coarse paper

3. Problem management and decision making skills 3

4. Consensus building and negotiation 4

5. Implementations and learning 6

6. References 7

INTRODUCTION:

In my previous papers, I have discussed various fundamental aspects displayed by Gandhi my chosen leader. Some of the aspects that I have discussed are effective thinking and emotional intelligence, communication and leadership, organizational culture and climate and his team development skills. In this paper, I will be discussing few more aspects like, Leading and managing changes, problem management and decision making skills, consensus building and negotiation and how these aspects could be applied in m organization.

LEADING AND MANAGING CHANGE:

Gandhi is one of the revolutionary leader who not only inspired the people of India but also inspired many famous leaders around the world like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Dalai lama. According to Lussier and Achua (2013), an organizational change could be ‘Incremental’ and ‘transformational.’ Gandhi brought a ‘transformational’ change in India, with his transformational leadership skills by re-inventing a new style of revolt called ‘non-co-operative non-violent movement’ when all other existing methods came to an end.

Gandhi with his transformational leadership skills, like giving the followers a vision, showing them direction and giving them undivided support and motivation, he was able to achieve a smooth transformation. Thus, the stages of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross model change curve were smooth for Gandhi as he was able to handle the chaos stages and establish the new status quo effectively.

According to Kotter (2012), a pattern of success is driven by high-quality leadership, but not just excellent management. The aspects involved in management driven success are planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, problem solving. The aspects involved in leadership driven success are establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring.

Various incidents experienced by Gandhi back in South Africa like, asking him to loose his turban, de-boarding from the train for travelling in first class compartment triggered him. He first revolted when the Indian in South Africa were deprived of there civil rights by the British by Immigration Law Amendment Bill and Franchise Amendment Bill. He organized a Council for all the Indians residing in South Africa and gathered them (aligning people), explained them about their basic rights and they should revolt against British oppression through non co-operative, non violence movement (establish direction), motivated and inspired them. To the surprise of British Indians won the fight (Gregg, 2013). Thus, Gandhi followed the aspects of Leadership aspects of success.

Gandhi also followed Kotter’s ‘The Eight Stage process of change’ all along his journey as a leader, while leading the battle against the British. Some of them are: 1) Creating a sense of urgency and creating coalition- this was exhibited by him in South Africa, during his fight for Indian merchant rights, he formed NIC (Natal Indian Congress) (Essay, 2016) gathered all the Indian’s residing in Natal and enlightened them about the current situation, listened to their inability, convinced them that they can fight through non-violence by non co-operation, showed unquestionable commitment, support, motivated them and succeeded the battle and implanted the seed of confidence in the people. 2) Developing vision and strategy: Gandhi’s vision was “Independent India”. After the victory in South Africa he returned to India and started to work for ‘Independent India’ He understood that the only was to win this battle is through non-violence, so he started to educate people about the non-violent approach, use to conduct many prayer meetings, speeches to know the on going problems, discuss, brain storm solutions and strategies the plan to face the problem. He was successful in lead a number of non-violent protests.

PROBLEM MANAGEMENT AND DECISION MAKING:

I would like to cite Chauri Chura incident (Aparna, 2013) as an example to explain Gandhi’s ability of problem management and decision making. This incident can be called as a violent outbreak occurred during the Non-violent movement. During this movement people were trained to protest non-violently despite provocations, but they were not trained enough and the mob set a police station on fire with police officers inside it. As soon as Gandhi was informed about this he called off the movement.

From this incident we can analyze Gandhi’s management and decision making skills. As mentioned in the coarse he used the 7 step problem solving method.

1. Identify the problem: Gandhi understood that people were not ready for the non-violent

protest yet, as they were easily provoked by the opposite people. The movement let to incidents that were against his principals. He strongly believed in “An eye for an eye, will turn the world blind”

2. Analyze the problem: He understood if he did not stop his people right away, incidents

like this would keep repeating and it would not reap any good for anyone.

3. Identify possible solutions: That day he had an option to go with the flow and continue

the protest with violence, or stand by his principals and educate people about the advantages and good side of them.

4. Select the best solution: He stood by his principles and made up his mind to called off the

protest.

5. Evaluate the solution: By taking this call he realized he would save many lives and keep

the spirit of non-violence alive. He always followed what he preached.

6. Develop action plan: He interrupted the protest and reminded them the protest was meant

to be a non-violent protest and educated them about the advantage of non-violence by shedding light on previous non-violent protests.

7. Implement the solution: He called off the protest and saved many lives that day. The

following days, he emphasized on the importance of non-violence and trained/ educated his followers.

CONSENSUS BUILDING AND NEGOTIATION:

Gandhi was not only known for his simplicity and ethics but was also famous for his logical and tactful negotiations. It is said the 200 years of British rule in India began with the “Delhi Pact” or the “Gandhi-Irwin Pact.” (Manisha, 2015) Initially the difference in leverage between the British government and Indian public was huge. So, the aim was to increase the leverage for Indians and also unite them towards a common goal called Independence. In December 1928 Gandhi proposed a resolution, that asked British to grant dominion status to India, just like they granted in Australia, Canada, South Africa, etc. if they failed to do so in 2 years, (which later was changed to 1 year) then India would be forced to walk towards complete Independence or “Purna swaraj.” British did not respond to this, but the momentum got a recognition among Indians.

On Dec 1929, the congress led by Nehru, decided since the one-year dead line passed, they would not just settle with the dominion status but would go for complete Independence. In sight of this new resolution they boycotted all Legislatures and elections. Here we can see the BATNA approach as is mentioned the coursework. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) started ‘Civil Disobedience Movement’ also favored boycott of land revenue.

Gandhi wrote 11-point Ultimatum to Lord Irwin as a negotiation to Civil Disobedience. On March 12th he started his Dandi march towards Dandi, as a protest against Salt tax by British, he started with 72 people initially, but it got lot of publicity through ‘Patrika’ a newspaper and radio, as result hundreds of people started to join the march after boycotting foreign goods, refusing to pay tax to British government, they finally reached Dandi on 6th April, with 90,000 people and prepared salt by themselves by the sea side.

On May 4th Gandhi and many people who participated in the civil disobedient movement were imprisoned. As a leverage to this Congress launch civil disobedience by ‘non-payment of revenue to the government’ and ‘rural chaukidari tax’ It was one of the largest movements by Indians were, about 3 lakhs members participated in it. This had a significant effect on the British and the world, and changed the way they looked at Indians. Lord Irwin called for the first round table conference on 12th November 1930 and extended till January 1931. But the congress boycotted it, as they were asking for Complete Independence which was rejected by British and also Gandhi along with thousands of people who participated in civil disobedience were still in imprisonment. As a result, the first conference went useless.

Gandhi and others were released unconditionally on January 25, 1931 and Lord Irwin called for the second round table conference, where he accepted Gandhi’s 9 out of 11 ultimatums after 24hours of negotiation with Gandhi and called for compromise, giving India its leverage. Through out the process we can see Gandhi’s focus on the goal, leverage, his bargaining style, authoritative standards.

How can you apply the conclusions of your assessment and analysis to leadership roles and responsibilities in your organization?

By working on this analysis paper, I have realized that there are so many ethics, qualities, techniques in Gandhi, which could be adapted and use not only in our personal life but also professional life. The best technique would be his style of analyzing the problem and deciding the best solution, his transparency, his undivided determination for the vision and unquestionable effort towards it, his way of inspiring and motivating his people, his strategic negotiation skills- by adapting BATNA.

I also observed that he was able to inspire about a million of Indians towards non-violence, which was a concept back them. He was able to achieve it with his communication skills, his determination, his clarity about the vision, his unquestionable support to his people, etc. We can adapt the same qualities for leading a team.

REFERENCES:

Apart rao. N. (2013) My Life is my message -M.K.Gandhi Retrieved from: https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi_management.html

Gregg, R. B. (2013). The power of non-violence. Read Books Ltd.

Lussier, R. N. and Achua, C. F. (2013). Leadership: Theory, Application and skill Development. South-Western, Cengage Learning, Mason, OH, USA.

Patnaik, B. N. (2007). Gandhi as a Communicator. Kanpur: Center for Creative Writing and Publications, IIT Kanpur

Manisha. G. (2015, August 21) How Gandhi Negotiated Independence. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-gandhi-negotiated-independence-manisha-gupta/