UGC NET Management Syllabus

(A link to updated syllabus of NET management has been given on the right side bar of this page.)

Code No. : 17

Subject : Management ( including Business Administration  Management / Marketing / Marketing Management / Industrial Relations and Personnel Management., etc ).

UGC NET Management Paper II & Paper III ( A ) [ Core Group ]

Unit – I 

• Managerial Economics – Demand Analysis
• Production Function
• Cost – Output Relations
• Market Structures
• Pricing Theories
• Advertising
• Macro – Economics
• National Income Concepts
• Infrastructure – Management and Policy
• Business Environment
• Capital Budgeting

Unit – II

• The concept and significance of organisational behaviour – Skills and Roles in an organisation – Classical, Neo – Classical and Modern Theories of Organisational Structure – Organisational Design – Understanding and Managing individual behaviour personality – Perception – Values – Attitudes – Learning – Motivation.
• Understanding and Managing Group Behaviour, Processes – Inter – personal and group dynamics – Communication – Leadership – Managing change – Managing conflicts.
• Organisational Development.

Unit – III

• Concepts and perspectives in HRM; HRM in changing environment.
• Human Resource Planning – Objectives, Process and Techniques.
• Job analysis – Job Description.
• Selecting Human Resources.
• Induction, Training and Development.
• Exit policy and Implications.
• Performance Appraisal and Evaluation.
• Potential Assessment.
• Job Evaluation.
• Wage Determination.
• Industrial Relations and Trade Unions.
• Dispute Resolution and Grievance Management.
• Labour Welfare and Social Security Measures.

Unit – IV

• Financial Management – Nature and Scope.
• Valuation Concepts and Valuation of Securities.
• Capital Budgeting Decisions – Risk Analysis.
• Capital Structure and Cost of Capital.
• Dividend Policy – Determinants.
• Long – Term and Short – Term Financing Instruments.
• Mergers and Acquisitions.

Unit – V

• Marketing Environment and Environment Scanning; Marketing Information Systems and Marketing Research; Understanding Consumer and Industrial Markets; Demand Measurement and Forecasting; Market Segmentation – Targeting and Positioning; Product Decisions, Product mix, Product Life Cycle; New Product Development; Branding and Packaging; Pricing Methods and Strategies.
• Promotion Decisions – Promotion mix; Advertising; Personal Selling; Channel Management; Vertical Marketing Systems; Evaluation and Control of Marketing Effort; Marketing of Services; Customer Relation Management;
• Uses of Internet as Marketing Medium – Other related issues like branding, market development, Advertising and retailing on the net.
• New issues in Marketing.

Unit – VI

• Role and Scope of Production Management; Facility Location; Layout Planning and Analysis; Production Planning and Control – Production Process Analysis; Demand Forecasting for Operations; Determinants of Product mix; Production Scheduling; Work measurement; Time and Motion Study; Statistical Quality Control.
• Role and Scope of Operations Research; Linear Programming; Sensitivity Analysis; Duality; Transportation Model; Inventory Control; Queuing Theory; Decision Theory; Markov Analysis; PERT / CPM.

Unit – VII

• Probability Theory; Probability distributions – Binomial, Poisson, Normal and Exponential; Correlation and Regression analysis; Sampling theory; Sampling distributions; Tests of Hypothesis; Large and small samples; t, z, f, Chi – square tests.
• Use of Computers in Managerial applications; Technology issues and Data processing in organizations; Information systems; MIS and Decision making; System analysis and design; Trends in Information Technology; Internet and Internet – based applications.

Unit – VIII

• Concept of Corporate Strategy; Components of Strategy Formulation; Ansoff’s Growth Vector; BCG Model; Porter’s Generic Strategies; Competitor Analysis; Strategic Dimensions and Group Mapping; Industry Analysis; Strategies in Industry Evolution, Fragmentation, Maturity, and decline.
• Competitive strategy and Corporate Strategy; Trans-nationalisation of World Economy; Managing Cultural Diversity; Global Entry Strategies; Globalisation of Financial System and Services; Managing International Business; Competitive Advantage of Nations; RTP and WTO.

Unit – IX

• Concepts – Types, Characteristics; Motivation; Competencies and its development; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Small business – Concepts Government policy for promotion of small and tiny enterprises; Process of Business Opportunity Identification;
• Detailed business plan preparation; Managing small enterprises; Planning for growth; Sickness in Small Enterprises; Rehabilitation of Sick Enterprises; Intrapreneurship (Organisational Entrepreneurship).

Unit – X

• Ethics and Management System; Ethical issues and Analysis in Management; Value based organisations; Personal framework for ethical choices;
• Ethical pressure on individual in organisations; Gender issues; Ecological consciousness; Environmental ethics; Social responsibilities of business; Corporate governance and ethics.

UGC NET Management Paper III ( B )

[ Electives ]

Elective – I

• Human Resource Management ( HRM ) – Significance; Objectives; Functions; A diagnostic model; External and Internal environment;
• Forces and Influences; Organizing HRM function.
• Recruitment and Selection – Sources of recruits; recruiting methods; Selection procedure; Selection tests; Placement and Follow-up.
• Performance Appraisal System – Importance and Objectives; Techniques of appraisal system; New trends in appraisal system.

• Development of Personnel – Objectives; Determining Needs; Methods of Training & Development programs; Evaluation.
• Career Planning and Development – Concept of career; Career planning and development methods.
• Compensation and Benefits – Job evaluation techniques; Wage and salary administration; Fringe Benefits; Human resource records and audit.
• Employee Discipline – importance; causes and forms; Disciplinary action; Domestic enquiry.
• Grievance Management – Importance; Process and Practices; Employee Welfare and Social Security Measures.
• Industrial Relations – Importance; Industrial conflicts; Causes; Dispute settlement machinery.
• Trade Unions – Importance of Unionism; Union leadership; National Trade Union Movement.
• Collective Bargaining – Concept; Process; Pre-requisites; New trends in collective bargaining.
• Industrial Democracy and Employee Participation – Need for industrial democracy; Pre – requisites for industrial democracy; Employee Participation – Objectives; Forms of Employee Participation.
• Future of Human Resource Management.

Elective – II

• Marketing – Concept; Nature and Scope; Marketing myopia; Marketing mix; Different environments and their influences on marketing; Understanding the customer and competition.
• Role and Relevance of Segmentation and Positioning; Static and Dynamic understanding of BCG Matrix and Product Life Cycle; Brands – Meaning and Role; Brand building strategies; Share increasing strategies.
• Pricing objectives; Pricing concepts; Pricing methods.
• Product – Basic and Augmented stages in New Product Developments
• Test Marketing Concepts.
• Promotion mix – Role and Relevance of advertising Sales promotion – media planning and management.
• Advertising – Planning, execution and evaluation.
• Different tools used in sales promotion and their specific advantages and limitations.
• Public Relations – Concept and Relevance.
• Distribution channel hierarchy; Role of each member in the channel; Analysis of business potential and evaluation of performance of the channel members.
• Wholesaling and Retailing – Different types and the strengths of each one; Emerging issues in different kinds of retailing in India.
• Marketing Research – Sources of Information; Data Collection; Basic Tools used in Data Analysis; Structuring a Research Report.
• Marketing to Organisations – Segmentation Models; Buyer behaviour models; Organisational, buying process.
• Consumer Behaviour theories and models and their specific relevance to marketing managers.
• Sales Function – Role of technology in automation of sales function Customer relationship management including the concept of ‘Relationship Marketing’.
• Use of internet as a medium of marketing; Managerial issues in reaching consumers / organisation through internet.
• Structuring and managing marketing organisations.
• Export Marketing – Indian and global context.

Elective – III

• Nature and Scope of Financial Management.
• Valuation Concepts – Risk and Return; Valuation of Securities; Pricing Theories – Capital asset pricing model and Arbitrage pricing theory – Understanding financial statements and analysis thereof.
• Capital budgeting decisions; Risk analysis in capital budgeting and Long – Term sources of finance.
• Capital Structure – Theories and Factors; Cost of capital.
• Dividend Policies – Theories and Determinants.
• Working Capital Management – Determinants and Financing; Cash management; Inventory management; Receivables management.
• Elements of Derivatives.
• Corporate risk management.
• Mergers and Acquisitions.
• International Financial Management.

Elective – IV

• India’s Foreign Trade and Policy; Export promotion policies; Trade agreements with other countries; Policy and performance of Export zones and Export – oriented units; Export incentives.
• International marketing logistics; International logistical structures; Export Documentation framework; Organization of shipping services; Chartering practices; Marine cargo insurance.
• International financial environment; Foreign exchange markets; Determination of exchange rates; Exchange risk measurement; International investment; International capital markets; International Credit Rating Agencies and Implications of their ratings.
• WTO and Multilateral trade agreements pertaining to trade in goods; trade in services and TRIPS; Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs); International Trade Blocks – NAFTA, ASEAN, SAARC, EU, WTO and Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
• Technology monitoring; Emerging Opportunities for Global Business.

Organisational Behaviour - Skills and Roles in an organisation

Management Skills

Skills are those mind tools with which a manager performs certain tasks. Different kind of skills are required to perform different tasks. According to Katz there are three essential basic skills which a manager needs to perform a task. These are as follow:

1. Technical Skills: Technical skills are the proficiency and knowledge required in an specific area like IT skills in the field of IT, Finance skills for finance work, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture for buildings, etc. Technical skills are more required at the execution level of a project for junior and middle management level.

2. Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal skills of a manager shows how he interacts with subordinates, peers, seniors, customers and business partners. Interpersonal skills are required at all the levels in an organisation. It helps a manager to understand, to motivate and to resole conflict if any in his team. It helps him to lead the team effectively by knowing every person of his team well, by taking maximum output from the strengths of his team member. It includes motivational skills, understanding other's perception and attitude, communication skills, negotiation skills, etc. These are normally called as soft skills.

3. Conceptual Skills: Conceptual skills are more required at the top management level as they are the people who are basically involved in giving direction to the organisation and big decision making. Conceptual skills are those skills which helps a manager to see the organisation in a big picture like impact of upcoming government policies in the related field, budding competition, expansion plans in a new territory, need of a marketing campaign, etc. It helps a manager to understand the relationship between various sub units and visualize how organisation fit into this broader environment.

Roles in an organisation

According to Mintzberg (1975) managers of all levels of hierarchy behave in the same way, carry into effect similar activities and therefore fulfill similar roles. He divided these activities into 10 roles and defines them as “organized set of behaviours”.
Further Stoner and Wankel (1997) grouped these 10 roles into 3 main roles as:

1. Interpersonal Roles: Interpersonal roles are concerned with creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships in work. These are:

a) Figurehead role: Manager represents organisation in all matters of formality, legality and socially to inside or outside the organisation. He is like a symbolic of the organisation.

b) Leader Role: Manager being a leader of the department sets goals, makes plan to reach the goal, motivates employees look after their needs and leads the team to achieve that goal.

c)  Liaison role: Manager interacts with people inside and outside the organisation to gain valuable information, to come into an agreement, to gain orders for the organisation.

2. Informational roles: These are concerned with  informational aspect of managerial work like receiving, collecting, and disseminating information. These are:

a) Monitor Role: Manager looks out for information regarding the organisation. He collects the information from inside (like information regarding problem areas of the organisation) as well as outside (information regarding competition, new technology, etc) the organisation through reports, magazines, etc.

b) Disseminator Role: Manager transmits the important information gathered from inside or outside the organisation to related organisational members. He may do this by holding informational meetings, sending reports or emails, making phone calls etc.

c) Spokesperson: Manager transmits organisation's information to outside like government, departments, public, media etc. This information may include organisation's annual reports, achievements, plans, policies, etc. They may do it by holding board meetings or advertising in newspapers, etc.

3. Decisional roles: These are related to making decisions. These are:

a) Entrepreneur: Manager analyses organisation's development opportunities and possibilities and bring about organic changes to grow the organisation and make it more profitable. He motivates employees to give their suggestions and achieve organisation's objectives.

b) Disturbance Handler: Manager takes corrective actions whenever any disturbance or crisis occurs inside or outside the organisation. Handles disputes among employees, among employees and business partners, and among business partners. Thus he plays the role of a rescuer.

c) Resources Allocator: Manager allocates the organisation's resources like people, money, infrastructure, etc so that it is optimally utilised and enhance its productivity. He approves plans, budgets and programmes, and set priorities.

d) Negotiator: Manager negotiates with the team, departments and organisations to defend business interests and gain advantage for his team, department and organisation.

The concept and significance of organisational behaviour

Definetion: According to Stephen P. Robbins, "Organisational behaviour (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness."

According to Aldag and Brief, " OB is a branch of social sciences that seeks to build theories that can be applied to predicting , understanding and controlling behaviour in a work organisation."

Organisational behaviour is the multidisciplinary approach which is an integration of different field of studies like psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political science.

OB studies human behaviour at individual level, group level and organisational level.

Basically, organisations are made up of peoples, therefore managers in the organisation must know how they behave in an organisation to make organisation productive.

Determinants of behaviour in an organisation are:

1. Individuals
2. Groups and
3. Structure

Elements of Organisational Behaviour

1. People: People make up the internal social system of the organisation. They consists of individuals and groups. Groups may be formal or informal.

2. Structure: Structures define the formal relationship between people in an organisation.

3. Technology: Technology consist of physical objects, activities and process, knowledge, etc through which people accomplish their tasks to achieve organisational objectives.

4. Environment: All organizations operate within an external environment. It is part of a larger system that contains thousand of other elements.This includes the suppliers, customers, competitors, governments’ agencies, employees, unions, political parties, and economic, political, cultural, technological and social factors in which the organization embedded.

Significance of Organisational Behaviour

OB is concerned with understanding, applying and controlling of behavioural and structural knowledge of an organisation for organisation's effectiveness. Management function includes Planning, organising, leading and controlling where people are involved in different roles (interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles) and different capacities. Therefore, for an organisation to succeed it is very important for it to understand its organisation's culture, people by way of understanding their perception, attitudes, motivation, personality, key personality characteristics relevant to workplace, learning, job satisfaction, etc through theories of motivation, learning, and reinforcement. And mould their dissatifaction to satisfaction, motivate them to achieve desired results, provide them appropriate work culture, growth opportunities, punish their inappropriate behaviour, and infusing learning environment and leadership.

Use of internet as medium of marketing

Use of internet as medium of marketing

Now a days internet has become an integral part of most of our lifestyle. “Achieving organizational or individual goals by satisfying target market’s needs and wants effectively by using internet as a medium is called internet marketing.”

Internet Marketing includes SEO and additional online marketing tools one can use to gain the attention of potential customers. Different kind of internet marketing techniques listed below work to reach more and more people on internet and drive interested people to the website and allow to compete more effectively.

Email Marketing 

It is the easy, effective and affordable way to keep customers attract and coming back to one site. This is a form of direct permission based relationship marketing, which uses E-mail as a means of communicating messages to the target audience. An email marketing campaign allows businesses to promote a new product, send information about an upcoming corporate event or share important news about their business, products and services using attractive email newsletter to stay in regular touch with them and build strong customer relationships. It is best way to keep in touch. It is easy to start and quick to see the result with real time reports

Interactive advertising

Use of banner ads, Flash presentations and other interactive media to elicit active participation from recipients. They promote products and services and educate prospects. If well crafted, interactive advertising allows to engage consumers in direct and personal ways. And, they enable a sophisticated dialogue between organization and prospects which may affect buying decisions.

Blog marketing

A blog is a regularly updated collection of content like blogger.com, wordpress.com, indianbloggers.com and blogs.hindustantimes.com. From a business marketing view, blogs offer many benefits. Blogs provide an easy way to introduce fresh, relevant content to the website on a regular basis.

It also provides real time genuine information to the information seekers. Fresh content attracts more attention from the search engines.

Social Media Marketing
Social Media such as Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Google+, etc are emerging as big markets. There are sponsored pages on facebook of different companies, groups and individuals. Facebook flash their ads on individual member’s profile according to their demography when the user click or like these pages facebook is paid and the individual’s information is accessible to the sponsor. Sponsors also run many contests and activities to gain attention or clicks.

Search Engine Optimization

It is the process of bringing business name on the first page of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. All of the Internet users use search engines as that is the primary method to find information/product or services online. Statistics Says: More than 8 out of 10 internet users look on search engines to find product or services they want to buy and 80% of searchers clicks on first page result on Google. So Search Engine Optimization is definitely worth the effort for all the websites those are serious about their business because customers are now looking online for service.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising

With this the keywords one believes prospects would type in the search bar when looking for similar products or services. For example, if one sell sofas, he would bid on the keyword "sofa", hoping a user would type those words in the search engine, see his ad, click it and buy. These ads are called sponsored links or sponsored ads and typically appear next to the natural (also known as “organic”) results on a search page. Money is paid for the ad only when the user clicks on it. Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are currently the largest PPC providers. 

Here are some reasons that give an insight about why most of the businesses are using internet as a medium of marketing:

1.  More Visibility- Digital marketing makes it quick and easy for prospective and existing customers to find business, Product or Services.

2.  Brand growth- With the rise in social media, customers can now connect with a brand on a personal level.

3.  Less turnaround time to implement- As compared to the other marketing techniques, internet marketing can be implemented in less turnaround time.

4.  Highly monitored and Measurable results - The success of a web campaign can be easily monitored or measured by the traffic generation, number of clicks etc.

5.  Focus on target consumers- Digital Marketers can design their online marketing techniques targeted towards their potential consumers(who can vary by age group, education, profession, sex, location etc).

6.  Cost Effective- Digital marketing is most cost effective media to market product, services or brand online.

Marketing - Understanding Customer

Customer is the central point of all marketing activities. Manufacturers are producing those products which are needed by the customers. As the consumer behaviour differ from person to person the manufacturer must understand it. Knowledge of the buying motives of consumers is essential for a marketer/manufacturer, because it is buying motives that prompt the buyer to purchase. These motives may be food and drink, fear, bargain, etc. Consumer behaves in a particular manner as directed by his inner motive. It is in the interest of the marketeer that he study and analyse the buying motives.

According to D. J. Durian, "Buying motives are influences or considerations which provide the impulse to buy, induce action or determine choice in the purchase of goods and services."

Classification of Buying motives:
1. Primary Buying Motives: These motives are necessary for human life. For example, food, clothes, house, social recognition, freedom from fear and dangers, comfort ant to attract opposite sex.
2. Secondary Buying Motives: These motives are the motives learnt by human being from the society. For example, to bargain, to earn the profits, to collect information, efficiency, convenience, style, reliability and prestige.

Various stages of Buying Motives or Decision Making Process in Buying:
A decision to buy a product is taken after passing through different stages. These stages differ form product to product. A decision to buy a product of daily use is taken with in a second but a decision to buy a durable product is taken after critical study of many factors. Generally, a buyer goes through following stages when he decides to buy a product:
1. Feeling of Unsatisfied Needs: A consumer is a social being. He feels many needs but finds himself unable to fulfill all these needs due to his limited resources. Therefore, he determines a order of preference for satisfying his needs. Determination of such order of preference is the first stage of buying process. A marketer tries to convey the uses of his products to the consumers through his advertisement programmes.
2. Identification of alternatives: Determination of preference order sets the needs of a consumer in an order and the consumer starts to fulfill his needs one by one. He determined the need to be satisfied first of all. Then he tries to identifies different alternatives available to study his need. He frames an opinion with regard to the size, brand, uses, and price, etc. of these alternatives.
3. Evaluation of these alternatives: Now merits and demerits off all the alternatives are evaluated. It helps the consumer in choosing the best possible alternative. After selecting the best alternative, the consumer proceeds to buy it.
4. Post purchase feeling: Buying process does not end with the purchase of product. It includes the feelings of consumers after they have purchased the products. At this stage, attempts are made to understand the extent to which the buyers feel themselves satisfied with their purchases. Such information is very useful for the marketer.

Different environments and their influences on marketing

Marketing Environment

An organization operates basically in three types of environments macro, micro and internal environment. These environments also affect the marketing activities of an organization and they have direct and indirect effect on these activities. Some of the element of these environments are controllable and some are non controllable for the organizations. A brief description of these environments and their effect on the firms are as follow:

The Macro Environment This environment can be studied in the form of PEST Analysis.

1. Political Environment: It includes how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labour law, law, trade, tariffs, and political stability. Furthermore, governments have great influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation.
2. Economical Environment: It includes economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy
3. Social Environment: It includes the cultural aspects, health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. Companies may change various marketing strategies to adapt to these social trends (such as offering innovative health insurance schemes).
4. Technological Environment: It includes technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change such as how to market products on internet effectively. Technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.

The Micro Environment These are internal factors close to the company that have a direct impact on the organization’s strategy. These factors include:

1. Customers: Marketing organizations survive on the basis of meeting the needs, wants and providing benefits to their customers.

2. Suppliers: Increase in raw material prices will have a knock on affect on the marketing mix strategy of an organization. Prices may be forced up as a result.

3. Shareholders: Satisfying shareholder needs may result in a change in tactics of marketing organization. Many internet companies who share prices rocketed in 1999 and early 2000 have seen the share price tumble as they face pressures from shareholders to turn in a profit.

4. Media: Consumer programmes with a wider and more direct audience can also have a very powerful and positive impact. It enforces organizations to change their marketing strategies.

5. Competitors: Marketing is all about differentiation. What benefit can the organization offer which is better than their competitors. Can they sustain this differentiation over a period of time from their competitors? Competitor analysis and monitoring is essential for an organization to maintain its position within the market. 

The Internal Environment It refers to the combination of elements inside the organization on which it has full control. These are as follow:

1. Employees: Employing the correct sales force and keeping it motivated is an essential part of the strategic planning process of a marketing organization. Training and development plays an essential role particular in service sector marketing in-order to gain a competitive edge.  This is clearly apparent in the airline industry.
2. Processes: Internal processes and procedures affect the product delivery, after sales services, customer satisfaction, etc. It is a very important aspect in services marketing.
3. Culture of the organization: It refers to whether the culture is supportive to marketing objectives of the organization?

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix principles (also known as the 4 p’s.) are used by business as tools to assist them in pursuing their objectives it was given by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The marketing mix principles are controllable variables, which have to be carefully managed and must meet the needs of the defined target group. Four P’s of marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Aim of marketing mix is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. A description of each is given below:

1.     Products: Products refers to the goods which are offered by the company to the customers. Decisions regarding products includes questions like

What should be the features of the product?

How it should look like?

How it should be branded and packaged?

What should be its quality? And the like

2.     Price: Price is the amount the customer pays for the product. Pricing decisions includes pricing policy, pricing objective and pricing strategy. It answers the question that what should be the best price of the product? taking into consideration firm’s objectives, competition, etc.

3.     Place: Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

4.     Promotion: Promotion refers to all the communication regarding the product to the customers. Different elements of promotion are Advertising, Personal Selling, publicity and sales promotion. There are various tools of promotion and company has to decide upon the best suitable way of promotion which can yield maximum returns or fulfill promotional objectives.