Business project of 12 class on 14 priciples of managment on vishal mega mart
Answers
I carried out a project in Vishal Mega Mart, as per our course curriculum for Business Studies, under the guidance of our teacher, Sri Basanta Das. I take this opportunity to thank him as well as the Management and Staff of Vishal Mega Mart. It was a business project in which Fayol’s 14 principles of management, as implemented by the Company, were studied. I wish to also record my profound appreciation of the role played by the wonderful paper written by Prof Carl A. Rodrigues of Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA, on the theory propounded by Fayol, the French industrialist, in making organisational manpower effective in producing the desired results. This paper provided the contour within which I carried out my study.
Fayol’s original theory was management-centric; today, it is practiced in a more worker or employee-centric way to achieve the desired goals. My observations were thus, quite naturally, made with the worker or employee as the pivot of all activities.
I give below the 14 principles of managing today’s business effectively and briefly my observation at one of Vishal Mega Mart’s stores.
1) Generalisation in worker’s job design: All employees in the store were generalists, as opposed to specialists. All of them could fit into the role of anyone else in the event of absenteeism.
2) Employees are empowered: All employees in the store were empowered to take decisions, with negligible supervision, at the level they were functioning.
3) Informal peer-pressure controls: This was observed quite significantly at the retail counters. While there was camaraderie all around, peer-pressure due to performance brought out the best in the sales personnel.
4) Subordinates report to multiple bosses: There were several managers with specialised functions, based on products and services. Hence, the subordinates were seen to be reporting to multiple bosses as each of them was handling a range of products.
5) Functions have multiple plans and bosses: Each function or business objective is handled by a different boss, quite naturally with a different business plan too. The employees lower down were seen to have fitted into their roles in a commensurate manner.
6) Organisation is committed to employees and vice versa: By reposing trust and empowering with adequate responsibility, the store functioned seamlessly. Needs, goals and rewards were well-defined and adhered to, hence there was no hitch.
7) Performance based reward system: With a well-defined incentive plan, the shop functioned smoothly.
8) Task relevant, ad hoc decision making: All human activities cannot be predicted, hence in tackling a problem or for improving upon a job situation impromptu ad hoc decisions were taken. If these were relevant to the task, they were respected.
9) Less-formalised, flatter communication structure: The communication system was very informal and would be carried out at one or two levels of the hierarchy.
10) Internal information system for coordination purposes: For ease in coordinating issues, internal information systems are put in place.
11) Commitment obtained through a “sense of ownership”: Every employee or group of employees are collectively made to feel like owners with the introduction of the profit centre concept.
12) On-going employee training and development: This was not only for improving the skill sets of the employees, but also to refresh existing skills by breaking the monotony of routine activity once in a while.
13) Workers conceive and implement new ideas: Application of this management principle cemented the feeling of ownership.
14) Maintaining high morale among workers is not imperative: If 1 to 13 is implemented, it is not necessary to artificially prop up morale in the organisation, hence Vishal Mega Mart ignores maintaining a high morale among employees.