MBA I-I SEM

CASE STUDIES
Management & Organizational Behavior

Case Study 1: LEADERSHIP

Laura is the Associate Director of a non-profit agency that provides assistance to children and
families. She is the head of a department that focuses on evaluating the skill-building programs the
agency provides to families. She reports directly to the agency leadership. As a whole, the agency has
been cautious in hiring this year because of increased competition for federal grant funding. However,
they have also suffered high staff turnover. Two directors have left as well as three key research staff
and one staff person from the finance department. Laura has a demanding schedule that requires
frequent travel; however, she supervises two managers who in turn are responsible for five staff
members each. Both managers have been appointed within the last six months.

Manager 1: Kelly has a specific background in research. She manages staff who provides research
support to another department that delivers behavioral health services to youth. Kelly supports her
staff and is very organized; however, she often takes a very black and white view of issues. Upper
level leadership values Kelly’s latest research on the therapeutic division’s services. Kelly is very
motivated and driven and expects the same from her staff.

Manager 2: Linda has a strong background in social science research and evaluation. She manages
staff that work on different projects within the agency. She is known as a problem solver and is
extremely supportive of her staff. She is very organized and has a wealth of experience in evaluation
of family services. Linda is very capable and can sometimes take on too much.

The managers are sensing that staff is becoming over worked as everyone takes on increased
responsibilities due to high staff turnover. Staff has also mentioned that Laura’s “glass half-empty”
conversation style leaves them feeling dejected. In addition, Laura has not shared budgets with her
managers, so they are having difficulty appropriately allocating work to staff. Laura said she has not
received sufficient information from the finance department to complete the budgets. The finance
department said they have sent her all the information they have available. As staff becomes
distressed, the managers are becoming frustrated. They feel like they are unable to advocate for their
staff or problem solve without key information like the departmental budget.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can Laura most effectively use both management and leadership skills in her role as associate
director? What combination of the two do you think would work best in this setting?

Ans. A director could be both a leader and manager. However, given that the two mangers are very
capable and directly manage all the department staff, Laura should focus on being a leader. She
should delegate managerial responsibilities to the two managers. This strategy will build the
managers’ confidence, allowing them to problem-solve for their staff. It will also free Laura to focus
on building a greater sense of staff commitment to mission and vision.

2. What steps could be taken to build staff confidence?

Ans. Staff seems uncertain about the future due to high turnover and Laura’s negative conversation
style. Building staff confidence could involve:  Giving managers more autonomy and the needed
information to manage their staff  Communicating regularly with staff about changes  Encouraging
staff to pursue professional development and learning opportunities and providing time for them to
do so  Engaging in team building exercises and interactions  Incentivizing excellent performance 
Addressing Laura’s conversation style directly, explaining to her how it impacts staff perceptions 
Involving staff in the hiring process where possible as team vacancies are filled  Talking to staff
directly and without retribution about the issues they think contribute to high-turnover

3. What advice would you give Laura on improving her leadership skills and to the managers on
improving their management skills?

Ans .It might help for both Laura and the managers to take a personality or leadership/management
assessment. This way the mangers can ascertain their individual skills, learn how they can best
support employees, and figure out how they can work together to use each other's strengths to run
the department. Using a Style approach, Manager 1 appears to utilize a task oriented approach and
Manager 2 demonstrates a relationship oriented style.

These two orientations could be structured to support one another. Laura can focus on building
leadership skills by building on her current strengths. In addition, Laura may want to revisit the roles
and responsibilities of each position and how her division's work aligns with the overall organizational
mission. Aligning with the overall mission and communicating it to staff may help improve morale and
provide clarity on the department's role and direction.
2. PARTICIPATION OF STUDENTS:

S.NO ROLL NO NAME OF THE STUDENT REMARKS

1
22M61E0001 AEPURI BHAVYA

2
22M61E0002 AFSHAN AFROZ

3
22M61E0003 AMATUL BUSHRA

4 ANANTHA BHARATH
22M61E0004 KUMAR
5
22M61E0005 ANNAMDAS PRASHANTH

6
22M61E0006 ANTHOTI THRINADH

7
22M61E0007 ATHOTA MOUNIKA

8
22M61E0008 AVULA ASHWANI

9
22M61E0009 AZMEERA SATHISH

10 22M61E0010 BADAVATH SAIKUMAR

HOD PRICIPAL
Case Study 2- Decision Making

Let us examine the problem faced by Mr. Nat raj, Regional Manager of Alpha Pvt.
Ltd. Alpha makes and distributes products from more than 10international
pharmaceutical and health care companies. Mr. Nat raj is responsible for
managing existing clients and also to get new clients. He manages a number of
sales representatives. Important customers have a dedicated sales
representatives, while other sales representatives try to get new clients.One day
an important customer (Good Health Hospital) called Mr. Natarajand complained
that Mr. Bhavan (the sales representative) was ineffective and insisted he be
removed, or else they would not give any business.Here are Mr. Nataraj's
thoughts:
• The track record of Mr. Bhavan was good and he was liked within the company.
Dismissing him or even transferring him to a new region will affect the morale of
the work force.
•Good health hospitals is a major customer and gives good business. Losing the
hospital is not an option. Therefore the demands of the hospital have to be met.

Q. If you were Mr. Natraj, how will you solve this issue?
Here are some sample options:
1. Good Health Hospital is a major customer and cannot be displeased. I will
remove or transfer Mr. Bhavan.
2. Mr. Bhavan is a loyal and hard working. I need to keep people like him even if it
means losing customers.
3. I will stop answering calls, act ignorant of the whole episode. 'Time will solve
the problem'.
4. I will try to get Mr. Bhavan and the Hospital Superintendent together for
discussion and try to compromise over the differences.
5. I will move Mr. Bhavan to a new and more important project - develop new
business in the newly formed sub-region. Good Health Hospital will have no
problem with the new sales representative.
SWOT analysis example
Here's a sample SWOT analysis for an online tailored shirt business. Although
many more factors came up during brainstorming, these were deemed to be the
most important.
S = Strengths
W = Weaknesses
O = Opportunities
T = Threats Strengths
 Locally
made shirts mean faster turnaround on orders
 Many repeat customers who promote the business

Good search engine rankings drive free traffic

Weaknesses
 Pricing on locally made shirts is not competitive
 Higher costs mean fewer fabric options due to inventory costs

Customers don't like taking their own measurements

Opportunities
 Using technology to simplify the measurement process could increase
conversions
 New paid advertising channels such as Instagram and Pinterest
could be effective

Custom made clothing is currently trending

Threats
 Several competitors are currently undercutting prices
 Website is difficult to use on a mobile device even though mobile traffic is
increasing
 A strong dollar could drive down international sales
2. PARTICIPATION OF STUDENTS:

S.NO ROLL NO NAME OF THE STUDENT REMARKS

1
22M61E0011 BATTULA GAVYA

2
22M61E0012 BHUKYA VIJAY PAUL

3
22M61E0013 BOBBALA VENKATESH

4
22M61E0014 BODDU SRIKANTH

5
22M61E0015 BOGINABOINA BINDU

6
22M61E0016 BOLLAM MADHURI

7
22M61E0017 BOLLAM NARESH

8
22M61E0018 BUDIGI MOUNIKA

9
22M61E0019 CHANDA AMULYA

10 22M61E0020
CHINTHALA UPENDRA
RANI

HOD PRINCIPAL
Case study 3. - Business opportunity with SWOT analysis

Syed runs his own enterprise in an area on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He
manages a collective of people with disabilities who make Bangladeshi puppets in
a traditional style, mainly selling to tourists through local shops, and pays them a
basic salary as well as a profit share. The puppets are all made to Syed’s own
designs, and are quite different to the standard items in most tourist stores. His
quirky designs and their popularity with shoppers have come to the attention of
Muhammad, who runs a relatively large factory producing puppets and other
tourist-friendly wares. Muhammad approaches Syed to suggest that he buy his
enterprise, including his designs, and that Syed and his employees all come and
work at Muhammad’s factory. He is offering a lot of money, and Syed doesn’t
know whether he wants to maintain his independence or go for the security
offered by a lump cash sum and guaranteed employment. He uses a SWOT
analysis to take a snapshot of his current situation and help him consider the
decision:
STRENGTHS:
. My designs are popular and sell well.
.I have a small skilled work force of committed colleagues and we work well
together.
. I am independent and can make my own decisions about my business.
. I have a good relationship with local traders based on mutual trust and respect.
. We can respond quickly to trends for example last year suddenly everyone was
selling baby horse puppets and we got our new design into the shops within a
weak.
. We work from a room in my own home which is very convenient for family
commitment.

OPPORTUNITIES
Several new stores have made enquiries about carrying our lines.
Tourist likes to support social enterprises we could put more emphasis on this
element of our brand.
We recently had an enquiry about exports quantities
A new NGO in the area is offering financial support to help grow social
enterprises.
Case study 4 - PERCEPTION

Krishnamurthy, plant manager of frame manufacturing company, is the

chairperson of the ad hoc committee for space utilization. The committee is made
up of various departmental heads of the company. The general manager of the
company has given MURTHY the responsibility for seeing whether the various
office, operations and warehouse facilities of the company are being optimally
utilized. The company is beset by rising costs and the need for more space.
However, before Okaying an expensive addition to the plant, the general manager
wants to be sure that the currently available space is being utilized properly
MURTHY opened up the first committee meeting by reiterating the charge of the
committee. Then MURTHY asked the members if they had any initial observations
to make. The first to speak was the office manager. He stated “well I Know we are
using every possible inch of room that we have available to us. But when I walk
out into the plant I see lot of open spaces. We have people piled on top of one
Another, but out in the plant there seems to be plenty of room.” the production
manager quickly replied, “We do not have a lot of space. You office people have
the luxury facilities. My supervisors don’t even have room for descend a file
cabinet. i have repeatedly told the plant manager we need more space. After all,
our operation determines whether this plant succeeds or fails, not like you people
in The front office pushing paper around.’ MURTHY interrupted at this point and
said, “Obviously we have different interpretations of the space utilization around
here. Before Further discussion I think it would be best if we have some objective
facts to work with. I am going to ask the industrial engineer to provide us with
some statistics on plant and office layouts before our next meeting. Today’s
meeting is adjourned
QUESTIONS:

1. WHAT PERCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES ARE EVIDENT IN THIS CASE ?

SOLUTION:

1. Perception of persons varies from each other as every individual view comports
as the prime interest. In this case it is evident that perception of production
manager differs from that of office manager.
2. Office manager said the space has been utilized in their department to the
maximum extent and state that in plant, spaces are left without being made use
of efficiently.
3. Production manager emphasize on his point of view that the space has been
made best use in his department where as in office department they are not
utilizing the space provided and he also stressed that failures or success of an
organization will be determined by the operating of the plant

2. WHAT CONCEPT WAS BROUGHT OUT WHEN THE PRODUCTION MANAGER

LABELLED THE OFFICE PERSONNELA BUNCH OF “PAPER PUSHERS” ?

SOLUTION:

The Production manager thinks that the office personnel's will be only having
paper works they won’t be having any much work to do physically they are
enjoying the comforts without doing much physical work. According to
production manager he feels that the office people is having more space just to
keep their paper and files etc. He also thinks that the space giving for the office
people is more for their nature of working comparing to his production work. He
believes there is no much work to be performed compared to production
department they just deal with paper work like recording day to day’s activity
which is an easy task.

3. DO YOU THINK THAT MURTHY’S APPROACH TO GETTING “OBJECTIVE FACTS”

FROM STATISTICS ON PLANT AND OFFICE LAYOUT WILL AFFECT THE PERCEPTIONS
OF THE OFFICE AND PRODUCTION MANAGERS?
Solution:
Yes, Murthy’s approach to getting “Objective facts” from statistics on plant and
office layout will affect the perceptions of the office and production managers.
1. It gives the clear picture about the proper and improper utilization of space.
2. It avoids the misunderstanding and the confusion of the office and production
manager.
3. It helps in taking further decision whether additional plant is needed or not.
4. It influences on the perception of both product manager and office manager
about the space utilization and further decision can be taken effectively without
any conflicts.
5. It helps to take the decision without much wastage of time

4. IF YOU WERE IN MURTHY’S POSITION, HOW WOULD YOU HAVE HANDLED THE
SITUATION?

Solution:

Mr. Murthy being in the responsible position must first be aware is the exact
situation. Unless and until the real situations are evaluated, a feasible solution for
the problem cannot be found out. Suppose I was in that position of Murthy first I
would have collected the statistical reports regarding the effectively the space can
be utilized. Mr. Murthy as a head of committee must primarily analyze the space
utilization of the various departments. If he would have collected and analyzed
the statistics of plant and office layout, than the meeting conducted would have
been served the main purpose. As he fails to consider the real situation before the
meeting, unproductive conversion between the production and office department
would not have taken place. So it is my responsibility to consider the real before
inviting anyone for discussion on any matter
2.WHAT CONCEPT WAS BROUGHT OUT WHEN THE PRODUCTION MANAGER
LABELLED THE OFFICE PERSONNELA BUNCH OF “PAPER PUSHERS” ?
SOLUTION:
The Production manager thinks that the office personnel's will be only having
paper works they won’t be having any much work to do physically they are
enjoying the comforts without doing much physical work. According to
production manager he feels that the office people is having more space just to
keep their paper and files etc. He also thinks that the space giving for the office
people is more for their nature of working comparing to his production work. He
believes there is no much work to be performed compared to production
department they just deal with paper work like recording day to days activity
which is an easy task.
3.DO YOU THINK THAT MURTHY’S APPROACH TO GETTING “OBJECTIVE FACTS”
FROM STATISTICS ON PLANT AND OFFICE LAYOUT WILL AFFECT THE PERCEPTIONS
OF THE OFFICE AND PRODUCTION MANAGERS ?
Solution:
Yes, Murthy’s approach to getting “Objective facts” from statistics on plant and
office layout will affect the perceptions of the office and production managers. 1.
It gives the clear picture about the proper and improper utilization of space. 2. It
avoids the misunderstanding and the confusion of the office and production
manager. 3. It helps in taking further decision whether additional plant is needed
or not. 4. It influences on the perception of both product manager and office
manager about the space utilization and further decision can be taken effectively
without any conflicts. 5. It helps to take the decision without much wastage of
time

2. PARTICIPATION OF STUDENTS:

S.N ROLL NO NAME OF THE STUDENT REMARKS

O
1 22M61E0021 DAMERLA SOWJANYA
2 22M61E0022
DHAMARLASURAPALLI PRAKASH
PRIYANKA
3 22M61E0023 DUDIPALA KRISHNA BABU

4 22M61E0024 DUMPALA SAITEJA

5 22M61E0025 EKKIRALA PRATHYUSHA

6 22M61E0026 GADADESI RAHUL

7 22M61E0027 GALAM SAI KUMAR

8 22M61E0028 GAMASA GOPI CHAND

9 22M61E0029 GANDHAM SRUJANA

10 22M61E0030 GANDHASIRI MANASA

HOD PRINCIPAL