Utility of Stress

UTILITY OF STRESS – I

Having stress is not really a problem as long as you know how to cope with it. In fact, stress up to a point is useful for two reasons. Firstly, it makes you productive. If you have no stress, you may produce nothing. For example, you decide to write a letter to your father whom you haven’s written for two months. On a Sunday morning, you decide to do it. But obviously that’s the day you can read your newspaper from the beginning to end. By the time you finish your newspapers and breakfast, it is time to see favorite TV serial. After that, comes the time for lunch. After lunch you have the legitimate weekly siesta. When you get up, the evening movie has started. By the time it is finished, you have your dinner and you are already sleepy-although you have slept quiet a bit during the day. Then you will say, ‘ I shall write next Sunday’. Thus, in spite of having sixteen hours, you can’t write a single letter. But if you are under stress, you can write sixteen letters in one hour. Thus, stress is very important to increase your productivity. As the stress increases, your productivity goes up- up to a point; then it flattens off. Thereafter you do not get any more productivity with additional stress. At a certain point further up (which we can call the break-down point), any additional stress brings down your productivity very sharply. Instead of working, you start worrying about work. This is where the stress has to be managed.

UTILITY OF STRESS – II

Another aspect of stress is that if you get accustomed to a certain level of stress, you are uncomfortable either above or below that level. Many of my friend’s wives had fairly hard life is bringing up their children. When the children got married and went away and the husband started having only one meal a day, the household task suddenly got so reduced that the housewife started having complaints like slipped disc, spondilitis, etc.-because there was suddenly no stress! Then came the daughter for her delivery. Immediately all ailments vanished. The grandmother was very active. After the grandchild was born, for the next four months, she went through a lot of hardships-but she was as healthy as ever before. After four months, the daughter goes away with the grandchild and all the ailments return to the grandmother.

Thus, stress reduced below a certain level can also be a problem. So in managing stress, we don’t always reduce stress, but keep stress within the limits to make the stress both comfortable and productive.

WORKING AT VARIOUS LEVELS

To succeed in his career, a manager has to change his method of working depending on his level of operation in the organization.

At the junior most level, hard working is vital. A person working long hours whenever required-sometimes round the clock-makes a very favorable impression and stands out amongst the crowd which is invariably thick at the junior most level. However, as he comes to the middle level, he may get into the organizational paradox: the one, who works more, gets more and more work. And he may get caught in a situation where his plate is always overfull and he finds increasingly difficult to meet deadlines.

At this stage, smart working is important. He must concentrate on effective work i.e. that work which contributes significantly to the organization-as against just routine work. This makes him more and more visible to the top management. Simultaneously, he must learn to delegate the routine tasks to his subordinates-and even to his colleagues.

This need for delegation will increase as he goes further up in the organization. To ensure that he can delegate some of the work and get collaboration and cooperation from his colleagues (and support from the boss or bosses for such delegation), he needs networking.

Thus for organizational success, a manager has to progress through hardworking and smartworking into networking.

LEVELS OF EFFECTIVENESS

Managing the social impact of the organization is the most complex task of the management. It is dependent of the management’s ability to ‘think through’ the total effectiveness of the organization. An organization can be seen as an effective organization essentially at three levels.

· Firstly, the organization is productive i.e., it is able to produce the goods or services it is indented to produce.

· Secondly, the organization is efficient i.e. it produces the goods or services with a minimum expenditure of resources – particularly the scarce resources, and

· Thirdly, the organization has reputation for excellence i.e., it has a public image that its goods or services are of a high quality and its management is alert to its responsibilities within and without the organization.

COMPARTNMENTAL FEUDS

Every large organization has a number of active feuds. Some of them are generic feuds others are personal feuds. Generic feuds are a result of traditional rivalry, e.g. marketing vs production, production vs purchasing, accounts vs engineering, head office vs factory or branch office, etc. Added to these are the conflicts generated by ambitious and jalousies of individual managers. Excessive compartmentalization, characteristic of large organizations, often accentuates the generic feuds and managers from different departments act as if they belonged to different organizations. Recently, I met a marketing manager. Normally he a morose person. But that day he looked jubilant. ‘What makes you so happy today?’ I asked, ‘Well, you know’ he replied, ‘our factory boiler has burst and they are screwed up for the next two months.’ He was already enjoying the nasty memos he would be sending to complain about lack of dispatches and consequent loss of sales.

Work Culture

WORK ETHICS IN ORGANIZATIONS

People working in an organization can be broadly categorized into three types: Work Ethics, Worth Ethics, and Leisure Ethics.

Those who believe in work ethics are people who value work and are happy when they are working. The ‘worth ethics’ are also ready to work provided they get something for their work. They are always afraid of being ‘exploited’-somebody getting more work from them than what they get from the work. The leisure ethics want to avoid work as much as they can.

Work ethics, worth ethics and leisure ethics are very important aspects in the working of an industrial organization and the way the organization functions depends on the relative proportion of these. In each organization all three types of people are there, but the proportions vary. What is more important: as the department head or unit head changes, the proportions change. This shows that people are not stationary, locked in their respective compartment forever. They can move from compartment to compartment provided something happens. We want to see what is that something that can happen which can push more and more people from leisure ethics and worth ethics. This can create ‘Work Culture’ in the organization.

PITFALLS IN CONDUCTING MEETINGS

Let us look at some typical pitfalls meeting face. The first pitfall is the ambiguity of agenda. Sometimes what the meeting is supposed to discuss is not clear. Formal or informal agenda is not circulated. As a result everybody comes with his own agenda in mind. In such meetings, there is chaos right at the beginning-or the meeting gets into chaos soon after the start. Many times there is a cross talk and an impression is created that several meetings are being held simultaneously. Now this is obviously the worst fate for a meeting.

The second pitfall is the tendency of some people to keep on talking. Everybody likes his own voice. Some people love their voices so much that they keep on talking –sometimes making the same point again and again. Unless the person conducting the meeting is able to control this, the meeting gets into a boring affair where everybody except the few people who keep on talking, lose interest in the meeting.

The third pitfall is the tendency of some people to go at a tangent to what is supposed to bne discussed at the meeting. Very soon the meeting gets into something very different from what the meeting was intended for. Another pitfall is the chairman of the meeting himself wanting to say a lot. Then the meeting turns out to be monologues on the part of the chairman and the rest of the members have no interest in the meeting.

INCULCATING WORK CULTURE

A manager can succeed in promoting work culture if he himself has the work ethics image i.e. feeling that he is trying to achieve results not to get promotion for himself but because he believes that achieving those results is important for the organization.

Then he creates ‘stature’ to push ‘worth ethics’ (and even ‘leisure ethics’) towards work ethics. A person likes to be considered the boss’s man. Although he will criticize others are being ‘chamchas’(sycophants), he himself does not mind being considered the boss’s man and getting importance.

The work ethics group by itself is contagious and infectious. Not only they work hard, but they make people around them work hard through induction. However, the leisure ethics (and particularly the core of the leisure ethics) are also contagious and infectious and they go around pulling people away from work ethics.

The effective manger have top create a situation whereby this core of the leisure ethics is isolated and insulated. Through judicious transfers, people can be moved into corners of the organization where their influence will be minimized. This cannot be done overnight. But over a period, it would be possible to isolate and insulate this core of leisure ethics. This is of great advantage to the organization because this increases the infectiousness of the work ethics and more and more people get into the work ethics category. This is the method through which a ‘work culture’ is introduced in an organization. Everybody comes to work with a feeling that he has to achieve something today.

MANAGEMENT GAPS

In this progress in the organization a manager has to pass through three gaps.

The first gap is knowledge gap. The knowledge that he has might be inadequate for the job he has to perform and he has to work towards beginning of the gap. When lacocca moved from marketing to be the chief executive of the mustang project, he had a severe knowledge of gap. Although he was an engineer by qualification, the job required depth in automobile engineering. He asked his two best subordinates to come to his office for one hour at the end of the office hours to teach him automobile engineering and in six months the gap was filled up.

Then the manager will face the talent gap. His ability for comprehension has to be equal to the retirement. This is where he can select subordinates and use colleagues, bosses and consultants to bridge the gap.

The most important gap he has to cover is the credibility gap. Confucius said 2500 years ago, ‘governments exist on three things: guns, rice and faith-the most important is faith’. Converted into modern management language: managers exist on three things-ability to punish, ability to reward and credibility. The most important is credibility. For this the manager has to depend on his personality development.

HINDSIGHT-MIDSIGHT-FORESIGHT

The basic approach is in three steps: the first is ‘hindsight’. Whenever we get into a problem of relationship, instead of blaming others, we have to sit back, look at ourselves and ask, ’How did I believe to contribute to this problem?’ However badly the person might behave, if our behavior can take care of some of the problems, we can still come out without a very high degree of dysfunctionality.

Take the example of the mother and the child. There are lots of transactions involving difference of opinion every day. However, most of the transactions end with a fair degree of satisfaction on both sides and this is essentially because the mother takes care of the adjustment that is required. When we have a dysfunctional communication, if we look back and think about the alternate scenario we could have used, that can improve us. But one cannot turn the clock back, whatever damage has been done, has been done.

The only thing to do is to see that the next time we communicate, we atleast get a ‘midsight’. With the midsight, while we are moving towards a dysfunctional communication, we realize that the communication is becoming dysfunctional and we try to steer it either to close or towards a functional communication.

The third situation arises when we get enough skill in understanding people. We can use ‘foresight’. As soon as we are approaching people, particularly people with whom we usually have difficulty, we can think with the foresight and ask which way we can approach the person so that our relationship we improves our relationship skills. If we do not improve our relationship skills, we get into the dysfunctional time options.

SIHGHTS IN MANAGEMENT

Sight is to register what you see. It is just nothing the incidents around you.

Insight is understanding significance of the incidents.

Foresight is predicting what is likely to happen in the future.

Oversight is avoiding distraction by minor matters to focus on the main tasks.

Hindsight is analyzing whatever has happened to convert it into experience. That is the most important baggage one has to carry to become successful

Colleagues Management

Managing Colleagues

Managing Colleagues is more difficult than managing either the boss or the subordinates. With subordinates, we have the authority or hierarchy. With the boss, we have the authority of performance. With colleagues we have neither. In fact, prominent display of performance can be dysfunctional, as it can arouse antagonism due to jealously. Colleagues can be managed by establishing a relationship through: Informal Interaction, Reciprocity and Sharing of Credit.

The formal interaction on the job invariably involves compartmental or departmental feuds among the various functions. However, approaching the colleague informally on a personal basis creates a closer relationship that can set aside the barriers of compartmental feuds.

Managing the colleagues also calls for also calls for reciprocity. Giving a colleague priority when he wants something from your department means a good possibility of getting priority when you want something from his department.

It makes a world of difference when you share your credit with colleagues. It sets a positive reaction and they feel that you value their cooperation. Thus, a performing executive has to use the ‘lamp-shade’ strategy. A floor-lamp with a lamp-shade ensures that the light goes above and below – but does not give a glare on side. Similarly, a performing executive ensures that the light of performance reaches the top management and his own subordinates – out minimizes the glare amongst his colleagues.

BIRD’S EYEVIEW OF MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

We have to recognize that listening is the most important aspect of communication and to develop the art of listening is a vital aspect of the management process. Like all communication processes, the listening process improves only if you consider yourself responsible for the success of listening and take initiative to keep it effective.

The success of communication lies in two factors: the first is the satisfaction of the communicator that he got a fair and full hearing whatever might be the ultimate decision. The second factor is the insight that the listener gets not only about the facts of the problem but also about the viewpoint and the emotional aspects of the communicator. A manager can create confidence as an open, reasonable and fair person only through reflective listening and on this are based the organizational morale as well as the truly successful public relations.

If we take a bird’s eye view of the motivational factors in the two hundred years of modern industry, we find that the management efforts started with the use of fear as the prominent motivational factor to induce time-discipline and task-discipline. The use of monetary incentive to introduce method-discipline was the next step in motivational management. The recognition of the role played by social motivation is the development in the last generation and the realization of motivation for creativity as the most important factor in modern industry has occurred in our generation. The Indian manger of today has to deal with an industrial process that has telescoped the two hundred years of western industrial development into a single generation. Consequently, the manager still has to use fear as a motivating factor-albeit of decreasing importance. In the organized sector industry where trade unions are fairly strong, the threat of firing is no longer easy to implement. Even less drastic disciplinary actions have to be used very sparingly-thus reducing the potency of motivation through fear.

BARRIERS OF COMMUNICATION

The barriers to communications are: 1. Language or “coding” of ideas so that they are easily understood. 2. Transmission: the communication does not suffer from distraction. 3. Hostility: This is the most difficult barrier because it comes from inside and not outside. Hotility is created by the parental messages received-many of them create bias against caste, community, language, state, religion, etc.

Another barrier to communication is feuds. A lot of hostility is created in organizations by feuds between departments. How do these feuds occur? This hostile attitude – I am OK you are not OK – is responsible for a lot of problems in communication. This feelings comes because of the way we have been brought up. Whenever there is conflict there are two routes available: one is the right –wrong, good-bad route which invariably leads to quarrel. The other route is understanding, compromise, co-existence. Depending on our upbringing, we are likely to take the approach and this gives us an image of being a reasonable or unreasonable person. Operating continuously with the hostile prejudices or I’m OK You are not OK attitude, one can develop a dysfunctional life script which makes communication difficult.

PSYCOLOGICAL PROBLES AT RETIREMENT

Perhaps the most difficult problem that we face after retirement is the psychological problem. When an executive retires, he is at the peak of his career-of his status, prestige, money. The day he retires, all this starts leaking out. He finds that everything is becoming less and less. The first thing he notices is the way his status and prestige are affected. Even at home, a retired person is no longer the important person. If he, in the morning, ask for breakfast early, wife says, “ You are retired man now, relax! Let others go first”. So he find he is no longer number one-he is now number ten. This is not very easy to take after a person has been number one for most part of his life. A similar problem arises in terms of being received by his friends and relatives. When we puts a phone call and says please call back – if he is a retired person, the chances of getting the call back get diminished. A friend of mine who retired as a senior army officer, said the year he retired he got 600 greeting cards for the new year, after two years they were sixty, after five years only six. Greeting cards are not important – except that they show how people regard you and that is important.

DELEGATING BY STEPS

Delegation is not a single step process of abdication. Effective delegation is a four step process. This really works.

The step is ‘plan-and-check’: In this step, the executive calls his subordinate and clarifies the objective of the task being delegated to the subordinate. Then he asked the subordinate to plan the tasks and check with him before carrying him out. This step is repeated till the subordinate is able to plan satisfactorily.

Second step is ‘check-and-trouble’: In this step the subordinate is asked to carry out the task-but the boss is available whenever the subordinate wants to check with him. This builds the boss’s confidence in the subordinate and the subordinate’s confidence in himself and the boss. Once his confidence has been built up, the third step may be introduced.

The third step is the ‘feedback system’ step: In this step, the executive has a routine feedback meeting with the subordinate in which he checks on the performance of the task.

When the executive is fully satisfied, that the task is being performed competently, he may take the fourth and the last step that is, ‘abdication’. At this stage the task is being performed by the subordinate without any formal reference to the boss.

All effective delegation must end in abdication!

PROBLEMS AT THE TOP MANAGEMENT LEVEL

There is a problem, which exists at all levels of management but becomes severely accentuated at the top level-that is the problem of power. The first aspect of the problem is how much power to share with the people below. This is not a very easy decision because sharing power excessively can create a situation where the top man is rendered virtually powerless. At the other end of the pendulum there can be a situation where everybody else feels totally powerless and every decision has to go to the chief executive. To find the balance between the two is very important skill the top manager has to develop.

The second is the problem of information. Whenever a person has power, the power creates the problem of information. Everybody wants to tell the person in power what he feels the person in power would like to hear. This means very often the information is doctored. Again, many people approaching the top manager have their viewpoints and their axes to grind. That also causes distortion. This means that the top is very rarely with the real information about what is happening around him.

criteria for good interviews

A real good interview is one which does three things:

1. It gives the person interviewed a feeling that he is getting a fair treatment from the organization. This is essential for public relations and for the reputation of the organization.

2. The interviewer must feel that he has got a good understanding of the strong and weak points of the candidate.

3. The requirement of the organization and the skills available with the candidates are compared and discuss.

SOURCES OF AUTHORITY

There are basically three sources of authority.

The first is hierarchical which comes from the organizational position. However, hierarchical authority is not really accepted by the younger generation.

The second authority is the authority of expertise. If a manager is an expert, the subordinates say: ‘Boss is nasty – but he knows. Better check with him.’ With changing technology, expertise is becoming difficult. The subordinate who is operating the new technology may have greater expertise compared to the boss who has only studied the catalogue.

The third authority is the authority of concern. This is the authority every housewife enjoys. The housewife has no hierarchical authority; she has no authority of expertise. She has the authority of concern – the word ‘worry.’ She uses the concern control the husband and children.

DEVELOPMENTAL APPRAISAL

The performance appraisal system as it exists today in most organizations. Is not really relevant to present times. The judgmental appraisal is useful only where there are ambitious subordinates who want to get feedback to decide for themselves to stay in the organization or find greener pastures elsewhere.

It is the developmental appraisal, which is going to be useful for improving the performance of subordinates. In developmental appraisal, the first step taken is to avoid comparison with other subordinates. A person’s performance must be compared with the performance he is capable of, rather than with the performance of his colleagues. If this sis emphasized and everybody is encouraged to think that he is capable of better performance, then the performance appraisal starts on the right note. Secondly, the performance appraisal must be taken not as a feedback only to the subordinate, but also as a feedback to the boss. The subordinate conveying to the boss what kind of support he would require-which has been lacking in the past-is a very important feedback for the boss to receive and act upon. Thirdly, the performance appraisal must avoid a sermonizing attitude on the part of the boss and consequent defensive attitude on the part of the subordinate.

If the post-appraisal counseling is effective, the subordinate is encouraged to think about his own performance, to introspect and make of plan of action as to how is going to improve the performance. In light of this, the developmental plans for the subordinate in the areas of technology, systems or relationship can be drawn. Then the performance appraisal and counseling can end in improved performance for the subordinate, the boss and the organization.

TEAM WORK FOR SERVICE

Perhaps the most important aspect in managing the service industry is the aspect of teamwork. Teamwork is important in manufacturing industry also-but in service industry teamwork becomes vital. For example, in a bank, if a client has to cash a cheque, two-three-four persons in a bank have to co-ordinate, so that the client gets the service. In a hotel, the co-ordination between the reception, room service and house keeping is essential if the customer has to receive satisfactory service.

This teamwork is not natural. Within the various groups concerned there is always a feud. People feel that they belong to a specific compartment and each compartment has certain grudge and feeling about other compartments. Unless these feelings are overcome and people understand the importance of teamwork, we would not get adequate service.

TYPES OF DECISIONS

The word decision-making denotes choice of alternatives. The most frequent decision is the programmed decision (like the mail-clerk decision to decide the postage) - information gives the decision.

The second type is the operational decision where decision were information plays an important role-but judgment has to be used. Each manager may use a judgment in a different way and we may get different decisions when the information is essentially the same.

Judgment plays a more important role in the strategic decision e.g. location of factor, product-mix, technology, capacity, etc. These are vital decisions. If these decisions are wrong, in spite of good operational decisions, the factory may end up in a disaster. In the case of strategic decision, although a lot of information is collected, intuition plays the deciding role.

The last category of decision is the entrepreneurial decision. These are essentially three: How much to invest, where to get the resources from, who should be the chief executive. These are vital decisions for the long-term success of an organization. In these decisions, information plays a very small role. The entrepreneur taking these decisions will have to use his judgment to the full extent and this is why these are called entrepreneurial decisions.

TYPES OF TRADE UNIONS

Depending on the environmental situation, historical background and management efforts, the organization will essentially have three types of unions.

The first is the ‘collaborative’ unions which is ready to collaborate with the management and consider the management’s view-point when there is a conflict. The union itself thinks of a compromise that would be acceptable to the workers.

The second type of union is the ‘confronting’ union. Here the union confronts the management for various demands of the workers. A series of negotiations go on for a long time and thereafter a compromise is reached as a package deal which both sides are ready to accept and live with for the next three or four years.

The third is the ‘militant’ union. This is the most difficult to deal with because any compromise made or any concessions given is considered a sign of weakness and increases the appetite to ask for more. This union also uses violence to intimidate workers (and even mangers) to create pressure and to create unity amongst workers.

“POLITICAL PERFORMANCE”

It is not only the high quality that satisfies the consumers. Often his ideas are subjective. Till a few years ago, all electric bulbs were produced in the same plant, but were marketed by different organizations. The customer were ready to pay a higher price for the leading brands and felt they were getting a better performance. Similarly, it is not a high wage level that satisfies the employees. In fact, a unit paying the highest wages is likely to have maximum labour problems. The employees feel that they have no alternative but to stick to the organization and cannot vote against it by resigning and finding another job with the same or better emoluments. Consequently, the employees with grievances stay on to spread their discontent. Likewise, the company, which gives the maximum return, does not necessarily enjoy the greatest confidence of the investor. Thus, in each case it can be shown that it is not merely the technical performance that brings the greatest reputation. Unless the technical performance is used politically to project the image and influence the stakeholders, it is not possible for the organization to gain reputation.

An organization achieves both the ‘technical’ performance and the ‘political’ performance through managers. Consequently, the effectiveness of managers is a vital aspect of the organization’s effectiveness.

Art of Interview

Criteria For Good Interviews
A real good interview is the one which does three things:

1.0 It gives the person interviewed a feeling that he is getting a fair treatment from the organization. This is essential for public relations and for the reputation of the organization.

2.0 The interviewer must feel that he has got a good understanding of the strong and weak points of the candidate.

3.0 The requirement of the organization and the skills available with the candidates are compared and discussed.

Top Management

Problems at Top Management Level
There is a problem , which exists at all levels of management but becomes severely accentuated at the top level - that is the problem of power. The first aspect of the problem is how much power to share with the people below.This is not a very easy decision because sharing power excessively can create a situation where the top man is rendered virtually powerless. At the other end of the pendulum there can be a situation where everybody else feels totally powerless and every decision has to go to the chief executive. To find the balance between the two is a very important skill the top manager has to develop.
The second is the problem of information. Whenever a person has power , the power creates the problem of information. Everybody wants to tell the person in power what he feels the person in power would like to hear. This means very often the information is doctored. Again , many people approaching the top manager have their viewpoints and their axes to grind. That also causes distortion. This means that the top is very rarely acquainted with the real information about what is happening around him.

After Retirement

Psychological Problems at Retirement

                                             My Friend Shop in Berlin by Jaipal Datta
 Perhaps the most difficult problem that we face after retirement is the psychological problem. When an executive retires, he is at the peak of his career - of his status, prestige, and money. The day he retires, all this starts leaking out. He finds that everything is becoming less and less. 

The first thing he notices is the way his status and prestige are affected. Even at home, a retired person is no longer an important person. If he, in the morning, asks for breakfast early, his wife says, "You are a retired man now, relax! Let others go first." So he finds he is no longer number one - he is now number ten. This is not very easy to take after a person has been number one for the most part of his life. 

A similar problem arises in terms of being received by his friends and relatives. When he puts a phone call and says please call back- if he is a retired person, the chances of getting the call back get diminished. 

A friend of mine who retired as a senior army officer, said the year he retired he got 600 greeting cards for the new year, after two years they were sixty, and after five years only six. Greeting cards are not important - except that they show how people regard you and that is important.

                                                Copenhagen - the country of my beer 
Many persons, who have worked in government jobs or defense forces like Army or Navy, or Air Force, get retirement benefits. Many, who work in private organizations in India, do not get the benefit of retirement. I know many employees of private organizations who died within 3 to 5 years after retirement. They could not afford to live after retirement more than 5-10 years or felt powerless after retirement even in their own families. One of my friends told me that after retirement retirees are fused bulbs. They are dependent on each other or on their children or society. Society can not take care of their living or medical care in many countries. Medical care is unbearable for them and these Goldies die soon after retirement.

                    A place where my yeast is developed - Yeast from Copenhagen Denmark
The question comes - How long should one live? Is there any benefit to living longer? What for should one live? Are oldies a burden on society? Should an elder (above 70 ) entrepreneur work for society? What is the use of scientific progress or capital growth or human development and how can oldies contribute?  I agree that children are required for humanity. Why do we need the elder generation, who can not work for development or progress or work for the society? I am confused.

                             Brew House - Where Golden Eagle Lager Beer is brewed
I am really not interested to live if my health does not permit or if I do not have money to purchase food, shelter, and clothing including medicines to live. 
I should add that I can not live without my Golden Eagle Lager Beer and Solan Gold Whiskey from Solan - scotch of East.

May God bless all.

Motivation

Motivational Factors
We have to recognize that listening is the most important aspect of communication and to develop the art of listening is a vital aspect of the management process. Like all communication processes, the listening process improves only if you consider yourself responsible for the success of listening and take initiative to keep it effective.
The success of communication lies in two factors: the first is the satisfaction of the communicator that he got a fair and full hearing whatever might be the ultimate decision. The second factor is the insight that the listener gets not only about the facts of the problem but also about the viewpoint and the emotional aspects of the communicator. A manager can create confidence as an open, reasonable and fair person only through reflective listening and on this are based the organizational morale as well as the truly successful public relations.
If we take the bird's eye view of the motivational factors in the two hundred years of modern industry, we find that the management efforts started with the use of fear as the prominent motivational factor to induce time - discipline and task - discipline. The use of monetary incentive to introduce method - discipline was the next step in motivational management. The recognition of the role played by social motivation is the development in the last generation and the realization of motivation for creativity as the most important factor in modern industry has occured in our generation. The Indian manager of today has to deal with an industrial process that has telescoped the two hundred years of western industrial development in to a single generation. Consequently , the manager still has to use fear as a motivating factor - albeit of decreasing importance. In the organized sector industry where trade unions are fairly strong , the threat of firing is no longer easy to implement. Even less drastic disciplinary actions have to be used very sparingly - thus reducing the potency of motivation through fear.
In our industry at Mohan Meakin Ltd Mohan Nagar , Ghaziabad, U.p. India , we added fear of God, Karma theory to work i.e. work is worship and management by human values as new factors for motivation. In some caes it worked well but in some caes one has to take disciplinary action. we provided Jobs till man is creative and working but let me say not beyond 65 or 70 years.

Time Management

A Cold Look at Time Management
After understanding how you are using your time, the next step is to examine your time utilization vis-a-vis your life objectives. Most people are so concerned about ' doing things right' that they rarely pause to consider whether they are doing the 'right things'. The day-to-day running around may contribute nothing towards life objectives and thus may not be the right thing to do.

This involves a cold look at your life asking two basic questions: "Where do you want to go?" and "Where are you going now?" If one is running exactly in the opposite direction, it is not particularly helpful to find that one is running very fast.

Some people want to make their family happy and spend most of their time away from the family to earn the extra money that they think will make the family happy. Some others want to rise to higher levels but spend so much time working hard on routine jobs that they have no
time left to develop themselves to handle higher responsibilities.

Professionalisation of Management

The fact that the subordinates are not developed does not seem to bother most managers. In the Indian situation, a typical manager would try hard to help his brother or cousin, but will not lift a finger to help his subordinates. Family ties are able to command greater loyalty than organizational ties. As far as a subordinate is concerned, the manager is ready to take a fatalistic view that " he may come up if that is in his luck". At best, he will nominate his subordinate to a training program - which becomes ineffective without support on the job in terms of job enrichment and increased responsibility.
This brings us to the main Inducement for delegation i.e., professionalization of management. We talk about professional management. But frankly, there can be no professionalism unless managers have learned to delegate and develop their subordinates. The real motto of professionalism is the desire to defeat your disciple. Unless your disciple excels you, you have not made your contribution to professionalism. This is exactly what delegation achieves. It allows the subordinate to work initially under your guidance and later on beyond your guidance to achieve things greater than you have been able to achieve. Unless a manager believes in professionalism and is ready to undertake this type of endeavor, professional management will not be established.

Effectiveness

Levels of Effectiveness

Managing the social impact of the organization is the most complex of the management. It is dependent on the management's ability to "think through" the total effectiveness of the organization. An organization can be seen as an effective organization essentially at three levels.

1.0 Firstly, the organization is productive. it is able to produce the goods or services it is intended to produce

2.0 Secondly, the organization is efficient, it produces the goods or services with a minimum expenditure of resources-- particularly the scarce resources and,

3.0 Thirdly, the organization has a reputation for excellence.. i.e. it has a public image that its goods or services are of a high quality and its management is alert to its responsibilities within and without the organization.

Compartmental Feuds
Every large organization has a number of active feuds. Some of them are generic feuds, others are personal feuds. Generic feuds are a result of traditional rivalry, e.g., marketing vs. production, production vs. purchasing, accounting vs. engineering, head office vs. factory or branch office, etc. Added to these are the conflicts generated by the ambitions and jealousies of individual managers. Excessive compartmentalization, characteristic of large organizations, often accentuates the generic feuds, and managers from different departments act as if they belong to different organizations.
Recently, I met a marketing manager. Normally he is a morose person. But that day he looked jubilant. "What makes you so happy today?" I asked. "Well, you know, "he replied, "our factory boiler has burst, and they are screwed up for the next two months." He was already enjoying the nasty memos he would be sending to complain about lack of dispatches and consequent loss of sales.