MANAGEMENT PROCESS

AND
ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR

MB0022
SET – 1

MBA – 1 SEM

Name Mohammed Roohul Ameen

Roll Number
Learning Center SMU Riyadh (02543)
Subject Management Process and Organization Behavior
Date of Submission 15th August 2009
Assignment Number MB0022
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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
 1. Explain the managerial roles and managerial skills.

Management roles
Management roles Included excellent communication skills, the ability to work well with others, a high
level of motivation and positive self-esteem, accurate self-assessment, logical thinking ability, and the
ability to use power effectively in such tasks as planning, organizing, controlling, motivating, and
coordinating

Management roles can be broadly classified into three categories

1. Informational roles
2. Decisional roles
3. Interpersonal roles

Informational roles:

This involves the role of assimilating and disseminating information as and when required. Following
are the main sub roles, which managers often perform:

 Monitor-collecting information from organizations, both from inside and outside of the
organization
 Disseminator-communicating information to organizational members
 Spokesperson-representing the organization to outsiders

Decisional roles:

It involves decision making. Again, this role can be subdivided in to the following:

 Entrepreneur-initiating new ideas to improve organizational performance

 Disturbance handlers-taking corrective action to cope with adverse situation
 Resource allocators-allocating human, physical, and monetary resources
 Negotiator - negotiating with trade unions, or any other stakeholders

Interpersonal roles:

This role involves activities with people working in the organization. This is supportive role for
informational and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles can be categorized under three subheadings:

 Figurehead-Ceremonial and symbolic role

 Leadership-leading organization in terms of recruiting, motivating etc.

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
Management Skills

Managerial success depends primarily on performance rather than personality traits, Regardless of the
sort of goals they must meet or their level of authority; managers need to possess conceptual, human,
technical, diagnostic, and political skills. The first three skills have long been accepted as important for
management; the last two have received more recent attention.

Conceptual skills

Conceptual skill is the cognitive ability to see the organization as a whole and the relationship among
its parts. Managers need the mental capacity to understand how various functions of the organization
complement one another, how the organization relates to its environment, and how changes in one
part of the organization affect the rest of the organization.

Human skills

The manager needs human skills: the ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both
individuals and groups.

Technical skills

Technical skills are skills necessary to accomplish specialized activities (e.g., engineering, computer
programming, and accounting).

Diagnostic skills

Diagnostic skills include the ability to determine, by analysis and examination, the nature of a particular
condition. A manager can diagnose a problem in the organization by studying its symptoms. These skills
are also useful in favorable situations.

Political skills

Political skill is the ability to acquire the power necessary to reach objectives and to prevent others
from taking power. Political skill can be used for the good of the organization and for self-interest.

The extent to which managers need different kinds of skills moves from lower management to upper
management. Most low-level managers use technical skills extensively. At higher levels technical skills
become less important while the need for conceptual skills grows. However, human skills are very
important to all managers

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
 2. Describe the contemporary work cohort.

Contemporary Work Cohort, proposed by Robbins (2003) divides the work force into different groups
depending on the era or period in which they have entered into work. It stresses upon individuals’
values which reflect the societal values of the period in which they grew up.

Researchers may disagree with the time periods for when each generation begins or ends, but are in
general agreement that the each cohort are represented by differences in dominant work values and
historical background.

The cohorts and the respective values have been listed below:

1. Veterans - Workers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the early 1960s and
exhibited the following value orientations:

 They were influenced by the Great Depression and World War II

 Believed in hard work
 Tended to be loyal to their employer
 Terminal values: Comfortable life and family security

2. Boomers - Employees who entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid1980s belonged
to this category and their value orientations were:

 Influenced heavily by John F. Kennedy, the civil rights and feminist movements, the Beatles, the
Vietnam War, and baby boom competition.
 Distrusted authority, but gave a high emphasis on achievement and material success.
 Organizations who employed them were vehicles for their careers.
 Terminal values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition.

3. Xers - began to enter the workforce from the mid1980s. They cherished the following values:

 Shaped by globalization, two career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers.

 Value flexibility, life options, and achievement of job satisfaction.
 Family and relationships were important and enjoyed team oriented work.
 Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than previous generations.
 Terminal values: true friendship, happiness, and pleasure

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
4. Nexters - most recent entrants into the workforce.

 Grew up in prosperous times, have high expectation, believe in themselves, and confident in
their ability to succeed.
 Never ending search for ideal job; see nothing wrong with job hopping.
 Seek financial success.
 Enjoy team work, but are highly self reliant.
 Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life.

Potential contributions of contemporary work cohorts to organizations

The attitudes and skills the Nexters have exhibited through their childhood into adulthood will no
doubt be present with them while on the job.

This new wave of workers is both optimistic about the future and realistic about the present. They
combine the teamwork ethic of the Boomers with the can-do attitude of the Veterans and the
technological savvy of the Xers

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
3. Elaborate the issues related to culture and emotion.

Universal Emotions:
The psychologist showed that despite some idiosyncratic differences, the basic emotions are
predominantly biological and thus are universal, expressed and perceived in similar way across all
cultures. Those emotions are anger, fear, sadness, happiness and disgust. Now there are 7 universal
emotions to be found,

 Anger
 Fear
 Sadness
 Disgust
 Surprise
 Happiness
 Contempt

There is evidence supporting both of these views on emotions. Theories that regard emotions as
universal, on the other hand, tend to focus on individual emotion elements such as facial expression.

Issues related to culture and emotion

Several problems exist when trying to compare emotions between different cultures.

 Words describing emotions might not be equivalent across cultures. For example, happiness has
a buoyant meaning in English. However for the Kipsigis, happiness occurs “when nothing is
bothering you” thus has quiet calm meaning.
 Some feelings are idiosyncratic, and do not have equivalent terms in other languages: Emotions
across cultures and methods. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

 Abhiman is an Indian term best described as a feeling of prideful loving anger.

 Sukhi is an Indian term similar to peace and happiness.
 Fureai: Fureai is a Japanese term used when feeling a sense of connectedness to
someone else.
 Rettokan is a Japanese term that means to feel inferior
 Schadenfreude is a German term defined by German philosopher Theodor Adorno as
"the largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial
and/or appropriate".

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
Clustering

Across cultures, people report that they ideally want to feel more positive than negative. All cultures
classify emotions as either pleasant or unpleasant, and desirable or undesirable, and most emotions
are classified in the same way across all cultures. For example, sadness is classified as an unpleasant
undesirable feeling everywhere, and happiness is always a pleasant desirable feeling. The classification
of certain other emotions is not identical in all cultures, depending if the emotion is seen as either
beneficial or detrimental to a person’s goals and well-being and to the society norms. Examples for
such differences include:

 Pride is seen as a positive emotion in western cultures (such as the USA), in India it is
considered to be a negative emotion.
 Love is a purely positive emotion in western cultures, however in China it is seen as closer to
sadness and negative loss emotions.

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
4. Discuss the assumption of Douglas Mc Gregor (Theory X and Theory Y)

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor
at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource
management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development.
They describe two very different attitudes toward workforce motivation. McGregor felt that companies
followed either one or the other approach. He also thought that the key to connecting self-
actualization with work is determined by the managerial trust of subordinates.

Theory X
In this theory, which many managers practice, management assumes employees are inherently lazy
and will avoid work if they can. They inherently dislike work. Because of this, workers need to be
closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is
needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. According to this theory, employees will
show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they
can. The Theory X manager tends to believe that everything must end in blaming someone. He or she
thinks all prospective employees are only out for themselves. Usually these managers feel the sole
purpose of the employee's interest in the job is money. They will blame the person first in most
situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, or lack of training that deserves
the blame. A Theory X manager believes that his or her employees do not really want to work, that
they would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager's job to structure the work and
energize the employee. One major flaw of this management style is it is much more likely to cause
Diseconomies of Scale in large businesses.

Theory Y
In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise
self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. According to
Papa, to them work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their
talents are underused in most organizations. Given the proper conditions, theory Y managers believe
that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-
direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. A Theory Y manager believes that,
given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction
of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Many people interpret Theory Y as a positive set of beliefs
about workers. A close reading of The Human Side of Enterprise reveals that McGregor simply argues
for managers to be open to a more positive view of workers and the possibilities that this creates. He
thinks that Theory Y managers are more likely than Theory X managers to develop the climate of trust
with employees that are required for human resource development. It's here through human resource
development that is a crucial aspect of any organization. This would include managers communicating
openly with subordinates, minimizing the difference between superior-subordinate relationships,
creating a comfortable environment in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. This
climate would include the sharing of decision making so that subordinates have say in decisions that
influence them.

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
5. What is personal power – Explain different bases of personal power?

Personal Power resides in the individual and is independent of that individual’s position. Three bases of
personal power are expertise, rational persuasion, and reference.

 Expert power is the ability to control another person’s behavior by virtue of possessing
knowledge, experience, or judgment that the other person lacks, but needs. Expert power is
relative, not absolute. However the table may turn in case the subordinate has superior
knowledge or skills than his/ her boss. In this age of technology driven environments, the
second proposition holds true in many occasions where the boss is dependent heavily on the
juniors for technologically oriented support.

 Rational persuasion is the ability to control another’s behavior, since, through the individual’s
efforts; the person accepts the desirability of an offered goal and a viable way of achieving it.
Rational persuasion involves both explaining the desirability of expected outcomes and showing
how specifications will achieve these outcomes.

 Referent power is the ability to control another’s behavior because the person wants to dentify
with the power source. In this case, a subordinate obeys the boss because he or she wants to
behave, perceive, or believe as the boss does. This may occur, because the subordinate likes the
boss personally. In a sense, the subordinate attempts to avoid doing anything that would
interfere with the pleasing boss– subordinate relationship.

 Charismatic Power is an extension of referent power stemming from an individual’s personality

and interpersonal style. Others follow because they can articulate attractive visions, take
personal risks, demonstrate follower sensitivity, etc.

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
6. Write a short note on potential sources of stress

While environmental factors are forces outside the organization, which may act as potential
sources of stress due to uncertainties and threats that they create for any organization and its
members, factors within organization can also act as potential source of stress. Together or
singly they may cause a tense and volatile working environment which can cause stress for
organizational members because the inability of individuals to handle the pressures arising out
of these sources.

The following may be seen to be the potential sources of stress:

Environmental factors

Environmental uncertainly influences stress levels among employees in an organization.

 Changes in the business cycle crate economic uncertainties.
 Political uncertainties can be stress inducing.
 Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new innovations can make an employee's
skills and experience obsolete in a very short period of time.

Organizational factors

 Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work overload, a
demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant co workers are a few examples.
 Task demands are factors related to a person's job. They include the design of the Individual’s
job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation) working conditions, and the physical work
layout.
 Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the role an individual plays in an
organization.
 Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy.
 Role overload is experienced when the employee is expected to do more than time permits.
 Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood.
 Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees.
 Organizational structure defines the level of differentiation in the organization, the degree of
rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. Excessive rules and lack of participation in
decisions might be potential sources of stress.

Individual factors

 These are factors in the employee's personal life. Primarily these factors are family issues,
personal economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics.
 Broken families, wrecked marriages and other family issues may create stress at workplace as
well.

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022
  Economic problems created by individuals overextending their financial resources. Spending
more than earnings stretches financial positions, create debt situation leading to stress among
individuals.

 A significant individual factor influencing stress is a person's basic dispositional nature. Over-
suspicious anger and hostility increases a person's stress and risk for heart disease. There
individuals with high level of mistrust for others also cause stress for themselves.

 Stressors are additive- stress builds up.

Individual differences

Five individual difference variables moderate the Relationship between potential stressors and
experienced stress:

 Perception
 Job experience
 Locus of control
 Self-efficacy
 Hostility

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Assignment MBA 1st Semester Subject: MB0022