No.
of Printed Pages : 4 MS-21
MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
c\I
tr) Term-End Examination
O December, 2015
O
MS-21 : SOCIAL PROCESSES AND
BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES
Time : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 100
(Weightage 70%)
Note : (i) There are two Sections A and B.
(ii) Attempt any three questions from Section - A. All
questions carry 20 marks each.
(iii) Section - B is compulsory and carries 40 marks.
SECTION - A
1. What are the strategies available to a manager in
an organisational set to enhance employee
motivation ?
2. Briefly describe the components of Emotional
intelligence and its importance in organisations.
Can emotional intelligence be learnt ? Discuss in
brief.
3. Briefly discuss different group decision making
techniques and their strengths and weakness.
4. Describe Johari Window Model and Transactional
analysis. Discuss how these models help in
strengthening interpersonal relations ?
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5. Write short notes on any three of the following :
(a) Qualities of an effective Counselor.
(b) Preventing Inter-group conflict.
(c) Referrent Power.
(d) Characteristics of Learning organization
(e) Cultural Shock.
SECTION - B
6. Read the following case carefully and answer the
questions given at the end :
Dharam Singh, general manager at
'Prithviraj Chemicals' was worried about his
future, even though he had been told that after
'Prithviraj Chemicals' is merged with Orchid
Pharmaceuticals he would be promoted and also
be required to shoulder the additional
responsibility of identifying those who should be
retained as employees even after the merger.
Dharam was concerned because he had heard
that the organisational culture at 'Orchid' was
computer driven, while at 'Prithviraj Chemicals',
the focus was on "relationship".
A month later after the official merger of
the two companies, the new management took
the decision to shift the headquarters to Bangalore
from Mysore. This decision was communicated
to its employees, (many of 'Prithviraj Chemicals').
They approached Dharam Singh to ask 'Why was
the new management shifting its Headquarters
to a new place (Bangalore)', Was it because the
two managements did not trust each other ?' This
question was posed especially because most of
Prithviraj's employees had become used to the
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'quiet, risk averse and friendly work environment'
and were worried whether in Bangalore, with its
'cosmopolitan outlook, it would lead to cultural
clashes.
As anticipated there were certain instances
which had Dharam Singh wondering how to
solve such cultural differences. The 'Prithviraj
employees' consensus, relationship-result oriented
approach always believed in an open
communication system with all employees
keeping each other informed about any decision
and bringing about a consensus in all the decisions
taken. On the other hand, the 'Orchid' employees
were individually only concerned with their
'individual' work i.e., they were more focused on
ambitious cost-cutting goals and each employee
was individually responsible for quantifiable
results.
• Whenever any work related problem arose,
the 'Prithviraj' employees adopted an
attitude 'Tell us about the problem from all
angles and we will discuss and tell you how
best to handle it.' In contrast, the 'Orchid'
employees attitude was 'just tell me how this
problem will/may affect my work, I am not
interested in the whole problem.
Many of 'Orchid' employees had worked in
other cities of North India and few of them
had also travelled abroad for official work
and thus were more confident, more
computer savvy, tough and didn't mince
words. Because of this, the 'Prithviraj'
employees felt threatened and preferred to
describe 'Orchid' employees as 'loners',
'tough' and 'hard working.'
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• At 'Prithviraj', employees were required to
make weekly financial and staffing updates
to their 'bosses'. However, at 'Orchid' this
formality was considered to be a waste of
time and they didn't adopt or accept this
practice.
Dharam Singh had been with 'Prithviraj
since the last 12 years and knew that 'Sudhir'
(the M.D. at 'Prithviraj') had a lot of confidence
in him when he had said "Dharam, I am very
sure that we can count on you to see that there is
no dissent among the employees after the merger.
The new company is looking upon you to solve
the societal-level cultural difference which is
prevailing among the employees, so that we can
have our own unique culture which would be a
blend of both 'Prithviraj' and 'Orchid's way of
doing business."
Questions :
(a) Critically analyse the core issues of the case.
(b) Understanding the type of culture followed
by 'Prithviraj' and 'Orchid', what type of
culture should the newly merged company
follow ?
(c) Can you suggest ways to help Dharam
Singh to cope with the existing cultural
differences ?
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