Organisational Behaviour Assignment

Managerial Interview
(Report)

By- Rishabh
Mehta
13pgdm108

Date
SubjectInterviewed a manager with more than 7-8 years of experience in order to
understand in depth the followinga) The dilemma of managing the aspects of being a person and being a
manager
b) Life goals and aspirations
c) Challenges of fitting in the workplace
d) Challenges of managing people- one on one and in groups
e) Managing peers
In order to get a fair idea and analysis of the above mentioned themes, I prepared a
set of questions through which I tried to cover the theme asked for. The interview
was email based, since the manager I interviewed stated his preference for that. An
email transcript has been attached which contains the answers mailed by the
manager to me. Following is the managers profile, followed by my observation and
interpretation of the views expressed by the manager I interviewed and basically an
idea of what I feel personally and intellectually about it.

Managers Profile
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Attri is the Deputy General Manager with the National
Insurance Company since 1982 under the ruling of Ministry of Finance. He has 30
years of experience in marketing and HRM throughout his career.
Born in HP, he has worked in various states like Punjab, Haryana, UP, Gujrat etc.
He is a science graduate, along with being an LLB, MBA and also fellowship under
his list of academia.
He is also a regular visiting faculty with Kurukshetra University, Panjab University,
NIT-Surat and Symbiosis, Pune.

a) The dilemma of managing the aspects of being a person and being a

manager
In my interaction with the manager, I found out that two things have to be made
crystal clear in case of work and life balance, that is, being a person and being a
manager, that both these areas should be kept far from each other. This is also
strengthened by his statement suggesting that personal ethics should not
become roadblocks in work sphere, and ones personal beliefs should be kept
away while on work.
Personally, I feel that instead of personal ethics a more accurate word should be
personal prejudice that should be kept away from work sphere. Ethics, I feel are
more or less our guiding principles that direct us on how we do something. So it
is not totally possible to forgo them while at work. However, personal prejudices
should be kept away for the same.
Another aspect of this comes by looking at the work life balance, which is often
ignored nowadays in the mad race of reaching the top, often compromising not
only on values and ethics but also by encroaching ones personal self. In
response to this, the managers response was most idealistic, that one should be
prudent enough to know where to draw the line. Work is important, but life apart
from work sphere is equally important. So to make sure nothing messes up this
balance, we have to be careful on our end only. If we are working, we should be
totally devoted for that, but once we leave the workplace, work should be left
there only to be resumed the next day. The only way to de-stress is to spend
time with family and pursue hobbies and interests. De stressing by the way of
meditation and relaxing also helps.
I think this is a very right suggestion, since recreation is as important as work
and career accomplishment. After all, whatever we put in work is for our self
contentment only, and in no way should work be allowed to repeatedly hamper
that.
b) Life goals and aspirations
On being asked about the life goals and aspirations, the reply of my
interviewee was that on a personal front, he wanted to be a good human
being, to be considered good by all. And on a professional front, his aim was
to keep moving up in the pyramid of power in the corporate world he is in. He
also said that his habit was to conduct a self-audit of himself every once a
while, so as to sit and see where he is heading as a person.
According to me, both of these are the standard objectives everybody wants
to achieve, however sometimes these can be at crossroads. For instance, a
manager who fires someone for good reason may be promoted for the ability
to make the right hard decisions at decisive moments, but he will lose out on
the personal front since no matter how good the reason is, the person he
fired will despise him. Taking personally, I think this is something that is the

occupational hazard of being a very successful person, since the top rung of
the ladder of success is always empty.

c) Challenges of fitting into workplace

My question regarding this was aimed at knowing how often personal ethics
of the interviewee clashes with his obligations at the workplace and how did
he resolve them. As I mentioned earlier, his response was that personal
ethics should not come in way of work. Once in the role of a manager, one
should fully assume that and strive towards working to achieve his targets as
a manager. Not necessarily meaning ignorance of morality, personal ethics
should be kept away from work scenarios as much as possible.
d) Challenges of managing people- one on one and in groups
In response to questions framed to cover this aspect, the interviewee came
up with his management style to be a mix of democratic and autocratic. One
needs to be firm in some situations and flexible in others. Also, he told that
his focus was on the positives of a person in a team and not just on his
shortcomings. His one line impressed me- I would rather work with 4 good
ones than 2 experts. He said that the best way to manage people is
encourage the positive points in them and in the process of polishing that,
the negatives are eliminated themselves.
Personally, I feel that the mix is an ideal situation to be in, but very difficult to
implement. It will all depend on the perception of the person of team you are
managing.
Another thing about working with an individual and team was that the
interviewee said he could be more interpersonal with a single person, more
open and critic, but in a team he has to exercise extra caution and care since
he has to deal with the individual and the team sentiment as a whole. I feel
that this is so true in workplace scenario, where a team is connected and at
times of conflicts, sees the boss on the other side. The persons in the team
are also aware of the peer observation and as such open criticism or praise
has multifold good and bad effects.
e) Managing peers
Managing peers is a very important and tricky thing in the workplace, said my
interviewee. He cited example that building good rapport with peers is just
like working in a team, you encourage the positives that a person carries and
a good connection starts to build immediately.
He also told about managing difficult peers, like people who are exceedingly
sarcastic and portray the know-it-all attitude. To deal with such people, focus
only on the work aspect. As far the work is up to mark, ignore all. However, if
work is being affected, one has to do something about it, either show the
person the door, or if that is not possible, take the door yourself.

Personally, I think this is a right approach, however, as human beings we

have emotions. And focusing only on work, and not get irritated by the
attitude of such persons is very difficult. It requires a high deal of patience,
and even after that it disturbs the peace of mind. I dont think there is an
ideal solution to his that could actually work, at least in my case.

Email Transcript
1)

What are the challenges to creating a work life balance culture today?

The challenges to create a work life balance are greater nowadays because
people are finding it more difficult to prioritize things. There is the always
existing dilemma of how much is too much. With office hours increasing and
work being carried home, it becomes difficult to maintain this balance. In my
experience, I feel that work life balance is attainable only if you know where
to draw the line. Overtime is needed at various junctures, but work has to
stay in the domain of office only and not brought in the home atmosphere.
Once outside the work domain, I prefer spending time with my family and
hobbies. One should have these zones, family time, hobbies, meditation etc.
also, one thing essential to work life balance is to know your limits. Proper
diet, health maintenance also contributes as an important factor in work life
balance. I also make it a point to do some amount of self audit every now and
then, to see what all I have done and whether what all I have done is in tune
with my ideology and vision.
2)
When we hear the term work life balance we think it from employee
perspective only, can you throw a light on how it is relevant from a
managers perspective?
From a manager s perspective, work life balance acquires an even more
important role since employees have to do what is assigned, whereas the
manager has to do what he is assigned and that too by managing various
people to do it. That is why employees can leave office once their set of work
is done, but the manager cannot since he has to compile all that is done and
see the overall result has come out or not.
3)
How do you unplug from work when you get home at the end of the
day?

I have a policy to leave the work in office domain itself, and not carry it to the
home sphere. I unplug by spending time with my family, some hobbies that I
have, and meditation.
4)

What do you do to de-stress when there is immense workload?

There are often instances of increased workload, in which cases I meditate to

focus my mind, take short breaks, and once a long overhaul of stressful
workload is over, I take a leave of few days to rejuvenate myself. Since the
mind cannot go on working and churning out results fiercely in that manner,
thus some relaxation becomes imperative.
5)

How can people not fall into the rat race?

Rat race is a very apt term that is used here. People are in the mad rush of
achieving that they forget everything else. From my viewpoint, I believe that
some amount of self auditing is necessary to evaluate where we stand in life
and ask ourselves that whatever we are doing is worth it or not.
6)
How often do your personal ethics and work decisions clash, and how do
you resolve these inner conflicts?
There are many instances that this happens, but apart from morality issues, I
believe my personal ethics or beliefs should not come in the way of how I go
on with my work. Work is something that should be diligently done
irrespective of what I feel as a person or individual, and not a manager. Work
decisions have to be made indifferent to personal set of emotions and
focusing on the work requirements only.
7)
What is your life goal or aspiration, both on a personal as well as
professional front?
On a personal front, my aspiration is to be a good human being, to be known
as a good person by all.
Professionally, my desire is growth. I feel the need to go upper in the pyramid
of management in the organization, that after a period of time I am elevated
to another level which brings me a new set of challenges to work on.
8)

How will you define your management style?

I will define my management style as a mixed one. I am democratic in

approach when the situation demands so, and autocratic also if the situation
goes that way. Both approaches are necessary as it depends on the situation

and the nature of people you are dealing with. I believe in focusing on what
best a teammate can provide, and the shortcomings will disappear gradually.
I would rather have a team of 4 good people than of two best experts, since
good will evolve into experts in the right framework.
9)
What kind of difficulties you face while dealing with people one on one
and as a team?
On a one on one basis, it is more interpersonal and easy going
communication, where I can be somewhat informal and open in the way I
comment or critic someone. However, in a team, I have to be particular, and
careful with my words as what I portray to someone personally one on one
may not have the same perception when I follow that informal approach in a
group. So I have to take care of the team sentiment as a whole while team
interaction.
10) How will you solve the problem of a team member who is worried about
burnout?
My only advice to that teammate will be to self audit, and instead of worrying
focus on his part of the duty. For instance, I had one employee who was
worried about not being able to achieve his desired results. I told him to write
his apprehensions and keep them aside. Three months down the line, he was
free of those inhibitions after having done the job, and a very good job for
that matter.
11) Describe for me a time that you dealt with a sarcastic or know-it-all
person who was your peer. How were you able to work effectively with that
person?
This is a problem faced by most of the people in workplaces today. My
interaction with such kind of people has been to just ignore the know-it-all
part and focus on the work part. I focus on the positives rather than
negatives. However, if such behavior gets in way of work and becomes
intolerable, the only way is to show that person the door.
12) Situations at work can sometimes be difficult. Give me an example of
how you quickly build rapport with a peer.

The best way to build rapport with someone is to be focused on what he

has to offer, than what he lacks. If we focus on what positive attributes
someone has, we are in a better position to be on good terms with them. I
have had such experiences a lot of times, where people I talked to bonded

very quickly with me because of my one habit, see what they have and focus
on that, bring that up and show it.