Certificate in Accounting and Finance Stage Examination

The Institute of 5 March 2021

Chartered Accountants 3 hours – 100 marks
of Pakistan Additional reading time – 15 minutes

Business Management and Behavioural Studies

Instructions to examinees:
(i) Answer all TEN questions.
(ii) Answer in black pen only.

Q.1 Mobeen Ibrahim wants to propose a critical change in the mid-project review meeting next
week. He thinks the change will significantly improve the quality of the product to be
delivered. Before submitting the change proposal to the Project Leader, he held a meeting
with his team members and other project officers, in order to get their buy-in and gather
feedback to improve the proposal. Response of each team member is as follows:

 Seema does not think it is a good idea to change anything this late in the project,
however, she feels she will not resist and go with it if the Project Leader agrees with the
change.
 Jamal does not want any change in the project. He thinks the change proposal is risky.
He wants to oppose the change at all costs.
 Fawad thinks the proposal is fine but would like Mobeen to make some changes to the
proposal before it is sent for review.
 Kamil has not taken much interest in the discussion and has told Mobeen that the issue
can be discussed in the meeting after next week. However, by then the change proposal
timelines would have expired.

Required:
In the light of Thomas-Kilmann’s styles of dealing with conflict:
(a) identify and explain the styles of dealing with the conflict (including Mobeen’s) in the
scenario above. (08)
(b) briefly explain a typical situation in which each of the styles identified in (a) would be
appropriate. (04)

Q.2 Alamgir Sheikh is the CEO of HT Mobile, a fast growing mobile phone company that is
making name for bringing innovative products in the market. Alamgir has a vision to make
HT Mobile the most innovative mobile phone company in the world. He values originality
and discards any projects and ideas that do not foster innovation in the products. He is
well-known for his persuasive ‘why not?’ questions when developing new products and
encourages people to always come up with better ways of doing work.

Alamgir’s zeal for innovation is well-shared and practiced by his employees. He says that
‘innovation in his products is only possible because of innovative people’. He believes in
enabling people in their work and then trusting them to produce results. People working at
HT Mobile take pride in working alongside Alamgir and continually outperform their regular
targets.

Required
In the light of Warren Bennis’ views on leadership:
(a) explain the style of leadership being followed by Alamgir. (02)
(b) identify and relate the characteristics of leadership from the case above. (06)
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Q.3 (a) Briefly discuss any four factors that may shape the culture of a workgroup or an
organization. (04)

(b) Following information pertains to the organizational culture of two entities:

 Tycoon Private Limited (TPL) has over 100 branches in the country. Each branch
has three functions that are managed by functional managers. The jobs are clearly
defined and each functional manager reports on performance of his/her
designated function to head office on a monthly basis. If any personnel leaves
TPL, he/she is replaced by another personnel.

 Square Private Limited (SPL) has a staff comprising of professionally qualified

personnel with varying skill-sets. When a client approaches for a project,
personnel with relevant skill-sets are selected and given the requisite resources.
The objective is to ensure that projects are completed in the most efficient
manner. The nature of the projects often requires SPL to be innovative in order to
remain competitive.

Required:
In the light of Charles Handy model:
(i) identify the organizational cultures being followed at TPL and SPL. Also
explain the key characteristics of these organizational cultures. (05)
(ii) which type of business environment would be best suited for the organizational
cultures identified in (i). Also give one example of business organization /
industry to support your answer. (03)

Q.4 Cure Limited (CL), a leading pharmaceutical company, is considering starting its operations
in Malan, one of the developing countries. It has conducted environmental scan and
summarized the following information.

The pharmaceutical industry in Malan is regulated through Drug Regulatory Framework.

The overall health environment is not conducive. Despite of increasing rate of inflation and
declining consumer disposable income, demand for pharmaceutical products has been
increasing considerably. Over 25% of population comprises of children and old age people
who are more prone to health issues. However, interest in healthy life style is getting
popularity among youth.

The government of Malan has introduced many business friendly policies particularly for
pharmaceutical industry, by allowing tax holidays as incentive for new investments, and
granting subsidized interest rate loans to encourage research and development activities.

The trend of e-commerce is emerging in the country and more and more people are using
mobile apps and social media for making online orders. The key players in pharmaceutical
industry have been using social media to market their products and CSR activities; such as
use of renewable energy, conducting free public health awareness sessions, sponsoring
treatment of needy patients, etc.

Required:
(a) Perform PESTEL analysis of pharmaceutical industry in Malan. (10)
(b) Briefly explain how CL may capitalize on any two available opportunities and how
any two existing threats may impact CL. (04)
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Q.5 (a) Briefly discuss any four consequences of adopting a deficient organizational structure. (04)

(b) Trendsetters Limited (TL) specializes in men fashion. It offers wide variety of products
ranging from clothing to personal care. The organizational chart of TL is given below:

Required:
Identify and explain the type of divisional organizational structure at TL. Also explain
how it may facilitate TL in gaining competitive advantage. (04)

Q.6 IBL Funds (IBL) is a well-established funds management company. In order to enhance the
efficiency of comparing the performance of its funds, IBL is considering to acquire an expert
system that can use the historical fund’s performance data according to the dates provided,
conduct a comparative analysis and present it in an easy to understand graphical format
specified by the managers.

Required:
Identify, explain and relate the major components of an expert system in the case above. Also
provide any two advantages of having an expert system to IBL. (08)

Q.7 At the start of the year Javed Dogar, Head of Sales, decided to implement Management by
Objectives (MBO) process in his department to improve company sales. He made sure all the
team members involved in the process thoroughly understood the well-crafted organizational
mission, vision and objective statements. He sent each team member an email giving them
the goal to increase sales as much as possible. The sales person who achieved the highest
sales figures was to get a hefty cash prize at the end of the year. However, to his surprise,
when he conducted the performance appraisal at the end of the year, the sales figures did not
show any improvement.

Required
(a) Briefly explain and relate the steps of the MBO process from the scenario above. Also
suggest improvements to the process before Javed runs it again. (11)
(b) What benefits, other than improved sales, can Javed expect from a well-implemented
MBO process? (03)

Q.8 Consider the following scenarios:

(i) Jahanzaib has been awarded hefty bonus for achieving annual sales targets.
(ii) Ahmed tries to be at work early to avoid signing the late comer timesheet that gets
reported to the supervisor.
(iii) Kashif is asked to watch the online recording of the mandatory training that he failed
to attend. Now, he also has to submit a report on the important points covered in the
training.
(iv) Bilal is notified that his bonus is cancelled for being involved in the office brawl last
week.

Required
Identify and explain the approaches to reinforcement presented in the scenarios above. (06)
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Q.9 For each of the examples listed below, identify and explain the type of storage. Also provide
any one limitation for each type identified.

(i) Random Access Memory (RAM)

(ii) Hard Disk
(iii) Magnetic Tape (07)

Q.10 Expert Eye Consultants (the firm), is managed by Sufyan Mehmood. Sufyan is known for his
outspoken personality. He likes to take central stage when it comes to make presentations to
existing and prospective clients, represent the firm in social events and public forums or
respond to internal crisis.

Sufyan is supported by a team having varied experiences. For each assignment, he decides on
team members, explains the requirements of the assignment, assigns the tasks to each
individual team member and rewards or reprimands on the basis of performance. He prefers
to micromanage the work of teams to ensure that work is getting done properly.

Required:
(a) As per Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles, identify and relate the managerial roles
(at functional levels) being performed by Sufyan. (05)

(b) In the light of McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y:

(i) explain Sufyan’s approach, including the underlying assumptions, in the scenario
above. (03)
(ii) do you think Sufyan needs to change the existing approach? Give arguments to
support your answer. (02)
(iii) give one criticism on this theory. (01)

(THE END)