Exam Questions Flashcards
To survive and win over time, business organisations must gain and sustain advantage over their competitors. Organisations gain competitive advantage by being better than their competitors at doing and delivering valuable things for their customers. This means that to succeed, managers must deliver performance.
Identify and discuss the fundamental success drivers for organisations to gain competitive advantage over their competitors.
(Total: 20)
- Globalisation
- Technological Change
- Knowledge Mgmt
- Collaboration across boundaries
Elements in competitive advantage. You must elaborate.
1. Innovation
2. Quality
3. Service
4. Speed
5. Cost Competitiveness
When done properly, group decision making can lead to much better decisions than those typically made by individuals. As the proverb says “two heads are better than one.” Is that statement really valid?
Explore and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making. What are the requirements for effectively managing group decision making?
(Total: 20)
To Check
Strategic management has six major components or steps, the first of which is the establishment of mission, vision, and goals. Differentiate the meaning and purpose of these three terms and provide one examples for each to illustrate your answer.
Why are the mission, vision and goals statements important for the strategic management of the organisation? Explain.
(Total: 20)
To Check
“Ethics are not shaped only by laws and by individual virtue. They may also be influenced by the company’s work environment. Unethical corporate behaviour may be the responsibility of an unethical individual, but it often also reveals a company culture that is ethically lax.”
Bateman and Snell (2015 pg. 161)
Discuss the danger signs that an organisation may be allowing or even encouraging unethical behaviour. How would you propose to create a culture that encourages ethical behaviour in an organisation? Discuss in detail.
(Total: 20)
Danger signs that a company is morally lax:
- excessive emphasis on short-term revenues over long term considerations
- failure to establish a written code of ethics
- a desire for simple, “quick fix” solutions to ethical problems
- an unwillingness to take an ethical stand that may impose financial costs
- consideration of ethics solely as a legal issue or a public relations tool
- lack of procedures for handling ethical problems
- responding to the demands of shareholders at the expense of constituencies
Ethics programs
Compliance-based ethics programs
• company mechanisms designed by corporate counsel to prevent, detect, and punish legal violations
Integrity-based ethics programs
• company mechanisms designed to instill in people a personal responsibility for ethical behavior.
Effective ethics programs include: • formal ethics codes • ethics committees to develop policies • evaluation of actions • ethics officers or ombudspersons to investigate allegations • ethics training programs • disciplinary processes
As organisations differentiate their structures into different jobs, tasks, units, departments and divisions, they also need to be concerned about integration and coordination, so that all parts of the organisation will work together.
Describe various coordination methods that managers
can use for organisational integration, and highlight also their advantages and disadvantages.
(Total: 20)
To Check
As managers, you will have subordinates reporting to you in your daily work. Your team performance depends to a large extent on your workers’ motivation besides their ability, understanding of the job, and access to the necessary resources. One of the most fundamental processes that influence the motivation of all employees is through goal setting.
Elaborate on the motivational aspects of the goal setting theory and how to design goals that motivate. Discuss the limitations of goal setting as a management tool in employee motivation.
(Total: 20)
To Check
Teams transform the ways organisations do business. Many company the world over now use teams to produce goods and services, to manage projects, and to make decisions and run the company. However, according to Bateman and Snell (2015), “Sometimes teams work, and sometimes they don’t…” (pg. 472).
Discuss why some teams fail to function as expected? Propose how managers should build teams that are cohesive and have high performance norms.
(Total: 20)
You may experience difficulty while transforming a group to a team, especially to a high-performance team. There is likelihood that it will fail when managers or employees feel that working in a team is a waste of time and that there will be more difficulties than benefits towards getting the job done. Thus forming a high- performance team is quite difficult.
In forming a team, it is essential that you possess a few sets of skills which include diplomacy skills, ability to tackle „people issues‰, ability to encourage autonomy and rewarding the team with some level of self-control. It is essential to give up some control to the team because in the long run the team will be able to create a stronger and better-performing unit or team.
Teams should be truly empowered. This is because the motivation of the teams will be reduced if they are not allowed to make important decisions or require permission for every innovative idea. Generally empowerment improves team performance, even more so for virtual teams.
Employees in virtual teams are required to undergo training on how to use the technologies because they need strong technical support from the management. Most virtual teams do have periodic face-to-face interactions from time to time. However empowerment is best for virtual teams as they have less face-to-face interactions.
In short, for a team to be successful you must know and do the things which will make the teams successful and that includes having clear thoughts while applying the appropriate practices whenever possible.
4 Most common types of teams likely to be found in today’s organisation (topic 9)
1) Work teams – teams which are making or doing things such as manufacturing, assembling, selling
or providing services.
2) Project and development teams - work teams which are working on long term projects
They are assigned tasks to perform, for example new product development in R&D team. Members will provide expertise, knowledge and judgment. They will work together until the project is completed
3) Management teams – teams are required to coordinate and provide direction to the subunits
under their purview and integrate tasks among subunits. This team is authority-based, hierarchical and responsible for the overall organisational performance.
4) Virtual Teams – Team members are physically dispersed and communicate virtually or
electronically most of the time rather than through face-to-face communication
Should manager develop and adopt transformational leadership characteristics in order to improve performance? Why and why not?
Transformational leader is a leader who motivates people to transcend their personal interests for the good of the group. They are passionate, able to generate excitement and rejuvenate the organisation.
Aspect related :
a) Generating Excitement – Techniques to generate excitement are
i) Charismatic –able to arouse emotional connection among followers such as esteem, affection, admiration and trust
ii) Individualised attention – able to delegate challenging work to deserving people, open line of communication and to provide one-to-one mentoring to develop their people. Each individual is unique and addressed people differently.
iii) Intellectually stimulating – able to arouse awareness of problems and potential solutions among followers. Able to identify opportunities, treats, strengths, and weaknesses. Able to recognise problems and provide high quality solutions which are identified and implemented with full commitment from the followers.
b) Skills and strategies – skills have a vision (goals and agenda able to attract other people’s attention) , communicating the vision, building trusts (consistent, dependable and persistent, projecting high integrity) positive self-regard (know how to learn from mistakes and striving for success).
c) Transforming leaders – good for people and also the organisation bottom line. Focus on the long term organisational success while behaving with modesty, are able to direct attention towards the organisation rather than focus on themselves. The leader still requires a combination a transactional (give command, coercive power, focus on the interests of the group or organisation) and transformational styles to manage the organisation.
Positive effect -
a) helped facilitate both organizational commitment and employee productivity.
b) have better health than those led by a laissez-faire (apathetic, hands-off) leader. They added that having a clear, shared vision that gives meaning to work is a “health-promoting phenomena” in the workplace.
Negative effect –
Transformational leadership has a much greater focus on leading, rather than managing.
strive for culture change to drive improvement and performance.
How could you build cohesive and high performance team in an organization (Topic 9.3.7)
1) recruiting members with the same attitudes, values and backgrounds Select those whom you will be comfortable to work with to build group cohesiveness
2) maintaining high entrance and socialization standard Team members would feel proud about being part of the team.
3) keeping the team small Sufficient enough to complete the given task
4) helping the team succeed and publicize the team’s successes. Monitor the progress of the team to help them succeed. Promote the succeed
5) being a participative leader involved in the decision making and strive together in accomplishing company goals
6) presenting challenges from outside the team create healthy competition with other groups within the organization
7) tying rewards to team performance teams and individuals are attracted to rewards that will be given upon their success.
What are the key characteristics of a Charismatic Leader?
- One who is dominant, self-confident, convinced of the moral righteousness of his or her beliefs and able to ignite a sense of excitement and adventure among of his or her followers.
- usually an idolised hero to the followers. Can inspire a compelling emotional attachment among his/her followers which is above and beyond ordinary esteem, affection, admiration and trust
- fluent speakers with superb verbal skills which enable them to communicate the vision and motivate their followers.
- Inspiration, Self-confidence, taking risks, connect with people, creativity, convincing,
What are the various forms of control in organisation?
There are three primary types of organizational control: strategic control, management control, and operational control.
*Strategic control, the process of evaluating strategy, is practiced both after the strategy is formulated and after it is implemented.
* Management control focuses on the accomplishment of the objectives of the various sub strategies comprising the master strategy and the accomplishment of the objectives of the intermediate plans (for example, “are quality control objectives being met?”).
* Operational control is concerned individual and group performance as compared with the individual and group role prescriptions required by organizational plans ( for example, “are individual sales quotes being met?”).
Each of these types of control is not a separate and distinct entity and, in fact, may be indistinguishable from others. Moreover, similar measurement techniques may be used for each type of control.
What is downward communication. In what way is it different from upward communication TOPIC 6
DC is when the information flows from higher to lower levels in the organisation hierarchy.
DC manager must provide relevant information to the employees in order to inculcate employee loyalty towards the company, to grow supportive attitudes and to ensure the decisions made are aligned with the organisation’s objectives.
UC when the information flows from lower level to higher levels in the organisation’s hierarchy.
UC managers are able to learn what is going on in the organisations. Managers are able to get a clear picture of the subordinates’ work, accomplishments, problems, plans, attitudes and ideas.
Mentoring
Ongoing relationship that can last for a long period of time
Can be more informal and meetings can take place as and when the mentee needs some advice, guidance or support
More long-term and takes a broader view of the person
Mentor is usually more experienced and qualified than the ‘mentee’. Often a senior person in the organisation who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities
Focus is on career and personal development
Agenda is set by the mentee, with the mentor providing support and guidance to prepare them for future roles
Mentoring revolves more around developing the mentee professional’s career
Coaching
Relationship generally has a set duration
Generally more structured in nature and meetings are scheduled on a regular basis
Short-term (sometimes time-bounded) and focused on specific development areas/issues
Coaching is generally not performed on the basis that the coach needs to have direct experience of their client’s formal occupational role, unless the coaching is specific and skills-focused
Focus is generally on development/issues at work
The agenda is focused on achieving specific, immediate goals
Coaching revolves more around specific development areas/issues
Discuss the strategic value of HRM
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- Identifying and hiring the best skilled workers for each of your most valuable positions.
- Retaining valued employees in key positions throughout your organization.
- Retaining critical knowledge associated with your legacy business and ensuring the skills and
knowledge are available to addresses anticipated changes within the business.
Enhancing our focus to find and hire the very best talent.
Modifying the compensation structure to get them into the organization.
Developing systems to retain those known to be the most productive and valuable to the business
Why some teams fail to function as expected ?
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- Because of weak communications between team members.
- Due to a lack of networking and partnering with other organizations outside of the team.
- Because the vision of the team leaders and the day-to-day workings of the team are imbalanced.
- Due to wasting time on daily problems and not accomplishing goals and strategies.
- Because of poor operating strategies. All team members do not own the team plan.
- By not doing the right things in the right way at the right time!
- Because of poor time.
- Because of weak productivity on the part of each team member.
- Because poor conflict management skills cause teams to fail.
- Because the strengths of the team are not highlighted.
- Due to the weaknesses of the team being highlighted.
- Due to good opportunities for change being ignored.
- When members of the team turnover too often it causes a lack of organization, continuity, and momentum.
- Because job descriptions become more important than personal contributions to the team.
- Due to a lack of interpersonal team building skills. It is not a priority.
The important features of goal-setting theory are as follows:
The willingness to work towards attainment of goal is main source of job motivation. Clear, particular and difficult goals are greater motivating factors than easy, general and vague goals.
Specific and clear goals lead to greater output and better performance. Unambiguous, measurable and clear goals accompanied by a deadline for completion avoids misunderstanding.
Goals should be realistic and challenging. This gives an individual a feeling of pride and triumph when he attains them, and sets him up for attainment of next goal. The more challenging the goal, the greater is the reward generally and the more is the passion for achieving it.
Better and appropriate feedback of results directs the employee behaviour and contributes to higher performance than absence of feedback. Feedback is a means of gaining reputation, making clarifications and regulating goal difficulties. It helps employees to work with more involvement and leads to greater job satisfaction.
Employees’ participation in goal is not always desirable.
Discuss the roles and responsibilities of managers at various hierarchical levels in an organization. What types of skills are expected at each managerial level? (Topic 1)
There are 3 levels of management within an organisation.
1) Frontline Managers comprise lower-level managers who are supervising the operational activities of the organisation. They are more likely to perform routine tasks such as ensuring that each subordinate delivers his/her job requirements. Responsible to motivate, train and identify new staffing for the department in order to ensure that the operation of the business is not disrupted.
Roles – start from operational implementers to aggressive entrepreneurs
Key activities – to create and pursue new growth opportunities
- to attract and develop resources
- to manage continuous improvement within the department
Skills- handling routine and day-to-day operational activities to enhance
organisational performance
- aggressive and innovative to ensure their staff will be able to meet deadlines
and quality standards set by top management and customers.
2) Middle Level Managers located at the middle level of the organisational hierarchy and report to top level managers.
Roles – shifted from administrative controllers to supportive coaches
Key activities – to develop individuals and support their activities
- to link diverse knowledge and skills across units
- to manage the tension between short-term purpose and long-term
purpose goals of the organisation
Skills – know more about the activities at the operational levels and direction the
organisation is heading to. Interpersonal, informational and decisional roles
Solve issues from frontline managers
3) Top Level Managers comprise senior executive who are responsible for the whole management of the organisation, and also ensuring the effectiveness of the organisation.
Roles – shifted from resource allocators to institutional leaders
Key activities –to establish high performance standards
-to institutionalise a set of norms and values to support cooperation
and trust
-to create an overarching corporate purpose and ambition.
-allocate budget diligently to each department to ensure smooth
running of the business operation.
Skills – symbolic duties representing the organisation in ceremonies, social events
and legal matters.
- motivate staff, identifying relevant training
- maintain strong relationship with external parties such as government
agencies, ministries, suppliers, customers and competitors.
- to speak on behalf of the organisation on corporate matters during press
conferences or meetings with potential clients or partners.
- make critical decisions for the organisation involve approval for new
business opportunities or initiating a new project.
- negotiating with major clients, major suppliers, in order to ensure the
organisation is in a favourable position to take advantage of the situation that may arise.
