National Institute of Technology 2009 M.B.A Finance ESSENTIALS OF MANAGEMENT - Question Paper

Cost effectiveness: A committee must be worth its cost. It may be difficult to count the benefits, especially intangible facts such as morale, enhanced status of committee members and the committee's value as a training device to enhance teamwork. But the committee can be justified only if the costs are offset by tangible and intangible benefits.


Q. 6: A) explain the role of electronic media in communication.
ANS:
Although communication applies to all phases at managing, it is particularly important in the function of leading “communication” is the transfer of info from a sender to a receiver; with the info being understood by the receiver.
Managers have learned and are gradually adopting different electronic equipment includes mainframe computers and mini computers. Personal computers, electronic mail system & electronic typewriters as well as cellular telephones for making telephones calls from cars beepers for management process will be explained
Crosswire communication includes the horizontal flow of info among people on the identical or similar organizational levels & the diagonal flow among persons at the various levels who have no direct reporting relationship with 1 other.
This type of communication is used to speed info flow to improve understanding & co-ordinate efforts for the achievement of organizational objectives. A great deal of communication does not flow the organizational hierarchy but across the chain of command.
The enterprise environment provides many occasions for oral communications. They range from informal meeting of the company bowling team & lunch hour employees spend together to more formal conferences & committee & board meeting. This type of communication also occurs when individual members of various departments are grouped in to task teams or project organizations. Finally communication cuts across organizational boundaries, for example staff members with functional or advisory authority interest with the mangers in various department.
Written and oral communication media have favorable & unfavorable characteristics consequence, they are often used together so that the favorable qualities of every can complement the other, and In addition visual aids may be used to supplement both oral & written communications.
For example, a lecture in a management training session may be made more effective when written sessions may be made more effective when written hand cuts transparencies videotapes& films are used.

Q. 6: B) Why is real time info not good enough for effective control?
ANS:
Real time info may be good enough possibly in the simplest and most unusual cases but in more complex cases which is the rule than the exception in today's world, for example, in the case of quality control it may take considerable time to discover what is causing factory rejects and more lime to put corrective measures into effect. In the more complex case of inventory control particularly in a manufacturing company, which has many items - raw materials, component parts, goods in process, and finished goods - the correction time maybe very long. Once it is known that an inventory is too high, the steps involved in getting it back to the desired level may take a number of months.
But this does not mean that prompt measurement of performance is unimportant. The sooner managers know that activities for which they are responsible are not proceeding in accordance with plans, the faster they can take action to make corrections. Even so, the ques. of whether the cost of gathering real-time data is worth the few days saved. Sometimes it is: In the case of an airline, ready info on seat availability is likely to be crucial to serving customers and filling seats. But in a major defense company producing 1 of the highest priority defense equipment items, there was little real-time info in an otherwise highly sophisticated info control system. But it was thought that the benefit of gathering real-time data was not worth the expense because the correction process took too long.
The feedback loop of management control illustrated beneath indicates clearly that real-time info does not make real-time control possible:

Q. 6: C) Why do most control of overall performance tend to be financial? Should they be? What else would you suggest?
ANS:
Many overall controls in business are financial. The cause being that any business owes its continued existence to profit making; its capital resources are a scarce, life-giving element. Since finance is the binding force of business, financial controls are certainly an important objective gauge of the success of plans. Moreover, sophisticated computer programs can use financial records as strategic tools. Financial measurements also summarize as a common denominator, the operation of a number of plans. They indicate the total expenditure of resources in reaching goals.

Regards,
Ratnesh Moghe

Earning:   Approval pending.