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Before we begin defining motivation and study its need in Management, lets look at an overview of the contents of the post:

Overview of Motivation And Management

What is Motivation?

What is motivation?

Management game plan

The most important thing is to identify what motivates a person-what makes them “tick”. Management Theories help us do just that. Each motivational theory describes what humans are, and what humans can become. Each theory, is thus, a particular view about people and what motivates them, from a particular perspective.

Hence, Each Theory enables managers to fill in the following statement in one way or another:

“A person is motivated when he or she ___”

The theories can be categorized as:

A) Need Theory

Need theory

1) Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

According to Maslow, individuals will be motivated to fulfill whichever need is the most important for them at a given time. In Maslow’s Hierarchy, if a lower need is satisfied, the next higher one becomes dominant. The higher the level, the greater is the motivation provided.

Maslow's Hierarchy

However, the following arguments were made against Maslow's Hierarchy:

• It is argued that human needs are not, and cannot be ordered.
• They are non-hierarchical, universal & invariant in nature.

2) Alderfer’s ERG Theory

ERG Theory

Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement components

Goal setting theory

I came across this post on Facebook and found it really interesting. Try it out yourself and see what it does:

1. Stare at the red dot on the nose for 30 seconds
2. Turn your eyes towards the wall/roof or somewhere else on a plain surface.
3. Keep blinking your eyes quickly and continuously.
(After blinking about 3-4 times, close one eye and you will see the image moving across the wall.)

Most people tend to believe that there is something magical about this particular image. So I made the trick again with my own image:

How It Works

It seems tricky at first but its really a pretty simple concept. First, lets see what this image is made of. It is a negative image with 3 dots - Red, Green & Blue located at the center(approximately) of the face. As we know, RGB are the 3 primary colors which can be used to create all other colors. But what exactly is a negative image? It is just a total inversion of the original image. While using image editing software, you may have noticed the option "Invert Colors" which does the same thing as "Convert image to negative".

When we invert colors, we are referring to an inversion in which light areas appear dark and the dark appears light. This inversion is called a negative image. Further, a colored negative image is color reversed i.e. each color is replaced by its complimentary color in the color model - red is replaced with cyan, green with magenta & blue with yellow.

So, when we look at the negative image, we are looking at the complimentary colors of the original image. Also, if we invert an inverted image i.e. take the negative of a negative image - or compliment the colors of a negative image - we get back the positive/original image. That is exactly what we do in the above trick. The only difference is we use a certain property of our brain instead of a software.

The compliment of the compliment gives us back the original image

When we stare at the red dot, the photo-receptors corresponding to red color in the retina are exhausted, lessening their ability to send the information to the brain. When we look at the wall or roof, the red portions of light incident upon the eye are not transmitted as efficiently and we instead get the illusion of viewing the complementary color of red. (which is really the color in the original image).

Adding Green & Blue dots on the image make the brain compliment all the colors of the image and thus form the positive image on a plain surface. And hence, you get the original image formed on the wall!

(by ~tumb)

Steve Jobs 1955-2011. RIP. Will always remember him, his work & his words..

"I want to put a ding in the universe."

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

"It's more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy."

"I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates."

"We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them."

"I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me."

"The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!"

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?"

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

[Click to View/Download]
 

#Technical Aptitude

• C Programming
• C++ Programming
• Data Structures

#General Aptitude

• Puzzles to Puzzle you - Shakuntala Devi
• More Puzzles to puzzle you - Shakuntala Devi
• Quantitative Aptitude - R.S Agarwal
• Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning - R.S Agarwal

#HR Interview

• How to Answer The 64 Toughest Interview Questions
• 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions

Japan Earthquake 2011 - Find missing people or add information about people using Google's Person Finder tool. If you're looking for someone, use the tool to search for people in the available records. Or if you have information about someone, help others find it by creating a record.

You can visit http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/ or access the tool directly from this page. The application is created by Google.

Another application that might be useful is the Red Cross Society's Safe and Well where you can search for missing people or list yourself as safe. Visit https://safeandwell-mobile.communityos.org/cms/

To contact the state department - JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov for citizens in Japan and 1-202-501-4444 for citizens overseas.

Other helplines - (+81) 411-0011, 411-0012, 415-2272, 0929-4447372 and 0927-6760652.
The Foreign Office - 020 7008 0000, From UK(FCO helpline) - 020 7008 0000

This post provides the basic foundations of management.

Engineers learn to build, Scientists build to learn & Managers make sure they do it the right way.

And the only reason this is here-on this blog is because many people move to managerial positions & whatever you're doing in life, whatever you've done - is essentially just management. This post answers the fundamental questions of management that help developing a foundation for higher management studies.

What is an Organization?

We start with a the organization. An organization is a set of people, people who work together to achieve some purpose. And these people work in a certain organizational structure. So, an organization has 3 essential components - Purpose, People & Structure.

Organizations usually use a mission statement to define their purpose. The people in the organization may be operatives - individuals who work under the supervision of others(the managers). So managers direct the activities of operatives.

What is Management?

Management is then, the process of directing operatives to achieve the organization's purpose effectively & efficiently. Efficiency is doing the tasks right & Effectiveness is doing the right tasks.

What is the management process?

Essentially, there are 4 processes involved in management -
Planning(define goals & strategy), Organizing(define tasks/who does what), Leading or Directing(motive employees/resolve conflicts) & Controlling(monitor performance/compare with goals/correct deviations)

What roles does a manager play?

Now, all of us have heard of entrepreneurs, spokespersons, monitors, liaisons, and so on. These are all different roles played by managers. Henry Mintzberg classified 10 managerial roles as -

Interpersonal (figurehead, leader, liaison), Informational (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson) & Decisional(entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator) Roles.

(Steve Jobs - The most admired entrepreneur amongst teenagers | Image By matt buchanan [CC-BY-2.0])

What skills must a manager have?

There are also a certain set of skills that a manager must have - the ability to understand, work with & motivate others (Interpersonal), to coordinate the organization's activities (Conceptual), to use tools & techniques of the field (Technical) & to build the right connections (Political).

What is Organizational Culture?

Just like sects, religious groups & tribes, the organization has certain rituals, traditions, languages, material symbols, etc that compose its culture. The culture determine, to a large degree, how the employees act. It is set up by the founders of the organization and the experiences of the first employees. A strong organizational culture overrides the structure(formal guidelines) of the organization.

'Formal' refers to anything which is written down/anything on paper while informal is not written down but is a result of common understanding/shared meaning.

What is Planning? What are the types of plans?

Planning involves defining goals, establishing a strategy to achieve these goals. Plans can be classified based on -

Breadth Of Use - Strategic (organization-wide; establish overall objectives) Vs Tactical (specific details on how to achieve these objectives)

Time Frame - Long Term (> one year) Vs Short Term (< one year)

Specificity - Directional (flexible ; only general guidelines) Vs Specific (clearly defined objectives ; no room for misinterpretation)

Frequency Of Use - Single Use (for a particular situation) Vs Standing (for repeatedly performed actions)

What is Controlling? What are the types of control?

In the management process, planning & control and complimentary components. Planning defines goals & Control checks if goals have been attained. Control itself involves 3 processes -

MEASURE - the actual performance is measured using personal observation(MBWA - management by walking around), statistical, written & oral reports.

COMPARE - this measured performance is then compared to a set standard. if variation is greater than a predefined accepted range of variation, it has to be corrected.

CORRECT - any deviations observed by comparing are then corrected. Corrective Action can be Immediate (to get performance back on track immediately) or Basic(correct the source of deviation to prevent further errors)

Also, There are 3 types/approaches of control -

Feedforward Control -  Anticipates problems to correct them, Concurrent Control - Correct errors as they occur & Feedback Control - correct errors after they occur.

Managers have to deal with people. They must know how people think, what makes them happy & how they see the world in order to understand them & direct their work & behavior.

How managers predict an individuals personality?

Personality traits of a person can help managers predict their work-related behavior. Models used to predict personality are-

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - classifies people into 16 personality types; determined by their answers to a set of 100 questions. [You can find your type at - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp]

The Big 5 Model - Classifies personalities into 5 major categories based on - Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability & Openness to Experience.

Personalities can then be matched to suitable jobs using Holland's Topology. [You can take the Holland's test at - http://www.soicc.state.nc.us/SOICC/planning/c1a.htm or http://www.roguecc.edu/counseling/hollandcodes/test.asp]

How do managers predict an individual's perspective?

People do not see the reality(not yours, but theirs) - but a perception - their own image of the reality.
To judge a person's perspective, we use -

The Attribution Theory - Judge people depending on their behavior & decide if the behavior is caused internally or externally. However, a fundamental attribution error exists - people believe that their own success is caused by internal factors while their failures are caused by external factors.

How do managers affect people's learning?

Any change in the behavior of an individual is a consequence of what they have learned. When managers know how people learn, they can decide what they learn, and thus change their work-related behavior.

Managers provide positive and negative reinforcements to make people repeat or not repeat certain kinds of behavior.

5. This is an animated version in Jim Carey's voice.

4. Another Animation, this time in Tom(the cat's) voice.

3. This one's different, and real.

2. This is the first time Jim says it in When Nature Calls.

1. You know this one.

July 2010-India got its currency symbol. To decide and design the symbol, a contest was held by the Indian Government. The contest was announced on 5th March, 2009 and the symbol was finalized out of about 3000 proposed symbols on 15th July, 2010.

The symbol is given by an IITian D Udaya Kumar. It comes from the Devanagari 'र' and Roman 'R'. As per the contest guidelines, the symbol depicts the cultural heritage of India and includes a national script.

The Tidle/Grave Accent Key

A font with the Rupee symbol is available for download at Foradian. There is also another version of the same that includes all letters. Once you download the font, you can type it using the grave accent(`) symbol-the one just left of the #1 key.

Previously, Rs or Re was used to denote the Indian currency. A modification of Rs was used as a former symbol(can be found at Xe.com)

Alright.. I'm not going to list all the advantages of cannabis here, nor am i going to debate and try to convince to get it legalized. I will just tell you how to get it!

Bhang is the most commonly used form of cannabis in India followed by Charas & Ganja. To know more about it & how good it is for you, you might want to check out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhang

It's easy to get bhang in India. Some cities do have government authorized shops, others have the pan shops! Just go to any panwala and ask for "bhola" or "bhola munakka". It is a ayurvedic medicine that costs you Re 1 & has 25% pure cannabis in the form of Bhang. There you go, take about 2-3 packs and get high for a day. Do not mix it with water or milk as the packet shall read! But listen to your blogger friend & eat the shit as it is.

It starts working in about 15 minutes. And then you do whatever you are doing forever, until some external force will strike down upon thee and change your course. If you're laughing, you'll keep laughing; if your eating, you'll keep eating. It is usually a great idea to meditate or pray after taking Bhang(Seriously works).

There are numerous websites selling stupid equipment, drugs, & weight loss plans to "help" people loose the extra pounds. But do they really work? And if they do, are they good for your health? Well, depending upon your body & requirements, one of these plans may work out for you, but you should not ignore its side effects & long time effects.

The only real & natural way to lose weight is to take in less calories than you are currently taking. The amount of calories you need to cut down depends upon the amount of weight you want to loose. Just think of the calorie not only as a unit of food but also a unit of your weight.(though not all calories in a food product come from fat)

So here's how you do it-

Step 1-Calculate your BMI and see where you stand.

Step 2-Find out your daily calorie requirements if you want to reduce your weight from X to Y. You can do that here-Calorie Calculator

Step 3-Check your diet. Take in only your daily requirements as calculated above. Not less, not more.
To do this-Keep a list, write down the calorie intake after each meal.

Once you lose 7500 calories(over whatever time-1 week, preferably)-you loose 1 kg.
(1 kg=7500 calories). To make things easy, stop taking oil & sugar.

You can use caloriecount.about.com to find out what amount of calories each food product has. And remember, there is no shortcut to losing weight. All those 1 day fat loss programs are bullshit.