SUBJECT : General Management
Total
Marks : 80
N.B. : 1) All questions are
compulsory
2) All
questions carry equal marks.
1. What is Input & Output model?
2. Describe some major kinds of strategies/policies & the
hierarchy of strategies?
3. What do you mean by reengineering organization & Explain key
aspects?
4. What is departmentation & Types of departmentation?
5. Distinguish strength of appraisal against verifiable objectives?
6. Explain Maslow hierarchy of needs theory?
7. Define Leadership with examples?
8. Explain communication flow in the organization?
SUBJECT : GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Total
Marks : 80
CASE-1 : ATTEMPT ANY 4 CASES, EQUAL
MARKS PER CASE (20
Marks)
Case on Discomfort in a factory and Management Decision Making
Mohan remembered the call from the head office as he puts down the
telephone receiver. His boss from head office he said, "I just read your
analysis and I want you to go down to our plant in Kollakal near Mysore right
away. You know we cannot afford this plant any more - the costs are just too
high. So go down there, check out what would be our operational costs would be
if we move, and report back to me in a week."
Mohan knew the challenge quite well as the branch manager of the
Good will Specialty Products. His company is into manufacturing of special
apparel for injured and people with other medical conditions. He needs to deal
with high-cost labor in a remote village not so sophisticated plant, unionized
manufacturing plant. Although he had done the analysis there were 480 people
who made a living at this facility and if it is closed most of them will find
it very difficult to get another job in the small town consisting of about 10
000 people.
Instead of the Rs.20/- per hour paid to the Kollakal workers the
wages paid to the migrant workers near Aurangabad will be much cheaper Rs.7/-
hour working in sub human conditions. This provides a saving of 15 lakhs to the
company for a year, which, can now be used to meet the costs for training,
transportation and other matters.
After two days of talking with Migrant workers association and
representatives of other companies using the same services in the town, Mohan
had enough information to formulate alternative plan for production and the
cost figures for production and transportation. What was bothering him was only
the thought that how is going to handover the termination of service notice to
the Kollakal workers.
The plant in Kollakal had been in operation since 1930s making
special apparel for persons suffering from injuries and other medical
conditions. Mohan has often talked to the employees who would recount stories
of their fathers and grant fathers working in the company plant-the last of the
original manufacturing operations in the town.
But friendship aside competitors had already
edged past Good will in terms of price and were dangerously close to overtaking
it in product quality. Although Mohan and his Boss had tried to convince the
union to accept the lower wages, union leaders resisted it. In fact, in one
occasion when Mohan tried to discuss a cell manufacturing approach, which would
cross train employees to perform up to three different jobs, local union
leaders could barely restrain their anger. Yet probing beyond their anger Mohan
sensed their vulnerability, but could not break through.
Tomorrow he will discuss his report with the CEO. Mohan does not
want to be responsible for dismantling of the plant at Kollakal, an act, which
Mohan believes is personally wrong, but he is helpless. Mohan said to himself
"The costs are too high, the union's unwilling to cooperate, and the
company needs to make a better return on its investment if it has to continue
at all. It sounds right, but it feels wrong. What should I do?
Questions :
2
Assume
you want to lead the change to save the Kollkal plant. Describe how you would
proceed?
3
What is the primary type of change needed - technology, product,
structure or people/culture?
4
What
techniques would you use to overcome union resistance and implement change?
CASE-2 (20
Marks)
A small group of managers at Falcon Computer met regularly on
Wednesday mornings to develop a statement capturing what they considered to be
the 'Falcon Culture'. Their discussions were wide-ranging, covering what they
thought their firm's culture was, what it should be and how to create it. They
were probably influenced by other firms in their environment since they were
located in the Silicon Valley area of California. Falcon computer was a new
firm, having been created just eight months earlier. Since the corporation was
still in the start- up phase managers decided it would be timely to create and
instill the type of culture they thought would be most appropriate for their
organization. After several weeks of brain storming, writing, debating, and
rewriting, the management group eventually produced a document called 'Falcon
Values', which described the culture of the company as they saw it. The
organizational culture statement covered such topics, as treatment of
customers, relations among work colleagues, preferred style of social
communication, the decision making process, and the nature of working
environment.
Peter Richards read over the Falcon values statement shortly after
he was hired as a software trainer. After observing managerial and employee
behaviors at Falcon for a few weeks, he was struck by wide discrepancy between
the values expressed in the document and what he observed as actual practice
within the organization. For example the Falcon values document-contained
statements such as this: "Quality; attention to detail is our trademark;
our goal s to do it right the first time. We intend to deliver defect free
products and services to customers on the date promised."
However Richards had already seen shipping reports showing that a
number of defective computers were being shipped to customers. And his personal
experience supported his worst fears. When he borrowed four brand-new Falcon
computers from the shipping room for use in a training class he found that only
two of them started up correctly without additional technical work on his part.
Another example of the difference between the Falcon Values
document and actual practice concerned this statement on communication:
"Managing by personal communication is part of the Falcon way. We value
and encourage open, direct, person to person communication as part of our daily
routine." Executives bragged about how they arranged their chairs in a
circle to show equality and to facilitate open communications whenever they met
to discuss the Falcon values document Richards had heard the "open
communication" buzzword a lot since coming to Falcon, but he hadn't seen
much evidence of such communication. As a matter of fact all other meetings
used a more traditional layout with top executives at the front of the room.
Richards believed that the real organizational culture that was
developing at Falcon was characterised by
secrecy and communications that followed the formal chain of command. Even the
Falcon values document Richard was told had been created in secret.
Richards soon became disillusioned. He confided in a coworker on
afternoon "the falcon values document was so at avarice with what people
saw everyday that very few of them took it seriously." Employees quickly
learned what was truly emphasized in the organization-hierarchy, secrecy, and
expediency and focused on those realities instead, ignoring many of the
concepts incorporated in the values document. Despite this frustration Richards
stayed with Falcon until it filed for bankruptcy two year later. "Next
time" he thought to himself as he cleaned out his desk "ill pay more
attention to what is actually going on, and less to what top management says is
true. Furthermore, I guess you just can't create values."
Questions
9.
What is more important the statement in a corporate culture
document or actual managerial behaviour?
10.
Why did
the Falcon executives act as they did?
11.
Why didn't employees like Richards blow the whistle on Falcon,
challenging the inconsistency between values and behaviour?
12.
How can
executives go about changing the old values that govern an organization?
CASE-3 (20
Marks)
Study the case below.Discuss customer insight? Define CRM,role and
advantages for todays management?
Archana Tuli (Owner of a water purifier): Look at my water
purifier. Last week a person came to my house saying my service contract was up
for renewal. Mind you, that was the first time in 10 months I was seeing anyone
from Purifo. I did not like his barging into my time without prior notice. But
that did not bother him. He had a list to clear, never mind if I was in the
midst of cooking lunch.
I asked him about the servicing, since under the maintenance
contract the company should have serviced the unit twice that year. " You
should have called the company," he said. But that was a preventive
maintenance contract and it was for the company to call and take a date.
Finally, he set about servicing the machine. I found that his
handling of the machine was rather clumsy. He dropped the casing twice and
strewed the carbon all over the sink. I discovered that he was just four months
old in the Company. Before that, he used to sell plastic boxes. Is this what I
get for being your customer?
Then he said the filter candle needed to be changed which I would
have to pay for. That annoyed me. I showed him the contract, which clearly
stated that the company would replace the candle once a year at its cost. He
did not know that. Would you believe that? Clearly such service contracts are
simply a means to make money. There is no attitude to servicing. He came
because it was February and he had contract renewal targets to complete. He
came without calling, expecting we would drop everything else to serve him. He
had no clue as to what he had to give the customer for the contract. He messed
up my kitchen and did not even attempt to tidy it up.
The worst was that when I started the machine, the water would not
flow. I was furious. Purifo sends incompetent, inexperienced people to cut
costs. I carry the responsibility of providing my family a
safe, hygienic environment at home, so I am
prepared to pay for preventive maintenance. But what did I get?
But it is a good product and I am an informed consumer who knows
how to work around a manufacturer's inefficiency. I simply gave the service
contract to a private firm. I don't want to have anything to do with Purifo.
Ritikant Sharma (Credit Card holder): Every month, I receive a
credit card bill and my payment is sent the very next day. Five months ago, the
bill did not come on the 22nd evening as it normally would. I received the bill
10 days later with a charge of Rs. 675/- for overdue interest. I was taken
aback and called up by the bank. But the bank manager argued that the bill had
been sent earlier. It was my word against his.
I wrote to Monet Bank, protesting against this undue charge. Eventually,
after six letters from me, including one to the managing director, the bank
" waived" the interest. But I was left with a bitter taste in my
mouth. I wondered why the bank did this to me. Did I deliberately delay
payment? I had this card for three years and not once had I defaulted on
payment.
I also wondered if the bank considered the cost of this argument to
me. Was it worth the Rs. 675/-? Why was the customer not right this time? And
what about all those times when I paid four days before the due date? I was
amazed that the bank treated me like an errant schoolboy. Since then I have not
felt good about using the Monet credit card.
Worse, every month the bill continues to show the overdue interest
and every month there is a fresh exchange of letters on the matter. Only last
week I received an invitation to become a member of another credit card
company. I am planning to surrender the Monet Card.
Divya Mathur (Owner of a washing machine): You say I am an
important customer of Crysta. Great. But for your customer service cell, I am
just a number. For six months now, I have been having problems with the washing
machine. Last month, when I called the customer service cell to follow up an
old complaint about the motor, the lady who took the call asked me to repeat
the details: model number, date of purchase, and the like. When I pointed out
that all these details had been given several times before and all she needed
to do was check the complaint order number, her response was shocking. "
May be, but I can't boot the system. I am only standing in for someone who has
not reported today. So, you have to give the details again." She said.
Tell me what am I getting for being your customer? Respect? Good
handling? No. Now you come here and ask me personal details like family income,
number of members, husband's designation. You still haven't told me why you
need all this information. You are researching. Are you collecting this
information to help your company or me?
Then there was the problem with the V-belt. Within a day of
replacing it, there were some cracking sounds. The engineer said he would have
to wait for the senior supervisor to examine it. Reason? " We recently
changed our supplier and all his pieces are turning out to be defective."
I was taken aback. It frightened me to know that there was no quality check at
your end. We outsource a lot of stuff for our garment business, but every
button and needle is checked before it is used. We are not a multinational,
just an old family-managed business.
Radhika Iyer (School Teacher): That feeling for the customer is
simply not there. The customer is not a person but a collective noun. If the
customer was important, wouldn't my water purifier Company tell me when it
changed the service agent? When I called the number in my contract card, I
discovered that the number now belonged to a courier company. I had to call the
head office in Mumbai and get the new service agent's number in Delhi.
Is this fair? Or does it matter? I guess the
Company's attitude was: " If a customer needs service, let her break her
back and spend money to find out who the new agent is. " The only motives
are profits and sales volumes. Not customer loyalty or service. Therefore a
customer is one who buys your product, not one who has bought your product.
Once you've bought the product you are a 'has been'. Why would you want to
invest energy in a set of people to whom a sale has been made? You spend energy
as long as a sale is not made. Once a sale is done, it is for the customer to
invest energy in sustaining his relationship with the manufacturer. Isn't that
how it is? The manufacturer's attitude is-you need me more than I need you, so
guess who should work harder?
And everyone once in a while, there is a new face at my door asking
me if I own a Zento purifier. Dammit, don't you have a customer file? No, he
says. We go from door to door. Splendid. Then what do you do with all the data
you collect? And every one of these men asks me the same questions: when did
you buy it, what is your model number, is it working properly? The worst is:
" What is your address?" I don't care what the information is being
used for. But I don't want to be disturbed for information, which you already
have.
We believe that because India now manufactures Coke and Mercedes,
we have progressed. But this new market is no different from the gray market,
where you can buy anything but cannot expect service. For instance, I bought a
packet of macaroni, which said I had to boil it in 250 ml of water. I did that,
but after the prescribed five minutes of boiling, there was enough water left
in the pan. I then boiled it for another three minutes, and the pasta dissolved
into a unrecognizable mass.
One day, I met someone who worked for this macaroni company. I told
him about my experience. He said I should let the pan rest for five minutes
after turning off the heat. The residual water would get absorbed. That worked.
Couldn't the firm have said so on the pack? Or is it cheaper to let the
customer learn? Does the Company use experienced hands-on cooks while designing
these products or are they MBAs who can't tell a stove from a cigarette
lighter?
I bought a jar of mayonnaise the other day. The label said it
should be used within six months. Of what? Of the date of manufacture or of the
date of opening the seal? Do I refrigerate it or not? It takes us back to what
I said before: once the sale has been made, the consumer does not matter
anymore. The sale is not on the customer's involvement, loyalty or
satisfaction. It never was; it will never be.
DIPANKAR BARUAH (Cell Phone Owner): There are numerous messages
that are flashed on the cell phone to announce the sale of wedding suits,
printers, shoes, or TV programmes, or updates on cricket scores. These messages
usually send out a single, short beep. Only personal messages are announced
with a long, continuous beep. Last week, I was distracted by six ad messages
for a chocolate. And all of them were long beeps. It made me mad because I was
in the midst of meeting clients and that kind of triviality is distracting.
The cell phone is a great device. It helps me catch messages, which
I would otherwise have missed. But I don't want it to distract me during a meeting.
Please respect my privacy. The cell phone is for my convenience, not for the
convenience of callous advertisers. Now, I leave the cell phone with the
secretary and she calls me only if the message is a personal one.
Tell me, has the advertiser benefited? He sought to get his
messages across to 1,50,000 subscribers at one go. It appears to me that my
cell phone has become a cheap medium for advertising. Since it has done me the
favour of selling me the cell phone, the cell phone operator can pass on my
personal details to advertisers without even asking me. The cell phone is a
private medium of communication, not a public address system like a radio.
We have allowed a million new products to enter
the country but along with that, we have not allowed the market mindset to
evolve or grow. Few people realize that the customer needs to be treated with
respect.
BERYL DIAS (owner of a laser printer): This printer cost me Rs.
28,000. My company did not fund it. I saved for it for a year. Saving that kind
of money was not easy. I wanted the best, which is what I thought I got when I
bought it., It worked very well and I know it is a good product. But that's
where my ecstasy ends.
One day, the paper jammed and I needed help. So I called up the
company. The lady who took the call said: " You will have to bring the
printer here, we are not going to come there." I felt that was very
hostile. I expressed surprise that their service engineers would not come to my
home. The lady gave me a silly reason. " If your mixie breaks down
wouldn't you take it to the service center?" Maybe she took the liberty to
talk down to me because I was a woman and I operated a home office. But there's
a world of difference between a Rs. 2,500 mixie and a Rs. 28,000 printer. But
she was surly from the word go. Worse, their office was located very far from
where I lived and going there would mean wasting an entire morning.
It was her surly behaviour that angered me the most. I recall how
the sales engineers hovered around me when I had first contacted the company
for a brochure. For three weeks someone from the company would call me
practically daily. They virtually pushed me into buying the printer. I remember
I still had the last Rs.1,500 /-to save up, when they decided to give me a
Rs.1,000/- discount to hasten my decision. Their sales pitch mesmerized me.
Today, I am just a statistic. I can almost hear them saying: "You have no
choice. If your printer is not working, that's your problem. If you live afar,
that's also your problem.!"
I had not considered the after - sales trauma when I brought the
printer. I assumed that the company would come home to repair it, as other
companies do for other products. They did not tell me about their service terms
at the time of the sale. It was not important, I guess. For, all they wanted
was my Rs.28, 000/-.
To repair the printer, I went through an agent, who lost my
complaint order papers, forgot to intimate the company about the part I wanted
and made me wait for four weeks before the printer was repaired. Then I
discovered it had not been repaired at all. I decided then that I wouldn't have
anything to do with the company ever again. I sold that printer and brought
another brand after ascertaining that there was a service agent close by. My
old printer was state of the art, but the real differentiator is the effort a
firm is willing to put into customer service.
CASE-4 : (20
Marks)
Company Social Responsibility & AIDS
The AIDS epidemic today is unparalleled in the challenges it poses
to the world, and it is clearly an issue that no one can address alone.
Business is an essential partner in the response to AIDS. The private sector
like the other sectors is not immune from AIDS. Involvement of the private
sector in the response to HIV/AIDS is crucial to the success of our country's
efforts against the epidemic.
Questions
1.
What is the impact of AIDS on businesses? Do you agree that
businesses in the near future would be actively interested in addressing the
issue of AIDS? Justify your answer
2.
ABC Corporation wants to partner with an NGO and address the issue
of AIDS around its factory, discuss what steps should ABC Corporation take to
initiate, manage and sustain its partnership with the NGO .
Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow
Prakash Gupte is a sales representative with Beta Water Purifiers.
Prakash is a star sales representative with the highest sales turnover record
for 5 consecutive months. He is an aggressive and a dynamic sales person with a
strong target-orientation. His marketing manager Shreyans Desai is very proud
of his accomplishments. Based on his performance appraisal, Prakash has been
promoted to the rank of Assistant Manager (Marketing). He is now required to
supervise the work of 6 sales representatives and to manage sales targets for
his area.
After assuming charge as an Asst. Marketing Manager, Prakash set
the targets for the first month and communicated these to the sales
representatives in a direct and explicit manner. 4 sales representatives found
the targets to be too ambitious but reserved their comments. After the meeting
they discussed the issue informally and dispersed. Prakash called the
fortnightly review meeting to take stock of the situation. He was extremely
disappointed to know that all the six representatives were trailing behind in
target achievement. He was very blunt in communicating his disappointment and
told their team to get their targets by the end of the month. After the
meeting, all the six representatives expressed their displeasure with the
meeting and found the demand of Prakash unreasonable. They commonly perceived
him to be a difficult person to deal with. They thought of approaching Shreyans
for this. Harish and Sameer, two of the representatives met Shreyans and
discussed this with him. Shreyans was a little upset with Prakash, but he
thought to himself that Prakash is very efficient but lacks tact to work with
people. He assured the duo that he will speak to Prakash in this regard.
Shreyans called Prakash for an informal chat and advised him to go
a little easy with people. Prakash was clearly agitated about this since he
took this as a personal affront, as he sensed during this meeting that someone
must have complained about his behavior to Shreyans. Instead of going easy with
the team, he turned more bitter in his approach. He called a meeting of all the
sales representatives, and indirectly communicated his displeasure with the
incident. He once again made it clear that the targets were attainable but
needed a greater sense of commitment from the group. Obviously the sales representatives
did not like this. At the month-end briefing, Prakash was absolutely
disappointed with the team for having under-achieved on the targets’ count. He
rebuked them for going slow on their work and told them sternly to adhere to
the targets in the next month. Deepak, on of the sales representatives,
objected to highly monthly targets and suggested that the targets be made more
reasonable. To this Prakash retorted by saying that the targets were absolutely
reasonable. Obviously the team was disheartened with this. They all decided to
collectively approach Shreyans this time and seek his intervention. When they
met Shreyans to brief him about the situation, Shreyans was sure that he had
made a mistake somewhere.
QUESTIONS:
1)
What happened when Prakash got promoted to the position of Asst.
Manager (Marketing)? Why did this happen?
2)
If you were entrusted with the responsibility of managing 6 sales
representatives & creating an effective sales team, how would you do it?
SUB : GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Total Marks: 80
Note : All Questions are Compulsory
Each Question Carries Equal
Marks 10 Marks
5
What are the methods of gathering job information?
6
What are the direction of communication?
7
What are the characteristics of the integrating leadership style?
8
Explain quality control
9
Explain some of the management games
10 What are the methods of
performance appraisal?
11 What is the significance of
HRM?
12 What are the models of
effectiveness?
General management
Q1.
Explain some of the regional trading blocs
Q2.
What are the barriers to communication?
Q3.
Explain some of the leadership styles
Q4.
Explain Maslow’s theory
Q5.
What are transmission channels?
Q6.
What are the techniques of training?
Q7.
What are the managerial functions in HRM?
Q8. Write a note on
organization culture.
General Management
Q1. What are the components of
MIS?
Q2. What are the characteristics
of the integrating leadership style?
Q3. Explain money as a motivator
Q4. What are the sources of
recruit?
Q5. What are patterns of
departmentalization?
Q6. What are principles of formal
organization?
Q7. Explain neo classical theory.
Q8. What are procedures? What are the
characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of procedure?
General management
Q1. What is span of management?
What are the factors determining span of management? (10 marks)
Q2. What is the environment of
international business? (10 marks)
Q3. Explain human relations era
of management thought (10 marks)
Q4. Define planning.. what are
the characteristics of planning? (10 marks)
Q5. Explain in detail functional
organization. (10 marks)
Q6. What are the methods of
gathering job information? (10 marks)
Q7. What are non budgetary
control techniques? (10 marks)
Q8. What are the characteristics of the
control function?
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