Management Optional

Management Optional

MANAGEMENT

The candidate should make a study of the concept of development of Management as science and art drawing upon the contributions of leading thinkers of management and apply the concepts to the real life of government and business decision-making keeping in view the changes in the strategic and operative environment.

PAPER I

1. Managerial Function and Process : Concept and foundations of management, Evolution of Management Thoughts; Managerial Functions—Planning, Organizing, Controlling; Decision-making; Role of Manager, Managerial skills; Entrepreneurship; Management of innovation; Managing in a global environment, Flexible Systems Management; Social responsibility and managerial ethics; Process and customer orientation; Managerial processes on direct and indirect value chain.

2. Organisational Behaviour and Design : Conceptual model of organization behaviour; The individual processes—personality, values and attitude, perception, motivation, learning and reinforcement, work stress and stress management; The dynamics of Organization behaviour—power and politics, conflict and negotiation, leadership process and styles, communication; The Organizational Processes—decision-making, job design; Classical, Neoclassical and Contingency approaches to organizational design; Organizational theory and design— Organizational culture, managing cultural diversity, learning Organization; Organizational change and development; Knowledge Based Enterprise—systems and processes; Networked and virtual organizations.

3. Human Resource Management : HR challenges; HRM functions; The future challenges of HRM; Strategic Management of human resources; Human resource planning; Job analysis; Job evaluation, Recruitment and selection; Training and development; Promotion and transfer; Performance management; Compensation management and Benefits; Employee morale and productivity; Management of Organizational climate and Industrial relations; Human resources accounting and audit; Human resource information system; International human resource management.

4. Accounting for Managers : Financial accounting—concept, importance and scope, generally accepted accounting principles, preparation of financial statements with special reference to analysis of a balance sheet and measurement of business income, inventory valuation and depreciation, financial statement analysis, fund flow analysis, the statement of cash flows; Management accounting concept, need, importance and scope; Cost accounting—records and processes, cost ledger and control accounts, reconciliation and integration between financial and cost accounts; Overhead cost and control, Job and process costing, Budget and budgetary control, Performance budgeting, Zero-base budgeting, relevant costing and costing for decision-making, standard costing and variance analysis, marginal costing and absorption costing.

5. Financial Management : Goal of Finance Function. Concepts of value and return. Valuation of bonds and Shares; Management of working capital : Estimation and Financing; Management of cash, receivables, inventory and current liabilities; Cost of capital ; Capital budgeting; Financial and operating leverage; Design of capital structure: theories and practices; Shareholder value creation: dividend policy, corporate financial policy and strategy, management of corporate distress and restructuring strategy; Capital and money markets: institutions and instruments; Leasing hire purchase and venture capital; Regulation of capital market; Risk and return: portfolio theory; CAPM; APT; Financial derivatives: option, futures, swap; Recent reforms in financial sector.

6. Marketing Management : Concept, evolution and scope; Marketing strategy formulation and components of marketing plan; Segmenting and targeting the market; Positioning and differentiating the market offering; Analyzing competition; Analyzing consumer markets; Industrial buyer behaviour; Market research; Product strategy; Pricing strategies; Designing and managing Marketing channels; Integrated marketing communications; Building customer satisfaction, Value and retention; Services186 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA : EXTRAORDINARY [PART I—SEC. 1] and non-profit marketing; Ethics in marketing; Consumer protection; Internet marketing; Retail management; Customer relationship management; Concept of holistic marketing.

PAPER-II

1. Quantitative Techniques in Decision-making : Descriptive statistics—tabular, graphical and numerical methods, introduction to probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, inferential statistics-sampling distributions, central limit theorem, hypothesis testing for differences between means and proportions, inference about population variances, Chisquare and ANOVA, simple correlation and regression, time series and forecasting, decision theory, index numbers; Linear programming— problem formulation, simplex method and graphical solution, sensitivity analysis.

2. Production and Operations Management : Fundamentals of operations management; Organizing for production; Aggregate production planning, capacity planning, plant design: process planning, plant size and scale of operations, Management of facilities; Line balancing; Equipment replacement and maintenance; Production control; Supply, chain management—vendor evaluation and audit; Quality management; Statistical process control, Six Sigma; Flexibility and agility in manufacturing systems; World class manufacturing; Project management concepts, R&D management, Management of service operations; Role and importance of materials management, value analysis, make or buy decision; Inventory control, MRP; Waste management.

3. Management Information System : Conceptual foundations of information systems; Information theory; Information resource management; Types of information Systems; Systems Development—Overview of Systems and Design; System Development management life-cycle, Designing online and distributed environments; Implementation and control of project; Trends in information technology; Managing data resources—Organising data. DSS and RDBMS; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Expert systems, e-Business architecture, e-Governance; Information systems planning, Flexibility in information systems; User involvement; Evaluation of information systems.

4. Government Business Interface : State participation in business, Interaction between Government, Business and different Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India; Government’s policy with regard to Small Scale Industries; Government clearances for establishing a new enterprise; Public Distribution System; Government control over price and distribution; Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and The Role of Voluntary Organizations in protecting consumers’ rights; New Industrial Policy of the Government : liberalization, deregulation and privatisation; Indian planning system; Government policy concerning development of Backward areas/regions; The Responsibilities of the business as well as the Government to protect the environment; Corporate Governance; Cyber Laws.

5. Strategic Cost Management : Business policy as a field of study; Nature and scope of strategic management, Strategic intent, vision, objectives and policies; Process of strategic planning and Implementation; Environmental analysis and internal analysis; SWOT analysis; Tools and techniques for strategic analysis—Impact matrix: The experience curve, BCG matrix, GEC mode, Industry analysis, Concept of value chain; Strategic profile of a firm; Framework for analysing competition; Competitive advantage of a firm; Generic competitive strategies; Growth strategies— expansion, integration and diversification; Concept of core competence, Strategic flexibility; Reinventing strategy; Strategy and structure; chief Executive and Board; turnaround management; Management of strategic change; Strategic alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions; Strategy and corporate evolution in the Indian context.

6. International Business : International Business Environment : Changing composition of trade in goods and services; India’s Foreign Trade: Policy and trends; Financing of International trade; Regional Economic Cooperation; FTAs; Internationalisation of service firms; International production; Operation Management in International companies; International Taxation; Global competitiveness and technological developments; Global E-Business; Designing global organisational structure and control; Multicultural management; Global business strategy; Global marketing strategies; Export Management; Export-Import procedures; Joint Ventures; Foreign Investment: Foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment; Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions; Foreign Exchange Risk Exposure Management; World Financial Markets and International Banking; External Debt Management; Country Risk Analysis.

Management is one of the safe optional subjects. Every year the successful candidates are from management optional students. There are candidates who opt for this and come out to be successful. Even most of the traits like leadership skills, decision making, and quick response to emergency situations, conflict resolution are those found in B school graduates. And these can be well-founded in candidates of management subject. But before opting for it you need to evaluate its advantages and disadvantages and choose accordingly. This needed so that in the exam you can keep pace with your strengths and work upon the drawbacks. Here are a few strategies which can be followed during the preparation:

1. The greatest advantage is that questions asked in management are straight forward. This helps to save time because you don’t need to devote much time on thinking about answer. You can straightaway write the answer since questions are more direct. Also to tackle such direct questions try to understand the basics. If your concepts are clear and you are well acquainted with the questions then you can definitely attempt them in whatever way they are asked.

2. The next step to get through with the syllabus. Make a list of the topics that are part of the syllabus. Accordingly, divide these topics into those at which you are really good and don’t need much attention. Then make another list of topics at which you are not so good and require practice. After this start paying more attention to these topics since you lack understanding about them. In this way, you will be able to cover the entire syllabus in a systematic manner. Hence everything will be covered without any hassle.  

3. Due to this try to practice as many questions as much as you can. It’s true that practice makes a man perfect. In the same the more you practice the better grip you will have over the subject. Once you have developed a command on the subject then you can easily answer any kind of question how much twisted it might be. Practicing questions enriches your answer writing ability and fasten up your writing speed. Also, practice plays a vital role in management because there might be some concepts that you have missed but while practicing new questions you may identify such uncovered concepts and can study accordingly. This makes you prepare for the worst and in final exam you will be able to deal such questions easily without wasting any time.

4. After completing the syllabus it is important to revise the concepts. It plays a vital role during preparation. If you don’t revise then you might forget many concepts. This makes the entire practice futile and hence you again have to start from scratch. So in order to avoid this situation do revision after every week. Even you can set targets for a weekly revision and then a monthly revision and so on. In this way, you can revise the entire syllabus in a planned way. This in turn will be a fruitful exercise and will give better results. Also if you will revise according to this plan then all the necessary concepts will be retained for a longer time. This will help while answering the questions in the final exam.

5. Also, you will encounter less competition than other optional subjects like public administration, geography, etc. This is one of the biggest advantages and hence helpful. But still, prepare with the same zeal and enthusiasm to ace the exam. It is because the result will depend on how well you score in the exam. Less competition in this optional indirectly means that paper will be of easy to moderate level.

6. Management is more like a logical subject which needs practical application of concepts. Unlike humanities subject, it doesn’t require mugging up of facts. It is a practical subject. So if your concepts are clear then you can easily answer the questions. Therefore build a conceptual clarity about all topics. This will help you to answer all kinds of questions. You only need the practical application of the concepts and all questions will be solved easily. You don’t need interpretations like history, geography, etc.

7. In addition to this preparation becomes easy if you are a candidate with commerce and management background. It will be an added advantage for these candidates because their foundation is strong from the beginning but non-commerce candidates need not be afraid. They too can score well by practice and solving questions on a daily basis.

8. Other than this the syllabus of management is mostly static. So linking it with current affairs is not needed. But prepare well the entire static portion and master every topic so that no topic is left and you can easily answer all kinds of questions asked in the final exam. Also, the syllabus is limited so try to cover every topic in-depth in order to get knowledge of everything.

9. Try to refer to standard books for management. This will help in clearing concepts. Candidates may refer to a variety of books but make sure to narrow down the choice to few. It is because at the time of the exam you cannot open so many thick books at the same time. Thus it's better to choose a few and stick to them till the end. Many standard books are available in the market including the study material. This will definitely add as an advantage in your preparation.

10.       Another key important strategy is time management. Exam question paper is lengthy and hence requires a lot of effort to complete on time. The only option left in order to cover the syllabus on time is to solve as much mock paper as much you can. They will help you in preparing as simultaneously to the real-time paper. So that when you will give the final exam then you can easily match your speed. Also, you will be able to identify where you are lacking and accordingly you can work upon your mistakes.