Questions, in a time of turbulence

Hi all,

I have nothing but a bunch of questions to offer you all this time ! Its been a great period of turmoil with myriad questions, just like any other corner of the world. What else I can think of writing, when the rambling mind is struggling to find its peace and place.

Some questions, may be all questions, are common to all of us, except for the answers. These questions are also taken up as research problems by many administrative thinkers, with their own explanations. Still we are unable to get rid of these, the answers are not genetically transmitted through the generations. Is this an intentional design by the designer? This would fit as the starting question, but I would not make this much open ended. I will confine myself to one set of questions.

I would like to gather as many answers as possible, that’s the plain motive of this post today. We must have definitely come across these cases in our routines and there is no one-fit answer. There are indeed, many answers.

Is there a basic in congruence between aspirations of the employee and the goals of an organization ? If so, can there be any integration of these two ?
Should a manager be task oriented or people oriented ? A mix of both would be an easy answer to come up with, but which one should take priority ?
What should be the functions of a manager (take a simple case of the next manager in line in your own organization for your designation to think of this item) , in the order of priority ?
How would an employee be motivated and stay motivated ?
Would a structure which is hierarchy based, with lots of levels a good choice or a flat structure ?
If a manager is people oriented, should he be ‘listening’ to the personal life of the employees ?
What is a good number of subordinates a person can manage ?
Can we justify the affects of personal problems in a professional environment ?
Are the colleagues your friends ?
Would you bother to help your colleagues even to the level of supporting them in front of your manager ?

We can go on and on with the list. If there is any manager who is reading this, probably it can even be reported as spam :P. But some of us must have already reached that level, after definitely going through the tough ladder of a

team member. I also want to get the views of the many MBAs whose career itself is based on questions like these, and the fellow IAS aspirants who have to spend their lives managing many different souls.

Some of us fear managing, most of us fear our managers in toto 😛 Some take it as a challenge while others hate it. Irrespective of these personal choices, its an important task, very few question the efficiency criteria and the people orientation that is essential.

Nevertheless, this should look like a complaint box. Its a refining process, a process of going back to the basic questions when some of the very fundamentals come under serious doubt.

The only good admiration, that I truly got out of my work and that I truly cherish is “You are good team player”. I don’t this to be questioned too…..

According to Lawrence J Peter and Raymond Hall, Managers tend to be promoted until they reach the level of their incompetence !

—

–

Let’s get this clear, for ourselves.

WorthvieW