1. What are the approaches to job redesign? Briefly describe some job redesign options and their importance along with suitable examples.
2. Differentiate between centralised and decentralised authority. Identify the different conditions under which centralised or decentralised authority would be effective.
3. What are the salient features of the notion of Quality of Work Life (QWL)? Briefly describe its benefits and potential difficulties which reflect the strategies for improving the quality of work life.
4. “Survey feedback can be a problematic OD technique because it permits people who are affected by organisational policies to generate data that speaks against those policies.” Comment.
5. Describe the features of scientific management and explain its relevance for the modern times.
6. Briefly explain the impact of work redesign on different processes and functions of an organisation in the private sector (manufacturing).
6 Write short notes on any three:
(i) Theory of Bureaucracy
(ii) Matrix organisation vs Horizontal organisation
(iii) Organisation development
(iv) Formal-informal organisation
(v) Institution building
SECTION B
7. Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.
Mr. Krishna Rao was utterly baffled. He took over office four
months ago and has since initiated several changes all of which
are good. His main intentions in making the changes were that
the office should look more professional and the employees should
be facilitated to become productive without making them work
too hard. The office now indeed looks more spacious with new
layout, and in fact, his colleagues from the other departments
who pass by, comment on how nice and professional the office
looked! Mr. Rao had put the secretaries’ desks close to their
bosses’ cabins so that they did not have to walk up and down
all the time. Previously, they were huddled together in the
secretaries’ pool, and whenever they had to take dictation -
which was several times a day - they had to walk quite a bit.
He also purchased new calculating machines for the department
which are quick, efficient, and accurate, so that the assistants
now do their calculations without making mistakes. In fact,
he had just placed an order for a high-speed computer which
would take away the boredom and monotony of all the laborious
human calculations and would be a boon to all. Actually, once
the computer is installed, the managers will not have to be
dependant on the lower level staff. Whatever statistics or information
the managers need, the computer will generate the data in no
time at all. And the computer manufacturer was going to offer
free programming sessions for all those who wanted to attend
them. Manuals will also be made available to all the staff.
It was the best of all possible worlds for the entire department
and Mr. Rao could not understand why the staff were not more
enthusiastic and some actually seemed rather unhappy.
Questions:
(a) Identify the problems in this case.
(b) What kind of changes were prescribed by Mr. Rao and why?
(c) Discuss why the changes did not produce the desired results in this situation.
(d) If you were Mr. Rao, how you would have handled the situation?