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Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Table 1
Ten years aggregate monthly sale of motorcycles
MONTH 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
JANUARY 67,432 58,454 83,821 101276 143023 132456 237163 224734 243098 276376
FEBRUARY 72,461 81,327 98,056 122481 156476 139076 189367 245431 265431 287245
MARCH 98,267 101032 87,578 187592 185612 198521 289291 320594 325628 372156
APRIL 105345 118671 95,634 132621 173714 202591 292392 316561 323543 387521
MAY 115178 107491 110163 150042 192417 192472 285109 312317 305245 382201
JUNE 94,234 84,012 67,592 101438 145698 176431 212621 307,261 299256 356356
JULY 78,465 72,982 52,841 162511 134623 178921 246342 306254 287653 355635
AUGUST 67,231 78,267 57,830 110721 131056 212025 240875 305576 285983 312387
SEPTEMBER 102345 99,319 102921 224291 312512 298297 314567 385262 378543 382067
OCTOBER 156545 123498 169045 296494 356265 361167 365022 398458 425541 456742
NOVEMBER 122546 111067 123151 258623 276034 291201 288027 401345 412371 434367
DECEMBER 112324 187521 156481 241371 245629 252462 240532 385521 398045 312276
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Fig. 2: Performance of ANN during training
Fig. 3: Plot of actual and forecasted sale of the motorcycles by proposed ANN and Winters additive model
(Received 16
th
April 2012, accepted 20
th
July 2012)
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Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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The Voyage of the Renault-Nissan Alliance:
A Successful Venture
Weng Marc Lim
School of Business, Monash University, Caulfield East Vic 3145, AUSTRALIA
lim.weng.marc@monash.edu
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the voyage of
the Renault-Nissan alliance being a successful venture.
Three cores are: The Backfire of the Alliance
Proclamation; The Sagacity behind the Renault-Nissan
Alliance; and The Recipe for Renault-Nissan Alliance
Success. The first core attempts to find out the reasons
of various stakeholders in regards to their disapproving
stances towards the strategic alliance formation.
Subsequently, the second core attempts to find out the
rationale of Renault and Nissan desire to form a
strategic alliance. Among the rationales were the
complementary strong market presence, skills and
technologies of both parties. Finally, the third core
section seeks to study the key challenges face by
Nissans COO Carlos Ghosn and what steps he took
to overcome those challenges.
Keywords: Renault, Nissan Alliance, Ghosn, Venture,
Voyage, Success.
Introduction
There were three key challenges: constructing an efficient
and effective organizational communication, rectifying
incompetent and uncompetitive cultures, and mounting a
sustainable challenge in the global market. In response to
that, Ghosn had taken steps to overcome those challenges:
boundary-spanning leadership, company-wide building
blocks, introduction of communication rituals, supporting
company-wide business initiatives and cross-boundary
rotations. Organizations planning to follow the footsteps of
the Renault-Nissan alliance should be ready to accept the
associated risk. Also, this case is rather contradictory to
several management theories on strategic alliance formation.
This is an exceptional case which is able to counter the much
proven prevailing theories. Four short recommendations for
the Renault-Nissan alliance were suggested relating to the
reviewing and reinventing of strategies, monitoring of
organizational progress, consistency of transparency and
importance of organizational history.
The formation of a cross-continental merger between two
famous companies one French, the other J apanese: Renault
and Nissan, took place in March 1999. Both were in a
derailing situation Renault had a highly publicized failure
with Volvo and is now taking on an owner of US$ 20 billion
worth of debts in the verge of bankruptcy.
7
Subsequently,
various international business media and market analysts
greeted the alliance announcement with unanimous
pessimism as a sign of disapproval.
6
However, 5 years later,
the universally written off alliance emerges as the biggest
return on investment in the history of the automotive
industry.
10
Consequently, the inquisitiveness of this
extraordinary revelation initiates the report to examine the
voyage of the Renault-Nissan alliance being a successful
venture.
The purpose of this paper is: to identify the reasons on why
various stakeholders condemned the Renault-Nissan alliance,
to understand Renault and Nissans rationale to form a
strategic alliance, to examine the key challenges obstructing
the implementation of a successful Renault-Nissan alliance,
and to study what steps have been taken to overcome the
threat poised by the key challenges. The paper typically
derives three distinct cores in accordance with the
examination analysis: The Backfire of the Alliance
Proclamation; The Sagacity behind the Renault-Nissan
Alliance; and The Recipe for Renault-Nissan Alliance
Success Key Challenges and Walk-The-Talk.
Discussion
The Backfire of the Alliance Proclamation: Following the
announcement of the Renault-Nissan alliance in March 1999,
various individuals and organizations have been unanimous
in their disapproval of the alliance. In their eyes, the two were
looked at as ill-suited bedfellows.
Much has been made of the culture clash between the two
companies as it became their mainstream of disapproval.
General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz had condemned
the merger as his managerial experience in the automotive
industry indicated that the alliance was destined for failure
and typically, those taking place across such distant and
distinctive national cultures Renault and Nissan
6
.
Relationally, the incompatible strategic goals and objectives
would further create an in-synergy situation - both Nissan and
Renault were of nationalistic and patriotic characteristics at
their core and each deemed its way as the right way of
performing a particular something management cadre.
6
In
the context of the managerial theoretical world, culture is
more often seen by various management gurus as a source of
conflict rather than of synergy.
12, 15
Hofstede
15
further
suggested that the cultural differences are often a disaster and
at best, a nuisance.
In addition, the alliance was rather seen as an ownership
disadvantage situation for Renault. The 36.6 percent stake
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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held by Renault in Nissan was rather seen as a weak minority
shareholding Renault could not become the real boss and
instead of setting some firm directions, they had to
negotiate.
6, 19
In other words, it was not in the preferable way
in which the Lutz had foreseen in contrast to the mirror of the
above event Renault being the real boss by having a 51
percent stake even if it meant having to assume Nissans debt
on its balance sheet. Thus, dealings with proprietary
technology or competitively sensitive information would be
highly controlled by Nissan. Consequently, Renault would
not be able to transfer the valuable ideas and practices of
Nissan as promptly as they wanted into its own operations.
Astonishingly, Renault and Nissan themselves were in a
contrary position. Renaults sales were highly concentrated
with 84.5 percent being in Western Europe alone and in
comparison with other major manufacturers, especially its
European rival Volkswagen, Renault was in an extremely
parochial compass and perhaps, vulnerable to a predator
when the automotive industry was globalizing rapidly.
7, 8, 22
In
contrast, Nissan had a problem with its senior managers
bureaucratic and conservative approach as there was little
emphasis on profit, contributing to its debt mountain more
comparable to that of a medium-sized developing country
US$ 20 billion.
6, 16
Subsequently, both companies were seen
to have a lack of mutual understanding as they had no history
of working together.
17
Consequently, the alleged unanimous
pessimisms suggested the stakeholders doubt of Renault and
Nissans current skills, products and markets as being able to
complement each other.
The Sagacity behind the Renault-Nissan Alliance:
Generally, the rationality of every merger often entails the
potentialities in future market development and access to a
variety of technologies.
3, 7
This was rather obvious from the
outset in the case of Renault-Nissan the alliance provided
complementary geographical scope and skills.
Renault had a strong market presence in Europe and Latin
America whereas Nissan was buoyant in J apan, North
America and Asia. In Renaults point of view, the alliance
would allow them to expand beyond its European and Latin
American base in order to maintain its competitive survival in
the long term - reduce its industrial concentration in the
European market.
22
Thus, to be credible in a global context,
Renault required a presence in North American and Asia
Pacific markets.
7
However, such an expansion could not take
effect without a partner as the cost was rather too expensive
and out of the budget. An American partnership was out of
the question as Ford, General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler
were trying to assimilate their recent marriages with other
European automotive firms. As the attention turned to J apan,
Nissan was apparently alone in the market.
16
Other J apanese automotive manufacturers such as Subaru and
Isuzu were under the influence of General Motors whereas
Mazda was already under Fords auspices. Ultimately, Nissan
who provided the opportunity of penetrating into new
targeted markets was an obvious strategic partner to Renault.
On the other hand, Nissans perspective was that the alliance
would in turn bring benefits in terms of increasing its global
market presence - penetrating into untapped European
markets.
20
This would further allow Nissan to utilize their
half-idle manufacturing platforms as they would be able to
increase production due to the opportunities for potential
customers demands in the larger market.
In addition, Renault and Nissans combined technological
strengths and expertise would undeniably be of mutual
benefit to both parties Renault presented a considerable
amount of quality ranging from expertise in research and
development to a flair for marketing and concept design,
whereas Nissan itself was an engineering powerhouse.
6, 7
These distinctive skills and assets brought by both parties into
the venture would undeniably reduce the potentialities of
direct competition in both the end products and markets, and
contribute to mutual success in the former and latter areas.
Relationally, Renaults Safrance which had proved a singular
disappointment would be rejuvenated with the engineering
and technological enhancement provided by Nissan.
7, 22
Additionally, Renaults product range would further benefit
from the complementation of Nissans reputation in pickups
and off-road vehicles as well as their top-of-the range models,
such as Rouge and Infinite, whereas Nissan would be able to
take advantage of Renaults marketing expertise to boost its
currently stale sales growth.
22
Hence, the forming of the alliance is rather sensible as both
Renault and Nissan could take advantage of each others
complementary geographical scope, skills and expertise to
generate future mutual success.
The Recipe for the Renault-Nissan Alliance
Success
Key Challenges: Success does not fall right in front of the
doorstep. Several key challenges have been faced by Carlos
Ghosn, COO of Nissan, in order to successfully implement
the Renault-Nissan alliance in mid 1999.
Key Challenge No.1-Constructing an Efficient and
Effective Organisational Communication
The differing country of origin in which Renault and Nissan
came from, poised a barrier of communication between the
two companies. In terms of language spoken, Nissans and
Renaults organizational members used the J apanese and
French language respectively (Central Intelligence Agency).
4
Hence, Ghosn is faced with the challenge in overcoming the
potential threat of communication breakdown due to the
differing use of languages. In simple terms, it is impossible
for a chicken and a duck simply to communicate.
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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In addition, Ghosn is faced with several cultural problems in
creating an efficient and effective organizational
communication in J apan. First, he would have to face the trap
of the high context culture as J apanese tend to have a hidden
meaning in what they said.
6
In illustration, J apanese might
say yes, but actually what they meant is no. Therefore,
Ghosn faced a challenge to instill an approach of total clarity
and open communication within Nissan. Secondly, Ghosn is
faced with a situation in which Nissan has a compartmenta-
lized culture which limits the flow of communication. In his
observation, people in Nissan were not really talking to one
another.
6
Rather, they tend to focus more on the formal
organizational structure communication only among the
same hierarchy level. Therefore, Ghosn faced the challenge in
implementing the effective complementary formal and
informal communication in Nissan to overcome the autocratic
system and high power distance culture in the J apanese
organization.
2, 6
Key Challenge No. 2-Rectifying Incompetent and Un-
competitive Cultures
In 1999, several Nissan practices were identified by Ghosn as
incompetent and uncompetitive. Firstly, the keiretsu system
was criticised by Ghosn as its intrinsic lack of flexibility
loyalty to their large chain of suppliers and paying at cost
disadvantage prices, was proving to be one of its most serious
shortcomings in the modern global economy.
5, 6
Secondly,
there was a boundary of age and seniority in Nissan. Ghosn
implicated that this practice had no motivating factor as every
employee would be acquainted with rewards and promotions
in a matter of time.
6, 7
Thus, Ghosn had to deal with the
challenge poised by these incompetent and uncompetitive
practices.
Key Challenge No.3-Mounting a Sustainable Challenge in
the Global Market
As both companies were previously in a derailing state, it
became a challenge to Ghosn to revitalize the companies into
a highly competitive organization in the global market. The
failure of some Renaults automotive models and their over
concentration on sales region becomes one problem for
Ghosn.
16
On the other hand, Nissans senior managers
bureaucratic and conservative approach becomes another
problem as this was the cause to their amazing US$ 20 billion
of debt, leading to a brink of complete financial and market
collapse!
6
Walk-The-Talk
In the battle to overcome the key challenges, Ghosn has made
his mark by developing and implementing several strategies
and practices. In turn, this would allow the Renault-Nissan
alliance to achieve a sustainable level of competitive
performance.
Boundary-Spanning Leadership: As a start, Ghosn had
opted to create a context and space for both companies to
come together.
1, 6
This was seen as early as in the time of his
COO appointment Ghosn handpicked 17 French executives
from Renault to form a boundary-spanning leadership team
with the combined reduced group of Nissans executives.
6
Furthermore, his leadership had encouraged non-pre-existing
mental models, cultural prejudices, or preconceptions in his
attempts to bridge both parties with the understanding and
acceptance of cultural differences to enable seeding for
innovations instead of seeding for dissention.
6, 24
Company-Wide Building Blocks: Next, Ghosns effort of
implementing company-wide building blocks mirrored his
desire to overcome the first key challenge - constructing an
efficient and effective organisational communication. Firstly,
Ghosn lay down the use of a common language or lingua
franca English, throughout both organisations.
6, 9
This
decision was also backed up with intensive language courses
for all the companys employees, regardless of level.
6, 21
In
turn, this helped Nissans collaboration in cross-functional
and cross-company teams effectively, with executives of
different functions and nationalities from both companies
working together to achieving exigent business objectives -
such as reducing automotive debts in the next three years.
Ultimately, successful knowledge interaction between the two
companies was achieved. Secondly, Ghosn encouraged
certain common positive traits among employees - such as
walk-the-talk behaviour, especially among those assuming
leadership roles.
6
His idea here was to reduce the effect of the
high context culture as to ensure that words said should
correspond with their actions.
Introduction of Communication Rituals: In addition,
Ghosn
11
had employed several communication rituals to
further response to the first key challenge. First, he implied
an extreme transparent, open, precise and factual
communications both within Nissan and with its stakeholders
Ghosn practice the invitation of the media to Nissans
annual shareholder meetings and gave them complete
freedom to report what they saw.
6
In addition, total clarity
was also strongly emphasised.
21
As a result, open
communication was achieved as younger generation J apanese
managers became more approachable and perfectly
understood one another and the organization had maximum
light as the organizational environment became much
clearer.
13
Consequently, the success of making these practices
alive was also a result from Ghosns company-wide building
block encouraging leaders to walk-the-talk.
6
Sub-
sequently, certain practices became powerful and visible
rituals as a leader, Ghosn would make surprise visits to
Nissans research facilities and production plants and
establish communication with all lines of employees.
However, a compartmentalized culture was still present. In
response to this, Ghosn
11
regarded the cross-functional teams
highly in turning the prevailing culture into a more open spirit
that fostered cross-boundary communications.
6
Consequently,
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Ghosn replaced the companys divisional presidencies in
North America and Europe with four cross-functional
management teams that met monthly.
11
Supporting Company-Wide Business Initiatives: To mount
a sustainable challenge in the global market, Ghosn
11
introduced the company-wide business initiative Nissans
Revival Plan (NRP), which had clear quantitative and
qualitative targets requiring total involvement in order to
attain positive outcoming effects on Nissans component
areas.
6
In the beginning, some main strategic goals were
announced at the Tokyo Motor Show.
6, 23
Various members
of the society had turned a deaf ear to the unveiled plan.
However, Nissan not only achieved its goals, but also
exceeded every expectations of each goal.
Behind this success were the nine cross-functional teams
composing of both top-down and bottom-up approach,
established by Ghosn
11
as a result from the social initiation
stages of the alliance.
6, 10, 11
This allowed Ghosn to utilize the
human resources to design the NRP without resorting to
outsiders such as consultants.
In addition, a strong emphasis was put on product
development in order to overcome the challenges.
6
Various
researchers and Ghosn
10, 11
realized the importance of
gathering an essential pool of expertise in which directions
were given to the dedicated cross-functional teams in order to
engage in effective and sustainable product develop-
ment.
6, 7, 11
To restore allure to Nissans tarnished brand
image vis--vis the customers, Shiro Nakamura, Isuzus star
designer, was recruited.
6
An increased allocation of R and D
investments was also made - from 3.7 percent of sales in
1998 to 5 percent. Also, a rose in the recruitment budget took
place to employ 1000 new engineers for various product
development projects.
Besides that, a larger global market share was also an
important revitalization factor.
12
Ghosn approved a US$ 930
million new assembly plant in central Mississippi to supply
the key U.S. market and a US$ 300million investment to
produce new Nissan car models in Brazil.
6
As a result, the
former approval had led to a representation of one-third in
Nissans sales starting form 2003.
By now, Nissan was already braking and accelerating hard at
the same time. However, an incompetent and uncompetitive
culture was still present the keiretsu system.
6, 19
In response
to this, Ghosn revealed that maintaining keiretsu was not
among the companys objectives. Instead, the system would
rather be on the basis of a cost/benefit analysis.
10
Consequently, it became the objective to free all-capital
resources from non-strategic, non-core assets and to invest
more in their core business while at the same time
significantly reducing their debt.
6
Finally, Ghosn made the company-wide business initiatives
to run at a continuous level.
7
In 2001, Nissan launched 180
business initiative, but it was met before schedule.
6
Consequently, Ghosn started to publicize Value Up
another business initiative, but this time, to instill Nissan and
Renaults brand and product portfolio into higher value-added
items in the consumers minds.
Cross-Boundary Rotations: In order to break boundaries,
rotate key executives around and create a truly global
leadership cadre inside the company, Ghosn employed
effective personnel and career growth policies.
1
According to
J ackson, Hollmann, and Gallan
18
, these policies form an
effective motivational factor and commonly lead to an
increase in employee performance levels. Thus, to support
this, a new global promotion and compensation system based
on employees profit contribution was presented. Sub-
sequently, this allows the rectification of an incompetent and
uncompetitive culture - breaking the old tradition of
unmotivational incentives based on seniority.
11
However,
there was a need to prepare the mindsets and attitudes of its
employees in order to maintain stability and reduce the effect
of any culture shock.
6, 18
Consequently, those who were
resisting to changes have one year to change their attitude.
11
Another showcase of the policies benefit was a high-profile
female J apanese executive was hired to head Nissans
communication department.
6, 23
She became the first woman
ever to lead a function within a company. Instantly, she
grabbed widespread attention from the media. This event
challenged J apans excessive point of masculinity which was
ranked the second highest 95, as compared to other
countries.
15
This was further supported by Herbig and
J acobs
14
saying that J apans extreme position on masculinity
suggests that in no other country is the sex role separation as
strict as in J apan. However, the ripened effects of these
policies were rather successful as the Renault-Nissan alliance
became so successful and profitable, making it as the fifth
largest car manufacturer in the automakers league.
6
Conclusion
The declaratory surprise of the Renault-Nissan alliance would
probably be predicted as a corporate disaster story without an
examination of the extraordinary revelation voyage of the two
companies. As we have studied the overall aspects of the
alliance, it has been seen that the Renault-Nissan alliance was
exactly the opposite. Although we have seen various
backfires from the alliance proclamation, the sagacity behind
the Renault-Nissan alliance provided a real justified rationale
on why the alliance is formed.
Conclusively, this marriage is rather in an odd situation as
managerial theories on successful steps in forming a strategic
alliance are not precisely followed but rather, it has countered
much of the prevailing theories not forming a common
culture did not prevent a strong common glue between
Renault and Nissan. Furthermore, past experiences of
renowned corporate figures were also put to the sword in this
case. Hence, this case would be considered as an exceptional
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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case. Consequently, organizations planning to follow the
footsteps of Renault and Nissan would have to adopt a highly
risky position until this kind of voyage becomes rather
common and further proven in the business world.
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Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Case Study:
Personality Type A as a Moderator for Relationship between
Occupational Stress and Organizational Effectiveness
Mahal Prabhjot Kaur
Rayat- Bahra Institute of Management, Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. INDIA
prabhjotkaurmahal@gmail.com
Abstract
The Indian corporate society is presently experiencing
an accelerated change in economy, social structure and
family structure. Due to that the most of the employees
are mainly spending their time on the job related work
purposes resulting in ignoring the stress influencing
their work and life. Now a days people are more
worrying about their outcome of work that can even
affect the way they are being treated in their
organization. This has resulted in a renewed focus on
HR strategies that can ensure organizational effective-
ness as well reduction of occupational stress. This is
possible only when the employees working in the
organization possess a personality to reduce the stress
as well as to increase the organizational effectiveness.
The present study was performed on a sample of 400
employees belonging to service sector. The major
objective of the study was to analyze moderating effect
of Personality Type A on the relationship between
occupational stress and organizational effectiveness.
Moderated regression was conducted to find the results.
It was found that occupational stress was negatively
related to the organizational effectiveness and
Personality Type A moderated occupational stress and
organizational effectiveness.
Keywords: Call Centre Employees, Occupational Stress,
Organizational Effectiveness, Personality Type A.
Introduction
The complexity and competitiveness of today's business
environment requires companies to continuously raise the bar
on their effectiveness, because top performance increasingly
demands excellence in all areas, including leadership,
productivity and adaptation to change, process improvement
and capability enhancement (knowledge, skills, abilities and
competencies). There is no doubt that organizational
effectiveness is only way to lead business success.
Organizational effectiveness is considered as important for
the survival and growth of the organization.
Organizational effectiveness can be understood as the process
of developing capabilities necessary for achieving the goals
and objectives of the organization. In order to be effective
organizations need to re-examine their objectives, methods
and systems as well as the basic beliefs, assumptions and
values that shape these objectives, methods and system.
Consequently, employees may need to be re-educated, de-
skilled and re-skilled.
Effectiveness of the organization depends upon the learning
and the personality attributes of the individual. This directly
or indirectly affects the performance or productivity of the
employee. Yeung and Berman
32
described that HR practices
of the organization are the main predictor of the organization
effectiveness, it is also seen that individual behavior such as
commitment, involvement and extra role activity as
manifested by organizational culture behavior and high
performance work system, also contributes towards enhanced
organizational performance.
21
Increasing competition, globalization of companies and
business and the continuous change in market and technology
enabled the companies to think about different ways and
strategies to gain competitive edge in the market place. The
answer lies in upgrading the competitiveness of the
organization by increasing the effectiveness. Organizational
effectiveness has been defined from different perspectives
over the years and there have been number of attempts to
arrive at a single definition of this very important variable.
Occupational stress research in organizations in general and
executive stress in particular is a topic of discussion with
academicians and management practitioners whereas
stressors refer to an employees physiological or physical
response to stress.
10
A number of studies have been
conducted which identify various organizational and work
related stressors.
4, 11, 26
Researches have shown that Personal-
ity Type A and Negative Affectivity have been found to play
a part in the stress experienced.
22, 31
The main aim is to check
that whether Personality Type A serves as a moderator in
seeing the effect of occupational stress on organizational
effectiveness or not?
Type A Personality Bahaviour as a moderating
Variable
In 1950s two cardiologists in San Francisco, Rosenman and
Friedman, embarked on a systematic program of research on
this aggressive, striving disposition, they called it the
Personality Type A pattern, as this research was different
from traditional epidemiological studies by considering
socio-economic and psycho-social factors, rather than
physiological factors alone. These studies established the
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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(32)
(33)
(34)
Table 1
Items, Means, Standard Deviations and Cronbach Alpha of Independent and Dependent Variables
Variables Maximum Minimum Mean S.D.
Role overload 4 20 10.9 3.76 0.92
Role ambiguity 4 20 9.15 2.56 0.89
Role conflict 2 12 4.96 1.7 0.87
Group and political pressure 5 25 9.8 3.20 0.78
Responsibility for persons 2 10 4.78 1.63 .092
Under participation 7 35 14.24 4.8 0.74
Powerlessness 3 15 7.04 2.62 0.83
Poor peer relations 5 25 13.95 5.12 0.79
Strenuous working environment 4 20 10.96 3.8 0.86
Low status 2 10 4.9 1.7 0.76
Intrinsic impoverishment 6 30 14.88 5.04 0.79
Unprofitable 2 10 4.86 1.59 .084
Personality Type A 20 140 100.73 16.83 0.82
Organisational effectiveness 46 230 226.46 76.62 0.92
Table 2
Pearson Intercorrelation among the Type A Personality, Occupational Stress
and Organizational Effectiveness
Vari. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1 1 -.25* -.24* -.204* -.197* -.2* -.197* -.198* 1** -.233* -.232* -.214* -.270** -.213*
2 1 .552** .514** .461** .486** .482** .514** -.247* .554** .548** .445** -.122 .585**
3 1 .926** .898** .883** .877** .867** -.236* .998** .944** .863** .198* .972**
4 1 .954** .936** .923** .909** -.204* .924** .864** .878** .218* .892**
5 1 .983** .971** .963** -.197* .899** .841** .838** .201* .862**
6 1 .992** .983** -.2** .884** .824** .818** .228* .845**
7 1 .989** -.197* .878** .814** .811** .234* .841**
8 1 -.198* .868** .80** .791** .182 .841**
9 1 -.233* -.232* -.214* -.270** -.213*
10 1 .946** .861** .199* .970**
11 1 .799** .155 .910**
12 1 .204* .826**
13 1 .128
14 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
{1= Role overload, 2= Role ambiguity, 3= Role conflict, 4= Group and political pressure, 5= Responsibility for persons, 6= under
participation, 7= Powerlessness, 8= Poor peer relations, 9= Strenuous working environment, 10= Low status, 11= Intrinsic
impoverishment, 12=Unprofitable, 13= TAP, 14= Organizational Effectiveness}.
Table 3
Moderated Regression result of Occupational stress regressed on organizational effectiveness
Variable Df1 Df2 F R square Beta Sig.
Occupational stress 1 98 378.71 .794 2.54 .000**
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
Table 4
Moderated Regression result of Occupational stress regressed on Type A Personality
Variable Df1 Df2 F R square Beta Sig.
Occupational stress 1 98 9.630 .526 .982 .000**
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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15. Kirkcaldy B., Shephard R.J. and Furnham A.F., The influence
of type A behavior and locus of control upon job satisfaction and
occupational health, Personality and Individual Differences (2002)
16. Kushnir T. and MelamedS., Work-load, perceived control and
psychological distress in Type A/B industrial workers, Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 12, 155-168 (1991)
17. Latack J., Coping with job stress: Measures and future
directions for scale development, Journal of Applied Psychology,
71 (3), 377-385 (1986)
18. Lazarus R. S. and Folkman S., Stress, Coping and Adaptation,
New York, Springer-Verlag (1984)
19. Motowidlo S.J., Packard J.S. and Manning M.R., Occupational
stress: Its causes and consequences for job performance, Journal of
Applied Psychology, 71 (4), 18-629 (1986)
20. Mueser K.T., Yarnold P.R. and Bryant E.B., Type-A behavior
and time urgency: Perception of time adjectives, Journal of
Medical Psychology, 60, 267-269 (1987)
21. Pattanayak B., Gaining Competitive Advantage and Business
Success Through Strategic HRD: An Indian Experience, Human
Resource Development International, 6 (3), 405-411 (2003)
22. Payne R., Organisational Stress and Social Support, In Cooper
and Payne, eds., Current Concern in Occupational Stress,
Chichester, John Wiley (1975)
23. Powell L.H., Issues in the measurement of the Type A
behaviour pattern, Research Methods in Stress and Health
Psychology, Kasl S.V. and Cooper C.K., ed., England, John Wiley
and Sons Ltd., 231-282 (1995)
24. Quick J.C., Occupational health psychology: The convergence
of health and clinical psychology with public health preventive
medicine in an organizational context, Professional Psychology:
Research and Practice, 30 (2), 123-128 (1999)
25. Rosenman R., Current and past history of Type A behavior
pattern, In Biological and Psychological Factors in Cardiovascular
Disease, eds., SchmidtT., DembroskiT. and BlumchenG., 15-40,
Berlin, Germany, Springer-Verlag (1986)
26. Schular R., An Integrative Transectional Process Model of
Stress in Organisation, Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 3, 5-19
(1982)
27. Seligman M., Helplessness, San Francisco, CA, W. Freeman
(1975)
28. Singh S. and Sinha A.K., Structure of Stress Experiences.
Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1986)
29. Sparacino J., The Type A behavior pattern: A critical
assessment, Journal of Human Stress, December, 37-51 (1979)
30. Spector P.E., Behaviour in organizations as a function of
employees locus of control, Psychological Bulletin, 91, 482- 497
(1982)
31. Watson D. and Clark L., Negativity Affectivity: The
Disposition to Experience Aversive Emotional Stress,
Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465-490 (1984)
32. Yeung A. K. and Berman B., Adding Value Through Human
Resource: Reorienting Human Resource Management to drive
Business Performances, Human Resource Management, 36 (3),
321-335 (1997).
(Received 17
th
February 2012, accepted 10
th
June 2012)
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Case Study:
Economic Problems in Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSMES) in India
Venkateswarlu P.
1
* and Ravindra P.S.
2
1. Department of Commerce & Management Studies, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
2. Miracle School of Management, Miracle City, Bhogapuram, Vizianagaram (Dist.) 535216 (A.P.), INDIA
*po_venkat@yahoo.com
Abstract
Globally, there is an increased recognition of the
important role played by micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) in the economic development of a
country. Similarly, in the South Asia region, MSMEs
are the main engines behind the economic growth. In
particular, MSMEs are one of the biggest contributors
to GDP, employment and play a core role in the supply
chain of large businesses. One of the major problems
faced by MSMEs in South Asian countries is lack of
finance to advance business growth. MSMEs lack setup
capital, liquid capital, working capital and investment
capital to survive and grow in a dynamic and predatory
competitive business environment. MSMEs heavily
depend on the financial institutions such as banks,
credit corporations and development banks for the
supply of finance to meet their daily financial needs.
Keywords: MSMEs, Post Crisis, Economic problems, Public
Policy, Development Banks, Regulatory Policies, India.
Introduction
MSMEs in the manufacturing sector of India are mainly
export oriented and include industries such as textiles,
garments, footwear, sugar, food processing, beverages
(including mineral water) and wood based industries. The
government has provided tax concessions to some selected
manufacturing sectors in recognition of the importance of this
sector to Indias economy. Manufacturing sector has been one
of the major contributors to GDP, employment and foreign
exchange earnings. Particularly, the MSMEs in the
manufacturing sector of India have made remarkable
contribution in economic growth, employment, innovation,
competition and poverty reduction. Financing the MSMEs is
one of the major problems faced by contemporary
owners/mangers of MSMEs in the manufacturing sector of
India.
4
Owners/managers in the manufacturing sector are faced with
a range of financial problems; namely, inability to obtain
external financing; inability to obtain internal financing;
insufficient capital, start-up costs; expensive raw materials;
high wholesale price; large losses due to scrap rate, sabotage,
breakage and crime; decline in sales volume; bad debts and
write offs; heavy equipment and maintenance costs;
government tax, VAT and customs duty; heavy advertising
and promotional costs; payroll, rent and utilities;
transportation and petrol costs; high interest rates on loans;
ability to meet financial obligation; training and development
costs; insurance costs and delay in account receivables
payment.
6
Overview of MSMEs in the Manufacturing
Sector of India
Indias economy is principally resource oriented although the
size of the manufacturing sector has increased over the recent
years. The manufacturing sector of India includes the
manufacture of items such as textiles, garments, footwear,
sugar, food processing, beverages (including mineral water)
and wood based industries. Initially, manufacturing basically
involved agricultural products such as sugar and timber.
Since 1986 the production of garment has increased
tremendously due to the introduction of tax exemptions for
factories exporting 70% of their annual production
8
.
Manufacturing sector contributes to the GDP, creates
employment and generates foreign exchange earnings. GDP
from the manufacturing sector increased from around 12% in
the late 1980s to about 15% in 1990s.
3
According to the
Employment Survey Report (2009) there were a total of
22,599 wage earners and 2,412 salary earners employed in
the manufacturing sector of India.
Literature Review
The issue of small business finance has been receiving
increasing attention over the recent decade in the extant
literature. There have been studies on various branches of
small businesses: two of these branches are namely financial
management practices of small businesses and implications
of financial management strategies on the survival and
growth of small businesses have been polarized by Berger
and Udell
2
. Contemporary studies have tested the hypotheses
for financial variables for other developing countries. There
have been numerous studies that analyze the economic
problems affecting the growth and survival of MSMEs. These
studies are both quantitative and qualitative in nature.
This study underscored eleven economic problems that affect
the survival of the MSMEs; namely, inability to obtain
outside financing; insufficient capital; heavy operating
expenses; poor money management; large losses due to
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Table 3
Interest Rates on MSME loans Provided by Banks in India
Bank Type of MSME Loan Limits Interest Rate on MSME loans
p.a.
ANZ India MSME loans - 10.95%
FDB Micro Credit Scheme - 6.5%
Agri Finance Scheme - 7.5%
Focus sector loans less than 25,00,000 <25,00,000 8.6% - 9.6%
Micro loans and SME loans in:
Wholesale, retail, hotels & restaurants
Transport, communication & storage
Professional & business services
- 8.6% - 9.6%
Westpac Banking
Corporation
MSME loans - 9.99%
Baroda Commercial loans
25,00,000 -
1,00,00,000
10%
<25,00,000 11%
(Source: Reserve Bank of India reports)
Conclusion
This study analyzed the importance of nineteen economic
problems facing owners/managers of MSMEs. Economic
problems of great concern to owners/mangers of MSMEs are
as follows: namely; inability to obtain external financing;
inability to obtain internal financing; insufficient capital,
start-up costs; expensive raw materials; high wholesale price;
large losses due to scrap rate, sabotage, breakage and crime;
decline in sales volume; bad debts and write offs; heavy
equipment and maintenance costs; government tax, VAT and
customs duty; payroll, rent and utilities; transportation and
petrol costs; high interest rates on loans; ability to meet
financial obligation; insurance costs and delay in account
receivables payment. Economic problems which are of less
significance to the owners/managers are heavy advertising
and promotional costs; and training and development costs.
References
1. Abdullah and Baker M.I.B., eds., Small and Medium
Enterprises in Asian Pacific Countries, New York, Nova Science
Publishers (2005)
2. Berger A.N. and Udell G.F., Small Business Credit Availability
and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organizational
Structure, The Economic Journal, 112, 477 (2002)
3. Chand G., Overview of Current Economic Conditions in India,
Pacific Educational Resources India Ltd. India, Suva (2004)
4. Datta D., Small Business Finance: Implications of Delay in
Formal Sector, International Journal of Economics and Finance, 2
(4), 25-31 (2010)
5. Ganesan S., Management of Small Construction Firms: A Case
Study of Sri Lanka,Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines
and Japan, Japan, Asian Productivity Organisation (1982)
6. Laxmi M. N. and Kumar S., Industrial Development, New
Delhi, Discovery Publishing House (1999)
7. Levy B., Berry A. and Nugent J.B., Fulfilling the Export
Potential of Small and Medium Firms, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, USA (1999)
8. Narayan P.K. and Prasad B.C., Indias Sugar, Tourism and
Garment Industries: A Survey of Performance, Problems and
Potentials, Journal of Indian Studies, 1(1) (2003)
9. Price J., Understand Your Accounts: A Guide to Small
Business Finance, 4th Ed., London, Kogan Page Limited (1999)
10. Reynolds R., The Status of Microenterprise Programs,
International Advances in Economic Research, 4(3) (1998)
11. Thevaruban J.S., Small Scale Industries and its Financial
Problems in Sri Lanka, Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and
Sustainability, I, 66-74 (2009)
12. Yusuf A., Critical Success Factors for Small Business:
Perceptions of South Asian Entrepreneurs, Journal of Small
Business Management, 33(2) (1995).
(Received 13
th
February 2012, accepted 20th June 2012).
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Case Study:
Creation of Demand for Millet Foods
A Case Study of Successful Change Management of an
Innovation Project
Manikandan P.
Division of Human Resource Management, National Academy of Agricultural Research Management,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500 030, INDIA
manik@naarm.ernet.in
Abstract
With globalization challenges and the increased
competition and accountability issues that the
agricultural research organizations face, there is a
definite need for bringing about innovation in the
research agenda. The present study describes the
success achieved in one of the innovation projects in
India aimed at creating increased demand for sorghum.
Appropriate Change management model was developed
to understand the success of this project, more
specifically the project and HR-related issues. The
model emphasizes the need to take into account six
important factors viz. definition of challenge, strength
and supporting factors, planning and design of change
activities, system/structure/culture, stakeholder interests
and leadership.
The important role of the leader in ensuring that
conducive micro-level systems, structures, processes
and culture within a given macro system are put in
place for ensuring success of innovation is also
highlighted through this case study. The success
achieved through this project also reinforces the
principles of systemic and continuous innovation. The
study brings out the fact that though change initiatives
were not planned and implemented keeping any model
in consideration, successful change efforts could be
effectively described through an appropriate model. The
model developed and described for change management
here, if considered during the planning of any change
initiative, would definitely help enhance the effective-
ness and success of change and development efforts for
any organization.
Keywords: Change management, Change model, India,
innovation, Millet foods, Sorghum.
Introduction
Agriculture and agri-business climate are getting more and
more diverse, complex and challenging today than ever
before. Facing them necessitates changes and interventions of
an economic, social, environmental and technological nature.
It is a proven fact that technological innovations account for
an average 30% to 40% of changes in agricultural production.
That technological innovation is associated with the processes
of change at the individual, team and organizational level is
well documented. There is, therefore, a definite need to foster
institutional change that enhances innovation in agriculture,
thereby enhancing the contribution of research to agricultural
development.
Notwithstanding the fact that the share of the agricultural
sector in Indian economy is shrinking, agriculture continues
to be the major livelihood for nearly 60% of the labour force.
Agricultural research in India has generated outstanding
productivity increases in the past and shall continue to play
an important role in supporting rural livelihood and in
accelerating rural growth. In order to facilitate an accelerated
and sustainable transformation of Indian agriculture, National
Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) was initiated with a
view to support the development and implementation of
agricultural innovations through collaboration among
farmers, private sector, civil society and public sector
organizations (http://www.naip.icar.org.in/). The project is
essentially aligned towards the goals addressed in Indias
National Policy on Agriculture which places high priority on
raising agricultural productivity as a means to achieve
agricultural growth and to reduce rural poverty. A number of
innovative projects was initiated across various agricultural
research institutions in the country to facilitate transition from
research to innovation.
As a part of the main focus under NAIP, a project on creation
of demand for millet foods through PCS (Production
consumption system) value chain was undertaken in one of
the research institutes under the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (http://www.icar.org.in/). The major
goal of this project was to create a demand for millets through
interventions by addressing all issues from farm production to
consumption through innovative coalition building of all
concerned stakeholders in value-chain, for higher incomes to
farmers and greater values to the consumers. This is one of
the successful projects, implemented under NAIP, which
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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employed innovative approaches and change strategies to
create demand for millet foods (more specifically sorghum).
The success of this project indicates that the project has been
well planned, designed and implemented to meet its goal of
bringing about change in sorghum production-consumption
system. However, in defining the success of any project, a lot
of ideas, processes and approaches go along with it, which
are not only project-related, but are also HR-related. These
aspects, though may remain below the surface, contribute
significantly to the greater success of the project. The success
factors of this project were analyzed under the framework of
change management concepts and change management
models. The study, incidentally, highlights the importance of
application of change models to understand the success of
any change and innovation project.
Methodology
The information related to the project was collected through
personal discussion with the leader and members of the
project team. During the personal interview, information
related to the project, innovative approaches tried, difficulties
faced and other related issues were collected. Interview was
also held with the Director of the institute who held the
leadership position.
Literature information on change management was collected
to understand different models of change management. In
order to present the success of this project, out of the various
models scanned through literature, Cornell Change Model
was adapted, modified and used in this study. Factors of
successful change in the sorghum value-chain were analyzed
with this developed model of change to bring out meaningful
information and inferences. Though the project is on millet
crops, the present paper focuses only on the research
component on sorghum, as this was the major focus in the
project.
Results and Discussion
Organizational innovation has been defined as the adoption of
an idea or behaviour that is new to the organization.
4, 6
J aramillo et al
9
described organizational innovation as the
introduction of changes in organizational structure,
implementation of advanced managerial techniques and
implementation of changes. Kustoff
11
indicated that
organizational innovation refers to the new ways by which
work can be organized and accomplished within an
organization which would encourage and promote
competitive advantage. How organizations and individuals
effectively manage work processes constitute the core of
organizational innovation, which stems from the need to
improve or change a product, process, technology, or service.
It is obvious that all innovations revolve around change;
however, all changes are not necessarily innovative.
While studying the success of the project considered for the
present study, it was realized that the core principles of
change management, as indicated by Kustoff
11
, were put into
practice which facilitated successful innovation. The three
core principles behind successful change management
include:
Cross functional team building such as public-private
partnership while discouraging silo building.
Independent, creative thinking to see things from a new
perspective and putting oneself outside of the parameters
of a job function.
Risk taking by employees while lessening the status quo.
In this project on sorghum, it was clear that the project
members focused on out-of-box thinking to creatively apply
personal knowledge to organizational challenges.
Change Management Model
The change management model, specifically developed for
the present study, adapting Cornell change model, is
presented in figure 1. For any change initiative to be
successful, six important factors need to be taken into
consideration. These are definition of challenge that
necessitates change initiative, strength and supporting factors
for change, planning and design of change activities, support
of structure/system/culture and the stakeholder interests
which become the driving force. Leadership, which is
considered as synonymous to change in organizations,
provides the necessary strength and support for these five
factors and therefore forms the core of successful change, as
is evident in the model. Each of these factors is described
with reference to the project under study to understand how
they worked well for the project. It is to be realized that while
planning and implementing this project, the above factors
were not explicitly identified and taken into consideration.
However, in achieving the goals of any change venture, these
factors do fall in place and contribute to the success and quite
often, without people consciously planning for these factors
and incorporating them. If any of them fall short during the
implementation the extent of success of the project would
definitely be reduced. While analyzing the success of the
present project, this has become obvious.
Definition of Challenge
The initial demand for a change often lies in understanding
and defining the existing situation which is perhaps
threatening and demanding and the need for a preferred
solution to the challenge. An environmental scan would lead
to identification of the available opportunities. Taken
together, this history and contextual awareness would provide
the starting point for further analysis and planning. Scan, pan
and plan are the three important activities in this stage; scan
the environment, pan the collected information to identify
potential opportunities and plan for change. Some of the
questions that might help in defining this step include:
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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What were things like, before?
How wide and deep is the problem?
What negative outcomes are being experienced?
What are the presumed or alleged causes?
Does the situation need attention?
How would the peer pressure be handled?
How has the organization responded so far?
Some of the negative outcomes of sorghum scenario and the
presumed/alleged causes are presented in table 1. The
information in table 1 clearly indicates that if proper planning
and design of change activities are not initiated to revive a
demand for sorghum through value addition in the PCS value
chain, there is a possibility that this crop may suffer a huge
set back in terms production, productivity and its contribution
to the food basket.
Strength and Supporting Factors
Given the background of the challenging contextual situation,
the next step in the change management process would be to
understand the strength and supporting factors which
necessitate planning for change and innovation to help
overcome the challenges. Some of the probing questions that
would help in defining this step include:
What are the general strengths of the current situation?
Does the current strength contribute to a significant
proportion of the overall macro scenario?
What opportunities exist to lend support to the change
plan?
Some of the strengths and supporting factors for increasing
the demand for sorghum are presented in table 2. It is obvious
from the table that sorghum, which is a staple and sustenance
food for disadvantaged group, providing nutritious and
healthy food, needs to be focused through innovative
approaches of value addition along the production-
consumption continuum to enhance its demand.
Planning and Design of Change Activities
Planning and design of change activities could be a difficult
process, which could be daunting while being unpredictable
too. Leaders are often bogged down with issues like where to
begin, what to take into account, how to overcome resistance
and how to ensure that the changes made would be
successful. Emotional attachment to the felt-need for change
would help in effectively planning and designing the needed
activities for change. Some of the strategies that would help
organizational leaders to contribute to the success of this
phase include the following (http://foh.dhhs.gov/whatwedo/
Training/planning.asp):
Assessing and identifying areas for improvement.
Determining as to how current systems could be changed
to support the planning and design of change activities.
Gathering information from key stakeholders and
devising change strategies to meet the stakeholders
interest.
Table 3 presents the various activities that were planned and
designed for promoting the demand for sorghum. These
innovative approaches definitely contributed to significant
improvements in the demand for sorghum.
Structure/System/Culture
One of the initial steps to be taken by the leader of an
organization while contemplating for change is to assess the
internal environment in terms of the structure, system and
culture and plan for making necessary changes in them that
would support the change and innovation approaches. In fact,
sky is the limit for creating micro-level structures, systems
and culture within a macro system for ensuring success of
change and innovation. In fact, in this stage we can realize
that almost all the seven components of change as postulated
in McKinsey 7-S Model of Change, viz. structure, system,
style, staff, skills, strategy and shared values are given
attention in some form or the other. The extent to which this
particular factor is effectively incorporated in the change plan
initiative heavily depends on the effectiveness of the leader
and leadership, therefore, forms the foundation for the
success of change plan, as is evident in the model presented
in the figure.
A number of innovative changes were brought about in the
structure/system/culture of the institute to motivate the
scientists to contribute to the super-ordinate goal of
enhancing the demand for sorghum along the production-
consumption value chain. Some of the innovative approaches
adopted by the Director (leader) of the institute that are worth
emulating and trying by others include the following.
One of the maxims followed at 3M is: Listen to anybody
with an idea and encourage experimentation if you put
fences around people, you wind up with sheep. Reducing
the curtains and barriers between people to promote a
fence-less culture is, therefore, very important. Making
people in the project to sit together at different times to
metamorphose the group into a team by forced interaction
had helped in a great way to promote innovation in this
project.
Allowing people to let out tension would relieve them of
the pent-up feelings, thereby making them ready to
contribute to the goal is another important strategy. In the
change management literature, it is well documented that
the leader should create a social structure for people to
interact to reduce resistance to change efforts. This fact
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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has been well incorporated into the culture and system of
the institute under study. The Director of the institute
created a social structure wherein every Friday people
were facilitated to meet in a social setting and also created
a social place for tea for the scientists, who had informal
interaction during these social settings to develop
fraternity and team cohesiveness.
You show concern to me and I would definitely show
concern to you is the philosophy that was followed by
the Director of the institute, who encouraged people to
have free tea/coffee at any time through the vending
machines established at different points in the institute and
allowing them to take curry leaf from the institute for use
in their dietary preparation. Potable water being a short-
supply in the city, the Director allowed the scientists and
other members of the institute to carry purified drinking
water from the institute. The benefits that accrued to the
institute far outweighed the cost incurred in these
approaches.
Developing job description for every individual and
meeting people in their place to sort out issues are other
important approaches followed by the leader of the
institute.
The leader of the institute in which the project had
operated exercised, in practice, the principle of MBWA
(Management by walking around), which saved time of
the leader and others for focusing on the core activities.
One of the very interesting approaches, which became the
culture of the institute with time, was the ear-marking of
institute quiet hours. Every day, between 0900 hrs and
1100 hrs, institute quiet hours were observed very
rigidly by everyone, during which time no one is expected
to move out of their seat or place of work and is not
expected to indulge in any activity other than the priority
work of the day (except in extra-ordinary situations). This
was a forced practice to start with, but with time this
culture was well- accepted and adopted by every member
of the institute. In fact, when the author, during the
process of this case study development, made a call to one
of the members of the project team and wanted to fix an
appointment with him for a discussion at 1030 hrs, the
project member was quite prompt to indicate that the
author should come only after 1100 hrs and not before.
Such was the success of the leader of the institute who
was able to create certain culture and system within the
institute to ensure single-minded focus among the
members to support him in the realization of the goal of
promoting the demand for sorghum.
It is not uncommon for people to put the blame on the system
and its procedures for any failure to act innovatively. The
institute under study is one of the component institutes under
a major organization in India. Creating micro-level systems
and culture within a given institute is an innovative approach
to promote change and this message has been clearly brought
out in this case study. The institutes signature line was
refuse to be ordinary. All these strategies helped in
developing, among the members, a sense of commitment and
concern for the institute.
Stakeholder interests
Lack of stakeholder management is one of the major reasons
for the failure of change ventures. Stakeholder interests
become all the more important in development-oriented
projects, which involve multiple stakeholders. A number of
issues related to stakeholders and stakeholder interests that
need consideration include the following three important ones
(http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/st
akeholder_change/stakeholder_change.htm):
What types of stakeholders need to be considered and
what type of wants and interests of them would be met?
Knowing and managing the allies with the stakeholders
to elicit the needed support from them.
How to resist/manage external pressures and top
management interventions in collaborating with
stakeholders?
Mapping of the stakeholders and working on the interest-
influence grid of the stakeholders.
Table 4 presents the interests of the stakeholders for
promoting the demand for sorghum. In fact, all the interests
listed in the table were adequately taken into consideration
while developing diverse food products from sorghum. As
indicated earlier, food preparation with sorghum is difficult,
time-consuming and it demands a lot of effort, practice and
patience on the part of people involved in it. Keeping these in
view, the project attempted to rope in big partners to support
them in developing value-added products and ready-to-eat
food products of sorghum. Some of the partners involved in
supporting the goal of the project are indicated in table 5 and
the various sorghum products that were made and
successfully sold through various retail outlets are presented
in table 6. All the three principles of successful change
management documented by Kustoff
11
are obvious in the
innovative approaches adopted by the project team members
in developing new products through alliances with big
partners.
Leadership
As pointed by Steve J obs, innovation distinguishes between
a leader and a follower, no change could be successful if the
leader is not passionate about it and is not emotionally
attached to it. The project under this case study achieved over
70 per cent revival in creating demand for sorghum and its
products, as compared to the situation earlier and as per the
perception of the project team. A study conducted by the
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Kellogg Graduate School of Management shows that the best
30 per cent of successful innovation firms have a success rate
of 80 per cent. In the light of this, it can be concluded that the
70 per cent success achieved in this project clearly points out
that the Director of the institute, under whose leadership this
project was envisaged and executed, was an innovative,
effective and a successful change leader. Literature points
out
2, 12
the characteristics of passionate people (table 7). All
the characteristics listed in the table apply well to the Director
of the institute who was passionate enough to bring about
change and who adopted innovative approaches to enhance
the demand for sorghum. It goes without saying that people
with passion would automatically tend to be innovative.
Continuous Innovation
That innovation is no longer a luxury but holds the key to the
survival of an organization is well documented. In fact, this
innovative project on sorghum is one of the contributing
factors for strengthening the survival of this crop, which
otherwise would have met with mixed reactions from diverse
actors in the national agricultural innovation system. J ust as
we talk about continuous learning for individuals and
organizations, continuous innovation is the key for the
survival of business endeavours. Eight change strategies are
indicated for continuous innovation.
10
This is presented in
figure 2.
In this project under case study, changes in both product and
market elements were appropriately integrated. The various
new products developed through this project are already
indicated in table 6. Some of the changes attempted in the
marketing elements for promoting demand for sorghum
products included the following:
i) segmenting market and focusing on specific sorghum
product for specific market; this was accomplished by
developing intelligent market awareness and making trials for
sale of specific sorghum products;
ii) targeting on big retailers in the society and selling new
sorghum products through their outlets consumers have a
tendency to accept any new product if it is sold in the big
retail stores. This consumer behaviour was very well cashed
in increasing the sale and in creating more demand for
sorghum products;
iii) an innovative approach of earmarking a mobile van
named J owar rath (sorghum on wheels), which was sent
from place to place and from institution to institution to sell
the various new products of sorghum developed through this
project.
iv) products were developed for niche market and for non-
conventional sorghum consuming areas;
v) branding strategy was adopted to brand all the developed
new and innovative products of sorghum as health foods.
Appropriate institutional arrangements were made and
coalition built with the needed agencies to get the branding
done successfully;
vi) confidence of farmers was increased through coalition
with reliable big companies and entrepreneurs, who had
established good credibility with the farmers;
vii) self-help groups (SHGs) were involved in supporting the
development and sale of sorghum products.
With all these approaches, the project was able to
successfully incorporate four of the innovative strategies and
approaches viz. re-launch, conspicuous technological
substitution, tangible repositioning and neo-innovation in its
venture to enhance the demand for sorghum, as indicated in
figure 2. Re-launch indicates that both the product and other
marketing elements are changed. Conspicuous technological
substitution indicates a major technological change
accompanied by heavy promotional and other marketing mix
changes to stimulate awareness and trial. Tangible
repositioning indicates that both the product and the target
market are changed. Neo innovation brings out fundamental
changes in the technology of the product.
Fingar
5
pointed out six important ingredients for systemic
approach to innovation. They are strategy, process,
technology, product, marketing and organizational
ingredients. In the analysis of the sorghum case study, it is
obvious that all these six ingredients were very well focused
to bring about change and innovation for increasing the
demand for sorghum. The project under the present case
study, thus, represents the successful incorporation of
systemic as well as continuous innovation principles in
achieving the goals.
Conclusion and Implications of the Study
Research and innovation have to be married appropriately in
order to encourage a more innovation-friendly environment
throughout the organization. In the pursuit of innovation, as
pointed out by Aust
1
it is to be realized that innovation is not
a race where everyone and every organization runs the same
course. In fact, in such a race being first does not mean being
the winner. To be a winner and to bring out success in change
and innovation ventures, an organization and more
importantly its leader, need to understand that the
organization should pick up only those races which it is best
equipped to win. In the success achieved through the
innovative approaches of the sorghum project, it is clear that
the institute did run only those races which were best suited
for it.
In the successful implementation of this project, no doubt,
certain difficulties were encountered, which brought out some
lessons. These lessons learnt would provide meaningful
implications for those who would like to involve inter-
institutional collaboration for bringing about change and
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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innovation. Some of the implications from this study are:
Inter-institutional collaboration is good and is essential
for innovation projects; it works well with some and does
not click with others. Care, therefore, needs to be
exercised in selecting the right partners, right at the
planning and initiation stage of the project. Realistic
assessment of the attitude of partnership institutions
would help in establishing successful coalitions.
Involving big entrepreneurs and companies having grass-
root connection with farmers would be worthwhile, as
they can help building network and in establishing trust
with farmers; again, partnership of public research
institute with private companies makes it trustworthy.
Notwithstanding the fact that communication
technologies do reduce the physical distance, it is
worthwhile developing partnerships only with
institutions, companies and entrepreneurs in the same
locality than involving people/institutions that are in far
off places, since distance leads to difficulty, disjointed
efforts and delay. During the execution of this sorghum
project, this fact was well realized and the partnership of
a distance place had to be abandoned in the middle.
Some institutions are more bothered about the system
and the procedures; coalitions with such institutions do
not work, as it very often leads to conflicts of various
kinds. Institutional leaders who would go for out-of-box
thinking and who are venturesome to take risk would
only be able to provide coalition partnerships.
Developing micro-level systems, procedures and culture
within a given institute that would support innovative
approaches go a long way in establishing effective inter-
institutional collaboration.
While forming coalition, one may have to look for
institutions which match with their speed and
enthusiasm.
Conscious incorporation of principles of systemic and
continuous innovation would lead to definite success of
innovation approaches in agriculture.
It is important that organizations should just not innovate
for the sake of innovating, but should innovate where it
counts, which has truly been done in the present study.
Fig. 1: Change Management Model Developed
Fig. 2: Continuous innovation strategies
Strengths and
Supporting Factors
Defini tion of Challenge
Planning and Design
of Change Acti vities
Stakeholder
Interests
Leadership
System/Structure/Cul ture
Strengths and
Supporting Factors
Defini tion of Challenge
Planning and Design
of Change Acti vities
Stakeholder
Interests
Leadership
System/Structure/Cul ture
No change No change
Remix
Marketing
new product/
market
segment
No change Facelift
Technology
change
Facelift
Re-
merchandizing
Re-launch
Intangible
repositioning
Tangible
repositioning
Neo-
innovation
Inconspicuous
technological
substitution
Conspicuous
technological
substitution
No change No change
Remix
Marketing
new product/
market
segment
No change Facelift
Technology
change
Facelift
Re-
merchandizing
Re-launch
Intangible
repositioning
Tangible
repositioning
Neo-
innovation
Inconspicuous
technological
substitution
Conspicuous
technological
substitution
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Case Study:
Occupational Stress and its impact on QWL with specific reference
to Hotel Industry
Mohla Charu
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Rohini, Delhi, INDIA
deepticharu@yahoo.co.in
Abstract
This study endeavours to draw attention to occupational
stress amongst workers in so-called low risk
industries namely the service and hospitality
industries - and to explore their perceptions of stress,
their attitudes to managing stress and their responses to
the recent inclusion of stress in the Health and Safety in
Employment Amendment Act, 2002. It is also the
intention to broaden the scope of analysis by
investigating a range of employment factors such as
heavy workloads, interpersonal relationships and
organizational factors - which can contribute to
occupational stress amongst workers. Findings indicate
that working in the hospitality industry can be stressful
and that many workers are vulnerable in terms of their
poor working conditions and low wages. Consistent
with other studies, it was also found that there was low
trade union presence and a high rate of casualization
and staff turnover. At the same time, there was a lack of
overt conict between management and workers, with
an apparent close alignment of goals between the two
parties and a style of management that could be
described as unitarist.
Keywords: Hotel Industry, Occupational stress, Hospitality,
QWL.
Introduction
There has been a rising concern on how occupational stress
can manifest itself in work-related ill health, with negative
effects on both physical and psychological well-being.
Occupational stress has been associated with reduced work
output and can contribute to increased accidents, absenteeism,
employee turnover and poor employee performances
.Moreover, it has the potential to spill over to affect
employees private life, causing marital, friendship or
community problems .These outcomes of occupational stress
can result in significant economic and social costs for both
employers and employees .
Occupational stress is becoming increasingly globalized and
affects all countries, all professions and all categories of
workers, as well as families and society in general.
1
Beehr
and Newman
3
define occupational stress as "A condition
arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and
characterized by changes within people that force them to
deviate from their normal functioning.
11
Occupational stress is defined as the feeling of a person who
is required to deviate from normal self-desired functioning in
the work place as a result of opportunities, constraints, or
demands relating to potentially important work related
results. It is generally acknowledged that occupational stress
can be a contributing factor in workplace illness and injury
rates, little is known about the extent of occupational stress in
so-called less hazardous industries that rely on emotional
labour, such as the hospitality industry. The hospitality
industry encompasses a wide variety of different types of
businesses and companies that make up the service sector of
the workforce. The burnout rate of people employed in the
hospitality industry is one of the highest.
According to the Permanent Life Situation Survey in year
2009, hotel and restaurant workers experience employee
burnout at a rate of one in seven. Although the annual study
took place in the Netherlands, the results are consistent with
other findings throughout the world. The main cause of the
high incidence of employee burnout in the hospitality
industry is chronic stress in the workplace. Contributing
factors of burnout in the hospitality industry include:
Increasing pressure and job demands that become
overwhelming, having little or no control over your work, a
work environment that is stressful, hostile or unpleasant, long
hours, often late at night, resulting in a lack of sleep or rest, a
job that is monotonous, repetitive or boring, constantly trying
to please everyone and lack of communication with co-
workers, supervisors and management and so on.
The need or requirement to work long, irregular and
unpredictable hours emerged consistently as the most
prevalent job stressor for managers in a variety of types of
hotels and locations. Managers and spouses largely agreed on
this point and entrants were well aware of these expectations.
Yet there was variability across hotel occupations in these
perceptions. For example, managers assigned to rooms and
food and beverage reported being particularly challenged by
long, nonstandard hours, including weekends and holidays.
Note, however, that these operations positions are also the
traditional routes to the top.
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Table 1
Regression Model Summary for Impact of Occupational Stress Variables
on Quality of Work Life in the Hotel Industry
Model R R Square
Adjusted
R Square
Std. Error of
the Estimate
Change Statistics
R Square Change F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change
1 .772
a
.596 .575 .25640 .596 28.714 10 195 .000
a. Predictors: (Constant), Stress Score, Context Sensitive, J ob-Capability Fit, Managerial Support, Group Cohesiveness, Fair Compensation,
Role Clarity, Consistent Role Demands, Comfortable J ob, Role Autonomy
Table 2
ANOVA for the Significance of Regression Model
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 18.876 10 1.888 28.714 .000
a
Residual 12.819 195 .066
Total 31.695 205
a. Predictors: (Constant), Stress Score, Context Sensitive, J ob-Capability Fit, Managerial Support, Group Cohesiveness, Fair Compensation,
Role Clarity, Consistent Role Demands, Comfortable J ob, Role Autonomy; b. Dependent Variable: QWL Score
Table 3
Regression Co-efficient of Occupational Stress on Quality Work Life in Hotel Industry
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
t Sig. B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) 2.589 .249 10.390 .000
Group Cohesiveness .080 .041 .143 1.963 .051
Role Clarity .362 .065 .438 5.604 .000
Fair Compensation .011 .031 .028 .354 .724
Consistent Role Demands -.067 .044 -.113 -1.513 .132
Managerial Support .142 .037 .219 3.830 .000
Context Sensitive -.078 .029 -.176 -2.673 .008
Comfortable J ob .245 .040 .483 6.085 .000
J ob-Capability Fit .116 .027 .237 4.237 .000
Role Autonomy .316 .055 .577 5.727 .000
Stress Score -.792 .211 -.608 -3.754 .000
a. Dependent Variable: QWL Score
Table 4
Regression Model Summary for Impact of Occupational Stress Variables on
Quality Work Life of the Male Associates
Model R R Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
Change Statistics
R Square
Change
F Change df1 df2
Sig. F
Change
1 .795
a
.632 .619 .30361 .632 48.434 10 282 .000
References
1. Ahmad S. and Mehta P., Role stress, Quality of Work Life and
alienation. In Pestonjee D. M. and Pareek U., eds., Studies in
organizational role stress and coping. Jaipur, New Delhi, Rawat
Publications (1997)
2. Beehr T.A., Stacy B.A., Murray M.A. and J ex S.M., Work stress
and co-worker support as predictors of individual strain and job
performance, Paper presented at the 1997 Annual meeting of the
Academy of Management, Cincinnati, OH (1997)
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Table 4a
ANOVA for the Significance of Regression Model
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 44.646 10 4.465 48.434 .000
a
Residual 25.995 282 .092
Total 70.640 292
a. Predictors: (Constant), Stress Score, Role Clarity, Context Sensitive, Managerial Support, Comfortable J ob, Fair Compensation, Adequate
Workload, J ob-Capability Fit, Group Cohesiveness, Consistent Role Demands; b. Dependent Variable: Quality Work Life Total Score
Table 4b
Regression Co-efficients of Occupational Stress on Quality Work Life of the Male Employees
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
T Sig. B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) .880 .210 4.199 .000
Group Cohesiveness -.200 .047 -.269 -4.236 .000
Role Clarity -.258 .041 -.309 -6.324 .000
Fair Compensation -.063 .031 -.132 -2.014 .055
Consistent Role Demands -.098 .044 -.160 -2.220 .027
Adequate Workload -.292 .039 -.535 -7.500 .000
Managerial Support -.048 .046 -.064 -1.048 .295
Context Sensitive -.345 .036 -.512 -9.516 .000
Comfortable J ob -.021 .034 -.030 -.615 .539
J ob-Capability Fit -.179 .040 -.275 -4.505 .000
Stress Score 2.314 .257 1.494 9.008 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Quality Work Life Total Score
Table 5
The impact of Occupational Stress on Quality of Work Life in a nutshell.
Variables of Occupational Stress Hotel Industry Associates Male Associates
Group Cohesiveness Negative
Role Clarity Negative Negative
Fair Compensation
Adequate Workload Negative
Managerial Support Negative
Context Sensitive Positive Negative
Comfortable J ob
J ob Capability Fit Negative Negative
Consistent Role Demands Negative
Role Autonomy Negative
Overall Stress Positive Negative
3. Beehr T.A. and Newman J .E., J ob stress, employee health and
organizational effectiveness: a facet analysis, model and literature
review, Personnel Psychology, winter, 665-699 (1978)
4. Goudwaard Anneke and Andries Frank, Employment status and
working conditions, European Foundation for the improvement of
Living and Working Conditions, http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
publications/htmlfiles/efo283.htm (2006)
5. Hart P.M., Stress & morale: their independence in determining
teacher Quality of work life. Paper presented at the AARE/NZARE
1992 J oint Conference, Deakin University, Geelong, November 22
to 26 (1992)
6. Pattanayak B., Role stress and Quality of Work Life, In
Pestonjee D. M. and Pareek Udai, ed., Studies in organisational role
stress and coping, Jaipur, Rawat Publications, 97-110 (1997).
(Received 5
th
April 2012, accepted 31
st
J uly 2012)
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Case Study:
Employees Perception on Welfare Practices-
A Study of A.P. Eastern Power Distribution of AP Limited
Ramesh M.
School of Commerce and Management, Dravidian University, Kuppam517 425, Chittoor District (Andhra Pradesh), INDIA
rameshmoturi@gmail.com
Abstract
Welfare is a corporate attitude or commitment reflected
in the expressed care for employee at all levels.
Obviously, there must be financial constraints but a
concern for welfare makes no immediate contribution to
perceived managerial priorities. An attempt is made
here to elicit the views of the respondents on the various
issues relating to the welfare practice in the EPDCL
under the study. On the basis of the results, it is
suggested that the performance of employees in any
organization depends on the policies, procedures and
welfare facilities adopted by the organization. The
organization is stretching its hands to provide full range
of welfare facilities to workers i.e. statutory and non
statutory benefits. Apart from that, facilities like
medical aid and subsidized food will improve the health
and standards of living of the workmen that may
positively affect loyalty, sincerity and commitment
which in turn will bring morale and productivity.
Keywords: Employee, Welfare practices, Perception,
APEPDCL.
Introduction
Labour Welfare in Indian Industry implies providing better
work conditions such as proper lighting, heat control,
cleanliness, low noise level drinking water and toilet
facilities, canteen, rest-rooms and health and safety measures,
reasonable hours of work and holidays and other services
such as housing, education, recreation transportation and
counseling. The need for providing such services and
facilities is the responsibility of industry, a desire for
upholding democratic values and concern employees.
Labour welfare is the voluntary efforts of the employers to
establish within the existing industrial system, working and
sometimes living and cultural conditions of the employers
beyond that which is required by law, the custom of the
industry and conditions of the market. Welfare covers the
families of workers, especially in India, where because of
strong family ties, workers well being encompasses that of
their families. Given the workers economic constraints,
probably due to large families, organizations should provide
facilities such as transport, medical aid, crches and
subsidized food required by the workers. Welfare is a
corporate attitude or commitment reflected in expressed care
for employee at all levels.
1, 2
Organizational Profile: A Birds Eye View
The AP Transco has been unbundled into a Transmission
Corporation and four distribution companies effective from
1
st
April, 2000 under the provincial second transfer scheme
notified by the State Government viz., Eastern Power
Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL), Central
Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (CPDCL),
Southern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited
(SPDCL), Northern Power Distribution Company of AP
Limited (NPDCL). The above distribution companies have
been incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956.
The Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited
came into existence form April 1
st
2000 as a result of
dismantling of vertically integrated APSEB into functionally
district entities undertaking Power Generation, Transmission
and Distribution. It is initially formed as wholly owned
subsidiary of APTRANSCO from power trading activity in
strict compliance of the provisions of the Electricity Act
2003. This company is engaged in the business power
distribution and retail power supply in its designated area
covering five northeastern districts of Andhra Pradesh.
APEPDCL is responsible for undertaking distribution and
bulk supply of power in the operation circles of Srikakulam,
Visakhapatnam, Vizianiagaram, East and West Godavari
Districts and 17 divisions of coastal Andhra Pradesh.
APEPDCL supplies power to over 35.54 lakh consumers
belonging to different categories through a network
consisting of 388 substations of 33 KV level, 1457 feeders of
11 KV level and more than 76,722 distribution transformers
of different levels. The Corporate Office and Head Quarter of
APEPDCL are situated at Visakhapatnam.
Need for the study
In todays competitive environment, attracting and retaining
skilled personnel depends upon the competitive and
compensation package the company offers. Everyday
innovative, attractive compensation packages are luring the
personnel. Thus, organization needs to provide more
attractive compensation and qualitative packages to enhance
the motivation of the people. In the present competitive
business environment, the management is planning to reduce
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Table 4
Marital Status
Marital Status No. of Respondents Percentage
Married 206 77.74
Unmarried 37 13.96
Widowed 14 5.28
Divorced 08 3.02
Total 265 100.00
Table 5
Nativity
Native Place No. of Respondents Percentage
Village 121 45.66
Town 144 54.34
Total 265 100.00
Table 6
Type of Family
Type of Family No. of Respondents Percentage
J oint 146 55.09
Nuclear 119 44.91
Total 265 100.00
Table 7
Annual Income
Income (Rs.) No. of Respondents Percentage
Below 100000 47 17.74
100000 200000 54 20.38
200000 300000 71 26.79
300000 400000 38 14.34
400000 500000 31 11.70
Above 500000 24 9.05
Total 265 100.00
Table 8
Rating of Employee Welfare by Employees in their Organization
Rating of Employee Welfare No. of Respondents Percentage
High 15 5.67
Moderate 81 30.57
Low 169 63.76
Total 265 100.00
Table 9
Employees opinion about Managements Concern for Employee Welfare
Particulars No. of Respondents Percentage
Actively promotes employee welfare 21 7.92
Neglecting employee welfare 163 61.51
Take purely legal obligations of employee welfare 81 30.57
Total 265 100.00
Source: Primary data
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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Table 10
Employees opinion on the Need for Modifying Existing Welfare Legislation
Response No. of Respondents Percentage
Yes 265 100.00
No - -
Total 265 100.00
Table 11
Employees views about how to modify the Welfare Legislation
Particulars No. of Respondents Percentage
The welfare laws to be matched to present scenario 161 60.75
All laws to be implemented strictly 28 10.57
Reduce the rigidity of existing laws 13 4.91
Amendments have to be brought about to increase labour welfare further 63 23.77
Total 265 100.00
Source: Primary data
(Received 6
th
March 2012, accepted 25
th
J uly 2012)
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General Article:
Environmental Accounting and Reporting In India: An Appraisal
Sharma V.K.
New York Institute of Technology, Bahrain Campus, BAHRAIN
vks123@gmail.com
Abstract
Earths environment is a rich heritage handed over to
us by previous generations. The present civilization is
involved in varied activities. Many of these activities
generate waste with potential constituents. The ultimate
disposal of the waste leads to environmental pollution.
One of the significant buzzwords emerging out of the
globalization and privatization paradigms has been
corporate social responsibility. Responsibility towards
environment has become one of the most crucial areas
of social responsibility. We have witnessed
environmental degradation during the recent years.
Environmental pollution is a worldwide phenomenon.
In many parts of the world, the magnitude of pollution
of environment has already reached an alarming level.
It spoils human health, reduces economic productivity
and leads to loss of amenities. Now-a-days, consumers
expect firms to meet high health and safety standards
for workers, respect human rights, protect the interests
of consumers and meet environmental standards.
Keywords: Environmental Accounting, Earth, Pollution,
Social Responsibility.
Introduction
Conceptual frame work of environment accounting may be
traced to the Rig Veda. According to Hindu Philosophy
"sky is like a father, earth is like a mother, a space as their
children". Thus, the Rig Veda ordains that environment is to
be valued like parents and loved like children. The concept of
environment accounting may be new for western accounting
thinkers.
1
Global Realizations of Environmental Pollution
Peoples all over the world became more concerned about the
quality of their environment during early fifties and sixties of
the 19
th
Century. Well-known environmental tragedies, like
the cause of mercury poisoning in J apan, severe smoke
pollution episode in London and the massive oil spill caused
by Terry Canyon accident reinforced in peoples mind the
sense that the quality of air, water and a wide range of other
natural resources was being seriously degraded. The intensity
of danger from chemicals can be gauged from the extent of
havoc caused by the accident in a pesticide factory at Bhopal
(India) on mid-night of 2-3 December 1984. The episode
killed over 3,000 people, blinded several thousand and
affected over 1,50,000 people.
This concern had been repeatedly expressed in a series of
international summits right from the sixties. Between 1968
and 1972, two international conferences met to assess the
problems of the global environment and to suggest corrective
action. For the first time the World Conference on global
environment was held in June, 1972 and it was considered the
pivotal event in the growth of the global environment
movement. It was the first occasion on which the political,
social and economic problems of the global environment
were discussed at an inter-governmental forum with a view to
taking corrective action. It aimed at creating a basis for
comprehensive consideration with the United Nations of the
problems of the human environment and focusing the
attention of governments and public opinion to various
countries on the importance of problem.
4, 9
It ultimately gave a birth to a special United Nations Agency
titled United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). In
the mid- eighties, on the basis of changing situation and
becoming the environmental issues a world-wide
phenomenon in the developed and developing countries,
World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED), known as BRUNTLAND COMMISSION,
headed by Norways Prime Minister, Mrs. Gro Harlem
Bruntland, was established by the UN. The Commission
published a report called Our Common Future in 1987 with
the proposed concept of Sustainable Development. The
concept received worldwide acceptance and led to the
convening of the United Nations Conference on Earth and
Development (UNCED) in Rio de J anerio, Brazil, known as
EARTH SUMMIT. In this conference, heads of different
states signed four agreed documents including the Agenda
21 which contains a checklist of dos and donts to protect
the environment throughout the next century.
12, 14
Laws for Environmental Protection in India
A number of environmental legislations have been enacted to
address the emergence of a worldwide "green movement".
The various laws have been passed in India relevant to
environmental protection (a) directly related to environment
protection and (b) indirectly related to environment
protection.
While industrial licensing has been abolished for all practical
purposes, environmental clearance from various Government
authorities has now taken the centre stage. With increasing
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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global concern over the protection of the environment, India
has set up a Union Ministry of Environment with the object
of coordinating among the states and the various ministries
for the environmental protection and anti-pollution measures.
It is important to note that all new projects require
environment clearance. This clearance concerns both the
Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the
corresponding State Govt. Department of environment.
Guidelines have been issued and all such projects are
expected to obtain environmental and anti-pollution clearance
before they are actually set up. A Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) has also been set up. Wherever cases of
violating of standards of water or air pollution are detected,
showcause notices are issued to industrial units to keep all
such units under constant surveillance.
Need for Environment Accounting
In recent years, the adverse environmental effect of economic
development has become a matter of great public concern all
over the world. Gradually, environment is becoming a much
more urgent economic, social and political problem. India as
well as other developing countries are facing the twin
problem of promoting economic development and protecting
the environment. A balance between development and
environmental protection is required. A careful assessment of
the benefits and costs of environmental damages is necessary
to find the tolerance limit of environmental degradation and
the required level of development. But unless the proper
accounting work is done either by the individual firm or by
the Government itself, it cannot be determined whether both
have been fulfilling their responsibilities towards the
environment. Therefore, the need of environmental
accounting has emerged. It may appear that greater attention
to environmental matters may lead to an increase in costs and
hence lower profits. Environmental costs and obligations are
significantly growing as the world is becoming more
environmentally conscious. Public corporations are being
held more responsible and accountable to the society. Many
people are willing to pay more for a product that is
environmentally friendly.
9, 10
Accountants, as the basic custodians and light bearers of
economic development, can no longer shut their eyes to the
effect of environmental issues on business management,
accounting, auditing and disclosure system. Protection of
environment and the potential involvement of accountants is
becoming a common subject of discussion among the
accountants all over the world. Now-a-days, accountants are
expected to take a proactive role in the environmental
protection process.
That is why environmental accounting and reporting thereof
is of paramount importance today. Environmental accounting
needs to work as a tool to measure the economic efficiency of
environmental conservation activities and the environmental
efficiency of the business activities of company as a whole.
The need for accounting for corporate environmental
measurement is to identify the role of accounting in
measuring economically environmental activities and taking
decisions on environment related issues. Environmental
accounting means reporting of environment specific cost such
as liability cost and waste disposal costs. It is accounting for
any costs and benefits that arise from change to a firms
products and processes where the change also involves a
change in environmental impact. Corporate enterprises are
facing the challenges to determine their true profits which are
environmentally sustainable ones. For this, companies need to
account for the environment.
7
Environmental Accounting in other Countries
One of the first countries to build environmental accounts is
Norway which began collecting data on energy sources,
fisheries, forests and minerals in the 1970s to address
resources scarcity. The Philippines began work on environ-
mental accounts in 1990. The United States has not been a
leader in the environmental accounting arena. At the start of
the Clinton administration, the Bureau of Economic Analysis
(BEA) made an attempt into environmental accounting in the
minerals sector, but this preliminary attempt became
embroiled in political controversy and faced opposition from
the minerals industry.
8
The joint workshops organized by the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Bank set out to
examine the feasibility of physical and monetary accounting
in the area of natural resources and the environment and to
develop alternative macro indicators of environmentally
adjusted and sustainable income and product. The Statistical
Division of the United Nations (UNSTAT) developed
methodologies for a System of Integrated Environmental and
Economic Accounting (SEEA) and issued a System of
National Accounting (SNA) handbook on Integrated
Environmental and Economic Accounting. The UN Statistical
Office (UNSO) in collaboration with Carsten Stahmer,
designed a System of Integrated Environmental and
Economic Accounting (SEEA). Under SEEA all assets have
been divided into three categories e.g. (i) produced assets (ii)
non-produced assets (iii) other non-produced environmental
assets required to be mentioned in System of National
Accounts (SNA) for SEEA.
Benefits of Environmental Accounting
The benefit of undertaking an environmental accounting
initiative is that the identification and awareness of
environment related costs would afford the company the
opportunity to find ways to reduce or avoid these costs, whilst
also improving environmental performance. Environmental
accounting is an effective tool for placing environmental
issues firmly on top managements agenda and provides
useful data to inform environmental and financial managers
for decision-making and concretely demonstrating environ-
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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mental commitment to stakeholders. The benefits of
environmental accounting, including those highlighted by
Environment Protection Agency (EPA) may be enumerated
as under:
11
1. Many environmental problems can be significantly
reduced or eliminated as a result of effective decisions;
2. Environmental cost and potential savings may be
obscured in overheads or otherwise overlooked;
3. Environmental costs can be offset by generating
revenues through sale of waste or by-products or
recycling them;
4. Understanding of environmental costs can promote more
accurate costing and pricing of products;
5. Competitive advantage with customers can result from
processes, products and services which can be
demonstrated to be environmentally friendly;
6. Accounting for environmental costs and performance can
support a companys development and operation of an
overall environmental management system e.g. ISO
14001.
7. Environmental accounting would aid the discharge of the
organizations accountability and increase its
environmental transparency;
8. Because of the ethical investment movement, ethical
investors require the companies to be environmentally
friendly. Therefore, by upholding friendly image,
companies may be successful in attracting fund from
green individuals and groups; and
9. Environmental accounting consumerism movement
launched by the environmental lobby groups encourages
the consumers to purchase the environmentally friendly
products, i.e. green products. Companies, thus producing
green products may take competitive marketing
advantage by disclosing the same.
Limitations of Environmental Accounting
Environment Accounting (EA) suffers from various
limitations as follows:
1. There is no standard accounting method.
2. Comparison between two firms or countries is not
possible as the method of accounting is different.
3. Input for EA is not easily available because costs and
benefits relevant to the environment are not easily
measurable.
4. Many business and the Government organizations even
large and well managed ones do not adequately track the
use of energy and material or the cost of inefficient
materials use, waste management and related issue.
Many organizations, therefore, significantly under-
estimate the cost of poor environment performance to
their organization.
5. It mainly considers the cost internal to the company and
excludes cost to society.
6. EA is a long-term process. Therefore, to draw a
conclusion with its help is not easy.
7. EA cannot work independently. It has to be integrated
with the financial accounting, which in turn is not easy.
8. EA needs to be analyzed along with other aspects of
accounting because costs and benefits related to the
environment itself depend upon the results of the
financial accounting, management accounting, cost
accounting, tax accounting, national accounting etc.
9. The user of information contained in the EA needs
adequate knowledge of the process of EA as well as
rules and regulations prevailing in the country relating to
environmental aspects.
Indian Scenario of Environmental Accounting
and Reporting
Indian companies have faced strong international competition
over the last two decades as international competitors tried to
establish their footholds in India. These international firms
are disclosing non-financial information including
environmental information leading to an enhanced
expectation from Indian companies to act responsibly towards
the environment and be accountable to the society beyond the
traditional role of providing financial account to the
shareholders. Hence, to improve corporate image concerning
socially responsible behaviour, it was expected that an
increasing number of Indian companies would report their
environmental performance and social issues. However, a
little attention has been given to the state of environmental
reporting in India.
A study of literature and findings of research studies reveals
that in Indian perspective there is absence of physical form of
accounting or system for recognition of environmental costs
and liabilities and guidelines for costing treatments.
Voluntary disclosure is simply a statement in annual reports
about environmental protection, but there are no specific
norms or guidelines or specific provisions impending
environmental liabilities or losses. However, there is also no
requirement by the Companies Act,1956 about such reporting
requirements covering the environment cost and liabilities.
The Companies Act, 1956 requires to include in Directors
report environment related policies/ problems and annexure
showing details of energy consumption/energy conservation.
Even Accounting Standard Committees at national and
international levels have not formulated accounting standards
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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for their disclosures. However, there is limited disclosure
requirement on environmental issues by listed companies as
required by Stock Exchanges. Even the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has not issued any specific
guidelines about the investors protection measures for the
environmental losses and liabilities. Now-a-days, companies
are concerned with the environment and making various
provisions to safeguard the environment losses and liabilities
by different provisions, but there is no systematic reporting.
Environmental Reporting Practices
Corporate environ-mental accounting and reporting is two
decades old now. Early 1990's marked the beginning of
environmental reporting by a few heavily polluting industries.
Environ-mental accounting provides a common framework
for organizations to identify and account for past, present and
future environmental costs in order to support management
decision-making, control and public disclosure. The
emergence of corporate environmental reporting (CER) in
India has been an important development, both for better
environmental management and overall corporate
governance. The primary purpose of publishing an
environmental report is to provide meaningful and useful
information to the different segments of society. As stated
below Indian companies follow diverse reporting practices
like alone environmental reporting or reporting along with the
Annual/Financial Reports, or Sustainability Reporting
including the economic, environmental and social issues:
1. As per instructions of the Environment Ministry, the
corporations are required to prepare and submit the
information relating to environment in environmental
statement. However, there are only a very few
corporations which give adequate information regard-
ing environmental issue.
2. The corporations are fully aware of the environmental
issue and the requirements of environmental reporting.
The corporate executives have also expressed their
views in favour of environment reporting by the
industries. Despite their awareness and consent over,
environmental reporting by industries is very poor and
so inadequate that very little information is found in the
annual report.
3. According to research studies, the extent to which
companies produce social information, of which
environmental information is a part and a number of
general themes that emerge there from include the
following:
(i) The proportion of companies disclosing the
information and extent of that disclosure is small.
(ii) There is some variety in disclosure over time, in
various countries and industries. Social dis-
closure in general and environmental disclosure
in particular reflects the changing business
climate and social, economic and political
environment.
(iii) Large companies are more likely to disclose
environmental information than small companies.
(iv) A very little disclosure would qualify as
information under any normal criteria and very
little of it indeed would contain numbers,
financial or otherwise.
4. Most of the companies that provide environmental
information disclose the information in descriptive
manner rather than financial type i.e. no account is
made for the degradation of natural capital when
calculating corporate profits.
Poor Disclosure of Environmental Information
In India, the level of environmental related disclosures in the
corporate annual reports, both financial and non-financial is
not encouraging. There are many reasons for poor disclosure
of environmental information in corporate annual reports.
First, neither the company law nor the accounting
standards/guidelines issued by the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India prescribe disclosing norms for the
environment related matter in the corporate financial
statements. Secondly, the status of voluntary environmental
disclosure in the annual reports of the Indian companies is
poor. The main reason for this poor disclosure of
environmental information may be its voluntary in nature.
Thirdly, it may be due to the lack of awareness and /or
commitment on the part of the company management about
the social responsibility of the company. Fourthly, the poor
environmental performance of the company may also be
attributed to non-disclosure or less disclosure. Finally, the
poor enforcement of the Environment Protection Acts is also
partly responsible for freeing the companies from disclosure
of such information.
Conclusion
To make the environmental accounting an integral part of the
overall accounting system at corporate level, the following
suggestions are offered:
1. All the regulating bodies, accounting associations and
the Government should be careful enough and think
over different aspects seriously and make provisions for
environmental losses and making proper disclosures.
2. Attempts should be made for identification of
environmental costs and liabilities, their valuation and
measurement, introduction of new costing, appraisal of
relevant environmental factors and formulation of long
environmental accounting goals.
3. The company should formulate an environmental policy
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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after study and analysis of various acts, rules and
regulations regarding environment applicable to it and
various impacts on environment due to its working.
4. List of various elements causing pollution of various
types and showing type of action taken for control over
the same should be prepared. This type of statement
should be an integral part of annual accounts.
5. Short term as well as long term environmental budget
for both revenue and capital nature should be prepared.
6. A separate statement showing investment in the various
equipments for pollution control along with benefits to
the environment from such equipment should be
prepared. Such benefits should be measured either in
quantity or money.
7. The financial or operational effect of environmental
protection measures on the capital expenditures and
earnings of the enterprise for the current period and any
specific impact on future periods should be shown.
Where it is not possible to segregate the amount relating
to environmental protection measures, this fact should
be clearly stated.
8. When the actual amount charged to operations in the
current period, together with a description of the
environmental measures to which they relate is
material, this amount may be sub-divided into the
following general ledger accounts: i) Liquid effluent
treatment. ii) Waste gas and air treatment. iii) Solid
waste treatment. iv) Analysis, control and compliance.
v) Remediation. vi) Recycling and vii) Other (for
example- accidents, safety etc.)
9. When the actual amount capitalized during the current
period, the accumulated amount capitalised to date and
the period for amortising, or writing off such amounts,
together with a description of the environmental
measures to which they relate is material, this amount
may be sub- divided into different categories. When it
is not possible to segregate the amount relating to
environmental measures, this fact should be stated.
10. Contingent liabilities arising due to environmental issue
either in the descriptive manner or quantitative manner
or both should be shown.
11. Environmental accounting should form a part of
management accounting. Therefore, environmental
management accounting information system should be
developed.
12. Environmental responsibility centres should be decided
so as to take action against defaulter managers if there
are deviations from standard pollution limits.
13. Environmental indicators should be calculated for
evaluation of environmental aspects and the same
should be disclosed properly in annual accounts.
14. Incentive and punishment policy should be linked with
environmental issue.
15. Government should make it compulsory for every
polluter to submit environmental audit report certified
by an environmental auditor.
References
1. Banerjee B., Corporate Environmental Accounting &
Reporting Practices in India, Indian Accounting Review, December,
25- 46 (2005)
2. Bebbington J., Gray R., Thomson I. and Walters D.,
"Accountants Attitudes and Environmental-sensitive Accounting",
Accounting and Business Research, 24 (94), 109-20 (1994)
3. Bojo J an, Major Karl-Goran and Unemo Lena, Environment
and Development, An Economic Approach, Kluwer Academic
Publisher, London (1990)
4. Eresi K., Environment-Information Disclosure in Annual
Reports, The Chartered Accountant, XLV (7) Jan. (1996)
5. Field Barry C., Environmental Economics- An Introduction,
McGraw Hills International Edition (1994)
6. Gray R., "Accounting and Environmentalism: An Exploration
of the Challenges of Gently Accounting for Accountability,
Transparency and Sustainability", Accounting, Organizations and
Society, 17 (5), 399-425 (1992)
7. Gupta S. K. and Mehra A., Contemporary Issues in
Accounting, Ludhiana, Kalyani Publishers (2002)
8. J awaharlal, Corporate Financial Reporting Theory and Practice,
Taxman Allied Service Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (2003)
9. KPMG, United Nations Environment Programme, Carrots and
Sticks for Starters, Current Trends and Approaches in Voluntary and
Mandatory Standards for Sustainability Reporting (2006)
10. Chouhan Mukesh, The Chartered Accountant, November, 720-
726 (2005)
11. Paul K. C. and Pal B., Corporate Environmental Reporting in
India, Indian Accounting Review, December, 27- 45 (2001)
12. Pramanik A. K., Environmental Accounting and Reporting,
New Delhi, Deep & Deep publications Pvt. Ltd. (2002)
13. Pramanik A. K., Corporate Environmental Accounting and
Reporting: Global Scenario - XXVI All India Accounting
Conference and International Seminar, Indian Accounting
Association, December (2004)
14. United Nations, Environmental Accounting for Sustainable
Development: Note by the Secretariat, Geneva, UN
Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International
Standards of Accounting and Reporting (1991).
(Received 25
th
May 2012, accepted 18th J uly 2012)
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
(66)
Book Review:
Steve Jobs
by
Walter Isaacson
Publishers: Simon & Schuster (USA) Little, Brown (UK) 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4087-0374-8
Reviewed by
Rungta Shravan
Associate Professor (Marketing) at N L Dalmia Institute of Management Studies
and Research, Mumbai, INDIA
The Personality
Seldom has the world witnessed a personality who has
influenced, defined, shaped and reshaped a gamut of
Industries worldwide. And seldom has a personality deviated,
criticized and had utter disregard for conventional theory and
practice of leadership. Steven Paul Jobs has been one such
individual who has had as many admirers as those who hated
him for his working style.
Walter Isaacson, the CEO of Aspen Institute, has
accomplished capturing the lives and times of historical
figures like Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.
Being at the helm of affairs of two of world foremost media
brands like CNN and TimeMagazine, he has had one of the
best perspectives on remarkable individuals and their impact
on society at large.
In this book of Walter Isaacson titled Steve J obs, he
presents a somewhat personal and a more public account of a
man who defied conventional leadership style and created his
own road, leading him to both grief and glory in equal
measure. There are many ways to interpret (review) the book,
but as I took this journey (of reading the book) I noticed two
remarkable themes constantly appearing and re-appearing
throughout the so called only Official biography of the
maverick they fondly called Steve J obs.
The Leadership Paradigm
The first one was Steves disregard for People Management
and Soft Skills and its over rated importance in
organizations; and secondly the ability to Distort Reality
for self and other to innovative beyond the realm of
possibility.
Although the book begins and traces the birth and growing up
years of Steve J obs; it does not indicate anything the readers
have not seen or heard about other great visionaries. But what
strikes the reader is the openness of American Society with
regards to adopting practices which aim at solving both
personal and societal issues by having innovative solutions
with prejudices that exist in other cultures. Steve biological
and foster parents are an example of a society which accepts
individuality and freedom associated with it.
Inspite of being brought up by foster parents (who adopted
him) being simple, hardworking and open minded, Steve
grew up to be anything but like them. Steve has been
portrayed as an individual who was driven solely by his
talent, ego and vision. Conventional theory / literature on
management and leadership makes a successful
differentiation about what makes a good leader and Steve
(as portrayed by Walter) fails on almost every conceivable
metrics.
Steves ever evolving relationship with his parents, girl
friends, his best friend (Steve Gary Woznaik) and a daughter
out of wedlock is a clear indication of how Steve J obs never
viewed and valued them in the conventional sense. He was
never stable with his girl friend; not always loyal to his best
friend Wozniak and stayed aloof with his first daughter. Not
the kind of qualities or standards in personal life one can be
very proud of. If Philosophers (Like Plato) from earlier era
would try to define Steve Jobs based on the famous Trait
Theory, they would wonder if this man could ever achieve
anything in life.
Steves working style has been highly criticized by his own
partners, colleagues, sub-ordinates and business associates as
being rude, cruel, selfish, manipulative and self obsessed.
Steve himself at many places in the book, admitted to it
himself in some form or the other.
Steves analysis of any product, project or work fell into only
to categories; it was either a piece of crap or stunning
work; nothing in between. Steve never bothered about the
consequences of his reaction on his colleagues and sub-
ordinates. Walter suggests that Steve Jobs was known to be
highly inconsistent with his views on people and their ability.
Steves ability and tendency to identify talented people but
still crave for control was in contrary to the theory of
empowerment and trust. He could dismiss a whole years
hard work of his entire team in a moment of madness, and ask
them to re-start without any apology or feeling of remorse.
His obsession with perfection, belief in self and random
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
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decision drove people crazy. That can hardly be called
Inspirational Leadership.
The Traits
Steve Jobs was known to inspire people in his unique manner,
termed by his ex-colleagues as Steves Reality Distortion
field; wherein he would ask of them to do something which
was perceived to be practically impossible. But this every
same trait became a major handicap in his personal life when
he ignored the symptoms of his ill health. His friends and
family members have mentioned directly or indirectly to the
author Isaacson that Steve felt a vegan only diet who helped
him cure his cancer.
Unlike most leaders, Steves belief in the divine was
somewhat unclear and complicated. He tended to define and
re-define his perspective on the concept differently at every
stage of his life.
The book talks about Steves journey from a garage shop to a
multi billion dollar enterprise; his fallout from Apple and his
reinstatement thereafter. Throughout this Steve never once
adapted to the situation but rather created and built his
reality. Steve, it seemed never bothered or believed in
succession planning and always wanting Control over every
aspect of his work and personal life.
Steves habit of not taking bath regularly; biting his nails and
slouching during a meeting and yelling / shouting in the
meetings with his staff and board members was nothing short
of a leader who lacked tact and poise. For Steve
mannerism took a backseat with I need to make my point
taking the precedence.
Unlike conventional leaders, Steve near bothered about
mixing his criticism with praise, his belief was velvety and
polite style of management never forced change. A lot of
colleague who have had to bear his brunt admit privately that
Steves style led them to achieve the impossible.
As much as his staff and colleagues feared his eccentricity;
they all admit he had the charm, wit and intelligence that
normal people only dream of. Steve was known to mesmerize
his audience whether in the boardroom or media conferences
or his own team by scaling the level of conversation to
unbelievable proportion; making them feel as if they are part
of something extraordinary. That was Steves style of being a
Visionary.
Steves ability to comprehend, predict and define the future in
the world of technology was in stark contrast to his inability
to understand his familys need; they say he regularly slipped
into work even during long vacations and shared less than
cordial relationship with his daughters. Although he was fond
of; and spent a fair bit of time with his son Reed.
The Legacy
Steves ability as a leader to connect with other leader in the
technology industry is legendary. He was never shy of calling
up stalwarts, chairman, CEOs and MDs of global
companies to share his thoughts and give his advice.
Although those who have known or interacted with him have
they own view points, Sonys CEO once remarked about
Steve J obs as being A nightmare to work with; while Gates
in some of his comments about him have said His Working
Style is Magical.
The most impressive aspect of the book is its authenticity,
openness and unbiased perspective on the life of a legend. It
portrays his strengths and achievements with the same
aplomb as it does his weaknesses and his fallacies. The book
is inspirational, insightful and full of anecdotes; which can be
interpreted by the reader based on his stage of life, his
aspirations and his understanding of the world around him.
The review would be unfair without mentioning the fact that
Steve created products and services that re-defined industries;
the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes and an animation studio
which took the movie industry to the next orbit. Mortal
beings would be happy to invent one such product in their
lifetimes, Steve jobs created half a dozen of the same. Maybe
his Reality Distortion quality and Lack of People Skills
enable him to achieve more, cover more ground and move
faster in achieving his vision/s.
The review aimed at capturing the essence of the book in
terms of a leader who defied all social and organizational
norms and rules; yet left a legacy which students, managers
and companies across the world will try to interpret, admire
and draw inspiration from.
Advances In Management Vol. 5 (9) Sep. (2012)
(68)
Instruction to Authors
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1. Patel R.M., Patel D.M., Shah K.P. and Patel D.A., Synthesis of Polyketones and their Antimicrobial Study,
Res. J . Chem. Environ., 3 (2), 47 (1999)
2. Rao C.N.R., Chemical Applications of IR Spectroscopy, Academic Press, London, 250 (1963)
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