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Mbad 501: Foundations And Practice Of Management Question Paper
Mbad 501: Foundations And Practice Of Management
Course:Business Administration
Institution: Kenya Methodist University question papers
Exam Year:2010
FACULTY : BUSINESS STUDIES AND MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT : BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
TIME : 3 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS Answer ALL Questions in section A and any other Two Questions from B
SECTION A
"The Ring of Gyges - Plato"
They say that to do injustice is naturally good and to suffer injustice bad, but that the badness of suffering it so far exceeds the goodness of doing it that those who have done and suffered injustice and tasted both, but who lack the power to do it and avoid suffering it, decide that it is profitable to come to an agreement with each other neither to do injustice nor to suffer it. As a result, they begin to make laws and covenants, and what the law commands they call lawful and just. This, they say, is the origin and essence of justice. It is intermediate between the best and the worst. The best is to do injustice without paying the penalty; the worst is to suffer it without being able to take revenge. Justice is a mean between these two extremes. People value it not as a good but because they are too weak to do injustice with impunity. Someone who has the power to do this, however: and is a true man wouldn''t make an agreement with anyone not to do injustice in order not to suffer it. For him that would be madness. This is the nature of justice, according to the argument, Socrates, and these are its natural origins.
We can see most clearly that those who practice justice do it unwillingly and because they lack the power to do injustice, if in our thoughts we grant to a just and an unjust person the freedom to do whatever they like. We can then follow both of them, and see where their desires would lead. And we''ll catch the just person red-handed travelling the same road as the unjust. The reason for this is the desire to outdo others and get more and more. This is what anyone''s nature naturally pursues as good, but nature is forced by law into the perversion of treating fairness with respect.
The freedom, mentioned would be most easily realized if both people had the power they say the ancestor of Gyges of Lydia possessed. The story goes that he was a shepherd in the service of the ruler of Lydia. There was a violent thunderstorm, and an earthquake broke open the ground and created a chasm at the place where he was tending his sheep. Seeing this, he was filled with amazement and went down into it. And there, in addition to many other wonders of which we''re told, he saw a hollow bronze horse. There were window like openings in it, and, peeping in, he saw a corpse, which seemed to be of more than human size, wearing nothing but a gold ring on its finger. He took the ring and came out of the chasm. He wore the ring at the usual monthly meeting that reported to the king on the state of the flock. And as he was sitting among the others, he happened to turn the setting of the ring towards himself to the inside of his hand. When he did this, he became invisible to those sitting near him, and they went on talking as if he had gone. He wondered at this, and, fingering the ring, he turned the setting outwards again and became visible. So he experimented with the ring to test whether it indeed had this power- and it did. If he turned the setting inward, he became invisible; if he turned it outward, he became visible again. When he realized this, he at once arranged to become one of the messengers sent to report to the king. And when he arrived there, he seduced the king''s wife, attacked the king with her help, killed him, and took over the kingdom.
Let''s suppose, then, that there were two such rings, one worn by a just and the other by an unjust person. Now, no one, it seems, would be so incorruptible that he would stay on the path of justice or stay away from other people''s property, when he could take whatever he wanted from the marketplace with impunity, go into people''s houses and have sex with anyone he wished, kill or release from prison anyone he wished, and do all the other things like deleting lecture notes and teaching resources in the class email to make the life of teaching using technology difficult and that would make him like a god among other students. Rather his actions would be in no way different from those of an unjust person, and both would follow the same path. This, some would say, is a great proof that one is never just willingly but only when compelled to be. No one believes justice to be a good when it is kept private, since, wherever either person thinks he can do injustice with impunity, he does it. Indeed, every man believes that injustice is far more profitable to himself than justice. And any exponent of this argument will say he''s right, for someone who didn''t want to do injustice, given this sort of opportunity, and who didn''t touch other people''s property would be thought wretched and stupid by everyone aware of the situation, though, of course, they''d praise him in public, deceiving each other for fear of suffering injustice.
Question 1
a) “Manager’s life revolves around making decisions”. Using the art and science of management concepts explain how managerial decision making will vary when you have the ring and when you don’t (8marks)
b) Do leaders in contemporary organizations possess the power of the ring to hide information like the case of the student deleting lecturer’s notes? What are the moral and ethical implications of this action (8marks)
c) What does the greatest good concept talk about? Make an argument for and against the student deleting notes based on this concept (6marks)
d) Using the reframing approach, discuss the student’s problem implied in this case and suggest solution organizations need to take when they have employees of this nature
(8marks)
Question 2
You have been appointed a new CEO of Nikita, a company dealing with computer‘s Window Beta software across Africa. The company is among the top ten fortune companies to work in and has shown tremendous improvement in the recent years. The management team of the company is exploring ways to expand the market share of the company by going global. You have been selected as one of the task force to explore the possibility of Nikita becoming a global giant the likes of Apple and Microsoft. Your first assignment is to explore the possibility of taking your Windows Beta software to United States of America. a) Design Nikita’s new logo showing the new commitment while comparing this logo with the old one (5marks)
b) Come up with Nikita’s vision, mission and operating philosophy statements (6marks)
c) Describe how the BCG portfolio analysis and PESTLE factors will be useful in your new assignment (8marks)
d) What is a strategy? Come up with two main strategies which you belief will marshal success in this difficult assignment (3marks)
e) Describe various risks you face in this assignment and how you are going to go about them (8marks)
SECTION B
Question 3
a) “Management did not become important until 20th Century. Before then there was no management at all”. Do you agree? Discuss (14marks)
b) How has management evolved in the neo-classical era (6marks)
Question 4
a) What is a paradigm shift? Describe various paradigms management has gone through overtime (8marks)
b) How does McGregor’s theory X and Y relates to motivation, reframing decisions and leadership in organizations (12marks)
Question 5
a) Describe Hofstede’s cross-cultural differences among nations and how these relates to the way we do business in Kenya today (12marks)
b) Explain the main philosophy behind Bill Cosby’s zero defects in management (8marks)
Question 6
a) Describe the usefulness of Lurdwing Von Battalanffy’s findings to groups and teams in contemporary organizations (10marks)
b) How does Battalanffy’s findings contrast the popular belief that management is a “theory of the jungle”. (10marks)
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