L. N. Godbole

“ We cannot confine the growing thoughts in any book, philosophy, School, or political theory or sacred edifice. It must continue growing like a tree. In science every assumption or theory is checked in the light of new experiments, and baser part is rejected. Similarly in social science we must keep our ideas ever changing and growing. By checking the postulates of belief from time to time they too become stronger, the baser part is discarded and the original thought illuminated. Such ever-growing belief cannot break or die with passage of time. ”

“ Progressing from caterpillar to Butterfly becomes almost impossible, You can dream of becoming a bigger and fatter caterpillar, as that becomes the limit. If you expand idea of yourself growing up to Universal Entity then a huge space unfurls before your mind. The framework of your mind gets enlarged before you, the widening horizons become visible to you. A transformation from caterpillar to Butterfly becomes a possibility.
After all, what does the caterpillar do? It draws into its self, Produces threads and keeps itself busy in the cocoon of its making. ”

“ The purpose of the business that is Customer, gets ignored. Nobody bothers about the customer. Factories, Banks, and companies then start working for their employees only, If this continues, the business does not grow, it does not prosper, the size of the cake to be divided does not increase. The focus of labour management action rests only on the cake, Matsushita Company therefore puts national service through Industry as a first priority. They have fixed this as a super-ordinate goal. The company tries to inculcate it in the minds of its employees in their daily prayer. ”

“ Equality between all organs will be underscored for the ultimate benefit of the enterprise.
This will need an understanding of the individual ‘self’. You will have to forget the outer trappings and concentrate on your core. How do I see myself as an accounts manager/ personnel manager/ research manager in order to enhance my organisation? Once this belief in your self is established, then how to behave as a Manager, how to lead others will be easy to understand. Search of this self will lead to the individual's growth through transformation. ”

“ One starts thinking about the thorn in the leg as a very important problem in the world. One ceases to think about anything else. An apparently small thorn becomes the biggest problem in the world. No other thought comes to the mind, no other thing is felt by us. The strike by workers or their behaviour has the same impact. A small problem in small part of the work place becomes the focus of the nerves of the work place as a whole. ”

“ If we take the example of Textile Mills in Mumbai this will become very clear. Such examples are too many.
People want JOBS they are not necessarily interested in WORK. It is not taught by anyone that one’s social worth depends on one’s work and not on one’s Job Title. I need the existence of surrounding society; society is not dependent on me. My productive work connects me to the society. This simple truth is often forgotten. A person who cannot think beyond himself cannot think such simple thought, All management problems contain a clue to their solutions in that basic reality. ”

“ Once you harmonise the minds of the people, it becomes easy to understand that though our roles in the drama may be different, our drama is one. Roles are small and big, there is a hierarchy of roles also, some are big and some are small roles, but we have equality as individuals. Jobs may be small or big but the bigger goal for all is the same. If you have to achieve big results, make impossible things possible, then we have to work in that spirit. ”

“ If that employer happens to be a company then one does not see any individual as such an employer. What one sees are the fellow employees who are as much beneficiaries as oneself. One is jealous of those individuals for their salaries. One thinks that one should get more. One does have some personal quarrels, anger and enmity but they are as an individual and not as a Class.
Thave not seen the unity amongst the employers or factory owners as a class. Even in employer-employee disputes I have not seen employers helping each other. ”

“ Tconsider the idea of class war as un-Indian and not in consonance with the tradition of the country. Though human bodies are different, assumption of a common soul is a valid assumption. The idea that all owners constitute one class or all workers are of one class is not borne out by facts in life. The internal fights and competition between the workers are as real as they are amongst the employers. To hold a gate meeting of workers, asking people to wait for gate meeting, and stopping them from going home after the settlement are tough tasks which will be vouched for by any union activist. ”

“ Every industrial entity, Company, or business organisation should have a primary aim beyond earning bread of their workers or shareholders, It should be much wider than mere bread. That wider purpose gets relegated once there is quarrel for the bread only. ”

“ Your entire behaviour starts getting a stale smell of futility. I find this futility or non-productive nature in many a politician. Many Maharashtrian intellectuals, writers, and thinkers make me wonder about their anti- production bias. I find their writings unhelpful and pure noise of the sterile variety. Someone who starts a business, produces goods, becomes less important to them than someone who instigates the employees to go on strike, and abandons them to their fate while becoming a hero. This I think is a major problem in my society. ”

“ People do not work only for bonus or incentive bonus, Industries are not raised, and soldiers do not fight for bonus. Only fuelling desire for wants cannot create enthusiasm for work amongst the workers. A call for performance has to be suborned by some emotional appeal. Inspiring this urge for increasing production, increasing value-addition is the key factor in any managerial success. Keep extraordinary goals before people, they can deliver extra-ordinary results if they are motivated enough. ”

“ If you die in fight you will go to heaven and if you are successful you will earn the kingdom on this earth is a logical assumption, because the heaven is imaginary, why not accept the suzerainty of a superior power? Many in this country have opted for this view in our history.
If our Indian Managers keep in mind this identity of self with Universe and learn to have common goals with their co-workers on this basis, they would understand their powers to be functions of their hierarchical positions. They would not remain trapped in seeking gains for their individual positional reality. ”

“ If all those workers had individually returned the advance to old union then their behaviour would be normal according to Indian tradition. That action would be according to their personal and family values as Indians. But would all people give Money back? Would new union approve of it? As a matter of fact the new Union and their leaders had won the battle for allegiance of workers. Why should they have bothered about the losers? It was necessary to rekindle Ram in their minds. As a Karta of the family it was my duty to awaken this Value in their minds. ”

“ Management, Quality and standard of Management are dependent on it. A leader whose concept of self does not extend beyond his body, who cannot imagine beyond his body as self, whether he is an owner, political leader, manager or supervisor, keeps the concept of self of his juniors at limited level of his self concept. His juniors are bound to feel suffocated. If one’s mental framework is narrow, and restricted to his/her physical pleasure, then where would there be any space for your assistant’s ideas and growth? What interest will they have? ”

“ It is a method of bringing a pressure on the Management to concede to the demands of the workers. Any employer or manager will say that strike is a worst form of putting pressure. Then how do employees express their dissatisfaction, express their demands or ask for the increase in the price of their labour? ”

“ In labour-management relations these frames are very troublesome. Why do People Work? If your answer is: only for money, stability, and for bread, or in absence of alternatives, the answers appears logical and complete to us. Often we imagine our own answers as the answers and that is the beginning of complications.
My experience is that it is not the workers but educated managers who believe in the division of society between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ and more so with regard to class conflict. This feeling is stronger in the more educated managers who are actually highly paid workers. ”

“ If you are a Manager or Supervisor the most important issue before your assistants is why should they work for your comfort? This is more particularly true in big organisations when salary is paid by the organisation and supervisors’ persona limits the horizon to suit his needs. What the assistant receives is thus not directly related to the supervisor or Manager. He can stop increment but he cannot give more increments. In his self concept there is no room for his juniors. He does not in fact give monetary salary, nor does he give psychic salary. Why should anyone work for You? ”

“ Those who have made agreements with me, however, consider me very firm and unchanging at times. I have done a lot of bargaining in making industrial agreements. But I do not suffer from the illusion that I alone am right.
Reality is reality. It has no need to be true according to any logical or fixed framework. It simply exists. My knowledge, my descriptions, my roadmaps, have to be true to scale Frameworks have to be logical. Reality is not obliged by that limitation. What you consider as impossible has often happened in actual life of people. ”

“ Every society has to find answers to these questions from time to time. Unless you have clear confirmation in your mind, you cannot proceed in human resource management. Whether we are consciously aware of these answers or not, they are basic assumptions in any given society. When I am working as a manager in India I must know the value systems of the people who work with me. If I look at them with foreign spectacles my perception is likely to be wrong. Often perception of a problem indicates the solution of the problem. ”

“ Union is a seller of labour on the basis of collective bargaining. It has to get market price for labour. Company does not pay salary to labour; itis the products that are sold in the market that pay the salary. If company survives in the market then only is there an assurance of salary. If the produced goods are sold in the market then only does the company exist. New companies are always entering in the market place. The hue and cry against globalisation is by those who are protected from the market forces. The category of protected includes both workers and employers. ”

“ By making labour laws as welfare legislation and hence one- sided, the value of contract is extinguished. Basic thinking is that the Government is a Ma-Baap and the workers are always supplicants. There is No concept of worker as a seller of labour as an essential factor of production. If any union tries to implement the settlement as a result of collective bargaining the workers desert such union and another union gets in. All agreements therefore become one-sided as far as employers are concerned. ”

“ People ask other people to work only for the bread alone treat their followers only at the animal level. Bread is important for everyone. It is necessary but not enough. Itis a primary need, but not a sufficient reason to live. If you limit your responsibility to give jobs, give money, or give wages as an employer, the entire discussion in labour-management relations revolves round a Bread: with or without butter, well-made or not, and then how to share it are the only matters of discussion in the labour management talks. ”

“ Do not disturb or misguide anyone who is doing some productive work is the message of Gita, and in the heart of my heart I am fully convinced about it. Wherever I had a difference of opinion I left the job or post but I did not do or say anything against the Institution. I made no unproductive move, I always remained in favour of productive people. For that reason I have not bothered about being labelled as a lackey of Capitalists. I have also tried to keep the management pro-production. ”

“ Because this power of mind one can remember the things that have happened in the past. One can bring before one’s eyes the past events. One’s mind can travel faster than the speed of light. In one’s mind one can go to any past event or place visited earlier. One can bring before one’s mind’s eye any place, area, event, or scene, while keeping one's body at the same place and time. ”

“ In any economic activity we have to generate some added value. This value-added is the justification for starting the business in the first place. Any business which does not generate value-addition has no economic justification for existence. This is called a Cake in labour-management discussions. There should be equitable distribution of gains of Industry between the factors of production in my view, since all of us are connected by a common thread. I find this assumption very valid and socially relevant, but my first priority is baking a cake. ”

“ There is no loyalty to a Union or ideology. They are not worried about a class war. Their class identity is a matter of convenience. One who can get better deal is followed and there is enough competition in the Union field which is made possible by the Industrial Disputes Act.
There must be many people who must have accumulated different and even contrary experiences in their working life. I wish that they record their experiences and publish them and then we will have a compendium on Indian Management. ”