Managing People
PART 1
MONDAY 9 JUNE 2003
QUESTION PAPER
Time allowed
3 hours
This paper is divided into two sections
Section A
This question is compulsory and MUST be
answered
Section B
FOUR questions ONLY to be answered
P
Section A – This ONE question is compulsory and MUST be attempted
1 Sunshine Sweets is a manufacturer of additive free, organic children’s candies. With the rise in demand for additive
free children’s products, Sunshine Sweets has expanded its production capacity to almost double what it was two years ago and trebled the number of employees. Until recently the board of directors, made up of the two founders Emma Watkind and Jenna Pain, took charge of day to day business. Both have now allowed management more freedom than before.
Despite success in the market, as the company has grown some problems have begun to arise. Phil Short, the factory manager has been with the company since the beginning and since the expansion in the number of employees, finds controlling and communicating with such a large workforce difficult. He has resorted to pinning notices and memos of all kinds to notice boards, circulating his own reports to colleagues who should not be receiving them and refusing to organize meetings.
The newly appointed production manager Mark Mason is an engineer and deputy to Phil. He has found that he has little idea of what’s going on in the factory and is finding communication channels are non existent between the management team, supervisors and directors. The financial controller, Debbie Purple is equally frustrated and finds communicating with anyone in the production area of the factory to be almost impossible.
In addition, the workforce, despite being well paid and trained, is fragmented and not working together. The rapid expansion of the company has led to poor internal communication. As a consequence workers are suffering from absenteeism, low morale and confusion brought about by endless rumours about the future of the company. This is because the line supervisors are also unaware of what is going on and consequently are unable to communicate management’s plans and objectives to the workforce, or to make management aware of the concerns of the workforce.
Required:
You are a consultant brought in by the directors to advise on the current problems. They believe the current problems stem from poor and mis-directed communication and think that establishing committees will improve communication. You have been asked to:
(a) Explain the need for good communication within any organisation. (5 marks)
(b) Identify five barriers to communication that might exist in Sunshine Sweets. (5 marks)
(c) Explain how the barriers identified in (b) can be overcome and identify the alternative methods of communication available to the management. (10 marks)
(d) Explain to the management of Sunshine Sweets the importance of communication, the form it takes and the directions in which it might flow in an organisation. (10 marks)
(e) Advise on the suitability of committees as methods of communication, outlining their usefulness and shortcomings. (10 marks)
(40 marks)
Section B – FOUR questions ONLY to be attempted
2 ‘Performance Management’ is defined as a means of achieving better results by understanding and managing overall
organisational performance.
Required:
Describe the five stages typically involved in the process of performance management.
(15 marks)
3 All organisations need to recruit new employees. An important step in the process is the selection interview.
Required:
(a) Explain the purpose of the selection interview. (4 marks)
(b) Explain the advantages and the disadvantages of:
(i) the interview by one person defined as the face to face interview; (6 marks)
(ii) the interview with many people defined as the panel interview. (5 marks)
(15 marks)
4 The health and safety of employees has become increasingly a matter for management.
Required:
(a) Briefly describe three hazards to health and safety that might be found in the workplace and demonstrate why they are hazards. (5 marks)
(b) Briefly describe general policies that an organisation might take to avoid risks in the workplace.(10 marks)
(15 marks)
5 An organisation has decided to create a team oriented approach to business.
Required:
Describe Tuckman’s stages of team development.
(15 marks)
6 Your manager has been called upon to provide advice, guidance and counselling to employees.
Required:
(a) Explain what is meant by ‘counselling’ in the work place. (2 marks)
(b) Describe the skills a manager would require to fulfil the role of the counsellor. (7 marks)
(c) Briefly describe three advantages of counselling for the organisation. (6 marks)
(15 marks)
End of Question Paper
