E Bulletin MTC Knowledge in Practice Vol 2, Issue 4

8/6/2019 E Bulletin MTC Knowledge in Practice Vol 2, Issue 4

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M T C Gl o b a l

KNOWLEDGE IN PRACTICE

Volum e 1, Issue 1

I ssue- 4 (Apr J un 2011)E- bullet in: Volume- 2

Message from the Chief Editor

I take immense pleasure to release the fourth issue of our e-bulletin. ThePrevious three issue of e-bulletin were great success and earned lot of accolades across different walks of

life. It was very well received by all esteemed team members of MTC Global.

I sincerely acknowledge the support, encouragement and motivation extended by all the esteem members ofthe team who contributed towards the growth of the consortium.

I am really grateful for the contribution made by all our team members. The restriction of page numbers

limited inclusion of all the articles. The articles submitted would definitely be placed in our subsequent issues.

Happy Knowledge Sharing.

Prof. Bholanath DuttaChief Editor: MTC Global- Knowledge in Practice

Founder & Convener: Management Teachers Consortium, GlobalCell: +91 96323 18178

Homepage: www.mtcglobal.orgP u t y o u r h e a r t , m in d , in t e lle ct a n d s o u l e v e n t o y o u r

Sm al le s t ac t s . Th i s i s t he secre t o f su ccess .

~ S w a m i S iv a n a n d a

BREAKING NEWS

Hon. Minister for Public Works Department,School Education, Endowment, Culture,Legislative Affairs and TourismDepartments, Chhattisgarh, Shri Brijmohan

Agarwal has joined MTC Global as its first

Patron.

MTC Global Fir st Annual

Convention Sankalp-

2011 at Hyderabad on

27-28 Aug 2011

MTC Global Completes one year

of its successful existence on29.06.2011. Thanks and Hearty

Congratulations to all esteemed

MTCians.


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Communication and Cognitive Dissonance

ByDr. Hardeep Anant

Business Lecturer, KHDA-NIVE, Govt. of Dubai

Cognitive Dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling

experienced by individuals when two conflictingideas (or beliefs) are held simultaneously

(Festinger, L. 1957). Dissonance is experiencednot only when two opposing beliefs coexist, but

also when one's behavior contradicts one's beliefs(Robbins S. P. 1998). For example, when someone

who believes that lying is wrong tells a lie, then,

they are likely to experience cognitive dissonance;because, their belief does not accord withtheir behaviour.

Cognitive dissonance poses a challenge to

communication, especially when communicatingfor triggering change, because whenever people

are exposed to new ideas (especially ones thatquestion their existing beliefs), they are likely to

experience cognitive dissonance. Therefore,any communication, training or

intervention designed to cause or facilitate changefaces the challenge of effectively managing the

cognitive dissonance experienced by the recipients.

If not skillfully done the message might lead toresentment and, in most cases, rejection of the new

ideas. This is because our beliefs are linked withour attitudes and values, which, for most of us, are

not easy to change.

A lot of research has been conducted that tries toexplain how people come to terms with the

phenomenal psychological discomfort caused bycognitive dissonance. Research indicates that even

in the light of overwhelming evidence indicatingthat a previously held belief is incorrect, people

generally tend to hold on to that belief. But, to ableto continue their lives normally, they

need to tackle the dissonance caused by the new

evidence that challenges the existing belief. This theymight do by misinterpreting or reinterpreting the

information to minimize dissonance (Gordon, G.2005). The following are some common strategies

that people tend to use:

Denial: People may question the new information,its source, or correctness; and reject it.

Rationalization: People may find valid reasons fortheir existing invalid beliefs (Reasons like: "We may

be wrong but so is everybody else, so why must webe the ones to change our ways?" -- pointing out their

valid concerns regarding the inequities that will resultif they are to accept the change, and using this valid

concern as a reason to stick with the earlier belief).Sometimes, the reasons may be little more than

excuses. Escalation of commitment: Angry that their beliefs

are challenged, people may perceive it as aconspiracy against them, and invest more heavily in

preserving their earlier ways. This is likely to happenwhen the existing beliefs are linked with people's

individual, social, religious or ethnic identities.

This is why, while designing and delivering any kindof training to employees, or students, we must play

close attention to who they think they are; and, becreative in devising and using communication

strategies that will minimize dissonance andeffectively manage it to achieve the desired

outcomes.

References:

Gordon, G. (2005). Communication, Encyclopedia

Britannica [CDROM]

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of CognitiveDissonance. Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press.

Ribbins, S. P. (1998). Organizational Behavior.

Prentice Hall, New Delhi.


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Mobile Banking for Inclusive Growth by Micro

Financing InstitutionsBy

Dr. SN Ghosal

There is no doubt that the most popular mandate in

developing countries is to outreach poor bycreating employment opportunities and providing

financial support to the poor through stateinterventions. Obviously such intermediation often

fail to reach the poor as these intermediaries floated

by the state are loaded with bureaucrats and

politicians who are more prone to exploit the poorand ignorant rather than to outreach the bottom of

the pyramid and or to hold their hands in running

their farms or firms and to provide succor toovercome calamities they often encounter. Indeed it

is widely held view that rural micro- entrepreneurs

are not capable to organize themselves to conceive,run and bear risk of any sustainable economic

enterprises and therefore they need support and

hand holding by the state government and or

economic institutions promoted and run by the stateand people (PPP). No wonder that state policies

and programs for alleviation of poverty are all

routed through state political and economicinstitutions.

FAILED INTERMEDIATIONIt is an irony that in practice it has been observed

that such intermediation has failed to outreachbottom of the pyramid as because these institutions

are found in practice keener to fill their pocketsrather than provide succor and support to the poor.

Saibal and Parhasib and Benjamin and Piperek in

their research studies (1990 & 1997) have broughtout very vividly that the traditional approach of

funding the bottom of the pyramid only through

state intervention as has been

generally practiced due to perhaps the influence of

Keyness theory of state intervention to prop up theeconomy need not only revisiting but also

rewriting. In fact doles and subsidies provided by

the state not only fail to reach through such

intermediation by the state but on the other hand

weakens the self confidence and initiative of thepoor and make them more and more dependent on

the state as if state is next to god to ameliorate theirmisery and poverty. This obviously over the years

have made them laggards and fatalistic.

ENCOURAGE DISINTERMEDIATION TORACH THE POORIt is therefore imperative to conceive tools and

technologies to outreach poor with leastintermediation and creating direct accessibility to

finance and other support services. In fact the

revolution in information technology has created anopportunity to reach directly to the customers

irrespective of time and place. It has become

possible outreach people residing in far flung rural

areas and has access to finance and services at anytime i.e. 24 hours. This has created new paradigm

for financial institutions particularly banks as has

been portrayed below.NEW PARADIGM


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EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES

It is obvious therefore that the new paradigm has

provided greater opportunity to banks and financialinstitutions to outreach rural and far flung areas to

cater financial services and products to people ofthose areas. In fact in the last decade banks and other

financial institutions have developed the deliverytechnology dynamically in terms of client outreach

and enlarging the space. These institutions

particularly banks have acquired technology supportlike ATM , biometric security and internet banking

along with core banking and electronic money

transfer hardware and software. This has obviouslyled them to consider the possibility and feasibility to

introduce mobile banking. In fact some banks have

already availed this facility in a limited way to

facilitate money transfer and payment system.However the most asked for facility that mobile

banking is expected to provide is reach out villagers

to enable them to avail financial facilities with easeand least cost. In fact RBI is also keen to introduce

mobile banking facilities by banks. In this regard it

has already circulated guidelines and has set up aworking group under the CHAIRPERSON of a

deputy Governor Mrs. Thorat to find out suitable

strategy to help banks to introduce this facility.

EMERGENCE OF MFIs

It is true that in recent years a paradigm shift hasoccurred due to emergence of micro financinginstitutions. However it is facing some challenges of

which following may be particularly mentioned as

these have blurred the impact and raised eyebrows of

social reformers as to the efficacy and transparencyof these institutions in their efforts to alleviate

poverty. These challenges could be summed up as

follows:

How can the micro-finance approach couldbe harmonized with other basic needs such

as political, cultural , economic

sustainability along with the primaryobjective i.e. social ;

How such an approach be made to balancethe multiple demands and the relationship

among the various operators nay actors of

the system; and

1. it would enhance the reliability of measuring

How such an institution be sustainableand risk free without asking for someheavy price for its operation.

Since micro finance is a community based

approach and practice it has to be operatedkeeping in view community norms, traditions,

values and practices and therefore its operationshould not only be transparent but also cost

effective. But these are obviously appearing to be

insurmountable but that should not mean that one

should raise hand and ignore these. In fact recenttechnologies have empowered these institutions

including banks to overcome some of these

challenges with ease and efficiency.

CHALLENGES TO BE ENCOUNTERED

However there are some difficulties in adoptingsuch facilities; of these major one is the non

availability of reliable data with regard to the

financial health and transactions of rural people.The volume of data the mobile network operators

(MNO) usually collect on the basis users

transaction records are not adequate to assess riskand provide comprehensive banking services

though transactions like bill payment could

reflect through its regularity, frequency and

volume some idea with regard to financial

capability and avidity of users of such facilities.In fact that need to be collected should reveal not

only the credit worthiness of the customer butalso their capability and capacity to take risk and

proneness to save and spend within their means.

In a recent study made by the POLITICAL AND

ECONOMICS RESEARCH COUNCIL (PERC)of the Brookings Institution has brought out that

value of non conventional data based on bill

payment history etc if put to use could be of

some value as follows:


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credit risk by only 10 per cent;

2. It would also help enhancement of measuringcredit score by 22.4% only.

HELP BUILDING COMPREHENSIVE

DATABASE

It is obvious therefore mobile banking transactions

that are presently practiced could help to a verylimited extent to measure and evaluate risks of all

types banking transactions. The most important

challenge therefore is to make it feasible to use data

made available through MNO, M banking, and Mpayment system should be comprehensive and

dependable information for credit and other financial

risk assessment. To develop the same obviously thefirst step would be to asses the present gap that could

not be filled by the data made available though MNO

and Mobile payment facilities that are now availablethrough mobile phones. That would also be necessary

to examine the level of interest of all stakeholders to

build comprehensive database for their use. This

would obviously not just one time exercise as theinterest of stakeholders would vary with the growth

of volume and customers and also technology to

enhance reachable and reduce cost.

NEED TO DEVELOP COLLABORATIVE

MODEL

However as has been pointed out by K.C.CHAKRAVARTY Dy. Governor of R.B.I. that

indeed it is a great opportunity for banks to outreachthe bottom of the pyramid but there is need to

develop an effective collaboration between mobile

service provider and banks. He also emphasized thatit would be necessary to open accounts with the bank

before bank could provide banking services and

products to him. In fact he has rightly raised some

limitations of banks to fast forward this scheme.These are as follows:

1. Banking technology is of recent origin andtherefore there is need for scaling up thesame and that would obviously take some

time and investment;

1. Payment facilities are only one areawhere banks could be active and for that

also there is need to develop appropriate

delivery model; and2. The recent initiative taken by RBI to

permit banks to appoint correspondentsneed to be trained to the latest gadgets of

mobile telephony and internet banking.

In fact he was frank enough to opine that banks

are laggards and therefore to expedite the

introduction of the system one has to look foralternative non-bank models.

OPEN UP OPPORTUNITIES TO MFIs

Even if one may not hold such a pessimistic

view, it cannot be overlooked that there exist

considerable gap in the technology and databasethat hinders the development of a suitable model

for banks to reach the poor to provide

comprehensive banking services to the ruralpoor. In fact mobile banking is a subset of

electronic banking. It may be defined as a

method to deliver financial services using mobilecommunication technologies such as GSM and

CDMA including mobile devices such as cellular

phones and personal digital assistance. In fact

under M banking customer can carry out basicfinancial transactions like remittances and

payments.

RECENT MODELS EVOLVED FOR

COLLABORATION

Presently there are four types of M.banking

model viz. wap, sms, and pda and sim toolkit.

WAP (wireless application model) is based onmicro website and the model is similar to internet

banking.


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SMS banking is based on GSM standard service to

exchange text messages that a customer could send toobtain information or to provide an information and

or instruction to the banker.

PDA model is designed with a mobile phone to

provide more access and to store data to enablecustomer to operate on individual software. It

therefore helps processing loan applications also.Similarly mobile phone with SIM toolkits also

enhances the capacity of users and banks to deliver

more services.

COLLABORATION OF INTERNET, MOBILE

AND BANKS

However to make mobile banking a real tool for

disintermediation which is perhaps the prime need in

India to avoid corruption and high cost it would benecessary to avail the latest development in mobiles

that provide storage and internet facilities. In this

regard Google has advanced considerably and one

would expect as the present trend indicates the pricesof these handsets would come down and become

affordable. Further it would also be helpful to

strengthen the organizations like

Financial information network (FINO) to build

necessary financial portals to help banks to drawupon these as and when considered necessary.

In fact it would be imperative to develop

biometric ATMs along with mobile phones in the

initial stage as that would help educating the ruralyouths to become familiar with these

technologies and would not hesitate to contactdirectly the banks for seeking their services and

products. In this regard it is really encouraging

news that banks have started exploring the ways

to leverage the Unique Identification Numberproject. In fact it is interesting news that after

meeting the officials of UIN 14 banks and

telecom companies as well as officials of RBIhad a meeting to identify a model to integrate

these innovations for inclusive growth.


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Self-Confidence as a Tool to Conquer the

WorldBy

Prof. Dr. Siddhartha Ghosh

Professor, Editor & Programme Convener,

Asian School of Business ManagementBhubaneswar

President & International Director, CCLP

WorldwideEditor, The Education Charter

State Chapter Head - Orissa, MTC Global

The middle name of self confidence is

belief. One cannot go to the top withoutself-belief; to build it, one has to believe in

himself. Being perfect is not the idea- but

one has to put a brave front and do the besthe or she can. That's it in a nutshell. Here's alittle more background on this.

Last term, I taught a 4-credit course to PostGraduate Management students at the Asian

School of Business Management (rankedamong top-10 B-Schools of India for 2008

by Deccan Herald and 19th

by DainikBhaskar 2011). A second-year student

approached and told me that he had read a

self development book on leadership andpersonal effectiveness which spoke aboutthe challenges faced by the top industry

executives of US. He also requested thatsince self confidence is such an important

parameter in an individual's career, can theyhave extra sessions on the subject in their

break periods. On the same night, beforeretiring for the day, when I was pondering

about the whole day's activities, this issuereally made me think that whenever I have

dealt or communicated with CEOs, industrystalwarts or any top ranking personalities

during my 10 years industry stint (of whichmajority was in Jet Airways - ranked world's

7th best airline for 2008), I had rarely foundself-confidence problems in them.

It is almost impossible to make it to the top

level in a multibillion-dollar corporation if youdo not believe in yourself. One live and latest

example is Prof. Bholanath Dutta Founder

& Convener of Management Teachers

Consortium Global, who built the one-of-its-kind international empire out of scratch and

entirely through his self-confidence and

vision.

On the other hand, when I speak to my students

in the business school, I have noticed thatstudents in my courses often want to talk about

it. This is such a crucial and interesting topicthat I normally share these few suggestions

about how an individual can build self-

confidence. I also hope that the readers mayhave their own suggestions, which might bemore important and valuable than this.

1. Human beings are never perfect. There arenever right or wrong answers to complex

business decisions. The best that you can do as aleader is to gather all of the information that you

can (in a timely manner), do a cost-benefitanalysis of potential options, use your best

judgment - and then go for it.

2. Failures are stepping stones to success. Greatsalespeople are the ones who get rejected the

most often. They just ask for the order morethan the other salespeople. You are going to

make mistakes. You are human. Learn fromthese mistakes and move on.

3. Planning and deciding without implementingis a waste! World is full of master-planners &

strategists but still there are failures. Why?Because the so-called leaders are so busy

charting out plans and strategies, that they haveno time or energy left in them to implement it.

Don't continually second-guess yourself. Greatleaders communicate with a sense of belief in

what they are doing and with positiveexpectations toward the achievement of their

vision.


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4. Confidence Actor as Confidence booster - In

some of your life situations, really theconfidence may lack. But if you act and behave

as if you are confident, the research has provedthat it will really enhance your actual

confidence-level.

5. Be "Courageous" to the world - If your team

member sees you as a weak and shaky leader,the whole team will crumble in its mission as it

will have an adverse effect on their confidencequotient. Again a lack of courage on the part of

the leader would be a damaging black-spot forthe whole entity as a whole.

6. Live in "Present" and eradicate

procrastination from your life-diary. Life has alimited span. I believe that since we are all

going to expire after a point, lets do our best torealize our goals by listening to our heart but

acting or deciding only on the basis of ourbrain. Also, thinking about past or future too

much, would result in unhappiness andfrustration and please note that the world's

happiest people are not always those, who arerich and wealthy; but people who live their life

in "PRESENT". And also the presentists arethe group of people who possesses maximum

self confidence.

WORK ENGAGEMENT AND

FAMILY ROLESTowards a healthy attitude and a positive

outlook of life

ByProf. Rachna Sharma, Faculty, IBS

Mumbai

Recently, the concept of job engagement has

been introduced as the opposite pole of jobburnout (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001).

This is in response to the spate of criticismregarding the focus of Psychology being on

sickness, rather than on well-being. Thecauses of sickness are not the same as thecauses of well-being. Just as absence of

demotivating factors does not necessarilyimply presence of motivating factors, similarly

absence of sickness does not mean presence ofwell being. Therefore, an employee may not be

at the burn-out stage; at the same time hemay not be engaged.

The focus of Psychology therefore now needs

to be more on positive psychology that focuseson strengths and creating optimal conditions

of work, rather than just on prevention andtreatment of sickness.

WHAT IS WORK ENGAGEMENT?

Work engagement is the amount of work attention

and absorption that a person puts in a job. It is apositive, fulfilling, work related state of mind that

is characterized by vigor, dedication and

absorption. (Schaufeli et al 2004). It refers to aconsistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state

that is not focused on any particular object, event,

individual or behavior, but is spread throughoutones span of work. The dimensions of work

engagement are:

Vigor high levels of energy and resilience whileworking, the willingness to invest efforts in ones

work and the persistence in the face of difficulties.People with vigor feel strong, vigorous andbursting with energy.


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Dedication characterized by a sense of

significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride andchallenge.

Absorption characterized by being fully

concentrated and happily engrossed in ones work,

whereby time passes quickly and one has

difficulties in detaching oneself from work.

Engaged people:

Take personal initiative Generate their own positive feedback Are engaged outside their work Are tired in a different way Want to do other things than just working

Motivating people to engage in their work is aclassic problems faced by many organizations complicated by the fact that people engage in

multiple roles and the attitudes, emotions and

behaviors of one role tends to spill over to other

roles. (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000) Very fewpeople have the art of switching off that is,

leaving behind their problems and achievements

when walking into the office in the morning orreaching home in the evening. Even within the

context of the organization, people are expected to

perform multiple roles to fulfill job expectations.

With peoples increased focus on balancingmultiple life roles and managing the boundary

between work and family life, organizations need

to turn to policies such as flextime, on-site

childcare and other mechanisms to ensure thatengaging in ones family does not interfere with

ones work. Underlying many of these initiatives is

the fear that engagement in family is achieved at

the expense of work. Most companies also view

work and personal life as priorities competing fortime and energy, in which a gain in one area

necessarily means a loss in another. The effect offamily engagement on work is an important

question for managers interested in keeping people

engaged in their work. The effect of work

engagement on family is an equally importantquestion for people making tough career choices.

A new breed of managers is attempting to address

this issue: that of managers and employeescollaborating to achieve work and personal

objectives to everyones benefit.

These managers are guided by 3 principles:

To inform employees about business andpersonal priorities

To recognise and support employees aswhole people, by acknowledging their

roles outside office

To experiment with new approaches toenhance organisational performances well

as allow employees to pursue personal

goals

+91 9632

Stay ConnectedProf. Bholanath Dutta

Founder & Convener: Management Teachers Consor tium, Global (MTC Global)Cell: +91 96323 18178: www.mtcglobal.org/email: [email protected]

817Ms. Paramita ChaudhuriProof Reader & Technical Editor

MTC Global- Knowledge in Practice

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E Bulletin MTC Knowledge in Practice Vol 2, Issue 4