ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Principles of Management & Organisational Behaviour: practice questions

1 · Nature and scope of management · medium

A disease outbreak forces a milk union to close collection routes suddenly, and the managing director spends two days rearranging supplies and calming members. In Mintzberg's scheme this is chiefly which role?

1. Figurehead, one of the interpersonal roles
2. Monitor, one of the informational roles
3. Disturbance handler, one of the decisional roles
4. Liaison, one of the interpersonal roles

2 · Evolution of management thought: classical, Hawthorne and modern schools · hard

A cooperative manager finds that routine instructions about sample collection are obeyed without question, but an order to change the payment day is ignored by most village secretaries. Which idea explains this best?

1. Weber's claim that rational-legal authority is always obeyed without question
2. Taylor's differential piece-rate system for rewarding high performers
3. Fayol's principle that authority must always equal responsibility
4. Barnard's acceptance theory of authority and the zone of indifference

3 · Evolution of management thought: classical, Hawthorne and modern schools · hard

Fayol's 'gang plank' allows two employees at the same level in different departments to:

1. Take orders from two superiors at the same time without breaking the unity of command principle
2. Bypass the chief executive when deciding company policy on matters affecting both departments
3. Communicate directly, with their superiors' consent, without going up and down the scalar chain
4. Exchange jobs every season so that both gain experience of the other's department and duties

4 · Planning, MBO and policies · hard

A seed company says it runs MBO, but zone targets are fixed at head office and sent to field officers to sign, with no discussion. The main flaw is that:

1. The targets are written down, whereas MBO requires goals to remain unwritten
2. Joint goal-setting, the participative core of MBO, is missing
3. Results are reviewed at year end, whereas MBO forbids any review of results
4. Goals are made specific, whereas MBO recommends broad 'do your best' aims

5 · Organising: line and staff, authority and responsibility · medium

According to Graicunas, how many relationships (direct single, direct group and cross) can arise when a manager has five subordinates?

1. 80
2. 100
3. 95
4. 10

6 · Personality, perception, attitudes, values and learning · medium

In the Johari window, the area that is known to others but not to oneself is reduced mainly by:

1. Self-disclosure to others
2. Receiving feedback from others
3. Formal job rotation
4. Longer working hours

7 · Motivation theories · medium

A field officer rates expectancy (effort leads to performance) at 0.8, instrumentality (performance leads to the bonus) at 0.5 and the valence of the bonus at 0.6. Using Vroom's model, motivational force is:

1. 1.90
2. 0.63
3. 0.24
4. 0.40

8 · Motivation theories · hard

Job A scores skill variety 6, task identity 6, task significance 6, autonomy 1, feedback 7. Job B scores 4, 4, 4, autonomy 5, feedback 5. Which has the higher motivating potential score?

1. Job B, with 100 against 42
2. Job A, with 42 against 20
3. Job A, with 126 against 100
4. Both are equal, at 100 each

9 · Stress and work-life balance · medium

A smallholder faces heavy debt repayments, pest attacks and price swings, and has little control over any of them. Karasek's model places this situation in the:

1. Active quadrant: high demands and high control
2. Low-strain quadrant: low demands and high control
3. Passive quadrant: low demands and low control
4. High-strain quadrant: high demands and low control

10 · Group dynamics and team building · medium

A cooperative board, proud of its record, dismisses warnings about a failing export deal, and members who doubt it stay silent to keep harmony. This shows:

1. Groupthink
2. Social loafing
3. The nominal group technique
4. Punctuated equilibrium