Lecture 2

Goal Setting

In the second lecture we picked up the discussion about the implication and inferences drawn from the Tower Game. Dr Prasad related this activity to goal setting.  He explained how a manager should never discount his subordinates. He should have full faith in their ability and push them to achieve more them they believe themselves to be capable of.

The discussion led to Pygmalion effect. Pygmalion was a mythological Greek sculptor who fell in love with the statue he created and when he kissed it, it came to life. The reason why Dr Prasad took this example I believe is that this is the same thing managers have to do. They have to believe in their team so much that the team perform beyond its perceived limits. I have also read a play “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shah. In that play, the main character, Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. This play also justifies the point made by our teacher.

Theory  X and Y

The second part of the discussion was on the theory of X and Y. theory of X and Y says that there are two types of managers. Type Y, who are always positive about their team. They always think that their team members are hard working. They motivate their team. Almost all the parents and teachers are type Y people.

The second type of managers is type X. They are always sceptical about their team. They always find fault in whatever their team’s work as they believe that the team members are lazy and not putting in their sincere efforts. These type of managers can never motivate a lazy employee to be hard working instead they demotivate the hardworking person as well.

Employee type Manager type	Good	Lazy
Y	Thinks employee is good	Thinks employee is good
X	Thinks employee is lazy	Thinks employee is Lazy

I have witnessed both type X and type Y managers during my work experience. My boss was a type Y manager. He would always motivate us. He would correct us whenever we would be wrong. He used to say that it does not matter how hardworking my team members are, it is my job to get the best out of each of them and the best of each will not be same.

There was also a type X manager. He was in a different department.  He had a pre conceived motion that all diploma holders are lazy and do not like to work. He used to treat all with a sight of contempt and would always just find faults in their work.