ORGANIZATION & BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Topic 1 MANAGEMENT TASKS & PROCESS

1) Discuss the management skills needed by a top level manager and the importance of each
skill? (Compulsory)
2) Compare and contrast the management of a supermarket and a consumer association based
on management functions. (Compulsory)
3) You have been appointed as the CEO of an organization. Discuss the following:
(Compulsory)
a. The skills needed for this top-level position. (15m)
b. The things you do on the first day in office. (5m)
4) What skills do you need to work effectively in a network organization, in a learning
organization and in a high-involvement organization? (Compulsory)
5) Compare and contrast the management of a Bank and a cancer society.

Topic 3&4 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS
1) Write a memorandum to your Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on the need for the company to
have an ethic on whistle-blowing. In the memo among others, state pros and cons of wistle
blowing, the advantages to the company, the mechanism on how a report is investigated and
the protection to the whistleblower as well as the rights to the person(a) being complained.
2) Write a memorandum to your Board of Directors stating that your company is in a position to
participate in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Include in the memo contrasting views of
CSR and your proposed company stand, the type of CSR, the amount of cost and the
management of CSR.

Topic 6 STRATEGIC PLANNING
1) Strategic planning is important in order to ensure that an organization stay competitive.
Prepare a strategic plan for ONE of the following:
a. Printed newspaper against online news
b. Traditional restaurant against international fast food outlet
c. Private college
2) Your family grocery store is facing competition from a nearby supermarket. Discuss your
strategic plan to stay competitive. (Compulsory)
3) Your tour travel agency is one of the many in the country that deals with domestic tourism
for local and foreign tourists. Discuss how you would manage your company with the
objective of gaining competitive advantage over the others in the industry. (Compulsory)
4) Formulate strategic plans to turn around a losing company you have just bought over.
5) How does strategic, operational and tactical planning differ? How might these three levels be
aligned in an organization?
6) Using the strategic management process as a guide, formulate strategies to achieve success in
ONE of the following:
a. Newspaper against the new media; OR
b. Traditional restaurant against international fast food outlet; OR
c. To be at the top position of your organization OR other personal ambition.

Topic 9&10 MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
1) The majority of the employees in your company face a problem of punctuality because of
lack of public transport to the workplace. As a manager, find a rational solution(s) to this
problem based on the rational decision making process.
2) Discuss the common errors and biases that managers might make in the organization.
(Compulsory)

Topic 11 ORGANIZATION
1) Describe the organizational structure of an organization you are familiar with. Discuss its
departmentalization, and whether the structure is mechanical or organic.
2) When two organizations merge, what types of structural issues do you think might need to be
addressed? Discuss.
3) Discuss the ways in which an organization can be structured.
4) Discuss matrix and project structures. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these
structures?
5) Discuss the type of information that an organization chart provides about a company. What
information is not included in it? How can the chart be organic?

Topic 13 HUMAN RESOURCE
1) Discuss TWO of the following human resource management functions in an organization to
be competitive:
a. Recruitment and Selection
b. Training & Development
c. Performance appraisal
2) Discuss the following HRM functions and include pertinent issues for each: (Compulsory)
a. Recruitment and Selection; and
b. Performance Assessment (PA)
3) Discuss how a company can use human resource management to gain competitive advantage.
4) Your employee union has been demanding for a better system of the following human
resource functions:
a. Reward systems
b. Performance appraisal
Discuss how you would address the above demands. (Compulsory)

Topic 14 ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE & STRESS
1) According to Bateman & Snell, change happens to any organization constantly and
unpredictably and managers should not underestimate resistance from some of their staff
a. What are the circumstances or factors that necessitate changes?
b. How do you manage resistance and enlist corporation to change in the organization?
2) Your plan to introduce changes in your organization has met with some resistance. Discuss
how you would deal with the resistance.

Topic 16 COMMUNICATION
1) You heard from the grapevine that you are a terrible boss in terms of communication.
a. What do you think this means?
b. How would you deal with this informal feedback?
2) Evaluate the organizational communication of your company with a view to improve it.

Topic 17 LEADERSHIP
1) What is transformational leadership? Discuss a national corporate personality that you think
is such a leader. Support your answers with relevant leadership theories.
2) Assuming that you are the CEO of a multinational corporation, discuss your ways to further
leadership development in your organization. Cite leadership theories to support your
answers.
3) Analyse the leadership behavior of ONE of the following using relevant leadership theories
a. Steve Jobs of Apple
b. Tony Fernandes of AirAsia
c. Tun Mahathir Mohamed, former Prime Minister of Malaysia
4) Discuss THREE of the situational approaches to leadership. Provide examples.
5) Explain FIVE sources in which leader power has been identified. Include specific examples
of each source of power to support your answer.
6) Your aging uncle has decided to let you run his company. He built up the company from
scratch with as iron hand but its success began to decline due to his failing health.
How would you lead the workers in order to transform back the company to its previous
glory? Cite situational leadership theories to support your answer.

Topic 18 MOTIVATION
1) As a manager with wide authority, discuss using relevant theories how you would motivate
TWO of the following to increase performance.
a. Foreign workers
b. The hardworking executive who was by passed by the Promotion Board in spite of your
strong recommendation.
c. Non-performing work team.
2) Discuss ways of designing a job to increase an employees motivation. Support your answers
with relevant motivation theories. (Compulsory)
3) The moral of the staff in ABC Corporation is low in view of the uncertain future faced by the
once-successful organization. Citing motivation theories, how would you, as a manager
tackle the problem?
4) As a manager, how would you motivate your employees when resources are scarce? Cite
motivation theories in your answer.
5) Propose various ways to design motivating jobs. Cite relevant motivational theories.
6) Discuss specific recommendations that should be followed when motivating employees.
7) As a manager, how would you motivate your Theory X workers to become Theory Y
workers? Support your answer with THREE other motivational theories.

Topic 21 CONTROL
1) Assume that you are a manager in XYZ Supermarket. Based on the types of and approaches
to managerial control, how you control employee theft in your supermarket?
2) Identify and discuss the control process to achieve ONE of the following:
a. Academic excellence of a secondary school;
b. Best traditional restaurant in town; and
c. Best financial management of an organization.
Justify your answer.
3) Discuss the use and the effectiveness of the following as a control device:
a. Budgets
b. Management Audits
4) Discuss how managers can control an organizations performance.