WEDNESDAY: 15 December 2021. Time Allowed: 3 hours.
Answer question one and any other four questions. Marks allocated to each question are shown at the end of the question.
QUESTION ONE
MAXCOM LTD. (ML)
Maxcom Ltd. is a prominent company in cement production and has been in business for over ten years controlling the market almost in a monopolistic way. The company has project managers in its six branches with each branch employing approximately eighty workers. The Chief Executive Officer of Maxcom Ltd. has twice been voted as the best performer in the corporate sector category in various award ceremonies. For managerial positions, the company recruits higher than average persons with formal training and who have experience in respective fields. It is also compulsory for new heads of department to be coached and mentored by other senior managers. The Chief Executive Officer of Maxcom Ltd. always encourages branch and departmental heads to embrace the firm’s culture of adopting transformative leadership approach in order to gain employee commitment. The company’s culture and ethical leadership practice is further emphasised during leadership trainings organised for managers and departmental heads during every financial year.
In the last one year, Maxcom Ltd. has faced unpredictable challenges where more firms have joined cement production hence reducing its market share. Due to this competitive pressure, the company has embraced the latest technology to try and reduce the cost of production and shift from labour intensive to capital intensive approach. As a consequence, the manpower in most of the company branches has been reduced, a process that is painful for managers and employees. The overall aim of restructuring is to maintain clarity and consistency in pursuing the company’s vision while still being competitive in a highly charged political environment.
Required:
1. Suggest five reasons why the leadership of Maxcom Ltd. (ML) seems to be spearheading the company in the right direction. (5 marks)
2. Discuss how the branch and departmental heads of ML could apply transformative leadership style to gain employee commitment. (10 marks)
3. In order to control the cost of production, ML shifted from labour intensive to capital intensive strategy.
Explain the costs that ML might have incurred during the restructuring process. (5 marks)
4. In most organisations, employees resist change especially when their jobs are at risk.
Examine five strategies that the management of ML could have adopted to overcome resistance to change. (10 marks)
5. Assess five ways in which the political environment under which ML was operating could have influenced leadership and management practices at ML. (10 marks)
(Total: 40 marks)
QUESTION TWO
1. With respect to foundations of management, differentiate between “scientific management approach” and “behavioural management approach”. (4 marks)
Explain six applications of the scientific management approach in the manufacturing sector today. (6 marks)
2. Describe five steps involved in decision making. (5 marks)
(Total: 15 marks)
QUESTION THREE
1. Good leadership entails continually renewing an organisation’s direction, structure and capabilities to serve the ever changing needs of external and internal customers.
With reference to the above statement, discuss the three stages in Kurt Lewin’s change model. (6 marks)
2. Examine four factors that a marketing team could consider while selecting an advertising media to use in an international market. (8 marks)
3. With reference to project closure, explain the term “project termination by integration”. (1 mark)
(Total: 15 marks)
QUESTION FOUR
1. Discuss the importance of leadership as a function of management. (7 marks)
2. Communication is an important tool in project management.
With reference to the above statement, explain four factors that may lead to the failure of a project. (8 marks)
(Total: 15 marks)
QUESTION FIVE
1. With reference to enterprise management, define the following terms:
Innovation. (1 mark)
Invention. (1 mark)
Creativity. (1 mark)
2. Analyse four arguments against management as a profession. (4 marks)
3. Discuss four approaches to ethical decision making. (8 marks)
(Total: 15 marks)
QUESTION SIX
1. Highlight five drawbacks of using a matrix structure in an organisation. (5 marks)
2. Suggest six ways in which “controlling function” and “planning function” are interrelated in an organisation. (6 marks)
3. Workforce diversity is a recent trend which in some instances is a legal requirement.
With reference to the above statement, explain four considerations to be done during staffing. (4 marks)
(Total: 15 marks)
QUESTION SEVEN
1. Explain five features of bureaucracy as advanced by Max Weber. (5 marks)
2. Assess five stages of the project life cycle model. (10 marks)
(Total: 15 marks)
