12

Chapter I

Introduction

The term management does not refer merely to issuing orders, but it is an art of getting things done through and with the people in formally organised groups. The term management is often used as a process of This process includes five elements. They are These are

discharging duties well.

planning, organising, directing, co-ordinating, and controlling.

called the five basic functions of management. To make rational use of scarce resources and to achieve the rapid overall progress it is absolutely essential that the basic concepts and techniques of management are made known to all the sections of the society.

The primary purpose of a business is to make profit for the benefit of its owners. The basic purpose of a non-profit organisation is not to make profit and not to benefit the individuals as owners but to advance the welfare of the society1. We can see organisations everywhere in the modern society. They play an important role in the modern society. There are different types of organisations such as small, medium and large -scale, formal and informal and compulsory and voluntary . One of the important tasks of a responsible person is the determination of the suitable structure of the organisation Maxweber, Fedrick Winslow Taylor and Hendri Fayol were the major contributors of the classical approach of the organisational design. The

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classical thinkers believed that the most effective and efficient organisations had a hierarchical structure in which members of the organisations were guided in their actions by a sense of duty to the organisations and by a set of rational rules and regulations2.

One of the most important human activities is management. Ever since people began to form groups to accomplish their aims, they could not achieve them as individuals. Managing has been essential to ensure the co-ordination of individual efforts. Therefore management has been applied to every type of organisation such as small and large, profit making and non- profit making service and manufacturing industries and in religious institutions. The

managers must always remember that the employers and customers are the key-elements of an organisation. Therefore, the manager must create an

atmosphere for the customers to approach the manager and communicate their satisfaction as well as their dissatisfaction3.

Different authors have given their own contributions to the management field. F.W. Taylor has provided many contributions in the

development of management theory4. Maxweber has proposed bureaucracy as an ideal type of large organisation; and the Roman Catholic Church is good example for the adoption of this principle. The Church has a scalar Chain as Pope, Bishops, heads of orders, and priests are the order of priority.5

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From the middle of the 20th century the Human Relations School of Thought was developed. This school has given more emphasis on the

psychological and social needs of individual employees. In this period, an attempt was made to bring together classical management and human relations management. The main findings of this theory was that no single form of organisation structure is suitable to every type of organisation. By giving due participation to the employees, the manager has the ability to solve the problems that may arise in the organisation for the day to day functioning of the enterprise.

The Church is founded and rooted in Christ. Jesus Christ is fully human- true God and true man. The authority of Christ is handed down to his apostles, and through the apostles to their rightful successors. Hence the authority in the Church is directly from God through what is known as apostolic succession. It is on Peter the rock- the chosen leader of the apostles on whom the Church is founded. To carry on His mission, Christ had

entrusted the responsibility, right and duty to the apostles and their rightful successors (St. Mk. 16: 16-19). To guide the Church progressively means, using the authority handed over to the apostles and through the apostolic traditions to their rightful successors, to maintain the functioning of the Church fruitfully and correctly and to nurture the faith of the people of God (the Church) according to the mind of Christ. For this, there is a hierarchy of offices with responsible individuals and groups that function in the

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Church.The administrative management in the Church is carrying out the saving mission of Christ among the faithful till the end of times. To realise the aims and purposes of Christ, for actualising the Salvific work of Christ, is essentially the management in the Church.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is a form of a formal organisation. Therefore the scope of my study is limited to the aspect of the management practices of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar Catholics is constituted of nearly thirty-five (35) lakhs of people. Even though we have well-defined and written bye-laws and documents, the practical

implementation is not yet fully satisfying to the People of God and the clergy. According to the opinion of management experts like Peter F. Drucker, and F.W. Taylor, a very high Percentage of success or failure of an organisation depends on its manager. In the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church the

hierarchical level of power is written and documented very clearly and forcefully, even then, in its actual functioning and implementation, there are failures, shortcomings, and dissatisfaction. If there are obstacles for the

implementation, how can they be overcome? Can the rules and regulations used for the proper running of the Syro-Malabar Church be gainfully used in other areas of management? In this thesis an attempt is made to study the various aspects of the management practices adopted by the Syro-Malabar Church in the State of Kerala. There are a number of rites and liturgical forms existing in the Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar Church an important one in the Church setup.

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This Church inside and outside Kerala functions in a praiseworthy manner. There is a responsible and effective authority to function this Church. Those who have taken up or been appointed to exercise authority carryout their responsibilities in a praiseworthy and appropriate manner. The core thrust of this paper is to study how the Syro-Malabar Church functions effectively and in an appreciative manner the function and responsibility entrusted to it to carryout the mission of Christ. For this there is a hierarchical set up. The head of the diocese in this hierarchical set up is the Bishop of the diocese. His authority includes legislative, Judicial, and executive powers. In order to help and collaborate with him there are the clergy or priests and different consultative bodies.

The decisions taken at the diocesan level are implemented in the parishes. The people of the parish are known as "the people of God". The concurrent opinions of the experts in the management affairs like FW Taylor, Henry Fayol and Peter Drucker are that participatory management is more effective and fruitful. In the management of the Church, do the people of God get deserving, sufficient and effective participation? If the primary and most important aim of a business organisation is maximum profit, that of the Church organisation is the integrated individual development of the person. The main thrust of this paper is to trace out and evaluate the involvement and enthusiasm of the parishioners in implementing the decisions and directions from diocese. A study of this nature has not been under taken in the State of Kerala. Hence the relevance of this study.

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Objectives of the study: On the basis of the above theoretical perspective, the following are the important objectives covered under this study 1) 2) To analyse the structure of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Kerala To study the various management management 3) To study and evaluate the relationship, responsibility and schools in the conventional

accountability of the hierarchical structure of the Syro-Malabar Church in the diocese functioning like a three-tier system, with the Bishop at the top, priests in the middle, and the people of God at the bottom. 4) To study and evaluate the practical efficiency of the policy implementation 5) To study the management functions of the Church hierarchies to make a SWOT analysis. 6) 7) To make recommendations to the respective authorities of these hierarchies on the basis of findings and conclusions of the study.

Hypotheses H.1. There is no significant difference in the formulation of policies of the parish. H. 2. Budgets are not prepared at the parish level.

H .3.

There is no significant difference in the involvement of priests in the election process of priest senate and management of the dioceses.

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H. 4.

There is no significant difference between the priests role in the decision making power and the support they get from the Bishop and the Curia

H. 5.

There is no significant difference between the priest's role in the decision making power and their co-ordination activity.

H. 6.

There is no significant difference in the role of priests in the management of Church activities.

H. 7.

There is no variation among the priests in the matter of sending reports to higher authorities.

H .8.

There is no significant difference in the collection of feedback on the part of higher authorities.

H. 9.

There is no significant difference in the decisive power in the matter of general administration.

H. 10.

There is no significant difference in the decision-making role of the parish priest and the parish management structure.

H.11.

There is no difference of opinion among the priests on the efficiency of the diocesan management

H. 12.

The Church management focuses on the overall development of the people.

H. 13.

There

is

no

significant

difference

between

the

diocesan

management structure and the curia's decision-making role on general administration. H. 14. The Church is not practising centralised management.

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Variables studied The dependent and independent variables of the study are listed below:Dependent Variables (D.V.) D.V. 1.Election to administrative bodies Independent Variables (I.V.) I.V .1 Parish Yogam. I.V.2. Parish council. I.V.3. Democracy. I.V.4. Nomination. I.V.5. Representation. I.V.6. Yogam/Council meeting. D.V.2.Planning. I.V.1. Framing policies. I.V.2. Preparation of budge. D.V.3. Organising. I.V. 1. Conduct of meeting. I.V.2. Laitys participation. I.V.3. Feed back. D.V. 4. Decision making. I.V.1. Democratic. I.V.2. Autocratic. D.V.5. Co-ordinating. I.V.1. Diocesan management. I.V.2. Diocesan Pastoral Council. I.V.3. Priest Senate. D.V.6. controlling. I.V.1. Communication. I.V.2. Reporting .

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Data Base and Methodology This study has been conducted in two stages. At the first stage,

secondary data was collected from the published sources. Research articles and authoritative books on conventional and Christian management were critically analysed. An in-depth study was made into the 'Canon Law' for evaluating the management functions of Christian hierarchy. Publications from different dioceses were reviewed keeping in view the objectives of the study. For literature review and collections of secondary data, the researcher has visited various well-established libraries. They are St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary Vadavathoor, Kottayam, St. Joseph's Pontifical Seminary

Mangalappuzha and Dharmaram College, Bangalore. Visits were also made to the archives and museum of the Mount St. Thomas, Major Archiepiscopal Centre, Kakkanad, British Council Library, Trivandrum, the Library of Kerala University, Centre for Management Studies, Bangalore, the Library of St. Albert's College Ernakulam. Contemporary information was gathered through Internet.

In the second stage, primary data was collected through a field survey. For this purpose, three sets of questionnaires were prepared. questionnaires were sent to the Bishops, the priests and the Laity. These The

questionnaire was finalised keeping in view the objectives of the study. It was so designed to extract the present managerial set- up of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala. An attempt was made to bring out the management

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practices in the Church and to project the advantages and shortcomings of the present system.

Survey Design There are 12 dioceses in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in the State of Kerala. Fifty per cent of these dioceses were chosen for this study. For achieving equitable representation, the entire state had been divided into three zones, viz. Southern, Central and Northern. From each zone two dioceses were chosen at random. From the southern region Changanacherry and Kottayam dioceses, from the central region Ernakulam and Thrissur dioceses and from the Northern region Thalassery and Mananthavady dioceses were chosen. From each diocese five parishes and from each parish five persons are selected. From one diocese, twenty-five lay persons and ten priests were personally interviewed with the help of the structured questionnaire. Hence the sample size comprises of one hundred and fifty lay persons, sixty priests and six Bishops. Of the 150 lay persons 1/3 were

women. The reason why the number of women were limited to 1/3 is due to the fact that from the preliminary pilot study it was clear that in the Church management women's participation is minimal and almost insignificant. Hence the number of women respondents was reduced. A sincere effort was made to collect the opinions and responses from all groups of the people of the parish. They were grounded on the basis of their educational qualifications.

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Pilot Study and Finalisation of Interview Schedule A pilot study was conducted for finalising the questionnaires for the interview schedule. The pilot study was conducted by personally interviewing the lay people and the priests, randomly selected from three dioceses, viz., Ernakulam, Kottayam, and Changanacherry. On the basis of the pilot study necessary corrections and changes were effected to the original interview schedule. The questionnaire was finalised accordingly and used for the field survey. Copies of these questionnaires are given in the appendix.

Analysis of Data The collected data were edited, coded, and then entered into a master chart. MS Word and MS Excel Programme were used for the same. Each item of the data was strictly checked for its accuracy, before being entered into the master chart. Analytical Tables were prepared and statistical tools were used wherever necessary. Using these as the guidepost, the data were analysed with the help of Computer Package namely Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS),Statistical tools like Percentage, average, growth- rate etc. were applied for the meaningful analysis of the data. The hypotheses which were developed for this study were tested by applying the chi-square test of goodness of fit Resume of the Work Done The study, as stated earlier, is based on the primary and secondary data. The information collected from these sources was critically analysed.

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The management hierarchy and the practices adopted in the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala is depicted in Chapter III. The required information for this has been collected from published research articles and authoritative text books. Important libraries at Vadavathoor, Managalapuzha and Bangalore were personally visited to enquire into the availability of literature on the topic

Presentation of the Study The origin , the development ,the organisational set-up and the management of the Syro-Malabar Church is clearly explained in chapter II. The required information for this has been collected from the authoritative texts and theCanon Law,The present eparchial and parish structure and the assisting bodies in the management of eparchies and parishes are dealt with in the third chapter.

The primary data collected through field- survey has been critically and systematically analysed to evaluate the present management practices in the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala.The important management functions of planning , organising, communicating and controlling, which are being practised in the Syro-Malabar Church in the state is scientifically analysed and the result is depicted in chapter V. Reference Period The study is more qualitative than quantitative. Hence the length of the period is immaterial. The published information on the topic was critically

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analysed. The reference period for the collection of primary data is one year commencing from August 2000 to July 2001. Concepts and Definitions used in the study The Church and Other Management related terms and concepts used in the study are explained below. 1. Church means what belongs to the Lord, where there is a specific group of people who assemble together to call on the name of the Lord in prayer and fellowship.It is a term applied to many kinds of group ranging from the smallest gathering of

"Two" or "Three"in "My Name"(St.Mt.18:20) 2. Trustees Trustees are members elected to help the parish priest in matters of daily administration of the execution of the decisions of the Parish

administrative bodies. 3. Priests Senate or Presbytral Council It is a body constituted of the representatives of all the priests in the diocese in order to help the Bishop through advice on matters concerning the diocese. 4. Hierarchy In the Bible hierarchy means a body of religious rulers consisting of various ranks, each

subordinate to the one above it.

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According to the 'Canon Law' hierarchy refers also to the grades or ranks, formed according to the degree of spiritual power or authority that they possess. 5. Rite The word "Rite" is derived from the Latin word "Ritus".In English, rite meaning the accepted and approved manner of divine worship and Christian acts of prayer in different parts of the world

according to their existing cultural traditions. 6. Diocesan or Eparical Curia 7. Econome 8. Major Archiepiscopal special Church 9. Laity He is the financial administrator of the diocese A Church governed by its own law. It. enjoys relative autonomy. Whenever any It is the administrative Centre of the diocese

need arises the Centre (Rome) can intervene The term Laity means all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church.

10. Catholic

The word catholic literally means "Universal".

11. Autocracy

- It

means

government

by

one

person

with

unlimited power.