Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division

First Semester 2019-2020

Comprehensive Examination
(EC-3 Regular)

Course No. : MGTS ZC211

Course Title : PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
Nature of Exam : Open Book
Weightage : 50% No. of Pages =2
Duration : 3 Hours No. of Questions = 6
Date of Exam : Saturday, 16/11/2019 (FN)
Note:
1. Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.
2. All parts of a question should be answered consecutively. Each answer should start from a fresh page.
3. Assumptions made if any, should be stated clearly at the beginning of your answer.

Q.1. Describe the theory that views the leader-follower relationship as like that of a parent and
a child. [10]

Q.2. Terrence has been brought in to a high-tech company to institute family-friendly

programs. He has decided that because of the diverse work force, alternative working
hours will be very attractive to the employees. [3*1 = 3]
(a) Terrence allows employees to work four 10-hour days instead of the traditional 5-
day workweek. This work arrangement is termed as ________.
(b) Terrence is allowing two people to split a 40-hour-a-week job. They are splitting
the work and the benefits in an arrangement termed as ________.
(c) Some employees that Terrence will manage are working from home via computers.
This work arrangement is termed as ________.

Q.3. “Communication is the lifeblood of every organization.” Elucidate. [7]

Q.4. In a short essay, explain which theories work best for certain cultures. The discussion
should include Maslow's need hierarchy, the three-need theory, the equity theory, and
Herzberg's two-factor theory. [10]

Q.5. As a new member of the Board of Directors for a local bank, Jack Nelson was being
introduced to all employees in the head office. When he was introduced to Ruth Johnson,
he was curious about her work and asked her what her machine did. Johnson replied that
she really did not know what the machine was called or what it did. She explained that
she had only been working there for only two months. She did, however, know precisely
how to operate the machine. According to her line manager, she was an excellent
employee.

At one of the branch offices the line manager in charge spoke to Nelson confidentially,
telling him that “something was wrong” but she did not know what. For one thing she
explained that employee turnover was high and no sooner had an employee been put on
the job than another one resigned. With customers to see and loans to be made, she
explained, she had little time to work with the new employees as they came and went.

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All branch line managers hired their own employees without communication with the
head office or other branches. When an opening developed, the line manager tried to find
a suitable employee to replace the worker who had quit.

After touring the 22 branches ad finding similar problems in many of them, Nelson
wondered what the head office should or what action should be taken. The organization
was generally regarded as being a well-run institution that had grown from 275 to 791
employees during the last ten years. The more he thought about the matter, the more
puzzled Nelson became. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the problem, and he didn’t
know whether to report his findings to the company chairman.
(a) Do you think setting up an HR department in the head office would help? [4]
(b) What specific functions should an HRM department carry out? [6]

Q.6. Read the case regarding “Changes in the Health Care Industry” and answer the
questions that follow.

Hospitals in general, have one of the most archaic and costly operating systems of any
group of large organizations. Nearly 95 percent of all hospitals currently use procedures
and record-keeping systems that were implemented more than 50 years ago. Individuals
in this industry have been highly reluctant to accept and use new technologies. Doctors
and hospital administrators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston,
Massachusetts, refuse to be part of the “old guard”. They once have a patient who was
brought into the Emergency Room (ER) by his wife. He was overweight, short of breath,
and dizzy and the nurses hooked him up to the heart monitor immediately while the ER
doctor looked up his records on the portable laptop computer in the ER. Immediately, the
doctor was able to see that the patient had had an ECG in the past year, and he looked up
his results. By comparing those results to the heart monitor, the doctor was able to see
changes that indicated the man was having a heart attack. An emergency angioplasty was
performed, and within a day, the patient was back on his feet and ready to go home.

Beth Israel is unusual in the health care industry, and the hospital is investing money in
technology. Their system, called Care Web, allows them to retrieve an individual’s health
history, which assists in the current diagnosis. The system is saving Beth Israel more than
$1 million a year. It has reduced errors in patient care by more than 90 percent, and
reduced prescription errors and potential drug interactions by more than 50 percent.
Patients are now discharged more than 30 minutes faster than they had been before Care
Web was implemented.

(a) Describe the types of change that have occurred at Beth Israel. Cite examples. [2]
(b) Why do you believe that there is resistance by the medical profession to systems
such as Care Web? Explain. [3]
(c) How would you attempt to overcome their resistance to change and their attitude
that “they are doing what they’ve always done”? Discuss. [5]

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