Read the following passages carefully and answer the given questions. Certain words/ phrases are given in bold in the passages to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

PASSAGE

Can India make it to a leadership position in the new millennium or will it retain the ‘fast train-going slow' image of the last 50 odd years? Most people believe that the potential for our country to succeed is huge. They are also disappointed at the inability to convert the natural advantages we possess into tangible benefits. The recent success of our infotech industry globally has reinforced the belief that when we put our mind to it, we can, and do succeed. Now, the expectation is that this success will be replicated in other areas. There is no doubt that India's further will be driven by the intellectual capital of its people. Even though many of the billion Indian people are and will continue for the foreseeable further to live in a third-world setting, there are many Indians with the skills, ability and aspiration to prosper and flourish in a first-world environment. It is, therefore, likely that India will, at the same time, belong to both the first and third worlds.

That first-world environment will be powered increasingly by knowledge workers and brainware India clearly has the numbers. It needs to invest in training and skill-building and also encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking. I have no magic recipe to convert India's people power into a competitive advantage on global basis. Also, I am nowhere near qualified to address macro issues like universal education and school curricula. Therefore, I have to shrink the issue into a familiar framework of `growing our people.’ It is imperative that Indian business pay more than lip service to the empowerment of their employees. We have to break the `do-as-you are told’ mentality which inhibits creativity and promotes the culture of servitude long after our `foreign masters’ are gone. Together with empowerment, there has to be a culture of personal accountability so that everyone realises the necessity of valuing commitment. In all areas of activity, seniority and hierarchies (if any) must be based purely on merit. Seniority, like respect, must be earned and not `termed,’ i.e., based on the length of service. Future organisations will be based on communities and interaction between individuals and teams both within and outside the organisation. The work environment both with respect to physical space as well as culture, must be barrierless/boundryless, allowing the impromptu and regular interaction across workgroups/teams.

Organisations must accept that empowerment and personal accountability should go hand in hand with a degree of tolerance for mistakes and failures. Mistakes and failures are good learning opportunities for our people and should be regarded as such unless repeated. Tolerance would also provide a safety net for those prepared to take risks, a quality rarely seen among Indian executives today but crucial to succeed in the new economy.

Organisations must be as transparent as possible with their employees. Both good and bad news must be shared. Often organisations and their leadership wrongly believe that the employees aren’t interested in certain information or, more arrogantly, decide that information is best withheld as it is beyond the comprehension of their employees.

Knowledge sharing must be pushed at all levels through a carrot-and-stick approach. Those who continuously hoard knowledge must be weeded out. Everyone must come to work thinking that they will learn and add to their skills, Performance management must be institutionalised to give everyone a clear understanding of organisational goals, team goals, the individual’s role or goals within a team, rewards which follow from meeting goals, and career opportunities in the organisation.

Encourage a sense of commitment to the community among your employees. Apart from making them feel good about themselves, it also affords opportunities for them to work as teams in a non-work environment.

Above all, make work fun. If people, however talented, show up at work because it is a job, then they are unlikely to realise their full potential.

The above is not an exhaustive list for each organisation to get the best out of its people. But if each organisation addresses some of these issues then people will grow individually and collectively. Thus is bound to have a beneficial effect on harnessing and driving their intellectual capita.

The carrot-and-stick method will realise which of the following objectives?