1. Prepare a code of ethics for an organization of your choice. For each point in the code of ethics, explain an ethical dilemma that would be resolved using the code of ethics.
2. Ethics includes the moral values, rules and beliefs that establish the right or appropriate ways in which one person or stakeholder group should interact with another. Explain how organizational ethics is a product of societal, professional, and individual ethics, and explain what happens when ethical behavior is compromised.
3. According to resource dependency theory, what motivates organizations to form interorganizational linkages? What are the advantages of strategic alliances as a way of exchanging resources?
4. Describe the differences between centralization and decentralization and between standardization and mutual adjustment. What factors determine the ability to strike a balance between these mechanisms?
5. Why is differentiation necessary to build a formal organizational structure? Is differentiation limited to large organizations? How is the concept of span of control related to both integration and differentiation?
6. Bureaucracy is a phenomenon that presents itself in varying degrees in organizations. When does bureaucracy become a problem in an organization? How can the principles of bureaucracy help managers to design the organizational hierarchy? What will managers do to prevent bureaucratic problems from arising?
7. What core competences give an organization competitive advantage? What are examples of an organization's functional-level strategies?
8. Why would an organization choose a corporate level strategy to expand its value-creation activities beyond its core domain? Discuss how an organization's structure and culture might change as the organization begins to enter new domains.
9. Why do organizations decline? What steps can organizational leaders take to halt decline and restore organizational growth?
10. Describe and explain how evolutionary change and revolutionary change differ. What are examples of each?
11. How do cognitive biases affect organizational learning and the quality of decision making? What can be accomplished to reduce the negative impact?
12. What are the differences between the rational and the Carnegie approaches to decision making? What are the differences between the incrementalist and the garbage can models?
13. How will the design of the organization's structure and culture give some subunits more power than others?
14. Describe the term authority, and discuss the bases of authority. How does authority differ from power? Explain how people or departments within organizations can gain power through control of resources and through solving key organizational problems.