Educational Wealth

Course:  Management
Theory & Practice (9503)                    
     Semester: Spring, 2021

Level:  PGD   Total Marks: 100                                                        
Pass Marks: 50

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

(Units: 1–5)

Note: Attempt all questions.

Q. 1     Discuss
evolution of management theories in detail.        (20)

Ans:

Knowing the story behind the evolution of management thought
and the evolution of theories is essential. If you are familiar with them,
including the development that brought about the current practices in business,
then you will have a better understanding of management principles that can
help you to manage people more effectively.

The point is that a lot has changed about management.
Emphasis on structure and authority is no longer as strong as it used to be in
the past. Now the focus is on employees. However, there are theories on the
factors that motivate employees, but understand that knowing how these theories
came about can give you the needed knowledge to manage your employees
appropriately. Read to understand the evolution of management thought and
management theories.

The evolution of management thought is a process that
started in the early days of man. It began since the period man saw the need to
live in groups. Mighty men were able to organize the masses, share them into
various groups. The sharing was done accord to the masses’ strength, mental
capacities, and intelligence.

The point is that management has been practiced in one way
or the other since civilization began. If you want a good example where
advanced management principles were applied, consider the organization of the
olden days Roman Catholic Church, military forces as well as ancient Greece.
These are all excellent examples. But the industrial revolution brought drastic
change. And suddenly, the need to develop a more holistic and formal management
theory became a necessity.

The Classical Theory

Prof Babbage, Robert Owens, and other names earlier
mentioned can be regarded as the pioneers of management. But their contribution
to the evolution of management is little. The beginning of what is known as the
science of management started in the last decade of the 19th century. Names
like Emerson, F.W. Taylor, H.L. Grant, and others, paved the way for the
establishment of what is called scientific management.

During the classical period, management thought was focused
on job content, standardization, the division of labor, and a scientific
approach towards the organization. It also was closely related to the
industrial revolution as well as the rise of large-scale enterprises.

The Neo-Classical Theory

This period of evolution of management thought is an
improvement of the classical theory. In other words, it modified and improved
upon the classical theory. For instance, Classical theory focused more on the
area of job content, including the management of physical resources, while
neo-classical theory gave more profound emphasis on employee relationships in
the work environment.

The Bureaucratic Model

A German Sociologist called Max Weber proposed this model.
And it includes a system of rules, division of labor hinged on functional
specialization, legal authority, and power, the hierarchy of authority, and
placement of employees based on their technical competence.

The Evolution of Management Theories

Organizations have been shaped and through the writings of
several writers. Their write-up consisted of governance of kingdoms and
management of humans. And these formed the literature that helped in the
development of management theories. And these managemen

models were also offered by the military, political and
religious organizations.

Q. 2     Describe
the eight steps in the decision-making process. (20)

Describe the decision making process

Ans: “To be or not to be: that is the question.” Hamlet
lamented.

“Should I stay or should I go now?” The Clash asked.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” Robert Frost pointed
out.

If you’re struggling to make a decision, you’re in good
company. Literature, poetry and pop culture provide plenty of sympathy for your
plight. Sadly, while they understand your pain, they don’t always sing you to
the correct resolution. When it comes to making a decision, in business or in
life, how can you be sure you’re doing the right thing?

Well, we wouldn’t be writing songs about making decisions if
it were an easy task. That said, researchers have studied the decision-making
process as much as anything else, and they’ve come away with some different
ideas and models that help us understand how we can make decisions more
carefully and successfully. Let’s take a look at the five best known of those
decision making models.

Rational Decision Making

The rational decision making model assumes decisions are
based on an objective, orderly, structured information gathering and analysis.
The model encourages the decision maker to understand the situation, organize
and interpret the information, and then take action. There are eight steps in
the rational decision making process:

The Rational Decision Making Process

Bad Hotel REviews

Let’s say that you’re the general manager at a nice hotel.
Suddenly, you notice that customers are rating your property two and three
stars instead of the customary five stars you and the team are used to earning.
You need to make a decision about next steps to solve this issue. Let’s start
right at the top of the rational decision making model.

Understand the issue. The issue is clear to you. Customers
are rating their experience at your property online, and they’re not happy.
This will surely damage your team’s efforts to generate new business. You need
to find a way to earn better customer ratings.

Define the problem. You and your team sit down and read the
last twenty or thirty customer reviews on three different travel sites. It
turns out that customers’ unhappiness coincides with a recent increase in
rates. They no longer feel they’re getting good value for their money.

Define the objectives.

What criteria will your solution have to meet? Clearly, you
want to start getting better ratings from customers. You don’t want to see
customers complaining about anything online. Your objective is 100% happiness,
100% five-star ratings.

Diagnose the problem. This is the stage where you look to
determine and understand the root causes of your issue. Perhaps you decide that
all customer-facing staff report daily on quality issues. And maybe you consult
with operations on additional perks that can be incorporated into the guest
experience without giving away too much margin.

Develop alternatives. You ultimately want to create a
lengthy list of alternatives and not decide on one too quickly. You look over
your employees’ reports on quality. You wait on operations for recommendations
on extra perks. You collect all the data. Evaluate alternatives. Once you have
all your alternatives on the table, you can start to make a choice. Every
employee suggestion, every operations recommendation should be in front of you,
and you consider each option carefully.

Select an alternative. One of your employees has
suggested two additional members for the housekeeping staff, as the current
level of staff is having difficulty keeping up with the increase precipitated
by an office building opening up down the street. A member of your operations
team has suggested providing a continental breakfast for business travelers in
response to the increase in that customer type. Both seem like good ideas.
Which will provide the bigger impact?

Implement alternative. You decide to hire the two additional
members for the housekeeping staff, understanding that your customers view
quality in clean rooms and common spaces. You get the budget approved and post
for those two jobs. You make a plan to check in at the thirty day mark to see
if customers’ ratings have improved.

The goal of the rational decision making model is to
eliminate possibilities for error and biases. It assumes the following:

Managers have all the information about the situation.

Managers are aware of all alternative options and are
equipped to evaluate them properly.

Managers are looking to make the best possible decision.

Managers are capable of eliminating misperceptions and
biases.

There are no cost or time constraints.

In a perfect world, where all of those assumptions are met,
this model is how the decision making process works best. But we know that
those assumptions can’t all be met. And that’s why we have the bounded
rationality model.

Bounded Rationality Model

The bounded rationality model assumes numerous
organizational and individual factors restrict rational decision making. This
is the version of decision making that occurs most often in organizations,
because the assumptions of this model are much closer to the truth:

Early alternatives and solutions are quickly adopted because
of perceptual limitations.

Managers often don’t have access to all the information they
need.

Managers are not aware of all the alternatives and can’t
predict the consequences of each one.

Organizational goals constrain decisions.

Conflicting goals of multiple stakeholders can force a
compromise of a decision.

Because a human being is limited in the amount of
information he or she can process, when a complex decision needs to be made, he
or she will reduce the problem to a manageable size. By limiting the number of
choices and the amount of necessary information, the product is a decision
that’s acceptable and satisfactory. This is sometimes referred to as the
Satisficing model.

In the bounded rationality model, the same steps are used in
the decision making process, only instead of reviewing all information and all
alternatives, those aspects are limited to the amount the decision maker is
willing to gather.

Q. 3 : Define the nature and purpose of
planning. Also classify the types of goals organizations might have and the
plans they use.

Ans: What is Planning and its Nature, Importance, and
Types

Planning is the first of essential managerial functions.
Planning is important as by nature it enquirers about organizational goals and
involves decision making about desired ways and means to achieve goals.

Planning is the process by which managers establish goals
and define the methods by which these goals are to be attained. Planning
involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it
requires decision making, which is choosing from among alternative future
courses of action.

It is, therefore, a rational approach to achieving
pre-selected objectives.

Planning is thus taken as the foundation for future
activities. Newman has thus defined it as, “Planning is deciding in
advance what is to be done; that is a plan is a projected course of action.”

So, planning can be thought of as deciding on a future
course of action. It may also be treated as a process of thinking before doing
it.

Management has to plan for long-range and short-range future
direction by looking ahead into the future, by estimating and evaluating the
future behavior of the relevant environment and by determining the enterprise’s
own desired role.

Planning involves determining various types and volumes of
physical and other resources to be acquired from outside, to allocate these
resources in an efficient manner among competing claims and to make
arrangements for the systematic conversion of these resources into useful
outputs.

As it is clear from the above discussion, plans have two
basic components: goals and action statements.

Goals represent an end state — the targets and results that
managers hope to achieve.

Action statements represent the means by which an
organization goes ahead to attain its goals. Planning is a deliberate and
conscious act by means of which managers determine a course of action for
pursuing a specific goal.

Organizational goals are strategically set objectives that
outline expected results and guide employees’ efforts.

3 types of organizational goals are strategic, tactical, and
operational goals.

Purposes of organizational goals are to provide direction to
employees of the organization.

Strategic goals are set by and for top management of the
organization. Tactical goals are for middle managers to focus on the actions
necessary to achieve goals. Operational goals are for lower-level managers to
tackle shorter-term issues.

Goals are critical to organizational effectiveness as they
serve as an objective for the employees and they work to achieve it.

Organizational goals differ in three different criteria;
level, area, and time frame. Let’s look at these criteria’s of goals;

Level

Organizational goal differs in the level of the organization
structure or hierarchy.

The organization structure consist of there part;
top-level, mid-level and lower-level or first-line managers.

For each level, the goals should be different and more
specific; suitable for the level.

“Increase profit and market share” is a suitable goal for
top-level managers but not for the lower-level managers. “Increase output by
12%” is a suitable goal for lower-level managers.

Area

Organizations set different goals for different areas more
specifically different departments.

An organization may have many departments within its
structure; marketing, finance, operations, accounts, human resource, legal and
more.

Each department should have a different goal; which specifies
the departments about their task but is in line with the whole organization’s
goal.

Time Frame

Organizations have many goals across different time frames.
“Open 500 branch across the country” is a suitable long-term goal for a bank;
“LC issue should increase by 50% within six months” short-term goal for a bank.

The difference in goals required because of the
organization’s level, area or department, and time frame.

Types of Organizational Goals

Based on 3 three criteria’s goals can be categorized into
three types.

3 types of organizational goals are;

Strategic Goals.

Tactical Goals.

Operational Goals.

Strategic Goals

Strategic goals are goals set by and for top management of
the organization. These goals are made by focusing on broad general issues.

Strategic goals or strategies are usually long-term and from
this goal, other goals are made and set for different time-frames and areas.

Tactical Goals

Tactical goals are set for middle managers. These goals
focus on how to operationalize actions necessary to achieve the strategic
goals.

Middle managers of various departments are usually
responsible for their attainment.

Tactical goals are set by the middle managers, but often
top-managers set tactical goals for the middle managers.

Operational Goals

Operational goals are set by and for lower-level managers.
Operational goals are usually made to tackle shorter-term issues associated
with the tactical goals and lower-managers are responsible for their
attainment.

The 3 levels of goals within an organization form a
hierarchy of goals, with lower-level goals forming a means-end chain with the
next level of goals.

Related: Difference between Leadership and Management

Importance and purpose of organizational goals

Organizational goals, often used interchangeably, are the
ends toward which activity is aimed. Goals are the desired outcomes for
individuals, groups, or entire organizations.

They represent not only the endpoint of planning but also
the end toward which all other managerial functions are aimed.

Objectives are set to a particular time and thus the same
objective is not repeated year after year, month after month or day after day.

Goals are critical to organizational effectiveness as they
serve several purposes.

Organizations have several different kinds of goals, all of
which must be appropriately managed.

4 reasons why goals are important:-

Goals Provide Guidance and Direction.

Goals Intensely Planning and Actions

Goals Motivate.

Goals Help in Control.

These are explained below;

Goals Provide Guidance and Direction

Goals provide guidance and a unified direction for people in
the organization.

They show the employees where the organization is going and
why getting it is important.

Goals simply define what the organization wants.

Goals Intensely Planning and Actions

Goal-setting does intensely affect aspects of planning.
Effective goal setting facilitates good planning and good planning facilitates
future goal setting

.Goals are desired outcomes for organizations and plans are
the best-perceived ways to reach them. So a proper goal helps set a proper
plan.

Goals Motivate

Goals also can serve as a motivational source for employees.
Goals should be specific and moderately difficult can inspire people to work
harder, especially if attaining the goal is going to result in rewards.

For goals to be a tool of motivation; the organization
requires an effective reward system and a friendly work environment.

Related: Goal Setting Theory of Motivation

Goals Help in Control

Goals act as a mechanism for control and evaluation.
Performance can be measured and evaluated in the future in terms of how
successfully today’s goals are accomplished.

Goals can serve these purposes and much more; if people in
charge of setting goals can overcome the barriers and set them properly and
effectively.

Q. 4     Describe
six key elements in organizational design.

Ans: Management deals with the process that drives the
organization towards its performance. The processes which are to be followed to
initiate the organizational structure and to create strategies and the steps to
be taken by managers are all about management. This assignment is based on two
topics, which are; a) Critically analyze the six key elements in Organizational
Design, b) Explain what managers do in Strategic Management Process.

With the help of the Organizational Design, a firm can start
and to compete into the market and achieve its goal. It has six elements by
which this process can be done, which are; Work Specialization;
Departmentalization; Chain of Command; Span of Control; Centralization Vs
Decentralization; and Formalization.

And with the help of the Strategic Management Process, which
includes nine steps, these are; Identify the organization’s current mission,
objectives, and strategies; Analyze the environment; Analyze the organization’s
resources; Identify opportunities and threats; Identify strengths and
weaknesses; Reassess the organization’s mission and objectives; Formulate
strategies; Implement strategies; and Evaluate results.

ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN:

Organizational design is a process of developing and
changing the organization’s structure by its managers. It is a chart containing
the reporting structure i.e. who reports to whom.

Organizational structure is thus a framework on which an
organization is patterned for coordinating and carrying out organizational
tasks. (Kumar, A. and Bhat, A., 2008).

Organizational design involves decisions about the following
six elements:

Work Specialization:

Work specialization describes to which the overall task of
the organization is broken down and divided into smaller component parts. For
example, one person would paint a wall and another person fixes a door. So by
breaking jobs up into small tasks, it could be performed over and over every 10
seconds while using employees who had relatively limited skills.

The main thought of this process is that the entire job is
not done by an individual and it is broken down into steps, and a different
person completes each step. The work will be done efficiently and effectively.
It saves time and also the employee skills of performing his job successfully
increase through repetition.

It also has some disadvantages as well. When specialization
is overdone, jobs can become more simplified. And when employees do one single
task, they become bored and tired. Also, the scope of the employee’s growth
will be limited. Specialization in one task is good but by getting the training
for all other tasks too, is better to cop up with other activities in the
company.

Departmentalization:

Once jobs have been specified through work specialization
process, now they will be grouped in common tasks. There will be formed
departments with common activities for effective coordination of effort. There
are five common forms of departmentalization:

Functional Departmentalization:

It is the most common forms of departmentalization in which
similar tasks grouped together into a common department, such as marketing,
finance, human resources, etc as shown in fig. 1.1.

The efficiencies from putting together similar specialities
and people with common skills and knowledge could be beneficial and also the
coordination with functional areas will be stronger. But cross-department
coordination can be difficult and there will be limited views of organizational
goals.

Product Departmentalization:

It is grouped on the basis of product line. Each manager
will be responsible for an area within the organization depending on his/her
specialization as shown in fig. 1.2.

As managers are specialized in that particular area, it will
give a broader experience and it will be easier for him to access the work-unit
performance. The decision making here will be quite faster than the functional
departmentalization. On the other side, the duplication of functions could increase
the cost. It will be difficult to coordinate across departments and also there
will be limited views of organizational goals.

Geographical Departmentalization:

Big organizations find beneficial in organizing this form of
departmentalization so that all activities performed in a region are managed
together. It forms sections by the different regions as shown in fig.

It will be more effective and efficient for the managers in
handling specific regional issues that arise. It could response and serve better
to the demand of different markets. But there could be duplication of functions
and resources which will increase cost.

Matrix Departmentalization:

It is a structure where two or more forms of
departmentalization are used together; most common forms combine functional and
product in which employee reports two bosses, i.e. the functional as well as
the product. It will increase cross-functional interactions as shown in fig.
1.4.

It will be beneficial to manage effectively and efficiently
large and complex tasks. It will require high levels of management skills and
high levels of coordination as well. It will also increase the level of
conflicts.

Customer Departmentalization:

This form of departmentalization groups organization’s
activities according to its customers. An organization finds it beneficial to
organize according to the types of customers it serves as shown in .

It will be helpful to focus and meet the customers’ needs.
But again there will be duplication of resources and they may find difficulties
to achieve coordination across departments.

Chain of Command:

Another element in an organizational design is defined an
order which authority and power in an organization is used and delegated from
top management to the lower management. It also ensures clear assignment of
duties and responsibilities of every employee at every level.

Span of Control:

The span of control in an organization is defined as the
number of employees reporting directly to one supervisor/manager. It is said,
the wider the span, the more efficient the organization. It determines the
number of employees that a manager can effectively and efficiently manage.

Centralization Vs Decentralization:

Robbins and Coulter describe this very well, “If top
managers make the organization’s key decisions with little or no input from
below, then the organization is centralized.”

Decentralization can be defined as “the spread of power away
from the centre to local branches or governments.”

The environment is stable in centralization and complex,
uncertain in decentralization. Also, the lower-level managers are not as
capable or experienced at making decisions as upper-level managers in
centralization and on the other side in decentralization, they are very capable
and experienced at making decisions. In centralization, the company is large
and in decentralization, companies are geographically dispersed.

Formalization:

Formalization is the extent to which employee behaviour is
guided by rules and procedures. The organizations with high formalization have
strict rules and regulations. The low formalization organizations have very few
written rules and procedures and are less stable.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS:

Strategic management is a particular course of action that
is meant to achieve a corporate goal. The Strategic Management Process defines
the goals and objectives for a business, it creates the action plan so that a
company can reach them and then it follows the plan. There are nine steps in
Strategic Management Process which managers need to follow; which are defined
as under:

Identify the Organization’s Current Mission, Objectives, and
Strategies:

It is important to identify the goals and objectives of the
company. It defines the present purpose of the organization as a mission and
the strategies currently being followed. The mission statement becomes the
identification of an organization so it is very much necessary to identify it.

Analyze the Environment:

It is a process of monitoring the organizational environment
to identify competitor’s actions and to confirm if it is suitable to let the
firm goes to already set directions to reach its goals. It can be performed by
using Porter’s five forces, which evaluates; the bargaining power of suppliers
and the buyers, the threat of new entrants and substitutes, and the rivalry of
competitors.

Analyze the Organization’s Resources:

By analyzing the organization’s resources, a firm can make a
pictorial view of the available capabilities and resources inside and outside
of the organization. It will help to determine the organization’s competitive
weapons i.e. value creating skills, capabilities and resources.

Identify Opportunities and Threats:

It identifies the opportunities and threats outside the
organization. It can be defined as SWOT analysis which has its two components
i.e. Opportunities and Threats. Opportunities are the positive external
environmental factors which need to be analysed for further growth of the
organization. The threats are the negative external environmental factors which
need to be identified to prepare the organization to compete and convert those
threats into the opportunities.

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses:

It identifies the strengths and weaknesses within the
organization. It also can be defined as SWOT analysis which has the remaining
two components i.e. Strengths and Weaknesses. Strengths are internal activities
being done well by an organization which helps an organization to achieve its
goal. And the weaknesses are the activities that not being done by an
organization which is unfavourable for the organization to achieve its goal.

Reassess the Organization’s Mission and Objectives:

Reassessing the organization’s mission and objectives helps
to review the firm’s current performance and also to take better actions for
the success of the organization. It defines as SMART which means Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timeframe.

Formulate Strategies:

Formulation Strategy is the process of determining
appropriate courses of action for achieving organizational objectives. It
follows the decision making process. It can be further describes by Michael
Porter’s generic strategies, which are; a) Cost Leadership, b) Differentiation,
and c) Focus.

These generic strategies each have attributes that can serve
to defend against competitive forces. The following table (fig 1.2) compares
some characteristics of the generic strategies in the context of the Porter’s
five forces:

Implement Strategies:

It is the process of distributing resources and putting
strategies into an action to achieve its goal and objectives. When the
strategies are executed within the organization, it focuses on the process
through which strategies are achieved.

Evaluate Results:

It controls the process to determine the effectiveness of a
strategy. An organization can evaluate results by reviewing the process,
adjusting the mission and objectives and strategies, and by initiating the
corrective measures.

CONCLUSION:

In the nutshell, I would like to say the above mentioned
topics clearly identify that the organizational design and the strategic
management process are the important parts of the management to start a
business and to achieve its goals and objectives. All six elements of the
organizational design helps in forming a business and all nine steps in
strategic management process are essential to achieve a firm’s objectives.

Q. 5     Define
team and describe best practices influencing team performance.(20)

Management deals with the process that drives the
organization towards its performance. The processes which are to be followed to
initiate the organizational structure and to create strategies and the steps to
be taken by managers are all about management. This assignment is based on two
topics, which are; a) Critically analyze the six key elements in Organizational
Design, b) Explain what managers do in Strategic Management Process.

ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN:

Organizational structure is thus a framework on which an
organization is patterned for coordinating and carrying out organizational
tasks. (Kumar, A. and Bhat, A., 2008).

Organizational design involves decisions about the following
six elements:

Work Specialization:

Departmentalization:

Functional Departmentalization:

Product Departmentalization:

It is grouped on the basis of product line. Each manager
will be responsible for an area within the organization depending on his/her
specialization as shown in fig. 1.2.

As managers are specialized in that particular area, it will
give a broader experience and it will be easier for him to access the work-unit
performance. The decision making here will be quite faster than the functional
departmentalization. On the other side, the duplication of functions could
increase the cost. It will be difficult to coordinate across departments and
also there will be limited views of organizational goals.

Geographical Departmentalization:

It will be more effective and efficient for the managers in
handling specific regional issues that arise. It could response and serve
better to the demand of different markets. But there could be duplication of
functions and resources which will increase cost.

Matrix Departmentalization:

Customer Departmentalization:

Chain of Command:

Span of Control:

Centralization Vs Decentralization:

Decentralization can be defined as “the spread of power away
from the centre to local branches or governments.”

The environment is stable in centralization and complex,
uncertain in decentralization. Also, the lower-level managers are not as
capable or experienced at making decisions as upper-level managers in centralization
and on the other side in decentralization, they are very capable and
experienced at making decisions. In centralization, the company is large and in
decentralization, companies are geographically dispersed.

Formalization:

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS:

Identify the Organization’s Current Mission, Objectives, and
Strategies:

Analyze the Environment:

Analyze the Organization’s Resources:

Identify Opportunities and Threats:

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses:

Reassess the Organization’s Mission and Objectives:

Formulate Strategies:

These generic strategies each have attributes that can serve
to defend against competitive forces. The following table  compares some characteristics of the generic
strategies in the context of the Porter’s five forces:

Implement Strategies:

Evaluate Results:

It controls the process to determine the effectiveness of a
strategy. An organization can evaluate results by reviewing the process, adjusting
the mission and objectives and strategies, and by initiating the corrective
measures.

CONCLUSION:

Solved Assignment # 1Course: Professional Communication (9503) Semester: Spring, 2021 Level: PGD

Course: Management Theory & Practice (9503) Semester: Spring, 2021 Level: PGD Total Marks: 100 ...

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Educational Wealth

Solved Assignment # 1Course: Professional Communication (9503) Semester: Spring, 2021 Level: PGD

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