MBA_Management Process and Organisational Behavior Question Sol

7/30/2019 MBA_Management Process and Organisational Behavior Question Sol

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mbamanagement-process-and-organisational-behavior-question-sol 1/7

[MB0038] Management Process and Organisational Behaviour

Book ID: B1621

Q1: Describe the concept of vision and mission in an organisation.

A1:

Every organisation has a vision and mission. In the case of X, he may not have

expressed it in a statement, i.e. it may not be explicit; but perhaps if we had talked

with him, we would come to know that he wants to provide faultless tables to the

people, earn money, provide for his family, get social status in the process, etc. A

vision statement is a formal statement of what a business wants to be. But who

decides what it wants to be? Well, it is not only X, but also the customers, the

employees, and the society or in other words those who have an interest in the

business because they get some benefit out of it. They are called “stakeholders”. In

our case, X [owner or promoter or stakeholder], the other carpenters [employees],the saw mill [supplier], the shops [distributors], bank who may have given loan [the

financiers], and the people who bought the tables and chairs [the customers] are all

stakeholders. So the vision cannot be made by the owner alone. He has to fulfil the

wishes of the stakeholders. An owner who puts in money has to ask other people

before deciding his/her vision.

There has been lot of research on this and various views. But Collins and Porras in

their noted article “Organisational Vision and Visionary Organisation” spelt out

that a vision statement has to have four parts namely:

i. Core values.

ii. Core purposes.

iii. The Big Hairy Audacious Goal or BHAG.

iv. Vivid description.

The core values are those things very close to our heart that we will not give up at

any cost. It can be integrity or quality, etc. Usually we say that we should have only

4 to 6 core values. Of course, personal values and business values may differ but if

we have too many of them, they fail to remain “core” and loses their impact. When

we have a decision dilemma, they come up like a lighthouse to navigate us.

Core purpose is the purpose of organisation. This is something we want to achieve

within the framework of our core values. It gives the achievement orientation to the

business and therefore the focus. When we get an opportunity to expand or sell off

and if we are in a decision dilemma, this acts as another lighthouse.

The BHAG is about having a goal which qualifies the purpose. We say that BHAG

should be big, yet specific and that our chance of attaining it is only 70%. If the

probability of attaining it is more than 70%, perhaps your BHAG is not big enough

and not audacious enough and we have set our goals too low.

The vivid description should make the entire vision statement very inspiring to allstakeholders. It should be simple and easily understandable. The vision statement



is meant for the stakeholders and therefore, the importance of the vivid and simple

statement

In the Collins and Porras format, the vision and mission are fairly well integrated.

Vision is the state that one wants to be in and mission is the way of doing it. The

Mission statement can be a separate one or it can be rolled into one but Collinsand Porras model has been gaining popularity of late because it encapsulates the

vision and mission into one and anchors the value.

Q2.

I. Define planning.

II. Explain the importance of planning.

A2:

Planning can be defined as a basic management function which enables one toselect the purpose of the business, and how the resources should be mustered to

achieve that purpose to include using the available resources optimally to do that.

Planning implies goal setting for the organisation keeping in mind the constraints,

opportunities and threats as much as what the person or business which is

planning wants to do. Thus, a plan is a blueprint for a goal achievement, a blue

print that specifies the necessary resource allocations, schedules, tasks and other

actions to achieve the purpose.

A goal is a desired future state that the organisation attempts to reach. Goals are

important because an organisation exists for a purpose, and goals define and state

that purposes. Goals specify future ends; plans specify the means to do it.

Planning answers six basic questions in regard to any activity:

i. What needs to be accomplished? What are the alternative routes to it?

ii. What is the deadline?

iii. Where will this be done?

iv. Who will be responsible for it?

v. How will it get done?

vi. How much time, energy, and resources are required to accomplish this goal?

Planning is important for the following reasons:

i. It helps the management to clarify, focus, and research their businesses or

project’s development and prospects.

ii. It provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can

develop and pursue business.

iii. It offers a benchmark against which the actual performance can be

measured and reviewed.

iv. It plays a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognise hidden

opportunities.

v. In the business context, it guides the development of products,management, finances, and most importantly, markets and competition.



Leading is a creative activity because of the human factors and individual

variances and group variances. Hence, we can see that creating functions

around which people find meaning is a creative function that leads to the

achievements.

5. Executive Function

Leading implies that the followers execute the functions, which the leader and

the follower agree is important for achieving the organisational goals and

through it the individual goals.

6. Delegating Function

It follows that the leader trusts his/her followers and the vice versa. Hence,

mutual trust always exists in leading. Therefore, delegation function based on

mutual trust is a characteristic of learning.

Q4:

I. Define organisation behaviour (OB).

II. What are the limitations of OB?

A4:

OB can be defined as a systematic study that investigates the impact of

individuals, groups and organisational factors on productivity to include

effectiveness and efficiency, absentee, turnover, organisational citizenship

behaviour and job satisfaction.

i. By systematic study we mean looking at relationships and attempting to

attribute causes and effect, and drawing conclusions based on scientific

evidence.

ii. By productivity we mean a performance we measure that includes both

effectiveness [achievement of goals] and efficiency [ratio on output versus

input required to achieve it].

iii. By absenteeism we mean failure to report to work especially without

informing.

iv. By turnover we mean voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from

an organisation [simply put exiting or quitting].

v. By organisational citizenship we mean discretionary behaviour that is not

part of an employee’s formal job requirement, but that nevertheless

promotes the effective functioning of the organisation.

vi. By job satisfaction we mean a general attitude towards one’s job; the

difference between the amount of reward the workers receive and the

amount they believe they should receive.

OB has some limitations:

i.

OB is not a remedy for the removal of conflict and frustration but can only reduce them.



ii. It is only one of the many systems operating within a large social system.

iii. There is a great danger of OB when in the hands of people who lack system

understanding. They tend to look only at the “behavioural basis”, which

gives them a narrow viewpoint. This tunnel vision often leads to satisfying

employee experiences while overlooking the broader system of an

organisation in relation to all its public.

iv. The law of diminishing returns also operates in the case of organisational

behaviour [the law states at some point increase of a desirable practice

produces declining returns and sometimes negative returns when that point

is exceeded].

v. The ethical standards of those in charge and those who use OB techniques

are a great concern. Its knowledge and techniques could be used to

manipulate people without regard for human welfare. People who lack

ethical values could use people in unethical ways.

Q5:

I. What is meant by emotional intelligence?

II. What is the impact of emotional intelligence on managers?

A5:

Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of

others, for motivating ourselves for managing emotions well in us and in our

relationships.

Goleman’s model of Emotional Intelligence [EL]

Daniel Goleman and the Hay Group have identifies a set of competencies that

differentiate individuals with EL. The competencies fall into four clusters:

i. Self-awareness: Capacity for understanding one’s emotion, one’s

strengths and one’s weaknesses.

ii. Self-management: Capacity for effectively managing one’s motives and

regulating one’s behaviour.

iii.

Social awareness: Capacity for understanding what others are sayingand feeling and why they feel and act as they do.

iv. Relationship management: Capacity for acting in such a way that one

is able to get desired results from others and reach personal goals.

The most popular and accepted mixed model of EL is the one proposed by Goleman

[1995]. He viewed EL as a sum of personal and social competences. Personal

competence determines how we manage ourselves, whereas social competence

determines how we handle our interpersonal relationships.

Personal Competence



Personal competence comprises three dimensions of EL, such as, self-awareness,

self-regulation and motivation. Self-awareness is the ability of an individual to

observe himself/herself and to recognise “a feeling as it happens” [Goleman, 1995].

The hallmarks of this ability are self-confidence, self-assessment and openness to

positive criticism. Self-regulation is the ability to control emotions and to redirect

those emotions that can have negative impact. Trustworthiness, integrity, tolerance

of ambiguity and attitude to accept change are some characteristics of this ability.

Motivation is the ability to channelize emotion to achieve a goal through self-control

and by moderating impulses as per the requirement of the situation. The people

who have this ability are optimistic and committed towards organisational as well

as individual goals.

Social Competence

Social competence comprises of two dimensions namely, empathy and social skills.

Empathy is the ability to feel and show concern for others, take their perspectiveand to treat people according to their emotional reactions. People with this ability

are experts in generating and motivating others. Social skills are the abilities to

build a rapport and to manage relationships with people. People having this skill

are very effective in persuasiveness and team management. “Social skill” is the

culmination of all other components of EL assuming that people can effectively

manage social and work relationships only when they can understand and control

their own emotion and can emphasise with the feeling of others.

Q6: Suppose you are the Team Manager in a multinational company with

team strength of 10 members. You are given the responsibility of ensuring

that the team gives excellent performance or results. What are the key issues

you have to handle in team building?

A6:

Key Issues in Team Building

i. Have clear expectations and context: Have clear performance targets

and expectations from the team. The team should get sufficient resources

– people, time and money. Their work should receive sufficient emphasis

as a priority in discussions.

ii. Commitment: All team members may not be equally committed. First,

ensure that all the team members believe in the mission and anticipate

recognition for their contribution. They expect their skills to grow and

develop and they should feel excited and challenged by the opportunity.

Only then does a team work well.

iii. Team design and competence: The next important aspect is having

adequate competences. If the team is to improve a process, it should have

people with expertise in each step of the process. Therefore it is not

sufficient to get some people together, but it is necessary to get people

with the requisite competencies.

iv. Charter of performance: The team should take the assigned

responsibility as its mission. This is the crux of a successful team. It



must define its goals, the outcomes, the timelines, measuring success,

and the process to accomplish tasks.

v. Control and coordination: Any management function works through

controls and coordination and teams are no exception. Some of the

issues to be considered are what are the controls the team members

accept and impose on themselves, what are the limitations in terms of

money, time, how far the members should go in pursuit of the solutions,

what is the degree of freedom and chain of reporting.

vi. Collaboration: The team goals should be a collaborative one and not a

competitive one. This would lead to their understanding and interpreting

the goals correctly.

vii. Communication: This is a common problem in team building. The

barriers of communication should be broken down and free flowing

communication should be established.

viii. Consequences: Team members should feel responsible and accountable

for the achievement and they should inherently get the idea of

consequences of not achieving it. Reward is one of the important factors

to be considered to achieve this.

ix. Creative innovation: Depending on the problem, the teams should be

able to innovate and they should have the freedom to do so.

x. Cultural change: Teams can function only if the organisation has such a

culture. Teams need flat organisational structure, rewards and

recognitions, and training and development of a high order.

MBA_Management Process and Organisational Behavior Question Sol

Documents

Transcript of MBA_Management Process and Organisational Behavior Question Sol