DECCAN HERALD

Wednesday 21 April 2010

LEARNING BASIC HR MANTRAS FROM OUR LIFE

K V Rao
Starts at home Management is taking place
everywhere but we lack the effort and
framework to look at it and learn

Most people believe that to learn management

you have to go to a management institute,
preferably on a full-time basis. In fact, even
those who have done through this circus
believe that occasional booster doses of
management training are essential for a
person to keep learning management.

However, management is taking place

everywhere, not only at an individual’s work
front but also in social organisations that he
may belong to, as well as at home. In most
cases, the organisation at home works quite
effectively, managed essentially by the wife.
Observance of this process can illustrate
several vital aspects of management. Most of
the time we miss observing these management

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concepts because we do not have a framework
to look at them. It is necessary to provide a
framework to look at management at home.

The concept came up years ago when a

management consultant checked with his wife
as to how she was maintaining satisfactorily
the inventory of a hundred odd items required
in the household and his wife replied: “I look at
the stock level and when it goes below a
particular level I purchase another lot.” The
consultant realised that the technique was
applicable to industrial organisations. For most
items, this visual system would work cheaper
and better than any system based on written
records. This led to the ‘Visual control system
of inventory’.

However, the greatest lesson one can learn

from the wife is the area of management. The
wife excels over the husband and creates an
organisation which, in spite of several
discordant cohesive notes, generation gaps
and other problems, remains reasonably
cohesive. Without a woman in a house, the
house is never a home. With a woman in the
house whatever may be her age, physical or
mental capabilities, the house becomes a
functioning organisation.

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Developing ability
Let us first take the case of what we call in
management jargon ‘Human resource
development’ which really means developing
the abilities of people. In an organisation in
spite of great expenditure on training
programmes, this remains a perennially weak
area. But look at a young mother teaching her
son to walk. The eleven month old child is
walking shakily holding his mother’s sari for
support.
The mother says, “No, am sure you will
walk.” So diffidently, the boy leaves hold
of the sari and takes the first step.
Immediately there is an applause. He
takes the second step and there is
applause. He takes the third step and falls
down.

The mother picks him up and kicks the

floor. She says, “You were walking very
well but the stupid floor came in the way.”
The result is that within a week the boy
learns to walk. What is the management
concepts involved here? Firstly,
expression of confidence: secondly,
appreciation of effort; and thirdly, support
in case of failure. These are vital to keep

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the morale. As John Kennedy put it after
the Bay of Pigs disaster, “Success is a
bastard — it has many fathers. Failure is
an orphan— nobody owns it.”

Let us look at a typical situation handled by an

executive. An executive calls his subordinate
and says “Here is an important task which I
really want to do myself, but I am stuck with
other urgent tasks, so I have to give it to you to
do it. I really do not know how well you will do
it, but please, repeat, please, do not make a
mess.”

The subordinate starts on the task, whenever

the executive gets some time, he looks over
the shoulder of the subordinate and says: “Oh,
you are doing it this way? I do not know
whether it will work or not. Anyway, since you
have started that way, you may as will
continue.” Ultimately, if the subordinate fails,
the executive jumps all over him and
condemns him.

Let us look at the management concepts used.

Firstly, the executive shows a lack of
confidence. Secondly, he shows lack of
appreciation of effort. Thirdly, he fails to
support in failure. The result— the subordinate
refuses to take any initiative — refusing to

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‘develop’. In spite of qualifications and
experience, he has no capability of handling
any significant responsibility.

Important task
Take another important task in man-
management: Induction of a person from a
different culture into the culture of your
organisation. Every girl, after marriage, enters
a household which is entirely new with its own
culture different from the culture she is
accustomed to, for about 20 years. However,
within a few months, when she says ‘our’
house she means the new one and not the old
one. The girl has a new sense of identity and
belonging. This induction process is worth
studying as the change in her individual
identity is essential for the foundation of the
family. Similar is the situation regarding
converting an immature irresponsible girl into a
responsible mature house wife. An executive
must study the housewife’s approach to gain
authority. I have met many husbands who
would spend a thousand rupees without
consulting their wives—although they are the
ones who have earned the money. Nobody in
this world ‘gives authority’ and those waiting
for the authority to be given end up only in
waiting and cribbing about ‘responsibility
without authority’. As soon as a housewife

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assumes responsibility she presumes the
requisite authority and extracts it through a
combination of attrition, flattery, and concern.

Effective way
Flattery is a very potent tool if it is used in
suitable way. By paying lip service to the
‘strength’ of the husband, the wife can use his
weakness without his being conscious about it.
In India wives have been able to create an
illusion that men are strong and that women
are weak. Concern is, perhaps, the most
effective way of deriving authority.

Typically a boy is more scared of his father

than his mother when he is young. As he grows
and becomes economically independent father
ceases to influence him a great. But his mother
still dominates him till he shifts to be
dominated by his wife. This domination is
essentially through a concern for him which
creates a strong binding force. Thus, we can
see how wives, without the benefit of
management schools and their jargon, have
grasped the very essentials of management
instinctively. Executives can do well to observe
the successful application of the principles and
try to emulate them to best of their ability.
(The writer is a Management Consultant. )