Basic management Terms 3

Theory Z:
Theory Z is a Japanese consensus management style base on the assumption that

1. Employees want to build cooperative relationships with their employers, peers, and other employees in the firms.
2. They require high degree of support in the form of secure employment and facilities for development of multiple skills through training and job rotation.
3. They value family life, culture and traditions, and social institutions as much as material success.
4. They have well-developed sense of dedication, moral obligation, and self-discipline.
5. They can make collective decisions through consensus.

It was introduced by the author William Ouchi.

Lets compare theory Z with theory X and theory Y

Job Design:

Work arrangement or rearrangement aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. Through job design, organizations try to raise productivity levels by offering non-monetary rewards such as greater satisfaction from a sense of personal achievement in meeting the increased challenge and responsibility of one's work. 

1. Job enlargement, 
2. job enrichment, 
3. job rotation 
4. job simplification  

are the various techniques used in a job design exercise.

Importance of Job Design:

Job design is a very important function of staffing. If the jobs are designed properly, then highly efficient managers will join the organisation. They will be motivated to improve the productivity and profitability of the organisation. However, if the jobs are designed badly, then it will result in absenteeism, high labor turnover, conflicts, and other labor problems.

Factors Affecting Job Design

1. Proper scope of job

The scope of the job should be proper. If the scope is narrow (less), then the job will not be challenging. It will not give an opportunity for development. The manager will not get satisfaction after completing an easy job. If the scope of the job is very wide, then the manager will not be able to handle it properly. This will cause stress, frustration and loss of control. Therefore, scope of the job must be balanced and proper.

2. Full-time challenge of the job

The job should be so challenging that it takes up the full-time and effort of the manager. So, the service of the manager must be fully utilized  If not, the manager will have a lot of free time. He will use this free time to interfere in the work of his subordinates. This will cause problems and conflicts because subordinates do not like unnecessary interference from their superiors.

3. Managerial skills

The skills of the manager should be considered before designing his job. All managers do not have equal skills. So jobs should be designed after considering the skills of the manager. So, a manager having a high level of skill should be given very challenging jobs while a manager having a low level of skill should be given fewer challenging jobs. Jobs must be made flexible so that it can be changed according to the skills of the manager.

4. Organisation's requirements

Jobs must be designed according to the requirements of the organisation. We cannot use the same job design for all organisations.

5. Individual likes and dislikes

People have different likes and dislikes. Some people like to work alone while some people prefer to work in groups. Some people want to do only planning and decision making while other people like to implement these plans and decision. So, individual likes and dislikes must be considered while designing the job.

6. Organisational structure

Organisational structure also affects the job design. Individual jobs must fit into the organisation's structure.

7. Technology

The level of technology used by the organisation also affects the job design. An organisation having a high level of technology will have different job designs compared to an organisation having a low level of technology.

Basic management Terms 2

Participative Management:
Participative Management is a type of management in which employees at all levels are encouraged to contribute ideas towards identifying and setting organizational-goals, problem solving and other decisions that may directly affect them. it is also called consultative management.

Participative Management can also be termed as ‘Industrial Democracy’, ‘Co-determination’, ‘Employee Involvement’ as well as ‘Participative Decision Making’. The concept of employee participation in organization’s decision making is not new. However, the idea couldn’t gain that much popularity among organizations. Studies have shown that only 3-5 percent of organizations have actually implemented this concept in their daily operations. Though the theory of participative management is as old as the institution of employees and employers still it is not applied by a large proportion of organizations.
Authoritarian Management:
A management style in which the leader dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and control all activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates.

Characteristics of Authoritarian Management:

1) Little or no input from group members

2) leaders make the decisions

3) Group leaders dictate all the work methods and processes

4) Group members are rarely trusted with decisions or important tasks

While autocratic leadership does have some potential pitfalls, leaders can learn to use elements of this style wisely. For example, an autocratic style can be used effectively in situations where the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group or has access to information that other members of the group do not.

Basic management Terms 1

1) Synergy:

  The situation in which the whole is greater than its parts. In organizational terms,  Synergy means that departments that interact cooperatively are more efficient and productive than they would be if they operated in isolation.

2) Theory of Transformation of Leadership:

Creating high-performance workforce has become increasingly important and to do so business leaders must be able to inspire organizational members to go beyond their task requirements. As a result, new concepts of leadership have emerged - transformational leadership being one of them.

Transformational leadership may be found at all levels of the organization: teams, departments, divisions, and organization as a whole. Such leaders are visionary, inspiring, daring, risk-takers, and thoughtful thinkers. They have a charismatic appeal. But charisma alone is insufficient for changing the way an organization operates. For bringing major changes, transformational leaders must exhibit the following four factors:

Model For Transformational Leadership

Inspirational Motivation

The foundation of transformational leadership is the promotion of consistent vision, mission, and a set of values to the members. Their vision is so compelling that they know what they want from every interaction. Transformational leaders guide followers by providing them with a sense of meaning and challenge. They work enthusiastically and optimistically to foster the spirit of teamwork and commitment.

Intellectual Stimulation

Such leaders encourage their followers to be innovative and creative. They encourage new ideas from their followers and never criticize them publicly for the mistakes committed by them. The leaders focus on the “what” in problems and do not focus on the blaming part of it. They have no hesitation in discarding an old practice set by them if it is found ineffective.

Idealized Influence

 They believe in the philosophy that a leader can influence followers only when he practices what he preaches. The leaders act as role models that followers seek to emulate. Such leaders always win the trust and respect of their followers through their action. They typically place their followers needs over their own, sacrifice their personal gains for them, ad demonstrate high standards of ethical conduct. The use of power by such leaders is aimed at influencing them to strive for the common goals of the organization.

Individualized Consideration

Leaders act as mentors to their followers and reward them for creativity and innovation. The followers are treated differently according to their talents and knowledge. They are empowered to make decisions and are always provided with the needed support to implement their decisions.

3) Job Rotation:

Job rotation in the workplace is a system where employees work at several jobs in a business, performing each job for a relatively short period of time. Job rotations allow employees to learn about different types of work, giving individual employees a better sense of what their colleagues do and a better overall understanding of the entire organization.

Workplace Training Tool

Job rotations are typically used as a workplace training tool. Spending a few weeks or months working at a job enables employees to get a real understanding of the job and what is involved, as well as a better appreciation of what their fellow employees actually do. Job rotations are a more common practice in medium- to larger-sized businesses, and are often structured as an an "introduction" for new graduates just entering the industry.

Promotes Learning

One advantage to job-rotation schemes is that both employers and employees learn a lot. Employees learn more about the workplace, their colleagues, and what goes into creating the final product or service. Employers learn about individual employee skill sets, and strengths and weaknesses. Employers can use what they learn through job rotations to find the best placement for each employee.

Motivational Tool

Job rotations can be used as a motivational tool. Most employees will welcome an opportunity to learn new skills, especially if the new position is higher paying, or perceived as easier or more prestigious. Occasionally, interdepartmental jealousies or other frictions surface at the workplace. Some managers set up job-rotation schemes as a way to help employees develop appreciation for the work of their colleagues.

Disadvantage

Job rotation does have a downside. A number of researchers have pointed out that while job-rotation systems certainly do lead to a better understanding of business processes and the company as a whole, they do not encourage in-depth expertise. This can lead to longer learning curves for new employees to come up to speed in their regular positions.

Three idiots Crossing the valley - Teamwork principle

Team Work

"When you score a goal, or hit a three, or get a touchdown, you don't do it for yourself, you do it for the team cause the name in the front of the shirt is more important than the one on the back."  Quote from a movie Miracle

Team work has been defined differently by different schools of thought and different individuals but all of them zero in on one idea that team work involves people working in a group or team to accomplish a given task.

The process of working together with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.The team work is often a crucial part of a business as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying for the best in any circumstances. Team work often means people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflicts between the individual.

Importance of team work

Delegation

A team that works well together understands the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. One of the benefits of strong teamwork in the workplace is that team leaders and members become proficient at dividing up tasks so they are done by the most qualified people. Without strong teamwork, it can be difficult for managers and executives to determine which staff members can best accomplish job tasks.

Efficiency

Work groups and teams develop systems that allow them to complete tasks efficiently and quickly. When a task is handed to a well-trained and efficient team, the team's work pace assures that the task will be completed quickly and accurately. This allows the company to take on more work and generate more revenue without having to add more staff. This becomes helpful when efficient teams from different departments work together. Each team is well aware of its own abilities and the groups can work together effectively as opposed to disjointed groups of employees who may not be familiar with how to work together.

Ideas

Teams in the workplace often meet to discuss how to solve company issues. When a team works well together, it allows staff members to feel more comfortable in offering suggestions. Team members become accustomed to processing brainstorming information, and the company benefits from the variety of suggestions that come from effective teams.

Support

There are challenges each day in any workplace, and a strong team environment can act as a support mechanism for staff members. Work group members can help each other improve their performance and work together toward improving their professional development. Team members also come to rely on each other and trust each other. These bonds can be important when the team faces a particularly difficult challenge or if the group is forced to deal with the loss of a team member while still trying to maintain productivity.

Lets take the example of three people crossing the valley with the wooden block as figure describe

we can observe from the diagram that three people successfully crass the valley without much risk as  they divide the risk and help each other in completing the work, this is possible when they work as a team.

Observation made from the above activity are listed step by step in the following diagram

   

     

      All three members have equal distribution of different kinds of situation :

    High Risk 01 times

    Half Risks 02 times

    Fully Safe 02 times

        All three members have the same role in terms of effort and risk. Nobody was overloaded or relaxed.

        Communication and feedback is essential while working in a team.

        Every member is indispensable in completing the task.

        There were equal instances when one needed each other.

Management Lessons from Three Monks....

Lets first watch the Chinese award winning animated short film "Three Monks" Produced by Shanghai animation studio, After the Cultural Revolution and fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animated film created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water; two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water. The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. 
The short film teaches many Management Lessons, lets discuss them in Detail.

Effort: When only one monk lived in the monastery, the effort to fill the buckets of water and bring them back to the monastery was more than the individual effort required to fetch water when two monks were living. When more and more people are added in an organization, the amount of effort per person must reduce and the synergy of all individual efforts must produce the desired results.

Process Improvement for productivity : The first monk, second monk and in the end all the three monks together used different processes to satisfy their needs of water. Every method is full filling the need, But the same method might not be effective in a different case. What a management needs to learn that different tasks need different processes or the same process to be improved over time, if necessary replaced. The primary purpose is to get the task done using the most economical and productive process.
Lets compare the process in some attributes.

Attributes	One Person	Two Person	Three Person
Work Tools	Stick and two bucket	Stick and one bucket	Pulley , rope and two bucket
Effort	Maximum	Lesser than one person	Least
Output	Two Buckets	One bucket	One bucket
Efficiency(Per bucket)	Least	More than one person	Maximum

Active Participation: There is one incident where the two monks measure the length of the stick to hang the barrel, center is measured by one while marking is done by the other. This shows that there is active participation from both the monks to get the work done. A management should strive for such participation because it improves productivity, efficiency and also acts as a motivator.

Team Wok: The importance of working as a team can clearly be learnt from the movie. It was only co-operation and team work that finally helped in saving their monastery from the fire and team work use with the improved process also reduce the efforts and conflict.

Goal Setting and Pygmalion effect

Any work start with the desire or requirement to do it, but for doing it better and make it bigger the path and the methodology should be clear. a journey without any clear destination will end someplace else. The goal setting before any of the task is very important.
Goal setting is the way to decide the potential of the person or the team. In organisational world, the goal is very clearly define so that it is clear for every one how to reach their and what is their part in the organisational achievement. GOAL setting should be very clear and achievable, Goal Should be S.M.A.R.T
S -  Specific
M - Measurable
A - Assignable
R - Realistic
T - Time Based

The Goal should be set considering all the aspect of the work and goal achieved in past.
A - Potential
B - Goal Set
C - Goal achieved
D - History
As rightly said by Dr. Mandi, the goal set should be the challenging and the work required to achieve the goal should test you in every expect of the ability required to do that work and the next goal should be more challenging once you achieve the goal set.

Pygmalion effect:
when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
                                   -Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
The above quote applied not only to things, but especially also to people. if you expect more from the people they definitely try to give what you expect.


The Pygmalion effect was described by J. sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates is subty influenced by what they expect of them,"

The Pygmalion effect enables staff to excel in response to the manager's message that they are capable of success and expected to succeed. the Pygmalion effect can also undermine staff performance when the subtle communication from the manager tells them the opposite. These cues are often subtle, As an example, the supervisor fails to praise a staff person's performance as frequently as praises others. The supervisor talks less to a particular employee.
Livingstone went on to say about the supervisor, "If he is unskilled, he leaves scars on the careers of the young men and women, cuts deeply into their self-esteem and distorts their image of themselves as human beings. But if he is skillful and has high expectations of his subordinates, their self-confidence will grow, their capabilities will develop and their productivity will be high. More often than he realizes, the manager is Pygmalion.'

Manager X and Manager Y

Hello! today Lets discuss about the theory of Manager X and Manager Y. It was given by Douglas McGregor in his 1960 book "The Human Side of Enterprise ". It provides a fundamental distinction between management styles. The theory look at how a manager's perceptions of what motivates his/her team members affects the way he /she behaves. It is very important for a manager to understand that how his/her assumptions about employees' motivation is effecting the style of management.

Manager X assumes that employees/workers are unmotivated and dislike working, so they avoid work whenever it is possible. this leads to an authoritarian style of management. According to Manger X's view management must actively intervene to get work done, employees/worker need to be directed, have to be forced and threatened to deliver work, need to be controlled and supervised at every step and need to be intervene to work as they have no ambition to work.

Manager Y on the Other Hand assumes that employees/workers are motivated and like working, so they do work sincerely and people will exercise self direction and self-control in the achievement of organisational objectives. the main task of the manager is to maximize this achievement.

There are two kind of employees/workers LAZY and NOT LAZY
This leads to four condition.
1) Manager X assumes LAZY worker as LAZY worker and make them work.
2) Manager X assumes NOT LAZY worker as LAZY worker and make them work.
3) Manager Y assumes LAZY worker as NOT LAZY worker and make them work
4) Manager assumes NOT LAZY worker as NOT LAZY worker and make them work

In first condition the manager's assumption lead to the achievements of goal as he makes LAZY employees to work. however in second case the the assumption will lead to the bad feeling of authoritarian manager in mind of employees those are willing to work for the betterment of the company.

In third condition the company might not achieve its goal as the employees those r not willing to work are not forced to work. however forth condition is very good for a company to achieve its goal as the employees would see his work is appreciated and he/she being given credit.

I come across a manager X theory kind of manager who assumes his employees as LAZY so he forced them and scold them often as a result of that all employees take his every suggestion and scolding casually this leads to the very slow improving in the system in the new operational plant.
I would like be situation 1 and 4 kind of manager in which identify your subordinate in their working attitude and deal with them as per the requirement of the organization.