Thursday, April 29, 2010

Policy of appeasing others in an organization

Many of the modern day organizations have developed a culture where the truth presented point black and white isnt accepted and instead the culture developed over a period of time appreciates appeasing others, buttering and oiling only to saisfy their egos.The egos can be derived from various reasons, one because the so called senior pros in the organization wants to show that they are different from the juniors especially when it comes to knowing the organizational systems and processes, the popularity of their brand name with the higher echeleons so on and so forth. The million dollar question is the overall impact the culture may have on the organizational growth.This policy of appeasement, humility beyond expectations can often go beyond the requirement so as to set up a professional culture, culminating in a feeling amongst the rank and file a feeling of "You Save Me, I Save you", "You Respect Me, I Respect You".These mutual understandings are often observed between peers aho are either at the same level or have the same level of seniority within the organization, even though they may be at different levels, functions or domains.The reason for the emergence for such culture is not difficult to find.On one hand immature heads at the top always craves for opportunities to satisfy their bolstered ego, which happens to be the right opportunity for those below so as to get their objectives being met.This is done both in cash and kind, depending on the surrounding environment, the status of the stakeholders involved,commonality of interests between the stakeholders,survival in a polluted environment with a specific objective in mind, which may be related to ones experience profile or to his earnings while being employed to the organization.Whatever may be the reason, over a period of time such organizations are full of Yes Man, rather than bold upright professionals who would call a spade, a spade.This further deteriorates the working environment and stagnates both the individual growth of the employees, along with the collective growth of the organization.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Is it correct to Save your own Skin at the Cost of the Organization

It is indeed suprising how organizations under the garb of competition transforms into an working environment which has dogs eat dogs as the major thrust area for all endeavours.However,this behaviour gradually metamorphoses into a bane for the organization as it leads to a feeling of insecurity within the rank and file of the company, culminating in everyone irrespective of their level and domains start to protect their own skin at the cost of the organization.Infact a rank outsider after observing these phenomena is surprised as all and sundry are always on their toes not to put their best foot forward, but to protect themselves from being fired due to one reason or the other.Such type of organizations are always in the look out for scapegoats so as to save themselves from their own mistake.The culture also alters from that of growth and development to that of fault finding where pointing fingers happens to be the order of the day.The employees working in such a set up initially may try to be ethically correct with an open and learning approach, but, over a period of time, the environmental influencers results in changing and adopting the protect your skin approach.Every one is trying to pass on the buck, accountability is the last word in the lexicon of the employees and all their positive characteristcs and behaviours goes for a toss.Knowing the developments very well, none is willing to be the whistle blower fearing backlash and being targeted.This continuous approach of fault finding across the length and breadth of the organizations impacts the overall creativity and innovation as most of the discussion and activities hovers around protect your skin at the cost of others.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

465 publication on "Sports as a Rejuvenator and Unifier"







The article is published in the home page of www.knowledgeoman.com (http://knowledgeoman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9321). It presents a snap shot on the annual sports at Ibra College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman, proving beyond doubt the fact that Sports play a pivotal role in rejuvenating the mind and also unifies people across domains, industry, regions, languages and culture.The annual sports extravaganza at the college campus gave the real life meaning of sportsmanship, competitive spirit and never say die approach to name a few.The event brought together all the staff and students on a single platform, which helped in knowing each other, not to forget the boosting of the friendly relationships between one and all.This culminated in a new found spirit and exhuberance amongst the stakeholders.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

When Your's Truly was Live in FM Radio in Oman for the Second Time in One Year

It was indeed a pleasure to be online in Tariq Talk radio show on the topic of success on Wednesday,April 14th,2010,5.40 PM to 6.10 PM(Oman Standard Time) in 90.4 FM in the Sultanate of Oman,similar to the previous participation in the same channel an year ago.(details in http://manishankarthetrainer.blogspot.com/search/label/Cyber%20Talk%20Show . The 20 minutes interview hovered around success, where your's truly responded to a volley of questions from the host, Mr. Tariq of www.knowledgeoman.com along with the customized response to callers queries on a host of issues pertaining to Success.The epicenter of the discussion was success, its defintion,the ingredients to achieve success, the roadmap to achieve success, contributors to success,to name a few.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Symposium on Technological Development: Challenges and Perspectives @ SCAS, Sohar,Oman









The two day knowledge extravaganza at Sohar College of Applied Sciences, Sohar, Oman, on the 12th and 13th of April 2010 presented plethora of issues targeting the higher education sector. The academia from the Arab World addressed issues pertaining to different domains of technology, viz. electronic learning, novel learning methodologies, the sphere of the applied sciences, engineering and technology and business studies.The cross section of the presenters comprising of on stage and poster presenters detailed the nuances either in the form of research paper, case study or a mixed of both.Yours truly presented a case study titled, "A Case Study on Technology and Higher Education in the 21st Century"(abstract attached alongside this blog) presented real life experiences encountered in the Arab World as a faculty and corporate trainer.The major takeaways for yours truly were, usage of e-learning as a blended tool, the need for a perfect relationship between teaching faculties and laboratory attendants, as in the era of technology driven education it is important for the duo to compliment each other, rather than compete with each other.The big list of takeaways also entailed the need for the academic administrators to understand the importance of technology, thereby sourcing the state-of-the-art technologies and alter the same from time to time, rather than keeping them stagnant for a longer period of time.Moreover, the importance of training so as to imbibe the technological tools in the repertoire of all the stakeholders involved in the higher education sector needs to be understood locally and on an one to one basis, rather than a one size fits all.The snaps from the conference and Sohar is present in the following link-http://picasaweb.google.com/117563529873132697910/SymposiumSoharCollegeOfAppliedSciencesOman#The certificate can be viewed from the link http://manishankarthetrainer.blogspot.com/2009/09/details-of-conference-participation-at.html
Kudos to the SCAS, Sohar Team and the Ministry of Higher Education, Oman for conducting an excellent knowledge generating and disseminating platform!
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