Question Paper of MS-01: Management Functions And Behaviour Dec 1998

Q.1(a) Why do people generally resist change? Do personal factors play a role in this process? Discuss what are the common coping strategies for change.

(b) Describe the inter-personal needs in terms of expressed and wanted behaviour.

Q.2(a) “Managers are known by the work they do and the function they perform."! Elaborate and critically evaluate this statement.

(b) What are the various determinants of organisational culture? How does leadership influence the culture of an organisation?

Q.3(a) Why do conflicts arise in an organisational situation? Describe various conflict handling strategies, with suitable examples.

(b) Distinguish between decision making under risk and decision making under conflict or competition, with examples.

Q.4 Write short notes on any three of the following:

(i) Managerial values and Ethos
(ii) Leadership style
(iii) Socialisation process
(iv) Management Information System
(v) Theory X and Y

Q.5 Please read the case given below and answer the questions that follow: Ceylon Fertilizer is a urea-manufacturing unit having a capacity of 500 tonnes ‘ per day. The total work force of the plant is around 2,000. Being a self-contained plant, it has its own workshop in order to take care of regular i maintenance work. The workshop functions in two shifts a day under a shift in charge for each shift who is in the cadre of AEE. The workers have been grouped into two groups, i.e.. Relay ‘A’ and ‘B The shift routine changes once a week, Sunday being a weekly holiday. Besides the two shifts, there are a group of people under a Senior AEE attending in general shift hours.

The Relay ‘A*, consisting of 18 workers is placed under the charge of Shri Muthu who is a graduate in mechanical engineering. After undergoing training for a period of six months in various divisions in fertilizer, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of works to be undertaken by the Workshop. After being as a Relay Supervisor for 3 years, he has been recently promoted to the post of AEE, who is the shift in charge. When he joined the workshop, he found that the tasks were done with application of thumb-rules and higher officers had to be satisfied with such a quality of work.

Shri Muthu, on witnessing this, started to instruct his workers in various theoretical aspects of welding, machines etc., which he has studied in his college. They all highly appreciated the skill and techniques he had taught. The workers not learnt to do things in a better way. Thus, he gained’ the confidence of workers. As he was able to finish his work in time and in a better way than relay ‘B more work orders were allotted to his group. A few workers in his group started to grumble and.Foreman came and told Mr. Muthu that the “other relay workers do not have much work-load and our workers too do not want to strain much and they are murmuring over getting “more work". Mr. Muthu, however, convinced the Foreman that extra work -should be taken as a credit and recognition, and they should do their best. After this had happened some workers even tried to get transferred to the other Relay.

One morning, Mr. Muthu was making arrangements for the work to be taken and was giving instructions to his foreman. Turner, Kali, came and told him, “Sir, father of Fitter Sami expired last night and we all want to go and attend the_ funeral,” and added, “It is customary for the men in workshop to attend such funerals and the shift-incharge has to arrange a lorry or any conveyance for the people to go to Sami’s house, which is nearly eight kms. from the Plant.” Since Muthu joined the company, this was first such instance occurring and as he had to finish some urgent work orders, he told the worker Kali, ” You all need not go the funeral. 1 can, however, permit a few of you as rep representatives of Relay ‘A’ to go and offer condolences to Sami’s family.” Further, he regretted that he would not make any arrangements for conveyance. This statement created a turbulence among the workers and a group of workers stopped the work and started demanding that they be allowed to attend the funeral or else they wanted to stop work in the coming shifts. Foreman hurried up to AEE Mr. Muthu to explain the turbulent situation in the shop-floor.

On hearing this, Muthu told his Foreman, “I have given you an alternative and I have already told the urgency or work and I am going to allocate the work as per planning schedule. If the work is not done, I may have to take action against you.” Then the group of workers started discussing among themselves as to what to do next. A turner came forth and said, “You are not considerate enough to human matters and if you are still adamant we may prefer half-a-day wages-cut as we must go and attend the funeral. Any how you have to make arrangements for our conveyance.” Mr, Muthu at this instance noted that a small group, who were usually complaining about the workload and were murmuring, were keenly interested in the affair. He decided to face the situation as a matter of prestige. He issued the gate pass to whoever wished to go, still emphasizing that he would not arrange any conveyance. Nearly 25 per cent of the workers remained and the others collected money from all for the funeral and went off.

On that day Mr. Muthu, could finish only a part of the work as planned and he had to explain what had happened in his Relay, to his boss.

When he came the next morning, it was rumored that only a few of the workers attended the funeral and the others had gone to the cinema theatre near the village. Mr. Muthu got irritated by the workers’ behaviour and started writing memos to those who had received the gate pass the previous day. Some workers got annoyed by this action of Mr. Muthu and they approached the union to intervene. The news had spread to other divisions and there was an air of protest at all places in the Fertilizer Plants.

Questions

1. What are the dominant features of this case?
2. What us your view of the action taken by Mr. Muthu?
3. What are the weaknesses and strong points, as you consider, of Mr. Muthu as a Manager?
4. How would you have tackled the situation, if you were Mr. Muthu?