Building Human Organization is a Manager’s Task

Man is by far the most critical resource of an organization. No amount of money, materials and machines can produce results by themselves. Men are needed to manage them. Machines can be programmed to take over routine, repetitive jobs, but only a human brain can design the machines.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere", is the advice given by U.S. President, Ronald Reagan to practicing managers (FORTUNE, September 15, 1986). Certainly useful advice except for the drawback that good people, leave alone the best, are so difficult to find. `I just can't seem to find the right people' is an oft heard lament from many a manager. It is indeed a paradoxical situation that we have so much unemployment on the one hand and on the other it is genuinely difficult to find the right sort of people.

A small consulting firm's experience is that an advertisement for sales representatives in a national newspaper fetches anything up to four hundred applications and you are lucky if you are able to pick up even two or three good people.

This only reinforces the fact that a good worker is a valuable asset to any company. And, every manager must constantly be on the lookout for people with potential and attract them to join his company. A manager with a competent team has already won half the battle. Note that we use the word team, and not individuals. However, competent or brilliant individuals may be, if they cannot work together with each other they are of not much use to a company. It is up to the manager to mesh individuals into a well-knit team. The manager who cannot build his team cannot succeed. Teams should be built on the principles of division of labor, specialization of work and mutual give and take.

Pearl Polymers Private Limited is engaged in manufacturing and marketing a wide range of consumer and industrial thermoplastics under the brand name of PEARL PET. In addition, the group is involved in garment exports, computer manufacturing and retailing and trading in basic chemicals. The top management team consists of four brothers each having a special area of activity. The eldest brother is the overall group in-charge who coordinates and looks after the interests of the entire group besides being responsible for marketing and trading. The second brother, a chemical engineer by training, is responsible for production. The third brother is a chartered accountant and manages the finances and accounts. The fourth brother has a business management degree and is responsible for garment exports. Having clear cut areas of functioning and responsibility these brothers have been able to create the right team spirit and are very successful.

Realizing the importance of creating a team spirit and teamwork for achieving the organizational objectives, progressive companies are trying to build this up in every possible way. Quad Graphics, a very successful print company in USA, calls its workers `partners'. W.L. Gore Associates, an American high-tech manufacturer refers to its 4000 people on its payrolls as `associates". Over 8,000 American companies share part of their ownership with more than 10 million employees through Employee Stock Ownership Plans.