CASE STUDY OF A PRINCIPAL-MICROMANAGEMENT OR MISMANAGEMENT? OR BOTH?

ABSTRACT

With the rapid changing technology and the growing opportunities, the employees do not like to be closely monitored and meddled. They would like to have freedom and independence, which are essential for employee empowerment and career growth. The research paper/article handles the concept of micromanagement with merits and demerits and the various issues and intricacies involved in micromanagement. It has taken the case study of a principal who is an excellent example for micromanagers. At the end it has concluded that micromanagement is not a boon but a bane.

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KEY WORDS: Introduction, What is Micromanagement? Advantages, Disadvantages, Reasons for Micromanagement, Behavior of Micromanagers, Lack of Growth for Micromanagers, Case Study of a Principal/Micromanagement is Mismanagement, Challenges, Tackling Micromanagement, & Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION:

“Fifty percent of the typical employee’s job satisfaction is determined by the quality of his/her relationship with the manager.” – Leigh Brahnah, VP and Director of Professional Services, Right Management Consultants

Now days, the majority of the employees don’t like to be supervised or managed or monitored closely. They would like to have greater degree of freedom and independence while working. Unfortunately a few managers closely and keenly monitor their employees thereby creating several problems for employees. According to the available statistical information 60 to 70 per cent of the employees leave their jobs due to the excessive bossism. At times the bossism may be because of the micromanagement. In this context, it is desirable to briefly explain about micromanagement.

WHAT IS MICROMANAGEMENT?

According to Wikipedia , “In business management, micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of their subordinates or employees. Micromanagement is generally used as a derogatory or negative term.” Micromanagement is the situation where the managers excessively involve in controlling their employees thinking that their subordinates do not know anything. Employees would not like to be in such a situation especially when their competencies and capabilities are suspected. In this context, let us also look at the definition of micromanagement from another dimension.

Micromanagement is generally defined as exercising excessive control of a project or group of people. The fuzziness comes in to play when we try to determine what is considered excessive. Clearly this is in the eyes of the beholder. The employee will generally have a much lower threshold than the manager.

Micromanagement is the process whereby the subordinates are continuously, closely and keenly observed and monitored by the boss. It has both pros and cons and unfortunately the cons outnumber the pros.

ADVANTANGES:

The merits of micromanagement are that the employee is constantly corrected, guided, advised, counseled and mentored by the boss. Micromanagement is good if the employee is new to the organization. It is like an infant being cared and nurtured by his mother. But over a period of time, the employee feels confident and comfortable in handling and executing the tasks of his own and would be comfortable in being independent. And if the process of micromanagement persists the employee gets discomfort and feels irritated just as in the case of an adult who is mature but still treated by his mother as still infant.

DISADVANTAGES:

1. Since micromanagers poke their nose frequently into the tasks of their subordinates, it does not encourage decision-making and leadership qualities among the employees.
2. There would be frequent and recurrent rift between the micromanagers and their subordinates. In a nutshell, it is micromanagers versus the rest. It would lead to leg pulling and organizational politics.
3. More focus on politics and less focus on progress in the organizations.
4. It is like centralization and is against the tenets of employee empowerment.
5. The workers cultivate the attitude of consulting their micromanagers and hence no room for self-confidence. The workers will not be able to see the big picture.
6. Subordinates would be frustrated and dejected.
7. Delay in completion of work as the performer waits for instructions and since the boss being busy in micromanaging, he may not have sufficient time to get the things going rapidly.

REASONS FOR MICROMANAGEMENT:

There are number of reasons for micromanaging employees such as lack of trust on their employees and lack of confidence on the competency on their employees. They have obsession for control and are insecure by nature. In modern parlance, they are known as control freaks. They want to eat the cake and have it too. In fact, they are not visionaries and are meant for short-term goals. Sometimes micromanagers trouble their subordinates as their superiors troubled them in the past. It is like ragging in any college, where juniors (freshers) are ragged by the seniors as seniors were ragged, once they were juniors. In some cases, bosses want to have total control over their subordinates because basically they have fear of losing their own jobs. All these things lead to high attrition levels in various organizations.

BEHAVIOUR OF MICROMANAGERS:

There was a senior faculty member who worked for three decades as a professor teaching a Management subject. He had passion to teach and even after becoming as the highest designation in the University he did not give up his routine activity of supervising his subordinates closely and taking the classes. He began providing suggestions to his subordinates without any request and any need from them. It caused discomfort for his subordinates. Once he reached the top designation he should have expanded his span of control by delegating his previous roles and responsibilities to his immediate subordinate. But he did not do so and that resulted into micromanaging and the subordinates began feeling the heat. The lesson that can be learnt from this is having passion in an area may lead to micromanaging unlike in few cases where bosses feel insecure.

If the managers do not know how to coach then they tend to work thus resulting into micromanaging. Lack of administrative skills but efficiency in his roles and responsibilities may compel managers to closely monitor their subordinates.

Lack of leadership qualities may compel managers to manage their routine tasks because they do not feel comfortable in assigning their tasks. Or perhaps the managers might have burnt their own fingers in the past by transferring their tasks to their subordinates. It is a kind of phobia to delegate their tasks.

Sometimes the micromanager might have been let down by his subordinates thus resulting into lack of trust in the competency of his subordinates and doing everything by himself or herself. Similarly there are number of causes and reasons that set the behavior for micromanaging.

LACK OF GROWTH FOR MICROMANAGERS:

The boss who believes in excessive micromanagement may not survive, sustain and succeed in the long run. It is basically because his or her mind is focused to a limited area. On the other hand if the boss stops micromanaging them s/he tends to develop the delegative skills thereby developing leadership skills amongst his/her subordinates. And also the boss can also grow with in the hierarchy rapidly. Besides it also creates mutual trust between bosses and subordinates. As it is well known the trust begets trust. Given a free hand, the subordinates would experiment various things by trail and error method and learn many lessons either from their successes or from failures thus becoming leaders and mentors for their subordinates.

Micromanagement restricts the ability of micromanaged people to develop and grow, and it also limits what the micromanager's team can achieve, because everything has to go through him or her.

When a boss is reluctant to delegate, focuses on details ahead of the big picture and discourages his staff from taking the initiative, there's every chance that he's sliding towards micromanagement.

CASE STUDY OF A PRINCIPAL/MICROMANAGEMENT IS MISMANAGEMENT:

It is rightly said that people do not leave organizations but they leave bad bosses.

There was a principal in an engineering college who can be taken as the best example in the context of micromanagement.

He was not qualified to become the principal. However he became the principal of the private rural engineering college by telling to the management that he was going to complete his PhD very shortly. The management of the college believed that he would complete his PhD and appointed him as the principle considering his industrial experience.

Since he has come from industrial background he did not know anything about the intricacies involved in the administration of the college. It was like throwing him into the untested and untried waters. He joined in the college as he thought it was possible for him to manage the affairs of the administration.

He called his HODs (Head of the Departments) of each branch and began functioning the way he was functioning in the industry. Subsequently he realized that it was not possible to apply industrial experience in an academic environment. Therefore, he began pointing out the silly mistakes of the HODs and Faculty members with an intention to cover up his inferiority complex and his lack of experience. In fact, his intention was to show that he knew everything about the academic administration.

He was very selfish. He took credit for the hard work put in by the faculty. He hardly recognized the good work done by the faculty. He did not give permission to the students for presenting papers in out station by saying that it was risky. However the students went for paper presentation and won. When students came out with prizes to college, he got photographed with the students by taking credit solely that he alone encouraged the students. Finally, the faculties and HODs got suffocated with his style of micromanaging. He began meddling into everything and giving instructions in which he was not competent and as a result he was subjected to ridicule. The faculty complained to the directors of the management of the college against the principal but the management thought that because of the change in principal there were bottlenecks and initial hiccups. Having come to know that management did not take the complaints of the faculty seriously he became more adamant and began targeting the faculty.

Since the management of the college did not redress the grievances of the faculties, they began looking for employment in other institutions and attrition became higher. For every mistake he found out excuses to the management and survived. Besides, he was mad of publicity. For any minor achievement of the students he would call the local television channel and highlight by saying that it was his own achievement. He took credit for the achievements of the faculties and students. Once a few students have been short listed in campus placement by a reputed IT company and a tentative list was sent to the college. The Training and Placement Officer (TPO) of the college immediately rushed to the principal by saying that the students were selected without knowing the difference between the tentative list and final list. The principal immediately rushed to the press and local television channels and made huge publicity for himself. When the final list came from the company very few students were selected into the company. The students were shocked with this who until then was under the impression that they were selected. They were depressed and the parents came to the college and the principal and TPO tried to cover up the issue. Finally the management came to know about the issue and the principal was sacked and the TPO was warned sternly. This was a case of micromanaging and it was indeed mismanaging.

CHALLENGES:

Micromanagement is a matter of concern as well as a challenge in the present competitive world. Due to the rising aspirations and expectations from the clients and customers the competition has become highly fierce and cutthroat and managers find less time in micromanaging their subordinates.

Micromanagement is essential if there is poor performance from the subordinates and if there is need for spoon-feeding. In such a scenario it is advisable to upgrade the skills and abilities of the employees and also it is necessary to equip them with requisite tools and techniques to stand on their feet and perform better.

TACKLING MICROMANAGEMENT:

The managers should know that the days of command and control are no more relevant in this contemporary working environment. The organizations should realize that micromanaging is not a healthy trend as it stifles the creativity and leadership skills. The managers should learn to guide their subordinates about the tasks to be executed rather than teaching them how to execute the same. In a nutshell, they should communicate what and why the task has to be executed but not as how it has to be executed. In this way, the subordinates would apply their mind to get the jobs done. And also they do not blame their boss as overbearing. It helps in unlocking their hidden potential and creativity. It gives a sense of satisfaction to the subordinates that they did well without any guidance and of their own.

The strong managers tend to recruit strong employees who in turn will create strong employees. Since the strong managers are highly competent and have self-confidence they do not feel insecure about their positions and they help in making their subordinates as leaders. In this way, it is generating new leaders, which is possible by only strong managers and leaders. Therefore, there is need for strong leadership, which eliminates the micromanagers to a greater extent.

Most of micromanagers belong to the loop of weak managers who are more worried about their survival rather than the performance of the team. These categories of people often belittle their subordinates and demotivate them. At times, they criticize their subordinates in public in order to show their superiority. Of course, it is not their superiority rather their inherent and hidden inferiority that forces them to act so.

Expecting perfection in the work may lead to micromanaging the given tasks. It is very difficult to expect perfection, as perfection is not feasible. Focusing on excellence rather than on the perfection in the work would be fruitful in the organizations. There is a greater degree of eye of detail if perfection is emphasized upon. It consumes time and energy as well apart from creating mistrust among the subordinates.

Give freedom and make the performers independent. In this context, let us recall the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

CONCLUSION:

“Four out of five workers say they’ve been a victim of micromanagement.” Harry E. Chambers, My Way or the Highway—the Micromanagement Survival Guide

Micromanagement is itself is a bad thing in the present contemporary business world. Nobody takes it positively. One of the major reasons for the low morale among the employees and low production and productivity, performance and attrition is micromanagement. Therefore, micromanagement is more of a bane than a boon. To sum up, what is required for the successful functioning of an organization is not micromanagement but macromanagement.

T H E E N D

AGENCY BUSINESS

Any dealer can become an agent or distributor of a company with an undertaking with the company that the latter supplies the stocks solely to the former in a specific region or area. It has both merits and demerits as by taking as agency of any specific company the agent has the sole rights to distribute to the dealers regularly and timely. But he is not supposed to sell the stocks of the competitor of the products or services of that particular company. For this, the agent gets fixed margins because he has to solely concentrate on the distribution and marketing of the company’s stocks. His responsibility is also to strengthen the market for that particular products or services.

But the problem with the agency business is that the agents of other areas dump their stocks in this area by giving little discounts to the marketed prices which is popularly called as undercutting or underselling in the business parlance. Besides, the agent has to lift the specified stocks regularly and some times the agent may be compelled to buy more stocks during the schemes. All companies come out with schemes periodically so as to give more benefits to the agents. But unfortunately the agents do not digest the extra profits and on the other hand, they pass on the extra benefits as there is pressure to sell the stocks. Sometimes the agents of other areas may enter this area thereby offloading their stocks. In this process of underselling or undercutting ultimately the consumers get the stocks at lower prices because in every stage the benefits are passed on to the next stage because of competition.

Although the company clearly prescribes the specific margins for the agents to enjoy, the latter rarely enjoy the benefits of margins because of competition.

T H E E N D

YOUTH AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ABSTRACT

Presently Indian youth have two problems – one is lack of soft skills and second is lack of entrepreneurial skills. The article focuses on the causes for the same and how to develop the skills. The concept of KASH, which is the acronym for Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits are highlighted in this context. At the end it called upon the youth to develop both leadership and entrepreneurial skills for the growth of our nation.

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KEY WORDS: Introduction, What is Entrepreneurship? Causes for lack of Entrepreneurial Skills in Youth, Fear of Failure, Other causes, Enhancing Entrepreneurial Skills, Risk vs. Return, KASH is King, Developing Entrepreneurial Skills & Conclusion.

"We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are." - Jim Rohn.

INTRODUCTION:

Presently Indian youth face two problems – one is lack of soft skills to get placed at the corporate world and the second is the lack of entrepreneurial skills to start own business enterprise. Indian youth are hardworking and talented as it has been proved beyond doubt from their academic achievements. They proved to be good at hard skill but lack in soft skills, which upsets their prospects of getting proper placements.

Students successfully complete their academic studies and apply for jobs and unfortunately they fail to live up to the expectations and aspirations of the employers who look more on soft skills rather than on hard skills. Even if few get recruited with a convincing attitude and approach that they can be molded to the requirements of the employers, subsequently they fail to live up to the required standards and are fired finally for lack of certain skill sets.

Now coming to the second problem of entrepreneurship, the students are ambitious to experiment new things but unfortunately are not encouraged by the parents because parents want their children to play safe. Entrepreneurship is quite challenging and most of the students in that age and stage would like to try but the socio economic conditions do not encourage for the same. What ails in the present system? Before we look at the present system let us know the definition of entrepreneurship.

WHAT IS ENTREPRENEUSHIP?

"Entrepreneurship is an attitude," says Ramalinga Raju of Satyam. "It's for people who are willing to fail."

There are many definitions related to the concept of entrepreneurship. However, The earliest definition of entrepreneurship, dating from the eighteenth century, used it as an economic term describing the process of bearing the risk of buying at certain prices and selling at uncertain prices. And according to Wikipedia,” Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations or revitalizing mature organizations, particularly new business generally in response to identified opportunities.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines an entrepreneur to be "a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for business ventures." To put it succintly, entrepreneurship is the ability to take risk with an intention to earn rewards in any commercial or non commercial venture.

CAUSES FOR LACK OF ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS IN YOUTH:

There are no social security measures in India. In the case of developed and advanced countries the citizens are protected by way of social security measures such as old age pension, unemployment allowance, and old age homes and so on. Our country is not in a position to provide the same. As a result, the citizens take care of themselves right from the young age to the old age. In the old age the parents solely depend on their children, as the government is not in a position to support them. Therefore, parents want their children to go for stable employment so that there will not be any problem either for their children or for themselves in future. This prevents the youth from trying and experimenting the unexplored areas of entrepreneurship and their ambitions lie untried and untested.

The present educational system encourages cramming and memory not on creativity and practical application of knowledge. Students are deprived of practical aspects of career and are not taught of corporate culture and other fast changing corporate requirements. The case of engineering and management graduates is still much better than the non-professional graduates. In the case of non-professional graduates the problem is more acute where whatever is taught is to be unlearned and relearned in the corporate world.

The youth are more worried about the fear of failure and fear of criticism. They are
more concerned about their failure rather on their success and it inhibits their entrepreneurial zeal and enthusiasm. They are more concerned about the society rather than on themselves. In this context let us look at failure in detail.

FEAR OF FAILURE:

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly” – Robert F Kennedy

Facing failure and criticism is the most challenging task for any human being. Everyone loves success and hates failure. This is inherent in the human nature. Is it possible to achieve success without failure? Of course, it is not possible. By the way shall we define failure?

WHAT IS FAILURE?

It is always the gap between the expectations and the reality. When the outcome is against our predictions despite putting sincere efforts and energies then it is termed as failure. Outcome may be against us either due to internal factors like unknown mistakes or due to external forces, which are beyond human control.

IMPORTANCE OF FAILURE:

Failure brings down excessive ego and makes an individual humble and simple. It also eliminates overconfidence among the individuals. Failure helps in making the individual highly focused on his goals and objectives. Some people feel too big for their shoes. Failure helps them to resize the same. It makes the people more tolerant and they start empathizing with others. Failure makes people flexible, receptive and more accommodative.

TIPS AFTER FACING FAILURE:

“It is important to consistently remind oneself why one has ventured out in the first place. Most importantly, learn to assimilate failure. No failure or disappointment is a closed chapter. It is an invaluable opportunity to rectify errors and move forward,” quoted Capt Gopinath, Deccan Airlines.

· Keep cool and composed. Any extra activities at this juncture result into adding fuel to the fire. When faced with failure, human mind gets tense and does not think logically and analytically. Hence, do not become hasty.

· “Ninety nine per cent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses” said George Washington Carver. Don’t show your anger of your failure on others. When you are responsible for the failure then what is the meaning in transferring your anger on others?

· Don’t blame others for your mistakes. Own responsibility for your failures. And don’t get into depression and never lose your confidence.

· Go by bottom-up-approach by looking at the root of the problem and tackling it accordingly.

· If the root of the problem is big then slice it down into small pieces and analyze the individual slices independently and integrate the same.

· Immediately think how you went wrong and where you went wrong. Thorough analysis helps diagnose the reasons behind the failure and what transpired and prompted failure. This step will help go for introspection and provides remedial action so that the mistakes are not repeated in future.

· Look clearly whether the failure is the result of internal factors or external forces which are beyond human control. If the mistake occurred due to external forces then it is futile to think through it. If the mistake occurred due to internal factors then this is the time rectify and take remedial steps.

· Accept the fact that failure is universal. Let us know and accept the fact that small achievers have small failures and big achievers have big failure. It is a well-admitted fact that higher the fall higher the rise. Think your failure is small when compared with others’ as it brings solace to you.

· Take it up as a challenge. Don’t take every problem as a problem; rather treat it as an opportunity. It is only the test of fire that makes a fine steel. An optimist looks for opportunities from problems where as pessimist looks for problems in each opportunity.

· Discuss the failure with your trusted colleagues and friends who can provide right direction and guidance. Discussion generates wider dimensions and helps to get at the broader format for failure.

· “Never, ever, ever, ever give up”, said Winston Churchill. And failure is never final.

SUMMARIZING FAILURE:

Arrogance brings you down and humbleness brings you up. When you get tumble you get humble. Bounce back from failure like a rubber ball. Neither success is eternal nor failure. 'Mistakes are to life what shadows are to light'. Let us learn the fact that failure is only a comma not a full stop.

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats”, B.C.Forbes.

OTHER CAUSES FOR LACK OF THIS SKILL:

Leadership skills and entrepreneurial skills have interconnectivity. Lack of leadership qualities among the youth is the cause for concern in our country. The present scenario does not encourage the students to cultivate leadership qualities, which are the essence for entrepreneurial skills.

The Indian government up to nineties did not encourage free entrepreneurship due to the policy of mixed economy adopted by late Pundit Nehru. Making money was treated not as a healthy trend but as a greedy with negative attitude. Government did not encourage whatever the little entrepreneurial zeal people had. Likewise, there were so many reasons for lack of entrepreneurship.

ENHANCING ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS:

“The key that unlocks energy is desire. It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited. " - Earl Nightingale.

The educational institutions need to encourage entrepreneurial skills right from the curriculum itself. The government should also take initiative to encourage the youth by providing conducive climate for the same. The parents should also encourage their children with the changing industrial climate across the country, which is highly favorable for experimenting entrepreneurial skills. The teachers and faculties should motivate and inspire the students in this area.

The passion to perform must be the bedrock for the youth. They should realize that instead of struggling for employment they should put little more efforts and energies to provide placements for other unemployed youth by setting up their own enterprise.

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”
Abraham Lincoln.

The IT revolution has boosted the morale of Indian entrepreneurs across the world where Sabeer Bhatia has created Hotmail and at home mushroomed entrepreneurs like N R Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Ramalinga Raju, Shiv Nadar etc., Besides, the New Economic Policy of early nineties has encouraged entrepreneurship in all sectors.

The youth can take a leaf out of such successful entrepreneurs and shed their inhibitions and hesitations, if any.

RISK VS RETURN:

Risk is directly proportional to return. Higher the risk higher the return and lower the risk lower the return. In any business venture every entrepreneur should learn this fact and should plan his resources accordingly.

Again risk is inversely proportional to age. In the young age, there is a possibility of taking higher risk. As the age increases the risk taking capacity among the individuals decreases and gradually the energy and enthusiasm among the individuals fades away.

KASH IS KING:

KASH is the acronym for Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits. In life, there are two forces or factors that disturb our plans and they are internal and external factors. In the case of external factors or forces, nothing is in our hands and therefore, it is meaningless to worry for the same. But there are internal factors, which are very much with us and cannot be taken away that are KASH. Everyone faces failure at some point of time in life but what ultimately stands by the individuals is the KASH not cash. The founder of Honda Company was literally in shambles during the Second World War. But he rose like phoenix because of KASH. KASH keeps fuelling the individuals in pursuit of goals. KASH supplements sufficient spark to ignite the passion.
In the business parlance, it is frequently said that cash is king because when goods are sold on cash the risk is eliminated. Great personalities like N R Narayana Murthy and Dirubhai Ambani reached from nowhere to number one position not because of any cash but because of KASH.

DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS:

According to Sean McPheat , Managing Director, MTD Sales Training, there are five top tips to improve your entrepreneurial skills:

1. Have a personal vision and a mission - what do you want to achieve in your role?
2. What sets you apart from the other sales people who are trying to eat your lunch?
3. Innovate - entrepreneurs make up the rules. How can you become more innovative in all that you do?
4. Systems - set up systems to get the best out of your time and efforts
5. Positioning - position yourself as an expert rather than as a sales person - what can you do to become a trusted advisor?

CONCLUSION:

"You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done."-Chuck Yeager.

Everyone should know that entrepreneurs are not born but made. Entrepreneurship is a skill not a talent. Anything and everything is possible in this world if there is passion and ambition. 50 percent of the Indian population will be below the age of 25 years. The future of our country solely depends on the Indian youth. They should shed their inherent inhibitions and hesitations. They should know that the age and stage will never come back once passed by. Youth should shed cynicism and negativism. They should dare to dream big, think big and achieve big. The first ever-individual gold medallist in Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra has changed the face of the Indian youth. He himself is an entrepreneur and continues to inspire Indian youth forever.

To sum up, there is a need to cultivate leadership qualities and inculcate entrepreneurial skills among the Indian youth so that it helps in the rapid progress of our country. When small countries can create great leaders, imagine India with a population of billion plus should have how many leaders and entrepreneurs at the global level?

T H E E N D