Management Theory and Practice

NMIMS Assignment (Semester 1)

1) The newly recruited management trainees have to learn about the 14

management principles of Henry Fayol as it would help set them up in the new
corporate world and make their mental makeup about what exactly is expected
out of them. The recruits have to be informed and made aware that the said
management principles are time tested and would inculcate in them a sense of
ownership and responsibility and make them aware about the company. Henry
Fayol was a French mining engineer, mining executive who developed a
separate theory on business administration which is often referred to as
Fayolism. He was of the opinion that all the managers, towards the pursuit of a
common goal and maximize the output of the employees must follow the set of
guidelines as enumerated below:
(i) Division of Work- According to this principle, the work in any organization
has to be divided as per the individual skill set, experience and knowledge
of the work force. This not only results in utilization of individual’s potential
but also helps in the maximization of the efficiency and lower issues.
(ii) Authority and Responsibility- As per this principle, the competent authority
should have the power to issue directions and orders to the subordinates.
The authority so enjoyed must bring with it a sense of responsibility as
there should be consequences in relation to the exercise of the authority.
Unless a manager is not held accountable towards the actions taken, the
authority is unbridled and reckless.
(iii) Discipline- As per Fayol, discipline in an organization is important. The
rules and policies of the organization are adhered to by the workmen and
it also means that the subordinates obey and respect their seniors.
(iv) Unity of Command- This means that the employees who are working
towards one particular segment must report to or receive instructions from
a single source of command. They should report to a single authority and
command coherence should remove any confusions and
misunderstandings amongst the employees.
(v) Unity of Direction- It means that the employees must be controlled and
aligned with a singular direction which should be clear for the employees
to achieve a particular objective. Multi directional approach may disturb
the employees’ concentration and may end up confusing them.
(vi) Subordination of individual interest to general interest- Fayol insisted that
the organizational interests should be prioritized over any individual
interests. The individual goals, if, aligned with the organizational goals can
 lead to the achievement of the said principle as the individual would
consciously work towards the desired objective.
(vii) Remuneration- Fayol mentioned that fair and adequate wage payment is a
very important tool in the overall administration of the organization.
Monetary benefits play an extremely important role in the employee
morale which manifests itself in the maximization of the output. These
should be calculated on the basis of the job role, its significance, the cost
of living and amongst other factors the productivity of the employees.
(viii) Centralisation- It simply means that the level of involvement of the
employees in the decision making of the organization.
(ix) Scalar Chain- It is the line of authority from the senior most to the junior
most cadre in an organization wherein all the communications must also
flow in the same hierarchical way, as far as possible. Any exception to
this, in case of an emergency, might make us of the ‘Gang Plank’ to avoid
delays thereby facilitating communication out of the common route.
(x) Order- It is required towards efficient coordination of all the elements
(men, machine, material etc) in an organization. There should be well
defined space for every employee in an organization ie ‘a place for
everything and everything has a place’.
(xi) Equity- This meant that the management must treat all employees fairly
with respect and dignity. The workplace must be free from any type of
biases or prejudices against the employees.
(xii) Stability of tenure of personnel- Employees when assured of a job security
develop a sense of ownership for the organization. High employee
turnover is always inefficient and expensive. Management must ensure to
address employee tenure stability issues and work towards minimizing
attrition.
(xiii) Initiative- Fayol insisted that any organisation that provides suitable level
of freedom to the employees in taking initiatives helps them perform their
jobs efficiently. These employees often come out with out of box solution
to the issues simply because they develop a sense of personal attachment
with the job due to the shown encouragement and motivation.
(xiv) Esprit de Corps- This means that the promotion of team spirit within the
organisation. Not only should the employees see each other as separate
functionaries in the same workplace working towards a common goal but
also should try working with a sense of harmony that builds a spirit of
oneness.

These principles were developed very comprehensively and were made

as bedrock for future general and business administrative principles. It is
 indeed a welcome step by the CEO of Sachin Ethanol to introduce the
newly recruited joinees to these principles as these continue to inspire and
influence contemporary organizations. Now, as the group is introduced
and acquainted with the said principles, we are sure that these will
definitely serve as an asset to the company in the long run.

2) Management is, simply, a method of extracting maximum output out of minimum

efforts and resources. Every organisation needs to have a better management to
administer, plan and coordinate an environment where individuals work together
to attain a common objective by utilizing the available resources optimally.
Although it is a perennial topic of debate whether management is an art or
science but I would insist on it being an art and not a branch of science.

Art is something that is required to complete the assigned work by using innate
and inherent qualities. It is more of a skill and management experts have pointed
out that human behavior is required to study and analyze the different problems
that come up while resolving issues. Science, on the other hand, is a defined
knowledge stream with certain fixed formulae, equations and fundamentals which
however find its place in the field of management but are not bound or limited by
the application of the same. Sample this, an in-fighting in a team working on
common project where the issues might either delay or, worse, completely
jeopardize the project, would need the art of pacifying, understanding and
resolving the issue by the Manager as it is more of a behavioral problem that
warrants real life human application of emotions and the skill to take people
along. It does not limit itself to any scientific application to solve the issue. Noted
personalities like Henry Mintzberg, David Lilienthal, Peter Drucker etc have
considered management as an art. Mintzberg had insisted that managers need
to have their own set of social and political skills to solve problems and determine
an appropriate course of action like in the aforementioned example of certain
differences cropping up in a team. Lilienthal had presented a paper titled
‘Management: A Humanist Art’ in 1967 wherein he stressed that managers have
to adopt a role of artists who have the unique skill of interacting with different
people in a different manner so to understand their behavioral pattern allowing
them to resolve problems. Drucker, on perhaps the same lines, advocated the
use of an individual’s innate qualities like wisdom, knowledge, leadership skills,
practice and creativity that also depends upon the social and political
environment. A house wife, for example, manages the household in the most
efficient manner irrespective of her being literate or not. Education might
definitely be of immense help but still our country has had challenging issues in
terms of literacy. Here, a house wife knows how to manage the daily affairs, how
 to allocate the limited resources of the family amongst various pressing issues.
She does not have any formal training in science but she knows the art of
prioritizing the most important chores over other not so important issues. As a
result, the household flourishes and thrives based solely on the inherent skills of
the leading female figure of the house.

It can be vaguely assumed that it might be a behavioral science that analyses

and tries to understand the human behavior but then most of the problems that
arise in real world are dependent on our immediate surroundings and how an
individual adapts and reacts to these changes in surroundings as also shown in
the above examples. These would warrant a manager who has the art of linking
the human behavior with the external environment and would take steps towards
maintaining a harmonious equilibrium of the person with the cause of the issue. It
is merely not some scientific phenomenon that necessitates application of certain
established general principles or theories that would solve the particular problem.
Real world problems require real world solutions and that can happen only if we
see management as an art and not a strict branch of science.

3) Lemon Tree is a growing hospitality company and conflicts, if not resolved or

seriously taken, may jeopardise the promotional aspects of the firm or worse still
running of the company. As a consultant appointed for these task, my job would
be to first identify the issues that led to the rise of the conflict scenario and then
analyse to try finding a solution for the same. Since conflicts may manifest itself
in different forms but the background of these more or less remains the same.

3a) Conflicts crop up in organisation due to a lot of reasons. These are

enumerated below:
• Interpersonal Conflicts- These types of conflicts arise when two or more
individuals either from a same department or different departments get
involved in a clash due to some issue. These are classified into three
different types:
➢ Vertical Conflicts- These types of conflicts happen in a ‘vertical’
chain of the organisation meaning it happens between a superior
and his/her subordinate.
➢ Lateral Conflicts- These conflicts as the name suggests happen
between two or more individuals who are at the same position in
the company.
➢ Diagonal Conflicts- Such conflicts are considerably lesser in
prevalence as the issue arises between two individuals who occupy
 different positions and have no direct superior- subordinate
relationships between the two.
• Intrapersonal Conflicts- These types of conflicts happen between two
individuals having different thoughts, beliefs, ideas, opinions and
ideologies. Such instances are common as in an organsiation people with
different cultural backgrounds come and work together. Daily exchanges
and frequent intermingling gives individuals an opportunity to understand
and know each other. Cases of varying perceptions regarding the others
crop up and eventually give an outlet to their emotions in the form of
conflicts.
• Intergroup Conflicts- These conflicts also happen in an organisation when
two or more groups get involved in clashes because of different issues. A
common example of such a clash would be the conflicts between two
different departments in the same organsiation viz the software
development teams and the software testing teams which are in a hurry to
deploy a certain project, the clashes regarding the admission and
operation of a patient between the team of Anesthesia and the team of
General Surgery in a hospital where the surgical team wants to operate
before the patient gets any more serious and seeks certain relaxations in
the declaration of the fitness of the patient.
• Intragroup Conflicts- Intragroup conflicts happen, as the name suggest,
within the group or department. These are of somewhat serious in nature
as the disturbance in the group not only derails the entire work or project
assigned to the same group but also affects the customer relationship with
the organsiation as a whole.

3b) Lemon Tree, after identifying the said areas of conflicts can work proactively to resolve
the conflicts. The various strategies that can be used to address the situations are
enumerated below:

• Avoiding- Although a very ineffective way in dealing with conflicts at the

workplace, the approach is to avoid issues that affect the emotional well
being of the other colleague. Here people do not intend to challenge
conflicts assertively and do not indulge or participate so that the
confrontational aspects are minimized. Lemon Tree can use this technique
if it feels that the conflict scenario is either temporary or too sensitive. The
‘touch not-hurt not’ method might temporarily diffuse the situation but leaves
the original issue unresolved.
• Accommodating- Herein, Lemon Tree can accommodate the needs and
wishes of the confrontational parties to appease and pacify the situation. It
 might help in diffusing the situation but a lot could be at stake if management
directly resorts to acceding to the wishes of the employees. Not only it would
set a dangerous precedent but also subconsciously make the employees
undermine the authority of the management and self- validating their point
by assuming it to be correct.
• Competing- Such situations are produced when individuals are highly
competitive and are prone to dominate over others by knowing what they
want and what they know. These types of conflict resolution techniques can
be used during emergencies when quick decisions are required but are
made at the cost of the recessive parties.
• Collaborating- Lemon Tree can use this strategy for the optimum resolution
as it is a generally favored option that encompasses the goods of all the
above techniques. It requires parties to conflict, to sit and work together and
willingly adopt an approach that may work for them and for the organisation
as a whole too. It is the ‘win-win’ approach towards conflict resolution and
is adopted the most as it thrives on mutual willingness and dialogue.
• Compromising- When two equally strong parties try this resolution, they
generally go for the ‘give and take’ method. Such a resolution is woven
around mutually agreeable terms and conditions that are favorable to both
with marginal or equally demanding sacrifices from both the sides. Such a
partial satisfaction is required when some deadlines are fast approaching
and neither of the parties is willing to accede.

Lemon Tree can adopt the collaborating approach and can make the parties
to conflict sit and have dialogues and conversations wherein the focal point
should be that seemingly unimportant conflicts are hampering the decision
making process and affecting the productivity of the organisation. It would
not only help in restoring the working dynamics of the firm but can actually
make the parties realize their folly and the direct impact the firm stands to
face if the issue is left unresolved. The management of Lemon Tree, as a
last step, need to be strict if even this strategy does not work and may issue
stern warnings or ultimatums if the erring professionals do not rectify or fall
in line. Needless to mention that if the situation does not improve or there
is a chance of a relapse then it would be in the best interest of the company
to take even harsher steps leading to the termination or dismissal of the
troublesome parties.

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