Postgraduate and Mid-career Development Unit

Faculty of Management and Finance

University of Colombo
Master of Business Administration (2014/2016) Program (weekday) - Semester I (First-half)

MBA 531 - Organizational Behavior

Continuous Assessment I (Individual take-home assignment for 10 marks)

The assignment task:

This assignment is based on your theoretical and conceptual learning in the classroom and work
experience in the industry. What you are required to do is to write this assignment, focusing on
the following areas of concern:

introduce two colleagues/peers with whom you have been working/worked at your
workplace. The emphases should be on their job title, functional area of expertise, and
organizational context/industry in which all three of you have been working/worked

list resemblances and differences in their behavior as ordinary human beings and your
colleagues at the workplace

find out how their nuclear family background has shaped their behavior as ordinary
human beings

assume that you will be promoted shortly as their immediate superior. As the immediate
superior, how you would utilize your understanding of the differences in their behavior as
ordinary human beings and your direct reports at the workplace, within the context of
your role as their immediate superior.

Underlying rationale of the assignment:

In the classroom, you studied the human being, human behavior, and human behavior in
organizations as a prelude to learning in depth individual and team/group behavior in
organizations. Thus this assignment purports to assess whether you understand why people
behave differently and are capable of examining implications of these differences for your
imaginary leadership role.
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Submission instructions:

The deadline for the submission of your assignment to the Postgraduate and Mid-career
Development Unit is on or before 1600 h (Sri Lanka Standard Time) on December 10,
2014 (Wednesday)

The submission should be in the form of hard copy. Thus you are required to place your
signature on assignment submission list to be made available shortly in the Postgraduate
and Mid-career Development Unit

The submission should be approximately 500 words in length, using 1.5 line spaced.
Under no circumstances this length should exceed 510 words

The word count should clearly be printed within parentheses and in the end of the last
page

On top of the first page, you are requested to write your name, registration number, and
the date of submission. All pages (including the first page) should be numbered using
Hindu Arabic numerals. For instance 1, 2, 3 instead of i, ii, iii etc.

Ethical concerns:

You are required to observe tenaciously ethics of academic writing for scientific
communication, so you could avoid committing plagiarism. It is imperative you cite
references as and when needed. The mere reproduction of Internet-based literature is not
acceptable.

Assessment criteria:

This is an individual assignment

Total marks allotted is 10

Assignments that are submitted after December 10, 2014 will attract a penalty of one
mark for each working day it is overdue. Importantly, assignments submitted more than
five days (until 1600 h [Sri Lanka Standard Time] on December 15, 2014 [Monday]) late
will not be marked

If any graduate student requires more than five days to submit the assignment for a
reason acceptable to the Postgraduate and Mid-career Development Unit, then he or she

should make the request in writing to that effect in advance of December 10, 2014 and at
the MBA (weekday) Program Coordinator.
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November 24, 2014