“Manage Me” new normal for management education post covid: Kulpati Prof PB Sharma

The value and worth of self discipline, self motivation and management of self has emerged as one of the most important aspect of modern scientific management during the Covid Times and has its impact on redefining the New Normal for Management during Covid and for the times ahead.

The modern scientific management began with its quest to streamline the work activity and achieve high productivity of people and resources involved in the production system. The intial14 principles of management propounded by FW Taylor and Henri Fayol at the beginning of twentieth century revolved around the division of work and authority and responsibility with a clear line of authority. It promoted collaborative and team spirit and ensured that the top management is able to keep the motivation of its employees high. It worked wonders to maximise productivity and profit during the last nearly 100 years.

However, in the 21st Century the focus of management shifted to managing a lean organization that gave a lot of value to outsourcing and vendor management. This worked well for the speedy rise of the service sector as India became a preferred destination for outsourced services such as call centres, BPOs and a number of consulting services and business management from remote centers. The cyber city of Hyderabad, Millennium city of Gurugram and the Software Parks of Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Noida became the nerve centres of global services that India provided to the nations of the world.

 The economy of India was greatly benefited by the rise of its service sector that provided impressive growth of GDP of 7-9% during 2009-2016.Despite a major disruption of economic activity by demonetisation and other policy interventions, the service sector in India remained buoyant and maintained its growth profile.It is the service sector in Indi that has clearly emerged as the bread winner even during the Covid-19 pandemic times.

The management of service sector apart from technology depends on the integrity, commitment and efficacy of its people. Even technology is largely operated by people and as such people matter most. Their capabilities and emotional maturity matter more than any other resource. That is why the IT sector when it defined its quality standards at the beginning of 21st Century did not define it along ISO 9000 quality standards, rather it brought its own CMM Level 3-5 standards as the benchmark of quality in IT and ITES. Here CMM was for Capability and Maturity Model that focussed on its People's Capability and Maturity. It later defined it's quality standards of CMM as PCMM i.e. People's Capability and Maturity Model.

So we see here great focus on the capabilities and maturity of people.  As the people matter most, their capabilities to use technology, to create newer applications for providing added and more efficient services are of paramount importance to the service industry. Their capabilities of innovation and willingness to adopt new technologies are equally important. And above all their behaviour, conduct, work ethics and Personal Integrity that are highly important as all these directly impact organisational efficacy as well as customer satisfaction, so important today to retain the market share for any organisation.

Assuch, as the people matter most, the New Normal for Management during Covid and in the times ahead would require  the new mantra of management that ie Manage Me, which directly emphasises the value and worth of self discipline, intrinsic motivation and highest levels of personal integrity and managing self to optimise one's performance and satisfaction, says Kulpati Prof PB Sharma  who is a renowned thought leader, currently is the Vice Chancellor Amity University Gurugram who is  also the Founder Vice Chancellor DTU and RGTU and  Past President of AIU.