ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY - AUDDE

1 ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY . DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. FIRST YEAR. Academic Year 2018 - 2019. ASSIGNMENT TOPICS. This booklet contains assignment topics. Students are asked to write the assignments for EIGHT papers as per instructions. Last date for submission: 28-02-2019. Last date for submission with late fee ` 300/- : 15-03-2019. NOTE: 1. Assignments sent after 15-03-2019 will not be evaluated. 2. Assignments should be in the own hand writing of the student concerned and not type-written or printed or photocopied. 3. Assignments should be written on A4 paper on one side only. 4. All assignments (with Enrolment number marked on the Top right hand corner on all pages) should be put in an envelop with superscription MBA.

2 Assignments and sent to The Director, Directorate of Distance Education, ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY , Annamalainagar 608 002 by Registered post. 5. No notice will be taken on assignments which are not properly filled in with Enrolment Number and the Title of the papers. 6. Students should send full set of assignments for all papers. Partial assignments will not be considered. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS. Write assignments on any TWO topics in each paper out of the FOUR. For each topic the answer should not exceed 15 pages. Each assignment carries 25 marks (2 topics). DR. M. ARUL. DIRECTOR. 2. PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT. 1. Management can be defined as " A process of bringing about improvement in knowledge, skill, habit and attitudes of the employees in an organization".

3 Discuss. 2. "Decision making is the most critical managerial task." Discuss the above statement in light of decision-making process. 3. Select a business or political leader whom you admire, and identify his or her style of leading by applying the managerial grid or the continuum-of-behaviour model of Tannenbaum and Schmidt. 4. The only planning tool we need in the company is the budget. If everyone meets his or her budget, we need nothing else, and management by objectives would be an unnecessary frill . Comment. MARKETING MANAGEMENT. 1. Explain the recent trends in marketing concepts, also discuss the factors that a marketing manager must take into account while developing the marketing mix for the below mentioned products. I. Female cosmetics, II.

4 Children health drinks and III. Adult bike. 2. Every change in the political and legal environment creates an adjustment problem for the marketers' as a budding manager what is your opinion about this statement and suggest a suitable strategy to adopt successful and smooth running of your business. 3. In designing an advertising campaign for a soft drink, which would you find more useful; information about consumer demographics or information about consumer life style? Give an example of how would you use each type of information. 4. Suggest a successful way to segment the market for the following products a) Detergent soap b) Designer Jewellery c) Breakfast Cereals. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT. 1. It is usual to declare good dividends when the company is making good profit.

5 It is profitable for companies not to declare any dividend even when they are making good profits? What will be the reaction of the shareholder? Discuss. 2. If you are working as a financial manager in an organization, what are your policies to make profit for the organization? 3. Assume that you are new entrepreneur to start the business, which financial resources you opt? Justify with your views. 4. The success of a business concern depends upon the way in which it earnings are computed, distributed and retained - Comment on this statement. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT. 1. Prepare step by step Supply Chain network layout for any manufacturing company. 2. List the various factors to be considered for locating Atomic Power plant. 3. Prepare PERT network for assembling a Motor Bike.

6 4. Visit any production plant and list various Material Handling devices with photographs. Explain its advantages and disadvantages. 3. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. 1."HR outsourcing has become a common practice throughout the world"-Discuss the implications of HR outsourcing functions. 2. Identify the Paramount barriers for effective training programme in IT field and how to crush them". Explain with real life examples. 3. What type of interview techniques do you adopt for selecting an Executive in a FMCG company for the post of Marketing Manager? 4. Assume that you are responsible for evaluating the employees' performance in the public sector manufacturing company. Discuss the appraisal process. Also explain techniques you apply for various levels and give reasons.

7 STATISTICS FOR MANAGERS. 1. Which measure of central tendency would be most useful in each of the following instances? (a) The production manager for a manufacturer of glass jars, who is concerned about the proper jar size to manufacture, has sample data on jar sizes ordered by customers. Would the mean, median, or modal jar size be of most value to the manager? (b) The sales manager for a quality furniture manufacturer is interested in selecting the region's most likely to purchase his firm's products. Would he be most interested in the mean or median of family income in prospective sales areas? (c) A security analyst is interested in describing the daily market price change of the common stock of a manufacturing company. Rarely the market price of the stock changes by more than one point, but occasionally the price will change by as many as four points in one day.

8 Should the security analyst describe the daily price change of the stock in terms of mean, median, or mode of the daily market price change? 2. Late payment of medical claims can add to the cost of health care. An article reported that the mean time from the date of service to the date of payment for one insurance company was days during a recent period. Suppose that a sample of 100 medical claims is selected during the latest time period. The sample mean time from the date of service to the date of payment was days, and the sample standard deviation was days. a. Using the level of significance, is there evidence that the population mean has changed from days? b. What is your answer in (a) if you use the level of significance? c. What is your answer in (a) if the sample mean is days and the sample standard deviation is days?

9 3. La Quinta Motor Inns developed a computer model to predict the profitability of sites that are being considered as locations for new hotels. If the computer model predicts large profits, La Quinta buys the proposed site and builds a new hotel. If the computer model predicts small or moderate profits, La Quinta chooses not to proceed. This decision-making procedure can be expressed in the hypothesis-testing framework. The null hypothesis is that the site is not a 4. profitable location. The alternative hypothesis is that the site is a profitable location. a. Explain the risks associated with committing a Type I error in this case. b. Explain the risks associated with committing a Type II error in this case. c. Which type of error do you think the executives at La Quinta Motor Inns are trying hard to avoid?

10 Explain. 4. The chair of the accounting department wants to develop a regression model to predict the grade point average in accounting for graduating accounting majors, based on the students' SAT score and whether the student received a grade of B. or higher in the introductory statistics course (0 = no and 1 = yes). a. Explain the steps involved in developing a regression model for these data. Be sure to indicate the particular models you need to evaluate and compare. b. Suppose the regression coefficient for the variable of whether the student received a grade of B or higher in the introductory statistics course is + , how do you interpret this result? MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION. 1. Assuming you are a Chief Personnel Manager of a leading MNC, draft a letter calling a candidate for an interview in reply to his application for the position of Chief Financial Executive.