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Compensation
Compensation is the process of providing adequate, equitable and fair remuneration to the employees. It includes job evaluation, wage and salary administration, incentives, bonus, fringe benefits, social security measures etc.
Job Evaluation:
It is the process of determining relative worth of jobs:
1. Select suitable job evaluation techniques.
2. Classify jobs into various categories.
3. Determining relative value of jobs in various categories.
Wages and Salary Administration:
This is the process of developing and operating a suitable wage and salary programs. It covers;
1. Conducting wage and salary survey.
2. Determining wage and salary rates based on various factors.
3. Administering wage and salary programs.
4. Evaluating its effectiveness.
Incentives:
It is the process of formulating, administering and reviewing the schemes of financial incentives in addition to regular payment of wages and salary. It includes:
1. Formulating incentive payment schemes.
2. Helping functional managers on the operation.
3. Review them periodically to evaluate effectiveness.
Bonus:
It includes payment of statutory bonus according to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and its latest amendments.
In India the employees drawing above certain compensation are not covered under the Bonus act. However, the employer pays them suitable lump sum variable amount depending upon their level in the organization which is called ex-gratia. This is not compulsory on the part of the employer but acts as an incentive to the employee.
Fringe Benefits:
These are the various benefits at the fringe of the wage. Management provides these benefits to motivate the employees and to meet their life’s contingencies.
These benefits include:
1. Disablement benefit
2. Housing facilities
3. Educational facilities to employee and children.
4. Canteen facilities.
5. Recreational facilities.
6. Conveyance facilities.
7. Credit facilities.
8. Legal clinic.
9. Medical, maternity and welfare facilities.
10. Company stores.
Social Security Measures:
Management provides social security to their employees in addition to the fringe benefits. These measures include:
1. Workmen’s compensation to those workers (or their dependents) who involve in accidents.
2. Maternity benefits to women employees.
3. Sickness benefits and medical benefits.
4. Disablement benefits / allowance.
5. Dependent benefits.
6. Retirement benefits like provident fund, pension, gratuity etc.
Practicing various human resources policies and programs like employment, development and compensation and interaction among employees create a sense of relationship between the individual worker and management, among workers and trade unions and management.
It is the process of interaction among human beings. Human relations is an area of management in integrating people into work situation in a way that motivates them to work together productively, co-operatively and with economic, psychological and social satisfaction.
It includes:
1. Understanding and applying the models of perception, personality, learning, intra and inter personal relations, intra and inter group relations.
2. Motivating the employees.
3. Boosting employee morale.
4. Developing the communication skills.
5. Developing the leadership skills.
6. Redressing employee grievances properly and in time by means of a well formulated grievance procedure.
7. Handling disciplinary cases by means of an established disciplinary procedure.
8. Counseling the employees in solving their personal, family and work problems and releasing their stress, strain and tensions.
9. Improving quality of work life of employees through participation and other means.
Lot of thinking and comparison with competitive organizations goes into fixing the compensation of employees particularly for middle management and above levels by the management. Some organization pays certain amount annually to key executives which are not a part of the regular pay and allowances. By doing this the incentive acts to deliver enhanced performance but also ensure the loyalty of the key executive to remain with the company.
DEPENDENCY :
THE KEY TO POWER
The most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence. In this section, we show how an understanding of dependency is central to furthering your understanding of power itself.
The General Dependency Postulate
Let’s begin with a general postulate:
The greater B’s dependency on A, the greater the power A has over B. When you possess anything require but that you alone control, you make them dependent on you and, therefore, you gain power over them. Dependency, then, is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply. If something is plentiful, possession of it will not increase your power. If everyone is intelligent, intelligence gives no special advantage.
Similarly, among the superrich, money is no longer power. But, as the old saying goes “In the land off the blind, the one-eyed man is king�. If you can create a monopoly by controlling information, prestige, or anything that others crave, they become dependent on you. Conversely, the more you can expand your options, the less power you place in the hands of others. This explains, for example, why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather than give their business to only one. It also explains why so many of us aspire to financial independence. Financial independence reduces the power that others can have over us.
Dependency is increased when the resource you control is important, scarce, and non substitutable.
Importance:
If nobody wants what you’ve got, it’s not going to create dependency. To create dependency, therefore, the thing(s) you control must be perceived as being important. Organizations, for instance, actively seek to avoid uncertainly. We should therefore, expect that the individuals or groups who can absorb an organization’s uncertainty will be perceived as controlling an important resources. For instance, a study of industrial organizations found that the marketing departments in these firms were consistently rated as the powerful. It was concluded by the researcher that the most critical uncertainty facing these firms was selling their products. This might suggest that engineers, as a group, would be more powerful at Honda than at Procter& Gamble.
These inferences appear to be generally valid. An organization such as Honda, which is heavily technology-oriented, is highly dependent on its engineers to maintain its products’ technical advantages and quality. And, at Matsushita, engineers are clearly a powerful group. At Procter & Gamble, marketing is the name of the game, and marketers are the most powerful occupational group.
Scarcity:
As noted previously, if something is plentiful, possession of it will not increase your power. A resources needs to be perceived as scarce to create dependency.
This can help to explain how low-ranking members in an organization who have important knowledge not available to high-ranking members gain power over the high-ranking members. Possession of a scarce resource in this case, important knowledge makes the high-ranking member dependent on the low-ranking member. This also helps to make sense out of behaviors of low-ranking members that otherwise might seem illogical, such as destroying the procedure manuals that describe how a job is done, refusing to train people in their jobs or even to show others exactly what they do, creating specialized language and terminology that inhibit others from understanding their jobs, or operating in secrecy so an activity will appear more complex and difficult than it really is.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, the guy who created the exotic super cars that continue to carry his name, understood the importance of scarcity and used it to his advantage during World War II. Lamborghini was in Rhodes with the Italian army. His superiors were impressed with his mechanical skills, as he demonstrated an almost uncanny ability to repair tanks and cars that no one else could fix. After the war he admitted that his ability was largely due to having been the first person on the island to receive the repair manuals, which he memorized and then destroyed so as to become indispensable.
EGOISM IN WORK ENVIRONMENT
In any organization psychologically there are different types of personnel working in it. The nature of most of them is supportive in contributing to the organization in reaching the goal and their interaction with their peers, juniors and seniors is cooperative and positive. However all the employees are not of he same type and a few of them suffer from different complexes. One of such complexes we are discussing in this article is ‘Ego’. This is a big constraint for others within the organization and also outside the organization in interacting with the concerned person having a high or super ego. The result is work of the company suffers the intended activity slows down leading to even considerable losses. Punishing or taking disciplinary action are later steps but even good personnel interacting with the egoistic person suffer as they cannot achieve the target in time because they may take more time in convincing the super ego personality.
What makes person to have such high ego having negative effect on the working environment? Some of the reasons psychologists mention for such nature of super egoism are,
Ø Lack of affection from family members during childhood (due to early death of mother and brought up by step mother)
Ø Feeling of insecurity like fear of loosing the job if he cooperates easily
Ø Overestimation of intelligence or always carrying an impression others are fools
Ø Not caring for peers, juniors and even sometimes immediate superior making every issue a prestige issue
Ø Carrying an impression that his immediate superior do not know much about the work than himself
Ø In the event of dealing with a person in another organization and that person happens to be junior in level to the egoistic person then creating unnecessary problems and deliberately approaching the superior in the other organization. This may be for showing off how much intelligent and task master he is.
The work must go on and one must learn to deal with all sorts of people. Our experience is that with a little tact in communication or strategy we can get he work done or solicit maximum cooperation from the egoistic persons.
In this article we are giving below an actual case where a person say Mr. MT in another organization at the highest level with super ego qualities cooperated utmost with a middle level executive say SR. The executive had the tact and proper approach in communicating with the egoistic high level person and got his work done through MT.
Mr.SR has joined a professionally managed large engineering company in mid 70s in their drilling equipments division called DEL. SR was a qualified mechanical engineer and has made his first change of his career for better prospects by joining DEL after working for about 3 years in a reputed light engineering company. During 70s large companies started outsourcing components from smaller companies. The large companies by doing this were benefited from low cost inputs and were placed in a better competitive position than their competitors. DEL was manufacturing mining exploration (mineral sampling) and deep boring water well drills with U.S. collaboration.
After 2 days orientation SR was given the responsibility to procure outsourced components, follow up with vendors for timely delivery and also give technical guidance to the vendors to ensure that there are no or minimum possible rejections. Components were procured from workshops of all capacities ranging from 10 workmen; 500 sq ft to mid size 200 workmen, 10,000 sq ft. There were restrictions on import of capital goods from advanced countries as such very critical components with precision could be manufactured only by very few mid size workshops.
DEL has sub-contracted a very important, high value, critical component called Drive shaft to a mid size workshop called TMI where MT was the director in charge of manufacturing. He was an engineer and capable of operating all the critical machines like a skilled operator. Considering the type of the product DEL had adopted Batch type production. The assembly of the requisite drills as per the production planning was completed during the month and sent to customer before the end of the month. Inventory control was very much in its place as a cost control measure. High value items like drive shaft was controlled strictly and only what is required per month was delivered during first week of the month. TMI was delivering on time without any rejections. The drive shaft had 3 long keyways to be milled with a high tolerance level and TMI had only one skilled operator who could do with that kind of precision.
SR had visited TMI and met MT in the last week of a month to finalize schedule of deliveries for subsequent month. MT as usual over a cup of tea, after talking so many things boasting about his adventures in younger days has agreed for the schedule without any fuss. SR had the tact to listen to him patiently with nods and smiles sipping the tea knowing very well that this satisfies MT very much. MT used to derive the satisfaction that a large company executive is sitting with him and appreciating is talk. He used to eel that he is getting utmost respect from SR.
SR had visited TMI after 3 days to check the progress on the drive shaft. There ware no signs of any machining going on. Meanwhile MT has sent a word to meet him in the reception area instead o his office. SR met him and MT was apologetic saying he will not be able to deliver shafts that month as his skilled operator is sick and cannot come to work for another 30 days. For SR it was a bolt from the blue because he has already given his commitment to his superior who in turn reported ‘no problems’ to management. Moreover SR was on probation with DEL as 6 months period was not yet completed. Non delivery of the drills will offend a major customer of DEL which in turn can cast a spell on SR of losing the job.
SR has kept his cool at least outside appearance and discussed the possibility of various alternatives. MT has expressed his absolute helplessness. Remembering the egoistic nature of MT, SR has used all his skills in the final act of tact. SR simply praised the trouser cloth of MT, his selection and acting ignorance said whether it is imported. This was enough to tickle and satisfy the ego of MT who narrated a half an hour adventure how he procured the cloth that too almost for 6 trousers (same color) just to teach a lesson to the shop owner. SR in his usual style praised MT for his act and selection of trouser cloth and casually (without showing emotions) mentioned about the drive shaft. SR also said that MT is the only person to help him out as he (SR) committed delivery to his company. To utter surprise of SR, MT committed that he will ensure delivery of all the shafts as per the schedule. SR without asking any further questions departed from TMI. In order to assess the progress SR visited TMI after 4/5 days and could not find MT in the machine shop. A voice greeted SR from near by; it was MT operating the machine in half pants. He pointed out o SR that 3 shafts are ready and full quantity can be delivered to DEL vehicle within 3 days. SR profusely thanked him and left he scene.
In conclusion it is not impossible to tackle egoistic people to get the work done. Instead of making it a serious prestige issue if one can pull the right chords (as SR has done in the above case), an egoistic person (like MT) can cooperate more than required. Ultimately getting the wok done and achieving results in an organization is the primary responsibility of each and every employee.
Tools of Ethics
Consciously or unconsciously, we engage in some kind of ethical reasoning every day of our lives. To improve our ethical reasoning, we must analyze it explicitly and practice it daily. The key terms of the ethical language are values, rights, duties, rules, and relationships. Let’s consider each in turn.
Values:
When you value something, you want it or you want it to happen. Values are relatively permanent desires that seem to be good in themselves like peace or goodwill.
Values are the answers to the why questions. Why, for example, are you reading this book? You might reply that you want to learn about management. Why is that important? To be a better manager. Why do you want that? To be promoted and make more money sooner. Why do you need more money? To spend it on a VCR. Such questions go on and on, until you reach the point where you no longer want something for the sake of something else. At this point, you have arrived at a value. Corporations also have values such as size, profitability, or making a quality product.
Recently AT&T CEO articulated a set of values called “Our Common Bond” intended to serve as the anchors or the future The telecommunications industry is changing so fast that it is difficult to make decisions on common management principles so he turned to values for an answer. Our Common Bond lists respect for the individual, teamwork, dedication to customers, innovation and integrity as the ground rules for AT&T and its subsidiaries.
Two important values at L.L. Bean are providing top quality customer service and employees development. Over the years, employees of this mail-order and retail dealer in Freeport, Maine have gone above and beyond to carry out Bean’s tradition of quality service sustaining the company’s reputation for quality. For example, when a customer in New York failed to receive his canoe in time for weekend trip, an L.L Bean sales representative drove the canoe to the customer. That was not the end of it, however; the incident made company managers questions why the canoe did not arrive on time. They discovered that although company employees were committed to customer services they were not empowered to make the type of decisions necessary to prevent such occurrences, nor did they have the necessary knowledge of processes elsewhere in the company that affect such situations.
To correct the system, L.L. Bean employed total quality management approach. However, rather than focusing in process improvements as most companies do when starting in this type of change, L.L. Bean centered its efforts on employee development. Bean’s definition of total quality reflects its valuing of employees: Total quality involves managing an enterprise to maximize customer satisfaction in the most efficient and effective way possible by totally involving people in improving the way it is done. The total quality approach also involved challenging all the company’s assumptions and redesigning its processes. The change has been very successful, leading to higher profits and increased customer satisfaction.
Rights and Duties:
A right is a claim that entitles a person the room in which to take action. In more formal terms, one might call this room a person’s sphere of autonomy or more simply, his or her freedom. Rights are rarely absolute; most people would agree that the scope of individual rights is limited by the rights of others. Ordinarily, you have a right to speak your mind freely until you make slanderous statements about another person.
Moreover, rights are correlated with duties. Whenever someone has a right, someone else has a duty to respect it. A duty is an obligation to take specific steps to pay taxes, for example and to obey the law in other respects.
Moral Rules:
Moral rules guide us through situations where competing interests collide. You might think of moral rules as tie breakers guidelines that can resolve disagreements. Moral rules, which are rules for behavior, often become internalized as values.
Human Relationships:
Every human being is connected to others in a web of relationships. These relationships exist because we need one another for mutual support and to accomplish our goals. From a small child’s relationship with parents to a manager’s relationship with an employee, relationships are a pervasive aspect of moral life. We constantly decide how to maintain and nurture them. These decisions reflect our values and our concern for ethics. So, when we say that management is about relationships, we are claiming that it has a large ethical component.
Employee Selection Tests
A candidate is routed through all the selection steps including selection tests before a decision is made. If right personnel are selected, the remaining functions of personnel management become easier. The employees’ contribution and commitment will be at optimum level and employee-employer relations will be congenial. We can conveniently classify tests according to whether they measure cognitive (mental) abilities, motor and physical abilities, personality and interests or achievements.
Cognitive tests include tests of general reasoning ability (intelligence) and tests of specific mental abilities like memory and inductive reasoning.
Intelligence Tests: Intelligence (IQ) tests are tests of general intellectual abilities. They measure not a single trait but rather a range of abilities, including memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency and numerical ability.
Originally, IQ (intelligence quotient) was literally a quotient. The procedure was to divide a child’s mental age (as measured by the intelligence test) by his or her chronological age, and then multiply the results by 100. If an 8 year old child answered questions as a 10-year-old might, his or her IQ would be 10 divided by 8 times 100 or 125.
For adults, of course, the notion of mental age divided by chronological age wouldn’t make sense. Therefore, an adult’s IQ score is actually a derived score. It reflects the extent to which the person is above or below the ‘average’ adult’s intelligence score.
We are mentioning here names of some tests and not elaborating on how they are conducted. Intelligence is often measured with individually administered tests like the Stanford-Binet test or the Wechsler Test. Employers can administer other IQ tests such as the Wobderlic to groups of people. Other intelligence tests include the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test, the Slosson Intelligence Test, the Wide Range Intelligence Test and the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence.
Specific Cognitive Abilities: There are also measures of specific mental abilities, such as inductive and deductive reasoning, verbal comprehension, memory, and numerical ability.
Psychologists often call such tests aptitude tests, since they purport to measure aptitude for the job in question. Consider the Test of Mechanical Comprehension in which tests the applicants’ understanding of basic mechanical principles. It may reflect a person’s aptitude for jobs like that of machinist or engineer that require mechanical comprehension. Other tests of mechanical aptitude include the Mechanical Reasoning Test and the SRA Test of Mechanical Aptitude. The revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test consists of 64 two-dimensional diagrams cut into separate pieces. It provides insights into an applicant’s mechanical spatial ability; you’d use it for screening applicants for jobs such as designers, drafts-people, or engineers.
Tests of motor and physical abilities:
There may be a need to measure motor abilities, such as finger dexterity, manual dexterity, and reaction time. The Crawford Small Parts Dexterity Test is an example. It measures the speed and accuracy of simple judgment as well as the speed of finger, hand, and arm movements. Other tests here include the Stromberg Dexterity Test, the Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test, and the Purdue Peg Board. The Roeder Manipulative Aptitude Test screens individuals for jobs where dexterity is a main requirement. Finger dexterity tests are conducted for small assembly products like telecom instruments, switchgear, PCs, watches where even both hands right as well as left come into action simultaneously.
Tests of physical abilities may also be required. These include static strength (such as lifting weights), dynamic strength (like pull-ups), body coordination (as in jumping rope), and stamina. Lifeguards, for example must show they can swim a course before they’re hired.
Selection of personnel for an organization is a crucial, complex and continuing function. The ability of an organization to attain its goals effectively and to develop in a dynamic environment largely depends upon the effectiveness of its selection programs. In a situation where the right person is not selected, the remaining functions of personnel management, employee-employer relations will not be effective. If the right person is selected, he/she is a valuable asset to the organization and if faulty selection is made, the employee will become a liability to the organization.
-- Silenceis also a mode of communication --
Silence – defined here as an absence of speech or noise – has been generally ignored as a form of communication in OB because it represents inaction or non-behavior. But it’s not necessarily inaction. Nor is silence, as many believe, a failure to communicate. It can, in fact, be powerful form of communication. It can mean someone is thinking or contemplating a response to a question. It can mean a person is anxious and fearful of speaking. It can signal agreement, dissent, frustration or anger.
In terms of OB, we can see several links between silence and work-related behavior. For instance, silence is a critical element of group-link, in which it implies agreement with the majority. It can be a way for employees to express dissatisfaction, as when they “suffer in silence.” It can be a sign that someone is upset, as when a typically talkative person suddenly says nothing — “What is the matter with him? Is he all right? It’s a powerful tool used by managers to signal disfavor by shunning or ignoring employees with “silent insults.” And, of course, it’s a crucial element of group decision making, allowing individuals to think over and contemplate what others have said.
Failing to pay close attention to the silent portion of a conversation can result in missing a vital part of the message. Astute communicators watch for gaps, pauses, and hesitations. They hear and interpret silence. They treat pauses, for instance, as analogous to a flashing yellow light at an intersection – they pay attention to what comes next
Silence is sometimes golden especially if opening your mouth can cost your job and good will. People will talk and that is something you have no control over, and their talk can sometimes get you into trouble if you choose to talk on. If you violate the golden rule of silence in the following areas, the adverse consequences of your speech will cause your career and reputation much damage. Below are some situations where your silence will keep your reputation and stakes guarded.
Colleagues sometimes love to talk about their love life by taking you in confidence. It is more of a declaration of their importance than the necessity to share. Make sure you do not discuss that personal information at all with other colleagues.
Colleagues will sometimes discuss their squabbles at home with you. In your discussing that with others will invalidate your trustworthiness and respect. Sometimes people just want to talk their problems out. Keep it only with in you.
In talking their problems out, people may often complain about other colleagues to you. Don’t make the mistake of taking action on it, and definitely don’t make the mistake of spreading the word around. Let them sort out their differences, keep yourself out of the uncomplimentary talk about their colleagues.
Gossip on colleagues especially the boss: Whenever some gossip reaches you about colleagues or your boss, make sure you keep your lips tightly sealed. The minute you leak it out, you will also be rounded up in the process of losing good will.
Sometimes colleagues in moments of weakness or intense emotions may let you in on their dark secrets. Forget you ever heard it. If your mouth is not shut on it, you will create an enemy out of your colleagues though they might have revealed to you earlier their dirty past.
Like Silence is a golden rule but not always. When required proper communication is also very essential. Look at the following catastrophes,
In November 1996, there was a mid-air collision near New Delhi of a Saudia 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines cargo plane .Investigators placed blame for the collision on poor communications between the Kazakh pilot and the Indian air-traffic controller. The crash killed 349 people.
In September 1997, a Garuda Airlines jetliner crashed into a jungle, just 20 miles south of the Medan Airport on the island of Sumatra .All 234 aboard were killed. The cause of this disaster was the pilot and the air traffic controller confusing the words left and right as the plane approached the airport under poor visibility conditions.
The preceding examples tragically illustrate how miscommunication can have deadly consequences.
CEO must mingle with his employees
Human Resource Management
A CEO’s job is the trickiest of all. He /she is constantly surrounded by a bunch of people who always make extra efforts to please him/her but they point out that usually, at the top, the CEO’s exposure or information related to the goings on especially among the middle and the junior level employees, is highly restricted. This causes isolation and under such a circumstance, even small gestures such as the CEO sharing a meal with his/her junior staff or playing a game of table tennis with the floor employees to facilitate an open communication can make all the difference
An important point to be taken care of here is that after the interaction with the employee, the concerned senior managers should be kept informed as this will bring further transparency. Caution needs to be exercised so that this doesn’t end up becoming a day-to-day source of interaction and must be structured so that it is meaningful and at the same time, does not isolate the line managers and department heads. This can be cited by an example when the MD of Kansai Nerolac is in a business tour to any of the depots/factories; he makes it a point to meet the front sales personnel/shop floor officers, personally hears them out on business related aspects, their interaction with the dealers and difficulties faced in getting results with respect to product selling, revenue generation etc. to the management committee and gives a personal feedback by the concerned HODs for redressal. Quite recently, during his visit to a sales office in the North, the sales officers expressed their discomfort regarding the policy of reimbursement of traveling expenses. The MD put across their viewpoint for deliberation to the senior managers after which the policy was revised. A couple of years ago, the company’s young managers expressed their opinion pertaining to a designation called deputy manager. They cited reasons why after being an assistant manager, they should not be given the title of a manager directly. This was discussed with HR and consequently the title of deputy manger was abolished when they felt that the issue was genuine.
The ways in which the CEOs of Wipro Technologies try to bridge the communication gap: (1) Wipro Meets: This bi-annual event witness the chairman, the joint CEOs and the senior leadership team get together to address issues of Wipro employees worldwide through a live webcast. The webcast can be accessed over links which are communicated to the employees through various online promotional campaigns (2) Channel Chat: It is the interactive intranet of Wipro worldwide. The chat is an online tool where employees need to log in to virtual chat room and send queries trough internal MSN chat. The intranet team organizes chats with the CEOs wherein there is a direct interaction with the employees and (3) CEO Blogs: It was started by one of joint CEOs, which ensures an informal flow of communication.
The best CEOs are adept at applying their analytical skills and their emotional skills at the right times. They aren’t purely people, but can make sense of complex market data and strategic plans. The important thing is that they are able to balance the two elements.
A CEO can’t be a dictator or someone who listens to everyone. He must strike a balance and make independent judgments. People put in the job to represent the collective will of the organization, not to respond to every fad and fashion of the moment.
Turnaround CEOs constantly communicate. A CEO on being asked about how he spends his time estimates that around 5% is spent on board and corporate governance matters; 25% to 30% on meeting with industry officials, politicians and other regulators; and 10% to 15% in some form of interaction with customers. Whatever the split, it is clear that communicating with people inside and outside the organization lies at the heart of the CEO’s job.
Weathering crisis storms
Every time we are faced with a real personal crisis-loss of job, onset of a terminal illness, divorce or financial crisis. Some of the questions that cross our mind are: Why did this happen to me? Will it ever get better? How will this impact my social position? It is only natural to start feeling down and feel anxious about the future. However people who have weathered such storms, usually say that the crisis was the best thing that happened to them. It made them to get off their treadmill of maddening activity and do some real soul searching towards creating a better and happier future.
Drawing from those experiences, it may be useful to look at ways of dealing with such crisis in multiple dimensions.
First, it is critical to maintain a healthy sense of optimism about the future, not because we want to psyche ourselves into positive thinking but because things do get better from points of high pessimism. Surveys of people faced with a personal crisis demonstrate that the same people generally feel much better about themselves and life in general just a year after the initial event. It is equally important to have a strong sense of self-belief-the belief that not only will things get better but will also have a meaningful role. When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.
If the crisis involves some form of financial impact, it may be useful to also reflect on our needs and wants. In today’s consumerist society, we constantly want more — a bigger house, a flashier car, a new cell phone. Very often, unfulfilled wants may be the biggest source of disappointment and stress in our lives, and this is accentuated during adverse times. It may be pertinent to ask ourselves whether we need all these gadgets. In most cases, our needs are usually much simpler than our unending wants.
Further, crisis tests the strength of character. What differentiates the outstanding from the ordinary is not how well they do in good times, but how resilient they are through a crisis. Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. Committing to living with core personal values in all aspects of our life builds character, which provides us with the inner strength to keep forging ahead, and the courage to see our failure as mere stepping stones in the quest for larger goals.
The Chinese characters for crisis mean both danger and opportunity. Indeed, a crisis may be an opportunity for unparalleled personal growth. We can easily spend a disproportionate amount of time ruminating over our losses or being anxious about the future. The question is when things do get better, will we be well prepared to take advantage of the new opportunities?
Adversity offers the luxury of time to learn and hone new skills, enroll in hobbies or educational courses we always wanted to pursue but never had the time for, perhaps reflect on our true passions and give them shape this may mean anything from starting a new business or community initiative to discovering latent writing skills.
Finally, such times also provide us with a unique opportunity to reflect on what’s most important to us. Engaging in our calling can inspire us to operate at a much higher level and away from the delimiting struggle around external success and recognition.
When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
Innovation and Bossing must go together
With a team where the average age is 24 and with an MD (35 years) younger than the level 2 team executives (the functional heads reporting to the MD i.e. the departmental heads) one needs to set a culture of openness. Mostly what obstruct an open culture are misgivings and assumptions that employee harbors. This happens if employees do not appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And it is very essential that the functional heads at level 2 are completely aware of their colleague weaknesses primarily as strengths will be obviously seen. The very first thing ItzCash did was a personal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities, and Threats) and analysis of the immediate level 2 team after 6 months of the team being in place. The level 2 team was asked to join in the conference room and the session began first with an analysis. Along with his team and the MD, he even jotted down some of his weaknesses thus helping the team to open up. Talking directly to the employees helps the CEO in grasping the emotions which are the only yardstick to measure employee engagement. So bypassing senior managers in an open environment is seen as creating strong bonds, whereas in any other organizational environment, it is seen as investigative probing. ItzCash had a situation where a competitive company was trying to poach employees from higher to lower hierarchies with 3X packages. However, ItzCash did not lose a single employee to the competitor who happened to be a fairly big industry player. The employees at each hierarchy informed their reporting bosses of the competitors’ attempt. If an open communication wasn’t encouraged this wouldn’t have been possible.
Mahindra & Mahindra has a comprehensive communication plan for connecting with employee on one to one basis one too few and one too many. They have branded their communication as ‘Insync’ with a tagline, Aligning Thoughts, Inspiring Actions the objective being if our communications are effective, it will definitely help on converging thoughts thus creating alignment and inspiring people to get into action. At Mahindra & Mahindra a cross section of employee, across functions and hierarchical levels is taken on stratified random sampling basis and informal discussion are held over tea to understand perception of employees on a wide variety of issue. The one to one meetings are typically net chats which are held by the president and his direct reports, once a month, in rotation. We also have a personal email id where employees can send emails pertaining to any issues, directly to the president of senior VP Human Capital and their identities are kept confidential. There have been instances where employees have also unearthed unhealthy practices which have been stopped.
It’s therefore evident that CEOs are not just paying lip service when they claim to follow am open door policy. After all, calling your boss by his/her first name is no longer a fad but sharing your grievances with him/her over a cutting tea glass at the roadside Tea stall certainly is.
CEOs must think broadly, act personally and manage the innovation mix to make the business model deeply different. Ignite innovation through business and technology integration.
A few years from now, most business organizations in the world would be unrecognizable from the way they do business and perhaps even from their products line-up, a new survey predicts. A research study by IBM which polled 765 CEOs, business executives and public leaders, found that two out of every three expected fundamental changes in their organizations over the next two years.
“Think big and bold. Our future depends on it,” IBM says in the report that identifies collaboration, partnering and technology integration as inexorably linked to innovation.
The setting is the rise of new economies like China and India, technological advances, intensified competition and globalization. The forces overturning the status quo are many and varied. At the top of their list, CEOs mentioned market forces such as intensified competition, escalating customer expectations and unexpected market shifts.
Ethics and Social Responsibility today
Ethics and social responsibility are concepts that are fundamentally about the quality of our relationships over time. Many organizational decisions involve knotty problems where organizational interests affect the interests of others. The stock market scandals in the United States and Japan, the corruption between business and government in Italy, the possibilities and consequences of new technologies, and the increasing interplay of different cultures are just some of the issues that have brought questions about the social responsibility and ethics of business to the forefront.
Companies and managers that ignore moral concerns are saying to those affected, we don’t want to invest in making this relationship better. And even tough unethical behavior may sometimes pay today those who ignore ethical issues are heading of trouble over the long run. From the 60-year-old Credo of Johnson & Johnson to AT&T’s new statement of values, called our common bond companies are using their past experiences and values and the concerns of the present in setting new moral visions for the future.
Today there are many examples of how people can manage with corporate social responsibility and ethics in mind.
San Francisco bakery instituted a practice of hiring ex-convicts to fulfill the responsibility of business which has to play a large role in changing our society. Business people especially those in smaller companies know how to get things done. We tend to think outside the box. We need to bring that creativity to our community Disenfranchised people need on ramps into society. Those aren’t going to come from the federal government.
In response or the homeless situation one of Ben & Jerry’s answers was to open a store in Harlem and employ homeless people to serve ice cream.
For every UPC code mailed in by consumers, Scott Paper donates five cents to Ronald McDonald Houses. We get chances to spotlight worthy organizations and which create awareness among consumers too.
Paul Newman earmarks all of the profits from Newman’s Own food products for various charities such as the Hole in the Wall Gang, a camp for children with terminal cancer.
The Campbell Soup Company has sponsored a long running program. Labels for Educations that involves supplying equipment for schools based on the number of Campbell and Swanson labels sent in by consumers during the school year.
Burger King, along with IBM, operates a similar program. Through Burgers and Bytes computers are donated to schools according to the number of cash register receipts generated. Burger king also operates Burger King Academy to provide education and social services for dropouts and truants.
Colgate-Palmolive kicked off its Partners in Education program, which doubled as a marketing endeavor and a philanthropic measure. In return for retailers putting their display, the company gave the retailers Map Playground Kits, which included materials for students to paint their own maps. The stores then dispersed the kits to local grade schools.
Reebok ended up launching a new product in 1991 – the Black Top line of outdoor basketball shoes. Part of the profits from the shoes are used to renovate basketball courts, such as a court in South Dade County, Florida, devastated by Hurricane Andrew and renovated in 1993. Our involvement in Court Renewal gives us a lot more credibility for the [Black Top line] so I’d say it’s a major factor in the product’s success. But it started because they wanted to do something for inner city kids.
Pre – Interview preparation techniques
Your CV might be printed on a crisp paper, but if you’re dressed shabbily the chances of you getting hired are minimal. So we tell you how to dress right for your job interview:
Make sure you dress the part for the job, the company, and the industry. Dressing in appropriately formal attire is a safe bet. Your clothing does not have to be new or a designer brand. But just make sure it is wrinkle free, has a fresh look and your clothes are properly ironed. Try your clothes on a day before so ensure that they fit fine.
Err on the side of conservatism. You don’t want to distract your interviewer with you attire. Avoid loud patterns or excessive colors.
Get a proper shave and make sure your hair is neat: Young men must make sure their hair is trimmed and Girls ensure not a hair is out of place. Proper grooming will do wonders for looks.
Retire early the night before the interview a make sure you sleep soundly so that you are fully prepared for the day ahead.
Many men don’t know how to knot tier ties properly. Make sure you’re not one of them. Tie your tie correctly.Avoid strong cologne or aftershave because it may just distract the interviewer.
Polish or clean your shoes the night before and make sure they match your clothes. Your shoes should also be conservative. Carry a conservative purse or briefcase and avoid anything that’s funky.
Make certain your nails are neatly filed. Do not arrive at the interview with nails that are bitten or chewed off. Women’s nail polish should be conservative in color and not half chipped. Wear simple, minimal accessories and don’t freak out on junk jewelry. Match the belt to the color of your shoes. Women, stay away for stilettos and the noisy heels.
Remember to brush you teeth use mouthwash and/or have a breath mint right before the interview. If you are chewing gum, make sure you throw it before you enter the interview. Bad breath is a big turn off. Be inspired by the people who are successful in their careers and reached their present position by going through tough and competitive interviews.
When we see people do things we cannot do, or have things we don’t have, it might be tempting it be a little jealous. But jealousy doesn’t lead to anything except resentment, and that is not going to help you Instead of being jealous of others, focus on being inspired. Let the success of others move you forward towards your own success. After all, people who are doing things you want to do or have things you want are people like you and me. What is within reach for them, is also within reach for you. Next time you find yourself turning green over the success of someone else, here is what you need to consider.
Those people ahead of you are setting a great example of what is possible. Be thankful to them because they provide examples and paths to follow. Use other people’s success to build your own confidence and power. When one succeeds, it doesn’t mean you have to do exactly what they do. You can take cues from their performance. Though you can monitor your own success, it sure is great to have examples as references points. Other people’s reference will give you company in bridging your own challenges.
Use the examples of successful people as guides to help you achieve what you want. Learn from their success and most importantly learn from their journey and plan yours in accordance. When doing your study make sure you focus on their journey in detail. Just vying for their success may not help much but their journey towards that success will inspire you to walk on strong.
Consumers’ advocates and Labor Unions
The modern consumer movement dates from the early 1960s, with President Kennedy’s announcement of a Consumer Bill of Rights and Ralph Nader’s crusade against General Motors Corvair.
One frame work for understanding the consumer movement is Hirschmann’s model of exit voice and loyalty. Dissatisfied customers can choose either to exit that is, to take their business elsewhere or to voice their complaints; the customers’ loyalty to the organization will determine which option is used. Exit, of course, can cripple an organization by removing its customer base without giving managers time to make changes. Voice, in contrast, is a political strategy designed to seek redress for grievance. Filing lawsuits requesting the intervention of a regulatory agency and lobbying a lawmaking body are examples of the exercise of voice.
It is important to note that the use of voice ca be constructive rather than adversarial. Recognizing the costs of government intervention, consumer leaders often prefer negotiation. At the same time, progressive managers welcome voice as an opportunity to understand customer needs and to learn about changes in the marketplace.
Many companies, such as AT&T have learned to work with consumer advocates and to listen to their suggestions for improvement in quality and service. Some companies such as Xerox have formed their own customer advocate groups (or user groups) in an effort to improve this relationship.
Media: The economy and business activity have always been covered by the media, because these topics affect so many people. Today, though mass communications allow increasingly extensive and sophisticated coverage ranging from general news reports to feature articles to in-depth investigative exposes. The coverage is also ore immediate due to the increasing use of communication satellites.
Today, managers of most large organizations realize they operate in a fish blow, where every action may be the subject of media scrutiny. To improve their communications with both internal and external audiences, they have developed sophisticated public relations, and marketing departments. In addition executives who regularly deal with the media often seek professional coaching to improve their ability to present information and pinions clearly and effectively. Some organizations provide training for all employees to help them respond capably in situations that may arise. United Airlines, for example holds regular drills to prepare all employees from emergency workers to media relations workers to deal effectively with the aftermath of an air plane crash.
Labor Unions: Personnel specialists generally deal with an organization’s labor supply sometimes supplemented by other managers with specific hiring and negotiating responsibilities. They use multiple channels to locate workers with the various skills and experience the organization needs. When an organizations employs labor union members, union and management normally engage in some form of collective bargaining to negotiate wages, working conditions, hours and so on.
Dramatic changes in labor relations have come about in recent decades. Both personnel staff and union management have been professionalized. Also, employers generally accept the collective bargaining process and cooperate with unions to increase workers’ responsibility and participation. The sit-down strikes and violence that so often characterized the unions early days are for the most part over. Instead, unions urge stock ownership, profit sharing and gain sharing programs that give the workers a stake in the organization, and quality of work life programs that give them more control over what they do and how they do it.
A quality union relationship at Armco > A case:
Union relationship has become an important factor in the total quality of firms, because total quality involves having workers take on a new level of commitment and involvement in the company’s success. However, the movement away from traditional adversarial relationships is not easy. The ‘we versus them’ mentality still found in many unionized companies can undermine quality efforts. At Armco Worldwide Grinding Systems in Kansas City, Missouri, the union management relationship was described as one of periodic non-cooperation. Then in 1992 the company implemented its Team Works program. Teamwork is an effort by the company to give all its employees an equal voice in developing ideas to make Armco more profitable, more productive and more satisfying for its workers. This was the last step in a quality process that had been ongoing for ten years.
Highly successful Managers
No matter what post you are at whether you are a CEO of a company or the department head, you need to have absolute clarity about what you want in Life or from that particular job. Only then you can be successful. If you are not clear in you head, you will never achieve success even after slogging for the rest of your life. The best examples are people like Bill Gates and Dhiru Bhai Ambani. They were pretty clear about what they had to do in life and so they achieved success. So, Clarity is a must and clarity means vision. That is why leaders are known as visionaries who can foresee what they want.
A lot of people try dong various things in Life to achieve success. But remember unless you focus on one particular thing (your ultimate goal) and work towards achieving it, you will ever be successful. Be focused
To be successful professional, it is very important for you to understand that if your company is paying you Rs 10,000 you need to make sure that you give back 10 times more value of work. In most cases people try and avoid work and shirk responsibilities when they are expected to work longer hours. But instead of trying to escape from work, if you work harder the company will definitely reward you for your hard work in the long run. Give more than what you get.
You must have heard – If you sleep with a dog, you smell like a dog. So, if you are not too good at your job, make sure you hang around with smart and intelligent people at work. Only then will you learn from them. Also, remember, you need to approach them if you want to learn from them. Don’t wait for someone to come to you and talk. Lastly, remember that it is very important that you have people around you who are dynamic and people who will empower you.
It is a fact that every single millionaire in this world has had or has a supportive partner. A supportive partner can make a whole lot of difference to your life. So, if you are married, make sure you and your partner give each other the same kind of support and continue working hard. You will soon realize that nothing can stop you from being successful in life and achieving your dreams. So do not waste any more time day dreaming, and be supportive.
With your hard work and achieving some success once you become a group leader or manager you must follow certain principles to achieve goals for the organization as given below:
Smart goals make for smart organizations. So, it is very important for managers to set smart goals to achieve success. Here is a list of things that can help managers do a better job:
A good manager also needs it to up-to-date with all the current procedures in the company to expect good results from the employees. He should be kind and be able to build a good rapport with his employees. Moreover, if you go out of your way to do good for your employees they will always remember and respect you for all the good things you have dine for them.
A manager must be creative. Creativity adds a spark to the otherwise mundane responsibilities and projects and it really can act as an inspirational tool for co-workers and other employees. He should never let this authority bring about differences between him and his team members. It is always good to be someone your team members can look up to. So be friendly with your employees when it comes to having fun, and be a manager only when it is time to get down to work.
It is important to be a calm boss. A manager should make sure his employees feel free when it comes to having an open discussion. He should be open to sudden changes and suggestions given by his employees even if they are juniors.
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Global recruitment networks
Oct 19, 2008
Human Resource Management
Let us start with a case of Marina Somers. Marina Somers has a personality that tends to eclipse those around her. Tall, arrestingly dressed (she has a weakness for flamboyant spectacle frames), and with a tone of voice that means business. This art historian by training, headhunter by profession is quite happy to be seen as an evangelist for her tribe.
In the 70s when she started working in executive search, headhunting was a pejorative term but she always saw it as a job that allowed her to contribute to a positive change in a person’s life. Somers, the founder of Somers & Associates a boutique executive search firm founded in Moscow originally to assist multinationals with finding superior local talent.
But it is more than just Somers’ persona that is making her colleagues sit up and listen. It is the know-how that comes from 30 years of industry experience, not to mention the cultural perspective.
Having quality partners like Marina is what excites about being a part of the network. The “network” referring to is AltoPartners, an international alliance of independently-run search firms in 32 countries with 30 million Euros in combined revenues; the Accord group was one of its founding members in 2006. What the network gives us is global coverage, but because they are independently-owned firms they offer expert local knowledge in each of their domestic markets.
Having a network also means the ability to share best practices. At the AltoPartners’ offsite in Goa, the largest it has engaged in so far, Corinne Kladja has come prepared. As partner at Accord Group Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) operating across five Baltic States since 1992, Kladja is trying to templatise the search process for the entire group. “The idea is to eventually develop a common centre of research excellence. In Russia people jump jobs so quickly that the firm would go out of business if they devoted time to systems.
Member firms like Somers & Associates are inducted into AltoPartners on an exclusive basis and about five new members are added each year. Agrawal, who is one of those responsible for recruitment, says she always looks for a strong entrepreneurial mindset. “We are typically boutique firms of strong standing in each of the markets that we are present rather than small flags on a map,” she says.
AltoPartners, however, isn’t the first at this game; there are other similarly structured global recruitment networks. While over all executive search firms are seeing good times with the global war for senior talent intensifying, there is also greater scrutiny of firms that companies hire on retainer. At stake are their individual brand reputations, their track records, the visibility within markets they serve, and increasingly — their delivery capability across markets.
More and more independent recruitment firms have discovered that forming networks makes it easy to recruit anywhere in the world. Global scale is no longer a source of competitive advantage; it is a question of achieving parity, parity with top headhunting multinationals like H&S with branches in 57 countries or Egon Zehnder with offices in 37.
For multinational recruitment firms, the business model is organised around a single profit centre partnership; AltoPartners though allows member firms to operate autonomously; there’s no minimum fee size and no restrictions on the profiles of clients.
With a global firm, business is so driven by volumes and profits that it puts pressure on quality from the start.
Also while fully-owned firms have rigid solutions, in the case of a network, member firms are free to design market-specific solutions. Kladja, for instance, says that because most clients at her Warsaw headquarters are non-local, she has introduced a “cultural orientation” service. Having an Indian face and a French-Polish name actually helps me bridge cultures. Other firms have chosen to introduce services for outplacement, management audits, board replacements, or CEO coaching.
Where the lack of definition may not help is when cross border work threatens territorial integrity about 12% of AltoPartners’ global turnover is directly attributed to cross border work within the network . The choice to work with each other or not lies with each firm but there are often referrals from country to country for local searches.
The basis of effective partnership lies in respect, reciprocity and good old fashioned communication. Global companies have complex relationships with clients and it often creates off-limits between offices. Here they actually tap into other markets to get candidates via their partners.
What the network also helps in is developing cultural sensitivity to conduct successful cross-border work. The legal ramifications of revealing more than a candidate’s initials in the long list — Polish data protection laws don’t permit that. In some markets, facial hair can be an impediment to getting an executive role.
The network still has teething problems. In Goa, members are still coming to grips with how to leverage the common intranet. They haven’t begun common advertising or branding either. The approach so far has been to keep operating costs low, so there is no headquarters and the chairmanship rotates every two years.
Clients, so far, have responded well to the idea of international coverage via the network although ultimately, she believes, the single biggest factor for clients still remains the confidence in the individual consultant’s ability to deliver.
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