In this blog we are going to talk about various POM
concepts, but all keeping the Khan Academy in perspective. We are going to study
the venture of Salman Khan, i.e. Khan Academy, how it makes use of different POM
concepts to build a strong organization. We will be talk about vision, mission,
Technical/Human/Conceptual skills, Theory x and Theory y assumptions
application, creative problem solving, decision making, entrepreneurship, etc.
in regards of Khan Academy.
What is Khan Academy?
The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization,
created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT
and Harvard Business School. The idea of this inspired simply from his household
teaching to help his cousin. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia
in mathematics using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends
sought similar help, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the
tutorials on YouTube. And as the Khan describes it, his cousins liked his
videos more than the teaching in person. The advantages were that they could go
back to some concept, if they did not understand something they did not have to
be embarrassed of anything or wait for specific time to begin the learning.
They could learn whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted!
The lessons can be taken online at KhanAcademy.org. All of
the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a
student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom
after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly
biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to everyone
completely free of charge. At present, Khan Academy has delivered a whopping 165,799,636
number of lessons!!
Let’s begin the learning!
Vision & Mission –
Vision and Mission are often confused with each other. But,
they are different and even the way of designing both of them is far apart.
A vision is the preferred future, a desirable state, and
ideal state. It is an expression of optimism. A vision is a general statement
encompassing the direction an agency wants to take and the desired end result
once it gets there. It is the vision of what those involved what their
organization to become. A striking characteristic of a vision is, it is short,
crisp and “impossible to achieve” !
Mission, on the other hand, is more focused on the specifics
of what an organization is to accomplish. It differs from a vision in that it
focuses on function, is accomplishable and measurable, and is often statutorily
or bureaucratically established. The mission statement is a statement of an
organization's basic purposes, often in terms of broad outcomes that it is
committed to achieving or the major function it carries out. A mission can also
be the reason an agency exists. When staffs meet to write a mission statement,
they may ask "Why are we here? What do we want to do? How we want to do?"
The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out
its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the
company's strategies are formulated."
In very simple terms –
Vision – articulates the future of the organization
Mission – explains why the organization exists — its overall
purpose
To read more about vision & mission (and how to write one), see following resources -
In context of the Khan Academy, the mission is stated as – “providing
a high quality education to anyone, anywhere”. Thus, a vision could be – “Education
for every living thing!”
Some of the examples of vision are –
Google – To organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful. (Google hints that vision & mission are
same for it)
Microsoft – Create experiences that combine the magic of
software with the power of internet services across a world of devices.
GE – We bring good things to life.
Amazon – To be earth’s most customer centric company; to
build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might
want to buy online.
Some examples of mission are –
Apple – Apple is
committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students,
educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its
innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
Microsoft – To enable people and businesses throughout the
world to realize their full potential.
Dell – To be the most successful computer company in the
world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.
Yahoo! – To be the
most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses
Theory X and Theory Y –
We have earlier discussed this in my last blog (LE01).
Nevertheless, we can extend the same in context of Khan Academy.
Before proceeding any further, one important thing that
needs to be realized is that, Theory X & Theory Y are not just management
jargons but they actually pertain to each and every single human being.
From our previous discussion we can conclude that –
Theory X person is one who does not believe in working. He cannot
accept the fact that anyone would like to work on their own. He believes, a
person cannot take an initiative on his own and there has to be an enabler (a
motivation) to drive him to work. According to this theory, people must be
pushed to make them work.
On the other hand, Theory Y person is an optimist, who
believes that people like to work and are willing to take up the work and
responsibility. They need not be pushed; they can take up the work on their
own.
Taking Khan Academy into consideration, we can see that the
organization’s view are closer to the Theory Y concepts. They believe –
- People are willing to learn, we only need to make the material available and they will make the learning themselves
- People are willing to contribute to a good cause, there is no need to provide incentives for doing so (See, volunteer section of site). This contribution could be monetary or even a simple help like making a language specific subtitle.
- People are willing to share their time and stories, to inspire others.
Managerial Skills – Technical, Human & Conceptual –
What makes a good manager? Innate traits or acquired skills?
A manager is one who directs the activities of other persons and undertakes the
responsibility for achievement of objectives through such efforts. It requires
certain skills to accomplish such a challenge. Thus, essential skills which
every manager needs for doing a better management are called as Managerial
Skills.
As per Professor Katz, there are three managerial skills,
viz.,
- Technical Skills
- Human Skills
- Managerial Skills
The relative importance of these three skills varies with
the level of managerial responsibility.
Technical Skills –
A technical skill is the ability to perform the given job. The
technical skill implies an understanding of and proficiency in a specific kind
of activity, particularly one involving methods, processes, procedures, or
techniques; it involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that
specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific
discipline. As earlier depicted, the importance of the technical skill
diminishes as we go up the hierarchy from front-line managers to top
management.
Human Skills –
This refers to the ability to work with, understand and
motivate other people; the way the individual perceives (and recognizes the
perceptions of) his superiors, equals, and subordinates, and the way he behaves
subsequently. They are many times, also referred to as Interpersonal skills. In
short, it is the ability to work with people. It helps the managers to
understand, communicate and work with others. It also helps the managers to
lead, motivate and develop team spirit. Human relations skills are required by
all managers at all levels of management. This can be easily seen from the
diagram below.
Conceptual Skills –
Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize (see) the organization
as a whole. It includes Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. According
to Prof. Katz, conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level
management because they spend more time in planning, organizing and problem
solving. The better the conceptual skills, the higher is the impact of the effective
organizing. This is very well depicted in the figure below as well.
To be updated soon! More content coming, keep tuned!
Very interesting compilation! Thanks!
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