USA: +1 725-224-8795 
Sign in
Need answers for below Discussion Questions
1. Which management function is considered to have primacy?
2. How might an engineering manager apply the insight gained from the Hawthrone studies to influence his/her subordinates?
3. Discuss the Strenghts and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods and note what determines which method is most appropriate.
4.Explain the difference between optimizing and sufficing in making decisions?
5. What elements fall under the function of organizing?
Expert Answer
Ans: Planning is considered as most important function of managent out of others like staffing,organising and co-ordinating. Planning is important because without planning nothing can be implemented. Planning at every stage along with supervision can produce high results and also attining goals due to its systematic step by step approach.
2.Ans: According to Hawthorne experiment an employee performance is closely dependent on how he/she is monitored. An employee’s behaviour is affected positively if they are being observed or monitored. An engineering manager can also apply this concept with his team. He/she can set up a process whereby their immediate subordinates are observed at work. One of the positive implication of Hawthorne experiment was an employee’s productivity goes up if he/she has a feeling that they are being heard. In a way if they feel they are also being part of decision making then employees feel more motivated. An engineering manager can apply these methods with his subordinates.
3.Ans: The goal of forecasting is to be produce a simulation of result that is close to future.The Qualitative method generally uses judgment of experts to generate a forecast. Advantage of this method is its predictive ability.This method uses intution and judgement to arrive at forecast which allows forecasters the fliexibility to use non numerical datasets. This method is also helpful when data is inadequate or ambiguous.
However this method comes with disadvantage of anchoring events and selective perception. For example a retailer may receive large volume of sales previous year which may not be the case with this year.
Quantitative method gives priority to numbers or numerics when it comes to forecasting. This method has the advantage of giving accurat prediction of future forecast as it relies on numbers. Due to its numeric simulation, this method comes with almost exact future forecast and in most scenarios this method hold true.
4.Ans: Optimising decision making approach uses all the costs associated while making a decision.It includes the cost of arricing at decision itself. This technique of decision making is mostly used in developing software solutions.
Sufficing is often used by people making decisions in their personal life. For example finding the cheapest model for car. It is a strategy that aims at selecting the best solution.
5.Ans: Organizing is the function of management that is follows after planning. Its a function that synchronises human, physical and financial resources. All the three elements are important to arrive at results.
