"Coming together is a beginning,
Keeping together is progress,
Working together is success"
Keeping together is progress,
Working together is success"
-Henry Ford
This session on Principles
of organizational management focused on understanding the importance of
applying technical skills and coordinating with team members to achieve increased
productivity.
Students were asked to
watch the animation “Three Monks” prior to the session and we were given
opportunity to explain concepts related to management that could be observed in
the animation.
Three Monks Animation: an brief narration
The animation begins with
a young monk who goes to a monastery located on the top of a hill. The day to
day requirement of water has to be satisfied from only water source
at the bottom of the hill. To collect water one needs to get it from the
bottom of the hill in buckets with a stick.
1 Monk
Working alone, one monk descends the mountain and fetches two
cans of water at a time everyday to fill up the water. Initially enthusiastic
he starts falling asleep in prayer due to fatigue.
2 Monks
Soon a second monks joins
him. They both decide to share the work after a initial fight. While bringing water, each
wants to transfer the burden to other monk which leads to disagreement
To avoid unequal sharing
of load, the first monk takes out a scale and measures the distance from one
end of the pole to center while the other monk marks the distance . The two
monks then carry the water with equal effort being applied by the two working
as a team.
Here the concept of
participative management was applied wherein each monk contributed to find out
the correct measurement for equal load sharing.
3 Monks
When the third monk joined
, the two monks think of transferring the effort to the new monk. But the third
monk, being thirsty and tired, drinks the entire can of water that he bought. This
leads to further disagreement.
The scenario changed when
fire broke out in the monastery. The three monks started working together to
save the monastery and succeeded. Disaster occurred and they worked together,
but management is not only about tackling disasters.
Management should have a
foresight and even under normal working conditions a manager should ensure that
the entire team works in coordination to complete the tasks assigned
Working together..
applying technical mindset
The three monks now
started using a pulley to fetch the water. Each person had to do a particular
task. The tasks were equally important to fetch the water. Least amount of
skill and effort was required. Productivity increased exponentially and the task assigned to each individual was simple and easy.
APPROACHà
|
INDIVIDUAL
|
PARTICIPATIVE
|
TEAM
WORK
|
Variable
|
1 PERSON
|
2 PERSONS
|
3 PERSONS
|
How
|
I pole
|
1 pole 1 scale
|
Pole scale pulley
|
EFFORT
|
100 KJ
|
10 KJ
|
.0001 KJ
|
OUTPUT
|
2 BUCKETTS
|
1 BUCKETT
|
1 BUCKETT
|
EFFICIENCY ( E )
|
2/100 = .02
|
1/10 = .1
|
1/.0001 = 10000
|
PRODUCTIVITY
|
LOW
|
MODERATE
|
VERY HIGH
|
To me , the importance of handling technical issues in order to achieve increased productivity was the focal point of the lecture and I hope to look at each business case keeping in mind the concept of participative management explained in this lecture.
