Semester 2, 2016

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT 3000

TUTORIAL SET 1

Q1. Social loafing is described as the phenomenon that persons make less effort to achieve a
goal when they work in a group than when they work alone. This is one of the main
reasons that groups sometimes perform less than the combined performance of their
members working as individuals Read the following passage draw conclusions.

Social Loafing May be a Culturally-Bound Phenomenon

Is the social-loafing phenomenon universal? Preliminary evidence suggests not. Lets look at why the social-
loafing effect is probably consistent with highly individualistic society like United States and Australia and not
collectivist societies like Japan and China.
An individualistic culture is dominated by self-interest. Social loafing is likely to occur is such cultures
because it will maximise an individual's personal gain. But social loafing should not appear in collective societies
since individuals in such cultures are motivated by in-group goals rather than self-interest. Work group
members in countries like Japan will work to attain their group's goals regardless of the identifiability of their
inputs. That is, they view their actions as a component essential to the group's goal attainment.
As noted, the preliminary evidence confirms this logic. A comparison of managerial trainees from the
United States and China found that social loafing effect surfaced among the Americans but not the Chinese. The
Chinese did not demonstrate any social loafing effect and, in fact, appeared to actually perform better in a group
than working alone.
What this research suggests is that social loafing does not appear in all cultural settings. Predominantly
studied by American researchers, it seems to be most applicable to such highly individualistic countries as the
United States. As a result, the implications as Organisational Behaviour of this effect on work groups need to be
qualified to reflect cultural differences. In highly collectivistic societies, managers should feel comfortable in using groups
even if individual efforts cannot be readily identified. (Robbins, 2000)

a) How can social loafing affect the project outcomes?

b) How would you measure and manage social loafing?
c) Are there any economic consequences of social loafing in a company?
d) What is meant by the "sucker" effect?

Q2. Explain and give examples for the following business environments:

Placid-randomised
Placid-clustered
Disturbed-reactive
Turbulent-field

Q3. McGregor proposed that there were two types of managers also known as Theory X
managers and Theory Y managers.
a) Describe how a theory X type manager views his/her role.
b) List a minimum of five traits that a theory X type manager believes his/her staff
will exhibit.
c) Describe how a theory Y type manager views his/her staff.

d) List a minimum of five traits that a theory X type manager believes his/her staff
will exhibit.

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT 3000 -1- Tutorial 1

 Q4. Maslow proposed that motivation is the result of a person's attempt at fulfilling five basic
needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. According to Maslow,
these needs can create internal pressures that can influence a person's behaviours.

(a) Briefly describe what each of the five basic human needs are. What does the order of
the needs represent?
(b) As a manager in a position of authority describe what you would do in the work place
to address each of the five basic human needs.

Q5. List the advantages and disadvantages of an organization having a wide span of control as
opposed to a narrower span of control.

Q6. a) Explain what is the concept of Situational Leadership.

b) List and explain each of the four types of Situational Leadership styles.
c) Describe under what conditions a particular leadership style would be the most
effective to invoke.

Q7. Study IEEE codes of ethics. Discuss clauses 2, 3, 7, and 9 and draw conclusions from a
professional engineers point of view and organisations employing those engineers. Give
examples.

Q8. Refer to the IEEE code of ethics to identify which particular ethic is being tested.

How would you behave in the following situations:

Intellectual property After years of research and developing a product, you leave the
company and you want to make money from what you have developed.
Working with genetically modified crops.
The Department of defence wants you to help develop a new type of weapon of mass
destruction.
An electrical supplier invites you out to lunch and a game of golf prior to a tender
decision being made.
While working for a mining company you read a company report that indicates that the
level of pollution in the plant's waste water that it discharges, slightly exceeds the legal
limitations. However, there is little reason to believe that this excessive amount poses
any danger to people in the area, at worst it will endanger a small number of fish. On the
other hand, solving the problem will cost the plant more than $150,000.

Q9. Explain what is meant by the degree of "vertical", "horizontal" and "spatial" differentiation
when describing the complexity of an organisational structure.

Q10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the following type of organisational structures:

(a) Matrix Structure

(b) Hierarchical Structure

(c) Divisional Structure

(d) Projectised Structure
(e) Draw a typical representation of the four organisational structures listed above.

August, 2016
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT 3000 -2- Tutorial 1