POM 03 - THE SCALING UP FROM CRAFTSMEN THINKING TO CORPORATE THINKING

 CRAFTSMEN THINKING Vs. CORPORATE THINKING

Another class and another set of props, today Prof. Mandi came with numerous wooden cubes with numbers and figures printed on its faces. He wanted the highest bidder to build a tower out of these blocks. Finally after a reluctant bidding round Mr. Anvesh Chipalli got the chance to build the tower by spending 500 bucks! He managed to make the best of this opportunity by building a tower of 16 cubes.

Prof. Mandi explained how Mr Anvesh like a single craftsman used no organization management skills. He is unable to use any organizational management skills because he has no organization to manage.  He is just one single person. Students argued that a craftsman like a cobbler making shoes is using a bit of management by optimizing his resources, but Prof. Mandi clarified that it is organization management he is talking of and whatever resources the cobbler is managing reflects his excellent craftsmanship and not management. The notion of organization comes in when more than one person is involved.

 

Dr. Mandi also explained that bigger is the size of an organization more is the output of the organization and the organization can cater to more and more people. With more people the chain elongates resulting in greater performance and profits. So with many people working in the company the importance of organization management cannot be undermined.

Below are some points of contrast between Craftsmanship and Modern Management 

	Craftsmanship	Modern Management
Number of people involved	One	More than one
Work Flow	Work is done in a  Sequential manner	Work is done in Parallel
Specialization of workers	Craftsman is jack of all trades	Work involves dexterity (Smallest piece of work is done by a worker many times )
Satisfaction Levels	High	Low
Interdependency	Low	High
Skill Levels	High Skill is required	Low skill required ( Deskilling is done here to gain advantage in terms of providing less training )

To prove his point, he asked the students to form a team and try to build a tower of maximum height possible. He wanted to show that the team would work as an organization and achieve better results. Eight students volunteered to do the task. However Prof. Mandi now trying to prove a different point introduced a twist in the task. He asked only one person to actually touch the blocks and construct the tower who would be blindfolded throughout the task and other seven can only guide and instruct orally. The team was able to make a tower of seven blocks only. When asked from the person who was constructing the tower why he couldn’t make a bigger tower, he told that he was listening to so many voices and orders that he got confused and things became haywire.

What I learnt from the above activity:  Middle level managers today are just sitting and shouting orders without really passing on something useful to the workers which actually can help the workers with  their tasks. As a result productivity and quality are coming down. The number of managers working in an organization should be justified and individual roles should be scrutinized. This forms one of the agenda of organization management. 

3 E’s OF MANAGEMENT

The 3 E’s of management which are required to be achieved by any organization are   –

     1)    Effectiveness

     2)    Efficiency

     3)    Excellence

Effectiveness can be defined as the capability of producing intended result that is acceptable to others and appeals to the masses. It is tough to achieve and only few people can work on it.

 Efficiency is the ratio of Output to Input. It is easier to achieve.

 Effectiveness is synonymous to right direction and efficiency to speed. So, if one is effective and efficient one can excel, similar to the person who runs fast in a right direction wins. So the formula for excellence becomes –

  

      EXCELLENCE                 =       EFFICIENCY           X        EFFECTIVENESS

(More out of less for more)              (More out of less)                         (For more)

Above were some of the fundamentals about organization management. More important topics to follow. Suggestion and / or improvements are always welcome.

Cheers!!
Ankush