ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENT -1
Submitted To
Submitted By
Ms. Asha Bhandarker Aditi Singh
(16PGDM064)
Arjun Dhingra
(16PGDM069) PGDM(2016-18) Section-B
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Interviewee and Company Profile 1.1 Interviewee Profile 3 1.2 Company Profile
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Chapter 2 Interview Analysis 4 2.1 Technology acting as a motivation factor
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2.2 Gender as a measure of Surface-Level Diversity 2.3 The Importance of Management Skills 2.4 Leadership Skills
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2.5 Conflicts at the Workplace
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2.6 Using intuition at the workplace
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Chapter 3 Learning from the interview
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Appendix
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CHAPTER-1
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INTERVIEWEE AND COMPANY PROFILE
1.1 Interviewee Profile Col (Retd.) Samir Dhaga, Senior Vice President and CIO,PI Industries Ltd., is a very dynamic and learned person. He has pursued M.Tech in Industrial Engineering from IIT Delhi and has a work experience of 29 years in the IT and Telecom Industry. Mr.Dhaga has worked at distinguished positions in some of the most well-known organizations like IBM India Pvt. Ltd. and Videocon D2H, to name a few. Mr.Dhaga has also served the Army. He was the Director of Army Cyber Security Establishment for 2 years. Col (Retd.) Dhaga has expertise in the field of IT Operations, IT Service Management, Vendor
Management, Information Security, Telecommunications, IT strategy, Integration,
Team Management, Project Management, Program Management, CRM, Leadership roles, etc. Col (Retd.) Dhaga has a diversified work profile and has an inclination towards the technology sector.
1.2 Company Profile PI Industries Ltd (PI) was incorporated in 1947 (as Mewar Oil & General Mills Ltd.) with its registered office in the lake city of Udaipur, Rajasthan. PI is a leading Agri Input and Custom Synthesis & Manufacturing company in India. With over 5 decades of brand, experience in working with millions of Indian farmers and vast marketing & distribution set up in India, PI offers to market innovative Agri Input products in India. With highly accredited R&D, laboratory and manufacturing set up for fine chemicals, PI offers support in the process research and contract manufacturing needs of newly discovered molecules." PI Industries currently operates three formulation and two manufacturing facilities as well as eight multi-product plants under its three business units across Gujarat. PI is a BSE & NSE listed Company.
CHAPTER-2 3
INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
2.1 Technology acting as a Motivational Factor Technology is nowadays one of the factors which motivate employees to work persistently towards achieving a goal, because technology bridges the gap between the employees and between different hierarchical levels in the organization. Since, employees can now stay connected to the organization 24X7, thus the commitment level of the employees to the organization increases and also working in a team becomes much easier for employees as with the aid of technology like Email service, video-conferencing, Skype calls, etc., employees can communicate with each other from anywhere, when needed, and coordinate in a better manner. So, in a way technology motivates employees to work as a team and be more focused towards achieving the organizational goal.
2.2 Gender as a measure of Surface-Level Diversity Unfortunately, sex roles still affect everyone’s perceptions. For example, women who succeed in traditionally male domains are perceived as less likeable, more hostile and less deliverable as supervisor. But, nowadays, there are an increasing number of women working in the organization at various hierarchical levels and also the rate of absenteeism among women employees is declining, thus the perception about women employees is gradually changing in the organizations, and the surface-level diversity in terms of gender is improving in the organizations.
2.3 The Importance of Management Skills Researchers have identified three broad categories of management skills- Technical Skills, Human Skills and Conceptual Skills. Technical skills encompass the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. Human skills involve the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.Conceptual skills means the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations. All the above mentioned skills are important for efficient management, but the order of prominence of these skills vary from department to department. For example, for the technical department the decreasing order of importance of these skills will be as follows: Technical, Conceptual, Human, whereas for HR department the order will be- Human, Conceptual, and Technical. Nevertheless, the most important fact here is the growing importance of human resource in the organization. An organization is made up of its employees who come from diverse backgrounds and culture. Many people are technically 4
proficient but poor listeners, unable to understand the need of others, or weak at managing conflicts. Because managers, of any department in an organization, get things done through other people, they must have good human skills.
2.4 Leadership Skills Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of a vision or set of goals. Though leadership style varies from organization to organization or from one sector to another, but the fundamental principles of leadership is applicable in every organization and a good hold on these skills can enable a person to lead his/her team in any organization. Some of the basic principles of leadership are as follows- Leaders should always lead by example, Leaders must be an active participant in the work being done, leaders must set challenging goals for their employees, leaders should motivate employees to participate actively, leaders must establish a clear vision for the future, etc.
2.5 Conflicts at the workplace Conflict, that is, difference of opinion, or a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, not only becomes a roadblock for team work and achieving organizational goals, but also affects bonding at the workplace. It is in fact one of the factors responsible for less friendly relations at the workplace.
2.6 Using Intuition at Workplace Intuition is a gut feeling not necessarily supported by research. While, intuition might be helpful in taking very quick and not so significant business decisions, but most organizations prefer to take decisions based on facts and objectivity to avoid risk. Risk taking is an important factor when an organization wants to grow by leaps and bounds, but it is always better to take calculated risk, for which, being fully dependent on intuition might not be the best choice.
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LEARNING FROM THE INTERVIEW Following are some of our takeaways from the interview:
Technology has and will always play a major role in an organization, a good knowledge of technical skills will help a manager direct his team and manage the task at hand more effectively
All the three broad categories of Management Skills, i.e., Technical skills, Human skills, and Conceptual skills are important for a manager, but their degree of importance varies from department to department and one key point to note here is the increasing importance of human skills. A manager, how so ever good at technical skills, can never manage effectively if he lacks human skills. An organization is made up of its employees and to direct those employees to work towards achieving a goal together, human skills come very handy, be it in any department of an organization
The fundamental Principles Of Leadership remain the same in every organization or sector, but the organizational culture varies. For example, Army follows the same leadership principle like that of a Corporate, but the two are very different in terms of their culture. On one hand, the Army is very human centric, whereas on the other hand, the Corporate is less human centric and more profit oriented
Employees are mostly Less Connected To Each Other and are more indifferent towards each at the workplace due to stressful work environment and conflict of interests. In such a situation it’s important to accommodate each other’s differences, so that the main aim of achieving the organizational goal is not hampered
Some of the most important traits an organization looks for in a potential candidate is technical skills, communication skills and presence of some leadership traits as well as Ability To Convince. Leadership traits like the willingness to take initiative, ability to convince others, ability to work in a team and direct the team towards taking a tough challenge and achieving it, is very important for a manager.
Intuition may come handy when one has to take a very quick decision which might not be so significant, but mostly it’s preferable that business decisions be based on Objectivity and facts so as to reduce risk
APPENDIX
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Interview Transcript Aditi: What changes have you witnessed in terms of the work culture over the long span you have been working here? Col (Retd.) Samir Dhaga: There are four most evident and important factors which have changed the work culture in organizations over the years: 1) Impact of technology- Technological advancement has had a huge impact on the work culture. The way employees respond to the work environment has changed drastically due to the introduction of digital medium. Previously, everything was more manual in organizations and employees were less connected to their workplace because there was no way by which they could virtually connect to the organization. But over the years, technology made it possible for employees to stay connected to the organization even from a great distance. This made it possible for employees to be always available and thus lead to a culture of working while on the go, as well as team work, because employees also can now easily coordinate with each other via various digital media. 2) Quality of customer handling- It has been observed that in B2C and retail businesses, the quality of customer handling has improved significantly. This is because the customer can now reach out to the business in lesser time and greater numbers through social media and with the help of emails. 3) Gender diversity- The workplaces have become more diverse in terms of gender, in today’s time. More number of women are now working in the organizations, even at distinguished positions and are serving in sectors like automobiles, civil engineering, mechanical engineering , etc., which were previously dominated by the male members of the society. 4) Deliverables- In my opinion, with the advent of technology, focus has shifted from subjectivity to objectivity in the organizations because a rich repository of data is now easily available at a single click. Thus, the focus on performance and productivity has now increased by leaps and bounds.
Arjun: Does technology also acts as barrier while managing the workforce? Col. Dhaga: In my opinion and what I have seen, technology, though has its negative aspects, can never act as a barrier when it comes to managing the workforce, it always acts a bridge, for example, video conferencing is widely used nowadays in organizations to conduct meetings, this technology not only bridges the distance but also helps in saving time and cost incurred if one would have to travel. Email is one of the most used technology in organizations. It’s much better than oral communication because it acts as a written proof and if a senior level person is approving of an email or sending an email to someone, he/she has to take the liability for it. Also through emails and other forms of technology one can reach out to every single employee in less time.
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Aditi: There are mainly three categories of Management skills- Technical Skills, Human Skills and Conceptual Skills, which of these you think is of prime importance at the workplace? Col. Dhaga.: All the three management skills are of importance at the workplace, but their order of importance varies from department to department. For example, In the R&D Department, the order of these three skills are as follows- Conceptual, Technical, Human Skills, i.e., Conceptual Skills are of highest importance in a R&D Department. In an HR Department, the orders of these skills are as follows- HR, Technical, Conceptual. In a Technical Department, the required skills in its decreasing order are as follows- Technical, Conceptual, Human Skills. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that due to high pressure to perform and exhaustive work environment at the workplace, human skills has become one of the common skills required in each department and human elements cannot be ignored at any cost.
Arjun: Since, you have also worked in Army, what is the primary difference between Army and Corporate world in your opinion? Col. Dhaga: The fundamental principle of leadership and knowing your job well is present both in Army and the Corporate, but both of these sectors are different in their approach towards work. On one hand, the Corporate is less regimented, can give some relaxation when it comes to time limits, and less human resource centric as well as less emotionally sensitive towards the problems faced by its employees, when compared to Army. Whereas, on the other hand, Army is more hierarchical in structure, more regimented, follows stricter time schedule as compared to Corporates but is human resource centric. Army people are very compassionate and take care of all others working in the Army like a family member. This is the only part, where Corporate falls behind. Human connect is not there so much in Corporate, be it in India or all over the world.
Arjun: Why it is that employee connection factor is low at the workplace or people are less friendly? Col. Dhaga: There are a number of factors due to which employees connect less with each other at a workplace like- busy schedule, the pressure of delivering the service at time, interdepartmental conflicts, conflicts of interest within the department, different human behavior and unwillingness to accommodate differences. Mostly conflict of interests restrains people from forming friendly relations at the workplace. Aditi: What are the traits an organization looks for while recruiting employees at management level? 8
Col. Dhaga: An organization expects a candidate to have following skills: 1) Technical Skills- Knowledge related to the domain one wants to work in like Finance, Marketing, HR, IT etc. Also the candidate should have a good educational background, should have scored decent grades in the past. Also, it is an advice on my part to take summer internships during your post-graduation course quite seriously as it will form the most important part of your CV during final placements. 2) Communication Skills- Good communication skills is a prerequisite for getting recruited at a managerial post. How well one can express one’s view, matters a lot in an organization. 3) Convincing ability and some leadership qualities- The way a candidate answers, will determine whether he can convince others or not. It’s also important for a candidate to see himself/herself in leadership roles and also to possess some of the leadership qualities like that of working in a team, taking initiatives, good convincing ability, the ability to drive the team forwards towards a common goal, etc.
Aditi: How important a role does “intuition” plays in decision making at a managerial position in your opinion? Col. Dhaga: Business decision should always be based on facts, data and objectivity, so as to reduce the risk of failure. While, some very small and not so significant decisions might be taken based on intuition, but for significant business decisions as well as in the long run, the basis of decision making should be objectivity. Consider the case of Nokia, it decided not to go for android based on subjectivity, although the time when it took such a decision, android’s market share was rising, and in the end that decision proved to be wrong for Nokia. Therefore, good business decisions should always be based on objectivity.
EMAIL COPIES
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Aditi Singh
Request for providing an appointment for interview Aditi Singh To: [email protected] Cc: Arjun Dhingra
Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 10:53 AM
Dear Sir Warm greetings on behalf of Arjun Dhingra & Aditi Singh, students of IMI New Delhi. Sir we have been assigned the task of interviewing an experienced manager in the Organizational Behavior subject, and it would be an honour for us if you'll give us an opportunity to interview you. We would therefore request you to kindly, if possible, lend us your precious time and enlighten us more about the corporate world. Thank you Best Regards Arjun Dhingra Aditi Singh PGDM (2016-18 batch) IMI New Delhi
Aditi Singh
Request for providing an appointment for interview Samir Dhaga To: Aditi Singh Cc: Arjun Dhingra
Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 11:03 AM
Let's try to catch up on Thursday 3 pm. Regards, Samir [Quoted text hidden]
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