TRISAKTI INSTITUTE OF TOURISM

HTI-127 Tourism & Organizational Behaviour

FINAL EXAM (Take Home)
December 2013
Instructions:

1. This exam should be done invidually.

2. Your answers should be concise and well typed.
3. Your answers should be well supported by arguments using the
Organizational Behaviour theories that you have learned in class.
4. Your final exam is due on 10 January 2014 the latest.
5. DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR EXAM ANSWERS ON EDMODO! Submit in a form
of hard copy to Bu Iin/ Pak Saelan in Ruang Perkuliahan (2nd
floor) and sign the exam attendance list!

CASE 1
Rosenbluth Travel, Inc., isnt like your typical travel agency. First of all, its
huge. It employs 2350 people in 340 offices in the United States, England, and Asia.
It is growing very quickly, adding about forty new offices a year. But what makes
this agency unique is the way its president and chief executive officer, Hal F.
Rosenbluth runs it. Rosenbluth believes he has a responsibility to make work a
pleasant and happy experience, so he has things like the Happiness Barometer
Group. This is made up of eighteen employees, randomly selected from various
offices, who provide feedback on how people are feeling about their jobs. And when
was the last time you heard of a firm that puts its employees ahead of its
customers? Rosenbluth does!
The travel business, according to Rosenbluth, is stressful: Its like being an
air traffic controller, one call after another. As a result, turnover in the industry
tends to be high, sometimes up to forty five or fifty percent a year. Yet Rosenbluths
turnover is only six percent. His hiring and training programs help explain why.
Job candidates are carefully screened to find people who will fit into the
agency. Rosenbluth wants team players and people with an upbeat attitude. Entry
level candidates undergo three to four hours of interviewing. For senior positions,
Rosenbluth personally gets to know each applicant. For instance, he invited a sales
executive candidate and his wife to go on a vacation with Rosenbluth and his wife.
On the third day of vacation, things start to come out.
Once hired, the new employees become acclimated to the agency real quick.
Instead of filling out forms on the first day, the new employee takes a role in skit (a
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short theatrical episode) means to convey that Rosenbluth wants his people to
laugh and have fun. But the skits are also learning experiences. New employees
may be asked to play out an experience theyve had with negative service, for
example. Then the experience is analyzed to learn how the episode could be turned
into great service. All new employees go through two to eight weeks of training,
partly to allow managers to assess whether they will fit into Rosenbluths high
energy team-focused environment. People who need the individual limelight are
released.
One of Rosenbluths more unusual qualities is putting the employee ahead of
the customer. On rare occasions, he has even gone so far as to help a corporate
client find another travel agency. He notes that usually these are firms that mistreat
their own people, so they mistreat his employees on the phone. I think its terrible
to ask one of our employees to talk with someone whos rude to them every fifteen
minutes.
Questions
1. Would you want to work for Rosenbluth Travel? Why or why not?
2. If Rosenbluths approach to managing people is so effective, why do you
think so many organizations try hard to create a serious work climate?
Karena zaman sekarang its all about innovation, jadi kalo suasana kerjanya
lebih santai bisa memacu pekerja-pekerja untuk lebih berpikiran terbuka
sehingga muncul ide-ide untuk
3. Do you think happy workers are more productive? Elaborate your answer!
CASE 2
The Science Book Fiction Club (SFBC) sells a large list of science fiction books,
at discount prices, entirely by mail order. In 1992, the club shipped over 370.000
books and generated revenues of $6.4 million. Anyone familiar with the mail-order
business realizes that it offers extremely high profit potential because, under careful
management, inventory costs and overhead can be kept quite low. The biggest
problems in mail-order businesses are filling orders, shipping the merchandise, and
billing the customers. At SFBC, the Packing and Shipping (P&S) Department employs
eight full-time people:
Ray (44), has worked in P&S for seven years
Al (49), has worked in P&S for nine years
R.J (53), has worked in P&S for sixteen years. He had been head of the
department for two years back in the late 1970s, but stepped down
voluntarily because of continuing stomach problems that doctors
attributed to supervisory pressures
Pearl (59), was the original employee hired by the founder. She has been
at the SFBC for twenty-five years and in P&S for twenty-one years
Margaret (31), is the newest member of the department. She has been
employed less than a year
Steve (27), has worked in P&S for three years. He goes to college at
nights and makes no effort to hide that he plans on leaving P&S and
probably SFBC when he gets his degree next year
George (46), is currently head of P&S. He has been with SFBC for ten
years, and in P&S for six years
George (25), has worked in P&S for two years
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The jobs in a shipping department are uniformly dull and repetitive. Each
person is responsible for wrapping, addressing, and making the bills out on
anywhere from one hundred to two hundred books a day. Part of Georges
responsibilities is to make allocations to each worker and to ensure that no
significant backlogs occur. However, George spends less than ten percent of his
time in supervisory activities. The rest of the time he wraps, addresses, and makes
out bills just like everyone else.
Apparently, to deal with the repetitiveness of their jobs, the department
members have created a number of games that they play among themselves. They
seem almost childish, but it is obvious that the games mean something to these
people. Importantly, each is played regularly. Some of the ones that will be
described are played at least once a day. All are played a minimum of twice a week.
The Stamp Machine is Broken, is a game that belongs to Al. At least, once a
day, Al goes over to the postage meter in the office and unplugs it. He then
proceeds loudly to attempt to make a stamp for a package. The stamp machine is
broken again, he yells. Either Ray or Gary, or both, will come over and spend thirty
seconds or so trying to fix it, then discover that its unplugged. The one who
finds it unplugged then says Al, youre a mechanical spastic and others in the
office join and laugh.
Gary is the initiator of the game Steve, Theres a Call for You.. Usually
played in the late afternoon, an hour or so before everyone goes home, Gary will
pick up the phone and pretend that there is someone on the line. Hey, Steve, its
for you, hell yell out. Its Mr. Big (the president of SFBC). Says he wants you to
come over to his office right away. Youre going to be the new vice president! The
game is an obvious sarcastic jab at Steves going to college and his frequent
comments about someday being an executive.
R.J., though 53 years old, has never married and lives with his mother. The
main interests in his life are telling stories, showing pictures of last years vacation,
and planning for this years trip. Without exception, everyone finds RJs vacation talk
boring. But that doesnt stop Pearl or George from setting him up several times a
week. Hey R.J., can we see those pictures you took last year in Oregon again?
That question always gets RJ to drop whatever hes doing and pull seventy-five to
one hundred pictures from his top drawer. Hey, R.J., what are you planning to do on
your vacation this year? always gets R.J.s eyes shining and invariably leads to the
unfolding of maps he also keeps in his top drawer.
Georges favorite game is Whats It Like to Be Rich? which he plays with
Pearl. Pearls husband had been a successful banker and had died years earlier. He
left her very well off financially. Pearl enjoys everyone knowing that she doesnt
have to work, has a large lovely home, business people and politicians among her
friends. George will mention the name of some big shot in town, and Pearl never
fails to take the bait. She proceeds to tell how he is a close friend of hers. George
might also bring up money is some context in order to allow Pearl to complain about
high taxes, the difficulty in finding good housekeepers, the high cost of travelling to
Europe, or some other concern of the affluent.
Questions
1.
2.
3.

Analyze the groups interaction using the group behavior model.

How do these games affect the departments performance?
Are these games functional? Dysfunctional? Explain!

CASE 3
Alix Maher is the new admissions director at a small, highly selective New
England college. She has a bachelors degree in education and a recent M.A. in
Educational Administration. But she has no prior experience in college admissions.
Alixs predecessor, in conjunction with the colleges admissions committee
(made up of five faculty members), had given the following weights to student
selection criteria: high school grades (forty percent); Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
scores (forty percent); extracurricular activities and achievements (ten percent);
and the quality and creativity of a written theme submitted with the application (ten
percent).
Alix has serious reservations about using SAT scores. In their defense, she
recognizes that the quality of high schools varies greatly, so that the level of
student performance that receives an A in American history at one school might
earn only a C at a far more demanding school. And Alix is aware that the people
who design the SATs, the Educational Testing Service, argue forcibly that these test
scores are valid predictors of how well a person will do in college. Yet, Alix has
several concerns:
1. The pressure of SAT exam is very great and many students suffer from
test anxiety. The results, therefore, may not be truly reflective of what a
student knows.
2. There is evidence that coaching improves scores by between 40 and 150
points. Test scores, therefore, may adversely affect the chances of
acceptance for students who cannot afford the $500 or $600 to take testcoaching courses.
3. Are SATs really valid? Or do they discriminate against minorities, the
poor, and those who had limited access to cultural growth experiences?
As Alix ponders whether she wants to recommend changing the colleges
selection criteria and weights, she is reminded of a recent conversation she had
with a friend who is an industrial psychologists with a Fortune 100 company. He told
her that his company regularly uses intelligence tests to help select from among job
applicants. For instance, after the companys recruiters interview graduating seniors
on college campuses and identify possible hires, they give the applicants a
standardized intelligence test. Those who fail to score at least in the 80 th percentile
are eliminated from the applicant pool.
Alix thinks that if intelligence tests are used by billion-dollar corporations to
screen job applicants, why shouldnt colleges use them? Moreover, since one of the
objectives of a college should be to get its graduates placed in good jobs, maybe
SAT scores should be given even higher weight than forty percent in the selection
decision. After all, she wonders, if SATs tap intelligence and employers want
intelligent job applicants, why not make college selection decisions predominantly
on the basis of SAT scores? Or should her college replace the SAT with a pure
intelligence test like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale?
Questions
1.

What do you think SATs measure: aptitude, innate ability, achievement

potential, Intelligence, ability to take tests, or something else?
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2.
3.

If the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, what should

college admissions directors use to identify the most qualified
applicants?
If you were Alix, what would you do? Why?

CASE 4
On Saturday October, 17, 2009, forty-two year old and democratically elected
Preseident Mohammad Nasheed of the Maldives invited his 13 officials to a cabinet
meeting: the worlds first underwater governmental meeting. The meeting room
was in a lagoon of Girifushi, in the North Male atoll, and the ministers dove 20 feet
(6 meters) to meet around a horseshoe-shaped table on the sea floor.
The Maldives, located southwest of Sri Lanka, is an Indian ocean archipelago,
whose 1192 islands stretch for 850 kilometers (530 miles). The Maldivian islands are
on average only 2 meters (7 feet) above sea level, and they comprise the lowestlying nation on the planet.
The meeting agenda highlighted how global warming was threatening
disappearance of the Maldives within a century. In 2007, data about this threat were
confirmed by the United Nation (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
warning that a rise in sea levels of 18 to 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches) by 2100
would be enough to make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable.. The decision made
at the meeting was to sign off on an agreement for carbon emission cuts: We must
unite in a global effort to halt further temperature rises. The meeting took place
prior to the United Nations climate change conference in December, in anticipation
of the renegotiation of the Kyoto Protocol.
The safety of the ministers was well considered; they held a dress rehearsal
the day before; coral on the reef was checked for harmful creatures; paricipants
communicated via hand signals to indicate they were okay. Instead of dressing in
business suits, though, the 14 government ministers donned scuba diving gear and
also wore name tags. Just as in every meeting, discussion took place, but here it
was through writing on a special white board. The meeting was broadcast live on
television. Inhabitants on Kuda Huvadhoo island built a sealed box, put their
television in it, and, following their governments lead, dove to the depths to view
the underwater meeting.
Back on dry land, the cabinet minsters were to sign their wet suits for
auctioning on the www.protectthemaldives.com Web site in a bid to raise money for
protecting coral reefs. President Nasheed Used the meeting venue as a publicity
exercise to push for action so that his people can continue to live in Maldives well
into the future.
Questions
1. Identify the main function of the meeting.
2. Describe the communication process and distinguish between its formality
and informality.
3. Identify barriers to effective communication in this meeting.

GOOD LUCK!
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