ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (AUTONOMOUS)
END SEMESTER EXAMINATION – MARCH/APRIL 2015
B.B.M. –VI SEMESTER
HRM 605: CREATIVE LEADERSHIP (HR ELECTIVE)
Duration: 3 Hours                                                                                             Max. Marks: 100
SECTION – A
I)			Answer ALL the questions.  Each carries 2 marks.                                        (10×2=20)
			1.	What is meant by Group Cohesiveness?
			2.	Define Power.
			3.	What do you mean by Collective Bargaining ?
			4.	Give the meaning of the term , Grievance.
			5.	Name the three types of interpersonal communication.
			6.	Explain the characteristics of Grapevine.
			7.	Write down the merits of Oral communication.
			8.	Explain the four quadrants of Johari Window.
			9.	“ The importance of Feedback cannot be overemphasized”. Comment.
			10.	Explain Reward Power and Legitimate Power.
SECTION – B
II)	Answer any FOUR questions.  Each carries 5 marks.                                      (4×5=20)
	11.			Is everyone cut out to be a leader ? Explain
	12.			Explain Tuck man’s five stage model of group formation and development.
	13.			Explain Sayles classification of Informal Groups.
	14.			Explain the various ways by which employees learn Culture.
	15.			Explain the “Chain” and “Wheel” types of communication network.
	16.			State the differences between Team and Group.
SECTION – C
III)		Answer any THREE questions.  Each carries 15 marks.                                (3×15=45)
		17.		Explain the Behaviour theory of Leadership in detail.
		18.		Explain the barriers to effective communication. Also highlight the significance of communication.
		19.		Define Conflict. Explain in detail, the conflict process.
		20.		“Employee morale is a very complex phenomenon and is influenced by many factors. A properly designed programme has, therefore to be created to test the morale of individuals. “. Explain the factors which affect morale. Also explain the various modes of measuring Morale.
		21.		What is meant by Grievance? Explain the causes/sources of grievance. Is the adaptation of the grievance handling procedure essential? How?
				SECTION – D
IV)				Case Study                                                                                                   (1×15=15)
		22.		Vineeth Vijayan, Rashid Kapoor, 26 were born to Mr. Saurab Kapoor, a distinguished lawyer and Mrs. Savina Kapoor, senior bank executive at HDFC.  Throughout his childhood Rashid was trained and brought up by his parents in a manner that would ensure that Rashid gets groomed to be a successful man.  He had  a great academic record, wasgood at public speaking and a district level tennis player.  He came from a demanding background where unconditional approval was withheld.  Getting 90%, for example did not meet with admiration from parents.  The achievement was typically up with the message “you can do better”.  He followed up his good work to get himself enrolled into the prestigious IIT, Delhi and then after a two year work experience got selected into the prestigious Harvard business school.   After graduating from there with highest honors he rapidly moved up the corporate ladder at a large advertising firm, ranking up promotions and responsibilities all along the way.  He was recognized by everyone in the firm as one of the talented and gifted employees.  His boss reacted accordingly and paid him a generous pay package.  Here he pushed himself to the limits to ensure that his task has been completed in the best possible way.  He was fiercely ambitious, wildly capable, and intelligent.  However 2 years into the job the performance levels of Rashid had come down.  It was not a drastic change in quality but it was there for his boss Mr. Ravikant Shukla to see.  Despite his veneer of self satisfaction, smugness and even bluster he was starting to feel a lack of confidence.   He was thus a concerned man and knew something must be done quickly to restore the performance of his star employee.  Also there were rumors of Rashid’s tiffs with his same level colleagues.  Also Rashid had secretly started to look for another job.  Rashid’s performance off late and his apparent lack of “team spirit” had got people talking that he is going to be fired.  Mr. Ravikant Shukla thus was in a big dilemma now.  Already in a highly competitive advertising industry there was an obvious crunch of talented skilled people and  loose and employee of the caliber of Rashid to the competitors was not at all a situation he wanted to face.   Question:   What was he supposed to do with Rashid to ensure that he remains with his company and perform to his best of abilities for the success of the firm?
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ANSWER KEY

 

1. The degree to which members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group. Some work groups are cohesive because the members have spent a great deal of time together or group’s small size facilities high interaction or group has experienced external threats that have brought members close together.
2. Power – Power refers to Capacity that “A” has to influence “B” so that “B” acts in accordance with “As” wishes.

Capacity to exert influence over others.

Power is the ability to influence people and events. Distribution, dependency, uncertainty, compliance, indicators constitute power dynamics.

3. Collective Bargaining – Collective bargainingconsists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees so as to determine the conditions of employment. The result of collective bargaining procedures is a collective Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organization.
4. Grievance – Dale yoder,for example defines it as “a written compliant filed by an employee and calming unfair treatment”. In other words, grievances are feelings, sometimes real, sometimes imagined, which an employee may have to regard to his employment situation.
5. Three types of interpersonal communication are – non-verbal, written and oral communication.
6. Grapevine – It is not controlled by management.

It is largely used to serve the self interests of the people within it.

it is perceived by most employees as being more believable and reliable than formal communiqués issued by top management.

 

7. Merits of Oral Communication –

It saves time and cost

Effective media

Easy to understand

Effectiveness can be measured easily and immediately

Emergency situations

Involves accuracy

Use of various mechanical devices is possible

Proper control and supervision

8. Quadrant 1: Open Area
   What is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others.

Quadrant 2: Blind Area, or “Blind Spot”
What is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. This can be simple information, or can involve deep issues (for example, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, rejection) which are difficult for individuals to face directly, and yet can be seen by others.

Quadrant 3: Hidden or Avoided Area
What the person knows about him/herself that others do not.

Quadrant 4: Unknown Area
What is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others.

 

9. Intention: effective feedback is directed towards improving job performance and making the employee a more valuable asset.

Specificity: Effective feedback is designed to provide recipients with specific information so that they know what must be done to correct the situation.

Description: it tells the employee what he or she has done in objective terms rather tan presenting a value judgment.

Usefulness: effective feedback is information that an employee can use to improve performance. it serves no purpose to berate employees for their lack of skill if dey do not have the ability or training to perform properly .

Timelines: This way the employee has a better chance of knowing what the supervisor is talking about and can take corrective action.

Readiness: in order for feedback to be effective, employees must be ready to receive it.

Clarity: effective feedback must e clearly understood by the recipient. A good way of checking this is to ask the recipient to restate the major points of the discussion.

Validity: It must be reliable and valid.

 

10. Reward power-The extent to which a manager can use extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other people.Success in accessing and utilizing rewards depends on manager’s skills.

Legitimate power- Also known as formal hierarchical authority.The extent to which a manager can use subordinates’ internalized values or beliefs that the “boss” has a “right of command” to control their behavior.If legitimacy is lost, authority will not be accepted by subordinates.

 

 

SECTION B

 

11. Explain citing the traits of a leader and support your answer.
12. Five stage model – forming, storming, norming,performing, adjourning.

 

13. According to Sayles informal groups are of four types
    1. Apathetic group: These groups are likely to develop the grievances or engage in any pressure tactics. Workers a mostly challenge the decisions or attempt to gain something extra for themselves. No one emerges as leader there is lack of identified leadership. These groups do not involve in union activities and generally are jealousies and inter personal problems within the group. The members are generally are low paid and from the low skilled job.
    2. The Erratic group: Members are easily inflamed and easily pacified. Sometimes they infuriate with the management without working into a major conflagration,mass demonstration or a wild-cat strike. Any active member within the group may assume the leadership. The groups generally consist of members doing similar and identical work.
    3. The strategic Group: This group refers to member’s ability to prepare a Strategy and not the allocation of the group. They may be shrewdly calculating pressure groups which never tire of objecting to unfavorable management decisions. Members of such groups are generally performing technologically independent job and are well placed. The leadership of these groups is considered of high active in union politics .these groups are much more conservative in their grievance activities.
    4. The Conservative group: they are in the strong position in the organization and management is also worried about them and they are least active in union politics and these groups are much more conservative in their grievance activities. These are people who posses critical or scarce skills
14. Ways by which employees learn Culture –

 

Stories: Nike has a number of senior’s executives who spend much of their time serving as corporate story tellers. And the stories they tell are meant to convey what Nike is about. When they tell the story of how co- founder Bill Bower man went to his workshop and poured rubber into his wife’s waffle iron to create a better running shoe, they’re talking about Nike’s spirit of innovation

Rituals: Rituals are respective sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key value of organization what goals are most important which people are important and which people are expandable. One of the better known corporate rituals is Wal – Mart’s company chant. Begun by the company’s founder Sam Walton as a way to motivate and unite his workforce “ gimme a W, gimme an A, gimme an L, gimme a squiggle, give me an M, A, R, T !” has become a company rituals that bounds Wal – Mart workers and reinforces Sam Walton’s belief in the imporantance of his employees to the company success. Similar corporate chants are used by IBM, Ericsson, Novell.

Material Symbols: The headquarters of Alcoa doesn’t look like your typical head- office operation. There are few individuals’ offices, even for senior executives. It is essentially made up of cubicles, common areas, and meeting rooms. The informal corporate headquarters conveys to employees that Alcoa values openness, equality, creativity, and flexibility. The layout of corporate headquarters the types of automobiles top executive are given and the presence or absence of corporate aircrafts is a few examples of material symbols. These material symbols convey to employees who are important the degree of egalitarianism desired by top management and the kinds of behavior that are appropriate.

 

Languages: Many organization and units within organization use languages as a way to identify members of a culture and in so doing help to preserve it.

 

15. Chain network: It travels up and down through the hierarchy. It reports relationships and follows formal chain of command.

Wheel network: It flows to and from a single person. Employees in the group communicate primarily with that person rather than with each other. It is a fast means of getting information and it relies on the leader.

 

 

16. Difference between Team and Group.

TEAM – – Team is generally made up of 7 to 12 people. If it has more people, the structure becomes complicated.

Although every team member has some skill or quality which is helpful in achieving the goal, the type of skill and extent of expertise may differ with every member.

Being in the same team does not mean that everyone will have the same responsibility. Every team member is assigned tasks depending upon his ability and experience. For example, in a football team, the function of a goal keeper is different from the other players, but still they belong to the same team.

A team together forms a strategy to reach the goalpost.  It has a fluid type of leadership and hence different views and thoughts are expressed and given importance.

The performance and total ability of the team is developed every time any team member acquires the advanced skill or quality.

Every team member is responsible for the end result and hence holds each other accountable for the same.

GROUP – A group has a leader or head who decides the goal and work distribution for everyone.

A group lets the leader decide the track of working or the strategy and every one is individually responsible or accountable for his doings and do not hold each other responsible.

The whole group is dominated by the leader and is in the hand of only one person.

Only one person’s viewpoint is dominant on every one in a group.

In a group the decision has to be made by voting or by agreement of majority.

 

17. Behavioural Leadership Theoy – BEHAVIORAL THEORIES: Specific behaviors differentiate leaders from non-leaders.

 

Ohio State Studies: The research that was conducted at Ohio State University, USA.

Research studies concluded that a leader’s behavior can be categorized into two dimensions Initiating Structure and Consideration.

 

• Initiating structure: Structure his/her role and those of subordinates, work relationships, assigning the work group, individual, work standards, performance, goals.

 

• Consideration: Person is likely to have job relationships, mutual trust, respect for subordinate’s ideas , concern for followers, well-being, status and satisfaction.  He treats all his subordinates as equals.  Such a leader is viewed as high in consideration.

 

University of Michigan Studies: To find behavioral characteristics of leaders that appeared to be related to measures of performance effectiveness.  The Michigan group concluded that there are two

Dimensions, employee-oriented and production oriented.  Inter-personal relations, technical or task aspects of the job.

Employee-oriented, high productivity and higher job satisfaction.  Favored employee-oriented leadership to achieve the goals of both higher productivity and higher job satisfaction.

 

Scandinavian Studies: Should exhibit development-oriented behaviors.  Innovation or creation, seek new and challenging ideas. Implement.

Leaders, who demonstrate, developed more competent and satisfied subordinates.

 

Continuous Theory of Leadership: Indentified three basic styles of leadership, i.e., autocrat, democrat and laissez-faire.

Banks may adopt a benevolent autocratic style.

 

Likert’s Four Systems: 

Likert develops four styles of leadership to capture the management culture of an organization;

(i) Exploitative authoritative, (ii) benevolent authoritative, (iii) consultative, and (iv) participative.

• Exploitative authoritarian: As an exploitative authoritarian the leader uses sanctions, communication is downward, superiors and subordinates are psychologically distant, and the decisions are generally made at the top of the organizations.
• Benevolent authoritarian: Here, the leader uses rewards to encourage performance, upward communication is permitted but to the extent the boss wants, subservience to boss is widespread, and there is some delegation in decision-making, thought major decisions are made by the people at the top of the hierarchy.
• Consultative; Here, the leader uses rewards, communication it two-way although upward, communication is cautious and limited, some involvement is sought from employees and as in the benevolent authoritarian style, subordinates are involved in decision making in a limited way.
• Participative: The leader disperses economic rewards and makes full use of group participation and involvement in setting performance standards and improving methods and procedures.

18.  Barriers to effective communication –

Filtering – It refers to a senders’ purposely manipulating information so it’ll be seen more favorably by the receiver.

• Selected Perception

The receivers in the communication process selectively see and hear based on their needs, motivations, experience, background and other personal characteristics.

• Information Overload

When the information we have to work with exceeds our processing capacity, the result is information overload. And with e-mails, IM , phone calls, faxes, meetings, and the need to keep current in one’s field, the potential for today’s managers and professionals to suffer from information overload is high.

• Language   Even when we are communicating in the same language, words mean different things to different people. Age and context are two of the biggest factors that influence the language of a person uses and the definitions he or she gives to words
• Communication Apprehension

Lots of people dread speaking in front of a group, but this is a more serious problem because it affects a whole category of communication techniques. People who suffer from it experience undue tension and anxiety in oral as well as written communication or both. Example: oral apprehenses may find it extremely difficult to talk with others face to face or may become extremely anxious when they have to use the telephone.

• Gender differences

As Tanen puts it, she has found that women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy; men speak and hear a language of status, power and independence so for many men conversations are primarily a means to preserve independence and maintain status in a hierarchical social order. For many women, conversations are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek an give confirmation and support.

 

• “Politically Correct” Communication

 

A final barrier to effective communication is politically correct communication, communication so concerned with being inoffensive that meaning and simplicity are lost or free expression is hampered.

EXTERNAL BARRIERS

1. Semantic barriers: At the stage of encoding or decoding in the process of communication

Badly expressed message: It may convey the proper meaning that the person   has  In  mind.

1. Faulty translations: To Translate the messages into a form suitable to their superiors or subordinates.
2. Specialist language: experts usually fall into the habit of using their own technical jargon which others outside their group fail to understand. This hinders the communication to a large extent.

 

EMOTIONAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

1. Premature evaluation: Jump to conclusion even before the message is completely communicated.
2. Existence of preconceived notions.
3. Inattention due to lack of interest.
4. 4. Distrust in communication: If the receiver does not trust the sender he would not believe in the message

5.Fears: Message of the sender is filtered when it reaches the receiver. This is also known as loss by transmission. Exposing oneself to criticism. Fear of reprisal which means that there is a feeling that action will be taken if his opinion is expressed frankly.

6. Poor retention: happens because of the receiver’s inability.
7. Defensive behavior: Tendency to become defensive when they feel threatened, in such cases they stop listening to the sender’s message.

 

Significance –

Basis for action

Facilitates planning.

Helps in decision making.

It is a means of co-ordination.

Improves relationship among peers, superior & subordinate.

Improves motivation & morale,

 

 

19. Definition of Conflict:

A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.

 

Traditional view of conflict: The belief that all conflict is harmful and must be avoided.

 

Stages of conflict

• Stage 1-LATENT CONFLICT

When two or more parties need each other to achieve desired objectives, there is potential for conflict. Other antecedent of conflict, are interdependence, different goals, and ambiguity of responsibility. They do not automatically create conflict, when they exist they make it possible. Latent conflict often arises when change occurs. Conflict is likely to be caused by a budget cutback, a change in organizational direction, a change in personal goals or the assignment of a new project to an already overloaded team.

Antecedents of conflict

• Incompatible personalities or value systems
• Overlapping or unclear job boundaries
• Competition for limited resources
• Inadequate communication
• Interdependent tasks
• Organizational complexity (conflict tends to increase as the number of hierarchical layers and specialized tasks increases)
• Unreasonable or unclear policies, standards, or rules
• Unreasonable deadline or extreme time pressure
• Collective decision making ( the greater the number of people participating in a decision, the greater the potential for conflict)
• Decision making by consensus
• Unmet expectations (employees who have unrealistic expectations about job assignments pay, or promotions are more prone to conflict)
• Unresolved or suppressed conflict

 

 

Stage 2- Perceived conflict

This is the stage at which members become aware of a problem. Incompatibility of needs is perceived and tension begins as the parties begin to worry about what will happen. But no party feels that it is being overly threatened.

Stage 3- Felt conflict

At this stage, parties become emotionally involved and being to focus on differences of opinion and opposing interest- sharpening perceived conflict. Internal tensions and frustrations being to ctrystalise around specific, defined issues, and people begin to build and emotional commitment to their position.

Stage 4- Manifest conflict

At this stage parties engage in actions that help achieve own objectives and thwart those of others. Conflict behaviours vary from the subtle, indirect and highly controlled forms of interference to direct, aggressive, violent and uncontrolled struggle. At the organizational level. Strikes or lock outs are the result.

Stage 5- Conflict outcome

The conflict finally results in an outcome which may be functional or dysfunctional. If handled well, the result is functional conflict. If mishandled the consequences is dysfunctional conflict. As conflict proceeds through the stages, resolution becomes more difficult. The parties become more locked into their positions and more convinced that the conflict is win-lose situations. It is usually easier to achieve win-win outcomes when the conflict is recognized early before frustration and negative feelings set in.

 

 

20. Morale – FACTORS AFFECTING MORALE –

the attitudes of the executives and managers towards their subordinates

working conditions including pay, hours of work and safety rules

effective leadership and an intelligent distribution of authority and responsibility in the organization

the design of the organization structure which facilitates the flow of work

the size   of the organization.

Measuring and evaluating employees through –

observation

attitude or morale surveys

company records

counseling

(explanation in detail)

 

Causes/sources – (1)Concerning wages

àdemand for individuals adjustment; the worker feels that he is underpaid

àcomplaints above incentives; piece rates are too low or too complicated

àmistakes in calculating the wages of a worker

(2)Concerning supervisor

àcomplaints against discipline; the foreman picks on him; inadequate instructions given for job performance

àobjection to having a particular foreman; the foremen playing favorite; the foreman ignores complaints

àobjections to the manner in which the general methods of supervision are used; there are too many rules; regulations are not clearly posted; supervisor indulge in a great deal of snooping.

(3)Concerning individual advancement

àcomplaint that the employee’s record of continuous service has been unfairly broken

àcomplaint that the claims of senior person have been ignored; that seriously has been wrongly determined ;that younger worker have been promoted ahead of older and more experienced employee

àcharges are made that disciplinary discharge or lay-off has been unfair; that the penalty is too severe for the offence that is supposed to have been committed, that the company wanted to get rid of the employee; hence the charges against him

(4)General working conditions

àcomplaints about toilet facilities been inadequate; about inadequate and/or dirty lunch rooms;

àcomplaints about working conditions; dampness, noise, fumes, and other unpleasant or unsafe conditions, which can be easily corrected; overtime is unnecessary; an employee loses too much time because materials are not supplied to him in time

(5)Collective bargaining

àthe company is attempting to undermine the trade union and the workers who belong to that union; the contract with labour has been violated; the company does not deal effectively or expeditiously with union grievances

àthe company does not allow the supervisors to deal with, and settle, grievances of the employee

àthe company disregards precedents and agreements already arrived at the workers trade union.

NEED FOR A GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

The adaptation of the grievance handling procedure is essential for a variety of reasons for example:

• Most grievances seriously disturb the employees. This may affect their morale, productivity and their willingness to co-operative with the organization.
• It is not possible that all the complaints of the employees would be settled by the first-line supervisors, there may be personality conflicts and other causes as well.
• It serves as an outlet for employee gripes, discontent and frustrations. It acts like a pressure value on a steam boiler. The employees are entitled to legislative, executive and judicial protection and they get their protection from the grievance redressal procedure, which also act as a means of upward communication. The top management becomes increasingly aware of the employee problems, expectations and frustrations.

Trade union or the employees do not like the way the management functions, they can submit their grievance in accordance with the procedure laid down for that purpose.

22. Case study

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