Abstract
The title and the quote of this introductory chapter imply a shift from the customary approach to appreciating humans in productive environments. The objective is to open the topic of human investment management in place of human resource management to managers that apparently everybody is, at one time or another, for serious examination and further research. The study will demand quick appreciation of the human mindscape and analysis of the outcomes coupled with its complexity. Human processes are genuinely complex. Management (see glossary), which also includes governance (see glossary) in its modern outlook, is a human process. This chapter explains the two concepts. In this effort, it is important to appreciate that every human is different at any given time not only from others but also from itself (the pronoun ‘it’ (neuter) is used to substitute the noun human solely to avoid a gender-biased expression ‘he’ or usage of the term ‘he or she’. This is just to invite the attention of the reader on the need for unbiased gender equality and respect. In the subsequent usages, the neuter gender pronoun in English language is replaced with gender equal term ‘he or she’ (alphabetically) while explaining personal nouns. This is also to highlight the need for a single pronoun for human in English language for gender equality. Presently in communicative expressions, the terms ze, hir, zir, etc. are used at random as the pronouns for humans to avoid gender-specific expressions. (This study refrains from introducing any new pronouns). Within the deductive opinions on human activity output, many of them captiously prejudiced, this study is an attempt to explore an alternate management style by prospecting humans in an organisation differently. This calls for rethinking the entire process of human management. The intention is to drop a hint for posterity in human management. The chapters are designed for independent reading and continuous research, along with others, by those who are interested in human systems and productive activities. This chapter highlights the productive environment and the need for rethinking the humans actively engaged in it.
Every human was, is and will be different from another.
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Notes
- 1.
A term borrowed by the author from mathematics with an intention to apply for human studies in productivity for finiteness, definiteness and effectiveness. Algorithm means step-by-step problem-solving procedure. The steps are finite. They carry the input towards the output finitely leading to definiteness and effectiveness. The expression means the study of human activity towards productivity as a consequence of action can be algorithmic. This is an expression, not a find.
- 2.
See glossary.
- 3.
See glossary.
- 4.
In the olden days, slaves were made to work under lashing whips and poking spears. The principle approach was heightened threatening to maximise productive returns. According to Acemoglu and Wolitzky (2011), labour coercion was the principal approach in a productive human system throughout history. The process they call ‘the economics of labour coercion’ is still persistent.
- 5.
The clay cylinders of Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia, have them inscribed in the now-extinct Akkadian language (Mesopotamia) in the cuneiform script. The inscription is considered to be the beginning of recognition of human rights.
- 6.
This is the dictionary meaning. According to the author, religion succeeds culture. Rather, culture is older to religion though both are inseparable in today’s world (Paleri 2008).
- 7.
Biomodelling is the author’s expression for studying an available activity model for decision-making in a larger performance scenario identical or nearly identical to the observed model (Paleri 2008). It is a small living human system specially identified as a socio-mathematical model to simulate or study to understand the behaviour of a macro human system of identical nature. It is not similar to biomodels used in biological system research where it means the mathematical modelling of biological reactions.
- 8.
Klemke, E. D., Hollinger, R., and Kline, A. D., Introduction to the book Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science, New York, Prometheus Books, 1980. p 11–12
- 9.
The idea of worm train is used by the author in national security studies to explain human civilisation as unitary, where humans dynamically evolve from one stage to another in their mental process in a single system. Therefore, the clashes are not between civilisations, but within civilisations (see reference and glossary).
- 10.
This statement can be flawed in the total outlook of human beings whose origin started with the origin of life forms on Earth. A human, however modern he or she may be, still carries many primate behaviours and brought forward survival instincts of genomic evolution. For example, humans are not the only species that kill for not eating; there are many. A caracal can kill birds just for the fun of jumping at them (about three metres or so). Many flight commanders at airports prefer caracals to kill birds in the grass patches around the airport to preempt bird hit at the crucial moment of takeoff and landing.
- 11.
This is a very special statement. This study considers the ability of human intent to seek help from life, non-life and combination forms originates from their special capability to domesticate, which is one of the brain functions for survival. Domestication of life forms includes biogenetic modifications , whereas non-life and combination forms comprise robots and cyborgs (yet to come), respectively. Cyborgs are no more in the realm of fiction according to partially researched and unverified reports. What is interesting here is the idea that the ability to domesticate other ‘(life) forms’ could be the underlying force behind them. This statement needs further research.
- 12.
Toynbee and other scholars believe in multiple civilisations, whereas the author considers all humans as part of a unitary civilisation (in the form of a worm train) with humans at different levels of development.
- 13.
See glossary.
- 14.
Knowledge is divided into art and science by scholars for years. The reasons for branching of knowledge in two different directions are understandable. But this has brought out a dilemma about mathematics, which is a study of the measurement, properties and relationships of quantities using numbers and symbols. Mathematics also explains reason. In modern times when the knowledge is highly advanced, the subjects before humans in search of knowledge are inclusive of art and science. Classifying such subjects as art or science becomes difficult. Hence, mathematics has been taken as the median line as a separation boundary that is either both art and science or neither art and science. This helps in explaining further. For example, a subject that crosses over the boundary of mathematics must be both art and science. Management is one such subject of study.
- 15.
The degree ‘Master of Science in Commerce’ also supports the earlier statement that management is both art and science.
- 16.
Such behaviour of ‘oddity in excess’ can be seen among alcoholics, drug abusers, militants, criminals, etc., who engage collectively in a task, more so in an unnatural one, where one wants to exhibit individual prowess in the activity in excess relative to others from a self-deprecating position that they are consciously and subconsciously aware of. It is a kind of projection that confirms to such individuals that they are not in any way ‘inferior’ to others in the gang by age, status or other self-deprecating mental stasis. In the case of the heinous gang rape mentioned here, the juvenile participant in the crime would have felt inferior to the ‘bigger’ members of the gang and hence gone to that extra mile in cruelty.
- 17.
A human system in biological terms is about the physiological human body system. The human system referred to in this book is about the social human system comprising people formed collectively by humans.
- 18.
The law of invariance has been a perceptional idea introduced by the author by research on national security studies that commenced in 2002. The law of invariance states that the changes in the core behaviour of a human system, while a reality, is too negligible to notice and, therefore, for a psychosomatic system application relative to humans, it is sufficient to presume the model applicable today will be constant in time whether it is past or future.
- 19.
Frederick Winslow Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911 brought engineering rigour to business operations.
- 20.
The prime minister of India assigned the task of codifying the labour laws to the National Commission on Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). The government had subsequently initiated action to codify and amalgamate 44 central labour laws into four codes—labour, industrial relations, social security and safety and working conditions.
- 21.
This could also be seen in favour of uniform codes in any form of legislation for equitable governance.
- 22.
Thornthwaite states that while the development and diffusion of personnel management techniques in the public sector varied considerably among the colonies in scope, nature, effectiveness and longevity, there were integrated, coherent sets of personnel policies and practices in place in several colonies several decades before their emergence in private firms. From this it has to be inferred that (1) personnel management did not come into practice on any specific day and (2) it had assumed serious concern more or less during the period management as a concept was evolving.
- 23.
Mayo conducted the studies under the auspices of General Electric in their Hawthorne plant.
- 24.
Ethnicity has a much wider meaning than just differences in culture, religion, race, etc., according to the author, who identifies ethnic security as one among the 15 elements of national security and differentiates it in 19 different ways highlighting the possibility for more. See Paleri, P. (2008). National Security: Imperatives and Challenges. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. New Delhi. 328–42.
- 25.
In India, Larsen & Toubro became the first organisation to set up human resource development (HRD) department. There are scholars who quote the date as 1930 but this study considers it was too early. The business schools were teaching the subject as personnel management, and organisations continued to have personnel managers in the 1980s. The modern view of human resource management first gained prominence in 1981 with its introduction on the prestigious MBA course at Harvard Business School.
- 26.
C4I2SR stands for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, information, surveillance and reconnaissance in military expression.
- 27.
The movie released in 1996 was noted for its thumping performance of three characters. This dialogue was presented by the Mexican outlaw Tuco, the ugly, characterised by the character and method actor Eli Wallach (1915–2014).
- 28.
The ‘cogs-on-the-wheel’ argument has been used as an idea for the 1936 movie ‘Modern Times’ (comedy) by film-maker and comic actor Charlie Chaplin where the worker more or less becomes a machine in the workplace.
- 29.
Author’s eulogy to Kant
- 30.
According to Prof. Stephen Hawking, Britain’s pre-eminent scientist, it is reported, efforts to develop full AI could spell the end of the human race. Cellan-Jones, R. (2014). ‘Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind’. BBC, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540. The author does not agree with this theory on the principle that ‘total eradication’ of humans by humans is not in the script of survival for any life form. This needs to be researched, though.
- 31.
This study does not subscribe to the view of humans as assets. Humans cannot be strictly included in any non-human category. There are various assets in business accounting. Humans manage them. They run organisations including business organisations.
- 32.
Micronisation is a term used by the author to avoid the word disintegration or similar aberrations and thereby deflect any possible ignominy to a human system undergoing such state. Nations are respectable human systems and dynamic entities even if ruled by irresponsible and rogue governments. Sovereign states may enlarge by addition (macronisation) or shrink by separation (micronisation) under various forces that include demographic movements and political shifts. The forces of micronisation are stronger than macronisation in the present scenario.
- 33.
Some authors call this shift as Chinese model of capitalism amplified as the ‘system of local state capitalism’ (Keith, M., Lash, S., Arnoldi. J and Rooker, T., (2014). In China Constructing Capitalism: Economic Life and Urban Change. New York: Routledge.
- 34.
This raises a question: ‘Can there be more?’ For example, a geophysical terrain such as the ocean can be another stakeholder (Paleri 2016).
- 35.
Here the term disabled means unable to perform any kind of productive task physically or mentally that a standard human performs. The term disabled also means the period of human life that is not counted towards longevity under disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE) scale. A differently abled person is very much an able person for active performance in this study.
- 36.
Positivity advisors quote psychologists recommending this activity to boost up one’s chances of performing better than self the next time the same activity is performed. This anyway happens in human intellectual senses except that the scientists advise for determined or intentional suggestive conditioning. Positive self-talk is one such interaction with self (Lane, A. M., Totterdell, P., MacDonald, I., Devonport, T. J., Friesen, A.P., Beedie, C. J., Stanley, D. and Nevill. A. (2016)). Brief Online Training Enhances Competitive Performance: Findings of the BBC Lab UK Psychological Skills Intervention Study. Front. Psychol. 7:413. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00413 .
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Paleri, P. (2018). Rethinking Humans in Management Perspective. In: Human Investment Management. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6024-3_1
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