Management Paper 2012

The first question in 2012 paper of management, B.Com, Bahaudin Zakariya University, Multan was a set of 10 short questions. The solution to the first 5 short questions is as under:

Define management

Management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people. Managers attain organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through the management; they use planning, organizing, leading and controlling of peoples and resources while managing them to get to the goals.

What are the different functions a manager needs to perform?

Managers use planning, organizing, leading and controlling of peoples and resources while managing them to get to the goals.

Name the major theories in the classical approach to management.

There are three major approaches: scientific management, administrative management, and bureaucratic management.

List the major components of external environment of an organization.

The external environment of an organization has five elements: political changes, economic changes, social changes, technological changes, and legal changes.

What is innovation?

Innovation is the action or process of innovating. Innovation is not invention; it is use of a better and novel method, but not a creation of something new. One common example is technological innovation: use of technology to do something in a better way.

Innovation-strategy is to perform and grow using improvements as a tool to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and market share. This strategy adds value to an organization by changing old practices and methods with new ones.

Why businesses use innovation-strategy?

Businesses use innovation strategy to acquire or sustain competitive advantage.

Having and sustaining competitive advantage is a matter of survival for businesses. Presently, businesses increasingly focus on innovation; the obvious reason is increased and continuously growing competition in the business world. Moreover, after becoming lean and cutting cost to the extreme, businesses do not have many options to choose from the short list of actions for achieving competitive advantage. In economic downturn, business may innovate at business and corporate levels to build competitive advantages over its competitors.

In macro environment around a business, many factors demands for a strategy to innovate. Such demanding factors include trends as increasing focus on new technologies, changing government legislation on various sectors including health, and changing landscape of banking sector, etc. These trends require significant change and innovation from business.

In economic downturn, business may innovate at business and corporate level to build competitive advantages over competitors

Why Competitive Advantage is so much important?

Business world has seen the rise and fall of many businesses; however, only a small number of businesses survive and grow in the face of cruel market forces operating around them. Even many large organizations struggle in difficult time, laying off workers and closing plants.

What is the lesson to be learned from the failures?

The answer is that a business must have and must sustain competitive advantage. It is all about a business in a competitive war to survive and win. Of course  a business without a competitive advantage over its competitors cannot make money for a long time. It needs to be better than its competitors. A business has four dimensions to focus for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage: innovation, quality, service, speed, and cost competitiveness.

To gain and sustain competitive advantage a business may use one or more of the following tools:

1-       It may acquire people and resources to deliver high quality;

2-       It may innovate to deliver more value to its customers;

3-       It may render high quality services to its customers;

4-       It may deliver product or service with speed;

5-      It may prove itself cost competitive for its customers.

How can a business use innovation, quality, service, speed, and cost competitiveness for competitive advantage?

Past Papers Management, Bahaudin Zakariya University, Multan

B.COM PART II

1st annual examination, 2012

Principles of Management (Paper 1)

Time Allowed 3 Hours

Note: Total 9 questions are given.

Attempt any five questions.

Question No. 1 is compulsory.

Attempt any four questions from question no. 2 to 9

Each Question carries equal marks=20    Total Marks =100

Question No.1.  (10 short questions each carries equal marks=2)                       Total Marks=20

1.       Define management.

2.       What are the different functions a manager needs to perform?

3.       Name the major theories in the classical approach.

4.       List the major components of external environment.

5.       Define organizational culture.

6.       List the eight steps in the decision-making process.

7.       What is involved in planning?

8.       List the six key elements in organizational design.

9.       List the early theories of motivation.

10.   What are the three steps in the control process?

Question No.2.  Discuss the Fayol’s 14 principles or fundamental rules of management that could be applied to all organizational situations.

Question No.3.  Discuss how today’s managers use Taylor’s Scientific Management Principles.

Question No.4.  Describe different decision-making styles and discuss how biases affect decision-making.

Question No.5.  Classify the types of goals organizations might have and the plans they use.

Question No.6.  Explain and discuss how Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory proposes that intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction of employees.

Question No.7.  Discuss how Maslow’s theory explains employee’s motivation.

Question No.8.  Define leader and leadership. Also, differentiate between Managers and Leaders.

Question No.9.  Discuss what it means to be socially responsible and what factors influence that decision.

Management

What is management?

Management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people. A manager is a person who performs the process of managing something.

The definition suggests following important features of management.

- Management is a process;

- It is doing things efficiently and effectively;

- It is getting things done through and with other people.

Management is a process

Management is a Process –a continuous never ending process. It is a combination of four functions: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. A manager performs these four functions while managing something. It means while carrying out the process of management, a manager:

1.    Plans the work to be done;

2.    Organizes the resources and activities to do the work;

3.    Leads his subordinates while they are doing the work;

4.    Controls people and resources.

We will discuss the other two features of the definition of management in the next post. The other two features are:

- It is doing things efficiently and effectively;

- It is getting things done through and with other people.

The Ultimate Manager

No two days in human history came without a night between them and there never happened a day without sun and a night full of sun light. The seasons are matched with the ecological cycles to give rise and fall to species and the solar system has nicely been managed ab initio. 

Who is managing all this?

Allah, the Ultimate Manager, manages the universe in its entirety; he is the manager who controls the universe in entire expanse.

No one else was there to manage, but one Allah. He then delegated his powers to his vicegerent on earth – the human being. However, the vicegerent proved an imperfect manager, still learning theories of management after centuries of existence. He spent a lot of time to define management. He has learnt a lot, but he is still far away from perfection.

My book published by Learning Point Associates and this blog is also one of the efforts to understand management.

The basis of all knowledge and of management

Allah manages the universe in its full expanse. HE placed human being on earth as vicegerent to manage worldly things by knowledge and skills granted to him. He gave humans a powerful skill –the skill to build knowledge by naming things created by Him. The skill captures knowledge to further control of humans over the world. The skill seems very simple; it is just a skill to name things or to put names and labels on things i.e. define things. But to define things and study their interrelationships is the essence of knowledge in all fields. For example, chemistry named 109 elements and now studies their interrelationship to build more and more knowledge about chemistry itself. Similarly, a language defines nouns, verbs; adverbs etc. to study their interrelationship. My book on management is nothing, but the application of the same skill in management field. We define management, manager, and their functions to study the interrelationships. We build theories to understand the inter-relationships. 

The Ultimate Manager

Let us start in the name of Allah, the Ultimate Manager....