ANNAMALAI

FIRST YEAR

UNIVERSITY

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

M.B.A. (HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT)

Academic Year 2013 - 2014 ASSIGNMENT TOPICS This booklet contains assignment topics. Students are asked to write the assignments for EIGHT papers as per instructions. Last date for submission : 28-02-2014 Last date for submission with late fee Rs. 300/- : 14-03-2014
NOTE: 1. Assignments sent after 14-03-2014 will not be evaluated. 2. Assignments should be in the own hand writing of the student concerned and not type-written or printed or photocopied. 3. Assignments should be written on foolscap paper on one side only. 4. All assignments (with Enrolment number marked on the Top right hand corner on all pages) should be put in an enve lop with superscription MBA Assignments and sent to The Director, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608 002 by Registered post. 5. No notice will be taken on assignments which are not properly filled in with Enrolment Number and the Title of the papers. 6. Students should send full set of assignments for all papers. Partial assignments will not be considered.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Write assignments on any TWO topics in each paper out of the FOUR. For each topic the answer should not exceed 15pages. Each assignment carries 25 marks (2 topics).

Dr. RM. CHANDRASEKARAN

DIRECTOR

1.1 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

1. The managers of tomorrow will not be a bigger man than his father was before him. Critically analyse this statement and discuss the tasks expected to be performed by future managers to effectively deal with management challenges. 2. Identify four corporate social responsibility initiatives adopted by corporates which you are familiar with. 3. More centralization and decentralization are not advisable Do you agree or disagree? Justify. Suggest when and where these two concepts effectively applied in corporate. 4. MBO is the motivating factor or controlling technique. Critically evaluate this statement. Compare and contrast between MBO and MBE.

1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

1. Prepare a report on the cultural diversity of an HR department in a multi location IT company. Examine the challenges it faces in the changed business scenario. 2. Study and compare the performance appraisal system in a manufacturing sector and service sector and evaluate the reasons for their success/ failures in the respective sectors. 3. Critically analyse the selection process vis--vis the HR Strategy of an organization, examine whether the selection process is facilitating the recruitment and retention of the manpower with the required skill sets and competencies. 4. Analyse and appraise the quality circle movement in a service organization and suggest methods for its enhancement.

1.3 PRODUCTION AND MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

1. Why do you think choosing correct location for a plant is significant? Draft a plan to locate a nuclear power plant. 2. Explain intermittent and continuous operations. Under what type of situation it would be used in automobile industry? 3. Explain the types of material handling equipments used in coal mine industry. 4. Discuss the importance and methods of inventory system followed in refining industries in India.

1.4 MARKETING MANAGEMENT

1. What is product life cycle? Choose a case in international marketing and discuss the same. 2. Discuss which brands of mobile do you feel successfully targeted the group Generation Y. Which brands do not? What could they do better? 3. Marketing research is the key to the success of a company. Discuss the above statement, keeping in view of an example of the recent past where application of market research helped in formulating the right marketing strategy. 4. Suggest suitable pricing strategy for: (i) 100 cc Motorcycle (ii) Laptop (iii) Branded Shirts

1.5 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

1. The profit maximization is not an operationally feasible criteria Do you agree? Illustrate your views. 2. The function of Financial Management is to review and control decisions to commit or recommit funds to new or ongoing uses. Thus in addition to raising funds, financial Management is directly concerned with production, marketing and other functions within an enterprise whenever decisions are made about the acquisition or destruction of assets. Elucidate. 3. When the corporate income taxes are assumed to exist Modigilani-Miller and the traditional theorists agree that capital structure does affect value. So the basic point of disputes disappears. Do you agree? Why or why not? 4. The contention that dividends have an impact on the share price. Explain the essentials of this argument. Why the argument is considered fallacious.

1.6 BUSINESS MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

1. A chartered Accountant applies for a job in two firms X and Y. He estimates that the probability of his being selected in firm X is 0.7 and being rejected in Y is 0.5 and the probability that atleast one of his applications rejected is 0.6. What is the probability that he will be selected in one of the firms? 2. In a factory turning out razor blade, there is a small chance of 1/500 for any blade to be defective. The blades are supplied in a packet of 10. Use Poisson distribution to calculate the approximate number of packets containing blades with no defective, one defective, two defectives and three defectives blades in a consignment of 10,000 packets. 3. A sample of 400 students of undergraduate and 400 students of post graduate classes were taken to know their opinion about autonomous college. 290 of the undergraduate and 310 of the post graduate students favoured the autonomous status. Present these fact in the form of a table and test at 5% level, that the

4 opinion regarding autonomous status of colleges are independent of the level of classes of students. 4. Test the significance of variation of the retail prices of the commodity in three principle cities; Bombay, Kolkata and Delhi. The four shops were chosen at random in each city and prices observed in rupees were as follows

Bombay 16 8 12 14 Kolkata 14 10 10 Delhi 4 10 6 8 8

1.7 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1. An MNC in India adopted and changed norms of regulations towards their existing workforce - Does this mean organizational change? Explain. 2. Can managers control colleagues and employees emotions and moods? Examine. You cant divorce emotions from the workplace because you cant divorce emotions from people. Analyse this statement with justification. 3. Among the different types of leadership styles, which style would be suitable to democratic country like India to become superpower in business? Justify your answer. 4. Money cannot motivate all people under all circumstances. Critically evaluate this statement with suitable examples and justifications.

1.8 MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION

1. Find article in the business press or general news about a recent incident involving a company (for example, a merger or acquisition, a scandal or crisis, or the launching of a new product). What kind of communication challenges might this event pose for the company, both internally and externally? What kinds of messages would probably need to be written, and to whom? 2. Interview a working professional about his or her writing process. In addition to asking about general strategies for different kind of writings, also how he or she tracked a particularly difficult writing situation. Write up the results of your findings briefly. 3. Locate six examples of video and audio clips you might use in a business document. Describe the examples along with a brief explanation of a good use in a business document. 4. Look through current newspapers, magazines, the web and so on, and get the best available information on the job outlook for this years college graduates. You should show variations by geographic areas, degree, and schools. Present your findings in a well-organized and illustrated report.