MODULE: ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 Programme Master of Business Administration (Financial Risk Management) Master of Business Administration (Project Management) Cohort MBAFRM/12/PT (Jan 12) MBAPM/12/PT (Jan 12) Examinations for Semester I / 2012 Semester II MODULE: ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MODULE CODE: HRMT5207 Duration: 3 Hours Instructions to Candidates: 1. This question paper consists of Section A and Section B. 2. Section A is Compulsory. 3. Answer any TWO questions from Section B. 4. Always start a new question on a fresh page. 5. Total Marks: 100. This question paper contains 4 questions and 7 pages. Page 1 of 7

2 SECTION A: COMPULSORY QUESTION 1: (50 MARKS) CASE STUDY Staff Motivation at Kingfisher Airways In the highly competitive world of international air passenger transport, the bottom line is everything. As such, all aspects of flight operations are subject to the rigorous cost benefit analysis known as revenue per kilometre flown. This is the situation of Kingfisher Airways. Price banding restrictions linked to historical marketing statistics allow airlines to estimate the number of passengers who will present themselves for a particular flight as opposed to those who will choose to exercise their flexibility muscle. For example, if 70 per cent of the plane s capacity is made up of economy seats, a condition of which is that no changes are allowed, then it can be reasonably assume that this group will travel on the given day or not at all. Flexibility to price ratio continues up the scale until the top notch ticket is reached. The high price tag at this level promises that the airline will strive to provide the frequent flyer with all that he requires. Further, statistics indicate that having made this investment, he will almost certainly travel since he has chosen to pay an inflated price to guarantee that he will reach his destination when and how he wishes. At this stage there remains only one small percentage of passenger statistics to be correlated and here restrictions linked to price again come into play, limiting the degree of usage of the flexibility muscle to the minority of passengers travelling open jaw. These people will have paid a sufficiently large supplement in order to allow themselves the luxury of being flexible in their travel arrangements. As one would expect, this market segment has been shown to be the most likely not to travel and it is this information which the airlines use in their calculations. Page 2 of 7

3 Should, as is likely, a proportion of this user group decide to change their plans, as is their right, then the airline would be faced with the economic disaster of high revenue seats flying empty and seriously reducing the company s desired margin of revenue. In order to cover this contingency proactively, the company chooses always to overbook these seats by the calculated percentage of passengers who will probably choose not to travel. The above organisational difficulties are not new, however the systems in which they operate have changed drastically both in the attitude to acceptable levels of passenger discomfort and in the variety and number of duties which staff are now expected to carry out. As a manager in this environment Donald Taylor faces many challenges daily, the most daunting of which is to find a way to motivate his team who know with absolute certainty that during every shift they will have irate passengers. The passengers will see airline employees as the acceptable outlet for their outrage at what they perceive as unjust/unfair treatment, not to mention downright bad service. It is then the role of Donald and his team to achieve the unachievable to not give the customer what he wants but to send him on his way feeling that he has received outstanding service by people who genuinely care about his needs. Most importantly to the airline, he will take with him such a positive feeling that he will happily use the airline in the future and encourage others to do so. These problems are not eventualities most operators working in such a fastmoving environment are equipped to deal with most of these but certainties, built into the system in order to maximise profit. Part of this drive towards even greater profits has, as with many multinationals in the 1990s, resulted in a restructuring of operations which in real terms has meant a paring down of the workforce to what senior management call optimum efficiency. In this case it also involves a flattening of the management structure to be a leaner fitter organisation. At the most extreme level, management in the organisation has been subject to great change, some enforced and some planned. Although the management structure is traditional and hierarchical, it is simultaneously attempting to achieve a flatter structure for the organization. Page 3 of 7

4 The motivation system therefore is roughly as follows: 1 Senior management should motivate themselves. 2 Donald should motivate himself and his team. 3 Individual members of the team should motivate themselves. 4 Sideways motivation is due to the fact that although each manager has the same title there are varying grades of responsibility and support. All those with the designation manager may have the same title, but their knowledge, experience and skills levels vary dramatically. Not only do skills vary dramatically, so does motivation. To be lacking in a skill is a solvable problem, given time and the appropriate training. To be lacking in motivation is almost incurable, according to Donald. Although some members of management may not have perfect knowledge, built into the system is a way of finding most of what you need to know. However they would rather pick up the phone and ask me even if by doing so he is causing an already stressed customer to wait while he does so. Stress-related illness has been well documented and Donald is unfortunately acquainted with this phenomenon, faced as he is with a daily stress-related absenteeism of around 25 per cent. This nonexistence of one-to-one or even regular verbal contact is further exacerbated by the fact that although appraisals are built into the system, in reality they are never carried out. This means that senior management has no feedback on the operational problems and difficulties which Donald encounters and as there is no procedure in place they are never communicated. Also the question is raised of how he will be able to face the daily aggression and stress without support. My contact with my direct line manager is limited to irregular s which are purely directional and/or informative. At no point is there any attempt to either help with my staffing problems or to acknowledge that these may be stress related. It follows then that there is no form of motivation downwards from him to me, although it is taken for granted that I will be self-motivated and able to motivate my team. Page 4 of 7

5 Sometimes I just feel like not going to work but the act of putting on the uniform brings about a kind of metamorphosis I begin to look forward to the day. Each shift brings a new set of problems and with it I find new capabilities and competencies within myself. I like to be proactive wherever possible, for example if I know a flight is going to be seriously overbooked then myself and my team will have a contingency plan or plans ready for when the crisis hits. I think the secret is to treat every event as completely new; it would be very easy to become cynical as it could be said that one overbooked flight is much like another in terms of problem solving. That is simply not the case, each flight carries a set of passengers who as individuals have unique needs and expectations. I guess you could say that my motivation comes from the satisfaction of being able to make a difference. I may not be able to materialise a seat on an aircraft which does not exist but I can try to make the situation easier by means of finding the best alternative and to compensate them any way I can...donald Donald as a self-motivator needs no praise in order to give 120 per cent effort. He never contacts his supervisor with problems and never complains, he is seen as a reliable but uninteresting plodder. Robert Langdon, on the other hand, who leads another team, in the same Company, is only motivated by extrinsic gain. Everyone knows that Donald is far too conscientious, but the plus-side of this is that when his team leave for other posts then they also will be fully trained and have the same attitude to customer service as Donald, whom they all admire greatly. However when Robert moves, he will leave behind a team as demotivated as himself who will continue with the lazy could-not-care-less attitude simply because they have become used to not caring. Page 5 of 7

6 Required: (a) With the use of appropriate theories of motivation, critically analyse the status of motivation and the relationship that exists between performance and outcome at the level of Kingfisher Airways. (b) Identify the possible behaviours of the employees as a consequence of inequity which appears to prevail in the organization. (c) Explain the motivation strategies that should be adopted by the company in a bid to have higher levels of performance from employees. (d) Although performance management is a continuous process it is still necessary to have a formal review once or twice a year. What are the rules to be followed for conducting performance review meetings in a bid to improve performance at Kingfisher? SECTION B: ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS QUESTION 2: (25 MARKS) (a) A new manager complains to you that she is unable to get her team to do what she tells them to do. Identify how an understanding of both power and leadership might be applied to help the situation. (b) Outline the characteristics of situational leadership and explain how the adoption of this style would be appropriate for a communication enterprise. Page 6 of 7

7 QUESTION 3: (25 MARKS) (a) Discuss in what way, and to what extent, organisational culture impacts upon organisational strategy. (b) Evaluate the extent to which an attempt to change an organisation s culture might be constrained by national culture. QUESTION 4: (25 MARKS) (a) Outline four criteria that should be used to judge the effectiveness of a performance appraisal system. (b) Explain what is meant by 360 degree feedback and identify its value to managers. ***END OF QUESTION PAPER*** Page 7 of 7