A Purview on Line and Staff Relationship How To Make Line And Staff Work Effectively: Line people “TELL” but staff people “SELL”: The functions of line and staff often overlap and it is the responsibility of line authorities to make decisions and act upon them while staff must assist and counsel them. If the role playing is perfect all the other elements fall into place. Making Line listen to Staff: The line men must be made to understand that the company employs staff experts to assist and advice and it is not fair to undermine them. Keep the Staff informed: It is a must to keep the staff members abreast of the vital matters in order to make correct decisions.     Requiring Completed Staff work: 1. Presentation of a clear recommendation based upon full consideration of a problem 2. Clearance with persons affected 3. Suggestion about avoiding difficulties involved 4. Preparation of paper work-letters, directions, job descriptions and specifications are the functions that should be carried out by the staff members on time in order to facilitate the line managers to accept or reject a proposal. Making Staff work as a Way of Life: The duty of staff is not to take credit but downgrade their own contributions. This results in EGO SATISFACTION and also a drive to improve the performance levels. Careless Application of the Staff Device: The staff should not take authority in their own hands though they may be anxious to know about the implementation of their suggestions.   How to Influence Without Authority Advantages Of Staff:  a) The staff specialists save much time by gathering, analyzing and interpreting the data while line managers are busy at work.  b) Complex problems of line men require advice of staff men.  c) Staff advice is necessary for technical, political, legal and social decisions. Limitations Of Staff: a) Thinking in Vacuum: Sometimes highly impractical solutions are suggested by the staff men due to lack of experience in implementation. b) Lack of Staff Responsibility: They can easily blame the line manager for the failure of a project since they are not accountable for the end results c) Danger of Undermining the Line Authority: When the top management attaches too much importance to the staff fraternity, there is a danger of staff managers looking down on the line managers d) Problem of Unity of Command: Sometimes the lower level employees will be getting instructions from both the line and staff authorities. Have you ever experienced such conflicts with your managers or colleagues? If so, feel free to discuss about the situation and how you tackled it in the comment section...

Group Dynamics Any effective group has three core activities: 1. Accomplishing its goals  2. Maintaining itself internally 3. Developing and changing in ways that improves its effectiveness. Let us now try to understand the various dimensions of an effective group that facilitate the above mentioned three core elements to function properly which provide a sense of direction to the productive group. a) Group goals: Must be clearly understood. Be relevant to the needs of the group members. Highlight the positive inter dependence of members.  Evoke from every member a high level of commitment to their accomplishment. b) Communication: Must communicate their ideas and feelings accurately and clearly.  Effective two way communication is mandatory for interaction c) Participation and Leadership: All should participate and all should be listened to. Share responsibilities that eases the burden. Increases the cohesiveness of the group. d) Appropriate decision making procedure: Balance between time and member resources. Flexible decision making to suit the needs of the situation. e) Power and Influence:  · Should be equal · Based on expertise, ability and access to information and not on authority · Coalitions must be formed between group members on the basis of mutual influence and interdependence. f) Conflicts: · Are to be encouraged as they promote involvement in the group’s work, improve quality and creativity in decision making. · Minority opinions should be accepted and used g) Group Cohesion: · Needs to be high · Level of acceptance, support, and trust among the members decide how cohesive the group is h) Problem Solving: · Problems should be resolved with minimal energy and permanently · Existence of problems must be found out quickly and solutions should improve the effectiveness of group behavior  i) Inter-personal effectiveness: · Needs to be high · It is a measure of how all the consequences of your behavior match your intention. ⇓ Picture Courtesy: 6 WAYS TO DEVELOP A WINNING TEAM CULTURE  Group Cohesiveness: This is defined as the average resultant force acting on members to remain in a group. The characteristics or criteria that determine group cohesiveness are as follows: 1. Degree of dependency on the group: The greater the number of individual needs are satisfied, the greater the cohesiveness. 2. Size: If the size of the group interaction is low, it results in low cohesiveness. If the size of the group is small, the members tend to have free and more interaction, leading to high level of cohesiveness and vice versa. 3. Homogeneity: Where the interests and background of the group is similar, you find greater cohesiveness. 4. Outside pressure: Outside pressure minimizes internal conflicts leading to high cohesiveness. You find people responding with greater cohesiveness during times of natural disaster and calamities. 5. Competition: Competition between the members of the same group or intra group competition reduces cohesiveness but competition members of different groups or inter-group competition increases cohesiveness. Group Cohesiveness can be encouraged by the following ways: · Make the group smaller · Encourage agreement with group goals · Increase the time members spend together · Stimulate competition with other groups · Give rewards to groups rather than to a single member · Physically, isolate the group.  ...

Centralization and De-Centralization Concepts CENTRALIZATION: The term “centralization” has several meanings: Centralization of Performance: Say, if the operations of a company is restricted to a single geographical location, it characterizes centralization of performance. Departmental Centralization: Specialized activities are carried out by a single department, say, maintenance of a whole plant, staff recruitment by HR department etc., Centralization as an aspect of management: This implies restricted delegation and exclusivity of decision-making by the top management. According to Allen, “Centralization is the systematic and consistent reservation of authority at central point in an organization.” According to Weihrich and Koontz, “Centralization (as an aspect of management) is the tendency to restrict delegation of decision-making. What are the special circumstances that force the managers to reserve authority and centralize decision making powers? 1.       To facilitate personal leadership 2.       To provide for integration 3.       To handle emergencies 4.       To utilize resources effectively and instantaneously. DECENTRALISATION: It is the tendency to disperse decision making authority in a structured and organized manner. It can be viewed as a philosophy rather than a principle where-in “discretion” plays a major role in deciding which decisions to push down into the organization structure and which to hold near the top. Capital expenditure, Investment analysis and major policy decisions have to be dealt with, by the top management. It is the systematic effort to delegate to the lowest levels of authority except that which can be exercised at central points. TYPES OF DECENTRALIZATION: Three approaches to the concept are: 1.       PROFIT CENTRES 2.       COST EXPENSE CENTRES 3.       INVESTMENT CENTRES Profit Centre: Here the organization is split into divisions on a “product basis” and is given full authority to handle its own scheduled operations, right from placing orders to negotiating the sale of its finished products. Cost Expense Centre: Whenever it is easy to determine the cost of operations, cost centres are established. Cost centres run on “budgets” which acts as a control tool to run the units within the specified budgetary limits. Investment Centre: Useful in the case of big multi-product enterprises where product performance is measured by decentralizing the investment aspect. Each strategic business unit is responsible for the acquisition, use and disposition of fixed resources. Advantages of Decentralization: Managers and executives are relieved form excessive work pressure Even low level employees are involved in decision making thus bringing the decision making process closer to the scene of action. It facilitates product-diversification Creates an opportunity for learning Ensures effective control When a big organization is divided into relatively smaller units, it becomes flexible and also effects close control. Disadvantages of Decentralization:  ·         Conflict arises between people belonging to different levels of the organization ·         Rising cost ·         Lack of co-ordination between production and marketing departments ·         No defined leadership Contingency Factors in Decentralizing: 1.       Organizational goals 2.       Organizational size 3.       Geographical dispersion 4.       Technical complexity of tasks 5.       Time frame of discussions and decisions 6.       Subordinates’ take on issues 7.       Planning and control procedures 8.       Environmental factors 9.       Knowledge and experience of managers Effective Decentralization can be accomplished by ·         Establishing appropriate centralization ·         Developing efficient managers ·         Proper provision for communication and co-ordination ·         Establishing adequate controls Top management must be willing to delegate authority towards decision making; Middle management must be willing to accept responsibility that is being delegated. Only then effective decentralization is...

MAN POWER PLANNING What is the meaning of man power development? This involves an accurate determination of the present and future man power needs of the enterprise. Also the assessment of the right kind of organization structure both present and projected which determines the number and kinds of managers and workers required, is called for.     ELEMENTS OF MAN POWER PLANNING:     1. Present Man Power Position Analysis: An assessment and evaluation of present man power position is the first step in the process which involves  data collection pertaining to name, age, educational qualification, training experience, specialized skills of the employees. This is done with the help of a man power inventory chart.   2. Man Power Inventory Chart: a) An overview of the present staffing situation of the company is known b) Prospective persons for promotion can be identified c) Future internal supply of human resource can be found out d) Lack of performance is pin pointed and either people can be replaced or trained suitably e) People on the verge of retirement are identified and plans are made to recruit suitable people to replace them f) People whose promotion is overdue but not implemented due  to internal politics can be identified and justice can be done by the management.     Pic Courtesy: SuccessFactors   3. Job Evaluation and Job Analysis: Job evaluation is a process to rate a job in the order of hierarchy and laying down specifications needed to carry out that job. This would high light the following information a) The nature of work done by the work force b) The method employed by them to do it c) The skills, education and training required to do it d) How a particular job is related to other jobs e) What are the physical environmental conditions to accomplish the task effectively After careful analysis a neat job description can be prepared for each job which would cover the following details.   4. Job Description: a) Name or title of the job b) Nature of duties and operations to be performed c) Authority, responsibilities and accountability d) Necessary qualification i.e., education, skills, training, experience etc.     Pic Courtesy: Indiamart   5. Assessment of Long term and Short term Goals: The goals whether short term or long term is decided by the market demand, and sales forecasts. Determining these goals gives the company a clear picture as to where it is headed for in the future and the kind of man power requirement to satisfy the enterprise objectives.   6. Demand of Supply of Personnel: The demand for Labor is very high as we all know and it is  inevitable for the organization to keep track in terms of man power inventory and requirement of present and future. You cannot hire any X, Y OR Z for a particular job. Inter departmental transfers can provide a temporary solution if a void is created for a specific position but it will not work out in the long run.   “The ultimate objective of man power planning is to fill the demand and supply...