Business Administration Interview Questions and Answers Page 3

What are the essential steps in the process of planning?

Analyzing the present structure – You can conduct a SWOT analysis and analyze your organization's external and internal environments.

Decision-making for the future structure- Here, you make plans which decide the future of your organization, like where it wants to be, its essential values, and what it wants to do.

Determination of objectives and strategies- You need to decide your goals and the strategies to achieve those goals effectively.

Implementation and evaluation- Implementation of plans is the last and the most important step as it leads to the achievement of your plans and objectives.

What are short-term and long-term planning?

Short-Term

Short-term planning is the type that looks over the present status of the company and accordingly plans are made and strategies are developed to implement them.

Long-Term

When any organization wants to solve some problems permanently, they look for long-term plans. Long-term planning is done keeping in mind the social, economic, and political situations.

Define Proactive decision. How is it different from the reactive decision?

Proactive Decision is about acting in advance for a future situation. It means taking measures in advance to control some situations rather than just waiting for something to happen.

Reactive business decisions are those that respond to some unexpected event only after it occurs, while proactive strategies are designed to handle expected possible challenges.

Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative decisions.

Qualitative

Qualitative decision making is concerned with the experiential knowledge of various factors involved in a decision. For example, if you are to use the qualitative approach to solve a dispute over resources between two departments of an organization, the manager must understand the complexity of the interaction, i.e. the interpersonal connections among the supervisors of all the departments, and the overall availability of resources for which the two departments are competing.

Quantitative

Managers lacking experience can opt for the quantitative approach as it uses mathematical methods to translate the problem. Accordingly, the quantitative approach works best for objectively measurable problems.

Name a few techniques which assist in the decision-making process?

Techniques involved in the process of decision making:

Gathering information- What are the factors that are responsible for a problem?

Identifying the principles to judge the alternatives- What can be the alternatives to deal with an identified problem?

Listing of different possible solutions- Generate ideas for possible solutions.

Evaluating each choice on the basis of its consequences- Evaluating your standards and determining the cons and pros of each alternative.

Determining the best alternative- You can choose the best from the predetermined alternatives.

Putting the decision into action- Convert your plan into actions.

Evaluating the outcome of your decisions and actions- This is an important step for further development of your decision making and judgment skills.

What types of decisions are involved in management?

Management decisions are dependent on various factors according to the level of management.

Board of Directors or Owners- A company’s board or owners create a mission and write a mission statement for the internal and external audiences that they will never compromise with their standards and values.

Top Management-The management at the top has to convert the mission and vision into real achievements over the time. Of all the management levels, top managers spend the most amount time to make decisions and plans.

Middle Management- After the top management is done with the decision making, it is up to the middle management to choose smaller plans of action that are put together to fulfill strategic goals.

Operational Management- Also known as the first-line management, operational management is the level that is directly responsible to the employees as they choose their goals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. First-line management accomplishes the objectives of middle management.