1. Mr. Agyapong, CEO of DDD Ltd is a very powerful man. He controls all the affairs of the company and makes all the decisions. Every major decision must pass through his table. He is the sole signatory to the company's account and can hire and fire anybody at any time of his choice. The daily operations of the company are at his whims and caprices. Due to this, all the staff are working hard to be on his good side and taste part of his power. Mary has decided to take Mr. Agyapong's bag every morning when he arrives at work and ensures that she greets him every day. In fact, she has been sending him morning motivational messages and interestingly, in recent times, he has been responding and asking of her. Gloria is a much matured lady who has worked in the company for several years. One of the longest serving staff. Most of her contributions at meetings are cogent, thought provoking and forward looking. Mr. Agyapong has constantly implemented her suggestions and they have always worked. Due to that, he respects her and treats her relatively better. Johnson's mother lives in the village and brings Mr. Agyapong bush meat every month. For the past six months, she adds vegetables and other foodstuff. Mr. Agyapong loves these gifts from Johnson's mother and due to that, his exercise of his authority over Johnson is measured. Kudjo is the son of the Board Chairman who is one of the shareholders of the company. He is the only staff in the company Mr. Agyapong seems to be scared of. Using your understanding of power tactics, which of them do you think Mary, Gloria, Johnson and Kudjo used to have some level of influence on Mr. Agyapong? b. At one meeting, Mr. Agyapong threatened to fire Gloria and Kudjo out of anger and walked them out. The two have petitioned the Board for the removal of Mr. Agyapong as the Manager and 70% of the staff have signed the petition. Mr. Agyapong is now ready to reconcile and solve this conflict. Which four (4) conflict resolution strategies will you recommend to Mr. Agyapong? c. At the meeting with the staff, which type of value will you recommend to Mr. Agyapong to apply in his attempt to solve the problem? Question 2 a) Most part of a manager's job is making decisions and, in most cases, decisions are based on perceptions we have about people, things and targets. Wrong perceptions mostly will lead to wrong judgments. As part of the management training to qualify to lead one of the branches of the organization, you are to identify and explain the various errors of judgment the managers in the under listed statement made and discuss what decision you would have made. i. Mary is making a strong case for Martha that she can execute the contract because she completed AIT (using herself as an example to show how she expertly executed her contract as an old student of AIT) ii. The manager is giving special attention and respect to the new recruits and disregarding the efforts of the existing workers. iii. In his final advice to the new boss, the outgoing CEO admonished him not to involve employees in his decision making since they will plant discourse. To him, he became successful because of that strategy. iv. It has emerged that most of the workers voted for the labor union leader because of his eloquence. v. When sales were more than double last year, the marketing manager bragged about his marketing skills and taking all the credits. This year, sales have reduced more than 50% and he is blaming the economy. b. Identify and explain the type of learning adopted by the people in the statements below. Note that you need to identify the type of learning, explain it and apply it to the case justifying why you think the people adopted such learning method i. 'Once bitten, twice shy' they say. Mary's favorite statement in the office ii. The most hardworking staff has been sent to UK for further studies. This decision by the management has improved performance of many staff iii. John is determined to do his Master's this year iv. Do you know Mary has never spoken about any staff again after she was reported to the Manager last year for doing so? v. Hilda is determined to take over from Thess. She is learning everything she is doing. c) Why should a manager encourage formation of groups in an organization? Question 3 The Rusia and Ukraine war is having a great impact on all economies in the world. ABC company has been struggling for the past five years and surviving on a thread. You were appointed the new CEO in December 2021 to salvage the organization. Unfortunately, you are now faced with this new economic hardships from the war which is increasing all prices of goods and services. a) Using your understanding of the challenges and opportunities a manager of a contemporary business can face, advise the new CEO on how to use each of them to his advantage. b. Scanning through the challenges you have identified in (a) above, examine five organizational stress the manager will go through in his attempt to save the company c. For each of the five sources of stress you have identified in (b) above, suggest stress management technique for them Question 4 a. Johnson was introduced as the new CEO of JB Company Limited a month ago. Last Friday, he held his first meeting with all the staff of the company. At the meeting, he announced several decisions made by the management led by him. Below are six decisions taken by the management which have taken immediate effect: 1. Salaries for the five new staff employed last month have been increased by 20% but salaries for old staff remain unchanged. 2. Since the company is located at the Ashanti Region, Akosua Agyapong has been appointed the new Chief Operation Officer because she is an Ashanti 3. The company was founded on Christian principles and for that matter, all Muslims are banned from leaving work to go and pray. 4. Mary won the beauty pageant organized by the company last year and for that reason she has been appointed as the brand ambassador of the company even though she has no knowledge about marketing and branding. 5. The CEO had a personal principle of getting to work not later than 8am. Due to that the reporting time for everyone has changed from 8:30am to 8:00am. 6. The use of typewriters in the company is banned forever 7. Most of the competitors have abolished allowances. Therefore, all forms of allowances are abolished with immediate effect. After the meeting, several workers are angered by some of the decisions made by the new CEO. The Muslims have vowed to challenge the decision of not allowing them to pray since it is their religious right. Mr. Aboagye, who is eyeing the Chief Operating Officer position in Kumasi is challenging the appointment of Akosua. The Head of the typing department is upset as he feels that his relevance is threatened by the change if implemented. The decision that has faced the worst resistance is the decision to change reporting time from 8:30am to 8:00am due to the new CEO's personal principles. More than 70% of the staff have vowed to resist the changes that have been introduced. The worst part of it is that, he communicated to the staff on their social media group with some two lines, encoded the information in a very ambiguous form, listened to advise from some few Senior Staff to inform his decision and seemed to have threatened the staff. Using your understanding of reasons why staff resist change, explain why Mr. Aboagye, the Muslims, the Head of typing department and the 70% of the staff are resisting the changes introduced by the new CEO. b. For each of the identified reason in (a) above, suggest to the CEO how he can overcome the resistance. c. What barriers to communication did the CEO exhibit in his poor communication? Question 5 a) ABC Ltd, producer of Fruit Juice for export has recently expanded and grown into a huge company in Ghana. It currently has 500 workers with the following breakdown: 200 in operations 20 in finance 50 in marketing 100 in manufacturing 30 in transport 60 packaging and 40 in cleaning The company also has 50 Supervisors, 20 Managers and 10 Senior Managers. Unfortunately, the company is still not well structured to effectively manage the large number of staff and other resources. Mr. Akoto has been appointed the new CEO and has decided to structure the organization properly. He has consulted you as an expert to help him with the structuring. Use four (4) of the elements of organizational structure and discuss how each will be applied in the structuring process looking at the demography of the staff the company has. b. Select five of the characteristics of organizational culture and discuss how it can be used to the benefit of the organization looking at its demography as detailed in (a) above. a. What organizational design will you recommend for the company considering its size? Justify your answer. Question 6 a. John Bosco is the Operations Manager of Glory Oil Limited. He is one of the most experienced and skillful workers of the company. In recent times, he has had some misunderstanding with the General Manager and this has negatively affected his output. He does not care about the job and does not work hard anymore. His subordinates, who do not have the skills to perform the tasks have also joined John Bosco. Coming to work late, gossiping in the office and closing early. All attempts to help them improve their skills have failed as they are not willing to improve. Ten new staff on national service have joined the company. They are fresh, energetic and very much ready to give their best. However, John Bosco has refused to train them and this has affected their performance. Mr. Mensah, a loyalist of the General Manager and has similar knowledge, experience and competence like John Bosco is still around and ready to do anything to help the General Manager succeed. Productivity of the company has dropped significantly and the Board is considering taking drastic measures to save the company including possible dismissal of the General Manager. To save his job, the General Manager has run to you help him decide the type of leadership style he should adopt to encourage the staff to work hard. Using the Hersey and Blanchard's contingency theory, which of them will you apply to encourage John Bosco, his subordinates, the national service staff and Mr. Mensah to work hard. b. Examine the behaviors of John Bosco and Mr. Mensah, which motivational theory will you apply to motivate them? Justify your answer c. John Bosco and Mr. Mensah have similar experience, background and qualification. Why are they behaving differently? Justify your answer using your understanding of the factors that determine personality