UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (UTAR)

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2023/2024

OCTOBER 2023 TRIMESTER

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE (FBF)

FACULTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (FICT)
FACULTY OF SCIENCE (FSc.)
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND GREEN TECHNOLOGY (FEGT)
INSTITUTE OF CHINESE STUDIES (ICS)
FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY AND MANAGEMENT (FAM)
LEE KONG CHIAN FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & SCIENCE (LKC FES)

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 1A
Tutorial 1: General Introduction

• Self-introduction by tutors and student.

• Explanation of Course Plan.
• Tutor will specify expectations in tutorial class.
• Tutor will explain about the compulsory pass requirement (if applicable)
• Team formation for group project
• Briefing on group project and group presentation to students.

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 1B
Tutorial 2 (Topic 1: Managers and Management)

1. Is your course instructor a manager? Discuss in terms of planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling. Also discuss using Mintzberg’s managerial roles approach.

2. Are all effective organizations also efficient? Discuss. If you had to choose between being effective or
being efficient, which one would you say is more important? Why?

3. Why do you think conceptual skills, technical skills, and interpersonal skills are needed to be an
effective manager?

4. Business is changing over time and requires management methods to evolve. What are the factors
that contribute to management changes?

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 2A
Tutorial 3 (Topic 2: Evolution of Management Thinking)

1. Describe the major components of the classical perspectives.

2. Evaluate theory X and theory Y. Would you rather work for a manager who helps the Theory X or
Theory Y assumptions? Why?

3. Systems thinking is a management concept that considers all of the interrelated parts of the system
that function as a whole and in common. Explain how a change in one part of a system (or organization,
product, or community) can affect the whole system (or organization, product, or community) either
to its benefit or detriment. List some contingencies that might influence a manager's decision making.
Use your imagination in choosing a system that is “managed.”

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 2B
Tutorial 4 (Topic 3: The Environment and Corporate Culture)

1. What are the different ways in which culture is transmitted among members in an organization?

2. Describe the four types / categories of cultural values that are important for the organization,
managers consider the external environment, as well as the company’s strategy and goals.

3. Why do managers need an understanding of what happens outside their organizations? Provide
examples of how changes in the external environment can affect their job.

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 3A
Tutorial 5 (Topic 4: Planning, Goal Setting and Strategy Formulation and Execution)

Discussion Questions.

1. Discuss why planning is beneficial.

2. Describe Michael Porter’s competitive strategies with one example each.

3. What is the purpose of an internal analysis?

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
 WEEK 3B
Tutorial 6 (Topic 5: Managerial Decision Making)

September 2023 Final Examination - Section A

UPS: Big Brown Numbers

It's the world's largest package delivery company with the instantly recognisable
trucks. All UPS trucks are painted a uniform brown color, making them easily recognisable to consumers. Every
day, United Parcel Service (UPS) transports more than 20 million packages and documents throughout the United
States and to more than 220 countries and territories, including every address in North America and Europe. (Total
worldwide delivery volume was 5.1 billion packages and documents in 2017). Delivering those packages
efficiently and on time is what UPS gets paid to do, and that takes a massive effort in helping drivers to make
decisions about the best routes to follow.

Efficiency and uniformity have always been important to UPS. The importance of work rules, procedures, and
analytic tools are continually stressed to drivers through training and retraining. For instance, drivers are taught to
hold their keys on a pinkie finger, so they don't waste time fumbling in their pockets for the keys. And for safety
reasons, they're taught no left turns (left-hand turns are generally considered unsafe on right-hand driving roads,
such as those in the U.S. and less fuel efficient).

Now, however, the company has been testing and rolling out a quantum leap in its long-used business model of
uniformity and efficiency. It goes by the name ORION, which stands for On-Road Integrated Optimization and
Navigation. ORION is an exclusive technology that uses advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence, and machine
learning. What it boils down to is helping UPS drivers shave millions of miles off their delivery routes using
decision algorithms built by a team of mathematicians.

Consider that each UPS driver makes an average of 120 stops per day. The efficiency challenge is deciding the
best order to make all those stops (6,689,502,913,449,135 + 183 zeroes of possible alternatives)--taking into
consideration "variables such as special delivery times, road regulations, and the existence of private roads that
don't appear on a map?" Another description of the logistics decision challenge: There are more ways to deliver
packages along an average driver's route "than there are nanoseconds that Earth has existed" (referring to the huge
number of possible alternatives or combinations when determining the order and routes for package deliveries).
Any way you look at it, that's a lot of alternatives. The human mind can't even begin to figure it out. But the
ORION algorithm, which has taken 10 years and an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars to build, is the next
best thing. IT experts have described ORION as the largest investment in operations research ever by any
company.

So what does ORION do? Instead of searching for the one best answer, ORION is designed to refine itself over
time, leading to a balance between an optimum result and consistency to help drivers make the best possible
decisions about route delivery. And considering how many miles UPS drivers travel every day, saving a dollar or
two here and there can add up quickly. When a driver "logs on" his delivery information acquisition device

(DIAD) at the beginning of his shift each workday, what comes up are two possible ways to make the day's package
deliveries: one that uses ORION and one that uses the "old" method. The driver can choose to use either one but
if ORION is not chosen, the driver is asked to explain the decision. The roll-out of ORION hasn't been without
challenges. Some drivers have been reluctant to give up autonomy; others have had trouble understanding
ORION's logic-why deliver a package in one neighbourhood in the morning and come back to the same
neighbourhood later in the day. But despite the challenges, the company is committed to ORION, saying that "a
driver together with ORION is better than each alone."

Adapted from: Robbins, G. S. P., Coulter, M. A., & De Cenzo, D. A. (2020). Fundamentals of Management (11th
ed.) Pearson Education.

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
Discussion questions:

Q1. (a) Based on the information from the case study, is a UPS driver's route decision categorised as
programmed or non-programmed decision? Provide a detailed discussion justifying your
answer. (10 marks)

(b) Identify SIX (6) steps of the decision-making process and explain how ORION technology helps
drivers make better decisions throughout this process. (18 marks)

General question:

1. Incorporating brainstorming as an approach to foster innovative decision making involves

understanding its principle and exploring variety of advantages that can arise from a productive
brainstorming session. Describe the concept of brainstorming and explain FIVE (5) benefits that
can be gained from a successful brainstorming session. (12 marks)

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 4A
Tutorial 7: (Topic 6: Designing Organisation Structure)

1. Discuss the fundamental characteristics of organizing and explain division of labour, chain of
command, span of management, and centralization versus decentralization.

2. Describe the team and virtual network structures and why they are being adopted by organizations.

3. Identify how structure can be used to achieve an organization’s strategic goals.

---------GROUP PRESENTATION--------

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
 WEEK 4B
Tutorial 8: (Topic 7: Managing Change and Innovation)

May 2023 Final Examination - Section A

The Apricode Grand Hotel

The Apricode Grand Hotel is a five-star hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. The hotel was established 15 years ago by a
local consortium of investors and has been operated by an Indonesian general manager throughout this time. The
hotel is one of Jakarta’s most prestigious hotels and its 700 employees enjoyed the prestige associated with the
hotel. The hotel provides good welfare benefits, above market rate salary, and job security. In addition, a good
year-end bonus amounting to 4 months’ salary was rewarded to employees regardless of the hotel’s overall
performance during the year.

Recently, the Apricode was sold to a large American hotel chain that was very keen to expand its operations into
Indonesia. When the acquisition was announced, the General Manager decided to take early retirement when the
hotel changed ownership. The American hotel chain kept all the Apricode employees, although a few were
transferred to other positions. John Becker, an American with 10 years of management experience with the hotel
chain, was appointed as the new General Manager of Apricode Grand Hotel. Becker was selected as the new
General Manager because of his previous successes in integrating newly acquired hotels in the United States. In
most of the previous acquisitions, Becker took over operations with poor profitability and low morale.

Becker is a strong believer in empowerment. He expects employees to go beyond guidelines/standards to consider

guest needs on a case-to-case basis. That is, employees must be always guest-oriented to provide excellent
customer service. From his U.S. experience, Becker has found that empowerment increases employee motivation,
performance, and job satisfaction, all of which contribute to the hotel’s profitability and customer service ratings.
Soon after becoming General Manager in Apricode Grand, Becker introduced the practice of empowerment to
replicate the successes he had achieved back home.

The Apricode Grand hotel has been very profitable since it opened 15 years ago. The employees have always
worked according to management’s instructions. Their responsibility was to ensure that the instructions from their
managers were carried out diligently and conscientiously. Innovation and creativity were discouraged under the
previous management. Indeed, employees were punished for their mistakes and discouraged from trying out ideas
that had not been approved by management. As a result, employees were afraid to be innovative and to take risks.

Becker met with Apricode’s managers and department heads to explain that empowerment would be introduced
in the hotel. He told them that employees must be empowered with decision-making authority so that they can use
their initiative, creativity, and judgment to satisfy guest needs or handle problems effectively and efficiently.
However, he stressed that the more complex issues and decisions were to be referred to superiors, who were to
coach and assist rather than provide direct orders. Furthermore, Becker stressed that mistakes were allowed but
there was no justification for making the same mistake more than twice. He advised his managers and department
heads not to discuss with him minor issues/problems and not to consult minor decisions with him. Nevertheless,
he told them that they are to discuss important/major issues and decisions with him. He concluded the meeting by
asking for feedback. Several managers and department heads told him that they liked the idea and would support
it, while others simply nodded their heads. Becker was pleased with the response and was eager to have his plan
implemented.

Adapted from McShane SL. & Von Glinow MA. 2021, Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge, Global
Reality, 9th ed., Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
Discussion Questions:

Q1. (a) Explain the categories of change affecting Apricode Grand with the change of ownership
and management. (9 marks)

(b) Analyse the problems with Becker’s ‘empowering’ management style. (16 marks)

(c) Discuss what Apricode Grand can do to ensure a smooth change to the new management
style. (15 marks)

---------GROUP PRESENTATION--------

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
 WEEK 5A
Tutorial 9 (Topic 8: Managing Human Talent)

1. Explain job analysis and its significance in the recruitment process.

2. Compare and contrast the roles of job description and job specification in the recruitment and selection
process with an example each.

3. As a HR manager for a small company that makes computer games and software, what are some steps
that you might take to create an employer brand?

----------GROUP PRESENTATION--------

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 5B
Tutorial 10 (Topic 9: Leadership)

Case Study: Lady boss finds suitable leadership style.

MANILA, Philippines – Most lady executives are grappling with the challenge of finding the right leadership
style. If women demonstrate warmth and friendliness at work, they are perceived as too soft and unable to get
down to business. Otherwise, they are criticized for not caring enough. To former Accenture country managing
director Beth Lui, who went through this classic dilemma, the solution was to strike a balance between the two.
Her soft-on-people-but-hard-on-results leadership style was something she developed through the years. It all
started with a painful realization.

Not a people person

Lui, to put it bluntly, was a cold and insensitive boss. How she went beyond putting work results above all else
and into making a difference in people’s lives is the story she wants to share. In the early 90’s, when Lui was
just a new manager at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), she made significant headway in her career
by delivering a huge development project that proved the company's capability as an offshore delivery center.
Lui had about 60 people working on the project with her, and most of them thought she was demanding,
unappreciative and emotionally detached. She was the typical bulldozer, "Type-A" boss. All she cared about
was getting the job done—even if it meant her subordinates must miss out on their personal affairs to put in
extra hours in their work. In her drive to deliver, Lui overlooked and hurt the people in her team. "I was very
much task-oriented. My only concerns then were whether my subordinates would be able to finish their
deliverables on time or if they should work weekends to complete their tasks," she said. "Did I get the job done?
Yes. Was the quality good? Yes. Did I have friends? No. I was sad."

Technical to managerial
Lui joined Accenture when she was only 22. She started as entry level programmer at the business process
outsourcing (BPO) firm. She yielded years of experience as she went up the corporate ladder—from
programmer to system designer, then team leader, project manager, and finally, country head. But unlike her
managerial roles which involved dealing with a lot of people, her early roles were focused only on her own
deliverables. "I was focused on what I needed to finish. You only have to really rely on yourself. If you work
hard, work long hours, manage your own time, you can do your job. That was life for me then," Lui recalled.
She said that as she took on large projects, she realized it was "so much harder to manage people than just
manage one’s self." "If you're supervising a large group, you're not just thinking about your deliverables. Along
the way, you need to take time to get to know each one of your team members. There's a lot of interpersonal
dynamics," she shared. She said she discovered that developing good management skills was harder than
developing the technical skills that led to her promotions. She vowed to make a change.

Evolution
She made deliberate steps to shift from push-oriented, micro-management style to an empowerment approach.
She was no longer limited by the belief that she had to think through every problem herself and have all the
answers. She learned to encourage employees to take more initiative in solving problems, guided by the
principles and philosophies of the company.
"I hold regular meetings with the core group that works with me on a day to day basis. We talk about issues and
how we should solve these." "This is another evolution of my leadership. You don’t have to tell employees what
to do all the time. As long as there are philosophies, principles, the employees can find their own way." Not that
she was letting up. Lui said she remained as decisive as she had always been. "I listen. But at the end of the
day, someone has to make a decision." Apparently, in Lui's case, soft skills helped deliver hard results too. With
her at the helm, Accenture was one of the leading and biggest BPO companies in the country, employing about
16,000 people - the highest among players in the industry.

Human touch
Lui said treating employees as real human beings, not as machines or tools, makes them more engaged and
productive. "The human touch factor is very important. It doesn't always have to be a big event. It's a lot of day-
to-day stuff." "As a manager, you have the responsibility to deliver what clients ask from you without
demoralizing your employees. You have to make them feel you are a team, and you have a common goal." "If
UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023
TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
 you have good rapport with your subordinates, you get things done without being in an emotional rollercoaster
with them. You complete projects on a friendly note." She stressed that forging good relationships with
employees must lead to improvement in the company's bottom line and not the other way around. "You need to
strike a balance."

Adopted from Balea, J. (2010, April 21). Lady boss finds suitable leadership style. abs- cbnNEWS.com.
Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://www.abs- cbnnews.com/business/03/27/10/beth-lui-developing-right-
leadership-style

Discussion questions:

1. Define task-oriented behavior and people-oriented behavior and explain how these categories are
used to evaluate and adapt leadership style.

2. Based on Ohio state study, identify and explain the behavioral style that Liu used when she was a
new manager. Provide clear evidence from the case to support your answer

3. Based on Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory, describe the style that Liu used at the later stage
of her career. Provide clear evidence from the case to support your answer.

----------GROUP PRESENTATION--------

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
 WEEK 6A
Tutorial 11 (Topic 10: Motivating Employees)

1. Differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Provide example to help explain your answer.

2. Briefly explain expectancy theory.

3. What are some of the possible consequences of employees perceiving an inequity between their inputs
and outcomes and those of others?

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 6B
Tutorial 12 (Topic 11: Managing Communication)

1. Explain how an open communication climate and the choice of a communication channel influence the
quality of communication.

2. Define nonverbal communication and briefly discuss its importance to communication in organizations.

3. Explain why communication is essential for effective management.

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 7A
Tutorial 13 (Topic 12: Managing Quality and Performance)

Case Study: Off Course

Just after midnight on March 22, 2006, the Queen of the North ferry, part of the BC Ferries system, hit rocks off
Gill Island, south of Prince Rupert. It was immediately clear that the ferry was in trouble and within 15 minutes,
all the passengers and crew were off the ship and in the ferry’s lifeboats. As local townspeople and the Coast
Guard rescued the passengers from the lifeboats, the ferry sank, a little more than an hour after first striking the
rocks. Initial media reports celebrated the fact that all 99 passengers and crew had managed to get off the ferry
safely. The crew was widely praised for conducting an orderly evacuation, something employees practice and
train for at regular intervals.

On day two, passengers were reported missing. While international maritime regulations require that ferries
record identifying information about all passengers (name, gender and whether they are adults, children or
infants), the Canadian government doesn’t require BC’s ferry fleet to meet international standards. Passenger
names aren’t collected, and ferry staff don’t even take a head count after loading. The number of passengers is
only roughly determined by the number of tickets sold. Thus, the initial reports from BC Ferries that all
passengers and crew survived were based on the simple belief that everyone had been evacuated. Demands for
explanations of what had gone wrong arose.

The regional director of communications for Transport Canada (a governmental agency) reported the Queen of
the North passed an annual safety inspection less than 3 weeks earlier, including lifeboat drill that required
passengers be evacuated in less than 30 minutes. ‘They did very well at it and they obviously did very well when
it happened for real’, he said.

The internal investigation BC Ferries conducted after the incident concluded that “human factors were the
primary cause” of what happened. During the investigation, crew members responsible for navigating the ship
that night claimed that they were unfamiliar with newly installed steering equipment. In addition, they had turned
off a monitor displaying their course, because they could not turn on the night settings. The bridge crew used the
equipment “in a way different than as instructed”, the report noted, although this was not cited as a cause of
running that boat aground. The report also concluded that the crew maintained a “casual watch- standing
behaviour”, had “lost situational awareness,” and “failed to appreciate the vessel’s impending peril. Transcripts
of radio calls that evening noted that music was heard playing on the bridge.

Regarding the evacuation, though the crew was praised for acting quickly, several things made the evacuation
more difficult than needed be. There was no master key to the sleeping cabins; rather multiple keys had to be
tried. A chalk X is supposed to be drawn on searched cabin doors, but no one had chalk. Also, only 53 of the 55
cabins were confirmed to have been searched.

Discussion Questions

1. Describe the type(s) of control that could be used to improve the BC Ferries service to prevent an
accident such as this occurring again. Be specific.

2. Assume that you are the president of BC Ferries. You have read the report of the investigation and
noted some of the problems found. What would you do? Explain your reasoning.

3. Would some types of controls be more important than others in this situation? Discuss.
UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023
TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
WEEK 7B
Tutorial 14 (Topic 13: Managing Ethics and Social Responsibility)

1. Define ethics and explain how the domain of ethics relates to law and free choice.

2. List the four approaches that are used to describe values for guiding ethical decision making. Briefly
describe each.

3. Which do you think would be more effective for shaping long-term ethical behavior in an organization:
a written code of ethics combined with ethics training or strong ethical leadership? Which would have
more impact on you? Why?

-----------------END OF TUTORIAL QUESTIONS--------------------

UBMM1013/UBMM1513/UKMM1013/UKMM1023 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OCTOBER 2023

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS