Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

Can rural development focus on people? Can village communities identify and develop their own opportunities and resources as part of planned interventions for development?

Yes was the answer with which an experiment was started in 1975. Initiated by the late Professor Ravi J Matthai, the experiment has now lasted over a decade and offers us many lessons.

Professor Ranjit Gupta, who has been involved in this experiment, narrates it, describes the role the experimenters played, and stresses the self-sustaining nature of the enthusiasm for action that the experiment generated. The insights gained from the experiment may have significant implications for how rural development activities should be mounted.

Managing working capital effectively requires an understanding of the processes underlying the cash cycle.

Managers project and evaluate working capital needs using three different approaches — industry norms, economic model, and strategic choice.

Professor Sampat Singh illustrates the processes underlying working capital flow and discusses the problems in each of the three approaches to managing working capital. Some companies have shifted to using the strategic choice approach to gain competitive advantage.

Who, in the organization, buys the computer system? How are various departments involved in the organizational decision process?

T V Seshadri and N Kinra analyse the decision processes of 30 organizations that had bought a computer system—mini, mainframe, or macro.

Based on a questionnaire study and factor analysis, the authors conclude that the EDP department and Board of Directors are critical in the buying grids of the purchasing organizations. They draw implications of their findings for managers marketing computer systems.

Rashtriya Seva Samsthan is a public sector organization that sets up a new administrative office with a data processing cell.

A specially chosen young executive to head the data processing cell runs into problems in implementing the planning and monitoring system within the Samsthan's organizational climate and processes. He is transferred out of that location in response to the frictions that develop. Frustrated, the young officer quits.

This case, contributed by Karan Gianni, Goa, raises interesting issues on how organizational changes should be planned for absorption into and for desired influences on the rest of the organizational processes and behaviour. The case also raises questions on the role of the head office, choice of personnel, provision of the support needed by those implementing the changes.

Vjkalpa hopes that large organizations in the public and private sectors planning the introduction of changes involving data processing will benefit from an analysis of this case.

In the July-September 1987 issue of Vikalpa, Dr Benjamin Pulimood, Director, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, discussed the relevance of management training for hospital administrators. Based on his. experience at CMC&H and the few months he spent at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Dr Pulimood identified the areas that hospital administrators may find useful.

In agreeing with Dr Pulimood, Dr Sara Varghese presents some important differences between a private institution such as CMC&H and a government medical college and hospital and draws implications for training administrators of government hospitals.

A difficult exercise, forecasting is key to effective management. Models using time series data are frequently used for forecasting likely values of important variables such as supply and demand.

The regression method is the most common, although it involves many critical assumptions that are difficult to satisfy in practice. Efforts to reduce the severity of the assumptions and improve our ability to manipulate data have led to generalized regression and the Box-Jenkins Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models.

Nanda tests the forecasts from two models in each method, using data on monthly milk procurement by Amul Dairy from January 1965 to December 1975. The regression method produced better forecasts than the Box-Jenkins method.

Do Indian organizations use fear of punishment rather than rewarding achievement of extraordinary results, initiative, and enterprise?

Have they so routinized employee rewards that they do not use this important instrument for influencing organizational behaviour and processes? Does this organizational choice of the bases of power emanate from our societal value system?

Based on a questionnaire study of 250 employees of a large electronic equipment manufacturing public undertaking, Professors R P Singh and Janak Pandey raise these questions for our examination.

In his article, “Executive Stress: Should it Always be Avoided?“ (Vikalpa, January- March 1987), D M Pestonjee argued that both too little and too much stress should be avoided. Some amount of stress, he felt, was necessary for success.

Abstracts of management research in India are intended to facilitate research in management. The Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, sponsors the abstracting service.

Vikalpa would very much appreciate if the authors send a reprint of their articles in management and related disciplines to the Vikalpa office. Their inclusion will help render the referencing service complete.

The areas of management covered in the abstracts are: Financial Management. Management Accounting, and Control; Marketing; Organizationand Administration; Personnel Management and Industrial Relations; Production Management, Computers, and Operations Research; General Management: Environment, Policy, and Planning; and Policy, Planning, and Development.