MS-026: Organisational Dynamics last 3 yrs paper
June, 2021
Section-A
- Briefly discuss group cohesiveness and its impact on organisation effectiveness.
- Describe and discuss bases of power and their effectiveness in organisations.
- Explain the concept of organizational culture and its significance.
- Describe the tenets of strategic alliances and discuss how to make alliances work.
- Write short notes on any three of the following:
(a) Theories of ethics
(b) Transformational leadership
(c) Burnout
(d) Compliance
(e) Dimensions of power sharing
- Read of the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end
Jagannath (Jaggu for his friends) is an overambitious young man. For him ends justify means. With a diploma in engineering, Jaggu joined, in 1977, a Bangalore based company as Technical Assistant. He got himself enrolled as a student Ravi was convinced and requested Jaggu to head the production section so that things could be straightened up there. Jaggu became the Section Head and Suresh was shifted to sales. Jaggu started spreading his wings. He prevailed upon Ravi and got sales and quality under his control, in addition to production. Suresh, an equal in status, was now subordinated to Jaggu.
Success had gone to Jaggu’s head. He had everything going in his favour—position, power, money, and qualification. He divided workers and used them as pawns. He ignored Prahalad and established direct link with Ravi. Unable to bear the humiliation, Prahalad quit the company. Jaggu was promoted as General Manager. He became a megalomaniac. Things had to end at some point. It happened in Jaggu’s life too. There were complaints against him, he had inducted his brother-in-law, Ganesh, as an engineer. Ganesh was by nature corrupt, he stole copper worth ` 5 lakh and was suspended. Jaggu tried to defend Ganesh but failed in his effort. Corruption charges were also levelled against Jaggu who was reported to have made nearly ` 20 lakh for himself. One the new year day of 1993, Jaggu was reverted back to his old position—sales. Suresh was promoted and was asked to head production. Roles get reversed. Suresh became boss to Jaggu.
Back home, Jaggu started his own consultancy claiming himself as an authority in quality management. He poached on his previous company and picked up two best brains in quality.
From 1977 to 1993, Jaggu’s career graph had a steep rise and a sudden fall. Whether there would be another hump in the curve is a big question?
(a) What political strategies did Jaggu use to gain power?
b) What would you do if you were (i) Suresh,
(ii) Prahalad or (iii) Ravi?(c) Bring out the ethical issues involved in Jaggu’s behaviour
Section-B
February, 2021
Section-A
- What is Organisational Stress? Explain how stress leads to burnout with examples.
- Explain ‘Bases of Power’ and the ‘Role of Coercive’ and ‘Persuasive Powers’ in an organisation with examples.
- Explain ‘Bases of Power’ and the ‘Role of Coercive’ and ‘Persuasive Powers’ in an organisation with examples.
- How does Group Cohesiveness help organisations? Explain with examples.
- Write short notes on any three of the following:
(a) Empowerment
(b) Transformational Leader
(c) Learning Organisation
(d) Diversity Management
(e) Role Analysis
- Read of the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end:
Arun joins ‘ZAPTO’ chain of casual wear stores as a sales representative, immediately after the completion of graduation and a diploma in sales management. The firm was very happy with his extremely good performance. Arun was awarded the ‘Star Performer Prize’ for his continuous display of the highest sales volume record for 12 consecutive months. The General Manager of ‘ZAPTO’ chain of stores, Rajkumar, was informed by his Marketing Manager, Madhuraj, that Arun was a very aggressive and dynamic sales representative having a strong target commitment and orientation.
Within a span of two years, based on his good performance appraisal, Arun was promoted to the position of Assistant Marketing Manager. Under his new assignment, Arun had 8 sales representatives reporting to him and also to ensure that the sales target of his shop was met. Arun took to his new promoted assignments with the same zeal and enthusiasm. Arun now set the targets to be met by his team members for the first month and communicated the same, clearly indicating that all the team members have to meet the target without fail. The eight team members (sales representatives) felt that the targets set were too ambitious but declined to comment on it directly. After the meeting, during an informal chat, all the team members discussed the matter amongst themselves and then dispersed.
Arun called for a review meeting at the end of a fortnight to take stock of the situation and was shocked and disappointed to learn that all the representatives were well behind the target set for them. Arun could not control his disappointment and openly and bluntly condemned them for not reaching the target. He once again reiterated that he expected all his team members to achieve their targets by the end of the month. After the meeting, the team members amongst themselves admitted that they found Arun to be a difficult person with an unapproachable mind-set. However, they also decided to give in their best efforts to achieve the targets assigned to them. But even with their sustained efforts they could achieve only 70 per cent of the target set by Arun, by the end of the month
At the end of the month, when Arun reviewed the sales statements of his team, he was disappointed though slightly happy with the marginal improved efforts of his team. However, in the meeting, instead of praising and encouraging his team’s efforts, Arun communicated his displeasure and once again was emphatic and told his team that lack of commitment from them was stopping them from attaining their target, so they had to try hard once again. This outburst was not liked by his team. And in the next month-end briefing, Arun was greeted with well below the target set. Arun now openly rebuked his sales representatives team, for their slow performance and refused to accept that he had set too high targets for his team. Ultimately, the team members met their Marketing Manager, Madhuraj and conveyed everything to him. Madhuraj was shocked but promised to talk to Arun.
Questions
(a) In the above case, what are the problems affecting the team’s effectiveness and performance?
(b) Do you feel Madhuraj should modify team members’ roles before talking to Arun?
(c) Can you suggest ways by which Arun can be developed as a good team leader?
Section-B
June, 2020
Section-A
- Discuss the importance of Diversity Management in the present day context with relevant examples.
- Explain the concept of Role with reference to Role Set and Role Space. How does the conflicts emerge from Role? Explain with examples.
- Discuss the concept and need for Transformational Leaders. Briefly explain the process of creating a Motivating Vision by Transformational Leader, with an example.
- “The concept of learning has traditionally been used in the context of individual persons (and animals). Recently this concept has been extended to organisation, distinct on being made between Individual Learning and Organisational Learning.”
Discuss the above statement.
- Write short notes on any three of the following:
(a) Strategic Alliances
(b) Functions of Organisational Culture
(c) Team Development
(d) Compliance
(e) Sources of Burnout
- Read the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end:
Jagannath (Jaggu for his friends) is an overambitious young man. For him ends justify means. With a diploma in engineering, Jaggu joined, in 1977, a Bangalore based company as Technical Assistant. He got himself enrolled as a student in an evenig college and obtained his degree in engineering in 1982. Recognising his improved qualification, Jaggu was promoted as Engineer.. Sales in 1984.
Jaggu excelled himself in the new role and became the blue-eyed boy of the management. Promotions came to him in quiek succession. He was made Manager-Sales in 1986 and Senior Manager-Marketing in 1988. Jaggu did not forget his academic pursuits. After being promoted as Engineer-Sales, he joined the M. B. A. (part-time) programme. After completing his M. B. A., Jaggu became a Ph. D. Scholar and obtained his Doctorate in 1989.
Functioning as Senior Manager-Marketing, Jaggu eyed on things beyond his jurisdiction. He started complaining against Suresh, Section Head and Prahalad the Unit Chief (both production) to Ravi, the Executive-Vice President. The complaints included delay in executing orders, poor quality, customer rejections, etc. Most of the complaints were concocted.
Ravi was convinced and requested Jaggu to head the production section so that things could be straightened up there. Jaggu became the Section Head and Suresh was shifted to sales. Jaggu started spreading his wings. He prevailed upon Ravi and got sales and quality under his control, in addition to production. Suresh, an equal in status, was now subordinated to Jaggu. Success had gone to Jaggu’s head. He -had everything going in his favour—position, power, money, and qualification. He divided workers and used them as pawns. He ignored Prahalad and established direct link with Ravi. Unable to bear the humiliation, Prahalad quit the company, Jaggu was promoted as General Manager. He became a megalomaniac.
Things had to end at some point. It happened in Jaggu’s life too. There were complaints against him. He had inducted his brother-in-law, Ganesh, as an engineer. Ganesh was by nature corrupt, he stole copper worth 5 lakh and was suspended. Jaggu tried to defend Ganesh but failed in his effort. Corruption charges were also levelled against Jaggu who was reported to have made nearly 20 lakh for himself.
On the new year day of 1993, Jaggu was reverted back to his old position—sales. Suresh was promoted and was asked to head production. Roles got reversed. Suresh became boss to Jaggu. Unable to swallow the insult, Jaggu put in his papers. production. Roles got reversed. Suresh became boss to Jaggu. Unable to swallow the insult, Jaggu put in his papers.
Back home, Jaggu started own consultancy claiming himself as an authority in quality management. He poached on his previous company and picked up two best brains in quality. From 1977 to 1993, Jaggu’s career graph had a steep rise and a sudden fall. Whether there would be another hump in the curve is a big question?
Questions:
(a) What is the core issue in the case? Discuss.
(b) How do you see the rise and fall of Jaggu vis-a-vis prevailing power dynamics and overall organisational policies of the company?
(c) What would you do if you were:
- Suresh
- Prahalad
- Ravi
(d) What would you do if you were:
Section-B
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