Student Name : Pankaj Vohra Roll No. 530910143

Student Name : Pankaj Vohra Roll No. 530910143 MBA – 1 SEM Management Process and Organizational Behaviour – MB0022 Assignment SET – 1 Question 1: Explain the managerial roles and managerial skills. Ans: Managerial Roles Manegerial Roles as defined by Mintzberg (1973) as follows: 1. 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: A. Monitor- collecting information from organization, both from inside and outside of the organization. B. Disseminatormembers

communicating

information

to

organizational

C. Spokesperson – representing the organization to outsiders. 2. Decisional roles: it involves decision making. Again, this role can be sub-divided in to the following: A. Entrepreneur- initiating new ideas to improve organizational performance B. Disturbance handler – taking corrective action to cope with adverse situation C. Resource allocators- allocating human, physical and monetary resources D. Negotiator – negotiating with trade unions, or any other stakeholders. 3. Interpersonal roles: This role involves activates with people working in the organization. This is supportive role for informational and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles can be categorized under three sub-headings: A. Figurehead – Ceremonial and symbolic role

B. Leadership – leading organization in terms of recruiting, motivating etc C. Liaison – liasoning with external bodies and public relations activities.

Management Skills 3 Management Skills as identified by Katz (1974) are as under 1. Technical Skills: The ability is to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require sum specialized expertise and many people develop their technical skills on the job. Vocational and on-the-job training programs can be used to develop this type of skills. 2. Human Skills: This is the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people (both individually and a group). This requires sensitivity towards other issues and concerns. People who are proficient in technical skills, but not with interpersonal skills, may face difficulty to manage their subordinates. To acquire the human skills, it is pertinent to recognize the feeling and sentiments of others, ability to motivate others even in adverse situations and communicate own feelings to others in a positive and inspiring way. 3. Conceptual Skills: This is an ability to critically analyze diagnose a situation and forward a feasible solution. It requires creative thinking generating options and choosing the best available option. Question 2: Describe the contemporary work cohort? Ans: Robbins (2003) has proposed contemporary work cohort, in which the unique value of different cohorts is that the U.S. workforce has been segmented by the era they entered the workforce. Individuals’ values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the period in which they grew up. 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. They exhibited the following value orientations:

They • • •

were influenced by the great depression and World War II. Believed in hard work Tender 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 mid-1980s belonged to this category. Their values orientations were: • Influence 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 that employed them were vehicles for their careers. • Terminal Values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition. 3. Xers: Began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s. They cherished the following values: • Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers. • Value flexibility, life options, and achievements of job satisfaction. • Family and relationship were important and enjoyed team-oriented work. • Money was important but would trade off for increased leisure time. • Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than pervious generations. Terminal Values: True friendship, happiness and pleasure. 4. Nexters: most recent entrants into the workforce • Grew up in prosperous time, have high expectations, believe in themselves, and confident in their ability to succeed. • Never-ending search for ideal jobs; see nothing with jobhopping • Seek financial success • Enjoy team work but are highly self-reliant • Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life.

Question 3: Elaborate the issues related to culture and emotion?

Ans: Emotions are universal phenomena; however, they are affected by culture. While some emotions are universal and are experienced in similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all cultures, other emotions show considerable cultural differences in their antecedent events, the way they are experienced, the reactions they provoke and the way they are perceived by the surrounding society. Culture: Culture comes into its own in human interactions, and one of the greatest arenas for such interaction is the place where people work There are two views of Culture and Emotion: Universality: emotions are part of human nature and in all culture universally the same set of basic emotions. Based on his crosscultural research, Ekman (1999) has found six emotions which are universally recognized and applicable. They are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Anger Fear Sadness Happiness Disgust Surprise

Cultural specificity – Human beings are like a tabula rasa (clean tablet)on which society write s its script. In other words, culture and traditions, normative patterns and value-orientations are responsible for not only our personality development, but also appropriate social and emotional development. This makes us functional entities in society. Each culture has a unique set of emotions and emotional responses; The emotion shown in a particular culture reflect the norms, values, practices, and language of that culture. Alexithymia – Emotional disorder Some people have difficulty in expressing their emotions and understanding the emotions of others. Psychologist calls this Alexithymia. People who suffer from Alexithymia rarely cry and are off seen by others as bland and cold. Their own feelings make them uncomfortable, and they are not able to discriminate among their different emotions. People, suffering from Alexithymia, may be effective performers in jobs where little or no emotional labour. Alexithymic symptoms may be seen in people who experience: • Post-traumatic stress disorder • Certain brain injuries • Eating disorders (i.e. bulimia, anorexia, or binge-eating disorder) • Substance use dependence

• •

Depression Other mental health conditions.

Relationship of gender with emotion A number of research finding supports the view that women are more emotional than men. Women are assumed to experience more frequents and intense emotions, whereas men are assumed to be emotionally inexpressive and to have less intense emotional experiences. However, researchers have argued that the stereotype of men as unemotional is more accurate for adult targets that for child targets because males learn to control their emotions as they get older. Likewise, women and men may experience happiness in a similar way, but women have been taught that they can strongly express the emotion of happiness, whereas men have been taught to control it. The impact of socialization practices accumulate over time, and thus, these stereotypes are likely to apply more strongly to adult populations.

Question 4: Discuss the assumption of Douglas Mc Gregor (Theory X and Theory Y) Ans: Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor. 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. Douglas McGregor argued that a manager’s view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and he or she tends to mould his or her behavior towards employees according to these assumptions. 1. Theory X In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work, if they can. Workers need to be closely supervised and a comprehensive system of controls and a hierarchical structure is needed to supervise the workers closely. It is also assumed that

workers generally place security above all other factors and will display little ambition. 2. Theory Y In this theory management assumes employees may be ambitious, self-motivated, and anxious to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. It is also believed that, if given the chance employees have the desire to be creative and forward thinking in the workplace. There is a chance for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to perform to the best of their abilities without being bogged down by rules. From the above, it is clear that Theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals. Theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals.

Question 5: What is personal power – explain different bases of personal power? Ans: 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. 1. 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. A subordinate obeys a supervisor possessing expert power because the boss ordinarily knows more about what is to be done or how it is to be done than does the subordinate. 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.

2. 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 specific actions will achieve these outcomes. 3. Referent power is the ability to control another’s behavior because the person wants to identify 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 obedience may occur, for example, because the subordinate likes the boss personally and therefore tries to do things the way the boss wants them done. In a sense, the subordinate attempts to avoid din anything that would interfere with the pleasing boss subordinate relationship. Follower ship is not based on what the subordinate will get for specific actions or specific levels of performance, but on what the individual represents-a path toward lucrative future prospects. 4. Charismatic power is an extension of referent power stemming from an individuals personality and interpersonal style. Others follow because they can articulate attractive visions, take personal risks, demonstrate follower sensitivity, etc

Question 6: Write a short note on potential sources of stress? Ans: 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 sources of stress. Together or singly they may create a tense and volatile working environment which can cause stress for organizational members because the inability o individuals to handle the pressures arising out of these sources. The following may be seen to be the potential sources of stress: 1. Environmental Factors

A. Environmental uncertainty influences stress levels among employees in an organization. B. Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. C. Political uncertainties can be stress inducing. D. Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new innovations can make an employee’s skills and experience obsolete in a very short period of time. 2. Organizational Factors A. Pressure to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work overload, a demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant coworker’s area a few examples. B. Task demands are factors related to a person job. They include the design of the individual’s job (autonomy, tasks, variety, and degree of automation), working condition and the physical work layout. C. Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the role and individual plays in an organization. a. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy. b. Role overload is experience when the employee is expected to do more than time permits. c. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood. d. Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. e. 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. Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the organization’s senior executives. CEOs by virtue of their managerial styles create an organizational culture which reflects tension, fear and anxiety. They overemphasize tight control, hire and fire policies which keep organizational members on hot seat and create stress among them.

3. 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.  Economic problems created by individuals overextending their financial resources. Spending more that 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 increase s a person’s stress a risk for heart disease. These individuals with high level of mistrust for others also cause stress for themselves.  Stressors are additive-stress builds up.