Managing The Management In Corporate

By Prof.Suvasish Mukhopadhyay

MANAGING THE MANAGEMENT IN CORPORATE is the outcome of twenty-two years of teaching and research experience of the author. This book encompasses an overall experience about the complete subject of Management. The book touches all the major and minor aspects of Management right from Authority to Zen approach in Management. This book covers two hundred topics of Management in nutshell. It brings all the topics of Management under one umbrella. The book is written for all the people who deal with the subject of Management, whether he is a student of some B-school or a corporate honcho or a lay man. It is written in a very lucid manner so that it can touch the heart of the readers. The simple style of writing will help the readers to assimilate the core content of the book easily.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Jan 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9789389759327

Prof.Suvasish Mukhopadhyay

Prof. Suvasish Mukhopadhyay is presently working as the HOD (Civil) in Govt. College of Engineering, Chandrapur of Maharashtra State of India. He is a veteran author and till date he authored twenty seven books on different genre right from Engineering to self –help. He has significant contribution in the field of Education and Management. He taught thousands of students, delivered talks in hundreds of institutions, Government organizations and private organizations. He had received many awards in his long teaching career. Writing and Students Counselling are his hobby and teaching is his profession cum passion. Professor Mukhopadhyay recommendedinnumerable students for their higher studies to several universities of USA, UK and Austraia. He is well connected with most of his students who are scattered across the globe.

Book preview

1

Authority the

Inseparable Part

Let me tell you one thing. A small candle is more powerful than all the darkness upon the planets, darkness has no power, darkness is impotent, a small candle is having potential because it produces light. In the presence of a small candle the total darkness of the earth remains absent.

-Osho

One should persist good things and discard bad things. Centralization of authority indicates creating departmentalization and finding the location of actual performance. Centralization is the system in which there is reservation of authority with the top hierarchy or the hierarchy at the centre. In a centralized organization details of the planning is done by the chief executives or by a small core group of high level managers. Complete centralization is however, impossible and not recommended. Efficient management is not possible without the delegation of certain authorities to the people who belong to middle and lower management. Authority in management is the formal or legitimate authority specified in a character that gives a project manager the authority to act in the name of the sponsoring executive or on behalf of the organization as a whole.

Several Definitions of Authority:-

1. Institutionalized and legal power inherent in a specified job, function, or position that is meant to enable its holder to successfully carry out his or her responsibilities.

2. Power that is delegated formally. It includes a right to command a situation, commit resources, give orders, and expect them to be followed, it is always accompanied by an equal responsibility for one’s actions or a failure to act.

3. An agency or body created by a government to perform a specific functions, such as environment management, tax collection, power generation etc.

4. Judgment of a court or judicial opinion quoted in support of a legal argument.

Classification of Authority

a. Technical Authority: Technical Authority means recognition of a person’s opinions in certain specialized field.

b. Ultimate Authority: It deals with the original source from which the person gets the right to take certain action.

c. Administrative Authority: Administrative Authority means the right to act for the company in specified area. Administrator should be clear as to what rights are associated with the task that is to be delegated. There must be transparency in the system.

d. Operational Authority: Operational Authority is the permission given to the subordinates to do certain job.

e. Positional authority: Positional authority refers to the project manager’s authority enforced through the project charter.

f. Coercive authority: Coercive authority refers to motivating staff by punishment and is predicated on fear of losing status, positions, bonuses or jobs.

g. Expert authority: Expert authority is earned if the team respects one’s skills as a project manager or subject-matter expert.

h. Referent authority: Referent authority refers to the ability to influence others through charisma, personality, and charm.

i. Reward authority: Reward authority refers to positive reinforcement and the ability to award something of value.

In brief authority means right to act, command and decide. A person may not be in a position to perform his task correctly unless he is given the required authority. Whenever task is to be assigned to a person, he must be given sufficient authority to exercise and control for achieving the task.

2

Accountability

the Backbone of

Management

Accountability is a major parameter in Management and it depends upon several factors like

i) Dependability ii) Predictability iii) Reliability iv) Consistency v) Caring vi) Sincerity vii) A sense of duty viii) Empathy ix) Character x) Integrity and xi) Loyalty

Accountability is nothing but the obligation of an individual or organization to be answerable for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner. It also includes the financial responsibility or other entrusted property. Accountability at work is important to a business’s success as a whole. In order to achieve the goals set by the company it is important that all the staffs within the company work together and share accountability. Employees who work together for a common goal help their workplace to become more productive and efficient.

3

Budgeting the Key to

Many Problems

An effective budgeting is an inseparable part in good management practice. Unless an organization had a plan or a budget for all the wings, which it does, there is bound to be wastage. All the expenses must be planned or budgeted and the actual expenses must be done by keeping the budget in mind. All work and action regarding the future must be seen and considered from the financial point of view. This is known as budget. Whatever we do, we must make a budget and then we must see how the actual results compare with the budget. The prerequisite of good management is to make a plan for the future. This plan is then put into financial terms and then budgets are prepared. It is the responsibility of the supervisors to see that the budgets are done in a proper and methodical way. If anything goes out of the box then the supervisors must bring it to the notice of the higher management.

Budgeting can be defined as the forecast of the programmes of operations, based on the expected operating efficiency. It must be prepared on a definite period of time. Statistical data is necessary for preparing a budget. It can also be stated as forecasting and planning for the future based on the past experience and market trends. The present position budgeting is a major tool in the hands of the management for their planning of further activities of the organization. This includes estimation of sales and expenditure on production. Budgeting is also done for forecasting the expected results. It can be projected either in numerical terms or in financial terms. A budget is nothing but a financial plan. It is a projection of what will happen financially if certain strategies and decisions are implemented. For example, before hosting an event, the committee of a sport club would work out possible revenues and expenditures, investigate what the event needs, have discussion with experienced people, obtain quotations from suppliers and estimate how many people might attend. These activities such as consulting, investigating, obtaining quotations and estimating are all typical budgeting activities.

The purpose of budgeting includes the following factors:

1. Forecast of income, expenditure and profitability

2. Tool for decision making

3. Means to monitor business performance

There are several types of Budget.

Master Budget: The summarized budget of the entire organization is known as master budget.

Sales Budget: The sales budget gives an idea about the probable income from the sale of the product and the expenditure involved in organizing the sales operation. A sales forecast can be made on the basis of the reports received from the sales team (who are associated with sales and who can give an estimate of the quantity of the product that is likely to be sold in their sales area.)

Production Budget: The production budget is prepared to ensure that the demand of the sales department is met during the specified period. It gives information about the time needed to product and dispatch the product. It is prepared after considering the demand and capacity of the production plant. The cost of the production plays a significant role in the production budget.

Financial Budget: The financial budget gives the summary of the income to be received and the amount required for spending during a given period. It forecasts the profits, losses and the financial position of the concern. It helps the top management in estimating the profitability of their organization.

Material Budget: Material budget is prepared by the production department. It shows the quantity of material required for manufacturing the products. In accordance with the budget, orders are placed to procure the required quantity of material within the prescribed period time to time. There must not be over procuring.

4

Boss Management an

Art

Goodness cannot flower in the field of fear.

-J. Krishnamurti

It is difficult rather impossible to expect positive response from a negative minded boss. The function of Sun is to give light. Shadow is the by product. But a negative minded person looks at the shadows only. Anger and weight throwing attitude become an integral component of the character of a negative minded boss. Anger and rage are nothing but the manifestation of a weak man’s pretence for strength. Boss is a person who exercises control over employees and makes decisions. Your relationship with your boss is the most important relationship you have at work place. Boss management can stimulate better performance; improve your working life, job satisfaction and work-life balance. There is a famous quote of Aristotle. It says, We are what we repeatedly do. Commit to manage your boss and you will be repeatedly maximizing your potential.

There are few important points.

1. Agree the boundaries:

. All of us require a firm boundary to work within. We can’t go beyond it.

2. Manage your Boss’s time:

.Your time is entirely devoted to them; do not expect your boss’s time to be entirely devoted to you.

3. Avoid Making Assumptions:

4. Don’t expect any favour from your boss

5. Be a Problem Solver, Go to the table of your boss with probable solutions, not with the problem. Try to solve a problem whenever possible.

6. Always deliver. Be in the Giver’s side. Always deliver what you promise to deliver.

7. Develop a relationship based on Trust, not on sycophancy. This builds on delivering on your promises. Agree to the standards, stick to them and don’t deviate from your commitments.

8. Provide Constructive Feedback. Always stay with a positive minded. Many times you will be used and thrown, but don’t react. Keep it in mind, purchase your days and then quit the job. If you know someone is bad that’s enough, rest of things you need to manage.

9. Celebration is a part of life and service life. Have time to celebrate the projects and events that go well.

5

Best Possible Use of Valuable Resources

For achieving goals in short time we must use valuable resources like money, raw material, man power, machinery etc efficiently. As per the trend, for any organization, biggest and most valuable resource is its employees than its machineries. That means man power is the biggest power of any organization. Good organization invests more on its employees than machinery. If the people are properly trend and taken care of seldom they switch over to other organizations. Proper and efficient use of this efficient man power leads to growth of an organization. The success of an organization lies in the way it treats its most valuable resource i.e. the employees of that organization.

The recruitment process of any organization must be perfect for the effective use of its man power. It consists of determining nature of job, criteria of job and the recruitment right of the company. Organization must possess well defined performance management of employees. Hard working employees must be rewarded so that they feel motivated and they perform better in the days to come. Employees must be trained in such a way so that they can be expert in multiple fields and can perform multiple tasks.

The most populous country China has great dominance in global business. Why? Because they have made large investment in human resource management. Now-a-days big corporate houses are investing more on well-being of its employees.

6

Body Language which

must be Understood

It shows how your body reveals your thoughts, attitudes and desires. Favourite Charlie Chaplin is the great example of body language skills. Body language is not just about how we hold and move our body but it consists of many parts which consists of eyes, actions, touch with non-bodily things (pen, mobile), our heartbeat and attitude. There is a famous saying.

"It’s how you looked when you said

It, not what you actually said."

-Anonymous

Body Language is major type of ‘non-verbal communication’ which are important in understanding perspectives. First time we make opinions about person in few seconds on the basis of what we see and feel about him. But at the same time that person is also reads you thoroughly. When you judge what you see and hear in any situation doesn’t reflect real things always. Like person with folded arms doesn’t always feel insecure but we might interpret it as insecurity.

So it is a question of proper perception. Someone is more perspective means he can understand and read others better than most of us. When we say that we have feeling that someone has told us lie, we mean that their body language and spoken words doesn’t match. e.g. if I deliver a speech and if a person is sitting back in his seat doesn’t pay any attention then surely I get the feeling that my delivery is not going well. Being ‘perceptive’ means being able to spot the contradictions. Body language also teaches us self-control and self-awareness. So to boost your confidence, always use a power pose. When others are speaking don’t check messages, time etc. Make proper eye contact and respond. Smiling face makes you approachable, cooperative and shows positive attitude. To form clearer thoughts use actions. There are studies related to body language of animals too. Often you must have watched the body language of a cat in different position.

7

Communication a

Great Tool

While communicating with others or addressing a gathering never feel they are fools, on the contrary feel that you are one them. Communication must be fast at the same time it should be perfect also. There are several types of communications. There may be communication between parent-child, husband-wife, student-teacher, customer-salesman and employer-employee. By and large, communication is a purposeful activity of exchanging information and meaning across space and time using various technical or natural means, whichever is available or preferred. Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient. Thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. Today’s era is the most advanced era of communication. There was a time fifty years back when people used to book trunk call and wait for their turn to come and in the present era calling your friend from any corner of the globe is a matter of fraction of a second.

7 Cs of communication:

i) Credibility: Is this communication sustainable?

ii) Context: Timing, situation, Desire, Proceeding, Interaction, Purpose.

iii) Context: Thoroughly searched as demanded. Is the attachment or documentation presented exactly in the same way as desired?

iv) Clarity: Are the points or ideas clear? Is it in the right sequence before I seek or present? Is my pronunciation is cross-checked by another expert? Am I transferring the desired impact? (A check back with the recipient is desired).

v) Channel: The mode of communication- Electronic, vocal, video, print document, PPT, sketches, research analysis, e-mail, telephone calls, fax message.

vi) Consistency: Logical sequence. Can others or even I can bring ease in follow ups? (While practicing do I read properly and listen to my own communication and like it?)

vii) Courteous: Have I ensured that I have used all desired protocol? Does it hold a lot of value for the recipient? (Manners, salutation, address, heading, please, thank you etc.)

The Ps and Ds of Communication

i) Passion: Eagerness, urge, dare to be different.

ii) Perseverance: Consistency, practice, belief in success.

iii) Preparation: Collection and collation and logic.

iv) Pronunciation: Pitch and punch before presentation.

v) Dedication: Committed to people and progress

vi) Determination: Go getter, craving for success and craving to make it happen

vii) Depth: Research and Analysis

viii) Delivery: Caution and precaution for the final finale

Communicating:

Considerable times of executives and supervisory time is spent in meeting people. This makes managerial communication important and effective. Management must communicate to supervisors and workers through proper and established communication channel. It must gather information and take action when needed. Inadequate communication may result in misinformation. Inadequate communication often leads to severe misunderstanding. Top executives must take up the responsibility to keep all the channels of communication open to all for 24 X 7.

Top personnel must be good listeners and must encourage this habit in their subordinates also. In today’s era of rat race it is really difficult to find a proper listener. They must find time to listen to and they should cultivate habit of tolerance and accommodate difference of opinions before arriving at any decision. Constructive suggestions must be accepted, irrespective of the source. Following points are of extreme importance.

i) Superior must function as a medium for boosting up employees’ morale and enhancing productivity.

ii) Superiors being very close to the workers, more than anyone else in the management team, they become an effective link between the management and the workers.

iii) Superiors must be an expert in communicating information.

iv) For effective communication with the subordinates, he must be able to receive, understand and transmit necessary information to the workers in a way the workers would be able to assimilate it quite easily.

v) He must transmit data, complaints, grievances and workers suggestions to higher officers in the hierarchy of the management at the earliest after reviewing them.

vi) He must be able to adjust with the workers in face to face oral communication. Nothing is better than this.

vii) Superiors must speak to workers as his equals and not as inferiors. There must be a proper feeling of a team and the team spirit must bring good outcome.

viii) He must also be able to convince the workers about the decisions when taken. On the contrary the workers must have complete faith in their superiors.

Three primary steps of communication:

i) Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feeling.

ii) Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.

iii) Decoding: Finally, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that is understandable to a person.

Types of Communication:

Non-Verbal Communication

Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Some forms of non verbal communication include gesture, body language or posture, facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles, architecture, symbols, and tone of voice.

Verbal Communication:

Effective verbal or spoken communication is dependent on a number of factors and cannot be fully isolated from other important interpersonal skills such as non-verbal communication, listening skills and clarification.

Oral Communication:

Oral communication, while primarily referring to spoken verbal communication, can also employ visual aids and non-verbal elements to support the conveyance of meaning. Oral communication includes presentations, speeches, discussions, and aspects of interpersonal communication. As a type of face-to-face communication, body language and choice tonality play a significant role, and may have a greater impact upon the listener than informational content.

Business Communication

A business can flourish only when all objectives to the organization are achieved effectively. You must win from all the angles. Then only you will excel in business. It is a very hard job to be successful in business. It needs lot of managerial skills which must be put together for the effective achievement. For higher efficiency in an organization, all the people of the organization must be able to convey their message properly. Communication skills have proven to be the most powerful element to possess for in a skill set of employees.

8

Cost Control an

Effective Part of

Management

Cost control is related with the practice of managing and reducing business expenses. Cost control starts by the businesses identifying what their costs are and evaluate whether those costs are reasonable and affordable. Then, if necessary, they can look for ways to cut costs through methods such as cutting back, moving to a less expensive plan or changing service providers. The cost-control process seeks to manage expenses ranging from phone, internet and utility bills to employee payroll and outside professional services. But certainly for the cost control often we need to compromise with the quality. I know a Builder in Pune, right from the tiles of the flat to all the wooden fittings all are substandard and for cost cutting he adopted that means. Ultimately the people who purchased flats from the builder needed to put millions of rupees to get rid of the shabby look of their apartments and most of them went for a major renovation.

TYPES OF COST

1. Variable costs: Variable costs vary per unit of production. e.g. per cubic meter of soil excavated.

2. Fixed costs: Incurred only once and as additional units of production are produced, the unit costs fall. e.g. Equipment costs and infrastructure.

.Total cost = fixed cost + variable cost x output

3. Absolute costs : Absolute cost measures the loss in value of assets.

4. Relative cost: This cost of the alternative action – the action not taken – is often called the opportunity cost.

9

Confrontation and

Avoiding it

Confrontation is the worst thing as far as management is concerned. One should never insult or belittle anybody. Secondly question of public insult doesn’t arise. It is like the scar of a wound, which lasts for a very long time and poisons relations. The subordinate may forget lot of good words told by the supervisor, but he will never forget a single incident of scolding. Confrontation is nothing but discord or a clash of opinions and ideas. Confrontation is inevitable in workplace settings, and can arise between co-workers, supervisors and subordinates or between employees and external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and regulatory agencies. Confrontation can have a devastating effect on productivity, morale, teamwork and ultimately organization’s bottom line. When handled in the right way, conflict can energize, produce change, and bring together opposing parties.

What is Confrontation?

A confrontation is the direct expression of one’s view of the conflict situation and an invitation for the other party to express his views of the conflict. Confrontation as a communication skill occurs when two or more people, sharing the same mission or set of values, disagree. That disagreement may be around performance, communication, commitment or even around consistency. Confrontation is one way to help resolve conflict.

The Major causes of confrontation are

i) Communication

ii) Emotions

Keys suggested by Lankton-Rivas to avoid confrontation.

1. Approach it with an open mind: Try to understand the other person’s point of view and the way they found it. Don’t have bias in your mind.

2. Consider what might have caused the confrontation: Try to place ourselves in the other person’s shoes and consider how the situation could be handled differently.

3. Be respectful of differences: Workplaces are diverse places, what is acceptable to one person may be offensive to another.

4. Try to cut the conflict off in its budding stages: Ask coworker if we did anything to upset him or her, if the answer becomes YES then do have the sportsman spirit to say SORRY.

5. Listen carefully: Before jumping to conclusions, sit down with the person with whom we are in conflict and try to understand the issue fully. Keep your ego away from you. Try to have the solution without involving personal ego into it.

6. Ask for help: If the conflict continues to build, recruit someone in the workplace whom you respect to act as a mediator. Most of the times expert in arbitration can solve the conflict very easily from the professional point of view.

10

Cost Management

and Its Effects

Cost management is the process of planning and controlling the budget of a business. It encompasses several specific functions of project management including job controls, estimating, field data collection, scheduling, accounting and design. Beginning with estimating, a vital tool in Construction Management, actual historical data is used to accurately plan all aspects of the project. As the project continues, job control uses data from the estimate with the information reported from the field to measure the cost and production in the project. The cost estimating process begins by breaking the project down into several work phases such as design, engineering, development and fabrication.

During the project, all expenses are recorded and monitored to make sure they stay in line with the cost management plan. After the project gets over, the predicted costs and actual costs can be compared and analyzed, helping future cost management predictions and budgets. From project initiation to completion, project cost management has an objective to simplify and cheapen the project experience.

Implementing a cost management structure for projects can help a business to keep their over-all budget under control. Several business intelligence (BI) programmes monitor man power as well as numerous others offer cost management software to help businesses monitor costs and increase profitability. While the software may help, it is not imperative that software is used when executing a cost management plan. Vendors may refer to cost management software applications as cost accounting, spend management or cost transparency products. Though the software is helpful, but the person using it must have expertise in that software.

11

Coordinating an

Integral Part of

Management

If you can’t be happy alone you can’t be happy together.

-Osho

While coordinating be friendly. Success of any organization or commercial enterprises depends upon the collective efforts of individuals in the organization. If properly coordinated, these individuals in the industry can supplement each other’s efforts to the extent that they become one strong group and make the organization more and more productive. Coordination is the act of organizing, making different people or things work together for a goal