IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR MBA (O.U)-II SEMESTER-NEW SYLLABUS [2011]

Human Resource Management----Essay – 12 Marks

Unit – I

Define Human Resource Management (HRM). Briefly discuss the evolution, objectives, scope and functions of HRM.

Explain HRM typology, systems, strategy and HR matrix. What are integrated models of HRM?

Discuss the growing importance and role of HRM in today’s changing environment due to globalisation.

What are the competitive challenges influencing HRM – Human Resource information System (HRIS)? Discuss the competency framework for HR professionals.

Unit – II

Define and discuss the importance and role of Job analysis. What is systems exchange and job characteristics model? How analysis and mapping of workflow is performed?

What do you mean by job design and job evaluation? Discuss the Towers Perrin model of total reward.

What is the difference between recruitment and selection? Explain the process of selection, placement and orientation.

What are the objectives and benefits of employee training? Explain Kirkpatrick and pecuniary utility models of training

Unit – III

Give an overview of Human Resource Development (HRD) and HR Accounting. Briefly explain Lev and Schwartz, Flamholtz and Hermanson’s model of HR accounting.

Discuss the role and importance of career planning. What are different stages in career? Briefly explain Greenhaus career development model.

Explain the importance functions and types of psychological contract.

What is HR utility framework? Briefly discuss Markov Employee Transition.

Unit – IV

Discuss Dunlop’s I.R model and organogram. Briefly explain the role and significance of Quality of Work Life (QWL) and Quality Circle (QC) in HRM

Bring out the importance, advantages and disadvantages of worker’s participation in management. Explain the Bate’s wheel for employee brand.

Explain the importance of employee value proposition in HRM with suitable examples.

Unit – V

Bring out the importance of HR outsourcing in today’s globalised world. Briefly discuss various HR issues in mergers and acquisitions.

Write the importance and introduction of international, global, & strategic HRM.

Discuss the importance of paradox theory as lens of theorizing for sustainable HRM. Explain Paauwe’s paradox framework for sustainable HRM.

Short – 2 Marks

Line Vs Staff

Personnel management Vs HRM

Competency Building

Job enrichment Vs Job enlargement

Management Development Program

Performance appraisal Vs HR planning,

Gallagher HR estimator Vs Cohort Analysis

Job description Vs Job specification

Protean career

Absence management

Labour turnover Vs stability indices

Brad factor

HR six-sigma process

HR scorecard vs HR Index

HR outsourcing vs HR ROI

Sustainable HRM model

Emotional Intelligence

Employee branding Vs Employer branding

Competency mapping

Grievance management

Business Process Re-Engineering

Essay – 12 Marks

Unit – I

Define and discuss the importance of business process re-engineering. Explain BPR’s relationship with functional areas of business.

Briefly explain the history of re-engineering. Discuss the suggested re-engineering framework.

Explain the complex dynamic system of BPR. Discuss the interacting feedback loops and social constructs perspectives of BPR.

Unit – II

What is business process and flows? Discuss the significance of managing business process and flows.

What is cycle time analysis and capacity analysis? Discuss the management of cycle time and capacity.

What is Little’s law? How little’s law – the master of cycle time, can be used for capacity planning and determination of cycle time.

What is theory of constraint (TOC)? Explain in detail its significance in identifying constraints in achieving organisational goals through business process.

Unit – III

Discuss the framework of re-designing of business process by focusing on main and supporting processes.

Explain the rationale and key enablers of BPR. What is the role of technology for BPR?

What are the various models and methodologies of BPR implementation? Briefly explain the tools and techniques of BPR.

Unit – IV

What is the importance of involvement of top management, consultants and other people in making BPR effective? Explain how empowerment and autonomy helps in implementing BPR.

What is the I.T ‘black hole’? Discuss the use of process simulation to minimize the risk

Explain business process Map and simulation model. What are the simulation and key performance indicators?

Unit – V

What is the role of ERP in modeling business process? Explain the workflow management systems in BPR and steps of BPR.

Explain the five stage model of AS-IS/TO-BE analysis. How is business process managed?

What is business process maturity model? How is the business process performance measured?

Short – 2 Marks

Process owner

Deterministic machines

Strategic BPR or Business Architecture Modernization

Business process portal Vs Business process improvement

Process model Vs Activity model

Throughput rate

Cycle time reduction

Capacity

Critical success factor

Clean sheet

Cross functional teams

Facilitating

Virtual ingredient

Parameter analysis

Simulation

Autonomy

Process centric organisation

ERP

Business case

Managing Implementation

Note – kindly do not depend 100% on the short questions of this subject. As the subject is new i doubt the short questions might not match 100%

Financial Management

Essay – 12 Marks

Unit – I

1. Discuss the evolution, nature, scope, role and goals of finance function. Discuss its new role in contemporary scenario

2. Explain the relationship between wealth maximisation and risk return trade off.

3. Write a short note on the following

i) Maximising Vs Satisfying (school); ii) Profit Vs Wealth Maximisation; iii) Agency relationship and costs

4. What is time value of money? Explain its role and significance in finance with special focus on Future

Value and Present Value

One problem on risk return trade off can be asked

Unit – II

1. Bring out the importance of capital budgeting as an Investment Decision Process

2. Give your comments on the debate relating to NPV vs. IRR. Discuss the approaches for reconciliation

3. Discuss the process of capital budgeting decision under conditions of risk and uncertainty

4. What are the various methods of Risk Management?

One problem on Capital Budgeting is expected

Unit – III

Explain the various sources of finance and the financial instruments through which the finance can be raised.

Briefly discuss various theories of capital structure. Explain the concept and financial effects of leverages.

What is cost of capital? Discuss the concept of average cost of capital and marginal cost of capital. Discuss the measurement of cost of capital.

One problem on capital structure/leverages is expected

Unit – IV

Explain the concept and characteristics of Working Capital? Discuss the factors determining the working capital and how working capital requirement estimation?

Discuss the management and financing of current assets with special emphasis on Cash management, Receivables management, and Inventory management. What are the bank norms for short term bank finance?

Discuss the major dividend valuation theories centered on the works of Gordon, Walter and Lintner.

What is the difference between Dividend and Capital Structure? Discuss the major forms of dividends and the dividend policies of Indian companies

There are chances of two practical questions from this unit (no theory question can be asked) or one theory and one practical can be asked

Unit – V

Discuss the concept of Merger, Acquisitions and Takeovers. Explain the economic rationales (reasons) and motives for mergers.

Explain various approaches for valuation such as DCF approach and Comparable company approach.

What is corporate value based management? Briefly discuss Marakon approach and McKinsey approach

What is corporate governance, business ethics and corporate social responsibility? Discuss the principles of good Corporate Governance.

One problem on Merger and Acquisition can be expected

Short – 2 Marks

Finance officer

Stakeholders

Discounted Cash Flow method

Data for new projects

Sensitivity Analysis Vs Probability Tree Approach

Certainty Equivalents Vs Beta Coefficient

EBIT vs. EPS

Cash vs. Share Bonus

Accounts Payable Vs. Accounts receivable

Component cost Vs WACC

Risk adjusted discount rate

Project evaluation Vs Project implementation

Working capital policy

Cash Budget Vs. Receivable Policy

Capital Financing

Customer Credit

Conglomerate merger Vs Horizontal merger

Motives for merger

Hostile takeover Vs Bail out takeover

Corporate restructuring

Research for Marketing Decisions

ESSAY – 12 MARKS

Unit – I

Explain the nature, scope and significance of marketing research in detail. How marketing research is associated with error management, explain with suitable examples.

What is marketing information system? Discuss the need, importance and utilities of Marketing Decision Support System.

What is research design? Bring out difference among exploratory, causative, conclusive and experimental designs.

What errors are likely to occur while preparing a research design? What steps do you take to minimize these errors?

Unit – II

What are the sources and methodology of gathering marketing information? What are the errors that can occur while gathering data from respondents and how can you minimize them?

What are the advantages & disadvantages of primary & secondary data? Why is it important to the multiple sources of secondary data?

Discuss the concept of measurement and scaling in Marketing Research? Explain different types of scales such as nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales.

Briefly discuss Thurstone’s, Likert’s, Guttman’s, and semantic differential scales with suitable examples.

Explain different styles of questionnaire. What precautions are necessary to be taken in designing a good questionnaire?

Unit – III

What is decision theory? How decisions are made in uncertainty? Discuss the criteria of decision making

Discuss the cost and value of information. What is the process of determining EVPI? Discuss utility as a criteria of decision making

What is decision tree analysis? How decision tree helps in sequential decision making

One problem on calculation on EVPI can be expected

Unit – IV

What are parametric and Non-parametric tests? Explain different types of non-parametric tests.

Discuss the utility and importance of non parametric tests in Marketing Research? Briefly discuss

Briefly explain the Wilcoxon matched pairs test, Kolmogorov-Simronov D test and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

One problem compulsorily will be given on Non-Parametric tests

Unit – V

Why and when should a researcher prefer to use multi-variate analysis over uni-variate or bi-variate? Explain with relevant examples?

Bring out the difference between factor analysis and discriminate analysis. Explain how they are useful in Marketing Research with suitable example?

Explain the difference between cluster analysis and co-joint analysis? How cluster analysis is used in dividing a group of people in to cluster?

What are the elements to be kept in mind while preparing and presenting a research report? Bring out the difference between oral and written presentation.

Short – 2 Marks

1. Descriptive research

2. Panel

3. EMV vs. EOL

4. Reliability Vs Validity of scales

5. Construct validity Vs predictive validity

6. Decision making tool

7. Type I error Vs Type II error

8. Open ended Vs Close ended questionnaire

9. Run test

10. Brand switching and loyalty

11. Primary data Vs Secondary data

12 Pilot survey

13. Simulation

14. McNemar Vs Mann-Whitney test

15. multi-variant analysis Vs Uni-variant analysis

16. Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS)

17. Selection error

18. Sign Test

19. Rank correlation Vs Markov analysis

20. Sales forecasting

Operations Research

Essay – 12 Marks

Unit – I

Discuss briefly the origin, nature, definitions, managerial applications and limitations of Operations Research.

Discuss linear and non-linear, integer, goal and dynamic programming problems

What is the importance of mathematical model of Linear Programming? Explain the formulation and assumptions underlying LPP?

One problem on Graphical Method is expected

Unit – II

Discuss the importance of Simplex method in providing solutions to LPP problems. What is difference between maximisation and minimisation?

What is dual formulation? Distinguish between primal and dual. Discuss the solution of dual and economic interpretation of dual.

One problem or two problems on simplex method are expected

Unit – III

Discuss the importance and advantages associated with the transportation problem

What is Vogel’s approximation method? Explain its managerial application

Bring out the importance and managerial applications of Assignment and Travelling Salesman Problems. Explain briefly Hungarian model.

One problem of Transportation or Assignment or both can be expected

Unit – IV

Discuss the fundamentals of Network Analysis. What are its managerial applications? Discuss Fulkerson’s Rule in scheduling the activities.

Explain the importance, functions and determination of CPM. Explain the determination of ES & EF in the forward pass and LS & LF determined

Bring out the importance, application and functions of PERT. How is critical path calculated?

One problem on Networking is expected

Unit – V

Discuss the concept of queue/waiting line. Explain the general structure & operating characteristics of Queuing system?

Discuss the importance and utilities of Game Theory. Explain analytical method of solving two person zero sum game

Discuss the process of simulation. What are the applications of simulations to different management problems?

One problem on Queuing and one problem on Game theory can be expected, without any theory question

Short – 2 Marks

LPP

Optimality condition

Degeneracy

Sensitivity analysis

Unbalanced Transporting problem

Optimality Test

Unbalanced AP vs. Restricted AP

Northwest corner rule

Matrix method

Critical Path

Crashing

Time cost trade-off

Beta Distribution

Resource analysis vs. Resource allocation

Spanning Tree

Single channel Queuing model

Probabilistic queuing model

Dominance

Zero-sum game

Saddle Point

Operations Management

Essay – 12 Marks

Unit – I

1. What do you mean by production and operations management? Discuss the role of operations management in total management system.

2. What is operation system? Explain the interface between operations system and systems of other functional areas.

3. Define and discuss the importance of Production Planning and Control (PPC)? Explain the basic functions of PPC

4. What is Production Cycle? Briefly explain the characteristics of process technologies? Discuss the relationship between Product life cycle and Process life cycle

Unit – II

1. Discuss the importance and different types of plant layout

2. Define and discuss the importance of Plant location and the factors influencing location

3. What is scheduling and control of production? Discuss the various control procedures and devices

4. Explain the importance of Maintenance management. What is preventive and breakdown maintenance?

One problem on Sequencing and Total Elapsed Time (TET)

Unit – III

1. What do you mean by Quality? Discuss the nature and significance of statistical quality control

2. Bring out the differences between work study and methods study. Also explain their importance.

3. What is work measurement? Explain its uses and different methods

4. Distinguish between Works Study and methods study. What are the various techniques in the methods study for identifying the most appropriate method?

One problem on quality control i.e Control charts (X, R, C, P, NP) is expected

Unit – IV

1. Explain the need, use and importance of material management.

2. What do you mean by Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)? Explain the components of MRP

3. Discuss the implications of make or buy decision under various circumstances. How selection, evaluation and performance of supplier or vendor is done?

4. What is vendor rating? What are the determinants of vendor rating?

Unit – V

1. Discuss the objectives of stores management. What are the requirements for efficient stores mgt?

2. What do you mean by inventory control? Explain the various systems of inventory control.

3. What is value analysis? Discuss its importance in cost reduction

One problem on EOQ or ABC analysis

Short – 2 Marks

Manufacturing management

Process planning and process design

MPS

Scheduling vs Sequencing

Plant capacity or capacity planning

Line balancing

Quality Circle vs Quality Assurance

ISO certification & ISO 9000

Lead time vs. Time study

Control charts

Vendor rating

Bills of material (BOM)

Inventory status file

VED vs. FSND

Stores

Value engineering

Safety stock or buffer stock

Material budgeting

Waste Management

ABC analysis

Decision Support System

Essay – 12

Unit – I

Define Decision Support System (DSS). Discuss the evolution, need, and benefits of DSS

Explain decision making process and discuss types of decisions.

What is the framework for DSS and what are the different types of DSS? Explain DSS as information system

Unit – II

Define and explain the importance of DSS Architecture.

Explain in detail the software and hardware tools for DSS

Discuss the development and implementation of DSS

What is DSS model? Discuss the different types of DSS models

Unit – III

What are group decision support systems? Explain different types of group DSS

Define group decision making and discuss the problems with group.

Define and explain the various components of Executive Information System (EIS)?

Briefly explain how you would be making EIS work. Critically analyse the future of executive decision making and the EIS

Unit – IV

Define Artificial Intelligent. Bring out the differences between artificial intelligent and natural intelligence.

What is Expert System (ES) and what are its benefits? Explain structure, designing and building of ES.

Unit – V

What is data warehousing? Who uses it and why? Discuss various data warehouse concepts.

Explain in detail the characteristics, architecture, and implementation of data warehouse.

What is data mining? Discuss the online transaction processing techniques use to mining data.

Explain various data mining techniques. Write a note on limitations of data mining.

Short – 2 Marks

Subjective utility

Database structures

Client/server architecture

Data flow diagrams

Scalability

DSS hierarchy

Database management systems

SDLC approach

Prototyping

Fuzzy logic

Business logic vs. Business intelligence

Database structures

Groupware

Distributed group DSS

Distributed DSS technologies

Intelligent software agents

Data visualising

Communication-driven DSS

Heuristics

Start Schema

Note – kindly do not depend 100% on the short questions of this subject. As the subject is new i doubt the short question might not match 100%