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Offline (Print) Vol 1 Issue 4

Engaging the new generation employee 2Creativity and Innovation 3Designing A Corporate HR Plan 4The Balanced Scorecard 9A New Look at HR 12

T H E M A T E R I A L W O R L D M A NA G E M E N T J O U R N A L

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Editorial

Engaging the new generation employeeRajib Kumar

Engaging the new generation has been one of the more if not most challenging areas in modern organizations forpeople managers. How do you communicate with a 23 year old who has every part of his body wired (and thereforerendered himself incommunicable)?

He may be into his own brand of “multitasking” ---how chatting on Facebook/Orkut with his latest sensation: aMidwestern country girl now based in DC and catching up with his mom over his newly acquired mobile set; nowadding final touches to his project report to be sent to his overseas bosses in Connecticut and having a slice ofpizza for a quickie lunch.

Organizational support systems must facilitate building personal capabilities and not just skills. The idea is toachieve goals and add value to the organization. Productivity is indeed the key word and as long as our techieShyamlal Chaturvedi aka Sams manages to achieve this it shouldn’t be anybody’s business, how much decibeltransmits through his i-pod plugged into his ears to keep him in good cheer or for that matter what his bill at thenightclub comes out to be during the weekends.

Engaging the new generation employee is the second level in the cycle:

This is in fact a sequel to the challenges in classroom teaching or training. Young people have been exposed tovirtually everything and anything. Nothing seems to excite them .The word called “euphoria” shall soon be a thing ofthe past. The act of inspiring (a la a great teacher inspires) is a task twenty times more difficult than what it used tobe.

To deal with this therefore requires a concerted effort by academia and industry.

OFFLINE (PRINT) Volume 1, No. 4 (2008-09) Editorial Team

Editor: Rajib KumarAssociate Editor: Anurina KumarLayout Assistant: Suman Datta

Material World Board of Advisors:

Biswajit Matilal, Media & PR PersonalityGautam Chatterjea, Ex-Oligvy & Mather, Image & Marketing Consultant

Hirak Bhattacharjee, Ex-Indian OilA.K. Roy- Ex-Exide

Views contained in the Offline Print Edition do not necessarily purport to constitute an official position of the editorialteam or the Material World Group. Comments, Suggestions and contributions for the forthcoming edition may please bemailed to: offline@materialworldind.com or couriered/posted to The Editor, Offline, C/O Material World, 3C Rafi Ahmed

Kidwai Road, Kolkata 700 013 Editor: Rajib Kumar © Material World 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

www.materialworldind.comhttp://materialworldind.blogspot.comhttp://materialworldknowledge.blogspot.comhttp://studyinusa-materialworld.blogspot.com

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CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION-ANINTRODUCTION

Suvendu Narayan Roy

Do the managers have the creative andinnovative ability needed for theirorganisations to survive in an increasinglycompetitive environment? If intuition is anindication of creativity and innovation, wefind that almost 25 per cent of all managerswere primarily intuitive when solvingproblems and making decisions. Is intuitionin managers an important asset to theirorganisations? What is called the “creative-innovative” decision-making style was foundin alnost 25 per cent of the managers. Thisarticle suggests that intuition as decision-making style appears to be related toorganisational effectiveness. Severalmanagers are intuitive. Whether the intuitivemanagers are more effective than othersremains to be seen.

Creativity is a mental process involving thegeneration of new ideas or concepts, or newassociations of the creative mind betweenexisting ideas or concepts. From a scientificpoint of view, the products of creativethought (sometimes referred to as divergentthought) are usually considered to have bothoriginality and appropriateness. Analternative, more everyday conception ofcreativity is that it is simply the act of makingsomething new.

Creativity- Indian Examples:

Most of you are aware that India in the midstof mobile revolution. Mobile subscribers inIndia are growing at nearly 100% year onyear and rural subscriber growth is takinglion’s share of it. Recently TRAI announcedthat India has reached 250 millionsubscriber targets much before scheduledtime. This pace of growth is expected toremain for at least a few years from now.

Traditional advertising is now giving way tomobile advertising, which is more personaland better targeted. The conversion rate formobile advertisement is expected to bemuch higher than print or TV advertising.

This opens up a huge avenue for advertisersto market their product or get their messageacross.

Take the recent example of Fair & Lovelyscholarships ad campaign, promoted viaReliance Mobile, which got selected as afinalist for the US-based 2007 MobileMarketing Association Awards

Reliance Mobile — which has an activesubscriber base of over 35 million and 20million Reliance World application enabledhand-sets — executed a pan India adcampaign from mid August to midSeptember, 2007, on Reliance Mobile phonenetwork.

Clickable banner ads in various languagesand a special Fair & Lovely ScholarshipZone was created for R World. The bannerads were linked to a micro site whereinterested students were supposed toprovide their details like annual familyincome and the course they intend topursue.

SMS marketing using Short Code (51234)and Instant Voice Response (IVR) system insome cities were also used to informstudents about the scholarships.

Fair & Lovely scholarships mobile adcampaign generated around 50,000 leadsout of which 60 per cent were from tier IIand III cities and 40 per cent from urbancities.

On the other hand, the term innovation mayrefer to both radical and incrementalchanges in thinking, in things, in processesor in services. Invention that gets out intothe world is innovation. In many fields,something new must be substantiallydifferent to be innovative, not an insignificantchange, e.g., in the arts, economics,business and government policy. Ineconomics the change must increase value,customer value, or producer value. The goalof innovation is positive change, to make

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someone or something better. Innovationleading to increased productivity is thefundamental source of increasing wealth inan economy.

INNOVATION-AN INDIANEXAMPLE:

Innovation in the IndianInformation Technology Industry:A Study of the Software ProductDevelopment Process

We examine the Indian context for softwareproduct development and build on thegeneral literature on product development todevelop an understanding of the softwareproduct development process in India. Wedo the latter by drawing from a detailedstudy of six specific software productdevelopment projects of six different Indianfirms. The products were chosen to providea variety of industrial contexts, types offirms, types of markets and levels ofcustomization. Based on a cross-productanalysis on parameters such as productdefinition and positioning, choice of product,technology, product architecture andcustomization, version management,marketing and product launch, reward andincentive systems, and quality systems, wedraw implications for software productdevelopment by companies and for policymakers in the Indian context.

It is important to distinguish betweencreativity and innovation because theprocesses are different, the risks aredifferent, the starting points are different,and the climates needed for achievementare different, and there are consequences ofthese differences. Why is it that Americanbusiness is very much more comfortablewith innovation than with creativity? It’sbecause innovation is a lot safer; it isincremental; it is building on an alreadyestablished product or process, and it is fareasier to achieve success than starting fromscratch. Conceiving and making the firstpost-it-notes was the result of a creativeprocess. Making them of different sizes,shapes, and colors was an innovation basedon that original creative idea.

Creativity requires a different executivemindset than innovation, particularly inbusiness applications. Creativity requires anacceptance of risk, commitment of time andresources and the acceptance of possiblefailure. Creativity must be thought of as aninvestment. You don’t start it and stop it. Theorganization must have a long termcommitment to being creative. Takentogether, these requirements affect themanagement culture of the organization thataspires to be creative.

Organizations that are totally creative willhave their new products and services readyto launch, but often too few current productsare sufficiently up-to-date and competitive togenerate the cash needed to fund theircreativity. Every industry has its ownexamples of the costly consequences of thislack of differentiation between the two. Onesthat come to mind are: automotive,aerospace, electronic, computer,pharmaceutical, photographic, apparel, andthere are, no doubt, many others.

The author Suvendu Narayan Roy is AssociateDean of Academics, Annex College ofManagement Studies, Kolkata

Corporate Governance

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing allday. A small rabbit saw the crow and asked him:"Can I also sit like you and do nothing all daylong?" The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So,the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, andrested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumpedon the rabbit and ate it.Q: What can we learn from this?A: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be

sitting very high up.

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As the business year has completed andthe industry and the stakeholders areanxiously waiting for the results, thecorporate world hardly has time to take rest,rather the honchos have gathered todevelop new strategy to chalk out thecorporate plan for the new financial year.The corporate plan whether involving issuesranging from creation of a new imagebuilding drive or setting up of a new divisionor outsourcing of some non-core activitiesinvolve vital inputs from its HR department.To offer meaningful inputs in the businessprocess of organization value chain duringrecent times the role of HR has becomenoteworthy. HR just cannot remain isolatedor behave like a mere headcount in theCorporate Think tank team. In order toensure proper assimilation of Companyobjectives with the aspiration of its peopleduring recent past the need of a corporateplan for HR department of the organizationhas been strongly felt. Such plan ifdeveloped thoughtfully helps theorganization to build its roadmap and thusmay act as a useful strategic managementtool. The following issues are required to bekept in mind at the time of developing theplan to ensure its deliverable value.

Role expectation of HRM wing

The general expectation in corporate circlesis to let HR perform its support service role,remain busy with people centric issues,maintain industrial peace and so on.Strangely, a good number of HR people arehappily carrying out such maintenance roleand thus when they look back find difficultyin counting one’s “Key Success Areas”. Thisissue becomes evident especially when theymake self-assessment at the year-end.Finding very little alternative became forceto express their performance for thepreceding years only on generic terms. It istrue that service role is important; rather it isthe foundation on which business housesare built upon. But out of absolute volatilenature of stability of the business houses inthis era of competition it is the need of the

hour to look after the detail of deliverablesrather than remain happy with doables only.

Culture related issues

HR often attributes lack of appropriateculture as the stumbling block for them toextend strategic support to the organization.They find difficulty in generating supportwhenever they come out with anyproposition of change. Unless theOrganization harness the HR philosophyhow could one deliver? But rather thanexpecting somebody else to clear the path itwould be better if HR itself shoulder thisrole. Definitely it is easy saying thanpracticing. But then, what is easy in thisworld – digging a well or opting for avacation at space. If the organization couldbe focused with its target to acquire adefinite part of pie of market share throughits sales organization why not HR teamwould not strive for achieving desired levelof cultural change indices. Even for thechoicest organization, there is a propensityto opt for professional service for culturesurvey without analyzing its utility value. Ifdesigned properly survey outcome may actas an important source of information but itwould be futile if HR is not sincere to solvegenuine people issues and mixes with allstakeholders.

Customer orientation of HR

To ensure that HR deliver on changeinitiatives processes the HR team is requiredto be exposed to both internal and externalcustomers of the business house. It isrequired to act as a glue for cross functionalalignment which may range from arrangingcross functional meeting on Mondaymorning to participate Yoga class with allcorner to mobilizing fund for marriage gift ofemployee ward. Other than transactCompany policy with employeerepresentative exchanging views oncontemporary issues always add value forrelationship building thus create a positiveatmosphere for acceptance of change

Designing A Corporate HR Plan

Indranil Banerjee

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initiatives thus works excellently assalesmanship. This is a phase whereHR’ization of organizations’ IR departmenttakes place and is viewed as a launchingpad for building a learning and knowledgeOrganization.

Alignment of organization goalto HRM function

At the time of building corporate plan the HRteam must be equipped with vital inputs ofcorporate objectives. Financial statements ofthe organization as well as its competitor,growth plan along the value chain anddemographically, plan for capturing marketshare are a few illustrations which requiredbeing readily available to the top team of HRto work upon. In spite of imparting trainingon general topics like “Finance for non-finance executives” the top team preferablyequipped by imparting industry specifictraining on “Interpretation of financialstatement” and “Financial implication of HRDecision”. This initiative generally buildsinterest level for active participation ofmanagers to the programme and helps tovisualize industry realities and appreciateissues while framing corporate plan.

End-to-end architecture of plan

Generally, organization plans for settingtarget. Once the year ends effort of going foranother round of target setting drive mayturn to be futile if we do not look back. It isworthwhile first to study previous years’corporate plan, check out the goals set,measure the achievement made, analyzethe gap, if any, and cause thereof and oncethese processes are over then only plan forsetting target for next year.

Measuring Indices

We all know that if we are not planningfor success, we are simply planning forfailure. To check out our wards’ performancewe anxiously look for the school annualreport, simultaneously before makinginvestment decision one should look for theCompany balance sheet. It is time toconsider that if measurement process isaccepted practice for judging valuecontribution at every walk of life why the

same is not relevant for HR. Similarly, ifcompensation is determined for everyadditional number of units sold by asalesman why the same analogy is notapplicable for HR. Here lies the importanceof measurement. However, before wedevelop a measurement system it isimperative to know what to measure andthen derive the inherent how part. Thesedays it has become one significant issue forcorporate to address. Whenever we checkup for revamping our existing measurementsystem it should be remembered thatmeasurement is a key driver forperformance and not the performance itself.Also at the time of deriving corporate planthe periodical benchmarking of individual HRprocess necessarily be aligned to get bestresult out of the plan. The HR teampreferably must develop its own system ofmeasurement and thus needs to beprovided with relevant software and desiredtraining for this purpose.

Transaction approach

Normally, cascading of managementdecision run down the hierarchy and thusessentially a Top-down process. There iscommon grievance of the operating levelmanagement regarding unilateral approachof top management of imposing decision toexecute without assessing prevailing groundrealities and thus advocate for bottom upapproach. Providing democratic platform foroperating managers to encourageinformation flow to reach decisions iswelcome but the issues cannot be left tomercy of individual one whims. A sensiblebalance of both approach make thecorporate plan realistic and contributesignificantly not only to expresscomprehensive mission statement of the HRorganization, but, also act as a controldevise.

Level of specialization

HR is not administration but definitely hasevolved out of administration. The HRstarted with its welfare role and significantlymoved to the direction of employeedevelopment for better productivity. At thetime of holding corporate plan meeting it is

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also advantageous to have the generalistpeople of administration, sharing thecorporate objectives and funding issues.Many a time HR thinks due to lack ofadministrative support the best of planremain unimplemented. Thus, it isworthwhile to discuss budget constraintsand implementation timeline for individualagenda. While handling HR specializationinitiatives like Training & Development, it isworthwhile to keep the long-term objectivesof the Organization in mind. Similarly, issuesrelated to Compensation & Benefits need tobe dealt after comprehensive study ofavailable salary survey of the industry andcontemporary HR market. The robustPerformance Management linked with C&Band T&D are guiding factors of Talentmanagement practice and thus is helpful asattrition control device. There is a generalpropensity to undermine the PersonnelService function although it delivers the finalproduct. It is true that now-a-days thecompanies are forging ahead to reachabsolute specialization but what is the use ofdesigning great HR policies if the same isnot implemented and the benefit are notpassed onto all the stakeholders. The spiritshould be in acknowledging the contributionof Personnel Service provider at operatinglevel and request for their support for futureimplementation.

Conclusion

If the corporate plan of the organization isconsidered as the part of initiation ofscheduling projects the same analogy isequally applicable for HR plan too. Theprocess should ideally start by mid Marchand be finalized by mid April andcommunicated across the organization in adocumented manner, which would work asguiding principle to achieve corporate HRgoal. Recently across the corporate circlesthere is a hue & cry to implement BalanceScorecard. More specific HR Scorecard isalso floating. The scorecard is an internalcontrol devise and works as motivator ifproperly displayed for both internal andexternal customer. It may have a significantimpact for a large, diversified and complexorganization. However it would be a prudentstep to check up relevancy of same forsmaller organizations. The experience saysmuch effort on measurement may lead to

shift of focus from performance topresentation. The corporate HR Plan is astrategic tool and must have someuniqueness every year. It should reflectseriousness of the HR team to help bottom-line of the organization without being anysource of embarrassment for the topmanagement. It should be transparentwithout any hidden agenda concerning theemployees in general. To generate supportfrom all corners and enhance buy-in of theplan, it should be launched by CEO of theorganization.

Indranil Banerjee is Manager (P&A), WB StateElectricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Kolkata. He canbe reached at indranil.hr@gmail.comThe views expressed above are the author’s ownand does not necessarily purport to constitute anofficial position of Offline or MW.

☺Leadership vs. Management

When Noah heard the weatherforecast he ordered the building of

the ark.--- that was Leadership

Then he looked around and said,"Make sure the elephants don't see

what the rabbits are up to."--- that was Management

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The balanced scorecard is a strategicplanning and management system that isused extensively in business and industry,government, and nonprofit organizationsworldwide to align business activities to thevision and strategy of the organization,improve internal and externalcommunications, and monitor organizationperformance against strategic goals. It wasoriginated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (HarvardBusiness School) and David Norton as aperformance measurement framework thatadded strategic non-financial performancemeasures to traditional financial metrics togive managers and executives a more'balanced' view of organizationalperformance. While the phrase balancedscorecard was coined in the early 1990s, theroots of the this type of approach are deep,and include the pioneering work of GeneralElectric on performance measurementreporting in the 1950’s and the work ofFrench process engineers in the early partof the 20th century.

The balanced scorecard has evolved fromits early use as a simple performancemeasurement framework to a full strategicplanning and management system. The“new” balanced scorecard transforms anorganization’s strategic plan from anattractive but passive document into the"marching orders" for the organization on adaily basis. It provides a framework that notonly provides performance measurements,but helps planners identify what should bedone and measured. It enables executivesto truly execute their strategies.

This new approach to strategic managementwas first detailed in a series of articles andbooks by Drs. Kaplan and Norton.Recognizing some of the weaknesses andvagueness of previous managementapproaches, the balanced scorecard

approach provides a clear prescription as towhat companies should measure in order to'balance' the financial perspective. Thebalanced scorecard is a managementsystem (not only a measurement system)

that enables organizations to clarify theirvision and strategy and translate them intoaction. It provides feedback around both theinternal business processes and externaloutcomes in order to continuously improvestrategic performance and results. Whenfully deployed, the balanced scorecardtransforms strategic planning from anacademic exercise into the nerve center ofan enterprise.

Kaplan and Norton describe the innovationof the balanced scorecard as follows:

"The balanced scorecard retains traditionalfinancial measures. But financial measurestell the story of past events, an adequatestory for industrial age companies for whichinvestments in long-term capabilities andcustomer relationships were not critical forsuccess. These financial measures areinadequate, however, for guiding andevaluating the journey that information agecompanies must make to create future valuethrough investment in customers, suppliers,employees, processes, technology, andinnovation."

Perspectives

The balanced scorecard suggests that weview the organization from fourperspectives, and to develop metrics, collectdata and analyze it relative to each of theseperspectives:

The Balanced ScorecardSaibal Chakraborty

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The Learning & Growth Perspective:

This perspective includes employee trainingand corporate cultural attitudes related toboth individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-workerorganization, people -- the only repository ofknowledge -- are the main resource. In thecurrent climate of rapid technologicalchange, it is becoming necessary forknowledge workers to be in a continuouslearning mode. Metrics can be put into placeto guide managers in focusing training fundswhere they can help the most. In any case,learning and growth constitute the essentialfoundation for success of any knowledge-worker organization.

Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning'is more than 'training'; it also includes thingslike mentors and tutors within theorganization, as well as that ease ofcommunication among workers that allowsthem to readily get help on a problem whenit is needed. It also includes technologicaltools; what the Baldrige criteria call "highperformance work systems."

The Business Process Perspective

This perspective refers to internal businessprocesses. Metrics based on thisperspective allow the managers to knowhow well their business is running, andwhether its products and services conformto customer requirements (the mission).These metrics have to be carefully designedby those who know these processes mostintimately; with our unique missions theseare not something that can be developed byoutside consultants.

The Customer Perspective:

Recent management philosophy has shownan increasing realization of the importanceof customer focus and customer satisfactionin any business. These are leadingindicators: if customers are not satisfied,they will eventually find other suppliers thatwill meet their needs. Poor performancefrom this perspective is thus a leadingindicator of future decline, even though thecurrent financial picture may look good.

In developing metrics for satisfaction,customers should be analyzed in terms ofkinds of customers and the kinds ofprocesses for which we are providing aproduct or service to those customer groups.

The Financial Perspective:

Kaplan and Norton do not disregard thetraditional need for financial data. Timelyand accurate funding data will always be apriority, and managers will do whatevernecessary to provide it. In fact, often there ismore than enough handling and processingof financial data. With the implementation ofa corporate database, it is hoped that moreof the processing can be centralized andautomated. But the point is that the currentemphasis on financials leads to the"unbalanced" situation with regard to otherperspectives. There is perhaps a need toinclude additional financial-related data,such as risk assessment and cost-benefitdata, in this category.

Saibal Chakraborty is a Training Consultant, DaleCarnegie, India.

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The acronym of HR refers to HumanResources. This is distinct from MaterialResources as it involves Intellectual Capital.Prof. Dave Ulrich has interpreted IntellectualCapital as a Product of Competencemultiplied by Commitment. Competencerepresents the can-do potential of anindividual while commitment indicates thewill-do-potential. It therefore, behoves on anHR Manager to optimize between these two.In essence, the purpose of HumanResource Management is to achieveorganizational effectiveness throughindividual effectiveness.

HRM strives to create an enabling workenvironment in an organization whichfacilitates employees to achieveorganizational effectiveness throughindividual effectiveness. Thus, HRM helps toreconcile between organizational goals andindividual goals. This is precisely what HRMshould strive to achieve. While all theresources at the command of anorganization can be shrewdly and blindlyimitated by the competitor to have an edgeover the rivals, it is the Human Resourcewhich eludes duplication due to itsuniqueness’ is not a number game, it is thesum total of the inherited intelligence,acquired knowledge, learned skill andaccumulated experience over the years.

According to J.Pfeffer, the significance ofHR as the greatest asset of an organizationassumes highest importance since itconstitutes the organization’s intangible,irreplaceable and inimitable resource.The above observations notwithstanding,HR is often criticized by it’s detractors. ThePremise on which the HRM concept isdenigrated is that HR practitioners areperceived to operate sitting in ivory towersand off-load ornamental and flashy jargonswhich either are not relevant or simply donot apply in the work place. To this extent,the HR person becomes a fallen hero, whois considered to be a drone at the mercy ofother functional specialists (such asSales,Finance, etc.,) who are regarded to bring intangible results more related to the bottom-line concerning sales, profits.

For obvious reasons, people in HR would beimmensely let down at this slanderousallegation. However, the situation need tobe analyzed dispassionately before asuitable rebuttal can be contemplated. Thiscalls for discerning the specific roles of HRas mentioned hereunder.

Basically, four HR roles exist. These include:Strategic Partner, Administrative Expert,Employee Champion, and Change Agent.These four roles need to be integrated into acoherent whole and that too, in a sequentialmanner which would sound logical.

Let us suppose, an individual takes up anassignment as an HR Manager. It is futile forthe Incumbent to talk about change unlessthe rank and file believes about the veracityand sanctity of such a prophecy. Therefore,a sensible approach would be to startworking shoulder-to-shoulder with people.This is where the concept of StrategicPartner comes in.

The HR practitioner has to transcend from athinker to a doer. Once done, people wouldlook up to the incumbent forproblemredressed/ technical advice.

Here lies the importance of anAdministrative Expert. The HR person thenhas to win confidence of one and all. He/shecan do this once he/she emerges as thedarling of the team. This can be realized ifthe role of Employee Champion is displayed.Here the HR guy acts as an emissary of thepeople to top management.

Once accomplished, it is only then that theHR person can profess change. The role ofChange Agent therefore comes eventually.In this capacity, the HR person acts as afacilitator who catalyses metamorphosis andushers in the change process. Needless tomention, such a dovetailed approach willhelp elevate HR’s esteem to others.Regrettably, the crux of the problem lieselsewhere as enumerated below. Peopletend to make an excess of each role.Instead of being a true Strategic Partner, HRindividuals overdo such a role to an extentthat they become intelligent tool-kit. In lieu of

A New Look at HRDebaprasad Chattopadhyay

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serving as an administrative expert, the HRperson becomes a baffin. The employeechampion activities overstretch to those of abutler. Finally, the person in his/herEndeavour to serve as a change-agent inabundance lands as a dreamer. None ofthese excess-oriented roles are well takenby others in the organization and in the finalanalysis, HR makes as mockery of theposition. Foregoing considerations thereforebring us to the panacea of all ills. The HRpractitioner, as mentioned in the earlierparagraphs has to integrate the distinct fourroles: Strategic Partner, AdministrativeExpert, Employee Champion, and ChangeAgent instead of being exceedingly pre-occupied with any particular role.

Once this preponderance of one role overthe others is eliminated, undue obsessionwith a given role disappears and the personbecomes effective, efficient in his/her day-to-day operations. Others come to realize thatthe role is tangibly contributive to theorganization in terms of say, reducingattrition, minimize absenteeism andlateness, decreasing accidents and scrap.

The denouement is an unequivocalincreased QWL (Quality of Work Life),-definitely a goal to which not only HR looksahead but the entire organization ferventlyaspires for.

Prof Debaprasad Chattopadhyay is the HOD–HR, Globsyn Business School. The viewsexpressed in this article are the author’s own anddo not necessarily purport to constitute an officialposition of Offline or Material World.

Never say it at work

TWELVE THINGS YOU'LL NEVER HEARAN EMPLOYEE TELL HIS/HER BOSS

1. Never give me work in the morning.Always wait until 5:00 and then bring it tome. The challenge of a deadline is alwaysrefreshing.

2. If it's really a "rush job," run in andinterrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire howit's going. That greatly aids my efficiency.

3. Always leave without telling anyonewhere you're going. It gives me a chance tobe creative when someone asks where youare.

4. If my arms are full of papers, boxes,books or supplies, don't open the door forme. I might need to learn how to function asa paraplegic in future and opening doors isgood training.

5. If you give me more than one job to do,don't tell me which is the priority. Let meguess.

6. Do your best to keep me late. I like theoffice and really have nowhere to go oranything to do.

7. If a job I do pleases you, keep it a secret.Leaks like that could get me a promotion.

8. If you don't like my work, tell everyone. Ilike my name to be popular in conversations.

9. If you have special instructions for a job,don't write them down. If fact, save themuntil the job is almost done.

10. Never introduce me to the people you'rewith. When you refer to them later, myshrewd deductions will identify them.

11. Be nice to me only when the job I'mdoing for you could really change your life.

12. Tell me all your little problems. No oneelse has any and it's nice to know someoneis less fortunate.

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