Assignment for MBA701

MBA 701 - ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
You may choose to answer either Assignment A or Assignment B.

Assignment A
You have just been hired as a top level manager of a large company that employs 2000
employees of a culturally diverse background. Most of the employees work at the company
headquarters but 500 of them work at two branches away from headquarters. Although there is
some use of teamwork, most tasks in this company are performed individually. The
organizational chart displays 5 layers of management. The overwhelming majority of managers
are men. Your limited presence with the company has not given you the opportunity to fully
familiarize yourself with the companys culture.
You have been hired to replace the previous manager who was laid off due to the poor financial
performance of the company during the last few years. During this time, company sales and
profits have fallen and employee turnover has risen. Although your medium to long term goal is
to improve the companys financial performance, you understand that you must make decisions
regarding what actions need to be taken now to introduce the necessary changes that will help to
turn things around. Your immediate agenda is to determine the possible causes of the declining
sales and profits and increasing levels of employee turnover.
To this end, you are to prepare a comprehensive essay/report (synthesizing organisational
theories and using micro and macro models) to thoroughly discuss the factors that influence
individual, group and organisational performance critically examining the potential causes of
the companys worsening performance. You are then required to recommend and explain
specific measures that can be taken to improve individual, group and organizational
performance, critically analyzing their potential effectiveness. Your proposed measures must
take into consideration all aspects of organizational behavior. This necessitates that all potential
causes of inadequate performance are considered.
In answering this assignment, you should make appropriate references to recent empirical
evidence identifying any conflicting evidence that may exist in the literature. You are also
encouraged to effectively challenge existing theory and its practical applicability to real life
situations. Your essay should demonstrate confident, detailed and informed knowledge of
organizational behavior as well as comprehensive understanding of the complexity of the
determinants and consequences of behavior in organizations. Your work should be analytical in
style and critical in interpretation displaying evidence of original thought and not merely
reproducing theories without individual reflection, analysis and evaluation.
(Please refer to the additional guidance note below.)

Assignment B
Synthesizing organisational theories and using micro and macro models, you are to prepare a
comprehensive essay/report to critically examine the factors that you believe influence
individual, group and organisational performance at your workplace. You are then required to
recommend, explain and justify specific measures that can be taken to improve individual, group
and organizational performance, critically analyzing their potential effectiveness. Your
proposed measures must take into consideration all aspects of organizational behavior as well as
the characteristics of your workplace including organizational structure and culture.
In answering this assignment, you should make appropriate references to recent empirical
evidence identifying any conflicting evidence that may exist in the literature. You are also
encouraged to effectively challenge existing theory and its practical applicability to real life
situations and in particular to your workplace. Your essay should demonstrate confident, detailed
and informed knowledge of organizational behavior as well as comprehensive understanding of
the complexity of the determinants and consequences of behavior in organizations. Your work
should be analytical in style and critical in interpretation displaying evidence of original
thought and not merely reproducing theories without individual reflection, analysis and
evaluation.
(Please refer to the additional guidance note below.)

Guidance Note:
In answering your chosen assignment, you should consider all the factors that could influence
individual, group and organizational performance. You should consider all material, theories,
models and research findings covered in each topic. When considering individual behavior, you
must refer to values, attitudes, perception, attribution, learning and motivation in determining the
potential causes of individual behavior and how to change it. Bearing these factors in mind, in
considering group behavior, you must reflect on the dynamics of groups and teamwork,
including how they are assessed and rewarded. When organizations experience problems such
decreasing profits and rising labor turnover, in addition to the above factors, one must also
consider other issues such as decision making procedures, communication, leadership styles,
organizational politics and power struggles, and organizational structure and culture.
As you proceed through the learning material and activities for each topic, reflect on how they
relate to this assignment and take notes appropriately. When you begin answering the
assignment, try to organize your report in a structured way.