Directorate of Online Education

INTERNAL ASSIGNMENT

NAME KARTIK PACHISHIYA

ROLL NO 2214502783

Note: Answer all questions. Kindly note that answers for 10 marks questions should be approximately
of 400 - 450 words. Each question is followed by evaluation scheme.

Q.No Assignment Set – 1 Marks Total

Questions Marks
1. Explain the concept of Organizational Behaviour. Discuss 02+08 10
the role of a manager in terms of Organizational
Behaviour.
2. Define personality. Examine the various determinants of 02+08 10
Personality.
3. Organization structure of any business enterprise is 10 10
affected by several factors. Deliberate on those factors.

Q.No Assignment Set – 2 Marks Total

Questions Marks
4. Highlight the major sources of stress. 10 10
5. Explain the Sources of Conflict in an organization. Briefly 06+04 10
discuss the different styles of conflict management.
6. Define a group. Explain the different stages of group 02+08 10
development.

SET-I

Answer1: Organizational behavior just as the name states, is the process of understanding and
managing human behavior within an organization. An organization not only runs on profits,
work and schedules but also takes into consideration the human values. Organization have
come up with a theory that the organization runs well when the employees are treated well and
understood well as the entire organization depends upon the human resources.

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Organization behavior examines and gathers the insights on employee behavior, as how to
drive them with the proper motivation by understanding them a little better. Organizational
behavior should start with the role of the managers and how well they incorporate moral and
support down the hierarchy. Managerialism is not just about gaining profits, and executing
control but, creating a safe space for interaction of different opinions and to be able to work as
a group and achieve organizational goals. As they say, there is no I in Team. The organization
that works together, grows together.
It all comes down to the question of, what role should the manager play, keeping in mind what
should be expected of him/her with respect to organizational behavior?
Role of Managers :

1. Interpersonal Role :
 Figure Head –
In this role, the manager performs duties of ceremonial nature, such as, attending an
employee’s wedding, taking the customer to lunch, greeting the tourist dignitaries and so
on.

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 Leader Role –
In this role, the manager is a leader, guiding the employees in the right path, with the
proper motivation and encouragement.
 Liaison Role –
In this role, the manager cultivates contacts outside the vertical chain of command to
collect useful information for the organization.
2. Informational Role :
 Monitor Role –
In this role, manager acts as a monitor, perpetually scanning the environment for
information, keeping an eye on the liaison contacts and subordinates and receive
unsolicited information.
 Disseminator Role –
In this role, manager acts as a disseminator by passing down privileged information to the
subordinates who would otherwise have no access to it.
 Spokesperson Role –
In this role, manager acts a spokesperson by representing the organization before various
outside groups, which have some stake in the organization. These stakeholders can be
government officials, labour unions, financial institutions, suppliers, customers, etc. They
have a wide influence over the organization, so the manager should coin their support by
effectively managing the social impact of the organization.
3. Decisional Role :
 Entrepreneurial role –
In this role, the manager acts as an entrepreneur, always thirsty for new knowledge and
innovation to improve the organization. Nowadays, it doesn’t matter if the organization is
bigger or better, but it is necessary that it grows consistently. Innovation is creating new
ideas which may either result in the development of new products or services or improving
upon the old ones. This makes innovation an important function for a manager.
 Disturbance handler role –
In this role, the manager acts a disturbance handler, where the manager has to work
reactively like a firefighter. The manager should come up with solutions to any problem
that arises and handle it in an orderly way.
 Resource allocator role –
In this role, the manager acts as a resource allocator where the manager must divide work
and delegate authority among his subordinates. The manager should plan out which
subordinate will get what based on the abilities and who will be more suited into a
particular task.
 Negotiator –
In this role, the manager acts as a negotiator where the manager at all levels has to spend
considerable time in negotiations. The president of a company may negotiate with the
union leaders about a new strike issue or the foreman may negotiate with the workers about
a grievance problem, etc.

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Answer2: Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that influences
his or her behavior toward goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of protecting these
states.

Personality is the fundamental and foremost determinant of individual behaviour. It seeks to

integrate the physiological and psychological facets of an individual to put them into action.
Personality consists of an individual’s characteristics and distinctive ways of behaviour.

Probably the most meaningful approach would be to include both the person and the role as
Floyd L Ruch does in his definition. He states that:
Human personality includes:

External appearance and behaviour or social stimulus value.

Inner awareness of self as a permanent organising force.

The particular pattern or organisation of measurable traits, both “inner and “outer”.

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The determinants of personality can be grouped in five broad categories:

1. Biological Factors
2. Cultural Factors
3. Family Factors
4. Social Factors
5. Situational Factors

Answer3: Organization structure is designed keeping in view the following factors:

1. Strategy: Strategy determines a course of action to direct various organizational activities. It

makes plans to co-ordinate human and physical resources to work towards a common objective.
Strategy is pre-requisite to organization structure and also follows it. The relationship between
strategy and organization structure is depicted as follows:

Strategies to diversify product lines or markets require decentralized transition as decision-

making is done at wider level and strategies for organizations working in stable environment.
Where managers do not diversify their operations, require a centralized organization.

2. Technology:

The technology for manufacturing goods and services also affects the organization stricture.

In case of mass production technology, mechanistic organization structure is more appropriate,

while in case of continuous production or small scale production technology, the appropriate
from is organic structure. This is because mass production technologies involve standardization
and specialization of work activities and continuous or unit production technologies require low
levels of standardization and specialization.

3. People: Organization structure defines work, groups it into departments and appoints people to
run those departments. People at different jobs must possess the skill, knowledge and efficiency
to accomplish the related tasks.

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4. Tasks : Activities performed by people who transform organizational plans into reality are
known as tasks. Various task characteristics are:

(a) Skill variety: It is the extent to which creativity and variety of skills and talents are required
to do a task. People with high degree of task varieties (for example, a dress designer ) perform
tasks that increase their intellectual ability and give them high job satisfaction.

(b) Task identity: Whether to produce a product in whole or in parts determines its task identity.
When a product is produced as a whole, it has greater task identity. People performing tasks with
high task identity y (for example, a computer programmer) perform various job functions related
to that task from beginning to the end, derive job satisfaction out of their work and feel
motivated to repeat those tasks.

(c) Task significance: The importance of task affecting the well-being or lives of people working
inside and outside the organization determines significance of the task. People performing tasks
with high task significance, i.e., tasks which positively affect the well-being and safety of others
(for example, a traffic police inspector), feel satisfied with their job performance and perform
work of high quality and esteem.

(d) Autonomy: Whether or not an individual plans the task on his own determines autonomy
of the task. It determines the extent to which a person enjoys t freedom of performing various
Job activities and determines the steps or procedures to carry them out. People who are
responsible for all the functions and schedules related to a job (for example, a project manager)
hold accountability for that job and enjoy greater autonomy with respect to that task and derive
greater job satisfaction.

5. Decisions: Questions like who makes decisions-top managers or lower level managers, how
information flows in the organization so that decision-making is facilitated, affect the
organization structure. Centralized decision-making powers give rise to mechanistic structures
and decentralized decision-making processed give rise to organic or behavioral structures.

6. Informal organization: Informal organizations are and outgrowth of formal organizations. Social
and cultural values, religious beliefs and personal likes and dislikes of members which form
informal groups cannot be overlooked by management.

7. Size: A group known as Aston Group conducted research on firms of different sizes and
concluded that as firms increase in size, the need for job specialization, standardization and
decentralization also increases and organizations are structured accordingly.

8. Environment: Organization structure cannot ignore the effects of environment. Organizations

must adapt to the environment, respond to incremental opportunities and satisfy various external
parties such as customers, suppliers, layout unions etc.

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In case of stable environment where people perform routine and specialized jobs, which do not
change frequently, a closed or mechanistic organization structure is appropriate.

9. Managerial perceptions: Organizations where top managers perceive their subordinated as

active, dynamic and talented entrepreneurs, prefer organic form of structure, If they hold
negative opinion about their subordinates, they prefer mechanistic organization structure.

SET-II

Answer4: There’s a plethora of organizational sources of stress.

 Task or role demands: these are factors related to a person’s role at work, including the
design of a person’s job or working conditions. A stressful task demand might be a
detailed, weekly presentation to the company’s senior team. A stressful role demand might
be where a person is expected to achieve more in a set amount of time than is possible.
 Interpersonal demands: these are stressors created by co-workers. Perhaps an employee
is experiencing ongoing conflict with a co-worker he or she is expected to collaborate
closely with. Or maybe employees are experiencing a lack of social support in their roles.
 Organizational structure: this refers to the level of differentiation within an organization,
the degree of rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. If employees are unable
to participate in decisions that affect them, they may experience stress.
 Organizational leadership: this refers to the organization’s style of leadership,
particularly the managerial style of its senior executives. Leaders can create an
environment of tension, fear and anxiety and can exert unrealistic pressure and control. If
employees are afraid they’ll be fired for not living up to leadership’s standards, this can
definitely be a source of stress.
 Organizational life stage: an organization goes through a cycle of stages (birth, growth,
maturity, decline). For employees, the birth and decline of an organization can be
particularly stressful, as those stages tend to be filled with heavy workloads and a level of
uncertainty about the future.

Answer5: Here are six common sources within an organization that may lead to interpersonal
conflict:

1. Lack of role clarification: Conflict can emerge when it is unclear who is responsible for what
task or what part of a project. Clear job descriptions and expectations can reduce this contributor
to conflict.

2. Poor processes: Often poorly constructed processes and procedures can create conflict. To
avoid this pitfall, it is helpful to regularly review your procedures and policies to ensure they
support teamwork and collaboration.

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3. Communication problems: This is a common contributor to conflict and can occur among all
levels of staff. Keeping communication channels open and having a culture where questions are
welcomed will go a long way in mitigating this contributor to conflict.

4. Lack of performance standards: When performance and quality standards are not clear,
individuals quickly sort out their own personal expectations around work quantity and quality.
This can put them at odds with others whose standards are different. Leadership and
management should be fair, clear, and consistent in articulating performance standards.

5. Lack of resources: If employees have to compete for resources, whether it’s managerial
support, tools, equipment, or financial resources, the stage is set for competition and conflict.
Asking employees what’s needed and then providing it (if possible) will build a spirit of
collaboration rather than competition.

6. Unreasonable time constraints: Workplace conflict can occur when coworkers are not aware
of the steps involved and the time others need to complete their portion of a task or project. As a
result, they may expect more of each other than is reasonable. Taking time to consider job design
and cross-training employees can work to mitigate this contributor to conflict.

Answer6: A GROUP is defined as two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who
come together to achieve specific goals. Groups can be either formal or informal.

Formal groups are work groups that are defined by the organization’s structure and have
designated work assignments and specific tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals.

The table below provides some examples of formal groups.

Command groups — Groups that are determined by the organization chart and composed of
individuals who report directly to a given manager.
Task groups — Groups composed of individuals brought together to complete a specific job task;
their existence is often temporary because, when the task is completed, the group disbands.
Problem-solving teams — Groups in which members collaborate to improve work activities or to
solve specific problems by sharing ideas or offering suggestions on how work processes and
methods can be imposed.

Self-managed work teams — Formal groups of employees who are responsible for executing a
complete work process or segment and for managing themselves, which includes planning and
scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work,
making operating decisions and taking action on problems.

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Cross-functional teams — Groups that bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals
from various work areas or specialist area groups whose members have been trained to do each
other’s jobs.
Self-managed teams — Groups that are essentially independent and that, in addition to their
own tasks, take on traditional managerial responsibilities, such as hiring, planning and
scheduling, and evaluating performance.
Virtual teams — Groups that use technology such as wide-area networks, videoconferencing,
email or websites where the team can hold online conferences to enable physically dispersed
members to contribute knowledge, skills and expertise from anywhere around the world.

Informal groups are social groups. These groups occur naturally in the workplace and tend to
form around friendships and common interests. For example, five employees from different
departments who regularly eat lunch together are an informal group.

Group development is a dynamic process. Most groups are in a continual state of change.
Even though groups probably never reach complete stability, there is a general pattern that
describes how most groups evolve.

Research shows that groups pass through a standard sequence of fives stages. As shown in the
Figure below, these five stages are:

forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning

1. Forming stage: The forming stage has two phases. The first occurs as people join the group.
In a formal group, people join because of some work assignment. Once they’ve joined, the
second phase begins: defining the group’s purpose, structure and leadership. This phase involves
a great deal of uncertainty as members ‘test the waters’ to determine what types of behavior are
acceptable. This stage is complete when members begin to think of themselves as part of a
group.

2. Storming stage: The storming stage is appropriately named because of the intragroup
conflict. There’s conflict over who will control the group and what the group needs to be doing.
When this stage is complete, there will be a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership and
agreement on the group’s direction.

3. Norming stage: The norming stage is one in which close relationships develop and the group
becomes cohesive. There’s now a strong a sense of group identity and camaraderie. This stage is
complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of
expectations (or norms) regarding member behavior.

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4. Performing stage: The fourth stage is performing. The group structure is in the place and
accepted by group members. Their energies have moved from getting to know and understand
each other to working on the group’s task. This is the last stage of development for permanent
work groups. However, for temporary groups—project teams, task forces or similar groups that
have a limited task to do—the final stage is adjourning.

5. Adjourning stage: In this stage, the group prepares to disband and attention is focuses on
wrapping up activities. Group members react in different ways. Some are upbeat, thrilled about
the group’s accomplishments. Others may be sad over the loss of camaraderie and friendships.

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