MG201 Exam

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Faculty of Business and Economics

School of Management and Public Administration
Final Examination Paper
Semester 1, 2016 (DFL Mode)
MG201: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Time Allowed 3 hour & 10 minutes
This exam is worth 50% of the total course marks
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Please write your surname, name(s) and ID number on the entire answer sheet
pages that you use.
2. This examination consists of two sections. ‘Section A’ – short answer based

questions; ‘Section B’ - Case Study. Please read the instruction very carefully
before answering the required questions (in full).
3. Start answering each sections and questions in a new page.
1
Section A: Short Answer Questions (35 marks)
Answer ANY SEVEN (7) questions from the NINE (9) provided. Write
approximately 200 - 300 words (or ½ pages) to answer each question. Each question
is worth 5 marks whereby 1 mark will be for the specific and relevant examples.
Question 1 (5 marks)
Uniformity implies standardization and that common procedures are centrally
administered. Identify and discuss any three pressures of uniformity? Provide an
example of each.
Organizations are always pulled by both uniformity and diversity. What are some
methods that can be used to limit diversity? Why use these methods? Provide
examples of each method.
Alliances are needed to be formed for external diversity to be successful. Discuss any
type of alliance? Give an example and explain why it is formed.
Organizations need to recognize the symptoms of conflict. What are three symptoms
of conflict? Provide an example of each type.
What are the two underlying and fundamental issues in contemporary organizations
that lead to conflict? Explain and give an example of each.
What are the two strategies that contemporary organizations use to manage conflict?
Explain and give an example of each.
The seven (7) ‘S’ framework by Peters and Waterman divides into a hard and soft
checklist. Identify and discuss any five of this 7 ‘S’ framework with an example?
Managers are often faced with a set of constant dilemmas; Handy described four
primary dilemmas. What are these four primary dilemmas and discuss the
characteristics of each dilemma?
Handy described the future of organizations where the future worker may have a
spliced career. What is a “spliced career”? He also describes various ways a worker
will mix their employment and self-employment. What are some ways this could
happen?
2
Section B: Case Study (15 marks)
Case Study – Human Resources and Change Management
When Rona was a young woman she started to work at the PacPeace
organization as a clerk. It was a new organization and she grew her career along with
its growth. PacPeace works directly with pacific island communities and seeks to
influence the powerful, to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and
livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them. Each affiliate island(s)
nation, works together internationally to achieve a greater impact through collective
efforts, to distribute resources after natural disasters, coordinate environmental
education and share resources. PacPeace has its headquartered in Suva, Fiji.
Rona was determined, a quick learner and loyal employee. While working at
PacPeace she earned her degree in management at the University of the South Pacific.
She was promoted and became regional coordinator for Central Fiji. She enjoyed
working at PacPeace headquarters and helped with meetings where managers from
other locations came to Suva for conferences. Conferences included training on
budgets, a motivational speaker and socializing to get to know people she only knew
by telephone as she coordinate work. Rona returned to the University of the South
Pacific to earn a post graduate diploma in management. She was promoted to manager
and had coordinators and clerks reporting to her.
After ten years at PacPeace Rona was happy with her career but the President
retired and a new president came with a new agenda. The new president, Soumitra,
changed the organization by creating divisions based on geographic area. This change
and other changes surprised employees. Soumitra also started a blog, open and
available to everyone: employees, competitors, customers and even the public.
Anyone could view and comment on the blog, without leaving their name. Rona was
busy with her job and adjusting to the new management and didn’t read the blog until
one day someone she used to work with, and enjoyed a professional interaction with
often, commented to her that the blog had comments about Rona!
Rona went to Soumitra to ask it be removed. The anonymous comments
questioned Rona for being promoted at such a young age, that she didn’t have
experience that she did something to get promoted over other people. Commenters
questioned Rona’s professional integrity without providing their name. Rona thought
surely Soumitra would remove the comments but the new president did not and others
jumped onto the blog bandwagon, a free-for-all to publicly vent. Rona was
disheartened and questioned her career.
The organizational culture was going downhill drastically. The blog was a
distraction, not only for Rona, but others that started with the PacPeace from the
beginning. Rona became so stressed she could not complete her work on time, others
who were waiting on her reports and budgets felt this confirmed the rumors on the
president’s blog. Rona developed migraine headaches and often felt sick. The stress
not only impacted her and her work, but others too. The new president tried to make
changes to improve productivity but it did not work.
Finally Soumitra realized what impact the blog was having on employees,
Soumitra removed negative comments and sent an email to everyone as a warning to
staff about posts. This was a public site where everyone could view PacPeace and was
a distraction from their good record in communities. The blog became monitored and
3
only included content relevant to a good public profile for PacPeace. Rona was
relieved that the comments were removed but wondered how much damage had
already been done. How did her employees, peers, colleagues and management really
feel about her? She applied for a similar job at the Red Cross.
QUESTIONS
1. What are some of the implications of having a public forum (Blog) where staff is
allowed to post comments for the wider community to view and read? Give an
example. What type of information do you think should be on the website? (3
marks)
2. What is the most important part of implementing change? What should be done to
increase acceptance of change by the employees? (2.5 marks)
3. If the corporate culture is deteriorating what impact would this have on the
organisation? (2 marks)
4. Certain levels of stress are good in order to help people accomplish things;
however, too little or too much stress is not healthy. What could be the impact to
your organisation if staffs are stressed? Provide an example of a program or policy
that could be implemented so that your employees could deal with stress better. (3
marks)
5. What should the President Soumitra have done when first setting up the blog? (1.5
marks)
6. Prior to President Soumitra, what do you think was the type of managerial
structure, degree of formalization and degree of centralization? When Soumitra
was the President, what was the type of managerial structure, degree of
formalization and degree of centralization? (3 marks)

MG201 Exam

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

MG201 Exam

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

MG201 Exam

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

Faculty of Business and Economics

Final Examination Paper

Semester 1, 2016 (DFL Mode)

MG201: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Time Allowed 3 hour & 10 minutes

This exam is worth 50% of the total course marks

2. This examination consists of two sections. ‘Section A’ – short answer based

3. Start answering each sections and questions in a new page.

Case Study – Human Resources and Change Management

You might also like