UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (UTAR)

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE

ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018

OCT 2017 TRIMESTER

UBMH1013 ORGANISATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Bachelor of Science (Hons) Construction Management (CM)

Bachelor of Information Systems (Hons) Information Systems Engineering (IA)
Bachelor of Information Systems (Hons) Business Information Systems (IB)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biotechnology (BT)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biomedical Science (BM)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Chemistry (CE)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biochemistry (BE)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Food Science (FD)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Microbiology (MB)
Tutorial 1
Overview of OHR Unit Plan

1. Self introduction by the tutor and students.

2. Explanation on OHR unit plan.

3. Specify expectations in tutorial classes.

4. Briefing on group assignment to students.

5. Team formation for group assignment.

Tutorial 2 (Topic 1: Designing Organizational Structures)

Questions

1. Define the term, division of labor.

2. Administrative theorists concluded many decades ago that the most effective
organizations have a narrow span of control. Yet, todays top-performing
manufacturing firms have a wide span of control. Why is this possible?

3. Divisional structure is a type of departmentalization that groups employees

around geographic areas, outputs, or clients. What are the disadvantages of
divisional structure?

4. Team-based structure is a type of departmentalization built around self-directed

teams that complete an entire piece of work. What are the benefits of team-based
structure?

5. Explain the influences of organizational strategy on organizational structure.

Tutorial 3 (Topic 2: Organizational Culture)

Questions

1. ABC Corp. is planning to acquire Delta Corp., which operates in a different

industry. ABC's culture is entrepreneurial and fast paced, whereas Delta employees
value slow, deliberate decision making by consensus. Which merger strategy would
you recommend to minimize culture shock when ABC acquires Delta? Explain your
answer.

2. Identify and explain THREE (3) elements of organizational culture.

3. Identify and explain the problems arising from strong culture.

4. Discuss how assimilation can be used to merging different corporate cultures?

5. Suppose you are asked by senior officers of a city government to identify ways to
reinforce a new culture of teamwork and collaboration. The senior executive group
clearly supports these values, but it wants everyone in the organization to embrace
them. Identify four types of activities that would strengthen these cultural values.
Tutorial 4 (Topic 3: Job Analysis and Talent Management)

Questions

1. Explain to the head of a company how he or she could use the talent management
approach to improve his or her companys performance.

2. What items are typically included in a job description? What items are not
shown?

3. What is Participant Diary?

4. What is job analysis? How can you make use of the information it provides?

5. There are six major steps in a well-conducted job analysis. Explain these steps.
Tutorial 5 (Topic 4: Personnel Planning and Recruiting)

Questions

1. Identify and explain the various forecast techniques used in forecasting HR needs.

2. What are the main activities you would do to recruit from abroad?

3. Succession planning is the process of ensuring a suitable supply of successors for

current and future senior or key jobs. Identify and explain the succession planning
steps.

4. Why a company uses an agency? Identify several reasons.

5. Executive recruiters are special employment agencies retained by employers to

seek out top-management talent for their clients. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of using executive recruiters?
Tutorial 6 (Topic 5: Selecting Employees)

Questions

1. Explain the differences between personality test, achievement test and aptitude
test.

2. Why is it important to conduct pre-employment background investigations?

3. How interest inventories could be used to improve employee selection? In doing

so, suggest several examples of occupational interests that you believe might predict
success in various occupations including college professor, accountant, and
computer programmer.

4. Discuss the two basic types of interviews: structured and unstructured. Which one
do you think is better? Why?

5. Selecting the right employees is important. Identify and describe why careful
selection is important?
Tutorial 7 (Topic 6: Training and Developing Employees)

Questions

1. What advantages are associated with on-the-job training?

2. Describe the programmed learning training method and explain the three parts
of this form of instruction.

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Tutorial 8 (Topic 7: Performance Management and Appraisal)

Questions

1. Some managers ignore accuracy and honesty in performance appraisals. Discuss

potential appraisal problems.

2. Explain how to install a performance management program?

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Tutorial 9 (Topic 8: Foundations of Employee Motivation)

Case Study

Workers in demand

MALAYSIA, the world's second largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer after Indonesia,
is now at a crossroads as it juggles between aggressive expansion in oil palm plantations
and providing ample workforce to the growing number of estates nationwide. Currently,
upstream plantation operators in Malaysia are facing acute labour shortage of field
workers, fresh fruit bunch (FFB) harvesters and collectors in estates.

Foreign workers represent over 70% of Malaysia's total 491,339 workforce in oil palm
plantations last year a figure that reflects the alarming dependency on migrant labour
mostly sourced from Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar. The
Incorporated Society of Planters Malaysia has pegged the current total labour
requirement based on the country's five million hectares oil palm plantation at about
500,000 workers, while 275,000 are needed in the 1.1 million hectares of rubber
plantations.

Its chairman Daud Amatzin points out that the oil palm plantation sector in Sabah and
Sarawak are where most of the labour workforce is needed but sadly, their wages are
much lower when compared with their peers in the Peninsular. The minimum wage for
field workers or fruit harvesters in the estates in Sabah and Sarawak start from RM800
per month, while those in Peninsular Malaysia can earn about RM900 per month.

While most big players can easily adhere to the Government's recent call for a minimum
wage, Daud says the impact will be challenging for small- to mid-sized players,
especially the newcomers in the plantation industry. The critical sub-sector most affected
by the minimum wage ruling will be the 180,000 independent smallholders, which also
recruit foreigners as harvesters.

Daud says efforts must be taken to entice Malaysians to work in the estates. This can be
done via continuous aggressive campaigns and training on skills enhancement as well as
on occupational safety. In addition, improvement to the image of estate employees by
providing free uniforms, boots, head gear, etc, and other forms of incentives and bonuses
may attract unemployed young Malaysians to work in the estates.

He concurs that jobs in the estates are not popular among the young locals because the
plantation locations are often remote with demanding working environments, spartan
living conditions and lack of entertainment facilities.
There is also intense competition from other economic activities such as the
manufacturing and services industry which provides conducive working conditions, good
incentives, clear career advancement and lucrative compensation packages.

Towards this, Daud suggests a review of plantation companies' policy for better salary via
the successful pension scheme, profit sharing scheme, cooperatives involving employees,
enhancement of house ownership, equity ownership scheme of the estate, employment
opportunities for children of employees, better facilities and recreational amenities.

There should also be a minimum wage, and scholarship for children of employees,
education allowances and better medical facilities.

Questions

1. Based on equity theory, identify labour workforce that over rewarded, and under
rewarded. Recommend two actions to correct inequity.

2. Based on the case study, to motivate estate workers, what are the efforts and
suggestions proposed by Daud to entice Malaysians to work in the estates?

3. Daud concurs that jobs in the estates are not popular among the young locals. You
have been appointed as the new HR manager of oil palm plantation firm;
recommend TWO (2) external sources to recruit young locals. In your opinion, what
are the TWO (2) benefits in using external sources? (Topic 4)

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Tutorial 10 (Topic 9: Leadership in Organizational Settings)

Questions

1. An insurance adjuster is highly experienced but lacks confidence in her abilities,

particularly on new assignments. She seems to believe that any new
accomplishments are due more to luck than her own expertise. Moreover, her work
involves interacting with clients who are sometimes aggressive or hostile. This is a
stressful situation to most insurance adjusters, including this employee. Use path-
goal theory to identify the best leadership style(s) that this employee's immediate
supervisor should use to improve her effectiveness as an insurance adjuster.

2. The current CEO at Super Energy Corp. believes that there is too little leadership
talent in the organization. This is troublesome for the executive because over the
next few years the company will require leaders who can bring about significant
changes to the corporate culture and philosophy of doing business at Super. You
have been retained as a consultant to identify the leadership models that are most
appropriate for Tuk's needs. Describe two leadership perspectives and specific
models that would provide the best fit for Tuk's objectives.

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Tutorial 11 (Topic 10: Team Dynamics)

Case study

Team development at Hyundai

Learning and development company True North has been helping staff at Hyundai Car
UK to develop closer and more effective working relationships.

Hyundai Car UK's import team are based at Tilbury Docks and handle over 33,000 cars
every year. The team do everything from unloading the vehicles through to rigorous pre-
delivery inspections and the fitting of special items such as alarms and music systems.

The management team at Tilbury wanted to improve the collaboration, and help their
staff each get a better understanding of others' roles and daily pressures. Staff at Tilbury
are split over three areas - office, administration and managers; workshop staff; and
drivers. Although these three groups of people work together, their roles are separate so
there was little understanding or empathy with colleagues' daily issues.

Rob Gearing - import operations manager at Tilbury, called in learning and development
company True North, to help.

Andy Parker, True North's managing director, recalls: "I went to Tilbury and discussed
the teamworking issues in detail, listening to Rob and his team to understand how we
could affect some meaningful change; something that would deliver real business
benefits.

"We discussed how team issues affect the business, and what the best possible outcomes
would be from some kind of learning event. Rob wanted to develop more of a sense of
team, get people to really understand each other and work together better.

True North was engaged to develop a team building day. Although the day wasn't going
to be a 'corporate jolly', it was decided that it should have a strong fun element, as a
reward for the team hitting its car-processing target.

True North developed a series of team building activities, which were all designed to get
people interacting on more than a superficial level, so that they would learn how to better
collaborate. Some of the lighter activities included a 'racing challenge' where teams of
people are pitted against each other via a series of networked games consoles - creating
some healthy competition, while building team awareness. "Even the fun activities allow
us to get people to think about themselves and others and give us a means of promoting
key messages," said Parker.
True North also ran three facilitated sessions, each using two professional coaches, to get
people to think and talk about how things worked in the workplace, and what it would
take to make the workplace better. Participation during this kind of session is the key to
success - the coaches help people openly explore issues and collaborate to propose
solutions. "This really allows people to communicate their issues - and to get others to
understand and empathise with them," said Parker. "It also enables everyone to work as a
team, to create their own solution. It's this kind of thing that really changes the way that
people work - they carry this back to the workplace and then act on it."

The day was held off-site, away from the distractions of the business, and had an almost
one hundred per cent attendance rate. "We got some fantastic feedback," said Parker.
"People were telling us that it's the best event of this type that they've been to. And,
what's more important, it's had a real impact on the business."

Questions

1. Explain the key problem encountered in the case study.

2. In your opinion, what type of team would work best in Hyundai Car UK?

3. Based on the case study, Identify and explain the approaches developed by True
North to improve the team cohesiveness in Tilbury.
Tutorial 12 (Topic 11: Communicating in Teams and Organizations)

Questions

1. A few organizations have recently tried to minimize employee use of e-mail when
communicating with colleagues. Specifically, these companies have banned the use
of e-mail (except for special circumstances) on Fridays. Discuss two reasons why
companies might want to minimize the use of e-mail.

2. The CEO of Bear Securities Inc. is concerned that investment analysts and
brokers at Bear Securities are using too much jargon to communicate with each
other and with clients. The CEO believes that the use of jargon will result in costly
communication errors and may intimidate clients. Discuss the accuracy of the
CEO's concerns.

3. Define a grapevine. How might a manager use the grapevine to his or her
advantage in an organization?

4. Identify and explain four common communication barriers.

5. Nonverbal communication is necessary where noise or physical distance prevents

effective verbal exchanges. Explain nonverbal communication.
Tutorial 13 (Topic 12: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace)

Case Study

Malaysia Airports quashes AirAsia's LowCost Carrier Terminal 2 plans

Kuala Lumpur International Airports 2 (KLIA2) is not a low-cost carrier terminal but part
of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) hub, said Malaysia Airports Holdings
Berhad (MAHB). MAHB said that although KLIA2 currently services low-cost carriers,
the airport is capable of supporting a much larger capacity.

"KLIA2 is neither an independent airport nor a hub.

It is KLIA second terminal and is a crucial component of the KLIA hub.

Although KLIA2 is currently mainly used by low-cost carriers, it is designed to cater to

all types of airlines as it supports the overall KLIA capacity," MAHB said in a statement
on Monday.

MAHB was responding to a statement by AirAsia which said it planned to launch a

campaign to promote KLIA2 as a Low-Cost Carrier Terminal 2 (LCCT2).

AirAsia, which accounts for the biggest share of passenger traffic at the RM4bil KLIA2,
said this would reinforce Kuala Lumpurs position as the leading low-cost gateway to
Asia and beyond.

MAHB said KLIA2 is the registered name of the terminal under the International Air
Transport Association (IATA) and calling it by any other name would only mislead and
confuse the public and passengers.

It said it was working to position KLIA as an integrated hub (KUL Hub) under its five-
year business plan Runway to Success 2020 (RtS2020).

The hub will provide seamless connectivity between airlines, whether full service, hybrid
or low-cost.

This is similar to other successful international hubs which rely on all types of airlines
operating within a single airport system," MAHB said, giving examples of Dubai,
Amsterdam, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Singapore.

According to MAHB, when KLIA2 was envisaged, it was meant to enhance KLIAs
connectivity and elevate its position as a competitive hub within the region.
"The KLIA Main Terminal is connected worldwide to 1,026 destinations through 166
airlines, thus, KLIA2 is in good position to leverage this ready connectivity.
By virtue of this, it is crucial to view and position both KLIA Main and KLIA2 together
as KUL Hub or an integrated airport system, instead of taking KLIA2 as an independent
low-cost hub, it said.

It added that Malaysia would be able to serve the air travel market more effectively by
having full service and low-cost carriers working together under a single airport system
like the KUL hub.

1. Identify and explain the THREE (3) sources of conflict between Airasia and
Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad. Justify your answers based on case study.

2. Based on the answer (a), recommend THREE (3) solutions to minimize these
sources of conflict in the future.

3. Assume both parties have agreed to resolve their differences through neutral
party. Outline THREE (3) types of third-party conflict resolutions for Airasia and
Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.
Tutorial 14 (Topic 13: Pay for Performance and Employee Benefits)

1. State and explain THREE (3) team and orgaizationwide incentive plans.

2. Employees frequently use sick leave to take care of family problems and personal
issues. How can firms address this costly problem?

3. During difficult economic times, employers have to cut costs. What are some
strategies for minimizing the costs associated with employee health care? What no-
cost or low-cost methods are available to employers who want to recognize and
reward hard-working employees?

4. You are the CEO of Blue Bay Motor Boat Company, a mid-size firm that
manufactures speed boats. What incentive plan would you implement for the firm's
engineers? What incentive plan would you implement for the firm's managers?

5. You are the HR consultant to a small business with about 40 employees. Now the
firm offers only five days vacation, five paid holidays, and legally mandated benefits
such as unemployment insurance payments. Develop a list of other benefits you
believe they should offer, along with your reasons for suggesting them.