Inderjit
Inderjit is about 40 and for the last one year has been the Chief Executive of a manufacturing company, that operates autonomously, but belongs to a large group. He has firm ideas on how beInderjitst to manage people. In general terms, he believes that people respond best when the pressure is on them.
Inderjit has tremendous energy. He comes to work at 7.00 o'clock and stays late each evening. He works very hard and expects others to do the same. He is a stickler for details and often sends his managers running back from meetings to collect more facts. Face to face meetings with him are something like inquisitions. He has a very aggressive questioning style and bowls people out when he notices mistakes. He is proud that he can move heaven and earth to "fix" problems. Since he is good both in technical and financial matters, he tends to intervene as soon as he suspects a deficiency. He almost "pounces" to sort it out himself.
When there is a problem to be solved, Inderjit likes to call all those involved together in committee room, irrespective of rank or reporting relationships and forces the facts out on to the table. In order to bring out the truth, he adopts a very challenging style (such as, "I don't believe in you...", "You are lying..."). Such remarks are made out in public, often to senior managers in the presence of their subordinates. What is more, Inderjit will even keep the group at it all night, if necessary, keeping aside other commitments. Eventually, he succeeds in solving the problem and also gets advance warning about other likely problems.
Raghur,ath, the personnel manager, is one who reports to Inderjii and particularly resents this treatment. He finds it degrading for a man in his position and also feels that, as personnel manager, he must do something to
change Inderjit's style. Raghunath is seriously concerned about the effects of Inderjit' s behaviour. He notices that his colleagues are showing signs of stress; they are putting in enormously long hours. They have become more competitive towards each other and less co-operative. Their preoccupation with Inderjit has reached absurd proportions. They spend lots of precious time talking about Inderjit in his absence and trying to anticipate "his next move."
Another alarming effect of Inderjit's behaviour is that senior managers spend long hours, getting the details right, so that Inderjit's probing will not catch them out. Managers who were previously willing to delegate, are now less inclined to do so. They feel the only right way is to do things themselves. The managers thus spend all their time on day-to-day issues and are not inclined to do any forward planning. Furthermore, Raghunath notices that the managers are less willing to accept mistakes than before. They try more to contain the problems, conceal them from Inderjit to escape his wrath.
Ironically, Inderjit has complained to Raghunath that too many managers are "fire fighting" instead of doing what 'they are paid to do, that is "to think" and to act. He told Raghunath that he could not understand why people "don't realize that conflict management is nothing but stimulating alternative courses of action ? What I really want is for them to go back, think again and tell me about it."
QUESTIONS
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Assuming you are Raghunath, how would you analyze and explain Inderjit's behaviour as an individual ?
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What would be your analysis of Inderjit's style of leading his people ? How far is it appropriate or otherwise ? Give reasons.
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What options do you now have to remedy the situation with what objectives in mind ? Which option would you choose ? Why ?