STUDENTS' CORNER - 13

Now, we take up the most important principle of all, in a way; that is, remuneration.  Without using any popular management jargon, to put it simply: it means everyone works for money; if not all, at least most of them.

You want employment because you want money to run the family, to educate your children, to take care of your old parents, to spend some time with your friends, to donate to some charity, to put money in the box   of some temple to fulfill your vow, to buy medicine and to pay for all the services. The list is endless as the life itself.

A very pertinent question comes to the mind in this context. If an employee works for money, does it mean that an employer does not work for money? Yes, he also does need money, first of all, to employ you through his business. A middle class worker with ever increasing burden wants to earn money, more money to meet his ends, his daily needs, his social ambitions like owning a house, a car and so on. And the fact is even the richest of the richest works for money. For him, money does not stand for all the things that you clamour after. His needs are subtler and stronger: he must succeed in his enterprises of his chosen field or fields. The ladder of success begins from the ground where you stand and it climbs up into greater and vaster skies after skies; if you are a business man in a state, your ladder encompasses the state, then, the nation and at last the very globe itself. Sometimes, no, largely it is very true that a rich business man works more than an ordinary middle-class employee. All these we share just to impress upon you that everyone without exception works for money though for infinitely different reasons.  Money is a need; a prime need at that. In a sense, money employs all, the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate.

Now, having said that money is a must for all, let us proceed to discuss how you get your money from your employer? Of course, he does not give you money for nothing. You have worked for him, given your time and energy for his company for a stipulated time everyday, for a stipulated task that suits you. So, for your service, the money he pays is called compensation. He compensates your work.  In Management, compensation is a very complex subject that keeps growing year after year.  We will look into the most important aspects touching upon compensation as and when we move along with our discussion on management principles.

When you join an institution as its employee, be it small or big, be it technical or non-technical, any institution, the first thing that you cannot fail to notice is there are more people like you as employees. And the very next thing you realize is that  neither you get the same money, now we can call it, salary, a form of compensation nor are all the jobs done there are same or even similar. These two facts are very basic facts about compensation which involves two: the one who gives compensation and the one who receives it.  This takes us to the very pertinent and most difficult question of what decides for the employer the money he has to pay for you and what decides for you the money you think you have to get from the employer. We will go into this question in our next session.