Principles of Management

1) Line and staff organizations combine the best features of both the functions. Discuss?
The line and staff structure combines the line organization with support from staff departments . Most
medium-sized and large-sized firms exhibit a line and staff organizational structure. The distinguishing
characteristic between simple line organizations and line and staff organizations is the multiple layers of
management within the latter. While the staff departments may not directly contribute to the production of
the firm like the line positions do, their services indirectly support the line positions.
"Staff and line" are names given to different types of functions in organizations. A "line function" is one that
directly advances an organization in its core work. This always includes production and sales, and
sometimes also marketing. A "staff function" supports the organization with specialized advisory and
support functions. For example, human resources, accounting, public relations, and the legal department are
generally considered to be staff functions. Both terms originated in the military.
Organizations begin as line-only, with line managers having direct control over all activities, including
administrative ones. Only later, as organizations grow in size, do they add staff positions.
Line managers have total authority over their direct reports, but staff workers primarily have advisory
authority rather than direct authority. Their function is to create, develop, collect, and analyze information,
which flows to line workers in the form of advice.
Staff positions can have four kinds of authority: "advice authority," with line managers choosing whether to
seek advice from the staff person, and what to do with it once they get it; "compulsory advice" or
"compulsory consultation" in which line managers must consider the staff person's advice, but can choose
not to heed it; "concurrent authority," in which the line manager cannot finalize a decision without the
agreement of the staff person, and "functional authority" in which the staff person has complete formal
authority over his or her area of specialty.
Management theorists advise that functional authority for staff positions should be extremely limited in
scope: it should cover only a tiny aspect of the line manager's job, it should relate only to areas in which line
managers have no expertise, and it should be granted only where company-wide uniformity is required.
Common types of functional authority for staff positions include authority over recruiting standards,
reimbursement policies, and quality standards.
Staff workers derive influence from expert authority or "authority of knowledge" from their control of
information which may be vital to line managers, and from their closer access to upper management.
Conflict Between Line and Staff
It is very common for line and staff workers to come into conflict. Staff specialists say that line workers
avoid and ignore them, and line workers say that staff workers lack expertise in the organization's core work,
distract them, and get in their way. American organizational sociologist Melville Dalton attributed this to
"the conspicuous ambition and individualistic behavior among staff managers", staff's anxiety to justify their
existence, and the dependence of highly-ranked staff managers on line managers.
Other management theorists have observed that line managers sometimes resent staff for being younger and
better-educated than they are. Others attribute the problem to staff managers not realizing that even though
they have been delegated authority in particular areas, their primary role is to serve and support line
managers. Management textbooks advise resolving line-staff conflict by explicitly recognizing the mutual
dependency of the two, making it clear what the staff role is, de-emphasizing any controlling elements of the
staff role, having staff deliberately set out to win the confidence and trust of line workers, and emphasizing
the staff role as part of the team.
3) What is organizational change? Identify the causes foe change?


Organizational change is about reviewing and modifying management structures and business processes.
Small businesses must adapt to survive against bigger competitors and grow. However, success should not
lead to complacency. To stay a step ahead of the competition, companies need to look for ways to do things
more efficiently and cost effectively. There is no need to fear change. Instead, small businesses should
embrace change as a way to lay the foundations for enduring success.
Organizational change is a structured approach in an organization for ensuring that changes are smoothly
and successfully implemented to achieve lasting benefits. In the modern business environment,
organizations face rapid change like never before. Globalization and the constant innovation of technology
result in a constantly evolving business environment. Phenomena such as social media and mobile
adaptability have revolutionized business and the effect of this is an ever increasing need for change, and
therefore change management. The growth in technology also has a secondary effect of increasing the
availability and therefore accountability of knowledge. Easily accessible information has resulted in
unprecedented scrutiny from stockholders and the media. Prying eyes and listening ears raise the stakes for
failed business endeavors and increase the pressure on struggling executives. With the business environment
experiencing so much change, organizations must then learn to become comfortable with change as well.
Therefore, the ability to manage and adapt to organizational change is an essential ability required in the
workplace today. Yet, major and rapid organizational change is profoundly difficult because the structure,
culture, and routines of organizations often reflect a persistent and difficult-to-remove "imprint" of past
periods, which are resistant to radical change even as the current environment of the organization changes
rapidly.
Due to the growth of technology, modern organizational change is largely motivated by exterior innovations
rather than internal moves. When these developments occur, the organizations that adapt quickest create a
competitive advantage for themselves, while the companies that refuse to change get left behind. This can
result in drastic profit and/or market share losses.

4) Identify the common elements of effective management by objectives programmes?

5) Distinguish between theory X and theory Y. What is meant by theory Z?
In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that
they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that 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. According to
Michael J. Papa, if the organizational goals are to be met, Theory X managers rely heavily on threat and
coercion to gain their employees' compliance. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive
supervision, and a punitive atmosphere. 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 picture.
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 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 opened 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 is required for employee
development. It's employee 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 environment would include sharing of decision making so that subordinates have a say in decisions that
influence
Another theory which has emerged, and deals with the way in which workers are perceived by managers, as
well as how managers are perceived by workers, is William Ouchi's "Theory Z". Often referred to as the
"Japanese" management style, Theory Z offers the notion of a hybrid management style which is a
combination of a strict American management style (Theory A) and a strict Japanese management style
(Theory J). This theory speaks of an organisational culture which mirrors the Japanese culture in which
workers are more participative, and capable of performing many and varied tasks. Theory Z emphasises
things such as job rotation, broadening of skills, generalisation versus specialisation, and the need for
continuous training of workers (Luthans).
Much like McGregor's theories, Ouchi's Theory Z makes certain assumptions about workers. Some of the
assumptions about workers under this theory include the notion that workers tend to want to build co-
operative and intimate working relationships with those that they work for and with, as well as the people
that work for them. Also, Theory Z workers have a high need to be supported by the company, and highly
value a working environment in which such things as family, cultures and traditions, and social institutions
are regarded as equally important as the work itself. These types of workers have a very well developed
sense of order, discipline, moral obligation to work hard, and a sense of cohesion with their fellow workers.
Finally, Theory Z workers, it is assumed, can be trusted to do their jobs to their utmost ability, so long as
management can be trusted to support them and look out for their well being (Massie & Douglas).

6) What is social responsibility of business? Can the social problems of our country be converted into
business opportunities? Support your views?
In your daily life, you perform a number of activities. For example, brushing your teeth, listening to your
parents, showing respect to elders obeying traffic rules on road etc. Now why do you perform all these
activities? It is because you live in a family as well as in a society and the members of your family as well as
the society want you to do all of them. They do several things for you and expect something from you,
which you must do. The expectations of the family or society become your obligations, which you need to
fulfill. For example, taking care of your parents or children, keeping the road clean by not throwing garbage
on it, etc. There are also obligations towards yourself, which you need to fulfill. For example, taking food
timely, going to sleep early at night, etc. that keep you fit and takes care of your health. Now you fulfill all
these obligations by performing certain activities which are called your responsibilities. Any responsibility
you have, particularly towards members of the society with whom you interact or towards the society in
general, are called your social responsibility. This is true in case of business also. As we know, every
business operates within a society. It uses the resources of the society and depends on the society for its
functioning. This creates an obligation on the part of business to look after the welfare of society. So all the
activities of the business should be such that they will not harm, rather they will protect and contribute to the
interests of the society. Social responsibility of business refers to all such duties and obligations of business
directed towards the welfare of society. These duties can be a part of the routine functions of carrying on
business activity or they may be an additional function of carrying out welfare activity. Let us take an
example. A drug-manufacturing firm undertakes extensive research and thus, produces drugs which are
qualitatively superior. It also provides scholarships or fellowships to the family members of its employees
for studying abroad. We find, in both the cases, the drug-manufacturing firm is carrying out its social
responsibility. In case of the former, it is a part of its routine business function while in the latter case it is a
welfare function.
The idea that companies should embrace its social responsibilities and not be solely focused on maximizing
profits. Social responsibility entails developing businesses with a positive relationship to the society which
they operate in. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), this relationship to
the society and environment in which they operate is "a critical factor in their ability to continue to operate
effectively. It is also increasingly being used as a measure of their overall performance."
Social responsibility is a voluntary effort on the part of business to take various steps to satisfy the
expectation of the different interest groups. As you have already learnt, the interest groups may be owners,
investors, employees, consumers, government and society or community. But the question arises, why
should the business come forward and be responsible towards these interest groups. Let us consider the
following points:
i. Public Image - The activities of business towards the welfare of the society earn goodwill and reputation
for the business. The earnings of business also depend upon the public image of its activities. People prefer
to buy products of a company that engages itself in various social welfare programmes. Again, good public
image also attracts honest and competent employees to work with such employers.
ii. Government Regulation - To avoid government regulations businessmen should discharge their duties
voluntarily. For example, if any business firm pollutes the environment it will naturally come under strict
government regulation, which may ultimately force the firm to close down its business. Instead, the business
firm should engage itself in maintaining a pollution free environment.
iii. Survival and Growth -Every business is a part of the society. So for its survival and growth, support
from the society is very much essential. Business utilizes the available resources like power, water, land,
roads, etc. of the society. So it should be the responsibility of every business to spend a part of its profit for
the welfare of the society.
iv. Employee satisfaction - Besides getting good salary and working in a healthy atmosphere, employees
also expect other facilities like proper accommodation, transportation, education and training. The
employers should try to fulfill all the expectation of the employees because employee satisfaction is directly
related to productivity and it is also required for the long-term prosperity of the organization. For example, if
business spends money on training of the employees, it will have more efficient people to work and thus,
earn more profit.
v. Consumer Awareness - Now-a-days consumers have become very conscious about
their rights. They protest against the supply of inferior and harmful products by forming different groups.
This has made it obligatory for the business to protect the interest of the consumers by providing quality
products at the most competitive price

7) Define Perception. What are the internal and external attention factors which affect perception?
Organizations use perception management in daily internal and external interactions as well as prior to
major product/strategy introductions and following events of crisis. Life cycle models of organizational
development suggest that the growth and ultimate survival of a firm is dependent on how effectively
business leaders navigate crisis, or crisis-like, events through their life cycles. As suggested by studies,
organizational perception management involves actions that are designed and carried out by organizational
spokespersons to influence audiences' perceptions of the organization. This definition is based on the
understanding of four unique components of organizational perception management: perception of the
organization; actions or tactics; organizational spokespersons; and organizational audiences.
Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals select, organize and interpret their sensory
impressions, so as to give meaning to their environment. Perception is a complex cognitive process and
differs from person to person. People's behavior is influenced by their perception of reality, rather than the
actual reality. In comparison to sensation, perception is a much broader concept.
Sensation involves simply receiving stimuli through sensory organs, whereas the process of perception
involves receiving raw data from the senses and then filtering, modifying or transforming the data
completely through the process of cognition. The processes of perception consist of various sub processes
such as confrontation, registration, interpretation and feedback. Though people are continuously exposed to
numerous stimuli, they tend to select only a few of them. The principle of perceptual selectivity seeks to
explain how, and why people select only a few stimuli out of the many stimuli they keep encountering at any
given time. Perceptual selectivity is affected by various internal set factors and external attention factors.
Some of the internal set factors are learning, motivation and personality.
The various principles of perceptual organization consist of figure-ground, perceptual grouping, perceptual
constancy, perceptual context and perceptual defense. The principle of figure-ground states that perceived
objects stand out from their general background. According to the principle of perceptual grouping, people
tend to group several stimuli together into a recognizable pattern. People usually tend to group stimuli
together on the basis of closure, continuity, proximity or similarity.
Even if a person is not able to obtain sufficient information to arrive at a decision, he tries to close the gap
by grouping the available information with the information from his past experience. This is called the
principle of closure. Sometimes people tend to think only in a particular direction. This is called principle of
continuity. It may also happen that people may group the stimuli based on their proximity and similarity.
According to principle of perceptual constancy, there are some things which are perceived alike by all
people, irrespective of the factors influencing perception. It provides a person a sense of stability in this
changing world. Perceptual context provides meaning and value to stimuli with respect to a particular
context. According to the principle of perceptual defense, people tend to resist information that is
emotionally disturbing or clashes with their personal convictions or cultural values. Social perception is
concerned with how individuals perceive one another. The primary factors that lead to social perception are
the psychological processes that lead to attribution, stereotyping and halo effect. Attribution refers to the
way in which people explain the cause of their own behavior or others' behavior.
If a person's behavior can be attributed to internal factors such as personality traits, motivation or ability,
then it is called dispositional attribution. If a person's behavior is attributed to external factors, such as a
machine or being under the influence of others, then it is referred to as situational attribution.

Stereotyping and the halo effect are common problems in social perception. When an individual is judged
based on the perception about the group to which he belongs, it is termed as stereotyping. When people draw
a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic, it is known as the halo effect. The
process by which people try to manage or control the perceptions other people form of them is called
impression management. It is used by employees in organizations to favorably impress their boss and move
up the hierarchy.
Perceptions have a crucial role in individual decision-making in organizations, by affecting both the
decisions as well as the quality of the decision. The decision taken by an individual is a complex process
involving the intake of data, screening, processing, and interpreting and evaluating of data, based on the
perception of the individual.


8) Discuss in detail the various positive and negative reinforces ?
Reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur with the delivery of
a stimulus/item immediately after a response/behavior is exhibited. The use of reinforcement procedures
have been used with both typical and atypical developing children, teenagers, elderly persons, animals, and
different psychological disorders.
There are two types of reinforcement: positive and negative. It can be difficult to tell the difference between
the two. Also, negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment. In behavioral psychology,
reinforcement is a consequence that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior
is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus. This strengthening effect may be measured as a higher
frequency of behavior (e.g., pulling a lever more frequently), longer duration (e.g., pulling a lever for longer
periods of time), greater magnitude (e.g., pulling a lever with greater force), or shorter latency (e.g., pulling
a lever more quickly following the antecedent stimulus). Although in many cases a reinforcing stimulus is a
rewarding stimulus which is "valued" or "liked" by the individual (e.g., money received from a slot machine,
the taste of the treat, the euphoria produced by an addictive drug), this is not a requirement. Indeed,
reinforcement does not even require an individual to consciously perceive an effect elicited by the
stimulus.
[1]
Furthermore, stimuli that are "rewarding" or "liked" are not always reinforcing: if an individual
eats at a fast food restaurant (response) and likes the taste of the food (stimulus), but believes it is bad for
their health, they may not eat it again and thus it was not reinforcing in that condition.
[citation needed]
Thus,
reinforcement occurs only if there is an observable strengthening in behavior. In most cases reinforcement
refers to an enhancement of behavior but this term may also refer to an enhancement of memory. One
example of this effect is called post-training reinforcement where a stimulus (e.g. food) given shortly after a
training session enhances the learning.
[2]
This stimulus can also be an emotional one. A good example is that
many people can explain in detail where they were when they found out the World Trade Center was
attacked.[3]
Much of the work regarding reinforcement began with behavioral psychologists such as Edward Thorndike,
J. B. Watson and B.F. Skinner and their use of animal experiments. B.F. Skinner is famous for his work on
reinforcement and believed that positive reinforcement is superior to punishment in shaping behavior.[4] At
first glance, punishment can seem like just the opposite of reinforcement, yet Skinner argued that they differ
immensely; he claimed that positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioral modification (long-term)
whereas punishment changes behavior only temporarily (short-term) and has many detrimental side-effects.
Skinner defined reinforcement as creating situations that a person likes or removing a situation he doesn't
like, and punishment as removing a situation a person likes or setting up one he doesn't like.[4] Thus, the
distinction was based mainly on the pleasant or aversive (unpleasant) nature of the stimulus.
In the first part of this exercise, the concept of positive reinforcement is defined and illustrated in six
example/nonexample pairs. In an example/nonexample pair, an example of a concept is slightly altered to
form a nonexample; this enables the student to tell the difference between examples and nonexamples that
have similar content. In the second part of this exercise, students classify 14 examples and nonexamples and
are given feedback about their performance. This task gives the student practice at responding to novel
examples and nonexamples, ones that have not been previously presented. Note that if positive
reinforcement were being taught in a standard course, much more background material would be provided
about the concept to give students an appropriate context in which to understand the concept, relate it to
other concepts, and eventually to be able to apply the concept. In this tutorial, however, this background
material is omitted in favor of demonstrating some important features of self-instructional exercises that can
be effectively used in distance education.
Positive reinforcement is one of the key concepts in behavior analysis, a field within psychology. Positive
reinforcers are something like rewards, or things we will generally work to get. However, the definition of a
positive reinforcement is more precise than that of reward. Specifically, we can say that positive
reinforcement has occurred when three conditions have been met:

A consequence is presented dependent on a behavior.
The behavior becomes more likely to occur.
The behavior becomes more likely to occur because and only because the consequence is presented
dependent on the behavior.

Negative reinforcement occurs when something already present is removed (taken away) as a result of a
person's behaviour, creating a favourable outcome for that person. Basically, when a person's behaviour
leads to the removal of something that was unpleasant to that person then negative reinforcement is
occuring. The term "stimulus" would be used within Applied Behaviour Analysis to describe the
"something" that is taken away or removed. The stimulus could be anything, for example a person, a noise, a
feeling, an emotion or an object. Technically, for negative reinforcement to occur, the person must engage in
the behaviour that created the favourable outcome more frequently in the future (Miltenberger, 2008).
good way to remember the meaning of the negative in negative reinforcement is to think of it in relation to
mathematics. When you see a negative symbol in math then it means subtraction. When you see the term
negative used with reinforcement then think of something being subtracted. Consider someone taking a
shower to remove a bad smell; you could say taking the shower led to the subtraction of the bad smell or
said another way, taking the shower was negatively reinforced by the removal (subtraction) of the bad smell.
For arguments sake well say you want the light off at night so you can sleep. By turning off the light you
are removing it or subtracting it. The light was already present before you pressed the switch to turn it off
and once you pressed the switch the light was gone. This removal of light is something that you wanted and
so you are more likely to press the light switch at night time in future. Your behaviour of pressing the switch
is negatively reinforced by the removal of the light. Remember that when something is taken away (the
light) as a result of your behaviour (pressing the light switch) and it being taken away will lead you to
engage in that behaviour again (pressing the light switch every time you go to bed) then negative
reinforcement has occurred.
Marys husband Mike sometimes snores during the night and she cant sleep through it when he does. When
Mary is woken by Mikes snoring she has learned that putting in earplugs blocks out the noise and she can
no longer hear his snoring. Every time he now snores she puts in the earplugs thus there is an increase in
this behaviour of putting in earplugs.
Before Mary put in her earplugs, there was an aversive stimulus present Mikes snoring these earplugs
then blocked out this stimulus (snoring) or you could say it was removed. Marys use of earplugs has been
strengthened because they remove this aversive stimulus and so negative reinforcement has occurred.