AFFECTIONATE MANAGEMENT

PREAMBLE

There are three categories of practicing Managers. Some Managers are born. Some acquire Management skills. Some have Management thrust on them. This book is intended for the Third category.

There are any number of Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Technologists, Administrators, Beaurocrats, Entrepreneurs and Social Activists. Many of them find themselves in the hierarchy of Management in Hospitals, Factories, Research and Development Institutions, Public Undertakings, Government Departments, Business Enterprise and Non Governmental Organizations. Most of them, having spent six to ten years to be proficient in their own professions, may find neither time nor even inclination to obtain additional academic qualifications to strengthen their management skills. The short-cut methods of ‘somehow-manage’ employees and events more often precipitate crises and cannot disseminate the pleasures of professional management. Those who find themselves in the driver’s seat of Management need a few dos and don’ts. They deserve to know, in simple terms, how to manage and how not to manage.

Good driving always makes the ride safe and enjoyable. This book gives, in a nut-shell, the precepts, principles and predilections of the practice of management, but carefully avoids the elaboration of the intricacies of theory of management. We believe, to drive a car competently, one need not be thorough with the whole gamut of Automobile Engineering. An exposure to basic driving lessons should suffice. Some knowledge of the broad systems of operations will be helpful. Management is People centric.

Like human beings, organizations of people also have a proclivity to be sick or healthy. Good Management always keeps organizations healthy. Thus Affectionate Management becomes more a guide for Healthy Organizational Management with appropriate tips to avoid unhealthy predicaments. Affectionate Management, in essence, is a healthy practice of management