It is not often that a premier management institute of the country takes the example of a Government officer to teach management and leadership skills.
Now, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad (IIM-A), India’s foremost institution of management learning, has recognised the contribution of a top cop of Odisha, Binoy Kumar Behera.
Behera, a 1982-batch IPS officer, is presently Additional DG of Police, Training, and Director of Biju Patnaik State Police Academy, Bhubaneswar.
The financial and administrative turnaround achieved in Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) during Behera’s tenure as ots CMD between 2003 and 2008 had prompted the IIM-A to undertake a study of this PSU. The study left the IIM-A faculty impressed enough to decide to teach its students Behera’s management and leadership skills.
The OSRTC case study is now part of the IIM-A syllabus for the most sought-after management graduates of the country. The case study can be accessed at http://cases.iimahd.ernet.in/index.php/orissa-state-road-transport-corporation-osrtc.html#
Moreover, Behera’s ability to innovate and modify his style of functioning to suit the varying needs of an organisation has been highlighted on a wider canvas to illustrate internationally a new theory, the ‘Situational leadership Theory’.
The acclaimed global bestseller on corporate governance and prescribed textbook in management institutes in India and abroad is the book Organisational Behaviour coauthored by Stephen Robbins of the San Diego State University, Timothy Judge of the University of Notre-Dame and Neharika Vohra of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and now in its 15th edition. It enunciates this new contingent leadership theory.
In the chapter on ‘leadership’, it mentions how contingent situations may require application of situational leadership practices.
Illustrating the theory, it elaborates how Behera handled different management requirements of different sections within the OSRTC differently, emphasising how a leader can exercise different styles of leadership within the same organisation depending on the situation in different segments within that organisation.
That the OSRTC example is being discussed and taught in management institutes not only in India but abroad as well is surely a unique recognition, feel management experts here.