The document defines corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy. Corporate strategy refers to the grand plan created by a corporate headquarters to guide businesses under its control. Business strategy is the grand plan for a specific business unit. Functional strategy is the grand plan for individual business functions like operations, marketing, and HR. It also discusses behavioral science theory and systems theory in management. Behavioral science theory focuses on how human behavior and relationships impact productivity, as shown through the Hawthorne experiments. Systems theory views organizations as systems of interdependent parts that must be integrated by managers. Finally, it defines planning, explains its importance, and describes the BCG matrix. The BCG matrix analyzes business units based on their

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MBA101 - MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ASSIGNMENT
1. Define the terms ‘strategy’. Explain the following:
a) Corporate strategy
b) Business strategy
c) Functional strategy
Sol: Strategy: The grand plan which may pertain to the corporate, business or functional area
such as marketing. This is a way of achieving the vision and mission.
Strategy in organisations can be divided into three:
•Corporate strategy
•Business strategy
•Functional strategy
Corporate strategy
If you are a company like TATA or BIRLA, you will have several businesses under you and a
corporate headquarters which controls these. Each of these businesses may be run by an
independent company much like Tata Motors runs the vehicle business and Tata Consultancy
Service runs the IT business (they both are different companies). The corporate headquarters will
have grand plans on how each business should operate. For example, it might say that that Tata
Motors should design, develop, and manufacture an indigenous small car Nano or that TCS
should expand business to China.
This grand plan created by the corporate headquarters is called‘Corporate Strategy’. It lays down
the grand plan to be followed by each business under a corporate headquarters.
Business strategy
Every business, small or big, will have a business strategy. This is the grand plan for doing
business. If you were a TATA company, each business of TATA (say Tata Motors, Tata Iron and
Steel Company, Tata Hotels, etc) would have their own business strategy in consonance with the
corporate strategy.
Functional strategy
Once you have a business strategy, each independent department will need its own strategy. For
example, the HR of Tata Motors will need a strategy quite different from the HR of Tata
Consultancy Service (TCS). So, the operations, marketing, finance, HR, etc of each business will
make their own grand plan or strategy and this is called functional strategy. The grand plan made
by each functional area is called functional strategy. Usually organisations have operations
strategy, finance strategy, marketing strategy, and HR strategy. If you are large and well
diversified, you may have an information strategy, supply chain strategy, etc. also and this

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depends to some extend on the nature of your business. For example, if you are in retail chain
business like Big Bazaar, you may have a merchandise strategy (what products to sell) and supply
chain strategy (how to procure the products at the lowest cost and move them nationally) as
these are very important to business success.
2. Define the term ‘management’. Explain the Behavioral science theory and Systems theory.
Sol :
According to Harold Koontz, “Management is an art of getting things done through and with
people in formally organised groups. It is an art of creating an environment in which people can
perform as individuals and can co-operate towards the attainment of group goals”.
According to F.W. Taylor, “Management is an art of knowing what to do, when to do, and see
that it is done in the best and cheapest way”.
“Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which the
individuals working in groups efficiently employ resources and accomplish the selected goals
of self and the organization”. This definition brings to fore the following key issues of
management:
• It is about people and other resources
• There are goals but goals of the individual and the organisation has to be managed
• It involves creating an environment where people and resources interact to produce the
goals.
Behavioural science theory:
The thought was originated by Vilfredo Pareto in 1896, and he researched on organisation and
management relationship. Later, Hugo Munsterberg applied psychology to increase industrial
production in 1912 and around the same time, Walter Dill Scott applied psychology to
advertising, marketing, and personnel in 1910 and 1911. But it was Elton Mayo and F.J
Roethlisberger who made an impact on the behavioural science theory through their Hawthorne
experiments in Western Electric Company in 1933. These experiments proved that good working
relationship with the supervisor and colleagues and the idea of challenge in the job accounted
for higher productivity. Challenge is created through setting high goals which cannot be normally
achieved but which can be achieved with a little additional effort. These experiments brought to
fore the importance of behavioural scienceinmanagement. Extending the ideasometime in 1946
and 1947, Max Weber propounded the theory of bureaucracy.
Systems theory:
Though the systems theory can be traced to biology, where we have cardiovascular system,
nervous system, etc which are fairly independent yet interdependent, it was Chester Barnard
who extended this into management area through his writing ‘Functions of the Executive’ in
1938. In systems theory, we perceive that organisations have a number of fairly independent
systems such as purchase system, operations system, marketing system, financial system, etc.
The working of these are independent, but it has to be integrated by the manager. This theory,
perhaps, brings the idea of integration as a key component of management.

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3. Give the definition and importance of planning in an organisation and explain the Portfolio
Matrix or BCG Matrix.
Sol:
Planning is the process which enables one to select the purpose of the business, and how the
resources should be mustered to achieve that purpose to include using the available resources
optimally to do that.
Planning implies goal setting for the organisation keeping in mind the constraints, opportunities,
and threats as much as what the person or business which is planning wants to do. Thus, a plan
is a blueprint for goal achievement, a blue print that specifies the necessary resource allocations,
schedules, tasks, and other actions to achieve the purpose.
Planning is important for the following reasons:
• It helps the management to clarify, focus, and research their businesses or project's
development and prospects.
• It provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and
pursue business.
• It offers abenchmark againstwhich the actual performance canbe measured and reviewed.
• It plays a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognise hidden opportunities.
• In the business context, it guides the development of products, management, finances,and
most importantly, markets and competition.
• It helps in forecasting the future and makes the future visible to some extent.
• It bridges between where we are and where we want to go.
Portfolio matrix or BCG matrix
This matrix to aid planning and decision was developed by Boston Consulting Group and hence
the name BCG. A company enjoys market share in relation to other companies in the sector. (For
example, Sambhavi has a good market share in relation to other bakeries.) The industry itself
may be growing fastor slow. For example, with the nuclear familyand eating out habit increasing,
the growth of bakeries in India has been high. We can now create a matrix as (Fig 1) that explains
this relation.

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Fig. 1: BCG Matrix
The above matrix is used for deciding on the portfolio of products. Stars means that the business
growth is high and the company’s relative market share is strong. Stars can expand without much
worry like Sambhavi. Question mark on the other hand is strong business growth with weak
market share which means to grow or not to grow has some doubt or is a question mark. You can
take an expansion path or focus on stabilising your existing business. You are a cash cow when
the bakery business growth is low but your company market share is strong. This means you are
making a lot of money and you can keep doing it. When both are weak, then you are like a dog
(dog is a term that westerners use to indicate a pathetic condition). You cannot expand and
probably, it makes sense to sell off the business. This matrix gives you a general frame work to
plan and take a decision on expansion, contraction, stabilisation, etc.
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