TOWER BUILDING ACTIVITY AND PYGMALION EFFECT

A very interesting exercise done in the class was that of Tower Building. One student was selected to build the tower of small wooden cubes with the following criteria:
1) The cube should be one on top of the other.
2) The builder should use his odd hand.
3) If the tower falls, the game is over. The person can remove the blocks and start again but the tower should not fall.

The students were asked to give estimates as to how many blocks can the tower me made of. The range varied from 10-25. The builder himself had low expectations of just 10 blocks. Once the activity started, everybody started encouraging and he went on to make the tower of 18 blocks before the tower actually fell. This showed that a person is capable of doing more than what he expects if he puts his mind to it and if the audience starts expecting from him. Thin phenomenon is also referred to as The Pygmalion Effect also known as the Rosenthal Effect. It is a phenomenon in which the expectation placed upon a worker is directly proportional to the performance delivered. It is a form of self fulfilling prophecy where a false definition of a situation causes a new response from the audience and this response in turn makes the original false conception true. Henry Ford had once very aptly said, “Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you are usually right.” 

The next part of the activity involved giving the guess estimate for the no of blocks which can be put to make tower if the builder is blind folded and has 2 persons who can direct him verbally. The majority of the class decreased their estimates, 4 students maintained their previous estimates and only 1 person actually raised his estimate. Here we see that the majority of the class comes under the category of “Non- Risk Takers”. And only 1 student is in the category of Ambitious Risk taker. When this same activity was done in the other section with the builder blindfolded, he had made the tower of eighteen blocks. So the bottom line is that one should not lower his targets irrespective of the challenges. The employee is always pushed so that he achieves his goals which he sets.
Companies and Multinationals usually are run by employees who come in the last category i.e Ambitious risk takers. These people take risks and work accordingly to take the company at higher growth rate. The organization should not lower their targets. The targets should not be reduced and should be progressively increased. This is because the potential for any company is always higher than the achieved target, and in order to grow, the company has to set higher targets and achieve those gradually. 

MANAGER X AND MANAGER Y THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON ORAGANISATION

In today's class Dr Mandi focused on theory X and theory Y managers. He again discussed a concept which is very relevant in today's organisation. This theory gives you a new way to classify the managers. 

THEORY X:It is about taking a pessimistic view of employees and don’t trust them. Theory X managers generally take an authoritarian stance with their employees and work better in control-oriented organizations. 

THEORY Y: It states that employees may be striving for the higher level of Maslow’s hierarchy and searching for creativity and problem solving. Theory Y managers provide encouragement and trust for employees fulfilment. The end of the management course suggested that we as new managers should seek to balance between the two.

these two cases can be combined with the situations when the workers are lazy or when they are active to generate the following four cases: 
1) The workers are lazy BUT the manager thinks that the workers are NOT lazy: In this case the manager is a theory y manager. 
Example: when a person is not working hard but then also his manager supports him and thinks that his employee is good. this may lead to an increase in his self confidence and his efficiency may increase.

2) The workers are lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are lazy : The manager is a theory X manager.
Example: A teacher may think that the students are lazy and even if they are lazy they will  not improve. A good teacher will have confidence in them and help them to do right things.
3)The workers are NOT lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are NOT lazy :  
This is the case of a theory Y manager. 
Example: The manager thinks that the workers are not lazy and he has belief in them. The workers are also working efficiently and are not lazy. This is a very good situation for any company as both the manager and workers are working together for the benefit of the organisation as a whole.
4)The workers are NOT lazy and the manager thinks that the workers are lazy : 
This is the case of a theory X manager.
Example: The manager may not be able to judge the workers properly. He may think that they are lazy whereas the workers may be doing their work properly. In such a situation the workers do not get their due appreciation. They may feel cheated and their motivation level may decrease in the long run.

Implications of Theory X and Theory Y


1)Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.
2)Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations.

Lecture 01 & 02 POM Course

Lecture 01 and 02

I am writing this blog as a part of as part of assignment given by our Respected Professor

Dr T Prasad famously known as Dr Mandi.

This was my first class after 4 years and more important is that this is my first day at NITIE.I was a little skeptical about the professor and I thought that it would be a boring lecture on management but sir proved me wrong. It was one of the most intellectual and thought provoking classes I have ever had.

He starts off with a couple of jokes and then starts pulling out some toys which most of us have never seen before. And then he starts explaining physics using one of them. Now, I'm a little surprised regarding the course content and then he says that the toys are meant to be sold and talks about how everyone should be made self reliant even school kids. He also explained whatever we learn in college should be implemented in life which will be useful for us to become Entrepreneurs. So far having been brought up with the sole purpose of being expected to study while studying this was a change in perspective i.e. being expected to earn as well to fulfill all our daily needs. After this he went on to show how much we really were investing over the next two years and that's when it dawned on me that what he was saying was true and we should earn what we spend. But the question is HOW?

He also gave us two Life changing ideas.

1. AAJ KI ROTI AAJ HI KAMANA

2. SOCHO BECHO BECHO SEEKHO SEEKHO SOCHO

Well, I haven't yet decided on the HOW yet but I'm motivated enough to take the risks and take up entrepreneurship. The session then depicted the need for teamwork, for it is only when we work in a team that the output of the company can be generated faster and multiplied while distributing the responsibility among everyone.

We then talked about Mandi and Hamara Dhandha which are entrepreneurship activities at NITIE. He also gave several examples of Young Entrepreneurs of NITIE (eg: DHANUSH INFOTECH AT HYDERABAD STARTED BY NITIE COUPLE).

He asked us to write Blogs explaining the POM course and experiences in class. First I was not interested in this idea, but now while writing I thank Prof Dr Mandi for giving me a chance to know myself. He also shared about how Mr. SALMAN KHAN has started website and sharing knowledge with everyone in the world. I was very inspired by this novel idea and I decided to share whatever I know with everyone. As lifelong learners we are continually having experiences, processing them, and using the new knowledge in future experiences.

In the second Lecture he started the class by making us sing a song of Pink Floyd 'Another brick in the Wall' which was not just for entertainment but for teaching us the importance of novel ideas of teaching and lamenting the age old method of teaching which suppresses a child's creativity.