SMU

ASSIGNMENT
SEMESTER – 1
MBO022

Management
PROCESS AND
ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR

SUBMITTED BY:
MUSHTAQ AHMAD PARA
MBA
ROLL NO.- 520950361
 ASSIGNMENTS- MBA Sem-I

Subject code MB0022

Subject Name: Management Process and Organizational

Behavior

Q.1 “Today managers need to perform various functions”: Elaborate the statement
Ans. 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. Planning
2. Organising
3. Commanding
4. Coordinating
5. 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. Planning
2. Organising
3. Leading
4. 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’ potential

b. 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 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.

1. 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 plans
b. List all tasks to accomplished
c. Divide the tasks into groups one person can accomplish-ajob
d. 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.

1. 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.

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.

1. 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].
Q.2 “Skills are the tool for performance”-Explain various management skills.

Ans. Management roles and skills.

Managerial Roles

According to Mintzberg (1973), managerial roles are as follows:

1. Informational roles

2. Decisional roles

3. Interpersonal roles

1. Informational roles: This involves the role of assimilating and disseminating information as and
when required. Following are the main sub-roles, which managers often perform:

a. Monitor-collecting information from organizations, both from inside and outside of the organization.

b. Disseminator-communicating information to organizational members

c. Spokesperson-representing the organization to outsiders

2. Decisional roles: It involves decision making. Again, this role can be subdivided in to the
following:

a. Entrepreneur-initiating new ideas to improve organizational performance

b. Disturbance handlers-taking corrective action to cope with adverse situation

c. Resource allocators-allocating human, physical, and monetary resources

d. Negotiator - negotiating with trade unions, or any other stakeholders

3. Interpersonal roles : This role involves activities with people working in the organization. This

is supportive role for informational and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles can be categorized

under three subheadings:

a. Figurehead-Ceremonial and symbolic role

b. Leadership-leading organization in terms of recruiting, motivating etc.

c. Liaison-liasoning with external bodies and public relations activities.

Management Skills

Katz (1974) has identified three essential management skills:

1. Technical

2. Human

3. Conceptual
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.

Human Skill : This is the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people (both
individually and a group). This requires sensitivity towards others issues and concerns. People, who
are proficient in technical skill, but not with interpersonal skills, may face difficulty to manage their
subordinates. 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.

Conceptual Skill : This is an ability to critically analyze, diagnose a situation and forward a feasible
solution. It requires creative thinking, generating options and choosing the best available option. A
mark of a good leader is to be able to provide consistent motivation to his team encouraging them to
attain excellence and quality in their performance. A good leader is always looking for ways to
improve production and standards. Here are six management skills you can develop as a leader in
working to create a quality effective team.

1. Observation

This is an important aspect that often gets neglected due the demands on a leader's time and
schedule. Observation and regular visits to the work environment are a priority and should be
scheduled into the calendar. Observing employees at work, the procedures, interaction and work flow
is foundational to implementing adjustments to improve results. To have credibility, a leader needs to
be seen and be known to be up to date with what is happening in the work place.
Q.3 What is negotiation? Explain the process of negotiation.

Ans. 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.

 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:

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.

Negotiating styles clearly vary across national cultures.

Q.4 Explain Classical Conditioning Theory?

Ans. 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 CONDITIONING
In 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.
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 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.
Q.5 How are culture and society responsible to built value system?

Ans. 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:

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.
• 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.
Q.6 Write short notes on

• Locus of control
• Machiavellianism
Ans. 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.

External Locus of Control Internal Locus of Control

Individual believes that his/her behaviour is Individual believes that his/her behaviour
guided by fate, luck, or other external is guided by his/her personal decisions
circumstances 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 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.