Human Resources Management Reg. No.

22-05-14-0930-231

ASSIGNMENT NICMAR / CODE OFFICE

1. Name 2. Reg. No. 3. Course No. 4. Course Title 5. Assignment No. Gopal Dhussa 22-05-14-0930-231 NCB 46 Human Resources Management ONE

ASSIGNMENT
You are a Project Manager on a site where work for 3 K.M. long tunnel has been undertaken. The site is remote and takes about 2 days to travel to nearest town. Supervisors, technicians and skilled workers are engaged in dangerous / hazardous work. Absenteeism due to sickness, quarrels, drinking is adding to less output of work and chances of accident on site are increasing. Management has urged to do something so that time target can be achieved. Discuss how will you tackle the problem and increase the output of work.

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PROJECT BRIEF:
Our Company has been awarded a prestigious contract of building a 3 K.M. long tunnel. It was discovered through site study that site is located at a remote place, and takes about 2 days to travel to the nearest town. Considering the kind of project, various numbers of technicians, supervisors and skilled workers would be required to accomplish the task, which is dangerous and hazardous. The staff and material had been mobilized efficiently and the execution work had started as per our MASTER CONTROL NETWORK AND SUB-NETWORK. After the execution work had started, it was observed that the work was not moving at the required speed. We discovered that lot of skilled labor appointed to do this work, had been constantly remaining absent under the pretext of sickness, drinking and due to injuries occurred due to internal fights. Our Management requested us to resolve the problem at site, which was leading to delay in execution of work, and also requested us to increase the output in order to achieve the time target. My company, who has appointed me as the project in-charge for the above-mentioned project, wants to know the Plan of Action to be taken by me to resolve the above the problem. Facing this as one of the challenges that we as project in charge have to come along, started analyzing the problems in its depth and discovered various amazing facts that the people at site were facing which led to their so called problems. In the coming pages, we have given a brief description of various problems and how our efforts in solving most of them, helped us reach our time target.

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MANAGEMENT is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims. Our aim in this project was to execute work of a 3.0 K.M. long tunnel, which was located in a remote place. As done for any project, a clear concept of the project goal, so as to plan out activities and execute them efficiently was placed on the priority, so as to accomplish the goal at no extra cost and time. A construction project goes through 3 stages as mentioned below: 1) Pre-Construction Planning 2) Construction Stage 3) Post- Construction and Finalization It was at the pre-construction planning time, we had discovered that the said project would take minimum 2-1/2 years of time. To accomplish the task, in the anticipated time frame, site organization chart, giving full force of manpower and equipments required was prepared and the site planning for the same was designed. Since the project was for a longer duration, it was initially decided to move the staff along with the family. But very soon it was discovered that the site was located at a remote place where no human habitation existed and the nearest town was at a distance of 48 hours.

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Thus the company came to terms with the staff that they would be provided with an extra bonus and extra holidays at the end of the project term. The terms and conditions were agreed after discussions and the task of execution of work at site was to start. The site was mobilized immediately, since a Crack Force a team that would mobilize to site in order to build all temporary structures, services required for the enabling works had been already sent. This helped in cutting down the time required by the main project team in mobilizing. Management and leadership are often thought of as the same thing (see diagram no. :). Although it is true that the most effective manager will almost certainly be an effective leader and that leading as an essential function of managers, there is more to managing than just leading. Managing involves doing careful planning, setting up an organization structure that will aid people in achieving plans, and staffing the organization structure with people who are as competent as possible. The measurement and correction of peoples activities through controlling is also an important function of management. However, all this managerial functions accomplish little if managers do not know how to lead people and understand human factor in their operations in such a way as produce desired results. At the time of mobilization planning, it was designed to accommodate, every 5 skilled labor in one room and the staff was grouped accordingly. Considering the distance of the nearest town, being at 48 hours traveling distance, it was also decided to make provision for small conventional stores for the convenience of the on- site staff. Since the staff was going to be at site for a period of almost 2-1/2 years, a small clubroom, consisting of television, carom table and card table were also designed for the entertainment of the staff. To avoid any fights among the group of people for preparing food, a common canteen was designed in order to facilitate the on-site staff with breakfast/ lunch/dinner and tea. It was management decision to take care of basic amenities for the on-site staff.

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It was almost after 2 months, that the execution work had started, during one of the progress meetings, we were made to understand, that there was a constant fall of output of work, in spite of having the same amount of input that was initially made. Our management was highly concerned about the slow progress of work and asked us to take some action and increase the output in order to achieve the time target. Its do truly said A stitch in time saves nine, here was the time to analyze the problem and resolve, so as not to regret latter. One of the frequently mentioned skills of managers is analytical and problem solving ability. As once someone said, We have no problems here, all are opportunities; all a problem should be an opportunity. In other words, a good manager must be able identify problems, analyze complex situations, and by solving the problems encountered, exploit the opportunities presented. They must scan the environment and identify, through a rational process, those factors that stand in the way of opportunities. Thus it was decided to use analytical skills to explore the reasons for the delay of work, and then to satisfy those needs with a product or service. Managers should also need the will to implement the solutions; they must recognize the emotions, needs and motivations of the people involved in initiating the required change as well as of those who resist the change. Managing also involves achieving enterprise objectives. Achieving results is important, but the means must never violate the dignity of people. The concept of individual dignity means that people must be treated with respect, no matter what their position in the organization. The aim of each one is to achieve the result in benefit to the enterprise. It is always better for a manager to openly review the progress of work with the entire team. He should never give directions. Rather, thru a free exchange of views, he should lead the entire team forward into a new terrain which often revealed an unforeseen solution. He may be aware that though a particular goal might be clear to him, and he could give adequate directions for its accomplishment, his team members might have

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resisted working towards a goal that made no sense to them. He should consider the collective understanding of the problem the main attribute of effective leadership.

A good manager should bring into use each persons knowledge and skills. He should make every man feel directly involved in problem solving. By the very fact of the team members participation, the solutions became genuine and earned the trust of the entire team resulting in total commitment towards implementation. Anyone who has taken up the responsibility to lead a team can be successful only if he is sufficiently independent, powerful and influential in his own right to become a person to reckon with. This is perhaps also the path to individual satisfaction in life, for freedom with responsibility is the only sound basis for persons happiness. Since I was given a free hand to resolve the problem at site by management, it became easier to analyze the problem and tackle the same. Leading is the process of influencing people so that they will contribute to organization and group goals. People heading teams often have one of the following two orientations, for some, work is often the most important motivation; for others their workers are the all-consuming interest. There are many others who fall either between these two positions or outside them. My job was going to be to avoid those who were interested neither in the work nor in the workers. I was determined to prevent people from taking either extreme and to promote conditions where work and workers went to together. I visualized my team as a group in which each member worked to enrich the others in the team and experience the enjoyment of working together. On doing analytical survey, various reasons were discovered, which were leading to delay in work at site. First and foremost it was found there were a group of people who perpetually remained absent and did not come to work every second or third day. Some of them were not healthy enough to work and had some other health related problems.

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Secondly it was also discovered that there were lot internal fights among the groups, living together, which led to fights at sight. Many of them had got into the habit of drinking, and which again became the reason for them to quarrel among their coworkers. (As can seen in diagram no.) Reasons for Absenteeism: Each human being is an individual within himself, with individual physiological and psychological capacities. The condition of site, since being in a remote area, was an untouched land by human habitation. The environmental conditions were not very safe, though an effort was made to make it habitable. The common problem faced amongst people who remained ill were, regular asthmatic attacks and common cold and fever. Regularly people were found to fall sick due to water used for drinking and due to mosquito bites. On further investigation, it was discovered that people were facing this asthmatic attacks, because the site work consisted of blasting of mountain in order to create the passage to construct the tunnel. The problem was the material that flew at the time of blasting into the nose and eyes of the people working in the surrounding. People working in and around were found to be working without any masks to cover their face and the eyes. Thus one of the reasons was quickly discovered and solution of calling for helmets, having hood to protect eyes was concluded. The other reason for the sickness was water that was consumed directly and through cooking, was not purified using any purifying agents and the mosquito bites led frequently to fever and cold. Thus it was decided to appoint a doctor, who would first and foremost give doses for preventing malaria to all the staff living at site and besides have him visit site regularly, so that timely medication was made available for curing the sick. The other reason for delay in work was discovered to be due to quarrels among few people. As mentioned earlier, group of five people were made initially, so that they could share a room. It was soon discovered that amongst some of these groups, there were always rifts in between 2-3 people, pertaining either to work or religion or living habits. After making a study, it was decided that new groups had to be formed, amongst

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people who had common interests, since then they would be able to respect each other and be able cooperate with one another. Another and the most important and difficult problem found was that of consumption of alcohol at work place during working hours. People working at site had been away from home for a long duration and consuming alcohol under some pretext or other is the habit of men in our society. Drinking Alcohol during off working hours was tolerable, but the same went beyond that and people started come to work drunk at times. Most of the times that they were drunk, they landed up picking quarrel with other senior staff for some reason or the other, which hampered the work. For this, initially a meeting was called explaining all the workers the bad effects of their various actions and it was decided that if they did not refrain from drinking during working hours, they shall be thrown out from site, without being paid any incentives. In spite of the warning a couple of them did not refrain from drinking, an action was called and those two staffs were asked to live the site and further action was to taken at management level. Thus this action of ours brought in fear amongst the other members and consumption of alcohol was almost stopped for a long duration during working hours. By taking action on various issues at the right time, basic reasons for delay in work were sorted out and the worked was envisioned to move ahead smoothly. By resolving the above problems, very interesting needs of various people came to picture and this not only helped in developing our psychology but also matured us in dealing with such situations. Some of the interesting behavior that came into picture, during the working of the whole project is briefed below. Human motives are based on needs, whether consciously or sub- consciously felt. Some are primary needs, such as the physiological requirements for water, air, food, sleep and shelter. Other needs may be regarded as secondary, such as self- esteem, status, affiliation with others, affection, giving, accomplishment, and self-assertion. Naturally, these needs vary in intensity and over time among different individuals.

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Managers are responsible for providing an environment conducive to performance. But individuals are themselves responsible for self- motivation. Motivation is a general term applying to the entire class of drives, desires, needs, wishes, and similar forces. To say that managers motivate their sub-ordinates is to say that they do those things which they hope will satisfy these drives and desires and induce the sub-ordinates to act in a desired manner. Motivators are things, which induce an individual to perform. While motivations reflect wants, motivators are the identified rewards, or incentives, that sharpen the drive to satisfy these wants. They are also the means by which conflicting needs may be reconciled or one need heightened so that it will be given priority over another. One of the most interesting approaches to motivation is the Quality of Working Life (QWL) program, which is a systems approach to job design and a promising development in the broad area of job enrichment, combined with grounding in the socio-technical systems approach to management. QWL is not only a very broad approach to job enrichment but also an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and action combining industrial and organization psychology and sociology, industrial engineering, organization theory and development, motivation and leadership theory, and industrial relations. Usually a labor-management steering committee is set up, ordinarily with a QWL specialist, which is charged with finding ways of enhancing the dignity, attractiveness, and productivity of jobs through job enrichment and redesign. The participation of workers and their unions in the effort is thought to be very important, not only because of the exercise of industrial democracy but also because of the great practical advantage it offers: people on job are the ones who are the best able to identify what would enrich the job for them and make it possible for them to be more productive.

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The interaction of motivation and organizational climate not only underscores the systems aspects of motivation but also emphasizes how motivation both depends on and influences leadership styles and management practices. Leaders and managers (who, if effective, will almost certainly be leaders) must respond to the motivations of individuals, if they are to design an environment in which people will perform willingly. Likewise, they can design a climate that will arouse or reduce motivation. Managers design an environment for performance when they see that verifiable goals are set, strategies are developed and communicated, and plans to achieve objectives are made. They do it also in designing a system of organizational roles in which people can be effective. Managers do it also when they make sure that structure is well staffed. Their styles of leadership and their ability to solve communication problems are also central to managing. And that control tools, information and approaches furnish people with the feedback knowledge they must have for effective motivation. People act in different roles, but they are also different themselves. There is no average person. Yet, in organized enterprises, the assumption is often made there is. Firms develop rules, procedures, work schedules, safety standards, and position descriptionsall with the implicit assumption that people are essentially alike. Of course, this assumption is necessary to a great extent in organized efforts, but it is equally important to acknowledge that individuals are unique- they have different needs, different ambitions, different attitudes, and different desires for responsibility, different levels of knowledge and skills, and different potentials. Unless managers understand the complexity and individuality of people, they may misapply the generalizations about motivation, leadership and communication. Principles and concepts, although generally true, have to be adjusted to specific situations. In an enterprise, not all the needs of individuals can be completely satisfied, but managers do have considerable latitude in making individual arrangements. Although position requirements are usually derived from enterprise and organization

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plans, this fact does not necessarily exclude the possibility of arranging the job to fit the person in a specific situation. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most important tool in your work. The more up to date the knowledge you possess, the free you are. Knowledge cannot be taken away from anyone except by obsolescence. A leader can only be free to lead his team if he keeps abreast of all that is happening around him in real time. To lead, in a way is to be engaged in continuing education. To be a successful team leader, one has to stay back after the din and clutter of a working day to emerge better equipped with ready to face a new day.

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