ASSIGNMENTSPROGRAM: MBA 2yrs

SEMESTER-I

Subject Name Management Functions and BehaviorBatch 2015Permanent Enrollment Number (PEN)Roll NumberStudent Number

INSTRUCTIONSa) Students are required to submit all three assignment sets.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS MARKS

Assignment A Five Subjective Questions 10Assignment B Three Subjective

Questions + CaseStudy

10

Assignment C 40 Objective Questions 10

b) Total weightage given to these assignments is 30%. OR 30 Marksc) All assignments are to be completed as typed in word/pdf.d) All questions are required to be attempted.e) All the three assignments are to be completed by due dates (specified from time To time) and need to be submitted for evaluation by Amity University.f) The evaluated assignment marks will be made available within six weeks.Thereafter, these will be destroyed at the end of each semester.g) The students have to attach a scan signature in the form.

Signature: _________________________________

Date: _________________________________

( √ ) Tick mark in front of the assignments submittedAssignment ‘A’ √ Assignment ‘B’ √ Assignment ‘C’ √

Assignment AMarks 10

Answer all questions.

1. How can the field of OB contribute to the effective functioning of organizations and the wellbeing of the individual?

Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations. There are three key parts. Systematic study is the use of scientific evidence gathered under controlled conditions and measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner to attribute cause and effect. Systematic study of actions (or behaviors) and attitudes occurs in three areas: productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Systematic study within an organization—OB is specifically concerned with work-related behavior—and that takes place in organizations. A fourth type of behavior, organizational citizenship, has been added as a determiner of organizational effectiveness.

Organizational behavior is applied behavioral science. Psychology is the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals. Sociology studies people in relation to their fellow human beings. Greatest contribution was through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and complex organizations. Social Psychology is an area within psychology, blending concepts from psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one another. Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. This has helped us understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between people in different countries and within organizations. Political science, the study of the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment, is frequently overlooked.

Major Challenges in an organization are improving quality, customer service, and productivity through the use of quality management, reengineering and other techniques and improving people skills. Managing workforce diversity a key challenge since organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity and responding to globalization. Effectiveness of the organization can be improved by empowering people by the reshaping of the relationship between managers and those they are supposedly responsible for managing, stimulating innovation and change, coping with temporariness as the workforce becomes more part time and contingency based, dealing with declining employee loyalty and improving ethical behavior. These are some of the factors of Organization Behavior which improve the effectiveness of the Organization and wellbeing of an individual.

2. How are leadership theory and styles related to employee motivation? Explain with suitable examples.

Leadership theories, styles and types can have a powerful effect on motivating employees. On the other hand, deciding which one will be the most effective will be the challenging tasks. There are endless list of possibilities at the same time you need to decide whether to employ a style that fits your personality or not. Following are the different types of Leadership theories

Trait Theory

Trait theory is explained as people who have inherited leadership characteristics. The focus then shifted to discovering traits by studying successful leaders. The assumption was that if other people had the same traits, then they could also be great leaders. In 1974 Stogdill recognized critical traits and skills for successful leaders. Use the table below to determine your level of leadership.

Behavioral Theory

Behavioral theory follows the notation that leaders can be made instead of inheriting traits. This particular theory is the easiest to develop of all the leadership’s theories.

Participative Leadership Theory

There are leadership theories that allow you to involve other people in the decision making process. Participative leadership theory follows this belief. Employees will be less competitive and more willing to work together on joint goals. When decisions are made as a team, the commitment level to one another increases as does their commitment to the decision.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership theories takes the road of selling compared to the telling style of transactional leadership. The basic notation is that workers will follow people whom their inspired by.

The process of transformational leadership has four parts. Building The Vision Promoting The Vision Finding The Way Forward Leading The Movement

Situational Leadership

Situational leaders will adapt to whatever situation presents itself. This leadership style calls for the understanding of several different theories. Understanding a wide variety of theories will allow leaders to be prepared for any sort of issue that may arise. Situational Leadership is considered by many leaders to be the best theory to use daily.

All the Leadership Theories above can be used for employee motivation purposes. There are many other ways to motivate your employees. For more motivation ideas try these articles for inspiring ideas.

3. Discuss in detail the contribution of Taylor to the development of Management thought.

Taylor contributed a number of principles and features of management thought that adhered to his new concept of approaching management thought scientifically. He was one of the founders

of management thought theory and is considered the father of scientific management. His ideas were developed and used for decades after the concept was created.

Principles of scientific management

Taylor believed that scientific management consists of a philosophy that results in a combination of four main principles. The first principle suggests that management need to develop the best way to complete a job. It is the task of finding the best method for achieving the objectives of a given job. The second principle states that management must carry out a scientific selection of their workers and develop them through proper management. Thirdly, management must carry out a scientific approach. That is, a true science should be developed in all fields of work activity. The fourth and final principle states that there should be an elimination on conflicts between methods and men. Workers are likely to resist new methods and this can be avoided by using it as an opportunity to offer more wages.

Features of scientific management

Taylor put forward a huge number of features of scientific management. One was the introduction of the standard task which every worker is expected to complete within a day. This task should be calculated through scientific investigation and work study is essential. Taylor also suggested that tasks need to be planned. In order for workers to carry out this task every day, it will need to be planned actively. A scientific selection and training of workers is another feature of scientific management put forward by Taylor. This selection and training will contribute towards the production activities.

4. Do you think when managers make decisions they follow the decision making steps as has been conceptualized in the rational decision making model? Which steps are likely to be overlooked or given inadequate attention? What can be the possible consequences of overlooking any of the steps?

Decision Making is an intellectual process of selection a suitable alternative from the available alternatives to achieve a desired result in the best manner. A number of scholars and research studies have indicated that managers, especially at senior positions usually fail to follow the decision making steps that have been conceptualized in the rational decision making model.

Decision are required whenever there is a situation of uncertainty. Decision making mostly are identification of Situation or Problem. Manages can overlook or given inadequate attention at various stages of decision making process.

Identifying and formulating alternatives Evaluating alternatives Select the best suitable alternatives Strategic or Tactical decisions

The identification of real problem & clear definition of it is unpredictable the certaintythat decision maker will be able to identify and define the problem is limited.

There are chances that the actual problem will not be identified by the decisionmaker.

It is vague to assume that the decision maker has complete knowledge. We have to accept the limitation that every person have limited knowledge towards problem, available alternatives and skills to evaluate and select the best alternatives.

We have to make our decisions in various constraints of time and resources, along with it; we have to consider the work pressure and stress under which we have to make our choices.

Sometimes the decision maker has to take decision due to constraints of political behavior of self or others which means either the decision maker will take a decision which will not be best for the problem but for some political benefit or he has to manipulate a decision so as to get maximum advantage from the situation.

Lastly we have to keep in mind the limitation of our cognitive skills, we can’t assume that every decision maker is having the same kind of knowledge and analytical skill to foresee and predict things and take the best decision.

If there is any issue with the decision making process the real consequences will be the team may not achieve the desired result.

5. “Participation is an excellent method for identifying differences and resolvingconflicts”. Do you agree or disagree. Discuss with suitable examples.

Yes Participation is an excellent method for identifying differences and resolving conflicts.

Participation is a method clearly favored and spoken of by businesses and governing bodies as the optimum tactic to be used in bringing about resolution and dealing with issues of conflict in the workplace for example. Relationships are strengthened when two groups can discuss and work through a problem in order to come to an agreement about an issue which is even better than a compromise.

Participation forces the two parties to work through the issues that separate their own ideas and often results in the best of both becoming part of the finished product, if in a business scenario. It is this very tension within a team that is essential for creative thinking and provokes individuals to see alternative solutions.

It isn't a guaranteed solution, however like noted above however, participation is only the best strategy and is not always necessarily the strategy that brings about resolve in a situation. The ideal of collaborating to produce the best result and also improve moral within the team can sometimes take up time and resources that are just not a luxury.

Compromise, rather than collaboration, is sometimes the only way to resolve and issue in order to meet a deadline. In that sense the strategy of participation can be too time consuming and even then the two parties may result in having to compromise; a strategy always used as a backup because it still produces some kind of result. Understanding on how to navigate a conflict is necessary.

Implementing the strategy of 'Participation' does not stand alone as a skill in conflict management however. It must come from a basis of understanding of how to handle conflict's creative stimulation, the ability to put aside personal agendas and insecurities, to handle others emotions, to listen and to identify when and if a resolution via this strategy is attainable. Only then is it an excellent method in dealing with differences and conflicts.

Assignment BMarks 10

1. Why does communication break down? How can communication be improved?

Communication is very significant in organizing as it’s only through communication the instructions, feedback, suggestion and other information will flow like the blood in the organizing providing necessary inputs for operations.

Communication breakdown will happen if there is inconsistencies in verbal and nonverbal content we are unable to make out the actual meaning of the communication, so if an individual is saying something but his facial expressions or body language is different, we will not be able to understand the actual meaning.

Organization is an important means of bringing coordination among the various departments of the enterprise. It creates clear-cut relationships between the departments and helps in laying down balanced emphasis on various activities. It also provides for the channels of communication for the coordination of the activities of different departments. The synergies which develops help the company in achieving larger objectives.

Organization chart should reflect the formal communication structure of the organization the instructions will flow from higher level to lower level and feedback and suggestions will flow from the lower to upper level. This will make to understand about the basic communication and will improve the same. Directing activities are highly dependent of communication and interactions, without the effective communication and regular interactions the objective of directing will not be possible. A supervisor has to interact with his foreman to supervise or guide him secondly a manager have to communicate his instructions timely and clearly for proper implementation. MBO helps in better communication and coordination as starting from setting the objectives and pursuing it the manager and his team interact and as the goals are defined jointly the possibility of confusion is very less.

Better communication means clear & timely communication so that flow of information is maintained. Communication will be improved if when ideas, thoughts, feelings & emotions are understood by the people in the same manner as we want to. The communication should be complete, which means it should have all the relevant information required by the receiver to interpret the message and respond or act in the same way as the sender expected him to. When the communication is incomplete then it will result in confusion and the response from the receiver will also be affected. The performance of any organizational activity will depend on the completeness of the communication.

2. What is departmentalization? Why is it required? Discuss any one form ofdepartmentalization.

Classical theorists prescribed to organize on the basis of similarity of work, and suggested to group the similar works in to one category allotting it to a group of people, this is known as departmentalization process.

Departmentalization is very much important because when the people keep on doing the same job repeatedly, with passage of time they become more efficient as they become specialized in doing the same task repeatedly. This was known as the specialization and division of labor. The organization structure was based on the nature of work only. The benefits of specialization of labor or specialization were said to be

- Reduction of time for learning, as by doing repeated task learning becomes easier.- Reduction in wastage, by doing the same task repeatedly defects in the process is eliminated.- Increases in efficiency as by performing routine task inefficiencies are removed and the performance becomes more consistent.- Recruiting becomes easier as right person with the right skills can be hired with more ease due to well defined job descriptions and job specifications.

Following are different types of departmentalization.

Functional departmentalization Product departmentalization Customer departmentalization Geographic departmentalization Process departmentalization Divisional departmentalization

Geographic departmentalization

Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography. For example, the organization structure of Coca-Cola has reflected the company’s operation in two broad geographic areas – the North American sector and the international sector, which includes the Pacific Rim, the European Community, Northeast Europe, Africa and Latin America groups.

3. What do you understand by authority and power? How are they different fromeach other?

Authority is the right given to a manager to achieve the objectives of the organization. It is a right to get the things done through others. It is a right to take decisions. It is a right to give orders to the subordinates and to get obedience from them. A manager cannot do his work without authority.

A manager gets his authority from his position or post. He gets his authority from the higher authorities. The lower and middle-level managers get their authority from the top-level managers. The top-level managers get their authority from the shareholders. Authority always flows downwards. It is delegated from the top to the bottom. According to Henri Fayol, "Authority is the right to give orders and power to exact (get) obedience."

Power is a broader concept than authority. Power is the ability of a person or a group to influence the beliefs and actions of other people. It is the ability to influence events. Power can be personal power. A person gets his personal power from his personality or from his expert

knowledge. Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Programmers, etc. get their power from their expertise and professional knowledge. Power can also be legitimate or official power. This power comes from a higher authority.

4. Case study: Please read the case study given below and answer questionsgiven at the end.

CASE STUDY

Mr. R.K. Mishra owns a small trading company in Varanasi by the name of RKM Enterprises.

The company provided raw material to the manufacturers of silk sarees. The business enterprise is also engaged in supply of silk sarees and other silk garments produced by local weavers to the big stores in major cities. In addition they have substantial export orders. The company is mainly a family based enterprise. Mr. R.K. Mishra is the Director and his son Ritesh is looking after finance department. The son is also assisting his father in other strategically matters. Key decisions are taken by the Director himself after occasional discussions with Ritesh.

The existing employee strength is more than 200 with 15 offices spread across the country. During the last one decade of its existence, the business has grown considerably. In fact, the turnover surpassed Rupees 100 million in the year 2003-04. However, since then the business faced stiff competition from other traders. In last one year the orders that have been received have reduced substantially. Rohit, younger son of the Director is holding a management degree from Banaras Hindu University. He has recently left a job with an MNC located in Mumbai and joined his father’s business to help in solving the problems. After joining, Rohit made several changes in the organization. A major restructuring drive was carried out. The authority to take several major decisions was transmitted to lower levels. Organization structure was also made flatter. Instructions were given to all managers to consult their subordinates before taking any decisions. He was determined to see that the company was professionally managed.

Questions:

1. “The management of RKM Enterprises is not professional and is family based”.analyze and comment.

RKM enterprises is managed by its owner Mr. R. K. Mishra along with his 2 sons, Ritesh and Rohit. All strategic decisions are taken by Mr. Mishra in consultation with his son. Presently Rohit is bringing in changes to make it more professional but is a long way to make it into a professionally managed company. The business is facing stiff competition and needs a strategic shift in its thinking and direction. The company needs to bring in more professionals with appropriate experience in the various areas like Purchase, Logistics, Finance, and Marketing.

They are lacking in the following skills which need immediate attention

Planning Skills Organizing SkillsLeadership Decision MakingControlling Skills

Technical SkillsHuman SkillsConceptual SkillsAnalytical SkillsAdministrative skills

2. Analyse the changes brought in by Rohit.

Rohit made several changes in the organization. A major restructuring drive was carried out. The authority to take several major decisions was transmitted to lower levels. Organisation structure was also made flatter. Instructions were given to all managers to consult their subordinates before taking any decisions. He was determined to see that the company was professionally managed.

Rohit has followed the decentralization techniques where "Powers of decision making is delegated to the lower levels and only very significant and strategic decisions are taken by the top management"

He has made changes in organisational chart and structure and he has followed flatter methodologies also known as horizontal organization or delayering, is an organization that has an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives. The idea is that well-trained workers will be more productive when they are more directly involved in the decision making process, rather than closely supervised by many layers of management.

As he informed to the manager to consult their subordinates before taking any decision that means he has followed the technique of "Delegation of Authority", in which the sublevel "Freedom to think and make decisions" are followed here.

By following these which are analyzed in Management function and organisational behavior, he make sure that that company was professionally managed.

Assignment CMarks 10

Tick Marks (√) the most appropriate answer.

1. Which of the following was NOT a need proposed by David McClelland’s Theory of Needs?

(a) The need for power

√ (b) The need for esteem

(c) The need for affiliation

(d) The need for achievement

2. Managers engage in to increase their power and pursue goals that favor their

individual and group interests.

√ (a) Organizational politics

(b) Political decision making

(c) Accommodation

(d) Self satisfaction

3. Which of the following is NOT A motivator according to Herzberg?

(a) Achievement

√ (b) Relations with others

(c) Recognition

(d) Responsibility

4. Cognitive Dissonance theory has been given by

(a) Taylor

(b) Vroom

√ (c) Festinger

(d) Skinner

5. The purpose of feedback in communication is

(a) To ensure that message has been understood

(b) To carry the message back from receiver to sender

(c) To complete the process of communication

√ (d) All of the above

6. Self Esteem means

(a) Love for yourself

√ (b) Respect for yourself

(c) Trust for yourself

(d) All the above

7. The Hawthorne experiment was started by:

(a) Kurt Lewin

(b) B.F.Skinner

√ (c) Elton Mayo

(d) W.Dickson

8. --------------is the systematic study of the ways interaction, interdependence and

influence among persons affect their behavior and thoughts

(a) Social psychology

(b) Industrial psychology

(c) Anthropology

√ (d) Sociology

9. Psychoanalytic theory has been propounded by?

(a) Rogers

(b) Alderfer

(c) Janis

√ (d) Freud

10. MBO was first suggested by?

(a) F.W. Taylor

(b) Henri Fayol

√ (c) Peter F. Drucker

(d) Watson

11. The three levels of analysis that are studied in organizational behavior are?

(a) Traits, behaviors and results.

(b) Affective, cognitive and behavioral

(c) Individual , organizational and social

√ (d) Individual , group and organizational

12. Which type of leaders gives complete freedom to their employees?

(a) Autocratic leaders

(b) Bureaucratic leaders

(c) Participative leaders

√ (d) Laissez-faire leaders

13. ------------refers to the ability of individuals or groups to induce or influence the beliefs

or actions of other individuals or groups?

√ (a) Power

(b) Responsibility

(c) Delegation

(d) Discipline

14. Robert Owen, Charles Babbage, Henry R. Lowne , Andrew Ure and Charles Duplin

contributed to the school of management thought?

(a) Classical

(b) Behavioral

(c) Neo-classical

√ (d) Pre-classical

15. Which of the following is not a leadership theory?

(a) Trait theory

√ (b) ERG theory

(c) Contingency theory

(d) Transactional theory

16. Which is an advantage of decentralization?

√ (a) Encourages decision-making

(b) Easy to have uniform policy

(c) Greater Control

(d) Decreases complexity of coordination

17. Which type of departmentation is useful only at the lowest level of organizations?

√ (a) Departmentation by simple numbers

(b) Departmentation by time

(c) Departmentation by process or equipment

(d) Departmentation by strategic numbers

18. Which managerial function gives attention to influencing and motivating employees

to improve performance and achieve corporate objectives?

√ (a) Leading

(b) Organizing

(c) Staffing

(d) Controlling

19. The refers to the delivery by one individual to another of the right to act, to make decisions, to

requisition resources and to perform other tasks in order to fulfill job responsibilities

(a) Centralization of power

√ (b) Delegation of authority

(c) Centralization of authority

(d) Delegation of responsibility

20. In the process of communication, the translation of intended meanings into words and gestures is

known as?

√ (a) Encoding

(b) Decoding

(c) Processing

(d) Transforming

21. The establishment of a distinct area, unit of subsystem of an organization over

which a

(a) Centralization

√ (b) Departmentation

(c) Decentralization

(d) Functionallization

22. Which of the following processes shows how an individual seeks information about

a certain issue and how he interprets that information?

(a) Dogmatism

(b) Perception

√ (c) Stereotyping

(d) Congnitive dissonance

23. The organization chart is a way of showing?

√ (a) How the task of an organization are divided and coordinated

(b) The informal patterns of communication

(c) The stakeholders who have an interest in the company

(d) The physical layout of the buildings on a site

24. When a manager secures the agreement of a colleague to work on a project in return for the

promise of providing the colleague with some extra remuneration, what type of power is he or she

exercising?

(a) Expert power

(b) Coercive power

(c) Referent power

√ (d) Reward power

25. Which of the following is not one of the steps identified as part of the controlling process?

(a) Setting performance standards or goals

(b) Measuring performance

√ (c) Writing the reports

(d) Tasking corrective action

26. Which of the following refers to changing a task to make it inherently more rewarding, motivating

and satisfying?

(a) Enlargement

(b) Rotation

(c) Enhancement

√ (d) Enrichment

27. When people are resisting because of adjustment problem, the method for dealing with resistance

to change is commonly used

√ (a) Facilitation and support

(b) Explicit and implicit coercion

(c) Manipulation and cooptation

(d) Participation and involvement

28. According to Fieldler’s contingency model, leadership situations can be analyzed in

terms of three elements. What are they?

(a) The quantity of the membership, the organizational structure and position of authority

√ (b) The quantity of leader-member relationships, task structure and position power

(c) The style of leadership, the educational level of the membership and the organizational structure

(d) The power of the leadership, the member relationships and the organizational structure

29. Which of the following characteristic distinguishes authority?

(a) It is vested in people not positions

√ (b) Subordinates accept it.

(c) It flows across the horizontal hierarchy

(d) It emerges from the organizational values

30. Which of these refers to the set of characteristics that underlie a relatively stable pattern of

behavior in response to ideas, objects or people in the environment?

(a) Dissonance perception

√ (b) Personality

(c) Halo effect

(d) Attitude

31. The tendency to place the primary responsibility for one’s success or failure either within oneself

or on outside forces is referred to as

(a) Authoritarianism

(b) Emotional stability

√ (c) Locus of control

(d) Extroversion

32. The tendency to see one’s own personal traits in other people is called

(a) Perceptual defense

√ (b) Projection

(c) Stereotyping

(d) The halo effect

33. Which of the following theories deals with employee’s perception of fairness?

(a) Expectancy

(b) Reinforcement

(c) Need hierarchy

√ (d) Equity

34. A financial budget that estimates cash flows on a daily basis or weekly basis to ensure that the

company can meet its obligations is called a

(a) Capital expenditure budget

(b) Balance sheet budget

√ (c) Cash budget

(d) Revenue budget

35. Is a process whereby companies find how others do something better than they do and then try to

imitate or improve on it.

(a) TQM

(b) Continuous improvement

√ (c) Benchmarking

(d) Empowerment

36. Standing plans are

(a) Plans that are developed to achieve a set of goals that are unlikely to be repeated in the future

(b) Plans that are used to provide guidance for tasks performed repeatedly within the organization

√ (c) Plans that define company responses to specific situations, such as emergencies or setbacks

(d) Most important in the organization

37. Which of the following is not a perceptual distortion

(a) Stereotype

(b) Halo effect

(c) Projection

√ (d) Extinction

38. Nonverbal communication behaviors includes

√ (a) Twitching, Scratching, rolling your eyes

(b) Secret notes passed between fellow works

(c) Intrapersonal dialog

(d) Sending an email response to an irate customer

39. Democratic leadership is also known as---

(a) Autocratic

√ (b) Participative

(c) Bureaucratic

(d) Laissezfaire

40. A significant part of a manager’s job is an organization is to use the tools and techniques

developed through OB research to increase organizational

(a) Structure

(b) Morale

(c) Complexity

√ (d) Effectiveness