Take-Home Exam MGMT 2383.2A&B Winter 2020 General Exam Instructions: This exam is to be completed ON YOUR OWN. You may use the lecture slides and the course textbook as resources; these are the ONLY resources you should use. Similar to an in-class exam, you do not need to provide citations for your answers as I understand that you are drawing on our specific course resources. Please complete the exam in THIS document; add your answers after each question or subquestion. Save the completed exam as a .doc or .docx file with your A# included at the end (e.g., Take Home Exam 2020_A00000000) and submit it via dropbox on our course Brightspace page. Please make sure to use complete sentences (no bullet points) when responding to the questions. Before you submit your exam, please check back to the original document posted on Brightspace to ensure that you have not inadvertently deleted a question or component. The material being tested in this exam is that from Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 9 and the corresponding lecture content. All of your answers should draw on content from those chapters (and the relevant lecture slides). You must USE YOUR OWN WORDS when responding to the questions – do not lift wording from the textbook or slides. You must answer and explain using your own words. I will be evaluating the clarity of your thinking and logic, as well as the depth of your understanding of course content. For each answer, be sure to incorporate specific course content. I will not be deducting marks for grammar or spelling for this exam per se, however, I am looking for clarity, accuracy, relevance, and depth in your answers. If you need any exam questions clarified, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. If I have any clarifications that you should be aware of, I will post them on Brightspace. It is your responsibility to check Brightspace on a regular basis for updates. The exam questions start on the next page. The exam is marked out of a total of 38 marks. There are 5 Questions (most of which have subcomponents). Please answer ALL of the questions in the exam. The maximum page limit for your exam (including ALL of the text in the original posted exam including instructions) is 8 pages single spaced. Please use 12pt times new roman font and the original margins set in the document. 1 EXAM QUESTIONS Question #1 (11 marks total): Assume you have been hired as a consultant to help a local clothing retail company address issues of poor work attitudes and well-being in their customerservice employees. When you meet with the employees as a group to gather more information, you learn that the employees are not very satisfied with their jobs and many complain that they are emotionally exhausted at the end of each day, in part due to trying to help (often very unappreciative!) customers with their issues and requests. a. Using specific concepts and research findings related to emotional labour, explain why the employees may be feeling emotionally exhausted and dissatisfied in their jobs. Be sure to define the key concepts you use to answer this question. (4 marks) b. Provide an example (i.e., create a scenario) that outlines how emotional contagion may contribute to job dissatisfaction for these workers. (2 marks) c. What training or other recommendations might you provide to this organization to help them improve customer-service employees’ job satisfaction? Provide one concrete suggestion and make sure to tie the suggestion to specific course content (2 marks). d. Let’s say that the organization in question does not appear to be concerned that their employees are dissatisfied with their jobs. What evidence can you give them to convince them that they SHOULD care about (and try to improve) employee job satisfaction? (3 marks) 2 Question #2 (8 marks total): You meet a group of people one day at a local park and start chatting with them about their work. It turns out that they all work for the same insurance company. When you ask them about how long they have been with the company, many of them say “too long” and that they would leave but they need the money, there are few other jobs available right now, and the location is rather convenient. It seems most of the employees don’t really like the company all that much and don’t really feel that the company has done all that much for them (the company is just focused on profit!). The employees also tell you that they don’t see any real reason to work really hard in their jobs because their manager sets very high standards to get any real rewards (raises, promotions). Despite what the manager says, often times, rewards are just based on favoritism anyway (whomever the boss likes the most gets raises and promotions), so it does not even really matter how hard one works. In fact, you can work much harder and have more experience than your coworkers and end up being paid the same, so why bother! Indeed, many employees who realize this just work slower and put in less energy. The company also does not seem very open to the idea of letting employees work from home, even though the employees do not really need to be at the workplace to get their jobs done and they would prefer working from home at least part of the time. a. Would you say that these employees are committed to their organization? How do you know? Be sure to tie in specific course content. (2 marks) b. Use two specific motivation theories from Chapter 5 to highlight why motivation might be lacking in these employees (make sure to tie your discussion to the specific details in the scenario above). For each theory you discuss, provide a clear and concrete suggestion for how a manager might improve motivation according to the theory (and be sure to link the suggestion back to the theory). (6 marks total) 3 Question #3 (4 marks): Your best friend works as a manager at a local restaurant in your small town. Drawing on self-determination theory, provide concrete examples to highlight what external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation might look like in this specific job. HINT: you can use different tasks that might be required or completed in the job to help you highlight the different forms of motivation; be clear about how your example fits with the specific form of motivation. (4 marks) 4 Question #4 (11 marks total): Your good friend Meghan is thinking about leaving her job. When you ask her why, she says that she can’t handle working for her manager anymore. You ask her to describe how her manager acts and she tells you the following information. Her manager is often not around or available to answer questions. When the manager is around, they just point out the mistakes that Meghan makes but often only when there are really big problems (such as customers lodging complaints). Meghan is often left feeling confused about what is required of her in her job, and when she feels she’s done a good job at something, the manager never really tells her, nor rewards her (not even with a thank-you!). In fact, a lot of the time, her manager is downright mean to her – telling her she isn’t competent, lying to her and breaking promises. In any case, Meghan is going to look for work elsewhere. a. Use 3 specific leadership styles/theories from Chapter 9 to describe this manager’s approach/leadership style with Meghan. What statements in the description lead you to categorize the leader in the ways that you have? (6 marks) b. If you were to hire a new manager for this workplace, what leadership approach would you recommend they use and why? Would you select someone who already has the characteristics you want or would you train an employee to take on the role? Be sure to tie in concrete course content from Chapter 9 in your answer. (3 marks) c. Assume that the employees in this organization are culturally diverse. What would be important for the new leader to consider in terms of managing a diverse employee group? You can tie in content from chapters 4, 5, 6 and/or 9. (2 marks). 5 Question #5 (4 marks). Although research suggests that women’s representation in leadership roles is increasing, women are still quite under-represented in many organizations, especially in top leadership roles. Why might this be? Be sure to use specific course concepts and theories to explain what might be keeping women from obtaining top leadership roles and/or from being accepted in these roles once they are in them? (4 marks) 6
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