MBA IIBMS CURRENT MONTH EXAM QUESTION AND ANSWER PROVIDED WHATSAPP 91 9924764558

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Note:  Section [I] is compulsory.
             Sections [II] solve any six questions.
Section I
CASE STUDY:
 No Minor Offence
Census data reveals high level of under – age marriages
  Census statics are generally full of surprises. But this one is startling:  6.4 million Indians under the age of 18 are already married. That’s not all. As many as 1.3 lakh girls under 18 are widowed and another 56,000 are divorced or separated. The legal marriageable age for women is 18, for men 21. A century and a half after Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s crusade against child marriage, the practice persists. Obviously, the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, exists only on paper and has not been able to deter parents from marrying off under –aged sons and daughters. The incidence is understandably higher in rural areas, but not low as expected in the cities. It’s more common in the BIMARU states, with Rajasthan leading the way ironically, the Act renders all under-age marriages illegal but not void, which means that an illegally married couple can stay married. It is, therefore, violated with impunity and hardly anyone is ever hauled up. Despite the fact that child marriage is a criminal offence, action is rarely taken by the police. Even civil society remains a passive spectator. There’s not enough penalty-a fine of Rs.1, 000 and imprisonment up to three shows that the state does not view the crime seriously.
  The practice is linked to the curse of dowry. “Chhota Chhora dhhej kam mangta” (the younger the groom, the smaller the dowry demand) justifies many such alliances. The grimmest part of the scenario is the physical havoc that early marriage wreaks upon girls who are too young to bear the burden of maternal and child mortality. There is also the belief that a daughters’ marriage is a scared obligation that parents must fulfill at the earliest. A new legislation, Prevention of Child marriages Bill, 2004, to replace the loophole-ridden 1929 Act is awaiting parliament’s approval. But legislation alone is not enough. Compulsory registration of marriages is one way of tackling the problem. Creating awareness about the ill-effects of such marriages and mobilizing committed social workers to intervence are others. However, social workers have to often function in hostile conditions. The 1992 case of Bhanwari Devi, the Rajasthan saathin who was raped for preventing a child marriage, is chilling. In the end only education, economic security and increasing empowerment of women can eliminate the problem.
Questions
1. Discuss ethically the drawbacks you find in the under-age marriages?
2. How does the increasing empowerment of women help eliminate problems if this type?
Section II
Solve any six questions:
Q2.
a) What are moral hazards and why is it important?
b) What is emergent strategy?
Q3.
a) What are the objectives of a business, and which is the most important?
b) How many steps are there in the decision making process and what are they?
Q4.
a) What CSR issues exist for NFPs?
b) What measures of performance are typically used by these organizations?
Q5.
a) How globalization effect CSR?
b) Is globalization threat for CSR?
Q6.
a) Why is the measurement of performance important?
b) What is ISO14000 and what factors does it cover?
Q7.
a) What are the responsibilities of business in their corporate decision?
b) What is the relationship between CSR and corporate behavior?
Q8.
a) What are the 4 factors of sustainability?
b) What are the factors of distributable sustainability?
Q9.
a) What justification does stakeholder Theory use for considering stakeholder?
b) What are the steps involved in the incorporation of environmental accounting into the risk evaluation system of an organization?





Attempt any 10 Questions

1. How are right of lien and stoppage-in-transit affected by sub-sale or pledge by the buyer?
2. Discuss the rule regarding duration of transit. When does it come of an end?
3. Comment on the statement,”Delivery does not amount to acceptance of goods”?
4. State the exceptions to the rule that no one can convey a better title than what he has.
5. When are the goods said to be unascertained?  What are the rules as to the transfer of property in the unascertained goods to the buyer?
6. Discuss the implied condition relating to sale by sample?
7. Discuss the doctrine of caveat emptor and state its exceptions.
8. What is the effect of perishing of goods on the contract of sale?
9. Explain the various methods of creating agency?
10. Pledge can be created only of movable property. Comment.
11. Discuss the position of guarantee in respect of loans to a minor.
12. Does the release by the creditor of one of the sureties discharge the others?
13. Explain the provisions relating to appointment of directors in Producer Company.
14. Two separate company wish to amalgamate. State the steps which they must take for this purpose.
15. Does the failure of inspector to submit his or her report in time amount to an end to investigation?
16. A, the secretary of the company is also a minority shareholder. He is removed from the post of secretary. He brings complaint on the ground of oppression? Advise
17. A single member of a company wishes to challenge the decisions of the majority. Can he succeed?
18. What new provisions have been made for the protection of interests of debenture holders?
19. Write a short note on Consumer Protection Councils.
20. Describe the powers of SEBI relating to the working of the depository system.


Attempt any Eight questions

1. What is the need of internet security? What are the various steps of securing different types of data in e-transaction?

2. What is e-banking? What are the importance and limitations of e-banking?

3. Write short note on E-business Opportunities.

4. Explain Customer oriented trends which drives E-business

5. Explain the concept of E- payment cards with their advantages and disadvantages.

6. Provide the operational framework of traditional and E - business applications in commercial banks.

7. Critically examine the various challenges faced by e-Business.

8. Differentiate between e-markets and traditional markets.

9. Describe the implications of the web for managing a small e-business especially for
small and medium entrepreneurs.

10. Explain the required business standards and protocols for e-business solutions.
11. What is e-commerce? Discuss B2B2C and C2B2C model giving proper examples.







Attempt Any Four Case Study

CASE – 1   Dartmouth College Goes Wireless

Dartmouth College, one of the oldest in the United States (founded in 1769), was one of the first to embrace the wireless revolution. Operating and maintaining a campuswide information system with wires is difficult, since there are 161 buildings with more than 1,000 rooms on campus. In 2000, the college introduced a campuswide wireless network that includes more than 500 Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) systems. By the end of 2002, the entire campus became a fully wireless, always-connected community—a microcosm that provides a peek at what neighborhood and organizational life may look like for the general population in just a few years.
To transform a wired campus to a wireless one requires lots of money. A computer science professor who initiated the idea at Dartmouth in 1999 decided to solicit the help of alumni working at Cisco Systems. These alumni arranged for a donation of the initial system, and Cisco then provided more equipment at a discount. (Cisco and other companies now make similar donations to many colleges and universities, writing off the difference between the retail and the discount prices for an income tax benefit.)
As a pioneer in campuswide wireless, Dartmouth has made many innovative usages of the system, some of which are the following:
• Students are continuously developing new applications for the Wi-Fi. For example, one student has applied for a patent on a personal-security device that pinpoints the location of campus emergency services to one’s mobile device.
• Students no longer have to remember campus phone numbers, as their mobile devices have all the numbers and can be accessed anywhere on campus.
• Students primarily use laptop computers in the network. However, an increasing number of Internet-enabled PDAs and cell phones are used as well. The use of regular cell phones is on the decline on the campus.
• An extensive messaging system is used by the students, who send SMSs (Short Message Services) to each other. Messages reach the recipients in a split second, any time, anywhere, as long as they are sent and received within the network’s coverage area.
• Usage of the Wi-Fi system is not confined just to messages. Students can submit their classwork by using the network, as well as by watching streaming video and listening to Internet radio.
• An analysis of wireless traffic on campus showed how the new network is changing and shaping campus behaviour patterns. For example, students log on in short burst, about 16 minutes at a time, probably checking their messages. They tend to plant themselves in a few favorite spots (dorms, TV room, student center, and on a shaded bench on the green) where they use their computers, and they rarely connect beyond those places.
• Some students invented special complex wireless games that they play online.
• One student has written a code that calculates how far away a networked PDA user is from his or her next appointment, and then automatically adjusts the PDA’s reminder alarm schedule accordingly.
• Professors are using wireless-based teaching methods. For example, students can evaluate material presented in class and can vote online on a multiple-choice questionnaire relating to the presented material. Tabulated results are shown in seconds, promoting discussions. According to faculty, the system “makes students want to give answer,” thus significantly increasing participation.
• Faculty and students developed a special voice-over-IP application for PDAs and iPAQs that uses live two-say voice-over-IP chat

Questions

1. In what ways is the Wi-Fi technology changing the life of Dartmouth students? Relate your answer to the concept of the digital society.
2. Some say that the wireless system will become part of the background of everybody’s life—that the mobile devices are just an afterthought. Explain.
3. Is the system contributing to improved learning, or just adding entertainment that may reduce the time available for studying? Debate your point of view with students who hold a different opinion.
4. What are the major benefits of the wireless system over the previous wireline one? Do you think wireline systems will disappear from campuses one day? (Do some research on the topic.)



CASE – 2 E-Commerce Supports Field Employees at  Maybelline

The Business Problem

Maybelline is a leader in color cosmetics products (eye shadow, mascara, etc.), selling them in more than 70 countries worldwide (maybelline.com). The company uses hundreds of salespeople (field merchandising representatives, or “reps”), who visit drugstores, discount stores, supermarkets, and cosmetics specialty stores, in an attempt to close deals. This method of selling has proved to be fairly effective, and it is used by hundreds of other manufacturers such as Kodak, Nabisco, and Procter & Gamble. Sales managers from any company need to know, as quickly as possible, when a deal is closed or if there is any problem with the customer.
Information technology has been used extensively to support sales reps and their managers. Until 2000, Maybelline, as well as many other large consumer product manufacturers, equipped reps with an interactive voice response (VR) system, by means of which they were to enter, every evening, information about their daily activities. This solution required that the reps collect data with paper-based surveys completed for every store they visited each day. For example, the reps noted how each product was displayed, how much stock was available, how items were promoted, etc. In addition to the company’s products the reps surveyed the competitors’ products as well. In the evening, the reps translated the data collected into answers to the voice response system which asked them routine questions. The reps answered by pressing the appropriate telephone keys.
The IVR system was not the perfect way to transmit sales data. For one thing, the IVR system consolidated information, delivering it to top management as a hard copy. However, unfortunately, these reports sometimes reached top management days or weeks too late, missing important changes in trends and the opportunities to act on them in time. Frequently, the reps themselves were late in reporting, thus further delaying the needed information.
Even if the reps did report on time, information was inflexible, since all reports were menu-driven. With the voice system the reps answered only the specific questions that applied to a situation. To do so, they had to wade through over 50 questions, skipping the irrelevant ones. This was a waste of time. In addition, some of the material that needed to be reported had no matching menu questions. Considering a success in the 1990s, the system was unable to meet the needs of the twenty-first century. It was cumbersome to set up and operate and was also prone to input errors.

The Mobile Solution

Maybelline replaced the IVR by equipping its reps with a mobile system, called Merchandising Sales Portfolio (MSP), from Thinque Corp. (thinque.com, now part of meicpg.com). It runs on handheld, pen-based PDAs, which have hand-writing recognition capability (from NEC), powered by Microsoft’s CE operating system. The system enables reps to enter their information by hand-writing their reports directly at the clients’ sites. From the handheld device, data can be uploaded to a Microsoft SQL Server database at headquarters every evening. A secured Internet connection links to the corporate intranet (a synchronization process). The new system also enables district managers to electronically send daily schedules and other important information to each rep.
The system also replaced some of the functions of the EDI (electronic data interchange) system, the pride of the 1990s. For example, the reps’ report include inventory-scanned data from retail stores. These are processed quickly by an order management system, and passed whenever needed to the shipping department for inventory replenishment.
In addition to routine information, the new system is used for decision support. It is not enough to speed information along the supply chain; managers need to know the reasons why certain products are selling well, or not so well, in every location. They need to know what the conditions are at retail stores affecting the sales of each product, and they need to know it in a timely manner. The new system offers those capabilities.

The Results

The system provided managers at Maybelline headquarters with an interactive link with the mobile field force. Corporate planners and decision makers can now respond much more quickly to situations that need attention. The solution is helping the company forge stronger ties with its retailers, and it considerably reduces the amount of after-hours time that the reps spend on data transfer to headquarters (from 30-50 minutes per day to seconds).
The new system also performs market analysis that enables managers to optimize merchandising and customer service efforts. It also enables Maybelline to use a more sophisticated interactive voice response unit—to capture data for special situations. Moreover, it provides browser-based reporting tools that enable managers, regardless of where they are, to view retail information within hours of its capture. Using the error-checking and validation feature in the MSP system, reps make significantly fewer data entry errors.
Finally, the quality of life of Maybelline reps has been greatly improved. Not only do they save 30 to 40 minutes per day, buy also their stress level has been significantly reduced. As a result, employee turnover has declined appreciably, saving money for the company.

Questions

1. IVR systems are still popular. What advantages do they have over even older systems in which the reps mailed or faxed reports?

2. Summarize the advantages of the new system over the IVR one.

3. Draw the flow of information in the system.

4. The existing technology enables transmission of data any time an employee can access the Internet with a wireline. Technically, the system can be enhanced so that the data can be sent wirelessly from any location as soon as they are entered. Would you recommend a wireless system to Maybelline? Why or why not?




CASE – 3   Precision Buying, Merchandising, and Marketing At Sears

The Problem

Sears, Roebuck and Company, the largest department store chain and the third-largest retailer in the United States, was caught by surprise in the 1980s as shoppers defected to specialty stores and discount mass merchandisers, causing the firm to lose market share rapidly. In an attempt to change the situation, Sears used several response strategies, ranging from introducing its own specialty stores (such as Sears Hardware) to restructuring its mall-based stores. Recently, Sears has moved to selling on the Web. It discontinued its over 100-year old paper catalog. Accomplishing the transformation and restructuring required the retooling of its information systems.
Sears had 18 data centers, one in each of 10 geographical regions as well as one each for marketing, finance, and other departments. The first problem was created when the reorganization effort produced only seven geographical regions. Frequent mismatches between accounting and sales figures and information scattered among numerous databases users to query multiple systems, even when they needed an answer to a simple query. Furthermore, users found that data that were already summarized made it difficult to conduct analysis at the desired level of detail. Finally, errors were virtually inevitable when calculations were based on data from several sources.

The Solution

To solve these problems, Sears constructed a single sales information data warehouse. The replaced the 18 old databases which were packed with redundant, conflicting, and sometimes obsolete data. The new data warehouse is a simple repository of relevant decision-making data such as authoritative data for key performance indicators, sales inventories, and profit margins. Sears, known for embracing IT on a dramatic scale, completed the data warehouse and its IT reengineering efforts in under one year—a perfect IT turnaround story.


Using an NCR enterprise server, the initial 1.7 terabyte (1.7 trillion bytes) data warehouse is part of a project dubbed the Strategic Performance Reporting System (SPRS). By 2003, the data warehouse had grown to over 70 terabytes. SPRS includes comprehensive sales data; information on inventory in stores, in transit, and at distribution centers; and cost per item. This has enabled Sears to track sales by individual items (skus) in each of its 1,950 stores (including 810 mall-based stores) in the United States and 1,600 international stores and catalog outlets. Thus, daily margin by item per store can be easily computed, for example. Furthermore, Sears now fine-tunes its buying, merchandising, and marketing strategies with previously unattainable precision.
SPRS is open to all authorized employees, who now can view each day’s sales from a multidimensional perspective (by region, district, store, product line, and individual item). Users can specify any starting and ending dates for special sales reports, and all data can be accessed via a highly user-friendly graphical interface. Sears managers can now monitor the precise impact of advertising, weather, and other factors on sales of specific items. This means that Sears merchandise buyers and other specialists can examine and adjust, if needed inventory quantities, merchandising, and order placement, along with myriad other variables, almost immediately, so they can respond quickly to environmental changes. SPRS users can also group together widely divergent kinds of products, for example, tracking sales of items marked as “gifts under $25.” Advertising staffers can follow so-called “great items,” drawn from vastly different departments, that are splashed on the covers of promotional circulars. SPRS enables extensive data mining, but only on sku- and location-related analysis.
In 1998 Sears created a large customer database, dubbed LCI (Leveraging Customer Information), which contained customer-related sale information (which was not available on SPRS). The LCI enables hourly records of transactions, for example, guiding hourly promotion (such as 15% discounts for early-bird shoppers).
In the holiday season of 2001, Sears decided to replace its regular 10% discount promotion by offering deep discount during early shopping hours. The new promotion, which was based on SPRS, failed, and only when LCI was used was the problem corrected. This motivated Sears to combine LCI and SPRS in a single platform, which enables sophisticated analysis (in 2002).
By 2001, Sears also had the following Web initiatives: an e-commerce home improvement center, a B2B supply exchange for the retail industry, a

toy catalog (wishbook.com), an e-procurement system, and much more. All of these Web-marketing initiatives feed data into the data warehouse, and their planning and control are based on accessing the data warehouse.


The Result

The ability to monitor sales by item per store enables Sears to create a sharp local market focus. For example, Sears keeps different shades of paint colors in different cities to meet local demands. Therefore, sales and market share have improved. Also, Web-based data monitoring of sales at LCI helps Sears to plan marketing and Web advertising.
At its inception, the data warehouse hand been used daily over 3,000 buyers, replenishers, marketers, strategic planner, logistics and finance analysts, and store managers. By 2004, there were over 6,000 users, since users found the system very beneficial. Response time to queries has dropped from days to minutes for typical requests. Overall, the strategic impact of the SPRS-LCI data warehouse is that it offers Sears employees a tool for making better decisions, and Sears retailing profits have climbed more than 20 percent annually since SPRS was implemented.

Questions

1. What were the drivers of SPRS?

2. How did the data warehouse solve Sears’s problems?

3. Why was it beneficial to integrate the customers’ data-base with SPRS?

4. How could RFID change Sears’s operations?














CASE – 4   Dollar General Uses Integrated Software

Dollar General (dollargeneral.com) operates more than 6,000 general stores in the United States, fiercely competing with Wal-Mart, Target, and thousands of other stores in the sale of food, apparel, home-cleaning products, health and beauty aids, and more. The chain doubled in size between 1996 and 2002 and has had some problems in addition to the stiff competition, due to its rapid expansion. For example, moving into new states means different sales taxes, and these need to be closely monitored for changes. Personal management also became more difficult with the organization’s growth. an increased number of purchasing orders exacerbated problems in the accounts payable department, which was using manual matching of purchasing orders, invoices, and what was actually received in the “receiving” department before bills were paid.
The IT department was flooded with request to generate long reports on topics ranging from asset management to general ledgers. It became clear that a better information system was needed. Dollar General started by evaluating information requirements that would be able to solve the above and other problems that cut into the company’s profit.
A major factor in deciding which software to buy was the integration requirement among the existing information systems of the various functional areas, especially the financial applications. This led to the selection of the Financials suite (from Lawson Software). The company started to implement applications one at the time. Before 1998, the company installed the suite’s asset management, payroll, and some HR applications which allow the tens of thousands of employees to monitor and self-update their benefits, 401k contributions, and personal data (resulting in big savings to the HR department). After 1998, the accounts payable and general ledger modules of Lawson Software were activated. The accounting modules allow employees to route, extract, and analyze data in the accounting/finance area with little reliance on IT personnel. During 2001-2003, Dollar General moved into the sales and procurement areas, thus adding the marketing and operation activities to the integrated system.
Here are a few examples of how various parts of the new system work: All sales data from the point-of-sale scanners of some 6,000 stores are pulled each night, together with financial data, discounts, etc., into the business intelligence application for financial and marketing analysis. Employee payroll data, from each store, are pulled once a week. This provides synergy with the sales audit system (from STS Software). All sales data are processed nightly by the STS System, broken into hourly journal entries, processed and summarized, and then entered into the Lawson’s general ledger module.
The original infrastructure was mainframe based (IBM AS 400). By 2002, the 800 largest suppliers of Dollar General were submitting their bills on the EDI. This allowed instantaneous processing in the accounts payable module. By 2003, service providers, such as utilities, were added to the system. To do all this the system was migrated in 2001 from the old legacy system to the Unix operating system, and then to a Web-based infrastructure, mainly in order to add Web-based functionalities and tools.
A development tool embedded in Lawson’s Financials allowed users to customize applications without touching the computer programming code. This included applications that are not contained in the Lawson system. For example, an employee-bonus applications was not available at Lawson, but was added to Financial’s payroll module to accommodate Dollar General’s bonus system. A customized application that allowed additions and changes in dozens of geographical areas also solved the organization’s state sales-tax collection and reporting problem.
The system is very scalable, so there is not problem in adding stores, vendors, applications, or functionalities. In 2003, the system was completely converted to Web-based, enabling authorized vendors, for example, to log on the Internet and view the status of their invoices by themselves. Also the Internet/EDI enables small vendors to use the system. (An EDI is too expensive for small vendors, but the EDI/Internet is affordable.) Also, the employment can update personal data from any Web-enabled desktop in the store or at home. Future plans call for adding an e-purchasing (procurement) module using a desktop purchasing model.

Questions

1. Explain why the old, nonintegrated functional system created problems for the company. Be specific.
2. The new system cost several millions dollars. Why, in your opinion, was it necessary to install it?
3. Lawson Software Smart Notification Software (lawson.com) is being considered by Dollar General. Find information about the software and write an opinion for adopting or rejection.
4. Another new product of Lawson is Service Automation. Would you recommend it to Dollar General? Why or why not? 

CASE – 5   Singapore and Malaysia Airlines Intelligent System

The problem

Airlines fly around the globe, mostly with their native crew. Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines are relatively small airlines, but they serve dozens of different countries. If a crewmember is ill on route, there is a problem of quickly finding a replacement. This is just one example why crew scheduling may be complex, especially when it is subject to regulatory constraints, contract agreements and crew preferences. Disturbances such as   weather conditions, maintenance problems, etc, also make crew management difficult.

The Solution

Singapore Airlines uses Web-based intelligent systems including expert systems and neural computing to manage the company’s flight crew scheduling and handle disruptions to the crew rosters. The Integrated Crew Management System (ICMS) project, implemented in Singapore since 1997, consists of three modules: one roster assignment module for cockpit crew, one for the cabin crew, and a crew tracking module. The first two modules automate the tracking and scheduling of the flight crew’s timetable. The second module tracks the positions of the crew and includes an intelligent system that handles crew patterns disruptions.
For example, crews are rearranged if one member falls ill while in a foreign port; the system will find a backup in order to prevent understaffing on the scheduled flight. The intelligent system then determines the best way to reschedule the different crew members’ rosters to accommodate the sick person. When a potentially disruptive situation occurs, the intelligent system automatically draws upon the knowledge stored in the database and advises the best course of action. This might mean repositioning the crew or calling in backup staff. The crew tracking system includes a crew disruption handling module that provides decision support capabilities in real time.
A similar Web-based system is used by Malaysia Airlines, as of summer 2003, to optimize flight crew utilization. Also called ICMS, it leverages optimization software from ilog.com. Its Crew Pairing Optimization (CPO) module utilizes Ilog Cplex and Ilog Solver optimization components to ensure compliance with airline regulations, trade union agreements, and company policies, to minimize the costs associated with crew accommodations and transportation and to efficiently plan and optimize staff utilization and activities associated with long-term planning and daily operations. The Crew Duty Assignment (CDA) module provides automatic assignment of duties to all flight crews. The system considers work rules, regulatory requirements, and crew requests to produce an optimal monthly crew roster.

The Results

 Despite the difficult economic times, both airless are competing successfully in the region, and their balance sheets are better than most other airlines.

Questions

1. Why do airlines need optimization systems for crew scheduling?

2. What role can experts’ knowledge play in this case?

3. What are the similarities between the systems in Singapore and Malaysia?

4. The airlines use ADSs for their pricing strategy (pricing and yield optimization). Can they use an ADS for crew management? Why or why not?





Note: Solve any 4 Cases Study’s

CASE: I    Pushing Paper Can Be Fun

A large city government was putting on a number of seminars for managers of various departments throughout the city. At one of these sessions the topic discussed was motivation—how to motivate public servants to do a good job. The plight of a police captain became the central focus of the discussion:
I’ve got a real problem with my officers. They come on the force as young, inexperienced rookies, and we send them out on the street, either in cars or on a beat. They seem to like the contact they have with the public, the action involved in crime prevention, and the apprehension of criminals. They also like helping people out at fires, accidents, and other emergencies.
The problem occurs when they get back to the station. They hate to do the paperwork, and because they dislike it, the job is frequently put off or done inadequately. This lack of attention hurts us later on when we get to court. We need clear, factual reports. They must be highly detailed and unambiguous. As soon as one part of a report is shown to be inadequate or incorrect, the rest of the report is suspect. Poor reporting probably causes us to lose more cases than any other factor.
I just don’t know how to motivate them to do a better job. We’re in a budget crunch, and I have absolutely no financial rewards at my disposal. In fact, we’ll probably have to lay some people off in the near future. It’s hard for me to make the job interesting and challenging because it isn’t-it’s boring, routine paperwork, and there isn’t much you can do about it.
Finally, I can’t say to them that their promotions will hinge on the excellence of their paperwork. First at all, they know it’s not true. If their performance is adequate, most are more likely to get promoted just by staying on the force a certain number of years than for some specific outstanding act. Second, they were trained to do the job they do out in the streets, not to fill out forms. All through their careers the arrests and interventions are what get noticed.
Some people have suggested a number of things, like using conviction records as a performance criterion. However, we know that’s not fair—too many other things are involved. Bad paperwork  increases the chance that you lose in court, but good paperwork doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win. We tried setting up the team competitions based on the excellence of the reports, but the officers caught on to that pretty quickly. No one was getting any type of reward for winning the competition, and they figured why should they bust a gut when there was on payoff.
I just don’t know what to do.


Question:

1. What performance problems is the captain trying to correct?
2. Use the MARS model of individual behavior and performance to diagnose the possible causes of the unacceptable behavior.
3. Has the captain considered all possible solutions to the problem? If not, what else might be done?

CASE: II    How Did I Get Here?

Something was not right. John Breckenridge opened his eyes, saw the nurse’s face, and closed them once more. Cobwebs slowly cleared from his brain as he woke up from his brain as he woke up from the operation. He felt a hard tube in his nostril, and tried to lift his hand to pull it out, but it was strapped down to the bed. John tried to speak but could make only a croaking sound. Nurse Thompson spoke soothingly, “Just try to relax, Mr. Breckenridge. You had a heart attack and emergency surgery, but you’re going to be OK.”
      Heart attack? How did I get here? As the anesthesia wore off and the pain set in, John began to recall the events of the past year; and with the memories came another sort of pain – that of remembering a life where success was measured in hours worked and things accomplished, but which of late had not measured up.
John recalled his years in college, where getting good grades had been important, but not so much as his newly developing love for Karen, the girl with auburn hair who got her nursing degree the same year as he graduated with a degree in software engineering. They married the summer after graduation and moved from their sleepy university town in Indiana to Aspen, Colorado. There John got a job with a new software company while Karen worked evenings as a nurse. Although they didn’t see much of each other during the week, weekends were a special time, and the surrounding mountains and nature provided a superb quality of life.
Life was good to the Breckenridges. Two years after they were married, Karen gave birth to Josh and two years later to Linda. Karen reduced her nursing to the minimum hours required to maintain her license, and concentrated on rearing the kids. John, on the other hand, was busy providing for the lifestyle they increasingly became used to, which included a house, car, SUV, ski trips, and all of the things a successful engineering career could bring. The company grew in leaps and bounds, and John was one of the main reasons it grew fast. Work was fun. The company was growing, his responsibilities increased, and he and his team were real buddies. With Karen’s help at home, he juggled work, travel, and evening classes that led to a master’s degree. The master’s degree brought another promotion—this time to vice president of technology at the young (for this company) age of 39.
The promotion had one drawback: It would require working out of the New York office. Karen sadly said goodbye to her friends, convinced the kids that the move would be good to them, and left the ranch house for another one, much more expensive and newer, but smaller and just across the river in New Jersey from the skyscraper where her husband worked. Newark was not much like Aspen, and the kids had a hard time making friends, especially Josh, who was now 16. He grew sullen and withdrawn and began hanging around with a crowd that Karen thought looked very tough. Linda, always the quiet one, stuck mostly to her room.
John’s new job brought with it money and recognition, as well as added responsibilities. He now had to not only lead software development but also actively participate in steering the company in the right direction for the future, tailoring its offerings to market trends. Mergers and acquisitions were the big things in the software business, and John found a special thrill in picking small companies with promising software, buying them out, and adding them to the corporate portfolio. Karen had everything a woman could want and went regularly to a health club. The family lacked for no material need.
At age 41 John felt he had the world by its tail. Sure, he was a bit overweight, but who wouldn’t be with the amount of work and entertaining that he did? He drank some, a habit he had developed early in his career. Karen worried about that, but he reassured her by reminding her that he had been really drunk only twice and would never drink and drive. Josh’s friends were a worry, but nothing had yet come of it.
Not all was well, however. John had been successful in Colorado because he thought fast on his feet, expressed his opinions, and got people to buy into his decisions. In the New York corporate office things were different. All of the top brass except the president and John had Ivy League, moneyed backgrounds. They spoke of strategy but would take only risks that would further their personal careers. He valued passion, integrity, and action, with little regard for personal advancement. They resented him, rightly surmising that the only reason he had been promoted was because he was more like he president than they were, and he was being groomed as heir apparent.
On November 2, 2004, John Breckenridge’s world began to unravel. The company he worked for, the one he had given so much of his life to build was acquired in a hostile takeover. The president who had been his friend and mentor was let go, and the backstabbing began in earnest. John found himself the odd man out in the office as the others jostled to build status in the new firm. Although his stellar record allowed him to survive the first round of job cuts, that survival only made him more of a pariah to those around him. Going to work was a chore now, and John had no friends like those he had left in Aspen.
Karen was little help. John had spent nearly two decades married more to his job than his wife, and he found she was more of a stranger than a comforter as he struggled in his new role. When he spoke about changing jobs, she blew up. “Why did I have to give up nursing for your career?” she said. “Why do we have to move again, just because you can’t get along at work? Can’t you see what the move did to our kids?”
Seeing the hurt and anger in Karen’s eyes, John stopped sharing and turned to his bottle for comfort. In time that caused even more tension in the home, and it slowed him down at work when he really needed to excel. John would often drink himself into oblivion when on business trips rather than thinking about where his life and career were going. On his last trip he hadn’t slept much and had worked far too hard. Midmorning he had been felled by a massive heart attack.
All of this history passed through John Breckenridge’s mind as he woke after the operation. It was time for a change.




Question:

1. Identify the stressors in John Breckenridge’s life. Which ones could he have prevented?

2. What were the results of the stress? Would you consider these to be typical to stress situations and lifestyle choices John made, or was John Breckenridge unlucky?

3. Assume you are a career coach retained by John Breckenridge to guide him through his next decisions. How would you recommend that John modify his lifestyle and behavior to reduce stress? Should he change jobs? Do you believe he is capable of reducing his stress alone? If not, where should he seek help?



CASE: III    The Shipping Industry Accounting Team

For the past five years I have been working at McKay, Sanderson, and Smith Associates, a mid-sized accounting firm in Boston that specializes in commercial accounting and audits. My particular specialty in accounting practices for shipping companies, ranging from small fishing fleets to a couple of the big firms with ships along the East Coast.
About 18 months ago McKay, Sanderson, and Smith Associates became part of a large merger involving two other accounting firms. These firms have offices in Miami, Seattle, Baton Rouge, and Los Angeles. Although the other two accounting firms were much larger than McKay, all three firms agreed to avoid centralizing the business around one office in Los Angeles. Instead the new firm—called Goldberg, Choo, and McKay Associates—would rely on teams across the country to “leverage the synergies of our collective knowledge” (an often-cited statement from the managing partner soon after the merger).
The merger affected me a year ago when my boss (a senior partner and vice president of the merger) announced that I would be working more closely with three people from the other two firms to become the firm’s new shipping industry accounting team. The other team members were Elias in Miami, Susan in Seattle, and Brad in Los Angeles. I had met Elias briefly at a meeting in New York City during the merger but had never met Susan or Brad, although I knew that they were shipping accounting professionals at the other firms.
Initially the shipping team activities involved e-mailing each other about new contracts and prospective clients. Later we were asked to submit joint monthly reports on accounting statements and issues. Normally I submitted my own monthly reports to summarize activities involving my own clients. Coordinating the monthly report with three other people took much more time, particularly because different accounting documentation procedures across the three firms were still being resolved. It took numerous e-mail messages an a few telephone calls to work out a reasonable monthly report style.
During this aggravating process it became apparent—to me at least—that this team business was costing me more time than it was worth. Moreover, Brad in Los Angeles didn’t have a clue about how to communicate with the rest of us. He rarely replied to e-mail. Instead he often used the telephone tag. Brad arrived at work at 9:30 a.m. in Los Angeles (and was often late), which is early afternoon in Boston. I typically have a flexible work schedule from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. so I can chauffeur my kids after school to sports and music lessons. So Brad and I have a window of less than three hours to share information.
The biggest nuisance with the shipping specialist accounting team started two weeks ago when the firm asked the four of us to develop a new strategy for attracting more shipping firm business. This new strategic plan is a messy business. Somehow we have to share our thoughts on various approaches, agree on a new plan, and write a unified submission to the managing partner. Already the project is taking most of my time just writing and responding to e-mail and talking in conference calls (which none of us did much before the team formed).
Susan and Brad have already had two or three misunderstandings via e-mail about their different perspectives on delicate matters in the strategic plan. The worst of these disagreements required a conference call with all of us to resolve. Except for the most basic matters, it seems that we can’t understand each other, let alone agree on key issues. I have come to the conclusion that I would never want Brad to work in my Boston office (thanks goodness he’s on the other side of the country). Although Elias and I seem to agree on most points, the overall team can’t form a common vision or strategy. I don’t know how Elias, Susan, or Brad feel, but I would be quite happy to work somewhere that did not require any of these long-distance team headaches.

Question:

1. What type of team was formed here? Was it necessary, in your opinion?

2. Use the team effectiveness model in Chapter 9 and related information in this chapter to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this team’s environment, design, and processes.

3. Assuming that these four people must continue to work as a team, recommend ways to improve the team’s effectiveness.


CASE: IV    Conflict In Close Quarters
A team of psychologists at Moscow’s Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) wanted to learn more about the dynamics of long-term isolation in space. This knowledge would be applied to the International Space Station, a joint project of several countries that would send people into space for more than six months. It would eventually include a trip to Mars taking up to three years.
IBMP set up a replica of the Mir space station in Moscow. They then arranged for three international researchers from Japan, Canada, and Austria 110 days isolated in a chamber the size of a train car. This chamber joined a smaller chamber where four Russian cosmonauts had already completed half of their 240 days of isolation. This was the first time an international crew was involved in the studies. None of the participants spoke English as their first language, yet they communicated throughout their stay in English at varying levels of proficiency.
Judith Lapierre, a French-Canadian, was the only female in the experiment. Along with obtaining a PhD in public health and social medicine, Lapierre had studied space sociology at the International Space University in France and conducted isolation research in the Antarctic. This was her fourth trip to Russia, where she had learned the language. The mission was supposed to have a second female participant from the Japanese space program, but she was not selected by IBMP.
The Japanese and Austrian participants viewed the participation of a woman as a favorable factor, says Lapierre. For example, to make the surroundings more comfortable, they rearranged the furniture, hung posters on the walls, and put a tablecloth on the kitchen table. “We adapted our environment, whereas Russians just viewed it as something to be endured,” she explains. “We decorated for Christmas because I’m the kind of person who likes to host people.”

New Year’s Eve Turmoil

 Ironically, it was at one of those social events, the New Year’s Eve party, that events took a turn for the worse. After drinking vodka (allowed by the Russian space agency), two of the Russian cosmonauts got into a fistfight that left blood splattered on the chamber walls. At one point a colleague hid the knives in the station’s kitchen because of fears that the two Russians were about to stab each other. The two cosmonauts, who generally did not get along, had to be restrained by other men. Soon after that brawl, the Russian commander grabbed Lapierre, dragged her out of view of the television monitoring cameras, and kissed her aggressively—twice. Lapierre fought him off, but the message didn’t register. He tried to kiss her again the next morning.
The next day the international crew complained to IBMP about the behavior of the Russian cosmonauts. The Russian institute apparently took no against the aggressors. Instead the institute’s psychologists replied that the incidents were part of the experiment. They wanted crew members to solve their personal problems with mature discussion without asking for outside help. “You have to understand that Mir is an autonomous object, far away from anything,” Vadim Gushin, the IBMP psychologist in charge of project, explained after the experiment had ended in March. “If the crew can’t solve problems among themselves, they can’t work together.”
Following IBMP’s response, the international crew wrote a scathing letter to the Russian institute and the space agencies involved in the experiment. “We had never expected such events to take place in a highly controlled scientific experiment where individuals go through a multistep selection process,” they wrote. “If we had known… we would not have joined it as subjects.” The letter also complained about IBMP’s response to their concerns.
Informed about the New Year’s Eve incident, the Japanese space program convened an emergency meeting on January 2 to address the incidents. Soon after the Japanese team member quit, apparently shocked by IBMP’s inaction. He was replaced with a Russian researcher on the international team. Ten days after the fight—a little over the month the international team began the mission—the doors between the Russian and international crews’ chambers were barred at the request of the international research team. Lapierre later emphasized that this action was taken because of concerns about violence, not the incident involving her.

A Stolen Kiss or Sexual Harassment

By the end of experiment in March, news of the fistfight between the cosmonauts and the commander’s attempts to kiss Lapierre had reached the public. Russian scientists attempted to play down the kissing incident by saying that it was one fleeting kiss, a clash of cultures, and a female participant who was too emotional.
“In the West, some kinds of kissing are regarded as sexual harassment. In our culture it’s nothing,” said Russian scientist Vadim Gushin in one interview. In another interview he explained, “The problem of sexual harassment is given a lot of attention in North America but less in Europe. In Russia it is even less of an issue, not because we are more or less moral than the rest of the world; we just have different priorities.”
Judith Lapierre says the kissing incident was tolerable compared to this reaction from the Russian scientists who conducted the experiment. “They don’t get it at all,” she complains. “They don’t think anything is wrong. I’m more frustrated than ever. The worst thing is that they don’t realize it was wrong.”
Norbert Kraft, the Austrian scientist on the international team, also disagreed with the Russian interpretation of events. “They’re trying to protect themselves,” he says. “They’re trying to put the fault on others. But this is not a cultural issue. If a woman doesn’t want to be kissed, it is not acceptable.”


Question:

1. Identify the different conflict episodes that exist in this case. Who was in conflict with whom?

2. What are the sources of conflict for these conflict incidents?

3. What conflict management style(s) did Lapierre, the international team, and Gushin use to resolve these conflicts? What style(s) would have worked best in the situation?


CASE: V   Hillton’s Transformation

Twenty years ago Hillton was a small city (about 70,000 residents) that served as an outer to a large Midwest metropolitan area. The city treated employees like family and gave them a great deal of autonomy in their work. Everyone in the organization (including the two labor unions representing employees) implicitly agreed that the leaders and supervisors of the organization should rise through the ranks based on their experience. Few people were ever hired from the outside into middle or senior positions. The rule of employment at Hillton was to learn the job skills, maintain a reasonably good work record, and wait your turn for promotion.
Hillton had grown rapidly since the mid-1970s. As the population grew, so did the municipality’s workforce to keep pace with the increasing demand for municipal services. This meant that employees were promoted fairly quickly and were almost guaranteed employment. In fact, until recently Hillton had never laid off any employee. The organization’s culture could be described as one of entitlement and comfort. Neither the elected city council members nor the city manager bothered the department managers about their work. There were few costs controls because rapid growth forced emphasis on keeping up with the population expansion. The public became somewhat more critical of the city’s poor services, including road construction at inconvenient times and the apparent lack of respect some employees showed towards taxpayers.
During these expansion years Hillton put most of its money into “outside” (also called “hard”) municipal services such as road building, utility construction and maintenance, fire and police protection, recreational facilities, and land use control. This emphasis occurred because an expanding population demanded more of these services, and most of Hillton’s senior people came from the outside services group. For example, Hillton’s city manager for many years was a road development engineer. The “inside” workers (taxation, community services, and the like) tended to have less seniority, and their departments were given less priority.
As commuter and road systems developed, Hillton attracted more upwardly mobile professionals to the community. Some infrastructure demands continued, but now these suburban dwellers wanted more “soft” services, such as libraries, social activities, and community services. They also began complaining about how the municipality was being run. The population had more than doubled between the 1970s and 1990s, and it was increasingly apparent that the city organization needed more corporate planning, information systems, organization development, and cost control systems. Resident voiced their concerns in various ways that the municipality was not providing the quality of management that they would expect from a city of its size.
In 1996 a new mayor and council replaced most of the previous incumbents, mainly on the platform of improving the municipality’s management structure. The new council gave the city manager, along with two other senior managers, an early retirement buyout package. Rather than promoting form the lower ranks, council decided to fill all three positions with qualified candidates from large municipal corporations in the region. The following year several long-term managers left Hillton, and at least half of those positions were filled by people from outside the organization.
In less than two years Hillton had eight senior or departmental managers hired from other municipalities who played a key role in changing the organization’s value system. These eight managers became known (often with negative connotations) as the “professionals.” They worked closely with each other to change the way middle and lower-level managers had operated for many years. They brought in a new computer system and emphasized cost controls where managers previously had complete autonomy. Promotions were increasingly based more on merit than seniority.
These managers frequently announced in meetings and newsletters that municipal employees must provide superlative customer service, and that Hillton would become one of the most customer-friendly places for citizens and those doing business with the municipality. To this end these managers were quick to support the public’s increasing demand for more soft services, including expanded library services and recreational activities. And when population growth flattened for a few years, the city manager and the other professionals gained council support to lay off a few outside workers due to lack of demand for hard services.
One of the most significant changes was that the outside departments no longer held dominant positions in city management. Most of the professional managers had worked exclusively in administrative and related inside jobs. Two had Master of Business Administration degrees. This led to some tension between the professional managers and the older outside managers.
Even before the layoffs, managers of outside departments resisted the changes more than others. These managers complained that their employees with the highest seniority were turned down for promotions. They argued for more budget and warned that infrastructure problems would cause liability problems. Informally these outside managers were supported by the labor union representing outside workers. The union leaders tried to bargain for more job guarantees, whereas the union representing inside workers focused more on improving wages and benefits. Leaders of the outside union made several statements in the local media that the city had “lost its heart” and that the public would suffer from the actions of the new professionals.


Question:

1. Contrast Hillton’s earlier corporate culture with the emerging set of cultural values.

2. Considering the difficulty in changing organizational culture, why did Hillton’s management seem to be successful at this transformation?

3. Identify two other strategies that the city might consider to reinforce the new set of corporate values.



Attempt all case study
CASE I- A Reply Sent to an Erring Customer
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 23rd, with a cheque for Rs. 25,000/- on account, is to hand. We note what you say as to the difficulty you experience in collecting your outstanding accounts, but we are compelled to remark that we do not think you are treating us with the consideration we have a right to expect.
It is true that small remittances have been forwarded from time to time, but the debit balance against you has been steadily increasing during the past twelve months until it now stands at the considerable total of Rs. 85,000/-
Having regard to the many years during which you have been a customer of this house and the, generally speaking, satisfactory character of your account, we are reluctant to resort to harsh measures.
We must, however, insist that the existing balance should be cleared off by regular installments of say Rs. 10,000/- per month, the first installment to reach us by the 7th.  In the meantime you shall pay cash for all further goods; we are allowing you an extra 3% discount in lieu of credit. We shall be glad to hear from you about this arrangement, as otherwise we shall have no alternative but definitely to close your account and place the matter in other hands.
Yours truly, 
Questions:
1. Comment on the appropriateness of the sender’s tone to a customer.
2. Point out the old – fashioned phrases and expressions.
3. Rewrite the reply according to the principles of effective writing in business.

Case II - Advertising Radio FM Brand
A young, gorgeous woman is standing in front of her apartment window dancing to the 1970s tune, “All Right Now” by the one – hit band free.  Across the street a young man looks out of his apartment window and notices her.  He moves closer to the window, taking interest.  She cranks up the volume and continues dancing, looking out the window at the fellow, who smiles hopefully and waves meekly.  He holds up a bottle of wine and waves it, apparently inviting her over for a drink.  The lady waves back.  He kisses the bottle and excitedly says, “Yesss.”  Then, he gazes around his apartment and realizes that it is a mess. “No!” he exclaims in a worried tone of voice. 
Frantically, he does his best to quickly clean up the place, stuffing papers under the sofa and putting old food back in the refrigerator, He slips on a black shirt, slicks  back his hair, sniffs his armpit, and lets out an excited , “Yeahhh!” in eager anticipation of entertaining the young lady.  He goes back to the window and sees the woman still dancing away.  He points to his watch, as if to say “Come on.  It is getting late.”   As she just continues dancing, he looks confused.  Then a look of sudden insight appears on his face, “Five,” he says to himself.  He turns on his radio, and it too is playing “All Right Now.”  The man goes to his window and starts dancing as he watches his lady friend continue stepping.  “Five, yeah,” he says as he makes the “okay” sign with his thumb and forefinger.  He waves again.  Everyone in the apartment building is dancing by their window to “All Right Now.”  A super appears on the screen: “Are you on the right wavelength?” 
Questions:
1. What is non – verbal communication?  Why do you suppose that this commercial relies primarily on non-verbal communication between a young man and a gorgeous woman?  What types of non – verbal communication are being used in this case?
2. Would any of the non-verbal communications in this spot (ad) not work well in another culture?
3. What role does music play in this spot? Who is the target market?
4. Is the music at all distracting from the message?
5. How else are radio stations advertised on TV?

CASE III -EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW OF R P SINHA
Mr. R P Sinha is a MBA.  He is being interviewed for the position of Management Trainee at a reputed company.  The selection committee’s is chaired by a lady Vice – President.  Mr. Sinha’s interview was as follows:

Committee: Good morning!
Mr. Sinha: Good morning to Sirs and Madam! 
Chairperson: Please, sit down.
Mr. Sinha : Thank you (sits down at the edge of the chair, keeps his portfolio on the table)
Q. Chairperson: You are Mr. R. P. Sinha
A Sinha: Yes, Madam.  This is how I am called.
Q. Chairperson: You have passed MBA with 1st Division.
A. Sinha: Yes, Madam.
Q. Chairperson: Why do you want to work in our organization?
A Sinha: It is just like that.  Also, because it has good reputation.
Q. Member A: This job is considered to be quite stressful.  Do you think you can manage the stress involved.
A. Sinha: I think there is too much talk about stress these days.  Sir, would you tell clearly what you mean by stress? I am very strong for any stress.
Q. Member B: What are your strengths?
A. Sinha: Sir, who am I talk boastfully about my strengths.  You should tell me my strengths.
Q. Member C: What are your weaknesses?
A. Sinha: I become angry very fast.
Q. Member A: Do you want to ask us any questions?
A Sinha: Yes Sir!  What are the future chances for one who starts as a management trainee?

The member tells M. Sinha the typical career path for those starting as Management Trainee.  The Chairperson thanks Mr. Sinha.  Mr. Sinha promptly says in reply, “you are welcome,” and comes out.

Questions:

1. Do you find Mr. Sinha’s responses to various questions effective? Give reasons for your view on each answer given by Mr. Sinha.

2. Rewrite the responses that you consider most effective to the above questions in a job interview.

3. Mr. Sinha has observed the norm of respectful behavior and polite
conversation.  But, do you think there is something gone wrong in his case?  Account for your general impression of Mr. Sinha’s performance at the interview.


Case IV - Outsourcing Backlash Gets Abusive, Ugly
I don’t want to speak to you. Connect to your boss in the US,” hissed the American on the phone. The young girl at a Bangalore call centre tried to be as polite as she could.
At another call centre, another day, another young girl had a Londoner unleashing himself on her, “Young lady do you know that because of you Indians we are losing jobs.”
The outsourcing backlash is getting ugly. Handling irate callers is the new brief for the young men and women taking calls at these outsourced job centers. Supervisors tell them to be “cool”.
Avinash Vashistha, managing partner of NEOIT, a leading US-based consultancy firm says,” Companies involved in outsourcing both in the US and India are already getting a lot of hate mail against outsourcing and it is hardly surprising that some people should behave like this on the telephone.” Vashistha says Indian call centers should train their operators how to handle such calls.
Indeed, the furore raised by the western media over job losses because of outsourcing has made ordinary citizens there sensitive to the fact that their call are being taken not from their midst but in countries, such as India and the Philippines.
The angry outbursts the operators face border on the racist and sexist, says the manager of a call center in Hyderabad. But operators and senior executives of call centers reguse to go on record for fear of kicking up a controversy that might result in their companies’ losing clients overseas.
“It’s happening often enough and so let’s face it,” says a senior executive of a Gurgaon call centre, adding, “This doesn’t have any impact on business.”
Questions:
1. Assume you are working as an operator at a call centre in India and are receiving irate calls from Americans and Lodoners. How would you handle such calls? Conceive a short conversation between you and your client, and put it on paper.
2. “Keep your cool.” What does this mean in term of conversation control?
3. Do you agree with the view that such abusive happenings on the telephone do not have any impact on business? Justify.

Attempt Only 4 case study


CASE – 1

Aravali Hospital was built two years ago, and currently has a workforce of 215 people. The hospital is small, but because it is new, it is extremely efficient. The board has voted to increase its capacity from 60 to 180 beds. By this time next year, the hospital will over three times as large as now, in terms of both beds and personnel.

     The administrator, Maya Joshi, feels that the major problem with this proposed increase is that hospital will lose its efficiency. “I want to hire people who are just like our current team of personnel—hardworking, dedicated talented, and able to interact well with patients. If we triple the number of employees, I do not see how it will be possible to maintain our quality of patient care. We are going to lose our family atmosphere. We will be inundated with mediocrity, and we will end up being like every other institution in the local area—large and uncaring.”
    The chairman of the board is also concerned about the effect of hiring such a large number of employees. However, he believes that Joshi is over-reacting. “It cannot be that hard to find people who are like our current staff. There must be a lot of people out there who are just as good. What you need to do is develop a plan of action that will allow you to carefully screen those who will fit into your current organisational culture, and those who will not. It is not going to be as difficult as you believe. Trust me. Everything will work out just fine”.

      As a result of the chairman’s comments, Joshi had decided that the most effective way of dealing with the situation is to develop a plan of action. She intends to meet with her administrative group and determine the best way of screening incoming candidates, and then helping those who are hired to become socialised in terms of the hospital’s culture. Joshi has called a meeting for day after tomorrow. At that time, she intends to discuss her ideas, get suggestions from her people, and then formulate a plan of action.

Questions

What can Joshi and her staff do to select the type of entry-level candidates they want?
How can Joshi ensure that those who are hired come to accept the core cultural values of the hospital? What steps would you recommend?













CASE – 2

Leo Medical Diagnostic and Research Center has patented its new invention of poly fiber cardiovascular valve. The product developed is a novel one and can be manufactured at a very low cost. The utility and life of the product in laboratory testing was found to be more than the life of the patients. The product could enhance the life of patient by at least five years. Considering all these factors Leo Medical Diagnostic and Research Center chose to set a unit to manufacture the product. However, the company has a dilemma. As the product is new and requires the acceptance of medical community, it is considering appointing a promotion and sales co-coordinator to manage the promotional and communication efforts of the firm.

Questions

Do you think the number of units of a product to be manufactured is a random number? Explain your reasoning.

How does one determine the number of units of a product to be manufactured in an organisation?

What are the elements you would take into consideration for forecasting the production and sales requirement of the product developed by Leo Medical Center?

How would you go about planning and organising the manufacturing and selling efforts of the organisation?



CASE – 3

Hari Mohan has a position on the corporate planning staff of a large company in a high technology industry. Although he has spent most of his time on long-range, strategic planning for the company, he has been appointed to a task force to reorganize the company. The president and the board of directors are concerned that they are losing their competitive position in the industry because of an outdated organisation structure. Being a planning expert, Hari Mohan convinced the task force that they should proceed by first determining exactly what type of structure they have now, then determining what type of environment the company faces, now and in the future, and then designing the organisation structure accordingly. In the first phase, they discovered that the organisation is currently structured along classic bureaucratic lines. In the second phase, they found that they are competing in a highly dynamic, rapidly growing and uncertain environment that requires a great deal of flexibility and response to change.

Questions

What type or types of organisation design do you feel this task force should recommend in the third and final phase of the approach to their assignment?

Explain how the systems and the contingency theories of organisation can each contribute to the analysis of this case.

Do you think Hari Mohan was correct in his suggestion of how the task force should proceed? What types of problems might develop as by-products of the recommendation you made in question 1?


CASE – 4

Bharat Engineering Works Limited is a major industrial machineries besides other engineering products. It has enjoyed market preference for its machineries because of limited competition in the field. Usually there have been more orders than what the company could supply. However, the scenario changed quickly because of the entry of two new competitors in the field with foreign technological collaboration. For the first time, the company faced problem in marketing its products with usual profit margin. Sensing the likely problem, the chief executive appointed Mr Arvind Kumar as general manager to direct the operations of industrial machinery division. Mr Kumar had similar assignment abroad before coming back to India.
Mr Kumar had a discussion with the chief executive about the nature of the problem being faced by the company so that he could fix up his priority. The chief executive advised him to consult various heads of department to have first hand information. However, he emphasised that the company lacked an integrated planning system while members of the Board of Directors insisted on introducing this in several meetings both formally and informally.
After joining as General Manager, Mr Kumar got briefings from the heads of all departments. He asked all heads to identify major problems and issues concerning them. The marketing manager indicated that in order to achieve higher sales, he needed more sales support. Sales people had no central organisation to provide sales support nor was there a generous budget for demonstration teams which could be sent to customers to win business.
The production manager complained about the old machines and equipments used in manufacturing. Therefore, cost of production was high but without corresponding quality. While competitors had better equipments and machinery, Bharat Engineering had neither replaced its age-old plant nor reconditioned it. Therefore to reduced the cost, it was essential to automate production lines by installing new equipment.
Director of research and development did not have specific problem and therefore, did not indicate for any change. However, a principal scientist in R&D indicated on one day that the director of R&D, though very nice in his approach, did not emphasize on short-term research projects, which could easily increase production efficiency by at least 20 per cent within a very short period without any major capital outlay.


Questions

Discuss the nature and characteristics of the problems in this case.

What steps should be taken by Mr Kumar to overcome these problems?




CASE – 5

The president of Simplex Mills sat at his desk in the hushed atmosphere, so typical of business offices, after the close of working hours. He was thinking about Rehman, the manager in-charge of purchasing, and his ability to work with George, the production manager, and Vipulabh, the marketing and sales manager in the firm.
When the purchasing department was established two years ago, both George and Vipulabh agreed with the need to centralise this function and place a specialist in charge. George was of the view that this would free his supervisors from detailed ordering activities. Vipulabh opined that the flow of materials into the firm was important enough to warrant a specialised management assignment. Yet since the purchasing department began operating it has been precisely these two managers who have had a number of confrontations with the new purchase manager, and occasionally with one another, in regard to the way the purchasing function in being carried out.
From George’s point of view, instead of simplifying his job as production manager by taking care of purchasing for him, the purchasing department has developed a formal set of procedures that has resulted in as much time commitment on his part as he had previously spent in placing his orders directly with vendors. Further, he is specially irritated by the fact that his need for particular items or particular specification is constantly being questioned by the purchasing department. When the department was established, George assumed that the purchasing manager was there to fill his needs, not to question them.
As Vipulabh sees it, the purchasing function is an integral part of marketing function, and the two therefore need to be jointly managed as a unified process. Purchasing function cannot be separated from a firm’s overall marketing strategy. However, Rehman has attempted to carry out the purchasing function without regard for this obvious relationship between his responsibilities and those of Vipulabh, thus making a unified marketing strategy impossible.
In his previous position, Rehman had worked in the purchasing department of a firm considerably larger than Simplex. Before being hired, he was interviewed by all the top managers, including George and Vipulabh, but it was the president himself who negotiated the details of the job offer. As Rehman sees it, he was hired as a professional to do a professional job. Both George and Vipulabh have been distracting him from this goal by presuming that he is somehow subordinate to them, which he believes is not the case. The people in the production department, who use the purchasing function most, have complained about the detail that he requires on their requisitions. But he has documented proof that materials are now being purchased much more economically than they were under the former decentralised system. He finds Vipulabh’s interests more difficult to understand, since he sees no particular relationship between his responsibilities for efficient procurement, and Vipulabh’s responsibilities to market the firm’s products.
The president has been aware of the continuing conflict among three managers for some time, but on the theory that a little rivalry is healthy and stimulating, he has felt that it was nothing to be unduly concerned about. But now that much of his time is being taken up by much of what he considers to be petty bickering, the time has come to take some positive action.

Questions:
Is George’s view of the situation realistic?
How do you evaluate Vipulabh’s position?
How might this conflict be associated with factors in the formal organisation?
What should the president of Simplex Mills do now?