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724. Organisational Inconsistencies

India is a poor country and there are over a hundred reasons for it. The productivity of the US worker has increased fifty times - note 50-fold - since 1950. Naturally they are affluent. Today we can say our minimum wage is Rs. 100/- per day. The US minimum wage is approximately Rs. 3000/-. They work thirty times better. The reasons are many and varied -- technology that is superior, abundant human energy of dynamic citizens, higher level of education, the social milieu, the respect for the individual, especially for women and children, equality of people of all descriptions, an atmosphere of utter personal freedom, etc. etc. The same fund of energy in the US as in India gets converted into a far greater and better result because of organisational efficiency, which is different from technological superiority. One part of that organisational effectivity is that the AUTHORITY has moved down from the top and functions at various low levels on its own.

Authority is effectively delegated. Delegated authority defines the personality of the worker. He is thus enthused, energised, and motivated because what he does he sees as his own achievement. In India, it is still at the conceptual stage. Top management pays lip service to delegation. Executives in a private establishment do not go by the rules laid down, the speeches given, by the tone of those speeches and what the top actually desires. Very readily they tune themselves to the real inner requirements of the employer. When Khrushchev announced liberalisation in the USSR, he still behaved like Stalin and the rank and file treated him as Stalin. If you are presiding over a vast organisation, and you are genuinely interested in delegating authority, you will see that it is very hard for you to persuade the executives to act as you wish.

People are not used to freedom. They can be licentious.  You cannot easily persuade people below to act on their own. They will, time and again, do what you had wished long ago. Suppose you successfully persuade them, you will witness the entire organisation becoming lax and no one taking any substantial responsibility. It is an art to delegate authority and it is a science of management to make that delegated authority have the desirable effect on productivity. It is not enough to instruct. It is necessary to train. Before training your executives, look into yourself. See how much you are HAPPY to part with the authority vested in you. There will be a wrench in giving it up. Let it be a true desire that is translated into action through instructions followed by training.



story | by Dr. Radut