Is Elton Mayo’s “Sense Of Belonging” To The Cerebral Worker Is Not Working Any More?

Yesterday I was posting a comment in Harvard Management Online
Marshall Goldsmith: Ask the Coach. blog and made some analysys which are as follows.
It is very often found that the complexities increases with intelligent work force in your firm.
They are the assets to the business if used properly , but if they can’t be monitored properly they can be a liability and can pose serious threat and concern for the business.

Take for example running of a state of the art hospital, complex software development , top class management consultancies, top class management schools, you require best people with brilliant and thinking mind.

A best hospital must employ the best doctors, nurses to give the best treatment to cure patients but it has been seen many of the doctors who may be the head of departments with higher qualifications and specialized knowledge have got tremendous inflated egos.
In software development firms I myself have experienced and still experiencing people (engineers/coders/project managers) with very high egos. Even junior programmer with high egos can make life difficult for project managers at time.
What I have personally identified that these cerebral workers at times can not take criticism even constructive criticism also.

Consultants of top management consultancy firms, faculties of top class educational institutions suffers from the same mindsets.

Knowledge is power. A Cerebral worker is very smart and fast understand to value add to his knowledge and develop a niche knowledge which can be encash outside at premium.

The other side of the coin: A true professional is a person who is indebted to his knowledge not to the organization where he works.
An ERP professional can work in Mumbai, in London in New York , geography hardly matters, it is his cerebral power that matters the most.
It is applicable in the case of a doctor , a lawyer, a brilliant professor, a brilliant MBA.
What I found Elton Mayo’s “ Sense Of Belonging” is not very much applicable to the cerebral workers any more.

In this knowledge economy and globalization in place for the Cerebral Worker’s “Sense Of Belonging To Knowledge” should be the appropriate words.

Charlston Heston No More A Great Loss To World Cinema.

The Great Hero is no more. The Hollywood bonanza and the semi biblical films
like BENHUR will be there, but the cine world has lost Charlston Heston.
I don't think those types of hero will be born again. Old is gold.A tribute to this great actor.
I think Hollywood went Global with films like BENHUR and Gone With The Wind forty years before.

Pygmalion Effect Is Very Much Necessary In Change Management of Existing Work Force.

Change Management is about Human Capital, the willingness to change for betterment, higher productivity, higher profitability, and stability of business in turn.
The resistance to change is an age-old theory, and is persisting and will persist in future whenever the top management will initiate any change.
High expectation leads to high results through superior performance.
Change is good and for betterment make it understandable to the subordinates, so they can mould themselves according to the need of the organization’s requirements.
In today’s fast changing world, Globalization, shortening of Technological Life Cycle, short PLC, Digitization, Remote Access Mechanism it has becoming difficult for employees to adapt to this fast changing work environment. It was ten years ago in U.S. and West European nations this particular problem started and still persisting and now this problem is felt in emerging economies like India, China, and many East European countries.
Job security, stability are in question, employees sharpen their skills sets on a regular basis, contentious training and coaching are required to cope up with this acute perennial problem which every industry is facing.
As the knowledge, skill sets get obsolete the human capital depreciate rapidly in a Knowledge Economy.
A big questions how to appreciate the existing Human Capital for Business Performance Excellence. Training, retraining, coaching, counseling and are required as a part of HR Practice but apart from that a human touch element is required.
Employees who are in the age group of 40+ years require a passionate Pygmalion effect to cope up the serious challenges they face with obsolescence.
It is their superiors who will be expecting higher performance from their retrained re skilled existing human capital.
The “Sweeney’s Miracle” can happen with the existing re-skilled and re trained work force. As the high expectations should be based on the belief of the Management’s own re training and re skilling abilities and constantly motivating them to updated on the new skill sets and upgrade their knowledge base to suite the industries standard.

Are We Really Practicing McGregor's Y Theory In Manging Human Capital In Today's Business.

Yesterday’s posting has created a big problem for me one of my friend called me up in the night and said why I have written HR Dept as safety valve of the Corporate Pressure Cooker, which is not true according to him.
He is working as a DGM, HR in a MNC in B’lore, India.
Later I made a deep analysis and found that McGregor’s Y Theory is being preached and talked about, but not being actually put into practice may be due to market conditions, hyper competitions, low margins, global oversupplies, technological changes, market capitalization and numerous other external factors including firm’s survival.
From the very moment trainees/executive/managers are recruited or even existing managers are given higher targets to achieve, which I said Pressure to Perform, tension seems to build up and they start doubting about their own capability of delivering the goods.
For new recruits proper induction training and high-end counseling are required and for existing managers sufficient inputs and a proper roadmap should be provided.
To make the executives/managers productive, at every stages of corporate life McGregor's Y theory is a better solution and big dividend giver.
In the case of the new recruits the gestation period shortens down if the Line Manager and the HR Departments work at tandem and practice McGregor's Y theory.

Proper grooming requires time, training and confidence building measures, mutual trustworthiness, transparency, then only the latent potentials will come out from the executives /managers.
It is all about giving carrots in the different stages bypassing the McGregor's X Theory.
If the managements give the carrots in the initial stages they get back in return basket of carrots as dividends in years to come. In Theory Y the gradient of productivity may be low but steady where as the in Theory X the gradient of productivity may be steep but have sudden breakdowns (attrition rate become high) and very often it happens.

McGregor's Human Side to Human Capital of an enterprise is more relevant in today’s business world also. If properly McGregor's Y Theory can be practiced with high degree of maturity and sensibility, Executives/Managers will eagerly come forward to take the Pressure to Perform.
So let’s practice McGregor's Y theory for great results and dividends from Human Capital.
With warm Regards,

The Corporate Pressure Cooker Environment: Pressure To Perform And Perform Under Pressure.

We have been listening that all job execution has to be done within a specified time period with a specific margins, with stringent cost and quality control.
Managers/Executives are really under continuous stress and strain. At any cost they have to execute and it should be perfectly done, which is a part of the Corporate Performance Measurement System.
Very often I find myself working and also many of my executive friends working for 12-14 hours a day. Putting long hours is the order of the day for all the executives and managers.
I was taught from my school days there is no short cut to success; just hard work can take you to your destination and make you successful. We are living in a pressure cooker atmosphere with two aspects Pressure to Perform and Perform under Pressure.

Pressure to Perform: Pressure to Perform is a great philosophy in management and also in life, as we are all living in the performance-oriented world. Performances are benched marked in different industry and existing firms and the new firm try to meet the standards and that are recorded, rather break the past records that are already being made.
Very much similar to sports, in professional management which emulates lot from the sports persons and sports team. All managers/teams channel their energies and keep their focus to fulfill the assignments/targets to match the performance matrix.
Any individual has to work hard to keep his up his track record and to excel in his career. It is his Absolute Personal Responsibility (APR) to out perform his competitors within the organization and rise up the corporate ladder

Perform Under Pressure: In a meeting room the VPs/Senior Managers while giving targets will create the pressure by giving the specific figure within a specified time period. Managers/executives will have to perform under tremendous pressure and it becomes a real pressure cooker environment to achieve those figures.
The quarterly order bookings and the quarterly profits are compared YOY basis.
Gap Analysis are made and introspection are made, warning are given, heads roll out if the gap is big, when the gap is small new targets are set with new pay hikes, with promotions and additional responsibility. Management deliberately creates a pressure cooker environment and in the process they get the job out from the concerned persons and teams. Of course at times HR Dept works as Safety Valve of the pressure cooker, in many cases in a highly competitive environment HR Department remains inactive, and the poor performer has to bear the burnt.

So to draw a conclusion we find Pressure To Perform is absolutely individual task it is a part of self-motivation to keep you going, and Perform under Pressure is an external positive and negative motivation, which may break you at times.

Radical Change with HUMAN CAPITAL: Late Prof Sumantra Ghoshal.

Recently a topic of Radical Change in Management was being discussed with one of my friend in office he told me to go through the writings of Late Prof Sumantra Ghoshal.
Prof Ghoshal in his writing said core of change management is only possible if the Top Management of the organization has to be proactive with the change element using the Human Capital.

1.Top Managements core team intellectuals should understand the need for radical change.

2.They must have the courage to do what they see and believe what they need to do.

3. They should be able to analyze the gap and should take action to fill up the gap.

4.It is the Top Management’s duty to create confidence in the mind of the internal customers employees, customers, investor’s community, and the change leader need authenticity.

5. Market capitalization is an important part for the company, it is very tight rope walking for the top management and continuously grows, have every chance of falling down.

6. Make your employee understand about the future uncertainties and the pitfalls in the business in uncertain world, create trust with your tread unions, building up a relationship.

7.Change has to be a continuous process, you cannot afford to rest, it is an endless journey, and it should be purpose driven and a progressive journey.

8.The difference between the good, better and best is the Vision of the Leadership.

9.It’s really the HUMAN CAPITAL that matters and scarcity of Business Ideas, which matters.

10.It is the value creations, which can happen through HUMAN CAPITAL, and continuous self-renewal.
Last but not the least the CEO should able to understand his people; it's about changing continuously, which makes the difference.Upward and omward journey.

"West Bengal" Miles To Go Before You Sleep

Tata Motor’s entry to the domestic market will be in The October, the Singur factory will be ready by June end or July 1st week ’08.

It will be great test for Indian Auto Manufacturing sector to redefine the Auto manufacturing once again, it is the engineering genius and technological hallmark of the TATA’s has proved once again. Now it is the high time for West Bengal State to reengineer it’s thought process and streamline their left oriented thinking towards the right direction.
It is really a change management process for the Leftist in West Bengal are going through, we are all eagerly waiting for the D Day when the first Nano will roll out for TATA Motors Ltd, Singur plant. Many more major projects in the pipeline of WBIDC.
Congratulation to the TATA’s and the West Bengal Government for positive thinking and taking little steps in the right direction. West Bengal is changing, “but miles to go before you sleep”.