tata.com: So, what are these work levels, how will they impact companies and affect their current structures?

RG: Work levels are determined by two factors; the Company Scope (CS) and the Management Scope (MS).The intersection of these two is the Tata Work Level. A is the highest and F the lowest.

We have classified our companies into three scopes — we call them Scope 1 Company, Scope 2 Company and Scope 3 Company, naturally, all companies don’t have the same scope. Scope 1 companies are complex and/or large as measured by parameters such as turnover, profits, manpower, nature of competition, extent of co-ordination and control required. Scope 2 companies are large companies but less complex, whereas Scope 3 companies are medium sized.

Management scope is de-linked from Company Scope. It tells you at what level of managerial work you are within the company irrespective of the size or the complexity of the company. Management scope 6 is typically the lowest level of management, with some functional responsibility in a line or staff function to deliver results in a fairly defined structure of customers, technology, geography and time frame.

As we progress along the ladder the management scope increases to encompass leadership, performance and accountability. At the highest level, scope1, the individual concerned, usually the chief executive, will be responsible for running the enterprise, delivering results and ensuring shareholder returns.

Traditionally, we look at the organisation as a pyramid with the Chief Executive and senior management at the top and others at different levels of the pyramid. If you use a windscreen wiper model and plot the management scope on the y-axis and company scope on the x-axis, then, the work and scope of the manager is very wide in a large and complex company and the wind screen wiper is at A, the highest level. The highest quality of work gets done here. This area has the smallest number of jobs but is largest in leadership demand.

Obviously, between companies the quality of work will differ for the same management scope. Under the new framework, managers can aspire over a period of time in their career to move upwards from work level F to work level A. Today we have a situation in the group where people just change designations. The new initiatives have nothing to do with designations. It is to give insight to the CEO and top management of companies into how to get a flatter hierarchy and give their managers better quality jobs. We would like to have managers who are motivated to produce the highest quality of work.

tata.com: How will all this benefit employees and help in career progression?

RG: Career development is largely about spotting good people, giving them job mobility, rotation and progression up the organisation structure. We have developed a model wherein an individual’s capacity to progress up the organisation can be tracked based on the work levels we have defined and the experience and exposure of the individual concerned. We will gradually implement a structured methodology to manage our human resources and manager’s expectations from the group.

There are some functions like HR and finance, which do not have a sector bias and, thus, can be freely rotated across companies operating in different business sectors. Others like technology, research and manufacturing are sector-specific functions, which, while have limited scope for rotation across companies, can nevertheless be used in different functions to develop their general management. Both functions have potential to rise to general management or to be functional specialists.

A Tata leader is required to develop six characteristics through his career. The more senior the leader, the more of these qualities they are required to exemplify. The characteristics are:

• functional competence
• people management ability
• delivery capability
• conceptual skills
• competence with external agencies
• character / courage of conviction

These new initiatives, together with the group focus on career planning and development will have its impact on individual employees of the group.

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Uploaded in January 2001