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nAml BIA UniVERSITY OF SCIEnCE AnD TECHnOLOGY

Faculty of Management Sciences

Department of Management

QUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Human Resources Management

QUALIFICATION CODE: 07BHRM; 21BHUR; 25BOMT LEVEL:

13 Storch Street Private Bag 13388 Windhoek NAMIBIA

COURSE: Organisational Management COURSE CODE: OSM612S

DATE: January 2016 SESSION: PAPER 1

DURATION: 2 Hours MARKS: 100

SECOND OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION PAPER

EXAMINER: Ms. E January-Enkali

Mr. E Ndjoonduezu

MODERATOR: Ms. M Sezuni

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER CONSISTS OF 8 PAGES

(INCLUDING THIS FRONT PAGE)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Answer all questions.

2. Read all the questions carefully before answering.

3. Marks for each question are indicated at the end of each question.

4. Please ensure that your writing is legible, neat and presentable.

T: +254 51 207 2220 F: +264 51 207 9220 E: dml@nust.na W: www.nust.na

SECTION A (30)

Question 1 (Each multiple choice question carries one (1) mark) (20)

Choose the correct answer to the questions that follow by indicating only the applicable letter (i.e. a, b, c, d, or e) in your answer book.

1.1 An example of change in the nature of the work force is an increase in ___ _

A) college attendance B) mergers and consolidations C) capital equipment D) divorce rates E) more cultural diversity

1.2 It is easiest for management to deal with resistance when it is ___ _

A) covert B) deferred C) passive D) implicit E) overt

1.3 Managing resistance to change that is ____ is extremely challenging .

A) passive

B) resolute

C) deferred

D) explicit

E) overt

1.4 Which tactic to overcome resistance to change is a relatively easy way to gain the support adversaries, but may backfire if the targets become aware of the tactic?

A) negotiation B) conciliation C) manipulation D) coercion E) cooperation

1.5 encompasses a collection of planned-change interventions built on humanistic-democratic values that seek to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being.

A) Organizational development B) Reflected change C) Process consultation D) Action research E) Economic validity

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1.6 Which of the following is true regarding behavioural structured interviews?

A) They are conducted in a similar manner as audition-type interviews.

B) They decrease an interviewer's reliance on his or her "gut feelings."

C) They are most useful when interviewing high-performing workers.

D) They are useful only for interviewing non-skilled workers.

E) They increase the effectiveness of the interview technique.

1. 7 The behavioural structured interview is built on the assumption that ___ _

A) past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour

B) technical knowledge and skills are the best predictor of job performance

C) D) E)

personality is the best predictor of job performance

personality and mood are highly correlated

technical knowledge and mood are highly correlated

1.8 Thomas has been told that he is a final candidate for a job, he merely has to submit a urine sample for a drug test. Thomas is indignant and feels that the request is a violation of his rights. Which of the following statements is not true about Thomas' situation?

A) Thomas won't have any problems if he has only consumed alcohol. B) Thomas can 'fake' the drug test if he has only smoked marijuana. C) The Supreme Court does not support Thomas' view on drug testing. D) Drug testing is expensive, so the company must value Thomas as a candidate. E) Drug testing is not going away and Thomas should accept it.

1.9 Statistics show that 50% of high school graduates in the Namibia don't possess adequate ____ skills to perform with maximum productivity in today's demanding work place.

A) literacy B) technical C) problem solving D) interpersonal E) social

1.10 Fiina can learn anything quickly, if she can see someone else doing it. If she has to figure it out by any other method, it will take her a long time and she will not be productive. Fiina is a(n) ____ , and her manager should ___ _

A) listener, provide her with audio tapes B) reader, give her books to review C) observer, use Internet videos to train D) participator, provide hands-on training E) actor, simulate role-playing situations

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1.11 For process conflict to be productive, it must be ___ _

A) kept high B) kept low C) kept at low-to-moderate levels D) kept at moderate levels E) subject to managerial control

1.12 The perspective focuses on productive conflict resolution starting both before an after the behavioural stage of conflict occurs, in order to minimize the negative effects on the organization.

A) interactionist conflict B) task conflict C) managed conflict D) process conflict E) traditional conflict

1.13 Angelina feels that her cubicle neighbour talks too loudly on the phone, but in other ways she is a great neighbour. Angelina gets annoyed every time her neighbour's phone rings, but she has decided it's simply not worth the trouble to talk to her neighbour. Angelina's conflict intention is called

A) competing B) avoiding C) accommodating D) compromising E) collaborating

1.14 Which of the following is not an example of a prediction based on path-goal theory?

A) Subordinates with an internal locus of control will be more satisfied with a directive style. B) Directive leadership leads to greater satisfaction when tasks are ambiguous or stressful. C) Supportive leadership results in high employee performance when performing structured

tasks. D) Directive leadership is likely to be perceived as redundant by employees with a lot of

experience. E) All of the above are examples of predictions based on path-goal theory.

1.15 Leaders who clarify role and task requirements to accomplish established goals exhibit a ____ style of leadership.

A) transformational B) transactional C) charismatic D) self-initiating E) situational

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1.16 Which of the following is not a recruiting method to enhance workforce diversity?

A) placing advertisements in publications geared toward specific demographic groups B) recruiting at colleges, universities, and other institutions with significant numbers of

underrepresented minorities C) forming partnerships with associations like the Society for Women Engineers D) establishing work policies that promote working in groups to complete projects E) targeting messages to specific demographic groups underrepresented in the workforce

1.17 Exclusion and incivility are difficult forms of discrimination to root out because ___ _

A) they are only inflicted by upper management B) they are impossible to observe and may occur unintentionally C) victims suffer less than victims of other types of discrimination D) exclusion and incivility are not forms of unfair discrimination E) management often disregards this type of discrimination

1.18 Research supports which of the following statements about men and women in the workplace?

A) Men are more productive. B) Women are more productive. C) Men are the most receptive to socialization. D) Women are less likely to resign . E) Women have more absences

1.19 James approaches his supervisor with data and a logical presentation supporting his request for additional personnel. He is using ___ _

A) consultation B) legitimacy C) rational persuasion D) informational power E) exchange

1.20 Individuals who develop explanations and documentation to lessen their responsibility for negative outcomes are demonstrating which of the following defensive behaviours?

A) buffing B) justifying C) prevention D) stretching E) misrepresenting

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Question 2 (1 0)

True or False (Each question carries one (1) mark)

2.1 The matrix structure facilitates the allocation of specialists.

2.2 The virtual organization is effective at reinforcing management control over business operations.

2.3 The effect of scarcity on dependency can be observed in the supply/demand relationships that exist regarding personnel with in various industries.

2.4 When people perceive politics as an opportunity, they respond with defensive behaviours.

2.5 Avoidance of conflict involves playing down differences while emphasizing common interests between the conflicting parties.

2.6 One common ingredient in organizations that successfully create functional conflict is that they reward dissent and punish conflict avoiders.

2.7 The size of an organization affects the organization's structure at a decreasing rate of impact.

2.8 All organizations within an industry use the terminology designated by the industry so that their employees can move freely from organization to organization.

2.9 In the past, organizations had to provide basic reading and math skills for their employees. Improved educational standards have decreased that need over the past few decades.

2.10 The approach that compares each employee with every other employee and rates each as either the superior or weaker member of the pair is called group order ranking.

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SECTION B

Question 3

Case Incident Innovation-and Continuity-at Toyota

(20)

If you ask experts in organizational innovation about Toyota, you'll often see a bemused expression on their faces. Toyota is a bit hard to figure, innovation wise.

On the one hand, the company has been one of the most successful corporations in the world for a generation. It is now the world's largest car company and shows no signs of giving up that title anytime soon. It must be doing something innovative to continue to thrive when business conditions, consumer preferences, government regulation, and global competition continue to change, sometimes rather dramatically.

Toyota also produced the first, and to date the only, successful mass-produced hybrid car, the Prius. Other companies have attempted to follow suit, only to find their entries coming up short in expert ratings, new car sales, and resale value.

On the other hand, Toyota's products are widely thought to be more "liked than loved," and its cars are often criticized for being imitations rather than innovations. The company is notorious for its "stodgy and bureaucratic" structure, for the fact that all its senior executives are Japanese males, and for its worshipping of the past (a bust of the company's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, appears in the lobby, and in its 74-year history only three individuals outside the Toyoda family have led it) . These hardly seem the hallmarks of an innovative, transformational organization.

So is Toyota an innovative company, or not?

The answer depends on how you define innovation. Judged by the innovations in its products, notwithstanding the Prius (which, despite its success, still amounts to a small percentage of Toyota's sales), we would not deem it a particularly innovative organization. However, when we defined an innovative culture elsewhere in this text, we emphasized two points. First, it is not judged only by an organization's products. Production, service, marketing, and other business processes are less observable to the outsider but are arguably more important to sustained success. Second, innovation can be incremental. Is a company that loudly reinvents itself every 10 years really more innovative than one that makes steady, incremental changes more or less continuously?

It's clear that on both these points-innovation as process as well as product, and lasting incremental innovation- Toyota excels. Toyota has made numerous workplace innovations, including the andon cord-whereby any worker can halt the production line when he or she sees a problem-and its focus on lean and nimble manufacturing processes that allow it to switch the vehicle being manufactured in nearly every plant within days. On the second point, kaizen manufacturing- a method of continuous improvement-is nearly synonymous with Toyota. As one expert commented, "Instead of trying to throw long touchdown passes, Toyota moves down the field by means of short and steady gains."

Studies consistently show that most efforts at organizational transformation fail and are abandoned. Perhaps if more companies thought about innovation the Toyota way-in terms of process rather than product and of slow and continuous improvement rather than radical change-they'd be more likely to realize the innovations, and organizational success, they wish to achieve.

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Questions

3.1 Would you consider Toyota to be an innovative organization? Why or why not? (3)

3.2 Do you think Toyota's potentially inbred leadership hinders, or explains, its successes? (6)

3.3 In 2009, Toyota reported a loss for the first time in its history. Do you think that given its culture it will have more problems dealing with the loss than other automakers? (3)

3.4 The new president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda (grandson of the founder), has said, "Everyone says Toyota is the best company in the world, but the consumer doesn't care about the world. They care if we are the best in town." What do you think·he means by that? (8)

SECTION B (50)

Question 4

4.1 Discuss the three common small group networks. Evaluate each on their effectiveness. Is there

any one best network? (13)

4.2 Describe the reality of politics in organizations. Include its impact on resource allocation. (15)

4.3 Explain the concept of the "boundary less" organization and how boundaries less organization

are useful in breaking down cultural barriers in a global workplace. (10)

4.4 Describe informal training. Provide a workplace example of an informal training for technical skill and another for problem solving skills. (12)

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