Student Name : Pankaj Vohra

Roll No. 530910143

MBA – 1 SEM
Management Process and Organizational Behaviour – MB0022
Assignment SET – 1

Question 1: Explain the managerial roles and managerial

skills.

Ans:

Managerial Roles

Manegerial Roles as defined by Mintzberg (1973) as follows:

1. Informational roles: This involves the role of assimilating and

disseminating information as and when required. Following are the
main sub-roles, which managers often perform:

A. Monitor- collecting information from organization, both from inside

and outside of the organization.

B. Disseminator- communicating information to organizational

members

C. Spokesperson – representing the organization to outsiders.

2. Decisional roles: it involves decision making. Again, this role can

be sub-divided in to the following:

A. Entrepreneur- initiating new ideas to improve organizational

performance

B. Disturbance handler – taking corrective action to cope with

adverse situation

C. Resource allocators- allocating human, physical and monetary

resources

D. Negotiator – negotiating with trade unions, or any other

stakeholders.

3. Interpersonal roles: This role involves activates with people

working in the organization. This is supportive role for informational
and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles can be categorized under
three sub-headings:

A. Figurehead – Ceremonial and symbolic role

 B. Leadership – leading organization in terms of recruiting,
motivating etc
C. Liaison – liasoning with external bodies and public relations
activities.

Management Skills

3 Management Skills as identified by Katz (1974) are as under

1. Technical Skills: The ability is to apply specialized knowledge

or expertise. All jobs require sum specialized expertise and
many people develop their technical skills on the job.
Vocational and on-the-job training programs can be used to
develop this type of skills.

2. Human Skills: This is the ability to work with, understand and

motivate other people (both individually and a group). This
requires sensitivity towards other issues and concerns. People
who are proficient in technical skills, but not with interpersonal
skills, may face difficulty to manage their subordinates. To
acquire the human skills, it is pertinent to recognize the feeling
and sentiments of others, ability to motivate others even in
adverse situations and communicate own feelings to others in a
positive and inspiring way.

3. Conceptual Skills: This is an ability to critically analyze

diagnose a situation and forward a feasible solution. It requires
creative thinking generating options and choosing the best
available option.

Question 2: Describe the contemporary work cohort?

Ans:

Robbins (2003) has proposed contemporary work cohort, in which

the unique value of different cohorts is that the U.S. workforce has
been segmented by the era they entered the workforce. Individuals’
values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the period in
which they grew up.

The cohorts and the respective values have been listed below:

1. Veterans: workers who entered the workforce from the early

1940s through the early 1960s. They exhibited the following
value orientations:
 They were influenced by the great depression and World War II.
• Believed in hard work
• Tender to be loyal to their employer
• Terminal values: comfortable life and family security.

2. Boomers: Employees who entered the workforce during the

1960s through the
mid-1980s belonged to this category. Their values
orientations were:
• Influence heavily by John F. Kennedy, the civil rights and
feminist movements, the Beatles, the Vietnam War and
baby-boom competition.
• Distrusted authority, but gave a high emphasis on
achievement and material success.
• Organizations that employed them were vehicles for their
careers.
• Terminal Values: sense of accomplishment and social
recognition.

3. Xers: Began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s. They

cherished the following values:
• Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS,
and computers.
• Value flexibility, life options, and achievements of job
satisfaction.
• Family and relationship were important and enjoyed
team-oriented work.
• Money was important but would trade off for increased
leisure time.
• Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers
than pervious generations.
Terminal Values: True friendship, happiness and pleasure.

4. Nexters: most recent entrants into the workforce

• Grew up in prosperous time, have high expectations,
believe in themselves, and confident in their ability to
succeed.
• Never-ending search for ideal jobs; see nothing with job-
hopping
• Seek financial success
• Enjoy team work but are highly self-reliant
• Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life.

Question 3: Elaborate the issues related to culture and

emotion?
Ans:

Emotions are universal phenomena; however, they are affected by

culture. While some emotions are universal and are experienced in
similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all cultures, other
emotions show considerable cultural differences in their antecedent
events, the way they are experienced, the reactions they provoke
and the way they are perceived by the surrounding society.

Culture: Culture comes into its own in human interactions, and one of
the greatest arenas for such interaction is the place where people
work

There are two views of Culture and Emotion:

Universality: emotions are part of human nature and in all culture

universally the same set of basic emotions. Based on his cross-
cultural research, Ekman (1999) has found six emotions which are
universally recognized and applicable. They are:

1. Anger
2. Fear
3. Sadness
4. Happiness
5. Disgust
6. Surprise

Cultural specificity – Human beings are like a tabula rasa (clean

tablet)on which society write s its script. In other words, culture and
traditions, normative patterns and value-orientations are responsible
for not only our personality development, but also appropriate social
and emotional development. This makes us functional entities in
society. Each culture has a unique set of emotions and emotional
responses; The emotion shown in a particular culture reflect the
norms, values, practices, and language of that culture.

Alexithymia – Emotional disorder

Some people have difficulty in expressing their emotions and
understanding the emotions of others. Psychologist calls this
Alexithymia. People who suffer from Alexithymia rarely cry and are off
seen by others as bland and cold. Their own feelings make them
uncomfortable, and they are not able to discriminate among their
different emotions. People, suffering from Alexithymia, may be
effective performers in jobs where little or no emotional labour.
Alexithymic symptoms may be seen in people who experience:
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Certain brain injuries
• Eating disorders (i.e. bulimia, anorexia, or binge-eating
disorder)
• Substance use dependence
 • Depression
• Other mental health conditions.

Relationship of gender with emotion

A number of research finding supports the view that women are more
emotional than men. Women are assumed to experience more
frequents and intense emotions, whereas men are assumed to be
emotionally inexpressive and to have less intense emotional
experiences. However, researchers have argued that the stereotype
of men as unemotional is more accurate for adult targets that for
child targets because males learn to control their emotions as they
get older. Likewise, women and men may experience happiness in a
similar way, but women have been taught that they can strongly
express the emotion of happiness, whereas men have been taught to
control it. The impact of socialization practices accumulate over time,
and thus, these stereotypes are likely to apply more strongly to adult
populations.

Question 4: Discuss the assumption of Douglas Mc Gregor

(Theory X and Theory Y)

Ans:

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation

created and developed by Douglas McGregor. They describe two
very different attitudes toward workforce motivation. McGregor
felt that companies followed either one or the other approach. He
also thought that the key to connecting self-actualization with
work is determined by the managerial trust of subordinates.

Douglas McGregor argued that a manager’s view of the nature of

human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and
he or she tends to mould his or her behavior towards employees
according to these assumptions.

1. Theory X

In this theory management assumes employees are

inherently lazy and will avoid work, if they can. Workers
need to be closely supervised and a comprehensive system
of controls and a hierarchical structure is needed to
supervise the workers closely. It is also assumed that
 workers generally place security above all other factors and
will display little ambition.

2. Theory Y

In this theory management assumes employees may be

ambitious, self-motivated, and anxious to accept greater
responsibility, and exercise self-control, self-direction,
autonomy and empowerment. It is believed that employees
enjoy their mental and physical work duties. It is also
believed that, if given the chance employees have the desire
to be creative and forward thinking in the workplace. There
is a chance for greater productivity by giving employees the
freedom to perform to the best of their abilities without
being bogged down by rules.

From the above, it is clear that Theory X assumes that lower-order

needs dominate individuals. Theory Y assumes that higher-order
needs dominate individuals.

Question 5: What is personal power – explain different bases

of personal power?

Ans:
Personal power resides in the individual and is independent of that
individual’s position. Three bases of personal power are expertise,
rational persuasion, and reference.

1. Expert power is the ability to control another person’s

behavior by virtue of possessing knowledge, experience, or
judgment that the other person lacks, but needs. A subordinate
obeys a supervisor possessing expert power because the boss
ordinarily knows more about what is to be done or how it is to
be done than does the subordinate. Expert power is relative,
not absolute. However the table may turn in case the
subordinate has superior knowledge or skills than his/her boss.
In this age of technology driven environments, the second
proposition holds true in many occasions where the boss is
dependent heavily on the juniors for technologically oriented
support.
 2. Rational persuasion is the ability to control another’s
behavior, since, through the individual’s efforts; the person
accepts the desirability of an offered goal and a viable way of
achieving it. Rational persuasion involves both explaining the
desirability of expected outcomes and showing how specific
actions will achieve these outcomes.

3. Referent power is the ability to control another’s behavior

because the person wants to identify with the power source. In
this case, a subordinate obeys the boss because he or she
wants to behave, perceive, or believe as the boss does. This
obedience may occur, for example, because the subordinate
likes the boss personally and therefore tries to do things the
way the boss wants them done. In a sense, the subordinate
attempts to avoid din anything that would interfere with the
pleasing boss subordinate relationship. Follower ship is not
based on what the subordinate will get for specific actions or
specific levels of performance, but on what the individual
represents-a path toward lucrative future prospects.

4. Charismatic power is an extension of referent power

stemming from an individuals personality and interpersonal
style. Others follow because they can articulate attractive visions,
take personal risks, demonstrate follower sensitivity, etc

Question 6: Write a short note on potential sources of stress?

Ans:

While environmental factors are forces outside the organization, which

may act as potential sources of stress due to uncertainties and threats
that they create for any organization and its members, factors within
organization can also act as potential sources of stress. Together or
singly they may create a tense and volatile working environment which
can cause stress for organizational members because the inability o
individuals to handle the pressures arising out of these sources.

The following may be seen to be the potential sources of stress:

1. Environmental Factors
 A. Environmental uncertainty influences stress levels among
employees in an organization.
B. Changes in the business cycle create economic
uncertainties.
C. Political uncertainties can be stress inducing.
D. Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new
innovations can make an employee’s skills and experience
obsolete in a very short period of time.

2. Organizational Factors

A. Pressure to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time

period, work overload, a demanding and insensitive boss,
and unpleasant coworker’s area a few examples.
B. Task demands are factors related to a person job. They
include the design of the individual’s job (autonomy, tasks,
variety, and degree of automation), working condition and
the physical work layout.
C. Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the
role and individual plays in an organization.
a. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard
to reconcile or satisfy.
b. Role overload is experience when the employee is
expected to do more than time permits.
c. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are
not clearly understood.
d. Interpersonal demands are pressures created by
other employees.
e. Organizational structure defines the level of
differentiation in the organization, the degree of
rules and regulations, and where decisions are made.
Excessive rules and lack of participation in decisions
might be potential sources of stress.
Organizational leadership represents the managerial
style of the organization’s senior executives. CEOs
by virtue of their managerial styles create an
organizational culture which reflects tension, fear
and anxiety. They overemphasize tight control, hire
and fire policies which keep organizational members
on hot seat and create stress among them.

3. Individual factors

 These are factors in the employee’s personal life. Primarily,

these factors are family issues, personal economic problems
and inherent personality characteristics.
 Broken families, wrecked marriages and other family issues
may create stress at workplace as well.
 Economic problems created by individuals overextending
their financial resources. Spending more that earnings
stretches financial positions, create debt situation leading to
stress among individuals.
 A significant individual factor influencing stress is a person’s
basic dispositional nature. Over-suspicious anger and
hostility increase s a person’s stress a risk for heart disease.
These individuals with high level of mistrust for others also
cause stress for themselves.
 Stressors are additive-stress builds up.