Page 106 - DCOM102_DMGT101_PRINCIPLES_AND_PRACTICES_OF_MANAGEMENT

Principles and Practices of Management

Notes tide to this accountability are outstanding rewards that every individual in this world dreams
of. Therefore, American managers are more likely to disregard the opinions of subordinates
than managers in other, more consensus or compromise- oriented cultures. This can obviously
lead to frustrations, which can sometimes seem to boil over in meeting situations.

Did u know? Titles can be very confusing within American organisations with a bewildering
array of enormously important-sounding job descriptors on offer (Second Vice-President
etc.). Titles, in any case, tend to be a poor reflection of the relative importance of an
individual within a company. Importance is linked to power, which could be determined
by a number of factors such as head-count responsibility, profitability of sector or strategic
importance to the organisation at that point in time.

6.6.2 Japanese Style of Management

Japanese management stresses more on the need for information flow from the bottom of the
company to the top. This results in senior management having a largely supervisory rather than
hands-on approach. As a result, it has been noted that policy is often originated at the middle-
levels of a company before being passed upwards for ratification. The strength of this approach
is obviously that those tasked with the implementation of decisions have been actively involved
in the shaping of policy. The higher a Japanese manager rises within an organisation, the more
important it is that he appears unassuming and not so ambitious. The key task for a Japanese
manager is to provide the environment in which the group can grow. In order to achieve this he
must be accessible at all times and willing to share knowledge within the group. Instructions
from managers can seem extremely unclear to western counterparts and this often causes confusion
and frustration. This difficulty is caused, in no short measure, by problems around styles of
communication.

6.6.3 Indian Style of Management

India is a very hierarchical society and this, obviously, has an impact on management style. It is
imperative that there is a boss and that the manager acts like a boss. The position of manager
demands a certain amount of role-playing from the boss and a certain amount of admiring
behaviour from his subordinates. Anglo-Saxon concepts of egalitarianism where the boss is the
primus inter pares are virtually incomprehensible in a society still dominated by the historical
conventions of the caste system.
Therefore, the boss is expected to give explicit instructions which will be followed to the
letter - even if everybody knows full well that the instruction is incorrect. Unclear requests for
action, with the expectation that staff will show the necessary level of initiative are likely to end
in inaction, as staff will be left confused as to the wishes of the manager. Managing people in
India requires a level of micro-management which many western business people feel extremely
uncomfortable with but, which is likely to bring the best results.

Caselet Ramadorai's Minimalist Style of Management

. Ramadorai (Ram) has relinquished the charge of Managing Director of TCS Ltd and
has handed over charge to N.Chandrasekaran, (Chandra). Being the CEO of a large
Scompany for 13 years and taking it from 100 Million $ sales to 6 Billion dollars is no
Contd...

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