ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION M.B.A.

(HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT) FIRST YEAR Academic Year 2011 - 2012 ASSIGNMENT TOPICS This booklet contains assignment topics. Students are asked to write the assignm ents for EIGHT papers as per instructions. Last date for submission : 28-02-2012 Last date for submission : 15-03-2012 with late fee ` 300/NOTE: 1. Assignments sent after 15-03-2012 will not be evaluated. 2. Assignments should be in the own hand writing of the student concerned a nd not type-written or printed or photocopied. 3. Assignments should be written on foolscap paper on one side only. 4. All assignments (with Enrolment number marked on the Top right hand corner on all pages) should be put in an envelop with superscription MBA Assignments and se nt to The Director, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University, Ann amalainagar 608 002 by Registered post. P.T.O. 5. No notice will be taken on assignments which are not properly filled in with Enrolment Number and the Title of the papers. 6. Students should send full set of assignments for all papers. Partial ass ignments will not be considered. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS Write assignments on any TWO topics in each paper out of the FOUR. For each topi c the answer should not exceed 15pages. Each assignment carries 25 marks. (2 topi cs) Dr. S. B. NAGESWARA RAO DIRECTOR 1.1 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT 1. Draw up a statement of policy and devise a brief procedure that might be useful in implementing it. Are you sure your policy is not a rule? 2. a) Planning is looking ahead, and control is looking back Comment. b) What are the different modern controlling techniques used in large scale organizations? 3. A delegation of Authority often found to be the most important cause of managerial failure Review this statement. 4. Choose the organization where matrix type of departmentation is appropri ate? Compare the pros and cons of this type over the others. 1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 1. The role of educational institutions is to ensure employability of stude nts than increasing employment. Discuss the strategies for enhancing employabili ty of Human Resources. 2. Explain the principles of disciplining employees. What are the consequen ces of enforcing discipline without prior information? 3. For older workers money is not the criteria of motivation. What would be the needs of them? Write your observation in the context of job enlargement and job enrichment. 4. Performance appraisal is a tough job of a HR Manager. Explain why most o f the techniques fail to provide realistic appraisal of work performance. Give y our observation.

1.3 PRODUCTION AND MATERIALS MANAGEMENT 1. How does an MRP system helps management, monitor the performance of the inventory system? Give a specific example of what the system does to direct mana gements attention to problem areas? 2. Is `lead time in inventory really important? How can mismanaging `lead time co st companys money? 3. Work study is seen by the work force as a means whereby management can e ither get more work done for the same pay or the same work done for less pay. Di scuss the above statement in the context of what you regard as the correct objec tives for work study in production / operation management. 4. What is the objective of work centre scheduling? Why does batching cause so much trouble in job shops? Why is managing bottle-neck is so important in jo b shop scheduling? 1.4 MARKETING MANAGEMENT 1. How do marketers disaggregate a market into a number of sub-markets/Dist rict sub-units of buyers What are the constraints a marketer will face to homoge neous a market Explain. 2. What are the various attributes a buyer will expect on consumer goods an d why do companies offer different products for different customers? Explain wit h the theories involved in it with suitable examples? 3. People have a peculiar behaviour over a product and why is it so. How a product is altered to attract customers? What are the techniques companies follo w to retain and add new customers? Explain. 4. a) Compare the branding strategies adopted by Honda Motors, Tata Motors and Nissan Motors. b) Packaging is considered as silent salesmen Is it acceptable? Elaborate your ans wer.

1.5 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 1. Compare and contrast the pros and cons of over captilisation and under c apitalization. 2. Assume that you are a financial manager of medium sized company. Explore the possibilities of generating the different sources of capital at fair rate. 3. a) Since the rights issue allows the ordinary shareholders to purchase t he shares at a price much lower than the current market price, why does not shar eholders wealth increase? Illustrate your answer. b) What is a stable dividend policy? Why should it be followed? What can be the consequences of changing a stable dividend policy? 4. Convertible debentures generally carry lower rates of interest than the non-convertible debentures. If this is true, does it mean that the cost of capit al on convertible debenture is lower than on non-convertibles? Why or why not. 1.6 BUSINESS MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS 1. The average number of articles produced by two machines per day is 200 a nd 250 with standard deviation 20 and 25 respectively on the basis of records of 25 days production. Can you regard both the machines equally efficient at 1% le vel of significance? 2. To test the significance of the variation of the retail prices of the co mmodity in three principle cities; Mumbai, Kolkatta, and Delhi, the four shops w ere chosen at random in each city and prices observed in rupees were as follows: Mumbai 16 8 12 14

Kolkatta Delhi 4

14 10

10 8

10 8

3. The probability that a person A who is now 25 years old, lives for anoth er 30 years is 2/5; and the probability that the person B who is now 45 years ol d lives for another 30 year is 7/16. Find the probability that at least one of t hese persons will be alive 30 years. 4. There is a general belief that high income families send their children to government school. For this, 1000 families were selected in a city and the fo llowing results were obtained. Income Public school Government school Total Low 100 200 300 High 500 200 700 Total 600 400 1000 Use chi-square test to determine whether income level and the type of schooling are associated. 1.7 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 1. Human behaviour is more complex than what people believe. Do you agree wit h this? What are the factors that add complexity in human behaviour? 2. a) Non-financial incentives are as strong motivators as financial ones. C ritically examine this statement. b) Informal organization is detrimental to the interests of formal organization a nd therefore, it is an evil to be nipped in the bud itself. Comment on this state ment and explain how management should handle informal groups. 3. a) A leader is developed and not born. Do you agree with this statement? E xplain. b) The basic factor which determines the human behaviour in an organization is re lated to the quality of human relations Discuss the statement. 4. Measuring effectiveness is a critical but problematic issue in the study of organizations. Discuss. 1.8 MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION 1. a) Explain the barriers of effective communication. b) Discuss briefly the preparatory steps involved in a team presentation. 2. a) Elucidate the technological impact in managerial communication. b) Communications trends have changed very rapidly in managerial practices. Sugg est methods to improve performance. 3. a) Develop a model report on an academic research conducted to identify the reasons for the employee retrenchment by the employer. b) Body language is one of the ways to communicate to the employees down the line Do you consider that it is effective? 4. a) Explain the prospects and challenges of visual communication. b) Prepare a power point presentation about your sales performance. Attach the p rint out of the slides. *** ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION M.B.A. (HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT) SECOND YEAR Academic Year 2011 - 2012 ASSIGNMENT TOPICS This booklet contains assignment topics. Students are asked to write the assignm ents for SIX papers as per instructions. Last date for submission: 28-02-2012 Last date for submission 15-03-2012 with late fee ` 300/-:

NOTE: 1. Assignments sent after 15-03-2012 will not be evaluated. 2. Assignments should be in the own hand writing of the student concerned a nd not type-written or printed or photocopied. 3. Assignments should be written on foolscap paper on one side only. 4. All assignments (with Enrolment number marked on the Top right hand corn er on all pages) should be put in an envelop with superscription MBA Assignments a nd sent to The Director, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University , Annamalainagar 608 002 by Registered post. P.T.O. 5. No notice will be taken on assignments which are not properly filled in with Enrolment Number and the Title of the papers. 6. Students should send full set of assignments for all papers. Partial ass ignments will not be considered. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS Write assignments on any TWO topics in each paper out of the FOUR. For each topi c the answer should not exceed 15pages. Each assignment carries 25 marks. (2 topi cs) DR. S. B. NAGESWARA RAO DIRECTOR 2.1 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE 1) What are the latest research taking places in the area of organization d evelopment? 2) a) OD must be tied to business strategy in order to gain support from top management. Discuss. b) The role of organizational development is meant for improvement Comment. 3) Resistance to change is a normal part of the process of change Discuss. Wh at techniques would you use in overcoming such resistance? 4) a) If you were incharge of designing the ideal management development programmes. What areas would you include? Why. b) Examine the issues in consultant client relationship in OD exercises. 2.2 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 1. The choice of training methods depends on the objectives of the training programme and principles of learning Discuss with example. 2. a) Distinguish between case study and role play explain the situations where they are found to be more useful than the other. b) Differentiate the conceptual difference between training and education. 3. Organisational development involves the development of the organization i n the light of its future requirement. Do you agree with this statement? 4. a) Training evaluation is most crucial for the trainees. Give an overvie w of training evaluation. b) Give an outline of Personal Development Planning (PDP). c) Designing the training programme without the evaluation of the previous traini ng programme is most improfessional. Do you agree? How will you evaluate the trai ning programme? 2.3 LABOUR WELFARE 1. a) Labour welfare is not a barren liability or useless expenditure but a

wise investment. Discuss it in detail. b) State the important provisions of the factories act 1948, with regard to safe ty, Financial Assistant and the working hours of the men and women. 2. State and discuss the problems of trade union. As a consultant, mention your suggestions to improve present of trade union in India. 3. Critically analyze the recommendations of second National Commission of Labour with regard to the umbrella legislation for unorganized sector work force in India. 4. Conflict and co-operation are the two aspects of industrial relations whi ch are equally important. Do you agree? Give justification for your answer. 2.4 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 1. Discuss the general causes for industrial unrests during the last three decades in India. 2. Explain the reasons for intra and inter union rivalries. How will you ch eck the proliferation of unions? 3. Do you think collective Bargaining is successful in India? Compare other countries in this regard and give your observations. 4. Any discipline must be immediate with warning, consistency and impersona lity. Explain with examples.

2.5 WAGES AND SALARY ADMINISTRATION 1. You are applying for a job as a manager and are at the point of negotiat ing salary and benefits. What questions would you ask your prospective employer concerning benefits? Describe the benefits package you would try to negotiate fo r yourself. 2. a) Critically relate the various theories on compensation structure appl icable for an I.T. sector. b) Prepare a write-up on the trends and compensation plans for sectors in India. 3. Describe the concept of fringe benefits. Discuss how fringe benefits are linked, to social commitment. Briefly describe the organization you are referri ng. 4. Explain the concept of pay packet composition. Why is dearness allowance is an integral part of pay packet. Explain how it is given with references to a ny organization you are familiar with.

2.6 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 1. a) Strategic Alliances are temporary. Do you agree? Justify your answer wi th necessary example. b) When the industry becomes hypercompetitive, is it possible to have a sustaina ble competitive advantage? Give reasons. 2. a) Is it possible to simultaneously follow cost leadership and different iation strategy for a single business unit? Elucidate with examples. b) Is downsizing a good option for Indian firms? Justify your answer with exampl es. Also discuss the advantages of rightsizing. 3. a) As a strategic manager, develop a realistic model for the evaluation and control process in the Indian context. b) Critically examine how far the 7-S framework is helpful for organizations ope rating in the liberalized Indian context. 4. a) Analyse the present marketing strategy followed by any five leading c ellular service providers. b) Explain the concept of BCG matrix and its suitability to strategy formulation . ***