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Organizational Behaviour

Caselet1

Ms. Priyanka is a store manager of one of the fourteen Hà ppy Home Furniture outlets
that are located at all the major cities in the country. Her staff consists of twelve
salespersons and support personnel. Each salesperson. is paid commission based on
sales. All the salespersons are expected to do other tasks, such as assisting the
merchandise manager, arranging the displays, and handling customer complaints.
These tasks, and a few others, are to be shared equally among the sales persons.
The store's sales target is established at the headquarters of the furniture chain. This
target is divided by the number of salespersons and each is expected to meet his or
her personal target Mr. Ranjan, is the top salesperson at the outlet. When he misses
his sales goal, which seldom happens, the store's target is usually not met. Ranjan,
however, often does not help in doing the common tasks, much to the frustration of
the other eleven salespeople, who feel that if they do not handle the common tasks,
they will be fired.
Recently, Ms. Priyanka noticed that one of her salespeople, Mr. Manish„ made careless
errors, neglected clients, and did not do his share of the common tasks. When
confronted by the store manager, he complained about Mr. Ranjan., who, in his
opinion, got away with doing almost nothing. After this discussion, Ms. Priyanka
began to observe the salespersons more closely and noticed that most of them
neglected their work and were not cooperative.
The store manager felt that something had to be done. A talk with Mr. Ranjan had
little effect. Yet, the store needed Ranjan because of his excellent sales record. On the
other hand, the morale of the other salespersons had begun to deteriorate.

Questions:
1. What Should Ms. Priyanka do? ()
2. What are the standards of performance? Should they be changed? If so, in what
ways? (

Caselet2

MR. Ketan Parekh had worked his way up through the technical arm of ANC Company
to become chief Engineer and the General Manager of the Avionics Division. He was
an important inventor and innovator, in basic frequency-modulated continuous wave
(FM-CW) Doppler radar technology. This Fm-cw technology gave Avionics a world
leadership position in Doppler radar equipment design and production, All Avionics
equipment design were state of the art at the time of their design, a result of the
importance research and development engineering for the department's future.
As the division grew and Avionics's success with Doppler systems brought large
increases in sales, Mr. Ketan's preoccupations became considerably more
managerially than technical. He began to reassess some of his own thinking about
organizations. The organization appeared too weak, both structurally and
managerially, to cope with the increasing complexity of his division's activities. Mr.
Ketan was finding it impossible to cope with the number of major decisions that had
to be made. Six major programs and several minor ones were in different stages of
design and/or production. All had different customers, sometimes in different
countries. Every program's product although they were all Doppler radar systems,
was significantly different from every other one, particularly in its technology.
Nevertheless the programs had to share manufacturing facilities, major items of
capital equipment, and specialized functions. Mr. Ketan felt he had to find some way
to force the whole decision process down to some level below his own.

Question:
1. What is the principal problem with ANC's existing organizational Structure? ()
2. How can the matrix form of organization assist Mr. Ketan? ()

Principles and Practices of Management

Caselet1

Rajiv Gupta, President of the Universal Food Products Company, was tired of being
the only one in his company actually responsible for profits. While he had good
vice-presidents in charge of advertising, sales, finance, purchasing, production, and
product research, he realized that he could not hold any of them responsible for
company profits, as much as he would like to. He often found it difficult even to
hold them responsible for the contribution from their respective areas to company
profits. The sales vice-president, for instance, had rather reasonably complained that
he could not be fully responsible for sales when the advertising was ineffective, or
in a situation when the products customers wanted were not readily available from
manufacturing department, or when he did not have the new products he needed to
meet market competition. Likewise, the manufacturing vice president had some
justification when he made the point that he could not hold down costs and still be
able to produce short runs so as to fill orders on short notice; moreover, financial
controls would not allow the company to carry a large inventory of everything. Mr.
Rajiv had considered breaking his company down into six or seven segments by
setting up product divisions with a manger over each with profit responsibility. But
he found that this would not be feasible or economical since many of the company's
branded food products were produced using the same equipment and used the same
raw materials, and a salesperson calling on a store or supermarket could far more
economically handle a number of related products ....than one or
a few. Consequently, Mr. Rajiv came to the conclusion that the best thing for him to
do was to set up six product managers reporting to a product marketing manager.
Each product manager would be given responsibility for one or a few products and
would oversee for each product, all aspects of product research, manufacturing,
advertising, and sales, thereby the person becoming responsible for the performance
and profits of the products under his/her portfolio. Mr. Rajiv realized that he could
not give these product managers actual line of authority over the various operating
departments of the company since that will cause each vice president and his or her
department to report to six product managers and the product marketing manager,
as well as the president. He was concerned with this problem. But, he knew that
some of the most successful larger companies in the world had used the product
manager system. Mr. Rajiv resolved to put in the product manager system as
outlined and hoped for the best. But he wondered how he could avoid the problem
of confusion in reporting relationship

Questions

1. Do you agree with Mr. Rajiv's program? If it were you, would you have done it
differently?
Explain. ()

2. Exactly what is your suggestion that may help to avoid any confusion in this
organizational
structure? ()

Caselet2

As Ms. Mansi began to devote all of her time to managing The Arbor, she was dismayed
byfinding the anomalies what she believed to be a fairly haphazard management system.
While the developer of the retail complex was clearly an astute entrepreneur, she began to
feel that he had not paid enough attention to detail in the course of day-to-day operating
procedures.
She and Mr. Das had learnt a lot about management from their experience with SLS. Mr.
Das for example, had found that the most effective way of running the business involved
buying only from reputable suppliers, keeping all plants well fertilized and pruned while
they were in inventory, and checking with customers after landscape jobs had been
completed to ensure that they were satisfied.
When she bought The Arbor, Ms. Mansi talked with a friend who managed a store at the
regional shopping mall in town. Her friend explained how the mall development company
had elaborate rules and procedures for its tenants. These rules and procedures dictated store
hours, appearance standards, lease terms, promotional and advertising policies, and just
about everything imaginable.
The Arbor, however, was a different story. There were no written policies for tenants. As a
result, there was considerable variation in how they were managed. Some stores opened on
Sunday or in the evening, for example, while others did not; some tenants had long-term
leases while others had no current lease at all.
To address these and other issues, Ms. Mansi called a meeting of all the tenants and
expressed her concerns. To her surprise, she found that they already were aware of each
of her issues, as well as some others that she had not yet had time to consider. They
argued, however, that the current system was really the best for The Arbor. As a small
operation, each tenant knew all the others, and they worked together to keep things in
good order. They thought it was fine that they kept different hours — few customers
came to The Arbor just to walk around and shop. Customers usually came to visit
specific stores and were aware of the store's hours. The tenants even expressed their
opinion about the lease situation as a fine condition. Some wanted the security afforded
by a lease, while others preferred the flexibility of no lease.

Questions

1. What are the different control examples illustrated in this situation? ()


2. What kind of control systems might be the most useful for retailers? ()

1.
Components of attitude:-
Attitude has three components as follows:-
1) Informational or Cognitive component:
The informational component consists of the person’s system of beliefs,
perceptions, beliefs, values and stereotypes about the attitudinal objects. In other
words, it refers to a person’s ideas about a subject.
The term opinion is often used as a substitute for the cognitive component of an
attitude particularly when it is relevant to some issue or problem.
For example, a person seeking a job may learn from his sources and other
employees working in the company that in a particular company the promotion
chances are very favorable. In reality, it may or may not be correct. Yet the
information that person is using is the key to his attitude about that job and about
that company. The beliefs, perceptions, values and stereotypes of that person
regarding the company together consist as the cognitive component of his/her
attitude.
2) Emotional or Affective component:
The affective attitude of social attitude refers to the emotional aspect of the attitude
which is very often a deep rooted component and resists most to change.
In simple words, it involves a kind of emotion experienced towards the object of
attitude say love or hatred, like or dislike, palatable or unpalatable things. The
emotional component, if is quite strong, normally stands on the way of attitude
change. This component can be explained by this statement, “I like this job and so I
will take it.”
3) Behavioral component:
The behavioral component of social attitude indicates the tendency to react towards
the object of attitude in certain specific ways.
In other words, it is a predisposition to act in a certain manner towards the attitude
object. This is known by observing the behavior of the individual i.e., what he says
he will do or actually how he behaves, does or reacts.
For example, the concerned individual in the above case may decide to take up the
job because of good future prospects.
Out of the three components of attitude, only the behavioral component can be
directly observed. One cannot observe the other two components of attitude:-the
beliefs(cognitive component) and the feelings(affective component).
There is an internal and inter-linked organization of the components of attitude. The
above three components are related and a unitedly form our attitude. A change in
one component is likely to produce a change in others so as to maintain internal
consistency within the total attitude structure.
The below Diagram implies 3 component of Attitude:

Attitudes can positively or negatively affect a person's behavior. ... These positive
attitudes are usually manifested in a person's behavior; people with a good attitude
are active and productive and do what they can to improve the mood of those
around them.

Some of the factors affecting Individual Behavior in an organization are as follows:


I. Personal Factors:
The personal factors which influence the individual behavior can be classified into
two categories:

A. Biographic Characteristics
B. Learned Characteristics
A. Biographical Characteristics:
All the human beings have certain characteristics which are genetic in nature and
are inherited. These are the qualities which the human beings are born with. These
are the characteristics which cannot be changed; at the most, these can be refined to
some extent. If the managers know about the inherited qualities and limitations of
the persons, they can use their Organizational behavior techniques more effectively.
All these characteristics are explained in detail as follows:

1. Physical Characteristics:
Some of these characteristics are related to height, skin, complexion, vision, shape
and size of nose, weight etc. All these have an impact on the performance of the
individuals. It is sometimes said that the eyes betray the character of a person.
Similarly certain ideas about the behavior can be formed on the basis of whether the
person is fat, tall or slim.
Tall and slim people are expected to dress well and behave in a sophisticated
manner and fat people are supposed to be of a jolly nature. Whether there is a
correlation between body structure and behavior or not has not been scientifically
proven. Even if there is a correlation between these two, it is very difficult to
understand which the independent variable is and which dependent variable is.
2. Age:

Age is considered to be an inherited characteristic because it is determined by the


date of birth. The relationship between age and job performance is an issue of
increasing performance. Psychologically, younger people are expected to be more
energetic, innovative, adventurous, and ambitious and risk taking. Whereas old
people are supposed to be conservative, set in their own ways and less adaptable.
Though it is incorrect to generalize all old people as unadoptable, physiologically,
performance depends on age.
Performance declines with advancement of age because older people have less
stamina, memory etc. Younger people are likely to change jobs to avail better job
opportunities, but as one grows old, the chances of his quitting job are less. There is
a relationship between age and absenteeism also. Older people tend to absent more
from their jobs due to unavoidable reasons e.g. poor health.
Whereas younger people absent themselves from job due to avoidable reasons e.g.
going for a vacation. In the organizations which are subject to dramatic changes due
to latest innovations, the older people get less job satisfaction as they start feeling
obsolete as compared to their younger colleagues. Though there is no clear cut
demarcation between young age and old age but according to Lehman the peak of
creative ability is among people between the ages 30 and 40.
3. Gender:

Being a male or female is genetic in nature and it is considered to be an inherited


feature. Whether women perform as well as in jobs as men do, is an issue which has
initiated lot of debates, misconceptions and opinions. The traditional view was that
man is tougher than woman or women are highly emotional than men. But these are
some stereotyped baseless assumptions. Research has proved that there are few if
any, important differences between man and woman that will affect their job
performance.
Specially, in some are like problem solving ability, analytical skill, competitive
drive, motivation, leadership, sociability and learning ability, there are no consistent
male-female differences. Initially, some roles were considered to be exclusive
domain of women e.g. nurses, airhostesses etc. but now with the passage of time,
we have males in these professions also. Similarly, some jobs which were
considered to be exclusive domain of men e.g. pilots, defense jobs, etc. have started
accommodating women also, though with some conditions.
4. Religion:
Though there are no scientific studies to prove it and we cannot generalize it, but
religion and religion based cultures play an important role in determining some
aspects of individual behavior, especially those aspects which concern morals,
ethics and a code of conduct. The religion and culture also determine attitudes
towards work and towards financial incentives.
People who are highly religious are supposed to have high moral values e.g. they
are honest, they do not tell lies or talk ill of others, they are supposed to be
contended. But there is another side of the picture also. Though there are no
evidences but it has been observed that sometimes people who are highly dishonest
and immoral are more religious as compared to the others.
5. Marital Status:
There are not enough studies to draw any conclusion as to whether there is any
relationship between marital status and job performance. Research has consistently
indicated that as marriage imposes increased responsibilities, to have a steady job
becomes more valuable and important. Married employees have fewer absences,
less turnover and more job satisfaction as compared to unmarried workers. But no
research has so far identified the causes for this.

6. Experience:
The next biographical characteristic is tenure or experience. The impact of seniority
on job performance is an issue which is subject to a lot of misconceptions and
speculations. Work experience is considered to be a good indicator of employee
productivity. Research indicates that there is a positive relationship between
seniority and job performance. Moreover studies also indicate a negative
relationship between seniority and absenteeism.
Employee turnover is also considered to be negatively related to seniority. But in
considering this relationship, past experience i.e. experience of the employee on the
previous job is also to be considered. Research indicates that experience and
satisfaction are positively related. Here we have to distinguish between
chronological age and seniority of the employee. Seniority experience is a better
indicator of job satisfaction than the chronological age of the person.

7. Intelligence:
Generally, it is considered that intelligence is an inherited quality. Some people are
born intelligent or in other words intelligent parents produce intelligent children.
But practical experience has shown that sometimes very intelligent parents have
less intelligent children and sometimes average parents have very intelligent
children.
8. Ability:
Ability refers to the capacity or capability of an individual to perform the various
tasks in a job. Ability is the criterion used to determine what a person can do.
Ability of an individual can be of two types:

(i) Intellectual Ability:


If the individual is expected to perform mental activities, he must have a particular
level of intellectual ability. Some important dimensions used to ascertain
intellectual ability are number aptitude, comprehension, perceptual speed and test of
reasoning. For some important jobs or assignment, a person has to clear some
admission test.
(ii) Physical ability:
Physical abilities include a person’s stamina, manual dexterity, leg strength and the
like. If the performance of a particular job requires some specific physical abilities,
it is the duty of the management to identify the employees having those abilities.
This is accomplished by either careful selection of people or by a combination of
selection and training.

B. Learned Characteristics:
Learning is defined as, “a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from
interactions with the environment.” A person is born with biographical
characteristics which are difficult to change or modify. Therefore, the managers lay
much stress on studying, learning and predicting the learned characteristics.
2.
Factors Influencing Organizational Climate:
Organizational climate is a manifestation of the attitudes of organizational members
towards the organization. Researchers have used the data relating to individual
perception of organizational properties in identifying organizational climate. Even
in this context, there is a great amount of diversity.
Litwin and Stringer have included six factors which affect organizational climate.
These factors are:
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(i) Organizational Structure: Perceptions of the extent of organizational constraints,
rules, regulations, red tape,
(ii) Individual Responsibility: Feeling of autonomy of being one’s own boss,
(iii) Rewards: Feelings related to being confident of adequate and appropriate
rewards,
(iv) Risk and Risk Taking: Perceptions of the degree of challenge and risk in the
work situation,
(v) Warmth and Support: Feeling of general good fellowship and helpfulness
prevailing in the work setting.
(vi) Tolerance and Conflict: Degree of confidence that the climate can tolerate,
differing opinions.
Schneider AND Barlett give a broader and systematic study of climate dimensions.
They include the following factors:
(i) Management Support,
(ii) Management Structure.
(iii) Concern for new employees
(iv) Inter-agency conflict,
(v) Agent dependence and
(vi) General Satisfaction
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Taguiri has identified five factors influencing the organizational climate on the
basis of information provided by managers.
These are:
(i) Practices relating to providing a sense of direction or purpose to their jobs-
setting of objectives, planning and feedback,
(ii) Opportunities for exercising individual initiative,
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(iii) Working with a superior who is highly competitive and competent.
(iv) Working with cooperative and pleasant people,
(v) Being with a profit oriented and sales oriented company. KATZ et. al. have
identified five factors which affect individual performance in organization;
(i) Rules orientation,
(ii) The nurturance of subordinates,
(iii) Closeness of Supervision,
(iv) Universalism,
(v) Promotion-achievement orientation.
Lawrence James and Allan Jones have classified the following factors that influence
Organizational climate:
(i) Organizational Context: Mission, goals and objectives, function etc.
(ii) Organizational Structure: Size, degree of centralization and operating
procedures.
(iii) Leadership Process: Leadership styles, communication, decision making and
related processes.
(iv) Physical Environment: Employee safety, environmental stresses and physical
space characteristics.
(v) Organizational Values and Norms: Conformity, loyalty, impersonality and
reciprocity.
Richard M. Hodgetts has classified Organizational climate into two major
categories. He has given an analogy with an iceberg where there is a part of the
iceberg that can be seen from the surface and another part that is under the water
and cannot be seen. The factors in the visible part that can be observed and
measured are called OVERT factors and the factors that are not visible and
quantifiable are called covert factors.
Both these factors are shown in the following figure in the form of an iceberg:
The results of the above studies show that it is very difficult to generalize the basic
contents of Organizational climate, based on these studies. However, some broad
generalizations can be drawn and it can be concluded that four basic factors are
somewhat common to the findings of most studies.
These factors are:
(i) Individual autonomy.
(ii) The degree of structure imposed upon the position.
(iii) Reward Orientation.
(iv) Consideration, warmth and support.

Determination of job satisfaction:


Working Environment.
Fair Policies and Practice.
Caring Organization.
Appreciation.
Pay.
Age.
Promotion.
Feel of Belongings.
Initiation and Leadership.
Feel of Being Loved.
Safety and Security.
Challenges.
Responsibilities.
Creativity in Job.
Personal Interest and Hobbies.
Respect from Co-Workers.
Relationship with Supervisors.
Feedback.
Flexibility.
Nature of Work.
 The above following factors are in brief below:

Working Environment
It is essential to provide employees with a work environment that is conducive to
their overall development.
They need an environment which is healthy and safe and which caters to both
personal comforts and facilitates doing a good job. If the working conditions are
good (clean, attractive surroundings), the personnel will find it easier to carry out
their jobs.
On the other hand, if the working conditions are poor (hot, noisy surroundings),
personnel will find it more difficult to get things done.
Hence, it can be said that having a friendly, and supportive environment can lead to
increased job satisfaction.
Fair Policies and Practice
Individuals who perceive that promotion decisions are made in a fair and just
manner are likely to experience satisfaction from their jobs.
Very often employees are demotivated and dissatisfied with their jobs because
unfair policies and practices prevail at their place of work.
It is therefore of utmost importance for an organization to have a fair and equal
system regarding practices and policies so that there is no discrimination and
frustration.
Caring Organization
Care can be shown in various ways, but it takes into consideration career
development, adult treatment, being taken seriously and being appreciated for a job
well done.
When people feel that the organization; for which they are working, cares for them
and takes actions to improve their work and lives, they are happy, and this creates
higher satisfaction.
Appreciation
The human race loves to be appreciated.
Even for the smaller job that does one seek to have an appreciation, from
colleagues, boss, and seniors. When one gets acknowledged in front of everyone, it
gives up a boost to their morale.
When appreciation leads to encouragement, the ultimate result is reflected in the
efficiency of work automatically.
Therefore, the level of job satisfaction is always higher wherever appreciation is
higher.
Pay
Wages and salaries are recognized to be a significant but cognitively complex
(Carraher, & Buckley, 1996) and multidimensional factor in job satisfaction. Money
not only helps people attain their basic needs but is also instrumental in providing
upper-level need satisfaction.
Employees often see pay as a reflection of how management views their
contribution to the organization. Fringe benefits are also significant, but they are not
as influential.
One reason undoubtedly is that most employees do not even know how much they
are receiving in benefits. Moreover, most tend to undervalue these benefits because
they do not realize their significant monetary value.
Age
Age is one of the factors affecting job satisfaction. Various studies carried out in
this field have shown that job satisfaction tends to increase with age.
That is older employees tend to report higher satisfaction, and younger employees
say the lowest job satisfaction rates.
Promotion
Promotional opportunities seem to have a varying effect on job satisfaction. This is
because promotions take some different forms and have a variety of accompanying
rewards.
In recent years, the flattening of organizations and accompanying empowerment
strategies, promotion in the traditional sense of climbing the hierarchical corporate
ladder of success is no longer available as it once was.
Feel of Belongings
Most of the organization fails to understand this fundamental factor, whereas many
have started acting towards it.
If an employee feels that he is considered an important part of the team, he belongs
to the organization then there are higher chances of job satisfaction.
Texting or emailing an employee on his/her birthday, communicating the crisis to
even at the ground level employee, making special efforts during festive seasons, all
these small little gestures make an employee believe that he or she belongs to the
firm.
This brings job satisfaction and loyalty together.
Initiation and Leadership
If an employee is given an equal number of opportunities to show their talent, take
the lead and initiate then the chances of having a higher level of job satisfaction is
more.
Suppose in an organization; no employee is asked to give suggestions, nobody is
bothered to inform them of the decision.
There are only a few figures who lead the team always.
In such conditions, an employee wouldn’t feel satisfied with whatever job he or she
is currently doing.
Feel of Being Loved
It is noticed that if an employee has a good bonding with colleagues arid seniors,
then the job satisfaction level is higher.
One feels like coming to the office and performing the job. If the environment is not
friendly, office politics is at its peak, and malpractices are done, then all these
factors together leave no stone unturned in discouraging an employee from not
coming to the office.
Safety and Security
These days companies are taking endless measures in order to see that an employee
is catered to a different kind of facilities like health care and medical checkups.
There are a few institutions that also provide insurance policies at a lower rate.
Hence, this aspect of safety and security plays a major role. If an employee didn’t
feel safe and secured at the organization that he or she works in, the level of job
satisfaction is ultimately going to fall.
Challenges
There are a few types of employees who love to experiment; they like it when the
challenging job is assigned to them. To them, the challenge is always associated
with ability and capability.
They feel that if an employee is given a challenging job, it means that the leader
trusts his or her capacity to fulfill the expectations.
Thus, wherever challenges have involved the level of job satisfaction automatically
raises up.
Responsibilities
This suggests that when an employee is given a bigger responsibility it makes him
or her conscious about the fact that the employers think him or her as a capable and
trustworthy candidate.
Jobs where responsibility is involved always carry a higher level of satisfaction.
The idea of responsibility and the feel that one gets when the responsibility gets
accomplished cannot be traded for anything in the world.
If an employee is not given any responsibility to handle, ultimately the result is that
the person feels detached and doubts about self-worth which immediately affects
job satisfaction.
Creativity in Job
Job satisfaction is always higher wherever creativity is involved. The creative
freedom gives a sense of fulfillment whenever any project is complete.
It makes an employee feels as if the project belongs to them for their creativity is
there. Even if it is just a creative sentence that they have put in, it means a lot to
them.
On the other hand, in jobs that are monotonous, the employee won’t feel like he or
she belongs to the project. The alienation takes place, and hence the job satisfaction
level falls drastically.
Personal Interest and Hobbies
People who pursue their hobbies and interest as their career, gain the highest level
of satisfaction in whatever they do at their workplace.
This is because their job is not a job for them, but a way of getting closer to their
interest and making money. Whatever, they will be more than just to have a
promotion.
Respect from Co-Workers
Employees seek to be treated with respect by those they work with. A hostile work
environment with rude or unpleasant coworkers is one that usually has lower job
satisfaction.
Managers need to take a step and mediate conflicts before they escalate into more
serious problems requiring disciplinary action.
Employees may need to be reminded of what behaviors are considered
inappropriate when interacting with coworkers.
Relationship with Supervisors
One of the major reasons employees think about quitting a company is that their
supervisor does not care about them.
A participative climate created by the supervisor seems to have a more substantial
effect on workers’ satisfaction than does participation in a specific decision.
Effective managers know their employees need recognition and praise for their
efforts and accomplishments.
Employees also need to know their supervisor’s door is always open for them to
discuss any concerns they have that are affecting their ability to do their jobs. It will
lead to their satisfaction in the office.
Feedback
Not receiving feedback on their work can be quite discouraging for most people.
Effective feedback will help the team members know where they are and how they
can improve.
Authority also needs to know what kind of feedback the team members respond to
best. Research shows that learners seek and respond to positive feedback, while
experts respond to negative feedback.
In the case of negative feedback, it’s not enough to simply point out what is wrong.
One should explain the reason something they did isn’t working, and how it might
be corrected.
Flexibility
Offering flexibility is a great way to show the team members that what is expected
from them. What’s more, the gift of time is one of the most appreciated workplace
perks. Smart people work best when they can choose their schedule.
Flexible hours can increase engagement and productivity. But keep in mind that
these may decrease collaboration.
Nature of Work
The nature of work can define the willingness to work. Most individuals have a
liking for certain tasks and would prefer to handle these tasks. One should make
sure that he/she is going for firms where he/she gets to apply the skills, abilities, and
knowledge to the fullest.
Recent research has found that such job characteristics and job complexity mediate
the relationship between personality and job satisfaction, and if the creative
requirements of employees’ jobs are met, then they tend to be satisfied.
For each working personal job satisfaction has a different meaning. There are
different factors that influence the level of job satisfaction. The ones that are listed
above are the most common ones.
It is vital for an employee to have a satisfaction level derived from the job that he or
she is doing.

Marketing Management

Section B: Caselets

Caselet1

Questions

1. Do you agree on what Mr. Desai did to regulate


control was correct?

I am not agree on what Mr. Desai did to regulate


control
Organizational control is the process of assigning,
evaluating, and regulating resources on an ongoing
basis to accomplish an organization's goals. To
successfully control an organization, managers need to
not only know what the performance standards are, but
also figure out how to share that information with
employees.
Control can be defined narrowly as the process a
manager takes to assure that actual performance
conforms to the organization's plan, or more broadly as
anything that regulates the process or activity of an
organization. The following content follows the general
interpretation by defining managerial control as
monitoring performance against a plan and then making
adjustments either in the plan or in operations as
necessary.
The six major purposes of controls are as follows:
• Controls make plans effective. Managers need to
measure progress, offer feedback, and direct their teams
if they want to succeed.
• Controls make sure that organizational activities are
consistent. Policies and procedures help ensure that
efforts are integrated.

• Controls make organizations effective. Organizations


need controls in place if they want to achieve and
accomplish their objectives.

• Controls make organizations efficient. Efficiency


probably depends more on controls than any other
management function.
• Controls provide feedback on project status. Not only
do they measure progress, but controls also provide
feedback to participants as well. Feedback influences
behavior and is an essential ingredient in the control
process.

• Controls aid in decision making. The ultimate


purpose of controls is to help managers make better
decisions. Controls make managers aware of problems
and give them information that is necessary for decision
making.
Many people assert that as the nature of organizations
has changed, so must the nature of management
controls. New forms of organizations, such as self‐
organizing organizations, self‐managed teams, and
network organizations, allow organizations to be more
responsive and adaptable in today's rapidly changing
world. These forms also cultivate empowerment among
employees, much more so than the hierarchical
organizations of the past.
Some people even claim that management shouldn't
exercise any form of control whatsoever, and should
only support employee efforts to be fully productive
members of organizations and communities. Along
those same lines, some experts even use the word
“coordinating” in place of “controlling” to avoid
sounding coercive. However, some forms of controls
must exist for an organization to exist. For an
organization to exist, it needs some goal or purpose, or
it isn't an organization at all. Individual behaviors,
group behaviors, and all organizational performance
must be in line with the strategic focus of the
organization.

2. What would you have done under these


circumstances?

I would do the following


Management control in an organization is an approach
that enables the organization to produce desired results
(generally expressed in terms of performance) by taking
actions to achieve those results and by dealing with the
dangers brought in by external difficulties (particularly
those related to the market, competitors and the
economic or political environment) and the internal
difficulties of the organization.
Management control in the organization consists of a
systematic effort on the part of the organizational
management. It is required to assure that all
organizational resources are being used in the most
effective and efficient manner possible in order to
achieve the organizational objectives and goals. It
constitutes
(i) setting of performance standards with planning
objectives
(ii) design of information feedback systems,
(iii) comparison of actual performance with the
predetermined standards, plans or objectives in order to
determine whether there are any deviations and to
measure their significance, and
(iv) taking of any remedial action if needed.

Management control describes the means by which the


actions of individuals or groups within the organization
are constrained to perform certain actions while
avoiding other actions in an effort to achieve
organizational objectives and goals. It is not to be seen
as an activity of exclusive competence of the
administration area , but rather as a process which
involves all the functions of the organization, at the
appropriate levels of responsibilities.
Management control can be defined as the process
whereby the organization sets itself performance
objectives and strives to achieve them as best it can
over time. It is a method for managing the performance
of the organization. It is an approach that is pursued
over time, both before the action in the planning phase,
and after the action in the monitoring and analysis of
results phase. The approach is therefore progressive,
that is why it is a control process.
Management control is a dynamic process made up of
two major phases namely (i) planning, and (ii) the
analysis of results. As with all the processes,
management control process also has different
elements, connected to each other. These are (i) the
structure (personnel charged of the duty of control), (ii)
the tools (performance measurements, data collection,
analysis and reporting, and feedbacks etc.), and the
systems and procedures (coordination, operational
discipline, and optimization etc.).
Caselet2
Questions
Questions

1. As Mr. Sachin, what would you do now to resolve


the problem of the false
reports? (10)

As Mr. Sachin to resolve the problem of the false


reports follow the following

1.Only send email to customers who have opted to


receive them. Encourage them to sign up through some
kind of promotion or newsletter.
 2.Make the unsubscribe option prominent. Too often
recipients hit the spam button simply to get off the list.
Make it easy by offering an unsubscribe option that can
be found easily. Our G-Lock EasyMail7 email
marketing software provides you with a ready to use
unsubscribe link. You can merge it into the message
with just two mouse clicks. And after each email
campaign, you can use the Bounce Handler in G-Lock
EasyMail7 to process unsubscribe requests as well as
bounce messages.
 3.Never buy a list. These are typically inaccurate and
filled with old or defunct email addresses. Save your
money!
 4. Be true to the expectations of your recipients. If
you promise them a weekly newsletter and then start
adding promotional emails into the mix, you are asking
for recipients to hit the spam button. Keep those lists
separate.
 5. Create professional-looking emails. Use clean and
well-designed templates or hire a designer and do it
right. People do not respond to poorly conceived and
executed email messages. Do not try to game the
system by using "Fwd" or "Re" to trick filters into
believing your message continues a prior conversation.
In G-Lock EasyMail7, there is a rich Templates Store
with professionally created responsive email designs
that you can install and use on the fly to create your
email newsletters.
 6. Include certain important elements in emails.
These include a "from" address, a physical address and
a strong brand presence.
 7. Contact interested subscribers immediately. Do not
sit on your growing list for weeks at a time. People are
busy. If you wait too long, they may not remember they
once had an interest in your products. This could make
your first message wind up in the spam filter.
Timeliness pays off.
 8. Create a confirmed opt-in option. Confirmed opt-
in has become the most common way to get a
subscriber. Users sign up with their email address
online and then receive a confirmation link in an email.
If they click on the subscription link, it's a done deal.
Finally, spam-check services exist to allow you to see if
your email message will avoid filters. Use them wisely.
Email campaigns require a lot of work, and you don't
want it to go to waste because the messages end up
caught by spam filters.
2. What could Mr. Sachin have done to prevent this
problem? (10)

Mr. Sachin have to prevent this problem by


• Automated email sequences that drip on contacts
over time to build trust and convert subscribers into
active and happy customers.
• A email scheduler for planning your announcements,
newsletters, and special occasion emails weeks or even
months in advance.
• A simple way for you to create sign-up forms so you
can connect your marketing efforts to auto-populate
contact lists (we provide WPNewsman plugin for
WordPress for free).
• A professional collection of quality responsive
HTML email templates that you can install and use for
your newsletters on the fly.
• An automated way of processing bounce and
unsubscribe emails to be in compliance with the CAN-
SPAM law in various countries.
• Training and support from those who have years of
experience in email marketing systems, management
and success.

End
The organisation has grown tremendously with a multitude of products involving different technology, customer,
service requirements and geographically separated customer location and production units.Organising the various
units on the basis of profitability or profit centres is a prerequisite for each and every unit to exploit their potential
to the fullest.
However to remain as an organisation with the common vision and objective and to avoid duplication of resources
or not to compromise on efficiency and to avoid inter departmental rivalry, certain critical roles needs to be
centralised by the organisation to effectively function.
Which are the functions to be centralised and which are the functions to decentralised would be specific to the
organisation. Howeverone such function which needs to be Centralised is HR to develop the required policies and
to maintain consistency across divisions. each and every profit centre can have a subordinated personnel HR
division which can work with the centralised HR.
As they mentioned purchase is a second critical operations in any such organisation to control cost. Here too the
level of of centralised purchase can be made on either value or volume based without compromising speed and
efficiency of purchase. Common items can be centralised and specialised
items shall be decentralised. With advent of computers and networking e-procurement across geographical
locations would pay rich dividents in terms of cost savings to the company.

As Mr.Sachin to resolve the problem of the false reports follow the following:
1.The first question is how long such fictitious reporting has been going on.?
2.Is the sales force effectively meeting the targets?
3.Is the bills are only for the sake of excess expense claim or is it affecting the overall sales also.? is Sachin happy
with overall sales.?

Answers to these questions would shape the type of action Sachin needs to take.
Excess claiming or falsified tour expenses happens in an organisation only if it has been overlooked for a long
period of time. it is stated that the executive involved are also senior personnel which indicates that its long-term
habit.
Assuming the sales is good and targets are met , Sachin has to put in place an effective system of monitoring the
sales personnel visit, using a mix of modern technology such GPS tracking, customer feedback form, follow calls
and independent survey etc.,
Develop a know your customer (KYC) type of customer profile form with all details like address, email, telephone
number, responsible person to be contacted, the actual decision makers, sales turnover, bank accounts etc.,.
Evaluate calls to customer conversion ratio and bench mark it. set a bar on repeat in-effective calls.
it is imperative for the sales manager to be in the market and interact with potential customers to convert them as
customer and to understand the trend. Periodical visits to customers along with sales personnel is a health habit.
dishonesty should not be condoned and clear message should be conveyed down the line about actions against
such practices. Finally what has minitiated the practice in the first place. All are not dishonest. Are the allowances
and daily expenses provided by the company is adequate to do the field work effectively ? if not, take up the
matter on priority. A sales person should be motivated to visit the market and economical compensation is a
critical element in the process. Reward and appreciate good work.

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