POM Lecture 2

The lecture kicked off with discussion on the blog. The Pygmalion effect was discussed extensively in the lecture. I have done some internet research on the same and here are some of my opinions about the Pygmalion effect.

Pygmalion basically refers to the phenomenon where an individual raises his bar when he is expected to do well by his mentors/teachers. This is one of the common scenarios in Schools/ colleges. Teacher expects a lot from their favourite students and the student delivers par or above expectation. It is because the expectation instils confidence in the individual and also makes him aware of his responsibilities which always keep him on his toes. Here, it teaches that every person is special and it is just a matter of realising his/her potential.

For example, Suppose there is an international football match between England and Brazil being played in England. England would play well above their potential because they have their fans backing them all the time. The support and expectation of the fans create a positive vibe amongst the England players and help them perform better. Take one more example of Indian cricket Team. They finally became the world champions in 2011 on their home turf because the expectation was such. The same thing applies to any other sport like tennis, hockey, athletics etc

The Pygmalion effect also explains the teaching culture in the top colleges of World. They develop an atmosphere where expecting a lot out of the student becomes a norm. I am in support of such culture and I feel that miracles do happen in life its only about believing in it.

 The next thing we discussed is about Theory X and Theory Y Managers

This theory made me understand that the manager is the driver of the organisation. His attitude has a major impact in making or breaking the organisation. It is his responsibility that his junior is given the freedom to work in the best of the condition. His positive attitude has to rub off on the employees and bring a change in the attitude of the worker if needed.

Consider Case 1:

The worker is lazy and the manager assumes that the worker is lazy.           

Here it has to be understood that the onus is on the manager to bring about a change in the worker’s attitude. To give him proper responsibility and extract work from him. It is easy to manage a good employee but the acid test is when the manager has to handle tough situation in handling a lazy employee. The attitude shown by the X manager adds to the woes of the organisation. He doesn’t expect his employee to change and the employee persists with his lazy attitude An organisation can never excel in such a situation.

Consider Case 2:

 Worker is lazy and the manager thinks that he is not lazy

The manager persists with a positive frame of mind that the employee is not lazy. This may have a positive impact on the worker and bring a change in the attitude in the worker. However chances are that the worker will take advantage of such a situation.

This is a classic example of mother son relationship. The mother pampers her child so much and thinks that her son is the best in the world. Its like she is blinded by her love for her son and so she overlooks all the bad qualities of her son.

Consider case 3: 

Worker is hard working and the manager thinks that he is lazy

Here the manager seems to be completely out of sync. He seems to be having a pre-conceived notion about the worker and he is adamant to change. I could quote one such example from my personal experience. There was a friend of mine working with me in my previous company. He had joined the company along with me as a trainee Engineer. He was very hard working and excited to be a part of the organisation. He was assigned to a manager who usually treated his employee in an unfair way. He made him do clerical work most of the time, humiliated him in front of other employees, started pin pointing small errors. This sapped away the enthusiasm of my friend. Now he has lost all his confidence and is contemplating changing the organisation. I consider this to be the most dangerous situation. The company looses an efficient resource in such a situation.

Case 4:

Worker is hard working and the manager thinks that he is not lazy.

This seems like a perfect scenario. The manager has to do minimal effort on the employee and has to just give him a proper direction. This reminds me of an extra-ordinary student teacher relationship of Sachin Tendulkar and Ramakant Achrekar. The supremely talented Sachin was spotted by his guru Ramakant Achrekar who nurtured his talent and gave him the right direction. This helped Sachin to achieve success very early in life and he has been going from strength to strength ever since.

POM - Lecture 1

Today I attended a lecture on Principles of Organisation and Management delivered by Dr. T Prasad in NITIE. I am not a big fan of attending a double lecture ( 4 hrs ) on a trot, but this lecture was a breath of fresh air. It gave me a feeling that I am being introduced to the world of management. Dr. Prasad always kept us on our toes. He demanded us to be inquisitive. He wanted us to question each and every thing, to be pro-active and to think out of the box.

He had brought a college project made by the students of VJTI (Mumbai). This rather simple looking project was based on the principal of conservation of energy. The project was just a brilliant execution of principles of physics. The hard work and the vision of VJTI students was laudable. But the challenge before us management student was to make this efficient object effective in order to inculcate in it the power of excellence. " Excellence = Efficiency x Effectiveness". The challenge was to persuade the people that the commodity is worth buying and it is worth each and every penny of theirs. . The biggest challenge in front of MBA student is to conceptualize the marketing strategy of such product to make the product saleable. This is the story behind "MANDI", a project wherein the Small Scale Products of NGO are sold on the streets to the prospective customers.

He also asked us to question ourselves the opportunity cost of our education in NITIE. This opportunity cost can be recovered in two years of college provided the student  and the best way to recover it is by starting our own business which literally translates into “HAMARA DHANDA”, a NITIE project which encourages student to come up with innovative ideas for start up.

TOWER BUILDING EXERCISE

This exercise involved piling up maximum number small cubes one over the other without collapsing the structure. It had to be done by a single person using his odd hand. All the students were asked to estimate the how high the tower can be built. Students came with varied number of estimates ranging from 10 to 30. The tower height achieved was 18. Then the next task was to redo the same project but this time it had to be done by two people. One of them had to build the tower blindfolded with his odd hand and the other had to guide him through the entire building process. The students were asked again to estimate the maximum height the tower could achieve. Almost 65 students lowered their estimate while  2 students retained the same estimate and only 1 increased his estimate.

The above exercise gives very interesting conclusion. Any organisation aspires to grow. Hence it is important that they always increase their annual/ monthly target. This exercise was very much akin to the practise of an organisation. I, myself had lowered my estimate. I got apprehensive of the fact that the tower had to be built by a blind folded person. I felt had a blindfolded person would display lesser skill than an open-eyed person. Also practically setting a higher target would be unfeasible. However I did not take into account that there would be another person to guide him all the way. The two, if they work in unison could achieve higher targets. Besides the exercise had to be done for the second time so there wasn’t any unfamiliarity associated with it. All that is required is to give the assurance to the team member that higher target is achievable.

It was a bad management decision on my part because I feel that a manager should face the odds to better his performance. One thing I realized today is that management in contrast to engineering is not bound by rules or structure. When we think of management sky is the limit. We can come up with many innovative ideas defying the existing structure and try to implement them to the best of our knowledge to make it a successful venture.