ABSTRACT
Even within a few days of the Board's taking office it was possible to detect changes in the attitudes of mill and departmental managers. On the whole, they approved the changes, both on theoretical and on practical grounds. They found that new possibilities for their own careers were opened up. Though they recognized the disadvantages of ‘committee management’ they accepted that a form of collective responsibility was probably necessary before full responsibility could be given to one individual or, indeed, before one individual could accept it in a traditional Indian family business. They saw it as a necessary transition. During the first weeks they found the new higher management inclined to approach problems more constructively, and to try to find solutions rather than, as in the past, to prove that it was somebody else's problem. In particular, they detected an improvement in the inter-divisional relationships, particularly between Manufacturing and Sales. Sales Division appeared less inclined to make pontifical pronouncements about market demand and more inclined to work out solutions that would minimize the difficulties of the Manufacturing Division.
