Arrogant Behavior Of Employees

My friend is AGM in a very reputed construction company and recently he was appointed there to bridge the gap between higher managment and lower managment and is assigned many big responsibilities.There is absolute mess and nobody wants to share anything and people are so arrogant and do not want to co oporate.there is no delegation of work .everyone is doing everyone's job.They even dont know what are thier job's responsibility .There is no coordination among them and everyone is their own boss sort of .they dont like to take orders from my friend even.

I am a trainer and he is asking help from me.

I have been to his office and was amazed by the style of people working there.Employees are so arrogant that when my friend who is AGM of the company asked some information from the employee he just took out his pen from his pocket wrote the concerned persons phone no. and ask him to cal and get the information.

These employees are working there for last 3 to 4 years on 5 to 8 lac packages.

I was very confident and was giving lot of tips to my friend but after my visit to his office i myself is not sure how and from where to start.

Can any one suggest how to handle such kind of situation?

hi
Thx for repling Mr. sastry
All are engineers age group between 28 to 35.Its a big and old company employees come late in the morning and work till 6 only.There is no accoutability of work and nobody ask anything.Top most boss is only GM who never interect with them .work is assigned throgh emails and one secretry to GM.
History of the co.says that no one is being ever thrown out of the company.Even they are continuing with an old person who is suffering with short memory or something.
We have arranged a get-togather where we will be organizing fun games and i would be formaly introduced to the employees.
I am good at making friends and i mix up with every one instantly.
that is the first step we have taken ..lets see how i will go ahead with them.
I would like if any one suggest something good.
Rgds,
vidsvirgo

see my friend, till the time u didn,t understand reason behind their such behaviour, any attempt to revive the situation will go in vain.
U need to understand their viewpoints on various issues not only official but personal too.. u can befriend with few of them and can talk informally relating to various issues, breaking the hierarchial barriers...
Everyone has some sort of problems in their life... u can share them, be emphathetic with them... sometimes offer help if u can... First try to build up IPRs and then try to revive the official relations..

Sir,
I have read the post sent by Mr Virgo.I can confirm that you are not able to find the reason of the behavior of your employees.I have not seen the employees but I can say that their attitude can be changed as they are still young.
Real estate is a business where people especially engineers do get rude and frustrated because of the nature of the job like-
1) Dealing with unskilled and semi-skilled workers directly.They boss around with them and that starts getting in their veins.
2) Location of the work.Usually field work in dust,rain and cold.
3) competition and targets take a toll on their behavior.
etc.........................................these are some of the reasons in the business.
First try to find an accurate reason for the problem,only then the diagnosis can take place otherwise u would keep firing your gun in all the directions and pray that it hit's the bulls eye.
It would take time and the solution to the problem would be a long process but that can be given only once the cause to problem is found so that it can be hit directly and others are neglected.

Dear Vidsvirgo,

Answer to your question "Can any one suggest how to handle such kind of situation?" is in your post.

Training is no solution to your problem. I have written 'n' number of times in this forum that training is not a solution for the organisational ills. Cures for those ills are different.

Your have written that "There is absolute mess and nobody wants to share anything and people are so arrogant and do not want to co oporate.there is no delegation of work .everyone is doing everyone's job.They even dont know what are thier job's responsibility .There is no coordination among them and everyone is their own boss sort of .they dont like to take orders from my friend even".

Situation has slipped to such a level, till that time what HR was doing? First and foremost set the systems and processes right. Make the job descriptions, make the reporting structure. How training can have its impact in this messy situation?

In the second post you have written that "All are engineers age group between 28 to 35.Its a big and old company employees come late in the morning and work till 6 only.There is no accoutability of work and nobody ask anything.Top most boss is only GM who never interect with them .work is assigned throgh emails and one secretry to GM.

This clearly shows that the problem is with the leadership. Why this GM-sahib does not interact with the staffs? Why he does not make his subordinates accountable? No amount of good efforts of your AGM friend will work unless this GM supports him.

"History of the co.says that no one is being ever thrown out of the company.Even they are continuing with an old person who is suffering with short memory or something."

GM of the company or MD himself should initiate culture of performance. If your AGM friend wants to take disciplinary action this GM fellow should not throw his weight and ensure that the wayward chap is retained. "Spare a rod and spoil a child" goes the ageold proverb. Now the time has come to use rod.

We have arranged a get-togather where we will be organizing fun games and i would be formaly introduced to the employees.
I am good at making friends and i mix up with every one instantly.
that is the first step we have taken ..lets see how i will go ahead with them.

No fun games have changed the organisation's culture. Having fun is one thing and to be funny is another. Your problem is that employees of this company are funny. First bring them seriousness. This can be done by strict controls. Your systems and process change them. At this stage employees need to be dealt strictly. Start with theory 'x' and move toward theory 'y'. What you are doing is other way round but whether it will work or not remains to be seen.

I would like if any one suggest something good.

The real solution lies in removal of this GM which your AGM friend also cannot do. Unless there is change at the top, change cannot percolate down the line. Remember leadership is the lengthened shadow of organisation. The successful companies are successful because their leadership was serious and performance oriented. How MD of that company allowed this kind of GM to occupy his position. GM's continuance at his position speaks in itself what organisational malaise is, it also speaks of MD's mindset.

Final comments: - The posts of these kind are uploaded some times. Now have you understood why India is laggard? Those who have money, they do not know how to run the company. Those who know how to run company, they do not have money. With the companies of these kind, yet we say that India is poised for take off and India is would-be superpower!

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar
Management & Behavioural Training Consultant
Bangalore - 560095


Limit of your words is limit of your world[I][COLOR=#0000BF][COLOR=#FF0000]

I completely agree with Divekar. Until the top mgmt is set to restructure the organization, there is very little an AGM can do. Find out your ways to tackle situation in totality.
Regards
Dr Nayan Mali

I like the direct tone of Dinesh. You cannot revive a drying plant by watering the leaves. You need to go to the root..
Ask your friend to study the situation by talking to the employees informally else he will face the same treatment. After studying he can go to the GM and ask him informally about his perception. If they agree on the problem, the situation will be straightforward. Go ahead and have the friendly atmosphere, but follow it up as mentioned. Engage an expert when the need is understood

Does you friend, who is the AGM have a boss? Who is the head of the organization?
Is the Head happy with the current state of affairs? If he is, then change will be very difficult. If he is dissatisfied, and wants to see a change, much can be done, but the change effort will need his active support ! Mind you, I'm not saying it will be easy, and there would be some turmoil, but change will come.
I am a management consultant based in Bangalore, and would be willing to help, since I love to tackle such challenges.
Gerry
9972033456

Hi Vids,



First of all I am of firm conviction that no employee is arrogant by birth, circumstances and organizational environments make employees arrogant.



Dinesh Divekar has rightly attacked the real drawbacks of the organization and given point by point comments to your post. But still one point remains untouched. If there is no delegation of work, what would be the criteria of recruitment of the engineers by the company? If you don’t mind, your second post contradicts your own first post in so much so that in your first post you have stated that there is no delegation of work and everyone is doing everyone's job. In your second post you have stated work is assigned through emails and one secretary to GM. If there is no delegation of work, does that mean the same work is assigned to several functionaries through emails or the secretary to the GM? If so, mess is being created by the GM and his secretary themselves, otherwise how one Engineer comes to know what work has been assigned to the other and why he would start doing other’s job by leaving his own work. Moreover, if everyone is doing others’ jobs they would be doing with each other’s consent or to help each other. In that case, I can well say, there is an exemplary cooperation between those engineers and the management is lucky that such a cooperative group of engineers are on its payroll.



Of course, it can be said that your friend is quite unable to understand what is the actual problem and its real cause? Please don’t mind if I say your friend thinks some first aid expert can cure the illness of Tuberculosis, as I believe training just works like first aid. I don’t think any type of training or fun games can help scuttle down the arrogant behavior of the employees. In my views the need is not for any training to the arrogant employees, but to sooth their feelings by understanding their real problems. He has to first understand, what is the basic cause of their arrogance? Their arrogance can be their frustration about the management, as you have already stated the GM does not interact with their subordinates. The question arises, how performance of the subordinates is taken care of, if they are assigned the job by the GM or his secretary? As Divekar has pointed out there is the need of removal of the GM, I can add, his secretary should also get a kick to oust her/him. Both are the cause of the real problem.



Why should not we think in this manner, if everyone does the work of every other that means there is unequal work distribution amongst them? Some employees may be getting unbearable burden of workload, while the others may be having less work. So, they may be sharing the burden of each other to help each other. So, ask your friend to do his own job by understanding the real problem for which he has been engaged and not to shift his responsibility to the trainers, as I am of firm belief the employees do not need any type of training or fun game. Your friend needs to become so capable that every employee should see a friend in him. But that is another thing if he would like to take care of your interest also.



PS Dhingra

Vigilance & Transformation Management Consultant

Dhingra Group of management & Educational Consultants

New Delhi

Hi Vids,
I completely agree with Mr.Dinesh and Mr.Dhingra. U & Ur friend first need to understand the problem and make it understand the seriousness of it to his Boss GM or MD. Take there consent and make right move.
regards
Supriya