Chapter 6 Discussion: Strategy Questionnaire 4 4 unread replies. 5 5 replies. Strategy Questionnaire Generally speaking, a strategy is a plan of action that is designed to help you achieve a goal. Strategies are not limited to grand plans that help you accomplish grand goals. You probably use strategies every day in simple ways. For example, think of a route you regularly drive. Do you know how fast (or slow) you need to go to catch all the lights on green? Or where to swerve to avoid a pothole? Or even when to take a side street to shave a few minutes off your commute? Speeding up for one block in order to catch the green lights at the next five intersections is a strategy. Strategy, then, involves thinking about how you are going to accomplish what you set out (i.e., have planned) to do. This assessment will provide some baseline information on attitudes you might have that will relate to your management skills. Answer each of the questions with either true or false. Try not to spend too much time on any one item, and be sure to answer all the questions. I get satisfaction from competing with others. Its usually not important to me to be the best. Competition destroys friendships. Games with no clear-cut winners are boring. I am a competitive individual. I will do almost anything to avoid an argument. I try to avoid competing with others. I would like to be on a debating team. I often remain quiet rather than risk hurting another person. I find competitive situations unpleasant. I try to avoid arguments. In general, I will go along with the group rather than create conflict. I dont like competing against other people. I dont like games that are winner-take-all. I dread competing against other people. I enjoy competing against an opponent. When I play a game, I like to keep score. I often try to outperform others. I like competition. I dont enjoy challenging others even when I think they are wrong. To determine your score, count the number of responses marked True and enter it here: ____. Interpreting the Score Here is what your score means. The inventory you just took is a competitiveness index designed to determine interpersonal competitiveness in everyday contexts. For women, a 6 would be a low score and a 14 would be a high score. The average score for women is 9.52. For men, 7 would be a low score and 15 would be a high score. The average score for men is 12.06. Remember that people tend to think they are less competitive than they really are. We generally assign a negative connotation to being competitive, so we try to avoid the negative association. That is unfortunate to a certain degree, because the positive aspects of competition, like planning, preparation, clear and forward thinking, and practiced execution, are nearly nonexistent in our understanding. Now that you know your raw score relates to your level of competitiveness, take a minute to decide if you agree with your score. That is, do you agree that you are competitive, or do you think the assessment shows you as being more competitive than you actually are? Source: J. M. Houston and R. D. Smither, The Nature of Competitiveness: The Development and Validation of the Competitiveness Index, Educational and Psychological Measurement 52 (1992): 407418. Your Comments... Share your thoughts on this self-assessment, your results, and its implications. If you have not had work experience to date, consider instead a team, club, or organization in which you have been a participant. With all discussions, you are expected to make an initial posting (250-word minimum) AND then you must post a reply to at least one fellow classmate's posting (100-word minimum) by midnight of the due date. You get half of the points for each of these required postings. However, you are encouraged to reply to more than one classmate.