Mba Human Resource

Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 1 MB0038 – Management Process and Organization Behavior – 4 Credits (Book ID: B1127) Assignment Set- 2 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions. Q. 1Write a note on classical era for evolution for Organizational behavior. In the early twentieth century, early studies in the complexities of organizational activity got underway. Initial studies were mostly mechanical. Being treated like machines, the humans were subjected to close scrutiny and study.The aspects studied were how the human behaved during regular applied testing of a person's responses to stimuli. Another stream of ideas that were part of study organizations were divided according to their political preferences, and the various levels of management throughout the entire organizations. Unfortunately there was a limitation to both of these because they did not bear in mind the interaction between the two connected streams but treat ed each as a separate entity. Parts of the History of Organizational Behavior Studies can be seen during the 1890's.During this time scientific management was viewed as the best way to run an organization. An organization that in its' course of action adheres to a set of guidelines and guides itself on findings of time and motion studies, is bound to achieve greater levels of productivity – claimed the advocates of this system. It became clear that organizations were centered on interactive groups of their members, and a more humanistic view needed to be formulated as psychology and analysis as a means of understanding human behavior became more sophisticated.By understanding and using psychology productivity will improve tremendously. The Human Relations Movement, as it was called in the beginning of the 20th century, brought focus on collaboration, influence, and the aspect of particular persons understanding the intent of the organization. By the Second World War, a paradi gm shift had occurred in the study of organizational behavior. The new buzzword was operations research, and more and more people became interested in sciences, systems theories, complexity theories and strategies.At the time, James March and Herbert Simon were leading experts in the field. Many theories were coming forth as the seventies came around. More often than not the basis for this was quantitative research and interconnected realms of psychology. By the 1980s how important the cultures of different organizations was emphasized instead of the amount and quality of the research. Anthropology was but one of many fields being added into studies about organizational behaviors. Presently any managerial course has organizational behavior studies as its integral part.As part of the curriculum many business schools now include this and related courses in fields such as industrial psychology. The name of the person who runs the History of Organizational Behavior Studies internet site is Patricia Jones. com. See more on Organizational Behaviors. This article may only be used if the author bio and links are included. Q. 2what is groupthink. Explain. Groupthink is â€Å"a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment resulting from in-group pressures†. Thus, the overemphasis on consensus and agreement leads members to be unwilling to evaluate group members’ ideas critically.This hinders decision-making and becomes an obstacle to group productivity. Certain conditions favor the development of groupthink. i) The first condition is high cohesiveness. Cohesive groups tend to avoid conflicts and to demand conformity. ii) The second is other antecedents including directive leadership, high stress, insulation of the group and lack of methodical procedures for developing and evaluating alternatives. A group suffering from groupthink displays recognizable symptoms. Symptoms of Groupthink and how to Prevent It Illusions of invulnerabi lity: Group members feel they are above criticism. This symptom leads to excessive optimism and risk taking. * Illusions of group morality: Group members feel they are moral in their actions and therefore above reproach. This symptom leads the group to ignore the ethical implications of their decisions. * Illusions of unanimity: Group members believe there is unanimous agreement on the decisions. Silence is misconstrued as consent. * Rationalization: Group members concoct explanations for their decisions to make them appear rational and correct.The results are that other alternatives are not considered, and there is an unwillingness to reconsider the group’s assumptions. * Stereotyping the enemy: Competitors are stereotyped as evil or stupid. This leads the group to underestimate its opposition. * Self-censorship: Members do not express their doubts or concerns about the course of action. This prevents critical analysis of the decisions. * Peer pressure: Any members who expre ss doubts or concerns are pressured by other group members, who question their loyalty. * Mind guards: Some members take it upon themselves to protect the group from negative feedback.Group members are thus shielded from information that might lead them to question their action. Guidelines for Preventing Groupthink * Ask each group member to assume the role of a critical evaluator by actively voicing objections or doubts. * Have the leader avoid stating his or her position on the issue prior to the group decision. * Create several groups that work on the decision simultaneously. * Bring in outside experts to evaluate the group process. * Appoint a devil’s advocate to question the group’s course of action consistently. Evaluate the competition carefully, posing as many different motivations and intentions as possible. * Once consensus is reached, encourage the group to rethink its position by re-examining the alternatives. 1. Social Loafing:  Social loafing occurs whe n one or more group members rely on the efforts of other group members and fail to contribute their own time, effort, thoughts or other resources to a group. This may create a real drag on the group’s efforts and achievements. When a group carries out a task, it is harder to attribute the group’s output to individual contributions.Some group members may engage in social loafing, or doing Less than their share of the work on the assumption that group’s results will not indicate the individual’s failure to contribute. A number of methods for countering social loafing exist, such as having identifiable individual contributions to the group product and member self-evaluation systems. For example, if each group member is responsible for a specific input to the group, a members’ failure to contribute will be noticed by everyone. If members must formally evaluate their contributions to the group, they are less likely to loaf. . Production Blocking:  Pro duction blocking is limiting another person’s output by getting in his or her way. Production blocking occurs when too many employees are trying to work in a given amount of space or when the organization has poorly planned the use of its facilities. It can also occur when the organization assigns more than the optimal number of employees to carry out a task. Q. 3Explain the process of negotiation. We can identify four basic steps in the negotiation process. They are: 1. Preparation:  Preparation for negotiations should begin long before the formal negotiation begins.Each party gathers information about the other side – its history, likely behavior, previous interactions and previous agreements reached by the parties. Each party polls its members to determine their wishes, expectations, and preferences regarding a new agreement. 2. Evaluation of Alternatives:  The two sides attempt to identify the bargaining range (i. e. , the range in which both parties would find an agreement acceptable). The bargainers determine the alternatives acceptable to them and also identify their best alternative if a negotiated settlement is not reached.Identifying a set of alternatives, including the best one, helps individuals determine whether to continue the negotiation or seek another course of action. Both the parties Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) needs to be determined. BATNA determines the lowest value acceptable to you for a negotiated agreement for both the parties. 3. Identifying Interests:  Negotiators act to satisfy their own interests, which may include substantive, relationship, personal or organizational ones. The person or group must assess the other party’s interests and then decide how to respond to those interests in their offers.Effective negotiations call for satisfying interests by identifying and exploring a range of possible positions on specific issues. 4. Making Trade-offs and Creating Joint Gains:  Bargai ners use trade-offs to satisfy their own and others’ interests. Either position would meet the interests of maintaining a certain standard of living. One way to assess tradeoffs is * Begin by identifying the best and worst possible outcomes. * Next, specify what impact trade-offs will have on these outcomes. * Finally, consider whether the changed outcomes will better meet the parties’ interest.Negotiators need to overcome the idea that a fixed pie of outcomes exists, avoid non-rational escalation of conflict, pay attention to others’ cognitions and avoid devaluating the others’ concessions while overvaluing their own. Issues in Negotiation Some of the most important issues have been discussed below. 1. The role of personality traits in negotiation –  Overall assessments of the personality-negotiation relationship finds that personality traits have no significant direct effect on either the bargaining process or negotiation outcomes (Wall ;amp; B lum, 1991). . Gender differences in negotiations – Men and women do not negotiate differently. A popular stereotype is that women are more cooperative, pleasant, and relationship-oriented in negotiations than are men. The evidence does not support this. The belief that women are â€Å"nicer† is probably due to confusing gender and the lack of power typically held by women. (Stuhlmacher ;amp; Walters, 1999). 3. Cultural differences in negotiations – Negotiating styles clearly vary across national cultures (Adler, 2002).The cultural context of the negotiation significantly influences the amount and type of preparation for bargaining, the emphasis on task versus interpersonal relationships, the tactics used, etc. Q. 4 The environmental stressors have a great impact on work performance and adjustment of the individual in an organization. Discuss the different categories of environmental stressors. Environmental and internal conditions that lie beyond an individualâ €™s control are environmental stressors. Such stressors can have a considerable impact on work performance and adjustment. We can organize environmental stressors into the following categories: . Task Demands: Task demands are factors related to a person’s job. They include the design of the individual’s job, working conditions and the physical work layout. Changes and lack of control are two of the most stressful demands people face at work. Change leads to uncertainty, a lack of predictability in a person’s daily tasks and activities and may be caused by job insecurity related to difficult economic times. Technology and technological innovation also create change and uncertainty for many employees, requiring adjustments in training education and skill development.Lack of control is a second major source of stress, especially in work environments that are difficult and psychologically demanding. The lack of control may be caused by inability to influence th e timing of tasks and activities, to select tools or methods for accomplishing the work to make decisions that influence work outcomes, or to exercise direct action to affect the work outcomes. 2. Role Demands: The social-psychological demands of the work environment may be every bit as stressful as task demands at work.Role demands relate to pressures placed on a person as a function of the particular role he or she plays in the organization. Role conflict results from inconsistent or incompatible expectations communicated to a person. The conflict may be an inter role, intra-role or person-role conflict. a. Inter role Conflict: is caused by conflicting expectations related to two separate roles, such as employee and parent. For example, the employee with major sales presentation on Monday and a sick child at home is likely to experience inter-role conflict. b.Intra-role conflict: is caused by conflicting expectations related to a single role, such as employee. For example, the man ager who presses employees. c. Person-role Conflict: Ethics violations are likely to cause person-role conflicts. Employees expected to behave in ways that violate personal values, beliefs or principles experience conflict. The second major cause of role stress is role ambiguity. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood and the employee is not sure what he or she is to do. Role ambiguity is the confusion a person experiences related to the expectations of others.Role ambiguity may be caused by not understanding what is expected, not knowing how to do it, or not knowing the result of failure to do it. 3. Inter-personal Demands: are pressures created by other employees. Lack of social support from colleagues stress, especially among employees with a high social need. Abrasive personalities, sexual harassment and the leadership style in the organization are interpersonal demands for people at work. a. The abrasive Person: May be an able and talented e mployee, but one who creates emotional waves that others at work must accommodate. b.Sexual Harassment: The vast majority of sexual harassment is directed at women in the workplace, creating a stressful working environment for the person being harassed, as well as for others. c. Leadership Styles: Whether authoritarian or participative, create stress for different personality types. Employees who feel secure with firm, directive leadership may be anxious with an open, participative style. Those comfortable with participative leadership may feel restrained by a directive style. 4. Physical Demands: Non-work demands create stress for people, which carry over into work environment or vice versa.Workers subject to create role conflicts or overloads that are difficult to manage. In addition to family demands, people have personal demands related to non-work organizational commitments such as religious and public service organizations. These demands become more or less stressful, dependin g on their compatibility with the person’s work and family life and their capacity to provide alternative satisfactions for the person. Q. 5 Given below are certain instances observed by a summer trainee – Ritu, while making an observational study at Global Green consultants.An organization dealing with recycling of plastic products waste etc. She makes the following observations about two key people in the organization. 1) Mr. Patnayak – He is a very friendly person and encourages his team members by giving those recommendations and appreciation. This helps HR to decide about giving a bonus or promotion to employees. 2) Mr. Dutta- He is an aggressive person. He frequently loses his temper. Ritu observes that he frequently punishes the non-performers and also gives them warnings regarding suspension etc. Now explain what base of power Mr. Patnayak and Mr.Dutta belong to. Explain the type of power they use often Ten Types of Power 1. Position. Some measure of pow er is conferred on the basis of one’s formal position in an organization. For example, a marketing manager can influence the decisions that affect the marketing department. However, the marketing manager has little power to influence the decisions that affect the finance department. 2. Knowledge or expertise. People who have knowledge or expertise can wield tremendous power. Of course, knowledge in itself is not powerful. It is the use of knowledge and expertise that confers power.Thus, you could be an incredibly bright person and still be powerless. 3. Character or ethics. The more trustworthy individuals are the more power they have in negotiations. The big issue here is whether they do what they say they are going to do—even when they no longer feel like doing it. 4. Rewards. People who are able to bestow rewards or perceived rewards hold power. Supervisors, with their ability to give raises, hold power over employees. Money can have power. But money, like anything else, holds very little power if it is not distributed. 5.Punishment. Those who have the ability to create a negative outcome for a counterpart have the power of punishment. Managers who have the authority to reprimand and fire employees hold this type of power. State troopers and highway patrol officers who have the ability to give out speeding tickets also have this power. 6. Gender. Dealing with someone of the opposite sex can confer power. We have videotaped many negotiation case studies in which the turning point came when a woman casually touched a man’s hand or arm to make her point. 7. Powerlessness.In some instances, giving up all power can be very powerful. If a kidnapper threatens a hostage with death enough times, the hostage may just challenge the kidnapper to go ahead and kill him. At the point that the hostage gives up power, or control over his own death, the kidnapper actually loses power. 8. Charisma or personal power. When we ask participants in our seminar s for examples of leaders who have had charisma or personal power, invariably the names of Mother Teresa, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan come up. When we ask, â€Å"What do all three of these leaders have in common? participants usually respond, â€Å"Passion and confidence in what they believe in. † 9. Lack of interest or desire. In negotiations, as in many other areas of life, the side with the least interest in what is being negotiated holds the most power. If you are buying a house and you really do not care if you purchase the house you are currently negotiating for or the one down the street, you will most likely hold more power in the negotiation—unless, of course, the sellers could care less if they sell the house today or live in it for another ten years! 10. Craziness.This may sound funny, but bizarre or irrational behavior can confer a tremendous amount of power. Every organization has someone who blows up or behaves irrationally when confronted with pr oblems. Those who have been exposed to this type of behavior tend to avoid such individuals. As a result, these individuals are not given many tasks to accomplish because others are afraid to ask them. Leadership style influence level of motivation. However, throughout a lifetime, man’s motivation is influenced by changing ambitions and/or leadership style he works under or socializes with.Command-and-control leadership drains off ambition while worker responsibility increases ambition. Leadership Style versus Motivation| Leadership Style| Motivation Type| Motivation is Based on:| Personality Type| Efficiency| Limited supervisionWorker with decision making responsibility| Self motivated| Creativity| Leader of ideas or people. Independent AchieverThrives on change| High| | Team motivated| | | | Mixed styles| Goal motivated| Opportunity| Personality type and efficiency depends on leader's skill and/or the work environment he's created. | | Reward motivated| Materialism| | Recog nition motivated| Social status| | High level of supervisionCommand-and-control| Peer motivated| To be like others| Status quo DependencyResist change| Low| | Authority motivated| Follows policy| | | | Threat, fear motivated| Reacts to force| | | * Self-motivated or visionaries will not accept authority controlled environments. They will find a way to escape if trapped. * In a team-motivated environment, dependency types will become inspired and strive to be acceptable with independent thinking coworkers. * Associates influence the level of individual motivation. Reaction to ChangeCommand-and-control leadership is the primary style in our society. It is accepted because efficiency is created by repetitive action, teaching people to resist change. Once acquiring a skill, they do not want to learn another. The worker adapts to level three with an occasional trip to level two. Worker responsibility is just the opposite; it motivates people to thrive on change by seeking challenges, fin ding ways to achieve goals. Level one is the leader of changing technology, finding ways to create efficiency. Reaction to Efficiency The efficiency of advancing technology is forcing change.It is up to the individual or business to decide which side of change they want to be on, the leading edge or trailing edge. The leading edge is exciting while the trailing edge is a drag. Playing catch-up drains motivation while leaders of change inspire motivation. With today’s changing technology, an individual must be willing to abandoned old skills and learn new ones. The ability to adapt is achieved through self-development programs. Because level one thrives on change, they adapt to whatever methods gets things done with the least amount of effort.This brings us to work habits. In level one, management and front line workers, together, are searching for ways to solve and prevent problems. Decisions are made on the front line where alternative methods are analyzed. Being able to pre vent problems is a motivating force. In level three management makes all decision, as a result, management must find ways to solve all problems and find alternative methods. Front line employees may be aware conflicts, but they don’t have the authority to take action and have learned not to be concerned.Supervisors are only concerned with elements that management thinks are important. Under command-and-control leadership, management considers the opinions or concerns of people on the front line to be trivial. As a result, management takes action only when problems become too big to ignore. If workers have conflicts with their supervisors, they will find ways to increase the magnitude of problems, creating a combative environment. A downward spiral of management implementing more control and workers resisting control develop.Under worker responsibility, management and workers unite to prevent or solve problems. Team MotivatedElementary problems are prevented or solved at the s ource. Getting the job done is the primary goal of management and workers. | Dependency of AuthorityElementary are dealt with by management when large enough to be recognized. | Abused WorkersLack of leadership skills and the desire for power creates elementary problems. Managers focus on worker control. Getting the job done is down the list. Workers goal is to find ways to do little as possible.   | Command and Control Leadership – Problems are always out of control. | Reaction to Learning Habits In level two, young workers are establishing work habits, developing attitudes and learning a professional skill. Out of training and on the job, motivation level will depend on the leadership style they work under. Under command-and-control leadership, ambitions will be associated with maintaining the status quo. Under worker responsibility, ambitions will be associated with opportunity. They will continually expand their skills as the need or as opportunity arises.Reaction to Go als Self-motivated people are goal motivated. Once they conquer one goal, they establish another. Every goal is a learning process that requires all the elements in level one. Companies that attract and keep this type of person stay on the leading edge of technology. The CEO is a visionary in customer service and employee leadership. The employees' goals are the same as the CEO’s. If the CEO desires control, then he will lead in such a way that trains subordinates to lead by control. As a result, the employees' goals are quitting time and payday. Reaction to RecognitionRecognition is important; it builds positive self-esteem. By itself, its benefits are short lived. Long-term benefits are achieved when the employee feels the job could not have been done without them. This means they were faced with a challenge, which means, they had the responsibility and authority to take action. This environment is found in level one. Self Motivated Projects Self-motivated projects' is the ability to start and finish what one has started. Most people, working alone, do not finish what they start. The ability to finish challenging projects is the secret to being a winner.First requirement is interest, then asking questions which inspires' the learning process. With information, a challenge is presented and a goal set. When action is taken, the barriers of persistence, risk, fear and failure become a challenge by itself. Self-motivated projects are difficult because no one cares if they succeed, which is another barrier. This is why most people quit before they get a good start. People, who find ways to overcome barriers and hang in there, are the winners. They develop skills and confidence, which are required steps to larger projects.Team Motivated Projects Everyone can be inspired to achievement in a team-motivated environment. With a common goal, team members support each other until success is achieved. In this environment, others do care and team members are needed for achieving the goal. For this reason, team motivation is extremely powerful. The exchange of ideas, information and testing the results, adds to the motivating force. As a result, each member seeks to be a leader of quality input. Q. 6 â€Å"Fashion4now† is a famous and old magazine. The top management decides to start the e- edition of the magazine.They also decide the redefine the policies and culture of â€Å"Fashion4now† To start implementing this change, they frequently call meetings of employees. They have also formed groups at different levels to clarify doubts and explain the perspective of change. Analyze the situation in the context of organizational change and elaborate why the top management is following the discussed practices and what approach is most evident in the context. Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc.Examp les of organization-wide change might include a change in mission, restructuring operations (e. g. , restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc. ), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, â€Å"rightsizing†, new programs such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to organizational transformation. Often this term designates a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates. The levels of organizational change Perhaps the most difficult decision to make is at what â€Å"level† to start.There are four levels of organizational change: First let's describe these levels, and then under what circumstances a business should use them. Level 1- shaping and anticipating the future At this level, organizations start out with few assumptions about the business itself, what it is â€Å"good† at, and what the future will be like. Management generates alternate â€Å"scenarios† of the future, defin es opportunities based on these possible futures, assesses its strengths and weaknesses in these scenarios changes its mission, measurement system etc.More information on this is in the next article, â€Å"Moving from the Future to your Strategy. † Level 2 – defining what business (as) to be in and their â€Å"Core Competencies Many attempts at strategic planning start at this level, either assuming that 1) the future will be like the past or at least predictable; 2) the future is embodied in the CEO's â€Å"vision for the future†; or 3) management doesn't know where else to start; 4) management is too afraid to start at level 1 because of the changes needed to really meet future requirements; or 5) the only mandate they have is to refine what mission already exists.After a mission has been defined and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is completed, an organization can then define its measures, goals, strategies, etc. More infor mation on this is in the next article, â€Å"Moving from the Future to your Strategy. † Level 3 – Reengineering (Structurally Changing) Your Processes Either as an aftermath or consequence of level one or two work or as an independent action, level three works focuses on fundamentally changing how work is accomplished.Rather than focus on modest improvements, reengineering focuses on making major structural changes to everyday with the goal of substantially improving productivity, efficiency, quality or customer satisfaction. To read more about level 3 organizational changes, please see â€Å"A Tale of Three Villages. † Level 4 – Incrementally Changing your Processes Level 4 organizational changes are focusing in making many small changes to existing work processes. Oftentimes organizations put in considerable effort into getting every employee focused on making these small changes, often with considerable effect.Unfortunately, making improvements on how a buggy whip for horse-drawn carriages is made will rarely come up with the idea that buggy whips are no longer necessary because cars have been invented. To read more about level 4 organizational changes and how it compares to level 3, please see â€Å"A Tale of Three Villages. †   Some General Guidelines to Organization-Wide Change 1. Consider using a consultant. Ensure the consultant is highly experienced in organization-wide change. Ask to see references and check the references. 2. Widely communicate the potential need for change.Communicate what you're doing about it. Communicate what was done and how it worked out. 3. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve them. If possible, work with a team of employees to manage the change. 4. Don't get wrapped up in doing change for the sake of change. Know why you're making the change. What goal(s) do you hope to accomplish? 6. Plan the chang e. How do you plan to reach the goals, what will you need to reach the goals, how long might it take and how will you know when you've reached your goals or not?Focus on the coordination of the departments/programs in your organization, not on each part by itself. Have someone in charge of the plan. 7. End up having every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom. 8. Delegate decisions to employees as much as possible. This includes granting them the authority and responsibility to get the job done.As much as possible, let them decide how to do the project. 9. The process won't be an â€Å"aha! † It will take longer than you think. 10. Keep perspective. Keep focused on meeting the needs of your customer or clients. 11. Take care of yourself first. Organization-wide change can be highly stressful. 12. Don't seek to control change, but rather to expect it, understand it and manage it. 13. Include closure in the plan. Acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments. 14. Read some resources about organizational change, including new forms and structures