Organisational Behaviour Assignment Managerial Interview (Report)

By- Rishabh Mehta

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Date –

Subject-

Interviewed a manager with more than 7-8 years of experience in order to understand in depth the following-

a) The dilemma of managing the aspects of being a person and being a managerb) Life goals and aspirationsc) Challenges of fitting in the workplaced) Challenges of managing people- one on one and in groupse) Managing peers

In order to get a fair idea and analysis of the above mentioned themes, I prepared a set of questions through which I tried to cover the theme asked for. The interview was email based, since the manager I interviewed stated his preference for that. An email transcript has been attached which contains the answers mailed by the manager to me. Following is the manager’s profile, followed by my observation and interpretation of the views expressed by the manager I interviewed and basically an idea of what I feel personally and intellectually about it.

Manager’s Profile

Dr. Rajesh Kumar Attri is the Deputy General Manager with the National Insurance Company since 1982 under the ruling of Ministry of Finance. He has 30 years of experience in marketing and HRM throughout his career.

Born in HP, he has worked in various states like Punjab, Haryana, UP, Gujrat etc.

He is a science graduate, along with being an LLB, MBA and also fellowship under his list of academia.

He is also a regular visiting faculty with Kurukshetra University, Panjab University, NIT-Surat and Symbiosis, Pune.

a) The dilemma of managing the aspects of being a person and being a manager

In my interaction with the manager, I found out that two things have to be made crystal clear in case of work and life balance, that is, being a person and being a manager, that both these areas should be kept far from each other. This is also strengthened by his statement suggesting that personal ethics should not become roadblocks in work sphere, and one’s personal beliefs should be kept away while on work.

Personally, I feel that instead of personal ethics a more accurate word should be personal prejudice that should be kept away from work sphere. Ethics, I feel are more or less our guiding principles that direct us on how we do something. So it is not totally possible to forgo them while at work. However, personal prejudices should be kept away for the same.

Another aspect of this comes by looking at the work life balance, which is often ignored nowadays in the mad race of reaching the top, often compromising not only on values and ethics but also by encroaching one’s personal self. In response to this, the manager’s response was most idealistic, that one should be prudent enough to know where to draw the line. Work is important, but life apart from work sphere is equally important. So to make sure nothing messes up this balance, we have to be careful on our end only. If we are working, we should be totally devoted for that, but once we leave the workplace, work should be left there only to be resumed the next day. The only way to de-stress is to spend time with family and pursue hobbies and interests. De stressing by the way of meditation and relaxing also helps.

I think this is a very right suggestion, since recreation is as important as work and career accomplishment. After all, whatever we put in work is for our self contentment only, and in no way should work be allowed to repeatedly hamper that.

b) Life goals and aspirationsOn being asked about the life goals and aspirations, the reply of my interviewee was that on a personal front, he wanted to be a good human being, to be considered good by all. And on a professional front, his aim was to keep moving up in the pyramid of power in the corporate world he is in. He also said that his habit was to conduct a self-audit of himself every once a while, so as to sit and see where he is heading as a person.According to me, both of these are the standard objectives everybody wants to achieve, however sometimes these can be at crossroads. For instance, a manager who fires someone for good reason may be promoted for the ability to make the right hard decisions at decisive moments, but he will lose out on the personal front since no matter how good the reason is, the person he fired will despise him. Taking personally, I think this is something that is the occupational hazard of being a very successful person, since the top rung of the ladder of success is always empty.

c) Challenges of fitting into workplace

My question regarding this was aimed at knowing how often personal ethics of the interviewee clashes with his obligations at the workplace and how did he resolve them. As I mentioned earlier, his response was that personal ethics should not come in way of work. Once in the role of a manager, one should fully assume that and strive towards working to achieve his targets as a manager. Not necessarily meaning ignorance of morality, personal ethics should be kept away from work scenarios as much as possible.

d) Challenges of managing people- one on one and in groupsIn response to questions framed to cover this aspect, the interviewee came up with his management style to be a mix of democratic and autocratic. One needs to be firm in some situations and flexible in others. Also, he told that his focus was on the positives of a person in a team and not just on his shortcomings. His one line impressed me- I would rather work with 4 good ones than 2 experts. He said that the best way to manage people is encourage the positive points in them and in the process of polishing that, the negatives are eliminated themselves.Personally, I feel that the mix is an ideal situation to be in, but very difficult to implement. It will all depend on the perception of the person of team you are managing.Another thing about working with an individual and team was that the interviewee said he could be more interpersonal with a single person, more open and critic, but in a team he has to exercise extra caution and care since he has to deal with the individual and the team sentiment as a whole. I feel that this is so true in workplace scenario, where a team is connected and at times of conflicts, sees the boss on the other side. The persons in the team are also aware of the peer observation and as such open criticism or praise has multifold good and bad effects.

e) Managing peersManaging peers is a very important and tricky thing in the workplace, said my interviewee. He cited example that building good rapport with peers is just like working in a team, you encourage the positives that a person carries and a good connection starts to build immediately.He also told about managing difficult peers, like people who are exceedingly sarcastic and portray the know-it-all attitude. To deal with such people, focus only on the work aspect. As far the work is up to mark, ignore all. However, if work is being affected, one has to do something about it, either show the person the door, or if that is not possible, take the door yourself. Personally, I think this is a right approach, however, as human beings we have emotions. And focusing only on work, and not get irritated by the attitude of such persons is very difficult. It requires a high deal of patience, and even after that it disturbs the peace of mind. I don’t think there is an ideal solution to his that could actually work, at least in my case.

Email Transcript

1) What are the challenges to creating a work life balance culture today?

The challenges to create a work life balance are greater nowadays because people are finding it more difficult to prioritize things. There is the always existing dilemma of how much is too much. With office hours increasing and work being carried home, it becomes difficult to maintain this balance. In my experience, I feel that work life balance is attainable only if you know where to draw the line. Overtime is needed at various junctures, but work has to stay in the domain of office only and not brought in the home atmosphere. Once outside the work domain, I prefer spending time with my family and hobbies. One should have these zones, family time, hobbies, meditation etc. also, one thing essential to work life balance is to know your limits. Proper diet, health maintenance also contributes as an important factor in work life balance. I also make it a point to do some amount of self audit every now and then, to see what all I have done and whether what all I have done is in tune with my ideology and vision.

2) When we hear the term work life balance we think it from employee perspective only, can you throw a light on how it is relevant from a manager’s perspective?

From a manager ’s perspective, work life balance acquires an even more important role since employees have to do what is assigned, whereas the manager has to do what he is assigned and that too by managing various people to do it. That is why employees can leave office once their set of work is done, but the manager cannot since he has to compile all that is done and see the overall result has come out or not.

3) How do you unplug from work when you get home at the end of the day?

I have a policy to leave the work in office domain itself, and not carry it to the home sphere. I unplug by spending time with my family, some hobbies that I have, and meditation.

4) What do you do to de-stress when there is immense workload?

There are often instances of increased workload, in which cases I meditate to focus my mind, take short breaks, and once a long overhaul of stressful workload is over, I take a leave of few days to rejuvenate myself. Since the mind cannot go on working and churning out results fiercely in that manner, thus some relaxation becomes imperative.

5) How can people not fall into the rat race?

Rat race is a very apt term that is used here. People are in the mad rush of achieving that they forget everything else. From my viewpoint, I believe that some amount of self auditing is necessary to evaluate where we stand in life and ask ourselves that whatever we are doing is worth it or not.

6) How often do your personal ethics and work decisions clash, and how do you resolve these inner conflicts?

There are many instances that this happens, but apart from morality issues, I believe my personal ethics or beliefs should not come in the way of how I go on with my work. Work is

something that should be diligently done irrespective of what I feel as a person or individual, and not a manager. Work decisions have to be made indifferent to personal set of emotions and focusing on the work requirements only.

7) What is your life goal or aspiration, both on a personal as well as professional front?

On a personal front, my aspiration is to be a good human being, to be known as a good person by all.

Professionally, my desire is growth. I feel the need to go upper in the pyramid of management in the organization, that after a period of time I am elevated to another level which brings me a new set of challenges to work on.

8) How will you define your management style?

I will define my management style as a mixed one. I am democratic in approach when the situation demands so, and autocratic also if the situation goes that way. Both approaches are necessary as it depends on the situation and the nature of people you are dealing with. I believe in focusing on what best a teammate can provide, and the shortcomings will disappear gradually. I would rather have a team of 4 good people than of two best experts, since good will evolve into experts in the right framework.

9) What kind of difficulties you face while dealing with people one on one and as a team?

On a one on one basis, it is more interpersonal and easy going communication, where I can be somewhat informal and open in the way I comment or critic someone. However, in a team, I have to be particular, and careful with my words as what I portray to someone personally one on one may not have the same perception when I follow that informal approach in a group. So I have to take care of the team sentiment as a whole while team interaction.

10) How will you solve the problem of a team member who is worried about burnout?

My only advice to that teammate will be to self audit, and instead of worrying focus on his part of the duty. For instance, I had one employee who was worried about not being able to achieve his desired results. I told him to write his apprehensions and keep them aside. Three months down the line, he was free of those inhibitions after having done the job, and a very good job for that matter.

11) Describe for me a time that you dealt with a sarcastic or know-it-all person who was your peer. How were you able to work effectively with that person?

This is a problem faced by most of the people in workplaces today. My interaction with such kind of people has been to just ignore the know-it-all part and focus on the work part. I focus on the positives rather than negatives. However, if such behavior gets in way of work and becomes intolerable, the only way is to show that person the door.

12) Situations at work can sometimes be difficult. Give me an example of how you quickly build rapport with a peer.

The best way to build rapport with someone is to be focused on what he has to offer, than what he lacks. If we focus on what positive attributes someone has, we are in a better position to be on good terms with them. I have had such experiences a lot of times, where people I talked to bonded very quickly with me because of my one habit, see what they have and focus on that, bring that up and show it.