Organization Behavior of Bangladesh Railway

Organization Behavior of Bangladesh Railway In: Social Issues Organization Behavior of Bangladesh Railway An Assignment ON Organization behavior Submitted To: Dr. Syeda Lasna Kabir Associate Professor Dept. of Public Administration University of Dhaka. Submitted By: Md. Rajvi Hasan Roll No: MM--098 4th Year; 7th Semester Dept. of Public Administration University of Dhaka. Submission Date: 16th May 2011. Assignment topic A Research on Bangladesh Railway [pic] ? Introduction: Roads & Railways Division is one of the important Divisions in the Government under the Ministry of Communication.

Ministry of Communication comprises two Divisions, 1. Roads & Railways Division and 2. Bridges Division. Roads & Railways Division shoulders a vast task and plays a vital role in socio-economic development of our country. It governs the Departments/Organizations which are playing very important roles in building our new nation. These are : (1) Roads & Highways Department (RHD), (2) Bangladesh Railway, (3) Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), (4) Bangladesh Road Transport corporation (BRTC), (5) Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board and (6) The office of the Government Inspector of Bangladesh Railways (GIBR).

The principal motto of this Division is to ensure improvement of socio-economic condition of the people of our country through formulating policies regarding roads, road transports and railways and through construction, development, expansion and maintenance of environment-friendly and user-friendly integrated roads and railway transportation. Bangladesh Railway (BR) is the state-owned rail transport agency of Bangladesh. It operates and maintains the entire railway network of the country.

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Railway operation in today's Bangladesh began on November 15, 1862 when 53. 11 kilometers of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) (broad gauge) line were opened for traffic between Darsana and Jagiti. The next 14. 98 kilometers 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3? 8 in) (meter gauge) line was opened for traffic on 4 January 1885. In 1891, the construction of then Bengal Assam Railway was taken up by the British Government assistance but that was later on taken over by the Bengal Assam Railway Company.

On 1 July 1895, two sections of meter gauge lines were opened between Chittagong and Comilla, a length of 149. 89 kilometers and between Laksam and Cahndpur, a length of 50. 89 kilometers. Railway Companies formed in England took up the construction and operation of these sections in middle and late 19th century. At time of the partition of India in 1947, Bengal-Assam Railway was split up and the portion of the system, about 2,603. 92 kilometers fell within the boundary of then East Pakistan and control remained with the central Government of Pakistan.

Later with the effect from 1 February 1961, Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as Pakistan Eastern Railway. Then in 1962, the control of Pakistan Eastern Railway was transferred from the Central Government to the Government of East Pakistan and placed under the management of a Railway Board with the effect from the financial year 1962-63 by the presidential Order of 9 June 1962. As of 2005, the total length of railroad is 2,855 kilometres.

Of that, 660 km are broad gauge tracks (mostly in the western region), 1,830 km are metre gauge tracks (mostly in the central and eastern regions) and 365 km are dual gauge tracks The gauge problem is being tackled by adding third rails to the most important broad and metre gauge routes, so that they become dual gauge. A major road-rail bridge at Jamuna opened in 1998 to connect the previously detached east and west rail networks. On March 2008, the broad gauge reached Dhaka, the national capital. Funding is being sought to upgrade the network and transform Bangladesh Railway into a profitable business.

BR exceeded its target revenue earnings in the fiscal year 2007-2008. Bangladesh Railway provides various types of services ranging from shuttle service for university students to freight and cargo service. But still BR could not make profit as it is providing services to the nation at a subsidised rate in order to help the country's economy and for the ease of people. Objective: The objectives of this study are 1) To understand & evaluate the departmentalization of the BR. 2) To know the Spam of Control system of this organization. 3) To analyze the applicability of the theory of ‘Job Specialization’ in this selected organization.

Rationale of the study: We have to overview the internal coordinating mechanism, internal environment & the technology, age and the size of the organization. Because without knowing these features we can’t evaluate an organization’s hierarchy, efficiency, working environment in true sense. Research Question: The questions which will lead us to the research: 1. How does the p of control will work in BR? 2. What is the departmentalization of BR? 3. How job specialization is occurred? Hypothesis: On which the research are based on: 1. If it is a bureaucratic structure then the job specialization, departmentalization will be strict. . If it is a matrix structure, then job specialization, departmentalization will be much flexible than the previous one Research Methodology: 1. Content Analysis which is most common method for all types of research. The related books, publications, newspapers, internet sources etc have given information about the total scenario of the organization. 2. I have interviewed few officials to understand the situation of that org. Area of focus: The area we are focusing on: Bangladesh Railway Head Office, Top khana, Dhaka. And, Bangladesh Railway Administrative Building,

Kamlapur, Dhaka. Limitations of the study: 1. I had very little time to complete this study. 2. I did not have enough experience to do such studies. 3. As the data are collected from key informants at their working hours, there is chance of not receiving exact accurate information 4. I faced non cooperation from some of the employees. • Chapterization: 1. Introduction: The railway department is a semi-autonomous organization under the The Ministry of Communications. This study intends to find out the internal coordinating mechanism, how does it cope with the external environment.

The whole system of communication, tasks, coordinating mechanism prevails around organizational structure. Job specialization & departmentalization are the two vital features of organization. And these two are hugely depended on that. If it follows a bureaucratic structure, then the job specialization & departmentalization will be as rigid as the bureaucracy. And if it follows a matrix structure, then it will be more open to the environment. 2. Theoretical Framework: In this study, we will try to define these with the following theories: Job Specialization:

The method of job specialization involves breaking down a task to its lowest level and designing jobs around each part. This creates specialization, expertise, and improved quality. Job specialization design in the workplace is frequently seen in manufacturing and assembly lines where a worker focuses on one specific task and ability during the entire work shift. The task frequently repeats all day long. Specialization is the process of performing a certain task which makes a person be in limited in performing other activities out of work she/he is specializes purposely.

Job descriptions are written statements that describe the: • duties, • responsibilities, • most important contributions and outcomes needed from a position, • required qualifications of candidates, and • Reporting relationship and coworkers of a particular job. Job descriptions are based on objective information obtained through job analysis, an understanding of the competencies and skills required to accomplish needed tasks, and the needs of the organization to produce work. Job descriptions clearly identify and spell out the responsibilities of a specific job.

Job descriptions also include information about working conditions, tools, equipment used, knowledge and skills needed, and relationships with other positions. The best job descriptions are living, breathing documents that are updated as responsibilities change. The best job descriptions do not limit employees, but rather, cause them to stretch their experience, grow their skills, and develop their ability to contribute within their organization. Departmentalization: Departmentalization refers to the process of grouping activities into departments.

Division of labor creates specialists who need coordination. This coordination is facilitated by grouping specialists together in departments. The main types of departmentalization are- • Functional departmentalization - Grouping activities by functions performed. Activities can be grouped according to function (work being done) to pursue economies of scale by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments for example human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering.

Functional departmentalization can be used in all types of organizations. • Product departmentalization - Grouping activities by product line. Tasks can also be grouped according to a specific product or service, thus placing all activities related to the product or the service under one manager. Each major product area in the corporation is under the authority of a senior manager who is specialist in, and is responsible for, everything related to the product line. LA Gear is an example of company that uses product departmentalization. Its structure s based on its varied product lines which include women’s footwear, children’s footwear and men’s’ footwear. • Customer departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of common customers or types of customers. Jobs may be grouped according to the type of customer served by the organization. The assumption is that customers in each department have a common set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists. The sales activities in an office supply firm can be broken down into three departments that serve retail, wholesale and government accounts. Geographic departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography. For example, the organization structure of Coca-Cola has reflected the company’s operation in two broad geographic areas – the North American sector and the international sector, which includes the Pacific Rim, the European Community, Northeast Europe, Africa and Latin America groups. • Process departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of product or service or customer flow.

Because each process requires different skills, process departmentalization allows homogenous activities to be categorized. For example, the applicants might need to go through several departments namely validation, licensing and treasury, before receiving the driver’s license. Span of control: The p of control refers to number of employees that directly report to a single manager. Span of control determines the structure of an organization, a narrow p of control results in hierarchal organization while broad p of control leads to flat structure.

Since management represents the activities that do not directly result in productivity, they are rather a overhead, p of control determines the additional operational cost. Quantitatively, companywide overhead can be calculated by dividing the total number of management staff with the size of organization. Span of control formulation What is an optimal ratio of manger to direct reports without compromising the productivity? It is a fundamental problem in designing the structure of an organization; empirically this range is pretty wide, from 4 to 22 depending upon the nature of work.

In 1933, V. A. Graicunas, a paris based consultant formulated the p of control based on number of direct and indirect relationships that a superior has to manage. Graicunas identified three types of relationships: 1. Number of direct relationships between manager and subordinate, it represents the p of control. 2. Number of peer-to-peer relationships, it represent issues due to interpersonal conflicts. Note that each pair of peers represent 2 relationships and not 1, if there are two subordinates, dick and jane, dick might have different concern for jane than jane’s concern for dick.

Hence for a manger, they represent 2 different set of problems and not one. 3. Data analysis ; data presentation: Bangladesh Railway is one of the most efficient ; large departments of GOB. Since the Department was founded the size of the major rail network in Bangladesh has grown. The Department is headed by a Director General who is supported by a number of officers. The total number of personnel in the Department is almost 35,000. It’s a huge number for any organization. To control this kind of large organizations, one needs to have very strong Span of control or line of authority. BR has that. pic] After independence, the railway was first supervised by a Railway Board which was abolished in 1982. Thereafter, the BR came under the jurisdiction of the Railway Division of the Ministry of Communications with the Secretary of the Division working as the Director General of BR. In 1995, instead of being the part of the Ministry, BR came under control of a professional Director General supervised by the Bangladesh Railway Authority that is chaired by the Minister of Communications. As the part of the Bureaucracy, BRfollows the BURREAUCRATIC STRUCTURE, which refers to the Tall Organization.

According to the concept it is appropriate for Bureaucratic Organizations. But, it causes some disadvantages too. DEPARTMENTALIZATION can be described as grouping employees on the basis of the similarity of expertise, knowledge. It enhances the success rate of an organization. As BR is a huge organization, it’s divided into several departments on the basis of the similar functions. BR is divided into two zones, East ; West, each under control of a general manager who is accountable to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway. The two zones have their separate departments or operation, maintenance, and finances. Each zone is divided into two divisions that contain departments for Personnel, Transportation, Commercial, Finance Mechanical, Way and Works Signaling ; Telecommunication, Electrical, Medical, etc. Each zone also has its Workshop Divisions, located at Pahartali and Saidpur, respectively. A locomotive workshop is located at Parbatipur for broad and metre gauge locomotives. BR manages its own Railway Training Academy. A separate Directorate under the Ministry of Communications is charged to inspect different works of BR in relation to safety.

Job Specialization is the process of performing a certain task which makes a person be in limited in performing other activities out of work she/he is specializes purposely. It enables employees to become very skilled ; productive at their assigned task. Another motive of departmentalization is to ensure job specialization. It is usually seen that every department of an organization is assigned to those functions or tasks at which they are expert. The downside of job specialization tends to be that people can only do one task. They aren’t trained to multitask or handle multiple areas of a workplace.

As a result, when a critical expertise is lost, the process can suffer. Additionally, workers under job specialization don’t have a wide array of applicable skills, so it becomes hard for them to adapt to a new function or need in the organization. It creates monopoly this means after specialization certain field of work may lead into boredom to the worker. Efficient administration of BR is also hindered by lack of rules and regulations that have been approved by the Board but are awaiting Government approval as well. Which creates delay to the recruitment process. Conclusion:

Removing the old shield, the whole world is intending to get more modernized. But still we are following the hundreds years old ‘Bureaucracy system’ which has caused nothing but losses. Being a Bureaucratic organization or part BR is no different. They are still following the traditional bureaucratic model with no flexibility. Everything in the organization prevails according to the law ; regulation. Job specialization or departmentalization is fixed. They can’t work out of it, even in an emergency. There is little chance for the subordinates to present their ideas or opinions by crossing seniors.

They maintain a very strict line of authority, where managers have the supreme authority. This may be the traditional bureaucratic role. But it has to change according to the needs of this millennium. As like the private organizations RHD officials should be given more freedom, authorization to take faster decision. Only then the organizational goal of customer satisfaction can be achieved. Reference: 1. http://www. railway. gov. bd 2. Class lectures 3. Railway Information book 4. Mr. Ahsanullah Bhuiyan, Deputy Director, Bangladesh Railway. 5. Mr. Sarwar Alam, Asstt. Commercial Officer, Bangladesh Railway. [pic]

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