AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MANAGER ANALYSIS ON BASIS OF

ERIKSONS PHYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The autobiography of a manager is the case study of a manager who is 31 years old with nine years
of working experience in software MNC. He was the single child of his parents, he had graduated
from Indian institute of management and joined in a consultancy firm based in Chennai and had
worked for five years. His marriage had abruptly ended in a divorce and he was in a dilemma
whether he would marry again and he was also thinking of joining his previous employer. This case
mainly deals with the challenges faced in personal life and how to cope up with them and how to
take perfect decisions in life.

ERIKSONS THEORY OF PHYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The Eriksons theory mainly states us that the human life is mainly divided into eight stages and each
and every stage has a significant role to play in a persons life for his development and upbringing.
Each stage deals with a certain crisis and the outcome of each and every stage varies from positive
to negative effect. The eight stages that are included are Basic trust, Shame and doubt, guilt,
inferiority, role confusion, isolation, stagnation and despair.

LINKING OF CASE STUDY WITH THE ERIKSON THEORY

After discussing about the theory model we would now link the above mentioned theory to the case
study and see that how a persons life can be divided and what drastic changes occur in their
respective lifes, which helps the person to bring success or failure in their life

STAGE1: Trust versus Mistrust (0-1)

In the case of Raja we can see that he was born and brought up in Chennai and was very close to his
grandparents and the entire family loved him and pampered him and catered to his needs as and
when required. This stage mainly tells about love and affection that people receive. He has also
mentioned about his mom who was a very forgiving person and had occupied his grandmothers
place after she had expired they had developed a mutual trust and bonding between them He was a
very close to his mother and he says that his father was a strict man, raja had received a lot of
beatings for his mistakes and he knew that the beatings he was receiving was for his own benefit
and he trusted everyone in his family and similarly his family trusted him.
 STAGE2: Autonomy versus Shame & Doubt (1-3yrs)

His grandfather died when he was three. He does not remember him much, though I recall his room
and his vast collection of books. I grew up hearing numerous inspirational stories about him. He had
come penniless to His grandfather died when he was three and he did not remember him much but
he grew up hearing his stories and had heard that he had a life full of struggle, he came without any
money from Chennai (Madras as it was called then) from Mangalore and studied under street lamps.
He topped his class throughout his studies and ended up in the IA&AS2.

STAGE3: Initiative versus Guilt (3-5yrs)

His grandma had come to live with him when he was in class two. Before long, she passed away after
a concise disease. It was an awful occurrence to review. He was her most loved grandson. Regardless
he used to go with her photograph all over the place. It was the first and exact opposite thing that I
see regular.

STAGE4: Industry versus inferiority (5-12)

During this period his mom had become pregnant but due to raja they decided not to have a child.
He completed his primary school education in Mysore where his father was posted and school was a
happy place for him and he was a top ranker throughout the first four years. His father was then
transferred to Chennai when he was in class five. He joined PSBB, a reputed school close to home.
He had a brief period of difculty in adjusting. He soon overcame it and started doing well and it was
in class six that shyam joined his school.

STAGE5: Identity versus Confusion (13-21)

In this stage he was really confused as he did not know what to do after class 12 and he decided to
join a commerce course and he gave an exam to gain an all India rank in accountancy but he failed to
achieve it and he felt very sad and depressed. Then he joined a local college and started improving
his grades and during that time he was infatuated to a girl but that girl also get married and he again
got depressed but he never gave up home and soon he got a chance in all the IIMs but due to family
pressure he had to join IIM Ahmedabad. He was never an achiever and he struggled to succeed. He
compared himself with everyone and became a lot confused and he was always said to be in
discipline as it was the main motto to be successful in life. He tried to learn a lot of things but was
not that much successful rather he always got mislead and was not able to bring out his real identity
of what he really was.

STAGE6: Intimacy versus isolation (21-40)

In this stage the people tend to get inclined towards the opposite sex and the same case occurred
with raja he had fallen in love with a girl but due to certain reasons his marriage got divorced and he
got the shock of his life moreover he did not want any children so it created a rift between them, but
people started blaming his parents that they were the reason for his divorce. This changed his mind
set in an all-new way and he could not succeed in his life and career
 STAGE7: Generosity versus Stagnation (40-65)

In this stage it mainly discuses about his work and career and where he had got his job offers from
two companies and he decided to join any one company but he was not at all successful in working
with the first company so he decided to change his job and join MARS a reputed company he had a
few bumps in his career but later on he got stabilised and he had a good reputation with his
subordinates and when he joined MARS he was promoted to a product manager. His health was not
that proper and he was suffering a lot of attacks and in this everyone was trying to pull him down he
had already been working with MARS for two years it was not a home away from home company
but he was satisfies and also was in a state of dilemma s the company had told that there would be
no increments offered to him but the company had told that they would take care of his interests.
But soon he would be having a meeting with Vivek regarding his increment. He is currently stagnated
in his career and facing doldrums.

Lastly we can see that in the current day he is confused yet happy with his job and his parents are
settled in Chennai, he remains unmarried throughout his life but had to pay a hefty amount of
money to his wife regarding divorce. Sometimes he feels depressed and still he cannot decide
whether he should going back to ICG or MARS and he decides to get his brain scanned.

COCNCLUSION
Thus at the end we can see that the Eriksons theory plays a very important role in a mans life, Like
in the case of raja it helps to understand his life and the problems he faced to be a successful person
and reach a successful position where he is right now in his life. It also tells us that hard work is also
required to be successful and also it has to be in the right manner and in the right direction to get
the desired and the fruitful results, and we have also successfully linked the Eriksons case study with
the case study mentioned above.