Decision making is the process to select a course of action from a number of alternatives. Like planning, decision making also requires features like forecasting and action plans. For any organization, policy documents help in taking managerial decisions. But these are decisions of routine nature, which we also call operational decisions. Strategic or important decisions are obviously taken after considering different alternatives. In order to be a successful manager one has to necessarily develop decision-making skills.

What is a decision cycle? It is a sequence of steps used by an organization on a repeated basis to reach and implement decisions, not necessarily each decision adds to profits, but organizations must learn from mistakes made by them. For growth and sustainability a business relies on decision cycle. The ‘decision cycle’ as a phrase is used to broadly categorize various methods of making decisions, going upstream to the need, downstream to the outcomes, and cycling around to connect the outcomes to the needs.

Understanding that organizations go through a specific decision-making process allows business firms and manufacturing-related goods and services to develop programs designed to influence each stage of the business process. If a marketer knows, for example, that a customer is about to establish purchasing specifications, he or she can provide useful technical information or offer advice on industry standards and control factors that may affect the formulation of those specifications. A decision cycle is said to occur when an explicitly specified decision model is used to guide a decision and then the outcomes of that decision are assessed against the need for the decision. This cycle includes specification of desired results (the decision need), tracking of outcomes and assessment of outcomes against the desired results. Success in the battle of doing business is about making decisions more quickly than competing firms can.

All businesses operate around certain business process cycles. A business cycle refers to various trends that occur within an industry/sector, such as growth or withering. Many times, management decisions are impacted by where the company stands in reference to a particular cycle. Macro economy also play an important role in management decisions. When the economy is in a cycle of withdrawal, management of firm will act conservatively, whereas in a cycle of expansion, management may tend to act more aggressively to gain as much market share as possible.

Characteristic of Business Cycle:

Usually any business faces four distinct trends: slowdown, bottom, growth and peak. All businesses, even the most aggressive sales organization experience these cycles. A slowdown occurs after a market has experienced a normal period of expansion. This is often followed by a period of sales maturity and product integration by the existing customer base, which is viewed as a slowdown. During a slowdown, competition enters the market that also creates weaker sales. Finally the business hits a bottom. After this bottom and rough period business gets aggressive and makes steps of expansion and marketing efforts to aggressively go after new market share. Following this period of expansion, business will again begin to see a peak in their performance and start the cycle all over.

Macro Business Cycle Considerations:

Macro cycles include the trend of the overall economy. During periods of sustained economic growth, businesses should seek to gain market share by increasing advertising and market efforts. Also, during periods of economic contraction, business managers may decide to consolidate their operations and position themselves for slow, or negative, growth by maintaining higher cash balances and cutting non-essential costs.

Examples of some decision cycles:

OODA Loop: Originally this decision making tool was coined in the 1950s by Air Force colonel and military strategist John Boyd as a way to illustrate the action and decision cycle that a fighter pilot goes through during an aerial dogfight, it has since been applied to disciplines as diverse as business, medicine, law and the acquisition process in the military. The quality and speed of those decisions get enhanced by new command-and-control precepts and advances in information, surveillance and reconnaissance tools, sensors and systems. As a result, military forces have been improving on their ability to observe, orient, decide and attack, better known as the OODA loop.

For the military, the OODA loop is called by different term at different times. In a kinetic war, it’s often called find, fix and finish, or the more extended find, fix, track, target, engage and assess. It also means something different in Iraq than it does in Afghanistan.

PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) PDCA was made popular by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who is considered as the father of modern quality control. The concept of PDCA is based on the scientific method. The scientific method can be better explained as “hypothesis” which can be proved under statistical control as a three-step process of specification, production, and inspection. It can be specified as scientific method of hypothesis, experiment, and evaluation. According to Deming, during his lectures in Japan in the early 1950s, the Japanese participants shortened the steps to the now traditional plan, do, check, and act.  A fundamental principle of the scientific method and PDCA is the iteration: once a hypothesis is confirmed (or negated), executing the cycle again will extend the knowledge further. Repeating the PDCA cycle can bring the practitioners closer to their goals, usually a perfect operation and output.

Herbert Simon’s model: Herbert Simon made key contributions to enhance our understanding of the decision-making process. In fact, he pioneered the field of decision support systems. According to Simon and his later work with Newell, decision-making is a process with distinct stages. He suggested for the first time the decision-making model of human beings. His model of decision-making has three stages: Intelligence which deals with the problem identification and the data collection on the problem. Design which deals with the generation of alternative solutions to the problem at hand. Choice which is selecting the ‘best’ solution from amongst the alternative solutions using some criterion. Much later, other scholars expanded his framework to five steps (Intelligence–Design–Choice–Implementation–Learning).

Business Analytics: Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, practices for continuously connecting exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning, which is also based on data and statistical methods. Business analytics makes extensive use of statistical analysis, including explanatory and predictive modelling and fact-based management to drive decision making. It is therefore closely related to management science. Analytics may be used as input for human decisions or may drive fully automated decisions.

Design Thinking: design thinking includes “building up” ideas, with few, or no limits. This helps reduce fear of failure among managers. The phrase “thinking outside the box” has been coined to describe one goal of the brainstorming phase and is encouraged, since this can aid in the discovery of hidden elements and ambiguities in the situation and discovering potentially faulty assumptions. In design thinking observation takes center stage. Observation can discern what people really do as opposed to what you are told that they do. Getting out of the comfort zone and involving oneself in the process, product, shopping experience is fundamental.

Design thinking in problem definition also requires cross functional insight into each problem by varied perspectives as well as constant and relentless questioning why? Until finally the simple answers are behind you and the true issues are revealed. Finally, defining the problem via design thinking requires the suspension of judgment in defining the problem statement because what we say can be very different to what we mean.

Decision cycle is evolving in different forms and different perceptions in the business world.

Mission Statement

A mission statement describes the overall purpose of an organization. A mission statement should be brief and answer key questions about the business of organization. Questions such as what are the basic objectives of the firm? Who are the target audience? These points should be mentioned in the mission statement. A mission statement describes what an organization hopes to achieve.

Vision Statements

Vision statements mention aspirations of the organization; they lay out the most important primary goals for a company. A vision statement is a company’s road map, indicating both what the company wants to become and guiding transformational initiatives by setting a defined direction for the company’s growth.

The top management in organizations spend a lot of time drafting, designing words, and redrafting vision statements, mission statements, values statements, goals and objectives so on and forth.

And somewhere in the course of the organization’s journey, many of its actions don’t align with the well drafted vision and mission statements. Also, in the absence of a well drafted, or a poorly written vision and mission statements organizations lose good number of opportunities in attracting and engaging talented human resource, building organizational culture, and increasing productivity while leveraging all resources to successfully implement a strategic plan.

Organizational success is often linked to inspiring vision, clear mission, and strong values. But without employee buy-in, these concepts are worthless. Employee engagement is essential to an organization’s success, and alignment is arguably even more important.

Do you know that the founders of great and stable organizations like Hewlett-Packard, 3M, and Johnson & Johnson did not have a vision statement when they started out? They began with a set of strong personal core values and a relentless drive for progress and yet had an amazing ability to translate these into concrete mechanisms. 3M Corporation always had a sense of its core values in place such as support innovation, protecting the creative individual, solving problems in a way that makes people’s lives better. These core values gave it its soul. But what really set 3M apart was the ability of its leadership over the years to create mechanisms that bring these principles to life and translate them into action. For example, 3M allows scientists to spend 15 percent of their time working on whatever interests them, requires divisions to generate 30 percent of their revenues from new products introduced in the past four years, has an active internal venture capital fund to support promising new ventures, preserves a dual career track to encourage innovators to remain innovators rather than become managers, grants prestigious awards for innovations and entrepreneurial success, and so on.

Change is constant and needs to be taken into account as it is an essential component of strategic planning. So many changes take place in organizations. Change in manpower, change in business processes, change in product portfolio, change in infrastructure so and forth. This involves moving the organization or program forward or backward to create or change something. Some plans are created out of the need for the organization to move in a certain direction, and other plans develop organically. At such times, mission and vision statements need little tweaking, rephrasing, redesigning – little change and they are important to help communicate the goals of the plan to employees and the public.

Often companies modify their vision to fit the current environment; the changes internally or externally require a revision of in its mission or vision. To identify misalignments organizations require looking around internally as well as externally, talking to people, getting inputs, and finding out whether their core values align with their business philosophies. The misalignments arise because years of ad hoc policies and practices which are incomprehensible with the organization’s underlying values. When organizations don’t mean what they have signed off as vision and mission, at some point, the employees in the organization begin to grumble about the organization’s complex sign-off process, recognizing its inconsistency with the notion of respect and trust for the individual. The first task for leaders, then, is to create an environment and a process that facilitate people to safely identify and eliminate these misalignments.

Let’s take a look at Nestlé’s vision: “to be a leading, competitive, nutrition, health and Wellness Company delivering improved shareholder value by being a preferred corporate citizen preferred employer preferred supplier selling preferred products.”

Nestlé web site includes both a “mission statement” and a “vision and values” statement. Although the company is known for Nestlé Crunch chocolate bars and other snack foods, these statements emphasize nutrition, wellness, and good corporate citizenship.

The Swiss company’s “vision and values” statement is quoted above. Its “mission statement” is: “Nestlé is…the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company. Our mission of ‘Good Food, Good Life’ is to provide consumers with the best tasting, most nutritious choices in a wide range of food and beverage categories and eating occasions, from morning to night.”

These statements mirror the company’s long-term business strategy. In keeping with its claimed promise to nutrition, Nestlé has invested in scientific research on nutritional aspects of the kinds of products it sells. For example, it has studied the effects of chocolate on metabolism and gut bacteria. The Economist describes this as a potentially risky strategy; by investing in research and development, the company is “playing a long game,” in contrast to the short-term strategies of some of its competitors.

Nestlé has also made an effort to practice “corporate citizenship.” It has been involved in a number of efforts to promote good agricultural and environmental practices, such as the World Cocoa Foundation, which is “committed to creating a sustainable cocoa economy by putting farmers first – promoting agricultural and environmental stewardship, and strengthening development in cocoa-growing communities.”

This article emphasizes not only being consistent with vision and mission but true alignment.

Identifying core values

In describing the alignment process, it is assumed that an organization’s core values are already clearly defined. It is important that people must be predisposed to holding them, and it is important to attract and then retain these people. Every organization has to wrestle with a niggling question: what should change and what should never change? Can policies or strategies change at a particular time? Can its core value change? Can cultural values change? Remember, undying core values should never change. But, operating practices and cultural norms should never stop changing. Because business environmental changes are constant and organization needs to change according to the environmental changes.

It’s always a good practice to review the vision and mission because in the organization’s lifecycle lot of changes takes place.  The sector in which it operates changes economically, socially, or politically; if the top management in organization such as the CEO, VP or General Manager changes their philosophy and ideas change; if the  product or service line has become obsolete due to regulation, or replacement for example cigarettes, or full service gas stations there is an immediate change in the business; sometimes the current product version is being replaced by another (iPods, for example being included into iPhones); if an organization  acquires another firm it needs to change its entire philosophy. As an organization evolves, to explain its foundation its vision and mission need the changes.

 Today e-commerce is become part of our life. The arrival of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile) has transformed the entire retail sector.  Retailers are tapping multiple channels for selling their merchandise; from traditional stores, using catalogue, through the internet and more and more via smart phones and tablets, no stone is left unturned. Technological advancement means that the store is omnipresent! It’s now everywhere, in consumers’ pockets, at their homes and at the mall too. For surviving the competition in the e-commerce world distribution has become key component of the business. Supply chain and logistics experts have become key players and the other important element being real estate – strategic locations for Distribution Centres (DC).

While retailers are developing their multichannel strategy multichannel marketing which refers to the practice by which companies interact with customers via multiple channels, both direct and indirect, distribution strategies also need to be worked at a faster pace especially when the bar has been raised with delivery models like same-day and next-day delivery at the customer’s doorstep.

Retail supply chain executives go for locating fulfilment facilities closer to their customer base in order to meet service commitment goals such as aggressive delivery schedules.

Retail chains are therefore finding online logistics more cost-effective. They rather opt for this than open more traditional stores that require an entirely different kind of distribution model. Therefore, retailers are evolving their regional distribution networks with the addition of e-commerce distribution centres. Traditional warehouses which act as stores require lesser investment and machinery and fewer staff.  The new e-commerce distribution centres, which involve direct order fulfilment, can cost three times as much and involve three times as many employees.

Retailers need to consider points such as proximity to key customers, tax incentives, sales tax and the availability of local labour which are vital for business when searching for the right location for their e-commerce distribution centres. Also, the global spread of technology into multichannel retailing has also opened up new markets in both developed and developing countries. While online sales are growing in the United States and UK, China and Hong Kong are following the trend. China’s consumers are fast embracing e- and m-commerce and are spending most of their money online. And as technology and commerce is expanding faster, retailers are finding it difficult to keep pace with logistics and infrastructure because these two fields are still emerging with newer software and newer gadgets.

In most cases domestic logistics service providers are unable to provide services to fulfil high volumes of customer parcel shipping at low costs and within a realistic delivery time frame, this noticeably impacts the direct-to-customer channel. Retailers have to thus establish their own distribution networks or rely on outsourced express shippers.  This leads to an opportunistic gap in the market for third-party (3PL) and forth-party (4PL) logistics companies and investment in industrial real estate infrastructure.

In the US for the past two decades, U.S. companies have been shifting production to markets with lower labour costs. However, as energy costs rise and labor becomes more expensive in Asian markets, companies are increasing near-shoring and on-shoring. Firms which opt for all-water options but cannot tolerate the lengthy shipping times from Asia are shifting some operations to near-shoring destinations such as Mexico or Central and South America and even back to the United States.  With production and demand closer to home, retailers can respond more quickly to trends and changes in buying patterns.

Nearly 80 percent of retailers say that online sales have increased in the past five years with some reporting increase of 25 percent or more. This has forced retailers to change the traditional distribution network for their e-commerce model. 3PL and 4 PL providers have gained a huge role to play in the e-commerce business model.

Generally, 3PL provider’s main business is to provide logistical services as its core activities. The logistics services offered are based on the range of its logistics’ function. They include freight forwarders, courier companies and other companies integrating & offering subcontracted logistics and transportation services. 4 PL differs from third party logistics in some of these ways: 4PL organization is often a separate entity established as a joint venture or long-term contract between a primary client and one or more partners; 4PL organization acts as a single interface between the client and multiple logistics service providers; ideally all aspects of the client’s supply chain are managed by the 4PL organization; and it is possible for a major third-party logistics provider to form a 4PL organization within its existing structure.

4PL was originally defined by Accenture as a trademark in 1996 and defined as “A supply chain integrator that assembles and manages the resources, capabilities, and technology of its own organization with those of complementary service providers to deliver a comprehensive supply chain solution.” but the concept has almost changed at present.

4PLs have also been referred to as “Lead Logistics Providers”. In the present scenario, new crop of companies have emerged who are actual transportation companies too. While a 4PL is sometimes described as non-asset-owning service provider, their role is to provide broader scope managing of the entire supply chain. The 4PL model offers a platform to get companies thinking about long-term strategy; developing an idea of what they want their future supply chain scene to look like.

If you look closer, the 4PL model actually drives 3PL outsourcing. The difference between the two activities ultimately comes down to scope. In a traditional transactional role, the 3PL will hold on to scope—managing a warehouse, for example. With a 4PL model, the scope recedes and flows. The service provider scales resources depending on different skill set requirements that turn upwards.

If e-commerce brings the logistics industry closer to the point of consumption, it has boosted the demand in the logistics industry. Would it be wrong if we call Amazon and Wal-Mart logistics companies? At heart, these companies are retailers; but, actually on the basis of the economics of these two companies, Amazon and Wal-Mart are far, far better at handling the logistics of their trade than their competitors and hence they are the leaders. Distribution is their core competence.

If you read the case of Amazon.com one understands how important firm’s logistics is in e-commerce. Amazon.com has come a long way since its founder and chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, stopped imagining the company as a virtual bookstore. It has evolved into an online retail giant that generated US $74.45 billion in revenues in 2013. It is worth mentioning that much of that came from its support of more than two million companies that used Amazon to sell their products online and distribute them to customers. Under the company’s various programs, Amazon not only provides its customers with a means of advertising and selling their products, but also offers to store those products in its fulfilment centres; pick, pack, and ship them; and provide customer service which includes handling returns.

In the process of developing its network to support those services, Amazon has built out an infrastructure which by recent account includes 145 warehouses around the world! 84 in the United States, four in Canada, 29 in Europe, 15 in China, 10 in Japan, and seven in India. This collectively accounts for more than 40 million square feet of space. Amazon has also made substantial investments in material handling systems, including the acquisition of Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012.  Kiva is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, which designs robots, software, workstations, and other hardware that has been used in the distribution facilities of companies such as Staples, Office Depot, and The Gap. The systems produced by Kiva are expected to be an integral part of the distribution network now being developed by Amazon. Amazon has also made major investments in cloud computing. At the same time, the company has been developing transportation capabilities to support its Amazon Fresh same-day grocery business. That’s called might of an e-commerce company!

Case study is a form of qualitative and also quantitative research that focuses on providing a detailed account of one or more cases. Eg: how important is sales training in e-commerce: how different e-commerce companies used sales training to the best of their advantage. And, the best part is that the case study is the most flexible of all research designs which allows the researcher to retain the holistic characteristics of real-life events while simultaneously allowing him/her to investigate the empirical events. In general, a case study is an empirical inquiry which investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context. Empirical research is based on observations made by the researcher – his/her actual experience rather than any theory or belief. Many times, the theory and observations can have contrasting facts; this is where case study type of research scores higher rank, it allows making the boundaries between phenomenon and context clearly evident and in it multiple sources of evidence are used.

Case studies are one of many ways of doing social science and humanities research: it can be carried out with experimentation, observation, surveys and archival information. Each form of data collection is suited to a certain type of research problem; degree of experimentation has control over events and historical/contemporary perspective and focus. By design researchers chose case studies usually when their topic is their principal subject and they chose selected examples of a social entity within its normal context. At the simplest level, the case study provides descriptive accounts of one or more cases; it depends on the researcher’s perspective how many cases he should handle in his research. It gives the researcher a chance to experiment intellectually more and more insights of one or more selected social factors within a real-life context.

Before deciding to use case study as your research type these are few things you need to do: first decide whether case studies can be useful for your specific investigation. There are three factors that determine the best research methodology: 1. the types of questions to be answered 2. Decide to what extent you have control over behavioural events of the respondents and your chosen sample 3. Understand the degree of focus on present-day as opposed to historical events. You will have to tackle these issues in framing your research questions which are most significant in determining the appropriate approach. Who, what when and where questions can be examined through documents, archival analysis, surveys and interviews. Therefore, I feel that case studies are one approach that supports deeper and more detailed investigation of the type that is normally necessary to answer how, when and why questions.

Case study research is also good for present-day events when the appropriate behaviour cannot be manipulated. Typically case study research uses a variety of evidence from different sources, such as documents, artefacts, interviews, journals, data banks and observation, and this goes beyond the range of sources of evidence that might be available in historical study. In summary then, case study research is useful when: A how or why question is being asked about a contemporary set of events over which the investigator has little or no control.

In contrast to surveys, typically the numbers of units studied in a case study are lesser in number, but the extent of details available for each case can be greater. As compared with an experiment, the case study researcher has much less control over the variables, than if an experiment were used to investigate a situation. In a survey data may be collected from a number of organisations in order to generalise to all other organisations of the same type. In contrast in a comparative case study across a number of different organisations, the objective is to compare or reproduce the organisations studied with each other in a systematic way, in the investigation.

Lesser usage of statistical examination:

While analyzing results for a case study, researcher need not use complex statistical tools because the analysis becomes more opinion based than statistical method based. The usual idea is to try and collate data into a manageable form and construct a narrative around it.

In subjects like social sciences and humanities conservative use of statistics reduces the significance and application of the topic. I have observed that often over usage of statistical tools destroy results which are often reported in an unnecessarily obscure manner. Secondly, in my opinion, the null hypothesis testing concept is extremely flawed. And, thirdly, there are several issues, independent of the particular statistical concepts employed, which limit the value of any statistical approach. For instance, difficulties of generalizing to different situations, and the weakness of some research in terms of the size of the effects found. I have seen how some Universities insist often over usage of statistics which kills the essence and core of a topic.

Therefore, case study as a research plan often emerges as one of the best options for research students and mature researchers who are seeking to undertake a modest scale of research project based on their workplace or the comparison of a limited number of organisations. The most challenging aspect of the application of case study research in this background is to lift the assessment from a descriptive account that can claim to be a worthwhile; it contributes modest addition to the research.

Some facts of case study:

• Case study is an empirical inquiry that Investigates a contemporary phenomena within its real life context.
• It is helpful when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. This statement emphasises that an important strength of case studies is the ability to undertake an investigation into a phenomenon in its context; it is not necessary to replicate the phenomenon in a laboratory or experimental setting in order to better understand the phenomena.
• Thus case studies are a valuable way of looking at the world around us. On the other hand, it is important not to confuse case studies with ethnographic and other strictly qualitative research paradigms. Case study research can be based on any mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Typically, it uses multiple data sources including two or more of direct detailed observations, interviews, and documents. In addition, case studies can involve single or multiple cases as discussed in the next section on research design.

• Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community. Typically, data is gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods.

Do you know that the case study research method was originated in clinical medicine (the case history, i.e. the patient’s personal history). Case studies are widely used in psychology and amongst the best known were the ones carried out by Sigmund Freud. He conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses.

In Business management studies case studies like Malden Mills, Start bucks, Tylenol’s 1982 scandal, David VS Goliath, Tesco’s international expansion and Enron are some of the famous case studies which are so in-depth that while reading them you don’t need to use other referrals. They are well described, well analysed, with apt data and conclusions and observations.

]]> https://drvidyahattangadi.com/case-study-is-one-of-vital-type-of-research/feed/ 0 https://drvidyahattangadi.com/happy-and-engaged-employees-make-better-brand-ambassadors/ https://drvidyahattangadi.com/happy-and-engaged-employees-make-better-brand-ambassadors/#respond Thu, 16 Jul 2015 00:15:52 +0000 http://drvidyahattangadi.com/?p=2587 Happy and engaged employees make better brand ambassadors!

While Nestle India the big food maker is battling its biggest crisis in India, it has asked its employees and all their families and friends to become “valued brand ambassadors” for the company in midst of the company’s battle regarding discussions in the public domain on monosodium glutamate (MSG) in Maggi. In an email to employees, chairman and managing director Etienne Benet, a Swiss-French national who is hardly seen in public, said their role “at times like this is more important than ever……”

The point is why only in crisis, even in peaceful times a company can rely strongly on their loyal and engaged employees instead of hiring expensive brand ambassadors for image building. If a company wants to get extraordinary loyalty from its employees, it needs to take initiative in creating a mutual sense of that relationship. After all, engaged employees build stronger brands. No two thoughts on it.

Though, most companies focus all their branding efforts on marketing activities such as advertising campaigns, corporate communication, attractive packaging etc, yet one of the most powerful assets a company has is – its people. This is regardless of which industry the company is in, for building a strong brand requires that all employees feel connected to the corporate brand and understand their role in turning brand aspirations into reality. The earlier this is understood, it is better for the company. It should aspire to motivate its talent pool into turning brand ambassadors for its business health because employees rank higher in public trust than a firm’s PR department, CEO, board of directors or Founder. Employees are the most credible source of information regarding the organization. The frontline staffs give a glimpse of the organization’s culture and integrity. When a customer interacts with one of the frontline employees, or with the work produced by behind-the-scenes employees, everything the company’s PR and marketing departments have done will be put to the test immediately.

To build a strong corporate brand, the company must invest in its employees who are thoroughly engaged, connected and committed. Scarlett Surveys is the global provider of the best-practice AER Employee Engagement Survey System used by hundreds of organizations to intelligently manage employee engagement.

Scarlett Surveys International defines Employee Engagement as “a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work.”

This is where leadership comes into picture. The leaders must lead by stetting examples and embody promises made. When customers deal with an organization, they deal with a mix of employees from various ranks and cadre. A customer anticipates doing business with a company only when the employees look confident, happy and positive.

Attrition is not good for any company’s health. If a high number of employees are leaving then something is wrong; the question is what, and what can be done to improve it. Organizations must foster good work atmosphere because employees who genuinely love, enjoy, and feel connected to their jobs are the ones who best represent the company they work for.  I hope this makes sense, doesn’t it? You will see those employees are the most engaged, the ones who like coming into work every day and are the most likely to say positive things about your company on social media. This is why it’s important to leverage these engaged employees as ambassadors for a company’s brand.

However, in the age of social media, nothing is hidden; hence, it’s not uncommon to see employees badmouthing their organizations – sometimes subtly and sometimes openly. So why do loyal and engaged employees make the very best brand ambassadors? Quite simply, the visibility that engaged employees offer when talking publicly about the brand they represent is something that can’t be imitated emotionally and genuinely by best of the hired models or any outside source. Consumers can tell when employees are being sincere about their passion for what they do and for their company.

Engaged employees sincerely love the company they work for so they are more likely to spread that love on social media. They can organically increase brand awareness on social by sharing news and updates with their friends, fans, and family. They love their company brands so much that they can easily answer customer questions and comments on social, acting as your first line of communication. They provide a relevant, human face for the company they work for, and hence, they can create authentic, compelling content that drives traffic and increases social engagement.

At Starbucks at a point in time, some of their executives visited their coffee shops and noticed that good employees were losing their poise when faced with agitated customers. Instead of coming down on the individual employees, they developed new training material that eliminated the stress of these situations. The executives at Starbucks found that when they empowered their employees with tools they needed to serve customers happily, their employees gained their smiles back.

Do you know friends that Eastman Kodak is one such company in world which has the longest average tenure for employees at 20 years?  This Centurion old company gives the excitement of a strong core business and brand that is recognized and respected in virtually every country around the world. It enables its employees an effective organization, with strong leaders, engaged employees and winning culture.

The key to employee engagement lies in providing growth opportunities, varied roles and empowerment. In India, ITC is one such organization, in which, its senior executives hardly ever quit. Attrition at senior levels is less than five per cent and for frontline staff around 10 per cent. Naturally, ITC and its Agro Tech rarely hire from outside, preferring to promote insiders. ITC also backs employee initiatives. The company allows people to incubate businesses. The team in charge of the paper business suggested getting into greeting cards. A few years later they realised they were not getting anywhere and came back with a proposal to enter office stationery. The company placed a second bet on them. This time it hit the jackpot. In four years, office stationery has grown into Rs 500-crore business for ITC.

A great company culture breeds happy people. Those happy people who connect with their roles and the company become engaged employees. Let us not underestimate role of each employee in an organization from the sweeper to the CEO each one has a big role to play.

Organization must deliver the promise to employees. “When employees feel that the company takes their interest to heart, and then the employees will take company interests to heart,” says Dr. Nelson, a clinical psychologist, bestselling author and business trial consultant. She mentions in her book an example: in 2011 after wrapping up a record-setting year, new Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook rewarded employees by giving them paid vacation through the week of Thanksgiving. In a memo to employees Cook wrote, “In recognition of the hard work you’ve put in this year, we’re going to take some extra time off for Thanksgiving. We will shut down with pay on November 21, 22 and 23 so our teams can spend the entire week with their families and friends.” This act of Cook motivated the employees to no limit.

Similarly, Proctor & Gamble also pays back company success to employees through extra paid days off. “It ate a little bit of their bottom line, a little bit from the stockholders, but oh my God what it bought them in employee loyalty and productivity,” says Dr. Nelson. She writes “If you’re doing well, share. And for God sake, don’t let your executives walk out with a bonus if the company is not doing well. People don’t mind that execs make money, they mind if it’s exorbitant if the company is not doing well.” She says in her book that even when the company is not doing well the information should be shared with its employees. Employees accept realities than being kept in dark.

Make your employees your brand ambassadors.

Frederic Winslow Taylor, (1856-1915) was the first person who attempted to systematically analyze human behavior at work place. He compared the organization to a machine form; the machine with its low-priced, interchangeable parts, each of which does one specific function. Taylor said organizations are like big machines because humans working in an organization can be easily molded and can be transposable.

Like in a family or in a society, even in organizations, individuals and groups interact on different matters for the harmony and prosperity. The combined behaviors create a company climate that can reinforce or depress an organization’s success. Each individual and his behavior matters because business processes are interdependent. Therefore, while working from within a company’s structure, both management and staff might have difficulty in recognizing patterns of behavior and also how intensely those patterns can influence a company’s performance. The leadership is extremely important to create positive influence and positive atmosphere by helping the employees to grasp and work on achieving mission, vision and goals of the organization; this is where OB is important. Every person working in an organization from the gate keeper, sweeper to the CEO is involved in the company’s future. If the internal atmosphere is good in an organization, it projects a strong external manifestation.

OB relies heavily on social sciences and psychology. When an individual joins an organization he is concerned with his personal growth. But his interpersonal relations are important for the organizational competence and in return the group dynamics. The individual’s behavior is thus very important from the organization’s perspective. If the individual speaks good of his organization outside, it showcases the cultural strength of the organization. People are the key to an organization’s survival.

The importance of organizational behavior rests in understanding how individuals, groups, and organizational structures interact and affect one another. OB studies, examines communication patterns between individuals and groups, as well as the structure and culture of organizations. Many culturally and financially weak individuals have blossomed and grown after joining good workplaces. A detailed look at workplace behavior, business culture, and organizational practices generates greater insights about communication patterns and conflicts. People can make work place an exciting, fun-filled, and productive place to be, or they can make it a routine, boring, and ineffective place where everyone is apprehensive and tense. Steve Jobs, cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. attributed the innovations at Apple, which includes the iPod, MacBook, and iPhone, to people, noting, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have.…It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” 

Such conclusions sometimes spark solution-oriented policies and organizational change, causing leaders to implement rewards systems, new communication techniques, or innovative management approaches. Learning and revising the ways in which individuals and groups in an organization interact is often very helpful. Lot of factors challenge the system: culture of the nation, infrastructural facilities, demographics, educational standards in the nation, and few other factors are critical for explaining challenges within an organization.

Apple is known for its innovative products and sleek designs. The company is also known for offering tech products at higher price points than its competitors, but consumers still line up to buy new products or purchase upgraded versions of existing products. Apple corporate culture is built on innovation, but critics report that the executives push their employees hard and expect nothing less than the best from them. The company’s focus on creating seamless consumer technology has allowed it to prosper even when other tech companies have experienced declines in sales.

Another reality is that employees fear any change in an organization. Employees are often reluctant to embrace a new technology, new posting, new process, new boss, new colleagues – they have an aversion to something new. Change which cannot be avoided under any circumstance interferes with an organization’s advancement efforts. This is where OB becomes more important. Organizational behavior in such a situation as in adopting change highlights the capable leadership from top in effectively managing fear of change across the organization. When changes take place, managing individuals and groups are important.

Organizational culture is a system of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that governs the behavior of people in the organization. The culture of an organization is determined by the values placed on a set of characteristics, such as risk taking ability, ethical governance and appreciation of good employees in detail. When jointly there is a high level of agreement and commitment among the members of an organization on preserving these values, the organization is said to have a strong culture. An organization in which members do not agree and are not committed to the core values has a weak culture.

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Inc., a billion-dollar cosmetics company, makes a similar point, saying, “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” Just like people, organizations come in many shapes and sizes.

The concern for ethical decision-making is key attribute among the regulators, employees, social groups and managers. It has substantially increased since failure of some of the prominent business organizations like, Satyam, Shell and Enron owing to strong social criticism of some of their business practices. Of late, prominent institutes like IIMs have now begun sensitizing students about business ethics and morality; eminent personalities like the Sri. Sri. Ravishnkar, Jaggi Vasudev or the Dalai Lama is invited to speak on business ethics and ethical behavior. A few imperative literature review shows that authors have frequently used ethics, morality and values interchangeably in the context of organizational behavior. But, this requires sufficient research to examine the linkage of ethical decision-making with organizational structure and business results.

While hiring people some organization go too far examining their cultures and behaviors. They check a list of desired attitudes and behavior before hiring employees. As far as possible they avoid hiring the wrong people, so that they can improve employee satisfaction and reduce employee turnover. Google is one such organization every industrialist might consider emulating, especially if the business is involved in the technology field. The company has an informal product development process and gives staff members access to the co-founders and chief executive.

They create a situation in an interview trying to confirm what they think of a candidate; psychologists call this confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, or prioritize information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs. A lot of scientific assessment goes in choosing the right candidate by hunting for evidence that confirms the panel’s initial impression.

Finally, much of what a manager does has to do with trying to get people to work as effectively as possible.  It involves trying to motivate each individual worker. Much of management has to do with understanding people and how they work.  Therefore, having an understanding of organizational behavior is vital to managers.

Each person has an inherent need to understand and envisage his role and his interaction with others in the organization because much of each individual’s time is spent working in or around a group of people in organization. People differ in their personalities, attitudes, and values, and an understanding of an individual’s personality is extremely important in maximizing his happiness and productivity at work. Organization Behavior theories are particularly helpful in satisfying people’s innate drives at the same time simultaneously using their strengths to accomplish vision, mission and goals of the organization. OB helps in creating a healthy work environment where individuals and organization grow concurrently.

It is extremely important to invest your time, efforts, money, and energies in the specialization of your choice. Many of us are good at many subjects. And, many of us try to get adjusted in an area of specialization and try to ‘fit’ into it all through our professional lives. Specialization is a specific area in which you can make a career. When you chose a profession which gratifies your passion, you are the most fortunate person on earth. And, therefore, it is a wise decision to invest in a career of choice.  When we get career in which we find our passion our existence becomes very fascinating.

As Confucius said, “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It’s great advice, but it’s not always that simple. It is very difficult to figure out what we love, and how to change that liking into a career. There are many elements one needs to weigh before entering a job. A friend of mine who is very knowledgeable in the area of finance; he has loads of information in the stock market, banking, FDI, accounting, behavioral finance so on and forth. But he does not like to talk and does not like elucidation of concepts. Now this gentleman is a lecturer in a college. Because he does not like talking too much and explaining things in details, he obviously does not make a good teacher. Very few students attend his lectures.

A famous physician practices in heart of the city. He is famous for his diagnosis and prognosis. The problem with this physician is – he gets hyper when his patients ask him more than two questions. He feels his patients should listen to him and obey his instructions. He does not listen much to what patients speak; each patient has some or the other question regarding diet, after effects of medicines, life style, sleep etc. He does not like to listen. He breezes into the exam room with his own agenda and hardly has the time to find out what the patient expects. This common complaint his patients have. Therefore, he is considered as a conceited man.

Matching up our personality with a suitable role is extremely vital to our career. In fact it can become a career challenge. Our personality has so many facets; most of the times we fail to break it down into separate traits. And, even if we are aware of our characteristics, it’s important to know which jobs they’re suited for. I mean, how many people know which career is appropriate for which personality type. Often we have knowledge of one or two careers.

The present trend of education in universities is that students study degrees that sound highly, and at times narrowly vocational. Nevertheless, the trend of students opting for traditional subjects, such as History, English Literature and the Natural Sciences, Commerce is not wiped out completely. Many universities still regard themselves as seats of pure learning. I frequently think is it still sensible and desirable to study for love of a subject alone? On a second thought, a person can get trained up in a job rest of his life, whereas the time you spend in university is the only time in your life when you can study purely because you enjoy it.

Look at the recent changes in the global job market people do not shy away from changing and hopping into new jobs. The old traditional philosophy of sticking and retiring from one job is disappeared. In today’s job market very few people experience the stability of working for only one or two employers throughout their careers. In fact, most workers entering their first job today will change career paths at least seven to ten times before they reach retirement age.
With workers hopping from one job to other, more frequently very few companies can afford to invest heavily in into employee training and development. Therefore, more and more employers prefer job seekers to develop their own skills before joining a company. As a result, the demand for workers with college degrees has skyrocketed over the past few decades. I want to bring the point of loving your work, loving your career, doing what you love to do. Then job hopping is out of question.

Therefore, one needs to invest a little time and energy before taking decisions about career.

1. Make a list of your interests.
2. Make an honest list of your personal characteristics and your talents.
3. At the same time, make a list of your limitations and things which bore you to death.
4. Carry out some research about what kind of life style each of your interests might bring if it would turn to a job. Gather details in order to build up a realistic image of those professions.
5. Talk to people who have been in those professions for years. Gather the present trends in those particular professions.
6. Now take some more time and try to remember what you loved as a child. Often, our truest passions emerge in childhood. We stifle our childhood passion as we grow older by real life pressures. So think about what you loved in your childhood, what made you happy – was it mathematics, numbers, puzzle solving, reading stories, making collage, drawing, singing, scientific research, navigation, being close to nature…..what was that made you happy. Try to remember. Getting back in touch with those instincts is an important step in finding your passion.
7. Pease remove the materialistic element from your passion. Please don’t let the financial objective spoil your choice. While we all know money can’t be ignored, but don’t allow money dictate your choices. Listen to what your heart is saying.
8. Discuss about your thought process with your best friends who know you well. Sometimes you might not be able to make up our mind. You might misjudge your own decisions. Ask the people who know you personally, they might tell you when you seem the happiest and what you do most enthusiastically. Their answers might surprise you. Listen to your friends.
9. While choosing your educational programs check which subjects scare you to death, which ones do you find boring, whether you would love wasting your time studying them, Think, think and then decide on the choice.
10. Identify your professional hero. We all like one of the professions; we imagine being in it and hero-worship the topper in it. Whom would you most want to emulate? Reach out to him/her to learn more about how that person got to where he is.
11. In short, think of what you enjoy the most. Focus on things that you both enjoy and do well. It could be cooking, gardening, teaching, singing in opera, acting in drama, handicraft, painting …………… it could be from the funniest sounding thing to very serious sounding topic such as aeronautics or medicines. Don’t bother what others would think of you. Follow your heart.
12. Make a list of the top three or four profession which fascinate you; narrow the list to the top one thing. Keep it handy, review it often, and use it as your jumping-off point when you’re plotting your career move.

The movie ‘3 idiots’ gives the same message: chose a career which allows working with passion, believe in yourself, chase excellence and success will follow you automatically, and most important sometimes be idiotic it helps you to bring in the best in you.

The conventional practice of management to drive results at any costs is ruled out. Managers used to be hard on employees, suppress them, scare them and get work out of them. Today the scene has changed.  Managers need to strike a friendlier cord with their subordinates. They are aware of their subordinate’s personal lives, their hobbies, their hidden talents so that their personal and professional lives don’t collide. Today’s workplace atmosphere calls for an evolved way of management and of leadership. Today’s managers have to be good human first to get the best performance from his subordinates. Today’s manager needs to motivate and inspire his team to get the best out of his team members.

Nobody can stand an obsessive, insecure, complicated and fiddly manager.  People don’t leave organizations, they leave persons. No one likes to work with a ‘self obsessed’ manager; someone who says ‘I am so and so’, ‘I like so and so’, ‘this is my vision’, ‘that is my intention’ so on and forth. Instead of ‘me’ manager employees like a ‘we’ manager. A leader who can accommodate others is appreciated highly. Being human is no more considered a sign of vulnerability; it’s a mark of strong leadership. Employees are first human beings. Organizations must acknowledge this fact and hire managers who understand other’s emotions. We cannot underestimate social emotions; they are most crucial for success.  And, the most vital emotion at work place is empathy.

Leaders who want to be in control all the time get frustrated when their team looks up to them for answers and solutions. And, if they display any limitation or waver in their decision, the chances are the whole organization can crumble around them. Perfectionism and insecurity makes the leaders terribly anxious. Also a fixated manager always remains anxious. We should remember that even subordinates can see the strengths and weaknesses of their superiors. Despite some weaknesses if the managers function well, if they can handle tough situations without much fuss the subordinates support him/her quietly.

Clearly, some training and development needs are universal. Some traits of leadership can be taught but some are to be innate. It’s still not scientifically proved whether leaders are born or they can be developed.

A good leader understands that each member in his team is unique: each one has different skills, different levels of understanding, and is fit to take on different responsibilities and objectives. Thus the business world, political world, social world requires trained, well mannered and mature leaders. The academia needs to take on the responsibility of training and developing effective leaders.  When we say academia more emphasis is stressed on business schools which can play a big role in developing trusted leaders.

Organizations today seek collaborative thinkers who are cooperative and can solve problems. At B-Schools too much of emphasis is laid on developing analysts who are good at applying quantitative management formulas. The narrowly designed specializations corrupt minds of the students; they lose the ability of looking at problems from totality.  Companies demand leaders who can powerfully coherent ideas, both orally and in writing. Companies look at leadership traits that can motivate and guide their people. But business schools tend to train people to simply assert their ideas. We are trailing out on the importance of understanding and empathizing emotions. Working with our own and other’s emotions seems very difficult. Another thing is sensitizing the students to the real time issues and improving their critical abilities. Excellent communication is equally core area for development.

Can we expect a radical revamp from B schools? No, we can’t until industry and schools compare notes. I think the gap between expectation from the organizations and the skills taught at MBA schools can be shortened if there is a regular dialogue between both.

A 1999 study of MBA graduates conducted by Mark Kretovics who was then assistant dean at Colorado State University’s College of Business and is currently an assistant professor of higher education administration and student personnel in Kent State University’s Department of Teaching Leadership and Curriculum Studies, provides really striking findings. He assessed set of skills among a control group comprising of students from various streams of studies including MBAs. The study proved that out of 12 skill areas in 7 categories MBA graduates were significantly better than the group of university graduates not enrolled in a business program. The seven categories in which MBAs were superior were action, goal setting, information analysis, information gathering, quantitative skills, theory, and technology. However, the MBAs could not outsmart students from other streams in five other equally critical areas: helping others, inventiveness, leadership, affiliation, and wisdom. We see that these deficiencies are widespread among MBA programs in most part of the world.

In a 2002 poll by Canada’s Financial Post, 141 CEOs and senior executives rated non-business-school graduates as far better than MBAs in commitment to hard work, oral communication, written communication, understanding industry analysis, interpersonal skills, and even skills in marketing and sales. B Schools must take their roles seriously.

The primary task of leadership is giving direction. Leaders must be able to create trustworthiness in their organizations. Trust is the foundation of leadership. In 21^st century organizations must transform economy by improving lives, saving the environment and empowering communities. Transformation, environment protection and empowerment all three breed well when there is trust.  Organizations have to recognize themselves as social enterprises. The social networking and Internet are educating the people like never before. To face the complexities in the business world well prepared leaders are a must. Most MBA graduates arrive at new jobs unprepared. They should be prepared to work in multicultural, diversified, multiunit organizations.

Organizations expect highly motivated, able people with stronger skills who arrive with MBAs.  They look for stronger skills in writing, public speaking, building and running teams, supervising and delegating, and sharing leadership in ways that motivate and inspire subordinates. Even if it’s true that social skills are difficult to teach, curriculum can be designed to promote them. Organizations expect MBAs with a better grasp of the scientific method and how to apply it from hypothesis generation through the research and analysis that underlies the MBA profession. Research skills must be taught at the B Schools with precedence.

Business schools mistakenly defer to students when they’re designing their curriculum. They instead try to please students by designing lighter, misleading curriculum. That could explain why MBA programs do not pay enough attention to the nuts and bolts of problem solving.

Another area of concern is there is hardly any stress laid on the quality of being honest and having strong morals and principles. For building successful business ‘integrity’ is a must. A 2007 Bloomberg/LA Times survey reported that 6 out of 10 Americans believed that the CEOs of American companies are not ethical. In 2008 America witnessed the subprime crisis and the economic downhill.

Bad leadership and lack of genuine spirits are not going to take us any further. The base of leadership is integrity and spirit of service. Today we need leaders who can instead of only talking do the walking for transforming the economy. Leadership is a relationship between the person leading a group and group members. As with any relationship, success depends on both parties.

Whether the setting of an organization is business, government, education, entertainment, retail, or it’s an NGO; most people would agree that they would like to work with a good leader. And, a good leader is someone like a good physician. Just as the physician identifies the patient’s disease accurately to ensure effectiveness of the prescribed treatment, the business leader must also be able to diagnose problems, values and voices while finding effective solutions. All said and done, today all organizations are craving for trusted leaders.

In 1963, Milton Friedman – an American Economist and Statistician also known as the free-market philosopher described corporate social responsibility as “fundamentally subversive”, writing that corporate responsibility is the pursuit of personage interest of an organization to survive in an uncontrolled market. He also said that firms do not exist in vacuum.

Organization will grow bigger and stronger in proportion with the rise of community standards.  Stakeholders are increasingly demanding information regarding an organization’s environmental, social and economic impact on society. Inclusive growth is a multidimensional concept that needs considerable commitment from business organizations. Theoretical and empirical analysis indicates that firms can strategically engage in socially responsible activities to increase private profits. While a firm gets noticed for its social efforts, the firm can obtain additional benefits such as enhancing the firm’s reputation and the ability to generate profits by differentiating its product, the ability to attract more highly qualified personnel or the ability to extract a premium for its products.

In India around Rs 22,000 crore is expected to be poured into the social sector from 2015 onwards as Indian business houses ramp up CSR funding. Under the Companies Act, 2013, which stipulates companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or a net profit of Rs 5 crore to spend at least 2% of their average net profits made over three preceding years on CSR programes.

Many organizations are staring at the inadequacy of the CSR initiatives they had been flaunting over the years. Till now, many companies kept postponing their CSR funding. After an initial phase of indifference and, later, even sly attempts by a few at gaming the rules  fitting in what they are doing currently as CSR or looking for loopholes to avoid doing what they ought to be doing, companies are now preparing for a new era or a new genre of CSR interventions. On the flipside, the mandatory interventions of government will spoil scene – companies which used to spend much more on CSR may now get away spending less; this is just a thought.

At the moment, CSR or corporate social responsibility is an ever hotter topic. The Economist Intelligence Unit finds CSR becoming rising corporate agenda not only in the US, UK and China but globally. Everyone has an opinion on it. It is a hot topic in Commerce and Management lectures.

CSR has a big role to play in enhancing corporate image. A research conducted by McKinsey found that 95 per cent of CEOs felt that society has elevated expectations from businesses in regards to social responsibilities today than five years back. Consumers prefer buying products and services from companies supporting worthy social cause. CSR has multidimensional effects on a firm’s existence in society.

Risk Management: Commitment in CSR activities help organizations to manage emerging social risks which at times emerge as an offshoot of their operational activities; when the weather is bad, and when things go wrong corporate can influence the perception of people at large in society. Corporate usually get clean chit from the consumers, community, regulators, employees and the suppliers.

Brand Positioning: Consumers usually like to get associated with a company, which is ethical and has a positive image; many companies are becoming innovative while contributing to social cause. P&G’s CSR program ‘Shiksha’ is an integral part of their global philanthropy program. It is based on of the theme ‘Live, Learn and Thrive’. Shiksha has helped 2,80,000 underprivileged children access education. The programe is built and supported over 140 schools across India in partnership with many NGOs. The advertisements of P&G state that when P&G products are bought, some portion of the price paid for it goes into their Shikha initiative.

CSR increases ability to attract, motivate and retain employees: CSR helps companies to attract good employees. With Gen Y (called also millennial) making up more of the modern workforce, it is becomes important to pay attention to what they think about an organization. Research has found that 88 per cent of Gen Y (children born between the years 1980 to 2000) chose employers based on strong CSR values; it also showed that 86 per cent would consider leaving if the company’s CSR values no longer met their expectations. Business schools, like New York University’s Stern Business School, added courses related to CSR to keep up with their students’ rising demand. The Gen Y is known as responsible corporate citizen with sensitivity towards social and environmental issues. Therefore, a good corporate image helps employees and communities assist the corporate in achieving its Vision and Mission, as they all feel alike and contribute towards a common goal. According to Forbes, the 10 companies that are best at CSR are Microsoft, Google, Walt Disney, BMW, Apple, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Volkswagen, Sony, Colagte Palmolive and Lego. All of these firms attract young and enthusiastic workforce.

Investors like investing in these firms: There are many financial institutions globally, which have made it part of their policy to study the CSR activities of the company before investing. M&A decisions are also taken after consideration of CSR and Sustainability activities, even if it makes perfect economic sense for the investors.

CSR Boosts Corporate Image: It allows the company to have certain respect in the society among its stakeholders. Companies that implement CSR, like Unilever with its sustainable living plan, have enjoyed increased growth and profits. I would love to quote here how TNT has used its core business to help people in disasters. Through its CSR programe which is established at its Amsterdam headquarters, 50 designated employees are always on call to intervene anywhere in the world at 48 hours’ notice. The programme was established based on the company’s strong internal culture that places an emphasis on giving back to society. Due to their access to transportation and logistics, the cause became an easy fit. Employees have responded to over two dozen emergencies, including the Asian tsunami in 2004, since its inception.

A survey was recently conducted by Reputation Institute which is a global research institute for carrying surveys and research. Their surveys enable business leaders to take more confident business decisions that build and protect the business image globally. Reputation Institute recently conducted a CSR pulse survey globally, which found that CSR was responsible for more than 40 per cent of a company’s reputation and 42 per cent of people based their feelings about a company on the firm’s CSR. About 31 per cent of global consumers believe businesses should change the way they operate to align with social and environmental needs.

Another study shows that nine out of 10 consumers want companies to go beyond the minimum standards required by law to operate responsibly and address issues. 53 per cent of workers think that they like to contribute to a job which can make an impact on social wellbeing. And, such a job makes them happier. About 35 per cent would even take a pay cut to work for a company committed to CSR. Another study found that the more actively a company pursues worthy environmental and social efforts, the more engaged its employees are.

So that is a strong indication that CSR is not simply a superficial matter, but has a solid impact on consumers, employees and communities. There is a concrete rise in awareness of CSR and real demand for it. Greater than any strategy, CSR can give business a competitive advantage while also making positive changes to the community and the environment.

Communication is the foundation of all human interaction. We speak to so many people every day. With our relatives, employees, employers, neighbours, peers, grocer and so many more. It’s of great significance to us to carry out minimal adjustments within the method in which we converse with each one, depending on what the transaction is. While interacting with others don’t we all try to make our communication more efficient and effective?  It’s worth learning how one specific phrase of assistance, one specific declaration of apology, just one mild touch or maybe just one laugh can effortlessly enhance our relations with others.

Frequently, we communicate our unconscious feelings, our profound requirements as well as our inner desires verbally or non-verbally. We certainly would not like our feelings and words misjudged or misinterpreted. It’s therefore very important to take control of what we are sharing with other people. We should make sure that we do not hand out the incorrect information. Though this is gospel truth, rumour-mongers are there everywhere and they are busy running their rumour mills.

There are two types of communication – formal and informal. Informal communication is also known as grapevine communication because there is no definite direction of communication for sharing information. In this form of communication, information congregates a long way by passing from one person to another person leaving no indication from which point it started. The term grapevine can be traced to civil war days when vine like telegraph wires were strung from tree to tree across battlefields and used by Army Intelligence. The messages that came over these lines were often so confusing or inaccurate that soon any rumour was said to come from the grapevine. Precisely that’s what happens in grapevine – we don’t understand from where the rumour comes and where it would end. Grapevine stretches throughout the organization in all directions irrespective of the authority levels. Man as we know is a social animal. Despite existence of formal channels in an organization, the informal channels tend to develop when people aimlessly interact with other people. It exists more at lower levels of organization.

Grapevine commonly develops in organization due to a variety of reasons. One of them is that when an organization is facing slump, the employees sense uncertainty. Also, at times employees do not have self-confidence due to which they form unions. Sometimes the managers show privileged treatment and favor some employees giving a segregated feeling to other employees. Thus, when employees sense a need to exchange their views, they go for grapevine network as they cannot use the formal channel of communication in that case. Generally during lunch breaks and tea breaks in cafeteria, the subordinates talk about their superior’s attitude and behavior and exchange views with their peers. They discuss rumours about promotion and transfer of other employees. Thus, grapevine spreads like fire and it is not easy to trace the cause of such communication at times. People badmouth others on account of jealousy, insecurity, anxiety, or nervousness and sometimes even due to stupidest reasons.

Social media and social software have become an integral part of the post digital business landscape and they are the breeding grounds of the grapevine. Do you know it is an important medium for communicating with customers, increasing brand awareness, and promoting innovation and collaboration among employees? Social business is typically viewed as a tool for external-facing activities, and is considered particularly useful for managing customer relationships. Increasingly, its relevance to innovation and competitive differentiation is also being recognized. At the same time many companies consider social media as a barrier because they consider it risky.

According to a 2012 survey of 192 executives conducted by Deloitte & Touché and Forbes Insights, social media was identified as the fourth largest risk, placing it on par with financial risk as numerous corporate social media debacles over the last few years have brought attention to the phenomenon of brand sabotage due to compliance and legal risks arising from potential violations of or non-conformance with laws, rules, regulations, prescribed practices, internal policies and procedures. There are no ethical standards; information leakage happens because of friendliness of social media which allows employees to speak to broad audiences and insufficient controls could lead to the disclosure of sensitive information, such as personal accounts, health information, intellectual property, customer data, personally identifiable information, etc. Information leakage may result in loss of competitive advantage and brand damage. Outsourcing social media activities can expose companies to substantial risks, particularly copyright and trademark infringement and lack of governance.

The marketing manager and two supervisors of operation department play tennis every day, and they spend time together in tennis court, there are high chances of exchange of official information through this informal set-up. Another example is the finance manager discloses business development plans during a trek to one of his old school friend who in turn passes on the information innocently to his friend in the rival organization.

But then there are some advantages of grapevine they are: grapevine channels carry information rapidly. As soon as an employee gets to know some confidential information, he becomes inquisitive and passes the details then to his closest friend who in turn passes it his best friend and that one passes to other. Thus, it spreads hurriedly. The managers get to know the reactions of their subordinates on their policies. Thus, the feedback obtained is quick compared to formal channel of communication. The grapevine creates a sense of unity among the employees who share and discuss their views with each other. Thus, grapevine helps in developing group cohesiveness. Also, the grapevine serves as an emotional supportive value. However, the grapevine is a supplement in those cases where formal communication does not work.

Thus, the grapevine is useful as a supplement to formal channels of communication. It often travels more quickly than other channels and is usually more direct. The grapevine is present within all levels of staff. It exists because of a natural desire to know things and brings a sense of belonging to employees and managerial staff alike. It can create corporate identity and build teamwork.

The disadvantages are: The grapevine carries only partial information at times as it is more based on rumours. Thus, it does not clearly depict the complete state of affairs. The grapevine is not dependable always as it does not follows official path of communication and is spread more by gossips and unsupervised report. It kills the productivity of employees as they spend more time talking rather than working. The grapevine leads to making hostility against the executives. It hampers the goodwill of the organization as it may carry false negative information about the high level people of the organization. Therefore organizations should take care of all the disadvantages of the grapevine and try to minimize them. It is also humanly impossible to curb grapevine completely, hence we need to live with them by ignoring it as much as possible.  The blatant fact is that gossiping is a universal pastime.