Monday, 19 August 2013

What’s in Name – X or Y ?

What’s in Name – X or Y ?

Although the names sound a bit confusing these were developed by  Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development. They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation.
Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes.
v  Theory X workers could be described as follows:
v  Individuals who dislike work and avoid it where possible
v  Individuals who lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led
v  Individuals who desire security
The management implications for Theory X workers were that, to achieve organisational objectives, a business would need to impose a management system of coercion, control and punishment.
Theory Y workers were characterised by McGregor as:
v  Consider effort at work as just like rest or play
v  Ordinary people who do not dislike work. Depending on the working conditions, work could be considered a source of satisfaction or punishment
v  Individuals who seek responsibility if they are motivated
The management implications for Theory X workers are that, to achieve organizational objectives, rewards of varying kinds are likely to be the most popular motivator. The challenge for management with Theory Y workers is to create a working environment or culture where workers can show and develop their creativity.
The perception of the manager and actual employee behavior is shown in the diagram as follows:


McGregor views Theory Y to be more valid and reasonable than Theory X. Thus, he encouraged cordial team relations, responsible and stimulating jobs, and participation of all in decision-making process.
Implications of Theory X and Theory Y
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Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.
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Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations.
EXAMPLE
A person is a mixture of theory X and theory Y attributes; it only depends on the situations and the attitude of the person. I would like to share an example where I considered myself as both theory X and theory Y employee.
When I was working in Shivalik Bimetals I did not find the work interesting enough. There was no chance of growth. Whatever I had studied during my masters had no link with the job. Apart from that I was convinced that there was no value addition or any learning while I was doing work. So eventually I started losing interest in the work. I could hardly wait for the job hours to pass and I shrugged responsibility. There was no new initiative or creative thought process from my side. I could hardly contribute to the organization. And then I decided to quit and made a shift to Bhushan power and Steel.

With Bhushan power and Steel thing were pretty different. I was provided with a handsome salary, interesting work profile and good work timings. I enjoyed going to work. I won many accolades at work place and was also responsible for improvements at work place. It was due to my performance only that I was promoted to Senior Engineer and with bigger team and work responsibilities. Since I was satisfied at my job I was able to perform well everywhere be it family life or office life. So I feel that theory X or theory Y or a combination of both of them exist in every person but at different phases of life and at different times. But at the end one must keep ones attitude right for growth and satisfaction at workplace


Thank you for reading J

REWARDS – IN AND OUT

  
REWARDS – IN AND OUT



Just like a child being given a chocolate cupcake and a big hug after cleaning her room, rewards and recognition can be powerful tools for employee motivation and performance improvement.
But first lets define Rewards.  Jack Zigon defines rewards as "something than increases the frequency of an employee action". This definition points to an obvious desired outcome of rewards and recognition: to improve performance. This leads to job satisfaction and it comes in different ways and effect the employees accordingly. Motivational dynamics have changed dramatically to reflect new work requirements and changed worker expectation so the organizations are facing the dilemma of intrinsic rewards over extrinsic ones.

EXTRINSIC REWARDS
Extrinsic rewards are concrete rewards that employees can find very motivating, and are provided fairly, strategically, and linked to performance. Extrinsic rewards—usually financial—are the tangible rewards given employees by managers, such as pay raises, bonuses, and benefits. They are called “extrinsic” because they are external to the work itself and other people control their size and whether or not they are granted. In contrast, intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful work and performing it well.

Extrinsic rewards played a dominant role in earlier eras, when work was generally more routine and bureaucratic, and when complying with rules and procedures was paramount. This work offered workers few intrinsic rewards, so that extrinsic rewards were often the only motivational tools available to organizations.
Extrinsic rewards remain significant for workers, of course. Pay is an important consideration for most workers in accepting a job, and unfair pay can be a strong de-motivator. However, after people have taken a job and issues of unfairness have been settled, we find that extrinsic rewards are now less important, as day-to-day motivation is more strongly driven by intrinsic rewards.

MONETARY REWARDS
Monetary rewards are external and are given to an employee by a representative of the company. Whether it's a paycheck, a bonus, accrued vacation days, a gift card or anything else with a cash value, it is considered monetary. In addition, compensation packages are also considered external monetary rewards. Companies that offer child care, flexible spending accounts, and health insurance and wellness programs provide external rewards to employees. External monetary rewards are tangible and can be assessed a value by the employee.
There are a number of different types of reward programs aimed at both individual and team performance.
1.      Variable Pay
Variable pay or pay-for-performance is a compensation program in which a portion of a person's pay is considered "at risk." Variable pay can be tied to the performance of the company, the results of a business unit, an individual's accomplishments, or any combination of these. It can take many forms, including bonus programs, stock options, and one-time awards for significant accomplishments. 

2.      Bonuses

Bonus programs have been used in American business for some time. They usually reward individual accomplishment and are frequently used in sales organizations to encourage salespersons to generate additional business or higher profits. They can also be used, however, to recognize group accomplishments. 

 

3.      Profit Sharing

Profit sharing refers to the strategy of creating a pool of monies to be disbursed to employees by taking a stated percentage of a company's profits. The amount given to an employee is usually equal to a percentage of the employee's salary and is disbursed after a business closes its books for the year. The benefits can be provided either in actual cash or via contributions to employee's 401(k) plans. A benefit for a company offering this type of reward is that it can keep fixed costs low.

4.      Stock Options

Employee stock-option programs give employees the right to buy a specified number of a company's shares at a fixed price for a specified period of time usually around ten years. They are generally authorized by a company's board of directors and approved by its shareholders. The number of options a company can award to employees is usually equal to a certain percentage of the company's shares outstanding.

NON MONETARY REWARDS
Non-monetary external rewards are equally important factors in employee job satisfaction. The advantages of job security, flexible working hours and opportunities for advancement are extremely valuable to employees. Additionally, simple non-monetary rewards can impact an employee's morale and confidence. Praise from a supervisor, receipt of an employee-of-the-month award or the hanging of a blue ribbon on a work desk all instill a sense of pride and accomplishment. The simple act of a manager thanking an employee while shaking his hand can reap monumental benefits on the work front. An employee who feels a sense of accomplishment carries it to his next assignment.



INTRINSIC REWARDS
Intrinsic rewards are ones that come from within the employee. For example, an employee might decide to take on a task outside of his normal duties. It might be because he simply sees a need and wants to help the company, he might want a new job skill or he might want to show management that he is capable of increased responsibility. The benefit to this type of internal reward is that it originates within the employee; he has a great deal of personal satisfaction when he accomplishes the task. The downside to intrinsic rewards are that the employee might take on a new challenge to prove himself, but feel taken advantage of if he must continue the extra duties without recognition. If the employee is not promoted, given a raise or a bonus, he might decide to take his new skills to another company where he is recognized for the skills.
The following are descriptions of the four intrinsic rewards and how workers view them:

Sense of meaningfulness: This reward involves the meaningfulness or importance of the purpose you are trying to fulfill. You feel that you have an opportunity to accomplish something of real value—something that matters in the larger scheme of things. You feel that you are on a path that is worth your time and energy, giving you a strong sense of purpose or direction.
Sense of choice: You feel free to choose how to accomplish your work—to use your best judgment to select those work activities that make the most sense to you and to perform them in ways that seem appropriate. You feel ownership of your work, believe in the approach you are taking, and feel responsible for making it work.
Sense of competence: You feel that you are handling your work activities well—that your performance of these activities meets or exceeds your personal standards, and that you are doing good, high-quality work. You feel a sense of satisfaction, pride, or even artistry in how well you handle these activities.
Sense of progress: You are encouraged that your efforts are really accomplishing something. You feel that your work is on track and moving in the right direction. You see convincing signs that things are working out, giving you confidence in the choices you have made and confidence in the future.

Basically, most of today’s workers are asked to self-manage to a significant degree—to use their intelligence and experience to direct their work activities to accomplish important organizational purposes. This is how today’s employees add value—innovating, problem solving and improvising to meet the conditions they encounter to meet customers’ needs.

In turn,the self-management process involves four key steps:  
Ø  Committing to a meaningful purpose
Ø  Choosing the best way of fulfilling that purpose
Ø  Making sure that one is performing work activities competently, and
Ø  Making sure that one is making progress to achieving the purpose.

Each of these steps requires workers to make a judgment—about the meaningfulness of their purpose, the degree of choice they have for doing things the right way, the competence of their performance, and the actual progress being made toward fulfilling the purpose.
These four judgments are the key factors in workers’ assessments of the value and effectiveness of their efforts—and the contribution they are making.
When positive, each of these judgments is accompanied by a positive emotional charge. These positive charges are the intrinsic rewards that employees get from work, ranging in size from quiet satisfaction to an exuberant “Yes!” They are the reinforcements that keep employees actively self-managing and engaged in their work.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTRINSIC REWARDS AND EXTRINSIC REWARDS
·         Intrinsic rewards fulfills employee’s intrinsic factors and are given by making the job contentmore favourable.
·         Extrinsic rewards fulfills employee’s extrinsic factors and are provided by making job contextmore favourable.


External rewards are given to employees from the company, bosses or even co-workers. But employees experience internal rewards, as well, though they come from within. The satisfaction of knowing he has completed a project, achieved a goal or simply applied his best effort to his work is internal rewards that contribute to job satisfaction. External rewards enhance an employee's internal rewards as they validate his own assessment of his self-worth. For example, an employee who prides himself on achieving a goal experiences validation when given a bonus check for his efforts.


Saturday, 17 August 2013

ALIBABA & ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

ALIBABA & ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
The Alibaba Group : Today our class started with a discussion on the Alibaba Group.  It is a privately owned Hangzhou-based family of Internet-based E-Commerce businesses that cover business-to-business online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. The founder of Alibaba is Jack Ma.

                                                                     
Objectives of AliBaba:
1.   Empower SMEs through the power of the internet.
2.   At least 80% of these SMEs who are working with AliBaba MUSTgrow unimaginably.
3.   0.0001% of the shares of AliBaba must be enough to support generations together.

The company was based on the simple realizations that Jack Ma had:
    1. I don't have a plan.
    2. I don't have the money. 
3.      If you can't use the internet in this age, you are useless.

The result is- AliBaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao (similar to eBay) features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. Alibaba Group's sites account for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China.  

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE :
                                                                       

Organizational culture is the behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders.
Organizational culture are of several types. The one discussed in class are as follows:
  1. Open Culture – In an Open culture the employees are motivated to voice their values-driven concerns regarding problematic business practices. An open culture helps to counteract any occasional lapse into passivity at the board level or on the part of institutional investors.

2. Safety Culture - A safety culture is one were all employees are proactive in ensuring safety at work place. People immediately report any perceived short comings in the work place safety and in the safety of products given to customers or clients.

3. Quality Culture – In a Quality  culture utmost importance is given to the quality of the product or service being rendered. Volume takes a back seat. So does cost. Batch recalling of cars/computers when defects are found is a good example of the quality culture.

4. Performance Culture – Also known as OUTCOME ORIENTED CULTURE it  emphasizes on achievement, results, and action as important values. A good example of an outcome-oriented culture may be the electronics retailer Best Buy.
                                                             
5. Ethical Culture - A culture where great importance is given to ethical business practices and this importance is seen at all levels in the organization. We see that in such organizations, ethics are given precedence even if being so may lead to a loss of business and profit. The TATA Group is a good example to note.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE & LEADERSHIP STYLE :

Charles Handy, a leading authority on business culture, defined four different kinds of culture:

Each of these four cultural styles is summarised below:

Power Culture

Key features of Power Culture:
  • Control radiates from the centre
  • Concentrates power among a few
  • Few rules and little bureaucracy
  • Swift decisions are possible
  • Frequently found in smaller, entrepreneurial organisations

Role Culture


Key features of Role Culture:
  • People have clearly delegated authorities within a highly defined structure
  • Hierarchical bureaucracy
  • Power derives from a person's position
  • Little scope exists for expert power

Task Culture


Key features of Task Culture:
  • Teams are formed to solve particular problems
  • Power derives from expertise as long as a team requires expertise
  • No single power source
  • Matrix organisation
  • Team may develop own objectives (a risk)

Person Culture



People believe themselves to be superior to the business
Business full of people with similar training, background & expertise
Common in firms of professionals – e.g. accountants & lawyers
Power lies in each group of individuals

Handy also made a link between the corporate culture and an appropriate leadership style:
Cultural Type
Most Suitable Leadership Style?
Power
Autocratic
Role
Autocratic or paternalistic
Task
Paternalistic / democratic
Person
Democratic

Healthy organizational culture:
Organizations should strive for what is considered a "healthy" organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce counterproductive behavior and turnover of employees. A variety of characteristics describe a healthy culture, including:
·         Acceptance and appreciation for diversity
·         Regard for and fair treatment of each employee as well as respect for each employee’s contribution to the company
·         Employee pride and enthusiasm for the organization and the work performed
·         Equal opportunity for each employee to realize their full potential within the company
·         Strong communication with all employees regarding policies and company issues
·         Strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose
·         Ability to compete in industry innovation and customer service, as well as price
·         Lower than average turnover rates (perpetuated by a healthy culture)
·         Investment in learning, training, and employee knowledge

Thanks for reading.

NAVRANG PAHELI

NAVRANG PAHELI
Another object of curiosity. It was the first time I saw Navrang Puzzle in Professor Mandi’s hands as he walked into the classroom. Resembling somewhat to a Rubik cube one had to get all the 9 colours right on the six sides. But there is a difference in this that unlike rubik cube a navrang puzzle can be dismantled and reassembled. We were challenged to find an algorithm or method to reassemble the Puzzle in order to reach the intended objective. But even after much brainstorming no one of us was able to find the exact solution for the same.

But then our sir Prof. Mandi  was able to solve the puzzle in approximately in 2 minutes and introduced us to the concept of Organisational structure and unity of objective.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE :

An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims.It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment.
Organizations are a variant of clustered entities
An organization can be structured in many different ways, depending on their objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs.
Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the branch, department, work group and individual.
Organizational structure affects organizational action in two big ways. First, it provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. Second, it determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions.

UNITY OF OBJECTIVES                                                                        
It stands for the philosophy according to which every individual and every process in an organization should aim to fulfil the organization's Objectives and Mission Statement.

Learning’s from the Navrang Activity :
·                     Each Problem can be solved by systematic thinking
·                     Each Block represents an entity (Labour, Machine etc) in an organization and is to be assembled in a structured and hierarchical way like the above process, so efficiency is maximum
·                     Two blocks of the same colour may represent people who don't gel well with each other. And hence while forming a team, a structured approach is necessary