Learnings from First Session of Principles of Organisational Management :

Introduction :


The session started off with Dr. Mandi telling us about the importance of Organisations in society and their role in the working of the world. Dr. Mandi made one statement which I found very insightful. Nothing in this world can work or change without an organisation to control it. Upon hearing this, I couldn’t help but let my mind drift to the various examples of this found in our daily lives. One big part of life in urban Mumbai is commuting & travelling, things that would be impossible for most citizens without organisations like BEST and Indian Railways. Electricity, something that we take very much for granted, reaches our homes through an entire value chain where various organisations play their own part, such as Coal India, Mahagenco, Mahatransco, etc.


This means that when we graduate and go into the professional world as managers, our roles in our respective organisations are going to be as important as the organisation itself. It’s the same thing on a smaller scale. Manager:Organisation::Organisation:Society.


The Activity :


With this learning the class went on to a group activity designed by Dr. Mandi to exemplify, on a simplified level, the importance of relationships between people at different positions in an organisation. The activity consisted of building a tower of cubical blocks. A simple enough activity it seemed at first, but it grew more complicated when Dr. Mandi told us that it will involve 3 people. One person would be blindfolded and do the stacking. The second person, who is not allowed to touch the first person or the blocks, would give instructions for stacking. The third person would be a distant observer and would intervene only if it was very necessary.


Goal setting :


Before this activity started, it was used to illustrate patterns of goal setting.
People were not first told that the person building the block tower would be blindfolded and were asked to give their estimates about how many blocks would stand. people gave as many as 40. But, after revealing that the block builder would be blindfolded the estimates were revised to between 15 to 20 by the majority.
This helped us learn how we should set goals for ourselves and revise them as and when we encounter information and constraints.
We also learned the general goal setting framework : SMART; which stands for   Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound.


Learnings from the activity :


The first person symbolised the manufacturing workforce of any organisation. The workforce is the core driver in the working of any organisation, in the sense that the workmen are the ones who physically execute the core function of the organisation. Yet, the blindfold on the first person symbolises the fact that though the workforce is the main executing body of the organisation, it has to be closely and continuously supervised and it requires clear and precise instruction on how to do the work that is expected from it, mainly because the workmen of an organisation do not (and cannot be expected) to perceive the higher importance of the companies core functions or understand the bigger picture of the organisation as a whole.


The second person symbolises the manager or supervisor who is not the one who does the work, but is the one who gets the work done. It is his job to guide, instruct and supervise the people who work. He is expected to keep track of the progress of the workforce as well as manage all inputs needed to be provided to it. He basically runs the organisation, at a level higher than the actual workforce.


The third person symbolises the top management of an organisation whose job is to be a leader who represents the organisation in the society and intervenes in the inner workings of the organisation as and when the need arises.


Summary :


The activity helped us imagine and understand how important it is for there to be good relations between these three levels in any organisation. It is essential for the organisation to become a good contributor to society and stakeholders.