Management Process and Organization Behavior-MB0022

MBA -1 SEM Assignment – Set 2

Student name : Rafeek

Question-1: Discuss Henri Fayol’s administrative theory (14 principles of

Management).

Answer:

The principles of Henri Fayol’s administrative theory are:

1. Division of work : Tasks should be divided up with employees specializing
in a limited set of tasks so that expertise is developed and productivity
increased.
2. Authority and responsibility : Authority is the right to give orders and
entails enforcing them with rewards and penalties; authority should be
matched with corresponding responsibility
3. Discipline : This is essential for the smooth running of business and is
dependent on good leadership, clear and fair arguments and the judicious
application of penalties.
4. Unity of command : For any action whatsoever, an employee should
receive orders from one superior only; otherwise authority, discipline
order and stability are threatened.
5. Unity of direction : A group of activities concerned with a single objective
should be coordinated by a single plan under one head.
6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest : Individual or
group goals must not be allowed to override those of the business.
7. Remuneration of personal: This may be achieved by various methods but
it should be fair, encourage effort and not to lead to overpayment.
8. Centralization : The extent to which orders should be issued only from the
top of the organization is a problem which should take into account its
characteristics, such as size and capabilities of the personnel.
9. Scalar chain (line of authority): Communications should normally flow up
and down the line of authority running from the top to the bottom of the
organization, but sideways communication between those of equivalent
rank in different departments can be desirable as long as superiors are
kept informed.
10. Order: Both materials and personnel must always be in their proper place;
people must be suited to their posts so there must be careful organization
of work and selection of personnel.
11.Equity : Personnel must be treated with kindness and justice.
12.Stability of tenure of personnel: Rapid turnover of personnel should be
avoided because of the time required for the development of expertise.
13. Initiative : All employees should be encouraged to exercise initiative
within limits imposed by the requirements of the authority and discipline.
14.Esprit de Corps: Efforts must be made to promote harmony within the
organization and prevent dissension and divisiveness.

Question-2 : Explain shaping behaviour and different methods of

shaping behavior?
Answer :

Shaping behavior: When a systematic attempt is made to change individuals’

behavior by directing their learning in graduated steps, it is called shaping
behavior. There are four methods of shaping behavior. They are as follows:
1. Positive reinforcement : This is the process of getting something pleasant
as a consequence of a desired behavior, to strengthen the same behavior.
For example one get commission, if he/she achieves sales target.
2. Negative reinforcement : This is the process of having a reward taken
away as a consequence of a undesired behavior. For example, scholarship
is withdrawn from the student who has not done well on the examination.
3. Punishment : Punishment is causing an unpleasant condition in an
attempt to eliminate an undesirable behavior. This is the process of
getting punishment as a consequence of behavior.
4. Extinction: Eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior.
So if a person puts in extra effort, but gets no recognition for it, he will
stop doing it.

Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a

response and increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and
extinction weaken behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency.

Question-3 : Write a detailed note on MBTI and big five model ?

Answer :

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator : The MBTI classifies human beings into four
opposite pairs (dichotomies) based on their psychological opposites. These four
opposite pairs result into 16 possible combinations. In MBTI, individuals are
classified as (McCrae and Costa, 1989):
a. Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
b. Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
c. Thinking or feeling (T or F)
d. Perceiving or Judging (P or J)

These classifications are then combined into sixteen personality types. For
example
a. INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great drive for
their won ideas and purposes. They are characterized as skeptical, critical,
independent and often stubborn.
b. ESTJs are organizers. They are realistic, logical, analytical, decisive and
have a natural head for business or mechanics. They like to organize and
run activities.
c. The ENTP type is a conceptualizer. He/She is innovative, individualistic,
versatile and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas. This person tends to be
resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine
assignments.
The big five model: Many researchers argue that five basic dimensions underlie
all other personality dimensions )e.g; McCrae and Costa, 1990; Digman,1997).
The five basic dimensions are:
 1. Extraversion: Comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be
gregarious, assertive and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid
and quiet.
2. Agreeableness: Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High
agreeableness people-cooperative, warm and trusting. Low agreeableness
people-cold, disagreeable and antagonistic.
3. Conscientiousness: A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person
is responsible, organized, dependable and persistent. Those who score low
on this dimension are easily distracted disorganized and unreliable.
4. Emotional Stability: A person’s ability to withstand stress. People with
positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident and secure.
Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed
and insecure.
5. Openness to experience: The range of interest and fascination with
novelty. Extremely open peoples are creative, curious and artistically
sensitive. Those at the other end of the openness category are
conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

Question-4 : Explain the stepwise procedure of Rational Decision Making

Model ?

Answer :

The Rational Decision making model: This model proposes six steps, which are
as follows.

Step-1: Defining the problem

 A Problem is a discrepancy between an existing and a desired state of
affairs.
 Many poor decisions can be traced to the decision-maker overlooking a
problem or defining the wrong problem.
Step-2: Identify the decision criteria important to solving the problem.
 The decision maker determines what is relevant in making the decision.
Any factors not identified in this step are considered irrelevant to the
decision maker.
 This brings in the decision maker’s interests, values and similar personal
preferences.
Step-3: Weight the previously identified criteria in order to give them
the correct priority in the decision.
Step-4: Generate possible alternatives that could succeed in resolving
the problem.
Step-5: Rating each alternative on each criterion.
 Critically analyze and evaluate each alternative.
 The strengths and weaknesses of each alternative become evident as they
are compared with the criteria and weights established in the second and
third steps.
Step-6: The final step is to compute the optimal decision:
 Evaluating each alternative against the weighted criteria and selecting the
alternative with the highest total score.
The abovementioned model works with following assumptions.
 • Problem clarity: The decision maker is assumed to have complete
information regarding the decision situation.
• Known Options: It is assumed that the decision maker is aware of
all the possible consequences of each alternative.
• Clear Preferences : Criteria and alternatives can be ranked and
weighted to reflect their importance.
• Constant preferences: Specific decision criteria are constant and
the weights assigned to them are stable over time.
• No time or cost constraints: The rational decision maker can obtain
full information about criteria and alternative because it is assumed
that there are no time or cost constraints.
• Maximum payoff: The rational decision maker will choose the
alternative that yields the highest perceived value.
Question-5 : Elaborate Group Structure ?

Answer :

Work group in order to function as a coordinated unit need to have a proper

structure where there must be certain elements like formal leadership, role
clarity among group members. In the absence of these factors, group not only
become conflict ridden but also suffer from confusion and function on a sub
optimal level. Elements required for Group structure is written below.
1. Formal Leadership: Almost every work group must have a formal
leader, which is typically identified by a title. The leader can play an
important part in the group’s success.
2. Roles: All group members are actors, where each is playing a role. While
some of these roles may be compatible others create conflicts. Different
groups impose different role requirements on individuals.
3. Role Perception: For playing one’s role effectively in a group, one’s view
of how one is supposed to act in a given situation must be clear leading to
clear role perception. By watching and imitating senior members of a
group the new comers learn how to take on their roles effectively and also
learn how to play them well.
4. Role Expectations: Tuning oneself and behaving in a socially desirable
manner is a part of fulfilling role expectations in a given situation in the
context of achieving group goals and organizational goals,
5. Role Conflict: When a group member is faced with the challenge of
playing multiple roles, role conflict may occur due to inability of the
individual to balance all the roles effectively, thereby reducing role
effectiveness, hampering the group and organizational goal attainment
process.

Question-6 : Write down different steps of Conflict Management ?

Answer :

The process of conflict management has the following steps (Schermerhornet al,
2002):
Stage-1: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility
This stage concludes the conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise.
The conditions are as follows:
1. Communication: Communication becomes a source of conflict due to
semantic difficulties, misunderstandings and “noise”(distortion) in the
communication channels. Differing word connotations, jargon, insufficient
exchange of information and noise in the communication channel are all
barriers to communication and potential antecedents to conflict.
2. Structure: The term structure includes variables such as size, degree of
specialization, jurisdictional clarity, member-goal compatibility, leadership
styles, reward systems and the degree of dependence. Size and
specialization act as forces to stimulate conflict. The larger the group and
more specialized its activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. The
potential for conflict is greatest where group members are younger and
turnover is high. The greater the ambiguity in responsibility for actions
lies, the greater the potential for conflict.
3. Personal Variables: Personal variables include individual value systems
and personality characteristics. Certain personality types lead to potential
conflict. Value differences are the best explanation for differences of
opinion on various matters.

Stage-2: Cognition and Personalization

Antecedent conditions lead to conflict only when the parties are affected by and
aware of it. Conflict is personalized when it is felt and when individuals become
emotionally involved. Emotions play a major role in shaping perceptions.
Negative emotions produce oversimplification of issues, reductions in trust and
negative interpretations of the other party’s behavior. Positive feelings increase
the tendency to see potential relationships among the elements of a problem, to
take a broader view of the situation and to develop more innovative solutions
(Robbins,2003).

Stage-3: Intentions
The primary conflict-handling intentions as represented as follows:
 Cooperativeness : The degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the
other party’s concerns.
 Assertiveness: The degree to which one party attempts to satisfy his or
her own concerns.
 Competing: When one person seeks to satisfy his or her own interests,
regardless of the impact on the other parties to the conflict.
 Collaborating: When the parties to conflict each desire to fully satisfy the
concerns of all parties. The intention is to solve the problem by clarifying
differences rather than by accommodating.
 Avoiding: A person may recognize that a conflict exists and want to
withdraw from it or suppress it.
 Accommodating: When one party seeks to appease an opponent, that
party is willing to be self-sacrificing.
 Compromising: When each party to the conflict seeks to give up
something, sharing occurs, resulting in a compromised outcome. There is
no clear winner or loser, and the solution provides incomplete satisfaction
of both parties’ concerns.
Stage-4: Behavior

The behavior stage includes the statements, actions and reactions made by the
conflicting parties. These conflict behaviors are usually overt attempts to
implement each party’s intentions. It is a dynamic process of interaction with a
continuum. At the lower part of the continuum, conflicts are characterized by
subtle, indirect and highly controlled forms of tension. Conflict intensities
escalate as they move upward along the continuum until they become highly
destructive. Functional conflicts are typically confined to the lower range of the
continuum.

Stage-5: Outcomes

Outcomes may be functional-improving group performance, or dysfunctional in

hindering it. Conflict is constructive when it
1. Improves the quality of decisions.
2. Stimulates creativity and innovation.
3. Encourages interest and curiosity.
4. Provides the medium through which problems can be aired and tensions
released.
5. Fosters an environment of self-evaluation and change.

Outcomes may be dysfunctional as well. They are as follows.

Uncontrolled opposition breeds discontent, which acts to dissolve common ties

and eventually leads to the destruction of the group. Undesirable consequences
include a retarding of communication, reductions in group cohesiveness,
subordination of group goals to the primacy of infighting between members.
Conflict can bring group functioning to a halt and potentially threaten the group’s
survival. The demise of an organization as a result of too much conflict is not as
unusual as it might first appear.