Human investment management raise the level by capitalising human

318 Pages·2018·3.005 MB·English

by  Paleri, Prabhakaran

Prabhakaran Paleri
Human
Investment
Management
Raise the Level by Capitalising Human
Human Investment Management
Prabhakaran Paleri
Human Investment
Management
Raise the Level by Capitalising Human
Prabhakaran Paleri
School of Management Studies
Chinmaya Institute of Technology
Kannur University
Kannur, Kerala, India
ISBN 978-981-10-6022-9 ISBN 978-981-10-6024-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-6024-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948016
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To the dignity of individual human.
Preface
This was a difficult book to write. The reader is also expected to feel the twinge.
But, someone has to crack it and let the humans get the honour they deserve. It took
me almost a lifetime to learn and five years to write. I am not going to stop here. It
is a warning. But, readers do not have to bother too much about an assault of the
readership kind. I am pretty old, very old.
No, I didn’t do schooling with Julius or jointly dated Cleo. I let her have him (no
choice). He was much senior.
This is not a study about the different types of humans, but a study that empha-
sises a human will have different types of humans, including a protean human, in
him or her and, therefore, managing a human can be better done by investing them
as capital humans in an activity for maximum returns. Why? Read the book.
First, I must caution the readers that this is not a textbook, except for me. This
book is meant for those who have read textbooks. Doesn’t matter how long back it
was.
Human management is not a new subject. It has been there since the beginning
of it all. It has taken various shapes, turns and patterns, more so with the advent of
the idea of management in its formal avatar in the 1990s. All through, making a
human work for another was the ideated or believed concept, whereas, in reality, it
was about supervising a person directly or indirectly in an activity assigned to him
or her towards a desired result. No human works for another human; everyone per-
forms activities gaining benefits to the identified human system. The performing
human is within this system. Differentiation is only for explanation.
The idea of human management changed radically since the early days. Changes
occur every moment driven by competition. But, the idea still remains in select and
limited layers of the concept of human management stratified like fossils of differ-
ent periods. Work in a job environment is one of the activities humans get engaged
in at some period in life. Managing or supervising a person engaged in an assigned
activity is also an activity performed by another human at a different level—manag-
ing people. Managing people for the overall social benefit under exclusive respon-
sibility towards the society as a whole becomes governance in the modern parlance.
There too management ideology and the concepts do not change. They get extended
vii
viii Preface
competitively towards the society from the limited perspective of the organisation
and ideated profit maximisation, though such responsibilities can be reversed
towards profit and organisational sustainability. Behind all these are the capital
humans with activity investment values. This book attempts to look into this idea.
The study about capital human takes a major diversion from the accepted and
continuing path of human resource management, erstwhile personnel management,
at least in principle for now. The idea of human management is examined from a
different perspective without commenting on the existing path and procedures in
relative terms. Every approach is good if it leads towards the end objective. The
productivity that is attained at the end of a human activity is what counts ultimately,
which is not exactly a statement of end justifies means. The intrinsic value of a
human can be utilised for the final result by maximising it as the ends—the end
result. The procedure for maximising contributes towards the means.
Here I am not causal for something new demolishing the old order, but indulging
repeatedly in a self-effacing dialogue with the readers on managing human differ-
ently based on trials and experiences of many years while in my job environment
and even out of it in the intermediary and external environments. Great scholars and
other knowledge people of yore had postulated and espoused the identity of human
beings in all kinds of environments, the work environment included. It continues
today. This book is a minor add on to the findings of the great scholars of the past
on the subject. Today the question of ‘Who am I?’ or ‘Who are we?’ doesn’t have
much relevance. We know. We know that we are a unique form of life at least to the
extent that we do not have to repeat such questions. Still the mysteries of life and
death and shackles of life between them are intriguing to the humans, as if by
default, as necessities for continuing life.
The book is not on philosophy. It is also not on the theory of the unknown or
everything, but about knowledge factors that may throw some light to get a bit more
out of an activity assigned to a human in the work environment. That is all about it.
It is on human management, where an individual is not considered a resource, but
someone who optimises resources for getting the desired results. In this process, I
have no intention to demolish the present order. The intention is to ideate a deviation
which could also be an inclusion in dealing with humans in a work environment,
whatever the nature of the activity may be.
It is already mentioned that this was not conceived as a textbook. There are no
case studies for students to practise. But, progressively, it turns out to be a reading
supplement to those who manage humans. That means everybody, not just desig-
nated human resource managers. This is written with the expectation that it will help
all those who are interested in the subject of managing human and the human sys-
tem. This is to apprise them about the individual human and his or her transforma-
tions with respect to time. More than that, I am optimistic of receiving contributions
and comments from the learned readers on the subject. It will help me to learn fur-
ther. The subject will always remain too fragile for the simple reason that it is a
human who has to manage a human, a very complex masterpiece of life. This is only
an attempt, thereby incomplete as a final text. There are no shattering formulations
Preface ix
or conclusions. The author expects the reader to read, pause, ignite the mind, con-
tinue and contribute.
This is knowledge management about human management. The book may give
a feeling that it is about different human beings each projecting a different typogra-
phy. It is not so. It is about every human being with a combination of exhibited
characteristics based on situation and time. There could be more such characterisa-
tions. Learned readers and human management experts may observe them and con-
tribute towards the study of human investment management by capitalising human.
Each chapter advocates select topics that could also be read as a single topic in
the process of capitalising human for better returns. This will enhance knowledge.
This book explores sapiens for a different purpose—to get the maximum return
out of their work as capital humans. The exploration is not by excavation under the
terra firma or by experimentation in the realms of human mind. The book takes
umbrage under the findings of the experts who have gone ‘deeper’ into it. The credit
goes to their findings that became useful to this study. The chapters are arranged
according to the attributes that are contributory to capitalising a human.
Chapter 1 opens up as an introduction to the human as a unique and dignified
and, at the same time, a simple and fragile life form. The advocacy is for rethinking
the human context in the activity environment. The perspective is different. Humans
remain as perceived by themselves and others ‘like them’ in every respect.
Rethinking provides a glaze to the thought process on humans that would be ideal
for perceiving them as capital humans. The concept is different from human capital.
Humans are one, yet different from each other.
The topic of Chap. 2 is about understanding humans from the standpoint of indi-
vidual existence in spite of being different from one another. The existence goes
through identical patterns differentiated by time. How simple is the complex cre-
ation called the humans! Can something be so complex, but delicate and plain at the
same time? This aspect of humans is amplified in the work environment more than
in any other activity. How can humans be treated as resources under such circum-
stances? The chapter explores it further leaving many a point for the scholars to
reflect and contribute.
Humans, every one of them, are active from birth to death—beginning to end.
There is activity even in inactivity. Active humans perform. It is this performance
that human managers are interested in. It is not a new idea—the scriptures speak
volumes of it in every human system. Yes, the activity of a living human is based on
the mind–body combination. When it is lost in between, the human is dissociated
with worthwhile activity—only to recoup and swing back in form as many situa-
tions show. Chapter 3 looks into the aspects of the active human and the outcomes
in a productive manner. This is what human managers are interested to know. This
model is also applicable when a human manages self to achieve more.
Chapter 4 is about the organised human. Humans, though individuals in their
own selves, are actually social life forms. They group for a common cause. This
aspect of humans, individuals in groups of existence, is a strange phenomenon.
There is a lot hidden in this appreciation that can be extracted for the well-being of
x Preface
a human system, whether a corporation or a nation or any other purposeful group
formation.
In such a state, a human has no other choice, but to perform. And that is what
they do exactly day after day, engaged in activities of different kinds. Chapter 5
takes a peep into it. What a human manager is interested in is the productive return
from an activity of the performing human—the best performance.
Chapter 6 deals with the idea of capital human—the main theme on which this
book is based. The previous chapters serve as behavioural curtain raisers. The key
factor here is to drive home the fact that capital human is not the much reverberating
‘human capital’. It may take time to appreciate it. Human capital is a conditioned
usage in management. Capital human doesn’t replace the term, because it is simply
different in application and usage. Human capital is still valid. Considering capital
humans in productive investment is a singular approach in human investment man-
agement. Treating humans as capital humans is important for investment in an activ-
ity for which he or she is competent or can be made competent and continuously
upgraded in value.
Chapter 7 streams into the idea of guiding humans like smart weapons to the
select objective in an activity. This chapter underlines that a person can be guided
towards achieving the maximum. Beginning with the recruitment to the end of the
activity profile, a human goes through various forms of guidance including self-
guidance. These guidance paths are of ultimate importance in human investment
management.
Another important facet is the randomness that humans exhibit in their produc-
tive behaviour. This is mentioned in Chap. 8. The randomness in different forms
will impact on the performance. Often the behaviour will not be predictable. Even
then, the people can be guided one by one towards the task in any organisation. Yes,
one by one is an important statement here.
Chapter 9 is the final chapter in this study that will continue. This book is only
the beginning. Therefore, Chap. 9 does not become the concluding chapter on the
subject of human investment management. It is from here further studies on the
subject should begin in the work environment or, rather, the activity environment of
any kind in the life span of an individual human. This could be done by everyone
who manages people and also observes them in an activity environment. The best
subject will be the individual himself or herself.
There are reiterations and repetitions in various pages. These are intended to
drive home the facts to reinforce the ideas behind the topic. The characteristics of
human nature explained in these chapters do not follow any regimented order. They
simply depict the human design at appropriate times, which can be interesting for
human managers to come to terms with. The manager is also a human. In an interac-
tion, the manager and the person or group of persons whom he or she manages may
not be in the same personality configuration. This can impact on the performance if
the manager thinks the mindsets are identical at the time of engagement. This is
more emphatic in crisis situations and emergencies. People can be in different
frames of mind or stages of personality at differing levels. This can induce conflict.
Understanding such differences is important in managing humans for maximum
productivity.
Preface xi
The quotation before the commencement of each chapter is my own. They are
intended to serve as prologues to kindle the expectations of the readers about the
respective chapters in a summary mode. There is also summation at the end of each
chapter. It is not the outright summary of the chapter. The summation may also
include certain aspects of the topic that are not mentioned earlier in the chapter. The
intention, again, is reinforcement of the contents in the minds of the readers by tail
end addition.
An interesting aspect of human investment management is that it can be tested in
every interaction including intrapersonal interaction. This aspect and the implemen-
tation of human investment management need further study, though I have experi-
mented with the subject all along my career.
It was truly gratifying.
Prabhakaran Paleri