Management Process and Organization Behavior – MB0022

February 15, 2010

1. Today managers need to perform various functions”: Elaborate the
statement
Unlike the old days, today management has evolved. With companies getting
globalised there is a need for the managers to adapt to various situations. Today
management has to deal with people from different countries, speaking different
languages, following different cultures and much more.

We can divide the management functions as below:

a. Planning
b. Organizing
c. Commanding
d. Coordinating
e. Controlling

Planning: this involves the process of defining the goals, establishing strategies for
achieving these goals and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
Every organization needs to plan for change in order to reach its set goal. It
provides the direction required to identify opportunities and for effective
framework. Planning also enhances decision making process.

Organizing:
It involves designing, structuring and coordinating the work components to achieve
organizational goal. It is the process of determining what tasks are to be done, who
is to do them and how are they to be grouped.

Commanding / Leading:
An organization can succeed only when the employees work towards a common
goal. This can only be possible under good and capable leadership. It is the
leaders who are responsible in guiding the employees time to time in achieving
their targets.

Controlling:
This involves monitoring the employee’s behavior and organizational processes
and take necessary actions to improve them, if needed. Control is the process
through which standards for performance of people and processes are set,
communicated and applied.

2. “Skills are the tool for performance”-Explain various management

skills.

Management skills have been identified by Katz(1974) and defined as below:

A. Technical skills
B. Human skills
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C. Conceptual skills

Technical skills:
This is the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require
some 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.

Human skills:
This is the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people (both
individually and a group). This requires sensitivity towards others issues and
concerns. People who are proficient in technical skills but not with interpersonal
skills, may face difficulties in managing their subordinates.

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.

3. What is negotiation? Explain the process of negotiation.

Negotiation is a process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services

and attempt upon a common ground.

Negotiation is a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement

upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, or to craft
outcomes to satisfy various interests.

Negotiation occurs in business, non-profit organizations, and government

branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as
marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life. The study of the subject is called
negotiation theory. Professional negotiators are often specialized, such as union
negotiators, leverage buyout negotiators, peace negotiators, hostage negotiators,
or may work under other titles, such as diplomats, legislators or brokers.

There are two general approaches to bargaining. They are

a. Distributive bargaining
b. Integrative bargaining

In distributive bargaining one’s opponent to agree to one’s specific target point or

to get as close to it as possible. In distributive bargaining the parties assume that
there is not enough to go around. Thus, the more one side gets, the less the other
side gets.

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This can be further divided into:

Hard negotiation: this takes place when each party holds out to get its own way. This leads
to win – lose outcome.
Soft negotiation: this takes place when one party is willing to make concessions to the
other to get things over with.

In integrative bargaining, a win – win solution strategy is adopted. In integrative

bargaining, the parties attempt to "enlarge the pie" or allocate resources in a way
that everyone gets what they want.

Integrative bargaining (also called "interest-based bargaining," "win-win

bargaining") is a negotiation strategy in which parties collaborate to find a "win-
win" solution to their dispute. This strategy focuses on developing mutually
beneficial agreements based on the interests of the disputants. Interests include
the needs, desires, concerns, and fears important to each side. They are the
underlying reasons why people become involved in a conflict.

Integrative bargaining is important because it usually produces more satisfactory

outcomes for the parties involved than does positional bargaining.
Integrative solutions are generally more gratifying for all involved in negotiation,
as the true needs and concerns of both sides will be met to some degree. It is a
collaborative process and therefore the parties actually end up helping each other.
This prevents ongoing ill will after the negotiation concludes. Instead, interest-
based bargaining facilitates constructive, positive relationships between previous
adversaries.

4. Explain Classical Conditioning Theory?

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Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian or respondent conditioning, Pavlovian
reinforcement) is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by
Ivan Pavlov.

The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of

a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus
could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the
organism under investigation. Pavlov referred to this as a conditioned stimulus
(CS). Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an
innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditioned stimulus
(US) and unconditioned response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are
repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism
begins to produce a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the
conditioned response (CR).

The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the
salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the physiology of
digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the
presence of meat powder (an innate response to food that he called the
unconditioned response), the dogs began to salivate in the presence of the lab
technician who normally fed them. Pavlov called these psychic secretions. From
this observation he predicted that, if a particular stimulus in the dog’s
surroundings were present when the dog was presented with meat powder, then
this stimulus would become associated with food and cause salivation on its own.

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In his initial experiment, Pavlov used a metronome to call the dogs to their food and, after
a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the metronome. Thus, a
neutral stimulus (metronome) became a conditioned stimulus (CS) as a result of consistent
pairing with the unconditioned stimulus (US - meat powder in this example). Pavlov
referred to this learned relationship as a conditional reflex (now called conditioned
response).

The types of conditioning are as follows:

1. Forward conditioning
2. Delay Conditioning
3. Trace conditioning
4. Simultaneous conditioning
5. Backward conditioning
6. Temporal conditioning
7. Unpaired conditioning
5. How are culture and society responsible to built value system?
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Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end state of
existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of
conduct or end state of existence. When the values are ranked in terms of their
intensity, it is called a value system.

The types of values are:

a. Ethical/moral values
b. Doctrinal/ideological values
c. Social values
d. Aesthetic values

Values build the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation of an
individual, since, values has a great impact on perceptions. Values shape
relationships, behaviors and choices. The more positive our values, more positive
our actions become. A significant portion of our values are established in the early
years from our parents, teachers, friends, family and others around us.

National culture and values: Hofstde (1980, 1991), in order to find the common
dimensions of culture across the countries, gathered data from surveys with
116,000 respondents working from IBM from more than 70 countries around the
world. The underlying concept of the four dimensions is described below (Hofsede
1991):

1. Power distance: This dimension measures the ‘social equality’ i.e; to what extent
a society accepts unequal distribution or power in families, institutions and
organizations. Inequality of power in organizations is generally manifested in
hierarchical superior – subordinate relationship.

2. Uncertainty avoidance: This is representation of a society’s tolerance for

uncertain situations. It measures to what extend a society manages those
situations by providing specific and conventional rules, regulations and norms; by
rejecting aberrant ideas or behavior; by accepting the possibility of absolute truths
and the accomplishments of expertise. Countries, which score high in uncertainty
avoidance, discourage risk – taking behavior and innovation.

3. Individualism vs. collectivism: Individualism gauges to what extend individuals in

a country consider themselves as distinct entities rather than as members of
cohesive groups. Collectivism, on the other hand, emphasizes on ‘social ties or
bonds’ between individuals. Individualistic society considers self – interest as more
important than the group goal.

4. Masculinity vs. femininity: This dimension refers to what extend dominant values
in society emphasizes masculine social values like a work ethic expressed in terms
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of money, achievement and recognition as opposed to feminine social role which
show more concern for people and quality of life.

6. Write short notes on Locus of control and Machiavellianism

Locus of control:

Locus of control is a term in psychology that refers to a person's belief about what causes
the good or bad results in his life, either in general or in a specific area such as health or
academics. Understanding of the concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and
has since become an important aspect of personality studies.

Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can
control events that affect them. Individuals with a high internal locus of control
believe that events result primarily from their own behavior and actions. Those
with a high external locus of control believe that powerful others, fate, or chance
primarily determine events. Those with a high internal locus of control have better
control of their behavior, tend to exhibit more political behaviors, and are more
likely to attempt to influence other people than those with a high external locus of
control; they are more likely to assume that their efforts will be successful. They
are more active in seeking information and knowledge concerning their situation.

One's "locus" (Latin for "place" or "location") can either be internal (meaning the
person believes that they control their life) or external (meaning they believe that
their environment, some higher power, or other people control their decisions and
their life).

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Machiavellianism:

Machiavellianism is, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in

general conduct".

In popular usage, it refers to someone who is sneaky, conniving, deceitful, and

untrustworthy. A Machiavellian person is often thought to be indifferent to ethical
and moral considerations in the same way that a sociopath is incapable of
sympathy or compassion. Sometimes the Machiavellian is imagined to be someone
who actually prefers double-dealing, back-stabbing methods to any others.

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