A shift from a hand-made to men-made...

Imagine the era of 90’s, plethora of handmade articles could be identified all around us. Nevertheless, it was the expertise of only one person which was involved in the process of stitching the raw material to the final delivery at your doorstep! The decade had seen a prolonged increase in the number and variety of those articles but the process has shifted a leap bound. From the single worker involved earlier, it is now a group of individuals that work together to achieve that sole objective. And here comes the concept of building organizations and it is a part of modern management.

The drift from the craftsmanship to modern management can be explained by the exercise of Tower Management. Special credits to Prof. Mandi who can go into the deep insights of these activities and get a management lesson for us else had it been a few months back, I could only see a tower problem as a complicated coding case.  Tower building exercise aims to create a highest stable tower from the wooden cubes piled on top of each other. What we had in our exercise was to bid and grab a chance for building the tower. A bid of Rs.500 made by a student gave him a chance to show his skill set and he made a tower of 16 cubes. Another instance of the same exercise called a group of 8 people to build the same tower. The only constraint was that the person building the tower was blindfolded and every other person can give directions to him. And the team of 8 could only make a tower as high as in the number they were.

Tower Building Activity by a group of people

Now here lies the essence in the goal setting process and the process adhered to achieve it. The goals should be effective and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).

Characteristics of Craftsmanship: "Doing what you Love and Doing It Right"

Ø  Only a single tower is achievable.

Ø  No parallel works.

Ø  High Dexterity is observed.  

Ø  Boss is the worker himself.

Ø  Higher skilled worker.

Characteristics of Modern Management:

Ø  Greater than 1 tower is achievable.

Ø  Parallel activities are performed.

Ø  Specialization at work.

Ø  Greater Inter-Dependency.

Ø  Boss is a non-worker.

Ø  Deskilling is observed.

Three E’s of Management:

Effectiveness can be explained in terms of what is achieved. It is about whether targets are met or not. Performing effectively means that the right work is being completed. Efficiency can be measured in terms of the inputs required to generate the outputs. It is about the way in which work is completed. Efficiency is “doing things right” and effectiveness is “doing the right thing”.

“More out of less for more is Excellence” – Dr. Mandi

The relationship between these three E’s can be establishes as:

Excellence = Effectiveness * Efficiency

Finally, the aim of any and every organization drills down to the level of achieving excellence till the lowest level of operations. I would end my learning with the following quote:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  - Aristotle

Decoding the Human Side of an Organisation

And here it was - the second class of Prof. Mandi! I was waiting eagerly for him to fathom us the new dimensions of management lessons. This time it all started with the type of managers we encounter at our organization. Sir classified the managers and the workers of an organization into two broad parts and represented them as: 

 On the basis of this, McGregor derive two Theories in management which represent two set of assumptions about human nature and human behaviour. On one hand, Theory X represents a negative view of human nature, it assumes that individuals generally dislike work, are irresponsible, and require close supervision to do their jobs. On the other hand, Theory Y represents a positive view of the human nature and assumes individuals are responsible and are self motivated to do their jobs. Managers who exhibit behaviour in accordance with Theory X have a managerial style quite different than managers who exhibit behaviour in accordance with Theory Y.

McGregor’s Representation of Theory X and Y

McGregor's Assumption about People Based on Theory X

     w  Naturally indolent      

w  Lack ambition, dislike responsibility, and prefer to be led    

w  Inherently self-centered and indifferent to organizational needs

w  Naturally resistant to change 

w  Gullible, not bright, ready dupes

McGregor's Assumption about People Based on Theory Y

w  Experiences in organizations result in passive and resistant behaviors; they are not inherent

w  Motivation, development potential, capacity for assuming responsibility, readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals are present in people      

w  Management’s task—arrange conditions and operational methods so people can achieve their own goals by directing efforts to organizational goals

My Analysis of Scenarios:  

      My Employees are lazy and I assume that they are lazy (Theory X)

I have encountered this situation in one of my departments at workplace where the BSc graduates were considered incompetent. The employees were also not motivated to work because of the mismatch between the nature of the job and their capabilities.

      My Employees are good and I assume that they are lazy (Theory X)

It is a dangerous situation, where employees are self-motivated but the manager thinks them to be incompetent. As a result, it might be possible that the employees get de-motivated.

My Employees are lazy and I assume that they are good (Theory Y)

This situation is a model situation where the employees are not motivated but the manager thinks that the employees are very competent. As a result, the manager is able to motivate the employees as he believes in them. The employees also start performing since the manager expects them to perform.

My Employees are good and I assume that they are good (Theory Y)

I have encountered this situation at my workplace where my manager believes in his team and employees are self-motivated to perform their job. This situation is perfect one where the employees are able perform to their potentials and their effort are equally appreciated.

This was all about the implications and details of theory X and Y.I leave with you a video explaining the above theories more vividly. Keep looking for the details of craftsmanship and modern management in my next post. Till then, Happy Reading!

No more a brick in the wall…

A rainy Monday morning, lush green campus, 96 steps to climb, “Syndicate 1” packed with future managers awaiting for their first ever MBA class – If all this sounds interesting , I am sure you will be much more fascinated to know what happened after this!

Clock struck @ 9 and it saw an entry of an innovator of learning, Prof. T Prasad. Soon some soft balls with globe printed on them were flying, a hen was making its own way on a slanting widget, a butterfly balanced itself on a tip of finger ; all these left me surprised in a management session.  Lot of Physics and engineering concepts were told behind this but it all lasted only till Dr. Mandi (as Prof Prasad is commonly called by this) introduced us with the whole new process of “Humara Dhanda”.

“Humara Dhandha” lays emphasis on opportunity cost which sums up our daily spending here. “Whatever we spend in a day, we have to earn it back” is the underlying theory of Learning by Earning. And soon, the whole class was seen proudly enchanting “Aaj Ki Roti, Aaj hi Kamaana”. The idea of selfless learning is to spread, what we learn by formal classroom teaching, to the masses.

From the expectations of typical MBA jargon and ppts, our class actually shifted to taking photographs along with understanding the real business of doing business. Soon Dr. Mandi called me and one of my friends upfront for selling a butterfly toy to each other. There I was experiencing my first exercise on the very first day and realized the intricacies involved in the buyer-seller relationship.

It was not the end here! Somewhere I could relate from where did Prof. get the inspiration for all this and it was a song “Another brick in the wall” by Pink Floyd. Sir made me realize that we are not here to be just another brick to be put into the wall. “Don’t be a wiper; it’s time now to be a car.” The session came to an end with a belief of having much more in store for us.

Finally my first day at college after a span of 2 years came to an end and it has given me enough motivation to start writing here what I learn in one of the best b-schools of the country. 

I quote the following lines here which I think best suited for the first lecture by Prof. Mandi.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”  – Benjamin Franklin

               

              Prof Mandi in class

 Prof Mandi with one of my friend