ASSIGNMENTS

PROGRAM: MBA 2yrs

SEMESTER-I
Subject Name
Batch
Permanent Enrollment Number
(PEN)
Roll Number
Student Number

Management Functions and

Behavior
2015

INSTRUCTIONS
a) Students are required to submit all three assignment sets.
ASSIGNMENT
DETAILS
MARKS
Assignment A
Assignment B

Assignment C

Five Subjective
Questions
Three Subjective
Questions + Case
Study

10

40 Objective
Questions

10

10

b) Total weightage given to these assignments is 30%. OR 30 Marks

c) All assignments are to be completed as typed in word/pdf.
d) All questions are required to be attempted.
e) All the three assignments are to be completed by due dates (specified
from time To time) and need to be submitted for evaluation by Amity
University.
f) The evaluated assignment marks will be made available within six
weeks.
Thereafter, these will be destroyed at the end of each semester.
g) The students have to attach a scan signature in the form.
Signature:

_________________________________

Date:

_________________________________

( ) Tick mark in front of the assignments submitted

Assignmen

Assignmen

Assignmen
t A
t B
t C

Assignment A
Marks 10
Answer all questions.
1. How can the field of OB contribute to the effective functioning of
organizations and the wellbeing of the individual?
Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the actions and
attitudes that people exhibit within organizations. There are three key parts.
Systematic study is the use of scientific evidence gathered under controlled
conditions and measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner to
attribute cause and effect. Systematic study of actions (or behaviors) and
attitudes occurs in three areas: productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.
Systematic study within an organizationOB is specifically concerned with
work-related behaviorand that takes place in organizations. A fourth type of
behavior, organizational citizenship, has been added as a determiner of
organizational effectiveness.
Organizational behavior is applied behavioral science. Psychology is the
science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior
of humans and other animals. Sociology studies people in relation to their
fellow human beings. Greatest contribution was through their study of group
behavior in organizations, particularly formal and complex organizations.
Social Psychology is an area within psychology, blending concepts from
psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one
another. Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings
and their activities. This has helped us understand differences in fundamental
values, attitudes, and behavior between people in different countries and
within organizations. Political science, the study of the behavior of individuals
and groups within a political environment, is frequently overlooked.
Major Challenges in an organization are improving quality, customer service,
and productivity through the use of quality management, reengineering and
other techniques and improving people skills. Managing workforce diversity a
key challenge since organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in
terms of gender, race, and ethnicity and responding to globalization.
Effectiveness of the organization can be improved by empowering people by
the reshaping of the relationship between managers and those they are
supposedly responsible for managing, stimulating innovation and change,
coping with temporariness as the workforce becomes more part time and
contingency based, dealing with declining employee loyalty and improving
ethical behavior. These are some of the factors of Organization Behavior
which improve the effectiveness of the Organization and wellbeing of an
individual.
2. How are leadership theory and styles
motivation? Explain with suitable examples.

related

to

employee

Leadership theories, styles and types can have a powerful effect on

motivating employees. On the other hand, deciding which one will be the
most effective will be the challenging tasks. There are endless list of
possibilities at the same time you need to decide whether to employ a style
that fits your personality or not. Following are the different types of
Leadership theories
Trait Theory
Trait theory is explained as people who have inherited leadership
characteristics. The focus then shifted to discovering traits by studying
successful leaders. The assumption was that if other people had the same
traits, then they could also be great leaders. In 1974 Stogdill recognized
critical traits and skills for successful leaders. Use the table below to
determine your level of leadership.
Behavioral Theory
Behavioral theory follows the notation that leaders can be made instead of
inheriting traits. This particular theory is the easiest to develop of all the
leaderships theories.
Participative Leadership Theory
There are leadership theories that allow you to involve other people in the
decision making process. Participative leadership theory follows this belief.
Employees will be less competitive and more willing to work together on joint
goals. When decisions are made as a team, the commitment level to one
another increases as does their commitment to the decision.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership theories takes the road of selling compared to
the telling style of transactional leadership. The basic notation is that workers
will follow people whom their inspired by.
The process of transformational leadership has four parts.
Building The Vision
Promoting The Vision
Finding The Way Forward
Leading The Movement
Situational Leadership
Situational leaders will adapt to whatever situation presents itself. This
leadership style calls for the understanding of several different theories.
Understanding a wide variety of theories will allow leaders to be prepared for
any sort of issue that may arise. Situational Leadership is considered by
many leaders to be the best theory to use daily.

All the Leadership Theories above can be used for employee motivation
purposes. There are many other ways to motivate your employees. For more
motivation ideas try these articles for inspiring ideas.
3. Discuss in detail the contribution of Taylor to the development of
Management thought.
Taylor contributed a number of principles and features of management
thought that adhered to his new concept of approaching management
thought scientifically. He was one of the founders of management thought
theory and is considered the father of scientific management. His ideas were
developed and used for decades after the concept was created.
Principles of scientific management
Taylor believed that scientific management consists of a philosophy that
results in a combination of four main principles. The first principle suggests
that management need to develop the best way to complete a job. It is the
task of finding the best method for achieving the objectives of a given job.
The second principle states that management must carry out a scientific
selection of their workers and develop them through proper management.
Thirdly, management must carry out a scientific approach. That is, a true
science should be developed in all fields of work activity. The fourth and final
principle states that there should be an elimination on conflicts between
methods and men. Workers are likely to resist new methods and this can be
avoided by using it as an opportunity to offer more wages.
Features of scientific management
Taylor put forward a huge number of features of scientific management. One
was the introduction of the standard task which every worker is expected to
complete within a day. This task should be calculated through scientific
investigation and work study is essential. Taylor also suggested that tasks
need to be planned. In order for workers to carry out this task every day, it
will need to be planned actively. A scientific selection and training of workers
is another feature of scientific management put forward by Taylor. This
selection and training will contribute towards the production activities.
4. Do you think when managers make decisions they follow the
decision making steps as has been conceptualized in the rational
decision making model? Which steps are likely to be overlooked or
given inadequate attention? What can be the possible consequences
of overlooking any of the steps?
Decision Making is an intellectual process of selection a suitable alternative
from the available alternatives to achieve a desired result in the best manner.
A number of scholars and research studies have indicated that managers,
especially at senior positions usually fail to follow the decision making steps
that have been conceptualized in the rational decision making model.

Decision are required whenever there is a situation of uncertainty. Decision

making mostly are identification of Situation or Problem. Manages can
overlook or given inadequate attention at various stages of decision making
process.

Identifying and formulating alternatives

Evaluating alternatives
Select the best suitable alternatives
Strategic or Tactical decisions

The identification of real problem & clear definition of it is

unpredictable the certainty
that decision maker will be able to identify and define the problem is limited.

There are chances that the actual problem will not be identified by the
decision
maker.

It is vague to assume that the decision maker has complete

knowledge. We have to accept the limitation that every person have limited
knowledge towards problem, available alternatives and skills to evaluate and
select the best alternatives.

We have to make our decisions in various constraints of time and

resources, along with it; we have to consider the work pressure and stress
under which we have to make our choices.

Sometimes the decision maker has to take decision due to constraints

of political behavior of self or others which means either the decision maker
will take a decision which will not be best for the problem but for some
political benefit or he has to manipulate a decision so as to get maximum
advantage from the situation.

Lastly we have to keep in mind the limitation of our cognitive skills, we

cant assume that every decision maker is having the same kind of
knowledge and analytical skill to foresee and predict things and take the best
decision.
If there is any issue with the decision making process the real consequences
will be the team may not achieve the desired result.
5. Participation is an excellent method for identifying differences and
resolving
conflicts. Do you agree or disagree. Discuss with suitable examples.
Yes Participation is an excellent method for identifying differences and
resolving conflicts.

Participation is a method clearly favored and spoken of by businesses and

governing bodies as the optimum tactic to be used in bringing about
resolution and dealing with issues of conflict in the workplace for example.
Relationships are strengthened when two groups can discuss and work
through a problem in order to come to an agreement about an issue which is
even better than a compromise.
Participation forces the two parties to work through the issues that separate
their own ideas and often results in the best of both becoming part of the
finished product, if in a business scenario. It is this very tension within a
team that is essential for creative thinking and provokes individuals to see
alternative solutions.
It isn't a guaranteed solution, however like noted above however,
participation is only the best strategy and is not always necessarily the
strategy that brings about resolve in a situation. The ideal of collaborating to
produce the best result and also improve moral within the team can
sometimes take up time and resources that are just not a luxury.
Compromise, rather than collaboration, is sometimes the only way to resolve
and issue in order to meet a deadline. In that sense the strategy of
participation can be too time consuming and even then the two parties may
result in having to compromise; a strategy always used as a backup because
it still produces some kind of result. Understanding on how to navigate a
conflict is necessary.
Implementing the strategy of 'Participation' does not stand alone as a skill in
conflict management however. It must come from a basis of understanding
of how to handle conflict's creative stimulation, the ability to put aside
personal agendas and insecurities, to handle others emotions, to listen and
to identify when and if a resolution via this strategy is attainable. Only then
is it an excellent method in dealing with differences and conflicts.

Assignment B
Marks 10
1. Why does communication break down? How can communication be
improved?
Communication is very significant in organizing as its only through
communication the instructions, feedback, suggestion and other information
will flow like the blood in the organizing providing necessary inputs for
operations.
Communication breakdown will happen if there is inconsistencies in verbal
and nonverbal content we are unable to make out the actual meaning of the
communication, so if an individual is saying something but his facial
expressions or body language is different, we will not be able to understand
the actual meaning.
Organization is an important means of bringing coordination among the
various departments of the enterprise. It creates clear-cut relationships
between the departments and helps in laying down balanced emphasis on
various activities. It also provides for the channels of communication for the
coordination of the activities of different departments. The synergies which
develops help the company in achieving larger objectives.
Organization chart should reflect the formal communication structure of the
organization the instructions will flow from higher level to lower level and
feedback and suggestions will flow from the lower to upper level. This will
make to understand about the basic communication and will improve the
same. Directing activities are highly dependent of communication and
interactions, without the effective communication and regular interactions
the objective of directing will not be possible. A supervisor has to interact
with his foreman to supervise or guide him secondly a manager have to
communicate his instructions timely and clearly for proper implementation.
MBO helps in better communication and coordination as starting from setting
the objectives and pursuing it the manager and his team interact and as the
goals are defined jointly the possibility of confusion is very less.
Better communication means clear & timely communication so that flow of
information is maintained. Communication will be improved if when ideas,
thoughts, feelings & emotions are understood by the people in the same
manner as we want to. The communication should be complete, which
means it should have all the relevant information required by the receiver to
interpret the message and respond or act in the same way as the sender
expected him to. When the communication is incomplete then it will result in
confusion and the response from the receiver will also be affected. The
performance of any organizational activity will depend on the completeness
of the communication.

2. What is departmentalization? Why is it required? Discuss any one

form of
departmentalization.
Classical theorists prescribed to organize on the basis of similarity of work,
and suggested to group the similar works in to one category allotting it to a
group of people, this is known as departmentalization process.
Departmentalization is very much important because when the people keep
on doing the same job repeatedly, with passage of time they become more
efficient as they become specialized in doing the same task repeatedly. This
was known as the specialization and division of labor. The organization
structure was based on the nature of work only. The benefits of specialization
of labor or specialization were said to be
- Reduction of time for learning, as by doing repeated task learning becomes
easier.
- Reduction in wastage, by doing the same task repeatedly defects in the
process is eliminated.
- Increases in efficiency as by performing routine task inefficiencies are
removed and the performance becomes more consistent.
- Recruiting becomes easier as right person with the right skills can be hired
with more ease due to well defined job descriptions and job specifications.
Following are different types of departmentalization.

Functional departmentalization
Product departmentalization
Customer departmentalization
Geographic departmentalization
Process departmentalization
Divisional departmentalization

Geographic departmentalization
Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an organization's
customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on
geography. For example, the organization structure of Coca-Cola has reflected
the companys operation in two broad geographic areas the North American
sector and the international sector, which includes the Pacific Rim, the
European Community, Northeast Europe, Africa and Latin America groups.
3. What do you understand by authority and power? How are they
different from
each other?
Authority is the right given to a manager to achieve the objectives of the
organization. It is a right to get the things done through others. It is a right to

take decisions. It is a right to give orders to the subordinates and to get

obedience from them. A manager cannot do his work without authority.
A manager gets his authority from his position or post. He gets his authority
from the higher authorities. The lower and middle-level managers get their
authority from the top-level managers. The top-level managers get their
authority from the shareholders. Authority always flows downwards. It is
delegated from the top to the bottom. According to Henri Fayol, "Authority is
the right to give orders and power to exact (get) obedience."
Power is a broader concept than authority. Power is the ability of a person or
a group to influence the beliefs and actions of other people. It is the ability to
influence events. Power can be personal power. A person gets his personal
power from his personality or from his expert knowledge. Doctors, Lawyers,
Engineers, Programmers, etc. get their power from their expertise and
professional knowledge. Power can also be legitimate or official power. This
power comes from a higher authority.
4. Case study: Please read the case study given below and answer
questions
given at the end.
CASE STUDY
Mr. R.K. Mishra owns a small trading company in Varanasi by the name of RKM
Enterprises.
The company provided raw material to the manufacturers of silk sarees. The
business enterprise is also engaged in supply of silk sarees and other silk garments
produced by local weavers to the big stores in major cities. In addition they have
substantial export orders. The company is mainly a family based enterprise. Mr. R.K.
Mishra is the Director and his son Ritesh is looking after finance department. The
son is also assisting his father in other strategically matters. Key decisions are taken
by the Director himself after occasional discussions with Ritesh.
The existing employee strength is more than 200 with 15 offices spread across the
country. During the last one decade of its existence, the business has grown
considerably. In fact, the turnover surpassed Rupees 100 million in the year 200304. However, since then the business faced stiff competition from other traders. In
last one year the orders that have been received have reduced substantially. Rohit,
younger son of the Director is holding a management degree from Banaras Hindu
University. He has recently left a job with an MNC located in Mumbai and joined his
fathers business to help in solving the problems. After joining, Rohit made several
changes in the organization. A major restructuring drive was carried out. The
authority to take several major decisions was transmitted to lower levels.
Organization structure was also made flatter. Instructions were given to all
managers to consult their subordinates before taking any decisions. He was
determined to see that the company was professionally managed.
Questions:

1. The management of RKM Enterprises is not professional and is family

based.
analyze and comment.
RKM enterprises is managed by its owner Mr. R. K. Mishra along with his 2 sons,
Ritesh and Rohit. All strategic decisions are taken by Mr. Mishra in consultation with
his son. Presently Rohit is bringing in changes to make it more professional but is a
long way to make it into a professionally managed company. The business is facing
stiff competition and needs a strategic shift in its thinking and direction. The
company needs to bring in more professionals with appropriate experience in the
various areas like Purchase, Logistics, Finance, and Marketing.
They are lacking in the following skills which need immediate attention
Planning Skills
Organizing Skills
Leadership
Decision Making
Controlling Skills
Technical Skills
Human Skills
Conceptual Skills
Analytical Skills
Administrative skills
2. Analyse the changes brought in by Rohit.
Rohit made several changes in the organization. A major restructuring drive was
carried out. The authority to take several major decisions was transmitted to lower
levels. Organisation structure was also made flatter. Instructions were given to all
managers to consult their subordinates before taking any decisions. He was
determined to see that the company was professionally managed.

Rohit has followed the decentralization techniques where "Powers of decision

making is delegated to the lower levels and only very significant and
strategic decisions are taken by the top management"
He has made changes in organisational chart and structure and he has
followed flatter methodologies also known as horizontal organization or
delayering, is an organization that has an organizational structure with few or
no levels of middle management between staff and executives. The idea is
that well-trained workers will be more productive when they are more directly
involved in the decision making process, rather than closely supervised by
many layers of management.
As he informed to the manager to consult their subordinates before taking
any decision that means he has followed the technique of "Delegation of
Authority", in which the sublevel "Freedom to think and make decisions" are
followed here.

By following these which are analyzed in Management function and

organisational behavior, he make sure that that company was professionally
managed.

Assignment C
Marks 10
Tick Marks () the most appropriate answer.
1. Which of the following was NOT a need proposed by David McClellands
Theory of Needs?
(a) The need for power
(b) The need for esteem
(c) The need for affiliation
(d) The need for achievement
2. Managers engage in to increase their power and pursue goals that favor
their
individual and group interests.
(a) Organizational politics
(b) Political decision making
(c) Accommodation
(d) Self satisfaction
3. Which of the following is NOT A motivator according to Herzberg?
(a) Achievement
(b) Relations with others
(c) Recognition
(d) Responsibility
4. Cognitive Dissonance theory has been given by
(a) Taylor
(b) Vroom
(c) Festinger
(d) Skinner
5. The purpose of feedback in communication is
(a) To ensure that message has been understood
(b) To carry the message back from receiver to sender

(c) To complete the process of communication

(d) All of the above
6. Self Esteem means
(a) Love for yourself
(b) Respect for yourself
(c) Trust for yourself
(d) All the above
7. The Hawthorne experiment was started by:
(a) Kurt Lewin
(b) B.F.Skinner
(c) Elton Mayo
(d) W.Dickson
8.

--------------is

the

systematic

study

of

the

ways

interdependence and
influence among persons affect their behavior and thoughts
(a) Social psychology
(b) Industrial psychology
(c) Anthropology
(d) Sociology
9. Psychoanalytic theory has been propounded by?
(a) Rogers
(b) Alderfer
(c) Janis
(d) Freud

interaction,

10. MBO was first suggested by?

(a) F.W. Taylor
(b) Henri Fayol
(c) Peter F. Drucker
(d) Watson
11. The three levels of analysis that are studied in organizational behavior
are?
(a) Traits, behaviors and results.
(b) Affective, cognitive and behavioral
(c) Individual , organizational and social
(d) Individual , group and organizational
12. Which type of leaders gives complete freedom to their employees?
(a) Autocratic leaders
(b) Bureaucratic leaders
(c) Participative leaders
(d) Laissez-faire leaders
13. ------------refers to the ability of individuals or groups to induce or
influence the beliefs
or actions of other individuals or groups?
(a) Power
(b) Responsibility
(c) Delegation
(d) Discipline
14. Robert Owen, Charles Babbage, Henry R. Lowne , Andrew Ure and
Charles Duplin
contributed to the school of management thought?
(a) Classical
(b) Behavioral
(c) Neo-classical
(d) Pre-classical

15. Which of the following is not a leadership theory?

(a) Trait theory
(b) ERG theory
(c) Contingency theory
(d) Transactional theory
16. Which is an advantage of decentralization?
(a) Encourages decision-making
(b) Easy to have uniform policy
(c) Greater Control
(d) Decreases complexity of coordination
17. Which type of departmentation is useful only at the lowest level of
organizations?
(a) Departmentation by simple numbers
(b) Departmentation by time
(c) Departmentation by process or equipment
(d) Departmentation by strategic numbers
18.

Which

managerial

function

gives

attention

to

influencing

and

motivating employees
to improve performance and achieve corporate objectives?
(a) Leading
(b) Organizing
(c) Staffing
(d) Controlling
19. The refers to the delivery by one individual to another of the right to
act, to make decisions, to requisition resources and to perform other tasks
in order to fulfill job responsibilities
(a) Centralization of power
(b) Delegation of authority
(c) Centralization of authority

(d) Delegation of responsibility

20. In the process of communication, the translation of intended meanings
into words and gestures is known as?
(a) Encoding
(b) Decoding
(c) Processing
(d) Transforming
21. The establishment of a distinct area, unit of subsystem of an
organization over
which a
(a) Centralization
(b) Departmentation
(c) Decentralization
(d) Functionallization
22. Which of the following processes shows how an individual seeks
information about
a certain issue and how he interprets that information?
(a) Dogmatism
(b) Perception
(c) Stereotyping
(d) Congnitive dissonance
23. The organization chart is a way of showing?
(a) How the task of an organization are divided and coordinated
(b) The informal patterns of communication
(c) The stakeholders who have an interest in the company
(d) The physical layout of the buildings on a site
24. When a manager secures the agreement of a colleague to work on a
project in return for the promise of providing the colleague with some
extra remuneration, what type of power is he or she exercising?

(a) Expert power

(b) Coercive power
(c) Referent power
(d) Reward power
25. Which of the following is not one of the steps identified as part of the
controlling process?
(a) Setting performance standards or goals
(b) Measuring performance
(c) Writing the reports
(d) Tasking corrective action
26. Which of the following refers to changing a task to make it inherently
more rewarding, motivating and satisfying?
(a) Enlargement
(b) Rotation
(c) Enhancement
(d) Enrichment
27. When people are resisting because of adjustment problem, the method
for dealing with resistance to change is commonly used
(a) Facilitation and support
(b) Explicit and implicit coercion
(c) Manipulation and cooptation
(d) Participation and involvement
28. According to Fieldlers contingency model, leadership situations can
be analyzed in
terms of three elements. What are they?
(a) The quantity of the membership, the organizational structure and position of
authority
(b) The quantity of leader-member relationships, task structure and position
power

(c) The style of leadership, the educational level of the membership and the
organizational structure
(d) The power of the leadership, the member relationships and the organizational
structure
29. Which of the following characteristic distinguishes authority?
(a) It is vested in people not positions
(b) Subordinates accept it.
(c) It flows across the horizontal hierarchy
(d) It emerges from the organizational values
30. Which of these refers to the set of characteristics that underlie a
relatively stable pattern of behavior in response to ideas, objects or
people in the environment?
(a) Dissonance perception
(b) Personality
(c) Halo effect
(d) Attitude
31. The tendency to place the primary responsibility for ones success or
failure either within oneself or on outside forces is referred to as
(a) Authoritarianism
(b) Emotional stability
(c) Locus of control
(d) Extroversion
32. The tendency to see ones own personal traits in other people is called
(a) Perceptual defense
(b) Projection
(c) Stereotyping
(d) The halo effect
33. Which of the following theories deals with employees perception of
fairness?

(a) Expectancy
(b) Reinforcement
(c) Need hierarchy
(d) Equity

34. A financial budget that estimates cash flows on a daily basis or weekly
basis to ensure that the company can meet its obligations is called a
(a) Capital expenditure budget
(b) Balance sheet budget
(c) Cash budget
(d) Revenue budget
35. Is a process whereby companies find how others do something better
than they do and then try to imitate or improve on it.
(a) TQM
(b) Continuous improvement
(c) Benchmarking
(d) Empowerment
36. Standing plans are
(a) Plans that are developed to achieve a set of goals that are unlikely to be
repeated in the future
(b) Plans that are used to provide guidance for tasks performed repeatedly within
the organization
(c) Plans that define company responses to specific situations, such as
emergencies or setbacks
(d) Most important in the organization
37. Which of the following is not a perceptual distortion
(a) Stereotype
(b) Halo effect
(c) Projection
(d) Extinction
38. Nonverbal communication behaviors includes
(a) Twitching, Scratching, rolling your eyes
(b) Secret notes passed between fellow works
(c) Intrapersonal dialog

(d) Sending an email response to an irate customer

39. Democratic leadership is also known as--(a) Autocratic
(b) Participative
(c) Bureaucratic
(d) Laissezfaire
40. A significant part of a managers job is an organization is to use the
tools

and

techniques

organizational
(a) Structure
(b) Morale
(c) Complexity
(d) Effectiveness

developed

through

OB

research

to

increase