Ms-10 Question bank (11)
Ms-10 Question bank
MS-10 JUNE 2013
Written by sales@mbaonlinepapers.com sales@mbaonlinepapers.comMS-10 : ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
June 2013
SECTION - A
1. What are the objectives of T-Group training and briefly discuss the benefits of T-Group Training at individual, group and organisational levels.
2. Discuss the elements that need to be reviewed for organisational analysis and briefly describe the analysing organisations.
3. Briefly describe the contemporary approaches to job design and their relevance.
4. What is the purpose of organisation design ? Briefly describe the factors which affect
organisation design.
5. Write short notes an any three of the following :
(a) Task force
(b) Centralisation Vs Decentralisation
(c) Quality of work life
(d) Interview as a diagnostic tool
(e) Process of change
SECTION – B
6. Read the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end :
ABB: A HUGE GLOBLE MATRIX
If lean and mean could be personified, Percy Barnevik would walk through the door. A thin, bearded Swede, Barnevik is Europe's leading hatchet man. He is also creator of what is fast becoming the most successful cross-border merger since Royal Dutch Petroleum linked up with Britain's Shell in 1907.
In four years, Barnevik, 51, has welded ASEA, a Swedish engineering group, to Brown Boveri, a Swiss competitor, bolted on seven more companies in Europe and the U.S.A. and created ABB, a global electrical equipment giant that is bigger than Westinghouse and head to head with GE. It is a world leader in high-speed trains, robotics and environmental control.
To make this monster dance, Barnevik cut more than one in five jobs, closed dozens of factories and decimated headquarters staffs around Europe and the U.S.A. Whole businesses were shifted from one country to another. He created a corps of just 25 global managers to lead 21,000 employees. IBM has talked with Barnevik and his team about how to pare down its own overstaffed bureaucracy. Du Pont recently put Barnevik on its board. Says a senior executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. "They're as aggressive as we are. I mean this as a compliment. They are sort of super Japanese."
ABB is not Japanese, nor is it Swiss or Swedish. It is a multinational without a national identity, though its mailing address is in Zurich. The company's top 13 managers hold frequent meetings in different countries. Since they share no common first language, they speak only English, a foreign tongue to all but one. Like their boss, senior ABB managers are short on sentiment and long on commitment. An oil portrait of a 19th century founder of Brown Boveri hangs in ABB's headquarters, but few are sure what his name is. (It's Charles Brown). Ask for a fax number, though and you're likely to get two, office and home.
To Barnevik, today's competitive market economy is a 'cruel world'. Not making it any kinder, he has launched a personal war on what he sees as excess capacity-2 percent to 3 percent in the electrical equipment industry in Europe alone. Educated in Sweden and the U.S.A (he studied business administration and computer science at Stanford in the mid-1960s), Barnevik thinks European industry must be restructured massively to become competitive in world markets. He foresees billions of dollars and mergers and acquisitions in the next three to five years. Europe's best strategy against the Americans and Japanese, he believes, is to break free of protected national markets.
Before the merger, Brown Boveri had four people in Baden, Switzerland, and ASEA had as many as 2 in Vasteras, Sweden. The combined company now employs just 15 in a modest six-storey building across a train station in west Zurich. Where did everybody go? Many were fired. The rest were sent to subsidiaries or offered jobs in new companies set up or assume many headquarters functions. (ABB Marketing Services, for example, creates and runs campaigns for ABB, but also takes on a few other clients). And Barnevik expects to make money). It's not just cost cutting Barnevik is after, though that is obviously important. Says he. "Ideally you should have a minimum of staff to disturb the operating people and prevent them from doing their more important jobs."
Barnevik's master matrix gives all employees a country manager and a business sector manager. The country managers run traditional, national companies with local boards of directors, including eminent outsiders. ABB has about two such managers, most of them citizens of the country in which they work. Of more exalted rank, are 65 global managers who are organised into eight segments: transportation, process automation and engineering environmental devices, financial services, electrical equipment (mainly motors and robots) and three electric power businesses: generation,transmission and distribution.
Barnevik is well aware that the once popular management by matrix is in disfavour in the U.S.business schools and has been abandoned by most multinational companies. But he says he uses a loose, decentralised version of it-the two bosses are not always equal-that is particularly suited to an organisation composed of many nationalities.
The matrix system makes it easier for managers like Gerhard Schulmeyer, a German who heads ABB's U.S. businesses as well as the automation segment, to make use of technology from other countries. Because of the matrix, Schulmeyer has a better idea of what is available where.
He says that the techniques developed by ABB in Switzerland that he uses to service U.S. steam turbines are more reliable and efficient than those of General Electric and Westinghouse, his main American competitors. Schulmeyer also relied on European technology to convert a Midland, Michigan, nuclear reactor into a natural gas-fired plant.
ABB executives say the value of the company's matrix system extends beyond the swapping of technology and products. For example, the power transformer business segment consists of 31 factories in 16 countries. Barnevik wants each of these business to be run locally with intense lobal coordination. So every month the business segment headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, tells all the factories how all the others are doing according to dozens ofmeasurements. If one factory is lagging, solutions to common problems can be discussed and worked out across borders.
Questions :
(a) Which of the four basic departmentalisation formats do you detect in ABB's structure of eight segments ? Explain.
(b) Has Barnevik created an effective balance between centralisation and decentralisation ? How can you tell ?
(c) Relative to the advantages and disadvantages, is ABB's matrix structure appropriate to its situation ?
(d) How does ABB apparently avoid unity-of-command problems with its matrix structure ?
Ms-10 june 2007
Written by sales@mbaonlinepapers.com sales@mbaonlinepapers.comMS-10 june, 2007
MS-10 : ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
1.Distinguish between the Functional and Product organisation and Une & Staff organisation. List out their merits and demerits with examples.
2. Describe the skills required for becoming a successful change agent and briefly discuss the role of a change agent.
3. Briefly describe the erherging trends in work organization and discuss how they affect the quality of work life of employees, with suitable examples.
4. Describe the meaning and purpose of job design and various approaches to job design and their relevance.
5. Write short notes on any threeof the following :
(i) Inverted pyramid structure
(ii) Intervidru as a diagnostic tool
(iii) Organisation vs. institution
(iv) T-Group training
v)Mechanistic vs. Organic organization
6. Read the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end :
If lean and mean could be personified, Percy Barnevik would walk through thr door a thin bearded swede Barnevik is Europe's leading hatchet man. He is also the creator of what is fast becoming the most successful cross-border merger since Royal Dutch Petroleum linked up with Britain's Shell in 1907.
In four years, Barnevik, 51, has welded ASEA, a Swedish engineering group, to Brown Boveri, a Swiss competitor, bolted on 7 more companies in Europe and the [J.S., and created ABB, a global electrical equipment giant that is bigger than Westinghouse and can go head to head with GE. It is a world leader in high-i peed trains, robotics, and environmental control.
To make this monster dance, Barnevik cut more than one in five jobs, closed dozens of factories, and decimated headquarters staffs around Europe and the [J.S. Whole businesses were shifted from one country to another. He created a corps of just
25 global managers to lead 21,000 employees. IBM has talked with Bamevik and his team. about how to pare down its own overstaffed bureaucracy. Du Pont recently put Barnevik on its board. Says a senior executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries :
"They're as aggressive as we are, I mean this as a compliment. They are sort of super-Japanese." ABB isn't Japanese, nor is it Swiss or Swedish. It is multinational without a national identity, though its mailing address is in Zurich. The company's 13 top managers hold frequent meetings in different countries. Since they share no common first language, they speak only English, a foreign tongue to all but one. Like their boss, senior ABB managers are short on sentiment and long on commitment. An oil portrait of a l9th-century founder of Brown Boveri hangs in ABB's headquarters, but few are sure what his name is. (lt's Charles Brown.) Ask for a fax number, though, and you're likely to get two, office and home.
To Barnevik, today's competitive market economy is a "cruel world". Not making it any kinder, he has launched a personal war on what he sees as excess capacity
- 2% to 3% in the electrical equipment industry in Europe alone. Educated in Sweden and the U.S. (he studied Business Administration and Computer Science at
Stanford in the mid-1960s), Barnevik thinks European industry must be restructured massively to become competitive in world markets. He foresees billions of dollars of mergers and acquisitions in the next three to five years. Europe's best strategy against the Americans and Japanese, he national markets. believes; is to break free of, protected
Before the merger, Brown Boveri had 4 people in Baden, Switzerland. ASEA had as nrqny as 2, in Vasteros, Sweden. The combined company now employs just 15 in a modest six-storey building across from a train station in west Zurich. Where did everybody go ? Many were fired. The rest were sent to subsidiaries or off ered jobs in new companies set up to assume rnany headquarters functions. (ABB Marketing Services, for exarnple, creates. and mns and campaigns for ABB, but
. also takes on a few other clients. And Bamevik expects it to make money.) It's not just cost cutting Barnevik is after, though that is obviously irnportant. Says he : "ldeally you should have a minimum of staff to disturb the operating people and prevent them from doing their more importdnt jobs. "
Bamevik's master matrix gives all employees a country manager and a business sector manager. The country managers run traditional, national companies with local boards of directors, including eminent outsiders. ABB has about 2 such managers, most of them citizens of the country in which they work. Of more exalted rank are 65 global managers who are organized into eight segments : transportation, process automation and' engineering, environmental devices, financial services electrical equipment (mainly motors and robots), and three electric power businesses : generation, transmission, and distribution. Barnevik is well aware that the once popular management by matrix is in disfavour in the U.S. business schools and has been abandoned by most multinational companies. But he says he uses a loose
Decentralized version of it the two bosses are not always equal that is particularly suited to an organization composed of many nationalities
The matrix system makes it easier for managers like Gerhard Schulmeyer, a German who heads ABB's U.S. businesses as well as the automation segment, to make use of technology from other countries. Because of the matrix, Schulmeyer has a better idea of what is available where. He says that the techniques developed by ABB in
Switzerland that he uses to serviee U.S. steam turbines are more reliable and efficient than those of General Electric and Westinghouse, his main American competitors. Schulmeyer also relied on European technology to convert a Midland, Michigon, nuclear reactor into a natural gas-fired plant, ... ABB executives say the value of the company's matrix system extends beyond the swapping of technology and products. For example, the power transformer business segment consists of 31 factories in 16 countries. Barnevik wants each of these businesses to be run locally with intense global coordination. So every month the business segment headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, tells all the factories how all the others are
doing according to dozens of measurements. If one factory is lagging, solutions to common problems can be discussed and worked out across borders.
Questions
(a) How is ABB achieving integration and coordination of its global operations ?
(b) Which of the four basic departmentalization formats Explain.
(c) Has Barnevik created an effective balance between centralization and decentralization ?
(d) How does ABB apparently avoid unity-of-command problems with its matrix structure
Ms-10 june 2008
Written by sales@mbaonlinepapers.com sales@mbaonlinepapers.comMS-10 june, 2008
MS-10 : ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
l. Describe Organisational Design. By focussing on efficiency, highlight some of the factors affecting organizational design.
2. Compare the vertical and project organisation structures and their relevance in the present-day context. Illustrate with suitable examples.
3. Identify the emerging issues related to quality of working life. What is the relevance of QWL in the modern context, with suitable illustrations ?
4 Discuss resistance to change with reference to individuai and organisation. How would you overcome it ? Cite an example from organisational context.
5. Write short notes on any three of the following :
(a) Questionnaire as a diagnostic tool
(b) Business Process Reengineering
(c) Task force
(d) Architectural Ergonomics
(e) Role of CEO in Institution Building
6. Read the following case carefully and answer the questions given at the end :
The middle managers of a large firm were told by the corporate human resources office that a group of consultants would be calling on them later in the week.
The purpose of the consultants' visit would be to analyze cross-functional relations throughout the firm. The consultants had been very effective in using an OD intervention called team building. Their particular approach used six steps. When their approach was explained to the managers, a great deal of tension was relieved. They had initially thought that team building was a lot of hocus-pocus, like sensitivity training, where people attack each other and let out their aggressions by
heaping abuse on those they dislike. By the same token, these managers generally felt that perhaps the consultants were not needed. One of them put it this way : "Now that we understand what is involved in team building, we can go ahead and conduct the sessions ourselves. All we have to do is to choose a manager who is liked by everyone and put him or her in the role of the change agent/consultant. After all, you really don't need a high priced consultant to do this team-building stuff. You just hgve to have a good feel for human nature." The other managers generally agreed. How ever, the corporate human resources director turned down their suggestion. He hired the OD consultants to do the team building.
Questions :
(a) Bring out the main features of this case.
(b) What is a team building approach to organization development ? Do you think the managers had an accurate view of this OD technique ?
(c) Do you think that the managers had an accurate view of the role of external consultants ?
(d) What will be your plan of action in the situation
