Lecture 02

In the second lecture, Dr. Prasad talked about Theory X and Theory Y managers the class shared personal experiences about these two types of managers in the real world.

Theory X

In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised.

Scenario 1: In this scenario, Employees are lazy and Manager thinks employees are lazy

Scenario 2: In this scenario, Employees are good and Manager thinks employees are lazy

An example of Theory X manager is the time clock. You have to clock in partly because the management thinks you'll arrive late and leave early if you don't.

Theory Y

In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control.  A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work.

Scenario 1: In this scenario, Employees are lazy and Manager thinks employees are good

Scenario 2: In this scenario, Employees are good and Manager thinks employees are good

An example of Theory Y is an artist on contract to produce art. You tell the artist what you want done but you leave it to him/her when and how to do it as long as they produce what you want within your timeline. She can paint at 2AM for all you care - as long as you get art by the deadline.

Lecture 01

On a Thursday morning, woken up from deep slumber for a 9 AM lecture, I geared myself for the first class of the subject ‘Principles of Organization and Management’.  Expecting four hours of a sleepy lecture, I went half heartedly to Syndicate 1. To our surprise, entered Prof T. Prasad, full of life and beaming with energy carrying a variety of toys which left us all perplexed.

Then started an amazing four hour ride into the world of Management and Leadership – not by boring theoretical concepts, but practical examples and activities.

Dr. Prasad (fondly known as Dr. Mandi for conceptualizing the idea of the event Mandi wherein students sell various educational toys in the market and the funds generated are used to support an NGO)  insisted on the ideology that ‘if you are smart enough to spend then you are smart enough to earn’. He helped us to introspect and realize the importance of earning while learning and I was greatly motivated to start a venture while at NITIE.

The catch line phrases and slogans that Sir used stirred a motivational spree in almost everyone and we chanted along:

Soacho.. Becho !  Becho.. Seekho ! !   Seekho .. Soacho ! ! !

Behatar Padhai ke Liye... Kamai !

Earning by Learning . & .Earning for Learning  !

Aaj Ki roti...Aaj hee,  kamyaenghae  ! 

TOWER BUILDING EXERCISE


In the second half of the session, Sir asked us to bid for playing a tower building game. The person to bid the highest was selected and we were asked to guess the number of cubes that could be placed one over the other.  The entire class was asked to write their estimates on a piece of paper. Finally, a tower of 17 cubes was built.

Then we were asked to consider a hypothetical situation in which the student would be blindfolded while making the tower and we were asked to estimate the height of the tower in that case. There were three groups of people which came to light after this exercise.

The first group consisted of people who decreased the estimate in the second case. A majority of people fell into this category. This group was an example of managers who do not believe in their team and get bogged down by difficulties.

The second group consisted of people who did not change their estimate in the second case. These people are examples of static managers.

The third group consisted of people who increased the estimate in the second case. They are the reflection of the progressive managers. They believe in their team’s capabilities even if hurdles come their way.