Dear Friends,

There is much more to management and the missing links can be explained by studying psychology. Having a look at the very elementary definitions of both the disciplines will make it clearer. Management is the art of getting things done through others and psychology is the science of human and animal behaviour. Keeping the animals aside (though we might need to draw some parallels here and there) don't you think psychology should be a separate and a compulsory discipline for that matter? Because any and everything you do boils down to understanding people, why they do what they do, can you change the way they perform and so on. I definitely advocate psychology sessions in all leading MBA institutes (due apology to those all over the world who think they have mastered the art of understanding people). And it is about you yourself as much as it is about others. But how do we understand what others feel? How do we comprehend our own inexplicable behaviour? There are no easy answers to these but rethinking the questions and answers that this study has already posed will surely give us new insights.

The various 'isms' of psychology

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s when the mind was thought to be the central concern of psychology, a school of thought called 'structuralism' developed. The structuralists believed that the behaviours could be understood by making the subjects 'introspect' or describe minutely every experience (like hot water, a fragrance etc.) they are exposed to as 'sensations' (because according to them every element was a sensation like hot, cold, putrid etc.). They hoped to look for answers through the combination of these elements of experiences. Although this approach has by far disappeared, the interest in mind is still going strong.

Functionalism, inspired by the Darwinian theory of evolution was propounded by William James (wrote The Principles of Psychology, published in 1890) and John Dewey. The functionalists believed that our behaviour is adaptive and that we can change according to the changing environment, so instead of studying the structure of the mind they concentrated more on the adaptive functions of behaviour and mental life.

Another school of psychology is the ' behaviorism', which completely did away with the introspection and solely dealt with behaviour. It said that there is no such thing as inborn tendencies and that all behavior is learned behaviour, which could be conditioned as well as understood by observing animal behaviour.

Gestaltism or the Gestalt psychology criticized both the struturalists and the behaviorists. This school emphasized the interrelationships between elements. E.g. a five cm line segment will look smaller than a nine cm segment but will look huge compared to a dot. Accordingly, our experiences depend on the context in which they occur. Therefore instead of studying behaviours as elements, they should be studied holistically considering the interrelationships and the interactions also. "The whole experience is more than the sum of its parts."

Psychoanalysis, though not a conventional 'ism' is discussed here because it has made important contributions to the field of psychology. It was founded and developed by Sigmund Freud between 1885 and 1939. His theory was brushed aside by lot of eminent people in this field as they were too pristine to follow a theory, which said everything, we do and think emanates from our hidden sexual desires. This is more of a corrective theory and a theory of personality as it seeks to treat patients who suffer from mental aberrations. The emphasis of this treatment is on 'free association' where in the subject thinks and says whatever comes to his mind. It is the unconscious motives (motives play an important part), which are expressed in different ways.

Some areas that I have discussed in this article are perhaps so elementary that we often tend to overlook them or don't care to understand why we behave in a certain manner. Then the question arises why to bother about such trivialities. The answer is not so simple as it might not appeal to everyone. My own logic is that understanding the underlying principles behind people's behaviours (no matter how basic they are) makes it easier to understand why they do what they do. And this can be used as an important tool when dealing with people of different temperaments in culturally diverse organizations.

All this brings us to the modern psychology. Have you ever wondered why you suddenly want to seclude yourself from people? Why some people display such sudden shifts in moods? Why is it so difficult to bring people out of their rooms when everyone else is having fun at the dance parties?

Why do we indulge in Self-pity?

It all starts with leaving your homes, families and coming to the hostels to stay with people who are more or less your age and possess some kind of idiosyncrasies or other like you. Now this is comparable to any kind of hostel life. What aggravates the self-pity is the fact that there is a lot of pressure on the time and many a time we forget to live with ourselves. We are always in a classroom or doing projects in groups and then making presentations. Too much of social behaviour also takes its toll on us. We should always keep a regular outlet for our very own and personal energies and feelings. You yourself can be your best friend only if you have been continuously nurturing yourself, your emotions and feelings.

Why do suddenly shut ourselves up?

As I said too much of social living takes its toll on us. The situation is tolerated unless we cannot take it anymore and the frustration that has built up in us all this while, finds a vent in the form of completely shutting yourself up for one or two days. And then we are ready to take it, all over again. These days can be very killing for some people who are not strong enough and who instead of looking for meaningful vents indulge in self-pity which leads to depression and sadness (which does not have any logical basis). So we need to build some kind of hobby, which is very personal like reading, painting, and yoga. Believe me there is no such thing as 'no time for such things'. After all you yourself are the most important person for you. And if the priorities are set right there is going to be enough time to pursue these interests for at least one hour everyday.

Why is the friendship so erratic?

Why is this graph so erratic when all we know is that it was never like this before? We have always had school friends and friends from college with whom it never used to be so complicated. We all forget to realize that people come to management schools for professional reasons. The choice of selecting a B-School and then taking admission is a very conscious one and more often than not is owned by the person himself/herself. This is not so in the case of school and college. Our schooling decisions were made by our parents. And we live with those decisions instead of questioning them and therefore we can pay more attention to the road rather than the destination. But in a management school it is totally different since we are always worried about the ends, which are placements, grades etc. Friendships have to be very enduring to rise above all these 'sought after ends'. But then where is the time? I am not denying that there do not exist long-lasting friendships in B-Schools. All I am saying that it will take that extra effort. So do not get discouraged if till now you have managed to add more people to your enemies' list rather than the friends' list. It is quite natural. You are not surrounded by selfish and men people. They all have goals to meet and if you are being an obstacle then you will be diplomatically removed from the path.

Why do I get stuck with people who have an insatiable appetite for perfectionism?

Have you seen people who get down to each and every detail of each and every thing and sure they get on your nerves too! Generally these people were brought up in strict family atmospheres where everything has a 'proper' place and there are sacred rules for performing tasks as mundane as serving food into a plate or for that matter switching on the television which if done in any other way comes in the way of the tradition of the house. This generates a habit of doing everything absolutely perfectly the first time round. And God save you if you are working with any such person, because until unless he/she is satisfied with the things you cannot take a break. And the result is not necessarily 'perfect'. It is just an over 'looked into' matter. Please understand it is difficult to change such behaviour. Questioning their way of working will only mean inviting their wrath upon yourself. Just try to stay clear. If you do need to work with them, try dividing the work and work in 'geographically separate' places so that you have enough energy to take all that perfectionism during the integration stage.