PART B

5. An analysis of the responsibilities of a plantation superintendent

The profit factor

In the private sector of commerce the specific objectives of a business are combined with the objective of profit. The result of achieving the objectives of the business must be that its owners gain (money) on their outlays. Superintendents should recognise and accept that this primary motive of profit is equally applicable to a plantation treated as a commercially operated business unit. Some people do not hold the motive of profit in esteem. It is therefore worth examining what profit is and how it arises. After all the performance of superintendents is very often measured by the profit made in their respective plantations.

To understand this concept, imagine a person who is neither a plantation superintendent nor an owner of a plantation who wishes to produce tea and make a profit. In order to achieve this objective this 'potential entrepreneur' requires in economic parlance three main ingredients, land, labour and capital the universal factors of production. (In this hypothesis it is assumed that this businessman can lease a plantation from its owners.) In this venture the businessman also manages the plantation and consequently takes on the role of a plantation superintendent as well.

The superintendent in his hypothetical role of a businessman cannot obtain green tea leaves without the land (plantation), without labour he cannot harvest this tea and without a factory he cannot manufacture the green tea leaves into a marketable product and without capital there would be no money which he needs to pay the lease to the owner of the plantation, the labour employed, the materials, tools and implements used to produce tea. The superintendent as a businessman must be certain in advance that his production of tea will bring back the money he spent on land, labour, and materials and also bring back a return on his capital employed. In economic terms this return is called profit. A return on capital in the form of profit is justified: for capital is nothing more than the results of previous production. If our hypothetical businessman sells his tea at higher prices and accumulates more money than his immediate requirements, he can use that extra money as capital to finance more production.

Associated closely with the objective of this enterprise that is marketable tea, is the necessity to decide in broad terms how this objective is to be achieved; that is to lay down the policies of the business. In a commercial plantation this would involve the methods employed to manufacture the tea, the type of tea produced; orthodox tea, C. T. C. tea (cut tear and curl) green tea, instant tea, organic tea etc. He also has to decide where and how he is to sell his produce; through brokers, direct sales, in consumer package forms, in bulk and so on. He may decide to sell produce on a cash or credit basis etc. The foregoing is of course a very simple example of how an entrepreneur determines how basic policy is laid down and in practice, particularly in a manufacturing business when the proceedings will be far lengthier and more complex than for example in an organisation purchasing and selling books.

Returning to the management of the conjectural plantation; apart from its size, location and condition of the plantation, the continuous flow of an adequate supply of labour, capable staff, a factory with the required capacity to accommodate the leaf harvested, the type of machinery in a good state of repair to manufacture the variety of tea to be produced, whether any extra machinery will be required to implement the manufacturing programmes, the channels of distribution of the produce if in retail package form and so on are all factors that are to be considered as in any manufacturing concern. However once the initial objectives & basic policies of an enterprise have been laid down, the interpretation and implementation of such policies and the achievement of the targets is the responsibility of the management team. Of course the objectives may have to be modified in the light of experience, market trends, commercial viability etc. after a business has been established. In a plantation such elasticity in objectivity understandably is limited.

A business or any organisation for that matter can only survive or continue to exist for as long as there is a need for its products and services. Alternatively a business can create a need. In the plantation sector fortunately the need of its produce has generally been a perennial factor, despite the fact fluctuations between demand and supply had an impact on the prices secured for the products causing concerns to the producers especially in the face of strong international competition.

Policies are in reality attitudes of the enterprise towards achieving its objectives. They are therefore more flexible and can be adjusted to overcome the problems that may arise in attaining the objective, or even as required by the operating position of the enterprise at a particular time. Such changes of policy in modifying objectives are made by the owner of a business or in a large organisation by the board of directors of the company.

If a plantation is considered, the enterprise, in addition to its objective of producing tea, should bear departmental objectives also set by the management and policies laid down for their accomplishment. For example to harvest a certain quantum of green tea leaf, during a particular period, within the limit of a pre-determined plucking cost. Unless each department attains the objectives allocated to them the overall objectives of the enterprises may not be achieved.

Every commercial enterprise is formed and directed with the object of making a profit from its activities. A plantation manager is therefore concerned with his cost of production and his final nett sale average secured for his product. The greater the difference of income (the nett sale average) over the expenditure (cost of production) the greater the profit. It is the responsibility of the superintendent to ensure the accomplishment of maximum profit. If the plantation makes good profits there should be benefits for all those involved with it. The owners will get a good return for their investments, the superintendent and members of his staff may benefit from salary increases, bonuses and even job security. But such benefits of profit did not accrue to the daily paid work force in a direct form excepting 'attendance bonus schemes' during state ownership of plantations. However recent developments of the availability of a slice of plantation company shares to the daily paid workers should lay the foundation for such benefits to be applicable to these workers as well in the future. (However if the plantation runs at a loss an opposite climate will result purely of a negative and frustrating nature.)

The meaning of responsibility in management

It has been frequently seen that all grades of managers find it difficult to understand clearly the meaning of the often used word responsibility. There is no simple definition to explain explicitly and exhaustively the meaning of the word as applicable to management. The word often means different things to different people and because of this reason the word responsibility is used on occasions when another word should have been utilised instead.

Responsibility is therefore used as a blanket word in the hope that it is understood by the intended user. The problem is that most people misinterpret the word as intended by the giver due to no fault of their own. This lack of a common, lucid meaning to the word 'responsibility' can lead to misunderstandings, disputes and unpleasantness, which needs to be avoided in management. Managers regardless of their seniority have responsibilities towards a number of different people or different groups of people. The following example in everyday life is a good starting point in making clear what is responsibility and responsibilities.

If a man has a wife and children he has certain responsibilities towards them. They depend on him for housing, food, clothes, education, medical care etc. The man has a moral obligation towards the members of his family to provide for their welfare and comfort. In order to shoulder his responsibilities to the full he will secure suitable employment and will work hard to earn enough to fulfill his obligations to his family. He will also spend some of his non - working hours with his family, may join in their activities and will teach them and guide them in such a manner that they in turn will grow up into a well balanced adulthood bearing a sense of responsibility. The man will not waste his earnings on the proverbial wine, women and song but will try and save for the future of his family. However if a man is not prepared to accept or carry out his responsibilities or is unable to do so owing to ill health or some other reasons the family will suffer. The larger the man's family (i.e. the more children he has) the more will be his responsibilities, because more people will depend on him. Such dependence may be extended if the man has to provide for his parents or his wife's parents or others like younger brothers and sisters who are schooling or unemployed. The man therefore is responsible or accountable or liable for the welfare of his family and dependants.

This example applies equally to management.

The more senior an individual's managerial position in a given enterprise, the greater will be the number of people who are dependent on his managerial skills and abilities for livelihoods. His subordinates will depend on him to ensure that their sections or departments also function well and indeed that the enterprise as a whole achieves its objectives. The owners/shareholders also look to the manager to earn profits and returns for their investments and customers will expect to be provided with the right goods and services of the right quality and description at the right time and right prices. Suppliers who are associated with the enterprise will depend on the survival of the enterprise for markets of their own subsidiary products and services; in short their own survival.

A superintendent in his role as the most senior manager of the plantation assumes a similar state of responsibility and obligation to all those people not only subordinate to him like staff and labour but to other people who provide subsidiary services like plantation supplies, transport, broking of plantation produce etc. His responsibilities extend to the owners/ shareholders of the company or enterprise which employed him as well. He is responsible for the plantation and all those who are associated with it directly or indirectly.

In a plantation environment it is important for all those involved in supervision or management to understand why the degree, extent or breadth of a person's responsibilities is generally reflected in the rewards in terms of a salary or other benefits he receives. This is because the more senior the position held by a person, the greater are the consequences to the plantation for his actions and decisions. An error in weighing pluckers' green tea leaf on the part of a plucking kanakapulle is unlikely to cost the plantation much. But if the superintendent of the plantation resorts to wrong action, makes a wrong decision or gives a wrong directive serious consequences may accrue to the plantation and hence the plantation company in terms of financial loss, loss of production, lost sales or even a loss of reputation.

Conversely even excellent work by an individual field supervisor may not affect the overall prosperity of the plantation. But the right directive, the right decision and right action at the right moment made by the superintendent may and should bring far reaching benefits to the plantation in the short term or long term.
Another factor is also an important consideration. Whilst at the end of a working day a daily paid worker, a supervisor or a kangani can go home and forget about his job until the next working day, their superintendent certainly cannot do so. Even if the superintendent returns to his bungalow often late in the evening from his office chores and is relaxing with his family or friends his mind will continue to be active often unconsciously considering, re-viewing, forecasting, planning and 51 THE ESSENCE OF PLANTATION MANAGEMENT pondering matters in the day to day management of his plantation. He simply cannot leave his job or problems behind at the office, factory or field before calling it a day. Some superintendents claim they can switch off when the day is done. This could be due to some efficient managers having an enviable capability of relegating their problem solving etc., to their sub-conscious minds temporarily at will. This is a rare breed of manager. The average managers even during social gatherings tend to indulge in plantation management and virtually nothing else; a common complaint emanating from the planters' spouses! In management, responsibility is closely linked to authority. A person may have the authority or he has been authorised to take certain actions or decisions. For instance he may b authorised to sign cheques as in the case of an assistant superintendent or a chief clerk being second signatory to cheques in payment for goods supplied or services rendered. In such a case the chief clerk or assistant superintendent has the responsibility to ensure that the cheques are mad payable to the correct person or firms, that the amounts paid are the correct amounts and the payments are made for goods supplied or services actually performed. Another person may b authorised to make orders for the supply of goods or materials to the business. He therefore has the responsibility of ensuring that the correct items in the correct quantities and qualities at the beg prices on the best terms are ordered from the most reliable supplier. In effect if a person is a recipient of authorisation to take certain actions or decisions means that the responsibility for the consequences of actions and decisions that have bee delegated to the recipient by his superior, the superintendent is such a recipient' responsibility. It is often thought erroneously that a superintendent can delegate his authority to a subordinate but that he cannot convey the responsibility to him (the subordinate). A person who has authority delegated to him by a superior has to bear the responsibility of hi actions and the decisions he makes on that authority that has been passed on to him. A superintendent's responsibilities towards the enterprise, the plantation Every person employed in a plantation performs work of different types and consequent incurs an automatic responsibility towards it. The basic responsibility of a plantation employee in any category is of course to provide a full day's work for the wages/salary he receives for the work performed. A basic sense of responsibility is also generally expected from daily paid pluckers, sundry, workers, factory workers, kanganies, supervisors etc. in their activities at their workplaces. However heads of departments and managers and their executive assistants have greater responsibilities towards the plantation. These include the following: a) Ensuring that they perform their own duties and responsibilities to the best of their abilities in the best interest of the plantation.
