Mumbais Dabawalahs - A World Class Service - Coursework Example

Mumbai’s Dabawalah’s- A World Class Service Introduction The evolution of systems and structures as well as a pattern of managing them is nothing short of a modern miracle of organization. Man has emerged from being a cave dweller and a hunter-gatherer to an owner and manager of the modern conglomerate, international enterprises of repute and distinction that are world renowned and household names in many countries all over the world. This is the extent of the power and pervasiveness that modern multinationals have in our world. They dictate many of our choices in everyday things as well as specialized activities. As Annie Leonard has pointed out in her ‘The Story of Stuff’ (2007), 51 percent of the world’s largest economies are those of corporations (Leonard, 3). The case study of the Mumbai Dabawalah’s tiffin delivery service is an excellent example of human endeavour in action. Achieving accurate and fast delivery to over 200,000 hungry office workers every day is no small feat- and that too in an extremely fast turnaround time of twenty seconds of stoppage by the trains-to collection and reversal of the entire process after the lunch break, to reach the dabba home before the worker arrives at the end of the day- is nothing short of phenomenal. With just a code to guide them, the delivery is as unerring as Six Sigma or one defect in a million deliveries (Mullins, 326). Theme from Section A: Attracting and Retaining the Best Staff When it comes to a question of how to attract and retain the best staff, we have to look at the various theories of motivation proposed by different thinkers and writers over the ages. In ancient times, management used the carrot and stick approach or what McGregor calls Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960) to get the desired results within the organization-some firms still do. Motivation is anything that induces one to perform or do something. Most basic of these is Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, in which he has defined human needs as being in a ladder or hierarchy from the lowest to the highest points- or from the basic physiological needs of food, clothing and shelter to the higher needs for safety and security, further to esteem needs and ending at the point of self actualization needs, where man has achieved his life purpose through his actions and work (Mullins, 257). Very few of us are fortunate enough to realize this in our lifetimes. Herzberg gives his Two Factor or Hygiene Theory (Mullins, 261) as an explanation on how and what motivates workers based on an actual field experiment that he conducted. He concluded that there were a group of satisfiers and dissatisfiers in every work environment- which could be anything from strict and unyielding work policies or the lack of management attention to the needs of the workers on the negative side, to a fair and equitable wage and hygienic conditions that took into account the health and safety of the workers on the positive side. It is the removal or mitigation of negative factors, and the enhancement of positive factors that would keep the workforce happy and looking forward to returning to work. Quite often we see labor action as a result of management’s apathy to a situation requiring redress such as better working conditions, more rest between assignments, or the need for better pay and benefits. Herzberg was therefore able to prove that money is not the only motivator. The Expectancy Theory developed by Vroom (Mullins, 266) indicates that people will do something if they think it is worth their effort and there are benefits both to themselves and the organization. McClelland mentions that among managers it is the need for Power, need for Affiliation and need for Achievement that are the most important factors (Mullins, 264). It is still debatable whether or not money is the chief motivator, or whether worker treatment and participation and improving the work life balance and quality of working life are more important. Mostly it depends upon the economic situation of the household. A newly married couple raising kids and paying for a mortgage would consider monetary incentives like overtime and bonus more important. On the other hand a couple who have seen their kids off through college would be more motivated by employee participation and job enrichment. Application to the Case Study The case of the Mumbai Dhabawala’s shows that it is the communal spirit that is regarded as a motivator- the service givers have a sense of pride and a code of conduct- no drinking on the job or prior police records- that ensures speed and efficiency of service. Most of them come from Pune in the Western Ghats but also employ outside castes who are made permanent after two years of unblemished service. Theme from Section B: Using Groups and Teams The office environment is not only made up of a diverse group of individuals, each of whom has diverse skills and talents, but what are needed are plans for achieving the goals and aims of the business enterprise. This usually flows from the desk of the CEO all through the organization, and is converted into achievable and challenging targets for the workers. The work of Dr. Meredith Belbin has been instrumental in identifying eight different types of behaviors that are found in teams. She also found that it is balance, not intellect that enables the success or failure of a team effort. The eight types identified by the Belbin inventory include the Plant, Resource Investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Team-worker, Investigator, Completer Finisher and Specialist (Belbin, 121). Each of these has a specific role- whether it is the creation of an idea, judging its commercial viability, controlling and motivating the team, looking at options, listening to problems, suggesting alternatives or pushing the team towards success. The work of Bruce Tuckman must also be mentioned as one of the pioneering works about how teams develop and team spirit is solidified, Writing as far back as 1965, Tuckman observed that groups go through four stages- Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing before they can be considered to be working as a team. This stems from getting to know about each other, deciding the roles for each, who will follow and who will lead, mutual agreement about the goal and the plan to achieve it. Performance can only be speeded up if each knows and performs their role effectively and efficiently (Tuckman, 395). When a goal has been achieved, the team re-forms for achieving another goal or meeting another purpose. Decision making paradigms implemented in the organization can be the use of focus groups, fishbone diagrams or any other method which works. Thus managers and supervisors train, guide and supervise the workers based upon their experience, understanding of the business environment and the feedback received from the workers on a daily or weekly basis. They must also watch out for changes in the legal, cultural, socio-economic and technological environment that can have an impact on their plans for sales and profits. An organization must concentrate on its areas of strength and minimize its areas of weakness- this is the strategy that will be most effective against its competitors. Application to the Case Study The Dhabawala service is comprised of 5000 service providers or couriers organized into work teams of 20-25 each. Presumably each serve a certain area or region, and this is codified on the tiffin box as well. It helps ensure that no tiffin is misplaced. It is all the more amazing that the work is accomplished in such a short time period, from unloading the tiffins from special compartments on the trains to categorizing them and sending them off to the places of work according to location. The food must reach the workers by 12:45 pm in time for lunch, between 1.00 and 2.00 pm. The entire operation must be reversed from that point onward and the empty tiffins reloaded onto the trains as they reach their owner’s home much before he comes home from work. Quite possibly the work groups consist of workers of different skills, gathering, categorizing, loading and scheduling deliveries to and from work via the train network. Works Cited Belbin, R.M. : Management Teams-Why They Succeed or Fail. Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996. Leonard, A.: The Story of Stuff, 2007. McGregor, D.: The Human Side of Enterprise, 1st Ed. McGraw Hill, 1960. Mullins, L.J.: Management and Organizational Behavior, 9/e. Pearson Education, UK 2010. Tuckman, B.: Development Sequence in Small Groups. Psychological Bulletin 1965, Vol. 63, Iss. 6, pp. 384-399. Read More