St.

Mary’s University

School of Graduate Studies

Guidelines for Pursuing MTP Assignment 2

Course: Management Theories and Practices

Course Code: MBA 521

Credit hrs: 2

Instructor: Goitom Abraham (Asst. Prof.)

Type of Assignment: Choose any from the management functions indicated below and
assess how it is practiced in your organization, focusing on the guiding
questions given.

General instructions

 Conduct extensive reading on the topic that you are going to deal with, and write
your literature review in a coherent and organized way.
 Focus on the relevant literature, and the volume of your literature review should
not be more or less than 3 double spaced pages.
 Acknowledge your sources and attach your list of references, using either the
APA or Harvard referencing styles.
 Collect all the relevant data from the management of the organization, the employees
(If need be), through the administration of interview or distributing questionnaires,
gathering and analyzing data from relevant documents, or using any other appropriate
data collection instruments.
 Analyze and interpret your data using tables and figures and limit your report to 15 –
20 pages.
 Organize and write your report based on the findings of the data analyzed and
interpreted.
 The submission date is Friday, January 1, 2020..

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 Components of the paper

1. Background of the organization: Give brief description of the organization

 When it was established;

 Its purpose,
 Number of employees; etc.
Part 2.

2. Planning Practice

Give brief introduction about the concept of planning and discuss the planning practice of
the organization addressing the following questions:

 Are plans developed at all levels in the organization?

 What types of plans are usually developed by the organization?
 Does the organization have a strategic plan?
 To what extent is the planning system of the organization flexible to accommodate
environmental uncertainties? Is there a trend of developing alternative and
supplementary plans? If yes, to what extent are they applied? If no, why not?
 How is the planning process of the organization carried out? Does the organization
follow the commonly used steps of the planning process while developing its
organizational plans? (scanning the environmental situation, forecasting about what
the future would look like, establishing objectives/ goals, determining and evaluating
alternative plans – course of action, selecting the plan/course of action and
formulating derivative plans, implementing the plan, controlling and evaluating the
results).
 To what extent is the planning process of the organization transparent? Is there a trend
of involving employees in the planning process?
 How is the implementation of plans at different levels monitored and evaluated? How
strong and consistent is the monitoring and evaluation system of the organization?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as regards to the
application of the planning function? Give a concluding remark on the overall

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 strengths and weaknesses of the organization in this regard based on the result of your
investigation.

3. Organizing Practice

Give brief explanation about the concept of organizing function and discuss the organizing
practice in the organization gathering data based on the following questions:

 On what basis is the organization’s structure set? To what extent does the
organization structure which is currently in place fit the nature of the organization?
 To what extent are duties and responsibilities of each position clearly defined? Are
job descriptions available for each position?
 What does the span of management/authority of the organization look like? Is the
span of management wide or narrow? Is it appropriate to accommodate the smooth
relationship and control?
 Is the organization centralized or decentralized? In other words, is decision-making
authority concentrated at the top level of the organization or dispersed throughout all
levels of the organization? Discuss in detail.
 Comment on the overall structural set up and strength of the organization, based on
your investigation results.

4. Employee Motivation and Communication

Give brief explanations about the concepts of EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION and

COMMUNICATIONS and discuss the employee motivation and communication practices in
the target organization based on the questions given below:

 How is communication among managers and subordinates, departments, sections

work units and individual employees carried on in the organization?
 How are policies, work rules and procedures, changes, organizational performance
and other relevant issues communicated to employees?
 To what extent are employees clearly informed about what they have to do and how
to do it?
 Does the Organization have a clear communication strategy? Discuss your findings.
 To what extent are employees satisfied with the communication system currently in
place?

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5. Supervision

Give brief explanation about the concept of supervision and examine the supervision
practice of the organization based on the questions given under:

 Is there appropriate supervision system in the organization?

 To what extent are managers involved in regularly checking that their subordinates
are performing their work as per instructions or standards set?
 To what extent are managers/supervisors involved in solving most of the routine job
related problems of subordinates?
 How satisfied are employees with the supervisory role played by their superiors?

6. Motivation

Give brief explanation about the concept of motivation and examine the employee
motivation practice of the organization focusing on the following basic questions:

 How do managers motivate their subordinates to do their work efficiently and

effectively?
 What employee motivation schemes are currently in place?
 To what extent are the organization’s employees satisfied with the motivation
schemes which are currently in place?
 Give general comments on the overall motivation practices of the organization

7. Leadership practices

Briefly discuss the concept of leadership and assess the leadership practice in the
organization based on the following questions:

 What leadership styles do the managers exercise most of the time?

 To what extent do managers give due attention to the empowerment of their
subordinates? What mechanisms do they use to empower their subordinates?
 Do they enable and help their subordinates to gain power and achieve influence? How
do they do this?
 To what extent are the managers at all levels ready to lead through:
 Openness, positive relationship, support, and empowerment?
- How satisfied are the employees with the leadership styles exercised by their
managers?

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  Give your general concluding remarks on the leadership practice of the organization?

8. Controlling Practice

Briefly explain the concept of controlling and assess the controlling practice in the
organization based on the following questions:

 To what extent are the steps involved in the controlling process applied by the
company/organization?
 What types of control systems are commonly used by the organization? Elaborate
stating the degree of application of the three types of controls, namely,
historical/feedback control, concurrent control and predictive/feed-forward control.
 To what extent is the controlling system of the organization effective?
 How do you perceive/ evaluate the relationship between the planning and controlling
practice of the organization?

5. Summary, conclusions and recommendations

 At the end, give summary and conclusions of your findings and observations.
Moreover, give recommendations on how the organization should overcome the
deficiencies identified by the study.