lect02

In today's class Dr Mandi focused on theory X and theory Y managers. He again discussed a concept which is very relevant in today's organisation. This theory gives you a new way to classify the managers. 




THEORY X:It is about taking a pessimistic view of employees and don’t trust them. Theory X managers generally take an authoritarian stance with their employees and work better in control-oriented organizations. 

THEORY Y: It states that employees may be striving for the higher level of Maslow’s hierarchy and searching for creativity and problem solving. Theory Y managers provide encouragement and trust for employees fulfilment. The end of the management course suggested that we as new managers should seek to balance between the two.

these two cases can be combined with the situations when the workers are lazy or when they are active to generate the following four cases:
1) The workers are lazy BUT the manager thinks that the workers are NOT lazy: In this case the manager is a theory y manager. 
Example: when a person is not working hard but then also his manager supports him and thinks that his employee is good. this may lead to an increase in his self confidence and his efficiency may increase.

2) The workers are lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are lazy : The manager is a theory X manager.
Example: A teacher may think that the students are lazy and even if they are lazy they will  not improve. A good teacher will have confidence in them and help them to do right things.
3)The workers are NOT lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are NOT lazy : 
This is the case of a theory Y manager. 
Example: The manager thinks that the workers are not lazy and he has belief in them. The workers are also working efficiently and are not lazy. This is a very good situation for any company as both the manager and workers are working together for the benefit of the organisation as a whole.
4)The workers are NOT lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are lazy : 
This is the case of a theory X manager.
Example: The manager may not be able to judge the workers properly. He may think that they are lazy whereas the workers may be doing their work properly. In such a situation the workers do not get their due appreciation. They may feel cheated and their motivation level may decrease in the long run.



Implications of Theory X and Theory Y


1)Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.
2)Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations.

But I'll just add one big point in a very few more words. It's one thing to accept the truth of Theory Y; quite another to apply it successfully, and without creating new and improved versions of Theory X torments for your underlings. And it is especially difficult to apply it in circumstances where Theory X has been ruling the roost without apology for the previous few decades. Which might explain why many and probably most schools nowadays are no nearer to doing Theory Y than they were half a century ago. Nevertheless, as a statement of the sort of world that a lot us now want for children, for the way they work and the way they learn, it still does very nicely, I think.

LECT01

INTRODUCTION


This course of Principle of Organisation and Management is being taught by Prof. T Prasad, known as Prof Mandi. Before my first class of this subject I thought that it would be a boring lecture on management but sir proved me wrong. It was one of the most intellectual and thought provoking classes i have had. As lifelong learners we are continually having experiences, processing them, and using the new knowledge in future experiences. This is experiential  education. When the learning goal is to provide a lively, interesting, and meaningful learning experience  that participants will personally  internalize, experiential learning  provides  an  excellent  learning  tool. This is what Dr. Mandi is trying to do and has done it very well.


He started the class by showing us a video of Pink Floyd 'Another brick in the Wall' which was not just for entertainment but for teaching us the importance of novel ideas of teaching and lamenting the age old method of teaching which suppresses a child's creativity.
Then he made us realise that we are here after spending 7 lakhs of rupees and we should earn each and every penny we spend. We then talked about Mandi and Hamara Dhandha which are entrepreneurship activities at NITIE.

ACTIVITIES

SCIENTIFIC TOYS


Later in the class he showed us some toys which were very basic scientific toys such as newton's craddle. these toys should be available in every school and institute where science is taught but its an irony that we dont have a single shop selling such items around IIT Bombay or NITIE campus. This shows the attitude of our society towards practical learning.

GOAL SETTING

Goal setting is a powerful way of motivating people, and of motivating yourself. The value of goal setting is so well recognized that entire management systems, like Management by Objectives, have goal setting basics incorporated within them.

In fact, goal setting theory is generally accepted as among the most valid and useful motivation theories in industrial and organizational psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior.

Many of us have learned – from bosses, seminars, and business articles – to set SMART goals. It seems natural to assume that by setting a goal that's Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, we will be well on our way to accomplishing it.

To better understand goal setting we did a tower building activity in class:-

TOWER BUILDING ACTIVITY


Then a student was selected from our class and he was asked to make a tower using his odd hand and some cubical blocks. The whole class was asked to guess a number upto which they think the student might build the tower. I guessed 20  but he built till 17..
Next sir asked to guess a new number upto which the same student can build with his eyes closed. Most of the class including me guessed a number less than the previous one. But sir explained that i should always aim high and be positive about the result. This activity taught me the following goals

a) Ambitious Goals: Goal Set is higher than what you think is Attainable.

b) Realistic Goals  : Goal Set is less than or equal to what you think is Attainable.

I realized that teaching should be done in the most interactive way as it was done in this class. It  was a learning experience which i would cherish all my life.  


LEARNINGS

• To reinforce planning, cooperation and to realize that perceived boundaries might not be real.
• Learn from failures as well  as successes. Stating objectives is invaluable in planning  experiential learning, but  the objectives do not always have to be reached  for  the learning experience to be  a rich one.
• It will help me to develop the attitude, values and the critical-thinking skills that i need in order to take critical action in appropriate situations, including situations beyond the classroom when necessary.