MTM-1: MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS AND BEHAVIOUR IN TOURISM

(TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT)

Course Code: MTM-1
Total Marks: 100 Assignment Code: MTM-1/TMA/2013

Note: This TMA consists of two parts.

Part I consists of two questions out of which you have to attempt any one. The question carries 25 marks and
should be answered in about 700 words.
Part II consists of ten questions. Attempt any five in about 500 words each. Each question carries 15 marks.
Send your TMA to the Coordinator of your Study Centre.

PART – I
1) Discuss in detail Managerial Skills at various levels with examples. 25

Ans: Management is a challenging job. It requires certain skills to accomplish such a challenge.
Thus, essential skills which every manager needs for doing a better management are called as
Managerial Skills.
According to Professor Daniel Katz, there are three managerial skills, viz.,

1. Conceptual Skills,
2. Human Relations Skills, and
3. Technical Skills.

According to Prof. Daniel Katz, all managers require above three managerial skills. However,
the degree (amount) of these skills required varies (changes) from levels of management and
from an organisation to organisation.

The above picture or diagram shows the managerial skills which are required by managers
working at different levels of management. The top-level managers require more conceptual
skills and less technical skills. The lower-level managers require more technical skills and fewer
conceptual skills. Human relations skills are required equally by all three levels of management.
1. Conceptual Skills

Conceptual skill is the ability to visualise (see) the organisation as a whole. It includes
Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. It helps the manager to identify the causes of the
problems and not the symptoms. It helps him to solve the problems for the benefit of the entire
organisation. It helps the manager to fix goals for the whole organisation and to plan for every
situation. According to Prof. Daniel Katz, conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level
management because they spend more time in planning, organising and problem solving.

2. Human Relations Skills

Human relations skills are also called Interpersonal skills. It is an ability to work with people. It
helps the managers to understand, communicate and work with others. It also helps the managers
to lead, motivate and develop team spirit. Human relations skills are required by all managers at
all levels of management. This is so, since all managers have to interact and work with people.

3. Technical Skills

A technical skill is the ability to perform the given job. Technical skills help the managers to use
different machines and tools. It also helps them to use various procedures and techniques. The
low-level managers require more technical skills. This is because they are incharge of the actual
operations.

Apart from Prof. Daniel Katz's three managerial skills, a manager also needs (requires) following
additional managerial skills.

4. Communication Skills

Communication skills are required equally at all three levels of management. A manager must be
able to communicate the plans and policies to the workers. Similarly, he must listen and solve the
problems of the workers. He must encourage a free-flow of communication in the organisation.

5. Administrative Skills

Administrative skills are required at the top-level management. The top-level managers should
know how to make plans and policies. They should also know how to get the work done. They
should be able to co-ordinate different activities of the organisation. They should also be able to
control the full organisation.

6. Leadership Skills

Leadership skill is the ability to influence human behaviour. A manager requires leadership skills
to motivate the workers. These skills help the Manager to get the work done through the workers.
7. Problem Solving Skills

Problem solving skills are also called as Design skills. A manager should know how to identify a
problem. He should also possess an ability to find a best solution for solving any specific
problem. This requires intelligence, experience and up-to-date knowledge of the latest
developments.

8. Decision Making Skills

Decision-making skills are required at all levels of management. However, it is required more at
the top-level of management. A manager must be able to take quick and correct decisions. He
must also be able to implement his decision wisely. The success or failure of a manager depends
upon the correctness of his decisions.

OR

2) Define MBO and its objectives. What are its advantages and limitations? 25

PART – II
1) What are the various models of Decision Making? 15

Ans: As a leader, you'll frequently be required to make decisions which can have significant
impacts on your organisation and team. Therefore, you should have a good understanding
of the different models of decision making and what's involved in making a good decision.

The first thing you should be aware of is the importance of critical thinking and its direct
impact on effective decision making. Critical thinking can be defined as raising what is
subconscious in a person's reasoning to the level of conscious recognition. Good leaders are
usually critical thinkers as they understand the mechanics of reasoning and are able to use
this to manage the unconscious influences that contribute and affect their decision-making
process.

Generally, critical thinkers:

 Continually question their own and other people's assumptions, reasons, motivations, and
outlook
 Do not focus on contradicting others when questioning but focus on their reasoning and
perspective
Answer questions by asking more questions

Unfortunately, critical thinking does not come naturally to most people. Like everything else, it
is a skill you must continually develop and refine. As a leader, critical thinking can prevent
your subconscious emotions and reasoning from clouding your judgement and thus allow
you to make better overall decisions.
There are two basic models used to describe the decision making process; the rational model and
Simon's normative model. Models of Decision-making

The Rational model proposes that people follow a rational, four step sequence when making
decisions. The four steps are:

 Indentifying the problem

 Generating solutions
 Selecting a solution
 Implementing and evaluating the solution

Some of the limitations not considered in this model are issues such as not having enough
information relevant to the problem and also the fact that problems can change in a short
period of time.

The Normative model of decision making takes into account the fact that leaders are bound by
certain constraints when making decisions. These constraints include personal and
environmental factors that reduce rationality, such as time, complexity, uncertainty and
resources.

The Normative model suggests that decision making is characterised by;

 Limited information processing - there is a limit to how much information a person can
manage.
 Judgemental heuristics - shortcuts are used to simplify decision making.
 Satisficing - choosing solutions that meet minimum requirements and are "good enough."

A leader will only be able to manage a certain amount of information at any one time, so they
make judgements based on their previous experiences wherever possible to speed up the
decision making process. Often choosing a solution that is "good enough", is considered
effective when there are multiple solutions that will produce similar outcomes.

Most people use variations of these theoretical models to make decisions in their day to day
lives. Developing your understanding of the decision making process can help you become
a better and more effective leader.

2) What are the various determinants of OC? 15

Ans: Determinants are the causes, while dimensions are the components of OC. You
may say, determinants are those which influence whereas dimensions are those
which are influenced.
 
Although OC refers to the internal environment of an organization, the nature of OC
is determined by a variety of internal and external factors. One of the basis
premises of organizational behavior is that outside environmental forces influence
events within organizations. After acknowledging the dynamics of internal as well as
external factors in this section, we will consider in greater detail the following seven
internal factors. You will find these factors as determinants of OC in the following
order: 
1. Economic Condition
2. Leadership Style
3. Organizational Policies
4. Managerial Values
5. Organizational Structure
6. Characteristics of Members
7. Organizational Size

3) Describe all steps involved in Planning for an enterprise. 15

Ans: A trap laid to capture the future is termed as a plan. Planning is primarily concerned with
deciding in advance what is to be dove. This is regarded as the first and the basic function of
office management. It is a mental process which is concerned with the determination of course of
action to achieve the desired goals of the enterprise. Planning is a continuous process of
determining in advance what is to be done and how it is to be done.

It is described as a well defined course of future action and as such it takes care of the
uncertainties of future. It is a kind of future picture wherein proximate events are outlined with
some distinctness whilst remote events appear progressively less distinct.

The study of planning as a management process becomes important because of the following
reasons :

1. It focuses attention on the overall objective.

2. It makes every activities purposeful by giving directions.
3. It helps much to off set change and uncertainty.
4. It facilitates better control in office
5. It takes care of the future growth of the enterprise.
6. It facilitates economical operation of the office,

Steps in Planning

The office work mainly consists of three types like

(a) The work which are done today,

(b) The preparatory work which proceed the today's work, and

(c) The work which results from today's operation.

The above kinds of work are also known as preparatory, immediate and clean up work. The
office manager facilitate in doing all these kinds of work. To prepare plan for the above type of
works is one of the vital function of the office manager. The various steps involved in planning
these work are :
(a) Laying down Objective

The first step of the planning procedure is to lay down the objective of the enterprise. Objectives
are the ends towards which all activities are aimed. The office should lay down the ultimate
objective and the subsidiary objectives to attain the ultimate objectives.

(b) Establishing Planning Premises

Planning premises denotes the assumptions on which planning is to be based on. While making
assumptions of future it will be wrong to assume that environmental factors will be same in
future. Since planning is based on forecast the above assumption will be dangerous.

(c) Formulating Policies

Policy making is the vital part of planning process. Policy formulation denotes laying down rules
of action to be followed for the attainment of the desired objective of the enterprise.

(d) Laying down Procedures

Procedure indicates how a particular activity can be achieved, Formulation of uniform procedure
facilitates smooth flow of work.

(e) Establishing Programme of Action

A programme denotes a well-defined course of action. The formation of programme is necessary

because U facilitates the implementation of policies and attain the objective.

(f) Establishing Schedule and Preparation of a Budget

Scheduling means attaching the element of time to the planning programme. The expected time
of completion of work is decided in advance. After scheduling a budget is prepared which is an
estimate of expected expenditure and projected income.

4) How does the organization structure and chart define the making of a company? 15

5) What are the barriers to effective communication? How can one make interpersonal
communication effective 15

6) Define the various methods of control and critically analyze their importance in the
organization. 15

7) Explain the meaning of the terms Centralisation, Decentralisation and Coordination

15
Ans:

Centralisation

Centralisation, or centralization (see spelling differences), is the process by which the activities
of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, become
concentrated within a particular location and/or group.

The term has a variety of meanings in several fields. In political science, centralisation refers to
the concentration of a government's power – both geographically and politically – into a
centralised government. In neuroscience, centralisation refers to the evolutionary trend of the
nervous system to be partitioned into a central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. In
business studies, centralisation and decentralisation refer to where decisions are made in the
chain of command.

Decentralisation

Decentralization (or decentralisation) is the process of redistributing or dispersing functions,

powers, people or things away from a central location or authority.While decentralization,
especially in the governmental sphere, is widely studied and practiced, there is no common
definition or understanding of decentralization. The meaning of decentralization may vary in part
because of the different ways it is applied.Concepts of decentralization have been applied to
group dynamics and management science in private businesses and organizations, political
science, law and public administration, economics and technology.

Coordination

Coordination is the act of organizing, making different people or things work together for a goal
or effect to fulfill desired goals in an organization. Co-ordination is a managerial function in
which different activities of the business are properly adjusted and interlinked.

Coordination may also refer to:

 Coordination bond, a type of chemical bond

 Coordination number, a measure of an atom's nearest neighbors
 Coordination problem, a social situation in which there are mutual gains if participants
make mutually consistent decisions
 Coordination game, a game-theoretic model of a co-ordination problem
 Coordination (linguistics), a compound grammatical construction
 Coordination (political culture), a Utopian form of political regime
 Motor coordination, in animal motion

8) Write short notes on: (5+5+5) =15  

a. Group Dynamics
Ans: Group dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring
within a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics).
The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behavior, tracking
the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the
emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. Group dynamics are at the core of
understanding racism, sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. These
applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science,
epidemiology, education, social work, business, and communication studies.

b. Span of Management

Ans: Span of control is the term now used more commonly in business management,
particularly human resource management. Span of control refers to the number of
subordinates a supervisor has.

In the hierarchical business organization of some time in the past it was not uncommon to
see average spans of 1 to 4 or even less. That is, one manager supervised four employees
on average. In the 1980s corporate leaders flattened many organizational structures
causing average spans to move closer to 1 to 10. That was made possible primarily by the
development of inexpensive information technology. As information technology was
developed capable of easing many middle manager tasks – tasks like collecting,
manipulating and presenting operational information – upper managers found they could
hire fewer middle managers to do more work managing more subordinates for less
money.

The current shift to self-directed cross-functional teams and other forms of non-
hierarchical structures, have made the concept of span of control less salient.

c. Managerial Obsolescence

Ans: Obsolescence management, also referred to as "Diminishing Manufacturing Sources

and Material Shortages (DMSMS) is defined as to the activities that are undertaken to
mitigate the effects of obsolescence. Activities can include last-time buys, life-time buys,
and obsolescence monitoring.

Challenges of managerial obsolescence.,which often refers to the lack of implementation

of new technology by outdated or closed minded managers. I believe often this occurs
when the knowledge of juniors surpasses that of the managers.also is the case that
mangers fail to offer new technology to public for economic reasons;maintenance of job
position etc. In either case managers push obsolete products to keep their position in a
company by suppressing new technological advances or for their own selfish interests.
Obviously such a precedent can hinder a company,but keep in mind there are companies
that expect mangers to be accountable for policies based on pushing obsolete products as
well
9) Explain with example the functional consequences of conflicts for any organisation. 15

10) Discuss the major leadership styles. Discuss the merits and demerits of each. 15