BBA Principles Management Bases Departmentation Study Material Notes
Table of Contents
BBA Principles Management Bases Departmentation Study Material Notes: Function product process Territory Choice of Bases of Departmentation Time Alpha Numerical Customer Determination of Span of Management Factors Affecting Span of Management Tall of Flat Structure Wide ore NBarrow Span Important Question answer ( Most Important notest for BBA Students )
MCom I Semester Human Resource Policies Practices Study Material
BASES OF DEPARTMENTATION
The managerial problems associated with departmentation are directly related to the degree to which individual jobs have been specialised, that is, the number of ways to group Jobs increases with the number of different specialised jobs. Thus, a small business owner employing three-four persons may not require any departmentation because he can control all the persons personally himself. However, the situation will be different if we consider an organisation like Tata Iron and Steel Company where large number of employees are employed. Therefore, there is a need of departmentation along some common factors, that is, common factors for achieving organisational objectives are grouped together to constitute departments. Since the nature of these factors varies, these can be determined on several bases. Therefore, there are several bases of departmentation. The more commonly used bases are: function, product, territory, process, customer, time, etc. Some of these bases are internal operation-oriented like function, process, time while others like product, territory. and customer are output-oriented.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Function
The grouping of common or homogeneous activities to form an organisational unit is known as functional departmentation, that is, the units are organised around common functions. Functional departmentation is the most widely used basis for organising activities and is present almost in every large organisation at some level. Since functional departmentation can be adopted at various levels of the organisation, the various functions of the organisation are divided into basic and secondary functions.
Basic Functions. The basic or major functions are those which are essential for the organisations and their operations contribute to the organisational efficiency. Davis has called these functions as organic functions’ because their performance is vital and essential to the basic survival of the organisation and values created by them are indispensable. For example, in a manufacturing organisation, basic functions may be production. marketing, and finance. Similarly, in a finance company, financing activities (raising and disbursing financial resources) may be basic functions. Thus, basic functions are determined on the basis of their importance to the achievement of organisational activities.
Secondary Functions. When departments are created on the basis of major functions and a manager feels that his span of management is too wide to manage effectively or take the advantages of specialisation, he may create departments within the major functional department. Such departments will be created by dividing the major function into subfunctions. This process may go down further when a secondary function may also be divided into sub-functions. For example, marketing department may be created at the top level. However, in order to perform marketing function properly, particularly in large organisation. it may be divided into selling, marketing research, advertising, etc. Further, advertising may be divided into print media advertising, T.V. advertising, etc. Thus, the process of functional differentiation will continue through several levels in the organisation.
Besides basic and secondary functions, large organisations may also require some functions to be performed which will be helpful for the basic functions. Such functions may he referred to as staff or service functions which provide help to basic (line) functions. Thus, a functional departmentation will include both une functions as well as staff functions denendind on the need of the organisation. Viganisation chart based on functional departmentation will be as follows:
Functional departmentation can continue as long as a sound basis for functional differentiation exists. After that, some other basis of departmentation may be used. For example, in sales department, further departmentation may be on the basis of territorial consideration
Functional departmentation is most commonly used because it offers certain advantages which include advantages of specialisation, ensuring performance of activities necessary for the achievement of organisational objectives, elimination of unnecessary activities, easier control over functions, easier way for pinpointing training needs of the managers, and maintaining the relative importance of functions in the organisation. However, functional departmentation cannot be carried too far in the organisation. Moreover, there are many problems associated with functional departmentation such as lack of responsibility for the end results, over-specialisation and consequently lack of general management point of view, and problems of conflicts and coordination among functional departments. Therefore, the functional departmentation is useful only up to top or immediately below the top level. Product
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Product
Departmentation involves the grouping together of all activitics necessary to manufacture a product or product line. As the organisation grows in size, it becomes difficult for managers to coordinate the activities of the expanding product lines. One commonly adopted strategy is to establish departments based on products. Product departmentation is preferred for product expansion and diversification when manufacturing and marketing characteristics of each product are of primary concern. It is generally used when the product is relatively complex and a great deal of capital is required for plant and other facilities such as automobile, electronics, etc. In fact, many large companies are diversifying in different fields and they prefer product departmentation. For example, DCM Limited has more than twenty products and hence products as the basis of departmentation. Within each major product department, major and subsidiary functional departments can be created. For example, the departmentation of an automobile organisation may be as follows:
The product departmentation can be extended further. For example, if the above organisation is manufacturing light commercial vehicles for different uses, this division may be further grouped on that basis like mini bus, delivery van, ambulance, etc.
Product departmentation offers several advantages, particularly to an organisation having multiple products or operates in a single industry with products for different uses as above. This basis pays attention to product lines, reduces problems of coordination for different products, provides opportunities for further diversification and expansion of organisation, and provides product specialisation necessary for managers specially when each product is different from others. However, it presents problems at the top management level for coordination, multiplicity of efforts because same functional facilities are required for different products, and problem in maintaining economical central staff services. That is why a mixture of product and functional bases are adopted.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Territory
Territorial or geographical departmentation is specially useful to large-sized organisations having activities which are physically or geographically spread such as banking, insurance, transportation, etc. In such a case, all the activities in a given area of operations are grouped into zones, divisions, branches, etc. The assumption is that if markets are widely dispersed, an improved cost-profit situation will result if all activities affecting a product line or service in a specific geographical region are grouped together. For example, Life Insurance Corporation of India has grouped its activities as shown in Figure 12.3.
Territorial departmentation is specially suitable to large-scale organisations or other organisations whose activities are physically or geographically spread. In such cases, territorial departmentation provides certain efficiency in operation. Local factors such as customers, culture, styles, preferences, etc., always affect organisational functioning. In fact, the same kind of work is always different when location is dfferent. Thus, knowledge of local conditions is an important element in effective management. Moreover, some costs of operations can be saved, for example, serving of customers at different locations. The corresponding facilities are created looking into the needs for local conditions. Further, territorial departmentation may provide training to managers to look after every aspect of organisational operations. Therefore, they can develop the skills of looking at the organisation as a whole and can progress at the top level of the organisation where general management skills are needed.
Territorial departmentation presents certain problems. Therefore, adequate provisions should be made to overcome these problems. The first most important problem is that of communication. However, this problem can be overcome without much difficulty once the system of communication is developed added with modern communication facilities. Another problem which comes in the way is the distance between policy framers and policy executors. Often both of them are at a distance not only in terms of physical distance but also in terms of mental distance because of different local conditions. However, this problem can be overcome by providing suitable training to the managers concerned. Some problems of coordination may also arise between top-level and territorial-level managers as some of the functions are to be performed at the head office level. This arrangement requires many managers with general management skills. Therefore, training and development should be a continuous process.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Process
In process departmentation, processes involved in production or various types of equipments used are taken as basis for departmentation. When the production activities involve the use of several distinctive processes, these can be used as the base for grouping of activities. Such activities may be textiles, oil production, etc. For example, departmentation in the manufacturing department of a textile organisation may be as follows:
The basic purpose of such departmentation is to achieve economic advantages. The processes are set in such a way that a series of operations is feasible making operations economic. For example, in the case of a textile unit, the raw material (cotton, synthetic fibres) has to pass through the production processes mentioned above. In such a case, efficiency can be achieved if departments are created for each process as each has its peculiarities. It provides advantages of specialisation required at each level of total processes: maintenance of plant can be done in better way: and manpower can be utilised effectively.
This arrangement has the problem of coordination because the work of each process is! dependent fully on the entire process. Therefore, there are chances of conflicts among managers looking after different processes. However, this problem can be overcome by developing suitable norms and understanding among managers.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Customer
Customer-based departmentation is basically market-oriented in which departments are created around the markets served or around marketing channels. While both these approaches to departmentation are used to emphasise marketing and make it more effective, they differ in some respects. Grouping of activities around marketing channels involves making an organisation structure reflect the ways an organisation reaches an ultimate customer: market-centred grouping supports marketing efforts for different types of customers. Therefore, such a grouping is suitable to those organisations which either serve different customers such as a pharmaceutical company supplying to hospitals, government, retail stores, etc., or applying different marketing channels like wholesale, retail, instalment and hire-purchase, export, etc. Customer-based departmentation may appear as follows:
The most important advantage of customer departmentation is that it focuses on customers who are the ultimate suppliers of money to the organisation. Therefore, different types of customers can be satisfied easily through specialised staff. In fact, the basic idea of this departmentation is to provide services to clearly identified groups of customers. Each group of customers has different purchase behaviour, payment schedule, demand pattern, etc. Therefore, they can be attracted to the organisation’s business by satisfying them through providing services most suitable to each of them.
This method may have certain disadvantages, specially when it is followed very rigidly. Coordination between sales and other functions becomes difficult because this method can be followed only in marketing division. Duplication and confusion may arise in product, research and development activities as well as in manufacturing, as the market-oriented managers demand special attention and services. This may generate more conflicts in the organisation. Further, there may be underemployment of manpower in some departments, specially when demand for that customer group decreases. Therefore, customer-oriented departments should be created to the extent they justify their existence.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Time
In some organisations, where work is performed throughout day and night, the work is divided into shifts. Thus, when an organisation operates on three shifts, three different departments may exist: one department for each shift though they all may be alike in terms of objectives and activities. The basic idea is to get the advantages of people specialised to work in a particular shift.
Alpha-numerical
In this method, the departments are created on the basis of persons or an alphabet. A certain number of persons are kept under supervision of one person irrespective of the fact what they do, where they do, and how they do. This method is suitable for the organization large number of operatives. This method is used at lower levels of hierarchy and is frequent in military organisation where, at the lowest level, the soldiers are grouped on the basis of number.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
CHOICE OF BASES OF DEPARTMENTATION
The above discussion shows that each of the bases of departmentation has its suitability advantages, and disadvantages. Consequently, the selection of bases of departmentation involves a consideration of the relative advantages of each base for the organisation. Ideally speaking, a suitable basis of departmentation is one which facilitates the performance of organisational functions efficiently and effectively so that its objectives are achieved. However, since each basis is suitable to a particular type of organisation or its part, often a combination of various bases is adopted. Therefore, determination of suitability of departmentation bases should be considered in the light of various factors affecting the functioning of an organisation. Such factors may be of the following types:
1 Specialisation. The basis of departmentation should reflect the specialisation in performing the work. The more an organisation structure reflects the division of work in an organisation through grouping of activities in departmental form, the more efficiently and effectively it tends to contribute to organisational operation. This is possible because of specialisation of work. Therefore, looking in the organisational framework, that basis should be chosen which results in specialisation.
2. Coordination. While specialisation involves that an activity is performed by the most suitable personnel, coordination involves that all the related activities are performed in a way that their performance is synchronised so that each activity contributes to others. In a sense, all activities grouped in various forms have the same objective of achieving organisational goals, though they may be dissimilar in nature and their performance may require different skills. Therefore, the best result can be achieved when all activities are performed in a coordinated way and each activity contributes in the positive way to others. Thus, the basis of departmentation should ensure that closely connected operations are put together
3. Control. Control is the process of analysing whether the intended results are being achieved by a particular department or not. If not, what can be done to bring the situation to a desirable level. Control measures and their effectiveness depend on the way in which activities are grouped into departments. Normally, more the clearly-defined activities and consequently responsibilities of departments are, more are the chances for effective control because the manager can know very easily what is to be controlled. Thus, from control point of view, activities whose immediate contributions are similar should be grouped together so that responsibilty for achieving results can be clearly specified.
4. Economy. A balance should be maintained between the cost of creating a department and its contribution. The existence of a department is desirable only when it contributes more than its cost. Creation of departments involves costs on the part of the organisation. Costs involved may be of two types. First, when a new department is created, it requires personnel and other matching facilities which involve costs. Second, creation of additional department means creation of additional interactions in the organisation requiring additional time of managers which is very important for them. For example, if too many staff departments have been created, they may pose severe time constraints on line managers.
5. Focus on Results. In an organisation, the final results or objectives are achieved through the achievement of subordinate results. Therefore, all those activities which contribute to the achievement of these results should be given proper attention. This will ensure that all necessary activities are performed and there is no duplication of unnecessary activities Thus, activities whose contributions are higher are ukely to get more prominence. For example, service activities are grouped separately to support the main activities and also to ensure that they contribute positively to the performance of main activities. However, creation of departments for auxiliary services should not get prominence over main activities.
6. Local Conditions. While creating departments, adequate consideration should be given to the requirements of local conditions. This is more important to those organisations which operate in different geographical areas. As pointed out earlier, the same kind of work is different when the location is different. Therefore, local requirements of the organisation should also be taken into account while creating departments.
7. Human Consideration. Departmentation should also take into consideration the human factor in the organisation. Therefore, along with technical factors discussed above. departments should be created on the basis of availability of personnel, their aspirations and value systems, informal work groups, and attitudes of people towards various forms of organisation structure. Often organisation structure is a major source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction to human beings. This also affects the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. Departmentation scheme providing more human satisfaction is likely to contribute more to the organisational operation. However, departments should not be created merely to suit the needs of a few individuals only.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Span of Management
The grouping of activities to create various departments presents another problem, that is. how many individuals should be placed under one superior. This problem is related to the horizontal dimension of an organisation structure. In management literature, span of management, span of control, or span of supervision are used to denote the same concept of number of subordinates which should be put under one superior. However, the term span of management appears to be more suitable as compared to its alternatives because a superior is responsible for the total activities of his subordinates which involve not merely controlling or supervising but the total managerial activities.
Span of management refers to the number of subordinates who can be managed effectively by a superior. The number of subordinates who report to a superior has two important implications. First, it is influential in determining the complexity of individual manager’s jobs. Second, the span of management determines the shape or configuration of the organisation; the fewer the number of people reporting to the superior, the larger the number of managers required. Therefore, the number of subordinates reporting to a superior should be fixed which in any case cannot go beyond a certain limit. However, Soujanen has suggested that span of management is a traditional concept and is not valid because the coordination and control can be achieved through formal and informal group activity. The replacement of old system of individual control by control through management team has changed the whole system of communication and contact in the organisation which has affected attention paid to the way executive controls in the command sense. 10 However, Soujanen’s contention that modern social science concepts have modified the concept of traditional span of management drew a sharp reaction from Urwick. 11 He brought an article in response and suggested that the contention of Soujanen was wrong and span of control principle held valid.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
DETERMINATION OF SPAN OF MANAGEMENT
No doubt, management thinkers agree that span of management principle holds they do not agree about the number of subordinates that can be put under one su The classical approach to the span of management has dealt with generalisation embo specific number of subordinates for effective span. The classical writers have sus between three to eight subordinates as ideal depending on the levels of management w lower the level of management, higher the number of subordinates. Graicunas, a pre management consultant, has suggested the fixation of number of subordinates based mathematical calculation 12 He has analysed superior-subordinate relationships an developed mathematical formulae. Graicunas has identified three types of superior subordinate relationships: direct single relationships, direct group relationships, and cross relationships.
1 Direct Single Relationships. Direct single relationships arise from the direct individual contacts of the superior with his subordinates. Thus, if there are three subordinates A, B, C under one superior X, there will be three direct single relationships.
2. Direct Group Relationships. Direct group relationships arise between the superior and his subordinates in all possible combinations. Thus, the superior may consult his subordinates with one or more providing assistance. With three subordinates, there will be nine such relationships like A with B. A with C, B with C, and so on with the superior associated with all groups.
3. Cross Relationships. Cross relationships arise because of mutual interaction of subordinates working under the common superior such as A and B, A and C, B and A, and so on. The relationship is quite different between A and B than B and A from management’s point of view because the type of interaction will be different in both the cases. There are six such relationships with three subordinates.
Graicunas has given formulae to find out various relationships with the varying numbers of subordinates. With number of subordinates being n, the number of various relationships will be as follows:
This formula suggests that while the number of subordinates increases in arithmetical progression, the number of relationships increases in geometrical progression as shown in Table 12.1.
According to Graicunas, most ideal span for a manager is six subordinates involving 222 relationships. No doubt, Graicunas has given a mathematical treatment of the managers, showing how the problem of managing subordinates increases with the increase in the number of subordinates, his contribution are not equally important from management point of basic limitation. All the relationships are not equally important from manad view and therefore, these cannot increase the complexity of managing. Moreover the complexity of managing. Moreover, Graicunas dered many other possible relationships particularly in cross relationshins Therefore, span based on mere number of relationships cannot be fixed.
The recognition that potential managerial effectiveness is limited as the number of subordinates increases has led others to propose definite limits on the span of management. For example, Davis distinguishes between two categories of span of control, an executive span and an operative span.13 Executive span includes the middle and top management positions in an organisation. The span for these managers should vary from three to nine, depending on the nature of managers’ jobs and responsibilities and the rate of growth of the organisation. The operative span applies to the lowest level of management and it can be effective with as many as 30 subordinates. Similarly, Urwick has proposed span for top management as four but it may be between eight and twelve for supervisory management. 14 Thus, span of management has been suggested differently by various writers. Further, differences also exist for different levels of management. Therefore, it is desirable to identify those factors which affect the span of management.
Bases Departmentation Study Material
Factors Affecting Span of Management
The basic idea behind limiting the span of management is to enable a manager to manage his subordinates effectively. As such, the important determinant for specifying the span of management is the manager’s ability to reduce the frequency and time impact of superiorsubordinate relationships. This ability, in turn, is affected by several factors. Therefore, such factors are quite important in determining the suitable span of management. Following are such factors:
1 Capacity of Superior. Each manager has different ability and capacity in respect of such factors as leadership, communication, decision making, control, etc. affecting management of subordinates. Managers having more capacity in respect of these factors can manage more number of subordinates in similar situation. Moreover, the attitudes and personality factors of the manager also determine his span of management. For example, any empire builder may like to have wider span as compared to a submissive manager.
2. Capacity of Subordinates. Capacity of subordinates also affects the degree of span of management. Efficient and trained subordinates may discharge their functions more efficiently without much help of their superior. They may just need broad guidelines and rest of the things can be performed by them. In such cases, they require lesser time from their superior who will be in a position to manage larger number of subordinates. Similarly. if there is no frequent changes in subordinates, span can be wider.
3. Nature of Work. Nature of work affects degree of span of management because different types of work require different patterns of management and hence time from superior. subordinates are performing similar functions, they require less attention of their superior and span can be wider. For example, a study discloses that mean span of management in the case of supervisors supervising similar work was 16 as against only 6.7 for those supervising different works. 15 Similarly, rate of change in the work also affects the span of management with work with lower degree of change facilitating higher span and work with higher degree of change restricting the span of management. This is so because work with frequent changes requires detailed instructions from the superior every time when there is change in the work. Type of technology used also affects the span of management. For example, Woodward’s study suggests that in the case of mass production and assemblyline technology, the span is highest. Similarly, in unit and batch production, span is higher than process production. 16
4. Degree of Decentralisation. Degree of centralisation or decentralisation affects span of management by affecting the degree of involvement of the superior in decision-making process. Thus, higher is the degree of decentralisation, higher is the degree of span. If a manager clearly delegates his authority and defines it fully, he requires less time to devote to manage his subordinates because most of the actions will be taken by the subordinates on their own. In the case of centralisation of authority or ambiguity in delegation of authority, the subordinates would require considerable consultation, clarification, and instructions from their superior. This will require more time on the part of the superior and his span will be narrow.
5. Degree of Planning. Higher is the degree of plans, particularly standing plans clearly providing rules, procedures, methods, etc., in doing the work, higher would be the degree of span of management. In such cases, the subordinates can take actions on their own. On the other hand, if they have to draw their own plans, they may not know what exactly they have to do and they may require more time for guidelines and consultation. In a situation, where the production foremen were performing repetitive work with well-formulated standing plans, span averaged between 60 and 70.
6. Communication Techniques. The pattern of communication, its means, and media affect the time requirement in managing subordinates and consequently span of management. If communication is mostly face-to-face, it requires more time on the part of both superior and subordinates. On the other hand, communication with staff assistant and through the use of modern communication tools like electronic devices will save lot of time and span can be increased.
7. Use of Staff Assistance. Use of stall assistance in reducing the work load of managers enables them to manage more number of subordinates. Many of the managerial functions can be discharged by these stall personnel on behalf of the managers. They can collect information, process communication, and issue orders and instructions ad issue orders and instructions on behalf of terrier. This process saves time of managers and the degree of span can be increased.
8. Supervision from Others. It is not very uncommon that a subordinral other personnel besides his direct superior. In such a case, the supervision from several other personnel besides his direct su work load of direct superior is reduced and he can supervise more
The trend is changing toward has found that it is not is changing towards getting supervision from many persons. For example, Udell sound that it is not uncommon that men in the organisations receive 50 per cent of more of their supervision from someone else than their own immediate superior. He has found that where people were getting supervision from others also besides from their own superior, the average span was 17.6 as compared to 9.7 for those not getting supervision from others. 17
The analysis of various factors affecting span of management suggests that there cannot be any fixed number of subordinates under one superior. Rather, the span should be decided taking the various factors into account. Therefore, the span of management may vary in the same organisation for different levels of management and functions, and also in different organisations for similar functions and levels of management.
Various research studies have suggested the actual span of management followed under various situations. On the basis of review of such studies, House and Miner conclude that:
1 under most circumstances, the optimal span is likely to be in the range of 5 and 10:
2. the larger spans, say 8 to 10, are most appropriate at the highest policy-making levels of the organisation where greater resources for diversified problem solving appear to be needed:
3. the breadth of effective spans of first-line supervisors is contingent on the technology of the organisation, and
4. in prescribing the span of control for specific situations, considerations are given to a host of local factors such as desirability of high group cohesiveness, the performance demands of the task, the degree of stress in the environment, task interdependencies, the need of the members’ satisfaction, and the leadership skills available to the organisation. 18
Bases Departmentation Study Material
WIDE OR NARROW SPAN
Often there is a controversy whether an organisation should adopt the policy of narrow span or wide span of management. While most of the classical writers have suggested a narrow span of management, modern approach suggests a wider span of management. This is so because the modern trends work in favour of wider span of management. A narrow span throughout an organisation causes tall or vertical structure, and a wide span causes a flat or horizontal structure. In the first case, more supervisory personnel will be required as shown by Table 12.3. TABLE 12.3:
Thus, for the same number of workers, requirement of supervisory personnel at spa of 4 is 1.365 and at span of 8 is only 585. Therefore, looking into the cost of employment on personnel and their availability, it is preferable to go for wider span of management. The following factors have also made it possible to adopt wider span of management in modern day organisations.
1 trends towards decentralisation,
2. Improved communication technology.
3. Increasing size of organisations, and
4. the new pattern of leadership with more emphasis on democratic styles.
However, despite the desirability of wider span of management, it is limited by real and important restrictions. An organisation cannot extend its span of management beyond a certain level. Therefore, what is more important in this context is to maintain a precise balance between wide and narrow span of management. One must balance all the costs of adopting one course or the other-not only the financial costs but also costs in morale, personnel development, and attainment of organisational objectives. This requires an understanding of various implications of tall and flat organisation structure. TALL OR FLAT STRUCTURE Tall structure is one which fosters narrow span of management, a large number of management levels, and more centralised decision making. The basic advantages of this structure are close supervision, close control of subordinates’ activities, and fast communication between superior and his subordinates. However, this structure results in too much control, creation of many levels of management, high costs to the organisation, and excessive distance between lowest level and highest level in the organisation.
Flat structure is that which reduces the levels of management, widens span of control of managers at various levels of the organisation, and is often more decentralised with regard to decision-making autonomy. Its main advantages are more delegation of authority. more clear policy, development of managers for higher positions because of their initiative and authority to make decisions, etc. As against these, its disadvantages are tendency of overloaded superiors to become bottlenecks in decision making, danger of superior’s loss of control, and requirement of highly trained managerial personnel.
The relative merits and demerits of flat and tall structure do not lead to any definite conclusion. In fact, the results of many researches also do not suggest a definite trend. For example, the tendency to increase the number of levels has occurred in the face of strong arguments favouring a relatively llat structure emerging out of the Sears Roebuck experience in carrying out its shift to the decentralised form. The essence of these arguments was that the flat structure with wide span of management produced less control from the top. greater individual initiative and thus more satisfied as well as more effective. 19 However, the experimental study of Carzo and Yanouzas shows that groups operating under a relatively tall organisation structure had relatively better performance than groups operating under the flat structure,20 This was believed due to the fact that with narrower spans, group members were able to evaluate decisions more thoroughly and a more orderly decision Limited was the manufacturer of high fashion dresses, both for domestic and international markets. Its emphasis was to develop latest and unique designs specially for ladies and children. Design was the main strength of the company’s business success. The company employed about 600 employees out of which 20 (all females were in design department. The main function of design department was to collect information about the prevailing fashion in international and home markets, to analyse the information, and to suggest and prepare suitable design for the company.
Miss Sangeeta joined the company as chief designer. Prior to joining this job, she received M.Sc. degree in Clothing and Textile with specialisation in dress design. She also received dress design training for six months from a reputed institute in the U.S.A. She also received her summer training for two months in Stylotex as part of her M.Sc. degree. During her training, she impressed the management with her creative thinking about dress design. Many designs suggested by her during this period were accepted by the management and were appreciated by the customers. Therefore, when the chief designer of the company retired and Sangeeta applied for the position, she was taken by the management to fill the vacancy.
Since Miss Sangeeta was with the company for two months as summer trainee, she knew the work culture of the company. She was knowing most of the employees of design department. She was also aware about the likely resistance that she could meet on her joining the position as she was replacing a very experienced and highly esteemed lady. Though she could not expect direct resistance from others, she was very serious about the resistance to be shown by one designer, Mrs. Vimala who was in her fifties and was designer in the company for the last fifteen years. That ‘grand old lady’, as she used to be called by her colleagues, carried lot of weight with the group members. She did not have liking for a young girl directing and controlling them. Therefore, Sangeeta thought rightly that without her active cooperation, she could not succeed in her career. However, she was determined to get her career off on the right foot. As a result, she was giving serious thought to win over Mrs. Vimala and other members of the group but was not sure how to proceed in the matter.
QUESTION
1 Advise Miss Sangeeta about how she should proceed in the matter.
