Division of Work

 

This was just my second lecture of the course, but the learning that I am deriving out of this course is startling me.  It is helping me to unlearn and learn, negate my existing assumptions and providing deeper insights on management principles.

Prof. Mandi in line with his philosophy of ‘learning by doing’ carried out the following activity:

The activity: We were asked to build a tower using wooden blocks. It was done in two parts:

Method 1: He gave chance to one student to build the tower using the blocks. The height which he was able to attain was 22 blocks.

Method 2: The task had to be done by a blind folded person. Three people were chosen who played the role of a CEO, manager and a worker respectively. The worker was blindfolded and Manager gave instructions to him. CEO supervised the entire activity. Contrary to the expectations, the tower was built with 25 blocks!!

This highlighted the importance of two things:

1. Importance of Division of Labor: 

The work is divided and divided to achieve maximum efficiency. The order is: Work-Jobs-Activities-Tasks-Elements..

2. Craftsmanship vs. Modern Management:

The case 1 of the activity was based on craftsmanship whereas case 2 of the activity was on the principles of modern management.

A craftsman may be very skilled but he is not organized and has lower productivity. This is the old style of management. The advantage of craftsmanship is that, satisfaction is the most and skill is the highest.

Case 2 of the activity was based on Modern Management philosophy. It used division of labour and managerial skills to improve productivity. The worker was doing a mechanical job. But, that helped him develop few skills perfectly. Due to this division, tasks are well defined and large scale production is possible. By blindfolding, management is able to keep the decision making power in its hands, which in turn leads to better organization. The downside is the satisfaction level of workers is the less. This can be catered to by better management of human relations by the lower management.

There could have been no better way to explain such elaborative and practical concepts in such a practical manner.  It helped me understand the philosophy of the management at my previous workplace. I was able to penetrate deeper into their minds. I hope that this course continues to evolve my concepts further more as it progresses …