SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, KIIT UNIVERSITY

Session-2010-2015 (B. Tech+ MBA Dual Degree), Semester-VII

Mid Term Examination

Subject: Organization Behavior

Time: 1.5 Hours Maximum Marks: 20

Answer any two of the following questions:

1. Read the following paragraphs and describe the perceptual/attribution error.

(2.5+2.5=5 Marks)
 Suppose, for example, that a sales manager is evaluating the performance of
his employees. One employee does not get along well with colleagues and
rarely completes sales reports on time. This employee, however, generates the
most new sales contracts in the office. The sales manager chooses to ignore
the negative information and evaluates the salesperson only on contracts
generated. What is the perceptual error?
 A manager makes the attribution that an employee's lack of effort or ability is
the basis for poor performance. What is the attribution error displayed?

2. In 1980's, the phone coverage around the world was weak and there was a real need
within the business community to reach countries around the world via phone.
Motorola envisioned solving this problem using 66 low orbiting satellites, enabling
users to call any location around the world. At the time of idea development, the
project was technologically advanced, sophisticated, and made financial sense.
Motorola spun off Iridium as a separate company in 1991. It took researchers a total
of 15 years to develop the product from idea to market release. However, in the
1990's, the landscape for cellphone technology was dramatically different from the
80's and the wide-spread cell phone coverage around the world eliminated a large
base of the projected customer base for Iridium. Despite such evidence and the huge
amount of money sunk, project Iridium was launched in the market and was a failure
and Iridium filed for bankruptcy in 1999 . What decision making bias was evident out
here? Provide your rationale in your choice of the decision making bias. (5 Marks)

3. What is the MBTI and what is its theoretical base? Describe the utility of the MBTI
for personality tests in organizations. (5 Marks)

Read the Following Case and answer the questions

Long Hours, Hundreds of E-Mails, and No Sleep: Does this Sound a Satisfying Job?

Although the 40 hour work week is now the exception rather than the norm, some individuals
are taking things to the extreme:

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  Rajesh Bisht, 36, is an investment banker who works for Citigroup’s investment arm
in Mumbai. A recent workday for Rajesh consisted of heading to the office for a
conference call at 6.00 AM. He left the office at 1.30 PM and had to be on a plane that
same evening for a 9.00 AM presentation in Chennai. Following the presentation,
Rajesh returned to Mumbai the same day, and by 7.00 PM he was back in his office to
work an additional 3 hours. He does not find the expectation of 90-100 hours a week
at all unusual.

 Ravi Goyal, 38, heads the international marketing of an engineering firm. He travels
to at least 20 countries in one year. He travels more than four times in a year to some
countries. He has learned to sleep on planes and taxis so that he can start working as
soon as he reaches his destination. He responds to customer messages throughout the
day. Even when he is home and gets up in the middle of the night to check on his
children, he logs on to his e-mail id on his BlackBerry and sends a reply if there is an
urgent message. He says, “I do not count the number of hours of work. I just work for
as long as I need to.”

 Mehul Pandya, 38, runs an NGO involved in training school principals all over India.
She has a team of 50 people working in four different locations. On a typical day, she
is on the phone for 3-4 hours. She has to travel at least 15 days in a month to different
locations, sometimes by flight and sometimes by trains and buses over very uneven
roads. On some days she would start her day by talking to a principal based in a rural
area and end her day by making a presentation to the board of a donor company. She
gets maybe an hour divided in many parts to spend with her daughter every day. She
sees her husband sometimes only once in a week. They communicate through the
phone, Facebook and notes left on the table. She gets paid less than a junior employee
in a large multinational company. Does she like it? Mehul says she would not
exchange it for anything else.

Many individuals would balk at the prospect of a 60 hour work week with constant travelling
and little time for anything else. However some individuals are exhilarated by such
professions. But the demands of the job are clearly not for everyone. Many quit, with
turnover levels at 55% for consultants and 30% for investment bankers, according to
Vault.com. However it is clear that such jobs which are time consuming and often stressful
can be satisfying to some individuals.

Questions

1. Do you think only certain individuals are attracted to these type of jobs or is it the
characteristics of the jobs themselves that are satisfying? [3 Marks]

2. What characteristics of these jobs might contribute to increased levels of job

satisfaction? [3 Marks]

3. Given that the three individuals, we just read about are satisfied with their jobs, how
might this satisfaction relate to their job performance, citizenship behavior and
turnover? [4 Marks]

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