Freedom and luxury are like chained dog and stray mongrel – A HR message

The world statistics on ‘dog bites’ states that the chained dogs have attacked man three times more than the stray mongrels.

What does the above finding conveys to the men in corporate? The modern corporate must understand the above question and its answer certainly from the perspective HR management/function.

Why should the chained dogs bite man more than the unchained one. The reason needs to be derived from two separate angles.

The stray dogs cannot afford to attack man as it may prove disastrous to its very survival and existence. Only when the stray dogs learn to co-exist with humans and be humble, accept and endure the human dominance and domination, it can survive.

On the contrary, the chained dogs get all comfort from its master and it never has the compulsion of accepting and adjusting to anyone other than its master. It lacks the art of dealing with man and hence it attack people who are strangers.

The stray dogs carry the mindset of how to survive successfully while the chained dogs carry the mindset of suspicion and fear. The former enjoys the freedom not luxury while the later has luxury but no freedom.

Most corporate give all luxury and comfort to its employees but never give freedom either at the doing level or even at the thinking level. The corporate will be of the opinion that when all luxury and comfort is given, naturally the ‘class’ leadership is possible in people. But the people in such environment loose their natural and original instincts and become like to develop the instinct of an attacking and biting chained dogs.

Corporate people are chained by the job definition, task orientation and the deadlines to meet. The point is not against having a clear role definition and task to achieve when one is working in the organization. Without compulsion, commitment won’t come and without commitment achievements are not possible.

The people should be made to perform and operate their task in the space of freedom. Only when the freedom is given, the natural creativity will flow from them and the leadership quality of people will blossom.

Give freedom and space and necessitate people to perform or perish. Let the choice be set in the air of freedom.

Besides attacking, the chained dogs do not know how to survive in the free atmosphere. This is how the most corporate employees are today. They could perform well only within the same organization and never able to prove their mantle outside the four walls of the corporate. The reasons are

1. They need absolute luxury and paraphernalia
2. They need someone behind them with lashing whip

Generally it is believed that the corporate employees are more cultured than the people who are working in a grocery shop. The truth is that the most corporate employees are as brute as ‘Brutes’. They are like chained dogs, carry nothing but fear and suspicion. The stray dogs do have fear, but their art of accepting and enduring ability help them to overpower their fear. Natural talents can be seen only in stray dongs but the chained dogs displays only what is trained or taught to it.

Give sufficient freedom and space to your people while assigning task and timelines, only then, the best performance can be flow from them. Chained dogs and stray dogs convey only this message to the corporate.

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd.