• Q.1 Read the situation well and answer the questions below it:

  Consider that you have recently joined a multinational organization. You spend the initial few weeks observing the culture of the organization. In this period, you observe that highly rigid and weak culture prevails in this company. For instance, employees never appreciate each other, always try to focus on individual tasks rather than teamwork, hide information, never trust each other and don’t show willingness to initiate things out of the box. You are hired as a Senior Manager Performance and Planning, you are responsible for the delegation of various tasks, therefore, observing the current behaviour of employees and the impact over their performance you look forward to bringing change in the attitudes and behaviours of employees so that openness in culture can be promoted which will eventually boost organizational success.

  1. What kind of leadership style would you implement to compel employees to be motivated as well as boost performance? What possible strategies will you develop? Justify in the context of the scenario only. (7.5 Marks, 500 words)
  1. What is power and how you can differ power and leadership? What power tactics would you apply to persuade people to work collaboratively? Discuss the similarities and differences among the five bases of power? (7.5 Marks, 500 words)

  (Students, who will be writing generic questions above will not be given marks, please contextually frame/write them.)

  Case Scenario

  Before Beenish left her job at Standard Chartered Bank,she was spending 13 hours a day working and commuting.She also had to be available via cell phone 24/7. Thelast straw came when she didn’t have time to wait withher school-age son at his bus stop for his pickup. Carol also hasan extreme job. She usually works more than 80 hours aweek for Ernst & Young and often has to travel to Afghanistanand Hong Kong.Beenish and Carol are not alone. Most young adults in Australia areworking more hours than ever, but one group in particularstands out: those with extreme jobs—people whospend more than half their time working and commutingto and from work. More than 1.7 million people considertheir jobs too extreme, according to a recent study.What accounts for the rise in extreme jobs? It’s notentirely clear, but the usual suspects of globalization,technology, and competitiveness are high on everyone’slists.As extreme as Beenishand Carol’s jobs may seem, educatedworkers in Australia may have it comparatively easy. Most surveys indicateextreme jobs are worse in developing counties.A 2006 Harvard Business Review study of managers in33 global companies indicated that compared to Australianmanagers, managers in developing countries were morethan twice as likely to have extreme jobs.For those who hold extreme jobs, personal life often takesa back seat. Forty-four percent take fewer than 10 vacationdays per year. Many individuals with extreme jobs see societychanging into a “winner takes all” mode, where thosewho are willing to go the extra mile will reap a disproportionateshare of the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.Why do people take extreme jobs (or allow their jobsto become extreme)? A 2006 study suggested that for bothmen and women, the number-one reason for workinglong, stressful hours is not pay. Rather, it’s the rush theyget from doing stimulating or challenging work. As oneAsian manager said, “Building this business in marketswhere no one has done anything like this before is enormouslyexciting. And important. We’ve built distributioncenters that are vital to China’s growth—they contributeto the overall prospects of our economy.”Although this sounds all good, the situation is morecomplicated when you ask holders of extreme jobs aboutwhat their jobs cost them. Among them, 66 percent of menand 77 percent of women say their job interferes with theirability to maintain a home. For those with extreme jobs whohave children, 65 percent of men and 33 percent of womensay it keeps them from having a relationship with their children.And 46 percent of male and female extreme job holderssay their jobs interfere with having a strong relationshipwith their spouse. Another,Kelvin Lim, was so concerned about being out oftouch with work during his honeymoon that he got a satellitephone. Even that didn’t help. He ended up cutting his10-day honeymoon to 5 days. “I had major anxiety,” he said.The problem of overwork has become so pronouncedin South Korea that many employers are forcing employeesto take time off and locking them out of their computersystems during scheduled vacation times. Managerscomplain that Korean workers have become comparativelyunproductive during their work hours, in part becausethey are so exhausted they cannot perform effectively.One authority on Korean society opines that employeesare worried that if they do not work extreme hours, theiremployers will see them as expendable.

  Q.1: We all know extreme jobs has risen over the period of times, are you sure that you think of having an extreme job ever? Explain your reasoning with valid grounds in no more than 300 words. (7.5 marks)

  Q.2: According to your view point, do you think organizations should encourage extreme jobs, discourage them, or completely leave them to an employee’s discretion? Write the answer in no more than 300 words. (7.5
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