H R Era,     Issue # 12A,       Jun 11th, 2002

1. Moderator's Space

2. People Management - Old Wine?? - by Ashit K Sarkar

3. Tomato Soup for the Soul

A Brand New Element - Administratium - by Rahul Bhimjiani
The Vampire - from the Net

4. New Employee Joining - by Ramakrishnarao

5. Leadership Lessons from Geese - by Jignesh Makawana

6. Quotation Corner - by M Sukumaran

7. An Article Summary - by Pankaj Gurumukhi

Beware the Busy Manager - by Sumantra Ghoshal & Heike Bruch

8. Aims of HR Era, How to Contribute Articles, Legal Stuff.

Bouncing!!!

Several emails from HR Era to members are bouncing. Reasons - members have changed jobs, email boxes are full (holiday season), email account is disabled due to non-use (we all have at least 5 to 10 accounts).

I suggest that you subscribe HR Era to your personal email-id in addition to your office email-id. It would ensure that you receive issues continuously, even if one account is non-functional. So send us your additional email-id.

Mr Ashit Sarkar is a very senior & accomplished member of HR fraternity. He has over 47 years experience in ITC & Britannia & consultancy. Has been member of an ILO committee and travelled the world over.

Read his article in this issue on importance and evolution of HR. It would set to rest the self-doubts of several younger HR professionals that we often get to read egroups.

Regards.

Rajeev B Bhatnagar

Mr Ashit Sarkar is a very senior & accomplished member of HR fraternity. He has over 47 years experience in ITC & Britannia & consultancy. Has been member of an ILO committee and travelled the world over.

Read his following article on importance and evolution of HR. It would set to rest the self-doubts of several younger HR professionals that we often get to read egroups.

HR has a Key Role Today

Human Resource Management (HRM) and/or Personnel Management (PM) has become a very vital part of the management process in the twenty-first century, and is getting significant attention in management discussions, or in the business strategy of most organisations as compared to the past, more so post liberalisation. The importance of this function for the success of an organisation is highlighted in glowing terms with emphasis on human resource development (HRD), knowledge management, empowerment, flat organisation structure, motivated work groups etc. To some they sound as jargon, but to serious minded people they seem to make a lot of sense, even if there are differences of opinion. It also seems that even professional managers often differ in their understanding of the role differences between HRM & PM, if any at all. Many feel that it is the same old wine in a new bottle with a different label, or that HRM is only a more modern terminology!

It may be worthwhile to look at the development of this function of management in India over the past seven or eight decades to better understand the changing role and responsibility to what it is today - rather than the difference in the name with which to describe this important function in an organisation.

Labour Mobilisation & Welfare

In the early part of the century, larger manufacturing organisations needed a Labour Officer (LO) for locating and selecting unskilled manpower to meet the needs of the industry, and generally to maintain the records of the employees. Their responsibilities gradually extended to looking after the increasing statutory requirements which had to be observed in accordance with the various labour laws and rules, that were being enacted one after the other to protect the rights of the workmen, as well as lay down rules for working conditions, safety and welfare measures etc. About the same time, the Government created the statutory position of Labour & Welfare Officer (LWO) in large organisations responsible to be ‘neutral’, and to specifically ensure the welfare of the workmen.

Industrial Relations

The comparatively “docile and obedient” workforce of the past also started getting organised in the meanwhile, and many unions and managements found that they had to resolve their differences or disputes through the legal process. The LO’s were often involved with dealing and perusing these court cases through lawyers and advocates specialising in labour laws, which necessitated them to develop this expertise themselves.

This changed job demands, and to provide a career progression for LO’s, as well as avoid conflict with the statutory LWO’s designation called for the LO’s to be redesignated as Personnel Officers or Managers (PO/PM), and the beginning of a separate Personnel Department or function was made, with enlarged responsibilities like Timekeeping, Security, Wage computation, Administration, etc. being allocated to them as well. Some larger organisations subdivided the Industrial Relations (IR) aspects, Welfare activities & Canteens, Administration, Training and Development activities, besides Personnel or Staff Department, as parts of the total man management system in the organisations.

Personnel Management Specialist

For considerable time the Personnel staff was dominated by lawyers or legally oriented individuals - who could deal with the much labour litigation faced by the Company more competently. Gradually, it was realised that the demand on this function was getting far more complex, and required many other specialist knowledge and competency, such as in Social Sciences, Industrial Psychology, etc. With such felt needs came the growth of many Management Education Institutes offering Courses and Training Programmes. This resulted in people with professional background in Personnel being available in fair number mostly from early sixties, and being inducted in the organisations, as in other functions. It was felt that such professional knowledge was necessary, to be a better PM, who needed to manage total Industrial Relations (IR), and also many other personnel and organisational related issues, and not just concentrate on legal issues and court cases. However, the main priority for the PM’s for considerable period remained providing assistance and support to the operations of the organisation as a subsidiary, and not as a direct contributing team member - this persists in many places even today!

Human Resources Management - A Business / Strategic Partner

The management philosophy was undergoing changes, and it was realised that most people did not need to be driven only by supervision and fear, but generally performed better on their own, given the freedom of decision making, adequate skills training, broad guidance and knowledge of the plans - these factors motivated people to perform. This called for creation of a more positive and far greater level of interaction between the management and employee in a prevailing environment of trust and dependence, as well as in an open organisation culture. The personnel function had to spearhead and contribute towards this kind of environment creation in the organisation, and to provide the plans & developmental inputs to increase competency across the organisation, as well as generate motivation.

It was realised by the top management that rather than a limited “service” function role that was required from the P.Ms in the past, a far greater contribution could be made by this function being a change agent as an “integrated management team member” in a far more professional manner to meet the organisational goals, rather than the limited functional objectives. These could be in the areas of strategic manpower planning, organisation development, competency analysis and identified training and development of employees, organisation culture and employee motivation & morale, team building, career planning, appraisal and incentive or reward system management, key employee retention, counseling, responsible labour & management attitude building, labour productivity improvement, environmental management etc., and not just the IR & welfare issues, recruitment and employee records. These demanded a far greater understanding and interaction with other functions in the organisation, and not remain limited to the earlier functional boundaries. Lot more proactive function as a business manager with understanding the ultimate customer needs, rather than a reactive fire fighting supporting role, became increasingly necessary by this growing & changing function to enable achievement of organisational excellence in the highly challenging and competitive environment of the twenty-first century.

Where is Your Organisation in Evolution?

The pace of the development of such realisation and corrective measures in different organisations has been as per their perceived or felt needs in light of their own plans and priorities - and therefore are at different stages for each organisation. What is important is that the function must address to meet their own organisational goals - which, and the solutions, must vary from one Company to the other, as with progression of time. The model cannot, and should not, be the same for each. The role definition requirements are therefore, not the same in each organisation. Many still continue to need IR Management as the main priority, with the other issues getting lesser attention - and as such PM & HRM would appear to be no different from each other in such organisations. However, others who have managed IR satisfactorily are able to do a great deal of visible activity in the employee development and motivational areas, culture building and organisation development, etc., and therefore, may claim to be more HRM oriented, rather than Personnel.

The people management does not, and cannot, remain static, and will continue in future to demand the changing management style, philosophy, actions and solutions, which are best suited and needed to meet the differing & changing organisational challenges of each.

One thing is sure, this function is certainly no old wine in a new bottle - whether one calls it Personnel, or Human Resource Management!

Contributed by Mr Ashit K. Sarkar, He is based in Bangalore now. He has too many accomplishments to summarise here.

E-mail: ashitsarkar@..., Home Page: http://personal.vsnl.com/ashitsarkar

  

A Brand New Element - Administratium

A brand new element - Administratium - has been discovered.

A major research institution has recently discovered the heaviest element known to science. This discovery has been tentatively named "Administratium". It has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does however, have 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Administratium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. For example, a minute amount of Administratium caused one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Administratium has a normal half-life of 3 years; it does not decay but instead undergoes continual reorganization, in which a portion of the assistant neutrons, deputy neutrons and assistant deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Administratium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization causes some morons to become neutrons, thus forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium is formed whenever morons reach a certain concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a "Critical Morass." You will know it when you see it!

Contributed by Rahul Bhimjiani

4C-IT: Entrepreneurial Network for Leapfrogging the Digital Divide
91-712-555343 (O+R); 91-712-551554 (Fax); Nagpur, INDIA
Email rahulbhimjiani@...,

The Vampire

Here is something to lighten up after harsh truth from Rahul Bhimjiani !

A man spends a month traveling. When he returns home, his youngest son tells him: "Daddy, there is a vampire in mom's room!"
"Vampires don't exist, sweetheart."
"Yes they do, I saw him! He is hiding in the closet."
When the fathers decides to open the closet door and finds one of his friends, he exclaims: "You, of all people, Randolph! I helped you out all your life and you pay me back by hiding in my closet to scare my boy!"

From the Net

The new employee may be a person who will be in the organization for the next generation and may even rise to the very top. Creating a pleasant experience and a positive perception from the start becomes an almost sacred responsibility for a HR person.

A new employee should be taken on a tour of the office and introduced formally to other people, in a very big organization this may not be possible, in which case the common solution is to introduce the new person within the department, and maybe only to other departments he/she will be interacting with.

A junior employee can be taken around by a junior person from the HR dept., but when a senior joins, etiquette would demand that a senior HR person show the senior employee around.

Typical anxieties a new entrant feels

Could you show me my cubicle?
Is this my computer?
Where is the washroom?
Where is the photocopier?
That senior executive wearing spectacles, what's his name?

This sort of feeling can be tackled well by HR persons, all they have to do is a little planning. They could end up having a grateful new employee and even a good friend, in the long run.

A guided tour of the premises

Take care to point out important office areas:

Ø The fax/copier location
Ø Key points in the office ? conference room, CEO's cabin, washrooms, cafeteria, water cooler, library, Stationery room, Mail room, Cash Cabin...
Ø Paper storage area

What to organize for the new person

Ø Stationery
Ø Minor office equipment ? staplers, paper punch?
Ø Company email ID
Ø Cafeteria-use arrangements
Ø Business cards
Ø ID card/swipe card
Ø Door name plate, when necessary
Ø Not normal practice, but a gesture like a bouquet would be nice
Ø Get the bank account number etc for salary payment formalities
Ø Copy of the company employee handbook
Ø Induction
Ø Formal introduction with colleagues & peers
Ø Stay arrangements (if emp. is new in the city)
Ø Lunch (for first day)

What to inform him/her about

Ø What number to press on the intercom to make an external call
Ø Internal intercom numbers along with the names of people
Ø Signing of attendance register - where
Ø Whom to contact for stationery replenishment
Ø Timings and other rules like smoking areas
Ø Internet usage ? company beliefs
Ø Vehicle parking areas
Ø Common resources like a typing pool
Ø Dress code for juniors (especially if it is their first job)
Ø A company brochure would be nice
Ø Brief profiles of people working in the organization, with designations and contact details

Introducing people to the new entrant

It's difficult for a new employee to remember many names when introduced to a large number at the same time. To reduce embarrassment try introducing the new employee by name to a group, and not give the names of the entire group. But when introducing to only one other person, names of both can be given.

During introductions, ideally, the name of the older/more senior person is given first to the junior person.

Simply let your mind do a flashback to your first day at the office. What were the pressure areas, embarrassments, and little frustrations? These are precisely what you need to streamline and systematize. Some old proverbs still hold true, one of them is

"The first impression is the best impression."

Contributed by Ramakrishnarao,
People Excellence, Tata Telecom Limited, Gandhinagar. Tele : 079 - 3221773 / 3246467, E-mail : rthallam@...

My dear HR Professionals,

Here is a story "Teamwork and Geese." It can also be called 'Leadership - Lessons From Geese.'

Fact 1

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of each other.

Fact 2

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Fact 3

When the lead bird tires, it rotates back into the formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each others' skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, or resources.

Fact 4

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and to encourage the heart and core values of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

Fact 5:

When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense of geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we're strong.

I am sure, you will like this story. Let's try to be a group of goose.

Regards,
Jignesh Makwana

Contributed by Jignesh Makwana
Ph. 6440414 (R), Member : Young HR Professional Group, (A group of 40 young HRP)
Email: jignesh_hrd@...

M Sukumaran

" No more Industrial relations...Go for Individual relations"

Oil Billionaire H.L. Hunt

"There are two rules:

1. Decide what you want.
2. Decide what you'll have to DO to get it, and start DOing it."

Contributed by M Sukumaran, SukumaranM@...

Main Article:

Beware the Busy Manager - by Sumantra Ghoshal & Heike Bruch. Everyone knows Sumantra Ghoshal. Heike Bruch is Professor of Leadership at the University of Saint Gällen in Switzerland. Published in the Harvard Business Review in February, 2002

Pankaj's Comments:

Dear Rajeev,

I was fortunate in finding this article in Harvard Business Review magazine. ... I really found a different view of the work that we do everyday as part of our job, and just wanted to share the same with others. I am sure it would help others too...

Thanks & Take Care,
Pankaj

Article Summary

Most managers are extremely busy. They rush from meeting to meeting, check their emails constantly, make endless phone calls, and are generally engulfed in a constant stream of activities. Yet, often they achieve very little. The problem is that they confuse being active with purposeful action-taking.

Their capacities get fully absorbed in daily routines with no time or energy left for dealing with problems that require reflection, systematic planning or creative thinking, and for which there is no external pressure for immediate action. This is the syndrome we call ‘active non-action’ which, we believe, is a central behavioural problem in many companies.

Situational factors are rarely the reason for this lack of purposive action. In fact, managers can act. As a rule, their jobs provide sufficient scope and freedom, yet relatively few managers make deliberate use of their action-taking opportunities. Most spend their time making the inevitable happen instead of doing what managers are paid to do - to make happen what otherwise won’t happen.

Energy and Focus

What distinguishes the relatively few managers who do take purposive action from the vast majority who just spin their wheels? Two things: energy and focus.

Action demands energy. Some managers fail to take purposive action simply because they lack energy. Some are exhausted or burnt out from stress and do not have the inner resources to re-energise themselves. For others, the lack of energy may be relevant to a particular project which is not meaningful to them. Without energy, they are unable to ‘go the extra mile’ that is often necessary to accomplish non-routine tasks.

Focus, on the other hand, represents the capacity for concentrated attention. It is the ability to zero in on a goal and see it successfully through completion. Focussed managers are not in a reactive mode. They choose not to respond immediately to every issue that comes their way or get sidetracked from their goals by distractions.

While both focus and energy are positive traits, neither is in itself sufficient to produce the kind of purposeful action companies need most in their managers. Focus without energy devolves into either empty execution or burnout. Energy without focus dissipates into purposeless busyness or, in its most destructive form, into wasteful failures.

Combining both these dimensions into a matrix (try to make it yourself please) leads to a useful framework for diagnosing the causes of non-action as well as the basis for purposive action-taking. Such a matrix identifies four types of managerial behaviours: procrastination, disengagement, distraction and purposefulness.

The procrastinators: low energy, low focus

Over the last three years, we studied action-taking by a group of over 120 managers in a very large global company. Over 30 per cent of these managers were procrastinators; they suffered from low levels of both energy and focus. Although they dutifully performed their routine tasks - attending meetings, writing memos, making phone calls and so on - they failed to take initiative, to raise the level of performance or drive change.

Some procrastinators hesitate, Hamlet-like, until the window of opportunity has closed. One of those managers said, “I could have done it, but I could not get started.” The nearer the deadline for the project loomed, the more he busied himself with other activities, rationalising that we could not turn to the project until he completed his other jobs.

Managers procrastinate when they feel insecure or fear failure. Some get into the passive state that psychologist Martin Seligman called ‘learned helplessness’. After experiencing a few times that despite making an effort, they could not make a difference, they have drawn the conclusion that taking action is not worth the effort. They believe that they have no power or control over events, so they do nothing.

The disengaged managers: high focus, low energy

Roughly 20 per cent of managers we studied fell into the disengaged category: they exhibit high focus but have low levels of energy. This lack of energy manifests itself in a variety of ways.

Some of them practice a form of denial that can be described as ‘defensive avoidance’. Rather than acknowledging a problem and taking steps to correct it, they try to convince themselves that the problem does not exist. Other practise ‘distanced behaviour’. While acknowledging the need for change, they distance themselves from the problem. In all cases, disengagement stems from the lack of any personal commitment - typically because the task lacks any subjective meaning for them.

Paradoxically, disengagement can be more exhausting than energetic behaviour. Disengaged managers are often plagued by feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, anger, frustration and alienation. They deal with those emotions by withdrawing or doing the bare minimum, which makes the situation worse. Despite their low levels of energy, these managers suffer from burnout more frequently than their colleagues do. And they are easily overwhelmed by unexpected events.

The distracted manager: high energy, low focus

By far the largest group of managers we studied - more than 40 per cent - fell into the distracted quadrant; those well-intentioned, highly energetic but unfocused people who confuse whirlwind frenzy for constructive action. They always feel a desperate need to do something - anything - and that makes them as dangerous as the proverbial bull in a china shop.

Because they do not stop to reflect, distracted managers tend to have trouble developing strategies and adjusting their behaviour to new requirements. Under pressure and confronting the need for change, they do the same as always, only with even more intensity. They become victims of their established ‘behavioural templates’.

Faced with extreme difficulties, these managers resort to panic behaviours - trying to run away, irrational displacement activities or extensive and uncontrolled trial and error.

Moreover, because distracted managers tend to be short-sighted, they often find themselves overcommitted. They get involved in multiple projects with the best of intentions, but eventually their interest pales, and they wind up either constantly fighting fires or abandoning their projects altogether. In the space of two months one HR manager we observed took on three big projects - redefining the role of the HR department, renewing the 360-degree feedback system, and creating a new leadership development programme - over and above his everyday job requirement. In the end, he abandoned one project, passed on responsibility for another, and did a poor job on the third.

The purposeful manager: high focus, high energy

The smallest proportion of managers we studied - only about 10 per cent - were both highly energetic and highly focussed. Not only do such purposeful managers put more effort into their work than their counterparts, they also achieve critical, long-term goals more often. These managers tend to be more self-aware than others. Their clarity about their intentions, in combination with their strong will power, help them take sound decisions about how they spend their time. They pick their goals - and their battles - with far more care than managers in the other three categories.

A key distinguishing feature of purposeful managers is their sense of personal responsibility for the challenges they have chosen to respond to. They feel accountable for making a meaningful contribution. “When nobody is responsible, I am responsible”, one manager told us. “I own an issue and do what I think is necessary - unless and until the CEO pulls me back.”

Purposeful managers husband their energy. Aware of the value of time, they manage it carefully and consciously. Some refuse to respond to e-mails, phone calls or visitors outside certain periods of the day. Others build ‘think time’ into their schedules. As one of these managers says: “In the busiest of times, I slow down and take time off to reflect on what I actually want to achieve, and sort out what’s important from irrelevant noise. Then I focus on doing what is important.”

But the greatest difference between purposeful managers and others lies in the way they approach work. Other managers feel constrained by outside forces: their bosses, their peers, their salary schemes, their job descriptions. Those external factors determine for them what they can or cannot do. In other words, they work outside-in.

Purposeful managers do the opposite. They decide first what they must achieve, and then they work to manage the external environment so that, in the end, they can achieve their goals. They work inside-out. This distinction between outside-in and inside-out behaviours - between motivation and volition - will be the topic of the next article in this series.

Summary contributed by Pankaj Gurumukhi
Senior Software Engineer, Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
Email: pgurumukhi@...

Aims of HR Era:
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Copyright (C) 2002 by Rajeev B. Bhatnagar