Chapter 7: Directing NCERT SOLUTION CLASS 12TH BUSINESS STUDIES| EDUGROWN NOTES

Short Answer Type Question:

Q.1 What is informal communication? 

ANSWER: Communication between employees who are not officially related to each other is called informal communication, this type of communication may flow in any direction thus it is also called ‘grapevine’. Informal communication involves the flow of information in all directions without regard for the level or authority of the sender. 

Informal communication arises from the need for employees to exchange ideas that cannot be done through formal channels. The informal communication spreads information rapidly and sometimes generates rumors.

Q.2 Which style of leadership does not believe in use of power unless it is absolutely essential? 

ANSWER: Laissez Faire, or free rein leadership does not believe in using power unless it is absolutely necessary. Subordinates are given complete decentralisation of authority under such leadership. Hence, the subordinates are given complete autonomy and are encouraged to make their own decisions.

Q.3 Which element in the communication process involves converting the message into words, symbols, gestures etc.?

ANSWER: Encoding is the step in the communication process that involves converting the message into words, symbols, gestures, and so on.

Q.4 The workers always try to show their inability when any new work is given to them. They are always unwilling to take up any kind of work. Due to sudden rise in demand a firm wants to meet excess orders. The supervisor is finding it difficult to cope up with the situation. State the element of directing that can help the supervisor in handling the problem

ANSWER: The element is motivation. 

Also, the firm can do the following to enhance workers motivation:

• Supervisor can provide monetary incentives like wages linked with productivity to motivate the employees.
• He can encourage the workers to work by making them understand that this work will lead to increased exposure to industry and will have better job prospects.
• Opportunity for effective leadership should be provided to employees so that they get motivated, and have a sense of responsibility.
  

Q.5 What are semantic barriers of communication? 

ANSWER: Semantics is a branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words and sentences. Semantic barriers are problems and impediments in the process of encoding and decoding messages into words or impressions. Typically, such barriers arise as a result of the use of incorrect words, erroneous translations, or differing interpretations. Some of the causes of semantic barriers are as follows.

1. Badly expressed message: The information may not be clearly expressed at times due to a lack of vocabulary or incorrect word usage.
2. Symbols with different meanings: A word may have more than one meaning at times, or two or more words may have the same pronunciation (such as idle and idol). The correct interpretation of the word remains ambiguous in such cases.
3. Faulty translations: In some cases, the proficiency of a language varies between workers and managers. In such cases, a translation of the information into a language that the workers can understand is required. However, some words or sentences may be misinterpreted during the translation process. For example, the meaning of certain words may change in a translation of an instruction from English to Hindi.
4. Technical jargon: When giving instructions, the senior or specialist may use technical terminology that the subordinates may find difficult to understand( such as the meaning of drawings for a commerce student and some either person is different).
5. Body language and gesture decoding: Every movement of the body conveys some meaning. The communicator’s body movement and gestures are extremely important in conveying the message. Communications may be misinterpreted if there is a mismatch between what is said and what is expressed through body movements. As in your face expression reveals anger, while your hand movements reveal otherwise.
6. Unclarified assumptions: Certain assumptions in some communications may be open to different interpretations.
   

Q.6 Explain the process of motivation with the help of a diagram. 

ANSWER: Motivating someone entails inducing and stimulating them to act in a certain way. The following points describe the motivational process.

1. Unsatisfied need: The motivation process begins with an individual’s unsatisfied need.
2. Tension: As the desire goes unsatisfied, frustration builds up in the individual’s mind.
3. Motives/Drives: Frustration motivates the individual to seek out alternatives to meet his needs.
4. Search Behaviour: He selects one of several options and begins acting in accordance with it.
5. Satisfied Needs: After a period of time, he evaluates whether or not his need has been met.
6. Reduced Tension: Once the need is met, the individual’s frustration and tension are relieved.

Example: Assume a person wishes to advance in his or her career. This makes him uneasy, and he begins to look for other ways to advance in his career. He may consider working harder and bettering his performance. After consistently working hard, he may receive recognition and a promotion, which will finally satisfy his desire and alleviate his frustration.

The process of motivation explains by the following diagram:

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Q.7 Explain the different networks of grapevine communication? 

ANSWER: Grapevine communication, also known as informal communication, is a communication that develops as a result of social interaction among employees and spreads without following the formal communication path. The types of grapevine communication networks are as follows.

1. Single Strand Network: In this network, information spreads from one person to the next person in a certain sequence. That is, one person communicates with another, who then communicates with yet another. Hence , information is passed through a line of persons.
2. Gossip Network: In a gossip network, one person spreads information to a large number of people. Such as gossip about the new employee who recently joined the organization etc.
3. Probability Network: In a probability network, an individual shares information with other people at random. That is, the individual is unconcerned about who he shares the information with.
4. Cluster Network: Information in this network is first shared between two people who trust each other. One of them then passes the information on to another, who then passes it on to another, and so the information spreads.
   

Q.8 Explain the three principles of directing? 

ANSWER: Management’s function of directing is quite complex. Certain principles have been developed to aid in the directing process. The principles of directing are as follows.

1. Maximum Individual Contribution: A manager should use directing techniques that encourage employees to perform to the best of their abilities, according to this principle. It should motivate employees to work toward the organization’s goals. That is, each individual should make the greatest possible contribution to the organization’s goals. Managers, for example, can use appropriate incentive and motivation techniques to encourage employees to perform better.
2. Appropriateness of Direction Technique: This principle states that the direction technique to be used should be appropriate. It should be appropriate for the employees’ needs and attitudes. For example, one employee may be motivated by praise, whereas another requires monetary compensation. As a result, the manager should employ appropriate directing techniques based on the situation.
3. Managerial Communication: Effective communication is essential for effective directing. The superior’s instructions and commands must be clear and easily understood by the subordinates. Furthermore, subordinates must be able to communicate with superiors without hesitation. They must be able to freely express their opinions and suggestions. As a result, effective two-way communication between the superior and the subordinates is required.
   

Q.9 In an organisation, one of the departmental manager is inflexible and once he takes a decision, he does not like to be contradicted. As a result, employees always feel they are under stress and they take least initiative and fear to express their opinions and problems before the manager. What is the problem in the way authority is being used by the manager? 

ANSWER: The manager is an autocratic leader.

An autocratic leader gives orders and expects others to obey them. The decision-making power is centralized. Due to the inflexibility of the leader, employees feel demotivated and discouraged due to the leader’s unwillingness to take their suggestions, and the productivity is also impacted due to demotivated employees.

To solve this issue, the manager needs to be a little flexible, and foster positive communication with its employees, as well as welcome suggestions from them.

Q.10 A reputed hostel, GyanPradan provides medical aid and free education to children of its employees. Which incentive is being highlighted here? State its category and name any two more incentives of the same category.

ANSWER: Gyan Pradhan has provided its employees with perquisites and fringe benefits such as free education for children and medical aid. This comes under Financial incentives.

Other financial incentives include:

• Bonus: An additional reward given in addition to the salary, such as gifts, a festival bonus, and so on.
• Retirement Benefits: Providing employees with retirement benefits such as pensions, gratuities, provident funds, and so on.
• Stock option: Providing employees with shares of the company at a lower price than the market price.
• Profit-Sharing: It is the practice of sharing a portion of a company’s profits with its employees (any two)
  

Long Answer Type Questions:

Q.1 Explain the principles of Directing.
ANSWER: Principles of Directing
(i) Maximum Individual Contribution
This principle emphasises that directing techniques must help every employee to contribute to his maximum potential in order to achieve the organisational goals. It should help in bringing out unused or dormant potential of an employee to improve the efficiency of the organisation, e.g., suitable and appropriate incentives should be given to encourage employees to improve their performance.
(ii) Harmony of Objectives Most of the time it happens that the organisational objectives and individual objectives move in opposite directions. The person in charge of a team of workers should guide and instruct his team in such a manner that they realise the importance of both the objectives.
(iii) Unity of Command This principle insists that a person in the organisation should receive instructions from one superior only. If instructions are received from more than one, it creates confusion, conflict and disorder in the organisation. Adherence to this principle ensures effective direction.
(iv) Appropriateness of Direction Technique According to this principle, appropriate motivational and leadership technique should be used while directing the people based on subordinate needs, capabilities, attitudes
etc, e.g., combination of both monetary and non-monetary incentives should be used to elicit the right response from the employees.
(v) Managerial Communication Directing should convey clear instructions to create total understanding to subordinates. Through proper feed back the manager should ensure that subordinate understands his instructions clearly.
(vi) Use of Informal Organisation Informal groups or organisations exist within every formal organisation and every manager should spot and make use of such organisations for effective directing
(vii) Leadership While directing the subordinates managers should exercise good leadership as it can influence the subordinates positively without causing dissatisfaction among them.
(viii) Follow Through Mere giving of an order is not sufficient. Managers should follow it up by reviewing continuously whether orders are being implemented accordingly or any problems are being faced by the subordinates.

Q.2 Explain the qualities of a good leader. Do the qualities alone ensure leadership success?
ANSWER: Some of the qualities required by all leaders are
(i) Physical Features
It is believed that good physical features attract people. Height, weight, health, appearance determine the physical personality of an individual.
(ii) Knowledge A good leader should have required knowledge and competence. Only such person can instruct subordinates correctly and influence them.
(iii) Integrity He should be a role model to other regarding the ethics and values. A leader should possess high level of integrity and honesty.
(iv) Initiative A good leader never waits for opportunities to come to his way rather he grabs the opportunity and use it to the advantage of organisation.
(v) Communication and Motivation Skills A leader should be a good communicator. He should have the capacity to explain his ideas and make the people to understand his ideas. He should also understand the needs of people and motivate them through satisfying their needs.
(vi) Self Confidence A high level of self confidence is very important for any leader. He should not loose his confidence even in most difficult times. A person who is not himself confident will never be successful in providing confidence to his followers.
(vii)Decisiveness Leader should be able to take decisions while managing the work. Once he is convinced about a fact, he should be firm and should not change opinions frequently.
(viii) Social Skills A leader should be sociable and friendly with his colleagues and followers. He should understand people and maintain good human relations with them.
Many times, the success of an organisation is attributed to the leader, but due credit is not given to the followers. Many followers related factors like their skills, knowledge, commitment, willingness to co-operate team spirit etc make a person an effective leader. It is said that followers make a person, a good leader by acceptance of leadership. Therefore both followers and leaders are playing an vital role in leadership process.

Q.3 Discuss Maslow’s need Hierarchy theory of motivation.
ANSWER: Maslow’s need Hierarchy Theory of Motivation Motivation is a psychological term and the needs of an employee plays an important role in motivation. In order to study motivation various researchers developed theories on them. Among them Abraham Maslow’s need Hierarchy theory is considered of worth. As per him, their exists a Hierarchy of five needs these are
(i) Basic Physiological Needs These needs are most basic in the hierarchy and corresponds to primary needs. Food, clothing shelter are a few examples of this type of need. Basic salary helps to fulfill these needs.

(ii) Safety/Security Needs When the basic needs satisfied, people start thinking of future. These needs provide security and protection from physical and emotional harm in coming future e.g., job security, pension plans etc.
(iii) Affiliation/Belonging Need These needs refer to human feeling of belongingness. We all as human beings look forward to being accepted in the society e.g., friendship.
(iv) Esteem Needs These include factors such as self-respect, autonomous status, attention. An individual wants a respect and recognition from others in this need.
(v) Self-actualisation Needs It is the highest level of need in the hierarchy. It refers to the drive to become what one is capable of becoming. The needs include growth self-fulfillment and achievement of goals etc.

Q.4 What are the common barriers to effective communication suggest measures to overcome them?
ANSWER: Common Barriers to Effective Communication Managers in all organisations face problems due to communication barriers. These barriers may prevent a communication or filter part of it or carry incorrect meaning due to which misunderstanding may be created. Therefore all managers should take some steps to overcome these barriers.
There are broadly four groups of barriers
(i) Semantic Barriers Semantic barriers are concerned with problems and obstructions in the process of encoding and decoding of message into words or impressions. Normally, such barriers result on account of use of wrong words, faulty translations, different interpretations etc. These are discussed below
(a) Badly Expressed Message Sometimes the message is not communicated correctly by the manager because of inadequate vocabulary, usage of wrong words, omission of needed words etc.
(b) Symbols with Different Meaning A word may have several meanings. Receiver has to perceive one such meaning for the word used by communicator.
(c) Faulty Translations Sometimes while translating if incorrect translation is done due to poor command over both the languages then meaning of the message changes. This leads to cause different meanings to the communications.
(d) Unclarified Assumptions Sometimes communication may have certain assumptions which are subject to different interpretations The one should always clear the meaning of what he is instructing the worker to do, so that the worker has no doubts in his mind.
(e) Technical Jargon Sometimes specialists may use technical words in their communication by which the receiver is not aware.
Therefore, they may not understand the complete conversation.
(f) Body Language and Gesture Decoding The body movement and body gestures plays an important role in conveying the message.
If there is no match between what is said and what is expressed in body movements, communications may be wrongly perceived.

(ii) Psychological Barriers
Emotional or psychological factors acts as barrier to communications e.g., a person who is worried cannot understand what is being told. Some of the psychological barriers are
(a) Premature Evaluation  Sometimes people evaluate the meaning of message before the sender completes his message. Such premature evaluation may be due to pre-conceived notions.
(b) Lack of Attention If the mind is pre-occupied then the result is non-listening of message by receiver act as a major psychological barrier.
(c) Lon by Transmission and Poor Retention When message passes through various levels, successive transmission of message results in loss of information. It happenes mostly with oral communication. Also people cannot retain the information for a long time if they are inattentive or not interested.
(d) Distrust If the communicator and communicatee do not believe on each other, they can not understand each others message in its original sense as they are not giving importance to the information exchanged.

(iii) Organisational Barriers The factors related to organisation structure, authority relationships, rules and regulations may sometimes act as barriers to effective communication some of these barriers are
(a) Organisational Policy If the organisational policy is not supportive to free flow of communication, it may hamper effectiveness of communications.
(b) Rules and Regulations Rigid rules and cumbersome procedures may be a hurdle to communication similarly, communication through prescribed channel may result in delays.
(c) Status Status of superior may create psychological distance between him and his subordinates. The people working at higher level may not allow his subordinates to express their feelings freely.
(d) Complex Organisational Structure In an organisation where there are number of managerial levels, communications gets delayed and distorted as number of filtering points are more.
(e) Organisational Facilities For smooth clear and timely communication proper facilities are required like frequent meetings suggestion box, internet connection, inter-com facility. Lack or ineffectiveness of these facilities may create communication problems.

(iv) Personal Barriers
The personal factors of both sender and receiver may exert influence on effective communication. Some of the personal barriers are
(a) Fear of Challenge to Authority If a superior feels that a particular communication may affect his authority negatively then he/she may not speak it out clearly and openly.
(b) Lack of Confidence of Superior on his Subordinate If superiors do not have confidence on their subordinates, they may not seek their advice or opinions.
(c) Unwillingness to Communicate Sometime subordinator may not be prepared to communicate with their superiors, if they think that it may adversely affect their interests.
(d) Lack of Proper Incentives If there is no reward for communication then employees may not be motivated to communication, e.g., if there is no reward or appreciation for a good suggestion, the subordinate may not be willing to offer useful suggestions again.
Some measures which can be adopted by organisations to improve communications are
(i) Clarify the Ideas Before Communication The entire message to be communicated should be studied in depth, analysed and stated in such a manner that it is clearly conveyed to subordinates. The message should be encoded in simple language which is understandable.
(ii) Communication According to the Needs of Receives All managers should be aware of the understanding level of his/her subordinates. He should adjust his communication and select the words according to the education and understanding levels of subordinates
(iii) Consult Others Before Communicating Before communicating anything, others who are linked with it in some way or the other should be taken into confidence for developing a better plan.
(iv) Beaware of Languages, Tone and Content of Message
The language used for communication should be understandable to the listener. The tone of the appropriate and the matter should not be offending to anyone.
(v) Convey Things of Help and Value to Listener
It is always better to know the interests of the people with whom you are communicating. If the message relates directly or indirectly to such interests and needs it certainly evokes response from communicatee.
(vi) Ensure Proper Feedback
The receiver of communication may be encouraged to respond to communication. The communication process may be improved by the feedback received to make it more responsive.
(vii) Follow up Communication
There should be a regular follow up and review on the instructions given to subordinates. Such follow up measures help in removing hurdles if any in implementing the instructions.
(viii) Be a Good Listener
Manager should be a good listener. Patient and attentive listening solves half of the problems. Managers should also give indications of their interest in listening to their subordinates

Q.5 Explain different financial and non-financial incentives used to motivate employees of a company.
ANSWER: Financial Incentives Financial incentives refer to incentives which are in direct monetary form or measurable in monetary term and serve to motivate people for better performance. The financial incentives used in organisations are listed below
(i) Pay and Allowances For every employee, salary is the basic monetary incentive. It includes basic pay, DA and other allowances. Salary system consists of regular increments in the pay every year and enhancement of allowances from time to time.
(ii) Productivity Linked Wage Incentives Several wage incentives aim at linking payment of wages to increase in productivity at individual or group level.
(iii) Profit Sharing Profit sharing is meant to provide a share to employees in the profits of the organisation. This serves to motivate the employees to improves their performance and contribute to increase in profits.
(v) Co-Partnership/Stock Option Under these incentives schemes, employees are offered company shares at a set price which is lower than market price. The allotment of shares creates a peeling of ownership to the employees and makes them to contribute more for the growth of the organisation.
(vi) Retirement Benefits Several retirement benefits such as provident fund, pension and gratuity provide financial security to employees after their retirement. This act as an incentive when they are in service in the organisation.
(vii) Perquisites
In many companies perquisites and fringe benefits are offered such as car allowance, housing, medical aid, and education etc over and above the salary. These measures help to provide motivation to the employees/managers.
Non-financial Incentives
Incentives which help in fulfilling our psychological, emotional and social needs are known as non-financial incentives. Some of the non-financial incentives are
(i) Status Status means ranking or high positions in the organisation. Whatever power position prestige an employee enjoys in the organisation are indicated by his status. Psychological, social and esteem needs of an individual are satisfied by status given to their job.
(ii) Organisational Climate This indicates the characteristics which describe an organisation and distinguish one from the other. Individual autonomy, reward orientation, consideration to employees, etc are some of the positive features of an organisation. If managers try and include more of these in an organisation helps to develop better organisational climate.
(iii) Career Advancement Opportunity Managers should provide opportunity to employees to improve their skills and be promoted to the higher level jobs appropriate skill development programmes and sound promotion policy will help employees to achieve promotions. Promotions have always worked as tonic and encourages employees to exhibit improved performance.
(iv) Job Enrichment Job enrichment is concerned with designing jobs that include greater variety of work contentment, require higher level of knowledge and skill, give workers more autonomy and responsibility and provide opportunity for personal growth and a meaningful work experience.
(v) Employee Recognition Programmes Recognition means acknowledgement with a show of appreciation. When such appreciation is given to the work performed by employees, they feel motivated to perform/work at higher level, e.g.,
(a) Congratulate the employee
(b) Displaying names of star performers
(c) Installing awards
(d) Distributing mementos
(vi) Job Security
Employees want their job to be secure. They want certain stability about future income and work so that they do not feel worried on these aspects and work with greater zeal. There is only one problem with this incentive i.e., when people feel that they are not likely to lose their jobs, they may become relaxed.
(vii) Employee Participation
It means involving employees in decision making of the issues related to them. In many companies, these programmes are in practice in the form of joint management committees, work committees canteen committees etc.
(viii) Employee Empowerment
Empowerment means giving more autonomy and powers to subordinates. Empowerment makes people feel that their jobs are important. This feeling contributes positively to the use of skills and talents in the job performance.