OLD gives way to the NEW
Earlier I had written about how Dr. Mandi’s first class was innovative and enlightening. Well, the second class was much better. We were sitting in the same fashion and Dr. Mandi took out some blocks from his bag. This time the activity was to build a tower using these wooden cubes.
The tower building activity was to be done in two stages:
1. Building the tower alone
2. Building it blindfolded with the help of another person.
2. Building it blindfolded with the help of another person.
Let me start with the first scenario:
Dr. Mandi asked us to bid for as to how many blocks a person
can stack together. There were various bids that came out ranging from 17-25. In
this betting, there was money involved as well. The person betting had to bet
some money on his bid. If he manages to stack that many blocks together, he
would get his money back. As this happened, the figure started to drip which
showed that our risk taking ability is less.
Finally the person who was building the tower could stack 22
cubes together.
There were three people involved in this act. The first
person was the blindfolded person (acting as an employee), then there was a person
guiding the blindfolded person (the manager) and then to guide both of them
there was the CEO. Bids were welcomed again and as expected the figures of the
bids were substantially low. People were not bidding for anything above 12-13 as
they expected nothing much out of a blindfolded person.
When the process began, the employee was guided aptly by the
manager to stack the blocks. There was a point where the stack was almost about
to fall but the manager ensured that it was properly taken care of. The CEO was
also giving his inputs in between.
Finally to everyone’s surprise, the trio was able to build a
stack of 25 cubes which was 3 more than the person who was doing it alone. Here
we learnt a very important management lesson.
Learning from the exercise:
After both the tasks were completed, Dr. Mandi explained to
us why this had actually happened. The concept of Old Vs New Management cropped
up. The old management was referred to as craftsmanship (1st
exercise) while the new one was called modern management (2nd
exercise).
Craftsmanship is something in which a person uses his skill
to do a particular job. There is no one to guide him and he performs the job at
his liberty. This was how management was followed in olden times.
As times changed, an organized and structured form of
management came into being. As per this modern management, an employee worked
as instructed by his manager. In return he was offered motivation and
incentives. As demonstrated in the 2nd exercise, the blindfolded
person did not have any pressure on him as he was being instructed by his
manager whereas the craftsman had an additional pressure on him, thereby
decreasing his efficiency.
The two styles of management can
be differentiated on the basis of the following parameters:
Parameters Craft Management Modern
Management
Work Ambiguity Crystal Clear
Skill Increases Decreases
Productivity Low High
Satisfaction More
Less
Conclusion:
As we can see, the modern management is organised and structured and also there is a lot of work clarity. However the satisfaction level of the employee is less as he feels he is under utilized.This is where the motivation and incentives work.
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