1. “Today managers need to perform various functions”Elaborate the statement

Management functionally can be defined as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan.

Management functions are as follows:1. Planning2. Organising3. Commanding4. Coordinating5. Controlling

However in recent times, management functions have been regrouped into 4 categories. Since the managerial tasks have become highly challenging a fluid nature of making distinctions redundant to a certain context.

1. Planning2. Organising3. Leading4. Controlling

1. Planning:It involves the process of defining goals, establishing strategies to achieve these goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Effective planning enables an organisation adapt the change by identifying opportunities and avoiding problems. It provides direction to the other functions of management and for effective team work. All levels of management engage in planning in their own way for achieving their presser goals.Planning in order to be useful must be linked with strategic intent of an organisation.

Strategic Planning:

Top level managers often engage in strategic planning or long term planning. It is a process of developing and analysing the organisation’s mission, overall goals, general strategies and allocation of resources.The tasks in strategic planning include the following steps:

a. Define mission: Planning begins with clearly defining the mission of the organisation. A mission statement should be short and should be easily understood by every employee. It guides employees to work independently yet collectively toward the realisation of organisation’ potentialb. Conduct SWOT analysis: A situation or SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats] analysis is vital for the creation of any strategic plan. It begins with the scan of external environment. Organisations need to need to examine their business situation in order to map out the opportunities and threats present in their environments. It provides assumptions and facts on which a plan will be based.In general terms the best strategy is one that fits the organisations strengths to opportunities. The SWOT analysis is used as a base line for future improvement, as well as gap analysis.Set 1 MB0022

Set goals and objectives:Strategic goals and objectives are developed to fulfil the gap between current capability and the mission. They are aligned with the mission and form basis for the action plans. Objectives are also called performance goals.Develop related strategies (Tactical and operational):Tactical plans are based on organisations strategic plan. In turn, operational plans are based on the organisations tactical plans. These are specific plans that are needed for each task or supporting activity comprising the whole. All plans must be accompanied by controls to ensure proper implementation.Monitor the plan:A systematic method of monitoring the environment must be adopted to continuously improve the strategic planning process. Feedback is encouraged and incorporated to determine if goals and objectives are feasible.

2. Organising:It involves designing, structuring and coordinating the work componenets to achieve organisational goals. It it the process of determining what tasks are to be done, who to do, how the takss are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.the purpose of this function is to make the best use of the organisation’s resources to achieve organisational golas.The steps in organisation process include:

a. Review plansb. List all tasks to accomplishedc. Divide the tasks into groups one person can accomplish-ajobd. Group related jobs together in a logical and efficient manner.e. Assign wokr to individuals.f. Delegate authority to establish relationships between jobs ans groups of

jobs.

3. Leading:An organisation has the greatest chance of being successful when all of the employees work toward achieving its goals. Since leadership involves the exercise of influence by one person over others, the quality of leadership exhibited bys supervisors is critical demand of organisational success.Leading involves the following functions:

a. Team Building: Rigid department boundaries and fixed teams are giving way to ad hoc squads whose membership changes with every project. Competitive arenas require quick decisions by knowledgeable employees who work close to the source of problems. Teams enable knowledge-based and innovative decision making. This collaboration is a revolution in work place.b. Consensus Building: Top performance demands the joint effort of many people working together toward a common goal. Together, employees can do more than the collective efforts of each individual working alone.c. Selecting: Selecting competent, high-performing employees capable of sustaining their performance over the long run is a competitive advantage. The section process consists of forecasting employment needs, recruiting candidates, interviewing applicants and hiring employees.Set 1 MB0022

d. Training: After selecting employees, they enter an organisational program to be formally introduced to their jobs. Orientation sets a tone for new employees work by describing job-related expectations and reporting relationships.Employees are informed about the benefits, policies and procedures. Specific duties and responsibilities and performance evaluation are clarified. During orientation, the supervisor has the opportunity to resolve any unrealistic expectations held by employee. All new employees [current employee in new jobs] must be trained. Cross training prepares employees for a job normally handled by someone else. Training starts with Organisational analysis. Task analysis identifies the current and future tasks to be done. Personal needs analysis involves asking managers and employees to analyse their training needs.

4. Controlling:It involves monitoring employee’s behaviour and organisational processes and takes necessary actions to improve them. There are 4 steps in control process:

i. Establish performance standards. Standards are created and objectives are set during planning process.

ii. Measure actual performance. Supervisors collect data to measure actual performance. Oral reports will allow for fast and extensive feedback. Computers give supervisors direct access to real time, unaltered data, and information.

iii. Compare measured performance against established standards. Establish the acceptable variation. Deviations that exceed this range would alert the supervisor to a problem.

iv. Take corrective action. If the performance is from a deflect in activity , then the supervisor can take immediate corrective action and get performance back on track.

Controls are effective when they are applied at key places. Supervisors can implement control measures before the process begins [ Feed forward], during the process [Concurrent], or after it ceases[ Feedback].

2. “Skills are the tools for performance” Explain Different management skills.

Management Skills

According to Katz (1974), management skills are as follows:

1. Technical Skills

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2. Human Skills

3. Conceptual Skills

1. Technical Skills:

The ability is to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job. Vocational and on-the-job training programs can be used to develop this type of skill.

2. Human Skills:

This is the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people (both individually and a group). This requires sensitivity towards other issues and concerns. People, who are proficient in technical skill, but not with interpersonal skills, may face difficult to manage their sub-ordinates,. To acquire the human skill, it is pertinent to recognize the feelings and sentiments of others, ability to motivate others even in adverse situation and communicate own feelings to others in a positive and inspiring way.

3. Conceptual Skills:

This is an ability to critically analyse, diagnose a situation and forward a feasible solution. It requires creative thinking, generating options and choosing the best available option.

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3. What is negotiation? Explain the process of negotiation.

Negotiation:

Negotiation is the process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree upon the exchange rate for them. There are two general approaches to negotiation

- Distributive bargaining: One’s tactics focus on trying to get one’s opponent to agree to one’s specific target point or to get as close to it as possible.Set 1 MB0022

Hard distributive bargaining / negotiation:This takes place when each party holds out to get its own way. This leads to win-lose outcome.

Soft distributive bargaining / negotiation:This takes place when one party is willing to make concessions to the other to get things over with.

- Integrative bargaining: This strategy is adopted to create win-win solution. Following conditions are necessary for this type of negotiation:a. Parties who are open with information and candid about their concerns.b. Sensitivity by both parties to the other’s needs.c. The ability to trust one another.d. Willingness by both parties to maintain flexibility.

The Negotiation Process:

Preparation and Planning:

At this stage, homework needs to be done in regard to the nature, history, concerned parties of the conflict. Based upon the information, a strategy is developed. Both the parties Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) needs to be determine. BATNA determines the lowest value acceptable to you for a negotiated agreement for both the parties.

Definitions of Ground rules:

At this stage, the venue, the negotiators, time will be decided.

Clarification & Justification:

When initial positions have been exchanged, the original demands of both the parties need to be explained and justified. Proper documentation is required at this stage to support each of the parties position.

Bargaining & Problem Solving:

The essence of the negotiation process is the actual give and take in trying to hash out an agreement; concessions will undoubtedly need to be made by both parties.

Closure and Implementation:

This is the final step, where the agreement is formalised and procedures to implement the agreement will be developed.

Issues in Negotiation:

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a. Overall assessments of the personality – negotiation relationship finds that personality trait have no significant direct effect on either the bargaining process or negotiation outcomes.

b. Men and women do not negotiate differently. The belief that women are “nicer” is probably due to confusing gender and the lack of power typically held by women.

c. Negotiating styles clearly vary across national cultures.

4. Explain Classical Conditioning Theory?Classical Conditioning is the type of learning made famous by Pavlov's experiments with dogs.

Classical conditioning was accidentally discovered around the beginning of the 20th century by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov [1927]. Pavlov was studying digestive process in dogs when he discovered that the dogs salivated before they received their food. In fact, after repeated pairing of the lab attendant and the food, the dogs started to salivate at the sight of the lab assistants. Pavlov coined this phenomenon “psychic secretions." He noted that dogs were not only responding to a biological need (hunger), but also a need developed by learning. Pavlov spent the rest of life researching why this associate learning occurred, which is now called classical conditioning.

To experiment on classical conditioning, Pavlov utilized a tuning fork and meat powder. He hit the tuning fork and followed the sound with the meat powder. Pavlov presented the sound (tuning fork) with the meat powder at the exact same time increments. In the beginning, the dog salivated only to the meat powder, but after this was repeated, salivated at the sound of the tuning fork. Even when Pavlov took away the meat powder, the dog continued to salivate at the sound of the tuning fork.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONINGIn classical conditioning, an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another. The organism learns that the first stimulus is a cue for the second stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment above, the tuning fork(Bell) cued the dogs that food might be coming. Following is an example of classical conditioning.

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KEY CONCEPTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) A stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning

Unconditioned Response (UCR) Automatic response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) A neutral stimulus that when paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) elicits a similar response

Conditioned Response (CR) A response that is learned by pairing the originally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Acquisition: The acquisition phase is the consistent parings of the CS (bell) and the UCS (food) that produces a CR (salivation). In the example above, this phase

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occurs when the dog begins to salivate at the sound of the bell. Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the food follows the bell by a half a second.

Extinction the extinction phase is when the conditioned response no longer occurs after repeated pairings without the unconditioned stimulus. The dog’s response to the bell can be extinguished by repeatedly presenting the bell (CS) without the food (UCS). The dog has not completely forgotten the association between the bell and the food. If the experimenter waits a day, the dog may have a spontaneous recovery of the conditioned response and salivate again to the bell.

Generalization Occurs when there is a small difference in the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell of a similar tone, the dog would still salivate.

Discrimination

The opposite of generalization, discrimination happens when a conditioned response does not occur when there is a difference between the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell with a different tone and was not awarded the unconditioned stimulus (food), the dog would learn not to salivate to the second tone.

 Classical conditioning is used by trainers for two purposes: To condition (train) autonomic responses, such as the drooling, producing adrenaline, or reducing adrenaline (calming) without using the stimuli that would naturally create such a response; and, to create an association between a stimulus that normally would not have any effect on the animal and a stimulus that would.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5.How are culture and society responsible to built value system?

Values represent basic convictions that ‘a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. When the values are ranked in terms of their intensity, it is called value system. Types of values include social values and aesthetic values. Values have both content and intensity attributes.

- The content attribute specifies that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important.

- The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.- Ranking an individual’s values in terms of their intensity equals that persons

value system.Values shape relationships, behaviours and choices. The more positive our values more positive are our actions.

Culture, Society and Values:

According to Hofstede’s Research, the following points can be noted:

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Power distance-This dimension measures the social equality in families, institutions and organisations. Inequality of power in organisations is generally manifested in hierarchical superior-subordinate relationships.

Uncertainty avoidance-This is representation of a society tolerance for uncertain situations. It measures to what extent a society manages those situations by providing specific and conventional rules, regulations and norms; by rejecting aberrant ideas or behaviour; by accepting the possibility of absolute truths ans the accomplishments of expertise.

Individualism Vs Collectivism-Individualism gauges to what extent individuals in a country consider themselves as distinct entities rather than members of cohesive groups. Collectivism, on the other hand, emphasizes on social ties or bonds between individuals. Individualistic society considers self interest as more important that the group goal.

Masculinity Vs Femininity-This dimension refers to what extent dominant values in a society emphasizes masculine social values like a work ethic expressed in terms of money, achievement and recognition as opposed to feminine social role will show more concern for people and quality of life.

Long term orientation-Measures employee’s devotion to work ethic and their respect for tradition. The Asian countries are strong in work ethic and respect for tradition.

He also states that each person carries several layers of cultural programming. It starts when a child learns basic values, what is right and wrong, good and bad, logical and illogical, beautiful and ugly. Culture is about your fundamental assumptions of what is to be a person and how you should interact with other persons. The first level of culture is deepest and difficult to change. Other layers in the culture are learned or programmed in the course of education through professional or craft training and in organisation life.

According to GLOBE, there are 9 cultural dimensions. Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which a society or an organisation

tries to avoid uncertainty by depending heavily on prevalent norms, rituals and bureaucratic practices.

Power Distance: it is the degree to which power unequally shared in a society and organisation.

Collectivism –I [Social collectivism]: it is the degree to which society and an organisation encourage and recognises collective performance.

Collectivism-II [In-group Collectivism]: it is the degree to which individuals take pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organisations and families.

Gender egalitarianism: this is an extent to which a society or an organisation minimizes gender differences.

Assertiveness: it is the degree to which individuals, both in organisational and social context are, assertive and confrontational.

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Future orientation: it is the degree to which individuals are encouraged in long term future oriented behaviour.

Performance orientation: this encourages and rewards persons on performance improvement.

Human orientation: it is the degree to which organisations or society encourages or reward for being fair, altruistic, friendly and caring.

Work behaviours across cultures:

In every culture, there are different sets if attitudes and values which affect behaviour. Mangers portray trust and respect in their employees in different ways in different cultures. This is a function of their own cultural background. For example managers from specific cultures tend to focus only on the behaviour that takes place at work, in contrast to managers from diffused cultures who focus on wider range of behaviour including employee’s private and professional lives. Most managers from diffused cultures believed that company should provide such facility where are managers from specific cultures agreed on the same.

Task and relationship:In response to the statement which states that, the main reason of hierarchal structure was to communicate the authority relationship, most of US managers disagreed where most Asian and Latin American managers are agreed. It was clear that US managers have extremely task oriented culture, believe more in flatter organisational structure to become more effective. The second set of managers was from relationship oriented cultures where the concept of authority is more important.Managers as experts or problem solvers:Manager from various cultures were asked whether it was important for them to have at hand, precise answers to most questions their subordinates might raise about their work. French managers believed that they should give raise to precise answers to the questions in order to maintain their credibility and retain their subordinate’s sense of security. On contrary, US mangers believed that a managers’ role should be to act as a mentor who would facilitate employees to solve the problem. They also believe that providing direct answers to a problem actually discourages subordinates initiatives and creativity and ultimately hampers performance.

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6. Write short notes on Locus of Control Machiavellianism

Locus of Control:

A person’s perception of the source of his/ her fate is termed as Locus of Control. Locus of control was formulated within the frame work of Rotter’s {1954} Social Learning Theory of Personality. Rotter {1975} pointed out that the internality and externality are the two ends of a continuum, not an either/or topology.

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External Locus of ControlIndividual believes that his/her behaviour is guided by fate, luck, or other external circumstances

Internal Locus of ControlIndividual believes that his/her behaviour is guided by his/her personal decisions and efforts.

Internals tend to attribute outcomes of events to their own control. Externals attribute outcome of events to external circumstances.

For example, college students with a strong internal locus of control may believe that their grades were achieved through their own abilities and efforts. Whereas, those with strong external locus of control may believe that their grades are the result of good / bad luck, or to a professor who designs bad tests or grades capriciously; hence they are less likely to expect that their own efforts will result in success and are therefore less likely to work hard for higher grades.

Individuals who rate high in externality are less satisfied with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from work wetting and are less involved on their jobs than are internals. Internals believe that health is substantially under their own control, and hence, of absenteeism, are lower.

Internals generally perform better on their jobs, but one needs to consider differences in jobs. Internals search more actively for information before making a decision, are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their environment, and hence, internals do well on sophisticated tasks, internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of action and want autonomy and independence in their jobs. Externals are more compliant and are willing to follow directions and be led, and do well on the jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends heavily on complying with the direction of others.

Machiavellianism:

Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. The concept is named after Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote II Principe [The prince]. Christie and Geis [1970] developed a test for measuring a person’s level of Machiavellianism. This eventually became the MACH IV test, a 20 statement personality survey that is now standard self assessment tool for Machiavellianism.

Mach IV, the Machiavelli (Mach) scale measures an individual's willingness to put self-interest and his or her preferences above the interests of the group, and an individual's ability to influence and manipulate others for personal gain (Jaffe et al, 1989). Individuals with a high score on the scale are comfortable using various means to achieve their personal goals. A high Mach has a cynical view of human nature, few scruples, and is willing to step outside the bounds of formal

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authority (Rayburn and Rayburn, 1996). Grams and Rogers (1990) found that people who were high in Machiavellianism used indirect, non-rational tactics like deceit, but also appealed to emotions to try to plant their ideas to influence their colleagues.

High Mach scorers manipulate more, win more, are persuaded and persuade others more. High mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors and flourish when they interact face to face with others rather than indirectly, and when the situation has minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing room for improvisation. High machs makes good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or that offer substantial rewards for winning.

Literature review

Several hundred studies have examined Machiavellianism, including several that have researched the degree of Machiavellianism among current and future business executives (Hegarty and Sims, 1978; Chonko, 1982; Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1990). However, no previous studies have attempted to examine the extent of Machiavellianism among Egyptian students.

Robinson and Shaver (1973) reviewed various studies on Machiavellianism. The authors found different degrees of Machiavellianism between generations, which indicate that people are becoming more manipulative and impersonal. Also reviewed, field studies at medical schools reveal that psychiatrists are most Machiavellian and surgeons are least Machiavellian. The explanation offered is that psychiatrists' role involves manipulation per se vs. the surgeon who has as little personal contact with patient as possible.

Miesing and Preble (1985) compared the different business ideologies, including Machiavellianism, and tested them with 487 MBA students. This survey revealed that postgraduates and those with work experience were less Machiavellian in approach, compared to undergraduates and those without work experience. In addition, women compared to men, and those with some religious convictions were found to be less Machiavellian in their dealings.

Gemmill and Heisler (1972) investigated the relationship between Machiavellian orientation and several job-related correlates among 150 managers in a large manufacturing firm in the US. The findings indicate that Machiavellian orientation is positively associated with job strain and perceived opportunity for formal control, and negatively associated with job satisfaction. Machiavellian orientation was not significantly associated with upward mobility.

Siegel (1973) examined the extent to which managers, MBA students, and faculty members exhibit the Machiavellian, manipulative interpersonal behavior and leadership using the Mach scale and theory X/Theory Y leadership scale. The study found the following ranking of Machiavellian orientation: managers (lowest), students, faculty (highest). They found Machiavellianism relates negatively to participative leadership attitudes for both students and managers.

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