AFFECTIONATE MANAGEMENT

by DEEN KUMAR

If you have a VISION only for One year . Cultivate Flowers Five years Cultivate Animals Fifty years .. Cultivate Trees Five hundred years Cultivate Mother Earth But, if your vision is Eternity Cultivate People - AnonymousPREAMBLE

There are three categories of practicing Managers. Some Managers are born. Some acquire Management skills. Some have Management thrust on them. This book is intended for the Third category.

There are any number of Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Technologists, Administrators, Bureaucrats, Entrepreneurs and Social Activists. Many of them find themselves in the hierarchy of Management in Hospitals, Factories, Research and Development Institutions, Public Undertakings, Government Departments, Business Enterprise and Non Governmental Organizations. Most of them, having spent six to ten years to be proficient in their own professions, may find neither time nor even inclination to obtain additional academic qualifications to strengthen their management skills. The short-cut methods of somehow-manage employees and events more often precipitate crises and cannot disseminate the pleasures of professional management. Those who find themselves in the drivers seat of Management need a few dos and donts. They deserve to know, in simple terms, how to manage and how not to manage. Good driving always makes the ride safe and enjoyable. This book gives, in a nutshell, the precepts, principles and predilections of the practice of management, but carefully avoids the elaboration of the intricacies of theory of management. We believe, to drive a car competently, one need not be thorough with the whole gamut of Automobile Engineering. An exposure to basic

driving lessons should suffice. Some knowledge of the broad systems of operations will be helpful. Management is People centric. Like human beings, organizations of people also have a proclivity to be sick or healthy. Good Management always keeps organizations healthy. Thus Affectionate Management becomes more a guide for Healthy Organizational Management with appropriate tips to avoid unhealthy predicaments. Affectionate Management, in essence, is a healthy practice of management.

INTRODUCTION Most human beings are accused of acting first and thinking later. In a different dimension, this trait may in fact be a blessing in disguise. If acting and thinking are seen as practice and theory, there will be a predominant change in perception.

The History of human civilization shows that buildings were constructed before the advent of the Theory of Architecture. When the first steam engine rolled out, Thermodynamics was unknown. When the Wright Brothers first flew the aeroplane, the Science of Aerodynamics was not born. Most human endeavours follow the pattern of action, reflection, modification, further action, more reflection, formulation of theory, appropriate application and improved performance of action. The story of Management is no different. Most efficient and effective principles of Management were manifest in the construction of pyramids, the other wonders of the ancient world, the exodus of Jews from Egypt led by Moses, the expeditions of Alexander, the administration of Roman Empire, the magnificent forts, churches and temples of Medieval Era, the skills of Akbar and Asoka and the magnificent enterprises of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Many principles of Modern Management emanated from the experiences of the First and Second World Wars. The Exemplary Management of Indias Freedom Movement by Mahatma Gandhi preceded the arrival of Management as an independent professional discipline. The Theory of Management evolved from the principles employed by successful natural managers, who practiced near perfect management ages before the Twentieth Century. However, once management was recognized as an essential discipline, it had been afflicted with scholastic specialization. Like any other academic branch of learning, management fell into the groove of knowing more and more about less and less.

Adding further woes to the practicing managers, specific jargon found its way into the domain of management, which can be understood only by the management theorists. Like Medicine, Engineering and Technology, Management Experts adorn hundreds of specialized functions. The situation became much more complicated with the entry of a host of psychologists and social scientists into the fold of Management Theory.

Multidisciplinary approaches made Management such a complex object of comprehension, more organizations in recent times have disintegrated and disappeared because of excessive theoretical analysis and less of pragmatic practices of Management. The theories of X, Y and Z should not be allowed to override the A, B, C of Elementary Management Practices. Colloquially, Manage or Managing assumed a different connotation. Managing normally come to mean that a person somehow manages to wriggle out of difficult situations or even hoodwinks the system in cases where one finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Most people think and act on the premise that managing is to stifle and suppress, by any means, dissent, discord, dispute, discomfort and difficulty.

The good old dictionary gives the meaning of Manage as having control of, operate effectively, deal tactfully and contrive. The word contrive means plan, make or do something resourcefully. Management has been defined by Peter Drucker as getting things done. Koontz and ODonnel defined Management as creating an ambience for productive activity.

We define Affectionate Management as a sustainable performance with positive and proactive initiatives, to maintain organizational health as a prerequisite to growth and development of the organization as well as the individuals who are the organization. Walter Doyle Staples, author of Think Like A Winner, exhorts, Show affection Radiate a sincere warmth for other people and they will do the same for you. Affection helps people fee good about themselves. A soft touch communicates a strong message that you care. The objective of Affectionate Management is to ensure that the whole ( Organization ) alone does not get the benefit of growth and development at the expense of the parts ( People of the Organization).

The Eastern magic of Japan is based on only one premise : The only natural resource is the people. Treating people, not money, machines or material, as the natural resource is the key to affectionate management. Kenichi Ohmae, Head of Mckinsey's Tokyo Office, asserts that in Japan, organization and people in the organization are synonymous. Tom Peters and Robert H. Watermen Jr. stated, many of the best companies really do view themselves as an extended family. We found prevalent use of specific terms, family, extended family or family feeling at Wal-mart, Tandem, HP, Disney, Dane, Tupperwave, McDonalds, delta, IBM,TI, Leve Strauss, Blue Bell, Kodak and P & G. companies like 3M have become sort of a community center for employees, as opposed to just a place to work They have become sort of mother institutions, but have maintained their spirit of entrepreneurship at the same time.

The principles of Affectionate Management enunciated in the following chapters are the pathways to realize our definition of Management in the Twenty First Century. It may be noted that the word MAN is used in these chapters to denote human being is general. No gender bias is intended.