MANAGEMENT FUNCTION & BEHAVIOUR FOR MBA

MANAGEMENT FUNCTION AND BEHAVIOR for MBA Students

Q1 : – What is system concept?
Or
Explain the term ‘system’?
Ans: – A system may be defined as a combination of several sub-systems.
For Example: – Human body is also a system which is a combination
of several sub-systems such as eyes, hands, legs etc.
Q2 : – Explain the components of a system?

Ans: – Following are the components of a system:-
i. Inter-related:- All the sub-systems of a system is inter related and interdependent such as marketing production, finance, HRM and HRD.
ii. Open System: – System is defined as an open system because every business man acquires inputs (Raw material, labour, machinery, money) from the environment and transformed it into finished goods.
iii. Achievement of goals: – The main aim of a system is to achieve the goals of the organization i.e. to generate profit at least cost.
iv. Boundaries: – It has to work within its existence.
v. Feedback: – It should provide the feedback in term of finished gds for the satisfaction of needs and wants of the customers.

Q3 : – What are the types of a system?

Ans: – A system may be of two types:-

Closed System: – A system may said to be closed when it does not interact with the environment. In other words, it is self- regulatory.
Open System: – It refers to the system which continuously interacts with the environment.
For example:-
i. Human Body.
ii. Social organization.

Q4 : – Explain the term “MIS”?
Or
Explain management information system?
Ans: – Management information system refers to the system which helps in providing related information to the management for making the best decisions at the right time.

Q5 : – Explain the tools of MIS?
Or
Explain the main elements of MIS?
Or
How would you make marketing information system more effective?
Ans: – There are three elements of MIS which makes it more effective: –
i. Time
ii. Accuracy
iii. Relevant

Time: – It means that the information should be given within the time limit so that manager can take prompt decisions.
Accuracy: – proper and accurate information should be presented to the manager so that problem of errors or mistake might not be happened.
Relevant: – The information collected and presented to the management should be concerned with management otherwise management could not give the best results to its organization.

Q6 : – Explain the levels of management.
Or
Explain the hierarchy of management.
Ans: – There are three levels of management:-
i. Top level management: – It is also known as upper or administrative level of management consists of board of directors, senior most manager and chief executives etc. It plays an important role in formulating the policies and procedures and taking key decisions.
ii. Middle level management: – It is also known as executory level of management consists of Branch managers, Divisional Heads and departmental heads etc. It plays an important role in interpreting the policies and issuing guidelines to lower management.
iii. Lower level management: – Lower level management is also called operational level of management. It plays an important role in achieving the goals of the top level management.

Q7 : – Explain the concept of planning?
Ans: – Planning means looking ahead for thinking before activity. It decides in advance what to do, when to do, how to do, and where to do it. It selects the best alternative course of action.

Q8 : – Explain the management Process?
Ans: – Management process involves planning, organizing, staffing,
directing & controlling etc.
Q9 : – Explain organizing?
Ans: – Organizing may be defined as a process of defining authority & responsibility of every individual.
Or
Organizing refers to the arrangement of all the resources i.e. Physical, Financial as well as human resources for the achievement of business goals.

Q10 : – Explain the features of Planning?
Ans:- Following are the features of Planning :
(i) Planning is looking ahead :
It means it decides in advance what to do, where to do, how to do, where to do it. It bridges the gap where we are and we want to go.
Flexible :- Planning is flexible it means that it can be changed according to situated situation

(ii) Planning is required at all the levels of management:-
Planning is required at all the level of management i.e top level management, middle level management and lower level management.
(iv) Continuous Process :- It is a continuous Process because planning works continuously till an organization exist.

Q11 : Explain Controlling ?
Ans : Controlling may be defined as a process where actual performance is compared with standard performance so that correction actions are takes to make controlling effective.

Q12 : Explain the relationship between planning and controlling?
Ans: Planning means looking a head and controlling means looking a back. Planning helps in making efficient and effective utilization of available resource similarly controlling help in achieving the goals of business by comparing actual and standard Performance continuously. The main purpose of controlling is that every thing Occurs according to the predetermined plans. Planning and controlling both are the blades of same scissor.

Q13 : Explain the Steps involved in controlling Process?
Ans: Following are the Steps involved in controlling Process:
i. Setting standard
ii. Measuring actual Performance
iii. Comparing actual Performance
iv. Analyzing deviation
v. Taking corrective actions.

Q14 : Explain Motivating and leading?
Ans: Motivation means arousing desire among the subordinates to the best of their abilities for the achievement of organizational goals.
Leading means issuing orders, instructions, motivating the subordinates for the purpose of achievement of organizational goal

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Q15 ; What do you understand by the term ’MBO’?
OR
What do you means by management by Results?
Ans: It means when the manager motivates the workers by providing them leader to influence the behavior of works for the achievement of organizational goal is called management by objectives (MBO).

Q16: Explain the qualities of a good leader?

Ans: A good leader has the following qualities:-
i. Physical Personality
ii. Sense of Responsibility
iii. Knowledge of work
iv. Quality of honesty
v. Excellent Speaker
vi. Effective Communication Skills
vii. Self Confidence

Q17 : Explain decision making?
Ans: Decision making refers to the process of selecting the best alternative among the different alternatives for taking decision.

Q18: Explain Steps involved in decision making?
Ans: Following are the steps involved in decision making:-
i. Define the Issue on which decision needs to be made.
ii. Availability of different alternatives.
iii. Selection of the best alternative

Q19 : Why does decision making important?
Ans: (i) Commitment of Resources.
ii. Reduce the risk of uncertainty
iii. Way to reach at the best results.

Q20 : Which tools are important for decision making?
Ans:
Linear Programming
Queuing Theory
Game Theory
Probability
Risk Analyzing
Decision tree

thanks to Lalit Khungar.

MANAGER vs. MANAGER

Manager vs. Manager
by Scott Flander
[Human Resource Executive Online | September 2, 2008]

Employees worried about their jobs because of the tough economy are competing against each other in unhealthy ways. But HR executives can mitigate such problems in several ways, including making people feel more appreciated.

As the economy falters, it’s more of a dog-eat-dog world than ever — and your best managers and executives may be the ones snapping at each other’s throats.

Executive coaches and others say that high anxiety in corporate America is causing co-workers to be more competitive, often in harmful ways.

“August is the biggest month I’ve had in 25 years,” says Anna Maravelas, a coach and author of How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. “I’ve had human resource directors calling me up, they were hyperventilating over the state of their executive teams. They say, ‘Our teams are dysfunctional, the executives are hostile to each other.'”

Maravelas, founder of the St. Paul, Minn.-based firm Thera Rising, which focuses on team building, conflict resolution and leadership development, says co-worker competitiveness has significantly increased over the past year — a situation she attributes to the downturn in the economy.

‘When people’s economic security is at risk, their behavior deteriorates,” she says. Among the most serious problems among managers and executives are “backstabbing and avoidance,” she says. “You do something that annoys me, or I don’t agree with, I don’t bring it up. I don’t ask for explanations when things aren’t going well in your division.”

Eventually, she says, executives will stop offering each other a head’s up about imminent problems — “Or worse, they’ll set you up to fail.”

There are other signs co-worker competitiveness is growing. A recent survey of 150 senior executives from large U.S. companies found that nearly half (46 percent) believe employees are more competitive with their co-workers than they were 10 years ago.

But, just in the past year, the competitiveness has been accelerating, says Dave Willmer, executive director of OfficeTeam, which commissioned the survey. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing firm, a division of Robert Half International, places professional and customer-service professionals.

He also puts the blame on the economy.

Competition among co-workers can be healthy, and can benefit companies when times get tough, says Willmer. But HR leaders need to be on the lookout for competition that becomes unhealthy — which can lead to poor morale, lower productivity and difficulty in retaining good employees.

Employee often feel more anxious about their jobs when they don’t get enough recognition, says Willmer. “If recognition is unfairly distributed or not distributed, people become competitive to seek that,” he says.

Competitiveness among co-workers also increases when companies don’t communicate with their employees well — not only about where things stand with the company’s health, but about where an employee’s career stands. “When you don’t know, you tell yourself, ‘I have to do whatever I can,'” says Willmer. “But that may not be a healthy thing.”

Joseph Koob, author of Succeeding with Difficult Co-Workers, says he’s seen a growing competitiveness over the last five or six years, as companies have cut back and eliminated entire levels of management. “They’re leaner and meaner, but that creates more work and takes away a fair amount of advancement,” he says.

“Mid-level and senior executives are working tremendously long hours, which puts pressure on everybody,” says Koob, founder of Metacoach, based in Lansdale, Pa.

At the same time, he says, there’s less loyalty to companies, and people are jumping from one to another — which means “you have all these people floating around who are really good.” That gets managers and others worried about their own job security, which creates even more angst and competitiveness, he says.

Co-worker competition can be good when it helps people to do their best, but becomes unhealthy when employees are so unhappy they leave, says Koob. “That eventually undermines the whole organization,” he says.

How can a manager or executive tell when competition has moved from healthy to unhealthy? Koob suggests that leaders walk around and talk to people. Among the signs: “People will be complaining about other people, pointing their fingers. They’ll be blaming others. They’ll be whining about their own situations.”

Like other experts, Koob says that if employees feel appreciated, they’re less likely to worry about their jobs and engage in harmful competition. “It comes down to how people are treated,” he says. “If a manager makes an effort to understand who they are, and appreciate who they are, then competition is fine.”

Maravelas, of Thera Rising, offers these suggestions for keeping competition from getting out of control:

1. Acknowledge the contributions of your direct reports and other divisions daily.” She recommends inviting leaders and employees from other departments to staff meetings and publicly thanking them. This helps everyone feel appreciated.

2. Eliminate performance measures “that reward employees and leaders for sacrificing the needs of other divisions for their own gain” such as a sales-compensation structure “that drives wedges between groups and leaders.”

3. “Build the consistent message that we don’t throw people under the bus here. As soon as you see a person disrespect or target another person or group, you shut that down.”

PATIENCE

Patience

Patience saves you money. Patience saves time, reduces stress, and improves your relationships.

With patience, you have the ability to achieve things that are simply not possible without it. Using patience, you can more fully understand and be understood.

Looking at life with patience, you can uncover and experience rich treasures that you otherwise never would have known about. Living with patience, you develop the persistence to create great and valuable things.

Patience does not mean sitting back and doing nothing. On the contrary, patience means always doing the very best you can do, while understanding that the results you seek will not come immediately.

Patience is the acknowledgement that the quality of life is much more important than the quantity of things with which you fill it. Patience is the willingness to accept what is, for right now, while putting all you have into creating the best that can be.

Make the most of the many opportunities life provides for you to practice patience. With patience is your life fully and richly lived.

— Ralph Marston