COMMITTEES

MEANING OF COMMITTEE

• Literally, the word ‘committee’ means those to whom some matter or charge is committed.

DEFINITION

• A committee may be defined as a group of persons in an organization for making or recommending certain decisions.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMITTEE:-

• A committee is a group of persons; there should be at least two persons limitation on the maximum number of persons.

• A committee is charged with dealing with specific problems and it cannot go in for actions in all spheres of activities.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMITTEE:-• Members of the committee have

authority to go into details of the problem. This authority usually is expressed in terms of one vote for each member.

• A committee may have the authority either to make a final decision or it may merely deliberate on problems without authority to decide.

• A committee may be constituted at any level of organization. Moreover, the members of a committee may be drawn from various levels.

GROUP BEHAVIOUR IN COMMITTEE

• The term “meeting” refers to group deliberation through which members are able to communicate face-to-face with each other.

• committee meeting is a type of group behaviour.

• committee is a formal group, its process must conform to organizational prescriptions

CHAIRMAN-MEMBERRELATIONSHIP

CHAIRMAN-MEMBERRELATIONSHIP

DECISION PROCESSDECISION PROCESS

GROUP PRESSUREGROUP PRESSURE

PARTICIPATIONPARTICIPATION GROUP BEHAVIORGROUP BEHAVIOR

CHAIRMAN-MEMBERS RELATIONSHIP

• A committee may have its own structure with responsibility and authority entrusted to every member.

• All members enjoy equal authority based on one-man one-vote.

• The chairman of the committee may be given more authority in the form of a casting vote to break deadlock and to arrive at some decision the responsibility of chairman to integrate the ideas of committee members

PARTICIPATION

• Group behaviour in committee tends to enforce participation from every member.

• Participation of members is important for arriving at some decision on a matter.

• When members participate in deliberations, they are likely to change some of their stands held as independent social element.

• This often brings mutually agreed upon decision.

GROUP PRESSURE • First, it is generally felt that very act of

integrating and pooling of ideas and views within the group results in a product that is greater than the sum of individual contributions.

• Second, the more loyalty one member feels towards other members of the committee, the more he tends to conform to group pressure. Therefore, the need of a member is to be liked and respected makes him to work according to the general thinking of the group.

DECISION PROCESS• First, at the initial stage, the group

tries to acquire the largest pool of common information about the situation.

• Second, the group tries to make inference and evaluation of information and to form common opinions in a general way.

• Third, it gets around more specific suggestions and solutions to the problem

CONSOLIDATION OF AUTHORITY

REPRESENTATION OF INTEREST GROUP

FACILITY FOR COORDINATION

TRANSMISSION & SHARING OF INFORMATION

FEAR OF TOO MUCH AUTHORITY IN A SINGLE PERSON

A TOOL OF MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

POOLING OF KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

PROBLEMS IN COMMITTEES:-

• HIGH COST

• SLOW DECISIONS

• INDECISION

• MINORITY TYRANNY.

• SPLITTING OF RESPONSIBILITY.

MEASURES FOR MAKING COMMITTEES EFFECTIVE

A persual of plus and minus points of committees suggests that the advantages of committees score over the disadvantages.

WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE SIZE OF A COMMITTEE?

EXPERTS’ IDEA RELATED TO SIZE OF COMMITTEE

According to • Allen -> five-six as ideal size• dale-> five –nine as ideal no.

But what are the factors which can determine size of committee?

APPROPRIATE SIZE

It should be determined on the basis of qualitative factors such factors such as

• Purpose of committee• Personalities of members• Qualities of members• Participation of members

The basic idea should be to promote deliberations and to include breadth of expertise required for committee.

SELECTION OF MEMBERS:-

SELECTION OF MEMBERS

• The basic objective in this case should be to achieve meaningful deliberations in committee meetings so that fruitful actions are taken by committee.

• Normally, higher is the degree of similarity among members’ personal characteristics; higher the degree of deliberations.

• Members should be friendly, known to each other, mutual respect to each other.

WELL DEFINED AUTHORITY AND SCOPE

The authority can be defined as whether the committee is responsible for decisions, recommendations for some actions, or mere deliberation for providing better insights of a problem

FEW TIPS TO IMPROVE AUTHORITY:

• Scope should be clearly specified.

• Subject matter should be clear to members of the committee.

• Things should be made clear through writing so that there is almost no scope of ambiguity.

NATURE OF SUBJECT MATTER• Committee work should be limited to

subject matter that can be handled by group discussion e.g.

• for establishing major objectives, policies

• overall review of past performance• coordination of work, and• decision over jurisdiction disputes.

WHAT SHOULD BE CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE CHAIRMAN ?

EFFECTIVE CHAIRMAN

FUNCTIONS OF EFFECTIVE CHAIRMAN :-• Planning the meetings• Preparing the agenda• Communicating proposal before head to

committee members• Arranging definite proposal for discussion

or action.• Conducting the meetings effectively. • Dual role .He has to work as task leader

and social leader. • Motivated to discharge his responsibility.

LOGICAL PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING MEETINGS

ACCORDING TO ALLEN,

The various activities in sequence requires are:- Analysis of problem in terms of what cause it Suggested alternative solutions Group discussion on various suggested

alternatives Integrating opinion expressed by members ,so as

to arrive at agreed decisions.

CIRCULATION OF MINUTES &CHECKING CONCLUSIONS

CIRCULATION OF MINUTES &CHECKING CONCLUSIONS

• Minutes of the meeting should be recorded carefully

• Circulated for information to committee members

• Correction or modification ,if needed.

• Action taken on recommendations should also be communicated.

COST CONSIDERATION