WHAT MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT
No matter how good the plans, how flexible the budget or how clever the management, the work of the organization must ultimately be accomplished by the people. Management is about interaction of human beings and no two of them and no two situations are completely alike. Most situations are very diverse and varied and while there are no template solutions to predefined problems, most problems faced by practicing mangers are actually quite different. It is possible to define the objectives of a manager, but it is, for the most part, impossible to set out in advance the means to achieve them, because there are many elements involved in their execution that are unique to the situation.
Managers are called agents of change, with no single or best leadership style. That is to say, successful leaders are those, who adopt their leader’s behavior to meet the needs of the group members and that particular situation. So, it goes without saying that, whether a person is successful or not, his way of managing his day-to-day activities, is subject to change. However in general, there are certain basic principles or core ethics that can be adopted to be successful on all occasions.
Three forms of management with key importance to value management:
In today’s situation, neither the management by rules nor management by objectives pay sufficient attention to the precondition of employees being committed to the necessary rules and fulfillment of objectives. The precondition lies in human attitudes and motivation, the leadership style and the organization culture. In short, the precondition lies in the quality of community culture which is a collection of shared beliefs, values, attitudes, language and reactions to the environment that gives meaning to the organizational processes and in its productive relationship to the professional culture. If an organization is weak in its value management, the need for management by rules and objectives will increase and the professional culture is likely to dominate the community culture. In this type of management, people are often afraid to take any new initiative or to indicate the need for change.
With strong value management, the need for rules and specified objectives, as well as control of employee’s willingness to follow the necessary rules, will be reduced. So, in order to improve community culture and in its consequence, the professional culture, all the three forms of management with key importance to value management have to be adopted, because under such conditions, the commitment for rules and fulfillment of objectives become a part of self management of employees, a characteristics of a strong community culture that ensures prosperity for the organization. By values, we mean the motive and/or the basis for choosing between alternate courses of action, when a crucial decision needs to be taken. High values, lead to objective, fair, altruistic decisions and actions and ensure the welfare of all concerned. Low values do exactly the opposite. When we act driven by high values, we are in fact embodying all desirable qualities of a good human being. Welfare of all will necessarily ensure our own. One test, whether our motive and/or the basis for our action is value based or not is that, if it is exposed to intelligent questioning by those affected, we should be able to defend our actions with out any embarrassment. We should try to fix our mind in supreme consciousness in order to achieve balance and hence success.
It is common that employees tend to differ in terms of beliefs, education, attitudes and capabilities. Therefore, some employees are more compatible than others. Some employees are easier to manage than others. Some employees will be the greatest source of internal problems and dysfunctional activities. In addition to this, it is well known that, human mind often exhibits contradictions in its functioning. The behavior pattern could be normal and controlled one moment, but could turn in to an irrational, emotional and easily engraved complex, the next. So despite all the new labour saving technologies and robotic equipments, “Getting things done through people” is still a major task for the managers. It therefore requires a considerable skill on the part of the managers to channelize their subordinates in to constructive pathways by giving due consideration to their temperament, ambitions, satisfaction levels and individual needs. This beings a major influence in employee’s attitude, motivation, work behavior and performance.
Any organization is bound to different ways of thinking according to the perception and priorities of the people working there. As a corollary, there may also be factions and feuds among different groups, which are transgressed beyond certain limits, may prove dangerous to the organizations. On these occasions, leadership by ethical practices with an element of sacrifice built in it is bound to have lasting impact on staff. So, the general opinion is that managers are both the masters and servant to their subordinates. A master, in the sense of providing direction, information, coaching and encouragement, and a servant, in the sense of providing resource help and support subordinate’s requests and needs. So, it is better to ask 3 questions:
What can I do, to help you perform your job more effectively?
What can I do, to help you to reduce the time you waste?
How can I take care of you, so that you can concentrate on your job and render all the possible assistance, help and guidance?
This management style is more likely to encourage commitment and cooperation, by maintaining an environment being democratic, relaxed, friendly, informal and open. But, this does not mean, that it is not necessary to be tough and direct when the situation demands. It is always necessary to be decisive.
Finally, to conclude, managing men is of two tasks in one. One, the task of dealing with each employee as an individual with an uniquely different set of needs and behaviours and two, the task of dealing with each work group as a group with an uniquely different set of needs and behaviours. To carry out these tasks, managers must have two assets. They have to know how to deal with human beings and have to have some knowledge of their job so that, they can direct the affairs of the organization, knowing what has to be done and how. His principal asset has to be his capacity, to be able to derive the best from the knowledge of his subordinates, in addition to the other two assets as mentioned above.
Of course, all these look very fine for speech, but this is where the problem begins. The theory of managing men is well known and perhaps the easiest, but the art of managing men is perhaps the most difficult task of all human endeavours. This is an art and nobody can train you for it. It increases with experience, but that is, in itself, no guarantee.
To be continued…….
SUMATHY PURUSHOTHAMAN