Reflections of real life in a classroom
Today I attended a class of Managerial Competencies and Career Development (MCCD). We were supposed to ORCE (Observe, Record, Classify, Evaluate) the behavioural aspects of one candidate out of six present there for a Group Discussion. The GD was about a candidate to be sent abroad to develop the person into a manager, who would be ready to take up responsibilities in foreign business, work well in uncertain conditions of job, well educated and so on. Each of the six persons was the Head of one department and each had a candidate.
The discussion started and the time limit was 30 minutes, which btw was sheer torture for those who were ORCEing it.
Ideally, the best candidate was to be selected out of the six. The Heads were supposed to put forward the application of their candidates but the primary concern was to be the 'Organizational Perspective' so that the organization gains in the end.
When the GD started, one person started about his candidate, communicated all the grand things the candidate had and very casually talked about how his candidate had 'only' a small problem that his dream was to resume his research which he abandoned and regretted. Others were not going to acceed to what he said. Unanimously they agreed how risky it was to invest such 'huge' amount on a person whose real dream lied somewhere else. Fair enough. Another guy even reminded the whole group that the
guy is vegetarian, and to survive in countries like USA, UK and Middle East, 'one should be open to newer tastes', as if there are no vegetarians abroad and the vegetarians of USA don't progress for the sheer reason of being veg! There were nods of approval from rest of the group at the precision shown which the rest of the group left unnoticed.
Second candidate: the same initial treatment - the owner spoke very highly of his candidate, his degree in Management and all the great things he did. It seemed as if he was ready to give his own position to his candidate! Again, he was kind enough to point out 'one small' trouble, which btw he didn't find troublesome. The candidate didn't want to leave the family. Such an ideal person for a foreign stint! The rest of the group was relentless and disqualified him outright.
This way all the six different candidates were discussed, each was promoted by the owner and rejected by the rest.
I found it strange that no one could find any other candidate to be fit enough for the job except for his/her candidate.
One of the heads found a candidate having an MBA from IIM in Finance but working in Sales and Marketing to be confused and another candidate working in Sales and Marketing to be having lack of cross functional knowledge!
A person who had poor interpersonal skills didn't have any chance of being successful in the training, but another one with good relations with all the colleagues, was also bound to fail in the training because he worked in rural areas.
I felt as if the discussion was more of a real life discussion where 'Organizational Perspective' was kept at bay and everyone was trying to pitch in his/her candidate ignoring the positives of other candidate, amplifying the negatives and doing just the opposite for their own. Somehow I couldn't relate all this to what is taught to us - keeping the organizational goal into consideration before taking decisions, take care of the organization and you would be taken care of etc etc.
Despite the fact that this was a minor exercise, a simulation which was neither judged nor evaluated, I saw the ugly face of reality which I might come across very soon.
I wonder why we are not taught the real side of business and why the hell are we taught 'Business Ethics' when there are none. From the Pre-Placement Talks I got to know that every mission, vision is bull crap. Even Satyam had a vision like any other company.
Probably, if the managers actually start to look at the broader picture, the organizations may grow way more than they are now. Right now it seems a far-fetched idea though!
The discussion started and the time limit was 30 minutes, which btw was sheer torture for those who were ORCEing it.
Ideally, the best candidate was to be selected out of the six. The Heads were supposed to put forward the application of their candidates but the primary concern was to be the 'Organizational Perspective' so that the organization gains in the end.
When the GD started, one person started about his candidate, communicated all the grand things the candidate had and very casually talked about how his candidate had 'only' a small problem that his dream was to resume his research which he abandoned and regretted. Others were not going to acceed to what he said. Unanimously they agreed how risky it was to invest such 'huge' amount on a person whose real dream lied somewhere else. Fair enough. Another guy even reminded the whole group that the
guy is vegetarian, and to survive in countries like USA, UK and Middle East, 'one should be open to newer tastes', as if there are no vegetarians abroad and the vegetarians of USA don't progress for the sheer reason of being veg! There were nods of approval from rest of the group at the precision shown which the rest of the group left unnoticed.
Second candidate: the same initial treatment - the owner spoke very highly of his candidate, his degree in Management and all the great things he did. It seemed as if he was ready to give his own position to his candidate! Again, he was kind enough to point out 'one small' trouble, which btw he didn't find troublesome. The candidate didn't want to leave the family. Such an ideal person for a foreign stint! The rest of the group was relentless and disqualified him outright.
This way all the six different candidates were discussed, each was promoted by the owner and rejected by the rest.
I found it strange that no one could find any other candidate to be fit enough for the job except for his/her candidate.
One of the heads found a candidate having an MBA from IIM in Finance but working in Sales and Marketing to be confused and another candidate working in Sales and Marketing to be having lack of cross functional knowledge!
A person who had poor interpersonal skills didn't have any chance of being successful in the training, but another one with good relations with all the colleagues, was also bound to fail in the training because he worked in rural areas.
I felt as if the discussion was more of a real life discussion where 'Organizational Perspective' was kept at bay and everyone was trying to pitch in his/her candidate ignoring the positives of other candidate, amplifying the negatives and doing just the opposite for their own. Somehow I couldn't relate all this to what is taught to us - keeping the organizational goal into consideration before taking decisions, take care of the organization and you would be taken care of etc etc.
Despite the fact that this was a minor exercise, a simulation which was neither judged nor evaluated, I saw the ugly face of reality which I might come across very soon.
I wonder why we are not taught the real side of business and why the hell are we taught 'Business Ethics' when there are none. From the Pre-Placement Talks I got to know that every mission, vision is bull crap. Even Satyam had a vision like any other company.
Probably, if the managers actually start to look at the broader picture, the organizations may grow way more than they are now. Right now it seems a far-fetched idea though!
Comments
But all that I was looking for is whose candidate is finally selected. Did they summarize the discussion and came up with one final candidate. And if not, did anyone of you happened to ask why a conclusion has not been reached by the top heads at end.
@Sudhakar: yea I agree about the murk! The damn managers - make simplest of the things complex!