Management Concepts & Organizational Behaviour

1. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (AUTONOMOUS)

END SEMESTER EXAMINATION – OCTOBER 2013

M.I.B. – I SEMESTER

MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS & ORGANIZATIONAL Behaviour

Duration: 3 hours                                                                                      Max. Marks: 100

SECTION – A

 

1. I) Answer any seven from the following:                                                (7 x 5= 35)

 

1. Name four different schedules of reinforcement. Describe how each may be used for organizations.
2. What are values and how do they differ from attitudes?
3. What are the organizational challenges present in the current Indian scenario?
4. The issue of who should be responsible for dealing with work stress – the individual or the organization – is an important one. What do you think?
5. Explain the roles that a manager plays in an organization. How is a leader different from a manager?
6. What are the negative effects of a highly cohesive group? Explain groupthink in this context.
7. Bring out the ethical issues involved on power and politics.
8. How do you relate Pavlov’s experiment in Classical conditioning to human     behavior? Give examples as to how a known stimuli results in known   responses.
9. Explain the managerial grid with the example of a diagram.
10. Critically analyze Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory.

 

SECTION – B

 

1. II)   Answer any three of the following:                                                       (3×15=45)

 

11. What are the major sources of interpersonal conflict? Which do you think is most relevant in today’s organizations?
12. What are the major personalities attributes influencing OB?
13. Explain the contingency theories of leadership.
14. Explain the attribution theory.
15. “People influence organizations, and organizations influence people”. Explain the statement.

 

 

SECTION – C

III) Case Study  – Compulsory question.                                                     (1x 20=20)

General Electric Corporation consists of over 186 companies organized into 43

strategic groups and six business sectors. With over 250 000 employees, it is one

of the oldest consumer and industrial products manufactures in America. For

over 40 years it has been one of the largest defense contractors. For the US armed

services it builds jet engines, radar systems, missile components and a variety

of replacement parts. It also builds military hardware for purchase by friendly

countries after the Department of Defense and the Commerce Department have

cleared the transactions.

 

All defence contracting firms in the USA have started efforts to prevent or eliminate fraudulent and deceptive business practices. These programmes have been stimulated by the provisions of the 1986 False Claims Act and the investigative practices of the US Justice Department and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, both components of the US Attorney General. Besides spelling out fraudulent practices, remedies and penalties, the law specifically protects whistle­blowers. A whistle­blower is an employee who reports corporate wrong­doing such as bribes, kickbacks, false accounting practices or cheating to federal officials. The law noted above specifically protects such individuals from retaliation (termination, pay loss, job transfer, demotion, discipline or harassment) by their employers for informing the federal officials or for giving testimony in government initiated suits against defence contractors. Further, whistle­blowers can receive up to 25 per cent of the fine or penalty assessed against the firm when wrongdoing is proven. General Electric mounted an ambitious campaign to comply with the False Claims Act. In spite of internal controls and employee training, GE has been charged with fraudulent defence contracting activities several times in recent years. One such case involved a long­time employee named Chester Walsh. He blew the whistle on a scheme designed to create payoffs and kickbacks to a GE manager and an Israeli general. During the 1980s the pair defrauded the US government of about $42 million. Mr Walsh charged that Herbert Steindler, a GE marketing official who handled Israeli accounts, conspired with Israeli Air Force General Rami Dotan to prepare and submit false invoices for payment for military equipment and services which were never provided by GE which then passed the bills on to the appropriate US defence agency. The ruse lasted for several years until Mr Walsh detected it.  Rather than report the illegal activities right away, Mr Walsh learned the details of the 1986 law and he gathered irrefutable evidence of the conspiracy. For four years he assembled documents and recorded conversations. By 1991 he had reported the abuses and he filed suit against his employer under the False Claims Act. The US Justice Department and the US Air Force investigated the charges. Eventually 24 GE employees were dismissed or disciplined, including Mr Steindler. In Israel, General Dotan was convicted of bribery and related  crimes and given a 13­year prison sentence. Mr Walsh received $11.5m of the $69m GE had to pay the federal government to end the case.

 

Questions:

 

• Do you think that fraudulent business practices are more common in very

 

large organisations? If so, why?

 

2 )    Why did Mr Walsh wait for four years to reveal the conspiracy between

 

Mr.  Steindler and General Dotan? In your mind did he gain anything by

 

delaying his accusation?

 

3)    What are your recommendations to GE for preventing fraudulent practices

 

and encouraging ethical employee conduct?

 

 

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