Human Values Based Management
N. Nagaraj
In these days of cut-throat competition among companies and individuals, values, both personal and organisational, take on significance. What is apparent, though, is that not many companies take care of this aspect of human life. Catalyst met Dr. S. K. Chakraborty, Professor and Convenor, Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Dr. Chakraborty's actual background is in Finance and Accounting and his PhD degree bordered on management, sociology and organisational behaviour. ``After a couple of years, I sensed a gap between skills and values. There was a rising curve of skills and the values curve was plateauing, if not actually falling, and this was true right from the CEO down to the unionised staff. This is not only in business but also in the general way of life. There was disturbing evidence that the skills-values gap existed from parliament to pavement.'' This gap was like a wedge that affected the effectiveness of organisations simply because it caused a lot of ``energy leakage, between person to person, function to function, department to department.''
On Values
``It does not mean things that I want to possess or have. Like a Maruti car. It is not a commodity or an object that I want to acquire.'' What does it mean then? ``It is the states of emotions and feelings that underpin the content of a decision and that guides its implementation.'' One could broadly categorise values as positive values and negative values. For instance, jealousy is a negative value and friendliness is a positive value. If one looks at in terms of energy wasted and energy conserved, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the positive value, friendliness, contributes to the organisation's effectiveness than jealousy, a negative value. ``There are more examples like this pair... greed vs. contentment... arrogance vs. humility.''
``One more thing was that an idion, a language, for treating values in management did not exist then. We had to reconstruct... In our idiom, we call negative values disvalues and we call positive values human values.''
On Skills Vs. Values
While skills are not disregarded and given their due, the underpinning of the driving force of the skills, values, are not given enough importance. ``The function of skills is a function of values. They unavoidably dictate the way skills are used. Take a sharp knife... it is a tool that can be used to remove an abscess or it could be used to injure a person. It is the person who uses it that matters.'' The problem with values is that we are not dealing with absolutes. So, organisations should try and put the disvalues on a leash. ``One must realise that disvalues cost and cost heavily.'' ``One example of Skills Vs Values is in the Ramayan. Ram, with strong values and weak skills, triumphed over Ravan, who had strong skills but weak values.''
On Values and Governance
``If self-governance is there, corporate governance emerges.'' Whenever a system is designed or a structure adopted, there is almost immediately subversion of the system or structure. ``This is conveniently called `system failure'. People make it fail. People create the system and work it. What we really need is strategic corporate investment in this area.''
On Human Values based programmes
There is no sure fire way of instilling values or working with values in this context. ``There is no magic potion or formula. Skills are objective... Values are subjective.'' It is easy to measure the results of a programme that provides skills; that's not possible with values. Then what assurance does the organisation have that its investment has induced some return? ``It has to be an act of faith. Any decision is an act of faith. When you use discounted cash flows to make an investment decision, it is an act of faith. It is just that a decision on values is probably affected to a larger degree by faith.''
On Programmes conducted by the Centre for Human Values
Around 350 people from all levels -- management to staff association -- from the State Bank of India are scheduled to take this programme. ``It all started with a talk that I gave one evening in Mumbai... around 30 of their top people attended a short programme and now it is at this level. There is no `we promise tou this...' As an investment, it is only something that shows up in the revenue account... not in the balance sheet directly... People feel the subtle advantages. They realise that the quality of perspective, interpersonal relations and communications, and assimilation of information increases.''
An example from the private sector would be a Calcutta-based Ambuja Group company. ``They have institutionalised it. Every floor in their office has a separate area for employees to engage in the `quality mind process'. What happens when you walk into one of these rooms is that the lights are off and you would find people with their eyes closed and performing breathing exercises. The objective is to `interiorise'... to collect the scattered thoughts. The focus on breathing on the mind is just like a convex lens that collects the sun's rays and concentrates the light on one spot. At other times, the human mind is like a concave lens.''
In conclusion...
``There are two approaches to organisational interventions... The first is to take a fast but shallow approach, and the other is to take a slow and deep approach.'' The programmes helps in a slow and deep approach. This is something that has to be experienced rather than learn it like a lesson from a lecture or a textbook.