POM Mid Term Test

Q.1 Discuss the concept of effectiveness and efficiency with 3 monks story.

Ans: 

Effectiveness: 

Effectiveness is what you do,How you do and Why you do.In case of 3 monks story, they wanted to take the water up the hill. Initially one monk was climbing up the hill. Later other monk joined and they shared the load of water together.They divided their work equally by using scale and marking the middle point of rod. They tied the rope at this middle point so as to ensure equal weight is being carried by each one of them.This showed their effectiveness as they divided their work intelligently with the use of measuring scale.

Efficiency:

Efficiency is how fast you do and how well you do it. In case of 3 monks story, when the third monk joins them, they use pulley and rope to fetch the water. Because of this, their efforts got reduced drastically. With the help of technology, in this case, a pulley and rope, their was a staggering decrease in total time required to fetch the water.They worked together as a team and their work became efficient.

This is how ultimately the 3 monks excelled in their job as -

Excellence = Effectiveness * Efficiency.

Q.2 Show and compare the 'Productivity measurement' for TWO different work methods adopted (a) Two monks carrying water (b) Three monks carrying the water. Explain relevant Organization and Management issues related to this.

1.Moderate Productivity with 2 monks :

After few days, second monk arrives. Both of them decide to share the work of fetching the water. But each one of them tries to reduce their share of load by changing the inclination of rod. This leads to their fighting. The normal human tendency to avoid the work is shown here.

To resolve the conflict, they decide to use measuring scale to mark the exact mid-point of the rod. This shows that technology can be used to resolve conflicts. One of them takes the measurement and other marks so that nobody can take doubt on each other.From this we can learn that participative management increases trust in the team which is very vital for the team to function properly.

3.High Productivity with 3 monks :

 The third monk arrives in the temple after some days. Each one of them thinks that somebody else will get the water and finally nobody fetches the water even though they were thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candleholder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. 

The adversity unites them. They bring the water with redoubled vigour and finally succeeds in dousing the fire. After this incident they start co-operating each other and work as a team. They use a rope and pulley to fetch the water. As a result of this, they get more water with less efforts which ultimately increases their productivity. The following table clearly explains the increased productivity with increased manpower.

Variable	2  Monks	3 Monks
OUTPUT	1 BUCKET	1 BUCKET
HOW	1 pole,1 scale	Pulley,Rope
EFFORT	10 KJ	0.1 KJ
PRODUCTIVITY	1/10 = .1	1/0.1 = 10
	MODERATE	VERY HIGH

There are several organization and management issues that come up when 2 or more persons are working together. 
1. Sharing of Load: As seen in this story, two monks had an argument over distribution of load of a bucket. It was solved by using the scale to determine the midpoint of stick, so that load will be shared equally. The method that was used was a Participative Management.

2. Sharing of Responsibility: When there were 3 monks, everyone thought that the other 2 should get the water and hence everyone was trying to avoid the work. But all of them worked together in case of emergency, when monastery was on fire. So, management of an organization should always look for keeping the employees on toes by providing them with challenges.