NMIMS Global Access

School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)

Course: Management Theory and Practice
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2022 Examination

Assignment Marks: 30

Instructions:

 All Questions carry equal marks.

 All Questions are compulsory
 All answers to be explained in not more than 1000 words for question 1 and 2 and for
question 3 in not more than 500 words for each subsection. Use relevant examples,
illustrations as far as possible.
 All answers to be written individually. Discussion and group work is not advisable.
 Students are free to refer to any books/reference material/website/internet for attempting
their assignments, but are not allowed to copy the matter as it is from the source of
reference.

 Students should write the assignment in their own words. Copying of assignments from
other students is not allowed.

 Students should follow the following parameter for answering the assignment questions.

For Theoretical Answer For Numerical Answer

Assessment Parameter Weightage Assessment Parameter Weightage

Understanding and usage 20%
Introduction 20% of the formula
Concepts and Application 60% Procedure / Steps 60%
related to the question Correct Answer & 20%
Conclusion 20% Interpretation
Question 1. Green Bell is a retail giant in India. Currently only confined to metro cities for their giant

super store outlets, they are planning to spread to smaller cities in India. While working on the

resource allocation, HR is planning on shifting a few of the current staff to new locations while

recruiting local staff at each location in parallel. They need to engage the

current staff in training for the newer audience. Discuss the expansion from the point

of view of to include in the training. (10 Marks)

Answer:

Identify

Time Power
Hofstede's
Cultural
Dimension

Uncertanity Gender

 Identity

The staff should focus on behaving and engaging with customers as also internally in a way which

ensures a positive impression in their minds, a lasting impression. Relationship building is essential a

B2C scenario and the most important aspect of relationship building is personalisation, identity and

repeat behaviour. For example, over a period of time, if a customer starts recognising the staff’s name

and is happy with their behavioural traits, it will result in increased sales.
 Power

A separation and recognition of hierarchy internally is essential for success. They should maintain

strict rules to establish on how they relate with both clients and competitors and with this authority is

established.

 Gender

There should be equal opportunity to both masculine and feminine roles at work in order to achieve a

diverse environment.

 Uncertainty

They should learn how to deal with uncertain situations and have tolerance for ambiguity.

 Time

Time is a reference to culture, tasks and relationships. The staff should be patient with their growth as

time is a key factor. They should have a clear understanding of growth with respect to time in their

future. This acts as a motivation to climb up the ladder within defined parameters.

Question 2. Sateesh is a project manager in an IT company. He needs to deploy some additional

developers to be based on site. He has a meeting with the HR for the same and needs to give a plan of

resource deployment to the HR with clarity on how many new members vs how many current developers

can be deployed on site. Managers have to make many decisions. Discuss various types of decisions

managers typically make based on nature of the decisions, level of the management or capacity.

(10 Marks)
Answer:

Types of decisions based on the nature of the decisions:

 Routine decisions:

o Routine decisions are those that are made on a regular basis in a company.

o They include things like sanctioning leaves, issuing commands, and so on.

o Managers at the middle and lower management levels make the majority of routine decisions.

 Strategic decisions:

o Decisions involving policy issues that necessitate in-depth analysis and fact gathering, such as

expanding the company.

o Middle and top-level management are usually in charge of making these decisions.

 Policy decisions:

o These are decisions made by top management based on policy formulation, such as bonus

payments.

 Operating choices:

o These are the ones that have to do with putting the top-level management's policies into action.

For example - the bonus computation for each employee.

 Departmental decisions:

o Departmental decisions are those that are made about how the department operates.

o The department manager or the head of the department is in charge of putting the plan into

action.
Question 3. EarthMovers Ltd are into providing heavy vehicle services. They have various heavy

vehicles like tractors, cranes, bull dozers, mixer trucks, etc. They have been growing increasingly and

have employed a total staff of 1200. They have divided their business in a Divisional structure. Based on

this information, answer the following questions.

a. Discuss the features of divisional structure of organization and infer the divisions that EarthMovers

may have employed. (5 Marks)

Answer:

A divisional organizational structure is a system in which a company segments its employees based on

products or markets, as opposed to their job roles. Some companies have marketing, sales and

communications departments, while a divisional organization has trams dedicated to a specific region or

product. This is most useful for larger companies that benefit from organizing their workforce into

relatively independent groups. Businesses using divisional structure may have one or more of the

following characteristics:

 Selling a wide range of customer-facing product lines

 Offering both businesses-to-customer and business-to-business services

 Advertising to a wide variety of demographics

 Marketing their brand in different geographic locations

 Serving major clients who need individualized attention

EarthMovers may deploy the following divisions:

 Commercial division: Focuses on all commercial customers, and has its own product

development, production, accounting, and sales employees.

 Retail division: Focuses on all retail customers in the United States, and has its own product

development, production, accounting, and sales employees.

 International division: Focuses on all retail customers outside of the country. It shares product

development and production facilities with the retail division, and has its own accounting and

sales employees.

b. Elaborate on the factors that influence organizational structures. (5 Marks)

Factors Affecting Organization Structure: Organization structure is designed keeping in view the

following factors:

 Strategy: Strategy determines a course of action to direct various organizational activities. It

makes plans to co-ordinate human and physical resources to work towards a common objective.

Strategy is pre-requisite to organization structure and also follows it. The relationship between

strategy and organization structure is depicted as follows:

Overall
Organization
Stratergy Planning Organization
Structure
Goals

Strategies to diversify product lines or markets require decentralized transition as decision-making

is done at wider level and strategies for organizations working in stable environment. Where

managers do not diversify their operations, require a centralized organization.

 Technology : The technology for manufacturing goods and services also affects the organization

structure. In case of mass production technology, mechanistic organization structure is more

appropriate, while in case of continuous production or small-scale production technology, the

appropriate from is organic structure. This is because mass production technologies involve

standardization and specialization of work activities and continuous or unit production

technologies require low levels of standardization and specialization.

 People: Organization structure defines work, groups it into departments and appoints people to run

those departments. People at different jobs must possess the skill, knowledge and efficiency to

accomplish the related tasks.

 Tasks : Activities performed by people who transform organizational plans into reality are known

as tasks. Various task characteristics are:

 Decisions: Questions like who makes decisions-top managers or lower level managers, how

information flows in the organization so that decision-making is facilitated, affect the organization

structure. Centralized decision-making powers give rise to mechanistic structures and

decentralized decision-making processed give rise to organic or behavioural structures.

 Informal organization: Informal organizations are and outgrowth of formal organizations. Social

and cultural values, religious beliefs and personal likes and dislikes of members which form

informal groups cannot be overlooked by management.

 Size: As firms increase in size, the need for job specialization, standardization and decentralization

also increases and organizations are structured accordingly

 Environment: Organization structure cannot ignore the effects of environment. Organizations

must adapt to the environment, respond to incremental opportunities and satisfy various external

parties such as customers, suppliers, layout unions etc. In case of stable environment where people

perform routine and specialized jobs, which do not change frequently, a closed or mechanistic

organization structure is appropriate.

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THE END