MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (8615)

ASSIGNMENT # 1

 




Q. 1 Elaborate need and scope of management. Discuss different features of management.


Answer:

The term ‘management’ has been used in different senses. Sometimes it refers to the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling, at other times it is used to describe it as a function of managing people. It is also referred to as a body of knowledge, a practice and discipline. There are some who describe management as a technique of leadership and decision-making while some others have analyzed management as an economic resource, a factor of production or a system of authority.

Objectives of Management:

The primary objective of management is to run the enterprise smoothly. The profit earning objective of a business is also to be kept in mind while undertaking various functions.

Following are the broad objectives of management:

1. Proper Utilization of Resources:

The main objective of management is to use various resources of the enterprise in a most economic way. The proper use of men, materials, machines and money will help a business to earn sufficient profits to satisfy various interests. The proprietors will want more returns on their investments while employees, customers and public will expect a fair deal from the management. All these interests will be satisfied only when physical resources of the business are properly utilized.

2. Improving Performance:

Management should aim at improving the performance of each and every factor of production. The environment should be so congenial that workers are able to give their maximum to the enterprise. The fixing of objectives of various factors of production will help them in improving their performance.

3. Mobilizing Best Talent:

The management should try to employ persons in various fields so that better results are possible. The

employment of specialists in various fields will be increasing the efficiency of various factors of production. There should be a proper environment which should encourage good persons to join the enterprise. The better pay scales, proper amenities, future growth potentialities will attract more people in joining a concern.



4. Planning for Future:

Another important objective of management is to prepare plans. No management should feel satisfied with today’s work if it has not thought of tomorrow. Future plans should take into consideration what is to be done next. Future performance will depend upon present planning. So, planning for future is essential to help the concern.

Scope or Branches of Management:

Management is an all pervasive function since it is required in all types of organized endeavour. Thus, its scope is very large.

The following activities are covered under the scope of management:

 

1.      Planning,

2.      Organization

3.      Staffing.

4.      Directing,

5.      Coordinating, and

6.      Controlling.

The operational aspects of business management, called the branches of management, are as follows:

 

1.      Production Management

2.      Marketing Management

3.      Financial Management.

4.      Personnel Management and

5.      Office Management.

Different features of management:

Now let's briefly discuss each feature of management.

1. Continuous and never ending process

Management is a Process. It includes four main functions, viz., Planning, Organising, Directing and Controlling. The manager has to Plan and Organise all the activities. He had to give proper Directions to his subordinates. He also has to Control all the activities. The manager has to perform these functions continuously. Therefore, management is a continuous and never ending process.

2. Getting things done through people

The managers do not do the work themselves. They get the work done through the workers. The workers should not be treated like slaves. They should not be tricked, threatened or forced to do the work. A favourable work environment should be created and maintained.

3. Result oriented science and art

Management is result oriented because it gives a lot of importance to "Results". Examples of Results like, increase

in market share, increase in profits, etc. Management always wants to get the best results at all times.

4. Multidisciplinary in nature

Management has to get the work done through people. It has to manage people. This is a very difficult job because different people have different emotions, feelings, aspirations, etc. Similarly, the same person may have different emotions at different times. So, management is a very complex job. Therefore, management uses knowledge from many different subjects such as Economics, Information Technology, Psychology, Sociology, etc. Therefore, it is multidisciplinary in nature.

5. A group and not an individual activity

Management is not an individual activity. It is a group activity. It uses group (employees) efforts to achieve group (owners) objectives. It tries to satisfy the needs and wants of a group (consumers). Nowadays, importance is given to the team (group) and not to individuals.

6. Follows established principles or rules

Management follows established principles, such as division of work, discipline, unity of command, etc. These principles help to prevent and solve the problems in the organisation.

7. Aided but not replaced by computers

Now-a-days, all managers use computers. Computers help the managers to take accurate decisions. However, computers can only help management. Computers cannot replace management. This is because management takes the final responsibility. Thus Management is aided (helped) but not replaced by computers.

8. Situational in nature

Management makes plans, policies and decisions according to the situation. It changes its style according to the situation. It uses different plans, policies, decisions and styles for different situations.

The manager first studies the full present situation. Then he draws conclusions about the situation. Then he makes plans, decisions, etc., which are best for the present situation. This is called Situational Management.

9. Need not be an ownership

In small organisations, management and ownership are one and the same. However, in large organisations, management is separate from ownership. The managers are highly qualified professionals who are hired from outside. The owners are the shareholders of the company.

10. Both an art and science

Management is result-oriented. Therefore, it is an Art. Management conducts continuous research. Thus, it is also a Science.


Q. 2 Explain evolution of different approaches of management.


Answer:

The three approaches to the evolution of management. The approaches are:

1.      The Classical Approach 

2.      The Behavioral Approach 

3.      The Quantitative Approach.

1. The Classical Approach:

The classical school represented the first major systematic approach to management thought. It was distinguished by its emphasis on finding way to get the work of each employee done faster. It is primarily based upon the economic rationality of all employees.

This evolved that people are motivated by economic incentives and that they will rationally consider opportunities that provide for them the greatest economic gain. The classical school can be broken down into three historical philosophies of management.


B. Administrative Management Approach:

Scientific management focused primarily on the efficiency of production, but administrative management focused on formal organisation structure and the delineation of the basic process of general management. This approach is also known as functional or process approach and is based primarily on the ideas of Henry Fayol (1841-1925). Henry Fayol is recognised as the first person to systematize the administrative approach activities into six groups, all of which are closely dependent on one another.

2. The Behavioral Approach:

The behavioural approach on the human relations approach is based upon the premise of increase in production and managerial efficiency through an understanding of the people. The human relations approach of management involves with the human behaviour and focused attention on the human beings in the organisation. The growth and popularity of this approach is attributable to Elton Mayo (1880- 1949) and his Hawthorne experiments.

The Hawthorne experiments were carried out at the Hawthorne plant of the western electric company. These experiments were carried out by Elton Mayo and the staff of the Harvard Business School, main researchers were Elton Mayo, White Head, Roethlisberger and Dickson. The first of Mayo’s four studies took place at a Philadelphia textile mill.

The problem he investigated was excessive labour turnover in a department where work was particularly monotonous and fatiguing. The workers tended to sink into a dejected, disconsolate mood soon after being assigned there eventually they would lose their tempers for no apparent reason and impulsively quit. At first Mayo thought the reason for the worker’s behaviour must be physical fatigue.

So, he instituted a series of rest periods, during the workday. In course of trying to schedule these periods in the most efficient manner, management experimented with allowing the workers to do the scheduling themselves.



The effect was dramatic. Turnover fell sharly to about the same level as that for the rest of the plant, productivity shot upward and the melancholy moods disappeared.

Similar results were obtained at the Hawthorne plant of the western electric company. Mayo’s another studies made at the Bank hiring room and at an aircraft factory. Hence the Mayo’s study showed that the role played by social needs is more responsive to the social forces operating at work than the economic rewards.

3. The Quantitative Approach:

This approach involves the application of modern quantitative or mathematical techniques for solving managerial problems. This approach is also known as decision theory approach, mathematical approach, quantitative approach, operational approach etc. These quantitative tools and methodologies are designed to add in decision making relating to operations and production.


According to Lindsay, these techniques assist the management for improving their decisions by:

Increasing the number of alternatives that can be considered.

Assisting in faster decision-making based upon objective analysis of available information.

Helping management in evaluating the risks and results of different courses of action.

Helping to bring into optimum balance the many diverse elements of a modern enterprise.

The technique generally involves the following 4 steps:

 

1.      A mathematical model is constructed with variables reflecting the important factors in the situation to be analysed.

2.      The decision rules are established and some standards are set for the purpose of comparing the relative merits of possible courses of actions.

3.      The empirical data is gathered which would relate parameters in the goal utility.

4.      The mathematical calculations are executed so as to find a course of action that will maximize the objective function or the goal utility.


Q. 3 Define PERT. Prepare PERT diagram for ‘Result Day’ celebration to explain its process step-wise including all activities in detail


Answer:

Complex projects require a series of activities, some of which must be performed sequentially and others that can be performed in parallel with other activities. This collection of series and parallel tasks can be modeled as a network.


In 1957 the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed as a network model for project management. CPM is a deterministic method that uses a fixed time estimate for each activity. While CPM is easy to understand and use, it does not consider the time variations that can have a great impact on the completion time of a complex project.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network model that allows for randomness in activity completion times. PERT was developed in the late 1950's for the U.S. Navy's Polaris project having thousands of contractors. It has the potential to reduce both the time and cost required to complete a project.

The Network Diagram

In a project, an activity is a task that must be performed and an event is a milestone marking the completion of one or more activities. Before an activity can begin, all of its predecessor activities must be completed. Project network models represent activities and milestones by arcs and nodes. PERT originally was an activity on arc network, in which the activities are represented on the lines and milestones on the nodes. Over time, some people began to use PERT as an activity on node network. For this discussion, we will use the original form of activity on arc.

The PERT chart may have multiple pages with many sub-tasks. 

 

The milestones generally are numbered so that the ending node of an activity has a higher number than the beginning node. Incrementing the numbers by 10 allows for new ones to be inserted without modifying the numbering of the entire diagram. The activities in the above diagram are labeled with letters along with the expected time required to complete the activity.

Steps in the PERT Planning Process

PERT planning involves the following steps:

 

1.      Identify the specific activities and milestones.

2.      Determine the proper sequence of the activities.

3.      Construct a network diagram.

4.      Estimate the time required for each activity.

5.      Determine the critical path.

6.      Update the PERT chart as the project progresses.

1. Identify Activities and Milestones

The activities are the tasks required to complete the project. The milestones are the events marking the beginning and end of one or more activities. It is helpful to list the tasks in a table that in later steps can be expanded to include information on sequence and duration.

2. Determine Activity Sequence

This step may be combined with the activity identification step since the activity sequence is evident for some tasks. Other tasks may require more analysis to determine the exact order in which they must be performed.

3. Construct the Network Diagram

Using the activity sequence information, a network diagram can be drawn showing the sequence of the serial and parallel activities. For the original activity-on-arc model, the activities are depicted by arrowed lines and milestones are depicted by circles or "bubbles".

If done manually, several drafts may be required to correctly portray the relationships among activities. Software packages simplify this step by automatically converting tabular activity information into a network diagram.

4. Estimate Activity Times

Weeks are a commonly used unit of time for activity completion, but any consistent unit of time can be used. A distinguishing feature of PERT is its ability to deal with uncertainty in activity completion times. For each activity, the model usually includes three time estimates:



·         Optimistic time - generally the shortest time in which the activity can be completed. It is common practice to specify optimistic times to be three standard deviations from the mean so that there is approximately a 1% chance that the activity will be completed within the optimistic time.

·         Most likely time - the completion time having the highest probability. Note that this time is different from the expected time.

·         Pessimistic time - the longest time that an activity might require. Three standard deviations from the mean is commonly used for the pessimistic time.

PERT assumes a beta probability distribution for the time estimates. For a beta distribution, the expected time for each activity can be approximated using the following weighted average:


Expected time = ( Optimistic + 4 x Most likely + Pessimistic ) / 6


This expected time may be displayed on the network diagram.

To calculate the variance for each activity completion time, if three standard deviation times were selected for the optimistic and pessimistic times, then there are six standard deviations between them, so the variance is given by:

[ ( Pessimistic - Optimistic ) / 6 ]2

5. Determine the Critical Path

The critical path is determined by adding the times for the activities in each sequence and determining the longest path in the project. The critical path determines the total calendar time required for the project. If activities outside the critical path speed up or slow down (within limits), the total project time does not change.

The amount of time that a non-critical path activity can be delayed without delaying the project is referred to as slack time.


If the critical path is not immediately obvious, it may be helpful to determine the following four quantities for each

activity:

·         ES - Earliest Start time

·         EF - Earliest Finish time

·         LS - Latest Start time

·         LF - Latest Finish time

These times are calculated using the expected time for the relevant activities. The earliest start and finish times of each activity are determined by working forward through the network and determining the earliest time at which an activity can start and finish considering its predecessor activities. The latest start and finish times are the latest times that an activity can start and finish without delaying the project. LS and LF are found by working backward through the network. The difference in the latest and earliest finish of each activity is that activity's slack. The critical path then is the path through the network in which none of the activities have slack.

The variance in the project completion time can be calculated by summing the variances in the completion times of the activities in the critical path. Given this variance, one can calculate the probability that the project will be completed by a certain date assuming a normal probability distribution for the critical path. The normal distribution assumption holds if the number of activities in the path is large enough for the central limit theorem to be applied.

 

Since the critical path determines the completion date of the project, the project can be accelerated by adding the resources required to decrease the time for the activities in the critical path. Such a shortening of the project sometimes is referred to as project crashing.

6. Update as Project Progresses

Make adjustments in the PERT chart as the project progresses. As the project unfolds, the estimated times can be replaced with actual times. In cases where there are delays, additional resources may be needed to stay on schedule and the PERT chart may be modified to reflect the new situation.

 



Q. 4 Justify the role of Environment Scanning n Strategic management process.
Answer:

Strategic decisions are the decisions that are concerned with whole environment in which the firm operates, the entire resources and the people who form the company and the interface between the two.


Benefits of Strategic Decisions

Strategic decisions have major resource propositions for an organization. These decisions may be concerned with possessing new resources, organizing others or reallocating others.


Strategic decisions deal with harmonizing organizational resource capabilities with the threats and opportunities.
Strategic decisions deal with the range of organizational activities. It is all about what they want the organization to be like and to be about.

Strategic decisions involve a change of major kind since an organization operates in ever-changing environment.

Strategic decisions are complex in nature.

Strategic decisions are at the top most level, are uncertain as they deal with the future, and involve a lot of risk.

Strategic decisions are different from administrative and operational decisions. Administrative decisions are routine decisions which help or rather facilitate strategic decisions or operational decisions. Operational decisions are technical decisions which help execution of strategic decisions. To reduce cost is a strategic decision which is achieved through operational decision of reducing the number of employees and how we carry out these reductions will be administrative decision.


Concept of SWOT analysis in strategic management:

SWOT can be done by one person or a group of members that are directly responsible for the situation assessment in the company. Basic Swot analysis is done fairly easily and comprises of only few steps:

Step 1. Listing the firm’s key strengths and weaknesses

Step 2. Identifying opportunities and threats


Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses are the factors of the firm’s internal environment. When looking for strengths, ask what do you do better or have more valuable than your competitors have? In case of the weaknesses, ask what could you improve and at least catch up with your competitors?


Where to look for them?

Some strengths or weaknesses can be recognized instantly without deeper studying of the organization. But usually the process is harder and managers have to look into the firm’s:
Resources: land, equipment, knowledge, brand equity, intellectual property, etc.

Core competencies

Capabilities

Functional areas: management, operations, marketing, finances, human resources and R&D

Organizational culture

Value chain activities

Strength or a weakness?

Often, company’s internal factors are seen as both, strengths and weaknesses, at the same time. It is also hard to tell if a characteristic is a strength (weakness) or not. For example, firm’s organizational structure can be a strength, a weakness or neither! In such cases, you should rely on:


Clear definition. Very often factors which are described too broadly may fit both strengths and weaknesses. For example, “brand image” might be a weakness if the company has poor brand image. However, it can also be a strength if the company has the most valuable brand in the market, valued at $100 billion. Therefore, it is easier to identify if a factor is a strength or a weakness when it’s defined precisely.


Benchmarking. The key emphasize in doing swot is to identify the factors that are the strengths or weaknesses in comparison to the competitors. For example, 17% profit margin would be an excellent margin for many firms in most industries and it would be considered as a strength. But what if the average profit margin of your competitors is 20%? Then company’s 17% profit margin would be considered as a weakness.

VRIO framework. A resource can be seen as a strength if it exhibits VRIO (valuable, rare and cannot be imitated) framework characteristics. Otherwise, it doesn’t provide any strategic advantage for the company.

Opportunities and threats 
Opportunities and threats are the external uncontrollable factors that usually appear or arise due to the changes in the macro environment, industry or competitors’ actions. Opportunities represent the external situations that bring a competitive advantage if seized upon. Threats may damage your company so you would better avoid or defend against them.



Q. 5 Describe the concept of Key Performance indicators (KPIs). Enlist some KPIs for teachers working in Primary Schools


Answer:

Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a person for further growth and development. Performance appraisal is generally done in systematic ways which are as follows:

 

1.      The supervisors measure the pay of employees and compare it with targets and plans.

2.      The supervisor analyses the factors behind work performances of employees.

3.      The employers are in position to guide the employees for a better performance.

Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal can be done with following objectives in mind:

 

1.      To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.

2.      To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.

3.      To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and development.

4.      To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.

5.      To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.

6.      It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.

7.      To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes.

Advantages of Performance Appraisal

It is said that performance appraisal is an investment for the company which can be justified by following advantages:


1. Promotion: Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the promotion programmes for efficient employees. In this regards, inefficient workers can be dismissed or demoted in case.


2. Compensation: Performance Appraisal helps in chalking out compensation packages for employees. Merit rating is possible through performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries to give worth to a performance. Compensation packages which includes bonus, high salary rates, extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites are dependent on performance appraisal. The criteria should be merit rather than seniority.


3. Employees Development: The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the supervisors to frame training policies and programmes. It helps to analyse strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps in framing future development programmes.


4. Selection Validation: Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the validity and importance of the selection procedure. The supervisors come to know the validity and thereby the strengths and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in selection methods can be made in this regard.


5. Communication: For an organization, effective communication between employees and employers is very important. Through performance appraisal, communication can be sought for in the following ways:



·         Through performance appraisal, the employers can understand and accept skills of subordinates.

·         The subordinates can also understand and create a trust and confidence in superiors.

·         It also helps in maintaining cordial and congenial labour management relationship.

·         It develops the spirit of work and boosts the morale of employees.

All the above factors ensure effective communication.


6. Motivation: Performance appraisal serves as a motivation tool. Through evaluating performance of employees, a person’s efficiency can be determined if the targets are achieved. This very well motivates a person for better job and helps him to improve his performance in the future.

Past Oriented Methods

1. Rating Scales: Rating scales consists of several numerical scales representing job related performance criterions such as dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc. Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost, every type of job can be evaluated, large number of employees covered, no formal training required. Disadvantages – Rater’s biases


2. Checklist: Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or checking and HR department does the actual evaluation. Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow rater to give relative ratings


3. Forced Choice Method: The series of statements arranged in the blocks of two or more are given and the rater indicates which statement is true or false. The rater is forced to make a choice. HR department does actual assessment. Advantages – Absence of personal biases because of forced choice. Disadvantages – Statements may be wrongly framed.


4. Forced Distribution Method: here employees are clustered around a high point on a rating scale. Rater is compelled to distribute the employees on all points on the scale. It is assumed that the performance is conformed to normal distribution. Advantages – Eliminates Disadvantages – Assumption of normal distribution, unrealistic, errors of central tendency.


5. Critical Incidents Method: The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of employee that makes all the difference in the performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record such incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases, chances of subordinate improvement are high. Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized, forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback may be too much and may appear to be punishment.


6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales: statements of effective and ineffective behaviors determine the points. They are said to be behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to say, which behavior describes the employee performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating errors. Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions inherent in most rating techniques.


7. Field Review Method: This is an appraisal done by someone outside employees’ own department usually from corporate or HR department. Advantages – Useful for managerial level promotions, when comparable information is needed, Disadvantages – Outsider is generally not familiar with employees work environment, Observation of actual behaviors not possible.


8. Performance Tests & Observations: This is based on the test of knowledge or skills. The tests may be written or an actual presentation of skills. Tests must be reliable and validated to be useful. Advantage – Tests may be apt to measure potential more than actual performance. Disadvantages – Tests may suffer if costs of test development or administration are high.


9. Confidential Records: Mostly used by government departments, however its application in industry is not ruled out. Here the report is given in the form of Annual Confidentiality Report (ACR) and may record ratings with respect to following items; attendance, self expression, team work, leadership, initiative, technical ability, reasoning ability, originality and resourcefulness etc. The system is highly secretive and confidential. Feedback to the assessee is given only in case of an adverse entry. Disadvantage is that it is highly subjective and ratings can be manipulated because the evaluations are linked to HR actions like promotions etc.


10. Essay Method: In this method the rater writes down the employee description in detail within a number of broad categories like, overall impression of performance, promoteability of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely useful in filing information gaps about the employees that often occur in a better-structured checklist. Disadvantages – It its highly dependent upon the writing skills of rater and most of them are not good writers. They may get confused success depends on the memory power of raters. 


11. Cost Accounting Method: Here performance is evaluated from the monetary returns yields to his or her organization. Cost to keep employee, and benefit the organization derives is ascertained. Hence it is more dependent upon cost and benefit analysis.


12. Comparative Evaluation Method (Ranking & Paired Comparisons): These are collection of different methods that compare performance with that of other co-workers. The usual techniques used may be ranking methods and paired comparison method.



·         Ranking Methods: Superior ranks his worker based on merit, from best to worst. However how best and why best are not elaborated in this method. It is easy to administer and explanation.

·         Paired Comparison Methods: In this method each employee is rated with another employee in the form of pairs. The number of comparisons may be calculated with the help of a formula as under.

N x (N-1) / 2.

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