Pseudo Multi Tasking- A lurking danger for organizations

The corporate world all over prefers to have multi-taskers in their roll.The need for such proverbial jack increases manifold in light of the turbulence witnessed by the American economy to start of, followed by the cascading impact it had on the European economy and rest of the world.There are professionals though whom yours truly would refer as pseudo multi-tasker, i.e. one who tries to be a multi-tasker, but fears backlash after a failure.Their characteristics would entail poking into cross-functional domains simply on the basis of the rudimentary knowledge they possess, courtesy their above average or sometimes excellent command on verbal and written English or any other communication skills. They assume that a multi-tasker's job is completed only if he knows how to communicate and understand the skeletal concepts of a subjects. Such pseudo multi-tasker's or self proclaimed master of one domain are indeed a big blot in the organizational structure.They are always in the look out to malign their peers, subordinates or even seniors on the basis of their limited knowledge of a function or they would always try to bully around those who may be a tad inferior in terms of communication, but extremely competent when it comes to their core area.Such pseudo multi-tasker may have professional efficiency in their chosen field,however, it is their habit of adulterating the working environment, which may result in having a negative on the overall organizational fabric of an organization.They should either be handled with a superior who is more agile and smart possessing excellent cross-functional knowledge or should be probed extensively while putting on fast job rotation policies. This may be a blessing in disguise as the concerned employee would be able to get away from the heavy head weight he or she is carrying and would also enable him or her to know his exact role in a dynamic organization.

Professional relationships into personal relationships at the workplace

Professional relationships at the workplace have often metamorphosed into a private one.The modern day working environment is full of pressure, stiff deadlines, challenging targets and competition which results into mental and physical stress. To add to that an unhealthy work-life balance is one of the key reason for an individual to feel strained and drained culminating in the bondage being broken with the near and dear ones.The long hours one has to spend at the workplace also contributes to this aspect and the employees are always in the look out for that shoulder to lean upon, that hand to hold or that caring eyes to understand the problems one is facing at the workplace. Healthy competition at times changing into unhealthy competition notwithstanding, employees are trying to forge relationships with people from the workplace at the personal level. This is leading to the creation of new relationships, not only at the professional level but also at the personal level. It is tantamount on the part of the management to understand these relationships and encourage the same which would not only reduce employee unrest, but would also contribute substantially towards the employee motivation and productivity.The grey areas however, has to be addressed as too much of intimacy at the workplace especially between the employees of the opposite gender may lead to illicit personal relationship.The management should sniff out the bondage and its impact on the personal lives of the respective employees before encouraging or distinguishing the creation of such relationships.

Small Things can Do Wonders in your Business

The common belief doing the rounds of organization,is that we are the best in the class, not because we have set in the best benchmarks, but because we boast of the the unique human capital mix, which many of our competitors may not possess.However, one need to go behind the scene activities and observe each and every move with a magnifier and hear the sounds with an amplifier to know whether the statements are only lip-service or reality.It has been observed that in spite of having the best employees, most of the organizations, care a damn for their most important resource, namely the human capital.Ironically these practices are often found in knowledge driven sectors, where human resources are supposed to form the fulcrum of every activity.Short term myopic approaches often reflects the endeavours of the management, thereby reducing the confidence of the employees on the organization and its ability to protect their well-being.Protecting the well-being of the employees are not restricted to doling out an attractive pay packet with some perks and fringe benefits, here and there, it calls for that human touch from the employer towards their professional and personal issues, giving them that confidence, that the organization is standing rock solid behind them even during the moments of crisis.The small deeds so as to make that permanent mark in the mind and soul of the employees can result in with that birthday wish or by complimenting him on his new house or car or even greeting during the anniversary.All these does not cost much in true sense for an organization, but it's the absence of that culture of showing that we care which results in employee morale dwindling, affecting the productivity over a period of time.Did anyone say employee turnover and erosion of talents can also be attributed to this factor, big time, especially in knowledge driven companies.

Is Peer Learning successful everywhere?

Peer Learning is a very strong tool in the modern day learning.It helps an organization to inculcate a culture of learning by sharing apart from saving on a substantial sum incurred by the learning and the development domain/function.However, prima-facie it may look like peer learning can be imbibed by all organizations,a microscopic study and minute observation would reveal that not many organizations can successfully align their organizational culture with that of the peer learning model.Some reasons which contributes towards the failure of the implementation of the peer learning model in an organization are- Lack of awareness at the top management level,Absence of cohesiveness amongst the rank and file of the organization,Unhealthy competition amongst peers where success at the cost of ethics and values are appreciated, encouraged and acknowledged,a sense of false ego in the mind of the decision makers,favouritism and nepotism forming the backbone of most of the decisions taken by the strategic and middle level managers, absence of an open communication system and culture,unequal motivational level amongst the staff members, lack of corporate focus,haywire and shoddy management information system are few of the reasons. Some companies try to adapt to these situations by practising pseudo-peer learning which are more of an eye-washing exercise.It is either to manage their annual internal and external audit exercise by filling up their files with papers showcasing peer learning through some exercises, get-togethers and other allied activities here and there.A thorough analysis by quizzing the key stakeholders so as to know the depth of peer learning either through the indirect organizational indicators like peer relationship, cooperation and motivation across the functions and levels or through the periodical understanding of the direct learning quotient of staff on a continual basis provide enough food for thought for an analyst to decipher the reasons of success and failure of peer learning.

Diversity can be a boon and a bane

Organizations which are willing to grow always thrive on diversity.The ones which are contented with their current positions and are not willing to disturb their status-quo or which pretend to be a growing organization under the garb of nepotism, favouritism as there is yawning gap existing between the top management and the ones managing at the operative level.The organizations which tend to take global shape would always develop a neutral culture and thereby provide a level playing field to all the stakeholders representing different ethnicities.Handing over the reins of an organization to a specfic nationality having a global perspective would always lead to such titled endeavour thereby affecting the organizational culture.Indians have always thrived on their Unity in Diversity tag, especially when it came to represent the varied culture, language, food habits, dress codes of the country.This boon which is often emphasized by the leadership of the most populated democracy, albeit as a lip service, to serve their own myopic visions with a self centric agenda, translates into a bane when Indians join a global organizational set up.Reasons are not difficult to find, in a foreign land where Indians should do away with their diversity, which are considered their USP back home try to leverage the same with some amount of ulterior motive, so as to serve their vested interests.The favouritism shown by one bengali towards another, one tamil towards another, one punjabi towards another, one Malayali towards another, without even bothering even an iota for the bigger objective of serving the organization commensurate with the larger organizational goals and objective and their national fabric of unity in diversity poses serious doubts about the importance of diversity to an alien.These favouritism driven personal approach on the basis of language, state, dress, food, caste, creed culminates in the development of a global organization more on aspiration and short on perspiration.This stagnates the growth of the employees, not to mention the impact it has on the overall trajectory of the organization, which can only be arrested with the dawning of the realizations by the higher ups, taking firm action with a neutral stance in the overall interest of the organization concerned.

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.

First Mover Advantage for Employees

First mover advantage is known to be a strategic advantage for the marketers so as corner market shares from their rivals. The same holds true for individual employees working in an organization, since inception or since the initial few years.The personal experience of yours truly, along with the experiences observed in some of the colleagues in other organizations revealed so.The employees joining during the formative years of the company gets into the corporate nerve and understand all the processes and systems to an extend that they become indispensible for the higher ups.In such cases two of the following consequences were noted by yours truly-One the top notch performers elevated to the top rung to manage the show once the enterprise expands and two some of the other peers, sans the leadership skills are given more prestige, honour and value especially by the new staff as the latter thinks the former would be instrumental in the career progression of the new staff, owing to his/her alleigiance to the top bosses, mainly due to his/her seniority in the company.In such cases if the company does not have a good working culture, the seniority and issues related to their experience in that company goes into their head and they start to show off their hegemonistic attitude and designs, thereby throwing tantrums to the new joiners. These so called old pros are retaining their seat mainly because they are now the proverbial jacks, with an all around ability to work across functions in the organization.However, when it comes to grooming the new joiners on the same lines, they generally show a lackasidiacal approach fearing lossoing their grip in the organization.They will generally avoid or dislike any newcomers moving up the learning curve fast and therefore try all methods possible to bring them down, culminating in maintaining their status-quo and firm grip on the decision makers.