Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

Managerial communication⁄conversation in organizations is difficult to capture in its complexities. Even if attempts are made, the outcome is rarely, if ever, natural and spontaneous. How then do we proceed with an understanding of:

the principles to be followed

the conversational goals adhered to/violated

the goals of conversationalists?

A noveau approach can be to study the nuances relating to conversation by using drama as a heuristic device to gain an understanding of the complexities governing structure of communication, goals of participants, and application of conversational principles. We argue that there is little difference between simulated and naturally occurring talk in managerial situations.

Researchers have been skeptical about the use of literature for an understanding of conversation in the managerial context. To validate the feasibility of our discussion, we borrow from the arguments postulated by literary critics who state that irrationalities in life can best be explored by reading of literature which paints on its canvas, life in its multiple facets. We have narrowed our focus from life to communication and have presented an understanding of managerial conversation through reading of dialogue in plays.

Some researchers hold a divergent view (Mura, 1983) and argue in favour of the significance of pragmatics that is, the use of language to communicate: not the linguistic competence of the ideal speaker but the practical use of language in communication. Similarly, we extend our understanding beyond the syntactical and semantic comprehension of conversation by observing the interplay of two well-established principles of conversation: Cooperative (Grice, 1975) and Politeness (Leech, 1983). Through application of these principles to three different plays— The Zoo Story, Endgame, and The Chairs— we demonstrate how the approach can suitably be used for an understanding of managerial communication.

Application of the principles to the plays reveals that:

The purpose of the talk determines the adherence to or violation of the Principles.

The context or situation is equally important in determining the adherence to or violation of the Principles.

The “repair” mechanism always follows violation of the Principles. This mechanism ascertains that there is a need⁄desire for the conversation to proceed.

In naturally occurring talk within the managerial context, the purpose for the exchange can be either task or relationship centric⁄oriented. In the former, the emphasis is on accuracy of details— the factual correctness with the right quantum of information. Maxims of politeness, in such scenarios, can be forsaken as the ultimate goal is achieving cooperation. If, on the contrary, the purpose is relationship orientation, politeness and its maxims are perforce adhered to. The strategy of “repair” is applied in instances where and when the need for exchange is higher than the desire to “save face.”

As it is difficult to recreate a conversational situation, the reading of the same through plays provides great depth and insight into effective and ineffective strategies. This paper provides an alternative method of looking at managerial conversation and understanding the nuances governing talk in the organizational setup. For further understanding, managers and practitioners can:

view stylistic devices as question-answer sequences, repetition, etc., in plays

study the use and efficacy of stylistic devices

extrapolate the findings to managerial talk

devise a model for effectiveness in naturally occurring talk using managerial backdrop.

The efficiency of the financial markets is important as it ensures increased productive efficiency and economic growth through better capital allocation. Price discovery is the central aspect of financial markets. The relatively efficient price signals also facilitate the participation of uninformed investors to make suitable portfolio choices. Derivative instruments like option contracts enhance informational efficiency of the underlying's market through better price discovery as these securities are expected to increase the flow of information in the market. Besides, they facilitate hedging of risk. In India, exchange-trade derivates are of recent origin in the stock market.

This study investigates the significance of net open interest and trading volume in stock option and stock index option market to predict the underlying stock prices⁄index level. In the study, only 15 stock option contracts (having maturity of one-month) and Nifty options for the entire period, i.e., November 10, 2001 to November 2, 2004, have been analysed. The analysis could not be carried out for all the stocks in option segment because of the fact that the options were not traded or the trading range and volumes were too thin to justify any analysis.

The major findings of the study are as follows:

Net open interest of stock option is one of the significant variables in the determination of the future spot price of the underlying stock.

Open interest-based predictors are statistically more significant than the volume-based predictors in the Indian context too as is the case for the US market.

The trading behaviour of Indian investors is found to be different from their counterparts in the developed world. This difference can be attributed to:

the nascent state of derivatives market in India

extremely limited participation of institutional investors in the Indian stock derivative market because of regulatory restrictions; as such investors are allowed to use derivative securities mainly for hedging and arbitrage purposes only.

The findings would definitely help the regulatory bodies in policy-making and further strengthening the efforts to promote the derivative market in India. There are many areas which are still unexplored and can be addressed by the future studies by using the intraday data and a larger sample for the stock options.

Organizations must make effective use of their resources in order to succeed in today's global marketplace. To get the most out of their human resources, organizations empower employees to allow them to work to their highest potential. In doing so, firms are attempting to make employees aware that there is a link between their efforts and subsequent performance. In other words, employers are making employees responsible for their behaviour and then rewarding those who show signs of the most appropriate behaviour; however, these strategies will not work with all employees. One specific reason, empowerment may not work, is because some individuals exhibit learned helplessness behaviours. Due to such negative impact of learned helplessness attributions on performance in organizations, it is important to understand how people develop learned helplessness attributions and what role organizational culture plays towards developing or helping to cope up with such negative way of thinking which essentially impairs the performance of individuals. Learned helplessness as a deed per se is highly influenced by the philosophical foundations, value systems, and ethos of the organization and therefore the basic premise of the study is that the organizational culture is one of the fundamental causes of creating learned helplessness attributions.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore the relationship among different dimensions of organizational culture and learned helplessness attributions for R&D professionals of pharmaceutical industry of India. Different strategies to manage R&D professionals have been suggested based on the results. The study revealed that:

the organizational culture variables were negatively related to the learned helplessness attributions

the role of organizational culture was significant in order to create or remove learned helplessness

the attributions played an important role in causing depression and vulnerability situations that eventually results in learned helplessness

all learned helplessness attributions were quite closely related and created a well-defined dimension for representing LH attributions

the outcome dimension of learned helplessness was fairly well predicted by the set of organizational culture profile variables when acting as a set

learned helplessness was brought on by a handful of uncontrollable, stress-creating factors including time and performance pressures, lack of free time, the competitive and demanding nature of research projects, and lack of opportunity to socialize or engage in recreation.

Mergers are important corporate strategy actions that, among other things, aid the firm in external growth and provide it competitive advantage. This area has spawned a vast amount of literature over the past half a century, especially in the developed economies of the world. India too has been seeing a growth in the number of mergers over the past one-and-a-half decades since economic liberalization and financial reforms were introduced in 1991. Studies on the post-merger long-term performance of firms in both the developed and the developing markets have not been able to come to a definite and convincing conclusion about whether mergers have helped or hindered firm performance. Our literature review shows that mergers do not appear to be resulting in favourable financial performance of firms in the long-term in the markets where they are a fairly recent phenomenon.

The economic liberalization and reforms initiated in 1991 in India have served to trigger corporate restructuring through M&As. The removal of industrial licensing, lifting of monopoly provisions under the MRTP Act, easing of foreign investment, encouraging the import of raw materials, capital goods, and technology have increased the competition in Indian industry. Firms are free to fix their capacity, technology, location, etc., to enhance their efficiency. The amendment of the MRTPA has made it possible for group companies to consolidate through mergers eliminating duplication of resources and bringing down costs. M&A has now become a viable strategy for growth in India.

Immediately after liberalization, Indian industry added capacity since it expected a rapidly expanding market due to the perceived latent demands of the vast middle class. But the lower income groups could not participate in the consumer goods market. The economy began to slow down from 1996. This squeezed the profit margins of local firms that now had excess capacities. Industry saw a spate of restructuring in the form of shedding non-core activities in favour of core competencies and expansion through M&As, in a bid for survival. According to market reformers, growth is the result of efficient utilization of resources on the supply side. In a free market economy, utilization becomes more efficient due to competition. It is thus hypothesized that -- Mergers in India have resulted in improved long-term post-merger firm operating performance through enhanced efficiency.

Statistically analysed cash flow accounting measures were used to study whether firm performance improved in the long-term post-merger. This research, on a sample of 87 domestic mergers, validates the hypothesis:

Efficiency appears to have improved post-merger lending synergistic benefits to the merged entities.

Synergistic benefits appear to have accrued due to the transformation of the hitherto uncompetitive, fragmented nature of Indian firms before merger, into consolidated and operationally more viable business units. This improved operating cash flow return is on account of improvements in the post-merger operating margins of the firms, though not of the efficient utilization of the assets to generate higher sales.

The primary challenge in project management is to achieve all of the defined project goals and objectives while adhering to typical constraints which are usually scope, quality, time, and budget. Often, the basic flaw in project planning and design is the complete neglect or minimal consideration of environmental and social costs and dependence only on economic analysis for project preparation and investment. A failure to understand and internalize adverse or negative impacts on environment during project preparation could lead to several undesirable consequences, which may ultimately jeopardize the very objectives of growth and development for which the project was proposed.

In this paper, the author stresses upon the need for environmental management for successful project completion and discusses the challenges of addressing the key environmental issues. Environmental management is not just about the ‘trees and bees’ but also about health, safety, profits, quality assurance, reduced risks to reputation, and increased global competitiveness, states the author. Overall, it is about efficiency and reducing environmental and legal liabilities. It is argued that sound environment management reduces the unforeseen obstacles and bottlenecks that may otherwise hamper the delivery of project objectives while helping to improve the environmental performance of project operations.

The key environmental issues resulting from agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and urban operations include:

severe degradation of air quality due to industrial and vehicular pollution

contamination of land and water resources due to pesticides, fertilizers, and dumping of hazardous wastes

depletion of raw material reserves

contamination of surface and ground water sources due to discharge of sewage and industrial effluents

deforestation.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) study is suggested as a tool for formulating an environment management plan. EIA should, however, not be treated just as a tool for regulatory compliance but as an instrument for improving project management per se with proper expertise, time, and budget allocations made for the purpose.

In environmental management, the moot question is: How to get started? The author's advice is to start small and simple and gradually turn them into action plans for a worksite and subsequently up-scale them for the entire company. It is ultimately the actions taken at personal or community level or as a project manager that matters the most when it comes to environmental sustainability. Policies and plans merely show the way. It is becoming increasingly important to make environmental management an economic driver that would serve to minimize environmental damages and promote resource efficiency and cost savings to businesses.