MBA
(ENTREPRENEURSHIP & FAMILY BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT)
BATCH: 2020-2022
CAMPUS: MUMBAI
YEAR: I, TRIMESTER: I
Course: Management Practice for Entrepreneurs
Trimester 1 – FINAL EXAMINATION
GROUP MEMBERS:-
1. HARSH KOTHARI (A001)
2. SIDDHARTH DARGAD (A007)
3. ROMIL RITA (B010)
4. NAMAN JAIN (B014)
5. KARTIKEYA MUNDRA (B020)
6. PRIYAL JAIN (B025)
7. ANMOL AGRAWAL (B027)
CASE 1
( TOO BIG TO CHANGE)
Question 1: How would you describe the organization culture at GM? Why was decision
making so slow-”plodding” as one analysts describes it?
Answer: GM isn’t the first company facing a cultural change crisis. In today’s fast changing
world, some big corporations still face to get over their old mindset. Not just big corporations,
even small family-owned businesses face problems with putting up with the latest trends in the
industry.
GM followed a culture of hush. Even before the ignition switch recall came out to the light to the
general public, GM was still suffering from its old culture for many years. It had a hush
communication culture. The employees were not allowed to speak up. The management
discouraged employees to speak up and express their views. A very traditional form of culture
was seen there. This culture led to various bureaucratic mistakes and accidents and the culture
prevented the employees from taking any initiatives to act for them. A fear among the
subordinates was developed because of the organizational culture followed at GM.
The 106 year old Automaker’s culture has been criticised for many years as narrow-minded,
limited and inward-looking. The employees are slow to take responsibilities for the problems that
have been created due to their actions, and also the culture of hesitant to deliver value to its
customers.
The culture of not acting upon the decisions as it can be seen in the case itself, the CEO Fritz
Henderson had taken decisions upon to take changes in the culture but no action was taken and
he was fired from the position. They follow a nod culture, where the decisions are taken and the
course of action also decided upon but just the final action plan not carried forward.
Also the company has been resistant to change since the 1970's, which resulted in an entrenched
silent culture in the organization.
Question 2: Why do you think the previous CEO’s(Mr Henderson) attempts to change the
organizational culture might have been lacking?
Answer: The CEO Mr Fritz Henderson was hired on march 30th, 2009 as CEO of general
manager. Henderson specialized in Number guys(finance). The core factors which he focused on
risk taking, accountability, speed and customer product focus.he struggled to impose cultural
change across the highly bureaucratic company because in some departments of the organization
was like self governing and competing. He tried to change the culture but it turned in the wrong
path.he did not focus on how to make a strong culture at the workplace. Value the organization
culture etc .
First of all Henderson needs to think about understanding what culture is in general sense and
what is the organization culture is. To make the strong culture he need to focus on some key
aspect-
● Values should be broadly shared
● Culture conveys consistent message about what’s important
● Effectiveness - he should see whether the organization and individual components are
doing well ?
● Appropriate emotion- which emotion should people be encouraged to express, and which
emotion should be suppressed?
● innovation in workplace
● There should be no communication gap
● Strong connection between shared values and behaviours. Etc
This would help the company to build the strong culture in the workplace. He was not good at
making decisions.
Question 3: What change is Mr. Whitacre making to the culture of GM?
Answer: Prior to Mr. Whitacre becoming CEO of GM, the way of life at GM is fundamentally
administrative. This implies each choice that must be made must go through the various
divisions to the advisory group that causes a major wreck and furthermore delays for dynamic.
Mr. Whitacre referenced in a meeting the issues of overseeing in GM before he took over is that
the organization is excessively administrative, not engaged, which implies a worker has more
than one supervisor in this way no chief. GM's dynamic was moderate and has either been
delayed to perceive the difference in client tendency or delayed to adjusting innovative changes.
So when Mr. Whitacre turned into the CEO of GM, he rolled out a couple of improvements to
the way of life of GM to spare the organization. It is said in a meeting that Mr. Whiteacre figured
out how to get through the decision of that old culture in GM but then safeguard its best piece.
The greatest change Mr. Whitacre made to the way of life of GM is disposing of the regulatory
culture. This is zeroing in on the dynamic cycle of GM which permits representatives to settle on
their own choices without experiencing various divisions. This will at that point permit the
organization to work all the more efficiently. Mr. Whitacre is additionally pushing position and
dynamic down into GM's multilayered association. This way it constructs and develops trust
among workers. This way staff will feel engaged which will help in expansion as well as
execution and furthermore profit for the organization. Mr. Whitacre accepts that by making
overseeing more straightforward it will simply work better. Mr. Whitacre made GM's way of life
as he changed the way of life from administrative to a culture where workers can settle on choice
without experiencing numerous layers of board of trustees. This will help in empowering the
organization to work significantly more efficiently as well as effectively and furthermore have
trust among representatives contrasted with the past culture that a few representatives has more
than one supervisor which will settle on things intense for dynamic. The changes that Mr.
Whitacre made to the way of life of GM is by getting free of the administrative culture.
● It allows workers to settle on their own choices.
● It will help in building trust among workers.
● Increase staff execution and efficiency and which will help them work effectively.
Question 4: What type of resistance is he likely to encounter? Using exhibit 6-5, what would
be the best ways to address that resistance?Be specific.
Answer: Resistance is an event that affects the change process and resulting in delaying its
implementation.
Some reasons why individual resist change after general motors managed to leave the neutral
zone of the chance process are :
1) Routine
2) Security
3) Economic factors.
4) Fear of not knowing
There is resistance to change because managers as well as employees were comfortable with
traditional ways of company’s operation and they already sensed the restructuring were going to
take place so were little anxious and lost their sense of security.
Now the question arises how did Mr. Whitacre address the resistance to change by his
employees?
● He sent company wide email to assure his employees that major leadership changes are
behind them.
● He delegated duties to his employees so that they feel belongingness and also they would
be responsible for their deeds.
● Also he shared problem with all the employees and took their opinion for the same.
In ref to exhibit 6-5 the best ways to address resistance are:
1) Education and communication ( when resistance is due to misinformation) mr. Whitacre
sent an email to clear up misunderstanding of the employees.
2) Participation (when resistance have the expertise to make a contribution)
3) Mr. Whitacre delegated duties to his employees so that they feel belongingness and also
they would be responsible for their deeds.
4) Facilitation and support (when resistors are fearful and anxiety hidden )
employees were comfortable with traditional ways of company’s operation and they
already sensed the restructuring were going to take place so were little anxious and lost
their sense of security.so, Mr. Whitacre shared problem with all the employees and took
their opinion for the same.
CASE 2
(THE CURTAIN FALLS)
Question 1: Would you characterize television programming decisions as structured or
unstructured? Explain. What type of decision-making condition would you consider this to
be? Explain.
Answer: In this case, we found that this decision will fall under an unstructured decision. As it
is unique and non-recurring, also it is distinct from usual practices that had never happened
earlier. It is known that this format will save cost, This decision was “a radical experiment.
Here the decision making condition was UNCERTAINTY-
● They have to depend upon the probabilities of outcome.
● They have to make the possible optimization of given resources, as they were given an
oldest Tv programming format and other resources.
● As the format was very cheap to produce, they used 60min of pricey script and
broadcasted it.
● They were relying on intuitions, gut feeling, which was a high risk & step for them
● Their shows rating had a downward trend and was in a critical situation.
● Their decision was a failure.
● No one was happy with this Show.
● This step taken by NBC was a risk.
● NBC people thought that it would save their cost, but was not aware about the public's
response.
Mr. Gaspin was a non-linear thinker as he wasn't having sufficient information, he took a risk
chance based on his feelings & intuitions. If he was a linear thinker he might have taken more
information and have made better decisions from it. It wasn't a rational decision making process
because in it a person has to go through relevant facts and have to make decisions accordingly.
Also the employees should have followed the certain steps, decision criteria to carry out the
work successfully.
Also the chairman of the television program NBC said that-
“ I don't think that it's wrong to take chances .. sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.”
Question 2: What criteria did NBC use in evaluating its initial decision to move Leno and
O’Brien? Was that criteria appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer : NBC used budget as their criteria to move Leno & O’Brien and that was not
appropriate, they considered that only because that was the current drawback of their company.
Managers are also not properly identifying the problem or paying attention to decision making
criteria and that is very important to solve the case or the problem as well. Primetime 60-minute
dramas are traditionally five times more expensive to produce than comedy-variety shows and by
following this format they failed in the prime time slot so the other criteria should take place, But
the managers haven't paid any attention to that. For example, A survey should be conducted to
see if the viewers would watch this format in primetime or not? It is possible that different types
of viewers, with different tastes, watch television at those times ( Prime time slot) and that
criterias should be made which are relevant to all types of viewers because they greatly affect the
company’s decision-making.
Question 3: Evaluate Jeff Gaspin’s statement, “I don’t think it’s wrong to take chances. . . .
Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.” What does it say about his decision-making
style?
Answer: From the statement of Mr.Gapin we come to know that he had a non-straight reasoning
style or a daring individual. Because of the absence of existing data Mr.Gaspin chooses to take
risks and utilizes his own emotion and instinct to control his activities. Somebody with a straight
style would have mentioned more data and likely tried all the concepts more thoroughly before
committing the network to a final decision.
● Mr. Gaspin has a non-direct reasoning style.
● Mr. Gaspin was imaginative and visionary who tried the constraints of what's going on
with everything known and conceivable in this straight world.
● It was never off-base to take risk since you gain from where you turned out badly and
return better.
● He was very theoretical in his reasoning.
● While a direct scholar could have taken a superior consistent choice.
Question 4: Describe how NBC executive could have used each of the following to make
better decision:
Answer: a) Rationality- Rational decision making is a long process of choosing among the best
alternatives available. This process favours logic, objectivity, and analysis over subjectivity and
knowledge. NBC should have taken all the alternatives into picture before making the decision,
all the causes of the problem should have been evaluated before acting upon before devising a
solution. The risk with each option should have been evaluated before going upon any decision.
b) Bounded Rationality- Bounded rationality is an important part of decision-making. It
attempts to satisfice the situation rather than optimize it. In other words, it simply tries to make a
decision that will be good enough rather than the best decisions. NBC should have just tried to
increase the commitment of the staff to the show, this way the quality of the show might
increase. For the interest of saving money, the show might have made money.
c) Intuition- Intuition is an essence of decision making, it means the information acquired is
accessed and used as a basis of the decision making process. It is completely based upon the
implicit knowledge of the decision maker. NBC should have just used their past experience and
the available data with them to form a basis of the decision. It would have been logical as well
based upon their success in the past.
d) Evidence-based Management- Evidence-based practice in decision making means that a
good quality decision is based upon a combination of critical thinking and evidence available for
the alternatives. This means that sufficient evidence should have been collected to favour one
decision above another. If NBC had used available evidence and relevant data before making the
decision, they could have come up with a better plan and a more appropriate solution to the
problem. As seen in the case it can be seen the decision to change the show's format was’t based
upon any data or evidence. They might have come up with a better plan to cut the budget if the
decision was based upon relevant data and evidence.
