The term ‘management’ has been used in different senses. Sometimes it refers to the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling, at other times it is used to describe it as a function of managing people. It is also referred to as a body of knowledge, a practice and discipline. There are some who describe management as a technique of leadership and decision-making while some others have analyzed management as an economic resource, a factor of production or a system of authority.

Objectives of Management:

The primary objective of management is to run the enterprise smoothly. The profit earning objective of a business is also to be kept in mind while undertaking various functions.

Following are the broad objectives of management:

1. Proper Utilization of Resources:

The main objective of management is to use various resources of the enterprise in a most economic way. The proper use of men, materials, machines and money will help a business to earn sufficient profits to satisfy various interests. The proprietors will want more returns on their investments while employees, customers and public will expect a fair deal from the management. All these interests will be satisfied only when physical resources of the business are properly utilized.

2. Improving Performance:

Management should aim at improving the performance of each and every factor of production. The environment should be so congenial that workers are able to give their maximum to the enterprise. The fixing of objectives of various factors of production will help them in improving their performance.

3. Mobilizing Best Talent:

The management should try to employ persons in various fields so that better results are possible. The employment of specialists in various fields will be increasing the efficiency of various factors of production. There should be a proper environment which should encourage good persons to join the enterprise. The better pay scales, proper amenities, future growth potentialities will attract more people in joining a concern.

4. Planning for Future:

Another important objective of management is to prepare plans. No management should feel satisfied with today’s work if it has not thought of tomorrow. Future plans should take into consideration what is to be done next. Future performance will depend upon present planning. So, planning for future is essential to help the concern.

Significance of educational managment with reference to models of manamgnet:

1. Forecasting:

It is a systematic assessment of future conditions by collecting all sorts of information about the present position of the system, its present and expected resources and trying to form a picture in terms of the accepted Philosophy in a particular country to arrive at a fruitful forecast.

2. Decision-making:

Decision-making is a key factor in educational management as here we have to think of generations which will be affected by the policies decided. Having considered various alternative and consequence of each course of action, a suitable course of action must be determined. Guess work, arbitrary exercise of authority, ill considered hasty decisions should have no place in educational management. The following points must be borne in mind while deciding that the:

Course of actions should be simple and easily understood by all concerned;
Standards for targets must be laid down; and
Goal must be clear.

3. Planning:

The plan should be flexible. The very existence of variables and uncertainties make decision-making and planning a necessity. There should be enough scope of change to cater for any unforeseen situations. There are many variables - the priorities may change due to unforeseen circumstances; 3 equipment and grants may not become available as expected; personnel may be posted out or they may proceed on leave; all these variable contributing to the non-implementation of decisions.

4. Organization:

It is the combination of necessary human effort, material equipments in systematic and effective correlation to accomplish the desired results. Under educational administration, we organize:

Ideas and principles into school systems, curricular and co-curricular activities, time schedules, norms of achievement and the like;
Human beings into schools, classes, committees, groups, school staff, the inspecting staff.
Material into buildings, furniture and equipment, libraries, laboratories, workshops, museums and art galleries.

5. Motivation:

Involvement in deciding policies and plans help in motivation. The term motivation aims to make the man to be cheerfully willing to do the job we want him to do. Face to face communication is quite useful if organization members are to be motivated to do their best. Communication, down, up and across is also of great importance to the motivation of organization members.

6. Control:

Effective control is an important element in educational administration. The administrator must constantly check on his terms and his wn performance vis-a-vis the standards laid down. He needs to take corrective action to the form of adjustments to the physical environment of work, modification and addition of materials and methods or abilities and motivation review of the personnel in terms of their spirits.

7. Cooperation:

It is required of all the elements the persons, material and ideas, knowledge and principles and so to interweave them as to achieve a common objective and a single effect. The administration should look into the: (a) relations among people, (b) allocation of tasks, and (c) division of labour.

8. Evaluation:

Evaluation is a good way to find out the success or failure of a project. Good measures are required to find out the reasons why it failed or succeeded, which steps in the process were most successful, 4 what should have been done to improve the action and what should be done differently at the next trial.

9. Recording and reporting:

Recording and reporting are essential elements of educational management which is answerable to the parents, the higher authorities, the society etc.

10. Supervision:

The purpose of supervision is to bring about a continuing improvement in the instructional programme. Cox and Langfitt write, "Management executes, directs; supervision advises, stimulates, explains, leads, guides and assists. Both plan, both diagnose, both inspect, but management decides and orders execution, while supervision helps to decide and assist in improving instruction."

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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)

Q. 2 How does the knowledge of management help the managers? Enrich your answer with solid examples for the field?

Answer:

All organizations can benefit from their people sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating and learning. Here is a list of 15 benefits that can result from knowledge management (KM) and enterprise social networks (ESNs). What would you add to this list?

1. Enabling better and faster decision making

By delivering relevant information at the time of need through structure, search, subscription, syndication, and support, a knowledge management environment can provide the basis for making good decisions. Collaboration brings the power of large numbers, diverse opinions, and varied experience to bear when decisions need to be made. The reuse of knowledge in repositories allows decisions to be based on actual experience, large sample sizes, and practical lessons learned.

2. Making it easy to find relevant information and resources

When faced with a need to respond to a customer, solve a problem, analyze trends, assess markets, benchmark against peers, understand competition, create new offerings, plan strategy, and to think critically, you typically look for information and resources to support these activities. If it is easy and fast to find what you need when you need it, you can perform all of these tasks efficiently.

3. Reusing ideas, documents, and expertise

Once you have developed an effective process, you want to ensure that others use the process each time a similar requirement arises. If someone has written a document or created a presentation that addresses a recurring need, it should be used in all future similar situations. When members of your organization have figured out how to solve a common problem, know how to deliver a recurring service, or have invented a new product, you want that same solution, service, and product to be replicated as much as possible. Just as the recycling of materials is good for the environment, reuse is good for organizations because it minimizes rework, prevents problems, saves time, and accelerates progress.

4. Avoiding redundant effort

No one likes to spend time doing something over again. But they do so all the time for a variety of reasons. Avoiding duplication of effort saves time and money, keeps employee morale up, and streamlines work. By not spending time reinventing the wheel, you can have more time to invent something new.

5. Avoiding making the same mistakes twice

George Santayana said, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." If we don't learn from our mistakes, we will experience them over and over again. Knowledge management allows us to share lessons learned, not only about successes, but also about failures. In order to do so, we must have a culture of trust, openness, and reward for willingness to talk about what we have done wrong. The potential benefits are enormous. If NASA learns why a space shuttle exploded, it can prevent recurrences and save lives. If FEMA learns what went wrong in responding to Hurricane Katrina, it can reduce the losses caused by future disasters. If engineers learn why highways and buildings collapsed during a previous earthquake, they can design new ones to better withstand future earthquakes. If you learn that your last bid or estimate was underestimated by 50%, you can make the next one more accurate and thus earn a healthy profit instead of incurring a large loss.

6. Taking advantage of existing expertise and experience

Teams benefit from the individual skills and knowledge of each member. The more complementary the expertise of the team members, the greater the power of the team. In large organizations, there are people with widely-varying capabilities and backgrounds, and there should be a benefit from this. But as the number of people increases, it becomes more difficult for each individual to know about everyone else. So even though there are people with knowledge who could help other people, they don't know about each other. The late Lew Platt, former CEO of HP, is widely quoted as saying "If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive." Knowing what others know can be very helpful at a time of need, since you learn from their experience and apply it to your current requirements.

7. Communicating important information widely and quickly

Almost everyone today is an information worker, either completely or partially. We all need information to do our jobs effectively, but we also suffer from information overload from an increasing variety of sources. How can we get information that is targeted, useful, and timely without drowning in a sea of email, having to visit hundreds of web sites, or reading through tons of printed material? Knowledge management helps address this problem through personalized portals, targeted subscriptions, RSS feeds, tagging, and enterprise search engines.

8. Promoting standard, repeatable processes and procedures

If standard processes and procedures have been defined, they should always be followed. This allows employees to learn how things are done, leads to predictable and high-quality results, and enables large organizations to be consistent in how work is performed. By providing a process for creating, storing, communicating, and using standard processes and procedures, employees will be able to use them routinely.

9. Providing methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples

Methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples are the building blocks supporting repeatable processes and procedures. Using these consistently streamlines work, improves quality, and ensures compatibility across the organization.

10. Making scarce expertise widely available

If there is a resource who is in great demand due to having a skill that is in short supply, knowledge management can help make that resource available to the entire organization. Ways of doing so include community discussion forums, training events; ask the expert systems, recorded presentations, white papers, blogs, podcasts and videos.

11. Showing customers how knowledge is used for their benefit

In competitive situations, it is important to be able to differentiate yourself from other firms. Demonstrating to potential and current customers that you have widespread expertise and have ways of bringing it to bear for their benefit can help convince them to start or continue doing business with you. Conversely, failure to do so could leave you vulnerable to competitors who can demonstrate their knowledge management capabilities and benefits.

12. Accelerating delivery to customers

Speed of execution is another important differentiator among competitors. All other things being equal, the company that can deliver sooner will win. Knowledge sharing, reuse and innovation can significantly reduce time to deliver a proposal, product, or service to a customer. And that translates into increased win rates, add-on business, and new customers.

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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)

Q. 3 Suppose you are coordinating a training programme of employees in your school / institution / office. Explain its step wise process including all activities. Also prepare PERT diagram of this activity (Please follwing guidelines to prepare PERT diagram)

Answer:

Complex projects require a series of activities, some of which must be performed sequentially and others that can be performed in parallel with other activities. This collection of series and parallel tasks can be modeled as a network.

In 1957 the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed as a network model for project management. CPM is a deterministic method that uses a fixed time estimate for each activity. While CPM is easy to understand and use, it does not consider the time variations that can have a great impact on the completion time of a complex project.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network model that allows for randomness in activity completion times. PERT was developed in the late 1950's for the U.S. Navy's Polaris project having thousands of contractors. It has the potential to reduce both the time and cost required to complete a project.

The Network Diagram

In a project, an activity is a task that must be performed and an event is a milestone marking the completion of one or more activities. Before an activity can begin, all of its predecessor activities must be completed. Project network models represent activities and milestones by arcs and nodes. PERT originally was an activity on arc network, in which the activities are represented on the lines and milestones on the nodes. Over time, some people began to use PERT as an activity on node network. For this discussion, we will use the original form of activity on arc.

The PERT chart may have multiple pages with many sub-tasks. The following is a very simple example of a PERT diagram:

PERT Chart

The milestones generally are numbered so that the ending node of an activity has a higher number than the beginning node. Incrementing the numbers by allows for new ones to be inserted without modifying the numbering of the entire diagram. The activities in the above diagram are labeled with letters along with the expected time required to complete the activity.

Steps in the PERT Planning Process

PERT planning involves the following steps:

Identify the specific activities and milestones.
Determine the proper sequence of the activities.
Construct a network diagram.
Estimate the time required for each activity.
Determine the critical path.
Update the PERT chart as the project progresses.

1. Identify Activities and Milestones

The activities are the tasks required to complete the project. The milestones are the events marking the beginning and end of one or more activities. It is helpful to list the tasks in a table that in later steps can be expanded to include information on sequence and duration.

2. Determine Activity Sequence

This step may be combined with the activity identification step since the activity sequence is evident for some tasks. Other tasks may require more analysis to determine the exact order in which they must be performed.

3. Construct the Network Diagram

Using the activity sequence information, a network diagram can be drawn showing the sequence of the serial and parallel activities. For the original activity-on-arc model, the activities are depicted by arrowed lines and milestones are depicted by circles or "bubbles". If done manually, several drafts may be required to correctly portray the relationships among activities. Software packages simplify this step by automatically converting tabular activity information into a network diagram.

4. Estimate Activity Times

Weeks are a commonly used unit of time for activity completion, but any consistent unit of time can be used. A distinguishing feature of PERT is its ability to deal with uncertainty in activity completion times. For each activity, the model usually includes three time estimates:

Optimistic time - generally the shortest time in which the activity can be completed. It is common practice to specify optimistic times to be three standard deviations from the mean so that there is approximately a 1% chance that the activity will be completed within the optimistic time.
Most likely time - the completion time having the highest probability. Note that this time is different from the expected time.
Pessimistic time - the longest time that an activity might require. Three standard deviations from the mean is commonly used for the pessimistic time.

PERT assumes a beta probability distribution for the time estimates. For a beta distribution, the expected time for each activity can be approximated using the following weighted average:

Expected time = ( Optimistic + 4 x Most likely + Pessimistic ) / 6

This expected time may be displayed on the network diagram.

To calculate the variance for each activity completion time, if three standard deviation times were selected for the optimistic and pessimistic times, then there are six standard deviations between them, so the variance is given by:

[ ( Pessimistic - Optimistic ) / 6 ] 2

5. Determine the Critical Path

The critical path is determined by adding the times for the activities in each sequence and determining the longest path in the project. The critical path determines the total calendar time required for the project. If activities outside the critical path speed up or slow down (within limits), the total project time does not change. The amount of time that a non-critical path activity can be delayed without delaying the project is referred to as slack time.

If the critical path is not immediately obvious, it may be helpful to determine the following four quantities for each activity:

ES - Earliest Start time
EF - Earliest Finish time
LS - Latest Start time
LF - Latest Finish time

These times are calculated using the expected time for the relevant activities. The earliest start and finish times of each activity are determined by working forward through the network and determining the earliest time at which an activity can start and finish considering its predecessor activities. The latest start and finish times are the latest times that an activity can start and finish without delaying the project. LS and LF are found by working backward through the network. The difference in the latest and earliest finish of each activity is that activity's slack. The critical path then is the path through the network in which none of the activities have slack.

The variance in the project completion time can be calculated by summing the variances in the completion times of the activities in the critical path. Given this variance, one can calculate the probability that the project will be completed by a certain date assuming a normal probability distribution for the critical path. The normal distribution assumption holds if the number of activities in the path is large enough for the central limit theorem to be applied.

Since the critical path determines the completion date of the project, the project can be accelerated by adding the resources required to decrease the time for the activities in the critical path. Such a shortening of the project sometimes is referred to as project crashing.

6. Update as Project Progresses

Make adjustments in the PERT chart as the project progresses. As the project unfolds, the estimated times can be replaced with actual times. In cases where there are delays, additional resources may be needed to stay on schedule and the PERT chart may be modified to reflect the new situation.

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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)

Q. 4 What are the benefits of strategic decision? Explain the concept of SWOT analysis in strategic managment.

Answer:

Benefits of strategic decision

Strategic planning is a formalized, documented organizational management process used to analyze its current situation, set priorities, and to focus resources and energy to achieve and maintain an organization’s competitive advantage. While many organizations understand the importance of strategic planning and spend a great deal of time and money coming up with the strategic plan, it still remains something that is reviewed just once a year or worse - a glossy document that sits on the shelf! "

If you don't know where you are going, you are certain to end up somewhere else." - Yogi Berra

You might be thinking: Is it worth embarking on a strategic planning process? There are many benefits that go along with strategic planning. The key to successful strategic planning is to build in measures and implementation steps that allow you to engage your staff and monitor the results at regular intervals. The work of strategic planning doesn’t stop at the strategic plan, but it’s a start!

Here are the top 5 benefits of strategic planning:

1. It allows organizations to be proactive rather than reactive

A strategic plan allows organizations to foresee their future and to prepare accordingly. Through strategic planning, companies can anticipate certain unfavourable scenarios before they happen and take necessary precautions to avoid them. With a strong strategic plan, organizations can be proactive rather than merely reacting to situations as they arise. Being proactive allows 12 organizations to keep up with the ever-changing trends in the market and always stay one step ahead of the competition.

2. It sets up a sense of direction

A strategic plan helps to define the direction in which an organization must travel, and aids in establishing realistic objectives and goals that are in line with the vision and mission charted out for it. A strategic plan offers a much-needed foundation from which an organization can grow, evaluate its success, compensate its employees and establish boundaries for efficient decisionmaking.

3. It increases operational efficiency

A strategic plan provides management the roadmap to align the organization’s functional activities to achieve set goals. It guides management discussions and decision making in determining resource and budget requirements to accomplish set objectives -- thus increasing operational efficiency.

4. It helps to increase market share and profitability

Through a dedicated strategic plan, organizations can get valuable insights on market trends, consumer segments, as well as product and service offerings which may affect their success. An approach that is targeted and well-strategized to turn all sales and marketing efforts into the best possible outcomes can help to increase profitability and market share.

5. It can make a business more durable

Business is a tumultuous concept. A business may be booming one year and in debt the next. With constantly changing industries and world markets, organizations that lack a strong foundation, focus and foresight will have trouble riding the next wave. According to reports, one of every three companies that are leaders in their industry might not be there in the next five years... but the odds are in favour of those that have a strong strategic plan!

From a decision viewpoint the overall problem of the business of the firm is to configure and direct the resources-conversion process in such way as to optimize the attainment of its objectives. Since this calls for a great many distinct and different decisions, dividing the total decision ‘space’ into several distinct categories can facilitate a study of the overall decision process. One approach is to 13 construct three categories: Strategic-, Administrative-, and Operating decisions. Each related to a different aspect of the resources-conversion process.

Operating decisions usually absorb the bulk of the firm’s energy and attention. The object is to maximize the efficiency of the firm’s resources-conversion process, or, in other words, to maximize profitability of current operations. The major decision areas are resource allocation (budgeting) among functional areas and product lines, scheduling of operations, supervision of performance, and applying control actions. The key decisions involve pricing, establishing marketing strategy, setting production schedules and inventory levels, and deciding on relative expenditures in support of R&D, marketing, and operations.

Strategic decisions are primarily concerned with external, rather than internal, problems of the firm and specifically with selection of the product-mix, which the firm will produce, and the markets to which it will sell. To use an engineering term, the strategic problem is concerned with establishing an ‘impedance match’ between the firm and its environment or, in other words, it is the problem of deciding what business the firm is in and what kinds of business it will seek to enter. Specific questions addressed in the strategic problem are: What are the firm’s objectives and goals; should the firm seek to diversity, in what areas, how vigorously; and how should the firm develop an exploit its present product-market position? A very important feature of the overall business decision process becomes accentuated in the strategic problem. This is the fact that a large majority of decisions must be made within the framework of a limited total resource. Regardless of how large or small the firm, strategic decisions deal with a choice of resource commitments among alternatives; emphasis on diversification will lead to neglect of present products. The object is to produce a resource-allocation pattern, which will offer the best potential for meeting the firm’s objectives.

Administrative decisions are concerned with structuring the firm’s resources in a way, which creates a maximum performance potential. One part of the administrative problem is concerned with organization flows, distribution channels, and location of facilities. The other part is concerned with acquisition and development of resource: development of raw-material sources, personnel training and development, financing, and acquisition of facilities and equipment.

While distinct, the decisions are interdependent and complementary. The strategic decisions assure that the firm’s products and markets are well chosen, that adequate demand. Strategy imposes operating requirements: price-cost decisions, timing of output to meet the demand, responsiveness to changes in customer needs and technological and process characteristics. The administrative structure must provide the climate for meeting these, e.g., a strategic environment which is characterized by frequent and unpredictable demand fluctuations requires that marketing and manufacturing be closely coupled organizationally for rapid response; an environment which is highly technical requires that the research and development department work in close cooperation with sales personnel.

In this sense ‘structure follows strategy’ – the environment determines the strategic and operating responses of the firm, and these, in turn, determine the structure of authority, responsibility, work flows, and information flows within the firm. As new business environment changes, different strategy opportunities became available to business. As firms took advantage of these opportunities and thus changed their previous strategies, operating inadequacies develop which dictated new forms of organization. Alfred P. Sloan in his memoirs has diagnosed one of the major requirements which strategy has imposed on structure: to organize the firm’s management in a way, which assures a proper balance of attention between the strategic and operating decisions.

Such balance is difficult to achieve. In most firms everyone in the organization is concerned with a myriad of recurring operating problems. Management from top to bottom continually seeks to improve efficiency, to cut costs, to sell more, to advertise better. Problems are automatically generated at all levels of management, and those, which are beyond the scope of lower management authority, become the concern of top management. The volume of such decision is great and constant, particularly because of the need for daily supervision and control. In fact one of the major concerns of top management is to avoid overload by establishing decision priorities and by delegating as much as possible to lower managers.

By contrast, strategic decisions are not self-regenerative; they make no automatic claims on top management attention. Unless actively pursued, they may remain hidden behind the operations problems. Firm are generally very slow in recognizing conditions under which concern with the operating problem must give way to a concern with the strategic. Usually when such conditions occur, operating problems neither ceases nor slacken. On the contrary, they appear to intensify.

Conditions in the environment of the last decades demonstrate these competing claims on operating and strategic responses. On the one hand forces of change buffer many firms: technology obsolescence, saturation of demand, rapid obsolescence of products. On the other hand, the very same firms have to meet competition of intensity which they have never experienced before.

The immediate demands on management time and effort raised by such operating problems can readily obscure the fact that the basic ills lie not in the firm but in its environment. Even when a continuous downward trend in profitability or obvious signs of market saturation strongly point to the need to revamp the entire product-market position, a natural tendency is to seek remedies in operational improvements: cost reduction, consolidation, a new advertising manager, and the most popular may be that the demand for the firm’s products is on a rapid decline.

Since strategic problems are harder to pinpoint, they require special attention. Unless specific provisions are made for concern with strategy, the firm may misplace its effort in pursuit of operating efficiency at times when attention to strategic opportunities (of threats) can produce a more radical and immediate improvement in the firm’s performance.

A proper balance of managerial attention requires three kinds of provisions. One is to provide management with a method of analysis, which can help to formulate the firm’s future strategy. The second provision is to provide a method by which management can determine the administrative structure, which will be needed to manage under the new strategy. The third provision is to provide a method for guiding the transformation from the present to the future strategy and from the present to the future administrative structure.

The balance of management attention to strategic and operating decisions is ultimately determined by the firm’s environment. If the demands in the firm’s markets are growing, technology is stable and customer demands and preferences change slowly, a firm can remain successful by focusing its attention on the operating activities, and letting its products, markets and competitive strategies evolve slowly and incrementally. In such environments a majority of firms typically focus their attention on the operating decisions. Strategic decisions seldom find their way into the corporate office, and the strategic evolution of the firm is ‘from the bottom up initiated and implemented through cooperation among the R & D, marketing and production departments.

Only a minority of firms in growing and stable environments are strategically aggressive. These are the firms led by restless and ambitious entrepreneurs who are bent on expanding the firm beyond the limits made possible by its markets. If environment turns turbulent and changeable, and/or demand approach saturation, firms no longer have the option of a dominant concern with 16 operations. Continued success, and even survival, is possible only if management gives a high priority to the firm’s strategic activity.

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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)

Q. 5 Define performance apprasial. Explain different ways and uses of Feedback and coaching in the process of performance managment.

Answer:

Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a person for further growth and development. Performance appraisal is generally done in systematic ways which are as follows:

The supervisors measure the pay of employees and compare it with targets and plans.
The supervisor analyses the factors behind work performances of employees.
The employers are in position to guide the employees for a better performance.

Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal can be done with following objectives in mind:

To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.
To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.
To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and development.
To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.
To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes.

Advantages of Performance Appraisal

It is said that performance appraisal is an investment for the company which can be justified by following advantages:

1. Promotion:

Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the promotion programmes for efficient employees. In this regards, inefficient workers can be dismissed or demoted in case.

2. Compensation:

Performance Appraisal helps in chalking out compensation packages for employees. Merit rating is possible through performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries to give worth to a performance. Compensation packages which includes bonus, high salary rates, extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites are dependent on performance appraisal. The criteria should be merit rather than seniority.

3. Employees Development:

The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the supervisors to frame training policies and programmes. It helps to analyse strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps in framing future development programmes.

4. Selection Validation:

Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the validity and importance of the selection procedure. The supervisors come to know the validity and thereby the strengths and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in selection methods can be made in this regard.

5. Communication:

For an organization, effective communication between employees and employers is very important. Through performance appraisal, communication can be sought for in the following ways:

Through performance appraisal, the employers can understand and accept skills of subordinates.
The subordinates can also understand and create a trust and confidence in superiors.
It also helps in maintaining cordial and congenial labour management relationship.
It develops the spirit of work and boosts the morale of employees.

All the above factors ensure effective communication.

6. Motivation:

Performance appraisal serves as a motivation tool. Through evaluating performance of employees, a person’s efficiency can be determined if the targets are achieved. This very well motivates a person for better job and helps him to improve his performance in the future.

Past Oriented Methods

1. Rating Scales:

Rating scales consists of several numerical scales representing job related performance criterions such as dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc. Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost, every type of job can be evaluated, large number of employees covered, no formal training required. Disadvantages – Rater’s biases

2. Checklist:

Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or checking and HR department does the actual evaluation. Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow rater to give relative ratings

3. Forced Choice Method:

The series of statements arranged in the blocks of two or more are given and the rater indicates which statement is true or false. The rater is forced to make a choice. HR department does actual assessment. Advantages – Absence of personal biases because of forced choice. Disadvantages – Statements may be wrongly framed.

4. Forced Distribution Method:

here employees are clustered around a high point on a rating scale. Rater is compelled to distribute the employees on all points on the scale. It is assumed that the performance is conformed to normal distribution. Advantages – Eliminates Disadvantages – Assumption of normal distribution, unrealistic, errors of central tendency.

5. Critical Incidents Method:

The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of employee that makes all the difference in the performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record such incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases, chances of subordinate improvement are high. Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized, forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback may be too much and may appear to be punishment.

6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales:

statements of effective and ineffective behaviors determine the points. They are said to be behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to say, which behavior describes the employee performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating errors. Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions inherent in most rating techniques.

7. Field Review Method:

This is an appraisal done by someone outside employees’ own department usually from corporate or HR department. Advantages – Useful for managerial level promotions, when comparable information is needed, Disadvantages – Outsider is generally not familiar with employees work environment, Observation of actual behaviors not possible.

8. Performance Tests & Observations:

This is based on the test of knowledge or skills. The tests may be written or an actual presentation of skills. Tests must be reliable and validated to be useful. Advantage – Tests may be apt to measure potential more than actual performance. Disadvantages – Tests may suffer if costs of test development or administration are high.

9. Confidential Records:

Mostly used by government departments, however its application in industry is not ruled out. Here the report is given in the form of Annual Confidentiality Report (ACR) and may record ratings with respect to following items; attendance, self expression, team work, leadership, initiative, technical ability, reasoning ability, originality and resourcefulness etc. The system is highly secretive and confidential. Feedback to the assessee is given only in case of an adverse entry. Disadvantage is that it is highly subjective and ratings can be manipulated because the evaluations are linked to HR actions like promotions etc.

10. Essay Method:

In this method the rater writes down the employee description in detail within a number of broad categories like, overall impression of performance, promoteability of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely useful in filing information gaps about the employees that often occur in a better-structured checklist. Disadvantages – It its highly dependent upon the writing skills of rater and most of them are not good writers. They may get confused success depends on the memory power of raters. 11. Cost Accounting Method: Here performance is evaluated from the monetary returns yields to his or her organization. Cost to keep employee, and benefit the organization derives is ascertained. Hence it is more dependent upon cost and benefit analysis. 12. Comparative Evaluation Method (Ranking & Paired Comparisons): These are collection of different methods that compare performance with that of other co-workers. The usual techniques used may be ranking methods and paired comparison method. 20  Ranking Methods: Superior ranks his worker based on merit, from best to worst. However how best and why best are not elaborated in this method. It is easy to administer and explanation.  Paired Comparison Methods: In this method each employee is rated with another employee in the form of pairs. The number of comparisons may be calculated with the help of a formula as under. N x (N-1) / 2

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Please Check Solution to Other Solved Assignments B. ed (Spring 2018)

Tuesday, January 21

AIOU Bachelor (BA/B.Com) Autumn 2019 Solved Assignments

Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. Bachelor Class (General Group / Mass Communication) / B.Com / BLIS Solved Assignments of Autumn 2019.

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Monday, October 8

MGT 6263 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SEPTEMBER 2018

SUBJECT: MGT 6263 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

LECTURER: DR. ENG POH HWA

Consultation Hours: By appointment

COURSEWORK: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Written Research Paper

Instructions

You are required to write a research paper of approximately 1500 words for Task 1 and 2500 words for Task 2. Using sources from relevant journal, articles and textbook, answer ALL the following questions in your research paper. The aim of this assignment is to investigate the impact of individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose of applying the knowledge toward improving an organisation’s effectiveness

Task 1: Background of Study: Organisations today are facing rapid change in internal and external environmental forces which have a significant impact on organizational structure, employment relationship and performance. Evolving business environment resulted from the globalisation and technological advancements demand increasing flexibility and adaptability of an organization which expected led to the diminishing of organization hierarchy and greater demand on workforces’ competencies in order to achieve high performance organizational goals.

Critically review any FIVE (5) issues and FIVE (5) challenges confronting managers from the workplace in your home country. Support your arguments with relevant facts and literature.

(50 marks)

Task 2: Critical Review on Psychological-related factors and Recommendations: A manager should recognise and capitalise on individual differences and manage the diverse workforce effectively, in order to get the most from their employees.

1) Critical review on psychological factors affecting organization behaviour:

Specifically identify and review TWO (2) of the individual-related psychological issue that will affect employees’ behaviour within organisation. Critically analyse the specific psychological issues that affect your employee’s behaviour, whileapply the relevantconcepts and theories from the journals and textbook to support your arguments (e.g. attitudes and job satisfaction, perception, personality and values, motivation and learning, etc…). Use these concepts to study, understand and explain the issues you are focused on.

2) Recommendations: Upon your evaluation on the above issues, you are require to apply such knowledge and propose some relevant management strategies for improving the organisation’s effectiveness. For instance, how would you reward your employees in order to motivate them in the workplace? How would you shape your employees attitude and satisfaction on work? Support your arguments with relevant facts and literature.

(50marks)

(TOTAL: 100 marks)

Please pay particular attention to the following:

1. Final report must have a professional structure and format. This means that the report must have:

Ø A report cover page with course number and name, title,

Ø Table of contents

Ø All sections and sub-sections clearly numbered

Ø Page numbers

Ø All tables and figures must be clearly labelled and have appropriate captions.

Ø Consistent formatting

Ø Font: Times New Roman 12, 1.5 spacing, 1” margin all round, full-justified text, page number on bottom right.

2. Report must be presented in sequence:

· Assignment must be submitted online via SEGi Blackboard.

· Title page

· Executive Summary

· Table of contents

· Body of assignment including, introduction, content and conclusion

· References – Minimum 10 references .Use Harvard system.

· Appendix (Optional)

3. In order to avoid plagiarism, a separate Turnitin report must also be supplied alongside the written report with a maximum of 15% similarities allowed. (Only the page with similarity index is required to submit together with the assignment). Marks deduction

Above 15 – 25%: minus 20%
above 25 – 50% minus 40%
Above 50% - zero marks

4. Use APA referencing style

5. Deadline of submission is during lecture, at eighthweek of this course latest by 5pm 13/11/2018 Tuesday.

Any submission after the class marks deducted:

After 5pm, 13/11/2018: 25%
25% marks deduction for each day of delay thereafter.
Submission after 5 days will be graded 0 marks.

Other Student Expectations:

1. Regular attendance is expected. In cases of valid family, health or safety emergencies, students must contact me prior to the administration of the assignment. In general, work related conflicts or overlapping requirements due in other classes are not valid excuses for missing project deadlines.

2. Be prompt and seated so we can begin class on time. If you have an unforeseeable issue that requires you to be late or leave early from class, please notify me prior to class.

Assessment Summary

No 1	Assessment Task 1	60%
No 2	Assessment Task 2	60%
No 3	Final Examination	40%
	Total	100%

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Course Description

This course is designed to expose students to the organizational behaviour by understanding what goes on in the minds of managers and employees when theyinteract in organizations. Specifically, students will explore the concepts, theories and practices of individual and group behaviour in the communication process. In addition, various current issues, trends and challenges related to organizational behavior are also discussed throughout the course.

Course Objectives

1. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, themes and major theories of
organizational behaviour.
2. To enhance understanding of the nature and purpose of human behaviour in organizational
context, styles of motivation, company leadership and power.
3. To provide a comprehensive understanding of strategies related to organizational
design and change, teamwork and collaboration, and the measurement of organizational effectiveness.

References

Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2019).Organisational Behaviour, 18^th eds., Pearson International.

Additional Readings: Refer Blackboard

Lesson Plan

Session	Topics	Activity/Reading
1 Tuesday 4/9/2018	Course Overview Chapter 1 What is Organizational Behaviour Chapter 2 Diversity in Organisations
2 Tuesday 18/9/2018	Chapter 3Attitudes and Job Satisfaction Chapter 4 Personality and Values	Class Discussion 1 Briefing on assignment
3 Tuesday 25/9/2018	Chapter 5 Perception and Individual Decision Making Chapter 6 Emotions and Moods
4 Tuesday 2/10/2018	Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Chapter 8 From Concepts to Applications	Class Discussion 2
5 Tuesday 16/10/2018	Chapter 9 Foundations of Group Behavior Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams
6 Tuesday 23/10/2018	Chapter 11 Power and Politics Chapter 12 Communication	Class Discussion 3
7 Tuesday 30/10/2018	Chapter 13 Leadership Chapter 14 Foundations of Organization Structure	Discussion on assignment
8 Tuesday 13/11/2018	Chapter 15 Organisational Culture Chapter 16 Human Resources Policies and Practices	Assignment due
9 Tuesday 20/11/2018	Chapter 17 Organisational Change and Stress Management Chapter 18 Conflict and Negotiation	Class Discussion 4
10 Tuesday 27/11/2018	Case study discussion Revision

APPENDIX A: ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND GRADING SHEET

Excellent	Good	Acceptable	Below Average	Poor
5	4	3	2	1

Assessment Criteria	Weighting	Description	5	4	3	2	1
Relevance	15%	Directly relevant to the requirements of the assessment.
Knowledge	20%	A substantial knowledge of relevant material, showing a clear grasp of themes, questions and issues therein.
Analysis	15%	Comprehensive analysis - clear and orderly presentation.
Argument and Structure	15%	Well supported, focused argument which is clear and logically structured.
Critical Evaluation	15%	Contains distinctive or independent thinking; and begins to formulate an independent position in relation to theory and/or practice.
Presentation	10%	Well written, with standard spelling and grammar, in a readable style with acceptable format.
Reference to Literature	10%	Critical appraisal of up-to-date and/or appropriate literature.
Total Score		100%

Pages

Friday, December 26

Tuesday, April 14

Sunday, December 28

Sunday, March 15

Sunday, April 5

Saturday, September 22

Q. 1 Explain Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) in your own words. Suppose you are working in an educational institution, and found that the interaction between the teachers and administration is poor leading to poor performance of the institution.

Wednesday, January 14

Wednesday, April 1

Friday, October 12

Q.1 Define the concept of feasibility in planning process. Explain the difference between feasibility testing and pilot testing and how we design a feasibility testing Answer:

Tuesday, March 31

Saturday, April 11

Saturday, December 27

Wednesday, April 1

Friday, March 13

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Wednesday, April 1

Saturday, September 22

Q. 1 Give your own concept of managment while referring defintions of other scholars. Elaborate significance of educational managment with reference to models of manamgnet.

Answer:

Objectives of Management:

1. Proper Utilization of Resources:

2. Improving Performance:

3. Mobilizing Best Talent:

4. Planning for Future:

Significance of educational managment with reference to models of manamgnet:

1. Forecasting:

2. Decision-making:

3. Planning:

4. Organization:

5. Motivation:

6. Control:

7. Cooperation:

8. Evaluation:

9. Recording and reporting:

10. Supervision:

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Q. 2 How does the knowledge of management help the managers? Enrich your answer with solid examples for the field?

Answer:

1. Enabling better and faster decision making

2. Making it easy to find relevant information and resources

3. Reusing ideas, documents, and expertise

4. Avoiding redundant effort

5. Avoiding making the same mistakes twice

6. Taking advantage of existing expertise and experience

7. Communicating important information widely and quickly

8. Promoting standard, repeatable processes and procedures

9. Providing methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples

10. Making scarce expertise widely available

11. Showing customers how knowledge is used for their benefit

12. Accelerating delivery to customers

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Q. 3 Suppose you are coordinating a training programme of employees in your school / institution / office. Explain its step wise process including all activities. Also prepare PERT diagram of this activity (Please follwing guidelines to prepare PERT diagram)

Answer:

The Network Diagram

PERT Chart

Steps in the PERT Planning Process

1. Identify Activities and Milestones

2. Determine Activity Sequence

3. Construct the Network Diagram

4. Estimate Activity Times

5. Determine the Critical Path

6. Update as Project Progresses

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Q. 4 What are the benefits of strategic decision? Explain the concept of SWOT analysis in strategic managment.

Answer:

Benefits of strategic decision

1. It allows organizations to be proactive rather than reactive

2. It sets up a sense of direction

3. It increases operational efficiency

4. It helps to increase market share and profitability

5. It can make a business more durable

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Q. 5 Define performance apprasial. Explain different ways and uses of Feedback and coaching in the process of performance managment.

Answer:

Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Advantages of Performance Appraisal

1. Promotion:

Q.1 Define the concept of feasibility in planning process. Explain the difference between feasibility testing and pilot testing and how we design a feasibility testing

Answer: