Bum on the road

Hi,

I am on vacation and being a bum. Its real nice. I am presently visiting and giving talks in the hope that it will help my writing project ahead. Prof. Nagabrahmam at TAPMI told us that everyone seems to be in the present continuous "I am working on.....I am writing a paper on... I am researching..." when does present continuous turn into past tense? Good piece of insight.

I dropped off in Bombay to visit IIT for a few days. While I was there, I was invited by Prof. Sreekumar of IDC to deliver a talk there. It was fun to redefine space on a professional stage. Just after the introduction, I was in the control room at the back and dimmed all the lights, and then slowly brightened the stage to reveal an empty stage. I began my narration using the wireless microphone. And then moved to the stage. It was a nice experience.

In Goa University I had four lectures the first two were on non-positivisitic methodology and the second was on non-homeostatic motivation. But more fun was the conversations I had with some of the faculty over beer. It was a good opportunity to brush up on philosophy of science, William Dilthey, Husserl, etc. I also got to learn a little bit of economics from snippets of conversation too.

Next stop TAPMI, Manipal. I had an "interaction" as my host, Dr.Bino Paul puts it, with the faculty. I decided to share my intellectual biography and begin a discussion from there. The discussion revolved around the realistic assumptions of management and how we could use rhetoric and narratives in our own classrooms better. WE discussed the "truth" of case studies and some of the faculty raised questions about (1) how do we evaluate work if there is no "correct answer" and (2) how do we practically bring in narratives to the classrooms.

An issue that was heard both among faculty and students was the question "If all narratives are the same, then how is one privilaged over another? After all we need to follow one story and not a 100 at the same time." We discussed how we can give greater CREDIBILITY for our stories but that did not necessarily index it to reality.

That evening I spent another two hours with the students here, who were doing a course, largely in Qualitative Research. That was good fun too.


I know this post must be utterly boring, but sometimes life events are fun, but when reported it can sound boring. Sorry!

Foul Language - and you are fired.

The supreme court of india recently ruled that if you abuse your boss, the organization is justified in sacking you. Hmmm I wonder if this would encourage people to be polite... or at least decent with each other in our organizations. But wait.. we dont have a test case that asks the converse. What if a boss abuses a subordinate? My guess is, that if the converse were also to be upheld, many organizations would be decimated. But ofcourse, in this case, the subordinate doesn't have the power to sack his superior. Therein lies the tragedy of organizational behaviour.

In many many situations I have seen / heard a "boss" take his subordinate "to task" for some goof up or failure. Ofcourse all bosses do not do it in public, while some believe its important to set an example. I wonder what benefit it has?

The "theory" behind it is the idea that the reason why the employee performed badly is because he was not "SERIOUS" or had no thought for the consequences. Ofcourse "consequences" is behind the theory of "deterrence" in soceity, say the justice system uses this.

Unfortunately the organization is not best represented by a police state. The assumption fails on two accounts. The first is the idea that the employee doesnt care. On the contrary, in today's world, employment and organizational membership seems to be the most important part of human existence! The second is the idea that somehow a "dressing down" would cause the employee to make less mistakes. It does... because the employee doesnt care about doing anything any more.

Hmmmmmm....have to go for a meeting now (means literally, I have to meet someone... not sit in a stuffy office and draw doodles). Perhaps I will write more about this (or rewrite this) later.