IMR JAN 2013 - Indira Institutes

Seth Consultantsresources you have got. Why should he berestricted to work in only YOUR areas ofspecialization? Let him do research inwhatever area he likes. ”The other officer interjected, “Yes, that iscorrect let him do whatever he likes. Behappy if his shadow falls on you.”“But the cost …”, the HoD of Pharmacy startedto splutter.“Cost? Bah!" was the condescending reply,"Are you accountants? No? Concentrate onscience and leave such mundane bookkeeping type tasks to the Industrial StudiesDepartment,” (“Till they are shut down,” theother added sotto voice).“Just be happy that unlike SOMEdepartments you are not at present in anydanger of being made redundant. ConsiderNexteinstein's appointment in yourdepartment as your reward!”V: And that, my dear friends, is your answer.L: But what has that story to do with us?Y: Everything. When the big bosses foundthat some departments were lagging behindin new product development they decided to“help” us by providing us with “experts”. Letus not start about what we wanted. Just oneexample is enough: one time, we wanted acivil engineer with expertise in modelling.Finally we reached a compromise and agreedto accept anyone with mathematicalmodelling expertise. They did not recruit us acivil engineer nor did they get us an expert inmodelling. Instead they transferred K, who isa mechanical engineer to us. Now, I shouldnot comment about someone else's abilities,but K himself says that he has spent his entirelife in maintenance and forgotten all hisacademics! And now if you say words like'design' or 'model' in front of him he looks atyou blankly. So on paper we have expertise,but our “experts” have no knowledge aboutour practical engineering problems. ( 6)V: And these are the people who topmanagement has faith in. And not only thatthat – all the new “experts” have been directlyrecruited in grade B. So on the one hand topmanagement complains about productivityand on the other hand we are dumped withuseless fellows, who are paid high salaries,but who do no work.L: Yes. That seems to be a common featurethese days. Even in our department, the newrecruits are all interested in new productdevelopment, but when it comes to thenormal work they all complain about theworkload and the quality of their work ispathetic. All absolutely lazy lumps! But afterthe new pay scales were altered, they were allplaced in grade D or even C with the rest of uspeople, who have been bursting ourselves,slogging here for so many years.KV: It finally happened.Y: What?V: H lost his temper.L: H lost his temper? But he is so calm andquiet. I cannot imagine him shouting.V: He didn't shout. The committee called himfor a meeting where the new billingprocedures were being discussed. Our CEOwas there and made some comment aboutpeople being unaware about the billingprocedures. H very politely told him that itwas possible that he (H) didn't know aboutthe billing procedures. Then he continuedthat he had been here almost 15 years, doingvarious tasks including preparing the billingstatements from his first year. He finished bysaying that he was quite sure that there couldIndira Management Review - Jan 2013 81