[SOLVED] PLANNING & DECISION MAKING

 

SAMPLE MMM132 MANAGEMENT EXAM

 

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READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE COMMENCING

 

• Plagiarism, Collusion and Contract Cheating, constitute cheating and are considered extremely serious breaches of Academic Integrity. Students identified to have engaged in any of these breaches will receive severe penalties.
• By submitting this assessment, you certify that the work is entirely your own except where work quoted or paraphrased is acknowledged in the text. You agree that Deakin College may make and retain copies of this work for the purposes of marking, review and checks of academic integrity.

 

 

Important Note:              

 

• This is an open book exam
• You may use a non-electronic or electronic dictionary

 

 

 

MMM132 EXAMINATION INSTRUCTIONS – TRIMESTER 3 2021

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READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE COMMENCING

 

1. You have 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete this exam. If you commence the exam late, you are still required to submit this document by the exam cut-off time. Any submissions made after the exam cut-off time will incur significant late penalties.

 

2. All late submissions will be subject to penalties without an approved Special Consideration application. The penalties for late submissions are:
   • 1 – 15 minutes late: a 25% mark reduction
   • 16 – 30 minutes late: a 50% mark reduction
   • Beyond 30 minutes late: a mark of zero (0) for the exam

 

3. This is a submission based (Turnitin or Assignment) exam which requires you to upload and submit your completed work into Moodle, in order for it to be accepted. Please manage your time carefully and ensure that you complete the questions required and submit the document onto Moodle within the given time. Submissions made outside of Moodle (email, Facebook and other) are not accepted.

 

4. The grade required to pass this exam is 50 marks overall out of 100. There is NO exam hurdle in the MMM132 unit.

 

5. This examination consists of six (6) short essay questions. Please answer four (4) short essay questions only.  The exam is marked out of 40 total marks. It represents 40% of the total assessment in this unit.

The exam is as follows:

• (4 questions x 10 marks) = 40 marks

6. This is a Moodle exam quiz which will automatically be submitted at the end of the allowed exam time so please manage your time carefully and complete the questions required within the given time.

 

7. Please provide answers to questions in the space provided on the Quiz exam. If you start typing an answer to a question and change your mind about answering that question please delete what you have typed in that answer.

 

8. Your answers should be approximately 250 – 300 words for each question.

 

9. You must not copy definitions and/or descriptions of concepts from text or other sources. You are required to use your own words when defining and describing concepts in each question and for examples.

 

10. After completing all questions you can click on ‘FINISH ATTEMPT’ button which will direct you to the quiz summary page. Please check whether you have answered all required questions (4 questions are answered).  After ensuring all required questions are completed you can click ‘SUBMIT ALL AND FINISH’ button which will submit the exam.  If you do not manually submit your exam, all open attempts will be automatically submitted at the end of the allocated time.

 

Choose any FOUR questions only.

1. PLANNING & DECISION MAKING (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the six-step rational decision-making process and outline two limitations of this process. Apply this process to a decision to purchase a new smartphone. Also explain how the two limitations could apply to this purchasing decision.

There are six steps in rational decision-making. The first step is to define the problem. this step is based on the distance between the manager’s ideal events and the actual events. The second step is to determine the decision criteria, which means that managers need to determine the factors related to the decision. The third step is the weighting standard. the manager needs to weigh the standard and properly consider the priority in the decision-making. The fourth step is to generate alternatives. The manager make as many potential solutions as possible before making decisions. The fifth part is to evaluate each alternative. The manager needs to analyze whether each alternative is feasible. The sixth step is to calculate the best decision. The manager needs to make the best decision in comparison. Rational decision-making has two limitations. The first is bounded. The manager makes decisions under the influence of some restrictions. The second is satisfied. The manager cannot choose enough alternatives，he can only be satisfied with a certain number of alternatives. If you make a rational decision to buy a mobile phone. You want to use $1000 to buy the best mobile phone on the market, and then the mobile phone you want needs good sound quality, clear screen and easy to work. Because you like listening to music, you think good sound quality is the most important, and then convenient for work. Finally, you selected several mobile phones for reference, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro Max and Huawei P50. In contrast, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is too expensive, and the Huawei P50 is inconvenient to work. Finally you chose the iPhone 13. You don’t have enough money to buy the iPhone 13 Pro max, which is bounded. iPhone and Huawei are not the maximum solution. There are other options, such as Samsung and vivo.

2. ORGANISING (10 marks)

Write a short essay that contrasts the five forms of organisational departmentalisation. Identify your ‘dream job’ and contrast the form of departmentalisation most suitable and least suitable to this job.

Departmentalization means that different activities are grouped into different departments so that tasks can be performed professionally within the organization. There are five forms of departmental organization.

The first is functional departmentalisation, it refers set up  different department according to different  work activities.

Second is Product departmentalisation, founding different departments according to different products.

Third is customer departmentalisation, In order to meet the needs of target customers, different business activity departments are formed.

Fourth is regional departmentalisation, Enterprises set up local departments according to regions to handle company activities.

Fifth is Matrix departmentalisation, It combines functional and project departmentalization to synchronize a single activity and multiple components.

 

HRM & DIVERSITY (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the Human Resource Management (HRM) process. Explain how a manager can apply this process to ensure the effective training and performance appraisal of a new graduate accountant. Describe problems that may arise if these processes are ineffective or not followed.

3. MOTIVATION (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the components of goal setting theory and how managers can apply it to motivate workers. Use this theory to illustrate and evaluate how you were motivated to complete Assignment A1.3.

4. LEADERSHIP & COMMUNICATION (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes and explains the differences between charismatic and transformational leaders. Contrast the ethical versus unethical forms of any one charismatic leader behaviour and provide an example to illustrate this.

5. CONTROL (10 marks)

Write a short essay that explains how the balanced scorecard is different to the traditional ways of measuring the performance of a company. Explain each of the perspectives used in the balanced scorecard illustrating each with an example.

END OF EXAMINATION

 

 

GUIDE TO RESPONSES

USE THE DIRECTION WORDS FOR ACADEMIC WRITING DOCUMENT to help you understand the terms describe, explain … You’ll note no questions ask you to define concepts however you are asked to describe concepts.  It’s not possible to describe concepts without showing you know what they mean (ie defining them)

 

1. PLANNING & DECISION MAKING (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the six-step rational decision-making process and outline two limitations of this process. Apply this process to a decision to purchase a new smartphone. Also explain how the two limitations could apply to this purchasing decision.

Outline of response:

• Describe the 6 steps. This means you should write in detail what each of the steps are, in their correct sequence.  For example, the first step is to define the problem, what does this mean (do this for each step):  managers define a problem by determining there is a gap between what is happening now and what they want to have happen in a given situation.  Continue on in this way to describe each step.
• Apply/analyse the steps by using them/applying them to the purchase of a new smartphone. Explain how each step will be used in the decision about which is the best phone to buy.
• Explain two limitations of the rational decision making process in this purchasing decision. Choose two limitations from your text, explain how they may impact on the process.

 

2. ORGANISING (10 marks)

Write a short essay that contrasts the five forms of organisational departmentalisation. Identify your ‘dream job’ and contrast the form of departmentalisation most suitable and least suitable to this job.

Outline of response:

• Contrast the five forms of departmentalisation. This means you should list and describe differences between each.
• Describe the job you’d really like to have.
• Choose a form of departmentalisation that you think would suit this job, explain why you say this. Explain also which form of departmentalisation that you believe would not suit this job and why you believe it would not suit this job.  The best way to explain is to use advantages and disadvantages of the form of departmentalisation you have chosen.

 

3. HRM & DIVERSITY (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the Human Resource Management (HRM) process. Explain how a manager can apply this process to ensure the effective training and performance appraisal of a new graduate accountant. Describe problems that may arise if these processes are ineffective or not followed.

Outline of response:

• Describe the HRM process. This means you should write in detail the main points/characteristics of the three steps in the HRM process.
• Describe what training is/means, describe what performance appraisal is/means.
• Apply the HRM process of training and performance appraisal to a newly appointed graduate accountant: explain training would begin with orientation and induction for the new employee, ongoing training throughout employee’s employment with the company and why this is needed (the advantages of training).  Explain performance appraisal is needed because … (use advantages of performance appraisal/why this is done.
• Describe problems if training and performance appraisal are ineffective if not done … (describe disadvantages of not performing training activities/processes and performance appraisal activities/processes.)

 

 

4. MOTIVATION (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes the components of goal setting theory and how managers can apply it to motivate workers. Use this theory to illustrate and evaluate how you were motivated to complete Assignment 1 Part A.

Outline of response:

• Describe goal setting theory (how it works, what are its purposes – goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal acceptance). You’ll remember topic 5 and section on How to make a plan that works and could use the concept of SMART goals as components here if you wish, these would be relevant too).
• Illustrate and evaluate how you were motivated to complete Assignment 1 Part A. Use the components of goal setting theory as you describe each and evaluate how they applied to your motivation to work hard and complete Assignment 1 Part A.  Remember evaluation means:  present a judgement of an issue by stressing both strengths and advantages, and weaknesses and limitations (any disadvantages of the theory you experienced). The emphasis is on assessing the value, worth or relevance of goal setting theory to your motivation for the assignment.

 

 

5. LEADERSHIP & COMMUNICATION (10 marks)

Write a short essay that describes and explains the differences between charismatic and transformational leaders. Contrast the ethical versus unethical forms of any one charismatic leader behaviour and provide an example to illustrate this.

Outline of response:

• Describe charismatic leadership (what it is, its main points).
• Describe transformational leadership (what it is, its main points).
• These descriptions should be used to explain the differences between the two.
• Contrast ethical and unethical forms of charismatic leader behaviour, use example to support your discussion. Here you should choose ONE ethical and ONE unethical charismatic leader behaviour providing an example of how/why this behaviour is ethical/unethical.

 

6. CONTROL (10 marks)

Write a short essay that explains how the balanced scorecard is different to the traditional ways of measuring the performance of a company. Explain each of the perspectives used in the balanced scorecard illustrating each with an example.

Outline of response:

• Describe balanced scorecard. Explain how it is different to traditional ways of measuring company performance (traditional measures focus on financial aspects, balanced scorecard states this is only one of 4 critical measures.
• Explain why each of the 4 measures of the balanced scorecard are important to show a holistic, comprehensive measures of a company’s performance. Provide example of each of the 4 to support your explanation of the importance of each.