What are ideal values?

The last two blogs that I wrote concentrated predominantly on the organization values and system which sets manages and changes them as and when requirement comes up. The system (troika) that I talked ideally should set values which always tend to excel the organization. That ideal system if at all exists, then it can be assumed that organization is in safe hands and definitely we can expect changes within the organization when organization itself looks to excel. This is the summary of my previous blogs.

Before I start my current blog, I would like to take re-organization which happened in Infosys Technologies recently with NRN going out and K V Kamath taking his position along with other management changes at the top most level of the organization. I think this change supports my theory I mentioned in my previous blogs. Because of competitive market pressure, INFY to excel itself it needs to change itself and needs to evolve to shield the market pressure. Management felt the need of overhaul. It is because of clear fundamental values associated with organization – such a re-organization had been achieved smoothly. Now we have a new troika to see INFY 3.0. Obviously we can expect changes within the organization with respect to policies to achieve their organization objective. I also mentioned earlier my blog that if organization values change too much, there will be more chances that organization will be renamed; same happened with INFY and I suppose this is one of the first changes in the organization and many more to follow as the situation is nothing but reinventing itself. I also feel that INFY becomes a matter of case study like it used to be from last two decades.

After digressing a bit from my current blog, let me come back. With some of the events that happened and happening in my professional front, I’m more fascinated to know how an organization decides its values, objectives? How it drafts policies? And the most important and tricky one – “What are ideal values of an organization?”

If I have a group of ideal people who can draft beautiful, scientific, employee-friendly organization values, will it be possible for them to draft the most “ideal” values? It will be a mystery to me to understand these things.

I am trying to explore more on what are ideal values through this blog. Before I proceed, I feel that I may be wrong here in understanding the facets of ideal values or ethics of an organization as I had been part of only one organization all through my 6 years. Also, I may have skewed-view of these values as I have been only an          employee all through 6 years and never been an employer (manager).

Generally, in an objective based organization, objectives are associated with organization indirectly. However, directly they are associated with people who run organization and people who work for organization. These objectives must always adhere to organization values and ethics. This means all of them who are part of the organization will be either directly or indirectly adhering to organization values either through objectives or through changing the organization values themselves.

I believe (rather strongly) that organization values are individualistic in nature when organization is incepted and they evolve as organization grows and matures itself. Organization when incepted will have very few individuals and values will be based on these individuals. In many cases it may not be ideal when started instead they will be primitive and becomes core values as organization evolve over the period of time.  The ethics or values of organization can be visualized with the different stand points – employer view and employees view.

An employee thinks that ideal workplace should provide him/her job satisfaction, job protection and good monetary benefits. I cannot think anything else other than these as of now. From an employer perspective, ideal values should meet or adhere to organizational objectives and also there will be many more other things to achieve organizational objectives and hence may not be able to provide everything that an employee thinks ideal. So, there will be a compromise plan that will be laid down by organization in agreement with “troika” that I mentioned earlier. So, organization should now set values or ethics which will eventually help to achieve the organizational objectives along with the fact that everybody in troika adheres to it. In other words, organization should draft policies which adhere to its values and creates a conducive “environment” for employees to work. I feel this will be the greatest challenge for any organization after its inception.

All I am pointing is the way ideal values will be drafted or evolved within the organization. But never mentioned anything about them and how they should be. If I can think of ideal values of any organization, I always quote a quote from mother of Narendranath Dutta, Swami Vivekananda and quote goes like this:

“"Remain pure all your life; guard your own honor and never transgress the honor of others. Be very tranquil, but when necessary, harden your heart."

If my understandings are correct and I can add my bits to the above lines –

“Be honest to yourself first and then to others as well; be accountable, responsible and disciplined so that one can protect his/her honour; never disrespect others; be calm at all the times and remain practical when required.”

If organization and people who are part of the organization follow above lines, I think and I am pretty sure that such organization will have ideal values associated with and people are following it without fail. The other important thing these lines speak – the idealism in yourself. If an organization drafts an ethical pattern which can be adapted in oneself or in other words if that becomes a walk of life – then definitely people follow it w/o fail and they can be differentiated as distinguished ideal values. I am saying this because (especially in India) we tend to celebrate everything. We believe in group based activity. We celebrate festivals together; we mourn together; we celebrate government activities such election, polio drops programme together. For us everything is celebration. Thus, if our policies or ideals are designed in that way, I am pretty sure they succeed. Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Modi says same thing. When a scheme or a policy be designed as Janandonalan or people-oriented then that scheme/policy succeeds. He exemplifies with water harvesting, malnourishment improvement schemes by asking milk suppliers to donate 100ml of milk everyday to name a few. I am sure that above values if adapted amongst the people and also by organization itself, they automatically become ideal.

I read above lines when I was browsing something on Swamiji. But, I have had this inhibition of comparing these lines at organizational level and individually.

I think by this time many people would have realized which organization I am talking as I have worked with only organization. Yes “VeriSign”. This company has got greatest concept of “RAPID” values and these are the values which I cherish forever. I tried to adapt it in my day to day activities along with my professional values. For those who aren’t or weren’t part of VeriSign, RAPID means Respect, Accountable, Passion, Integrity and Drive. Let us compare these values with the above lines. They match exactly! Don’t they? We have respect, responsibility and integrity defined in the organizational values which cover first two lines! We’ve passion and drive defined as well. Whatever may be the situation in employee’s life, if you have drive and passion, you deliver! Aren’t they satisfying those lines? According to me, they are for sure.  

Like VeriSign, we can find many people who follow those values or principles. One of the apt examples would none other than Sachin Tendulkar.

He has been playing for India from last 21 years. He would have faced so many balls in his careers and during practice as well against such a nice bowling attack over 21 years. But even now, before match, he practices and respects each and every ball and of course every other cricketer. His humility and his humble nature towards other cricketers make him great and commands respect from all corners. So, I can mark R of RAPID as covered. Next will be his accountability. Do I need to explain? He takes his responsibilities every time he comes to middle. Integrity – I think I do need to talk about this. Passion and drive – if Sachin does not have these then he would have retired long time ago. It is his drive which took him past the tennis elbow problem and it was his cricketing passion which makes him to wake up early in the morning, practice for 3 hours, play for 8 hours on field, practice again, have tea and sleep on dining benches. He did this for 55 days non-stop at age of 14! He does even now and he may not sleep on bench though! He is following same RAPID values and of course those lines as well!

Organizational values and significance

After completing my last blog, I did research more on organizational values and its principles. I found that along with strong fundamental values and universal implementation of the same, an organization must have an attitude to thrive itself further. To do that change is required. Also, this raises serious questions. Why to change? When to change? How to change? First two questions are simple. When organization decides to thrive itself or grow bigger itself, it starts thinking about the change. The last question is a serious question and implementation of change is always a challenge in any place. The probably way is to adopt re-engineering, reinventing and recycling strategies within the organization to achieve the objectives set by itself. To achieve, this  I think we need troika consisting of executor, philosopher and follower with each of them work in conjunction towards the objective of thriving.

This troika is more or less similar to any democratic elected system. If India is concerned and with current set-up, it is PM belonging to party and elected by people of India acts as an executor with supporting staff like (Military, Government officials and other elected representatives). People would be the followers of the policies and of course Judiciary, media act as philosopher or guide. In this ecosystem, everybody has same objective to achieve wellness of nation and people. This means collectively troika should try in achieving the wellness of the society.

Similarly, all the profit-oriented organizations will have more or less have troika model. Like any democratic system, it will also be collectively working towards wellness of the organization and employees who are part of it. Here I would say management becomes executors, board becomes philosopher and employees become followers. All in unison will be working towards an objective of thriving themselves directly and indirectly making organization to grow.

In the political spectrum, the prime minister is accountable to people who elected him and also to the party at the same to which he/she belongs. In this sort of system, there will be considerable percentage of people who are not willing to accept the policies of the party to which prime minister belongs. So, it becomes the prime minister’s responsibility to take these people without affecting his party line of thinking. If party starts to dictate or manages PMO, definitely we see issues in the policies and people/nation will suffer at the end. It is happening now with Congress controlling PMO and it happened earlier during Nehruvian time or Vajpayee’s time. Nehru asked to remove party president when party started to question Government policies (more read: Feroz Gandhi vs Nehru). Vajpayee when he was in power, BJP’s sister concern RSS troubled him over many issues resulting in embarrassment. Thus, everybody in the troika that I mentioned earlier has got their roles and responsibilities to perform. All are accountable to their actions and responsibilities.

In the same analogy, every business organization, certainly some set of employees who are not on with management. Management has to consider them during their policy changes or making. Also, if management unilaterally takes certain decisions, then it is board which should guide them during the crunch time.  Finally, the employees must adhere to the organization values set up by management after board’s approval. Like any elected government, organization’s troika must work in unison to achieve organization goals. Like any democratic systems, everybody who is part of organizational troika must perform their roles and responsibilities.

In the beginning, I said about organization thriving with reinvention, re-engineering and recycling. To achieve this, the important aspect would be that objectives tend to change. The CHANGE is the only way to achieve organization growth as change is the only thing which is constant in this world. In my previous blog, I did mention that changes should happen in the organization. Also, I did mention that changes should happen if and only if it is required. And these changes must adhere to organizational philosophies. This means changes must be in conjunction with organization values or set-up. Secondly, the changes should not shackle the fundamentals of organization as the organization has been built upon those values. Finally, changes must be universal to accept. To thrive, these things are needed and should be methodically done to achieve the organization goal. This means the changes must be designed considering the organizational values and differences of opinion on the change itself by the executors. The changes should be revisited and should be approved by the philosophers and finally it should be thoroughly followed by the followers.

Along with troika, one more important factor which can directly influence the path of change is the individual growth within the organization in specific or society in general. In a society or organization, as organization grows, individuals who are part of it will also thrive. It is natural and expected. But there is conflict of interest which can bring the organization into its knees even after having strong organizational values. The personality quotient, PQ, within every person will have direct influence on the path of change. I suppose PQ is the biggest potential to thrive and at the same time biggest threat to organization.

Let me give few examples which did not follow the process I explained earlier so that we can better understand my analogy.

Let us consider Satyam Computer Services Private Limited. This company is one of the pioneers of India’s IT supremacy. It explains in the best possible way of my analogy of troika system and personality quotient and conflict of interests. This company when incepted had had some organizational values. In the process of growth, it instrumented some organizational changes. With more personal interests, executors without the board’s approval introduced the changes without adhering to organizational core values resulting in company falling like WTC! What next – the IT czar was behind the bars. The organization collapsed and followers suffered.

Another great example would be VeriSign itself. Here the executors and philosophers failed. The company in order to thrive bought some companies which were not part of their core business strength. That change back-fired them and company CEO was also fired at the same time. In the path of thrive, company tanked.

Finally, let me consider our medium and small scale industries. Here the followers failed to adapt  to valid and rational changes drafted by executors with philosophers' approval. In ‘90s, Bangalore had 15K small scale industries. In order to grow, the small scale industries needed to  increase the produce. So, owners decided to introduce new working policies to thrive the production. However, employee unions did not accept the new policies. Now both executors and followers are in dire straits.

Contrastingly, Personality Quotient, PQ, as I said earlier can be a boon to an organization. Let us consider people like Steve Jobs, NRN and Richard Branson who can influence the whole organization with their mercurial thinking resulting in extra-ordinary growth of the organization. All these personalities are individualistic in nature but they never violated any of the company policies and philosophies. They stuck to their company values. 

From these negative examples, my belief has increased and also even with troika system and proper implementation scheme, if anyone in the troika thinks irrationally, destruction will happen affecting the ecosystem. Also, I suppose and believe that everybody threw the values of themselves and the organization in the name of growth. The personal significance ruined the organizational values. None of them understood the significance of value-based living.  On the other hand, personal influence did help organization growth since persons stuck to their values and organizational values. Therefore, I think organization must teach its employees the significance of principles, philosophies and rules. At the same time, employees should understand them and adapt them to grow themselves from one stratum to another. 

Ideology, Philosophy and Policy

IDEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY

Ideology refers to a set of self beliefs and doctrines which are associated with a society, an institution or a business organization. Secondly, philosophy is a logical, analytical and pragmatic study of current state of society, institution or an organization with the help of philosophers.  Finally, policies are set of rules, guidelines which can be used as a tool to enforce the ideals associated with society, institution or an organization.

Here in my blog, I would like to restrict myself to a business organization as I am not qualified enough to understand the sociological aspects of the society.

Ideology

Before the inception of any business organization or a social institution, the respective personnel who are part of the organization should come up with a set of ideal or ideologies primarily considering the current situation with a future vision of society and with an intention of bright future for the organization. In other words, ideologies must be adhered to a philosophy as philosophy is a scale to analyze the current state. These ideologies are generally ideologies of individuals. Every individual will have his/her own way of thoughts and beliefs. The organization ideologies will be based on these individual values and different individual values must be rightly blended together. Generally, the ideologies are agenda-oriented, very personal for most of the times, dogmatic and very emotional. Ideologies are either harmful to society and at the same time it can be very good to society depending upon how it is accepted in the society. At one time, communism was a fashion. My father and uncle say that wearing a kurta with glasses with beard on was a way of life. Communism was the thing for many individuals. However, in 15-20 years, everybody knew about that ideology and everybody has been moved out of it or moving out of it. I feel generally ideology is an aggressive of expressing individualistic thoughts and beliefs on somebody else by ideologues.

Philosophy

Philosophy, on the other hand, is a way of life. It is way of thinking, analyzing and understanding the way of life so that more wisdom and knowledge is gained. It is always analytical, logical study of way of life. It always talks about current state of life and thinks about it and tries to understand about the current affairs. Philosophy is pragmatic approach to life and is always societal or social in nature. It is neither harmful to society or may not do any good to society at the same time. It is a very passive way of understanding the things so that it reflects the current societal values or organization values. Also, it is the philosophy which creates the ideals, ideologies. All the ideologies are built upon philosophy as it is actual reflection of current affairs. Philosophy is not as rigid as ideology; but the change in philosophy is generally gradual in nature. However, sometimes it can be fast-paced to term that as revolution. Unlike ideology, there is a scope for change here.

Policy

Policy is a set of rules, guidelines which are outlined by ideologues so that they can impose the ideologies on the society or organization. Policies are always a guide to way of life. Policy is the way of implementing ideals into society or organization. Philosophers review these policies when they see winds of change in the organization generally. In some cases, it may not be true. If these reviews are fast paced and need to be changed immediately, ideally, ideologies need not to be tweaked or morphed so that new rules can be in place with immediate effect. But, if the new rule is going to change the current equilibrium of the organization, and then ideologies need to be revisited at the same time so that new rule benefits everybody within the organization.

Case Study

Societal Situations

We all know the origination of Semitic religions. This is one of the good case studies. Because of Jewish oppression and idealists’ attitude, philosophers felt that there was a need for change. The analysis and logical thinking of society was long driven process and philosophers suggested for change after a long gap of time. One of the philosophers was Jesus Christ. However, Jewish idealists went bizarre and the need for change reached pinnacle with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The philosophers ushered the winds of change across the latitudes and longitudes resulting with new ideals, ideologies etc. The new ideologies were built upon the situation at that time.

However, there are even now people who do not accept that ideologies and still follow their own ideologies. From this, it is very apparent that ideologies need not be accepted blindly and followers part ways if they cannot merge. But, now we’ve Pope or Prophet who issue new ideologies without going thru the process which their fore fathers followed. Can we expect one more change? Of course.

In India, I think we had philosophers only; no ideologues. Ashoka, the great, could be one of the ideologues who conquered the World and imposed his violence attitude across the society. Buddha was born to guide him in the right path. Ashoka accepted the fact that change was necessary and changed the ideologies and spread the new ideologies.

However, ideologies that Buddha drafted were re-looked after some centuries by Adi Shankara, a philosopher, again. Adi Shankara felt the changes that occurred over the years and felt the need of new ideologies. This resulted in new values and ideologies to society. To follow these new ideals, new rules were defined and added a new dimension to society.

The above two case studies prove that analytical thinkers are needed in a society so that changes are identified and necessary actions need to be taken whenever it is required. Also, idealists need not be in agree with other ideologies at the same time. They may agree to disagree.

Organizational Situations

If an organization is concerned, it can be seen as a society as it is comprised of individuals with different thoughts and beliefs and all are adhered to company’s ideals and ideologies. Like society, each organization has got its own philosophy and set of rules. Any organization when started will have some philosophy upon with ideologies are built. But, as time moves on, philosophy of the organization does tend to change. Generally, it is a gradual process. So, it is the responsibility of the philosophers or so called executives to keep a watch on this gradual process.  Thus, there exists a responsibility to redefine, change or remove certain ideologies depending on the current state. In other words, executives need to change ideologies before changing the rules if they feel a reflective change in the philosophy of the organization.

Let us consider the European companies current state – most of the companies are under loss or labour problems. This is all because of the earlier communist or left ideologies resulted in illogical labour laws. The current situation is not at all good and there is a change in the society. Executives are coming up with new ideologies so that companies can be revived with old or existing ideologies will be scrapped. The new ideologies will be built based on current state and new rules will be defined to achieve it.

Conclusion

Ideologies for an organization are built up on philosophies with clear definition, vision and thought along with set of rules to achieve it. At the same time, these things are accepted generally across the organization. Also, ideologies need to be changed only when philosophically organization is changed.

Ironically, in my organization - rules have been bent to impose somebody’s ideology even though the current state of the organization does not need it.