Kept informed only
  2. Managed closely and engaged Correct answer.
  3. Given minimal information
  4. Ignored

Explanation

High-power, high-interest stakeholders can strongly affect outcomes and care about them, so they require close management and engagement. Low-power, low-interest parties need only minimal monitoring.

Question 20Strategic Management and Business Planning

A corporate parent adds value to its business units chiefly by:

  1. Duplicating every unit's support staff
  2. Removing all performance measurement
  3. Applying superior central capabilities and resources to the units Correct answer.
  4. Charging higher transfer prices

Explanation

Parenting advantage arises when the centre contributes capabilities, guidance, or resources that improve unit performance beyond what units would achieve alone. The test is whether the parent adds more value than cost.

Question 21Strategic Management and Business Planning

A balanced scorecard translates strategy into measures across financial, customer, internal process, and:

  1. Legal disputes
  2. Competitor advertising
  3. Raw material prices
  4. Learning and growth Correct answer.

Explanation

The balanced scorecard's fourth perspective is learning and growth, covering people, systems, and culture. Together the four perspectives link long-term capability building to financial outcomes.

Question 22Strategic Management and Business Planning

When evaluating a proposed strategic option, the criteria of suitability, acceptability, and feasibility are used to judge:

  1. Whether the option fits the environment, satisfies stakeholders, and can be resourced Correct answer.
  2. Whether the option maximises the chief executive's salary
  3. Whether the option avoids all risk
  4. Whether the option can be implemented without any change

Explanation

Suitability tests strategic fit with the environment and capabilities, acceptability addresses stakeholder returns and risk, and feasibility asks whether resources and skills exist. Together they provide a structured evaluation.

Question 23Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's cost advantage derives from high production volumes that spread fixed costs. This is an example of:

  1. Economies of scale Correct answer.
  2. Vertical integration
  3. Diseconomies of scale
  4. Product differentiation

Explanation

Economies of scale occur when unit costs fall as output rises because fixed costs are spread over more units. This supports a cost leadership position when volume is sustained.

Question 24Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's vision statement differs from its mission mainly because a vision statement:

  1. Lists the daily tasks of each department
  2. Specifies the legal ownership structure
  3. Records past financial results
  4. Describes the desired future state the organisation aspires to reach Correct answer.

Explanation

A vision is forward-looking and describes an aspirational future state, while a mission defines present purpose and scope. Both guide strategy but serve different time orientations.

Question 25Strategic Management and Business Planning

In a highly uncertain market, a firm commits small resources to several alternatives and expands only those that show promise. This approach is best described as:

  1. Real options reasoning Correct answer.
  2. Cost leadership
  3. Full-scale pre-emption
  4. Rigid annual budgeting

Explanation

Real options reasoning treats strategic investments as options, preserving flexibility to expand or abandon as uncertainty resolves. Staging commitments limits downside while retaining upside potential.

Question 26Strategic Management and Business Planning

A firm's strategy is described as 'emergent' when it:

  1. arises from patterns of decisions and actions that develop over time rather than from a prior formal plan Correct answer.
  2. is copied from the leading competitor in the same industry to reduce planning risk
  3. is written down in a detailed document and approved by the board before implementation begins
  4. is set once by the founder and then left unchanged for the life of the business

Explanation

Emergent strategy is the realised pattern that forms as managers respond to events and bottom-up initiatives, whether or not it was intended. It contrasts with deliberate strategy, which is formulated in advance and then implemented. The key test is whether the pattern was planned beforehand or emerged from ongoing action.

Question 27Strategic Management and Business Planning

A manufacturer states its strategy as 'to be the most innovative company in our sector'. A strategist would criticise this statement chiefly because it:

  1. is too short to be communicated to employees
  2. describes an internal process rather than an external market
  3. names too many stakeholder groups to be credible
  4. lacks a measurable goal and does not specify the choices the firm will make to achieve it Correct answer.

Explanation

A usable strategy statement should set out objectives that can be tracked, the scope of the business, and the distinctive choices that give advantage. A vague aspiration such as 'most innovative' gives no measurable target and no guidance on trade-offs. Without specific choices, managers cannot tell which actions fit the strategy.

Question 28Strategic Management and Business Planning

A retail chain decides to open stores in a foreign country. Before committing, it assesses whether its existing supply chain, brand and staff skills can be transferred to that market. Which evaluation criterion is the firm applying?

  1. Suitability
  2. Feasibility Correct answer.
  3. Sustainability
  4. Acceptability

Explanation

Feasibility asks whether the organisation has, or can obtain, the resources and capabilities needed to carry out an option. Checking supply chain, brand and staff skills against the demands of a new market is a test of capability to deliver. Suitability concerns strategic fit and acceptability concerns returns and risk to stakeholders.

Question 29Strategic Management and Business Planning

A diversified group owns businesses in unrelated industries. Its central office sets strict financial targets, reviews capital bids and requires each unit to meet a hurdle rate, but does not interfere in operating decisions. This is best described as:

  1. a financial control style of corporate parenting Correct answer.
  2. a strategic planning style of corporate parenting
  3. a related diversification strategy
  4. a portfolio divestment strategy

Explanation

In financial control parenting, the centre adds value by setting financial targets, allocating capital and monitoring results, while leaving operating autonomy to the units. A strategic planning style involves the centre shaping business-level strategy and coordinating activities. The absence of operating interference and the emphasis on hurdle rates point to financial control.

Question 30Strategic Management and Business Planning

A conglomerate's central office reviews each business unit and concludes that it adds no value beyond what unit managers could achieve alone, while its overhead costs reduce unit profits. In portfolio management terms, the most defensible strategic conclusion is that the group should:

  1. increase central overhead to strengthen coordination across the units
  2. merge all units into a single division to remove duplication of management
  3. keep the group intact and rely on cross-subsidy from the strongest unit
  4. break itself up or divest units so that the costs of central ownership no longer destroy value Correct answer.

Explanation

Parenting logic holds that a corporate centre is justified only where the value it adds exceeds the cost of its ownership. If the centre adds nothing and its overhead erodes unit profits, the parenting advantage is negative. Reducing the scope of the group through breakup or divestment removes that value destruction.

Question 31Organisational Behaviour and People Management

According to Herzberg's two-factor theory, which of the following is a motivator rather than a hygiene factor?

  1. Company salary policy
  2. Working conditions
  3. Recognition for achievement Correct answer.
  4. Supervision style

Explanation

Herzberg separated factors that create satisfaction from those that merely prevent dissatisfaction. Motivators are intrinsic and tied to the work itself, such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and growth. Hygiene factors are extrinsic and contextual, including pay, policy, working conditions and supervision.

Question 32Organisational Behaviour and People Management

In Maslow's hierarchy, which need level sits directly above safety needs?

  1. Belongingness and love needs Correct answer.
  2. Esteem needs
  3. Self-actualisation
  4. Physiological needs

Explanation

Maslow ordered needs from physiological, then safety, then belongingness and love, then esteem, and finally self-actualisation. The level immediately above safety is therefore social belonging. Esteem and self-actualisation come higher, while physiological needs sit below safety.

Question 33Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A team member quietly reduces effort because others are carrying the load in a group task. This behaviour is best described as:

  1. Cognitive dissonance
  2. Escalation of commitment
  3. Social loafing Correct answer.
  4. Group polarisation

Explanation

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working alone, because individual contribution becomes less identifiable. It is reduced by making contributions visible and assigning specific accountability.

Question 34Organisational Behaviour and People Management

Which stage of Tuckman's model of group development is characterised by conflict over roles and leadership?

  1. Norming
  2. Adjourning
  3. Storming Correct answer.
  4. Forming

Explanation

Tuckman described forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Storming is the phase where interpersonal conflict, disagreement about roles and jockeying for influence surface before cohesion develops.

Question 35Organisational Behaviour and People Management

According to trait theories of leadership, leadership effectiveness is primarily explained by:

  1. Task structure and position power
  2. Relatively stable personal characteristics Correct answer.
  3. Follower maturity levels
  4. Situational favourability

Explanation

Trait theory holds that leaders share enduring personal attributes such as drive, self-confidence and integrity that distinguish them from non-leaders. It is a person-centred approach and does not emphasise situational variables.

Question 36Organisational Behaviour and People Management

Which of the following best defines organisational culture?

  1. The written set of disciplinary procedures
  2. The shared values, beliefs and assumptions guiding behaviour Correct answer.
  3. The formal organisational chart and reporting lines
  4. The annual budget allocation process

Explanation

Organisational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, assumptions and norms that shape how members behave and interpret events. It operates largely below the surface and is transmitted through stories, rituals and symbols rather than formal documents.

Question 37Organisational Behaviour and People Management

In communication theory, converting a thought into words or symbols is called:

  1. Feedback
  2. Encoding Correct answer.
  3. Channel selection
  4. Decoding

Explanation

Encoding is the process by which a sender translates an idea into a message using words, symbols or gestures. The receiver then decodes that message, and feedback closes the loop.

Question 38Organisational Behaviour and People Management

Which conflict-handling style involves satisfying the other party's concerns while neglecting one's own?

  1. Collaborating
  2. Competing
  3. Accommodating Correct answer.
  4. Compromising

Explanation

The Thomas-Kilmann framework maps conflict styles on assertiveness and cooperativeness. Accommodating is high cooperativeness and low assertiveness, meaning one party yields to the other's concerns.

Question 39Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A manager redesigns a job so that an employee assembles a complete unit and receives direct client feedback. Which job design approach is being applied?

  1. Job enrichment through task identity and feedback Correct answer.
  2. Job enlargement by adding similar tasks
  3. Job rotation across departments
  4. Scientific management specialisation

Explanation

Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics model identifies task identity and feedback as core dimensions that raise meaningfulness and knowledge of results. Giving whole-unit work with direct feedback enriches the job rather than merely enlarging it.

Question 40Organisational Behaviour and People Management

An employee who is dissatisfied with pay but perceives few alternatives elsewhere is likely, according to the EVLN model, to respond with:

  1. Voice
  2. Exit
  3. Loyalty Correct answer.
  4. Neglect

Explanation

The EVLN framework links dissatisfaction responses to exit, voice, loyalty and neglect. Loyalty involves staying and waiting for conditions to improve, which is more likely when alternatives are perceived as limited and attachment remains.

Question 41Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A manager uses legitimate power to instruct staff because of her formal position. Which power base does this represent?

  1. Referent power
  2. Legitimate power Correct answer.
  3. Coercive power
  4. Expert power

Explanation

French and Raven identified power bases including legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent power. Legitimate power derives from formal position and the recognised right to give instructions within an organisational hierarchy.

Question 42Organisational Behaviour and People Management

According to equity theory, an employee who perceives being under-rewarded relative to a colleague is most likely to:

  1. Request a promotion without changing inputs
  2. Increase effort to demonstrate commitment
  3. Ignore the comparison entirely
  4. Reduce effort to restore perceived equity Correct answer.

Explanation

Equity theory holds that people compare their input-outcome ratio with referent others and are motivated to restore balance when inequity is perceived. An under-rewarded person may reduce inputs, seek greater outcomes or change the comparison referent.

Question 43Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A leader who sets challenging goals, communicates a compelling vision and stimulates followers intellectually is displaying:

  1. Transformational leadership Correct answer.
  2. Laissez-faire leadership
  3. Transactional leadership
  4. Autocratic leadership

Explanation

Transformational leadership comprises idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. Vision, high expectations and intellectual challenge are core transformational behaviours.

Question 44Organisational Behaviour and People Management

Which of the following is most characteristic of a strong organisational culture?

  1. Widely shared and intensely held values Correct answer.
  2. A large number of formal written rules
  3. Rapid turnover of senior managers
  4. Frequent restructuring of reporting lines

Explanation

Culture strength depends on how widely values are shared and how intensely members hold them. Strong cultures produce high behavioural consistency and clarity of expectations, though they can also create resistance to change.

Question 45Organisational Behaviour and People Management

During a change programme, a manager notices that staff resist because they fear losing status. According to Lewin's force field analysis, the manager should:

  1. Reduce or convert restraining forces Correct answer.
  2. Freeze the current state permanently
  3. Increase driving forces only
  4. Ignore resistance as irrational

Explanation

Force field analysis treats behaviour as equilibrium between driving and restraining forces. Lewin argued that reducing restraining forces is often more effective than increasing pressure, because added driving force raises tension and resistance.

Question 46Organisational Behaviour and People Management

In Belbin's team role theory, a team member who is good at exploring opportunities and championing new ideas is playing which role?

  1. Monitor-evaluator
  2. Resource investigator Correct answer.
  3. Implementer
  4. Completer-finisher

Explanation

Belbin identified nine team roles with distinct contributions. The resource investigator explores external opportunities, networks and brings new ideas and contacts back to the team.

Question 47Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A manager deliberately withholds bad news from staff to avoid upsetting them. Which communication barrier does this most directly illustrate?

  1. Channel noise
  2. Filtering of information Correct answer.
  3. Information overload
  4. Semantic ambiguity

Explanation

Filtering occurs when a sender manipulates information to make it appear more favourable to the receiver. Withholding bad news to manage reactions is a classic example of deliberate filtering along the hierarchy.

Question 48Organisational Behaviour and People Management

Which of the following best reflects the psychological contract in employment?

  1. The statutory minimum notice period
  2. The collective bargaining agreement with a union
  3. The written employment contract specifying salary
  4. The unwritten mutual expectations between employee and employer Correct answer.

Explanation

The psychological contract is the set of unwritten, implicit expectations held by both parties about what each will give and receive. It is subjective and can be breached even when formal contracts are honoured.

Question 49Organisational Behaviour and People Management

A team performs well but its members are highly cohesive and reject dissenting views. This condition is known as:

  1. Synergy
  2. Role ambiguity
  3. Groupthink Correct answer.
  4. Social facilitation

Explanation

Groupthink occurs in highly cohesive groups where the desire for unanimity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives. Symptoms include self-censorship, illusion of invulnerability and pressure on dissenters, which degrade decision quality.

Question 50Organisational Behaviour and People Management

According to situational leadership theory, which style suits a follower who is highly competent but has low commitment to a task?

  1. Coaching
  2. Supporting Correct answer.
  3. Directing
  4. Delegating

Explanation

Situational leadership matches style to follower readiness. A capable but insecure follower needs low directive and high supportive behaviour, which is the supporting style, to build confidence and motivation.