Term Assignment for Principles of Management

Term Assignment for Principles of Management-

Instructions for Students: Your team of “consultants” is required to write a business report of at least 4000 words on the following topic: “Management Practices” in a company of your choice. Longer reports are acceptable; shorter reports will result in a poor grade.

Objective: The objective of this business report is to examine and document in some detail how the theory taught in the course is being applied in practice in a real-life business organization. 

Procedure: Choose any reasonably sized company/institution (except educational institutions) operating in Pakistan making any product or service, profit or non-profit, national or multinational, public or privately owned. Choose a company employing at least 100 employees. The target organization must have proper and formalized operating policies and practices.

Company Description: A short description about the company, its businesses, the markets in which it operates, the products it offers, its business partners, its geographic location, its branches, its owners, its industry, its competitors etc.

1. Planning

• Vision
• Mission
• Goals ( strategic goals vs. financial goals)
• Plans – strategic vs. operational, long term vs. short term, directional vs. specific, single use  vs. standing

2. Organizing

• Define the hierarchy from top to bottom in the form of structure – organogram
• Indicate number of employees and departments
• Which of the five forms of departmentalization they have implemented in the company?
• Discuss about the organizational structure – use the six elements to define the structure in the organization
• What type of organizational structure they are following in order to meet organizational goals – mechanistic vs. organic?
• How the structure has been aligned with the external environment? Is it really being responsive to the changing needs of the external market? Justify your answer according to the current situation

3. Leading

• What is the role of the leader(s) in order to retain motivated employees to achieve organizational goals?
• What motivational practices are applied within the organization in order to keep the employees energetic and dedicated at all times?
• What kinds of incentives/ bonus/ benefits they are giving to their employees on yearly/semiannual basis.
• Diversity – male/female ratio; cultures, religions and ethnicities they belong to?
• What kind of leadership style they are using – democratic, autocratic, laissez faire, etc.

1. Controlling

• What controlling processes are in place to ensure that goals are achieved consistently?
• How employees’ progress is monitored?
• What types of controls are in place – including financial and information controls?
• What benchmarking practices are being implemented?
• Other controlling procedures or mechanisms, if any?

For this report, please form teams of 4-5 students. Larger teams are strictly NOT ALLOWED. Smaller teams may be allowed only if some students are left out/withdraw from the course. Such teams must obtain prior approval from the faculty/Course Instructor; otherwise their report will earn an ‘F’ grade.

Team members are required to prepare a list of questions and obtain prior appointment with a responsible person(s) (preferably manager/senior manager/director level) in the target company in order to arrange an interview or interviews. You will most likely have to meet more than one person in the target company in order to collect data. Important instruction: please mention the name(s) of the person(s) interviewed and/or append their visiting cards, on the top sheet of your report. Visiting card is preferred. Name(s) and contact details of the person(s) interviewed must be provided on the top sheet otherwise the report will NOT be graded. These person(s) may be contacted for verification of your visit!