Principles Of Management - Learning and Experiences

Tower building - Goal setting and Management

Data for  Tower Building exercise in terms of No. of CUBES is given below.

	Factor  1 to 8	Scenario - I	Scenario - II	Scenario - III	Scenario - IV
1 & 2	Historical Tower height achieved by team	Low - 5 High -  18	Low - 5 High - 20	Low - 5 High - 21	Low - 5 High - 23
3	Achievable Performance -          ( Estimate / Guess )	18 +	20+	22+	25+
4	Goal proposed by the Manager	18	22	22	18
5	Goal proposed by the worker	12	12	12	20
6	Goal Mutually agreed for building the tower between worker and manager with the support of the manager	15	22	18	15
7	No. of cubes Tower manager and worker team could build / achieve at the end of the exercise	18	18	18	18
8	P O T E N T I A L T O W E R   H E I G H T	20	25	25	30

 Potential tower height as per my understanding is stated above.

Sl. No.	Measure for Managerial Excellence	Scenario - I	Scenario - II	Scenario - III	Scenario - IV
1 2  3  4  5     6 7 8	1. Gap if any between Tower height Performance so far achieved and Achievable performance of tower ( Factor 3 and 7) 2. Gap if any between goal proposed by the manager and mutually agreed goal by team  ( Factor 4 and 6) 3. Gap if any between goal proposed by the manger and the goal proposed  by the worker   ( Factor 4 and 5)    4. Gap if any between goal proposed by the worker  and mutually agreed goal by team  ( Factor 5 and 6) 5. Gap if any between achievable performance  and potential tower  ( Factor 3 and 8) 6. Gap if any between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  goal mutually agreed by manger and the worker   ( Factor 6 and 7) 7. Gap if any between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  achievable goal    ( Factor 7 and 3) 8. Gap if any between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  the potential    ( Factor 7 and 8)	Acheivable performance = Performance of team. This is a condsiderable situation with drawback being that limits are not being pushed. Team performed better than what was earlier decided mutually. Manager has high expectations. Employees are complacent. Mutual agreement lies in middle of worker and manager aspirations. Exceeded expectations. Yes.Gap does exist.This is a condsiderable situation with drawback being that limits are not being pushed.	Acheivable performance > Performance of team.  Team did not push their limits and performed below expectations. Team performed as  what was earlier decided mutually. Manager has very high expectations. Employees are complacent. Mutual agreement is completely manager aspirations.He has been able to convince workers of his goals. Performance below expectations. Yes.large Gap does exist.Team did not push their limits and performed below expectations.	Acheivable performance > Performance of team.  Team did not push their limits and performed below expectations. Team performed not as good as what was earlier decided mutually. Manager has very high expectations. Employees are complacent. Mutual agreement lies more towards manager aspirations. Workers have been successful in negotiating a little. Met expectations. Yes.large Gap does exist.	Ac heivable performance is much  greater than Performance of team.  Team did not push their limits and performed very badly and  below expectations. Team performed not as good as  what was earlier decided mutually. Manager has low expectations. Employees are motivated and have set high expectations. Mutual agreement is lesser than worker and manager aspirations. Poor manager will eventually lead to complacent employees. Exceeded expectations. Yes.very large Gap does exist. Team did not push their limits and performed very badly and  below expectations.

Goal Setting

In the first class of POM, we experienced the tower building game .Although we have played this game in our adolescent days,this time it had lots of insights to offer. The tower building game involved putting one square block over another and achieving the maximum height possible till the tower collapses.

To set a goal,we should keep the follwoing things in mind -

Before the player could begin the game , the class was asked about the number of blocks before the tower will collapse. The students came up with varying responses for the number of blocks. In management,this is known as the goal setting activity for a process where individuals set the appropriate or desired target based on their perception of the activity. A student was randomly chosen who had himself set the target as 10. The student performed the exercise and the height achieved was 18 blocks. from this exercise, we got to know that goal should be set in such a way that it realizes the potential.This can be realized only when a human’s perceived limits are tested and it performs beyond the limits.

A modified case for this exercise maybe where the individual will be blindfolded and helped by some other open-eyed individuals for building the tower. Now the targets will be realized as this is a new challenge. It was observed that:

1) Some of the students lowered the target from the previously stated one .This is not preferred since the organization shouldn't lower their targets despite the hurdles which come across as this portrays a negative outlook.Also,this strategy does not work in the longer run for the growth of the company.

2) Some of the students retained the target. This is preferable as the organization continues to work towards the defined target despite the hurdle through motivation and team effort and effective co-ordination,

3) Some increased the target. Ideally, organizations need to expand even during tough times when others are contracting and avoiding risks. A good  example can be Apple , which during recession perceived as threat to many  used as opportunity to expand their market share and generate more products like iPad.This lead to increased profits and increased market share.

Based on on how an individual responds,we can generate a graph depicting different parameters-

In this graph,

A is Potential of an individual.As it can be seen from the graph,it is limitless and beyond measure.

B is  goal set for an individual by the manager.

C is  achievable goals assumed by the individual for himself.

D is  goal actually achieved by the individual.

As it can be seen ,A,B,C,D are in descending order.This is a perennial problem for every manager and every manager finds new ways to overcome it.

Overall, the tower building exercise helps in understanding an important element in management - Goal Setting Process and how an ideal manager responds to it.

It also is a realistic example for the above mentioned graph.