UNDERSTANDING SELF AND

ITS RELEVANCE FOR SELF MANAGEMENT- CORPORATE

PERSPECTIVES
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Why this topic- Discussion Mode
• Self understanding- scientific vs non scientific discipline
• Internalization of self and its ramification for both self and any
corporate
• Individual responsibility of Self Management
• Organization responsibility of Self Management
• Society and self management
• Feedback from participants to include any other dimension
 Back Ground Setting
• Some critical questions to start with:
• Clear perspectives on concept of self( either divine or scientific)
• What is social Dynamics
• Gender sensitivity aspects & issues and its impacts on self development
• Awareness level of External Environments( political. Social, legal, economics, technical etc)
• Some accepted level of understanding of Management practices
• Some basic knowledge of economics
• General awareness in general about social happing’s
• What is Development & Growth and for whom the development( The essence)
• Evolution of modern organization, both manufacturing & service sectors
 CONCEPT – DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES

• There are in general three board perspectives which are available to

mankind to understand the different aspects of SELF

• (a) – Religious understanding

• (b)- Philosophical perspectives
• (c) - Scientific Understanding
 RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES
• Religion:
• "Religion is a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people
struggled/ still struggling( deliberate) to understand the immediate and deeper realities of
mankind’s interaction with nature.
It has mainly three very important dimensions, known as
• (1) Theological dimension
• (2) specific practices reflected in the form of Rituals, Prayers, Meditations visiting temples or scared
places- Vaisho Devi, Varanasi etc
• (3) Letter on it also adopted or internalize behaviors that towards fellow human beings through an
institutions called SOCIETY, instrumental and facilitated collective leavings
• It also has its own evolution and many religions have vanished and its place organized religions
evolved with well defined set of assumptions to explain the mysteries of nature and our relations
with nature within human society.
• Many existing religions have also assumed different roles in due course of time because of change in
 Religion and Self Concept
• We will lay more emphasis on Indian aspect of Self as per Indian Religious traditions:
• There are some basic assumptions of Indian Religious thoughts irrespective of their nos. These are:
• (1) There are supernatural powers who controls our Destiney and human being will never be able to
understand it fully, called GOD( BHAGWAN)
• (2) Our fate is already predetermined by God and everything that happens in our life are actually
controlled by him only.
• (3) Superstations and dogmatism were/are hall mark of all the religions and there was no questioning
of these assumptions
• (4) Re- Birth was very common to all Indian religions
• (5) This body is mortal and soul is immortal, can only attend immortality through only certain specific
practices of some rituals under the supervision of some experts called PUROHITS
• (6) Time is cyclical and not leaner
• And couple of more such trivial postulates are there in HINDU Traditions
 Continued
• so now what are the possible underpinnings towards self
• (a) Helpless creatures , cannot do any things
• (b) Only way to get rid from earthly sufferings is to bent before the GOD/GODS/ Almighty and please him
as per the prescribed norms laid down in our holy books called Vedas to begin with and letter on other
scared books kept on adding- Geeta, Ram Charita Manas, Bhakti paths etc
• Subordination before GURUS unconditionally
• Strong believe in Karma theory and present sufferings are because of past karmas
• Rebirth and many other dogmatic postulates to explain the ambiguities
• Going to places of worships to please unknown super-natural powers to get rid of problems .
• Conclusion: Religion serves to mystify the real relations between men and inanimate objects.(Nature) and
creates a manpower with poor self Confidence and hence its consequences are visible very much in every
domain of human endeavors in Indian society.
 PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING
• Philosophical Characteristic of Any Enquiry:
• Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions, such as those about reason, existence,
knowledge, values, mind, and language more intensely. Such questions are often posed as
problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras.
• It is logical and having some rationale behind any fundamental postulate
• Based on deep thought and dialogue with Co - Fellows
• There is a tendency of generalization with practically universal application
• In Indian context, there are many over lapping of boundaries between religion and
philosophy and accordingly there is no need of any over simplifications
• Degree of objectivity is relatively much higher compare to religion
• Not all philosophies do involve the rational exploration of truth, which would better be
described as a philosophical approach.
• Philosophical enquiry offers a methodology that is not dogmatic may &may not be based
on empirical evidences( based on institution)
 Philosophy and Self
• There are broadly two categories of school of thought in Indian Traditions
• (a) Astika & (b) Nastika
• The main predominant school of thoughts are:
The nine schools, usually listed in order, are the Cārvāka (of Lokāyata), Jaina, Bauddha,
Nyāya, Vaiśeika, Sānkhya, Yoga, Mīmāsā, and Vedānta.
General Remarks:
Atma is a property of this body and it is called by various names and most common
name is consciousness
Atma and jive Atma are different and the prime task of the Atma is to get rid from the
cycle of birth and death and attain Moksha. Reunification with Param- Atma( GOD/
ALMIGHTY). It is non physical, formless, without cause, eternal , infinite etc
Param- Atma is supreme, we failed to understand it because of attachment with
desire
Continued
• Common to all school of thoughts very in theirs understanding of self but they all accepts
the presence of Atma, Param- Atma, Give-Atma, God, Moksha, Energy, Prakriti,
Consciousness etc . Combined narratives are:
• (1) Philosophy is a practical necessity
• 2. Initial pessimism but letter on developed practices towards Self Mukhti
• 3. Belief in an eternal moral order
• 4. Ignorance as the root cause of suffering
• 5. Liberation as the ultimate goal of life
• 6. Spiritualistic( spirit is primary and matter is secondary)
•7 Discussion On Epistemological Issues
•8 A vedic system is a system which believes in the authority of the vedas.
• 9 A non – vedic system is a system which does not believe in the authority of the Vedas.
 Underpinning Towards Self
• A review of the study of self in India reveals that indeed the core of Indian self is metaphysical
• It is dominantly rejects the reality of the Parakite as real but it is part of illusion
• Real self is Atma or Paramatma( both non physical in nature)
• Social pursuits will not bring any happiness rather it will bring mor miseries
• Self should try to get rid from these miseries through appropriate practices as told to follow in different
school of thoughts, mostly emphasizes on leaving this physical world through meditation and becomes mind-
less( thoughtless)
• Not much emphasis has been given on any material gain
• The self is both pessimistic as well as optimistic
• It is both confused and motivated as well with little impacts on individuals to pursue these paths as the
history shows u
• Realist and idealist, dualist and monist, theist and atheist, and so on. And every one of the dozen
or so major schools from early in its history takes a position on knowledge and justification, if only,
as with the Buddhist skeptic (Prasaṅgika), to attack the theories of others
 SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES
• It has the many things common to philosophical Approaches but differs in the
following dimensions:
• Science
• Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable
explanations and predictions about the universe & society. Essential features are:
• It based on cause & effects analysis
• It consider Nature as real and exists independently of our consciousness
• It strongly gives emphasis on experimentation and reproduction of any outcome
• Highest form of Objectivity with heavy inclination towards scientific Wisdom based on study of
Nature and society
• No place for any kind of dogmatism
• Utmost importance given to generalization with sound rationality acceptable to all
 Continued
• Top 9 Main Characteristics of Science

• The nine main characteristics of science are as follows: 1. Objectivity

2. Verifiability 3. Ethical Neutrality 4. Systematic Exploration 5.
Reliability 6. Precision 7. Accuracy 8. Abstractness 9. Predictability.
 Science and Self
• It is based on mainly two kinds of streams of scientific knowledge:
• (a) Natural science, (b) Social science
• (a) Natural Science- Biology, zoology, Evolutionary Biology, Bio- Physics, Genetics & Genetic
Psychology, Bio- Chemistry, Medical Science as a whole etc
• (b) Sociology, social Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Marxist Psychology, Pure Psychology,
Evolutionary Psychology, Positive Psychology, Economics etc
• Based on the inputs out of the knowledge from this two main sources, we have almost universal
consensus that :
• (1) One is- Biological Self (2) Social Self
• Biological self is nothing but Heredity). Brief about 23 pairs of chronozones and about sex
chronozones and its relation to physical self( body, colour, sex, height , hair colour, body colour). It s
combined known as Physique
• Social self is the out come of influence of social factors in determining our self and it is deeply rooted
in our social evolution and corresponding social structure.
 SOCIAL SELF- OUR SUBJECT
MATTER
• (1)The Social Self is a multifaceted analysis of the self concept based on the social nature of the
self.
• (2)It is based on the understanding that an organization is a sub- set of the biggest organization
known as Society and hence its dynamics have an important influence to manage self , specially
for the top management of any corporates within the organizational context in question
• (3)The above paragraph automatically generates some most fundamental questions like:
• What is society, its origin and form , what factors predominantly responsible for or should be
considered or understood as having pivot role to play to understand the social dynamics and self
• (4)In its practical dimension how the above factors affects the formation of the following factors:
• (5)Values, attitude, Aptitude, knowledge, ideology etc and their social origin and influence on an
individual both in its unique and collective dimension
 SOCIAL SELF- CONTINUED
• Now based on inputs from all relevant discipline of knowledge. Some generalization have been made about self &
these are:
• (a) Self is a conscious human being and capable of understanding the realities & planning for its own development
and for the collective as well
• (b) Mostly , the well accepted different kinds of self within social context are:
• Transitory Self, Real Self(Basic Self) , Ideal Self and Social Self
• These four kinds have great relevance for our further discussion and accordingly we will pay serious attention to this
aspect only.
• Additionally. There are in general some universal factors, responsible for or contributing towards formation of these
different types:
• Biological( Hereditary),
• Psychological- Attitudes, Values, abilities, Interpersonal Relations, status, Education, Emotions & its awareness, Family,
Economic Well being, Autonomy, desire for attention etc
• There are in fact a kind of dichotomy continuously going on between these four kinds of self and the society as such
and which is very much natural as man is not a passive being only.
 SELF- MANAGEMENT
• What is self management in corporate context? On the basics of societal context
• Self-Management often means different things to different people – and sometimes different
things at different times even to the same people.
• It is managing the self by self and gets effected by other people in an organization WITHIN
SPECIFIC organizational context. These contextual factors are very important and crucial to
develop a robust & meaningful , value added structured program of self management.
• Here it also becomes important to develop an exact understanding of the contemporary
Corporate context
• A corporate is operational in an economic environment which is known as mixed economy in
Indian Context and gradually shifting towards more privatisation with its big challenges for Self
Management .
• Characteristics of a Modern Organization- Discussion mode
 SM- CONTINUED
• Practical Aspects Of Self Management:
• Basic Prerequities
• Basic understanding of individual from a scientific perspectives
• Purpose of formation of an organization ( vision, mission & Objectives)
• Competitive position is very clear vis- vis all other competitors
• Through analysis of maturity- infancy level of the organization
• Basic management philosophy of the promoters
• Regardless of what you call it, the company must have a clearly defined sense of it’s reason for
being and the values on which it won’t compromise.
• A sound conducive culture( trust, autonomy, sound Hr practices, cross functional communication,
role clarities)
 SM- CONTINUED
• A long term view- sound planning dept with strong strategic orientation
• A well articulated BUDGET for the necessary implementation
• Strategic HR role- A very crucial role to play
• A belief in personal ownership and responsibility( self motivated)
• Creating system of proper developmental initiatives( both TM &HR)
• A belief in earned authority over positional authority
• Decision making- centralized vs de- centralized with full transparency
• Conflict Resolution- both legal and voluntary
 Self- Management- continued
• Self- Management – Individual Perspectives:
• Operational Aspects:
• In fact , three important components of Self- Management are:
• Self himself/ herself
• Organizational context
• Societal context
• Clear understanding of self- to keep practically no incongruency between different self kinds as
already discussed
• What role an organization can play in managing self
• To discuss in detail about the role to be played by the society towards SM
 Continued- Self Management
• Operational Aspects:
• Self Management – Individual Responsibility
• (1) Self discipline, (2) Performance management. (3) Self care management, (4) Self learner, (5)
Self quality management

• (6) Self career management, (7) Self finance management

• (8) self development initiatives- All inclusive initiatives by the self,

• (9) Self marketing management, (10) Self family management

 Self Management- Career Management

:Every great man has become great, every successful man has
succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one
particular channel.
—ORISON SWETT MARDEN
 Individual Responsibility
!)Early childhood education and all other necessary exposures are not within the domain of an
individual and accordingly after attain some maturity around 12 to 15 yrs., the individual
efforts play an important role in choosing a profession within the specific socio-economic
conditioning of the person concerned. Here we should consider the Basic Self( Real – Self) and
its properties
• 2) Expert’s advice play an important role at this stage of an individual person( coaching and
mentoring)
• 3) Inherited Intelligence also play an important role here and it cannot be denied. But
environmental factors also play important role here.( family atmosphere, peer group, social
class, macro social factors etc)
• 4) An individual’s immediate atmosphere, specially economic positioning is very imp as it
may restricts/ allow to exposure and hence awareness
 IR- CONTINUED
• It is the basic self( real self) which is the most important aspects of one’s self that needs to be
introspects by an individual. If it is not done properly, then it may lead to perception mismatch w r t
a profession and its professional prospectus and competencies of an individual. It basically nothing
but Career Management in its all facets
• Effective Career Management there fore demands the following essential steps:
• 1) With the help of professional to under go a systematic evaluation of one’s SWOT analysis in
three important areas: knowledge, attitude and skills along with one’s Aptitude(?) as well- psycho
profiling
• 2) The outcome should be analysed accordingly and an effective Career – Planning should be
drawn ( time bound)
3) Making all round efforts to arrange necessary resources to move ahead as per decided courses
of action as indicated above
4) A full- proof review mechanism should be in place for all the above three steps as indicated above
 Continued- Self Management
• Conclusion
Our external environment should be conducive for implementation of any SM initiatives at the org
level ( Culture bottleneck at macro level) & accordingly interface between EV AND ORG should be
very positive
Being part of a self managed organization is probably not for everyone - and there will be plenty
challenges associated with running a self managed organization just in the sense that so few people
have ever worked in one.
From a business perspective there’s a growing mountain of evidence that embracing self
management can drive better business outcomes, From a personal perspective, there’s a spark that
comes from following your intuition and embracing a way of doing things that just feels right.
All possible relevant stake holders interest and desire to work as a team is a paramount
precondition for success of any SM in any given period of time even within an organization
level( Institutional cohesion )
 Organization and Self- Management
(Responsibility Of Top Management)
• Basic Attitude Towards Self( Human Resources):
• Just mere a resource to be exploitered for profit with minimum investment in HR
• In fact entire believes can be categorized into three parts
• Theory X , Theory Y & Theory Z. The Hr will provide the details
• Even more primary and paramount aspects is the core philosophical underpinning about self as a
general cognitive and emotive realization of TOP Management of any corporates
• Three most important level of hierarchy level are :
• Top( MD, CEO ADVISORS,) Hr Chief and team, Functional Heads, CFO and each of these level have
its own role to play while teaching different aspects of Self- Management( Career +)
 Top Management responsibility
• Developing well defined Hr policies with the help of expertise both inside and outside. The policies
should be highly pragmatic and contemporary and based on through understanding of industry
related practices. It may contain some general guide lines as well
•
• Full commitment is a must from Top Management in all the different stages of Career planning as
already indicated including periodic review at the individual level with highly well structured feed-
back mechanism by both MD/ CEO

• Extending all possible help to Hr for developing a sound CP process including proper budget
allocations for all possible developmental efforts( KRA/ KPA processes)

• Outside professional help is advisable to bring more objectivity in the entire chain of CP and
monitoring
 TM- RESPONSIBILITY- CONTINUED
• A research survey indicates an important insight of the following factors to
be considered by TM:

• Leadership- 28%
Development- 52%
Manager 12%
• Pay 11%
• One part of TM’S role is to maximize the alignment between company goals
and the employee's professional goals: the spirit being "help transform the
company and I'll help transform your career,"
 TM- RESPONSIBILITY- CONTINUED
• Some general consideration:
• 1) Blaming each other( Employer vs Management) should be avoided as it create an environment of
mistrust with its disastrous consequences, resulting all form of inertia including loss of Talent
• (According to survey conducted by University of Phoenix (Quast 2014), there is a disagreement
between employers and employees about whose responsibility is for the career development. Around
70% of workers believe that the employer should provide professional training, career-advancement
mentoring and identify job opportunities, whereas about 80% of managers claim that the employee
should take the responsibility for updating, improving or building their career-planning skills.)
• 2) It is a two way responsibility and both have the equal responsibility to play
• 3) Strategic talent management is the need of the hour and it is more inclined TM
• 4) Try to be role model as it is the single most important instrument to create a psychological Contract
, a basic necessity to facilitate dialogue between TM and an employee and to bring excellent outcome
• 5)Effective time- management is a pro-quo- non for all the process as indicated above
• 6)Active participation in all possible efforts towards HRD initiatives including T & D predominantly
 IR- CONTINUED
• All the above steps demands assistance from professional experts and not going
to any so – called Babas or any inclination towards any non- scientific methods
• Another important dimension of self responsibility of self Management( Career)
is Career Survival. It simply means to look into or review from a competitive and
continuity perspectives on a continuous basics abouts one’s
profession( performance)
• And finally one needs to understand very – very seriously about the balance
between professional vs personal life with clear boundaries between them and
how important are they for an individual ( varies from person to person) . Experts
can help but it is the individual concerned, finally has to managed work- life
balance. Wife’s role becomes very critical here
 TM RESPONSIBILITY- CONTINUED
• Effective communication on continuous basics with the employees
with no sign of any kind of arrogance
• Eight full proof strategies for effective Career Planning:
• It is for all the three stake holders of any organization( Individual employee, TM/ MANAGERS, HR
DEPT) These are:
• 1. Become a life-long learner
• 2) Think globally
• 3) Put energy into your online brand ( personal branding)
• 4) Keep a “Success Journal”
• 5) Build your professional network
• 6) Understand the future of the industry you work in
• 7) Be flexible and open to new opportunities
• 8) Understanding a time of point of no return( Amicable separation)
 ROLE OF HR
• The Hr head and its team has very crucial role to play for any organization in general
and specific as well. Some the major role to be played are as follows:
• For the entire employment life cycle of an employee, the HR plays a crucial role
staring from selection till separation
• At each stage , it has a different activities to be performed along with other seniors
functional people
• It should provide all possible tools and resources at all levels all the time to all the
employees for facilitating the CP process
• One of the biggest role of Hr is to act like a MOTHER ( caring, sharing and empathy)
• As an timely information provider , having very important role to make aware of the
things are changing in the profession under concerned specially the legal and policy
level changes including technical aspects ass well but to lesser extent
 ROLE- HR- CONTINUED
• A robust plan of CD for each and every possible jobs within an organization with joint consultation
with all other relevant depts head including MD/CEO

• Be instrumental in forming a strategic committee to look after all aspects of a sound CD/ CP
process all pervasive with clear role and responsibilities of each and every member of this
committee.

• Be instrumental in removing all cultures bottle necks if any during the strategy formulation and
implementation courses along with talking all possible proactive measures to even create an
atmosphere of positive culture

• Acts like a role model

• Role of a Brand Ambassador for the out side stake holders- a very imp role to executed smartly
with PR HEAD and if not there then by the head himself/ herself
• Taking all measures to map out in tangible impacts of all investments related to all kinds of HRD
initiatives including specially- TRG, DEVELOPMENT and SM)
 Some Others Imp Dimensions
• The role being played by the GOVT
• the role being played by the industry association under concerned
• Effect on org hierarchy while adopting SM practices
• Effect on Autonomy all pervasive
• Effect on org structure as SM practices creates flat structure
• Effect on organization decision making process
• Effect on TM’S attitude and cultural paradigm shift
• Effect on over all shift of management styles as SM demands so
• SM and org productivity
• SM and competitive advantage
• SM and motivation all pervasive
• SM and communication effectiveness
Other dimensions- SM
• Family Life
• Social non professional life- Peer Gr and other friend circles
• Societal functionality( class)