The Hindu Business Line : Institutional diseases

IT IS wrong to assume that only the animate — birds, animals and human beings — are prone to diseases and attacks by viruses and germs. Organisations too are equally vulnerable to malaise and mortality.

As in the case of the living, they can also be treated and restored to health with early detection of symptoms and correct diagnosis. The most common ailment in human organisations is arthritis, or stiffness of limbs leading to immobility. Old institutions, in particular, confront this painful prospect. They should be ever conscious of the need to forestall it.

One way is to be constantly on guard against obsolescent systems and procedures and to suffuse the work culture with drive and dynamism.

A more serious, and not uncommon, malady is organisational palsy. This is marked by directionless, uncoordinated, involuntary movements of the various parts of the body, resulting in a lot of wasted energy. A course of timely injections of the spirit of motivation and fortifying vitamins of precise goal-setting and effective monitoring and supervision will arrest this type of purposeless activity without any tangible action.

A differential diagnosis of such cases should be made to rule out carcinoma (cancer for you) manifesting in uncontrolled growth of posts and personnel combined with declining productivity and output, and potentially fatal haemorrhage of financial and material resources.

Government departments and public sector organisations should undergo frequent check-ups on the presumption of their harbouring carcinogens of this nature.

To obviate the danger of the trauma from carcinoma ending up in a coma, prompt surgical intervention should be undertaken to excise the malignant growth and stop further metastasis. Financial institutions mobilising deposits from the public promising attractively high interest are seen succumbing in large numbers to the deadly incubus causing rapid emaciation and ultimate disappearance. Unremitting surveillance is the only answer to save them from the contagion.

The most cruel disease — afflicting organisations is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a slow and progressive robbing of the capacity to respond to any sort of command and control, which is the stage most institutions in India seem to be in!

B. S. Raghavan

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