MBA 513A
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR & HR MANAGEMENT
FINAL EXAM

Sadek Ahmed ID 10000121777

Answer no :1

Socialization is broadly defined as “a process in which an individual acquires the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge needed to successfully participate as an organizational member.” Socialization is an ongoing process that sometimes lasts for a year. It represents a sense-making process that helps new hires adapt, form work relationships and find their place in the organization. A typical socialization process includes three phases:
1. Anticipatory socialization: This stage occurs before new hires join the organization. Through interacting with representatives of the company (e.g., recruiters, managers), new hires develop expectations about the company and the job prior to organizational entry.
2. Encounter: When new employees begin a new job, they start to learn about job tasks and receive training. Managers can exert their influence by helping new employees understand their roles and duties. Also, by understanding the stresses and issues that newcomers experience, managers can help cultivate a high-quality work relationship with newcomers.
3. Settling in: New employees begin to feel comfortable with their job demands and social relationships. They will be interested in the company’s evaluation of their performance and in learning about potential career opportunities within the company.
Regardless of the years of work experience that new employees have, knowing the technical and social aspects specific to the job and the company is essential to function in a new environment.
To manage a better socialization process organization also apply three stages. These are :

*Realistic job preview: In this stage an overall description of responsibilities is given to the new hired employee. Here he got the idea what have to do in which way and its help him to do accomplished the duty properly.

*Orientation program: Orientation is the introduction of a new employee to the organization, the requirement of job, the social situation in which he will be working and the organization's culture. The organization's culture includes its values, shared beliefs, history, tradition and norms of behavior expressed as do's and don'ts. Orientation is a part and first step of socialization process. A new employee who is socialized understands the key points about an organization and its people and why things are done in particular way

*Mentoring: If the employee face any problem to complete his task then other in the organization consult with solve the situation. Sometime organization arranges different kind training session to overcome the work related problem.

Answer No 5

Information Richness: The amount of information that a communication medium can carry and the extent to which the medium enable the sender and receiver to reach a common understanding.

Different communication media have different degree of information richness.There are many communication media which are describe below with the level of information richness.

Face to face communication: Face to face communication has highest information richness. It can take advantage of verbal and nonverbal signals. In which a manager walks around a work area and talks informally with employees about issue and concern.

Spoken communication electronically transmitted: It has the second highest information richness. Telephone conversations are information rich with tone of voice, sender emphasis, and quick feedback but provide no visual and nonverbal cues.

Personally addressed written communication: Has a lower richness than the verbal forms of communication but is directed at a given person.
Personal addressing helps ensure receivers actually read the message. Personal letter and email are common form of it.

Impersonal written communication: Has a lowest information richness, but it a way to send a message for many receivers where little or feedback is expected.

Information richness is defined as the acquisition, distribution and exploitation of information with the internet-trading contexts . It is an ability to use information effectively in order to develop competitive advantage and performance. Firms with greater information richness tend to enhance their potentials for collecting, transmitting and storing information via better accessing to relevant and current data, and facilitating more efficient usage of this data and create rapid interaction with suppliers and customers. Then, they are likely to gain more customer satisfaction, enhance greater marketing effectiveness and achieve superior competitive advantage, profitability, growth and sustainability. Also, information richness refers to the amount of information that can be conveyed through a communication medium. In fact, it is the ability of information and message that can change understanding within a time interval. Essentially, it pertains to the learning capacity of a communication, and it helps firms serve target customers better, promote greater competitive advantage, and receive higher organizational performance and success. Accordingly, information richness is a critical business tool of firms in doing businesses and getting corporate sustainability. In short, it has an important influence on their marketing effectiveness, competitive advantage and firm performance.

Answer No 3
Mechanistic organization: According to Black’s Law Dictionary mechanistic organization is “the organization is hierarchical and bureaucratic. It is characterized by its (1) highly Centralized authority, (2) formalized procedures and practices, and (3) specialized functions. Mechanistic organization is relatively easier and simpler to organize, but rapid change is very challenging. Contrast to organic organization.

Characteristics: Employees are found to work separately and on their own assigned tasks. There is a definite chain of command and decisions are kept as high up the chain as possible. Communication is a process between managers and supervisors up to executives, there is little daily interaction if any. There are strict company policies or operating standards with an abundance of documentation. This structure is considered the more stable of the two structures.

Structure: Companies in a mechanistic organization structure typically hold tight control, over processes and employees; with an iron fist so to speak. Rules are implemented and rarely deviated from while there is also a very clear chain of command to delegate responsibilities and power throughout the organization. Again, it is manufacturing companies that are well known for this type of structure but there are other groups that benefit from mechanistic organization; like universities.

Form the definition characteristics of Mechanistic we can see that the lower level employee are got task orientated information from his supervisor. He can not participated in decision making step. So he does not give his opinion. For that I think such type of organization have a fewer scoop to be a great leader.
To be a good leader a employee must have to maintain some quality these are discuss below:

An organization's success today depends on such a variety of talents and skills that no one leader could possibly be gifted in simultaneously. There are technological issues, global issues, financial issues, human resource issues, leadership issues, employee issues, legal issues, and more. A leader who is self-aware enough to know that he or she is not adept at everything is one who has taken the first step toward being a great leader.
This sort of personal mastery entails having a heightened understanding of one's own behavior, motivators, and competencies — and having "emotional intelligence" — to monitor and manage one's emotional responses in a variety of situations.

This variety of situations is not limited to the home office, or the boardroom. It is of a global nature, across cultures which are very different and can be difficult to navigate, especially for those who are not comfortable, knowledgeable, or willing to admit their individual strength and weakness. Everyone has a shortcoming or two — leaders who are willing to admit these, who strive to improve, and who seek out a consulting team to fill in the gaps will 1) encourage followers to do the same and 2) make room for others whose talents lie where theirs don't. Leaders are closing out the talents of others by not divesting themselves from the day-to-day problem-solving activities of the company. Great leaders let go of the day-to-day, problem-solving activities of the company. Rather, they choose to maximize strategic and relationship-building efforts. No one person should do it all — and if they are self-aware, most people will realize that they really aren't capable or knowledgeable enough to do it all.

Following is a short list of things leader can do to achieve self-awareness and personal mastery in leadership.
*Monitor performance. Note areas in which he excel and need improvement. Communicate these to your team.
*Realize that failures and mistakes are just one step on the road to success.
*Recognize that being aware of the impact that his behavior has on other people is a critical leadership skill.
*Remember that when criticism is difficult to accept, there is probably some truth to it.
* finally, learn to give yourself and others credit for improving.

Answer no 6

High outcome interdependence promotes higher levels of cooperation because members understand that they share the same fate—if the team wins, everyone wins, and if the team fails, everyone fails. At the same time, high outcome interdependence may result in reduced motivation, especially among higher performing members. High performers may perceive that they’re not paid in proportion to what they contributed to the team and that their teammates are taking advantage of this inequity for their own benefit.

Hybrid outcome interdependence
One solution to this problem has been to design team reward structures with hybrid outcome interdependence, which means that members receive rewards that are dependent on both their team’s performance and how well they perform as individuals. In fact, the majority of organizations that use teams use some sort of hybrid outcome interdependence. But what percentage of team members’ pay is typically based on team performance in business organizations? There are so many different types of teams doing so many different types of tasks, and also because organizations vary dramatically in their approaches to rewarding their employees. For example, the size of team-based pay in the goods and service sectors averages around 10–12 percent of an employee’s base pay. In contrast, production workers at Nucor, the Crawfordsville, Indiana–based steel company, earn team-based bonuses of 170 percent of their base pay, on average. It’s important to note that hybrid outcome interdependence, in and of itself, may not always be that effective in promoting team functioning and effectiveness. Research conducted at Xerox, for example, shows that service teams with hybrid outcome interdependence are less effective than service teams with very high or very low levels of outcome interdependence. Part of the problem with hybrid outcome interdependence is that it can lead to uncertainty about which types of behaviors are being rewarded and how pay ultimately is determined. To make hybrid interdependence work, organizations need to

Ensure that the system makes sense to employees. At Nucor, most production workers know within one-tenth of 1 percent what the team’s bonus is for the week, as well as which products will be produced next and how these future operations will likely affect their bonuses.