ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY ASSIGNMENT ANSWER SAMPLE
ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY MBA FIRST YEAR AND SECOND YEAR ASSIGNMENT ANSWER
PROVIDED. DR. PRASANTH MBA PH.D. DME MOBILE
/ WHATSAPP: +91 9924764558 OR +91 9447965521 EMAIL: prasanththampi1975@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.casestudyandprojectreports.com
1.1
PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
1. What do you see as the main difference between a
successful and an
unsuccessful decision? How much does luck versus
skill have to do with it? Give
a detail note on it.
The
ability to decide and choose wisely and rightly is often a matter of how the
problem was posed. Though we try to be as logical as possible in taking a
decision, sometimes we end up making illogical choices or choices that in fact
were good but ended up with failure.
So, it is important to understand
how people decide things to avoid bad judgments.
Decision making refers to “making choices among alternative courses
of action—which may also include inaction”. In order to make a wide range of
decisions, individuals throughout organizations use the information they
gather. These decisions will then change the course of an organization, as well
affect their lives. Making successful decisions is certainly the most important
task of a manager and it is often a very difficult one.
Success may be defined as
“the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted”. In order a
decision to be successful, a company should make sure that they make the best
choice by going through the formal steps of the rational decision-making model.
The rational decision-making model describes “a series of
steps that decision makers should consider if their goal is to maximize the
quality of their outcomes”.
This is the main
difference between a successful and an unsuccessful decision; by not
considering these decision-making models, a company’s goal can fail just
because they do not go through the necessary steps which are: Identifying the
problem, establishing decision criteria, weigh decision criteria, generate
alternatives, evaluate the alternatives, choose the best alternative, implement
the decision, and evaluate the decision (Steps in the Rational Decision-Making
Model).
When it comes to luck and
skills and their relation to success, I think there are two extremes: people
who rely only on luck and other that think that everything depends solely on
skills. I think that a middle ground has to be found and followed. For example,
a company after making a certain decision must hope for the best as they
already choose to go with that idea and work hard until they accomplish it. A
successful decision has to do with both luck and skill, but also an illogical
dumb idea/decision can lead to successful/beneficial outcome sometimes.
A company’s decision does
not need to reach its final objective in order to understand if it will be
successful or not. For example, an ice-cream factory that decided to make two
million different ice-creams in order to sell them to their potential byers
does not need to sell all the ice-creams in order to understand that his
decision/goal has been successful, and to understand that his contribution will
lead to profitable income; he only needs to look at the daily or weekly sales,
and see if this number of sales is enough for the two million different
ice-creams to be sold during the expect time.
An organized and
systematic decision-making process usually leads to better successful
decisions. Without a well-defined process, you risk making decisions that are
based on insufficient information and analysis. Many variables affect the final
impact of your decision. However, if you establish strong foundations for
decision making, generate good alternatives, evaluate these alternatives
rigorously, and then check your decision-making process, you will improve the
quality of your decisions.
The
decision-making process begins when a manager identifies the real problem. The
accurate definition of the problem affects all the steps that follow; if the
problem is inaccurately defined, every step in the decision-making process will
be based on an incorrect starting point. One way that a manager can help
determine the true problem in a situation is by identifying the problem
separately from its symptoms.
The
most obviously troubling situations found in an organization can usually be
identified as symptoms of underlying problems. (See Table 1 for some examples
of symptoms.) These symptoms all indicate that something is wrong with an
organization, but they don’t identify root causes. A successful manager doesn’t
just attack symptoms; he works to uncover the factors that cause these
symptoms.
All
managers want to make the best decisions. To do so, managers need to have the
ideal resources — information, time, personnel, equipment, and supplies — and
identify any limiting factors. Realistically, managers operate in an
environment that normally doesn’t provide ideal resources. For example, they
may lack the proper budget or may not have the most accurate information or any
extra time. So, they must choose to satisfied — to make the best decision
possible with the information, resources, and time available.
Develop potential alternatives
Develop potential alternatives
Time
pressures frequently cause a manager to move forward after considering only the
first or most obvious answers. However, successful problem solving requires
thorough examination of the challenge, and a quick answer may not result in a
permanent solution. Thus, a manager should think through and investigate several
alternative solutions to a single problem before making a quick decision.
One of
the best known methods for developing alternatives is through brainstorming,
where a group works together to generate ideas and alternative solutions. The
assumption behind brainstorming is that the group dynamic stimulates thinking —
one person’s ideas, no matter how outrageous, can generate ideas from the
others in the group. Ideally, this spawning of ideas is contagious, and before
long, lots of suggestions and ideas flow. Brainstorming usually requires 30
minutes to an hour. The following specific rules should be followed during
brainstorming sessions:
Concentrate
on the problem at hand. This rule keeps the discussion very specific and avoids
the group’s tendency to address the events leading up to the current problem.
Entertain
all ideas. In fact, the more ideas that come up, the better. In other words,
there are no bad ideas. Encouragement of the group to freely offer all thoughts
on the subject is important. Participants should be encouraged to present ideas
no matter how ridiculous they seem, because such ideas may spark a creative
thought on the part of someone else.
Refrain
from allowing members to evaluate others’ ideas on the spot. All judgments
should be deferred until all thoughts are presented, and the group concurs on
the best ideas.
Although
brainstorming is the most common technique to develop alternative solutions,
managers can use several other ways to help develop solutions. Here are some
examples:
Nominal
group technique. This method involves the use of a highly structured meeting,
complete with an agenda, and restricts discussion or interpersonal
communication during the decision-making process. This technique is useful
because it ensures that every group member has equal input in the
decision-making process. It also avoids some of the pitfalls, such as pressure
to conform, group dominance, hostility, and conflict, that can plague a more
interactive, spontaneous, unstructured forum such as brainstorming.
Delphi
technique. With this technique, participants never meet, but a group leader
uses written questionnaires to conduct the decision making.
In order to be successful taking risk
in the markets, you must understand the role of luck and skill. From that understanding, there will
be several implications for your actions and how you invest and trade.
Markets are fascinating, complex,
multi-part puzzles that are constantly moving. Anything can
happen. Surprises are frequent. That means that randomness and luck are
omnipresent forces in the markets. I dealt with this in another
post, Better Lucky Than Good. As anything can happen, we can’t put
ourselves in a position where we are betting our entire account on one
position. For instance, think of an event like the Flash Crash in 2010—an
extreme example, but one day like that could wipe you out. Furthermore,
because luck is a constant factor, we need to adjust our own thinking and
practice about investing to take luck into account.
One basic implication is that we won’t
ever be right 100% of the time. Lots of things can go wrong with positions for numerous
reasons, no matter how much research and preparation we have put in. As
such, we should design our trading and investing strategies to reflect the fact
that we can get it wrong sometimes. That means learning to manage the
downside when have a losing position, which will probably happen a lot. In
fact, most professional portfolio managers and traders have a win rate of
around 50% over time, so they will often have to deal with losers.
Once we accept this fact, then we look
at the markets differently. We learn that instead of trying to make money on every individual
position, we need to have an approach that accepts the fact that we could lose
money on any individual position. The latter is the outcome and because there
is an element of chance in the markets, we can never really control or
determine the outcome. Rather, what we can control is the process itself, and
that is where we should direct our efforts. Moreover, if we get the process
right and never leave ourselves too exposed to a single event undermining us,
then the outcomes will work out favorably. By focusing on our process, we are
cultivating skill.
The most common way of evaluating
trades is on whether or not they made money. But this doesn’t tell us if we
made money because we got lucky or because it was the right decision. This is
just focusing on the outcome. When describing the results of positions, we
should break them down into either winning trades (i.e. they made money) or
losing trades (i.e. they lost money). This classification system just
tells us what happened. But we want to focus on the process, because that’s
what we can control. Instead, I would sort them into good trades (i.e. ones that
are consistent with your process) or bad trades (i.e. ones that are not
consistent with your process). No matter what the outcome on any one position,
you want to be putting on good trades which are disciplined and consistent with
your process. The idea is that the results will take care of themselves over
time.
For instance, if we estimate that a
position has a 50/50 chance of being a winner, then the profit per winner just
needs to be a bit higher than the loss per loser for you to make money long
term. As your profit per winner grows relative to your loss per loser, then
your required win rate goes down. If you make $6 on every winner and lose $1 on
every loser, then you can be right only 25% of the time and still make a
fortune. If a position has a positive statistical expectation, then the
risk/reward makes sense—and putting it on is a good decision.
Now, that does not mean that every
single position will make money. Rather, it means that over a sufficiently
large sample size, i.e. a large enough number of positions, you will make money. As long as you consistently have
favourable odds, then they will assert themselves over time.
Of course, you don’t always know the
odds in advance. You can figure them out in several different ways. The first
is through experience. If you’ve been using the same investing or trading
strategy for twenty years, then you should have a good idea. You can draw on
your records and analysis to determine the key variables, like your win rate or
how much you make per winner. The next way is historical back testing or
research, where you have looked through data and seen how your strategy would
have done in the past. This isn’t the same as actually using real money, but at
least it gives you some idea. The third method is to construct a new
methodology and to make educated guesses about what kind of returns it may
deliver. This is the riskiest because it doesn’t have as much as grounding in
experience or reality, but it could work if it’s difficult to back test or
because market conditions have shifted rapidly over time. While you may be
guessing, you still need to construct your strategy’s basic components in a way
that leaves you positive statistical expectation.
As we have stated, you need positive
statistical expectation to be profitable. But just how profitable you are
will be determined by a few key variables. The first is win rate—how often a
position is a winner or a loser. The second is how much you are making per
winner. The third is how much you are losing per loser. Understanding these
three variables, you can see how different styles work. In baseball parlance,
some people try to hit “home runs”, focusing on big wins but not necessarily
needing high win rate. Others try to hit base hits, focusing on a smaller
average win size but trying to have a higher win rate. All of these can be
successful, because they have one common attribute: positive statistical
expectation.
Moreover, we can boost our overall
expectation. Here is a simple diagram that shows how a couple of tweaks can dramatically
change our results. And it is possible to make these tweaks. For instance, we could
change our take profit policies on winners so that we hold them longer and make
slightly more. That would boost our average winner and substantially boost our
overall expectation. Similarly, we could boost our total win rate by cutting
out one or two strategies or setups which are dragging down our overall
statistics. Even small changes can have a meaningful impact on our
overall statistical expectation and thus on our overall profitability.
4. ‘Motivation is the core of management’. Comment.
What practical suggestions
would you offer to management to motivate its staff
in an industrial
organization?
Motivation
in management describes ways in which managers promote productivity in their
employees. Learn about this topic, several theories of management, and ways in
which this applies to the workplace
Often,
people confuse the idea of 'happy' employees with 'motivated' employees. These
may be related, but motivation actually
describes the level of desire employees feel to perform, regardless of the
level of happiness. Employees who are adequately motivated to perform will be
more productive, more engaged and feel more invested in their work. When
employees feel these things, it helps them, and thereby their managers, be more
successful.
It is a
manager's job to motivate employees to do their jobs well. So how do managers
do this? The answer is motivation
in management, the process through which managers encourage employees to
be productive and effective.
Think
of what you might experience in a retail setting when a motivated cashier is
processing your transaction. This type of cashier will:
- Be
friendly, creating a pleasant transaction that makes you more likely to
return
- Process
your transaction quickly, meaning that the store can service more
customers
- Suggest
an additional item you would like to purchase, increasing sales for the
store
In
short, this employee is productive and delivers a high-quality output.
The term motivation is
derived from the word ‘motive”. The word ‘motive’ as a noun means an objective,
as a verb this word means moving into action. Therefore, motives are forces
which induce people to act in a way, so as to ensure the fulfillment of a
particular human need at a time. Behind every human action there is a motive.
Therefore, management must provide motives to people to make them work for the
organization.
Motivation
is no doubt an essential ingredient of any Organisation. It is the psychological
technique which really executes the plans and policies through the efforts of
others.
Following
are the outstanding Features of the concept of motivation:
1.
Motivation is a personal and internal feeling:
Motivation
is a psychological phenomenon which generates within an individual.
2.
Motivation is need based:
If
there are no needs of an individual, the process of motivation fails. It is a
behavioural concept that directs human behaviour towards certain goals.
3.
Motivation is a continuous process:
Because
human wants are unlimited, therefore motivation is an ongoing process.
4.
Motivation may be positive or negative:
A
positive motivation promotes incentives to people while a negative motivation
threatens the enforcement of disincentives.
5.
Motivation is a planned process:
People
differ in their approach, to respond to the process of motivation; as no two
individuals could be motivated in an exactly similar manner. Accordingly,
motivation is a psychological concept and a complex process.
Motivation is core because of following
key reasons
1. High Efficiency:
A
good motivational system releases the immense untapped reservoirs of physical
and mental capabilities. A number of studies have shown that motivation plays a
crucial role in determining the level of performance. “Poorly motivated people
can nullify the soundest organisation.
By
satisfying human needs motivation helps in increasing productivity. Better
utilisation of resources lowers cost of operations. Motivation is always goal
directed. Therefore, higher the level of motivation, greater is the degree of
goal accomplishment.
2. Better Image:
A
firm that provides opportunities for financial and personal advancement has a
better image in the employment market. People prefer to work for an enterprise
because of opportunity for development, and sympathetic outlook. This helps in
attracting qualified personnel and simplifies the staffing function.
3. Facilitates Change:
Effective
motivation helps to overcome resistance to change and negative attitude on the
part of employees like restriction of output. Satisfied workers take interest
in new organisational goals and are more receptive to changes that management
wants to introduce in order to improve efficiency of operations.
4. Human Relations:
Effective
motivation creates job satisfaction which results in cordial relations between
employer and employees. Industrial disputes, labour absenteeism and turnover
are reduced with consequent benefits. Motivation helps to solve the central problem
of management, i.e., effective use of human resources. Without motivation the
workers may not put their best efforts and may seek satisfaction of their needs
outside the organisation.
The
success of any organisation depends upon the optimum utilisation of resources.
The utilisation of physical resources depends upon the ability to work and the
willingness to work of the employees. In practice, ability is not the problem
but necessary will to work is lacking. Motivation is the main tool for building
such a will. It is for this reason that Rensis Likert said, “Motivation is the
core of management.” It is the key to management in action.
Motivation
is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it
provides:
- Puts human resources
into action
Every concern requires
physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through
motivation that the human resources can be utilized by making full use of it.
This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help
the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of resources.
- Improves level of
efficiency of employees
The level of a subordinate or
a employee does not only depend upon his qualifications
and abilities. For getting
best of his work performance, the gap between ability and willingness has to be
filled which helps in improving the level of performance of subordinates. This
will result into-
- Increase in productivity,
- Reducing cost of operations, and
- Improving overall efficiency.
- Leads to achievement
of organizational goals
The goals of an enterprise can
be achieved only when the following factors take place :-
- There is best possible utilization of
resources,
- There is a co-operative work environment,
- The employees are goal-directed and they act
in a purposive manner,
- Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and
co-operation takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done
through motivation.
- Builds friendly
relationship
Motivation is an important
factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be
done by keeping into mind and
framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the
employees. This could initiate
the following things:
- Monetary and non-monetary incentives,
- Promotion opportunities for employees,
- Disincentives for inefficient employees.
In order to build a cordial,
friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps should be taken by a manager.
This would help in:
iv.
Effective co-operation which brings stability,
v.
Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will
reduce,
vi.
The employees will be adaptable to the changes and
there will be no resistance to the change,
vii.
This will help in providing a smooth and sound
concern in which individual interests will coincide with the organizational
interests,
viii.
This will result in profit maximization through
increased productivity.
Leads to stability of
work force
Stability of workforce is very
important from the point of view of reputation and goodwill of a concern. The
employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only when they have a feeling of
participation in the management. The skills and efficiency of employees will
always be of advantage to employees as well as employees. This will lead to a
good public image in the market which will attract competent and qualified
people into a concern. As it is said, “Old is gold” which suffices with the
role of motivation here, the older the people, more the experience and their
adjustment into a concern which can be of benefit to the enterprise.
From
the above discussion, we can say that motivation is an internal feeling which
can be understood only by manager since he is in close contact with the
employees. Needs, wants and desires are inter-related and they are the driving
force to act. These needs can be understood by the manager and he can frame
motivation plans accordingly. We can say that motivation therefore is a
continuous process since motivation process is based on needs which are
unlimited. The process has to be continued throughout.
Suggestion for motivate employees are:
1.
Meaningful Work
The most important thing any leader
can do to create a motivating environment is to make sure the work every member
is doing is meaningful. That is, the work is important to the success of the
business – every employee feels like what they are doing is making a difference
and it’s energizing.
On the other hand, there’s no worse
feeling than knowing your work just doesn’t matter. Every leader has some
degree of discretion in being able to eliminate or minimize the amount of “”
(non-value-added work) that flows into a team.
Any job can be meaningful. I’m sure
you’ve heard the story of the two bricklayers; one of them saw his job as
stacking bricks. The other saw his mission as building a magnificent cathedral.
Same job, different worldview.
2.
Hire High Performers and Get Rid of Underperformers
High performers tend to be
self-motivated, to begin with. When you create a team of high performers, they
feed off of each other. The standards are raised, the energy level increases,
teamwork improves, and there’s a low tolerance for anything less than
excellence. On the other hand, one or more slackers with bad attitudes can
infect a team like cancer, breed resentment, and drag everyone down.
3.
Don’t Micromanage – Get out of the Way
No one likes to have
his/her manager breathing down his/her neck – in fact, it drives
employees crazy. Show your employees that you are interested in what they are
doing, but you trust them to make their own decisions and do things differently
than you might do them.
4.
Promote Your Team’s Accomplishments
As a leader, it’s your job to be your
employee’s PR agent. Make sure their good work gets noticed, recognized, and
appreciated. Don’t worry about over-promoting your team’s good work – most
managers love to get good news. Just make sure the bragging is about them, not about you.
5.
Minimize the Rules and Bureaucracy
As long as your team is focusing on
what’s really important (see number one, meaningful work), and performing at a
high level (see number two), cut them some slack. Don’t hassle them with
minutia, give them flexibility in work hours, and protect them from stupid
rules.
6.
Treat People With Respect
Everyone deserves to be treated with
dignity and respect. Yelling, screaming, hurling insults and accusations, and
sarcastic comments create an environment of fear and resentment, where
employees are motivated to do only enough not to get yelled at, and no more.
7.
Get Personal
Get to know your employees as people
and learn about their families, their career goals, and truly care about them.
I knew a manager who, when one of his employees went above and beyond the call
of duty and put in extra hours, would send a hand-written note to the
employee’s spouse along with a gift certificate for a night out.
He recognized the effect the job was
having on his employee’s home life and wanted to let the spouse know what
a great job he was doing and how much he appreciated her support. While that
may not be appropriate for everyone, it’s an example of showing your employees
you care about their personal lives, not just work.
8.
Set a Good Example
Be motivated, enthused, energized, and
passionate about your own work and the work of the team.
9.
Encourage Camaraderie (During Work Hours)
Take your team to lunch or bring
goodies to your team meeting to celebrate milestones, or just to lighten up and
have some fun together. Notice I said during work hours. While it’s okay if
your employees want to go out for a drink after work or get together on
their own time, I don’t believe a leader should intrude on people’s own time in
the name of team building.
10.
Pay People for What They Are Worth
Yes, compensation is important, but
I’ve listed it last. While pay is not a motivator, it can be a de-motivator if
people feel they are underpaid. Do everything you can as a leader to fight for
well-deserved merit increases, promotions, and bonuses.
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