The three monks & productivity management - POM lesson 5

objective: to learn the productivity management.

Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of production output to what is required to produce it (inputs).

Productivity= total output / one unit of a total input.

its a simple assertion that as the resources of an organisation increase, its output tend to increase commensurately.  but, unfortunately, this is not the case with real time organisation. lack of management and absence of direction to channelize the resources readily turns the resources into liability. It harms the productivity and thus materially affects the financial health of a company.

the argument stated above is captured by A Da's award winning animation film: the three monks. the plot of the movie goes like this:

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but now two monks were fetching one bucket in contrast of one monk fetching the two bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat came and knocked the candle holder  leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

If we consider monks as the resource for an organisation and fetching the water as the final product, productivity should have increased as the resources increased. but what actually happened is summarized as follows:

case 1. one monk carrying two buckets.

case 2. two monks carrying one bucket.

case 3. 1 monk carrying one bucket.

the productivity table for the three cases is as follows:

.as we see, the productivity is highest when only one monk is working. something went wrong in the process as the productivity is falling. the process didn't change even when the resources were tripled. increase in resources always calls for change or modification in process or sometimes for a new process altogether. that is why, management always have to be vigilant about these changes however subtle may be. this principle is to be use in correlation with the smart goal principle that we discussed in the last blog. because, in the absence of a common driving motive internal conflicts may corrupt the whole process.

if you are interested to dig in the process change that the three monk employed to increase their productivity, watch the following video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

please share your valuable feedback. further discussion on the topic are most welcomed. keep reading.

Management styles : theory X and theory Y - POM Lesson 2.

Social psychologist Douglas McGregor of MIT expounded two contrasting theories on human motivation and management in the 1960s: The X Theory and the Y Theory.The theories look at how a manager's perceptions of what motivates his or her team members affects the way he or she behaves.

Theory X assumes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working, and this encourages an authoritarian style of management. According to this view, management must actively intervene to get things done. This style of management assumes that workers avoid responsibility and need to be controlled, forced, and threatened to deliver what's needed.

Theory Y expounds a participative style of management that is de-centralized. It assumes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility.

                                click to watch the video.

It will be too soon to judge the two different styles without testing them under following different conditions.

1. Theory X Manager assume LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work 

2. Theory X Manager assume NOT LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work 

3. Theory Y Manager assume LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY   and make them work 

4. Theory Y Manager assume NOT LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY  and make them work 

Condition 1. Theory X Manager assume LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work 

in this situation, there are chances that the workers will be stretched out of their comfort zone but the workers are less likely to resort to mutiny. Ultimately it will be good for organization. Risk to the organization are minimum because the workers were already demotivated and dejected from their work.

Condition 2. Theory X Manager assume NOT LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work

this situation might result in confrontation between manager and workers. organization is carrying huge risk of loosing good talent and well fashioned employees. In spite of that risk there are healthy chances that the goal of the organization is still within reach.

Condition 3. Theory Y Manager assume LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY and make them work

this is undoubtedly would be the worst combination from organization's point of view. deliveries will be delayed and the organization will sink into darkness of inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

condition 4. Theory Y Manager assume NOT LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY  and make them work

this combination represents a culture of excellency in an organization. there is really no limit of prosperity to such organization.

to summarize the above discussion, effectiveness of management style is always subjected to situations. where style Y represents a good and positive choice for most of the organizations in most of the situations, style X can't completely be discounted only because of it's negative perception about things.

No Dark Sarcasms In The Classroom - POM lesson 1.

this blog is about my understanding of the subject 'Principles of organization and Management (POM)' which is being taught by Dr. T. Prasad who is popularly known as Dr. Mandi. 

Talking about the teaching style of Dr. Mandi; he walks into the classroom, removes his floaters and walks into the narrow space between rows of students as he speaks.

he is very direct with his choice of words and don't care about euphemism in his remarks. he boldly said: "anyone who is not earning the money he is spending is, to me, a financial beggar." most of we students fall under this category. he doesn't provide a conclusion and lets the student free to analyse and understand things and concept as they see fit. his style reminds me of a famous quote:

"you want to feed a man for a day, give him a fish.

you want to feed a man for life, teach him how to fish."

he definitely doesn't feed us with the concepts, instead he is teaching us to observe, think and learn the principles of organization management on our own. that is why he made us to repeat the following words after him:

Soacho.. Becho !  Becho.. Seekho ! !   Seekho .. Soacho ! ! !

he gave us some toys and asked us observe them. every toy had some science behind it. It is then he told us that how we can leverage upon our knowledge of science and sell that knowledge with the toy at a much higher price. once the wheel of "thinking-selling-learning" is set in motion, things are easy.

Then I learned that average cost per person per day of pursuing MBA in NITIE is around 2500 Rs. and Dr. Mandi was very serious when he said "AAJ KI ROTI AAJ HI KAMANI HAI." As the cost of studying is very high so every student must thrive to recover it as along he pursues MBA. In such scenario, it becomes a necessity to think like an entrepreneur. The best way to learn Business Administration is by thinking businessman. Dr. Mandi doesn’t want his students to become corporate slaves; he wants them to become great self sufficient professionals.  This is exactly the kind of attitude a student must also carry.

I shall continue writing on future lessons on the subject. keep visiting and comment your feedback and suggestions.