Subramainaya Baharathi

Introduction: Subramaniya Bharathi the Poet of Tamil Nationalism & Indian Freedom â€Å"He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry – it is he who is a poet. † – Bharathy Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathi was born on 11 December 1882 in Ettiyapuram in Tamil Nadu. Bharathi died on 11 September 1921. In a relatively short life span of 39 years, Bharathi left an indelible mark as the poet of Tamil nationalism and Indian freedom. Bharathi's mother died in 1887 and two years later, his father also died. At the age of 11, in 1893 his prowess as a poet was recognised and he was accorded the title of ‘bharathi'. He was a student at Nellai Hindu School and in 1897 he married Sellamal. Thererafter, from 1898 to 1902, he lived in Kasi. Bharathi worked as a school teacher and as a journal editor at various times in his life. As a Tamil poet he ranked with Ilanko, Thiruvalluvar and Kamban. His writings gave new life to the Tamil language – and to Tamil national consciousness. He involved himself actively in the Indian freedom struggle. It is sometimes said of Bharathi that he was first an Indian and then a Tamil. Perhaps, it would be more correct to say that he was a Tamil and because he was a Tamil he was also an Indian. For him it was not either or but both – it was not possible for him to be one without also being the other. Bharathi often referred to Tamil as his ‘mother'. At the sametime, he was fluent in many languages including Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kuuch, and English and frequently translated works from other languages into Tamil. His (among all the languages we know, we do not see anywhere, any as sweet as Tamil) was his moving tribute to his mother tongue. That many a Tamil web site carries the words of that song on its home page in cyber space today is a reflection of the hold that those words continue to have on Tamil minds and Tamil hearts. His – was Bharathi's salute to the Tamil nation and many a Tamil child has learnt and memorised those moving words from a very young age – and I count myself as one of them. Bharathi was a Hindu. But his spirituality was not limited. He sang to the Hindu deities, and at the same time he wrote songs of devotion to Jesus Christ and Allah. Bharathi was a vigorous campaigner against casteism. He wrote in ‘Vande Matharam' : – – We shall not look at caste or religion, All human beings in this land – whether they be those who preach the vedas or who belong to other castes – are one. Bharathi lived during an eventful period of Indian history. Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo and V. V. S. Aiyar were his contemporaries. He involved himself with passion in the Indian freedom struggle. His ‘Viduthalai, Viduthalai' was not only a clarion call for freedom from alien rule but also addressed the need to unite a people across caste barriers – ! ! ! ! . Bibilography He saw a great India. He saw a n India of skilled workers and an educated people. He saw an India where women would be free. His – expressed the depth of his love and the breadth of his vision for India. Bharathi served as Assistant Editor of the Swadeshamitran in 1904. He participated in the 1906 All India Congress meeting in Calcutta (chaired by Dadabhai Naoroji) where the demand for ‘Swaraj' was raised for the first time. Bharathi supported the demand wholeheartedly and found himself in the militant wing of the Indian National Congress together with Tilak and Aurobindo. Aurobindo writing on the historic 1906 Congress had this to say: â€Å"We were prepared to give the old weakness of the congress plenty of time to die out if we could get realities recognised. Only in one particular have we been disappointed and that is the President's address. But even here the closing address with which Mr. Naoroji dissolved the Congress, has made amends for the deficiencies of his opening speech. He once more declared Self-Government, Swaraj, as in an inspired moment he termed it, to be our one ideal and called upon the young men to achieve it. The work of the older men had been done in preparing a generation which were determined to have this great ideal and nothing else; the work of making the ideal a reality lies lies with us. We accept Mr. Naoroji's call and to carry out his last injunctions will devote our lives and, if necessary, sacrifice them. † (Bande Mataram, 31 December 1906) Many Tamils will see the parallels with the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976 which proclaimed independence for the Tamils of Eelam – the work of older men determined to have ‘this great ideal and nothing else' and the later determination of Tamil youth to devote their lives, and ‘if necessary sacrifice them' to make that ideal a reality. In April 1907, he became the editor of the Tamil weekly ‘India'. At the same time he also edited the English newspaper ‘Bala Bharatham'. He participated in the historic Surat Congress in 1907, which saw a sharpening of the divisions within the Indian National Congress between the militant wing led by Tilak and Aurobindo and the ‘moderates'. Subramanya Bharathi supported Tilak and Aurobindo together with ‘Kapal Otiya Thamilan' V. O. Chidambarampillai and Kanchi Varathaachariyar. Tilak openly supported armed resistance and the Swadeshi movement. These were the years when Bharathi immersed himself in writing and in political activity. In Madras, in 1908, he organised a mammoth public meeting to celebrate ‘Swaraj Day'. His poems ‘Vanthe Matharam', ‘Enthayum Thayum', ‘Jaya Bharath' were printed and distributed free to the Tamil people. In 1908, he gave evidence in the case which had been instituted by the British against ‘Kappal Otiya Thamizhan', V. O. Chidambarampillai. In the same year, the proprietor of the ‘India' was arrested in Madras. Faced with the prospect of arrest, Bharathi escaped to Pondicherry which was under French rule. From there Bharathi edited and published the ‘India' weekly. He also edited and published ‘Vijaya', a Tamil daily, Bala Bharatha, an English monthly, and ‘Suryothayam' a local weekly of Pondicherry. Under his leadership the Bala Bharatha Sangam was also started. The British waylaid and stopped remittances and letters to the papers. Both ‘India' and ‘Vijaya' were banned in British India in 1909. The British suppression of the militancy was systematic and thorough. Tilak was exiled to Burma. Aurobindo escaped to Pondicherry in 1910. Bharathi met with Aurobindo in Pondicherry and the discussions often turned to religion and philosophy. He assisted Aurobindo in the ‘Arya' journal and later ‘Karma Yogi' in Pondicherry. In November 1910, Bharathi released an ‘Anthology of Poems' which included ‘Kanavu'. V. V. S. Aiyar also arrived in Pondicherry in 1910 and the British Indian patriots, who were called ‘Swadeshis' would meet often. They included Bharathi, Aurobindo and V. V. S. Aiyar. R. S. Padmanabhan in his Biography of V. V. S. Aiyar writes: â€Å"All of them, whether there was any warrant against them or not, were constantly being watched by British agents in Pondicherry. Bharathi was a convinced believer in constitutional agitation. Aurobindo had given up politics altogether†¦ and Aiyar had arrived in their midst with all the halo of a dedicated revolutionary who believed in the cult of the bomb and in individual terrorism. In 1912, Bharathy published his Commentaries on the Bhavad Gita in Tamil as well as Kannan Paatu, Kuyil Paatu and Panjali Sabatham. After the end of World War I, Bharathi entered British India near Cuddalore in November 1918. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Central prison in Cuddalore in custody for three weeks – from 20 November 20 to 14 Dece mber. He was released after he was prevailed upon to give an undertaking to the British India government that he would eschew all political activities. These were years of hardship and poverty. Eventually, the General Amnesty Order of 1920 removed all restrictions on his movement. Bharathy met with Mahatma Gandhi in 1919 and in 1920, Bharathy resumed editorship of the Swadeshamitran in Madras. That was one year before his death in 1921. Today, more than 80 years later, Subaramanya Bharathy stands as an undying symbol of Indian freedom and a vibrant Tamil nationalism. P. S. Sundaram in his biographical sketch of Subramania Bharathy concludes: â€Å"Though Bharathi died so young, he cannot be reckoned with Chatterton and Keats among the inheritors of ‘unfulfilled renown'. His was a name to conjure with, at any rate in South India, while he was still alive. But his fame was not so much as a poet as of a patriot and a writer of patriotic songs. His loudly expressed admiration for Tilak, his fiery denunciations in the Swadeshamitran, and the fact that he had to seek refuge in French territory to escape the probing attentions of the Government of Madras, made him a hero and a ‘freedom fighter'. His lilting songs were on numerous lips, and no procession or public meeting in a Tamil district in the days of ‘non-cooperation' could begin, carry on or end without singing a few of them†¦ Bharathi's love of Tamil, both the language as it was in his own day and the rich literature left as a heritage, was no less than his love of India†¦ When he claims for Valluvan, Ilango and Kamban, Bharathy does so not as an ignorant chauvinist but as one who has savoured both the sweetness of these writers and the strength and richness of others in Sanskrit and English†¦ â€Å"(in Poems of Subramania Bharathy – A Selection Translated by P. S. Sundaram, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd, 1982) Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar was one of the greatest Tamil poets, a prolific writer, philosopher and a great visionary of immense genius. He was also one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement. His national integration songs earned him the title â€Å"Desiya Kavi† (National Poet). His patriotic songs emphasize nationalism, unity of India, equality of men and the greatness of Tamil language. Bharathiar was born on December 11, 1882 in Ettayapuram, which is now part of Thoothukudi District. Bharathiar was educated at a local high school where his talents as a poet were recognized even at the age of 11. He had voracious appetite for learning ancient and contemporary Tamil literature and had gifted intellect to derive astonishing truths from ancient poems. At the age of 22, he became a Tamil teacher at Setupati High School in Madurai and the same year he was appointed as Assistant Editor of a daily newspaper called â€Å"Swadesamitran†. In 1906, he was editor of a weekly magazine called â€Å"India†. By 1912, Bharathiar was already a legend in South India and his political meetings were attracting multitudes of young patriots, ready to join the non-violent movement for attaining freedom from the British rule. Bharathiar died on September 11, 1921, at the young age of 39. The legacy of the poet however endures forever Literary Works The following collections published by Bharathi piracuralayam, Triplicane, 1949 contains shorter pieces: thEciya keethangal – 57 poems thoththirap pAdalkal – devotional songs, 66 pieces vinayakar nanmanimaalai, kannanpattu -23 pieces pirapadalkal – 30 pieces autobiography in verse form: svacarithai (49 st. ), bharathi arupathu (66 st), cinnacankaran kathai puthiya aaththiccudi, paappapattu (1914, 16 quatrains) pancali capatham – narrative poem in 1548 lines rose – gnana ratham, 1910 short narrative pieces aaril oru pangku,1911-12 Cheeezzzz: The Tamil poet, Maha Kavi Subramaniam Bharathiar, familiarly referred to as Bharathi, has been a real life hero. His extraordinary power was his poetry, his weapon of choice- his pen. He wrote at a time when his country was crying out for reform. Though many may remember him for inspiring h is people to seek freedom from alien rule, he also spoke out for the freedom and equality of the Indian woman – his damsel in distress – in a time when they were barely acknowledged for their existence. The mid 19th century was a time when the Indian woman had absolutely no rights and their relationship with their husbands were close to that of Master and Slave. Women were not thought important enough to pursue studies, as their role was more as the dutiful wife at home. Bharathi was first among the growing school of Renaissance poets during this period who insisted that the only way for a country to grow was through empowering its women. â€Å"Aanum Pennum nigarrenak kolvathaal Ariviloanki ivvagayakam thalaikumaam† Taken from his poem Puthumai Penn (New Woman) the line evokes that â€Å"When we realize that man and woman are equal, this world will flourish with knowledge†. From religious hymns to inspiring nationalist anthems and poems shattering without hesitation every social taboo that was held close by conventional South Indians, Bharathi voiced his opinion without hesitation in a lyrical style that has not even been surpassed by literature that followed his period. Among his well-known poetry is Oadi vilayaadu paapaa. While a poem of instruction for children it also hints to all ages on accepting people as human beings and not on their caste or creed. Jaadhigal illaiyadi paaapaa, Kulath thaalchi uyarchi sollal paavam paapaa Neethi uyarntha mathi kalvi Anbu niraiya udayavargal meloar paapaa â€Å"There is no caste little one. It is a sin to categorise people as high and low caste. Only those who possess justice, intelligence and education and great love are of a high caste† Thus he included the Tamil woman in his fight for freedom who, in one of his essays he called â€Å"Slaves who remain conservative and orthodox† as they were â€Å"not permitted to make their own choices†. Woman as a mother was Bharathi's favourite theme and the book ‘Woman in Modern Tamil Literature' by Loganayagy Nannithamby says that â€Å"Bharati who envisages women as the incarnation of Sakti [Parasakti – the great Goddess or the Mother-Goddess] says in one of his essays on philosophy: As a man, all the female deities you pray to, represent the latent powers of Parasakti hidden in women like your mother, wife, sister and daughter. Bharati's idealist views later turned to more down-to-earth, reformist views with the seeping in of Northern influences like the coming of the Brahmins and Puranas, which was slowly deteorating the status of the woman of the South. He argued that if women's freedom were to be deprived, man would perish along with it and that men were not to monopolize freedom. Aettayum pengal thoduvadhu theemaiyendren niyirunthavar Maaynthuvittar Veetukkullay pennaip pooti vaippoam endra vindai manithar thalai Kavilnthaaar â€Å"Those who thought that women should not touch books and learn have died! Those surprising people who said that we have to lock women in homes to do their duties, have put their heads down in shame. † His hope for women included a librated free woman who thought independently and used her knowledge, like men, for the betterment of the country. His wife Chellamal Bharati, in her biography of her husband related incidents when she says how her husband put all social barriers to the wind and clung to her arms while walking boldly next to her (Brahmin women were required to walk a few steps behind her husband). Nimirntha nannenjum naer konda paarvaiyum Nilathinil yaarukkum anjaatha nerigalum Thimirntha gnanach cherukkum iruppadhaal Semmai maadhargal thirambuvathillaiyaam† â€Å"With upright heart and steadfast look and ideas that are not afraid of anyone in the world- the woman does not falter as she has the delight of wisdom. † This great poet died on September 11, 1921 after being trampled by an Elephant when he went seeking blessings at t he temple. He was thought of as such an outcast at the time that only seven people attended his funeral. But his poetry, which belied his time, caused the birth of new ideas and the emancipation of the status of the woman in India today and remains as inspiration to millions of people around the world. Cheeezzzz: and This is the great Hero's Photo. Subramanian T. R subbu: Fantastic TRIBUTE to our GR8T Poet n Freedom Fighter Shri. MAHA KAVI SUBRAMANIA BHARATHI indeed†¦ Good to see that you shared with all our friends here my dear Ramya Ponnu O0 On this day Let's Have our Gr8t Rememberance of his contributions to the society ! :noteworthy: subbu

Absalom Absalom and Love Essay

Many of the novels we have read this semester contain prevailing themes that provide insight into American society. One of these themes that we have closely examined throughout the semester is a person’s right to love. Love is undoubtedly a powerful force in one’s life. As we have seen through our readings, however, this force is often obstructed by the need to conform to social standards. Whether or not a couple is ALLOWED to be in love says a lot about what is socially acceptable for that particular area and time period. Although love is technically a right given to all, American Literature shows how it is often denied by social standards and therefore ceases to exist. William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! tells Rosa Coldfield’s version of how Thomas Sutpen was the demise of her and her family. As the story progresses, it becomes known that Thomas’s son, Henry, kills Charles Bon to prevent him from marrying his sister, Judith. One would infer that Henry’s reason for his desperate need to prevent their marriage was because Charles was their half-brother, and therefore their marriage would be considered incest. We come to find out, however, that this is not exactly the case. In Chapter 8, in response to whether or not Judith will marry Bon she says â€Å"Yes. I have decided. Brother or not, I have decided. I will. I will (283). † As the chapter progresses, however, Quentin and Shreve accept that â€Å"it’s the miscegenation, not the incest, which (they) can’t bear (285). †In this case, two socially unaccepted taboos prevent Judith from pursuing her relationship with Bon. The fact that it is worse in the eyes of her family that Judith may be marrying a man with black blood than a man who is her relative, however, says a lot about how strong racial prejudices were in the south during the 1800s. Judith’s right to love Bon is forcefully obstructed by social norms, and is a perfect example of Southern culture during that time period. Another instance of love being obstructed by social standards is seen in F.  Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, a resident of West Egg and a symbol of new wealth, falls in love with Daisy, a resident of East Egg and a symbol of established wealth. Daisy and her husband, Tom, are described to have lived in â€Å"†¦a rather distinguished secret society (17)† to which members of old money had often tried and failed to become a part of. Throughout the novel, it is clear that Daisy had married Tom for his â€Å"†¦person and his position (151)† rather than for love. Yet when Daisy finally accepts that she had never loved Tom and was currently in love with Gatsby, the class divides remain too prevalent for her to pursue a relationship with Gatsby. Tom quotes â€Å" Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white (130). † From this quote and the happenings throughout the novel, the force obstructing the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is the social condemnation of new money marrying old money. The Great Gatsby shows how in our society, is often difficult for people of different economic backgrounds to pursue a relationship. T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an examination of a typical man’s psychological struggle to express himself emotionally and conform to social standards. Throughout the poem, the narrator shows insecurity in almost everything he does, fearing that his moves will be frowned upon. He says â€Å"There will be time, there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet† and often asks â€Å"Do I dare?  Ã¢â‚¬  and thinks about what â€Å"they will say. † His insecurity prevails in an encounter with what seems to be a woman he loves. He seems afraid that the woman will deny him because of his balding hair and thin composure, and thinks about what he should say in order to impress the woman; â€Å"And how should I then presume? How should I begin? † In the end the narrator concludes that â€Å" It is impossible to say just what I mean,† and he drifts into a fairytale by the sea until â€Å"human voice wake us, and we drown. † Eliot’s poem is an example of a man’s love for a woman being obstructed by his own need to conform to what is socially acceptable of a man. He refuses to open up and share with the woman his feelings in fear that he will be mocked and denied. â€Å"The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock† shows the struggles of maintaining masculinity, and the fear a man has of loosing his composure. While the last stories had similar circumstances and outcomes, love doesn’t always have to be between a man and a woman, and social norms aren’t always successful at obstructing love’s powerful force. In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, the love shared between Huck and Jim leads to a powerful revelation in Huck’s life and a groundbreaking relationship considering the South’s intrusive social standards. When Huck begins his journey with Jim, he is overcome by an instilled guilt for assisting in the runaway of Miss Watson’s slave. Huck says â€Å" It would get all around, Huck Finn helped a nigger get to his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame (226). †As their adventure progresses, however, Huck begins to realize how much he enjoys Jim’s company, slave or not; â€Å" But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, just the other kind (227). † Huck struggles internally with this realization, but cannot get over the feeling in his heart telling him to keep Jim around. Finally, Huck decides that he would not turn in Jim, and that he would go to Hell if that were what it meant. In this instance, Huck valiantly goes against what is socially acceptable, and the force of love prevails. Huck and Jim remain friends even though it is extremely frowned upon. Although love is a freedom, one can see how easily and often this freedom is taken away due to what is acceptable in the eyes of others. The circumstances involved in the obstruction of love shows a lot about the society in which these characters live, and the values held by the people who lived there.

Profile of Senator Barack Obama Essay

Barack Obama is one of the top candidates for the democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. His political experience has not been as long as some of his competitors, but Obama has served eleven meaningful years as a senator from the state of Illinois. As the son of parents from both the state of Kansas and the country of Kenya, Obama’s diverse background is one of the many desirable qualities that he brings into the presidential race.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Obama has now turned his sights on the presidential race, where he is running as a democrat. He is currently one of the leaders in that race, and is thought by many to hold a slight lead over Senator Hilary Clinton, He was recently endorsed by powerful talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who has lent her support in private for a long time now. Though Obama does not have the long political record that some of the other candidates have, he makes up for that by providing a fresh outlook and exciting perspective in a race that greatly needs such attributes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Obama has taken some hard line stances on many of the biggest issues of this year’s campaign. The senator has consistently supported the woman’s right to choose in regards to abortion. His pro-choice mentality is something that sets him apart from many of the candidates in the race. One of the issues that Obama has concentrated on is immigration reform. According to the senator’s official website, â€Å"Barack Obama has played a leading role in crafting comprehensive immigration reform. Obama believes the immigration issue has been exploited by politicians to divide the nation rather than find real solutions† (Obama).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the most important issues in this election is the war in Iraq. On that, Obama has consistently stood by his pledge to bring the soldiers home and work to end the conflict. His ideas on foreign policy have been the subject much speculation over the last couple of months. An Associated Press article stated that â€Å"Obama, closing the three-hour policy forum, said a president should be unafraid to meet with tyrants, and must restore the nation’s moral authority by ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay’s military prison and helping fight global poverty and AIDS† (Babington).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Obama has fought with competitor Hilary Clinton on a number of issues in debates and in the press on a number of issues, but none has been more common than health care. According to Timothy Noah of The Slate, â€Å"Obama’s plan creates various mechanisms to make both private and public health insurance more readily available† (Noah). This plan puts the responsibility on the American people to make their own choices about healthcare, while many universal healthcare plans make the decision for the people. This is one of the issues where Obama has received high marks from prospective voters.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus far, Barack Obama has performed very well in debates, both formal and off of the stage. Though poll numbers have fluctuated based upon whom one asked, Obama has stayed mostly strong through the duration of his campaign. As the campaign has progressed, Obama’s positions have continually been challenged on a number of issues and he has consistently had to defend them against challengers. With the endorsement form Oprah in his back pocket and the primaries on the horizon, Obama looks to have taken momentum into a very important part of the campaign. Works Cited Obama, Barack. Obama ’08: Official Website. â€Å"Immigration and the Border†. Babington, Charles. (AP) Obama Touts new Diplomatic Approaches. 28 November 2007. Noah, Timothy. Obama vs. Clinton on Universality. 30 November 2007.   

Policy and procedure Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Policy and procedure Development - Essay Example One such policy is the massage policy to control fatigue for cancer patients. The following policy and procedure provides a guide for the management of fatigue for cancer patients. Relaxing body massage is a proven non-pharmacological fatigue management therapy for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment (Bower, 2014). Back massage for cancer in-patients undergoing chemotherapy was developed through a randomized clinical trial in a controlled study. The study involved seventy patients who were divided into two groups including the control group and the group undergoing massage therapy (Mazlum, Chaharsoughi, Banihashem, & Vashani, 2013). The massage group received the service for 20 minutes every day 24 hours before chemotherapy and 24 hours after. The results from both control and massaged groups were recorded regarding the indices of vomiting and nausea in the measures of time, length, severity, and incidence. The results were later assessed using a Visual Analogue Scale and also using the BARF scales (Mazlum et al., 2013). The results were later analyzed using chi-square and Mann-Whitney. The analysis indicated that the incidences of nausea among the massaged group had reduced by 25.7 percent, the times, length, and severity had reduced by 0.35 times, 54 minutes, and 20 percent respectively (Mazlum et al., 2013). The research led to the conclusion that back massage on in-patients undergoing chemotherapy was essential. The nausea and vomiting effects were reduced significantly among all cancer patients receiving the massage. The instances of nausea and vomiting among the control group remained unchanged. The study led to the formulation of massage policies for patients receiving chemotherapy (Mazlum et al., 2013). Specialized massages combined with other non-pharmacological practices such as physical exercise have proved useful in the control of body fatigue. Long usage of drugs to stimulate the body overworks the body cells and is detrimental

Employer of a court ruling that a clause or a contract is a sham Essay

Employer of a court ruling that a clause or a contract is a sham - Essay Example In most cases, sham employment contracts are the result of denial of mutuality by a provision indicating that the organization or employer does not offer any specific tasks and the alleged employee does not assume to do it (Cabrelli, 2014). Similarly, denial of personal service by introducing a contractual clause indicating that the individual employee can substitute his or her absence by sending someone else to undertake the work is another unfair act by the employer. Contractor agreements normally contain such clauses and their existence suggests that the person does not meet the description of â€Å"worker† in common law as there is no requirement to execute out the tasks â€Å"personally†. Regardless, if neither the person nor the organization ever contemplated the future obligation to bring a substitute in the ‘worker’s’ absence regardless of the lack of common intent to lie to any third party, courts would determine the working arrangement as â€Å"sham† (Painter, & Holmes, 2012). In most cases, the ensuing situation technically changes the position of the person from expressly-stated â€Å"contractor† to a practical â€Å"worker† by virtue of his or her subsequent behaviour. As Cabrelli (2014) noted, when the seemingly harsh and unreasonable outcomes on the â€Å"worker† have been delineated, courts have demonstrated their willingness to enforce the contract as it would be employment contract. Regardless, various court interventions have raised serious problems since the known connotation of a sham remains somehow vague in commercial law. This is especially true in situations where both parties to an employment pact are guilty of misrepresentation to deceive third parties, where it is held that such action does not constitute a sham. The clearest proof of confusion in the common sense understanding of a sham provision is that it has never been consensually enforced (Davies, 2009). The

Compensation decision making analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Compensation decision making analysis - Essay Example Also, in developing a compensation survey, it is also possible that employees needed to fill one type of benchmark job are in demand in certain labor markets, and employees needed to fill another benchmark job are in demand in other labor markets. For both of these reasons, namely that we may be competing with different organizations in different labor markets for one type of employee, and also that we may compete with different organizations in different labor markets for one job in the organization versus another, organizations must relate to a variety of labor markets when conducting a compensation survey. The process begins by looking at which pay areas are the most critical for the organization. In other words, it is looking at where the organization seems to be less effective in competing in the external market. An important indicator of a problem may be the inability to hire qualified applicants and/or high turn-over rates. These are common indicators that the pay set for that job may not be competitive. Another possible indicator of a problem could be low productivity or poor quality. Often the organization decides that it is best to use different job evaluation methods for different groupings of jobs in the organization. When pay is set, the scatter diagrams are usually different and the pay policy line and the y-intercept as well. For this reason an organization may have more than one pay structure. This can occur, for example, when the organization develops one pay structure for upper management and another for lower level employees. In the situation where an organization has more than one pay structure, it is important that questions of fairness are addressed. In general, the amount of overlap should reflect how similar the jobs are to each other; the more similar the jobs, the more overlap there should be, the less similar the jobs, the less

Positivist and Interpretivist Research Designs Essay

Positivist and Interpretivist Research Designs - Essay Example It is a case study format but still an effective format to lead out to the research objective and to the objective reality of the research (Shanks, 2002). The Methodology In order to address the question, there are two research approaches that are applicable in a positive research design – the descriptive research approach and the experimental research approach. The descriptive research approach will lead to the empirical studies, surveys, correlation studies, and relevant case studies about the employee motivation and performance in the UK domiciliary care sector (Poinasamy, 2009). This collected empirical evidence will become the source of guide for the researcher to carry out effective experimentation and observation. In order to understand the significance of relationship between zero hours contract and employee motivation, and zero-hours contract and employee performance, this accumulated empirical evidence will come out as an effective resource. Such collected empirical evidence will become a source of experimentation in the research (Belk, 2007, p.198). The Experimentation In the highly controlled conditions, the observations will be taken from the selected organization of the UK domiciliary sector (Poinasamy, 2009, p.3). These observations will become the primary source of data to understand the correlations between the zero hour contract and employee motivation and zero-hour contract and employee performance. It is actually the comprehension of the variables that will bring deliberate understanding for the positivist researcher. Keeping zero-hour contract as a constant variable, the effect of this variable will be found on employee motivation and performance, which are two dependent variables. By applying such... This report approves that the contemporary literature of research indicates that there are two approaches that are significantly applied to address research questions- positivism and interpretivism. The positivist research follows through the objective research design to address and answer the research inquires. The interpretivist research goes through with the subjectivist research design, which is based on introspection and exploration. This is how both of the research designs are significantly applicable to researches and empirical studies. The researcher will take the thematic rout e of analysis in order to explore the situation of UK domiciliary care sector. This report has applied both the positivist and the interpretivist research design to address a derived research question. The differences in terms of methodologies, beliefs and the research conducts are highlighted between both positivism and interpretivism. The difference indicates that positivist approach applies the scientific models for analysis, while the interpretivist approach applies personal rationale, and introspection to conduct research. In this way, the positivist approach sets the mathematical and scientific ground of research while the interpretivist design base the research on contemporary and past empirical evidences. Both approaches effectively address the research question but have a different route and methodology to conduct research.

Bobby and the Role of Women in Burning Chrome by William Gibson Essay

Bobby and the Role of Women in Burning Chrome by William Gibson - Essay Example The Burning Chrome by Gibson has featured women in the entire piece. Bobby, a character in the Burning Chrome uses women according to his desires and plans. He has been described as having a new woman every few days. Bobby uses women in a specific manner. Bobby uses women for his personal gain. He uses them as assets when he realizes that they offer certain opportunities for his own growth. As stated in the work, â€Å"†¦Bobby read his future in women; his girls were omens, changes in the weather, and he'd sit all night in the Gentleman Loser waiting for the season to lay a new face down in front of him like a card†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gibson 189). Bobby was on between the two hackers who act as the main characters in the story. Bobby Quine is an expert dealing with software issues while Automatic Jack deals with hardware issues. Also important in the story is Rikki who is a girl that Bobby has become infatuated with and wants to use her to get what he wants. Gibson establishes a dis tinctive insignia by writing about the matrix simulator and techno-centaur disguising Jack Automatic. He also writes about Rikki Wildside and her Zeiss Ikon eyes, boutique and Simstim deck. Gibson does not leave out an aspect of world war III, an event he puts as a past event but featuring a puppet house where women worked as prostitutes for three-hour shifts (Gibson 190). Bobby Quine and Jack Automatic exhibit emotion and vestigial morality as they hack into Chromes computer system. They steal from the child-faced witch who has cold gray eyes and destroy her power base to an extent that she cannot use the power anymore (Cavallaro 90). They also destroy her by completely by sapping off her ability to defend herself against her enemies. Bobby is a schemer and a strategist. Bobby together with jack use their computer literacy prowess to exploit women and take advantage of their powers and strengths. Bobby and Jack use Rikki Wildside because they have realized an opportunity of exploit ation in her. Rikki is a prostitute who offers her services at the puppet house to get money so that she could buy a fashionable pair of new eyes. She also intends to make enough money so that she can fly to Hollywood and become a Simstim star. Jack bought a virus-program from Russia from Finn, who also bought it from someone. It is from this scenario that we learn that the person killed the original thief who had stolen the program from the owner. Bobby hacks into Chrome's computer system using that program (Cavallaro 92). He then makes use of the communication web to interfere and change the flow the communication web. Meanwhile jack encourages Bobby to hack into Chrome’s computer. As stated in the story, â€Å"†¦but Bobby was already there, leaning forward to drive the Russian program into its slot with the heel of his hand. He did it with the tight grace of a kid slamming change into an arcade game, sure of winning and ready to pull down a string of free games. A si lver tide of phosphenes boiled across my field of vision as the matrix began to unfold in my head, a 3-D chessboard, infinite and perfectly transparent. The Russian program seemed to lurch as we entered the grid†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gibson 195) Jack helps Bobby in his schemes taking advantage of the trust and love of women to him, for his gain. Jack betrays his friend Bobby by having an affair with Rikki who is in a love relationship with Bobby. Rikki also betrays her Bobby and Jack by working as a prostitute and

Enhanced whistle blower protections Research Paper

Enhanced whistle blower protections - Research Paper Example whistleblower is risky, the essay discusses various ways to protect them from elements that want to harm them to prevent them from sharing the information they possess. Whistleblowers fall into two categories. They include internal and external whistleblowers. Internal whistleblowers are the individuals who report discrepancies and misconducts of colleagues or their superiors to the management. Several reasons would motivate an employee to become a whistleblower. They include corruption, nepotism and sexual harassment. External whistleblowers are the individuals who disclose misconducts within the company to outside entities. They include lawyers, the media, police or watchdog agencies like anticorruption organizations. External whistleblowers are usually motivated by moral or selfish reasons. Opinions concerning whistleblowers differ from different people. To some, whistle blowing is as an act of selflessness while others accuse them of pursuing fame, fortune, greed and personal glory. This persecution of whistleblowers mostly comes from the affected or implicated individuals who want to discredit them to absolve themselves of the accusations. Individuals who want to prevent the disclosure of information often target whistleblowers. It becomes a dangerous situation with whistleblowers fearing for their lives as they get pursued. Countless whistleblowers have been killed while others have been forced into exile because they exposed the corruption in an organization. These actions led to the creation of witness protection agencies, which offer protection to whistleblowers when and until they finish presenting their proof of the misconducts to the relevant authorities. For example, the United States has several institutions that protect whistleblowers. They include the National Whistleblowers Center that protects whistleblowers from discrimination from the organization or their fellow employees. This act protects whistleblowers` identities from disclosure. It

Outline and discuss the evolution of CSR, including its history, role Essay

Outline and discuss the evolution of CSR, including its history, role in the financial crisis and prospects for the future. Supp - Essay Example In this documentary film, Moore conducts an investigative research on the impact that the closure of General Motors’ auto plants in Flint, Michigan, United States, had on the local communities. From the documentary film, it is clearly noted how by 1988 a leading company in the caliber of General Motors failed to denote its significant contribution to the local communities where it operated and it even failed to establish a clear structure of how the organization relates with the local communities. At the time of the Closure, Moore, reported that General Motors was making substantial amounts of profits but its decision to relocate its plants to Mexico was mainly motivated by the fact the company was seeking to lower its operating expenses by using cheap labor that was available in Mexico. Whilst making this decision, Mr. Roger Smith, the chairperson of the corporation at that time, failed to be socially responsible because of the fact that his decision led to 30,000 jobs losses , and a severe economic recession within the Flint area. Moreover, there was increase in cases of crime, evictions across the area because of failure to pay rent, and massive exodus of people from the area. Presently, General Motors Corporation is one of the leading companies in the world, which has a well-elaborate corporate social responsible unit that is managed through the GM foundation, and this is a clear indication that corporate social responsibility has evolved overtime and it has grown to become an integral part of the business model of most business organizations. This present essay is based on company law and it seeks to outline and discuss the evolution of corporate social responsibility, including its history, role in the financial crisis, and prospects for the future. The history of corporate social responsibility The writings by McWilliams et al. (2006), aimed at demonstrating the evolution, which human resource management and corporate social responsibility have und ergone. This writings succeeded in doing this by first establishing a valid point that during the early stages of industrial revolution, which was taking place across various countries that are now developed, all of the companies treated their employees as machinery that were designed for performing various tasks and being rewarded. This means that companies did not put into consideration the welfare of their employees. However, following the establishment of the

Business Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business Strategic Management - Essay Example Strategic fit characterizes the degree of matching the capabilities and resources of an organization to the opportunities prevailing in the external environment. The matching takes place through strategy so the company is required to have its actual capabilities and resources for supporting and executing the strategy Strategic fit can be actively used for evaluating the current strategic situation of a company along with the opportunities of divestitures and mergers and acquisitions of divisions of organization. Strategic fit is also viewed on the basis of resources of the firm suggesting that industry selection and positioning is not only the key to profitability rather an internal focus utilising the unique characteristics of the resource portfolio of the company and its capabilities is the key to profitability. ... Operational fit arises when different businesses work along for exploring opportunities of skill transfer and cost sharing. Management fit revolves among both the businesses in terms of some comparable units like operating problems, administration and various administrative activities. It also allows accumulated managerial know how in one business to be used in managing other business. It is necessary that the management of business should take actions to capture benefit (Armstrong, 2003, pp.116-117). Benefits with sharing potential must be recognized so that the activities to be shared are coordinated and merged. When skill transfer takes place, a means must be found to make it effective. It is required for the medium sized business to achieve strategic fit as it provides consistency between customer priorities of competitive strategy and capabilities of supply chain as specified by the strategy of supply chain (Dessler, 2010, p.51). The strategies of supply chain and competitive st rategy have the same goal. Due to lack of strategic fit, a company may fail. Achievement of strategic fit involves three steps. These involves the understanding the uncertainty in supply chain and customer, understanding the capabilities of supply chain and achieving strategic fit (Armstrong, 2008, p.38). Strategic fit has a central role for playing in strategic management. While the external strategic fit is relevant to formulate strategy, the internal strategic fit is critical to the implementation of strategy (Gabriel, 2008, p.133). A high strategic fit is important as it enables the scope of learning new skill sets, timely and appropriate response, resource commitment from top management, better

MA as a Growth Strategy

MA as a Growth Strategy Introduction: Project Management (BS 6079, 1996) is the planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance. For any project to become a success, team work plays a major role. One of the most renowned and widely used practical and management team developments is the Belbin team roles. The argument from Belbin is that team composition plays a major factor in influencing the performance of the team (Water et al, 2008). The fundamental aspect of human existence is the working together as groups. The main purpose of this is to survive, adapt and thrive to different situations by using individuals intellect and co-operation (Riding and Rayner, 2001). The team roles are classified into organisational roles and the functional roles (Atkinson, 1999). A team role is a set of behaviours grouped in a cluster (Belbin, 1993). The main objective of this essay is to evaluate the teams performance based on the Belbin self perception theory discussing the teams roles, team life cycle and other aspects with respect to the project management exercise. Belbin Team Roles: Team roles are defined as a pattern of behaviour characteristic of the way in which one team member interacts with another (Belbin, 1981). Every individual will take preferred roles in the management exercises and the outcome purely depends on the balance in the team (Riding and Rayner, 2001). It is always a good team with a good balance of individuals will result in a good outcome and vice versa (Belbin, 1993). Belbin has differentiated nine team roles based on the behaviour of people and is classified by feeling, will power, thinking and decisiveness. In the Belbin later research, he added one more role called as SP (Specialist) which refers to single mindedness, acting always alone and dedicated to specialism. The main function of this role is that people will behave in a extremely silent, introvert and will not contribute other than their special interest areas. This is considered as the negligible contribution to the team (Atkinson, 1999). Belbin uses an instrument for quantifyi ng the team role preferences which is called as the Self Perception Inventory. This consists of 70 points by evaluating seven statements in each questions. For each question 10 statements are given and can be prioritised based on the individual behaviour in which 10 points can be distributed. In predicting the performance of the team Belbin succeeded based on the information from the role profiles of each member. In this view a team is balanced when each role appears in atleast one team members profile as high-scoring role (Atkinson, 1999). From the Henley workshops, Belbin was able to specify the composition of the team and arrived at conclusions. This was characterised by (Furnham, 1992): attributes of a leader are similar to chairman profile (CH) now called as Co-ordinator (CO) and the team should have a range of mental abilities which includes a person generating creative ideas and giving practical solutions to the problems encountered. The team should include one Completer Finisher (CF), Implementer (IM) and the members can suit the other team roles based on their personal characteristics and ultimately the team which can identify and improve on their competencies by doing mistakes is considered as the best team (Riding and Rayner, 2001). Teams Belbin profiles: For the project management exercise, the teams were divided based on the Belbin team roles. As said earlier, in a team it is must to have a Completer Finisher (CF) and Implementer (IM). The team were asked to choose from Team Workers (TW). Person having primary reference as Team Workers are few and so persons having secondary and tertiary references as Team Workers were called for choosing the team. Evaluating the team roles and functions: First, from the team balance sheet it is clear that the team has no primary references for SH, PL, RI, TW, CF and can be considered as scarce for the team. This team has three implementers (IM) which is good in terms of delivering the project fast. Having more implementers is not a problem in any team as they move towards implementing the project. But having more shapers is a problem because of their characteristics. Person 1 who is ME can act as a CF and TW because of his secondary and tertiary preferences. Person 1 shows major characteristics of ME because of the feasibility characteristics. In this exercise, person 1 is very much interested in calculating the Critical path, always analysing the situations, showing temperament and whenever anything goes out of plan again doing the critical path whether there is feasibility of completing the project on time. The main advantage with person 1 is that he maintains good temperament in all the situations even if it is good or bad. The disadvantages is that in some situations person 1 whose Belbin profile shows weakness as decision making is very true. Sometimes person 1 took some hasty decisions which have affected the teams profit (decision of choosing the manufacturing subcontractor). Always took more time in making next moves since the basic nature of ME is analysing situations. Sometimes person 1 also did the role of CF when it comes to planning the project. The project plan was for 140 days with 7 periods of 20 days. One of the persons in the team were modifying the plan for days and the person striked the number of resources and wrote the new allocation of resource. Person 1 thought that this can make confusions and he acted as a CF by rubbing of the resources and wrote the allocation as clear as possible so that everybody can understand. Person 2 who is CO acted as a RI and PL in the initial phase of the exercise. As depicted by Belbin, RI used to interact a lot with the external environment is very true. Person 2 whenever any problems are faced by the team, he used to interact more with the teacher understanding the problem and gives new ideas to solving the problem. Person 2 organises well with the resource facilities for the game with the flip charts, pens and other requirements for smooth functioning of the game. At only one stage person 2 acted as a CO in the decision of choosing suppliers. Person 2 behaves more as RI and PL in this exercise. Person 3 who is IM, SP and has two tertiary references as CO and ME has shown good characteristics of implementer role in this exercise. Sometimes person 3 behaves more as ME than CO which is good for the team, because one or more COs have different approaches for the project. Person 3 is always striving hard to implement the project on time and sometimes showed good character for team worker. Person 3 always strives hard to stick to the plan and whenever plan changes, organises well for implementing the plan. The disadvantage is that this person lacks flexibility sometimes when it comes to implementation. Person 4 who is IM, secondary is CF and tertiary is SH initially has shown SH characteristics by challenging and arguing the facts that were made by the team. Person 4 is always interested in results and sometimes behaved as CO by taking decisions. Person 1 and 4 since showed shaper characteristics sometimes had difference of opinion but were well managed by team members. Person 4 showed good implementer characteristics in the final stages of the exercise. Person 5 who is IM, ME as secondary and CF as tertiary initially were helping the team with PL characteristics, sometimes RI when CO has to take decisions by going to the external world and discussing with people. Very sincere, hard working when it comes to implementation. Main advantage is that very well organised in implementing things, interested in sticking to the plan and sometimes resources were provided by him. Person 5 showed a major of Team Worker in many aspects because of the fact that TW always want to harmony among the teams. The team Belbins profiles helped a lot in choosing a balanced team and are 60% accurate with respect to our team. For a project to become a success, it is always helpful with people taking new roles under a good leadership. Finally, good team work will always succeed and makes the project success. Persons took roles which are not their primary, secondary or tertiary references sometimes worked out well and made benefits to the team but many of the times it failed. The people showed majority of the characteristics as depicted by Belbin and is helpful in the teams success. One important learning with Belbin self perception theory is that having two or more shapers in a team is dangerous and will lead to poor project management. It is always helpful to have one PL and one CO as their primary reference. Team Life Cycle: The basic behaviour of any team is that they are dynamic. As an individual, they can perform effectively but as a team they can fail and vice versa. Attention and maintenance are always required for the teams. The first person to bring a chart for teams progression is Tuckman. He has identified four stages in a teams development which are forming, storming, norming and performing (Kakabadse et al, 2004). In the forming stage, team members got to know about each other and started establishing their relationships. The learnings are based on the organisations culture and standards. Project task behaviours and interpersonal relationships are very important in binding the team together. In the storming stage, a person starts expressing the views and there is a chance of difference in opinion. Leadership challenges occur and may lead to rivalry between people because of their behaviours. Because of these conflicts, the main objective of the organisation cannot be met which lead to separation of groups. In the norming stage, groups will start gelling towards one another and each strengths and weaknesses can be known. The teams will set their standards and roles can be clearly defined at this stage. In the performing stage, actual team working takes place and people starts performing their tasks together. If the team loses the energy or support, then a stage called restoring or declining stage may follow. Further in this stage, the strengths, weaknesses of the team is analysed with respect to the task is discussed and learnings are recorded for effective project management in future. Evaluating the teams life cycle: In the project management exercise, different sets of problems are encountered by the team and creative solutions are identified to solve these problems. Some of the solutions clicked and some lead to major failures for the team. The forming stage provided opportunities for the new team to understand each other and gave different settings. When first given the exercise, some team members easily understood the process and some found difficult to understand the process. In the initial stages it took more time for the team to decide the strategy for proceeding with the project. Person 1, 3 expressed their views which were not agreed by the team whereas person 2, 4 had expressed their concerns which again not accepted by the team members. Finally, a conclusion has been made with the project plan and the identification of first, second and third critical paths are identified. This stage is all about trusting and building confidence on other team members. The team lacks leadership in this phase. A leader is clearly needed in this phase to provide direction and guidance (Lee, 2008). The storming stage provides openness for feelings and the team discusses the issues very seriously even if the point is not valid. The existing plan with respect to the actual working is modified and refined well. Person 1, 4 had conflicts in choosing the suppliers whether to go for delivery or quality. Person 2, 3 and 5 also contributed but a single decision has to be taken by the team. The team debated on these issues and finally person 1 compromised person 4 for going to a quality supplier by explaining with the fact which will not affect the delivery of the product. The teams weaknesses are that for first three periods did good jobs but didnt celebrate any success. The other weaknesses are builds, integration points between team members, conflicts within the team and sometimes role conflicts. In the norming stage, the teams had fewer conflicts and started communicating more effectively with others. The team emerged with good practices; loop integration exists because of better communication, the person understands their balance and develops their required skills and role clarity is clearly defined. Person 1 decision will be treated as final since some of the decisions worked out well in the earlier periods and didnt analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the decision which lead to a disaster in period 4, 5. The team didnt properly review the operation in a regular basis which also leads to a failure (not delivering the product on time). The team didnt celebrate success in this stage also. In the performing stage, since person 1 decision went wrong it is important for the team members to chip in with leadership and person start taking responsibilities for leadership which is a very good sign for the team. This allows rotation of leadership and helps team members to grow their own skills. The team started to treat seriously the views from team members as well as outside members which is done for the betterment of the project work. Finally, the team made a little profit and starts celebrating the success which has to be done earlier. In this stage it is always good to have an outsider to comment on the teams performance which helps in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the team. In the last stage, the team learnt their mistakes and starts working on improving individual competencies and the advantages of team work. Every individual is important for a team and it is the individuals who are building the team. The project management exercise can be done more effectively if the same team is given one more chance based on their learnings. The output required from this phase is the prevention of failures for a future project. Decision making procedures: The teams success depends on the decision making and it is the key factor in project management. The working definition of decision making (Ullman, 2006) is that Decision making is a process that commits resources to resolving an issue. Making a decision is not an event; it is a process for arriving at the correct decisions based on uncertain, incomplete, incomplete, inconsistent and evolving information. It is important for the team to get the best out of these results. In practice, every decision the team trying to make must address two issues: Merit decision quantitative way of taking the decision based on merits Acceptance decision acceptance by the people by the decision taken by the team. A decision is a choice made from several alternatives (Lewis, 2004). The decision is going to be effective when merit and acceptance are considered. For any decision the important criteria is to understand the problem and issues are to be clarified. Then as a team alternatives are generated and criteria are developed for robust decision making. The next important step is the evaluation part which tells the importance of the criteria. This also generates value to the alternatives that are developed for the criteria. Fuse is the next step in decision making which generates decision measures by evaluating process. The last stage is what to do next which reduces consensus, uncertainty, criteria and further revising the alternatives. Hence, (Ullman, 2006)A robust decision is the best possible choice, one found by eliminating all the uncertainty possible within available resources and then choosing with known and acceptable levels of satisfaction and risk. Some of the problems that are encountered during the decision making are team members have different judgement and their outcomes may be different due to different knowledge level, preferences. In order to evaluate a decision, managers have to choose a proper method (Fan Fu-Rong et al, 2008). Consultative approach is the most widely used approach for decision making. For handling group decision, the rules are shown in the below table 2. Evaluating the decision making procedures: Decisions taken in project management exercise by the team sometimes based on merit and sometimes based on acceptance and sometimes a combination of both. A consultative approach is followed when taking a decision. Initially for the first two decisions, it took more time for the team to understand the problem and team is not clear in the issues. The project delivery time is 140 days and the CPM shows that there is 285 days for the product to come out. A project plan is made for getting the product on time and it is always difficult to stick to the plan. Team members initially found difficult to generate alternatives for the decision and initially the team followed a consensus with team members. The first decision is based on merit as to reduce the lead time from 285 to 140 days. The teams weaknesses in the understanding phase are took more time for taking a decision, no clarity on problems, no criteria developed for taking the decision. Also, initially since team members are of diffe rent competencies it took time for gelling together. Then after the decision the team started to develop criteria for the decisions. The team in evaluating phase started to understand the importance of criteria developed and started generating alternatives for the criteria. One important thing is that decisions are always subject to change and it is important to review the earlier decisions. In the exercise, the team decided to go for good quality suppliers which actually paid very well for the team. When it comes to manufacturing sub contractors, due to cost pressure some compromise has to be made by the team and went ahead with the cheap sub contractor. The team took a risk but didnt work out well. The teams decision is partially a combination of merit and acceptance. The teams weakness in this stage is that it never had a backup plan till the failure has happened. In this stage, the resources are shuffled inorder to deliver the product on time which is a good move based on earlier decisions. But in actual practice it is difficult to execute as per the plan and is important to review the decisions as a team by d iscussing the merits and demerits of the team. In Fuse stage, the result from the earlier decisions gives the team of measuring the decisions. In the initial stage, Person 1 took the decision of going ahead with the good quality suppliers and convinced the team members, since it clicked the team went ahead with that persons decision for the future also. Every time when a decision is taken it is important to discuss as a team by evaluating the results of the decision and have a backup plan if that decision went wrong. During the periods 4, 5, 6 the teams took decisions in a fast, accurate way by learning from the mistakes earlier. It is important to learn from mistakes as a team. Finally, in the decide stage, the team started looking at the future in what has to be done next by reducing the uncertainty, refining the interpersonal skills. In this stage, the team started to work on a consensus basis. Even a single member points are taken seriously and started discussing the merits and demerits with refining the criteria. The team started to work on the alternatives and focus more towards for addressing the next issues. The team weakness in this stage, it is important to document the deliberation so that these failures cannot happen in the future. The key learning from the decision making procedures are decisions are subject to change and have to be reviewed consistently. Consensus approach has to be followed inorder to make a decision which can be based on merit and acceptance. Conflict within the team: Many organisations have changed to project management structures because of their inability to resolve conflicts. In a project life cycle, conflicts are part and parcel of life and can happen at any levels of the organisation. The project manager is often described as a conflict manager (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). Conflicts generally happen because of misunderstanding between team members and have different interpretations of companys objective. Inorder to avoid that, projects have to be defined in a clear way so that it can be understood by all the team members. Some people use SMART criteria for defining the project which says; S- Specific M- Measurable A- Attainable R- Realistic or Relevant T- Tangible or time bound (Kerzner, 2009). Time management is crucial in any project and it is important to manage time by avoiding conflicts. Some conflicts are relevant and provide valuable results. Most common types of conflict involve in the allocations of manpower resources, using the equipments and facilities, expenditure on capitals, cost and technical opinions and trade offs (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). Moreover the seven potential sources of conflicts are shown in the Fig 4. Goal, Plan and Belief conflicts are the three types of conflicts (Jain et al, 2007). If a conflict happens in a project, there are five different ways of resolving the conflicts which are shown in fig 5 which are confrontation, compromise, smoothing, forcing and withdrawal. Evaluation of conflicts: The team initially had conflicts in allocating the man power resources like employing in design, assemblers and testers. The team had a conflict over schedules in attaining the project on time. The team members person 1, 2 and 4 had difference of opinions in schedules and the resolution mode of compromise is used to resolve that issue. Person 1, 3, 4 had conflicts in priorities in choosing the suppliers. Person 1 suggested a supplier part can be taken just before the assembly but the team members took a decision by smoothing mode. In case if anything fails the team need to reorder again this may take time. Inorder for the project manager to be effective an understanding of how to work with various employees who must interface with the project is necessary (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). The various members in the team include upper management, functional managers etc and it is important to understand the sub ordinate and functional conflicts. The relationship between conflict causes and sourc es is shown in the figure 6. The teams strength is that none of the members in the team had personality conflict which is very important for project success. When deciding the manufacturing sub contractor person 1 suggested for a reliable sub contractor, but all the other members in the team are cost conscious in which person 1 and other members had a conflict over cost. The teams choice of choosing a good quality supplier had a conflict with other members which is a functional conflict provides good benefits for the team in terms of quality, time and cost. During the period 3, 4 the team members had a conflict of allocating the inspectors which is the conflict over schedule and had a good result during the period. But during the period 5, the team had a conflict on schedule in resource allocation of assemblers but not with the inspectors. All the five resolution modes of conflicts are used for resolving conflicts in almost all the stages. The team weaknesses include conflicts have to happen and has to be resolv ed systematically. But as a team, conflicts at the initial stages of the project give good results and when it comes to final stages conflicts started coming down. The figure 7 shows the conflict intensity in the team during the project life cycle. The key learnings from the project management exercise are that time management is important and the conflicts have to be resolved within the time. Team members have to understand the sub ordinate and their opinions and have to be evaluated inorder to get a good result in the project. It is important to have a plan for resolving conflicts in the planning phase itself. Constant communication of the project objectives to the team members will help in minimising or even eliminating the conflicts. Sometimes direct contact with people will reduce the conflicts. In project management hierarchical issues are to be resolved and there shall not be any domination from the project manager or the functional mangers. Companywide policies can be adapted for resolving the conflict issues for smooth functioning of the project. Role clarities have to be clear which will reduce the conflicts. Team Leadership: Team leadership is one of the main aspects in the project success. In any projects, leadership becomes a problem because project management involves group of people who are frequently in interaction for a specific project. The following tasks are required for a leader to achieve the tasks; Tasks are defined and shall be achieved Team shall be build and can be properly co-ordinated Leader shall satisfy individual team members Task needs It is important for the leader to clearly define the objectives of the project and leadership shall aim at achieving these goals. Team needs The element of leadership shall hold the team together inorder to produce efficient results for the project. If the team have conflicts, then it is the leader who has to convince the team members effectively. Individual needs The performance and contributions of the project by every member of the team have to be understood by the leader and sometimes can reward for good work (Reiss, 1995). From the moment the leadership is taken it is important for the leader to ensure that the project is heading in correct direction (Heerkens, 2002). The biggest problem that a leader is facing in the project management is that managing the anxieties which were developed by the team members. Sometimes if it is not evaluated may lead to slow down the project and work output. The anticipation by the leaders when questioned by the team members are: Whats in it for me? What will be expected out of me? What will life on your team like? (Heerkens, 2002) Evaluation of team leadership: In the project management exercise, the team leadership was with no one and totally a team effort. But it is always important to have a leader for the team for the above reasons stated. Sometimes Person 1 took the leadership in choosing the suppliers, sub contractors, person 2 took the leadership in periods 4, 5 of the project. Person 4 took the leadership in the periods 6, 7 and person 3 during the period 2 of the project. The teams strength is that everybody in the team understands the leadership attitudes which are important for project success. The anxieties by the team members can be reduced by having conversations within the team. The team members frequently had meeting openly for achieving the following: Project objectives were reviewed (the true need for the project) and the justifications were explained as a team (benefits). Project planning and its proposal were reviewed (the solution) and the team leader took a decision for the preferred approach. Initially the team faced problems of leadership and all members expressed their views and constraints. Roles and responsibilities are not clarified clearly by functional categorisation which leads to some problems within the team. This is considered as one of the teams weaknesses. It is important to honestly characterise the style of leadership (free, open, trusting, reacting to situations) The leader has to explain the expectations that are required from the team members regarding the delivery by frequent conducting of meetings. Communication plays a major role in leadership and the leader has to explain the behaviour style. (Adopted from Heerkens, 2002 Modified for Project Management exercise). The team initially went ahead with no leader and later person characterised by Belbin as CO started taking leadership which was helpful for the team. The team had good mutual relationships with other members and used visual charts when sketching the plan, reviewing the plan. Professional ethics are maintained throughout the project which is the biggest advantage for the project success. Celebration of project milestones and its success are very important to improve the morale of the members is considered to be one of the team weaknesses. Any team before starting the project must have a leader and it is the leader who assigns the roles and responsibilities of the team members clearly. One of the main leadership qualities is the flexibility in their approach, style in adapting to the situations, communications with the team members. It is not always necessary that leader should have technical skills, but a little amount of knowledge in the particular field is sufficient for managing the project. Conclusion: Organisational behaviour is very important for project management and using Belbin profiles in dividing the organisation is helpful in achieving the objectives. Team work is important for the project to succeed and lies on every individual of the team. It is important for the leader to motivate the members and constantly encourage them for the effective functioning of project teams. Belbin team life cycle shows that evolution of teams and tells the effective functioning of teams. The decision making procedures are important for projects success and has to be reviewed consistently. Project planning is considered to be the important phase in project management and plan gives only the direction. It is important for the team to learn from mistakes. Introduction TVS Motors is the third largest two wheeler manufacturers in India and one among the top ten in the world with annual turnover of more than USD 1 billion 2008-2009 and is the flagship company of the USD 4 billion TVS group. The company has four plants located in Hosur and Mysore in South India, Himachel Pradesh in North India and one in Indonesia. The company has a production capacity of 2.5 million units per year. TVS strength lies in the design and development of new products. TVS delivers total customer satisfaction by anticipating customer needs and presenting quality vehicles at the right time and right price. The customer and his ever changing need is our continuous source of imspiration.TVS always stood for innovative, easy to handle, environment friendly products, backed by reliable customer service. TVS manufactures a wide range of products as shown below. Motorcycles Apache RTR, Flame DS 125, Flame, Jive, Star City, Sport Variomatic Scooters Wego, Scooty Streak, Pep+, Teenz Mopeds TVS XL Super, TVS XL Heavy Duty Step thrus TVS Neo, Rockz (TVS Motors, 2010). The main objective of this essay is to evaluate the project management of a sub system (Fit and Finish Engineering section part of RD) in the TVS Motors and suggesting improvement points for betterment of the project management. Organisation Structure Any organisation exists to achieve the objectives by maintaining good relationships with its customers and its employees. The main objective of organisation is profitability. TVS Motor Company Mission Statement We are committed to being a highly profitable, socially responsible, and leading manufacturer of high value for money, environment friendly, life time personal transportation products under the brand, for customers predominantly in Asian markets and to provide fulfilment and prosperity for employees, de MA as a Growth Strategy MA as a Growth Strategy Introduction: Project Management (BS 6079, 1996) is the planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance. For any project to become a success, team work plays a major role. One of the most renowned and widely used practical and management team developments is the Belbin team roles. The argument from Belbin is that team composition plays a major factor in influencing the performance of the team (Water et al, 2008). The fundamental aspect of human existence is the working together as groups. The main purpose of this is to survive, adapt and thrive to different situations by using individuals intellect and co-operation (Riding and Rayner, 2001). The team roles are classified into organisational roles and the functional roles (Atkinson, 1999). A team role is a set of behaviours grouped in a cluster (Belbin, 1993). The main objective of this essay is to evaluate the teams performance based on the Belbin self perception theory discussing the teams roles, team life cycle and other aspects with respect to the project management exercise. Belbin Team Roles: Team roles are defined as a pattern of behaviour characteristic of the way in which one team member interacts with another (Belbin, 1981). Every individual will take preferred roles in the management exercises and the outcome purely depends on the balance in the team (Riding and Rayner, 2001). It is always a good team with a good balance of individuals will result in a good outcome and vice versa (Belbin, 1993). Belbin has differentiated nine team roles based on the behaviour of people and is classified by feeling, will power, thinking and decisiveness. In the Belbin later research, he added one more role called as SP (Specialist) which refers to single mindedness, acting always alone and dedicated to specialism. The main function of this role is that people will behave in a extremely silent, introvert and will not contribute other than their special interest areas. This is considered as the negligible contribution to the team (Atkinson, 1999). Belbin uses an instrument for quantifyi ng the team role preferences which is called as the Self Perception Inventory. This consists of 70 points by evaluating seven statements in each questions. For each question 10 statements are given and can be prioritised based on the individual behaviour in which 10 points can be distributed. In predicting the performance of the team Belbin succeeded based on the information from the role profiles of each member. In this view a team is balanced when each role appears in atleast one team members profile as high-scoring role (Atkinson, 1999). From the Henley workshops, Belbin was able to specify the composition of the team and arrived at conclusions. This was characterised by (Furnham, 1992): attributes of a leader are similar to chairman profile (CH) now called as Co-ordinator (CO) and the team should have a range of mental abilities which includes a person generating creative ideas and giving practical solutions to the problems encountered. The team should include one Completer Finisher (CF), Implementer (IM) and the members can suit the other team roles based on their personal characteristics and ultimately the team which can identify and improve on their competencies by doing mistakes is considered as the best team (Riding and Rayner, 2001). Teams Belbin profiles: For the project management exercise, the teams were divided based on the Belbin team roles. As said earlier, in a team it is must to have a Completer Finisher (CF) and Implementer (IM). The team were asked to choose from Team Workers (TW). Person having primary reference as Team Workers are few and so persons having secondary and tertiary references as Team Workers were called for choosing the team. Evaluating the team roles and functions: First, from the team balance sheet it is clear that the team has no primary references for SH, PL, RI, TW, CF and can be considered as scarce for the team. This team has three implementers (IM) which is good in terms of delivering the project fast. Having more implementers is not a problem in any team as they move towards implementing the project. But having more shapers is a problem because of their characteristics. Person 1 who is ME can act as a CF and TW because of his secondary and tertiary preferences. Person 1 shows major characteristics of ME because of the feasibility characteristics. In this exercise, person 1 is very much interested in calculating the Critical path, always analysing the situations, showing temperament and whenever anything goes out of plan again doing the critical path whether there is feasibility of completing the project on time. The main advantage with person 1 is that he maintains good temperament in all the situations even if it is good or bad. The disadvantages is that in some situations person 1 whose Belbin profile shows weakness as decision making is very true. Sometimes person 1 took some hasty decisions which have affected the teams profit (decision of choosing the manufacturing subcontractor). Always took more time in making next moves since the basic nature of ME is analysing situations. Sometimes person 1 also did the role of CF when it comes to planning the project. The project plan was for 140 days with 7 periods of 20 days. One of the persons in the team were modifying the plan for days and the person striked the number of resources and wrote the new allocation of resource. Person 1 thought that this can make confusions and he acted as a CF by rubbing of the resources and wrote the allocation as clear as possible so that everybody can understand. Person 2 who is CO acted as a RI and PL in the initial phase of the exercise. As depicted by Belbin, RI used to interact a lot with the external environment is very true. Person 2 whenever any problems are faced by the team, he used to interact more with the teacher understanding the problem and gives new ideas to solving the problem. Person 2 organises well with the resource facilities for the game with the flip charts, pens and other requirements for smooth functioning of the game. At only one stage person 2 acted as a CO in the decision of choosing suppliers. Person 2 behaves more as RI and PL in this exercise. Person 3 who is IM, SP and has two tertiary references as CO and ME has shown good characteristics of implementer role in this exercise. Sometimes person 3 behaves more as ME than CO which is good for the team, because one or more COs have different approaches for the project. Person 3 is always striving hard to implement the project on time and sometimes showed good character for team worker. Person 3 always strives hard to stick to the plan and whenever plan changes, organises well for implementing the plan. The disadvantage is that this person lacks flexibility sometimes when it comes to implementation. Person 4 who is IM, secondary is CF and tertiary is SH initially has shown SH characteristics by challenging and arguing the facts that were made by the team. Person 4 is always interested in results and sometimes behaved as CO by taking decisions. Person 1 and 4 since showed shaper characteristics sometimes had difference of opinion but were well managed by team members. Person 4 showed good implementer characteristics in the final stages of the exercise. Person 5 who is IM, ME as secondary and CF as tertiary initially were helping the team with PL characteristics, sometimes RI when CO has to take decisions by going to the external world and discussing with people. Very sincere, hard working when it comes to implementation. Main advantage is that very well organised in implementing things, interested in sticking to the plan and sometimes resources were provided by him. Person 5 showed a major of Team Worker in many aspects because of the fact that TW always want to harmony among the teams. The team Belbins profiles helped a lot in choosing a balanced team and are 60% accurate with respect to our team. For a project to become a success, it is always helpful with people taking new roles under a good leadership. Finally, good team work will always succeed and makes the project success. Persons took roles which are not their primary, secondary or tertiary references sometimes worked out well and made benefits to the team but many of the times it failed. The people showed majority of the characteristics as depicted by Belbin and is helpful in the teams success. One important learning with Belbin self perception theory is that having two or more shapers in a team is dangerous and will lead to poor project management. It is always helpful to have one PL and one CO as their primary reference. Team Life Cycle: The basic behaviour of any team is that they are dynamic. As an individual, they can perform effectively but as a team they can fail and vice versa. Attention and maintenance are always required for the teams. The first person to bring a chart for teams progression is Tuckman. He has identified four stages in a teams development which are forming, storming, norming and performing (Kakabadse et al, 2004). In the forming stage, team members got to know about each other and started establishing their relationships. The learnings are based on the organisations culture and standards. Project task behaviours and interpersonal relationships are very important in binding the team together. In the storming stage, a person starts expressing the views and there is a chance of difference in opinion. Leadership challenges occur and may lead to rivalry between people because of their behaviours. Because of these conflicts, the main objective of the organisation cannot be met which lead to separation of groups. In the norming stage, groups will start gelling towards one another and each strengths and weaknesses can be known. The teams will set their standards and roles can be clearly defined at this stage. In the performing stage, actual team working takes place and people starts performing their tasks together. If the team loses the energy or support, then a stage called restoring or declining stage may follow. Further in this stage, the strengths, weaknesses of the team is analysed with respect to the task is discussed and learnings are recorded for effective project management in future. Evaluating the teams life cycle: In the project management exercise, different sets of problems are encountered by the team and creative solutions are identified to solve these problems. Some of the solutions clicked and some lead to major failures for the team. The forming stage provided opportunities for the new team to understand each other and gave different settings. When first given the exercise, some team members easily understood the process and some found difficult to understand the process. In the initial stages it took more time for the team to decide the strategy for proceeding with the project. Person 1, 3 expressed their views which were not agreed by the team whereas person 2, 4 had expressed their concerns which again not accepted by the team members. Finally, a conclusion has been made with the project plan and the identification of first, second and third critical paths are identified. This stage is all about trusting and building confidence on other team members. The team lacks leadership in this phase. A leader is clearly needed in this phase to provide direction and guidance (Lee, 2008). The storming stage provides openness for feelings and the team discusses the issues very seriously even if the point is not valid. The existing plan with respect to the actual working is modified and refined well. Person 1, 4 had conflicts in choosing the suppliers whether to go for delivery or quality. Person 2, 3 and 5 also contributed but a single decision has to be taken by the team. The team debated on these issues and finally person 1 compromised person 4 for going to a quality supplier by explaining with the fact which will not affect the delivery of the product. The teams weaknesses are that for first three periods did good jobs but didnt celebrate any success. The other weaknesses are builds, integration points between team members, conflicts within the team and sometimes role conflicts. In the norming stage, the teams had fewer conflicts and started communicating more effectively with others. The team emerged with good practices; loop integration exists because of better communication, the person understands their balance and develops their required skills and role clarity is clearly defined. Person 1 decision will be treated as final since some of the decisions worked out well in the earlier periods and didnt analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the decision which lead to a disaster in period 4, 5. The team didnt properly review the operation in a regular basis which also leads to a failure (not delivering the product on time). The team didnt celebrate success in this stage also. In the performing stage, since person 1 decision went wrong it is important for the team members to chip in with leadership and person start taking responsibilities for leadership which is a very good sign for the team. This allows rotation of leadership and helps team members to grow their own skills. The team started to treat seriously the views from team members as well as outside members which is done for the betterment of the project work. Finally, the team made a little profit and starts celebrating the success which has to be done earlier. In this stage it is always good to have an outsider to comment on the teams performance which helps in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the team. In the last stage, the team learnt their mistakes and starts working on improving individual competencies and the advantages of team work. Every individual is important for a team and it is the individuals who are building the team. The project management exercise can be done more effectively if the same team is given one more chance based on their learnings. The output required from this phase is the prevention of failures for a future project. Decision making procedures: The teams success depends on the decision making and it is the key factor in project management. The working definition of decision making (Ullman, 2006) is that Decision making is a process that commits resources to resolving an issue. Making a decision is not an event; it is a process for arriving at the correct decisions based on uncertain, incomplete, incomplete, inconsistent and evolving information. It is important for the team to get the best out of these results. In practice, every decision the team trying to make must address two issues: Merit decision quantitative way of taking the decision based on merits Acceptance decision acceptance by the people by the decision taken by the team. A decision is a choice made from several alternatives (Lewis, 2004). The decision is going to be effective when merit and acceptance are considered. For any decision the important criteria is to understand the problem and issues are to be clarified. Then as a team alternatives are generated and criteria are developed for robust decision making. The next important step is the evaluation part which tells the importance of the criteria. This also generates value to the alternatives that are developed for the criteria. Fuse is the next step in decision making which generates decision measures by evaluating process. The last stage is what to do next which reduces consensus, uncertainty, criteria and further revising the alternatives. Hence, (Ullman, 2006)A robust decision is the best possible choice, one found by eliminating all the uncertainty possible within available resources and then choosing with known and acceptable levels of satisfaction and risk. Some of the problems that are encountered during the decision making are team members have different judgement and their outcomes may be different due to different knowledge level, preferences. In order to evaluate a decision, managers have to choose a proper method (Fan Fu-Rong et al, 2008). Consultative approach is the most widely used approach for decision making. For handling group decision, the rules are shown in the below table 2. Evaluating the decision making procedures: Decisions taken in project management exercise by the team sometimes based on merit and sometimes based on acceptance and sometimes a combination of both. A consultative approach is followed when taking a decision. Initially for the first two decisions, it took more time for the team to understand the problem and team is not clear in the issues. The project delivery time is 140 days and the CPM shows that there is 285 days for the product to come out. A project plan is made for getting the product on time and it is always difficult to stick to the plan. Team members initially found difficult to generate alternatives for the decision and initially the team followed a consensus with team members. The first decision is based on merit as to reduce the lead time from 285 to 140 days. The teams weaknesses in the understanding phase are took more time for taking a decision, no clarity on problems, no criteria developed for taking the decision. Also, initially since team members are of diffe rent competencies it took time for gelling together. Then after the decision the team started to develop criteria for the decisions. The team in evaluating phase started to understand the importance of criteria developed and started generating alternatives for the criteria. One important thing is that decisions are always subject to change and it is important to review the earlier decisions. In the exercise, the team decided to go for good quality suppliers which actually paid very well for the team. When it comes to manufacturing sub contractors, due to cost pressure some compromise has to be made by the team and went ahead with the cheap sub contractor. The team took a risk but didnt work out well. The teams decision is partially a combination of merit and acceptance. The teams weakness in this stage is that it never had a backup plan till the failure has happened. In this stage, the resources are shuffled inorder to deliver the product on time which is a good move based on earlier decisions. But in actual practice it is difficult to execute as per the plan and is important to review the decisions as a team by d iscussing the merits and demerits of the team. In Fuse stage, the result from the earlier decisions gives the team of measuring the decisions. In the initial stage, Person 1 took the decision of going ahead with the good quality suppliers and convinced the team members, since it clicked the team went ahead with that persons decision for the future also. Every time when a decision is taken it is important to discuss as a team by evaluating the results of the decision and have a backup plan if that decision went wrong. During the periods 4, 5, 6 the teams took decisions in a fast, accurate way by learning from the mistakes earlier. It is important to learn from mistakes as a team. Finally, in the decide stage, the team started looking at the future in what has to be done next by reducing the uncertainty, refining the interpersonal skills. In this stage, the team started to work on a consensus basis. Even a single member points are taken seriously and started discussing the merits and demerits with refining the criteria. The team started to work on the alternatives and focus more towards for addressing the next issues. The team weakness in this stage, it is important to document the deliberation so that these failures cannot happen in the future. The key learning from the decision making procedures are decisions are subject to change and have to be reviewed consistently. Consensus approach has to be followed inorder to make a decision which can be based on merit and acceptance. Conflict within the team: Many organisations have changed to project management structures because of their inability to resolve conflicts. In a project life cycle, conflicts are part and parcel of life and can happen at any levels of the organisation. The project manager is often described as a conflict manager (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). Conflicts generally happen because of misunderstanding between team members and have different interpretations of companys objective. Inorder to avoid that, projects have to be defined in a clear way so that it can be understood by all the team members. Some people use SMART criteria for defining the project which says; S- Specific M- Measurable A- Attainable R- Realistic or Relevant T- Tangible or time bound (Kerzner, 2009). Time management is crucial in any project and it is important to manage time by avoiding conflicts. Some conflicts are relevant and provide valuable results. Most common types of conflict involve in the allocations of manpower resources, using the equipments and facilities, expenditure on capitals, cost and technical opinions and trade offs (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). Moreover the seven potential sources of conflicts are shown in the Fig 4. Goal, Plan and Belief conflicts are the three types of conflicts (Jain et al, 2007). If a conflict happens in a project, there are five different ways of resolving the conflicts which are shown in fig 5 which are confrontation, compromise, smoothing, forcing and withdrawal. Evaluation of conflicts: The team initially had conflicts in allocating the man power resources like employing in design, assemblers and testers. The team had a conflict over schedules in attaining the project on time. The team members person 1, 2 and 4 had difference of opinions in schedules and the resolution mode of compromise is used to resolve that issue. Person 1, 3, 4 had conflicts in priorities in choosing the suppliers. Person 1 suggested a supplier part can be taken just before the assembly but the team members took a decision by smoothing mode. In case if anything fails the team need to reorder again this may take time. Inorder for the project manager to be effective an understanding of how to work with various employees who must interface with the project is necessary (Kerzner, 2001, 2009). The various members in the team include upper management, functional managers etc and it is important to understand the sub ordinate and functional conflicts. The relationship between conflict causes and sourc es is shown in the figure 6. The teams strength is that none of the members in the team had personality conflict which is very important for project success. When deciding the manufacturing sub contractor person 1 suggested for a reliable sub contractor, but all the other members in the team are cost conscious in which person 1 and other members had a conflict over cost. The teams choice of choosing a good quality supplier had a conflict with other members which is a functional conflict provides good benefits for the team in terms of quality, time and cost. During the period 3, 4 the team members had a conflict of allocating the inspectors which is the conflict over schedule and had a good result during the period. But during the period 5, the team had a conflict on schedule in resource allocation of assemblers but not with the inspectors. All the five resolution modes of conflicts are used for resolving conflicts in almost all the stages. The team weaknesses include conflicts have to happen and has to be resolv ed systematically. But as a team, conflicts at the initial stages of the project give good results and when it comes to final stages conflicts started coming down. The figure 7 shows the conflict intensity in the team during the project life cycle. The key learnings from the project management exercise are that time management is important and the conflicts have to be resolved within the time. Team members have to understand the sub ordinate and their opinions and have to be evaluated inorder to get a good result in the project. It is important to have a plan for resolving conflicts in the planning phase itself. Constant communication of the project objectives to the team members will help in minimising or even eliminating the conflicts. Sometimes direct contact with people will reduce the conflicts. In project management hierarchical issues are to be resolved and there shall not be any domination from the project manager or the functional mangers. Companywide policies can be adapted for resolving the conflict issues for smooth functioning of the project. Role clarities have to be clear which will reduce the conflicts. Team Leadership: Team leadership is one of the main aspects in the project success. In any projects, leadership becomes a problem because project management involves group of people who are frequently in interaction for a specific project. The following tasks are required for a leader to achieve the tasks; Tasks are defined and shall be achieved Team shall be build and can be properly co-ordinated Leader shall satisfy individual team members Task needs It is important for the leader to clearly define the objectives of the project and leadership shall aim at achieving these goals. Team needs The element of leadership shall hold the team together inorder to produce efficient results for the project. If the team have conflicts, then it is the leader who has to convince the team members effectively. Individual needs The performance and contributions of the project by every member of the team have to be understood by the leader and sometimes can reward for good work (Reiss, 1995). From the moment the leadership is taken it is important for the leader to ensure that the project is heading in correct direction (Heerkens, 2002). The biggest problem that a leader is facing in the project management is that managing the anxieties which were developed by the team members. Sometimes if it is not evaluated may lead to slow down the project and work output. The anticipation by the leaders when questioned by the team members are: Whats in it for me? What will be expected out of me? What will life on your team like? (Heerkens, 2002) Evaluation of team leadership: In the project management exercise, the team leadership was with no one and totally a team effort. But it is always important to have a leader for the team for the above reasons stated. Sometimes Person 1 took the leadership in choosing the suppliers, sub contractors, person 2 took the leadership in periods 4, 5 of the project. Person 4 took the leadership in the periods 6, 7 and person 3 during the period 2 of the project. The teams strength is that everybody in the team understands the leadership attitudes which are important for project success. The anxieties by the team members can be reduced by having conversations within the team. The team members frequently had meeting openly for achieving the following: Project objectives were reviewed (the true need for the project) and the justifications were explained as a team (benefits). Project planning and its proposal were reviewed (the solution) and the team leader took a decision for the preferred approach. Initially the team faced problems of leadership and all members expressed their views and constraints. Roles and responsibilities are not clarified clearly by functional categorisation which leads to some problems within the team. This is considered as one of the teams weaknesses. It is important to honestly characterise the style of leadership (free, open, trusting, reacting to situations) The leader has to explain the expectations that are required from the team members regarding the delivery by frequent conducting of meetings. Communication plays a major role in leadership and the leader has to explain the behaviour style. (Adopted from Heerkens, 2002 Modified for Project Management exercise). The team initially went ahead with no leader and later person characterised by Belbin as CO started taking leadership which was helpful for the team. The team had good mutual relationships with other members and used visual charts when sketching the plan, reviewing the plan. Professional ethics are maintained throughout the project which is the biggest advantage for the project success. Celebration of project milestones and its success are very important to improve the morale of the members is considered to be one of the team weaknesses. Any team before starting the project must have a leader and it is the leader who assigns the roles and responsibilities of the team members clearly. One of the main leadership qualities is the flexibility in their approach, style in adapting to the situations, communications with the team members. It is not always necessary that leader should have technical skills, but a little amount of knowledge in the particular field is sufficient for managing the project. Conclusion: Organisational behaviour is very important for project management and using Belbin profiles in dividing the organisation is helpful in achieving the objectives. Team work is important for the project to succeed and lies on every individual of the team. It is important for the leader to motivate the members and constantly encourage them for the effective functioning of project teams. Belbin team life cycle shows that evolution of teams and tells the effective functioning of teams. The decision making procedures are important for projects success and has to be reviewed consistently. Project planning is considered to be the important phase in project management and plan gives only the direction. It is important for the team to learn from mistakes. Introduction TVS Motors is the third largest two wheeler manufacturers in India and one among the top ten in the world with annual turnover of more than USD 1 billion 2008-2009 and is the flagship company of the USD 4 billion TVS group. The company has four plants located in Hosur and Mysore in South India, Himachel Pradesh in North India and one in Indonesia. The company has a production capacity of 2.5 million units per year. TVS strength lies in the design and development of new products. TVS delivers total customer satisfaction by anticipating customer needs and presenting quality vehicles at the right time and right price. The customer and his ever changing need is our continuous source of imspiration.TVS always stood for innovative, easy to handle, environment friendly products, backed by reliable customer service. TVS manufactures a wide range of products as shown below. Motorcycles Apache RTR, Flame DS 125, Flame, Jive, Star City, Sport Variomatic Scooters Wego, Scooty Streak, Pep+, Teenz Mopeds TVS XL Super, TVS XL Heavy Duty Step thrus TVS Neo, Rockz (TVS Motors, 2010). The main objective of this essay is to evaluate the project management of a sub system (Fit and Finish Engineering section part of RD) in the TVS Motors and suggesting improvement points for betterment of the project management. Organisation Structure Any organisation exists to achieve the objectives by maintaining good relationships with its customers and its employees. The main objective of organisation is profitability. TVS Motor Company Mission Statement We are committed to being a highly profitable, socially responsible, and leading manufacturer of high value for money, environment friendly, life time personal transportation products under the brand, for customers predominantly in Asian markets and to provide fulfilment and prosperity for employees, de