Dabbawala and Managerial Training

Carla Jane Lim

2014-62401

Managerial Training and Dabbawala

        The efficiency of Dabbawalas are indeed amazing but I still believe that formal managerial training is a must for every leader of an organization especially of companies.

        In the first place Dabbawalas are very different from companies who strive to expand internationally. The Dabbawalas strive for homogeneity, while companies strive for the diversity of their employees. The secret behind Dabbawalas’ efficiency and precision lies in the culture of the people themselves and the mutual trust they have gained with their customers and fellow workers. The result of this culture is discipline and willingness to obey such uptight rules in their organization. The work itself demands a high level of discipline. The tight schedule of the work, from picking up lunchboxes to delivering them to the trains and delivering them to the people helps synchronize and everyone and impose discipline on the workers. If someone were to be late for at least 1-2 minutes, his delivery will be left out and will be forced to take the next train, delaying the entire process. Being the only one left out, his bad performance will immediately obvious to everyone and it shall be dealt promptly by the ‘supervisors’.

        Despite the very strict rules people are still willing to be a part of Dabbawala and the reason for this is not because of money or profit, though they are paid a fair amount of money, but because this job is passed on from generation to generation of usually the same group of people. These people have almost the same set of culture, beliefs, traditions, language, values and work ethics. Not to mention the fact that the people here tend to remain in their groups and work for almost their entire working life. This sets the mood of belongingness, familiarity and bonds, which according to a Harvard researchers, Amy Edmondson and Richard Hackman, also leads to low error rates.

        Lastly, I believe the very thing that sets Dabbawalas apart from organizations such as companies is that they have one very simple mission: Delivering food on time, every time. Everyone who is part of Dabbawala is aware and follows this mission everyday. This is actually their sole mission in their every working day. I think because they have only one mission in their work: deliver food and one rule: to never be late and be on time, they are very efficient compared to companies which have very complex processes and complex set of rules.

        With all these said, I think companies are very different from Dabbawalas, from the organization structure, objectives of the organization to the culture and diversity of the people within the organization which will lead to different requirements for success. Managerial training isn’t that much needed in an organization like Dabbawala because their ‘training’ is their culture and strict delivery schedules but for complex organizations like companies which has very diverse employees and structured objectives it is very much needed and wanted.