MS-21    Dec, 2011

MS-21 : SOCIAL PROCESSES AND  BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES

1.Describe the growing importance of Teams in  today's business scenario. Discuss the processes  involved in building effective Teams.

2. Discuss any two theories of motivation and their  usefulness in organisation cite suitable examples.

3. Define and describe communication channels.  Discuss with examples how effectively they can  be used in organisations.

4. What is work culture ? Explain various attributes  of work culture. Briefly discuss the measures to  be undertaken for developing work culture.

5. Write short notes on any  three  of the following :

(a) Work ethics

(b) Group cohesiveness

(c) Ethical issues in counselling in organisations

(d) Halo effect

(e) Emotional intelligence.

6.  Read the following case carefully and answer  the questions given at the end.

Case Incident : I can't take it any more!  Sonia was the head of the marketing services

division at the Triumph Management Group Head  office based in Bangalore. On face it appeared  Sonia was very lucky as she had it all - a high  profile job with a big company, high pay along  with stock options, a likeable enthusiastic team  of co-workers. On the personal front Sonia's  husband was a senior financial specialist with a  multinational firm and they had a daughter who  was going to a reputed school with a good  housekeeper to look after the daughter and home.

On the job front, Sonia was liked not only  by her colleagues but by her subordinates as well  as her superiors for her total commitment to the  task assigned to her, communication abilities and  pleasant personality. The board of the Triumph  Management Group were deliberating on the  merging of this company with their sister concern  Trident Value Group so as to gain strategic  competence. After this decision was tentatively  communicated there seemed to be visible certain  working conditions leading to manager's level of  perceived stress. The most stressful organisational  change events were the frequent changes in  instructions, policies and procedures, facing  unexpected crises and deadlines and sudden  increase in the activity level or pace of work. Sonia realised that stress was affecting her  team's performance because many of her

managers complained about work overload,  absence of a proper feedback and only

communication was received when performance  was found to be unsatisfactory, along with role  conflict and ambiguity. Sonia, at her level tried  to address these issues by frankly telling her  subordinates that the management had not given  clear guidelines on how the organisational  changes were going to affect this firm's employees.  So till such instructions were received, they  (employees) continue to work as per the current  requirement. She also advised them to do regular  physical exercise and ensure a proper intake of  balanced diet so as to reduce stress.  Very soon Sonia also started feeling that

stress was affecting her performance. She recalled  the turn of events after receiving oral information  on the managements decision to elevate her to the  post of Vice President (marketing). She had made  two presentations of two important issues to the  board during the past 11/2 months. And they were  reasonably good based on the feedback received  from her superior. Sonia remembered that at the  time of the presentation though 'keyed up', her  presentation had revealed a lot of enthusiasm,  energy and confidence. She had been able to  answer almost all the questions put forward to

her by the board members.   But after the presentations, Sonia started  feelling that at the work place, her schedule was  dominated by one crisis after another. On most of

the days when she came home it was very late,  giving her hardly any time to talk and play with  her daughter or talk to her husband. Many of her  work days started at 7 a.m. and continued till  almost 10 p.m. She longed for quality time specially  to be with her family and also pursue her passion  of playing the 'Veena', her favourite musical  instrument. Finally one fine day Sonia presented  her resignation letter to her superior quoting  "personal reasons" as the reason for leaving.

Questions for Discussion

1. Identify the causes of stress at the individual  level (for Sonia), and the general work  stressors in the above case.

2. What methods of stress management would  you suggest to the organisation in the above  case, to reduce stress at the individual  employee level and organisational level ?