AFFECTIONATE MANAGEMENT part 5

Ashok Chanda and Shilpa Kabra in their book “Human Resource Strategy”, wrote “An organization is a living thing. Each function is a part of the living organization. The function is its people. People brethe purpose and life into an organization and its functions. The function, form or structure ….. are like, bones and muscles, setting limites. But a person's spirit determines the meaning and reality of these limits; only those who press the limit actually know their reality”.

Here lies the true spirit of the Affectionate Manager and his drive to infuse energy into the functions, form and structure of the organization towards transformation and growth.The great poet. playwright, educationist and administrator, Gurajada Apparao said, “Desamante Matti Kaadoyee; Desamante Manushuloyee” ( A nation is not a mere mass of land, A nation is more a mass of people ). And organizations are part of the human society of a nation.

Therefore, the philosophy of Affectionate Management states that any organization is of the people, by the people and for the people. A living organization consists of living human beings performing varied and myriad tasks. Any organization existing only for lifeless statistical parameters will be dead sooner than later. As the adage goes, “An organization is only as great as the people in it, and the people are only as great as the organization allows them to be”. Affectionate Management is people-centric, where all other organizational issues are subservient to people.

Thomas J.Watson, Jr., said of his company, “IBM’s philosophy is largely contained in three simple beliefs. I want to begin with what I think is the most important. Our respect for the individual. This is a simple concept, but in IBM it occupies a major portion of management time”.

To understand the thrust of Affectionate Management, we propose a radically different exposition of management. Take the word MANAGEMENT. Let us rewrite the word as

MAN AGE ME N T
Then, the Panch - Bhoothas of Management will be, MAN, AGE, ME, N, T. Let us explore these five elements of Affectionate Management