coleman y boyatzis social intelligence and the biology or leadership

8/6/2019 Coleman y Boyatzis Social Intelligence and the Biology or Leadership

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Vol. 36, No 2 July - September, 2008

Journal of the

Management

Training Institute,

SAIL, Ranchi

An ISO 9001 : 2000 Institute

ContentsFEW THOUGHTS

FEATURE ARTICLES

Competitive Advantage Through Human Capital - The PSU Imperative

If Self-Actualisation is your goal, begin with Role Crystallisation

Milestone Events Towards Better Resource Planning and

A Pragmatic Organisational Approach in Implementing ERP

Attrition - A Bigger Challenge for HR in Steel Industries for the Coming Years

Training for Business Excellence

READERS FORUM

Mentoring : An Effective Tool for Organizational Excellence

CASE STUDY

Training Climate Survey : A Study on Public Sector Organizations in West Bengal

ARTICLE DIGEST

Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership

BOOK REVIEW

Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right

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vfHkuo dk;Z i)fr;ksa ds ek/;e ls vfHkizsj.kk

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cost Management : A Select Bibliography


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Chief Editor

Shri S. P. PatnaikExecutive Director (HRD)

Associate Chief EditorShri M.R. PandaDy General Manager (Acad) & Sr FM

Editorial Board

Dr. Hari HaranDy General Manager (Acad) & Sr FM

Dr. S.K. BhattacharyaDy General Manager (Acad) & Sr FM

Dr. P.K. BanerjeeDy General Manager (P & A)

Dr. T. GhoshalAsstt General Manager (Acad) & Sr FM

For internal circulation only

The views expressed by the authors are

their own and do not reflect those of themanagement

Vol. 36, No 2 July - September, 2008


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CONTENTS

Few Thoughts S. P. Patnaik

Feature Article

Competitive Advantage Through Human Dr Pramod Pathak 1

Capital - The PSU Imperative Dr Saumya Singh

IfSelf-Actualisation is your goal, begin Madhurendra K. Varma 6

with Role Crystallisation

Milestone Events Towards Better Resource Dr. Onkar Nath Dutta 17

Planning and A Pragmatic Organisational

Approach in Implementing ERP

Attrition - A Bigger Challenge for HR in Steel S. K. Panda 21

Industries for the Coming Years

Training for Business Excellence Dr. T. Ghoshal 30

Readers Forum

Mentoring: An Effective Tool for Dr. Binod Kumar Singh 35

Organizational Excellence

Case Study

Training Climate Survey: A Study on Rita Basu 39

Public Sector Organizations in West Bengal

Article Digest

Social Intelligence and the Biology of Daniel Goleman 52

Leadership Richard Boyatzis

Book ReviewConfronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Larry Bossidy 55

Get Things Right Ram Charan

U

fl f U . U 58

Bibliography

Cost Management: A Select Bibliography Dr. P. K. Banerjee 63


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F ew T h o u g h t s

S

teel Industry has been blessed with prosperity and optimism with the dawn of the 21stcentury. SAIL plants recorded all time best production and operational effi ciencies by

better input and logistics management. However, the sudden global meltdown caused bythe recent mortgage crisis in the US has reversed the fortunes of steel industry and thesector is reeling under pressure to cut prices and production due to lack of demand andstock pile up. As a result of the market collapse banks have stopped lending which hasresulted in blocking project work at almost every corner of the world and demand forsteel has gone down drastically resulting into an unsold stock of 2.5 million tonnes by theend of October, 2008.

Economics as we understand is a scientific discipline. It uses a number of tools, and likeany tool it can be used to create or destroy. e problem is that the damage we are facingnow is different from anything we have known. e global meltdown - as it is poeticallyreferred to - has not been caused by a breakdown in production, by inflation, by socialupheaval, or even by war. ose are the usual suspects when our economy is real - thatis , when our economy is measured in goods and services. But when an economy isrunning another program side by side, a program that has nothing to do with productionbut runs on speculation, we are in trouble. Moralists are blaming the mans greed anddishonesty for the disaster. And nobody could foresee the fundamental contradictions ofa virtual economy. However, few economists in the past have warned that these hedgefund managers and investment brokers were just playing monopoly on a huge scale.

In more ways than one, recession time is similar to war time where people are underconstant stress and fear. e need for a tough mind and courageous decisions is commonto both recessions and wars. In both, strong leadership practices are critical if teams haveto remain motivated and aligned despite setbacks. Recession time indeed calls for leaders

with special skills. Great Depression of 1929 is replete with the stories of those individualwho succeeded against the downturn because they were able to synergise their team withcreative involvement and collective vision. During recession, companies with vision couldsee an unparalleled opportunity to transform their areas of operation.

Steel industry is a real economy driven by the macro-economic goals of a country.To combat the meltdown and recessionary trends, SAIL has a leading will of iron.In this trying time, it is essential to take small, tiny acts of controlling operating costand managing precious resources as a matter of personal discipline in every activity weundertake. Routinely performed and implemented in our operations and projects, theselittle acts and steps will pile up one on top of another to eventually produce tremendousresults overcoting any obstacle on the way.

I am sure that the HR professionals, line managers and the project leaders would joinhands together and exhibit exemplary courage and spirit to go forward in the task ofnation building in this critical hour.

Perhaps the old African proverb says it best : When spider webs unite, they tie up alion.

(Satyaprakash Patnaik)


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1GROWTH Vol. 36 No. 2 July-September 2008

Competitive Advantage Through Human Capital

- The PSU Imperative

Dr Pramod Pathak*

Dr Saumya Singh**

ABSTRACT

As India gained independence the powers that be embarked upon a roadmap for

industrial development of the country. The role was assigned to Public Sector

Undertakings (PSU) and the responsibilities were industrial development, self

reliance, capital formation, import substitution, employment generation and

economic growth. Some sixty years down the line we seem to have achieved these

objectives in some measure but are still far behind the developed countries many of

which started their journey as an independent entity somewhere around the same

period as India. Our performance in the international arena is not what it needs to

be - be it sports, technology or trade. Yes, Reliance, TATA and Birla are some names

that have brought respectability to Indian industry but there is still long way to go.

And the journey on this path can only be successfully undertaken if we increase our

competitiveness. Particularly, in case of our PSUs. Technology is not the issue, it can

be purchased. The issue is our human resources which can give us the competitive

advantage by increasing the productivity of both the human as well as the

technological capital. Our competitive advantage today has to be attained only

through the human capital. This article discusses the issues and implications related

to human capital formation with special reference to the public sector undertakings.

Prologue

Liberalisation, globalization and privatization are too hackneyed expressions tofind place in management literature today. Yet, they have made such an impactthat the very grammar of business has changed. It is against this backdrop that the

present Indian business scene has to be visualized particularly with respect to the

Public Sector Undertaking. There was a time when Indian industrialization was

synonymous with PSU, whose role was largely confined to self reliance, capital

formation, import substitution and technological development. Private sector was

there but barring the notable exceptions of the TATA and the Birla groups the restwere simply doing business without making much of a difference to the national

economy. Compare the scenario today - TATA, Birla, Reliance are all world class

Indian groups, both admired and feared globally. Indian companies find place in

top companies list, Indian business tycoons are present in the world s richest

persons list - India has gone global. But, there is still a long way to go, specially our

PSUs who have not made a mark globally. In the World trade we are still no where

near the US, China, Japan or even South Korea. Our performance in world trade

can be compared to our position in the world Olympics, exceptions notwithstanding.

*Associate Professor, Deptt. of Management Studies, ISMU, Dhanbad

** Asstt. Professor, Deptt. of Management Studies, ISMU, Dhanbad

Feature Article

HR may notHR may notHR may notHR may notHR may not

directly producedirectly producedirectly producedirectly producedirectly produce

revenue or gorevenue or gorevenue or gorevenue or gorevenue or go

out and find newout and find newout and find newout and find newout and find new

business or openbusiness or openbusiness or openbusiness or openbusiness or open

new markets butnew markets butnew markets butnew markets butnew markets but

it certainlyit certainlyit certainlyit certainlyit certainly

improves theimproves theimproves theimproves theimproves the

effectiveness ofeffectiveness ofeffectiveness ofeffectiveness ofeffectiveness of

the organizationthe organizationthe organizationthe organizationthe organization

that can help thethat can help thethat can help thethat can help thethat can help the

company findcompany findcompany findcompany findcompany find

new business ornew business ornew business ornew business ornew business or

markets.markets.markets.markets.markets.


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2Competitive Advantage Through Human Capital - The PSU Imperative

A lot, therefore, needs to be done. Our productivity is

still much lower, our quality still much inferior, our

market share still much smaller at the international

level. The scenario can be neatly summed up in one

sentence - our competitiveness needs to drastically

improve. Not only the large economies like the US and

China but even the smaller ones like Singapore andSouth Korea are much ahead. How to develop the

ability to compete and gain the competitive advantage

globally? This all important question must be

answered.

This review article is an attempt to find out how we

can make our PSUs gain the competitive advantage

and make their presence felt globally. Though, there

may be many factors that can help a company acquire

competitive advantage, the critical factor as it is now

realized is the Human Capital.

Why Human Capital ?

Classical psychologists believe that a human being uses

around 10% of his latent intellectual abilities, the

remaining being not used for a variety of reasons. Our

concern today is to gain sustainable competitive

advantage for the organisation. The greatest scope thus

lies with the human resources where theoretically

atleast the scope of improvement is around 90%. This

realization has, therefore, made organizations give a

relook at a policy on human resources, making them

turn their attention towards the human capital which

holds tremendous promise and has tremendous

potential. And we have witnessed what the human

capital is capable of doing. Let us take the example of

the game of cricket. There was a time when only test

matches were played. Scoring 250 runs in a day was

rated as a decent job, then came the one dayers 220 -

230 runs per side were reasonable and 250 very

competitive. Gradually, the benchmarks changed with

improvisations continuously taking place. Today, even

400 is not winnable. And in the 20-20 cricket the teams

run amok hitting some 220 runs in just 20 overs. This

is how the human element has developed and

changed. The analogy tells a lot about the potential of

the human element and the promise it holds.

As ignorance gives way to enlightenment, organizations

are turning their attention towards human resources

as the most valuable of the resources. There was a time

when human resource was regarded as one of the many

resources that could lead to profitability of the

organization. But with more and more information and

insight into the competence and capability of the

human resource being gained, there are more and more

people who would now like to vouch that man is centralto organizations. Perhaps we are now inching closer to

the answer to the long standing question - what makes

enterprises tick, raised by Sir Thomas More in early

fifteenth century. Though for Thomas More reason why

enterprises failed to operate efficiently was poor

management, the phrase poor management in itself

has proved a complex concept to define.

Organizations are people centric entities and their

competitiveness depends on people, technology

notwithstanding. We may take a cue from what Sam

Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart had told Fred

Luthans once when asked what was the answer to

successful organizations. For Walton People are the

key. The technology can be purchased and copied. It

levels the playing field. The people on the other hand

cannot be copied. Their ideas, personalities,

motivation and organizational cultural values cannot

be copied. Recognized as human capital the human

resources of an organization, their competence and

the way they are managed, represent the competitive

advantage of the modern days organizations. It all

started with Taylor - the economic rationality of

human being. Taylor was right. But, this was not the

whole truth. Mayo too was right. And we get the

economic emotional man - the human capital that is

capable of doing wonders.

In fact, technology was never as subservient to people

as it is today given the nuances of the knowledge

economy that we are into. Little wonder, the

Government of India has taken steps to set up the

national knowledge commission to enable the country

to sharpen its knowledge edge. In a world where

technology and money is available copiously, it is the

human capital that is going to give the cutting edge.

Rightly then does Bill Gates proclaim that the

inventory, the value of his companywalks out the door

every evening. Nothing more impacts the bottom line

than the people.


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The HR imperative

Human Resource Management has been uniquely

placed today in terms of helping organizations achieve

bottom line results. Why this shift? There was a time

when HR was supposed to be staff function having no

strategic role to play. This idea now has been made to

turn on its head. In fact, effective HR is the strategy.The simple reason why this has happened is that there

is now proof available to show that investment in

human resource does pay off and the people who used

to debunk HR efforts as gimmick are now paying

serious attention to it. The study that postulates HRs

impact on profits was carried out at the center for

effective organizations at the University of Southern

California sometime back. Ed Lawler and Susan

Mohrman completed an intensive study of

management practices in Fortune 100 companies thatdemonstrated that employee involvement practices

such as information sharing, skills training, rewards

programs, and empowerment efforts-all of which fall

squarely into HRs domain - show a significant

bottom-line return. The study, then, in no uncertain

terms suggests that the kinds of practices that HR

develops and supports impinge upon the bottom-line.

According to Lawler, HR may not directly produce

revenue or go out and find new business or open new

markets but it certainly improves the effectiveness ofthe organization that can help the company find new

business or markets. HR, thus, is crucial in

determining profitability and growth of a company.

Thus for countries and companies alike human capital

is the key to competitiveness.

Knowledge as the Critical Factor

Classical economic theory distinguished between two

factors of production-capital and labour. Alfred

Marshall added management as the factor. Gary Backen

drew a distinction between unskilled and specialized

labour to create human capital. Against this backdrop,

managers see the emergence of a knowledge-based

capitalism. As this capitalism is developing today, brain

has become the critical means of production. Human

Resource Management today is largely managing

brains. Companies will increasingly be measured by

their knowledge rather than their physical assets. It is

this knowledge that is responsible in helping companies

acquire competitiveness; it is this that leads to human

capital formation. It will not be out of place to

distinguish among different levels of knowledge. First,

there is knowledge as raw material- facts, information

and data. Such knowledge contains the ingredients of

information clutter and overload. The second type of

knowledge is insight. Insight connotes seeing into asituation leading to connections defined by inner

perception, or representation of knowledge- the Aha!

experience. Then we have ideas which are

interconnected insights that we can run with. Finally,

we have knowledge as perceived value to customer or

other stakeholders.

However, the knowledge in itself may not be of value

unless it is customized to suit customers needs. With

due apologies to Francis Bacon, relevant knowledge,

not mere knowledge, is power. It depends on the

managers how they use knowledge and create human

capital. Years ago when Henry Ford decided to make

glass for his cars in his own glass plant, he asked the

experts on glass making to design a factory that would

roll out plate glass in a continuous process. The experts

told him that it could not be done because glass had

always been made in batches. Ford insisted that only

production in the manner he visualized would be

sufficiently economic to satisfy the needs of the

customers. He advertised for engineers who had never

made glass before. Thus, he assembles a team that did

not know that what he wanted had never been done.

And in time they made glass in a continuous process

as had been demanded. To do so they had to disregard

the traditional know how and question all

assumptions that previously had prevented such a

great improvement in glass making. The manager had

set a goal. He had a questioning mind; he needed help

from men who all were willing to question the old

assumptions. Human capital, we thus see can work

wonder if utilized properly.

Sometimes transformation of knowledge from one to

another is required. And this transformation is a

product of creativity, which gives the cutting edge.

Creativity enables the transformation of one form of

knowledge to the next. For example, the nonlinear,

discontinuous processing of data leads to the

perception of the relationships and connections, to


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4Competitive Advantage Through Human Capital - The PSU Imperative

insight. The act of perceiving relationships and ideas,

and the creativity with which we pursue ideas

engenders value. In each case, creativity comes with

quantum leaps in insights and understanding that lead

to value. Creativity is a process with a grammar. When

we add information technology to the mix of creativity

and knowledge, we get a particularly potentcombination: capabilities to represent deploy, and

track knowledge coupled with technologies to

promote collaboration across divergent disciplines

and perspectives.

Creating the human capital

Human Capital theory scores over the assumption of

the labour as homogenous factor. Labour is

heterogeneous and firms are now investing in training

specialized labour to gain competitive advantage.Training is no longer a cost. It is an investment that

enhances the worth of human resources. It is the

training that leads to human capital formation by

value addition.

The OECD defines human capital as the knowledge,

skills, and competencies and other attributes

embodied in the individuals that are relevant to

economic activity. The problem with this definition

is that measuring these attributes is difficult. Further,

the contribution of human capital can only bemeasured in objective terms by profits or

productivity which depends on several other

antecedent variables. Thus correlating human capital

with economic growth is not very easy. The state of

Kerela is an example which is high in some of the

attributes of human capital like education and health

but still lags behind in economic growth in

comparison to many other states of India which are

low in several human capital indices. In fact the

contemporary view is that more than economicdevelopment in terms of per capita income, it is the

human development index that is a measure of

prosperity. This may hold good for organizations in

even greater measure. In a knowledge driven

economy, competition of a firm will definitely be

determined by competitiveness of the human

resources. It is an axiomatic truth that the human

element is the key moderator in transformation of

material and natural resources into wealth.

Human capital focuses on the economic behavior of

individuals, especially on the way their accumulation

of knowledge and skills enables them to increase their

productivity and their earnings, and also helps in

increasing the productivity and wealth of the society

at large. The most commonly raised question of course

is how to generate knowledge in an organization. Thatan organization has to learn and create new knowledge

as a source of competitive advantage is a well accepted

fact. However, what eludes many is the right approach

to creating an organization that is truly capable of

harnessing its total learning potential and translating

it into business competitiveness. The focus of effort

has been pitched largely on creating the right climate

and culture conducive to learning in an organization.

What needs to be understood here is that the structure

of the organization plays an equally important role.

The learning individual

The structure together with the climate and the culture

holds the key to the transformation process-

transformation of the people so that their capabilities

are enhanced. While the structure provides for smooth

flow of knowledge that transforms people, the climate

and the culture facilitate growth of knowledge. The key

to growth of knowledge is individual attitude to

knowledge rather than knowledge per se. That is, lettingthe knowledge pass through the creative throughput

of the brain of the individual who is ready to receive,

assimilate and apply- the learning individual. Unless

this is allowed, knowledge is not subject to application

that gives value. Thus, there is need for creating the

learning individual.

Knowledge, attitude and practice are the three

essentials of the learning individual. Knowledge must

be backed by an attitude that for putting knowledge to

practice. Unless this happens knowledge remainsuseless. The Indian folktale paraphrased here sums this

up very well. The tale The fowler and the pigeons is

about a fowler who made his living by catching pigeons

and selling them. Perturbed by their dwindling

numbers, the chief of the pigeon tribe went to a sanyasin

seeking help. The sanyasin gave a mantra that the

pigeons were to chant aloud while venturing out. The

mantra was the fowler will come, lay his net and throw

the grains. Do not be allured and get trapped.


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The pigeon chief made his tribe members to learn this

mantra by heart and recite loudly. When the fowler

came next day he found the pigeons reciting the

mantra. Baffled and dejected, he went back. The same

thing happened the following day. The fowler was

highly disappointed as his livelihood was threatened.

Seeing the fowler return forlorn and empty handed ontwo consecutive days his wife enquired what was

wrong. On knowing the whole story his wife insisted

to lay the net next day. Though the fowler had his

doubts yet he gave his wifes advice a try. To his dismay

the fowler found that the pigeons one by one got

trapped even as they were chanting the mantra. They

had failed to apply the knowledge, which was given to

them. The issue was not knowledge; it was the

application that was critical.

How to make this happen is the important question.

The central features of an organization competing in

the knowledge economy are creativity and innovation.

The intangibles occupy an increasingly important role

in value creation. Organizations must, then, focus on

individuals whose limits of insights and capability

needs to be expanded. One thing that must be borne

in mind here is that it is the individual who plays the

pivotal role in organizational learning. Companies,

then have to reorient their HR practices in order to

achieve this. For this HRD has to be integrated in thesystem rather than being an intervention made on

piece meal basis. The approach of organizational

development has to be followed.

Conclusion

For an organization to survive it has to learn. But

organizational learning cannot be separated from

individual learning. Organizational learning is culture

while individual learning is an attitude. The two need

to go together. Organizational learning can be said tooccur when individuals within an organization

encounter a problematic situation and gear themselves

up to face it on the organizations behalf. The first

imperative then is that organizational learning requires

individuals to be the learning agents who experience

problems and issues on behalf of the organization and

represent its concerns. Organizational learning is, to a

large extent an individual centric mode of reason, which

leads to Human Capital Formation. Individuals learn

and act on behalf of the organization and it is the

individuals experiences, which is contextualized by

objectives and images of the organization. Thus,

organizational structures that encourage the

individuals wish and ability to learn need to be put in

place.It is certainly no surprise that many forward thinking

organizations have embarked on the arduous task of

reinventing the human resource function as well as the

organization as a whole. A lot of Indian corporations

today are taking keen interest in internal corporate

development programs because they believe that these

can help broaden the mental horizons of the executives

and help them create a smarter workforce. In fact,

corporate are investing in training of workers also

because they believe that the value addition can leadto human capital formation. There is need to plan

intense employee development programs at greater

frequency rather than long duration and less frequent

ones in order to effectively create the human capital.

One important aspect that needs to be realized is that

rather than focusing on high performers only, the

managements must give attention to development of

the lesser mortals of the organizational universe. There

is enough proof to vindicate the idea that human capital

formation is the road to competitive advantage. PSUsthat wish to take the challenge of global competition

head on must focus on human capital formation.

References

1. Employment News, Vol.XXX No. 20 August 13-19, 2005, New

Delhi

2. Luthans Fred, Organisational Behaviour, Mc Graw Hill

Irwin, 9th Edition, 2002

3. Horst Albach, Managing Brains, Global Business Review,

Vol.2, No. 1, Jan-Jun 2001

4. Rao, Hemant H, Burning Issues of Learning, The Economic

Times, June 1998

5. Ahead in Kerala, Frontline, September 22, 1995

6. Cutterbuck David & Stuart Crainer, Makers of Management,

Rupa and Co., N. Delhi, 1992

7. Edward E. Lawler III, Susan Albers Mohrman and Gerald E.

Ledford, Jr. Strategies for High Performance Organizations:

The CEO Report San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998


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6

* MD, Aakankshaa Management Consultants, Pune

If Self-Actualisation is your goal,

begin with Role Crystallisation

Madhurendra K. Varma*

ABSTRACT

It was sometime in the 1940s that Nehru said: Even if you wish to keep standing

where you are, you must keep running! This was already true in those bygone days;

but to-day it is pertinent and imperative just for our very existence!

Therefore, just dont expect or wait for the Organization or your boss to hand out

what you are required to do. You better pro-act about what you believe you would or

should wish to do in terms of your present capabilities and the potential for

acquiring better capabilities that you can develop, mostly on your own and somewhat

on the help your organizational structure can provide.

In this age of vast changes, jobs too have been changing both in their context and

contents. It is time that you take ownership of your own career. Besides, for all such

people who are keen on self-actualisation, mere role-clarity will not do. Both for

ownership of your career and for self-actualisation, role-crystallisation is essential

which, in effect, goes beyond someone else doling out to you as to what you should,

and should not, do.

It calls for honest self-introspection with a view to identifying your inclinations,

strengths and potentials, and then going ahead with self-development. It also requires

that you develop your subordinates too. When you are satisfied that you have done

the developments on yourself and your subordinates, you are ready to speak out to

your management with courage of conviction that you are ready and willing to

offer wider and richer services. That, in a nutshell, is role-crystallisation.

And for acting on such role-crystallisation, it is not only you but your organisation as

well which shall come out the richer for it!

Introduction

For enabling a manager to perform consistently with optimum utilisation of his

potential, a professionally-awake organisation may do its best in arenas that lie

very much under its domain by remaining agile in anticipating and managing

change, its strategic planning, its encouragement for creativity, its adherence to ethics,

and its readiness for technological advancements. It may also try its best to stay

adequately active on human resource development by providing to its employees

timely and right inputs of training, and customer-market reflexes in keeping with

the demands of the fast-changing times in which we live today. Assume too that the

HRD system also provides role-clarity to all the key-players, if not to all employees.

Feature Article

It will not doIt will not doIt will not doIt will not doIt will not dofor a manager tofor a manager tofor a manager tofor a manager tofor a manager to

passively acceptpassively acceptpassively acceptpassively acceptpassively accept

the rolethe rolethe rolethe rolethe role

assigned andassigned andassigned andassigned andassigned and

clarified (if atclarified (if atclarified (if atclarified (if atclarified (if at

all) to him byall) to him byall) to him byall) to him byall) to him by

others; he has toothers; he has toothers; he has toothers; he has toothers; he has totake ownershiptake ownershiptake ownershiptake ownershiptake ownership

of his ownof his ownof his ownof his ownof his own

functionsfunctionsfunctionsfunctionsfunctions.....


11/70


Although all these inputs on the manager are

required and welcome, let us take due note of the fact

that these are inputs from sources external to the

manager; he is only a recipient of what others have

concocted for him. Personally, he has made no

contribution of his own to give shape to himself!

In the current situation when changes at fast pace and

on mind-boggling scale have been taking place, we

already see that the context as well as the contents of

many jobs is disappearing due to technological

changes and fast obsolescence of products, work

methods, and services. Employees at almost every

level are having to unlearn much of what they were

experts in, and come up with newer combinations of

knowledge and skill if they wish to stay on or grow

in their career.

Yet another factor that has been compelling the

changes in the context and contents of jobs is the

ongoing movement for replacing the pyramid

organisation with flatter structure. As organisation

structures are flattened, decentralised, and turned

upside down, managers often have to rethink in

fundamental ways as to what they themselves and

their roles are going to be, or should be.

This can be an extremely challenging task: How can

you learn to see yourselves a new? How can you find

fresh ways of thinking, behaving, and communicating

with those you work with?

These require managers at all levels to embrace much

wider span of duties with greater degree of

responsibility and authority. Under these

circumstances, it will not do for a manager to passively

accept the role assigned and clarified (if at all) to him

by others; he has to take ownership of his own

functions. This means his taking the initiative to givesuch shape to his own role that will enable him to

perform to his full potential, in his own unrelenting

judgement. This is the initiative, which introduces the

phenomenon of role-crystallisation -- taking it beyond

mere role-clarity!

In a sense, the element of role-crystallisation has

always been present -- even during the days when

technological changes on the current scale and pace,

and their implied compulsions, had not appeared on

the scene. The reason was the existence of that handful

of managers, who were particularly imbued with the

inner urge for self-actualisation. Such managers have

always required whether they are aware of it or not

- inputs from themselves in order to reach the stage of

self-actualisation. And that input, again, is role-crystallisation, as distinct from and beyond - mere

role-clarity.

We shall delve deeper into this here. First, let us

understand the connotations of role clarity, as

distinct from role crystallisation.

Role : Its implications

The Dilemma: Whenever a manager moves up the

ladder of his career, he is torn between:

a) His realisation and desire, on the one hand, to

function in a more significant and different

manner than he has done so far, so that his

contributions may be seen to be commensurate

with the higher position he now occupies; and

b) His failure many times at least initially to come

up with bright enough and easily practicable

ideas as to what really he could do about it.

The result: Usually, he is left to his own devices; and

he sinks even deeper into doing those very things,

which he believes himself to be an expert on. Being

unable to rise above, he continues to do what he had

been doing so far. Thus, a feature that gets added to

his style is that he now becomes even more fanatic

about perfection in what he does. In effect, he fails to

bring about real up-gradation in himself; he bids good-

bye to delegation to his subordinates, and thus puts

everything and everybody into disarray. He digs

deeper into his narrow, unidimensional role, and fails

to rise to the new and higher managerial role expected

of him.

Role-Clarity

This is essential for every performer not only for

those who have moved up the ladder but also for those

who are active about accomplishing their assigned

tasks. It must provide advice or information as to [i]

what one is expected to do or achieve [ii] under what


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8If Self-Actualisation is your goal,


limitations or with what facilities, and [iii] what are

the standards of his/her current performance.

What should be your efforts ?

Even for doing the above-stated, you the performer

need a broader view of the jobs surrounding yours.

And irrespective of whether you are on a senior positionor not, you should keep trying to get out of the tunnel;

you should take a seat on the helicopter and get a

perspective view of your job in relation to the total

organisational objectives, and to other related jobs.

You must always try to step back from the humdrum

of the day-to-day chores. And you should develop the

insight to think through your job in order to get to the

purpose behind what you are doing, and what you may

do to make it more purposeful so that it establishes

you in your organisation as an undeniably usefulperformer and adds to your go-getting self-esteem,

among other things.

Where does it ultimately take you ?

In the ultimate analysis, the recommendations made

above can take you to a state where your efforts are

not confined only to finding out what your role is, but

are extended togiving shapeto the role you ought to

play at the work place!

However, there are certain inherent situations in most

organisations that act as impediments to your

attaining such a position. They are:

even at the overall organisational level (i.e. in

regard to the broad sectors into which the

organisation is divided), very few roles are clearly

defined; and

even if somewhere, some time, they had been

defined, very few are truly valid today, and lived

up to in practice.Such impediments lead to the following conditions

that are fairly rampant in most organisations:

The corridors of organisations keep resounding

with the spoken or unspoken statements to the

effect: This is not my job! or Is this also my

job?

Where pains were taken to define the roles, lot of

distortions might have crept in by now either

because of practical difficulties or ego problems

at inter-personal levels [which, incidentally, are

at the root of inter-departmental conflicts too].

Primary Functions, Key-result areas and targets

We are not talking about job-descriptions here. They

become out-dated even the day after they are written-up! Besides, they (i) create problems of restrictive

rigidities and (ii) harbour possibilities of one party

taking undue advantages of the other.

What we are talking about is identifying the primary

functions, the key-result areas and the targets

inherent in each job. Key-result areas and targets

are essentially related to a task or a cluster of tasks;

they assume newer dimensions and urgencies in

relation to the situation surrounding the task or tasks.

But the primary functions are related to a job, whose

primary function hardly undergoes much change with

passage of time or in relation to the tasks assigned

under the job. For example, the primary function of

a Finance Manager will almost always be to take

timely measures and care to ensure the financial

health of an organisation by ensuring that the right

amount of money, at the right cost, is available for

funding the necessary activities of the organisation.

The life cycle of primary function may well be ten

years or so. On the other hand, the key-result area,

under the Finance Managers job, may well change

every two-to-three years, depending on what the

current situational urgencies are. For example, for the

first two or three years, raising fund may be the key-

result area, for the next few years, greater control on

expenditure or on leakage/pilferage of funds, and

during the next few years, collection of dues from

customers may assume greater importance. Targets,

on the other hand, have a much shorter cycle of a year

or so during which certain stipulated, pre-agreed

results are required to be achieved.

These are the issues that role is concerned with. What

you should seek to know with clarity is your role on a

given job, or in a given situation. In particular, you

must insist on obtaining the primary functions of

your job since that determines the contribution you

can and are expected to make by managing in

your own ways the activities contained in your job.


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Clarity of role is very crucial for nurturing your {i} self-

confidence, {ii} performance, and {iii} progress in the

organisation.

It is also crucial for giving shape to your attitude

towards your superiors and subordinates; it

determines whether your inter-personal relationships

would become positive or negative. In the absence of

role-clarity, even persons with brilliant past records

of performance have been known to degenerate into

rendering them as mediocre members of the team or,

in some cases, to end up as disgruntled and bitter.

They become cynical, they are devoid of self-

confidence, and they begin to act as dead weights in

the organisation.

1. Role-crystallisation

Role-clarity vs. Role-crystallisation

So far we have described and analysed what role and

role-clarity mean. We have also considered the

implications of what can happen when roles are not

clarified. It is worth noting that what we have

concentrated on so far are the passive aspects of what

others do, or dont do, about your role; we have not

yet discussed what you can, and ought to, do to give

substance and shape to your own role.

What you can do to give shape to the role you should

like to play is a far more important and promising

realm, from the point of view of both your professional

satisfaction and the organisations benefits. In other

words, the issue before you is: What can I do to

crystallise my role?

Let me shake you up - tickle you with the following

questions:

Why should you depend on others to dole out your

roles to you? And why should you remain shackled by

the boundaries set by others in regard to your roles?

Why shouldnt you break through such arbitrary

boundaries, and establish your own roles in terms of

the expertise, temperament, enthusiasm, sense of

values, priorities and leadership qualities that you

possess or wish to develop?In short, why shouldnt you

have the freedom to express yourself through, and

on, your own job?

A pertinent counter-question at this point from you

might be: Why go into all this rigmarole? Why not stick

to: Chalta Hai {Let things be} culture?

There are two compelling answers one very down-

to earth, the other related to your self-esteem:

The down-to-earth answer: Who knows whatyour job will look like after cataclysmic changes

sweep through your organisation or industry,

and they engulf the very company you work for?

Who knows whether your job will even exist, and,

frankly, who cares other than you? The reality

in todays, and tomorrows, ambience is that

nobody owes you a career; your career is literally

your business. You are in competition with

millions of employees like you; and you need to

build up and take ownership of your career,

your skills and the timings of your moves.

It is your responsibility to protect this personal

business of yours from harm and to position it to

benefit from the changes in the environment. Nobody

else can do that for you.

The self-esteem answer: Perhaps this is even

more compelling, with a stamp of permanency

about it. All said and done, deep down, we do

crave for a calling in our job; we are not just

after a bundle of tasks, the performance of which

neither adds to our self-esteem nor to the esteem

in which others hold us. Usually, we are stuck

with jobs, which are too small for our spirit. We

do want - actually, we do need to express

ourselves in terms of satisfying

accomplishments, our style of performance, the

expertise we bring to the ways in which we do

our jobs. We do wish to leave behind an imprint

of our personality on the jobs we handle.

It is for these reasons we have to give serious thought

to how we can crystallise our role unless we are

made of a stuff which keeps us content to remain

insensitive to the imperatives described above.

How do you go about crystallising your role ?

Introspection: What do you do to re-orient yourself ?

When it comes to role-crystallisation, the ball moves

right into your court, as already implied in the


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foregoing observations. Since it is you who have to give

shape to your role, you have got to take a closer look

inside yourself. You have to find out not only what

features of management you are made of or are good

at, but what more you have to do to orient your

managerial style in order to upgrade your capability

for giving shape to your own role.

The areas in your inner self that require a closer look

are:

The factors which motivate you;

Your style of decision-making;

Are you assertive enough and in the right

manner?

Your planning orientation.

The factors which motivate youWhat usually motivate you might comprise the factors

that are: result-oriented, job-satisfaction-oriented,

career-advancement-oriented, or a mix of these. Do

not import any value judgement here as to whether it

is right or wrong to have such orientations; just try to

obtain an objective picture as to what really motivates

you. Only if you find that the combination of factors

that motivate you is heavily parasitical { what the

organisation can do for me} in nature, you may have

to do some adjustment in yourself. If your motivation

weighs heavily toward extracting merely one-way

gains for yourself without a reasonable balance

between what you give to the job and what you take

out of the job, then there is and should be much

for you to worry about. You must snap out of this

fixation, otherwise, you will be in no position to give a

reasonable or workable shape to your role to

crystallise your role.

Once you resolve this matter, go ahead and nurture

the factors that motivate you. But remember: the

important criterion, in the context of role-

crystallisation, is not what the job can do for you but

what you can do, or impart, to the job!

Your style of decision-making

You have also to examine critically the style of your

decision-making in the light of certain home truths.

They comprise a highly participative process:

i) For quite some decades, it was believed that top-

down control was good for effective

management. Managers were fed on the belief

that they were in charge, and they acted

accordingly. Gone are those days. The

supervised personnel are mostly knowledge-

workers, and in their own areas of operations,they are likely to have far more knowledge and

expertise than their bosses can manage to have.

Bosses have got to recognise that their old

formal role is now an anachronism; they have

to present themselves to their staff as

resources, as trouble-shooters and

facilitators who will have to tackle specific

problems, with maximum participation from

their staffand

ii) While subordinates, peers and superiors do look

up to you for exercising your authority

[otherwise they may laugh at you], they do not

accept your authority without subjecting your

decisions to their critical examination. All your

decisions are judged by others especially in the

light of the outcome of your decisions, and

eventually you earn their acceptance only if {a}

your decisions are found to be based on sound

judgements and {b} they [the decisions] turn out

to be successful most of the times.

True, none of us can claim to possess, or display, good

judgement all the time; and not displaying good

judgement at times should not discourage you. There

is a very wise and pertinent saying:

Good judgement comes from experience; and

experience comes from bad judgement!

What decisions are you after? The best, the

perfect, decisions ?i) No, what really works is the best-suited decision;

best-suited to the situation surrounding the

issues, to the temperament and level of

enthusiasm of the implementers, to the

emotional or vested-interest-profile of the people

who are going to be affected by your decision.

And this can be taken care of only when you

combine in yourself the reflexes and habit of


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doing wide-spread consultations at the initial

stage, and of the courageous one-man decision-

taking that you have to do at the subsequent stage.

ii) While it is essential that intense and wide-spread

consultations take place at the initial decision-

making stage, every body wishes that,finally, it

is you, their leader, who must make upyourmind

and take your own decision. You have to live up

to that.

iii) The crucial requirement is that a leader must

takedecision, and take it himself at his own

risk and responsibility. Dilly-dallying or seeking

a compromise or a consensus decision does

not work.

Are you assertive enough and in the Right

manner ?

Why is it Necessary ?

In a nutshell, it is essential for your self-respect for

ensuring that you continue to have a healthy and

positive approach toward your work, your colleagues

and your workplace. In specific terms, it helps you to:

avoid the possibility of your being exploited by

others;

protect yourself from feeling let down;

face life with confidence;

get what is legitimately yours, and

give to others what they deserve.

You must remember that the people you deal with

generally fall into two categories: {i} the people with

difficulties, and {ii} the people who are difficult. Those

with difficulties deserve your constructive help,

leading them to self-dependence; and those who are

difficult need to be made to reckon with yourassertiveness!

Assertiveness is not just getting your own way and

always winning. It must not be confused with

aggressiveness or arrogance, nor is it just crude

boldness, nor manipulation of others for bringing

them round to what you want.

Assertiveness means being confident, and positive

about yourself while respecting others. It means

remaining cool and composed, having the ability to

prevent yourself being exploited by others, and it

requires your developingthe art of saying No without

being rude.

Suggested steps for Developing Assertiveness

1. Listen actively;2. Give due consideration to what is being said to

or asked of you, with empathy with a view

to agreeing if at all possible;

3. But dont agree simply because it is polite or

more tactful to do so. Your agreement must be

based on merits;

4. In case you find you cannot agree, be very critical

on yourself to demand from you a truly

convincingreason as to why you do not

cannot agree;

5. Put yourself in a position of the other person, and

see whether you can sayNo not only on the

basis of aggressiveness, but on reason and

reasonability;

6. The acid test of assertiveness: Even the person to

whom you sayNo should finally appreciate

(though he may not agree) why you had to say

No!

{Note: In the light of the advice offered above, just recall

to your mind the ongoing war of nerves going on now

[August-September 2008] between the West Bengal

Government and Trinamool Congress over the allotment

of land for Tata Motors Nano Project in Singur}. This

is a typical and eye-opening example in which the

Government took what it considered to be the the Best

Decision not the Best-Suited Decision. The havoc

created by this unintentional neglect of the crucial

element in decision-making explained above is there for

everybody to see! While the Government has lost its facein a very frustrating manner, industries in general have

started suffering from a creeping loss of trust as to

whether they should return to or go to West Bengal for

their very promising proposed projects. And above all,

grave embarrassment has been caused to the

Honourable Governor of West Bengal for all his

painstaking, genuine efforts to mediate in the matter!

All this because, in all honesty, the best - not the best-

suited decision was taken.}


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Your Planning Orientation

The better you plan, the more crystallised your role

becomes. Some of the questions you must keep asking,

in order to prevent yourself from becoming

complacent, are:

Are you aware of the latest knowledge/

technology relevant to your activities? When is

thatflash pointlikely to arrive beyond which you

cannot go on with your outdated existing

knowledge/technology?

What should be your plans for [a] disposal of the

existing equipment or methods, and [b]

training/retraining of your people to prepare

them for the new technology?

Are your subordinates suffering from monotony,

boredom, job irritation or mis-information?

What should you do now onwards to take care

of these?

Do you relate yourself to the kinds of people who

work with you?

How much tension are you subjecting yourself

to? Why? What can you do to reshape your role

in order to minimize these tensions?

If you habituate yourself to asking these questions

constantly, your own fund of experience will produce

honest, workable answers. And it is these answers that

will provide a rich guidance about the lines on which

you ought to crystallise your role.

Extroversion: What do you do for Others ?

We have so far discussed the necessity and benefits of

introspection in the context of your role-

crystallisation. But you play your roles essentially by

interacting with others, dont you? Therefore, your role

crystallisation must include extroversionyourefforts to relate yourself to others by reorienting your

relationships with them. And your relationships with

others must be shaped in terms of your work-

relationships not merely on your personal rapport,

since most of your interactions are around the work

you and they do.

Some important aspects that need special attention

and efforts from you are:

Enriching first the repertoire of your own

knowledgeand skills

Clarifying roles to your subordinates

Enriching their jobs

Delegation and

Asking for roles commensurate with what you

finally crystallise

Enriching first the repertoire of your own

knowledge and skills

Role-crystallisation does not mean your coming

up one fine morning to your boss and saying:

These are the functions I have decided I shall

perform from now on!

Role-crystallisation does entail some

preparatory work on yourself. First, determine

what combination of functions you believe you

can best handle taking into account your

current skills, inclinations and efforts you make,

or are willing to put in. This combination of

functions could well be within the logical ambit

of your current job.

But look beyond:

i. Take note of the emerging jobs that your

organisation and you will soon have to take up;

ii. Also, take note of what you have to learn and

unlearn;

iii. And for such new jobs do identify and try to

master the combination of functions that you

may be required to perform.

However, before you do so, you have to be

honestly satisfied that you do have the requisite

knowledge, skill and capability for performing

the new combination of functions. What efforts

have you been making for acquiring the new

skill? Have you done enough, or do you still have

some milestones to cross? If yes, work diligently

to acquire adequate expertise till you are

satisfied.

Once you are satisfied, you have to make known

to your boss and others concerned as to what

functions you would like to perform. This has


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become all the more relevant today in the light of

the changes in jobs, job contents, changes even in

the production profile of your company itself

brought about by technological advancements

and market-driven changes in products, work

methods, and services.

As mentioned earlier, the time has come when

you have to take ownership of your own career.

Some Interesting Cases:

Here are a couple of cases I was personally involved

with in a multinational organisation:

Case I: The Case of a brilliant engineer

This young man who had brilliant academic records

at an IIT was recruited as a Management Trainee and

assigned to the Production Department in a largefactory. During the first two years, his annual

performance reports were excellent, and his boss used

to talk about the employee in raptures. But come the

end of the third year, the same boss saw me (I was the

Personnel Director) specifically with the request that

the said employee be removed from his department.

His reasons: the employee had turned totally

indifferent to his job; he had become a dead-weight

and a bad example in the department. When I asked

the employee why his performance had declined sosteeply, he said that right from the beginning he was

assigned duties he had no interest in. He reminded

me that, during the final interviews for selection, he

had clearly stated that he would prefer to do techno-

marketing jobs. But the management placed him in a

factory, instead; and he was now unable to maintain

any interest in the tasks assigned to him. The interview

records substantiated his assertion. He went on to say

that he had already done a correspondence course in

marketing on his own time and at his own expense;

and he was, in fact, considering taking up an

interesting job offer from some other company.

I got in touch with our Marketing Department and

offered this young mans services for a trial period of

three months during which the payroll cost of this

employee would be borne by the Personnel

Department. Within a month, glowing reports began

coming in from the employees new boss; and at the

end of two months, the Marketing Department eagerly

absorbed the employee on a permanent post.

After some ten years of his success-records, that

employee was elevated to the Board of Directors in

Marketing!

Case II: The Case of a much-harassed typistThere was a typist in one of the sections of the Finance

Department at the Head Office. Separated from her

husband, she depended on her job to support herself and

her two children. She tried her best to prove a good typist

in order to retain her job. But her boss, a rigid stickler for

thoroughness and a hard task-master, always found

some fault or another in her work; and he would often

become nasty to her. She told her boss that she was fed

up with the routine chores, and wanted more challenging

tasks. She had told him she had passed stenography andsecretarial examinations at her own expense and she was

even willing to do his secretarial job without any

corresponding increase in her salary. But her boss had

laughed her off. I later came to know that she had started

seeing a psychiatrist because of the stress and agony

caused to her by her boss.

The interesting development that amused me was that

both the boss and the typist saw me separately within

two days each asking to be relieved of the other!

During my investigative chat with the typist, I learnt not

only about her consultations with a psychiatrist but also

about her great desire to use her secretarial expertise.

She admitted that she often failed to do the follow-up

jobs of her boss; but added that these failures were due

to her constant state of anxiety and stress, and the

monotony generated by the mere typing work she had

to do. She urged upon me that she be given a wider-

spectrum job on a trial basis involving planning,

organising, co-ordinating in addition to typing [even

stenography] functions. I was not so sure but the

enthusiasm coupled with self-confidence on her part

encouraged me to take a risk with her.

Just at that time our company was getting ready to host

a very important seminar with participants numbering

twenty or more coming from foreign countries. I

arranged for her to be included, on a trial basis, in the

team of lady secretaries. Within two days of the

commencement of the seminar, I started receiving


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unsolicited praise for this lady for her enthusiasm,

competence, amiability, faultless co-ordination of

secretarial, and travel needs, etc. And at the seminar

dinner on the final day, the participants made a special

mention of this ladys performance, and they even gave

her a gift! Later on, she rose to become the personal

secretary of one the Directors of the Company.

In both the cases, the following inherent lessons are

worth noting:

The persons concerned were misfits in their

assigned jobs, despite their roles being fairly-well

clarified;

Both of them had clear vision of what they were

more suited to do, and would like to do;

Having known this, they had not sat idle despite

the agony and stress they suffered by continuingto do jobs they knew they were not cut out for.

They had gone ahead and equipped themselves

with the required knowledge and expertise. Now

they were just rearing to go making their own

efforts to createthe chance to practise and thus

refine their skills;

When the time of reckoning came, they spoke

out with assertiveness and with confidence

despite the risk involved, and asked for a chance

to prove themselves. In other words, they took

ownership of their career and they crystallised

their roleat their own initiative. They were no

longer passive recipients of roles others would

dole out to them.

It is very important that the top management remains

receptive to such signals from employees who are

seeking to crystallise their roles, and who have the

courage of conviction to take up the matter with their

seniors. Any attempt to ignore, downplay, or browbeatsuch attempts by the employees can prove to be

demoralising for larger number of employees, besides

depriving the organisation of excellent opportunities.

Clarifying Roles to Your Subordinates

Having done your home work on yourself, you now

come to the stage of what you should do to your

subordinates as a preparation for crystallising your

roles. Before you can clarify your roles, you must realise

that your subordinates need to be clear about the roles

you expect them to play.

This you can achieve by means of a simple but

unconventional exercise. May be, once a year, you

could invite your subordinates, once at a time, and ask

each of them to place himself mentally in your

position, and then describe to you what he perceives

to be:

his bosssrole, in terms of his priorities, authority

and constraints

your role, in terms of your bosss priorities,

authority and constraints

your bosss expectations from you, in terms of his

priorities, authority and constraints.

Ask your subordinate to describe the above in thesequence given above, and do your best to put him at

ease, because he will most likely be very reluctant to

offer such descriptions before you. But once he opens

up and offers his perceptions on the above-mentioned

roles, you will discover surprising gaps between his

perceptions and the realities. This gives you a never-

before opportunity to clarify the position and to clear

your subordinates misunderstandings. And this

action on your part will almost automatically clarify

the roles not only your subordinates but yours aswell, in concrete and actionable terms!

A very useful by-product of this exercise is that setting

targets with mutual agreementwill emerge as a natural

corollary.

Enriching their jobs

Enrichment of your subordinates jobs leads to

reinforcing team spirit as well as to crystallisation of

your role. It is very important that your people are

protected from boredom, monotony and a grudging

feeling that their talents are not being fully utilised. As

mentioned earlier, every one craves to feel that his job

is not just a bundle of tasks but it is a calling. This

spirit ofcalling is sustained as long as the job presents

challenges howsoever small they may be for

creativeness, innovations, overcoming problems on

ones own, and the resultant recognition and career

advancements one may get.


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You may feel exasperated that it is not within your

power to change the nature or structure of your

subordinates jobs; but such exasperation does not

hold much water. In fact, we are not even being

suggesting that you change the nature or structure of

the jobs. What you need and is certainly possible

for you is to add progressively, through delegation,small doses of tasks or methods of performance that

would stretch the existing capabilities or skills of your

subordinates; this itself can go a long way to add zest

to their working. It is undoubtedly in your hands to

offer guidance, skill-support, encouragement and

recognition to your subordinates. It is just this

approach on your part, which will protect your

subordinates from the corroding effects of monotony,

boredom and under-utilisation.

Actually, a little deeper thinking will lead you to the

realisation that finding out new ways to enrich the jobs

of your subordinates is more a challenge to you than to

your subordinates! It dares you to remain innovative

on task assignments on an ongoing basis. By accepting

and acting upon this challenge, you also pave the

way to greater team spirit and effectiveness of your

subordinates on the one hand, and to greater

crystallisation of your own role, on the other.

Delegation

Please try to give honest answers to these questions:

i. Do you delegate?

ii. Do you delegate enough?

iii. What, in the name of delegation, do you pass

on to your subordinates?

Here are some specific criteria for your consideration

while answering these questions:

Do you delegate tasks that are interesting and

important? Or do you appropriate all such tasks

for yourself?

Are the tasks that you delegateuninteresting,

repetitive, risky, unglamorous, which you are

cunning enough to dump on your subordinates?

Do you or are you prepared to invest your

time and efforts on your subordinates to help

them tackle the newer and difficult tasks?

Do you budget for mistakes, which your

subordinates are likely to make while performing

delegated tasks, as a necessary price for their

learning to accomplish newer and more

challenging tasks?

Do you think you have genuine concern for

imparting superior knowledge, skill and self-

confidence to your subordinates?

After you come up with your honest answers to these

questions, you are ready to crystallise your stand on

delegation. The clearer you are about delegation, and

the more prepared you become to delegate tasks in

the right sense, the better shall be the roles of your

subordinates, and healthier shall be your crystallised

role.

2. Conclusion

Even where almost all the basic principles of

management are put into operation, individuals in the

organisation still may lack - and require a clear sense

of direction. It is this sense of direction among the

individuals that ensures that tasks and assignments will

be accomplished properly, within desirable cost, on

time and efforts. Therefore, a clear and easily

understandable structuring of roles is imperative.

Without that, there can be no certainty that your peopleare going to achieve targets or achieve them every time.

In any case, without role-clarity even the high-fliers

flounder and end up as nervous wrecks.

While role-clarity is desirable, it fulfils only a partof the

requirement. Role crystallisation represents the next

milestone beyond the one where someone else tells

you what your role is; and that is where you are ready

to achieve self-actualisation. It is actually the result

the expression of your urge to take ownership of

your job so that you can contribute your best in terms

of your expertise, temperament, enthusiasm, sense of

values, priorities and leadership qualities. You alone

know best what your potentials are.

Many of you may ask why at all we should go out of

our way to contribute beyond what our clarified role

requires. Even a decade ago, the only reason, which

was offered, was that those {few} who have the inner,

compulsive urge for self-actualisation would naturally


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like not to be shackled by the role assigned to them.

Instead of fitting themselves into their assigned role,

they would like the role to fit into them.

While this reason still holds good, another very real

reason has come into being in todays ambience. Due

to the great changes already here and now in

technology, job profile and even your companys

products profile, there is no guarantee that your current

jobs will exist. Nor is there any guarantee that your

employer will, or can, take care of your career. For this

reason as well, you will have to take charge of your

own career. That means not only taking charge of the

career you have or you wish to have, but togive shape

to the very role you playso that your career is ensured.

These observations apply not only to the seniors; they

apply to all levels of managers. What all managers needis to play a pro-active rolein giving shape to the role

they would like to play in consonance with their

talent, their temperament, and their sense of values.

This is something each manager alone can do on his

own; no one else can design this and tell him to act

upon it. You yourself have to craft the crystallisation

of your role, at your own initiative.

Essentially, role crystallisation is a function of self-

development. Unless you upgrade yourself, how can

you justifiably take a position that your current role is

not big or suitable enough for you? Initially, and in

large measure, it calls for your efforts to refine and

upgrade yourself to your fullest potential for its own

sake. Earning promotions or ensuring career-

positioning will take care of itself, in due course.

What it boils down to is thatyou shall have to begin

with auditing and re-orienting yourself. It is this need

for self-development that gives relevance to the

recommendations that you do introspection to findout how you stand on self-motivation, decision-

making, assertiveness and planning and then re-

orient yourself to rise to your full potentials. Unless

you are sound on these factors, no one will take you

seriously when you try to give shape to your role.

It requires you to willingly embark upon an agni-

parikshaa that takes you through the chemical

process of sublimation of your faculties and qualities.

Such sublimation, after the cooling-off process, leads

to your gettingcrystallised, which ultimately converts

you into a jewel-like substance and imparts to you a

permanent lustre! These shall stand you in good stead

even if/when all kinds of cataclysmic changes

surround you.

However, it is not enough that you do things to yourself

to expand your capabilities; you must also do likewise

to your subordinates for enriching them and their jobs.

Your people too must be built up to their full potential,

and they must be enthusiastic enough to offer youtheir willing support in your efforts to play your role

crystallised by you. It is in this context that we

recommend that you clarify to your people the

interdependence of all roles in your department,

enrich their jobs, and develop them through

delegation.

Only after you have made these developmental

inputs on yourself and on your people, you are in a

position to give a crystallised shape to your own role,

which, automatically, includes the role of your team.

Having done so, you must speak out, and ask for a

chance to prove yourself on the new role you wish to

play. And during the trial period, you must do your

best to master the required skill. This is the crux of the

exercise on role-crystallisation.

Role-crystallisation {even role-clarity} is not a process

that others will arrange and offer to you. You have to

reach out, and create the ambience in which your roles

become clear; and, beyond that they are crystallised

in consonance with your personality make-up.

As a result, it is you and your organisation as well that

shall come out the richer for it!


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Milestone Events Towards Better Resource

Planning and A Pragmatic Organisational

Approach in Implementing ERP

Dr. Onkar Nath Dutta*

ABSTRACT

Computers and Information Technology have contributed lot in improving the

efficiency of different aspects of the organisation. In these efficiency improvement

endeavour there had been few milestone events towards better resource planning and

those have been discussed in this paper. Supply Chain Management (SCM) and

Enterprises Resources Planning (ERP) are the latest techniques in this series have

encompassed almost every aspect of the organisation. ERP has already been

implemented in number of organisations in India, but due to wrong implementation

plan, some organizations could not derive the desired results. Taking the clue from

those failures a logical implementation steps have also been suggested in this paper.

Introduction

In this competitive world, the profit is achieved mostly by cutting cost and not byincreasing price. Accepting a technology, cutting cost is possible only by efficientutilisation of resources which in turn is possible by taking right decision by

processing right information at right time and also taking action on them at right

time. With the advent of computer and Information Technology (IT), there has beena sea change in the data collection and processing techniques. As a result, efficiency

of organisations have improved manyfold. In this journey of efficiency improvement

by proper planning implementing and controlling the resources, the first name that

comes is Material Requirement Planning (MRP) and the latest till date is Enterprises

Resources Planning (ERP). The present paper primarily traces the foot print of the

Journey from MRP to ERP.

Material Requirement Planning

Material requirement planning (MRP) is an inventory control process carried out

with the help of computer to estimate time phased requirements of assembly,subassemblies and components that are used for manufacturing product on

assembly line principles. Primarily IBM developed this in 1960. Japanese were first

to introduce the technique in industry, but its large scale implementation started

around 1970 in USA. MRP technique begins with exploding the end product and

developing the tree of assembly, subassemblies and components, known as Bill of

Material (BOM). The demand of end product obtained from Master Production

Schedule (MPS) when collated with BOM, gives the gross material requirement,

which is converted to net material requirement by deducting the materials already

* Management Consultant and Management Educator, Ranchi

Feature Article

ERPERPERPERPERP

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makes sure thatmakes sure thatmakes sure thatmakes sure thatmakes sure that

a firmsa firmsa firmsa firmsa firms

manufacturingmanufacturingmanufacturingmanufacturingmanufacturing

decisions aredecisions aredecisions aredecisions aredecisions are

made taking intomade taking intomade taking intomade taking intomade taking into

account theiraccount theiraccount theiraccount theiraccount their

impact on theimpact on theimpact on theimpact on theimpact on the

supply chain -supply chain -supply chain -supply chain -supply chain -

both upstreamboth upstreamboth upstreamboth upstreamboth upstream

and downand downand downand downand down

streamstreamstreamstreamstream.....


22/70

18Milestone Events Towards Better Resource Planning and

A Pragmatic Organisational Approach in Implementing ERP

in hand and in the pipe line. The purchase orders for

each material are then released as per their lead-time.

This system cuts down the inventory and reduces

delivery period.

Manufacturing Resources Planning

Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRPII) is anextension of MRP to the control area and encompasses

all the resources required for manufacturing. In the

1980s this had been attempted when marketing and

purchase information had been integrated with MRP,

BOM and details were shared with engineering

information, order release and order receipt where

tried to be integrated with billing and accounts

payable. With the increase in computing power,

software capabilities, storage etc. and by providing

numerous feed back loops between different modulesplanning on a piecemeal basis has been reduced.

Supply Chain Management

Global competitiveness and the expectations of

shareholders for high returns have shifted corporate

thinking from physical distribution management to

integrated logistic management and finally to Supply

Chain Management (SCM). SCM encompasses all the

facilities, functions and activities in procuring,

producing and delivering product / Service from

suppliers end to customers end. SCM performs two

distinct functions.

Physical function

The most visible part, which includes procurement

and conversion of raw material into parts,

components and finished goods and transporting all

of them from one point in the supply chain to the next.

Market Mediated Function

Less visible but equally important whose purpose isto ensure that the variety of product reaching the

market place matches with the consumer s

requirements.

Uncertainties

Now uncertainties like wrong forecast, poor quality of

inputs, machine breakdown, late deliveries etc. have

made the supply chain a complex one. Organizations

try to cope with these uncertainties by increasing the

inventory, which means cost. They want that the

suppliers will maintain the inventories and supply the

items as and when required. This means shifting the

inefficiency from one stage to the other. So instead of

stand alone, if the suppliers, manufacturers and

distributors work together by sharing information, the

inherent uncertainties may be reduced considerably.

SCM & ERP

Integration right from suppliers to customers as a part

of Chain and establishing planning and control

system, as an integrated one is a complex process. This

may be achieved by installing Enterprises Resources

Planning (ERP). The term ERP was first coined by

Gartner group of Stanford, Connecticut. It is neither a

conceptual break through, nor trully a new idea. ERP

essentially makes sure that a firms manufacturing

decisions are made taking into account their impact

on the supply chain - both upstream and down stream.

ERP packages aim to provide single integrated

software system handling a host of corporate

functions, including finance, human resources,

materials managements, sales and distribution. Other

tools which are also available with ERP like generating

web interfaces, coding and programme generation for

specialized requirements, report generation, data

import / export and a library of best practices fromwhich the best process for implementation, may be

chosen. The thoroughness of ERP packages is also

revealed by their multilingual capabilities as well as

their ability to work across different time zones and to

cope with multiple currencies. These characteristics

are very much desired by large organizations who want

to expand their activities throughout the world.

SCM Integration Strategies

In traditional management suppliers, manufacturers

and distributors operate independently maintaining

confidentiality of their critical information. But in SCM

they are linked in the form of a chain to develop and

deliver products as a single organization. So, SCM

requires there types of integration :

Information Integration

Decision Integration

Financial Integration


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Barring the first, the other two are conceptual and will

be dealt towards the end.

Information Integration

The input of ERP is the information gathered through

Electronic Data Interchanges (EDI). The customers

send their orders via EDI directly to order processingcentre, which automaticall

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