April 2004
(1) Section I: All the questions are compulsory
(2) Section II: Attempt any three out of five questions.
(3) Figures to the right indicate marks.
(4) Answers must reflect in each Management Thoughts and Philosophy
Section I
(1) Explain briefly the following concepts: (10)
(a) Detached Involvement
(b) Concept of KARMA
(c) De-Igoization v/s De-personification
(d) Values and Skills
(e) Corporate Accountability
(2) Case Study: (20)
Mr. I k Prasad is the Chief Engineer of the State Electricity Board, and Mr. Prasad has a reputation of being ‘soft’ on his employees, due to which, it was rumoured, many of his employees do not exactly stick to the rules and regulations of the organization. When Mr. P. Kumar joined the Board as an young engineer, just after his engineering degree, he was appalled to see how many people casually broke the rules of the Board and got away with it. Time and again, he had tried to impress upon Mr. Prasad to take disciplinary action, at least against the workmen and the staff, but to no avail Mr. Prasad would just ignore his complaints, saying that he did not yet have enough experience to understand the implications of these things.
One day, Mr. Prasad and Mr. Kumar were travelling together long distance, on some official duty. Suddenly Mr. Kumar happened to notice one of their truck drivers stopping at a point on the highway and taking up people into the truck, who were waiting neat the roadside.
That’s Balwant, Sir, cried Mr. Kumar, ‘he’s picking up passengers from the roadside in his truck, and taking money from them’.
Mr. Prasad too turned around and spotted Balwant doing exactly what Mr. Kumar has noticed. Just at the same time, Balwant too turned around and spotted his Board’s car with ‘Chief Engineer’ written in the car plates. But because of his white curtains in the car, he could not be sure whether the occupants in the car had noticed him or not.
‘Stop the car immediately, driver’, shouted Mr. Kumar, ‘I say, stop immediately; we have to catch him red-handed’.
‘No, keep going’, said Mr. Prasad urgently to the driver, ‘Pretend not have to seen him’.
‘But, Sir – why? We had a good chance to catch him red handed. We have known it since a long time that Balwant uses his truck to make a little money on the side,’ exclaimed Mr. Kumar, as their car sped away.
‘Calm down Kumar, calm down,’ replied Mr. Prasad patting Kumar’s knee. ‘I too know that whenever Balwant has to transport goods along distance, he uses the return trip to pick passengers from the roadside. I also know that you see it as going against the rules.
I know it is against the rules. But think analytically. How much salary does Balwant get from the Board? Even after 10-12 years of Rs. 2600/- per month. He has two children apart from his aged parents who live with him. Can anyone today support a six-member family one less than Rs. 3000/- per month? It is not out of choice that Balwant, or anyone else for that matter, breaks rules. Would you or I not have been tempted to do just what Balwant had done, had we been in his place? And how much do you think he earns from these passengers? 100 rupees? As you have seen, these passengers are all daily-wage laborers or poor people, too poor to even pay the bus fare, and waits for some like Balwant to give them a ride for a pittance. Moreover, what harm is Balwant really causing to the Board? The truck would have anyway come empty in its return trip. It is not that Balwant is causing some additional expenses to the Board by his action. Just now you wanted to stop the car. Had I stopped the car to catch him, or had even given an indication that I had seen him, I would had to take action against him. I would have been compelled to at least call him to my office tomorrow and warned him not to repeat what he has today, or to even give him a notice asking him for a written explanation. Then he would have had to stop what he has been doing or I would have had to take stronger action like terminating his services or suspending him. Now, he feels safe that no one has seen him. You know Kumar, you have to be humane when dealing with people. People like Balwant has not received much from our society, nor from the Board where has been working for so many years. Management must be founded not only on values like honesty and truth and righteousness, but also on qualities like tolerance, sympathy and compassion.
Questions:
(a) Do you believe Mr. Prasad, the Chief Engineer is correct in his belief?
(b) What kind of value system is Mr. Prasad trying to build in his Board?
(c) Do you think, it is really unethical to break rules?
(d) What would you have done had you been in Mr. Prasad’s place? In Mr. Kumar’s place?
Section II
(3) “For achieving behavioral change the core values of individuals have to be addressed”. Discuss this statement in the context of Indian organizations. (10)
(4) How does Indian management thoughts harmonize the environment and human society? (10)
(5) Draw a comparative study of value systems practiced in America, China and Japan (10)
(6) How might someone argue that whistle blowing is morally permitted? Argue your answer with reference to the act of whistle blowing by Satyendra Dubey in the case of golden quadrilateral project. (10)
(7) Describe the concept of “Transformational Leadership”. Explain the concept with at Indian perspective. (10)
9 Comments