If you want to plan for a year, sow rice, if for a decade, plant a tree and if for the lifetime, then train your work force. - Chinese proverb
In these days of global competition, if organizations dare to ignore this saying just as another management quote, I bet, its doomsday is not far off. If an individual is self-actualized, he may quit at the age of forty and may lead a retired life as a Consultant. However, if an Organization behaves like a self-actualized individual, it is a real mess and an alarm for a massive HR exercise through positive intervention. An individual's growth is stunted if he is satisfied with his achievements in life and he is in the club of the people who are self - actualized. As per Abraham Maslow, if an individual is satisfied, he ceases to be a motivator. Success will play hide and seek with such individuals. In the same way, if an Organization is satisfied with its growth, no one can stop it from vanishing from the business map of the world. You may ask, how can we identify such Self - actualized Organizations?
If we trace out the roots of Self-satisfied Organizations, the following are some of the behavioral patterns with which one can identify such organizations:
i) They neglect recruitment from day one of establishing the organization, giving way to mostly references from relatives and any hearsay that can be taken as potential recommendation. With this kind of recruitment, the Management gives way to appoint cheap Managers and cheap labour, ignoring the fact that you will get only monkeys, when you pay peanuts!
ii) Generally, there will not be any kind of training as this kind of Management thinks that if we dump people in the plant en masse, they will learn themselves, ignoring all safety precautions and putting their lives open to all kinds of risks and accidents. Such Organizations will buy 100% Safety Certificates from 'National Safety Council' at a throw away price. Moreover, such Managements do not believe in spending on Training and Development.
iii) Unfortunately, people are not considered as assets in such Organizations, and they are rarely treated in a gentle and humane manner. Such a Management is never fair and frank with the employees. Openness is a far cry. Recruitment is projected as on humanitarian grounds to tap cheap labour (remember, they are going to be your assets, not just a bunch of humans) is only at the risk of the development of the organization in the long run. People who are selected and recruited in the name of humanity will become seniors and self-actualized producing nothing either for the benefit of the Organization or for them. As far as Organizational building is concerned, 'recruitment on humanitarian grounds' must be rationalized and it should not be based on irrationality and favoritism.
iv) In the long run, such Organizations land in trouble and can not manage their human resources as the people recruited by them will become Seniors and start demanding more pay, promotions and what not, all kinds of perks which are paid in a professionally managed organization. Automatically, the Organization will become the birthplace of another new Union, naturally, which would contain a group of complacent, unproductive, uncreative bunch of gentle goons who always encourage just absenteeism but not productivity.
v) Employees working in such Organizations will become aliens to the outside world and cannot learn anything, which would be beneficial for them in future.
vi) Managements who think of only humanity ignoring all other factors such as recruiting professionals and training them to suit the business needs of the Organization, will deliver only unprofessionalism and lose drastically in the world of competition.
vii) Such Managements never think of building Organizations and producing Professional Managers and it is a myth for them if anybody talks of producing wealth by way of sharing knowledge. Generally, these kind of Managements use outdated or not so widely used systems and software for e.g. use of Lotus Smart Suite instead of MS Office family. Generally, employees opting to leave such organizations do not get any kind of job as they worked on outdated systems all the years of their service.
viii) Lending unwanted helping hand and irrelevant HR practices also make employees feel disgusted and a promotion also considered as a curse and unwanted, as one has to do the same work even after elevation. Delegation of powers is a myth in such organizations.
Generally, this kind of trend is highly evident in the family managed organizations as they always dream of grabbing more share from the market without training their Marketing Manager to dive deep into emerging new markets and they pile up stocks with low quality, indulging in self-deceit and unproductive board meetings arranged with disgust and lack of confidence.
Nothing would be initiated which would help develop the knowledge of the employees in such organizations. Where there is no performance due to lack of professional training, the question of performance appraisal does not arise as all Managers suffer with 'Yes Boss Syndrome'. Promotions will be offered on a silver platter to those who are consistently maintain patience due to ignorance of rules, waiting for their turn due to lack of proper knowledge, and to those who are having minimum knowledge in their field of service.
Generally, pay will be hiked gradually as people become seniors and they think the
Organization is doing well. Management will always concentrate on production and marketing and conveniently, pose as people oriented organization following all statutory obligations focusing them as good HR practices.
As per the latest HR practices and parameters, this kind of Organization is considered to be in a real HRM mess. The remedy would be only 'Business Process Re-engineering'.
As a first step towards this path of progress, an Organization must opt for HRD Audit, which would assess the talent pool and knowledge base of the Organization to take up cleansing process. People must be trained in a phased manner to develop a culture and mindset to integrate the thought process, in turn, which would contribute for the smooth running of the organization. Emotional imbalance, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional disturbance, Emotional turbulence, low IQ, low EQ is the most dreaded diseases of the family managed business organizations. These kinds of emotional excesses can be eliminated and balanced with proper behavioral training by way of organizing behavioral labs, meditation and Yoga classes outside the Organization, in the midst of nature.
Retain potential customers with Customer Relations Management. Manage the team spirit of the employees with positive Employee relations management. Old habits die-hard. However, train the people to develop new culture and open their world to the emerging innovations in their business field in which they are working. Open the floodgates of information through intranet and Internet, develop a culture prone to learning, and ultimately allow transforming it as a Learning Organization forever.
Learning Organizations will be always alert to the needs of the customers. Continuously learning employees always work towards fulfilling the mission of the Organization if it is spelt out to reach top to bottom with clear communication. Personalized care must be taken by HR Department to help manage the emotional balance of the people. HR Managers must act as Chief People Care Officers, to facilitate people to concentrate on their tasks.
The following are the strategic moves to be followed to build a great organization.
1. Tapping the right kind of talent for the right job from day one of building the organization.
2. Training and development of employees to suit the business needs.
3. Transforming earning organization into Learning Organization for continuous motivation
4. Creating a Creative Centre in the Dept. of HRD on the lines of Profit Center, which would help in guiding the Organization towards the fulfillment of its mission statement and acts as a watchdog to influence positive and productive decision-making - such steps would contribute for the overall development of the organization.
Optimization of the utilization of M3 i.e. Men, Money and Machine through aligning HR Management with business goals would go a long way and help to become a truly global organization. GMP means not just Good Manufacturing Practices as defined but it also stands for Good Men Practices, Good Money Practices and Good Machine Practices, can be called GMP3 . Good Men Practices can be achieved through continuous training and development. Good Money Practices can be attained through continuous cost cutting measures and injecting accountability in every employee of the organization. Good Machine Practices can be introduced by way of checking IQ (Installation Qualification), OQ (Operational Qualification), and PQ (Performance Qualification) regularly. Sustenance and Development of these GMP3 would help sustain a good business model and transform the same into good revenue model, ultimately helps in building a highly profitable organization.
To conclude in a nutshell, one might be well aware of the fact that Bajaj, Tata, Birla, Eagle Poonawala, Nirma, Ranbaxy, - all industries in various businesses started as family organizations but slowly developed and metamorphosed into a highly professionally managed mammoth business groups which are proud and inspiring members of India Inc., with globe as their business play ground. The recent examples of professionally managed family Organizations which transformed themselves as professionally managed business Giants are Wipro, Satyam, Dr.Reddys' etc.
During the Tatas recent restructuring, Ratan Tata declared himself as Chief Personnel Officer, acting as a Change Agent to facilitate best HR practices. That would be a real shot in the arm for HR Managers when CMD himself supervises the organizational change!
Because of massive restructuring, Tatas sold out 11 Companies and bought 18 Companies to add more value to the Group. Taking over of Corus, by Tatas also demonstrates the business acumen of Indian companies. Above all, the finest example is Morepen Labs, which is a professionally managed Organization from day one and they achieved US FDA within minimum possible time from the date of commissioning the plant activities. Such is the meticulous planning and vision of the Morepen Management, which is an ideal benchmark, and envy of the competitors. An Organization engaged in any kind of business activity must have a vision of their own, lending the same to the employees down the line to help them tune to the business goals of the Management. Organizational Leadership must be prone to change according to times, and must learn and train them continuously to acquire the knowledge of innovations and must be aware of the emerging market trends. A learned and learning leader can always avoid creating a self-actualized Organization!
The Author is a Career Management Consultant and Corporte Trainer associated with aimkom consultrainers ([aimkom.com]) based at Hyderabad, India. You may reach him at
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