Page 54 - DCOM102_DMGT101_PRINCIPLES_AND_PRACTICES_OF_MANAGEMENT

Principles and Practices of Management

Notes
Reading the views of his consultant, Vijay got into serious thinking. He finally decided to
go for the standard package Eskewed, but chose not to hire any consultant for
implementation.
Instead he asked his team to get more information on the subject and develop the expertise
by attending seminars, etc. on the package. In the next three months, after his three team
members had attended some workshops on the package, he started the implementation.

To ensure that the whole process didn't loose its momentum, he linked the phases of the
implementation with the performance appraisal system. Within an year, his employee
turnover rose high and the software developers were worst hit. Six months after the
implementation, his chief strategist said to incharge, "The development technique of the
package is flawed. We get the same reports as we were getting earlier with our individual
divisional systems. The human resources and quality systems which produce monthly
evaluation reports still do the same. Also the data we are generating in Eskewed is enormous
but is not working for us". Vijay himself was feeling that the system hasn't worked for
them. He said slowly, "Lets stop the system for now. I think we need to have a second
opinion on the issue".
Questions

1. Why is Vijay Kamath facing these problems and not getting the expected result?
2. Could the external consultants have made it more successful?

Source: Parag Diwan, Management Principles and Practices, Excel Books
2.11 Summary

The study of Organisation and Management is a must to understand the underlying
principles of management. Various schools of thoughts have put forward theories to
better understand the scope of management in organisation.
Management theory is yet one of the pivotal approaches employed to analyze the concept
of management and organisation.
Commonly used analysis of approaches to organisation and management is the
three-fold categorization pivotal of classical, human relations and systems.
The classical writers placed emphasis on purpose and structure, on the technical
requirements of the organisation, on principles of management, and on the assumption of
rational and logical behaviour.
The human relations writers emphasized the importance of the informal organisation and
the psychological and social needs of people at work. The systems approach attempts to
integrate the work of the classical and human relations writers.
Attention is focused on the organisation as a whole and the interactions between technical
and social variables. The organisation is seen as an open system in continual interaction
with the external environment.
More recent forms of analysis include contingency theory and social action. Contingency
theory highlights possible means of differentiating between alternative forms of structures
and systems of management.
It might be that the study of organisations is moving towards a more scientific value
approach. But whatever the balance between philosophy and science, a knowledge of
management theory will help to understand the complexities of management in modern
work organisations.

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