Mbanotesindia.com

June, 2013

MS-26 : ORGANISATIONAL DYNAMICS

SECTION-A

1. Discuss the process and stages for formation of groups in an organisation. Why is cohesiveness important for group effectiveness ? Explain with reason.

2. Analyse decentralisation as a structured mechanism of empowerment. Discuss the need

of integrating mechanisms with decentralisation. Explain with suitable examples.

3. Define 'Burnout' and discuss the main reasons of Burnout. Identifying various stages of Burnout, describe how does an individual reach the 'Hitting the wall' stage. Cite examples.

4. Define and discuss the nature and forms of strategic Alliances. Briefly describe the tenets of strategic Alliances, with relevant examples.

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

(a) Compliance

(b) Dimensions of Diversity

(c) Transformational leadership

(d) Role systems

(e) Social Responsibility of Organisations.

SECTION-B

6. Please read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.

On 15 March 1949, Merry Joseph came in to see Mr. John, the plant personnel director, to talk over a problem that was troubling her. Merry was a hand assembly production worker in a modern 600-employee branch plant located in a large eastern city. After Merry told Mr. John her story, he asked her to write out a description of the situation. Her statement is reproduced here. Reconsider this case not unusual nor typical, but as having happened to me and to a few others. As I am not equipped to do the work, it offers little or no solution to the problem at hand. I would not be writing this report if I had not remembered the advice given by Mr. John of Personnel. He told a group that should we have a problem, to please consult him before walking out. However, I will mention here that I have seen a few very conscientious workers walk out without "fighting the case". When I was first hired, Mr. Nair, the foreman, introduced me to the young lady who taught me the process of soldering lead wires. I asked her how much production I would be expected to turn in daily, and she secured this information for me from the other girls. This seemed at the moment like a fantastic sum, but she assured me that after a few days I would become quite efficient, which I soon did. I am not one to "bite the hand that feeds me", so I began working and finally developed the system into a sort of game. A few weeks later, one of the girls asked me how I was doing, and I told her that I was doing fine. She looked at my production sheet and swore. She was astonished to see how much I was producing each hour. She bitterly reminded me that girls that had been here for several months or even years were not producing what I had accomplished in a few weeks ! I laughed that off as somewhat of a compliment. That was my big mistake as far as co-operating with the company or satisfying my gregarious tendencies was concerned. I was immediately and severely ostracized. During the weeks that ensued, I noticed I was not completely alone; there were a few others who were also "friendless". However, it was soon apparent that ostracism was not satisfying the desires of their fiendish little plan. Threats were to follow and they did follow. Having worked in the "violent ward" of a psychopathic hospital, I was not the least bit nervous because of these threats but others were. I noticed a few things about the character, temperament and education of those who were apparently "bossing". They were usually the old-timers and loafers __ girls with great deal of confidence and little reason for it. Sometimes, their reasons for fighting the enormous business organisation which represents their security, were quite convincing: "Your work is never appreciated," "They'll always want more and more", "You haven't got a chance to get a merit wage increase unless you go out with the boss..." After this general talking to, the poor girls began to wonder; some of them stayed a few days and then didn't turn up for work. The clique had scored again. I sat and wondered as I worked. What to do ? I was assured I had the bosses on my side, but the... The long dead silence and the vulgar, stupid remarks of the other girls soon began to get under my skin. I worked quite a while at the psychopathic hospital, and "they" never bothered me, but these stupid little people and their moronic remarks soon began to annoy me terribly. Because my production was high, I was asked to work Saturdays. This brought a violent counter thrust from the rebels. Soon their campaign began to affect me exactly as they had planned. (Or am I giving them too much credit ?) My production was dropping. The assistant foreman, Bert, asked me if I was ill. When I told him my troubles, he advised me to see Mr. Nair, which I did. Mr. Nair listened attentively and asked the names of the rebels, which I readily gave, not feeling at all like an informer. He then assured me, though stammering, that justice would prevail. I noticed little change. The little minds had other desires than to keep their jobs secure; they wanted to jeopardize the position of their immediate superiors. Philip, who had advised me to talk to Mr. Nair, commonly held the reputation of being a communist, nailed on him by "my rebels". I have always maintained in my philosophy that if one cannot become great by one's own methods of accomplishment, then one will probably pull everyone else down below him, until by comparison he is above the mob, hence great. This is commonly known as "scapegoatism". These girls carried this farther than I ever dreamed would be done. Scapegoating is a common activity of the uneducated. Education of the population while

not the solution, will greatly aid in the eventual solution of this problem. However, back to the practical aspects of the problem at hand. I had convinced myself that most of the girls were not the kind I would care to associate with, anyway, so my scope of activity was not ruptured too severely, As they ignored me, I ignored them. However, something

happened that I had not counted on. I became physically ill from the entire situation. Having had a few lectures on psychosomatic diseases, I knew I had not incorrectly diagnosed the case. My relief came in the form of a temporary transfer to another department. I know it would take some time before the girls would become acquainted with my case, and the rest was welcome. I was shocked to find that no one was interested in my "reputation". I was further shocked when I began to notice that harmony, tranquility, and cooperation prevailed in this department. It is my opinion that part of the cause for such cooperation in this department may be attributed to the fact of one boss and a capable, understanding man, at that. Then, I was told to return to my former department, where I was greeted by my boss with: "Enjoy your vacation". This does not strike me as being very complimentary to one who has been conscientious from the beginning. I had been taught to report all inferior-grade materials, and this particular morning I found the wire defective. After reeling yards of red tape from a few of my bosses, I finally was sent to Mr. Nair. Again, Mr. Nair was glad to see me, "I want you to get back to your machine, sit down, and mind your own business. Your production is falling. Why ?" This I was told before I had a chance to speak. Here, I explained about the strain I was under and about the inferior materials. He then told me to work as best I could with the inferior materials, as he didn't want to send any of the girls home. I then told him I had thought of leaving. He sarcastically mentioned that perhaps it was for the best. This shock drove me to Mr. John of Personnel, and to standing here in my living room dictating this to my husband, the typist of the family.

Questions :

(a) What is the case issue in the case ? Explain.

(b) Critically evaluate the work culture and climate of the organisation.

(c) How do you see the act and record of Merry vis-a-vis her colleagues in this case ? Explain with reasons.

(d) What would be your recommendations to the management ? Justify.

MS-25 : MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

June 2013

SECTION – A

1. Bring out the differences between Transactional and Transformational Leadership and explain how a leader plays an important role to bring change in an organisation

2. Briefly discuss the need for indigenous Management and the complexity of anagement of change through indegenization.

3. Describe any two models of diagnosis of organisational change.

4. Describe Total Quality Management (TQM). How it could be used as an approach to bring change in an organisation.

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

(a) Down Sizing

(b) Managing Resistance

(c) Action Research

(d) Type of change

(e) Cluster organisation

SECTION – B

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

The story of the restructuring of the Mahut Group (name disguised) in India is illustrative of the need for supporting any structure change with the relevant culture change. The Mahut Group, a family-owned business located in western India, is a US$350 million multinational, multi-activity enterprise group operating in four continents, with a diversified portfolio and employee strength of 15000.

The group has two cement plants-the US$51 million Heera Cement and the US$39 million Moti Cement (names disguised) - each with a production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of cement per annum. The plants use 'dry process precalcination technology, which conforms to international standards. Both plants had been operating at more than 100 percent capacity and were among the most cost-effective cement plants in India, but had been making losses since the deregulation of the cement industry in India in the late 1980s. Prior to deregulation, the cement companies operated under governmental capacity, production, distribution and price controls to ensure fair prices and availability to priority sectors and small users. Because capacity was controlled, there were severe shortages and obviously no competition, and all cement companies were making good money despite price control.

Deregulation led to huge increases in the capacity of the cement industry in India, which also included foreign players. Heera and Moti now found themselves in competition not only with other companies but with each other. The competition between the sister companies was particularly damaging because their executives had private knowledge of each other's strategies. Mahut Group's management realised the problem and wanted to develop synergies rather than competition between the two companies. In order to facilitate this change, Mahut appointed an American consultant in 1998 to study the problem and submit a report.

The consultant found that the solution lay in structurally integrating the marketing functions of the two plants, and recommended: merging their sales and marketing; creating a new division called 'brands' to promote, position and build the brands together; creating two new positions, director-technical services, irector-market research; changing the structure to support the new arrangements, especially by creating new roles and redefining old ones; and redeploying redundant people rather than retrenching them.

Mahut Group decided to implement the ecommendations. Although the implementation process was fraught with intense politicking, especially for the top positions in the restructured company, the company culture was such that this

phenomenon was not perceived an unusual. It was natural for the owners to give the coveted positions and perquisites to those who were close to them. In the restructured company the managing director was appointed from Moti; senior joint president-sales (in change of sales in the state where the company was located) was appointed from Moti, superseding a more senior executive from Heera; senior joint president-marketing (in charge of sales outside the state, where volumes were extremely low) was appointed from Heera; general manager (brands) was appointed from Heera.

Commenting on the cultural practices and processes that came in the way of performance, employees pointed out several issues. Decisions in the organisation were highly centralised. Almost all decisions were made by the managing director, because of which they were a lot of delays. Salaries and perks were arbitary and based on a person's closeness to the power centres. For example, one of the senior joint presidents was given two semi-luxury cars, the other was given a single old-fashioned car. There were wide

Questions.

(a) How would you describe the organisational culture of the Mahut Group ? Explain your answer citing decisions that illustrate the nature of the culture.

(b) Would it be possible that the decision to restructure the organisation was largely influenced by the culture of the organisation ?

(c) Comment on the way the restructuring proposals were implemented. Explain the

influence of the organisational culture, if any, on the implementation process.

(d) How do you explain the decline in employee morale and performance after the

restructuring ? Why were the expected synergies not realised ?

MS-24 : EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

June 2013

SECTION – A

1. Briefly explain the Gandhian approach to industrial relations.

 2. Briefly explain the reasons for the formation of managerial unions and its activities. Explain with suitable examples.

 3. What are the special features of collective bargaining, in India ?

 4. Briefly discuss the factors responsible for the failure of participative management schemes in India.

 5. Explain the bases of classification of act of misconduct relating to discipline. Give examples

SECTION – B

6. Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end :

 The Standard Textile Printing Works conduct business in high quality printing of superior ' textiles. It has a good reputation in the market. The Company employs about 500 workers and works in three shifts a day. There is no union in the plant. The chief executive of the works is the General Manager who is assisted by three Shift Managers, six Supervisors and twelve Assistant Supervisors.

For the past few months, the General Manager had been receiving frequent complaints from Shift Managers that a large number of pieces of customer's cloth were missing from the plant and they could not account for the losses. The General Manager took a serious view of the losses because it meant not only payment of damages to the customers but also the company's reputation in the market. He therefore, ordered a close search of workers at the time of their leaving the work-place for home. As a result of these searches, a couple of workers were caught with pieces of cloth hidden inside their dresses. They were chargesheeted for theft subsequently dismissed after the domestic enquiry.

Some day's back, during lunch interval, Vinayak, a worker in the folding department saw an Assistant Supervisor taking a piece of cloth and putting it in his brief case. Vinayak immediately reported the matter to the Shift Manager who came to the department and found the said piece of cloth in the briefcase of the Assistant Supervisor. Without any discussion, he asked the Assistant Supervisor to see him in his office. A week passed, and the concerned Assistant Supervisor continued to attend to his work.

During this period, the Assistant Supervisor threatened Vinayak that the latter's days here were numbered. This upset Vinayak. He approached the Shift Manager and enquired of him as to what action was taken against the Assistant Supervisor. The Shift Manager politely replied, "I am thankful to you for whatever you did; it is none of your business to know what action we are taking against him. Remember that, after all, he is your officer." Vinayak felt irritated, but left the Shift Manager's office without a word.

On the same day, when the watchman was about to search Vinayak while he was leaving the plant, Vinayak shouted at the watchman saying. " I will not allow myself to be searched unless the officers are also searched. They are the thieves." The watchman detained Vinayak at the gate and reported the matter to the General Manager, who called vinayak to his office. On being questioned by the General Manager, Vinayak told him all about the piece of cloth in the Assistant Supervisor's briefcase and subsequent events and repeated what he had said to the watchman. The General Manager thereupon asked him angrily, "Do you mean to say that we are thieves ?" Vinayak replied, "You can take it that way, if you like." The General Manager recorded the incident along with Vinayak's reply to his question and took Vinayak's signature on it.

 Next day Vinayak was served with a suspension order for his "Act of insubordination and indecent behaviour." Thereafter, the General Manager referred the case to the Personnel Manager.

 Questions :

(a) How far is the action of General Manager Justified ?

(b) As the Personnel Manager how would you deal with this case ?

(c) Give reasons for the way you would handle this case.

MS-23 : HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

June 2013

SECTION – A

1. Describe the various forecasting techniques. What are the issues that affect demand forecasting ? Give examples.

 2. Define Job Analysis and identify the steps involved in it. Briefly discuss the methods of collecting information for a job analysis.

 3. What is recruitment ? Briefly discuss the methods and techniques of recruitment. Compare the advantages of recruiting from internal sources and external sources.

 4. Explain HR audit, Identify its need and scope in the organisational context. Enumerate and briefly discuss the steps involved in HR audit .

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

(a) Career Planning

(b) Trends in labour demand

(c) Induction Training

(d) Potential Appraisal

(e) Competency Mapping

SECTION – B

6. Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end of the case :

 When Adite Technologies Ltd. (ATL) moved one of their divisions to Bangalore, the branch manager in Mumbai decided to transfer those employees who did not wish to go to Bangalore to other local divisions. Ten of the thirty chose to stay and be transferred to another division. Madhuri was one of those. She was assigned to the computer moving - head division.

 When Madhuri reported to the new job, Narendar Kumar, her new supervisor, told her he did not know whether or not he would have a permanent position for her. For three days Madhuri sat and watched other employees at their work. On Friday, Narendar announced that their division had received another big contract and he would brief Madhuri on her new assignment on Monday.

 Madhuri arrived at 9.00 a.m. Monday morning and waited anxiously to learn about her new job. Narendar did not arrive until 10.30. He was being briefed on the new contract, he said, and would not be able to meet Madhuri before lunch. At 1.30 p.m. Narendar returned to show Madhuri the operation, "we are reworking model 10-D and it only requires changing two spot welds. With this jig, you can turn one out in about three to five minutes." Narendar added, "By the way, you will be the quality control supervisor on this job. Just double check these six spots on the blueprint." He did not write on the blue prints or mark areas in any way. Madhuri was given no idea how important the checks might be.

"Please - watch me," said Narendar to Madhuri, taking up the welding torch. "Any one can do it easily," He repeated the operation five or six times. Madhuri tried it and experienced no difficulty. Neither of them checked their reworked pieces with the blue print to see if they would pass the quality control check and as a result, Madhuri never checked any pieces after that demonstration. Narendar did not see Madhuri again until Friday.

 During the week several things happened. More than half the motors did not work correctly by the time they reached the final assembly. It could not be determined whether the faulty motors were the result of Madhuri's work or the result of a lack of quality checks. A box of 20 parts had been approved by Madhuri since her initials were on the inspection card, but she had not made the necessary alterations. That was when Narendar found time to talk to Madhuri again.

 Questions :

(a) Identify the issues inherent in this case.

(b) What incidents showed that Narendar was not performing a good job as a trainer ?

(c) If you were Narendar, what would you have done to improve Madhuri's performance ?