Introduction: The key to organisational success today lies in improvement of productivity and quality. Effective management of the financial and other resources of an organisation is doubtless very important for improving performance. Implementation of the best of operational strategies, however, requires committed and competent employees. It is people who determine organisational performance. It’s essential therefore for the manager to understand the people s/he works with.

Earlier here at this institute, we used to address various aspects of "people issues in organisations" through three separate courses: OB-I in the first trimester, OB-II in the next and HRM in the third trimester. Now the effort is to evolve an integrated design of ONE course that will run through all the three trimesters of the first year, treating the subject comprehensively. Let's see how it goes!

People in formal organisations carry out their work as individuals, partners in a pair or as members of a group. Are there any principles of human behaviour that we could identify and learn to apply in specific situations? Why do people behave the way they do in a given context?

The common factor across human contexts is the individual. One must, therefore, understand the basics of individual behaviour if one wants to influence human behaviour in a given context. The closest individual you have is yourself. Hence the most authentic understanding of the individual begins with understanding oneself.

Starting with an exploration of the self, this course on People & Performance Management will introduce you to ways of thinking that will facilitate understanding people’s behaviour. The course will also help relate the knowledge to the task of managing people’s performance in organisations, where issues of leadership, motivation, conflict management, legal aspects and management of change will need to be dealt with, too.

Objective: The objective of the course is to enable the participants to appreciate how an organisation can acquire and maintain a competent, committed, congruent and cost-effective workforce and run a high-performance work system -- without sacrificing human dignity. Starting with an overview of organisations and identification of the various roles and competencies that are required for discharging one’s managerial responsibilities in an organisation, the course will focus on awareness, assessment and development of certain competencies within oneself.

Course delivery & requirement: The course will have three broad modules: Managerial roles and Competencies, The Self & the Individual and Working in an Organisation. These modules will run through all the trimesters of the first year. Several members of the faculty may participate in the delivery of the course; each will design, deliver and evaluate one or more specific modules.

Given the nature of the subject, personal involvement is a must in order to benefit from the course. Besides regular attendance, therefore, students need to do every assignment with honesty to themselves. Depending on the degree of involvement, the sessions will foster the requisite skills, by extending the acquired knowledge to real-life situations.
 

Note: The session plan, syllabus and evaluation scheme for each module will be given separately by the respective teacher.