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Culture and Organizational Behaviour

ii



Jai B. P. Sinha

Copyright © Jai B. P. Sinha, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First published in 2008 by SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B1/I-1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India www.sagepub.in SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA SAGE Publications Ltd 1 OliverÊs Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP, United Kingdom SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in 10/12 pt Palatino by Star Compugraphics Private Limited, Delhi and printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sinha, Jai B. P. (Jai Ballabha Prasad), 1936ă Culture and organizational behaviour/Jai B. P. Sinha. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Organizational behaviour·India. 2. Management·India. customs. I. Title. HD58.7.S594123

658.400954·dc22

2008

3. Culture.

4. India·Social life and

2008039697

ISBN: 978-81-7829-896-2 (PB) The SAGE Team: Anjana Saproo, Abantika Banerjee, Gautam Dubey and Trinankur Banerjee

Dedicated to Gita, my wife

vi


Contents List of Tables List of Figures List of Boxes List of Abbreviations Preface

xi xii xiii xvi xviii PART 1: THE BACKDROP

1. Organizational Behaviour Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Facets of Organizational Behaviour Growth of Organizational Behaviour Organizational Behaviour in the Indian Setting Global Organizational Behaviour Summary Exercises

2. Indian Cultural Context Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Indian Cultural Perspective Indian Cultural Traditions The Composite Indian Mindset Shifting Organizational Behaviour Summary Exercises

3. The Indian Milieu Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Culture: The Soul of the Larger Milieu Economic Landscape Political Scenario Social Milieu The International Milieu Summary Exercises

3 4 6 15 20 24 24 28 29 31 37 47 49 49 53 54 55 66 68 73 74 75

vii

viii


PART 2: INDIVIDUALS 4. Self and Personality Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

81

Culture, Self, and Personality Formation of Self Basic Psychological Processes Dimensions of Self Personality and Organizational Behaviour Personality Types Impression Management Summary Exercises

5. Well-being: The Ultimate Goal of Life Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Approaches to Well-being From Motivation to Well-being Content Theories The Process Theory Needs and Values Managing Stress Summary Exercises

82 83 86 95 99 100 104 105 105 110 111 113 115 122 124 126 128 128

PART 3: GROUPS 6. Individuals and Group Dynamics Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Facets of a Group Types of Groups Group Structure Group Functions Summary Exercises

7. Working for Self and Others Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

An Overview Cooperation, Competition, and Co-opetition Conflict and its Management Negotiation Process Summary Exercises

137 138 139 142 150 161 162 167 168 170 174 180 185 186

Contents

8. Teamwork Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

191

Genesis of Teamwork Teams and Groups Diversityăconsensus Dilemma Cultural Influences on Teamwork Types of Teams Building Teams in Indian Organizations Summary Exercises

9. Power and Politics Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

The Concepts Interpersonal Power Dynamics Inter-group Power Relationships Organizational Politics Summary Exercises

216 220 231 234 236 236 241

Concepts and Approaches Organizational Context Task System LeaderÊs Characteristics Leadership Processes Strategy for Developing Effective Leaders Summary Exercises

11. Theories of Leadership Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

192 192 194 196 201 206 209 209 215

10. Effective Leadership Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

ix

242 242 243 250 257 258 260 261 267

An Overview Leader-centric Theories Theories of Interactive Relationships Contingency Theories Summary Exercises

268 269 276 280 286 287

PART 4: ORGANIZATIONS 12. Organizational Culture Ć Related Concepts Ć Perspectives on Organizational Culture

297 298 304

x


Ć Ć Ć Ć

Typologies of Organizational Cultures Building Organizational Culture Summary Exercises

13. Knowledge Organizations Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Importance of Knowledge Organizations Perspectives on Knowledge Organizations Learning: Purpose and Complexity Forms of Knowledge Transfer of Knowledge Summary Exercises

14. Organizational Change and Development Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

The Concepts Organizational Differentiations Changing Work Setting Building Human Capital Organizational Development: Prospects and Problems Summary Exercises

Glossary References Author Index Subject Index About the Author

306 312 316 316 327 328 329 331 337 340 347 347 351 352 354 356 362 364 369 370 377 397 415 422 427

List of Tables 1.1 Time (in seconds) Taken for Each of the Motions in Performing a Task 2.1 Coexistence of Opposites

9 44

4.1 Profiles of Type A and Type B Personalities

102

5.1 Indicators of the Need for Achievement, Affiliation, and Power 5.2 Hygiene Factors and Motivators 5.3 Value Dimensions and a Sample of Activity for Each Dimension

117 119 126

6.1 Members Giving (Rows) and Receiving (Columns) Ratings of Liking

150

7.1 Years in Prison for Confessing/Not Confessing

173

9.1 Contingency Model of Power Dynamics 9.2 Power Strategies as a Function of Power Distance and Perceptual Frame

226 230

10.1 LeaderÊs Shift from Normal to Fundamental State 10.2 Profile of Managers and Leaders

253 255

11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4

271 272 282 283

Michigan Typology of Leadership Styles Performance Maintenance Styles of Leadership FiedlerÊ Contingency Model Leadership Styles and Maturity of Subordinates

12.1 Perspectives on Organizational Culture 12.2 A Summary of Dimensional Typologies of Organizational Cultures 12.3 Leading Features of Organizational Cultures

307 308 312

13.1 Three Levels of Knowledge

338

14.1 Two-dimensional View of Organizational Change 14.2 Characteristics of Mechanical and Organic Organizations 14.3 Organization Development Techniques

352 354 357 xi

List of Figures 3.1 Growth in Foreign Investment 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

Structure of Self-image Operant Conditioning Perception of Lines Johari Window IndiansÊ Approach to Goals

60 84 87 91 94 103

5.1 The Motivation Process 5.2 Hackman and Oldham Model

114 120

8.1 Japanese Team Structure 8.2 Indian Group Structure

198 200

9.1 Four Modes of Expressing Power 9.2 Control Graph of Ideal and Actual Power Distribution 9.3 Direct and Indirect Power Relationships

222 232 233

10.1 Organizational CultureăLeadershipăEnvironment Fit

246

11.1 The Model of NT-P Styles of Leadership 11.2 Dyadic LeaderăSubordinatesÊ Relationships

284 286

12.1 Organizational Culture Nested in Societal and Global Management Culture 12.2 Work and Family Centrality in Life Space

300 303

13.1 Single-loop Learning 13.2 Double-loop Learning 13.3 Stages in the Knowledge Cycle

333 335 341

14.1 Energizing On-going Large Organizations 14.2 HRM Strategy 14.3 Growth after Modernization (Rs Crore)

366 367 375

xii

List of Boxes 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

Organizational Behaviour Contributors to Organizational Behaviour Early Milestones Human Relations Approach European Contributions Evolution in Indian Organizational Behaviour Five Trends in Indian Organizational Behaviour Drivers of Glocal Organizational Behaviour

4 5 7 11 14 17 18 21

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8

The Inclusive Indian Mindset Facets of the Primordial Hindu World View Analytical Approach of the Upanishads The Colonial Experience The Global Face of Indians How are You? Shifting Modes of Behaviour How Could They Change Their Mind?

31 31 33 35 36 38 47 48

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7

Larger Milieu and Culture The Wonder that is India! Phases in Economic Growth Factors of Economic Transformation Unemployability of Indian Youth The Bottom of the Pyramid Religious Mosaic of India (2007)

54 54 56 60 62 65 73

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6

Culture, Self, and Personality Formation of Self: An Evolutionary Process Types of Self Your Self-efficacy Perceive Your Organization Hindu Conceptualization of Layers of Self

83 84 85 86 89 97

5.1 Three Perspectives on Well-being 5.2 MaslowÊs Needs Hierarchy

111 116 xiii

xiv


5.3 Nishkaam Karm 5.4 Daan (Giving Away)

123 124

6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4

Types of Groups Who is Responsible? Factors of Norm Formation Five Facets of Effective Decision-making

141 145 147 157

7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6

Co-opetition Involves Strategies for Managing Interpersonal Conflicts Tata SteelÊs Acquisition of Corus: A Case in Negotiation Some Factors of Effective Negotiation Negotiation between a Brazilian and an American Company Functional and Dysfunctional Tactics

172 178 182 183 184 185

8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4

Genesis of Teamwork Factors Facilitating Teamwork Conflicts are Not Always Bad for Teams Whom Do People Prefer: Competent Jerks or Lovable Fools?

192 194 196 200

9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5

Power, Influence, and Control Asocial Power Complex Power Relationships in the Indian Setting The Sitapur Dairy An Ingratiation Scale

216 217 220 226 229

Home DepotÊs New Leadership Transformation of Tata Steel Contextual Demands and Leadership Great Leaders A Model of Persistence Leadership Roles Narayana Murthy on Effective Leadership Self-efforts to Develop as a Leader

245 245 246 249 252 255 258 259

10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8

11.1 CultureÊs Impact on Leadership 11.2 Collectivism, Power Distance, and Leadership Styles

269 275

12.1 The Core of Organizational Culture 12.2 Organizational, Societal, and Work Cultures, and Organizational Climate 12.3 A Work-centric Multinational

298 299 302

List of Boxes

xv

12.4 Four Profiles of Organizational Culture 12.5 Leadership and Culture-building 12.6 Organizational Rites Reflecting Its Culture

310 313 315

13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5

Learning and Knowledge Five Perspectives on Knowledge Organizations Assembly Line of a Hong Kong-based Company Knowledge Communities in Tata Steel Transfer of Knowledge from Multinationals to Subsidiaries

329 329 339 343 344

14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4

Survival and Change Proneness Organizational Development Techniques Employed in India Changing Emphasis in the Measures for Agentic Capabilities Five Dilemmas Faced by Indian HRM Managers

352 360 363 369

List of Abbreviations AIADMK AMBA BJP BHEL BKO BPO BSP CIPs CMD CPI CPM DMK EQUIS FDI GDP GLOBE HR HRD HRM HLL IMF IT ITES JMD LPC LMX M&A MBO MD MIS NASSCOM NTPC OBCs ONGC xvi

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Association of MBAs Bharatiya Janata Party Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Business Knowledge Outsourcing Business Process Outsourcing Bahujan Samaj Party Continuous Improvement Projects Chairman and Managing Director Communist Party of India Communist Party Marxist Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam European Quality Improvement System Foreign Direct Investment Gross Domestic Product Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness Human Resources Human Resource Development Human Resource Management Hindustan Levers Limited International Monetary Fund Information Technology Information Technology Enabled Services Joint Managing Director Least Preferred Co-worker LeaderăMemberăExchange Mergers and Acquisitions Management by Objectives Managing Director Management Information System National Association of Software and Services Companies National Thermal Power Corporation Other Backward Castes Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

List of Abbreviations

PI QCCs R&D RJD RSS SAIL SAQS SC SIET SP ST TCS TQM UP VHP VDL

Pioneering-Innovative Quality Control Circles Research and Development Rashtriya Janata Dal Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Steel Authority of India Limited South Asian Quality System Scheduled Caste Small Industries Extension Training Institute Samajwadi Party Scheduled Tribe Tata Consultancy Service Total Quality Management Uttar Pradesh Vishwa Hindu Parishad Vertical Dyad Linkage

xvii

Preface There is a near consensus that culture influences a whole range of human behaviour including organizational behaviour. However, books on organizational behaviour from Western countries, which dominate the Indian market, do not elucidate adequately how non-Western cultures affect specific theories and practices in organizational behaviour. One of the reasons for this is that the cultures and organizations in the West have co-evolved in response to the Industrial Revolution. Their overlap was so gradual, spontaneous, and pervasive that organizational behaviour scientists did not notice it. Culture is like the air we breathe; we cannot survive without it, and yet we do not see it directly. Organizations, on the other hand, are tangible in terms of their technology, structures, systems, and routines. Their impact on organizational behaviour naturally concerns organizational behaviour scientists. However, as Western theories and practices were transported to non-Western cultures, including Indian culture, their limitations were clearly exposed. This has required investigating the existing body of organizational behaviour afresh in the context of Indian culture, which in many respects is strikingly different from Western culture. There are, however, two considerations that necessitate retaining parts of Western organizational behaviour. First, culture is not the sole determinant of organizational behaviour. The nature of technology, products, and services affect organizational structures and processes that are proximate factors impacting on organizational behaviour overtly, while cultural influences, although pervasive, are implicit and have to be inferred from organizational structures and processes. Second, Indian culture is highly inclusive and pluralistic. It subsumes a major part of Western culture. Thus, Indian organizational behaviour manifests a confluence of both Western and Indian cultural influences. This book aims to capture this confluence. It presents basic knowledge about organizational behaviour as it has developed in the West, adds the latest research findings from other parts of the world, and situates them in the Indian cultural perspective. It covers topics that form part of organizational behaviour courses in major universities and management institutes in India. However, instead of following their syllabi, this book covers all the topics by elaborating on key concepts (for example, motivation as a means to realize well-being, the idea that self is related to personality, and so on). Further, it describes only briefly those parts of organizational behaviour that are routinely included in most textbooks and where the cultural influences are relatively insignificant, highlights those where Indian culture plays a significant role, glosses over statistical details of specific studies that are constrained by sampling limitations, and raises new issues that emanate from the interface of Indian culture and organizational behaviour for further deliberations. The chapters are organized into four parts. Part 1 presents a vantage point to view the rest of the chapters. The chapters in Part 1 trace the history of organizational behaviour that is embedded in

xviii

Preface

xix

Indian culture, which influences and is influenced by the surrounding economic, social, and political milieu of the country. The key concepts of organizational behaviour are discussed in Part 2, which deals with individual-level processes. The chapters in this section emphasize the fact that, though processes are generally universal, cultural influences do seep in. It discusses how various processes are performed and what contents are involved in them. Part 3 focuses on group-level processes where relationships assume centre stage. Relationships are very important in Indian culture. Therefore, culture plays a significantly greater role at the group level than at the individual level in India. Part 4 shows how global culture, which is primarily Western in origin, and Indian culture jointly shape organizational-level functions.

PART 1 THE BACKDROP The three chapters in this part present an integrative vantage point to view the rest of the book. Chapter 1 traces the evolution of the discipline of organizational behaviour. It shows how the discipline developed in the West and how Western culture, in an almost invisible manner, helped in the transition of organizational behaviour from the machine model to the human relations-oriented model. The salience of culture became obvious when the discipline moved to India. Chapter 2 enhances this salience by providing a framework of Indian culture and shows how it enables Indians to adopt a flexible inclusive stance by integrating global and indigenous influences. Chapter 3 contextualizes Indian culture into the larger milieu. It discusses the economic, social, and political facets, which, through the indigenous culture as well as independently, have an impact on organizational behaviour.

2

1

Organizational Behaviour

THIS CHAPTER AIMS TO 1. 2. 3. 4.

Map the facets of organizational behaviour. Trace the stages through which organizational behaviour has evolved. Show how organizational behaviour arrived in the Indian cultural setting. Present the global face of organizational behaviour.

3

4


FACETS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

O

rganizational behaviour is part of the social sciences. It seeks a comprehensive understanding of how individuals, groups, and organizations function as well as the causes and effects of their functions with a view to improve their effectiveness and well-being. Thus, the science of organizational behaviour is both basic and applied in nature; basic in generating knowledge and applied in using that knowledge. Organizational behaviour is a domain to which a number of social sciences such as psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, and management studies (among others) contribute in one or more segments of individual, group, and organizational-level processes. Culture permeates all levels by attaching culture-specific meanings and significance to how people behave individually, in groups, and collectively at an organizational level. Psychology contributes most to individual-level processes. It explains how, for example, individual employees perceive their job; learn the skills to perform it; respond to their seniors, juniors, and peers; value seniority over merit; opt for security of job over pay packet, and so on. How they work and relate to others also depends on their perception of how competent they are, how good others perceive them to be, what their needs are, when do they feel motivated or de-motivated, how much stress and strain they experience, how satisfied they are, what chances they see of realizing a sense of well-being, and so on. Box 1.1


Organization behaviour is a basic and applied social science seeking knowledge about how individuals, groups, and organizations function for improving the effectiveness and well-being of employees and organizations.

Individuals often realize that they have certain needs, interests, and goals that they cannot achieve by trying alone. So, they join with others to form groups that enable them to serve their purpose. The groups have some common needs, interests, and goals that attract individuals to form groups; but individuals also have some other needs that are different from others. Individuals cooperate to achieve common needs, interest, and goals, but also compete, dominate, fight, and so on to achieve their individual needs, interests, and goals. The resultant group processes are the subject matters of both social psychology and sociology. Social psychology views them from an individualÊs perspective, explaining how individual-level variables converge or diverge to impact group processes. For example, individual differences in needs, abilities, experiences, traits, and personality of employees influence the way they behave in their groups. Sociology, on the other hand, approaches the same set of phenomena from a structural-functional perspective. It highlights, for example, the importance of positions that group members occupy and


5

the roles that they play. From a sociological perspective, organizations are conceptualized as the totality of inter-connected positions, each having a set of roles that are defined by the rights and duties vested in the positions. Employees often play their roles by glossing over their idiosyncratic needs, expectations, attitudes, and so on. Political science conceptualizes organizations as political systems where individuals and groups are engaged in a continuous struggle to gain greater access to resources and positions of power to serve their individual and group interests, often at the cost of others. They form cliques and coalitions on the basis of caste and regional affiliations or interest groups (for example, workersÊ union and officersÊ associations), and manoeuvre to gain an upper hand in making major decisions, controlling others, and steering the organization in the direction that benefits them most. Thus, according to this perspective, all individual, group and organizational-level processes are essentially political and involve power play. Box 1.2 Ć Ć Ć Ć

Contributors to Organizational Behaviour

Psychology (individual-level functions). Social psychology and sociology (group dynamics). Political science (power play). Anthropology (culture).

Anthropology enriches organizational behaviour by contextualizing it in a cultural frame. The core of a culture consists of beliefs and values that influence and are influenced by norms and practices of the people of a geographical area. Just like a societal culture, organizations too have a culture that not only affects how individuals, groups, and organizations function, but also facilitates their collective behaviour in order to enable them to keep renewing and adapting to the changing milieu. The welfare-oriented culture of a number of public sector organizations had its roots in the Indian culture of taking care of the underprivileged. Many of these public sector organizations, however, have inculcated the global management culture of being competitive, market driven, and profitable. Further, organizational culture, like societal culture, has a dominant culture as well as some subcultures. They align as well as conflict with each other. The contributions made by these disciplines to organizational behaviour are placed within the framework of how to manage organizations effectively. The science and art of management addresses this practical issue. In fact, the genesis of the discipline of organizational behaviour can be traced to the efforts of those who were preoccupied with the problems of designing and running large industrial organizations and those involved in public administration. It was, however, only in 1941 that the term organizational behaviour was first introduced in a doctoral thesis and four years later, in 1945, was part of the title of the first textbook on the subject (Lawrence 1987). Let us take a brief historical account of the growth of the discipline of organizational behaviour in the West, its entry in India, and its present global form.

6


GROWTH OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR The Early Years Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Western Europe and the United States of America witnessed rapid industrialization and technological advancement. Large industrial organizations were being formed causing concern about how to manage them effectively. People were familiar mostly with family, small social groups, or the feudal system. They tended to extend the model of the family and the feudal system to industrial organizations. There were some common features. For example, in all three, individual activities were organized under an authority system that was ascribed, hierarchical, and responsible for allocating different roles and responsibilities, meant for realizing certain goals, enforcing conformity, meeting individual membersÊ needs and expectations, and perpetuating the system. However, there were some distinctly different features that required a new approach to enable large industrial organizations to function effectively. Unlike in the family, employees of an industrial organization were hired for specific jobs and were paid according to what they did; the emotional bond was much weaker than existed in the family, dependency was not ascribed, and authority was based not only on age and gender, but also on the ownership and capability to work or get work from others. Furthermore, organizations were much larger than the family and much more complex in function than the feudal system. There were people who, like family heads, inherited the ownership of the organization and behaved like feudal lords, ensuring that their subordinates and workers remained loyal and subservient. They made their subordinates work to their physical limits and followed their whims in making decisions. However, the owners and the top managers still had to adopt new technology, invest capital, show results, and ensure that the organizations were profitable. Effective management required a different approach than the one practised by the feudal lords. In fact, three approaches were made almost simultaneously within a span of only five years (1911ă16).

Principles of General and Industrial Management Fayol (1916) laid down the principles of management that were based on his perspective as the managing director of a mining company. He was a Frenchman with training in mining engineering. He first categorized all activities of an industrial organization into six functional areas: technical (production), commercial (sales, marketing, and exchange), financial (capital utilization), security (protection of property and persons), accounting (budget, stocktaking, and costs), and managerial (planning, organization, coordination, control, and so on). Of the six functions, the managerial function was the core function that integrated all the other functions. Managing functions were conceptualized to involve the following: 1. Division of labour was done by breaking up the functions into the simplest pieces of work that the employees could perform reliably just as each part of a machine performs a specific function. The more simple the work, the less were the skills required in the worker to perform them.


7

2. Clear and uninterrupted line of authority across all levels of the organization so that (a) a superior had the right to order his subordinate to do the necessary tasks and the subordinate had to comply with his orders and (b) each subordinate knew whom to report to and from whom to seek direction (a scalar chain). 3. Incentives to subordinates to formulate plans and perform accordingly. FayolÊs principles provided the practical way of structuring organizations for efficiency and are still applied in a majority of organizations all over the world, although organizations are now designed in many different ways, depending on the nature of activities and the business environment. Box 1.3

Early Milestones

Ć Principles of general and industrial management (Fayol). Ć Bureaucracy (Weber). Ć Scientific management (Taylor).

Bureaucracy For Max Weber (1914 [1921]), bureaucracy was an ideal rational approach to structure and manage organizations. Weber was a German academic in Berlin University. He, like Fayol, considered authority as the critical factor for running organizations efficiently. However, he was not in favour of authority emanating from charismatic personality that wields power because of supernatural and superhuman qualities that may or may not be directed to the benefit of organizations. He was also against the authority of a feudal lord that was based on tradition and often expressed in personalized discriminations and whims. He favoured taking away authority from individuals and investing it in rules, norms, and standards that constitute a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy, according to Weber, consisted of the following: 1. Rationality: This was considered to be the foundation of an organization for structuring itself in order to achieve its goals in the most efficient fashion. 2. Division of labour: Work was broken into small and specific tasks that were performed by persons who had the skills to do those particular simplified tasks. 3. Formal rules and regulations: These consisted of explicit and written orders to guide and control employeesÊ behaviour in order to reduce personal discretion of the authority. 4. Impersonal relationships: These were believed to ensure that employees were guided by rules and regulations and not by personal likes and dislikes. 5. Authority: This was vested in positions rather than persons and each position had to be defined in terms of rights and obligations. 6. Hierarchical structure: Positions were clearly ranked by the authority level from the highest (the top) to the lowest (the bottom) levels in the organization. 7. Life-long employment: This ensured the employeesÊ lasting contribution to the organization.

8


Weber argued that ÂPrecision, speed, unambiguity, knowledge of files, continuity, direction, unity, strict subordination, reduction of friction and of material and personal costs·these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly bureaucratic administrationÊ (Weber quoted in Pugh et al. 1983: 17). Bureaucracy, in varying forms, still runs high in most organizations across the world, particularly in the large ones. There are some striking similarities in the approaches of Fayol and Weber. Both focused on a composite perspective of structuring of the organization by adopting a mechanical model in which individuals are like cogs in a machine, which is regulated through specific design. Their efficiency lies in creating a system that is based on individualsÊ skills, but not necessarily on their motives or preferences. Even in the matter of skills, the simpler the task, the less are the skills required for a worker to be able to perform it in a predetermined, precise, and reliable way.

Scientific Management Frederick TaylorÊs (1911[1947]) approach to scientific management claimed to secure maximum prosperity for both the employers and the employees by training the latter to adopt the most efficient ways of performing a task. Taylor, an engineer, started his career as a labourer in Midvale Steel Works and rose rapidly to be its chief engineer and later was a consultant to the Bethlehem Steel Works. In the highly individualist culture of the United States (US), it was natural that he focused not on the structure of organizations (as Fayol and Weber did), but on improving the efficiency of individual workers. For this purpose, he suggested the following: 1. Scientific selection of workers to ensure that they possessed physical and mental capabilities to achieve maximum output. 2. Training them so that they worked most efficiently. 3. Monetary incentive in terms of piece rate payment so that the workers saw direct linkage between their performance and the pay-off. Of the three components, training was the most crucial. Workers had to be trained to take the shortest possible time for the minimum number of motions in completing a task. For example, suppose that three workers, A, B, and C took either 4, 6, or 7 motions each in varying time to perform a task as given in Table 1.1. Following Table 1.1, the most efficient way to perform the task should involve only four motions (Motions 1, 3, 4, and 7) and the ideal time to be taken should be 3, 3, 5, and 4 seconds (underlined) respectively. Thus, the most efficient worker should ideally take 15 seconds to perform the task compared to 21, 26, and 27 seconds taken by the three workers. Training should enable the workers to achieve this ideal efficiency in performance. Taylor also emphasized that suitable working conditions must also be created in order to facilitate the workers to achieve the most efficient work habit. Suitable working conditions consisted of appropriate tools, adequate monetary incentive, and even necessary rest periods. By allowing 10 minutes of rest every hour to the pig iron loaders at the Bethlehem Steel Works, he was able to show that their performance improved from 12 tons to 47.5 tons a day. Despite the emphasis on


Table 1.1

9

Time (in seconds) Taken for Each of the Motions in Performing a Task Motions

Workers

1

2

3

4

A

3

B

4

X

4

4

3

7

Total Time (seconds)

5

6

7

2

X

5

21

6

X

5

4

26

C

3

6

3

5

4

X

6

27

Ideal

3

X

3

5

X

X

4

15

Note: The number in the cells is seconds taken for that motion. X means that motion was not necessary.

creating appropriate conditions for work, Taylor was still guided by a machine analogy of workers who were to be trained to perform as precisely and consistently as machines. Further, he believed in the concept of the Âeconomic manÊ who is motivated only by monetary incentive.

Human Relations Approach It was around the early twentieth century that physical conditions of work started attracting the attention of those who were concerned with workersÊ productivity. During the First World War, workers in munitions factories in the United Kingdom (UK) worked for unusually long hours under poor physical conditions to meet the warÊs requirements. In 1918, the Committee for Investigating the Health of Munitions Workers (UK) reported serious detrimental effects of inadequate illumination not only on the health of workers, but also on their productivity. The Report of the New York Commission on Ventilation (1923) highlighted the importance of proper ventilation.1 Similar concerns were shown about the deleterious effects of high temperature, humidity, noise, and so on. The reports partly reflected the humanitarian values of the West, and partly the need to maintain workersÊ productivity by ensuring safe, hygienic, and humane conditions of work (Viteles 1932). The Howthorne Studies Of all the studies on the effects of physical conditions of work that were conducted from the mid1920s to the early 1930s, the most systematic and pioneering were the ones that are known as the Howthorne Studies at the Western Electric Company outside Chicago. Roethlisberger and Dickson (1939), under the leadership of Elton Mayo, systematically examined the effects of increasing and decreasing illumination, hours of work, length of rest pauses, length of work day and work week, method of payment, place of work, and even a free mid-morning lunch. The findings were puzzling. With improvement in each of these conditions of work, productivity increased, but it also increased when the conditions were brought back to the original, or made even worse. In fact, in one study, the workers reduced their output despite improvements in the conditions of work. In other words, there was no one-to-one relationship between improvement in physical conditions of work and

10


workersÊ performance. Further probing revealed that monetary incentive and supervision were indeed important, but also important were the following considerations: 1. WorkersÊ perception: Except in extreme working conditions, workers got used to the changes (positive or negative) and reacted more in terms of how they viewed them rather than the degree or direction of the changes. 2. The attention that workers were getting: The workers reacted favourably to the changes, irrespective of their nature, because they were getting attention. They found themselves in focus and put in more effort in order to look better. 3. WorkersÊ misgivings about the management: The workers restricted their output when they feared that the increased production would lead the management to increase their workload. 4. WorkersÊ informal groupings: The workers formed informal groups that developed norms regarding how much to produce, when to restrict output, and so on. The findings, in sum, uncovered a whole new world of workers where their perceptions, needs, apprehensions, and so on were mediating the way they related to work, changes in the conditions of work, and the people with whom and for whom they worked. The findings showed that workers are not machines that are fabricated to function in precise and predicable ways without being affected by their thoughts and feelings. Once workers were conceptualized as Âhuman beingsÊ, the ground was cleared for the other human sciences (such as social psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, and so on) to make contributions towards the evolution of a culturally-tempered disciple that came to be known as Âorganizational behaviourÊ. From the 1940s to the 1960s, a number of path-breaking formulations were made about the nature of human beings, their needs, sources of motivations, and patterns of relating with each other. At the core of the formulations was the Western construction of idealized human beings·individualists, adventurers, and hard-drivers, those who Âwon the WestÊ. Concept of Self-actualizing Human Beings Maslow (1943) posited that human beings possess unlimited potential to transcend their limitations and reach any height of growth. They do have, of course, a hierarchy of needs ranging from the basic physiological needs for survival and security, through the needs for affiliation, recognition and self-esteem, to the highest order need of self-actualization·the realization of unlimited potential of human beings. Human beings, according to Maslow, are oriented naturally to realize their higher order needs as they satisfy their lower order needs. McGregor (1960), following Maslow, contrasted the traditional conceptualization of human beings in terms of Theory X with a new one·Theory Y. Theory X was a product of the early days of industrialization when the management was seen to organize, direct, control, reward and punish employees in order to make them work. The underlying assumptions were that people are by nature: 1. Indolent (they want to work as little as possible). 2. Lack ambition, dislike responsibility, and prefer to be led.


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3. Indifferent to organizational needs. 4. Resistant to change. 5. Gullible (are easily duped by charlatans and demagogues). Theory Y posited just the opposite of all these assumptions regarding human beings. It contended that human beings have a built-in potential to develop, assume responsibility, contribute to organizations, and actualize their potential. All that the management has to do is to create opportunities, remove obstacles for employeesÊ performance, encourage growth, and provide guidance to the employees. McClelland (1961) followed the same world view in conceptualizing the need for achievement. Herzberg (1966) further substantiated MaslowÊs conceptualization of human beings by showing that external conditions are at best hygiene factors. Their absence or insufficiency causes dissatisfaction, but their availability makes the employees used to them. On the contrary, challenging job, autonomy to work on onesÊ own, creativity, and so on are the motivators that keep people motivated and satisfied. People-oriented Leadership Another stream of thought that facilitated the human relations approach emanated as a reaction to the rise of fascism in Germany in the late 1930s. Lewin and many other German psychologists fled from Germany to the US. They were concerned about the impact of authoritarian (fascist) leadership. Lewin and Lippitt (1938) and Lippitt and White (1943) compared authoritarian and democratic leaderships and reported that democratic leaders are more effective than authoritarian leaders in the long run. Probably, under the influence of LewinÊs concepts of group dynamics (1935, 1947), Shartle (1956) and Stogdill (1948) showed that leaders who respect their subordinatesÊ ideas and feelings, and cultivate mutual trust are more effective than those who tend to structure roles and emphasize task performance, although later on the most effective leaders were found to be those who were high on both factors. Extending this approach further, Likert (1961) postulated that all individuals are bestowed with unique qualities that they bring to a group. Hence, group discussions that are free and frank, in which all members participate fully, support each other in an ego-enhancing way, and make joint decisions, render the group most effective. In such a participative group, the leaderÊs main responsibility, instead of bossing over the group members, is to facilitate group interactions and implement the groupÊs decisions. Box 1.4

Human Relations Approach

Core constructs: Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Howthorne Studies. Self-actualizing human beings. Motivators and hygiene. Participative leadership. Sensitivity training.

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Sensitivity Training Groups (T-Groups) LikertÊs conceptualization of a fully participative group had a forerunner called T-groups, encounter groups, and laboratory groups for imparting sensitivity training. The idea was developed in a training programme that was being conducted in Bethel (Maine, USA) in 1947 under the influence of Kurt Lewin (Bradford et al. 1964). Individuals in the highly individualist culture of the USA are self-contained atoms. They need to cultivate sensitivity towards others so that they can understand, appreciate, and support each other in a group setting. The process sensitizes them and enables them to relate with others and work more effectively. Western Cultural Ethos Although the human relations approach did not explicitly concede it, its Western cultural ethos was obvious. It was based on the individualistic values that all human beings are born equal, are internally directed, and are growth-oriented individuals. They possess unique qualities that can be harnessed by allowing them freedom and opportunity to realize their potential. Later on, some of these concepts, methods, and theories were further refined, elaborated, and/or modified. However, they by and large remained embedded in the individualist cultural frame.

European Flavour to Organizational Behaviour The American human relation orientation had a resonance in Europe. Its best expression is to be found in Herbst (1975, 1976). As the title of HerbstÊs book makes clear, The Product of Work is People! In other words, jobs must be structured and performed in such a way that it brings out the best in human beings and enables them to improve their quality of life. The movement for the quality of working life, in fact, emanated from the socio-technical approach.

Socio-technical Approach The European version of group dynamic, people-oriented approach, originated in the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (London). The Institute at that time was involved in investigating the social and psychological consequences of technological changes in the British coal mining industry. In the late 1940s, the long-wall method of cutting coal was introduced in Britain. It was a mechanized way to mine and transport coal to a central location for processing. This new technology changed the earlier practices of coal mining by small, autonomous, and friendly groups of workers who used to mine primarily with their hands. The jobs were now mechanized, specialized, and performed individually. Contrary to the expectations that the new technology would increase productivity and make the jobs less hard and more palatable, Trist and Bamforth (1951) found that the new technology caused epidemic incidence of psychosomatic disorders that also affected productivity adversely.


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The workers were dissatisfied, their absenteeism rates were higher, and there were instances of conflicts that reduced their outputs. Further investigations led to the realization that workers missed the friendly group climate and relationships that they used to enjoy earlier. This led the Tavistock researchers to realize that introducing better technology without integrating it with the psychosocial requirements of workers does not yield better results. Rather, it might create conflicts and Â. . . where conflicts are built into a work organization [because it was technologically structured], there is relatively little that can be achieved by means of Human Relations approach to conflict resolutionÊ (Herbst 1974: 4). Therefore, the Tavistock group formulated a system approach in which both the technological requirements of work and personal and social needs of workers were integrated to yield the best results. Instead of fragmenting work into the minutest pieces of tasks that are assigned individually to workers for performing them mechanically, the approach suggested the integration of the various jobs into a complex meaningful whole, which is assigned to a group of workers who take joint responsibility for accomplishing it. It was considered ideal that both technical and non-technical members are teamed together to design the equipment and machines and to streamline the procedures of working on them in order to meet industrial engineering and human relations requirements. Similar to the pattern of participative management as put forward by Likert (1961), the Tavistock group conceptualized work groups that do not have hierarchy. The workers in such groups interchanged their roles and responsibilities, supervised themselves, made up for each otherÊs deficiencies, and worked with team spirit. A supervisor was needed, not for controlling and directing them, but only for representing the group to other groups and authorities. In a ship-building project in Norway, the engineers who designed and built the ship as well as the crew members and the captain who were to use the ship later on were involved from the very beginning of the designing process. The socio-technical approach was probably a hybrid of the American relationship orientation and the European movement towards democracy at the workplace. Democracy at the workplace by having worker-directors at the board level was not quite effective because the workers were either indifferent to or incapable of participating in policy making (Emery and Thorsrud 1969). However, at the work levels, where they were knowledgeable and interested, the socio-technical approach was credited with impressive success. Thorsrud (1972: 17) identified six components of the democratization of the workplace: 1. The work should be demanding and challenging instead of being hard, repetitive, and monotonous. 2. Workers should have some say in the decisions that affect them. That is, there should be areas where workers can make and own decisions. 3. They should get social support and recognition for their work. 4. They should have the opportunity to learn on the job and should keep learning. 5. They should have an opportunity to be able to relate work to their social life. 6. They should have a feeling that their work will enable them to realize some sort of desirable future.

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Box 1.5

European Contributions

Ć Socio-technical analysis Ć Aston studies on organizational structure

The Aston Studies While the Tavistock group was busy developing the socio-technical approach, there was another group of researchers at Aston (the UK) who, in line with Fayol and Weber, were involved in identifying efficient ways of structuring organizations. They conducted over 30 separate studies of a wide range of manufacturing, service, government, and other organizations in 14 countries (Pugh 1976; Pugh and Hickson 1976) to delineate two main dimensions along which an organizationÊs structures were reported to vary universally. They were concentration of authority and structuring of activities. The two have the following features: 1. Concentration of authority Ć Centralization: Decision-making authority is vested in the top positions. 2. Structuring of activities Ć Ć Ć Ć

Standardization: Standard rules and procedures are framed to guide work behaviour. Specialization: Divisions and departments have specialized roles. Formalization: Instructions and procedures are written (not verbal). Configuration: Tall versus flat organizations with varying levels in hierarchy.

Pugh and his associates found that organizational structures vary as a direct function of contextual factors such as size, technology, nature of industry, and market condition, irrespective of the countries in which the organizations are located. Larger, manufacturing, mass-producing organizations operating in stable market conditions are more centralized, standardized, formalized, and tall. The relationship between the contextual factors and the structural characteristics were reported to be stable across cultures (Hickson et al. 1974: 59).

The Invisible Hand of Culture and Its Visible Impact The initial approach to organizational behaviour was to design and structure organizations in terms of division of work, unitary line of authority for close supervision, and so on. It presumed that Âthe principles related to the task of managing apply to any kind of enterprise in any kind of cultureÊ (Kootz and OÊDonnell, quoted in Nagandhi 1986: 47). If there were any residual effects of the family or the feudal system on organizations in the pre-industrialization phase, they were erased by Âa new occupational system grounded in industrial technologyÊ (Udy 1970: 95ă96). This mechanical model of human behaviour was later replaced by the human relations approach that highlighted the importance of human characteristics and potentials that were still conceptualized as universal


15

in nature. Neither of them took cognizance of the role of culture in their formulations. Because the approaches evolved over a century in tandem with the Protestant ethic, fast industrialization, and technological advancements, scholars naturally developed them without advertently questioning how and why they developed them. One definition of culture is that it consists of peopleÊs beliefs regarding what works in most of the situations they face (Triandis 1995). The scholars were trying to identify what they thought worked or should work in organizations and, thereby, allowed the invisible hand of culture to shape their formulations. There was no apparent need to trace the process of how culture shaped their thoughts. Culture is also like gravity; we do not experience it until we jump 6 feet into the air (Trompenaars 1993). Organizational behaviour indeed jumped out of Western culture to experience the extent of its generality as well as its limitations.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE INDIAN SETTING Organizational behaviour appeared in the Indian setting around the 1960s. At that time, the country had hardly any systematic empirical research of its own. Business activities were extremely limited and the country had just started industrialization in a big way by importing Western capital and technology. Along with Western technology came Western systems and practices of management, textbooks, and scholars. A number of institutions were established in the early 1960s to teach and research on management. For example, the four major universities in Delhi, Bombay, Kolkata, and Chennai started business and management courses, the Indian Institutes of Management were established in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, and the Small Industries Extension Training Institute came up in Hyderabad. In 1974, the National Labour Institute was established in New Delhi. These institutions attracted Western scholars such as Douglas McGregor, Warren Bennis, Howard Baumgartel, Rolf Linton, Fred Emery, Paul Herbst, and others who offered courses, imparted training, and indoctrinated their younger Indian counterparts into their theories and approaches. Many Indians from these institutions went to the USA for further studies. The Fulbright programme enabled a large number of Indian and American scholars to visit each other. The students who got doctoral degrees in the US brought with them the theories of their professors and replicated them freely. Thus, research on organizational behaviour increased exponentially since the 1960s. The reviews of literature (Ganesh 1990; Khandwalla 1988; Padaki 1988; Sharma 1973; Sinha 1972; Sinha 1981, among others) identified three phases in the evolving nature of organizational behaviour in India: 1. Replication of Western theories and concepts. 2. Disenchantment with them. 3. Integration of Western and Indian contents and processes of organizational behaviour.

Replications Initially, the Indian studies replicated almost all Western theories, concepts, and methods showing their universal validity (see Sinha 1981 for details). Whenever inconsistent findings were reported,

16


they were brushed aside. The reasons for the failure of replications were attributed to inaccurate translation of research instruments, lack of rigour in research design, or faulty sampling. Indian scholars neither had their own theories or conceptual framework to provide a more realistic perspective, nor had they overcome the colonial mindset to challenge the well-established Western theories and concepts. However, as the number of such inconsistent findings kept increasing, Indian culture was brought in for explanation, although differently by Western and Indian scholars. Western scholars still maintained that their theories and concepts were valid, and either blamed the Indian culture for Indians behaving differently or justified culture-specific organizational behaviour. Lambert (1963), for example, conducted a study of five factories in Pune. He reported that the prevailing social system within the factories and the practices followed by the employees were contrary to those that prevailed in the industrially-developed societies in the West and, therefore, were not conducive for the effective functioning of Indian industrial organizations. Myrdal (1968) supported this view. Myers (1960) interviewed a number of government officials, labour leaders, and managers to conclude that, Âmany top Indian managements are relatively authoritarian in their relationships with lower management, and with labourÊ (Myers 1960: 166). Lewis (1962) observed that Indian culture, like other traditional cultures, is authoritarian. They all suggested the need to change employeesÊ authoritarian behaviour to suit their organizational behaviour. On the other hand, Meade (1967) replicated Lippitt and WhiteÊs study (1943) to show that because Indian culture is authoritarian, Indian subordinates need authoritarian leaders to work more effectively.

Disenchantment Some Indian scholars controverted that Indians were authoritarian or that Indian culture is not conducive to work. Indians indeed have sharply defined dos and donÊts, strong hierarchical orientation, status consciousness, strong need for power, and so on, but the evidence was not conclusive that they also possess the underlying psychodynamics (such as ego-alien sexuality, free floating anxiety, etc.; see Adorno et al. 1950 for the profile of authoritarian personality) of authoritarians (Sinha 1980). Some reported that Indians are more autocratic than authoritarian, and therefore, they prefer autocratic leaders. Still others found that authoritarian leaders were neither preferred nor effective. Similarly, contrary to earlier findings, participative leaders were perceived to be weak, because they abdicated the responsibility to take decisions. Participation to Indian subordinates means Âbeing consultedÊ (De 1984). It was also shown that Indians prefer nurturing superiors (Kakar 1971) and work effectively under such superiors (Sinha 1980). Similarly, MaslowÊs need hierarchy was not found to hold true in Indian organizations. Although there were some variations, money, security, and status remained the most salient needs across levels and industries (see Sinha 1981 for a review). Job importance did not predict job satisfaction. The two-factor theory was shown to be an artifact of the method employed by Herzberg. The hygiene and motivators were bi-directional, affecting both satisfaction as well as dissatisfaction. The T-group methodology, because it is person-based, was not found to be effective in the collectivist culture of India; it was the system-wide interventions that worked more effectively (Singh 2001).


Box 1.6

17

Evolution in Indian Organizational Behaviour

Ć Replication of Western theories, concepts, methods. Ć Disenchantment with them. Ć Integration of Indian and Western ideas and approaches.

Rice (1958) introduced the socio-technical system in four textile loom sheds in Ahmedabad as far back as 1953. But by 1975, this concept had disappeared in three out of the four loom sheds (Miller 1975). De (1984) again experimented with it in a number of public sector organizations. After the initial enthusiasm, the socio-technical system failed to cut much ice, primarily because the underlying values, such as egalitarianism and participatory orientation, were lacking in Indian culture that is characterized by hierarchical orientation and paternalistic nurturance. Furthermore, Theory Y did not seem to characterize Indians because Indians were reported to value work as a part of a relationship. They shirk work in many different ways in order to satisfy their value of aaram (rest and relaxation not preceded by hard work) or to meet social obligations (Sinha 1985: 134). This nonwork orientation was partly due to the inroads of traditional Indian culture into work organizations that Âprovide settings for interaction of familial forces, interest groups, caste conflicts, regional and linguistic groups, class conflicts, and political and religious forces, among othersÊ (Ganesh 1982: 5). One way to understand the role of a culture is to see how people handle their conflicts that arise out of violating a well-established norm. Look at how Indian workers and managers resolve them (Singh and Sinha 1992): Imagine that a worker abuses a manager who then lodges a complaint to top management. The worker comes to the managerÊs house or office the next day and brings a coworker or a union leader who apologizes on behalf of the worker . . . . The manager is persuaded to pardon the worker . . . who then runs some personal errands for the manager in order to restore, symbolically, the managerÊs authority . . . Similarly, suppose that a manager abuses a worker, who complains to the union, which then takes up the matter. A higher-level manager brings the manager, the worker, and the union leader together. The manager dwells at length on how he or she cares for the worker . . . and that the managerÊs action to reprimand the worker was for the sake of the worker or the organization. The manager might even say that he or she was sorry and was misunderstood . . . In sum, third party mediation, good intentions, mutual face saving, as well as accommodation, mark the way conflicts are resolved. (Singh and Sinha 1992: 113ă14)

Integration Gradually, as a result of the dialectics between replication and disenchantment, an amalgamative approach emerged that attempted to integrate Western and Indian contents and processes of organizational behaviour. There were at least five strands within this approach. First, the colonial

18


mindset had worn out in a few cases to the extent that there were efforts to retrieve some of the ancient Indian concepts of a religio-spiritual nature. Second, some of them were processed through Western methods. Third, the relevance of Western constructs was examined in the Indian cultural context. Fourth, attempts were made to synthesize Western and Indian cultural components into a composite perspective on organizational behaviour. Fifth, indigenous concepts were examined with universally applicable processes.

Ancient Indian Approach to Management Not all Indian companies followed the global model. Probably, there was a reaction to the global mode that led to the search for a spiritual route to organizational development. Srinivas (2000) studied 15 such Indian organizations, including the largest public sector bank (State Bank of India), the largest oil company (Indian Oil), which was the only Indian company among Fortune 500 companies, a leading Fortune 300 company, an information technology (IT) company (Infosys), among others. Common to their development efforts was the emphasis on spirituality·management by values and practices drawn primarily from Vedantic thoughts of which Chakraborty (1987, 1993) and Sharma (2007) were the chief exponents. Khandwalla (2001) argued against a prominent global model·the McKinsey model·for organizational transformation. Garg and Parikh (1993) found that managers, who inculcated Western values of achievement, careerism, and money in a top business school, experienced an identity crisis because they got alienated from their inner cultural moorings.

Ancient Indian Concepts Examined by Western Methods Although yogic exercises and meditation are experiential phenomena, their impact on behaviour was confirmed by employing a purely experimental method (Orme-Johnson et al. 1997). Nishkam karm (working sincerely without getting preoccupied about the outcome) was empirically shown to decrease work-related stress (Pande and Naidu 1992) and increase satisfaction (Misra 2003). A factor analysis confirmed the triangular taxonomy of the traditional Indian temperamental qualities (gunas) (Kaur and Sinha 1992). Box 1.7 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Five Trends in Indian Organizational Behaviour

Ancient Indian approach to management. Ancient Indian concepts examined by Western methods. Relevance of Western concepts in the Indian context. Assimilative synthesis of Western and Indian concepts. Indigenous conceptualization with universally applicable processes.


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Relevance of Western Concepts in the Indian Context Pandey (1981) and Tripathi (1981) investigated the processes involved in ingratiation and manipulation (Machiavellian tendency) to show that they are more pervasive and risk-free in India than in the West. Unlike Western people, Indians also ingratiate by name-dropping, self-denigration, and changing views with changing situations. Similarly, unlike in the West, the psychological consequences of crowding are not always negative (Jain 1987; Pandey 1999). Similarly, the need for achievement (Agarwal and Misra 1989; Mehta 1991; Misra and Agarwal 1985), distributive justice (Krishnan 1997), and morality (Shweder et al. 1990) were taken out of the Western framework and shown to have uniquely Indian cultural components and dynamics. Another example is the use of the psychoanalytic framework to understand the Indian psyche, culture, society, and healing traditions (Kakar 1978, 1982). Assimilative Synthesis of Western and Indian Concepts Pareek (1988: 30) showed the need to integrate Western values such as openness, collaboration, trust, authenticity, autonomy, and confrontation for resolving conflicts with IndiansÊ concern for others, tendency to harmonize and synthesize different points of view, and general respect for knowledge and expertise in order to design effective organizations. Similarly, Sinha (2004) reported that Indian managers in multinational companies behaved just as the expatriates did while relating with them, but showed typical Indian ways while dealing with Indians. Indigenous Conceptualization with Universally Applicable Processes Drawing on the goal theory of motivation, Kanungo and his associates (Kanungo and Jaeger 1990; Mendonca and Kanungo 1994) suggested that an organization can achieve high productivity by adopting universally applicable processes of setting up specific and difficult but attainable goals, arranging thorough training programmes, and giving accurate feedback to the employees. However, the ways of conducting these processes have to be culture specific. In other words, what constitute appropriate goals, how training programmes should be conducted, and how appraisals can be made have to be decided by Indian cultural considerations. Sinha (1980, 1995) drew on Indian cultural preferences for nurturing superior and respectful compliant subordinates, but employed the reinforcement theory in a contingency framework to postulate an effective model of leadership for Indian organizations. In sum, Indian organizational behaviour assumed a more matured approach of identifying the functional ideas of Western origin and integrating them with indigenous ones in order to conceptualize organizational behaviour that is embedded in Indian culture and suits those who work in Indian organizations, although one stream of thought advocated the validity of ancient Indian spiritual and philosophical traditions for organizational behaviour.

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GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR As the world is turning into a global village (McLuhan and Powers 1989), organizational behaviour too is assuming a glocal form·global in perspective, but local in applications. It has to be rooted in the host culture and local conditions, and yet has to have a global strategy for functioning in the international arena. The world economy has transitioned from the industrial age to the information age where knowledge rivals traditionally crucial natural resources for enabling organizations to have a competitive advantage (Senge 1990; Stewart 1997). Knowledge leverages organizations by: 1. Providing information technology (IT). 2. Facilitating transnational organizations in having new structures, processes, and outcomes.

Use of IT Older technology involving batch production, assembly line, and process industry does persist all over the world. However, the global network of computers, lap tops, cell phones, television, Internet, Intranet, world wide web (www), artificial intelligence, video conferencing, and a host of other electronic mediums have made it easy and cost-effective to get access to billions and trillions of pieces of information on all conceivable topics, stay connected with anyone at anytime, communicate simultaneously with a large number of people located at dispersed places anywhere in the world, work without being physically present at the workplace, and so on. Advances in nanotechnology has led to the manufacture of dust particle-sized sensors that can be wirelessly connected to miniature computers that are less than the size of a matchbox, which can continuously transmit enormous volumes of information through satellites to any part of the world. Thus, IT has totally revolutionized the way organizations and individuals within them can work and relate with each other. For example, fewer people are needed to perform a task more efficiently and much more work can be done in a shorter span of time; people located at distant places can stay connected and can interact with one another through video conferencing; employees can work from their homes; robots can relieve people from the drudgery of repetitive work and free them from the dangers of hazardous tasks; increasingly, a number of services are being outsourced to people located in different parts of the world, business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) from the West amount to millions of jobs and millions of rupees to Indians; huge inventories have been reduced to just-in-time supply lines; customer services are automated; designing and manufacturing are dissociated and conducted at distant places; products life cycles have been shortened and a variety of products and services can now be provided from the same platform.


Box 1.8

21

Drivers of Glocal Organizational Behaviour

Ć Information Technology. Ć Changes in structure, processes, and outcomes of transnationals.

Facilitating Transnational Organizations Information Technology has facilitated multinational and transnational companies2 to function from remotely located cultural settings. They are indeed becoming borderless, market-driven, and strategically-oriented entities. Instead of being totally embedded in a particular culture and obliged to serve the interests of a single nation, they reflect many cultural shades, tend to satisfy many stakeholders, and respond to a highly complex and turbulent international market. They aggressively search at the global level for business opportunities, invest in places where the return on their capital is maximum, acquire, merge, and form alliances to realize business synergy, outsource designs, spares, and processes globally to remain cost-effective, and market their products and services wherever there is a demand for them. They do meet local legal requirements, work within the governmentÊs policy framework, hire local people who bring their social preferences and work habits, and sell products and services that the local people like. Unique conditions also have the potential to make the organizations acquire new knowledge that they can share with the rest of the units. Influences of the host culture naturally seep into an organization, resulting in diversity in the workforce and in the management practices. Local employees adopt global management practices in their formal interactions, but resort to their local cultural modes in how they practice organizational codes and routines (Sinha 2004). However, transnational organizations also attempt to influence government policies, indoctrinate local managers into their corporate culture, and spend huge amounts to change the consumption patterns of the local people. In the process, they attempt the following: 1. Shift to newer forms of organizational structures. 2. Put in place supportive organizational practices. 3. Strive to achieve multiple organizational outcomes. Shifting Models of Organizational Structure Information Technology enables transnational organizations to structure themselves differently. The earlier forms of organizations do survive, but only in modified forms. For example, bureaucracy, although ruffled badly, still holds its turf in some form or another. Information Technology allows for issues to be discussed widely, in taking quick decisions, and in documenting these later for

22


records. Precedence and procedures can be quickly checked and, if necessary, ignored in favour of urgent action. The matrix form of organizations are found in certain parts of organizations where employees report to both functional and administrative bosses. But cross-functional teams often take over the rigid lines of authority. Divisions and departments based on products, functions, countries, and regions do still exist, but are reorganized into various hybrid forms. Further, network designs replace them even more radically. Network organizations are flat, flexible, and are guided by market mechanisms rather than administrative procedures. They focus on their core competencies and form alliances or outsource complementary resources from those that are most competent in their respective domains (Miles and Snow 1992). Virtual organizations are a specific type of network organizations that temporarily join together to exploit fast changing opportunities. Their focus is on connecting with resource partners rather than on creating permanent assets, realizing forward and backward integration, or maintaining stable hierarchical roles and positions. The partners of virtual organizations share costs, skills, and access to information according to a time-bound contract (Carr 1999; Davidow and Malone 1992).

Supportive Organizational Processes The organizational processes that support new forms of organizations can be identified at the macro and micro levels. At the macrolevel, organizations aggressively move for quick inorganic growth through acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, and strategic alliance formations. Indian organizations, for example, have acquired organizations many times larger than their own size. International institutional funding and venture capital is generously availed of for this purpose. At the organizational level, they adopt total quality management (TQM); re-engineer their products and processes, benchmark with the best companies; practice 360-degree appraisal, set six sigma standards of quality audit, pay for performance, downsize workforce and outsource non-core functions, function through project teams, empower their employees to give their best, and a host of other measures. Organizations hire fewer people who are better trained, pay them more than the market rate, and make them work much more than their older counterparts. Seniority and work experiences are discounted in favour of people who are younger and in favour of innovative ideas. Loyalty is undermined in favour of oneÊs competence to contribute tangibly to the organization.

Organizational Outcomes The bottom line, profit and profitability, is still the most cherished outcome. But the old recipe of realizing it through measures ensuring efficiency and effectiveness now includes many more considerations. A more attractive indicator of the potency of organizations is market capitalization, that is, the value that the share market attaches to the organizations on the basis of which they can rope in financing institutions and raise funds for expanding business, enlarging research and development (R&D) activities, and acquire other organizations internationally in order to enhance their market share and the synergy in their range of products and services.


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Effectiveness, which is defined as the extent to which organizations have achieved the targets that they set, is often used interchangeably with efficiency. Because organizations invariably have multiple targets, they also have a number of indicators of effectiveness. Some of the indicators that are reported in Indian organizations are the following: Financial solvency, profitability and growth, productivity, health and job satisfaction, capability development, innovative thrust, market penetration, enabling inter-organizational linkages, quality of work life, organizational citizenship, ability to change society, relevance of organizational activities for national development (Khandwalla 1988: 100). Organizations not only have multiple goals and targets, but also have multiple stakeholders. All stakeholders do not subscribe to all the goals, and all goals and targets do not have a fixed time frame. Some are compatible while others are contrasting; some are of instant relevance while others are gainful in the long run; some are instrumental to others that are terminal in nature. Thus, organizational outcomes constitute a very complex domain where each organization has to trade off between the outcomes that it strives to realize and the ones that they can ignore. A few leading indicators are identified for illustration. Organizations now consider both external and internal customers (that is, employees) as equally important for their long-range viability and profitability. Organizations provide quality and costeffectiveness to their external customers whose satisfaction levels reflect an important outcome for the organizations. Job satisfaction and quality of work life used to be the main outcomes for employees. Now, there is a greater emphasis on creating human capital and social capital within organizations that can help realize employeesÊ personal growth as well as sustain the competitive edge of organizations. Human capital is the human resources (their skills, positive attitude to work and the people with whom they work, disposition to give their best to the organization as well as to have a sense of high self-esteem). Social capital is the amount of trust and interdependency among employees, resulting in sustained, effective performance and a sense of being the members of a mutually supportive group (Fukuyama 1995). Another outcome is the extent to which organizations have been able to inculcate organizational citizenship behaviour in employees. Organizational citizenship means a feeling of being responsible for oneÊs organization and doing whatever one can do to create positive synergy in it (Organ 1988; Podsakoff et al. 1997). More specifically, it amounts to enlarging oneÊs roles and reaching out to others in order to extend whatever help and support can be given to others at the workplace in order to reinforce the emotional bond among employees. Indians do tend to achieve excellence at work and manifest a competitive spirit, but they also seek personal growth and a broader purpose for life and work by transcending narrowly defined earthly needs, and realizing societyÊs well-being. From a societal perspective, organizations are now expected to rise above their narrowly defined boundary of social responsibility (of paying taxes, remaining ethical in business transactions, and providing satisfactory conditions of work and services) and contribute to nation building, preventing the degradation of the environment, taking care of the environment, and reaching out to the bottom of the economic pyramid (Hamel and Prahalad 1994) in order to broaden the base of their viability. In sum, the glocal forms of organizational behaviour appear to be universally relevant, irrespective of where they function (Bartlett and Ghosal 1988; Laurent 1986). Information Technology provides a universally shared set of tools to improve their functioning as well as to facilitate them by enabling them to adopt new organizational structures and practices that are aimed to achieve a wide range

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of outcomes for employees, customers, the economy, and the environment. Culture plays a big role in facilitating certain organizational processes and outcomes.

SUMMARY In this chapter we discussed how different approaches to managing work organizations evolved since the early twentieth century. The early approaches adopted a machine model where individuals were conceptualized as the cogs of a huge machine. These theories called for either re-structuring the systems or for the training of workers in order to make them perform in the most efficient manner. The early theories were mechanical in their approach. Culture did not figure in these approaches. The impact of Western culture, however, was obvious in the subsequent developments·the Howthorne study and the human relations and socio-technical approaches. These theories, models, concepts, and methods, when transferred to Indian organizations, were found to have limited validity. Hence, efforts to indigenize them resulted in a number of streams of organizational behaviour that tended to get integrated in varying degrees. Recent developments in IT and the transnational forms of organizations have led to the development of glocal organizational behaviour that is global in strategic thinking and local in its applications. Indian cultural influences are permeating the fabric of organizations not by denying the importance of either the historicity of organizational behaviour or the critical role being played by globalization and IT, but by enriching them with indigenous concepts and ethos. The next chapter presents an account of this cultural imprint.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Map an Organization Step 1 Think of your organization or any organization that you know. Alternatively, visit an organization where you have contacts.

Step 2 Write a description of the organization covering its (a) history, (b) product lines, (c) capital structure, (d) performance in terms of profit and loss, (e) structure in terms of functions, products, or networking, ( f ) systems and rules for recruitment, appraisal, reward and punishment, training, motivation management, and groups, and ( g) practices such as downsizing, outsourcing, etc.


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Step 3 Check how the constructs and theories given in the chapter explain the behaviour of individuals and groups in the organization and those of the organization.

Exercise 2: Design an Organization Step 1 Form a team of five participants. Imagine that the managing director (MD) of a large Indian private sector company producing edible oil has assigned to this team the task of visiting some South Asian countries in order to accomplish the following: 1. Identify a country and a suitable site for establishing a subsidiary for producing edible oil. 2. Discuss among the team members the role and responsibilities of the project director and directors of finance, production, marketing and sales, and legal matters. 3. Develop a blueprint for forming the subsidiary covering structure, functions, and organizational practices. 4. Prepare a project proposal for the MD.

Exercise 3: A Dilemma for Mr Bansal Step 1 Read the following case: Ravi Bansal was upbeat, but a bit uneasy too. He had returned late last night from Kuala Lumpur after three days of gruelling negotiations with Wan Abdul Rahman, chairman and MD of Malay Heavy Electrical Limited (MHEL). Both had agreed, in principle, to form a joint venture for manufacturing high-tech belts for a variety of uses and to set up a supportive state-of-the art R&D centre in Malaysia. Market research had predicted a growth rate of over 20 per cent for the proposed products. Ravi took a sip of the fresh coffee that his secretary had just placed before him and promised himself, ÂSome day I shall launch Bansal models of cars! Not now. But some day soon!Ê The contract is not in hand, but the prospect was bright. Rahman was coming for a visit at the end of the following month. Another round of negotiations and Ravi was sure he would have an iron-clad contract. A lot of groundwork was yet to be done. Ravi looked at the wall clock: He still had half-an hour before he met his directors to set the ball rolling.

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Rahman, Ravi recalled, was a lucky guy! He had got everything on a platter. Coming from a very affluent family, he took advantage of the government policy after Independence in 1957 of favouring bhumiputras (sons of the soil) over the Chinese, who earlier dominated Malay business. He got a license to set up MHEL, liberal doses of incentives, and long tax holidays that turned MHEL into a leading national company with a strong capital base, large workforce, an extensive distribution network, an army of vendors and distributors, and an order book that was full for the next five years. Rahman had connections with political heavy weights of all hues and colours. In comparison, Bansal Industries was small, very small. But that was more than compensated for by RaviÊs burning ambition and street-smart doggedness that Rahman lacked! Rahman was too complacent. Their chemistry matched. Ravi walked while reminiscing to the window from where he could oversee his factory, spread over a sprawling 20 acre plot with a lush green background. The factory was one of the best in the world. But that was not what Ravi was looking at. Before his eyes was a vivid image of a motor garage from 20 years ago. He still remembered the day he was recalled from his second year at engineering college for the funeral of his father, who owned a Maruti service centre. He was angry, but also aware of his obligation to take care of his mother and his younger brother, Suraj, who was just finishing high school at that time. ÂThis garage is not my destinationÊ, he kept repeating for the next few years. And, his ambition and hard work outgrew the garage. Maruti Udyog was impressed enough to let him change the garage into a small factory supplying fan belts, at first to Maruti and then later to other retailers all over the country. Bansal Service Centre turned into Bansal Industries Private Limited. It grew fast. The old factory was sold and Bansal Industries moved to its current location. Ravi travelled east and west to get the best available technology. Bansal Industries started manufacturing multi-ribbed V-belts for meeting the growing demands of companies such as Maruti, Tata Motors, Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, Ashok Leyland, and others. It obtained the ISO 9001 certification in the year 1997 and the ISO 9002 two years later for manufacturing industrial belts, automotive belts, multiribbed belts, and so on. The turnover increased from Rs 20 million to Rs 800 million. The workforce increased accordingly to its current strength of 45 managers, 280 permanent workers, and around 350 casual helpers, besides about 50 persons in the staff. RaviÊs younger brother, Suraj, graduated from a business school and became the joint managing director (JMD). The director of finance was lured from a competing company. A retired senior engineer from Maruti was hired to head the production division. A dashing young man with a degree in marketing was recruited. He was RaviÊs wifeÊs distant cousin. A close friendÊs son was hired to take care of administration. An MBA from a Delhi institute was hired to run the human resources (HR) department. Ravi trusted them all. He gave them full authority to pick up his team. As Suraj developed a grip over management, Ravi concentrated largely on strategic issues. But Ravi seemed to have lost touch with his employees. Except for the directors, the other employees hardly saw him. The directors, Ravi could sense, had a lot of differences that they kept sweeping under the rug during meetings. There were, however, instances of gaps in communications or discrepancies in reports that Suraj had a hard time in reconciling. Ravi had become a distant boss to most of his employees. There was a time when Ravi used to know most of the workers personally, when he would visit managers socially, and walk around the shop floor calling out to people at random. But this was no longer the case.


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Maybe, Ravi wondered, it was time that he got to know his people better. Ravi felt that he should again start walking the shop floor, chatting with employees to find out how they felt about becoming part of a multinational organization that he is going to form. He felt this exercise might even help him intuitively see which of the employees would like to move to Malaysia, how they need to be selected, or it might just change his high profile strategic image. ÂOr, maybe, there is a better way! I guess I need an outside help, a consultantÊ, thought Ravi.

Step 2 Suppose you are the one who has been invited to do the job. Prepare a project proposal to study how individuals, groups, and the organization as a whole are functioning, their strengths and weaknesses, skills and dispositions, and how the company should orient them for becoming a part of a multinational organization.

Step 3 Each project proposal will be presented to the whole class/group with a view to identifying the common features of those Indian organizations that are getting into joint ventures with foreign companies and the way they should prepare themselves for the success of the joint venture.

NOTES 1. See http://www.jstor.org/pss/3347457. See also, Keis (1995). 2. Although multinational and transnational organizations are conceptually and functionally different, the demarcation lines between them cannot always be drawn in real cases. Hence, the terms, multinational and transnational organizations, are used interchangeably.

2

Indian Cultural Context


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Highlight the Indian cultural perspective on organizational behaviour. Trace the evolving Indian mindset Profile the composite Indian mindset. Show the impact of shifting mindset on organizational behaviour.


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INDIAN CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

T

he need to examine organizational behaviour from an Indian cultural perspective arose out of the failure to validate Western theories, concepts, and methods in Indian organizations. Initially, the failure was attributed either to IndiansÊ authoritarian behaviour or to the ineptitude of Indian scholars to replicate well-established Western theories and concepts. Subsequently, however, three developments led to a fresh look at and recognition of the salience of the Indian cultural perspective: 1. A number of studies that tried to prove Western theories and concepts in the Indian context failed despite the best efforts to replicate them. 2. A surge of self-reliance in the country in the 1970s stimulated a search for ancient psychospiritual and contemporary indigenous concepts and ideas that seemed to have the potential to explain Indian organizational behaviour more appropriately. 3. International cross-cultural research confirmed the limitations of Western theories and concepts in explaining human behaviour in non-Western cultures, and thereby opened up the possibility of developing indigenous perspectives on human, including organizational behaviour in different cultures. As the preceding chapter showed, Indian research on organizational behaviour did not totally reject Western contributions. Rather, it identified a trend towards the integration of Western and Indian concepts and methods. Further research of the sources of this integrative trend revealed three cardinal features of Indian culture having a bearing on how individuals, groups, and organizations behave in India: 1. Pluralistic world view is willingly receptive to new ideas and influences, and thereby collects diverse values, beliefs, norms, and practices from other cultures. 2. Synthesizing mindset tends to integrate diverse cultural influences, but does not reject those that cannot be integrated. They are allowed to coexist resulting in an inclusive cultural frame of consistent, inconsistent, as well as opposite components. 3. High context sensitivity enables Indians to selectively retrieve components and organize them in different combinations for responding effectively to different organizational contexts.

Pluralistic World View The pluralistic world view of Indians emanates from the psycho-spiritual and philosophical texts and scriptures of ancient India. The Rig Veda, which is over 2,500 years old, proclaims: Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions (1.89.9).

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When noble thoughts from all directions are welcome, they indeed are likely to be divergent, promoting a pluralistic world view. Hindu religion represents the largest pluralistic tradition (Goel 2002). Vivekananda, in his famous address to the WorldÊs Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 11 September 1893 proclaimed: I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but accept all religions as true.1 Hinduism is probably the only major religion that recognizes several valid paths to arrive at the same truth and therefore respects them all. Mahatma Gandhi again affirmed this pluralistic perspective in the following words: I do not want my house to be walled on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. (quoted in Human Development Report 1996: 4)

Synthesizing Mindset The diversity is contained by Âa synthesizing tendencyÊ (Radhakrishnan and Moore 1954: xxv) of the Indian mindset. Waves of immigrations and invasions, colonial rule, Western cultural inroads, and recent global influences have indeed brought in divergent influences. The synthesizing mindset has attempted to integrate them. However, those influences that could not be integrated, were still allowed to coexist as inconsistent and even mutually exclusive thoughts and practices, which are ÂencompassedÊ (Dumont 1970) and ÂenfoldedÊ (Schulberg 1968) within an overarching Indian mindset that affects how people think, feel, and behave in various contexts including organizational contexts. Thus, the Indian mindset not only integrates various influences, but remains open and pluralistic in accommodating diverse components.

Context Sensitivity Indians have high context sensitivity (Hall 1981; Roland 1988; Sinha and Kanungo 1997). Unlike people in the West who apply abstract principles and generalized norms to decide how to behave in different situations, Indians organize their thoughts, feelings, and actions to meet specific contextual demands (Sinha and Kanungo 1997). Roland (1988) portrayed the difference by using the metaphors of the gyroscope and the radar: A gyroscope enables the westerner to sail the seas of innumerable social situations by keeping his balance around more universalistic principles of behaviour, even while perceiving and partly identifying with numerous group norms. It suits the autonomous,


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mobile individual, who must participate in any number of extra-familial groups and relationships . . . . Radar, on the other hand, enables Indians to be extraordinarily sensitive to the norms of responsibilities and proper behaviour, as well as the customs in complex familial and extra-familial hierarchical relationships, enabling them to act appropriately in these very specific situations. (Roland 1988: 252) In sum, the inclusive cultural perspective of Indians endows them with the competence to selectively retrieve from the amalgam of different values, beliefs, norms, and action orientations, arrange them differently in different organizational contexts, and to achieve the best out of their transactions.

Box 2.1

The Inclusive Indian Mindset

Ć Pluralistic in receiving diverse cultural influences. Ć Synthesizing some and allowing others to coexist. Ć Selectively retrieving and employing them depending on specific contexts.

INDIAN CULTURAL TRADITIONS The Primordial Hindu World View The primordial Hindu world view is enshrined in a variety of texts and scriptures spanning from 2,500 bc to the ad eighth-century (Akhilanand 1952; Paranjpe 1988; Radhakrisnan and Moore 1954). They still manifest remarkable resilience in affecting the life and activities of common Indians. The Vedas are the oldest among them. They initiated a devotional approach drawing on the belief in the existence of gods and goddesses whose blessings have to be procured by performing various religious rites, rituals and prayers, chanting mantras, and doing penance. The devotional approach is manifested in how Indians worship innumerable gods and goddesses, give offerings in temples that dot public places as well as private homes all over the country, and celebrate numerous religious festivals throughout the year. Even modern organizations observe religious rites and rituals at their premises. Box 2.2

Facets of the Primordial Hindu World View

Ć Cosmic collectivism. Ć Hierarchical order. Ć Spiritual orientation.

The concluding parts of Vedas, the Upanishads, contain three main facets of the Hindu primordial world view: cosmic collectivism, hierarchical order, and spiritual orientation. These still occupy centre stage in the Hindu mindset.

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Cosmic Collectivism Cosmic collectivism posits that the universe consists of diverse forms and elements. These are compatible as well as conflicting, but are interconnected and are held together by an underlining sense of unity derived from being parts of the same ultimate reality·Brahman. While the manifest parts of the cosmos constitute maya, which is phenomenal, illusory, and deceptive, it is Brahman that is real and appears in the atman (the vital essence) of all beings. This atman is the same in the ant, the same in gnat, the same in the elephant, the same in those three worlds . . . the same in the whole universe. (Brhadaranyaka Upnishad 1.3.22, dated about 1,000 bc)

Hierarchical Order Hierarchical order signifies that the whole cosmos and everything within it·animate as well as inanimate·is arranged in a hierarchical order of being superior to some and inferior to others. In other words, plants, trees, rivers, insects, birds, animals, and human beings are all parts of the cosmic collectivism, and are arranged hierarchically. Animates are superior to inanimate objects; human beings are superior to both. Among human beings, hierarchical order is based on caste and within caste on age, gender, and types of relationships. Within a human being, the head is superior to the middle parts of the body, which in turn are superior to the feet. The body itself has five layers ranging from the gross body, which is the lowest, to the subtle body·soul (atman)·which is the most superior. Even food, weather, states of mind, and all conceivable phenomena have layers of hierarchy, one superior to another.

Spirituality Spirituality was conceived as a means to rise in the cosmic hierarchy in order to eventually get fused with the Brahman and thereby realize moksh (salvation from the sufferings of life). Spirituality is built into the Indian psyche without understanding which Âit is virtually impossible to comprehend Indian psychological make-up, society, and cultureÊ (Roland 1988: 294). Id-like impulses and material strivings are very much parts of life. Human beings have to live through them and then transcend them by rising on a moral scale for having a transformed, healthy (swastha, that is, stable), composed, and detached mindset that can maintain a balance between the person and the environment, between body and mind, between the states of mind, and so on.

Other Religious Texts and Scriptures Among the various religious texts and scriptures, the Upanishads are said to be the foundation of the Vedantic philosophy, which is the most dominant Indian school of thought (Radhakrishnan and


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Moore 1954). A striking feature of the Upanishads is their logical approach that involves making finer and finer differentiations in a phenomenon and then putting the pieces into a whole again. Bhawuk (2003) quoting one of Upanishads says, ÂWise people of India could partition the world in opposites, then put them together into one whole, then again partition themÊ (2003: 11). This disposition has led to the differentiation of three levels of consciousness·manas (lower mind), ahankar (ego), and budhi (intellect); five levels of the body from the gross to the subtle; three types of suffering·bodily, material deprivation, divine anger; three gunas·sattva (purity), rajas (passion), and tamas (inertia); three elements of the body·wind, bile, and phlegm; further, four kinds of wind, five kinds of bile, and five kinds of phlegm; and so on. Box 2.3

Analytical Approach of the Upanishads

In contrast to the Vedic devotional approach, the Upanishads reflect a highly logical and analytical approach of making finer and finer differentiations in a phenomenon and then putting the pieces into a whole again.

The Upanishads, along with other texts and scriptures such as Samkhya philosophy of Kapil, Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, Gita of Vyas, Buddhism, Jainism, KautilyaÊs Arthshastra, and the Lokayat tradition of Charvaka also constitute a rational approach that addresses the basic realities of life such as death, immortality, sorrows, and happiness (Sinha 1987). They have some common and some different elements. They all deny the existence of god, denigrate the importance of rites and rituals, and emphasize the importance of right conducts for the liberation from sufferings and the realization of happiness. However, they differ on the ways of doing so. The Samkhya, for example, suggests regulating sensory and motor functions and expanding self-awareness through yoga. Buddhism traces suffering to ignorance and selfish desires that can be contained by a set of eight righteous conducts (the eight-fold path). Jainism too advocates containing desires and practising five virtues: non-violence, speaking the truth, not stealing, chastity, and non-attachment. The Arthshastra highlights the salience of a secular administration based on merit, rationality, and judicious use of power for promoting the well-being of all (Kangle 1986). The Lokayat tradition of Charvak counteracts the spiritual world view by taking a purely materialistic approach to enjoying all pleasures of life by building a strong body through hath yoga (a strenuous system of yoga). Both devotional and rational approaches subscribed to the doctrine of karma, the inevitable effects of oneÊs conduct, which, according to some, follow immediately, and according to others, even in the next life. Together these approaches presented a multifaceted conceptualization of human beings that were expressed not only in the Hindu texts (for example, the Gita, Yoga Sutra, Purans, and the epics·Ramayan and Mahabharat), but also in Buddhist texts (for example, the Jatak-kathas), and Jain literature. The epics, for example, externalized peopleÊs inner world in order to gain insights into the ways of resolving serious life issues. They created mythic models consisting of both divine and demonic characters, providing guidelines of what to emulate and what to avoid (Ramanujan 1989; Roland 1988). Furthermore, even the divine characters were depicted to have vices and the demonic ones had virtues underlining the complexities of human nature. Another type of narrative, the Panchtantra, has stories in which animals and birds think and behave like human beings. Instead of indulging in divine activities, they demonstrate ways to safeguard against incompetent, evil, and

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crooked individuals by cultivating practical intelligence in order to identify faithful and skilful friends and relatives for gaining wealth and prosperity. In sum, the ancient texts and scriptures present a panorama of complex human characteristics that have a mix of the divine and the demonic, the idealistic and the pragmatic, and so on.

The Indigenous Mindset Obviously, the various strands of primordial thoughts were synthesized into an overarching conceptual framework that tended to subsume Buddhism and Jainism as variants of Hinduism and placed Lord Buddha and Lord Mahavir in the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses. The synthesizing tendency was carried on by a strong oral tradition that facilitated borrowing from each other in order to formulate a common social code of conduct as dharma (religion)·that which holds people (that is, stabilizes peopleÊs conduct) in sansar (the universe that is continuously in flux). In other words, religion literally meant a social code of conduct for respecting otherÊs rights and meeting oneÊs obligations to them. Consequently, the immigrants and invaders who came to India till the eighth century, were taken into the Hindu fold, but were not quite assimilated. They were different enough to be recognized as such, and yet had to be located in the Hindu collectivistic hierarchical order. This required elaborating the concept of the four varnas, the basis for only occupational classification, into thousands of jatis (castes),2 which were conceptualized as social categories. Each caste was allowed to retain its own original code of conduct that was, however, moderated by the overwhelming Hindu code of conduct that too was broadened in the process. Muslims and Mughal invaders were different. They converted a large number of Hindus into Islam. The converts accepted Islamic beliefs and practices and adopted an Islamic identity, but also retained parts of their old code of conduct. There were reciprocal influences from both sides. In fact, Islam was spread largely by the Sufi saints, particularly the Chishtis, who borrowed heavily and unhesitatingly from the Hindu conceptualization of the body and the soul, yogic postures and breath control, theory of cosmology, and belief in pantheistic monism (Khan 2001). The Mughal rulers adopted a feudal style, centralized all power, granted as well as withdrew jagirs (estates) on their personal whims. There was no scope for any independence of thought or action. The nobles under them were either totally subservient or considered to be rebels who had to be crushed even if they happened to be family members (Moreland quoted in Moore 1967: 318). Thus, the vertical mode of relationships was feudal, which reinforced the Hindu conceptualization of the hierarchical order. But the lateral social transactions among the common people manifested a shared cultural heritage. Moghni (1987) described the nature of the common heritage thus: Muslims, unlike the British, did not merely conquer and rule India, they also made it their homes, and partook the joys and sorrows of its people. In the process of interaction with the Hindus, they developed certain social norms, a code of ethics, and even a common language, namely Urdu, which is still the most commonly spoken language of the entire subcontinent. (1987: 24)


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In sum, the primordial Hindu world view subsumed Buddhism and Jainism, accommodated early immigrants and invaders into the Hindu hierarchical caste system, and shared a common code of conduct with the Muslims while allowing them to retain their religious identity, rites, and rituals. In the process, the primordial world view evolved into an indigenous cultural perspective that was inclusive enough to accommodate diverse cultural traditions.

The Colonial Experience The British experience was different. The colonial masters subscribed to the view that Indians were Âhalf-devil and half-childÊ (Kipling 1920). Therefore, they adopted a bureaucratic style in administration, mistrusted Indians working around them, distanced themselves from the Indians, and denigrated them. Indians, particularly those who were in administration or in direct contact with the British, introjected this role model, looked down upon other Indians in the same fashion, and even denigrated themselves by having a deep sense of collective inferiority that still lingers in the minds of many Indians (Roland 1988). Box 2.4

The Colonial Experience

Colonial rule was characterized by: Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Mistrust of Indians. Denigration of juniors. Large distance. Introduction of bureaucracy. Westernization of selected elites.

India in the eighteenth century, before British rule, had the second highest per capita income in the world (Robins 2006). The British destroyed the native crafts, alienated peasants from their lands, restricted education to the elites, and thereby turned the country into one of the poorest in the world. The resultant poverty and its allied maladies were so pervasive and extreme that the not-so-poor Indians even today suffer from a poverty syndrome (Sinha 2000). Poverty syndrome manifests in a fear of getting poor, becoming failures, or running into unanticipated misfortune. Even those who have enough to safeguard against poverty fear that their children might become poor. The poverty syndrome results in an amoral familism, which expresses itself as a concern for only oneÊs family members at the cost of organizational objectives (Banfield 1958: 89). Amoral familists think of their own interests, are unwilling to make even small sacrifices for the public good, lack a sense of mission, disregard laws if they can break them and get away safely, take bribes, and so on.

The Global Face Though limited in scope, the colonial experiences did expose a small group of Indians to the English language and literature, Western educational and the grading system, modern science, medicines, the

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British models of legislative, legal, and administrative institutions, and so on. Increasing exposure to the West after Independence emanates from international contacts, mass media, and cross-border business and commercial activities. The upper segment of the country is so Westernized that many scholars consider India as part of the Western world. For Chie (1964), for example, Âthe boundary of East and West lies somewhere between India and Burma [Myanmar] . . . Up to Calcutta [Kolkata], all places had been exotic and foreign [to Japanese]Ê (Chie 1964: 438). Talking about a Swedish sociologist, and a former ambassador to India, Mrs Myrdal, Chie says Âwhen she traveled westward from Tokyo via Southeast Asia, she felt she reached the West on her arrival in India. It is a similar fact that Japanese travelers feel relieved when they arrive at Rangoon [Yangon] or Bangkok from Calcutta [Kolkata]Ê (Chie 1964: 439). Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru valued factories as Âmodern templesÊ from which new values were expected to cascade over the rest of society. The new industries and plants indeed carried a package that not only contained capital, technology, and organizational forms, but also systems and practices of management and its underlying principles. In a study of 46 organizations by Virmani and Guptan (1991), it was found that although the organizations varied in terms of ownership, size, and products, they had all adopted Western systems and principles of management. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which were the pioneers in modernizing the industrial landscape, also served as the fountainheads of Western values. By the 1990s, Indian managers, like managers in the West, were found to nourish Western values of achievement, advancement, and ability utilization (Kumar 1994; J. B. P. Sinha 1990; Srinivas 1994). Many of them were Â. . . individualistic, outwardly oriented, educated, emotionally balanced, selfconfident, self-actualized, and materialisticÊ (Braasch 1998: 116) in seeking individual action, ambition, and achievement. Box 2.5

The Global Face of Indians

Indians are characterized by: Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Entrepreneurship. Knowledge of modern science and technology. Expansive orientation in the international market. Expertise as management gurus. Balance between Western values and larger purpose of life. Sense of social responsibility.

As the liberalization of the economy gained momentum by the end of the 1990s, a new surge of entrepreneurship and creativity was noticed which not only encompassed a whole range of business activities, but also had a spill over effect in a variety of spheres including nuclear and space research, medical tourism, technical education, arts, literature, movies, and so on. Indians in general and particularly those in information technology (IT) and IT-enabled enterprises, those in multinational corporations based in the West, and academics in Western universities are doing better than their Western counterparts by playing the game according to their rules. Indian-born managers are breaking through the glass ceiling in multinational organizations. Indian organizations are buying


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out companies larger than themselves with money provided by international financial institutions, which believe that Indian companies can manage the acquired companies more effectively. Indianborn strategists are also helping to transform corporations. Indian academics and consultants are among the worldÊs most sought after business experts. About 10 per cent of them are located at the top business schools such as Harvard Business School, NorthwesternÊs Kellogg School of Business, and the University of MichiganÊs Ross School of Business. Experts of Indian descent constitute a far higher percentage than any other ethnic groups (Mohan Babu 2007).

THE COMPOSITE INDIAN MINDSET The various cultural traditions discussed so far constitute a composite mindset having overlapping and consistent a well as inconsistent and contradictory beliefs, values, norms, and behaviour. Indians do not feel any significant degree of dissonance or discomfort in having them (Bharati 1985). Roland (2005) found that ÂThere is much more of an ability [of Indians] to live with inconsistency and dissonance than tends to be characteristics of most westerners.Ê They, according to Carl Jung, Âdo not mind seemingly intolerable contradictionsÊ (Jung quoted in Sinha and Tripathi 1994: 125). Ramanujan (1989) observed, ÂWhen Indians learn, quite expertly, modern science, business, or technology, they „compartmentalize‰ these interests . . . the new ways of thought and behaviour do not replace, but live along with the old „religious‰ ways . . . The modern, the context free, becomes one more contextÊ (Ramanujan 1989: 57). Some of the dominant opposites that have bearings on organizational behaviour are discussed next.

Collectivism–Individualism The primordial belief in cosmic collectivism has a modern avatar. Indian culture is considered to be collectivist in nature (see, for example, Hofstede 1980; Marriot 1990; Sinha and Verma 1987; Triandis 1995; Verma 1999). Indians are visualized as ÂdivisualsÊ rather than ÂindividualsÊ (Marriot 1990) and embedded in their in-groups (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Their identity is developed around ÂweÊ rather than ÂIÊ. Indian names often include parts of parental names (for example, Mahatma GandhiÊs full name·Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi·included part of his fatherÊs name·Karamchand Gandhi), place of origin (for example, Firak Gurakhpuri, who was from Gorakhpur) or mythological characters implying connectivity with ancestors, the physical milieu, and even the world of gods and goddesses. A person is conceptualized as a microcosm reflecting the whole cosmos (Kakar 1982). The five physical components that constitute a personÊs body also connect it to the physical space, climate, land conditions, sun, moon, and other planets·all these affect him. Many Indians wear stones and beads to regulate the inflowing influences from natural and supernatural forces. Similarly, they are embedded into the social milieu (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Lapierre (1986) observed, ÂEvery individual

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in India is always linked to the rest of the social body by a network of incredibly diversified ties, with the result that no one in this gigantic country of seven hundred and fifty million [now above one billion] inhabitants could ever be completely abandonedÊ (Lapierre 1986: 56). The natural imperative is to cope with exigencies collectively as well as to grow together rather than to strive for personal excellence that may alienate the high achiever who is perceived as selfish. Those striving for personal excellence create interpersonal tension and friction causing diminished collective gains (Sinha 1968). On the contrary, those striving for the collectiveÊs achievement are appreciated (Mehta 1991), for achievement in Indian culture implies being a good person, thinking about the well-being of others, fulfilling oneÊs duties, helping others, and being able to get the affection and blessings of others (Agarwal and Misra 1989; Misra and Agarwal 1985). Compared to people in the West, Indians are found to be high on helping behaviour (Levine et al. 2001). Family constitutes the most valued in-group followed by friends, relatives, neighbours, members of the same caste, religious, and language group, and finally country (although there is an idealized Indian expression that the whole universe is like an extended family). Within the family or the family-like in-group, relationships are characterized by the following: . . . strong emotional connectedness between Indians, usually experienced on a nonverbal level, a more symbiotic mode of thinking of and being constantly sensitive to the other, with internalized expectations of full reciprocity; a tremendous . . . giving and taking or constant mutual indulgence of warmth and concern; a sense of we-ness and partial merger. (Roland 1988: 196ă97) The oft-quoted expression, ÂWhat will people say (Log kya kahenge)Ê discloses a concern of being watched by the public eyes that monitor whether people are behaving appropriately and following the social codes of conduct. Naturally, the tendency is to undermine and suppress oneÊs interests and needs, and to conform to social norms and the in-groupÊs interests. Trompenaars (1993) found that Indians, compared to many people in the West, care less for protecting individual freedom, making their own decisions, and assuming individual responsibility for the outcome of a decision. Implications of collectivism on the healing process are quite revealing. Health problems are extensively discussed among family members and friends who actively give advice about the line of treatment (faith healing, traditional, homeopathic, or allopathic) and the choice of a doctor or a healer (Sinha et al. 1993). The tendency, to a certain extent, is to opt for a doctor who is a family friend, a relative, a member of the same caste group, or a friend of a friend. Family members invariably accompany the patient during their hospitalization (Verghese 1978). Box 2.6

How are You?

A Canadian manager told me about the problems that a newly arrived Indian expatriate was facing in a multinational company in Canada. Whenever the Indian expatriate was asked ÂHow are you?Ê, he would start talking about all the things that were bothering him·culture shock, home sickness, his ailing parents back home, his sisterÊs marriage, and so on. The Canadians started avoiding him and that stressed him out even more. Nobody was willing to tell him that he was supposed to just say ÂfineÊ in response to the greeting.


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The attendants of mental patients share the symptoms of their patients quite openly and extensively while the latter wait for a doctor or a healer (Kakar 1982). The ancient classical Indian text on medicine, the Charak Samhita of Ayurveda prescribes: Besides the thorough physical check up to discern any pathological condition, the tone of the system, age, compactness, proportions, digestive power, and capacity to work, the medical examination should include [the] patientÊs emotional and social spheres. The doctor should take into account the region in which the patient is born, grew up, and has developed the disease. The peculiarity of land, food habits, the general condition of health of the inhabitants of the region, the kinds of diseases they [are] most likely [to] contract, peopleÊs special features, etc. are also considered before a line of treatment is decided upon. (Kakar 1982: 228) Although Indians are indeed collectivists, there are strands of thoughts, feelings, and actions in the minds of Indians that reflect the underlying value of individualism. Indians are reported to have a well-protected secret self that contains highly individualistic impulses, desires, and fantasies (Roland 1988). IndiansÊ Âability to keep all kinds of thoughts and feelings secret goes far beyond what most Euro-Americans are capable ofÊ (Roland 2005: 5). Their spiritual pursuits are individualistic in nature (Paranjpe 1988). In sum, Indians are both collectivists and individualists (Sinha and Tripathi 1994; Sinha et al. 2001b; Sinha et al. 2002; R. B. N. Sinha 2004).

Personalized–contractual Relationship A concomitant of collectivism is the personalized nature of relationships. In personalized relationships, the norms for guiding behaviour depend on the quality of relationships. Resources are allocated disproportionately to oneÊs own people (apane log, that is, in-group members) and are justified by referring to whatever rules (equity, equality, or need) are applicable. Indians, compared to people in the West are more likely to give false evidence in court to protect a friend and to tamper with an evaluation report to suit the interests of in-group members (Trompenaars 1993). Contractual relationships are based on the belief that all goods and services are resources that can be exchanged for mutual benefit following the rules of a contract (Foa and Foa 1974). Even the domains of love and friendship are subjected to at least an implicit contract. An inherent weakness of a contract is that it can be broken at anytime, provided the person is willing to pay the penalty as stipulated in the contract. Such an orientation is inimical to a long-term commitment (Bellah et al. 1985). Indians switch between personalized and contractual modes of relationships depending on whether they are engaged in a one-time transaction (for example, shopping in a distant town) or are anticipating continued interactions over a period of time. In the latter case, they tend to invest their energy and resources by nurturing personalized relationships so that they might be able to harvest even larger gains later on. Organizations provide an arena where employees maintain the whole

40


range of relationships·from contractual to personalized ones·depending on the construction of the various dyadic interactions.

Hierarchical Orientation Hierarchical orientation has its roots in the primordial mindset. Combined with collectivism, it results in vertical collectivism (Triandis and Bhawuk 1997). Hofstede (1980) called it a large power distance where more as well as less powerful persons accept the power differentials that legitimize more powerful persons to receive disproportionately larger gains than the less powerful persons. It also manifests in status consciousness whereby juniors and subordinates go the extra mile to show their submissiveness and loyalty to their seniors and superiors (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Indian society is finely stratified. The caste system is hierarchical in nature. Within each caste, there are sub-castes, totalling hundreds of sub-castes that are further differentiated as superior to some and inferior to others. Within caste, families are differentiated on the basis of their socioeconomic status. Although family is the most valued collective where members are tied together in unalienable relationships, there are still differences in status depending on their age, gender, and role-relationships. Older family members, males, parents, uncles, aunts, and elder brothers have a higher status. But the wife of oneÊs elder brother, even if she is younger in age, is placed higher in the hierarchy. There are different rights and obligations of seniors, elders, and superiors versus juniors, youngsters, and subordinates. Juniors in either the home or office are expected to stand up when a senior comes to him, vacate the seat for him if necessary, open the door for the senior, and speak humbly to him. They must not retort to a senior even when the latter is wrong, must not lose their temper overtly, must not smoke or drink alcohol in front of the senior, must not behave in a way that amounts to undermining the seniorÊs authority, must not call the senior by his first name, and so on. If they are hurt by a seniorÊs behaviour, they sulk, leave him without saying a word, or refuse to eat. In other words, the tendency is to communicate the hurt feeling non-verbally and punish themselves in order to create guilt in the seniors. Hierarchy is indeed a universal phenomenon. Even in egalitarian societies in the West, there exist varying degrees of hierarchy. However, the guiding belief in the West is that superiors and subordinates, seniors and juniors, elders and youngsters are intrinsically equal having different rights and obligations that entitle them to have hierarchical positions in society. Further, rights and obligations are domain specific and are formalized in terms of contracts that individuals enter into informally or formally. One may be superior in one domain, but subordinate in another domain. In the West, a janitor (sweeper) is entitled to the same respect as his boss in a social setting; a student can question his professor; a son has the right to prove that his father is wrong on issues that the son knows best; and a subordinate has the right to disagree with his boss if he has firm evidence in support of his views. But not in India, at least not in a majority of cases. A boss, a father, and a teacher are not to be questioned and their authority is not to be challenged. Indian hierarchy is primarily structural, ascribed, and given. And yet, one very Indian cultural value is to respect those who renounce earthly pleasures and material possessions and seek knowledge, the well-being of others, or engage in spiritual pursuits.


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Saints and fakirs often command enormous respect. Examples of renunciation by Buddha, Mahavir, and Mahatma Gandhi are often cited to impress upon people the importance simple living and high thinking. Evidence is reported that Âdifferent and conflicting hierarchies exist at subjective levels . . . Very often in practice we find more than one hierarchical order in effectÊ (Gupta 2000). Some organizations Âhave changed their system of authority from the usual structural hierarchy of unquestioned subordination and loyalty to the superior to one in which there is a benevolent leader in a hierarchy by quality, and in which the subordinates deeply respect him and profoundly need the reciprocal relationship to function wellÊ (Roland 1988: 102) and Âdeep respect and veneration are only given to those who are indeed superior persons, no matter where they might be in the formal hierarchyÊ (Roland 2005: 4).

Avoidance and Tolerance of Uncertainty Indians face enormous amounts and varied nature of uncertainties in both physical and social domains. Uncertainties in the former are primarily due to weak systemic safeguards against the vagaries of nature, extreme poverty, and weak infrastructure. Uncertainties in social transactions are caused by complex and continued interactions where people are not quite sure about who are genuinely trustworthy, how to sense their intentions, which of the incompatible norms to choose, and how to manage long-term relationships for their advantage without being labelled as selfish or as opportunists. Uncertainties compel Indians to adopt a number measures for reducing them. For example, saving and investment rates are high among Indians (28.1 per cent and 26.3 per cent respectively in the year 2003ă2004)3 and are meant to hedge the possibility of running into financial hardships. Conformity to social codes of conduct is believed to create a climate where people would reciprocate help during exigencies. Rigidly formalized organizational structures, systems, and procedures are believed to protect employees from discrimination and hardships. Lifetime employment, for example, ensures livelihood to the employees. Seniority as the basis for allocating all kinds of resources provides an objective and known basis and thereby reduces apprehensions of being superceded (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Another instrument to reduce uncertainty is to acquire enough power to corner more and more resources even by adopting corrupt means, to cultivate a network with resourceful persons, and to collectively fight against any encroachment on the in-groupÊs power and privileges. However, not all certainties can be reduced. Therefore, the culture also inculcates ways of tolerating uncertainties. In order to have control over a social transaction, people inject certain degrees of ambiguities in the language so that it can subsequently be interpreted in different ways to safeguard their interests. For example, the use of the passive rather than active voice is often preferred in order to escape from commitments that are freely made; decisions are often delayed so that competing options can sort themselves out in due course; and long-term planning in many organizations is not considered to be possible because of uncertainties in the environment (Virmani and Guptan 1991).

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All these measures still fall short in eliminating all uncertainties. One has to live with them. Indians surrender to destiny, which relieves them from individual accountability for negative outcomes. Trompenaars (1993) found that compared to people in the West, Indians feel that they have less control over their life events. Therefore, the tendency is to do the best without worrying too much about the outcome, and leaving the rest to the destiny. The primordial principle of nishkam karm (work without concern for outcome) is certainly helpful to a great extent.

Masculinity–Femininity HofstedeÊs (1980) finding that Indian culture is moderately masculine fails to reveal the complex dynamics in the Indian personality. Indians identify with their mother and thereby a Â. . . good motherÊs maternal tolerance, emotional vitality, protectiveness, and nurturance become the core of every IndianÊs positive identity. However, alongside this positive identity . . . is its counterpart·the negative identity·that originates in experiences with a demanding, sometimes stifling, all too present motherÊ (Nandy and Kakar 1980: 143). That is, a Âdeeper acceptances of a feminine selfÊ (Nandy and Kakar 1980: 153) confronts another set of factors that emanates from the poverty syndrome of Indians that induces them to acquire, hoard, and monopolize material resources. In order to do so effectively, Indians need to be rough and tough, compete fiercely, and acquire and enhance power, particularly the power to reward and coerce for getting what they want. The opposing forces·motheridentification and poverty syndrome·create a mix of both femininity and masculinity·changing their priority as situations demand.

Harmony–Conflicts The primordial Hindu belief in cosmic collectivism fosters the value of harmony where everyone and everything has to live in harmony with each other. The Hindi word for ÂcivilizationÊ·savhyata· means Âliving in harmonyÊ. Hindu religion, as stated earlier, prescribes tolerance of differences. Indians tend to avoid conflicts, tolerate differences, and believe in peaceful coexistence (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). One way to avoid conflicts and to promote harmony is to change oneself in order to adjust with others and the environment. This is called Âsecondary controlÊ in contrast to Âprimary controlÊ (Azuma 1984). Primary control implies that a person, instead of changing himself, tends to change others and the situations surrounding him. Trompenaars (1993) confirmed that Indians instead of controlling important natural forces, tend to accept them as given and try to adjust to them. However, harmony and tolerance seem like espoused rather than operative values. Reports from the media and other sources present massive evidence to show that Indians resort to violence given even minor provocations. Besides individual acts of violence, communal and caste conflicts have been chronically recurring. The recent Hindu revivalism and assaults on religious minorities (Allen 1993; Andersen and Damle 1987; Chandra 1992), the rise of extremism in a large part of the country, and so on are the opposite of the harmony and tolerance that the primordial Hindu world view is credited with.


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Spirituality–Materialism As stated earlier, spirituality is deeply engraved in the Indian psyche and culture. Hindus believe in the continuity of human and divine existence. Gods and goddesses, of course, are supernatural and, depending on the merit or demerit of human beings, bless, curse, or ignore them. They are also born as human beings. Human beings too can acquire divine and supernatural powers. Indian mythology is full of stories about human beings acquiring divine qualities to the extent that they entered into the divine world and interacted face to face with gods and goddesses. The modes of preparing oneself to interface with the divine include religious ceremonies and sacrifices (ygya), fasting (vrat), asceticism and penance (tapasya), pilgrimages to temples, worshipping, chanting of mantras, meditation, yoga, collective prayer (bhajan kirtan), and similar other religious activities that purify a person, help him to renounce earthly pleasures and material striving, and thereby entitle him to seek and receive divine blessings. And yet, the Lokayat tradition of the ancient Indian philosopher, Charvak, advocated extreme materialism and indulgence in worldly pleasures even if it required acquiring money by dubious means. Striving to earn money (artha) has been recognized as a cardinal motive from ancient days, as it is the basis for indulging in earthly pleasures as well as taking care of oneÊs near and dear ones (Arthshatra of Kautilya, translated by L. N. Rangarajan 1992: 145). In a country plagued by pervasive poverty, money also stands for status, power, and worth of a person. Money, according to some (for example, Varma, 2004), motivates Indians like nothing else does. Similarly, other worldliness, for which Indians are known, coexists with a natural inclination to extract the best possible deals, ÂWhether it be telephone calls, or salwar-kameezes, chappals or chapathis, Silicon valley companies or Bollywood, Indians have the uncanny ability to spot value for moneyÊ (Shoba Narayan quoted by Kumar 2004: 15).

Emotionality–Rationality Indians are reported to be highly emotional and are said to get aroused often out of proportion (Carstairs 1971). Expressions of feelings and emotions such as crying, emotional appeal for support, manifestation of being hurt if support is denied, and expression of anger and frustrations are not signs of weakness or ill breeding (Langauni quoted in Geissbauer and Siememsen 1995). However, negative emotions caused by powerful others or superiors are either suppressed or expressed in subtle ways. When reprimanded or offended by seniors and powerful ones, juniors and weak ones do not retort, but sulk or show withdrawal symptoms. Within a family, a typical manifestation of anger and frustration is to refuse to eat. Emotionality, as stated earlier, coexists with a logical and analytical approach that has a source in Upanishads. This approach leads to split almost every phenomenon into divisions, subdivisions, and sub-subdivisions, which can be quite mind-boggling. Even religious differences during the ancient times were sorted out by shastrath (debate on texts and scriptures) that often continued for days (Sen 2006). The analytical approach, in many cases, degenerates into argumentativeness just

44


to win over adversaries. Chie (1964) compared Indians with Japanese symbolically in terms of Âlogic and smileÊ. She noted: The Indian, who loves talking in logic, takes up an opposing stand without hesitation and tries to impose oneself upon the other, regardless of the situation the statuses of the two parties . . . Most Japanese become irritated when they talk with Indians, because they [Japanese] are not understood by them [Indians], and are not used to following Indian logic. In most cases, they [Japanese] are defeated . . . and end up frustrated, while Indians remain perfectly unruffled. (1964: 435)

Brahmanical Idealism–Chalta Hai Orientation Brahmanical idealism in seeking perfection in whatever one does or in Âuncovering the ultimate reality, no matter how difficult it might beÊ coexists with anarchical individualism, which justifies any means that serves oneÊs purpose or allows one to live with any imperfections (Kumar 2004). There are also references of the prevailing aaram culture (not working diligently; the preference for taking rest and relaxing without doing any hard work) or chalta hai (even imperfections or poor quality will do) orientation (J. B. P. Sinha 1990) that characterize Indians in many walks of life.

Dependence Proneness–Entrepreneurship Indians are found to be dependence prone (Sinha 1970). They seek assistance, support, suggestions, and attention even in situations where they are capable of functioning on their own. They are risk aversive even when a risk could be enormously gainful and are indecisive where they have the authority to decide. Dependency is one of the three most dominant needs of Indians (Pareek 1968) and it is pervasive from mud huts to company boardrooms (Chattopadhyay 1975) (see Table 2.1). Table 2.1

Coexistence of Opposites

Collectivism _____________________________________ Structural hierarchical orientation __________________ Spiritualism _____________________________________ Brahmanical idealism _____________________________ Analytical approach ______________________________ Uncertainty avoidance ____________________________ Dependence proneness ___________________________ Masculinity______________________________________ Harmony _______________________________________

Individualism Achieved hierarchical superiority Materialism Anarchical individualism Emotional approach Uncertainty tolerance Entrepreneurial spirit Femininity Intolerance and violence


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However, a number of studies (see Sinha 1970) showed that highly dependence prone persons take greater initiative and risk in response to the expectations of relevant superiors. Indians showed their strong entrepreneurial spirit as far back as in the fourth millennium bc (Kumar and Sethi 2005). They initiated the first industrial revolution in India rendering it a major industrial region and a major exporter to the Middle East. Till the seventh century, Indians had flourishing trade and cultural transactions with the South-east Asian countries. The entrepreneurial spirit was suppressed during colonial rule and remained stifled till the liberalization of the economy in the early 1990s. In the year 2002, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of the London School of Business rated India as the second most entrepreneurial nation (Business Today, 18 January 2004: 84).

Context Sensitivity The high context sensitivity of Indians orients them to consider desha (place), kaal (time), and paatra (person) as well as their enabling and debilitating potentials in order to think, feel, and behave differently.

Place Organizational contexts, for example, are differentiated from other social contexts in terms of their structures, systems, codes, routines, and the resultant cultures that employees accept and conform to even by suppressing their needs and inclinations. Highly Westernized managers turn into typical traditional Indians in their family and other social settings. Many of them assume a paternalistic mode, engage in religious practices, believe in supernatural powers, and appreciate subordinates paying courtesy calls to them. Organizations are further differentiated in terms of size, ownership (for example, public, private, cooperative, mixed, multinational), products and services, extent of being culturally embedded, market driven or strategically oriented (Sinha 1999), among others. Employees think, feel, and behave differently in these organizations. Indians are much more taskoriented in a majority of private sector organizations than in most public sector organizations. Those who shift from the public sector to the private sector change their working style overnight. Managers in multinationals behave exactly like expatriates and profess to hold the values of the latter (Sinha 2004). They are punctual, hard working, egalitarian, and team-oriented while working in multinational organizations.

People In the predominantly collectivistic culture of India, people are even more important than the settings. People are differentiated into in-group (apane log) and out-group members (paraye log). The norms

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are different for them. For in-group members, such as family members, friends, and relatives, Indians are cooperative, helpful, and self-sacrificing. Relationships are reciprocally emotional, personalized, and harmonious. Power is ideally expressed in the sneh-shraddha (affection-deference) framework. The more powerful person shows his power by ÂgivingÊ away important resources to his dependent ones who blossom in the reflected glory of their patron. On the contrary, power is used for exchanging goods and services or is wielded in a coercive way with respect to out-group members. All conceivable means are adopted to gain an edge in power differential. In such instances, Indians are intensely competitive and jealous of otherÊs achievement if it makes him feel that he is losing his edge. This is a kind of Lord Indra syndrome. In Indian mythology, Lord Indra, the king of all gods and goddesses, is seen as a highly insecure person so far as the power differential is concerned. Any mortalÊs sustained tapasya (asceticism and penance) makes IndraÊs throne wobble. Indra is chronically worried about mortals who might usurp his power and authority. In the same way, Indians are very jealous and apprehensive with respect to otherÊs power and achievements.

Time Factor Time changes the salience of contextual demands in two ways. First, there are different significance and demands for different events and exigencies. Different norms are given different priorities at different times. Dharma is that which holds (that is, maintains regularity) the otherwise fluid cosmos (sansar). It has four levels of applicability ranging from general to specific: sanatan (pan-situational), jati (caste) based, swa (that which depends on oneÊs temperament and station in life), and finally apat kaal dharma (that which is to be evoked in a crisis). The first one is very general and refers to broad guidelines in normal conditions, but the behaviour is more likely to be guided by the proximate dharmas, particularly during a crisis when all other norms are set aside for those that are meant for fire fighting. Second, time changes the significance of people and places. PeopleÊs needs, expectations, resources, and the degree of inter-dependence might change over time. So too does the relevance of a place over time. Such changes evoke different feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Enabling and Debilitating Contexts Enabling and debilitating contexts affect human behaviour all over the world. However, Indians react to them much more sharply. Enabling contexts induce Indians to pursue what they think to be ideal; but the debilitating ones trigger the impulse to run for security, protection, and short-term utilitarian options. Thus, Indians separate precepts from practices like very few people in the world do. Free from serious constraints, Indians are likely to strive for perfection in whatever they do (for example, classical music, dance, and crafts), pursue non-material goals in life (for example, yogic exercises and meditation to attain peace of mind), remain highly pro-social and strikingly altruistic even with strangers, tolerate differences without out-casting the deviants, and manifest a high level of cognitive complexity by making fine differentiations and integrations in whatever they tend to conceptualize.


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However, a serious threat or uncertainty tends to make them recoil back into what earlier was described as the poverty syndrome. Striving for perfection drifts into fantasying perfection, setting unrealistically ideal goals, and moralizing (Kumar 2004). Fine-grained logical approach becomes argumentative, verbose, and unduly imposing over others. Collectivist orientation shrinks to immediate family members (Sinha and Verma 1987). Hierarchical orientation, instead of rising on the scale of merit, leads to inflated ego, status consciousness, use of coercive power, and corrupt practices (Sinha 1995). Altruism is professed, but is not practised, and short-term narrowly conceived self-interests override oneÊs sense of fair play resulting in individualistic anarchy (Kumar 2004). Ingratiation, manipulation, and competitiveness mark the social influence process (Pandey 1988).

SHIFTING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Indian organizational behaviour is a joint function of the diversity in the components of the Indian mindset and the high context sensitivity of Indians. The diversity in the mindset means the presence of an amalgam of different values, beliefs, norms, and action orientations and the possibility to retrieve and arrange them in different combinations. High context sensitivity determines which of the diverse components should be configured to respond effectively to specific organizational contexts. If the context changes, a new configuration of thoughts, feelings, and actions is called for. In other words, Indians are propelled not so much by internally-driven personality dispositions than by the compelling contextual demands. They behave differently in different organizational contexts, with different persons, and with the same persons at the same place, but at different points in time. Box 2.7

Shifting Modes of Behaviour

Indians behave differently with different people in different situations and with the same people in different situations in order to serve their needs and interests.

Bicultural people do switch their cultural frames in other countries (Hong et al. 2000). The bicultural Chinese residing in the USA, for example, acquire an American cultural frame in additional to their original Chinese cultural frame. Both frames have internally consistent components allowing them to switch back and forth behaving like typical Chinese or typical Americans depending on whether they are exposed to the cues that evoke either Chinese or American frames. Indians have an amalgam of components allowing them to organize them into a variety of configurations that do not necessarily have consistent thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. They can indeed switch frames like the bicultural Chinese, but can also manifest discrepant thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Roland (2005) reported a South Indian woman saying ÂI and my Indian friends are able to be many different kinds of persons in different situations. I feel very comfortable in slipping back and forth from being a professor to being a painter to being a mother and wifeÊ (2005: 4ă5). Indians are reported to be Âcapable of living simultaneously and effortlessly on two mutually opposed planesÊ and Âcan make quantum leap from one epoch to another without showing any strainÊ (Varma 2004: 143).

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The discrepant thoughts, feelings and behaviour of Indians have their source in the way Indians construe a situation and respond to it. A situation and the response to it are not an isolated episode. They are parts of a chain of ongoing interactive situations and responses to them. Both·the situations and responses to them·are examined in terms of their potential to serve their own interests, the interests of the relevant others, and the consequences of conforming to the social norms. Depending on their relative salience, Indians resort to discrepant thoughts, feelings, and actions as they go about pursuing their personal interests and goals. For example, they pose to be submissive and loyal even to cantankerous superiors while hating them in their mind. They ingratiate them, but ditch them at the first opportunity. They conform to good organizational behaviour only to use it as a leverage to claim additional favour and privileges. They pose to be agreeable and friendly with others expecting to gain some extra favour should an opportunity arise. In other words, it is considered wise to hide intentions, particularly in debilitating contexts causing uncertainty about the chances of achieving positive outcomes. IndiansÊ Âability to keep all kinds of thoughts and feelings secret goes far beyond what most Euro-Americans are capable ofÊ (Roland 2005: 5). It was puzzling for a Danish manager that ÂThe most difficult thing is that the Indians will tell you one thing, think another, and do a third thing, which is not what a Dane would doÊ (Hughes 2002). They, for example, behave in a collectivist way while hiding their individualist interests or vice versa if they believe that this is the most effective way to serve their interests in the long run (Sinha et al. 2001b; Sinha et al. 2002). Box 2.8

How Could They Change Their Mind?

A Danish chief executive officer (CEO) narrated his difficulties with his Indian joint venture partner. After long negotiations, they had entered into an agreement that the Danish company would provide capital and technology to the Indian company which would provide their local knowledge and contacts with the government to expand the joint venture and capture a major part of the vast Indian market. The Indian partner, however, was thinking all along of exports to South-east Asia, which would give them status and prestige in the business community. But he did not mention his cherished dream to his Danish partner. He was waiting for his foreign partner to invest first and would then begin dictating terms to him. The Danish partner was furious, but helpless (AuthorÊs seminar in Copenhagen on 3 May 2003).

Enabling contexts elicit different behaviour. Organizations having enabling contexts are characterized by a reasonable degree of security of job, opportunity and challenges to show their worth, a fair chance of getting rewarded for initiative and performance, and the patronage of an inspiring superior. They get positively inspired and turn out to be creative, entrepreneurial, hard working, competent, and committed. Enabling Indian organizations are broadly of two types. The majority of them are either Indian or foreign multinational emulating the global principles and practices of management. In some foreign multinationals, Indians are found to think and behave just like expatriates. They compete intensely, excel in performance, hop jobs, climb the corporate ladder, collect lucrative pay and perks, and indulge in a luxurious lifestyle. They are as materialistic and individualistic as their global counterparts. It is interesting to note that the same Indians interface with


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Indian subordinates differently. They prefer to maintain hierarchical superiority over subordinates and subordination to superiors, nourish an ego that feeds on sycophants, detest any dissent or disagreement, relish personal loyalty and personalized relationships, are ready go out of the way to help them at work and in personal matters. Surprisingly, this Indian face melts into the global face when expatriates are present (Sinha 2004). A second type of organizational context is emerging, although it is still in a nascent stage. This one underlines the importance of blending the best global principles and practices of management with the higher values of life (Sinha and Pandey 2007). Indians respond by achieving excellence at work, having a competitive spirit, and sharp business acumen along with seeking personal growth and broader purpose for life and work by transcending narrowly defined earthly needs, and realizing societyÊs well-being. While managing senior positions in the organization, they seek spiritual growth by taking time out for worship, meditation, self-reflection, and similar other activities (Chakraborty 1993; Mohan Babu 2007; Sharma 2007; Srinivas 2000). In sum, depending on the debilitating and enabling contexts, Indians are either defensive, manipulative, and interested in short-term gains, or hardworking, efficient, entrepreneurial, and materialistic or holistic in combining excellence in job performance, non-materialistic broader purpose of life, and social responsibility.

SUMMARY The Indian mindset is a composite of diverse values, beliefs, norms, and practices drawn from a number of cultural influences. The primordial Hindu world view provides the base on which subsequent cultural influences are superimposed by integrating some of their components while allowing others to coexist as opposite thoughts, feelings, and action orientations. The high context sensitivity of Indians enables them to selectively retrieve various components of the mindset and organize them differently to respond effectively to different contextual demands. Thus, instead of being propelled by internally driven stable personality dispositions, Indians are guided by contextual demands and hence manifest variations in their organizational behaviour corresponding to the variations in the contexts in which they work.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Cultural Profile of an Organization Step 1 Think of your organization/visit an organization and develop a profile of it so as to identify the Western and global structures and principles adopted by it as well as the indigenous systems and practices that are formally or informally being utilized by it.

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Step 2 Each participant will get about 10ă15 minutes to present the profile. The whole group/class will discuss how Indian organizations are blending or failing to blend Indian cultural influences and global structures and principles of management.

Exercise 2: Design an Effective Organization Step 1 Form a group of five people whose project is to design an effective organization that integrates both global and indigenous systems and practices. Let the group take two weeks to develop a detailed blueprint for the organization.

Step 2 The individually developed blueprints will be discussed in the whole class/group to identify the common attributes of culturally and globally integrated Indian organizations.

Exercise 3: What To Do With Mr Basu? Step 1 Each participant will read the case and file a report for action: JŒrgen Pedersen, the executive vice-president of a Danish group of companies, tossed a file of the Indian operations to Poul Clausen, the recently promoted general manager of the Industrial Belts Division for South East Asia and said, ÂPoul, here is a proposal that I want you to study and then give your recommendations. The board may like to discuss this proposal next Friday. I want you to go to New Delhi immediately and report back to me. Send a fax to Mr Basu.Ê The next day Poul was on his way. The flight to New Delhi provided ample time for Poul to review the Indian operations and the proposal. The parent company, a Danish giant, had entered into a joint venture with a private Indian company, Indian Rubbers, in 1993. At that time, Indian Rubbers was in a bad shape. The quality of the products was poor, reports on sales, profit, outstanding costs, and collection were not prepared systematically, accounting was manual, work disciple was appalling, and employees were paid poorly. The owner-manager made all the decisions. He hired and fired employees at his whims. He had neither capital, nor technology, nor skills, nor any will to run the company efficiently.


51

In 1996, the parent company together with the Danish Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries acquired 100 per cent equity, re-named the Indian company, and started overhauling it. A team of Danish experts was sent to renovate the old plant and set up a new one. New products and global brands of the parent company were introduced. Its reporting formats, systems, procedures, and quality standards were established. Mr Basu was hired from a reputed American transnational and was delegated full authority to run the company. The Danish company in India obtained the ISO 9001 certification in 1999 for manufacturing industrial belts, automotive belts, and multi-ribbed belts and the ISO 9002 certification later for manufacturing brake linings. It was a highly profitable enterprise with a great future in Indian as well as in the global market. Mr Basu, the managing director (MD) had proposed the renovation of the first factory, setting up a third factory, and building a corporate office tower near the factories. The total cost was estimated at around US$ 100 million. Poul was just about to close the file when he noticed a one-page note, marked ÂconfidentialÊ, from Karen, the leader of the team that had set up the second plant. It was about Mr Basu. Mr Basu, she had written, was highly competent, articulate, dedicated, hard working and task-oriented. But he made all the decisions, had a set mind, and was rather autocratic. All employees, including the vice presidents, were scared of him. Karen felt that though Mr Basu was an asset right now, he might become a liability if the Indian operations were to expand. Next morning, Mr Basu took Poul to the factories that were located some 40 km outside New Delhi. The old plant, despite new machines and new product lines, looked primitive. Old fans, coolers, billboards, and some of the old machineries were still there. The parts and components were not arranged properly. Inside the plant it was humid, noisy, and dusty. The operators were old hands from the pre-takeover days. Many of them were illiterate. The plant, Poul thought to himself, needed to be dismantled and assembled afresh. From the first factory, Poul was taken to the second factory. Going off the main road, they drove on a dirt track, with cornfields on both sides, to enter a factory with a low skyline, well hidden by the surrounding boundary walls. When the car drove in and the factory gate closed behind them, Poul was quite surprised: He was inside a spanking new and modern factory, as well executed and elegant as any factory anywhere else. Later in the evening, after a good meal of Indian curry that went well with a reputed brand of Italian red wine that Mr Basu reserved for his very special guests, Poul initiated a discussion on the future of the Indian operations. Basu was highly articulate and clear headed. He profiled the expanding Indian market and supported this with statistics that amazed Poul. Basu went on to explain how the organization was the market leader and how he planned to make it even more successful. However, there were other things he said that startled Poul: Once Indian managersÊ mundane needs are fulfilled, they do not want to exert further. They become indifferent to their responsibilities and arrogant towards their subordinates. Their time management skills and quality consciousness are extremely poor. You have to keep them on track and even instill some fear lest they take their job lightly . . . Whenever there is a major issue to decide, I first do my homework, even pre-decide, but let my vice presidents and general managers discuss and make suggestions. I always give them the

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agenda of the meeting in written form and expect that they will do their homework. I see to it that the discussion takes the direction that I consider to be the correct one. Whenever they seem to drift, I even tell them that, Âthough I respect your views, but this is the way I want to do it.Ê As they are aware of my competence and sincerity, they not only agree, but also own the decisions that are virtually made by me . . . The responsibility for making tough decisions is entirely mine and I do take unpleasant decisions whenever that becomes necessary. On his flight back to Copenhagen, Poul was convinced of the need to revamp the first plant and establish the third one, but he wondered what could be done with Mr Basu. His style of functioning was so different from the Danish culture! How long could the corporate office put up with his style of functioning. Once back in his office, he reported his findings in detail to JŒrgen Pedersen, who suggested that they hire an Indian consultant.

Step 2 You are the consultant hired by the company. What will you recommend?

Step 3 Individual recommendations will be shared among all participants of the group/class with the purpose of seeing if such a personality needs to be changed in the modern form of Indian management.

NOTES 1. See http://www.theuniversalwisdom.org/hinduism/welcome-address-vivekananda/ 2. The term ÂcasteÊ was derived from the Portuguese word ÂcastaÊ meaning Âsomething not mixedÊ, ÂpureÊ, or ÂchasteÊ. 3. See, http://www.domain-b.com/economy/ecosurvey2005/index.html

3

The Indian Milieu

THIS CHAPTER AIMS TO 1. Show that organizational behaviour is embedded in Indian culture, which is contextualized in the larger Indian milieu. 2. Develop a profile of the economic facet of the milieu. 3. Present the political contours that use caste and religious differences for political purposes. 4. Point out the ethical posers that arise from the international business milieu.

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54


CULTURE: THE SOUL OF THE LARGER MILIEU

T

he high context sensitivity of Indians highlights the importance of the environment in which they live. There is an approach that conceptualizes culture as the Âhuman made environmentÊ (Herskovits 1955). The human-made environment is referred to here as the milieu. A culture manifests its basic assumptions, values, beliefs, and norms through the artifacts created by human beings of that culture. The artefacts then influence the processes that created them. Thus, the two· the milieu and culture·are symbiotically related to each other. The milieu is like the body of a society, and its culture is its soul. Like the body, the milieu has many interrelated parts. The main ones are economic, political, and social. Like the body again, the parts of a milieu, on the one hand, are embedded in the ecology and exposed to major events inside and outside a country, and on the other hand, get sustenance from the core of its culture. This chapter, thus, deals with the influences flowing from the internal and international sources that impinge on organizational behaviour. Box 3.1

Larger Milieu and Culture

Economic, social, and political systems, besides international influences, constitute the larger milieu. Cultural values and norms permeate them. The milieu is like a body of which culture is the soul.

The economic, political, and social aspects of a milieu change in response to external demands and yet reflect its underlying values and beliefs. The milieu thus changes, faster at its edges than at its core. It remains distinct and yet adaptive. The Indian milieu is indeed changing fast. Not long back, India was perceived as a country of snake charmers, elephants, and fakirs with a few esoteric gurus. Hindu religion was said to deter economic activities (Weber 1958), India was perceived as a soft state that failed to take and implement tough decisions (Myrdal 1968), its bureaucracy dragged down developmental efforts (Sinha 1994), IndiaÊs culture was perceived as authoritarian (Lewis 1962) and antithetical to change and development (Lannoy 1971), its climate was conducive to Âa love of ease and comforts·an addiction to simple pleasures and luxuries . . .Ê (Basham 1971: 4), and out of the sacred womb of the Indian family, only yes-men were expected to emerge (Koestler 1960). The country was condemned to the ÂHindu rate of growthÊ or the Âelephant syndromeÊ. Suddenly, the milieu got transformed. India became the second fastest growing economy and the fourth largest one, a nuclear power, an intellectual powerhouse, a reservoir of entrepreneurship that spread its wings in the international market, a fountain of creativity spanning a whole range of activities, a model of religious tolerance, a functioning democracy, a source of spiritual solace, and so on. Brand India is shining incredibly and claiming the position of a superpower in the international community. Box 3.2

The Wonder That is India!

ÂSo far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the Sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlookedÊ (Mark Twain1).

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And yet, there is a darker face of the country. Millions of people are extremely poor, the unemployment rate is high, the informal sector is impoverished, infrastructure is miserably inadequate, basic amenities of health and education are missing, corruption is rampant, society is caste ridden, the polity is fragmented, crime and violence are roaring, religious tolerance is often hijacked by extremists, and so on. Companies emulate their international counterparts that are often accused of indulging in dubious practices, harsh measures for competitive advantages, and different standards of products and services for domestic and international markets. In sum, the milieu is extremely complex·it has bright and upbeat features as well as starkly dark and depressive ones. This corresponds to the countryÊs physical and demographic diversities. The cultural milieu highlights the coexistence of consistent as well as inconsistent and even seemingly opposite values, beliefs, and practices. This chapter aims to examine the unfolding of the larger milieu in terms of its major bright as well as dark facets·economic, political, and social factors, and some of the international influences, and their implications for organizational behaviour.

ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE Harrison (2006) studied a number of developed and developing countries, including India, to show that culture plays the most effective role in promoting or retarding the political and economic progress of a country. Culture, however, is also influenced by major economic and political events. More proximate factors for promoting economic activities are the domestic and international market conditions and political policy framework. The Indian economic scenario has evolved as a function of the governmentÊs direct interventions to rapidly develop the economy out of the extreme poverty and near non-existent industrial base. Underlying such interventions, of course, are the national aspirations for development (Sinha 1994).

Phases in Economic Growth Receptive Phase There have been three broad phases in IndiaÊs economic growth (see Sinha 2004: 22ă33 for details). The first phase, starting immediately after Independence in 1947 to the mid-1960s was the Nehruvian era, whereby the state, through the five-year plans, aimed to achieve a socialistic form of economic growth by establishing public sector industries of basic and strategic importance. It undertook large projects for constructing dams and power plants. To feed them, it formed national institutes of technology and management to expand human resources. It was receptive to foreign capital, technology, and management experts. Within a short period (1950ă51 to 1966ă67), the number of public undertakings increased from 5 to 81 with a jump in investment from Rs 290 million to Rs 29 billion (Administrative Reforms Commission 1967: 5), thereby reaching a commanding height

56


in the economy. This was a period when the government encouraged foreign investment in drugs, aluminum, heavy electricals, fertilizers, and synthetic rubber. There were 104 multinationals in the 1950s and 190 in the 1960s.

Restrictive Phase The drainage of foreign exchange by multinational organizations combined with a change in the political leadership led to a restrictive phase in the Indian economy (1968ă79) in which foreign direct investment as well as the outflow of foreign exchange were restricted to bolster self-reliance. The resurgence of nationalism in the 1970s led to the garibi hatao (alleviation of poverty) schemes by nationalizing banks to serve the social sector, helped Bangladesh to gain its independence, and strengthened the nascent public and private sector companies by providing a protective umbrella from foreign competition. A sound industrial base was indeed created, but the public undertakings got complacent and accumulated huge losses, technology became obsolete, products and services were limited in variety, poor in quality, and delivered unsatisfactorily. Militant trade unionism further stifled economic productivity and the employees in public undertakings bled their companies white by making personal and sectarian gains. The private sector too was crippled by the lack of opportunity to grow fast. Box 3.3

Phases in Economic Growth

Ć Receptive to foreign capital, technology, and organizational forms. Ć Restrictive for promoting self-reliance and creating an industrial base. Ć Liberalizing for faster growth and integration with the international market.

Liberalizing Phase By the 1980s, liberalization became an imperative. It was induced in small doses that were not enough. The economy by the end of the 1980s got so bad that the government had to seek an emergency grant from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and mortgage gold to the Bank of England to avert defaulting on external payments. There was no other choice but to launch a drastic liberalization programme. The collapse of the Soviet Union was indeed an eye opener to the potential of market forces. The New Industrial Policy was announced on 24 July 1991. Since then, there has been no looking back. The economy has been progressively liberalized and has been increasingly integrated into the international market.

Transformation of the Economy The results are glaring enough. The rate of economic growth that was on an average 3.70 per cent from 1951 to 1979, increased to 4.57 during the decade of gradual liberalization from 1980 to 1990

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(Department of Economics and Statistics, Tata Services 2004: 9), crossed the average of 8.00 per cent in 2003ă2004, reached 9.0 per cent in 2005ă2006, and 9.2 per cent in 2006ă2007 (Reserve Bank of India 2007). The Indian economy is now the fourth biggest economy. It is next only to the United States (US), China, and Japan in the purchasing power parity index having a gross national income of about US$ 2,913 billion, which is higher than that of Germany, Canada, and Russia (World Bank 2003). As of 2 September 2004, India was credited with the following achievements:2 1. One of the 10 largest retail markets in the world. 2. The top destination for retailers according to A. T. KearneyÊs global retail survey. 3. The second-most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) among manufacturing investors (A. T. KearneyÊs latest FDI confidence index rankings development index). 4. Insurance industry worth US$ 10 billion (in premium). 5. The fifth largest telecom services market in the world (US$ 17.8 billion revenues in the year 2005). 6. Largest market for gems and jewellery with domestic sales of over US$ 10 billion. 7. The largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world. 8. The largest producer of milk, pulses, sugar cane and tea in the world. 9. The third largest pool of skilled personnel (26.66 million). 10. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of the London School of Business rated it as the second most entrepreneurial nation in 2002 (Business Today, 18 January 2004: 84). Fifteen years of liberalization have leveraged the country to a remarkable extent. Not only has per capita income increased, but the service sector, exports and imports, forex reserve, FDI, information technology (IT) exports, computers, telecoms, and Internet connections have registered remarkable growth. The growth in the economy has improved life expectancy, the literacy rate, and other demographic characteristics (Business Today, 14 January 2007). The growth was led first by the information technology (IT) industry followed by business pro-cess outsourcing industry. One interpretation was that IndiansÊ knack for mathematics that enabled them to think of abstract concepts, their cognitive skills (drawn from their Upanishadic mindset) that help them to dissect a phenomenon into its smallest units and then integrate them into a whole, and the Brahminical value to seek knowledge were the key drivers of their competence in software programming (Taeube 2002). It was further observed that Indians, because of their intrinsic aptitude for mathematics, logic, and exposure to statistics and language, can play a leading role in the world of analytics and thereby help India attain the position of the future decision capital of the world (The Times of India, Patna, 12 November 2006, p. 12). The investment in technical and management education in the 1960s, a large pool of cost-effective workforce with a sound knowledge of English, exposure to the West and the acceptance of its values and lifestyles, and IndiaÊs strategic location between the West and the East are some of the other reasons why Indian companies and multinationals were able to grab the opportunity to grow as soon as the government loosened its tight control. Indian economic growth has taken a unique path. Compared to the Asian strategy of growth by exporting labour-intensive low-priced manufacturing goods to the West, the Indian economy is driven more by consumption than investment, the domestic market more than exports, services

58


more than manufacturing, and high-tech more than low-skilled labour-intensive activities (Aiyar 2006). The huge domestic market not only promotes consumption, but also hedges the economy to a greater extent from international turbulence than those of the export-driven countries in the Far East, which suffered enormously in the late 1990s. Because consumption accounts for two-thirds of the gross domestic product (GDP), the economy is somewhat people-friendly by causing relatively less inequality. The Indian gini index is 33 compared to 41 for USA, 45 for China, 69 for Brazil. Even more important, 30ă40 per cent of our GDP growth is due to rise in productivity rather than mere increase in capital and labour costs (Aiyar 2006: 150). BPO is now being leveraged in many cases into business knowledge outsourcing (BKO) where Indian companies are providing complete solutions and even helping multinational companies in strategy formulation. The IT industry is now evolving into IT designing, manufacturing, and marketing. There are a number of reasons for such a transformation·emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurs who are recognized and admired by society and supported by professionals, availability of venture capital, expanding domestic and international consumer market for IT products, and priority to the manufacture of electronics (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 22 January 2007, p. 16). Of 500 Fortune 500 companies, 125 foreign companies have their research and development (R&D) bases in India, and 380 have outsourced software development to India (Das 2006).

Emerging Entrepreneurship In the pre-liberalization years, the restrictive policy framework and the bureaucracy, which was almost pathological, stifled entrepreneurship. The two leading business houses·the Tatas and the Birlas·have telling stories. Aditya Birla, fresh from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), applied for a license in the 1960s to set up a refinery. He waited for 11 years, but did not get the go ahead to do so, and had to go to South East Asia to start something else. The Tatas submitted 119 proposals from 1960 to 1989 either to renew their old plants or to start new ventures, but had no success (Business Today, 7 January 2000, pp. 121, 129). Laxmi Mittal had to leave the country to flourish as the king of steel industry. Liberalization changed the milieu to the extent that a torrent of entrepreneurs, some with small business experiences, but most of them with none, emerged as the bright stars. Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Sons, of course, expanded his groupÊs revenues six fold to nearly Rs 970 billion. Kumar Mangalam Birla, the son of Aditya Birla, too expanded his group of companies to the extent that by the year 2007, the group had a turnover US$ 12 billion and a market capitalization of US$ 20 billion; revenue from foreign operations accounted for over 23 per cent, and the group employed about 82,000 people all over the world (The Times of India, Patna, 12 February 2007, p. 1). Dhirubhai Ambani, who started from street vending, handed over to his two sons·Mukesh and Anil·an empire that put them in the list of the top 20 billionaires in the world. Narayana Murthy, the son of a schoolteacher, created an IT company that is often rated as the most admired in the country. Azim Premji took charge of a fledgling US$ 2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company and grew it to a US$ 1.76 billion IT service provider that is among the top 10 in the world. There are other success

The Indian Milieu

59

stories too·the list is long and the areas of success are diverse. There are 36 Indian billionaires according to Forbes, which is more than Japan that has 24 billionaires, Hong Kong that has 21, and China that has 20 (The Times of India, New Delhi, 3 October 2007, pp. 1, 13). More than 100 companies have a market cap of over a billion dollar (Das 2006). There are other bright stars that rose to shine in no time (Business Today, 14 January 2007). A new crop of global Indian managers is coming up (The Times of India, New Delhi, 15 September 2006, p. 19).

Global Path to Development Indian entrepreneurs have embarked on a global path to become multinational. So have foreign investors. A survey done of 200 Indian companies by Grant Thornton India in May 2006 revealed that 81 per cent of Indian companies were exploring merger and acquisition (M&A) options to grow inorganically (Khanna 2006). M&A·partial or full·are the hallmark of the new economic scenario. They manifest the following typical features: 1. They are not confined to a few select industries, but are widespread and cover a whole range of economic activities. 2. Not only have the number of M&A been increasing over the years, but the money involved per deal has increased phenomenally. 3. M&A are mostly directed to European and North American companies. 4. Smaller Indian companies are acquiring companies that are many times larger than themselves and thereby acquiring positions of prominence in the international market. 5. European and North American banks indicating their trust in Indian companies to run the newly acquired companies profitably are providing a major part of the money needed for acquiring foreign companies. Foreign direct investments and institutional investments have been increasing, particularly after the year 2002. Of the total FDI of US$ 38.90 billion since 1991, US$ 15 billion (38.56 per cent) were made in the year 2006ă2007.3 Compared to a total of 1,011 deals worth US$ 21.6 billion in the year 2005, 1,164 deals worth US$ 35.6 billion were made in the year 2006 (The Times of India, Patna, 6 March 2007, p. 50). Around 76 deals worth US$ 5.2 billion were completed in just six months between January and June 2006 (Khanna 2006). The second half of 2006 and the early months of 2007 recorded further steep jumps. A visual display of the growth of FDIs and institutional investments is given in Figure 3.1. The lead, once again, was taken by the Tata Group. It acquired five companies during 2004ă2006. Combined with Corus, Tata steel had a net worth of US$ 10.30 billion, a revenue of US$ 24 billion, output of 23 million tons per annum (mtpa), and a workforce of 85,000 (The Times of India, Patna, 21 October 2006, p. 1). A non-resident Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, set a trend by acquiring Arcelor. Tata Steel with the turnover of US$ 4.6 billion, market capitalization of US$ 3.3 billion, and capacity of 5 mtpa, paid about US$ 12 billion to acquire Corus that is about four times larger than it and has a

60


Figure 3.1

Growth in Foreign Investment

Source: The Times of India, New Delhi, 15 November 2006, p. 19; ÂEmerging Portfolio to Fund Research (EPFR)Ê, The Economic Times, ET InvestorsÊ Guide, New Delhi, 22 January 2007, p. 1. Notes: FDI = Foreign Direct Investment (Left axis), FII = Foreign institutional Investment (Right axis).

turnover of US$ 17.7 billion, market capitalization of US$ 11.13 billion, and a capacity of 19 mtpa (The Times of India, Patna, 1 February 2007, p. 11). Hindalco of the Aditya Birla Group followed suit by paying US$ 6 billion to acquire North American aluminum major, Novalis, that supplies cans for CocaCola and Pepsi. Novalis has a turnover of US$ 8.4 billion compared to US$ 2.5 billion of Hindalco. The acquisition will improve HindalcoÊs rank from 13th to the 5th largest producer of aluminum in the world. Then, there is Indian born Arun Sarin who led the British company Vodafone to buy Hutch Essar in the year 2007 by paying US$ 19.30 billion (The Times of India, Patna, 12 February 2007, p. 11). Just these three deals in 2006ă2007 amounted to US$ 37.30 billion, which is close to the total FDI between 1991 and 2005. Box 3.4

Factors of Economic Transformation

Ć Increasing doses of liberalization. Ć Presence of an English speaking skilled workforce. Ć Cognitive and analytical skills arising from cultural tradition and mathematical orientation. Ć Emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurs. Ć Impulse to grow inorganically through M&A. Ć Exposure to and acceptance of Western cultural values, beliefs, and practices.

Besides these very visible acquisitions, there were many others spanning the whole range of industry. Jindal Steel and Power set up a US$ 2.1 billion steel plant in Bolivia (Times of India, Patna, 3 March 2007, p. 17). Suzlon combined with PortugalÊs Martifer SGPA are in the process of acquiring

The Indian Milieu

61

German REpower. Karuturi Networks, a little known producer and exporter of roses from Bangalore, is in the process of acquiring the NetherlandsÊs based Sher, the largest producer and supplier of roses in the world (The Times of India, Patna, 16 February 2007, p. 1). Some of the navratna public sector organizations too are spreading their net. The Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) has an arm called Videsh dedicated to acquiring gas and oil wells in foreign lands. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Coal India Limited (CIL), and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) have joined to raise Rs 35 billion to buy coal mines in countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Bangladesh (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 5 December 2006, p. 15). Wipro has a concept called the Âstring of pearlsÊ that enables it to provide IT services to a variety of companies across the globe. In fact, a recent survey, ÂIndia Inc Goes AbroadÊ (Khanna 2006), showed that the software/BPO (at 33.6 per cent) and pharma/healthcare (at 20.5 per cent) sectors account for more than half of the overseas acquisitions. According to this report, global investment bankers are courting Indian companies more as buyers than as sellers. Further, the largest proportion of Indian acquisitions has been in Europe (around 40 per cent) and North America (around 34 per cent) showing their upbeat mood and competitive clout.

The Constraints Economic growth could have been faster, but for the constraints that slow it down. Of them, the most serious have been the following: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Shortage of human resources. Gender inequality in employment. Inadequate infrastructure. Bureaucratic delays.

Shortage of Human Resources With fast expanding business, human resources are spread rather too thin. The first India Science Report (see, Shukla 2007) recorded a workforce of 367 million having a science background. Of them, 40.20 million (11 per cent) had educational qualifications in human resources, science, and technology. And, 26.8 million (7 per cent) were occupied in skilled technical jobs. This means that those having a technical background as well as a job accounted only for 3.90 per cent (14.20 million) of the total workforce (Shukla 2007). According to the IT companies, only 25 per cent of engineering graduates were really employable (Business Today, 14 January 2007). At the same time, the top IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, and Hindustan Computer Limited (HCL) hired 64,104 persons from April to December 2006. The combined workforce of the five IT companies approximated about 270,000 and the top IT companies were estimated to recruit 100,000 in the next two years

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Box 3.5

Unemployability of Indian Youth

Ć Fifty-three per cent of employed youth suffer some degree of skill deprivation. Ć Fifty-seven per cent of IndiaÊs youth suffer some degree of unemployability. Ć Ninety per cent of employment opportunities require vocational skills but 90 per cent of college and school output have only bookish knowledge. Ć Forty-five per cent of graduates make less than Rs 75,000 per year. Ć Fifty per cent self-employment does not reflect entrepreneurship. Ć Poor quality of skills shows up in low incomes rather than unemployment. Source: India Labour Report (TeamLease 2007).

(The Economic Times, New Delhi, 26 January 2007, p. 7). In 2006, there was a shortage of 59,000 networking professionals, the number is likely to reach about 137,200 by 2009 (The Times of India, Patna, 25 February 2007, p. 10). There are a number of consequences of such an acute shortage. Competition to pick up the best and the brightest has pushed up the starting salary so high that only the most affluent companies can afford such talent. Some of the students from the Indian Institutes of Management were offered US$ 225,000ă250,000 by foreign multinationals during campus recruitment (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 10 March 2007, p. 1) and only slightly less by the Indian national companies. Second, while companies try their best to retain their recruits, the attrition rates are quite high. It is the highest in the IT-enabled service (ITES) and BPO firms (about 46 per cent), followed by IT and telecom companies (18 per cent or above), and relatively low (8 to 10 per cent) in manufacturing companies. In order to avoid losing trained personnel, companies are hiking up salaries by 15 per cent or more, which is the highest in Asia (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 1 November 2006, p. 1). There is also a positive side of this huge shortage of competent engineers and managers. It has led to industryăacademia partnership of various types. In some cases, industry and academia share information relevant to each other. In others, companies such as such as Ranbaxy have taken the initiative to help academic institutions develop industry-relevant curriculum and upgrade skills that reduce companiesÊ cost of training. Still others such as Dabur work with business schools to come up with innovative ideas and business strategies that have the potential to improve their turnover and profits. The most ambitious partnership are those where several companies have partnered with numerous universities and research institutes to conduct a number of projects in areas such as space research and molecular physics. There have also been some specific efforts. For example, Ernst & Young launched its tax associate programme to bridge the gap of over 4,000 tax professionals. Infosys has made available courseware for industry-specific subjects, projects for students, sabbaticals and seminars for professors. It works with 334 universities and colleges to produce Âindustry-ready recruitsÊ. The companies recruit bachelor-level engineering or other undergraduates and train them to their specific needs (The Times of India, Patna, 25 February 2007, p. 10). Academic institutions are also reaching out to the corporate world by inviting their leaders to share their work experiences and insights. Several institutions have sought accreditation from international sources or have formed an alliance with foreign institutions to enhance the human

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resources pool. The Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, The Xavier Institute of Labour Relations at Jamshedpur, S. P. Jain Institute of Management at Mumbai, and similar other business schools have sought accreditation from the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), South Asian Quality System (SAQS), or Association of MBAs (AMBA) in order to prove their international standard and reach (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 22 January 2007, p. 7). The American School of Aviation recruited pilot trainees in Bangalore with the assistance of Kingfisher.

Gender Inequality According to The Global Gender Gap Report 2006 (World Economic Forum 2006), IndiaÊs overall rank was 98 out of 115 countries. The breakup of the overall rank reveals that political empowerment of Indian women was much better (rank 20), than their education (rank 102), health (rank 103), and economic opportunities (rank 110). Still, the percentage of women members in the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 2004 was on the average only 6.25 (The Times of India, New Delhi, 2 January 2007, p. 16). Female participation in the workforce, according to the 2001 Census, was half of that of males and only one-third in the main work areas (Department of Economics and Statistics, Tata Services 2004: 35). Indian girls prefer Âsofter skillsÊ of electronics, communication, and computer science to civil and mechanical engineering. Therefore, they gravitate towards the IT industry that also pay well. About 38 per cent of employees in the IT sector, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), were women (The Times of India, Patna, 3 January 2007, p. 16). About 26 per cent employees in IBM and about 17ă18 per cent in Bharti Airtel were women. More than 40 per cent of the management trainees hired by Hindustan Levers Limited (HLL) in 2005 and 2006 were women. Wipro has formed a high-level committee to hire women on a preferential basis (The Economic Times, New Delhi, 24 January 2007, p. 7). On the other hand, barely 4 per cent of employees in large manufacturing companies were women (The Times of India, Patna, 3 January 2007, p. 16). There is a strong need to create conditions in manufacturing and other sectors to attract women employees. Sexual harassment at the workplace may be another deterrent to more women joining the workforce.

Inadequacy of Infrastructure A survey by the World Economic Forum (2006) placed India at the 55th position in a group of 59 countries in terms of adequacy of infrastructure. Poor conditions of roads and erratic and inadequate supply of electricity were cited as chronic problems. Inland transportation costs also adversely affect the competitiveness of Indian industry. For example, the freight costs from Gujarat to Chennai are double (around US$ 40 per mt) of that freight costs from China to Chennai (around US$ 20 per mt). The ports are not quite efficient in loading and unloading. In 1999, it took about 4.7 days to turn around a ship, whereas for Singapore it was 6ă8 hour (Krueger and Chinoy 2001).

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Bureaucratic Delays Despite increasing doses of liberalization, the inertia of heavy bureaucratic style has been a strong deterrent. Aiyar (2006), for example, reported the following: 1. Enforcement of contract requires 56 procedures and 1,420 days while the corresponding figures are 31 and 292 in China, and 16 and 211 in Hong Kong. 2. Indian exporters have to produce 10 documents over 27 days. While it is six documents and 18 days in China, and two documents in five days in Hong Kong. 3. The import cost per container is US$ 1244 in India, US$ 375 in China, and US$ 425 in Hong Kong. 4. Starting a business takes 35 days in India and China and only 11 days in Hong Kong. 5. Indian businesses need 270 days to complete 20 procedures for various permits and licenses. China is worse with 367 days and 290 procedures. In Hong Kong it takes only 160 days and very few procedures.

The Formidable Pyramid The fast growing part represents only the tip of the huge socio-economic pyramid of India. As one descends down, the reality looks dark and dismal. This poses a challenge to finding out the organizational strategy and behaviour that are required to cascade the growth promoting factors down to the bottom of the pyramid in order to realize a wholesome and sustainable growth of the economy. Hamel and Prahalad (1994) argued that it is a wise business preposition to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid to cash in on the volume of consumers. There have been some successful efforts. For example, Amul has organized a network of subsistence farmers, particularly women, into cooperatives that collectively are able to compete with transnationals such as Nestle; ITC established e-choupal, which connects over 2 million farmers; Ferns & Petals extended its supply chain to Karnataka; Aravind Eye Care provides inexpensive mass-scale quality treatment, and ICICI extended microfinance to marginal farmers and self-help groups of women. These efforts of individual companies, however, are still grossly inadequate to address the inequalities in the country. A few glaring examples are discussed next.

People Living below the Poverty Level A report in the year 20064 disclosed that about 200 million Indians climbed into the new middle class stimulating economic growth, but there were 300 million people who still lived in extreme poverty. There has been conspicuous consumption of luxury goods and huge malls and shopping centres have been cropping up amidst city slums and roadside shops. About 30 per cent of population was reported to be malnourished.5 About 92 per cent of the total workforce of 457 million was employed in

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the unorganized sector where the employees were paid much less and had poorer service conditions than their counterparts in the organized sector. The informal sector accounted for 98 per cent of the total number of enterprises, contributing 60 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP), but were largely unconcerned about the quality of their employeesÊ working conditions (The Times of India, Patna, 27 April 2007, p. 14). Box 3.6

The Bottom of the Pyramid

The majority of the population of India faces: Ć Ć Ć Ć

Pervasive poverty. High percentage of illiteracy. Poor or non-existent medical care. Large regional and ruralăurban disparities.

Universalization of Primary Education Remains an Unattained Goal The national-level institutions of technology and management are recognized as world-class, but primary education is in shambles. About one-fourth of the teachers in primary schools are reported to remain absent and studentsÊ drop out rate is about 40 per cent. A large numbers of schools have ill-lit classrooms where single teachers teach multiple classes (The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, Planning Commission 2006).

Poor State of Primary Health Services India is seen as an attractive destination for medical tourism. Patients and their family members come to Indian metropolises for a world-class treatment, enjoy five-star luxuries in super-speciality hospitals, and travel lavishly around the country and still pay less than what they would have to for treatment in the USA or Europe. On the other hand, primary healthcare is in a bad shape. Only 38 per cent of primary health centres have essential manpower and only 31 per cent have all the essential supplies (Business Today, 14 January 2007, p. 174). The number of HIV and tuberculosis patients in India is the highest in the world. Maternal and infant mortality rates are embarrassingly high. Instances of female infanticide have pushed down the gender ratio to only 927 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6 years. Government hospitals provide free service, but are miserably deficient in infrastructure, medicines, and medical care.

Large Regional and Rural–Urban Disparities Some states compare favourably with parts of Europe, but others are close to African states. Rural people constituting over 70 per cent of the population earn only one-fourth of what their urban

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counterparts do; about 120,000 villages do not have electricity; and over 20 per cent rural households do not have access to safe drinking water (Business Today, 14 January 2007, pp. 175ă76).

The Environment is Degrading Rapidly About 2.40 per cent of the land mass has to support 16 per cent of the global population and this is causing overcrowding. Farmlands are shrinking, forest cover is getting depleted, the groundwater table is reducing at an alarming rate, states are fighting for river water, and so on (Census of India 2001). In sum, the problems at the base of the pyramid are too serious to be solved by the trickle down effect from the fast growing top. Deliberate efforts are needed both from the government that assumes primary responsibility for making structural adjustments and from the corporate world to come forward and raise publicăprivate partnership to the level where it can play an instrumental role in realizing an inclusive framework of economic development. Organizational behaviour scientists have a challenging role to play in helping to formulate this framework.

POLITICAL SCENARIO India is rightly proud of its democracy especially in that part of the world where democracy is still a coveted but not quite realized dream for most of the people. John Kenneth Galbraith called India a Âfunctional anarchyÊ.6 It is still chaotic and surprises many that it functions at all, although the mode of its functioning has changed over the years. After Independence till the 1960s, the Indian National Congress Party had a monolithic control over the centre as well as most of the state governments. As it loosened its control, a number of new developments occurred. The major ones were the following: 1. National political parties got fragmented and a number of regional parties emerged resulting in a variety of large and small political parties that (a) served regional rather than national interests, (b) vied for positions of power, and (c) resulted in the formation of coalitions that changed their partners very often. 2. The fluidity and uncertainty created conditions that were conducive to short-term gains for individuals and groups, corruption, and the criminalization of politics.

Coalition Governments The fragmented national and regional political parties are more concerned about local and regional issues than the national agenda. A majority of them are person-based and in many cases are known more as the party of a famous personality. The leaders trust their loyal members, especially their own

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family members and this has resulted in dynastic governance. Coalition formations, as a result, have been the joint function of (a) the salience of regional issues, (b) the ego of the party leaders, (c) the personal equations across parties, and (d) the opportunist impulse to gain political power by forming and re-forming coalitions. Skills to manoeuvre rather unscrupulously have been more important than reaching out to the people who are supposed to elect them into positions of power. By default, coalition politics enriched part of the democratic process. They highlighted the regions that were neglected so far and the issues that were of local interest, got a number of leftist and rightist parties into the main political establishment, focused on the interface between the centre and state governments, and broadened the span and diversity of political activities (see Singh and Mishra 2004 for details). The most risky part has been the compulsion to compete with each other for sponsoring populist programmes, irrespective of their merits (such as free electricity for agriculture, appeasement of minority groups, and quota in jobs and education in lieu of electoral support). Coalition politics slows down the decision-making process and hampers the implementation of decisions once they are made. Even when coalition political parties agree to a decision in principle, they disagree during the implementation process if that undermines their interests. Hence, the decided issues are reopened and renegotiated for striking a balance between the competing interests. Projects of national importance are often water downed to insignificance or put in cold storage (for example, the population control programme).

Corruption and Criminalization Politics is a game of power and, according to Lord Acton (1887), Âpower corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutelyÊ. This may be a reason why dictators are generally more corrupt than democratically elected leaders. There are a number of checks and balances that are likely to contain the corrupt practices of politicians in a democracy. However, corruption still feeds on power, particularly in a country like India, which, according to Transparency International (2006), stands 84th on the scale of corruption among 163 countries in the world. As the electoral process becomes more costly, the contestants in coalition politics feel insecure and uncertain about their future prospects, and need money to poach on other partiesÊ members. Politicians, therefore, have the imperative to accumulate as much money and assets as possible and keep in control as many supporters as they can. Upadhyay7 observed that while all political parties contesting elections collect funds through means fair or foul, the parties in power exploit their positions to collect funds not only from trade, business, and industry, but from the public at large on almost every occasion that it requires to deal with the governmental machinery. The amounts collected generally relate to the degree of irregularity or illegality involved in the favour being done. What is alarming, however, is that corruption has degenerated into the criminalization of politics. With the emergence of coalition politics, where fragmented national and regional parties compete for positions of power and privilege, their members look to the top boss for patronage rather than to their constituents for support. Politics, instead of being a grass-roots process, became centrally suspended. Politicians have to appease their bosses and get elected by either bribing or bullying people. Many

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of them hire musclemen. This was particularly the case in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP) during the late 1970s and early 1980s when musclemen were hired to capture booths and stamp ballot papers in their favour.8 In return, the musclemen got protection and even shelter in their political bossesÊ official house in order to escape arrests. Thereafter, political parties started tapping criminals for vote banks and in return provided them with political patronage and protection. Soon many criminals realized that it was much more profitable to become ÂkingsÊ rather than to remain Âking makersÊ. Ramachandran (2004) reported that a fairly large percentages of candidates who contested elections in Bihar and UP in the year 2002 (many from jails or hideouts) had criminal records, and many of them won with a big margin. The Vohra Committee Report (1993) recorded that crime syndicates and mafia organizations had developed significant muscle and money power and established linkages with governmental functionaries, political leaders, and others to be able to operate with impunity. There is nothing in the Indian Constitution to bar criminals from contesting elections unless they are pronounced to be guilty. On the contrary, criminals have many ways of escaping from prosecution. The cumbersome functioning of the judiciary is one of them.

Cumbersome Judiciary The judiciary is not in a position to conduct trials speedily enough to prosecute those who are under trail. The Indian judiciary is indeed independent and is known for taking firm positions on issues of national importance even when it is accused of ÂactivismÊ or Âover reachÊ or ÂencroachmentÊ on the turf of elected bodies. The Economist9 pointed out that Indian judiciary is characterized by delays, complexities, obfuscations, overlapping jurisdictions, and endless requests for more information. Further, there exists serious paucity of legal standards and legislation on vital areas of concern such as data privacy and protection, intellectual property rights, and copyright. Judges are poorly paid, overworked, and frequently transferred. According to Krishnamoorty, over 2 million cases were pending in 18 high courts alone and more than 200,000 cases were pending in the Supreme Court for admission, interim relief or final hearing.10 Taking advantage of this time-consuming process, powerful people accused of crimes, tamper with evidence, bully witnesses, and do not allow conclusive evidence to be documented by the prosecution.

SOCIAL MILIEU Of all the components that constitute the social milieu, three stand out in decreasing order of importance to the corporate world: Family, caste, and religion. The family is the most basic social unit almost all over the world. It was the first model of organizations showing how people can be organized to work collectively to realize common goals, how they can be allotted roles and positions, and rewarded and punished, and so on. Second, the family is the setting for primary socialization where individuals learn how to manage themselves and relate with others. It is these learnt modes that they carry to work organizations.

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Indian Family Dynamics With urbanization and opportunities of jobs at distant places, extended and joint families are losing ground to nuclear families. However, there are numerous instances of a circular progression in family structure from joint to nuclear to joint again. Grown up children set up their household elsewhere, but after a while their retired parents come over to live with them. Or, their grown up children, along with their wives and husbands, live with them as long as they can. In some instances, nuclear families allow distant relatives to stay with them in order to help them complete their education or to take up a job. In any case, the family remains a place for economic, social, and emotional anchorage even for those who live apart, but frequently visit on social and religious occasions and communicate on a regular basis. The traditional values for group embeddedness, personalized and dependency relationships, tolerance, and duty that Indian employees hold are enshrined in family dynamics (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Organizations are idealized for the practice of taking total care of their employees (Sinha and Mohanty 2004) and extending a range of benefits to their family members (Gupta 1999). About 87 per cent of all Indian enterprises are in the private sector (Department of Economics and Statistics, Tata Services 2004) where familial values prevail. The top boss proudly boasts that his company is like his extended family where employees are bound, not primarily by job contracts, but by loyalty and familial relationships. Transformational leaders in Indian organizations are like kartaas (the heads of the household) who groom subordinates by personalized care and reprimands, as well as by helping them in various ways like a patriarch (Singh and Bhandarker 1990). In family-run organizations, once the patriarch fades out or dies or the brothers, nephews, or nieces grow up and subscribe to different ways of running business, and the organization, like the joint family, gets divided with or without infighting. Business houses like Reliance, Bajaj, and Ranbaxy are typical examples. Finally, the typical family dynamics in work organizations have been open to professionalism in management in varying degrees. There is, for example, the case of Hero Honda where the senior Mr Munjal remains the chairman, fostering highly personalized management. But he has allowed his son, Pawan, to put in place IT-enabled systems and services that were previously missing in the organization. The two complement each other by blending familism and professionalism.

Caste Politics Caste Consciousness Caste remained a classificatory system based on endogamy and embedded in the hierarchical world view till the early eighteenth century (Bayly 1999). It was so pervasive that those Indians who were converted into Islam or Christianity still retained endogamy and the caste-type hierarchy in their social transactions (Joshi et al. 2003). The British felt that Âcaste was the foundational fact of Indian

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society, fundamental . . . to HinduismÊ (Dirks 2002: 41). Hence, they started the census of castes, which in turn tremendously raised caste consciousness in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, leading to caste sabhas (organizations) in the north (Bandyopadhyay 1992). Around the same time, an anti-Brahmin Dravid movement advocated the idea of a Ânon-BrahminÊ unity (periyar) in what is now Tamil Nadu and a unity of the shudraatishudras that is, lowest of the lower caste (phule) in Maharastra in order to challenge the hegemony of the Brahminical elite (Nigam 2007). Caste consciousness got so alarmingly divisive in Indian society by the beginning of the nineteenth century that the government dropped it from the census after 1931. The main victims of the caste system were the Untouchables who were later called Dalits (exploited). The Brahmins were so abusive to them that Mahatma Gandhi felt the need to initiate a number of reformative measures. He called the Untouchables Harijans (people of god) and called upon the higher-caste Hindus to accept them as equals in all respects. On the other hand, Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who was an Untouchable himself, revolted against the caste system by embracing Buddhism with a large group of his Untouchable followers. While drafting the Indian Constitution, he got inserted clauses for affirmative action (reservation or protective discrimination) for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), granting them 22.50 per cent quota in government jobs.

Caste-based Reservations Thus, two developments·caste consciousness and the possibility of reservations·led to the politics of caste in post-Independence India. If reservations were needed for the SCs and STs, why not for the intermediate castes that too were socially and economically backward in comparison to the higher castes? On 29 January 1953, a Backward Classes Commission was constituted under a Member of Parliament (MP), Kaka Saheb Kalelkar, which recommended that 70 per cent of seats in all technical and professional institutions be reserved for qualified students from the backward classes, besides a minimum reservation in all government services and local bodies. There was a lot of opposition to these recommendations. Prime Minister Nehru felt that ÂIf we go in for reservations on communal and caste basis, we swamp the bright and able people and remain second-rate or third-rateÊ (Jaffrelot 2003). The second Backward Classes Commission was constituted on 20 December 1978 under the leadership of B. P. Mandal. The Mandal Commission worked with three parameters: 1. A ceiling of 50 per cent reservation set by the Supreme Court. 2. SCs and STs already availed 22.50 per cent reservations. 3. The earlier commission had listed a very large number of backward castes. The Mandal Commission first identified the castes that deserved reservation (Other Backward Castes·OBCs) and recommended 27 per cent reservations for OBCs in government jobs and in scientific, technical, and professional institutions of the state and central governments. The recommendations were, however, accepted on 7 August 1990 only for jobs in government departments and public undertakings and even that in the face of stiff opposition.

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Fourteen years thereafter, the government decided to extend 27 per cent reservation in all educational institutions of higher learning. The matter was pending in the Supreme Court in 2007 which asked (a) the basis for deciding on 27 per cent reservation in the absence of any scientific survey after the year 1931 and (b) why the creamy layer in the OBCs cannot be excluded from reservation. Elsewhere in society, there are additional issues that are being raised. For example: 1. If reservation has not worked till now, how can it help the deprived castes in the future? Should the government think of some other measures? 2. Will meritocracy suffer, as Prime Minister Nehru felt? If caste, not performance, becomes the basis for seats in educational institutions and jobs, how will the higher caste employees recruited through competition relate to superiors and subordinates recruited through reservations? Will this fracture organizational culture and defeat organizationsÊ competitiveness? 3. Should the deprived groups be helped to acquire competence to compete rather than get doles for not being able to compete? That is, should the government focus on improving learning and skills of the backward castes, STs, and SCs through special packages rather than taking a populist stand with an eye on the vote banks?

Caste and the Corporate World There are three ways to look at the impact of caste on the corporate world. First, caste indeed reinforces the hierarchical world view of Indian employees as they relate with their superiors and subordinates. Second, the caste of an employee is hardly a matter of interest to either the management or to other employees. Third, caste politics does not encroach upon the corporate world unless the government makes it mandatory for all companies to reserve a certain percentage of jobs on the basis of caste. In government organizations where jobs have been reserved since the 1950s for the SCs and STs and since the 1990s for OBCs, reservations are reported to cause problems, although hard evidence is not available. Higher-caste employees who are recruited through competition are said to resent those who enter the organization through reservation and often ridicule them. The former are even more resentful if the latter get promoted and become their bosses. Those recruited through reservation, on the other hand, are likely to be defensive and might over-react to any behaviour of the directly recruited employees whom they feel might undermine them. Teamwork or superiorăsubordinate relationships between employees, in such a situation, is likely to be problematic.

Revival of Hinduism During the nineteenth century, three people, Swami Vivekananda (1863ă1902), Aurobindo Ghose (1872ă1950), and Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856ă1920) revived Hinduism for promoting nationalism. They all believed that the nation is a divine expression of God and hence nationalism has to be practised with the religious fervor of the Bhagavad Gita (Andersen and Damle 1987). Mahatma Gandhi too drew his inspirations from the Bhagavad Gita and professed to be a Hindu, but recognized

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all regions, including Islam and Christianity, as equally acceptable. This tolerance of all religions was the hallmark of Hinduism, as result of which, despite overwhelming majority of Hindus (80.50 per cent), the Indian Constitution stated in its preamble that India is a secular state where freedom of religion is a fundamental right of every citizen so that even the minorities such as Muslim (13.40 per cent), Christian (2.30 per cent), Sikh (1.90 per cent), and others (1.90 per cent) can practise and promote their religion peacefully.

The Politics of Hinduism Nationalism took a narrower route when Savarkar wrote Hindutva (1923), in which Hindus were recognized as only those whose religious faith originated on Indian soil. Thus, Hinduism included Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, but excluded Islam and Christianity. A nationalist association, the Hindu Mahasabha and later on the extremist Hindu nationalist associations, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) accepted Hindutva as their guiding principle. One of the members of the RSS, a fanatic Hindu, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. The RSS lost public favour as a result of this for about three decades till the Indian National Congress Party lost power and made room in 1977 for an assorted collection of parties that were cobbled into the Janata Party. The Janata Party lost to the Congress in 1980 and disintegrated into a number of ideology, caste, and religion-based parties. One of the splinters, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) upheld the cause of Hindutva and was the political arm of the Sangh Parivar consisting of the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena, and others (Allen 1993). They subscribe to a religious approach whereby they believe that the people of different religions constitute a different community and hence have a different social and cultural identity. They cannot live together in harmony (Chandra 1992). Despite their commitment to advance the interests of the poor and the labour, the Left got fragmented much earlier into the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party Marxist (CPM), Forward Block, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The original Socialist Party splintered into a number of parties: the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samata Party, Samajwadi Party (SP), and others·all professing to advance the interests of the backward castes. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) separated from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Andhra Pradesh had the Telugu Desam Party. The case of Untouchables who were also called Dalits (the exploited) was taken up by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) while the Akali Dal professed to represent the Sikhs.

Vote Bank Politics Thus, the political parties by the end of the millennium were based either on caste, religion, ideology, regional interests, or others. They professed to uphold these causes. But in reality, they attached greater priority to vote bank politicking. They competed with each other intensely, freely entered into coalitions with those whose professed goals were contrary to their own, and thereby created a political scenario that was characterized by fluidity, uncertainty, opportunism, corruption, and

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peopleÊs disenchantment with them. There were two silver linings in the otherwise frustratingly fluctuating coalitions among them: 1. They all conceded the importance of the irreversible process of globalization of the economy. 2. The messy situation still manifests remarkable tolerance for religious differences (see Box 3.7). Box 3.7 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Religious Mosaic of India (2007)

Former Indian president, Dr Abdul Kalam, is a Muslim. The prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh. The leader of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, is a foreign-born Christian. The leader of the opposition, L. K. Advani, is a Hindu. Former defence minister, George Fernandes, is a Christian. P. C. Sethi, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh is a Jain.

THE INTERNATIONAL MILIEU Dubious Practices As Indian companies are becoming global organizations, they have to compete with other global companies. The pressure to compete often creates a twilight zone where companies are tempted to engage in dubious practices that raise ethical issues. Some of well-known world-class companies even in the legally tight cultures of the West are alleged to fudge accounts, conspire with auditors, manipulate the stock market, cheat gullible common shareholders, and adopt other dubious means to stay at the top in the market. Enron, for example, used reserves to exaggerate its profits; Anderson & Company colluded with Enron to give false audit reports; WorldCom faced fraud charges; Xerox was reported to have a US$ 2 billion hole in its books; Merck was charged with a US$ 14 billion fraud; and Bristol-Meyers-Squibb was alleged to have inflated its sales, among others. There are Indian companies that too are alleged to have followed suit (The Times of India, Patna, 5 July 2002, p. 9). There were also examples of organizations accusing each other of malpractices. GlaxoSmithKline, for example, accused Ranbaxy of duplicating one of their antibiotics, Samsung and Whirlpool accused LG of inflating claims about refrigerators, and so on (Sinha 2004). Hindustan Levers was planning to expand its soap and detergent market in rural areas by arranging credit for its retailers and loans for villagers to buy its products without taking into consideration the priority structure of the needs of poor villagers.

Outsourcing and Downsizing Global management practices such as continuous downsizing and outsourcing that are graduated to technological innovations and emergence of a variety of small enterprises that hold expertise in

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segmented domains cause human and societal costs that cannot easily be assessed. Downsizing depresses morale even in advance countries (Leana 1996). But in a country such as India, which already faces serious and acute problems arising out of high rates of unemployment and underemployment, the societal costs could be alarming. Tata Steel, for example, has let go of over 40,000 employees in about 10 years. SAIL is committed to reducing its manpower by about 60,000. Yamaha trimmed 200 jobs (The Times of India, Patna, 11 June 2001, p. 9). Hindustan Motors shelved 600 jobs (The Times of India, Patna, 14 June 2001, p. 13).

Standards of Products and Services There are additional ethical issues. Some foreign multinationals do not maintain the same standard of quality of products and services in India that they do in their home country. The recent uproar about the presence of pesticides in Coca Cola and Pepsi, among 10 others famous brands, are examples of this (Hindustan Times, Patna, 4 February 2004, p. 1). There are also reports of testing new drugs of unknown consequences on Indians because it is much cheaper to do so in India and many more ethnic groups are available for such risky testing (Hindustan Times, Patna, 24 January 2004, p. 1). Lax rules and regulations combined with lack of vigilance in India tempt many companies·domestic as well as multinationals·to take undue advantage.

Encroachment on Life Space Yet another issue is the encroachment on personal life space of employees. Pressure to perform has led to following the principle of 1-2-3. That is, organizations tend to hire one person, pay him double the salary and perk compared to the market standard, and extract three times the amount of work that a person of his competence can put in. Young Indians are lured by pay packets that the older generation cannot imagine. The lifestyle too is glamorous with luxury hotels, first class air travel, and all sorts of flashy things at oneÊs command, but these often take their toll in terms of lost sleep, family friction, stress, premature burnout, and other psychosomatic disorders. Pervasive corruption in Indian society, fluid and rapidly changing coalition politics that needs enormous amounts of money, and the Western model of organizational impulse to succeed any how pose ethical issues that organizational behaviour scientists need to address even though there are no cut and dry solutions.

SUMMARY Work organizations in India are embedded in Indian culture that influences and is influenced by the larger milieu, which has economic, political, and social facets, and is also subject to global business

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influences. The economic milieu reflects a paradox in recording rapid economic transformation which coexists with poverty and poor health and educational conditions, particularly in rural areas. Coalition politics have brought in focus regional issues and diverse caste, religion, and ideological configurations as well as increasingly high levels of corruption and criminalization of politics. Castes and religion play a crucial role primarily because they constitute vote banks that all parties chase. Their impact on the corporate world depends on the extent to which either the political forces impose themselves on it or its vulnerability. Quite often these contextual forces affect the way the Indian workforce thinks, feels, and acts. As Indian organizations are emulating the global model of functioning, ethical posers such as dubious business practices, downsizing, outsourcing, and different standards of products and services are posing problems that organizational behaviour scientists have to address.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Multinational Going Rural Step 1 Each participant needs to read the following: A multinational company, selling a famous brand of chocolates, has about 70 per cent penetration in the urban market. It has decided to introduce this brand of chocolates in rural areas. It has formed a marketing group of four persons with you as the team leader. The other members belong to the consumer watch group, finance department, and research and development (R&D) department. The team has to develop a full plan that the company wants to launch next year.

Step 2 The participants will form groups of four and develop their plans followed by a discussion in the classroom.

Exercise 2: Job Reservations and Interpersonal Dynamics Step 1 Distribute randomly scenarios X and Y among the group/class members so that half of them get scenario X and the rest get scenario Y.

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Scenario X Ravi Sharma was leafing through a project report he had to discuss with his boss, Mohan Ram. Ravi was feeling a little uncomfortable as his mind wandered to a day five years back when Mohan and he joined Indian Electrics Limited together as assistant managers. He was a direct recruit while Ram got in through the quota. He still remembers how he, along with others, used to ridicule Ram. But the tables have turned now. Ravi is not sure if Ram has forgotten RaviÊs behaviour towards him in the last five years.

Scenario Y Kumar is bright, hard working, and self-confident. He has always believed in Âfighting it outÊ and even dropped his surname ÂPaswanÊ, in an attempt to do away with his caste identity. He never wanted to get any job, as they say, Âthrough the back doorÊ. But as luck had it, his mother got very sick when he was preparing for the examinations. Subsequently, he got a very low rank in the examinations and had to take the reservation route. During the last two years, he has struggled hard to prove himself, but there is something unspoken in the eyes of Sushant Pandey that he cannot take.

Step 2 Put yourself in the position of Ravi Sharma or Kumar (as the case maybe) and develop the scenario further by elaborating on how in the course of the next five years you will (a) relate with your boss, (b) be able to perform your job, and (c) gain or lose your self-respect.

Step 3 Form groups of four or five and integrate the stories so as to identify (a) potential and weaknesses of reservations and (b) how to make it an effective organizational tool that can serve the organization and help deprived groups.

Step 4 Integrate the reports and make a position paper on affirmative action in Indian work organizations.

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Exercise 3: How to Cope with Corruption? Step 1 Read the following case: It was a crisp Monday morning in early March·bright, sunny, and warm. Bjoern Bording, the managing director (MD) of a Danish company located in the national capital area, manufacturing valves, pumps, filters, and automation systems, was standing at his office window, looking at the sprawling lawn and factory gate beyond it, and enjoying the freshly brewed coffee that his secretary has just brought in to him. Workers and managers·all young and energetic·were coming out of the factory buses. He was proud of them. He was indeed proud of the way he had established this company as a market leader in just about seven years with a turnover growth of about 16 per cent and profits of 20 per cent per annum. Of course, he could not have accomplished all this without Vivek Gupta, vice president (VP), operations, an MIT graduate and technically as competent as anyone back home. But, it was Naresh Kumar, VP, human resources development (HRD), an IIM graduate, who really was indispensable. He was adept at handling the formidable Indian bureaucracy as well as the local political and trade union leaders who always pressed him to hire their relatives and supporters. He slipped just in one case. This had to do with a work supervisor·Dinesh·who looked bright and very docile, but showed his true colours only after he was confirmed and thereafter became a real pain in the neck. He used to disappear from the assembly line for hours without reason, did not listen to the line managers, and was a bad influence on others. Kumar charge-sheeted him and debarred him from entering the factory premises. ÂSo, he is gone, nothing to worry aboutÊ, Bording assured himself. His secretary hesitatingly announced, ÂSir, Mr Rajiv Khurana, the local MP is coming to see you at 9.30, and, he says that you will have to see him.Ê Bording looked at his watch. It was 9.15 a.m. ÂHas he mentioned any purpose?Ê ÂNone.Ê ÂPlease ask Kumar to come over immediately.Ê Kumar briefed Bording that the MP was close to the prime minister (PM), was a heavy weight in the party, and kept throwing his weight around government officers and local trade union leaders. Kumar cautioned Bording: ÂWe have to handle him carefully.Ê ÂI shall leave it to youÊ, Bording said helplessly. Mr Khurana came at 10 a.m., keeping both of them waiting and tense for 30 minutes. He was ushered most respectfully to the MDÊs office. Kumar, Bording thought, was unduly polite to him. Bording maintained a polite silence. Mr Khurana started, in Hindi, with generous praise for what the company had done for India and the people of the area, but soon came to the point·the dismissal of Dinesh: ÂHe is a nice boy. DonÊt lose him. He might cause lots of problems for you. He is our party worker.Ê

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Kumar was quick to point out all the problems Dinesh was causing and that a person like him would destroy the companyÊs culture. Mr Khurana was silent for a moment. Then, slowly but surely he pronounced: Well, your company is more valuable to us than Dinesh. Forget him. I shall see that he does not create any problem. I shall get him a different job·maybe a better one. I want to help you. But you must also help us. The elections are coming up in a few months. Your company is doing so well. We need money. Donations of a small amount, say US$ 100,000 will do and shall ensure that you work peacefully . . . and, by the way, take one of our boys in place of Dinesh. He will not trouble you . . . Kumar, explain it to Bording Sahab. And he briskly walked out of the office. Kumar followed him hurriedly to see him off respectfully. Later when he explained to Bording what the MP had said in Hindi, Bording was at a loss. He asked Kumar for advice.

Step 2 Imagine you are Kumar. What advise will you give Bording? Discuss the various suggestions in the group/class and their implications for the company.

NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

See http://hinduism.about.com/od/history/p/indiaquotes.htm. See http://www.ibef.in/resource/quickfacts.aspx. See www. nerve.com. See http://uk.oneworld.net/guides/india/development?gclid=CJL836ny5okCFR2ZTAodXVmEEg. Ziegler (2006). India was ranked 126 on the human development index (Human Development Report 2006). See http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/28/india.anarchy.tully/index.html. See http://www.saag.org/papers3/paper219.htm. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booth_capturing. See http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF154.htm. See http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/feb/med-secondjudge.htm.

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PART 2 INDIVIDUALS Having presented the framework of the book in Part 1, the chapters in this part focus on basic individuallevel processes such as perception and learning that are universally applicable to human beings. However, different cultures employ them differently to create individuals who share some common and some culturespecific characteristics. The basics to human beings are their self and personality, which are the fountains of all thoughts, feelings, and actions as well as their striving to attain the highest levels of well-being by transcending the lower order needs for self-actualization and realization of the spiritual self. The chapters in this section highlight the Western and Indian cultural contributions to these constructs and processes. Compared to the Western conceptualization of autonomous individuals striving to maximize their individual needs and goals, the Indian cultural perspective is inclusive in accepting individual needs and interests, but enfolding them within collectivistic ones. Consequently, organizational behaviour in the Indian context manifests much more flexibility and complexity.

4

Self and Personality


Relate self, culture, and personality. Highlight the role of basic psychological processes in the formation of self. Provide the Indian conceptualization of self. Show how personality affects organizational behaviour.

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CULTURE, SELF, AND PERSONALITY Culture and Self

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hile a culture consists of shared values, beliefs, norms, and practices of the people of an identifiable geographical area, self is conceptualized as Âa constellation of thoughts, feelings and actionsÊ which renders a person distinct from others and yet enables him to relate to others (Singelis et al. 1999: 316). Culture and self are distinctly different, although both are closely embedded systems. Culture reflects a shared totality of the externalized collective selves of the people. It is rooted deep down in the minds of people and conditions how they perceive themselves and relate to the external world that includes other people, the physical environment, workplace, institutions, and so on. A famous anthropologist, Clifford Geertz observes that ÂCulture is socially and historically constructed [while] we assemble the selves we live in out of materials lying about in the society around us and develop „a theory of mind‰ to comprehend the selves of othersÊ (Geertz 2000: 196). However, culture is not the sole determinant of human thoughts, feelings, and action orientations embodied in the self. As Maslow (1968) pointed out, Âculture is sun and food and water. It is not the seed . . . A culture does not create a human being . . . Rather it permits, or fosters, or encourages, or helps what exists in embryo to become real and actualÊ (Maslow 1968: 152). Individuals are endowed with specific bio-genetic properties that create the neural networks that support and ultimately give rise to human consciousness (Edelman 1988; Greenfield 1995). Human beings, in other words, are endowed with a hardware that provides the platform for the software, the culture, to create what we call the ÂselfÊ of a person·the totality of the neural base and his consciousness, activity, feelings, and experience about himself which orient him to relate to the outside world including persons, objects, situations, and so on. It is his perception that makes him understand and learn Âwho he isÊ, Âhow he is different from othersÊ, how he can communicate with them, and realize his selfhood. Erikson (1963) preferred to use the term Âself-identityÊ·a constellation of a number of psychic elements that evolve together as a person grows in his life-roles, but still maintains continuity of his being the same person. In other words, just like culture, the self is changing and yet retains continuity. Changes in self, like in a culture, occur more at the outer layers than at the core of the self, although these changes do gradually seep deeper into the inner layers of self.

Self and Personality Self and personality are two sides of the same individual. While self is an individualÊs perception of himself, his personality is how others perceive him. Self, for example, is also defined as Âthe personality viewed from withinÊ (Luthans 1998: 132). Thus, they both refer to the totality of the configuration of characteristics of (a) an individual in understanding himself and relating with others (in case of self) or (b) otherÊs in understanding and reacting to him (in case of personality).


Box 4.1

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Culture, Self, and Personality

Culture reflects the externalized collective selves of people. Self is how a person perceives himself and relates to others while his personality is how others perceive him and relate to him. That is, self is the internalized while personality is the externalized view of a person.

Naturally, both overlap, but in certain respects and cases of certain individuals they may disclose gaps and incongruence. People may not see an individual exactly the way he perceives himself. The characteristics in both·self and personality·are relatively stable, but change, more at the peripheral or in less salient parts. The formation of both is a function of a host of factors; the most dominant of them are biological characteristics and socio-cultural influences. The rest of the chapter dwells on the various aspects of self that also stands for personality. Reference is made to personality in this chapter only when necessary.

FORMATION OF SELF Biological Self Newborn babies have certain biological needs and a bundle of reflexes that are structured to let them survive, get their needs satisfied, and grow. They have neither any sense of external reality nor any awareness of self and others. However, they do have striking bio-cultural differences as early as their birth (see, for example, Freedman, 1979).1 As they grow, their reflexes are conditioned with cultural meanings. Vocalizing, for example, is a reflex action. But infants start vocalizing differently during the first four months as a function of how they are handled. Their eye contact with the caretakers seems to make them more attentive to the latter and increases the frequency of their vocalization that particularly expresses a positive mood (Keller et al. 1998). Cultures vary on the extent to which people cultivate relationship orientation that leads to greater and more intimate interactions with each other. Indian culture is relationship oriented. The excessive indulgence of the Indian mother and mother surrogates is (Kakar 1978) is likely to expedite this process of stimulating the newborn babies to vocalize more frequently. Similarly, neonatesÊ smile is a random and aimless twitching of certain facial muscles that gradually gets associated and are later evoked by smiling faces, words, and handling by the mother or mother surrogates. The excessive emotional indulgence that Indian children get certainly stimulates them to respond to others by seeking their proximity, attention, and joyful handling that is necessary for getting their biological needs satisfied. As children become aware of the linkages between their biological needs, the necessity of soliciting othersÊ interventions to satisfy their needs, and their voluntary efforts to solicit otherÊs intervention effectively, their biological self emerges. The biological self is virtually the bio-social self that increasingly evolves into being more social than biological in nature. In other words, neurological and cultural influences are reciprocally interactive, creating the bio-social self of a person jointly.

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Box 4.2

Formation of Self: An Evolutionary Process

The basic neurological network, through dynamic interactions with the social world, gives rise to a bio-social self, which is the foundation on which new experiences, arising out of further social interactions and encounters with the environment, are built enriching the self (personality) further.

Social Self There are two basic universal motives that propel human infants further on a growth trajectory: Human beings are driven by competency motive for gaining mastery over the environment (White 1959), which enables them satisfy their striving to feel good about themselves (Brown 1998). Growing children throw things, cry to command otherÊs attention, and start crawling, sitting, walking, running on their own, and picking up a vocabulary as a part of gaining their competence. Grown ups do similar things. We seek out challenging jobs, solve difficult problems, explore difficult terrain, enjoy being innovative and creative, change what we do not like, behave so as to impress others, achieve success and avoid failure, and so on. The more we succeed, the more we feel good about ourselves. If we fail to succeed the extent to which we aspire, we get depressed, throw temper tantrums, bang our desks, take out our frustrations on others, and worse, gulp shots of whiskey to regain a fantasized sense of competence. The sense of competence gives rise to self-efficacy that is the belief that we can get things done, make friends easily, and influence others. Self-efficacy may be limited to certain domains. One may believe to be efficacious in handling a technically complex job, but might feel helpless in handling his subordinates or making his adolescent sons and daughters listen to him. Self-efficacy can also become a more generalized belief, self-confidence, that one can handle any difficult job, nothing is impossible if one tries hard enough, or can live the life that one wants to live. Such generalized efficacy gives rise to self-regard·a positive feeling about oneÊs worth (see Figure 4.1). Figure 4.1

Structure of Self-image

Self-efficacy is built up when one gets positive feedback regarding the success of oneÊs efforts. Performing a job well, procuring a project, buying out a company, winning a car race, or skydiving gives a positive feedback. The indictors in such cases are physical in nature. They can be measured on empirically developed scales. But the competence in handling subordinates, being a trustworthy friend, an effective mentor, a successful leader, a caring spouse, an affectionate parent, an obedient son, and so on involve others. There are no objective scales to ascertain where one stands on these and similar other dimensions that involve relevant others. One needs feedback from them. The


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feedbacks in these cases are social in the sense that they not only manifest what the person does with reference to relevant others, but also how others value such acts and attribute them to the person as the agent of such acts. The feedbacks, in other words, depend on the interactions between the person and the relevant others. Thus, the feedback is essentially how others view the personality of the person. The others have to be relevant and trustworthy referents because only then feedback will have any value. A professor, for example, does not need feedback of how well he teaches from a peon in his department, who may, however, provide a meaningful feedback to the professor about whether or not he is a caring superior. In fact, all feedbacks, including physical ones, are essentially social in nature and carry cultural value loads; for how do we know that skydiving is an adventurous and valued act therefore not stupid, unless we know that people admire those who have the courage to jump from that height. Box 4.3

Types of Self

Ć Biological self. Ć Social self. Ć Moral self.

Similarly, how do we know that performing well on a job means being competent unless we know that the performance is valued in an organization! There may be organizations where something else (for example, flattery), not performance, might be appreciated. Obviously, performance in such cases does not reflect self-efficacy in the eyes of those who consider promotion as an index of efficacy. It is something else·the skill to manage the boss·that really matters in such situations. In other words, efforts are instigated by the competency motive, but the goals that they are directed to and the behavioural forms that they take are determined to a large extent by cultural values. As a result, there are many ways in which people may experience self-efficacy. It all depends on the persons (making efforts), the relevant others (giving feedback), and the settings (valuing certain practices). Long back, Mead (1934) reported Âthe individual experiences himself as such, not directly, but only indirectly, from the particular standpoints of other individual members of the same group, or from the generalized standpoint of the social group as a whole to which he belongsÊ (Mead 1934: 138). It is they who provide the norms, beliefs, and values that he should inculcate to develop his social self. It does not, however, mean that individuals are a replica of their significant others or groups. There are two sets of factors that still allow them to remain proactive in seeking out othersÊ influences and yet fashioning their selves as distinct from others: 1. Other individuals and groups that serve as sources for conceptualizing individualsÊ selves are themselves heterogeneous and manifest diverse feelings, thoughts, and action orientations providing a rich architecture of cultural norms, beliefs, and values to draw on. Similarly, the environment surrounding a person contains both constraints and opportunities depending on the existing levels of the efficacy of a person.

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Box 4.4

Your Self-efficacy

Find your self-efficacy by rating the statements on the scale that follows: 1·Not at all true. 2·Barely true. 3·Moderately true. 4·Quite true. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

I can always manage to solve difficult problems, if I try hard enough. If someone opposes me, I can find means and ways to get what I want. It is easy for me to stick to my aims and accomplish my goals. I am confident that I can deal efficiently with unexpected events. Thanks to my resourcefulness, I know how to handle unforeseen situations. I can solve most problems, if I invest the necessary efforts. I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping abilities. When I am confronted with a problem, I can easily find several solutions. If I am in a bind, I can usually think of something to do. No matter what comes my way, I am usually able to handle it.

Source: Schwarzer (1993).

2. Given such variety, individuals selectively perceive and proactively reach out to the environment and the people in it by (a) gravitating to that part of the environment that are enabling and (b) engaging those who can help him build up a sense of self-efficacy. This they do by evoking the basic psychological processes such as perception, learning, communication, and decision-making.

BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES Perception is the process of being aware of objects, persons, or ideas and attaching meaning or significance to them on the basis of oneÊs past experience with them in order to relate to them. Learning accompanies perception in the sense that it is a process of adding new experiences to the stock of past experiences as a result of a perception. Communication is the process of coding oneÊs thoughts and feelings into signals that are emitted to others who receive (perceive) the signals, decode, understand, and possibly react to them on the basis of their own past experience and future expectations. Communication is partly a perceptual process that may add to a personÊs learning. Decision-making involves making a choice between alternatives, and in certain instances, first searching for more information to identify feasible alternatives and to then make a choice. Communication and decision-making are discussed in greater details elsewhere in the book. They are, however, referred to here only with reference to self-formation. Learning and perception have direct roles in the formation of oneÊs self.


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Learning Process There are three ways in which individuals learn: Incidental learning, active learning, and learning through modelling effect. 1. Incidental learning is a process where individuals by chance do something that gets rewarded. If it happens a number of times, they tend to repeat the same behaviour with the implicit expectation of experiencing the reward. This is also called classical conditioning where a new behaviour coincides with pleasant experience often enough that people see them as interrelated. For example, someone important (for example, your boss or a friend) appreciates your new tie or suit, you are likely to wear it more often and feel good about it. Or, an employee comes to office 15 minutes early because his bus timings are such. But the appreciation that he gets from his boss makes him feel positive about coming in to work early; and he is likely to keep coming early even if the bus timings are changed and he has to take an earlier bus. He thinks he is punctual by habit. On the contrary, if a behaviour is paired with unpleasant experience, we tend to discontinue it. There is anecdotal evidence that some people prefer to climb stairs to their offices because they have got stuck a few times in elevators. Individuals avoid those who often pass sarcastic remarks and even those superiors who run them down publicly. We develop omens and avoid objects, situations, or persons that have caused unpleasant experiences in the past. 2. Active learning (operant conditioning) occurs when people make deliberate efforts to get a rewarding experience for having a sense of efficacy (see Figure 4.2). Figure 4.2

Operant Conditioning

A manager, for example, tries hard to improve his performance, comes up with innovative ideas, and acquires new skills that fetch him recognition, appreciation, or a promotion. Such rewards make him even try harder. The more he achieves the more he tends to try harder believing that he has the competence to work hard, solve difficult problems, and so on. 3. The third process works through modeling effects. Quite often we learn by observing others. A new MBA in an organization is given a induction, provided with the companyÊs rules and regulations, put in technical, functional, and behavioural training programmes to learn what he must do, what is desirable, and what is prohibited in the organization. But he soon realizes that an important thing is to watch what really works, what is really rewarded, who gets rewarded

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or punished for what. He learns how to steer his course in order to advance his career, show his worth, and experience a sense of self-efficacy. In sum, individuals learn about themselves either by chance when they get pleasant or unpleasant experience, through deliberate efforts to seek out and receive rewards or avoid punishments, and by emulating those whom they admire and avoid behaving like those they donÊt. However, in order to learn, one has to perceive the relevant cues in the environment.

Perceptual Process Perceptual process is selective. Of all the objects and people that we have at any place or point of time, we focus on a select few. While at work, for example, we hardly pay any attention to the colour of the walls, door and windows, hissing of air conditioners, our shoes, dress, desk, chairs, and so on. We focus on the work at hand or the person sitting in front of us discussing something. We hardly notice his dress or tie or the rings on his fingers or his grey hair. Our span of our attention is limited and we tend to focus on what interests us at a particular time, leaving the rest at the margin of our attention. They, in other words, constitute a ÂgroundÊ while what we focus on is called the ÂfigureÊ. The figure may turn into a ground and the ground into a figure following changes in our attention as a function of either compelling outside objects and events or changes in our needs and expectations. Perceptual selectivity depends on needs, experience, expectations, and culture. At times, outside objects and events indeed burst into our attention. However, such forcing-in factors are attended to either temporarily or are treated as unavoidable irritants which have to be either eliminated or lived with. Because they are not sought after, their impact on the self is minimal. In other words, we seek out to perceive those objects, events, and persons that are likely to satisfy our needs and substantiate our beliefs, and thereby reinforce parts of our self. Of them, object perception is simpler than person perception. Object-perception, despite being simpler, may have a profound impact on our self-formation and the consequent behaviour. Let us take a simple example. A believer is conditioned to perceive an ordinary piece of stone of a specific contour as a god-image having divine attributes. It is not the stone but the believerÊs own striving to relate to the divine and the expectations of deriving reinforcement to his faith that are projected to the stone. Once that faith is established, a whole range of religious rites and rituals are likely to follow. If the believer fails to perform those rites and rituals, he is likely to feel guilty about failing in his duty and hence may suffer a sense of self-inefficacy of not being able to do what he should do. A non-believer on the contrary may see nothing in the same stone. Similarly, a person involved in research and development (R&D) seeks out new scientific information that ignites his imagination; but others around him might be oblivious to it. The less clearly defined or the more complex an object, the more we project our inner thoughts and feelings to them, which in turn support our beliefs and trigger appropriate actions in us. Such perceptions help us externalize our needs and expectations by projecting them to the external environment, which in turn substantiates our inner psychological structure that we call selves. The less clearly defined and more subjective an appraisal system is, for example, the more employees with negative appraisals see biases in it.


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There is a psychological projective test·the Rorschach ink blot test2·which consists of 10 cards having patches of colour. Respondents are asked to perceive objects, persons, movements, and other phenomena in those ink blots. Because the patterns of colours do not have any definite objectively verifiable meanings, respondents project their inner self, aspirations, concerns, needs, anxieties, complexes, and so on. They see animals, human faces, actions, feelings, and emotions. Probably, those who spend millions to buy abstract paintings either see it as a way of satisfying their artistic needs or proving their money power or both. In either case, they enhance their self-efficacy by doing so. The meanings that we attach to work constitute another example of how we externalize our selves into what we do at the workplace (Meaning of Working (MOW) International Team 1987). Work could be an indispensable drudgery for someone for earning a livelihood, for others it may be a calling or a duty, and for still others it is a mirror of their worth and an opportunity for self-realization. There is a proverbial story about two persons carrying boulders to a hill-top on a hot summerÊs day. The work was tiring and the two men were sweating profusely. When asked by someone, ÂWhy are you doing this?Ê the first person answered, in an irritated tone, ÂDonÊt you see? Why should anybody do this unless one needs to earn bread?Ê The second person was composed. He elaborated, ÂYou see, a temple is being built on the hill-top. Once it is completed, I shall bring my children to the temple and tell them that I carried some of the boulders.Ê He had a different perception of what he was doing, because he attached different significance to what he was doing. One way to see how we attach meanings, at times symbolic ones, to express our thoughts and feelings is to rate an object on a semantic differential scale (Osgood 1962) consisting of bipolar adjectives, which at first instance do not seem to be applicable to the object under consideration (see Box 4.5). One way to make sense out of the responses in Box 4.5 is to measure the distance of X from the midpoint of each of the bipolar adjectives indicating the respondentsÊ inclination towards either

Box 4.5

Perceive Your Organization

Below are bipolar adjectives. Please rate your organization by putting an X on the line in between the adjectives showing whether your organization is closer to one or the other. Some of the adjectives at a first glance may not seem to be applicable, but think of how they look to you symbolically. Attractive Good Weak Passive Soft Beautiful Slow Helpful Intelligent Conservative Cold Large Feudal Close-minded

······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ······························· ·······························

Unattractive Bad Strong Active Hard Ugly Quick Unhelpful Dull Progressive Warm Small Democratic Open-minded

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positive or negative sides of the adjectives. Add the positively inclined distances separately from the negatively inclined distances to infer whether the respondents are on the whole positive or negative about the organization. The ratio of the two gives an overall perception about the organization. Person-perception involves more complex processes and hence serves as a richer source for selfformation. Unlike an object, a person, who is being perceived, is a living being with his own self consisting of thoughts, feelings and action orientations. He too perceives the perceiver. Thus, the distinction between the two·perceiver and perceived·in fact, disappears in any interactive process that is essentially a communication process. The perceiver becomes the perceived and the perceived becomes the perceiver. They both affect each other by validating or confronting their selves in the process. As a result, person-perception is the meeting point of the self and the personality of a person. It is complex, interactive, reciprocal in influence, and is hence a more dynamic process. Person-perception has two facets: 1. Two (or more) persons simultaneously perceiving a common object, event, or person, and thereby sharing their selves in action. 2. Two (or more) persons perceiving each other and providing direct feedback to each other about their individual self. In the first case, the perceivers are engaged in a social comparison process in order to understand where they stand in comparison to each other. In the second, they are likely to enhance or erode each otherÊs self-efficacy and self-regard by providing positive or negative feedbacks directly to each other. In both types of person-perception, the basic motive is to enhance self-efficacy and selfregard. Hence, people seek out those who are attractive and perceived as having the potential to serve this purpose, although they could be different sets of persons (Byrne 1971). For comparing with each other, people tend to seek out those who have a similar background, experience, or expertise in order to make meaningful comparisons about their capability to make veridical perceptions of events, objects, and persons (for example, two managers of the same rank comparing their performance and collecting feedback on their competence). However, they may also seek out superiors or inferiors engaged in similar domains of activities for either benchmarking their competence or to feel better off than many. A high achieving manager would compare himself with a high achieving superior in order to monitor his achievement and find out how far he must go to catch up with his superior. On the contrary, a low performing manager would compare with those who are worse off to feel that, after all, he is not at rock bottom. Social comparison is a universal process to evaluate oneÊs beliefs, values, and abilities (Festinger 1954). However, the process assumes significant salience in a collectivist culture like India where people relate to each other more closely and continuously for longer durations and keep comparing with even dissimilar ones even in not-so comparable matters. There exists what I call the ÂLord Indra SyndromeÊ of Indians. In Indian mythology, Lord Indra is regarded as the supreme god, the king of all the gods and goddesses. But, as the story goes, his throne starts to wobble whenever a mortal performs tapasya (asceticism) for a prolonged period. Indra lives in constant fear that this mortal might claim his throne. He sees to it that the latter is distracted and his tapasya is disrupted.


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The more a person is unsure about his self, the more he is likely to engage in social comparisons. However, he may change the grounds for comparison in order to collect more positive than negative feedback. Such a person in an organization, for example, may argue that loyalty to the organization is a better reflection of a worthy manager than his task performance, and thereby gain scores over his competitor who is a better performer. The opposite may also be true. Quite often, a person finds himself surrounded by similar persons unanimously perceiving objects, events, or persons in a way that is contrary to his own perception. Even while he genuinely believes it to be right, the majority perception is likely to make him less sure of himself and, in fact, he may succumb to the wrong perception of the majority. In a famous experiment (Asch 1956), seven people were instructed to say that Line A had the same length as Line X although this was obviously wrong and it was actually Line B that was equal to Line X. The subject of the experiment too was found to agree with the majority (see Figure 4.3). Figure 4.3

Perception of Lines

There is a story about a Brahmin priest who was cheated by three thugs. The priest was carrying a baby goat, which had been given to him by one of his clients, when three thugs standing at some distance away from each other waylaid him. The first thug said, ÂO priest, how could you, being a priest, take a baby dog to your house?Ê The second thug repeated this. After the third one said the same thing too, the priest indeed thought that he might mistaken a baby dog for a goat and let the animal loose. Evidence shows that there are three factors that make a person follow the majority, instead of his own perception, in order to avoid the risk of being wrong: 1. How unsure he is about himself. 2. How complex or ambiguous the situation is. 3. What the size of the majority is. The more a person is unsure, the more complex the situation, and the larger the number of people who take a position that negates the personÊs perception, the more he will go against his own perception. It is considered to be safe to follow the majority, particularly in a collectivist culture,

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even if you think that the majority is wrong. Many organizations drift into crisis because individuals, who see the writing on the wall, do not dare to stand out and express their misgivings about what the majority in the organization believe and practice. Direct feedback from a perceiver to the perceived involves different dynamics. Irrespective of the levels of their self-confidence, people value a feedback more if it comes from people having greater expertise, higher positions, or a relationship of trust. Of course, highly self-confident people have lesser propensity to seek out feedback and are less vulnerable to negative feedback than those who are not confident. A negative feedback given to person with a positive self-image is likely to be discounted. On the other hand, a person with a negative self-image hankers after any positive feedback, even from juniors, from those less competent than him, and less trustworthy people, in order to feel positive. There are cultural differences also. A few of them are noteworthy in the hierarchical culture of India: 1. Positive feedback from superiors and experts has a much greater impact on oneÊs self-efficacy and self-regard in Indian organizations than in the West. Even a slightly negative appraisal, for example, puts a subordinate on a downslide in terms of his self-efficacy and self-regard. Negative appraisals elsewhere are likely to motivate subordinates to try harder to make up for their deficiencies. In Indian organizations, employees tend to get depressed (Dayal 1976) or impute negative intentions in the persons appraising them. 2. Preference for hierarchical order induces in Indians a strong desire to remain visibly superior, which in turn makes them hanker after positive feedback (ingratiation) even from not-so-relevant persons. Chamachas (sycophants) are often relished because they keep inflating a superiorÊs ego by attributing superlative qualities to him. Juniors are almost forbidden to express anything negative about their superiors or to disagree with them, particularly in the presence of others (Sinha 2004). 3. As a result, there is a strong compelling force to give positive feedback, even if it is not genuine. The appraisal system is one of the tools in the hands of Indian superiors to promote their apne log (in-group members) and discriminate against paraaye log (out-group members) (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). 4. Negative feedback is accepted for improving oneself only when there exists a trusting interpersonal relationship that acts as a cushion for making negative feedback.

Impression Formation There are two parts in giving feedback that have a direct bearing on the perceived personÊs selfimage: 1. Impression that a perceiver has formed. 2. His intention in conveying the impression to the perceived.


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The person being perceived emits many cues ranging from physical features, gestures and postures, movements, behaviour, to self-disclosure of his feelings, thoughts, and intentions. The perceiver does not attend to all. He selectively focuses on some attaching greater importance to them than to others. What he selects partly depends on his own frame of mind reflecting his own thoughts, feelings, and previous experiences and partly on the situation in which the perception is being made. A perceiverÊs frame of mind is also called his schemas that he develops as a result of his accumulated past experiences. In a way, schemas are the coloured glasses through which we selectively see the world, including other people, in order to draw inferences about them by relating them to our past experiences. A perceiver picks up one cue, physical (for example, handsome features or expressive eyes or husky voice or uncertain gestures and postures) or mental (intelligent or indecisive) and builds up a rather comprehensive impression of the person. The process through which this process occurs is called stereotyping. We place a person in a collective and attribute the shared characteristics of the collective to him. For example, the stereotypical image of European and American managers is that they are technologically advanced, highly task-oriented, efficient, honest, punctual, and so on. As a result, a new expatriate from a Euro-American country is likely to be perceived as technologically advanced, highly task-oriented, efficient, honest, and punctual. Given IndiansÊ deep-seated feeling of inferiority arising out of the colonial experience (Roland 1988), this new expatriate is also likely to be perceived as superior, liberal, open-minded, participative, and so on even when the Indian managers do not have an opportunity to perceive these characteristics in him. Similarly, a finance man is perceived as less open-minded, rules bound, conservative, and as a Âbeans counterÊ. There is another interesting facet of impression formation. We do not generally differentiate a person and his product. The product is taken to reflect the person. An unsatisfactory performance of a subordinate leads the boss to perceive him as incompetent by glossing over the adverse situation in which the subordinate might be working. This is called the fundamental attribution error (Mullen and Riordam 1988). Even if a perceiver is willing to make his best efforts with good intentions to have a comprehensive mapping of the perceived, he may not be able to succeed if the person being perceived is not disposed to disclose himself fully. A more authentic impression can be formed only when the perceiver and the perceived trust each other. In such a situation, the perceived is willing to let himself open up and allow the perceiver to have a fuller view of him, and the perceiver is willing to check his perceptions with the perceived. This can be done by using the Johari Window, which facilitates the process of improving the perceiverÊs impressions as well as the perceived personÊs self-understanding.

Johari Window Joseph Luft and Harry Ingman (Jo + Harry, hence, Johari3) conceptualized a 2 ï 2 window in which two persons in the dual roles of being the perceiver and the perceived were presented (see Figure 4.4).

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Figure 4.4

Johari Window

Source: www.noogenesis.com/game_theory/johari/johariwindow.html.

The window allows people to share their perceptions of themselves as well as of each other, compare their perceptions, discuss the areas of discrepancy, and jointly explore further to come to a veridical understanding of their selves and personalities. The four cells are the following: 1. Open: The open part of the perceived personÊs self consists of those features (for example, physical appearance, dress, what the person is talking about himself being smart, dull, social, anxious, daring, and so on) that are known also to the perceiver. They both agree about the characteristics of the perceived. 2. Secrets: These are those aspects that the perceived is aware of, but the perceiver does not know about. For example, a manager may hate his boss, might be suffering from a great deal of inferiority, might be in love with a lady co-worker, or be proud of his son, or maybe having problems in his married life, might love to paint, etc. But, he does not share these dark or bright patches of his self with the perceiver. He is afraid that he will be ridiculed or perceived as being snobbish. 3. Blind: These are those features that are known to the perceiver, but unknown to the perceived himself. We all have a body language of which we might be unaware. We may make faces, move aggressively, slump in a chair, and so on, emitting non-verbal signals that are received by others. We may be shy, but our behaviour of remaining withdrawn might be perceived as snobbish. 4. Unknown: Unknown parts are those which are neither available to the perceiver or the perceived. They are known as unconscious parts. We shall discuss its role in the next section. The Johari Window is uniquely helpful also in resolving conflicts. However, if the perceived and the perceiver do not proactively reach out·the former disclosing his secrets and the latter sharing the formerÊs blind spots·feedback remains truncated, often causing misgivings and failure to help each other in understanding their selves. On the other hand, if both have cultivated trust in each other, they can enable each other to bring more inputs from the features that fall in the blind and secret parts of the grid into the open and thereby enrich the perceived personÊs self-image. A few precautions, however, are necessary.


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1. The process of exploring the self has to be a two-way process within a positive and supportive frame of mind. 2. It has to be a graduated process moving forward inch by inch, testing the waters, and going deeper and deeper into each otherÊs self. 3. It has to have a jointly agreed limit or a boundary. There are very deep layers of the self that are neither available, unless a person goes for psychoanalytic intensive investigation, nor advisable to encroach upon in organizational settings.

Moral Self Besides the social self, there is another aspect of the self, which is moral in nature. There are scholars who contend that human beings not only have bio-genetic properties that induce them to remain hedonistic in striving for biological needs, but also have built-in moral dispositions that distinguish human beings from animals. Taylor (1994) argued the following: To fulfill the true impulse of nature in us is not just to meet a biological need but also to satisfy a higher aspiration. It is, at the same time, a moral fulfillment. From Rousseau on, the Âtrue voice of natureÊ is at one and the same time both the impulse of biological need and an aspiration to what is experienced as moral self-realization . . . a fusion of biological and the moral instead of their hierarchical ordering or setting in relation of rational control . . . (Taylor 1994: 113) In other words, biological and moral impulses are fused in the human psyche. A similar position has been taken by Indian thinkers. Vivekanand (1953), for example, observed that the chitta (conscious mind) is like a monkey, restless by nature, drunk with wine, smarting under the scorpion bite, and possessed, as if, by a demon. It is a reservoir of impulses, sensuousness, emotions, and fantasies. And yet, it has a built-in and one-pointed disposition to transform itself into a moral and spiritual form. Moral laws, according to Kanungo and Mendonca (1996), Âare universal because they incorporate fundamental values such as truth, goodness, beauty, courage, and justice. These values are found in all cultures, although cultures may differ with regard to the application of these valuesÊ (1996: 35). They are normative guidelines that we cannot always or fully practice. They are like stars that we cannot hold in our hands; but they can guide us the way they help ships navigate their course.

DIMENSIONS OF SELF There are many ways to slice the construct of self, depending on oneÊs purpose in understanding and utilizing the construct. Some of the prominent ones are discussed here.

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Levels of Consciousness The levels of consciousness have been examined as a part of personality also. Freud (1917/1949) conceptualized three levels of the mind: Conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. The conscious mind consists of all those perceptions, memories, thoughts, needs and impulses, habits, attitudes, emotions, and so on of which we are aware. They are the open and secret cells of the Johari Window. The unconscious mind is a repertoire of bio-genetically generated animal impulses, desires, and strivings that are not allowed to appear in the conscious. The subconscious is the grey area in between the unconscious and conscious mind. Three forces were conceptualized to represent the animal impulses (id), the rational and logical mindset (ego), and moral compulsion (super-ego). Human behaviour is a product of the relative strength of the three. In an organizational setting, for example, a manager, depending on the relative strength of the three forces, may strive for sexual gratification, suppress his impulse, deny its existence, sublimate it by developing an emotional platonic attachment with the person he wants to have a sexual relationship with, take refuge under a cold bureaucratic stance by distancing himself from the person, or attempt to get sexual gratification causing the Âcorporate bedroomÊ phenomenon or sexual harassment (Board 1978).

Transactional Analysis Another avatar (form) of the three psychic forces (id, ego, and super-ego) is the child, the adult, and the parent (respectively) in us in transactional analysis (Harris 1969), which is a popular tool for management in organizations. The child in us is the spontaneous desires, joyfulness, and playfulness that defy conforming to organizational norms in thinking of ÂboxesÊ. The parent is the restrictive and moralizing agent in us, the glimpses of which we see in sermonizing others to remain motivated, discharge duties, and in refraining from deviating from organizational norms. The adult in us, on the other hand, tends to bring a balance by remaining focused on work, adopting a problem-solving approach, regulating the self to perform oneÊs task. Obviously, the conceptualization of the parent in us suffers from Western ethnocentrism. While Indian parents do restrict their children, they also nurture them and provide them guidance.

The Super-conscious (Turiya Avastha) Turiya literary means the fourth and avastha means the state (of the mind). Turiya avastha is another normative aspect of the self that is not considered in literature in the West. Paranjpe (1998), drawing on Upanishadic affirmation of self, describes turiya avastha as a state of self in which Âthe distinction between the subject and the object, knower and known, which is characteristic of the ordinary state of consciousness disappears. It is a trans-cognitive state, and as such cannot be adequately accounted for in terms of concepts and wordsÊ (Paranjpe 1998: 161). Yogic exercises and meditation may enable a person to realize this state of mind that is totally composed, tranquil, stress-less, undisturbed by either criticisms or by success or by failure.


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Hierarchical Structure: From Gross to Subtle Self as well as personality can be viewed from another angle: Outer to inner layers. 1. Body: The body is the exterior of self that is visible to any perceiver. Being tall or short, fair or dark, strong and healthy or weak and disabled, and having attractive or unattractive features have far-reaching implications on how a person views himself and how he feels proud or inferior in comparison to others. A healthy attractive child is often compared with his less attractive or sickly sibling, and is complimented. The compliments also have a spillover effect: Many positive characteristics that have nothing to do with a personÊs physical body are attributed to him. Another part of the exterior self is oneÊs attire, hairstyle, shoes, and so on, which form an impression of a personÊs personality. 2. Body language: Built on the impression of physical features and attire is the impressions obtained from how a person moves about, speaks, his gestures and postures, and a whole lot of non-verbal signals that his body emits. He may or may not be aware of them, but others sense them and modify their impressions of him accordingly. They may perceive him as aggressive or friendly, social or unsocial, expressive or reserved, and so on. The perception of his personality may be right or wrong. There is a famous mythological story in which Ashtraavakra (a person whose body was deformed in eight places) challenged King Janak,4 not to be swayed by his crippled body, and to engage in a discourse on philosophical issues in which he, Ashtraavakra, won. The sum and substance of the story is that the exterior can be quite misleading. Tulasidas in his epic, Ramayan, wrote that a handsome person with a mean mind is just like a pot of gold that is full of venom. 3. Inner self: As described earlier, the inner self consists of the thoughts, feelings, and action orientations that make the person unique and yet enable him to relate with others. The Hindu View of Self Self in Hindu psycho-spiritual thoughts is equated to jiva that literally means a living being. The Taittiriya Upanishad (Chapter 2) conceptualized five layers of self embedded in one another like concentric sheaths of an onion from the outer to the inner most self. The layers are (a) physical self (the body) created by food, etc.,(b) the vital breath, that is, bodily functions, (c) sensory functions such as attending, perceiving, feeling, etc. (d) cognitive sheath consisting of ideas and concepts that help understand the world, and (e) joyous sheath that is the atman, the true self. ÂAtman is the centre of jivaÊ (Paranjpe 1998: 163). Box 4.6 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Hindu Conceptualization of Layers of Self Physical. Vital breath. Sensory. Cognitive. Joyous.

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Atman is the psychic organizing principle of mind that observes and regulates the functioning of the other layers of self, but is not dependent on them. It is conceptualized as the following: These are my hands; but I am not these hands. These are my eyes, but I am not these eyes. This is my body, but I am not just a body If all these are lost, atman will still remain; It is indestructible, immortal! Conceptualizing the self as jiva, which is at the centre of oneÊs existence, organizing and giving meaning to other less subtle layers of self, and yet remaining independent is a conceptual lever having high potential to foster psychological well-being of a person. The message is loud and clear: You may lose your promotion or job or loved ones, or even parts of your body, you still exist and need not get too ruffled!

Cultural Construction of Self Culture not only affects the process of social perception, but also provides a model of culturallyshared self. Of the various dimensions of culture, collectivism and individualism are the most researched ones. According to Markus and Kitayama (1991), the normative imperative in the individualist Western cultures is Âto become independent from others and to discover and express oneÊs unique attributesÊ, whereas in the non-Western collectivistic cultures, it is to value Âthe fundamental connectedness of human beings to each otherÊ and Âto maintain this interdependence among individualsÊ (Markus and Kitayama 1991: 226). Following this line of conceptualization, Markus and Kitayama (1998) argued that the Asian self is culturally determined and is fostered by the following societal mechanisms: 1. Children are taught to appreciate group life. 2. Instead of celebrating individual accomplishments, social events recognize the achievement of the whole group. 3. Attention to and sympathy from others are crafted and fostered in many routine practices. 4. Media and work practices encourage the need of being liked by others, being connected to others. 5. Participation in work practices is associated with experiencing oneself as part of the larger social whole. According to Roland (1988), the American self is individualized while IndiansÊ self has two strands: Familialism and spirituality. The individualized self is characterized by the following: 1. Self is built around ÂI-nessÊ having strong outer ego boundaries, sharp differentiation between inner images of self and others, orientation to function autonomously without depending on others.


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2. Individualistic narcissistic structures where self-regard emanates from being self-reliant and independent. Adulthood is idealized because this is the period in which the person is least dependent on others. 3. Ego-ideal that incorporates competitive individuals who self-actualize by their own efforts. 4. Super-ego is highly differentiated and oriented around abstract principles of deciding what is right or wrong appropriate or inappropriate. 5. Communications are direct in the sense that what is said is also believed and is generally followed in action. 6. Rational orientation involving self-reflection, efficiency, and cold calculation of costs and benefits in engaging in any behaviour or relationships. In contrast, IndiansÊ familial self is characterized by the following: 1. Symbiosis-reciprocity. Intensely emotional intimacy relationships, emotional connectedness, and interdependence, affective exchange through permeable outer ego-boundaries, and so on. 2. Narcissistic configurations of weăself-regard. Self-esteem derived from strong identification with the reputation and honour of the family and relevant others. 3. Socially contextual ego ideal carefully monitoring traditionally defined reciprocal responsibilities and obligations, public self that maintains social etiquette in diverse hierarchical relationships, and so on. 4. Super-ego regulates aggression and sexuality according to the exigencies of hierarchical extended family and group. 5. Modes of communication are explicit as well as implicit. 6. Modes of functioning that are highly contextual and oriented to employ symbols, signs, and influences. Furthermore, the Indian self has built-in spiritual orientation that is characterized by the following: 1. Identification with gods and goddesses. Most Indian names are drawn from mythological characters that are evoked to draw on the divine and fight out demonic orientations. 2. Religious rites, rituals, and gurus support the spiritual orientation to transcend the mundane and realize spiritual pursuits. However, there is evidence that the Indian self also contains the properties of the individualistic self. As discussed in the preceding chapter, the inclusive nature of Indian culture fosters thoughts, feelings, and action orientations that are drawn from both ancient Indian and Western cultural influences.

PERSONALITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Behaviour is determined jointly by oneÊs personality and situational demands, which in our case are primarily organizational and job demands. As individuals join an organization, they enter into a

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contract to perform their job as defined by the organization and follow the routines of the organization, irrespective of their personality characteristics. The greater the organizational demands, the greater are the pressures on individuals to conform to organizational demands even by suppressing their personality dispositions. This is even truer for Indian employees who, as discussed in Chapter 2, are highly sensitive to their organizational contexts. However, as the organizational demands decrease, the employees feel greater freedom to follow their personality orientations. Prior to the liberalization of the economy, for example, private sector organizations were by and large more demanding than public sector organizations. Employees of the latter were allowed to take much more liberty at their job than those in the former (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Similarly, the employees of a Korean subsidiary having a tight work culture were found to be much more conforming to the demands of target realization than those in a Swedish subsidiary or in an Anglo-American corporation (Sinha 2004). Even in instances where organizational demands are compelling, individualsÊ compliance behaviour manifests subtle variations that reflect differences in their personality dispositions. Those whose dispositions gel with organizational demands behave in much more of an involved way than those whose dispositions are incongruent. For example, those having a risk-taking orientation will take greater risks in organizations that encourage them to do so, but not in organizations that punish any, even well-intentioned, mistakes. Caldwell and OÊReilly (1990) studied a variety of jobs in a number of organizations and matched a wide range of different skills and characteristics that were crucial for successful job performance. They confirmed that the fit between them leads to better performance. On the contrary, employees tend to leave organizations that require different skills than those that the employees possess. Culture impacts the jobăpersonality fit by tilting the balance in favour of either personality or the job demands. In individualist cultures, employees prefer to do what they want. In case of a mismatch, they would tend to move out to another organization where they expect to find a job that fits their personality dispositions. In collectivist cultures they are likely to make compromises, because the cultural preference is to conform to norms, which in our case mean organizational demands. As Indian culture is collectivistic, having segments that are also individualistic, the personalityăjob fit becomes a complex issue. Collectivist Indians would suppress their personality dispositions and conform to job and organizational demands in organizations having explicit and demanding cultures. In multinational organizations, most Indian managers indeed were reported to behave just like expatriates (Sinha 2004).

PERSONALITY TYPES Personality is the configuration of all the characteristics of a person that distinguish him from others. Like the self, it includes physical features, gestures, and postures, and, most importantly, his behaviour. A cluster of similar behaviours is recognized as a trait. For example, if a person hesitates to speak before an audience, does not feel like meeting new people, prefers to watch television rather


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than to interact with others, and so on, he is called a shy person. Being shy is a trait; so are being sober, reserved, and cautious. A cluster of similar traits constitutes a type of personality. All personality types are likely to exist in all cultures, although some of them are more pronounced in some but not in other cultures. As a result, more people of that culture manifest those types. Some of the important personality types are discussed here.

Five Robust Dimensions Barrick and Mount (1991) have delineated five types of personality that are found in a large number of cultures. They are the following: 1. Extroverted versus introverted people. Extroverted people are sociable, talkative, assertive, and active while the introverted, on the contrary, are shy, retiring, sober, reserved, and cautious. 2. Agreeable people are good-natured, gentle, cooperative, forgiving, and hopeful. On the other extreme of this dimension are people who are irritable, ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative, and inflexible. 3. Conscientious people are careful, thorough, responsible, organized, self-disciplined, and scrupulous. Low conscientiousness is associated with people who are irresponsible, disorganized, lacking self-discipline, and unscrupulous. 4. Emotionally stable people are those who are calm, enthusiastic, poised, and secure. On the contrary, emotionally unstable people are anxious, depressed, angry, impulsive, and insecure. 5. Open to experience reflects a mindset of people who are imaginative, sensitive, intellectual, and polished. Those who are low on this dimension are insensitive, narrow, crude, and simple. A review of over 200 studies (Barrick and Mount 1991) showed that conscientious employees performed better on a variety of jobs and all types of performance measures. Extroverted persons were better performers in sales and managerial functions. Other dimensions had mixed influences.

Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is another personality type that has an impact on organizational behaviour (Goleman 1995). Emotional intelligence is seen as the ability to accomplish the following: 1. Recognize and understand oneÊs own emotions, drives, and interests. 2. Control those emotions, drives, and interests that are disruptive by suspending judgement and thinking before acting. 3. Empathically understand feelings and thoughts of subordinates and extend support to them.

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4. Build and nurture social networks with others by finding common ground. 5. Put all these to realize organizational goals with passion without being driven by material gains. Potentially, collectivist cultures, including Indian culture, which are relationship oriented, are likely to be conducive to cultivating emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can certainly improve oneÊs organizational performance, particularly on jobs that require competence in interpersonal relationships. Emotional intelligence is a critical requirement for effective leadership.

Personality Types A and B Friedman and Rosenman (1974) distinguished two types of personality that were found to impact on oneÊs behaviour and psychological well-being (see Table 4.1). Competitive individualistic cultures foster highly achieving personality orientation that manifests in Type A personality while the relationship-oriented collectivist cultures generally promote Type B personality. As organizations get more complex, the Type A personality does not achieve better results (Holmes et al. 1984), particularly at the higher levels of management where managing people and their conflicts becomes more important.

Table 4.1

Profiles of Type A and B Personalities

Type A

Type B Characteristics

Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Always in hurry Extremely competitive Often irritable Loud and fast in speech Quick in responding Frequently interrupt conversation

Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Relaxed Not very competitive Easy going Soft in speech Slow in responding to others Do not interrupt conversation

Task Behaviour Ć Ć Ć Ć

Work fast even without a deadline Perform better despite distraction Seek challenges Prefer difficult tasks

Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Get impatient with others Lose temper if others delay them Prefer to work alone, not in teams Aggressive towards others Get into conflicts

Ć Ć Ć Ć

Adopt easy pace at work Distracted easily Do not necessarily seek challenges Do not always seek difficult tasks

Interpersonal Relationships Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Generally patient with others Tolerate delays Prefers to work in teams Tolerant of others Avoid conflicts

Sources: Friedman and Rosenman (1974); Holmes et al. (1984); Holmes and Will (1985).


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Four Facets of the Indian Mindset A recent study (Sinha and Pandey 2007) based on the views of 47 social scientists in 17 locations in India revealed four facets of personality that are typical of Indians. They were the following: 1. Dependence prone Indians are those who are unsure of themselves, suffer from an inferiority complex, are submissive and docile to authority, elusive, and indifferent to standards, norms, and quality. 2. Collectivists are those Indians who are role bound in relationships, submissive and docile to authority, and are not elusive. They lack individualistic orientations, have a propensity to change with situations, and have analytical skills. 3. Materialists are those Indians who are selfish, oriented to acquire power and enjoy prestige, control others to get what they want, enterprising, change with situations, and, lastly, are individualists. 4. Holistic are those Indians who have the capability of abstract thinking and have a preference for personalized relationships. They are emotional as well as analytical, spiritual in not being fascinated by material gains, and are the ones who strive for excellence in whatever they do. Dependence-prone people disclose an external locus of control. Those who have an external locus of control, compared to those who have an internal locus of control, believe that their life events are controlled by fate, powerful others, or external events (Rotter 1982). Because they believe they are controlled externally, they tend to reach their goals more by appeasing more resourceful people than by making efforts directly to achieve the goal (see Figure 4.5). The behavioural strategy of appeasing a more resourceful person in order to get what one wants has its genesis in the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita proclaimed that Âabandoning all commendable acts, seek shelter with me alone; I will liberate you from all sins; do not worry at allÊ (Geeta, Chapter 18, Verse 66). The devotional approach was further strengthened during the medieval period where the saintly poets such Tulsidas, Surdas, and Kabirdas presented Figure 4.5

Indians’ Approach to Goals

Note: Solid arrow indicates strong action orientation while dotted arrow indicates a weak one.

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a model of placing oneself in the role of a totally dependent and helpless person, a slave or servant (das), seeking the mercy and blessing of god. Tulsidas, among them, went to the extent of positing that Rama was the master of the helpless, he could make the blind see beyond time and space, make the crippled climb a mountain, and so on. The essence of such a dependency relationship is that the more helpless a person poses to be, the more obliged the powerful person is to help him. The more powerful the person, the greater is the help that he is expected to extend. Obviously, dependence proneness has a negative impact on effective organizational behaviour. A collectivistic personality will be a good fit in organizations that value relationships more than sheer performance. Materialistically-oriented employees are likely to fit well in organizations that are globally oriented and competitive. Holistic is an ideal type that strives for excellence by blending people and task requirements.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Impression management is an active self-presentation of a person aiming to enhance his image in the eyes of others. It is the personality that a person wants others to see in him. It involves different processes than impression formation. Impression formation is about how and what picture or impression a perceiver forms about another person who is being perceived. In impression management, the person being perceived manages the perception of the perceiver hoping to have a positive impact. The Chinese call it face-work (Hu 1944)·presenting an image of self in a socially desirable form. Underlying impression management is the self-enhancing process that is universal, but how it is accomplished involves a host of factors encompassing oneÊs motivation, cultural values, and the demands of a situation (Segall et al. 1998), among others. Self-enhancement, according to Brown (1998) involves the following tendencies: 1. To take credit for a success but refuse to own responsibility for a failure. 2. To believe that one is better than others. 3. To exaggerate oneÊs positive qualities. In situations (for example, hiring, appraisal, promotion, etc.) where a person needs to highlight his positive attributes and downplay his deficiencies, he is likely to engage in self-enhancement more than in situations where either the stakes are not high or it is in the interest of the person to disclose his real picture (for example, to a therapist). The form that a person adopts for self-enhancement depends on what are the ways that are valued in a culture. In individualistic cultures, self-presentation assumes an acquisitive style involving an active and manipulative effort to obtain social approval, favoured treatment, and recognition of oneÊs superiority (Arkin 1981). In collectivistic cultures, however, manifest efforts to enhance oneÊs self-image are perceived as arrogant and conceited (Schlenker and Leary 1982). So, it has to be very subtle and implicit (Kurman 2003). Collectivistic cultures foster values of modesty and social harmony where living together without trying to stand out is appreciated. In such cultures, self-enhancing might assume a protective route intended to avoid


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social disapproval or embarrassment that result from social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. It expresses in highly modest self-portrayals and reluctance to behave contrary to social norms (Arkin 1981). Another way to self-enhancement in the collectivistic culture of India could be to manifest a strong willingness to cooperate, help others, make self-sacrifices, care for subordinates, and so on even at personal costs. In organizational settings, an effective way to manage oneÊs impression is to go out of the way to conform to organizational norms and values that could be different in different organizational cultures. In sum, impression formation, as a device for selfenhancement, may be universal, but the tactics to impress others about oneÊs self are culturally and organizationally determined.

SUMMARY Self is conceptualized as a constellation of thoughts, feelings, and action orientations of a person that makes him distinct from others and yet enables him to relate to others. While self is a personÊs view of himself, its externalized expression is his personality. Individuals start with a biological self that, through interactive relationships within culture, develops into the social self and the moral self. Self is multidimensional varying in levels of consciousness, degrees of being gross and observable to subtle and implicit, and independent and autonomous to interdependent and relational. A person develops his self by perceiving events, objects, and persons and incorporating the new experiences arising out of such encounters. His personality is developed through the same processes, except that it is assessed through his patterns of behaviours. The patterns are recognized as personality types having positive or negative impacts on organizational behaviour. A personÊs endeavour to have a positive impact on others is called impression management through which he intends to procure desired outcomes.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Who Am I? Step 1 Each member of the group/class will write 20 sentences about himself describing what he thinks, feels, and prefers, his likes, and his dislikes.

Step 2 Count how many of them are (a) individualistic or collectivistic in nature and (b) how many reflect self-efficacy or self-inefficacy.

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Step 3 The whole group/class will discuss the nature of their social self.

Exercise 2: Open Your Johari Window Step 1 Allow the group members of the group/class to form pairs of their choice. The underlying assumption is that those who are more friendly or familiar with each other will pair up.

Step 2 Let each member of each pair write 10 adjectives describing himself and 10 adjectives describing his partner. That is, both members of a pair are perceiver of self and the other as well as perceived by the other member of the pair. Nearly half of both sets of adjectives should be negative.

Step 3 The members of the pairs will share their lists identifying the following separately for oneÊs self and oneÊs partner: 1. Adjectives on which the perceiver and the perceived agree (open). 2. Adjectives that the perceiver has listed for the perceived that the latter does not have on his list (blind). 3. Adjectives that a person has listed for himself that the perceiver has not listed (secrets).

Step 4 Let the pair discuss the adjectives in the blind and secret areas and agree on as many as they can.

Step 5 Discuss the experiences (not the adjectives) as part of an interpersonal perception exercise.


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Exercise 3: Do I Understand Him? Step 1 Read the case given here: Taking advantage of the rapid opening up of the Indian market in the mid-1990s, a Swedish multinational company in the white goods industry swiftly acquired five small and not-so-small private Indian companies to form a wholly-owned company consisting of about 1,000 managers and 4,000 workers with about half a dozen plants, a full-fledged research and development (R&D) set-up, and about 20 branch offices scattered all over the country. It had a turnover of about US$ 200 million with a profit after tax of about US$ 20 million and export of about US$ 2 million. The parent company provided technology and capital to renovate the plants, established its global systems and procedures, and deputed from its own stable, John Peterson, who was the general manager of the South East Asian Operations, to integrate the diverse units and branches into one company with a high performing culture. John found the task challenging. The managers and staff thought and behaved as if they were still part of their previous companies. The largest among them had up-to-date technology and a workforce that was fairly professional and forward looking. But, they behaved like the big brother in the group. The company that was the second largest in size was traditional, hierarchical, centralized, and had a familial kind of management. Senior managers did not mix with their juniors who too maintained their distance from the workers. Workers were unionized and the union tended to interfere with managerial functions. Promotions were time-bound. Training was not emphasized much. Appeasing oneÊs superiors was much more important than performing well. The other plants were smaller and had cultures that were still more familial and traditional. Their factories were in a bad shape: They had outdated technology, an unkempt shop floor, poorly trained workers, autocratic supervisors, and managers who extracted maximum work by putting continuous pressure on the employees. All the companies varied widely in their working and service conditions, compensation packages, and in terms of the mindset of the managers. John lost no time in getting the plants renovated and improving the physical conditions of work, establishing uniform service conditions, and arranging technical and functional training for all levels of workers. But the most difficult task, John conceded, was culture building: ÂHow do I demolish the Wall of China that exists between the groups of managers who still carry the hangover effect from their previous companies. They still guard their personal power centres and foster personal loyalty, which are fracturing the synergy. The managers have mind blocks as well that need to be broken down. The company needs a common culture; letting the subcultures be might lead to a disaster.Ê He hired a highly recommended person, Mohan Kumar, from a leading Indian company as the vice president, human resources development (HRD), and entrusted him to do the job. Kumar, in his late forties, was a tall, handsome person, very energetic, and highly articulate. He had a reputation

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of carrying his laptop to bed (of course, his wife resented this, but he insisted that he had to make sacrifices for the company). He was the first to arrive at work and generally the last to leave. John was impressed, particularly because Kumar prepared, in no time, a package for the total transformation of the mindset of the managers that, he argued, would cascade over the rest of the workforce across all units and branches. The package was approved and he was given the green signal. However, more than 15 months passed, but nothing striking happened. Kumar tended to catch every opportunity to come to John to either report a success story or to seek his suggestion on an innovative idea that has just crossed his mind. He lingered with him, John thought, probably a little longer than necessary and seemed a little too eager to show him how impressed he was by his dynamic personality. Whenever John passed by his office, he would find Kumar surrounded by his juniors, to whom he would be giving lectures on excellence in performance or showing his latest power point presentations. The small talk during lunch time revealed to John (he would invariably have lunch in the common cafeteria and encourage managers of different levels to join him) that HRD was more preoccupied with collecting appraisals and deciding benefits and promotions than digging deep to understand the mindset of the people and making efforts to integrate them. Kumar, it was indirectly indicated, was a power centre himself·always surrounded by loyal subordinates. The weekly review meetings did not help John either. No one wanted to be unpleasant in front of others. Kumar did not complain, although in private he seemed to indicate to John that the other VPs were neither taking the training seriously themselves nor letting their juniors try out new ideas lest they lose control over them. During meetings, the other VPs blamed work pressure and deadlines for missing training sessions and always promised to try harder next time. In private, however, they indicated to John that Kumar and his boys were not properly focused and that the training modules were hardly relevant to them. In private, among themselves they would say, ÂWhat a sycophant Kumar is!Ê John tried to get Kumar to open up on several occasions, but Kumar seemed to get defensive, although he posed to be open and receptive to John and tried his best to show John that he had the highest regard for him. He also promised that big changes were just around the corner, but subtly solicited JohnÊs intervention in roping in the other VPs for him.

Step 2 The members of the class or participants of the group need to develop a personality profile of Kumar and suggest how John should cope with him.

Step 3 Having made a personality profile of Kumar, the class will then compare their descriptions and suggestions in order to learn about profiling a personality and dealing with a difficult person.


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NOTES 1. In fact, according to Hindu belief, culture starts influencing a child much earlier than his birth. A child not only carries with him the traces (sanskar) of his bad and good deeds from his previous life, but also senses the world through his mother or others handling him. The famous epic, Mahabharat, has a story about Abhimanyu who, while in his motherÊs womb, learnt from his father the skills to break into the chakrabyuh (a complex war plan to entrap an enemy). 2. The Rorschach test was originally invented by Hermann Rorschach (1884ă1922). See http://www.inkblottestwallpaper. com. 3. See http://www.noogenesis.com/game_theory/johari/johari_window.html. 4. Janak is a generic name of all those kings in ancient India who were essentially learned philosophers known for seeking out learned people and engaging them in discourse on the profound issues of life and death.

5

Well-being: The Ultimate Goal of Life

THIS CHAPTER AIMS TO 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Show three perspectives on well-being. Argue for rising above mundane to higher order needs. Describe theories of motivation. Discuss work values. Highlight stress management.

Well-Being: The Ultimate Goal of Life

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APPROACHES TO WELL-BEING

T

he ultimate goal of life is to enjoy a state of well-being. Well-being at the most basic level means an absence of any physical, social, or psychological malfunctioning. That is, well-being means a healthy body and mind and a social outlook that enable a person to function effectively and hold a positive world view. Beyond the basics, well-being is conceptualized differently in Western and Indian cultures. Three ways of conceptualizing well-being are presented here·two Western and one Indian.

Indian Conceptualization The Indian conceptualization of well-being visualizes it as a growth process starting with the mundane, but then proceeding towards being spiritual, and finally aiming to approximate an ideal state that transcends human limitations. The process is believed to be a ÂpilgrimageÊ and Âinner transformationÊ, the end-point of which is visualized as a state of becoming sthitaprajna, nirdwandwa, and trigunatita (Chakraborty 1987: 107). Sthitaprajna signifies Âsteady wisdomÊ of a composed mind that is not carried away by emotions. It neither gets euphoric by success nor depressed by failures. Its viveka (wisdom to decide) is neither blurred by anger or lust nor fractured by doubts and dilemmas (nirdwandwa). Such a mind separates the observer (drashta), the actor (karata), and the one who bears consequences of his actions (bhoagta), and thereby is in a position to keep a balance between his body and mind as well as between the self and the environment. It is this balance that makes him healthy (swastha means Âstable-meÊ). A healthy person, according to the Charak Samhita, is free from physical or mental disorder, is strong, energetic, reputed, manly, knowledgeable, optimistic, and capable of achieving what he wants to achieve (D. Sinha 1990). This is a state of optimal growth, but still it does not enable him to get above the three gunas1 (trigunatita), which is a divine quality that is impossible for human beings to realize fully. Its nearest equivalent, moksha (salvation) is also unattainable, unless it is interpreted as becoming free from the lower order needs of accumulating wealth (arth), doing duties of taking care of near and dear ones or of worshipping gods and goddesses (dharma), and indulging in bodily pleasures (kaam). The essential part in this apparently normative conceptualization is to understand the human growth trajectory: Human beings have to start the self-realization process by first achieving the lower order goals, and then instead of remaining fixated, proceed on to realize the higher order goals from where all worldly preoccupations look trivial and unattractive. This process of self-transformation is highly subjective and spiritual involving stilling the mind, breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga (Chakraborty 1987). Box 5.1

Three Perspectives on Well-being

Ć Indian emphasis on self-realization by rising from the mundane and becoming spiritual. Ć MaslowÊs self-actualization by realizing oneÊs potential. Ć Eclectic approach shifting from hedonism to eudaemonic.

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Maslow’s Conceptualization MaslowÊs (1971) conceptualization of self-actualization is strikingly similar to the Indian conceptualization of well-being, except that the semantics are different and it is more amenable to operationalization. Self-actualization is the realization of the full potential that individuals might have. It is like asking, Âwhat can they become?Ê if they devote themselves to and work on Âsomething which is very precious to them, if they transcend the lower order needs, and aim to realize intrinsic values such as truth, beauty, perfection, simplicity, and if they „resacralize‰ whatever they do by seeing the sacred, the eternal, and the symbolic in themÊ (Maslow 1971: 50). MaslowÊs self-actualization means the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly, and without being self-conscious. An ongoing process involving growth, instead of fear, and choice. Listening to oneÊs inner voice and letting the true self emerge. Understanding and appreciating the real self. Being honest when one is in doubt. Going through an Âarduous and demanding period of preparation in order to realize oneÊs possibilitiesÊ (Maslow 1971: 47). 7. Being open to and be surprised by joy·the peak experience of actualization that often comes in degrees and sporadically. While both approaches accept that the growth process starts from the lower order needs and moves upwards to the highest state of oneÊs well-being, there is a major difference between the two. MaslowÊs self-actualization is the psychological state that is actualized in some but not in other domains of life. For example, one may have a potential to become an accomplished managing director, a great musician, or an ideal family man, but not equally actualized in all of them. Self-realization, on the other hand, is a holistic transformation of the human being having pervasive influence on all domains of his life. Once a materialistically-oriented person, for example, rises on the scale of becoming spiritual, all life-roles radiate with his spirituality.

An Eclectic Approach An eclectic approach compares hedonic and eudaemonic views of well-being. Hedonism means that oneÊs well-being amounts to the extent of pleasure and happiness that he enjoys (Kahneman et al. 1999). The belief in hedonism can be traced back to the times of the Greek philosopher, Aristippus, in the fourth century bc, persisting in the writings of Hobbes, Bentham, and others who contended that a good society is the one in which people enjoy maximum pleasure by serving their self-interests (Ryan and Deci 2001). A similar view was advanced by Charvak when he advocated that there is no life, except the present one and that one should enjoy the pleasures of life even if it requires adopting dubious means. Its modern derivative is the importance placed on satisfaction in the different liferoles, including oneÊs job, arising from consumerism.


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A contrasting view, eudaemonic, has an equally long history. It goes back to Aristotle who considered hedonism as a vulgar goal that signifies human beingsÊ slavery to selfish desires. Long lasting happiness, on the contrary, flows from realizing human growth that produces a sense of well-being, that is, eudaimonia. The contrast lies in believing that happiness and satisfaction arises from either the immediate gratification of mundane needs or the efforts, struggles, and striving involved in cultivating higher order virtues. The eudaemonic approach is similar to that of Maslow in conceptualizing well-being as the experience of realizing oneÊs potentials (Hudson 1996). An exercise for gaining insight into oneÊs well-being is given at the end of this chapter. The exercise is based on the six dimensions expounded by Ryff (1989) along with the ideas drawn from MaslowÊs conceptualization and from Indian perspectives. RyffÊs six dimensions are as follows: 1. Self-acceptance of oneÊs potentials and limitations. 2. Belief in continuous personal growth and development. 3. Belief that life has a meaningful purpose and a goal, which is not just seeking earthly pleasures. 4. Propensity to relate with others in trusting and supportive ways. 5. Capacity to manage oneÊs life and to have mastery over the environment. 6. Sense of self-determination that one can realize the goal of oneÊs life. In sum, well-being is a coveted terminal life-goal that everyone naturally strives to reach. At the most basic level, well-being means an absence of any physical, social, or psychological malfunctioning and on the positive side it signifies a healthy body and mind and a pro-social outlook that enable a person to function effectively and hold a positive world view. The path to well-being has many landmarks starting from existential ones that have to be reached and then surpassed as the person proceeds on reaching and then surpassing higher and higher levels of growth. While how high and in which direction one may go are differently conceptualized in Indian and Western cultures, the processes, however, are common and are captured in the concept of motivation.

FROM MOTIVATION TO WELL-BEING The Concept Rising on the higher levels of motivation leads to higher levels of well-being. Motivation is Âthe set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behaviour toward attaining a goalÊ (Greenberg and Baron 1993: 114). Arousal is caused by a strong need. If a need is not strong enough, we do not feel like doing anything about it. A strong need becomes a drive that directs behaviour to the goal that can satisfy the need. Need, motive, and drive are often used interchangeably, except that a drive is a stronger need or motive. Further, the more concrete, attractive, or important the goal, the more vigorous or longer efforts have to be maintained to reach the goal. The term ÂgoalÊ is also used interchangeably with ÂincentiveÊ. While a need is a pushing force, the corresponding goal or incentive is a pulling factor (see Figure 5.1).

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Figure 5.1

The Motivation Process

There are two interesting features of the motivational processes: 1. Difficult but attainable goals motivate more than easy ones. 2. Cultural preferences affect all processes of motivation. First, no matter how strong or urgent a need might be or how attractive or important a goal might be, if it is not difficult to satisfy the need or reach the goal, there is no arousal or drive. For example, the air that we breath is the most important goal, without which we cannot survive even for a few minutes, but it is so easily available that it does not become an issue of motivation, unless we get into a situation (at a very high altitude or deep down in the ocean) where there is not enough oxygen and breathing becomes hard. That is, scarce or difficult to achieve goals motivate us, not the ones which are readily available. Quick and time-bound promotion, very routine tasks, an undemanding boss, for example, do not motivate a manager to put in a great deal of efforts. However, if the coveted goals are too high to realize, people are likely to lose motivation too. Speaking metaphorically, there is hardly any person who, no matter how attracted he is to the moon, would try to catch it. Not many managers are motivated to become the chief executive officer (CEO) of their company. Second, culture intervenes at all stages in the motivational processes, even though the needs and goals are inherent and universal in nature. Food for satisfying hunger, for example, is a universal phenomenon, but which food, at what place, and how and in what quantity, are influenced by cultural values, beliefs, and norms. In other words, culture affects the following three aspects of the motivational processes: 1. What motivates people, that is, the contents of motivation including the variety of needs, nature of task and goals, and what similar others are getting. 2. How and why they get motivated, that is, the processes of motivation, which cover peopleÊs expectations of getting rewards through performance. 3. How does a cultural context affect both the contents and the processes of motivation?


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CONTENT THEORIES Typology of Needs Content theories tend to identify the needs, tasks, goals, and social comparisons with similar others having potential to arouse people. As needs are numerous, there are theories that cluster them in various ways. Of the various theories, MaslowÊs Âneed hierarchyÊ is the most popular. McGregor (1960) popularized it by explaining why people work the way they do (Theories X and Y). Maslow posited five levels of needs ranging from the lowest and most basic to the highest and most laudable. Further, he contended that once a lower order need is satisfied, it loses its salience, and the person strives to satisfy the next order need. It is through this process that he actualizes his highest level of growth and, thus well-being. There are five levels of needs. 1. Physiological needs such as hunger, thrust, sex, sleep, etc. They are the most basic and have to be satisfied in order for a person to survive. However, culture influences the way these needs are satisfied. 2. Safety and security needs occupy the next level that motivates a person only if he has been able to satisfy his physiological needs. Concern for safety at the present, if extended into the future, becomes a need for security. It is not only physical but also emotional safety and security that concern people. There is, however, a subtle difference in the implications of the two for organizational behaviour. Safety at the workplace is must and has a linear relationship with better performance. The extent of security, however, has a curvilinear impact on performance. Too much security, for example, in many public sector organizations, in the absence of strong work demands, has led to complacency in work performance. 3. Need for affiliation comes next in the hierarchy. Once a person has a safe place to work, secure job, and enough money to meet his needs, according to Maslow, he looks around for people to relate to, share joys and sorrows with, belong to a group, avoid being isolated or lonely, and so on. The Howthorne Studies (see Chapter 1) showed how people form groups that affect their work behaviour. 4. Need for self-esteem comes next in the hierarchy. Once a person is well set in a group, he starts comparing himself with others: Is he inferior, equal, or superiors to similar others around him? If inferior, he wants to become equal, and if equal, he wants to become superior by having higher achievement, greater power, and higher status in society. This is also called the egoneed, that is, the need to gain relative advantage on the scale of merit, recognition, success, status, prestige in society, and so on. 5. Need for self-actualization comes last in the hierarchy. Once a person has satisfied his need to feel superior to others, there is no one to compare with, except his own previous achievements. He has to excel over his past achievements, actualize his potential, and even create new potentials to keep growing on his own and to climb rising heights of excellence.

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Box 5.2 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

Physiological needs. Safety and security needs. Need for affiliation. Need for self-esteem. Need for self-actualization.

Deficiency and Growth Needs The first three levels of needs·physiological, safety and security, and affiliation·are called deficiency needs, because a person feels deficient if they are not met. Prolonged deprivation of food, water, sex, as well as unsafe place to work, sense of insecurity, and loneliness create an unhealthy state of mind and body, which erodes oneÊs self-efficacy and self-esteem. On the contrary, the more one achieves, the more one feels positive about oneÊs self, but still strives to achieve more and more, enhancing his positive self-esteem further and further. Therefore, needs for self-esteem and selfactualization are called growth needs. Alderfer (1972) has proposed a similar hierarchy having three layers. MaslowÊs first two layers constitute AlderferÊs existential needs, that is, the needs that are necessary for oneÊs existence. MaslowÊs need for affiliation has equivalence in AlderferÊs need for relatedness, and MaslowÊs need for self-esteem and need for self-actualization constitute AlderferÊs third layer·the growth needs.

Impact of Contexts Western literature on the needs hierarchy, by and large, suggests that higher-level employees in an organization have greater chance of satisfying their deficiency needs, and therefore, are likely to be more motivated by growth needs. It has also been suggested that the better-managed organizations that take care of deficiency needs adequately induce their employees to strive for achievements, distinctions, and more creative and innovative performance. By the same token, organizations located in less developed and economically impoverished countries are more likely to have a majority of managers still preoccupied with meeting their physiological, safety, and security needs. Although MaslowÊs, and to a lesser extent, AlderferÊs, are the most quoted theories, evidence from other cultures, including Indian culture, does not totally support either the hierarchical nature of needs or their sequential arousal and satisfaction. The need for affiliation, which is expressed in working through networks, dependence proneness, and taking care of oneÊs near and dear ones, also ensures, for example, a sense of security. Indians often use their money, power, and position to nurture their relational network that enables them to get better access to earn more money, wield more power, and enjoy higher status among the people around them. Thus, except the top and the bottom levels in the needs hierarchy, the middle three needs are interdependent and can be interchanged as they are instrumental to each other.


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Specific Needs Reviews of Indian studies (Padaki 1988; Sinha 1981, 1994), for example, show that money, safety, and security remain the most important motivating forces for workers as well as managers, although those managers who have been exposed to Western influences claim to relish self-actualization. This is also substantiated by secondary sources. Earning money (artha) has been considered to be the top-most priority since ancient times, because it is the basis for indulging in earthly pleasures and taking care of near and dear ones (Arthshatra of Kautilya, translated by L. N. Rangarajan 1992: 145). Job security has a close tie with money. Given the high rate of unemployment in the country, most prefer security of job to better pay and perks. Status is a high premium in the steeply hierarchical Indian culture, and it often gets priority over other needs in instances where Indians have to opt for only one of them (Sinha 1981).

The Needs Trinity: Affiliation, Power, and Achievement McClelland (1961, 1975, 1985) highlighted the relevance of the need for affiliation, power, and achievement. Need for achievement is a motivating force to excel and keep on excelling. Need for affiliation includes the need to relate to others and depend on them. The need for power is the striving to influence others. Yukle (1990) identified the manifestations of the three needs (see Table 5.1). Managers, who are high on the need for achievement, moderate on the need for power, and low on the need for affiliation, are likely to perform best, and thereby climb higher on the organizational rungs. However, the need for achievement signifies only individuals striving for excellence. Most jobs in organizations require teamwork, and hence cooperative and supportive interpersonal relationships. The need for cooperative and supportive relationships is all the more important in cultures where resources are limited and have to be allocated to facilitate their judicious utilization (Sinha 1968; Sinha and Pandey 1970). Therefore, the need for achievement has been expanded into the need for social achievement (Mehta 1991) or the need for extension (Pareek 1968). Similarly, achievement goals are found to include social concerns of being a good person, thinking about the Table 5.1

Indicators of the Need for Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Need

Achievement

Affiliation

Doing better than competitors.

Being liked by many people.

Reaching or surpassing a difficult goal. Attempting or solving complex problems. Carrying out a challenging assignment successfully. Developing a better way to do something.

Being accepted in a group or team. Working with friendly and cooperative people. Maintaining harmony and avoiding conflicts. Participating in pleasant social activities.

Power Influencing peopleÊs attitudes and behaviour. Controlling people and their activities. Being in a position of authority over others. Gaining control over resources. Defeating adversaries.

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well-being of others, fulfilling oneÊs duties, helping others, and the ability to get affection from elders (Agarwal and Misra 1989; Misra and Agarwal 1985). McClelland (1975) sees the need for affiliation as a barrier to excellence at work. But, it helps Indians build an Âemotional capital during infancyÊ (Kakar 1978) and is believed to be close to the Japanese concept of amae (Doi 1973). McClelland (1975) observed that Indians are quite high on the need for power.

Job and Life Satisfaction Motivation and job satisfaction are related through the concept of needs. While efforts to satisfy a need constitute part of motivation, successful completion of the efforts gives a feeling of satisfaction. In this sense, motivation is the process while satisfaction is the outcome. If this process pertains to a job, it is called job satisfaction. Because human needs are diverse and job characteristics are numerous, what gives satisfaction to employees varies a lot. Similarly, satisfaction is intuitively believed to impact on performance and employee turnover. But the relationships at best are modest. Job satisfaction is a part of life satisfaction. The latter is an overall satisfaction from oneÊs major life events. Life satisfaction is also Âhuman happinessÊ that is now considered to be an indicator of a human beingsÊ well-being.2 The Two-factor Theory of Motivation This is also referred to as the theory of job satisfaction (Herzberg 1966). Herzberg employed the critical incidence method by asking samples of accountants and engineers two questions: 1. When do you feel particularly good about your job, that is, what is it about your job that turns you on? 2. When do you feel extremely bad about your job, that is, what is it about your job that turns you off? The responses to the first question yielded what Herzberg called motivators, and answers to the second yielded hygiene factors. Hygiene factors, according to Herzberg, are those factors the absence of which cause dissatisfaction, but their presence is taken for granted and hence do not motivate employees. The two factors consist of a number of components, which are categorized as components that are external and internal to a job (see Table 5.2). It is obvious that the dichotomy of hygiene factors and motivators roughly corresponds to the deficiency or the lower order and growth or higher order needs respectively. Evidence from Western studies (Luthans 1998), however, did not support the theory. Surveys of Indian studies (Padaki 1988; D. Sinha 1972; Sinha 1981) revealed that job satisfaction is one of the most researched areas in Indian organizational behaviour, partly because it is amenable to surveys through questionnaires and partly because of greater consciousness of the social milieu (D. Sinha 1972). The findings showed that satisfaction and dissatisfaction constitute one continuum and that Indians do not separate hygiene factors from motivators, the presence of both cause


Table 5.2

Hygiene Factors and Motivators

Hygiene Factors Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

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Company policy and administration Technical supervision Pay and perks Relationships with supervisors Working conditions Promotion

Motivators Ć Ć Ć Ć

Achievement Recognition Nature of work Job responsibility

Source: Herzberg (1966).

satisfaction and their deficiency dissatisfaction. In fact, pay and perks, and advancement are one of the strong factors of satisfaction. The Hackman and Oldham Model Hackman and Oldham (1975) advanced the view that the nature of jobs and the significance that employees attach to the various job features have an impact on their motivation to perform well. The assertions in the Hackman and Oldham model are indeed valid universally. The specifics about the nature of a job and its impact are given in Figure 5.2. A routine task gets boring while a complex one challenges the employee to show his skills. If he believes that his worth is mirrored in his performance and that he is contributing significantly to organizational goals, he considers the task meaningful. Similarly, if he has the freedom to set the pace of his work, and the target, and decide how to realize it, he feels responsible for successfully completing the task. Feedback shows how much has been achieved and how much is still to be achieved so that the employee can plan his efforts to make up for any deficiency. Meaningfulness of the task, a sense of responsibility, and the extent of progress indeed cause employees to put in motivated high quality performance. Further, an employee is likely to remain attached to his job and is less likely to absent himself unnecessarily or to leave the organization. However, a cultural bias in this formulation should not go unnoticed. The individualistic American culture attaches priority to task performance over maintaining relationships. Even within American culture, the Howthorne Studies (see Chapter 1) disclosed that workers form social groups and the group decides how much of the task should be accomplished. In the largely collectivist culture of India, a task is performed diligently or perfunctorily depending on the nature of the relationships in the organization. What Kakar (1978) observed Âis sensitive to (or concerned with) are not the goals of work and productivity that are external to relationships, but the relationships itself, the unfolding of emotional affinityÊ (Kakar 1978: 125). The Goal Setting Theory Earlier it was stated that motivation reflects the confluence of the pushing properties of needs and the pulling capacity of goals. A clear goal certainly enables people to direct their efforts towards it,

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Figure 5.2

Hackman and Oldham Model

Source: Hackman and Oldham (1975).

an attractive goal arouses people to get it, and a difficult one poses a challenge to oneÊs self-efficacy. Edmond Hillary, the first one to climb Mount Everest, was asked why he took all the risks in the world to get to the top of Mount Everest. His answer was that because it is there, challenging his guts to conquer it. According to Locke and Latham (1990), goal setting motivates people at a workplace due to three reasons: 1. A goal causes people to compare their present capacity to perform with what is required to succeed in getting to the goal. 2. A gap between the two makes clear exactly what type and level of efforts is expected to bridge the gap. 3. It provides feedback about how much has been achieved and whether the efforts are to be accelerated to reach at the goal. There are two issues that are critical in setting goals for motivating people at work: 1. What goals are to be set? 2. How should goals be set? Locke and Latham reported that more difficult goals pose greater challenge and hence create stronger drive to perform better. However, employeesÊ capability moderates the relationships


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between the level of difficulty and the resultant effort to perform. That is, employees with greater capacity will increase their efforts to perform as the goal becomes more and more difficult. But if the difficulty level rises beyond a point creating doubt in the minds of the employees about their capacity to cope with the task, the effort takes a nosedive. The goals must be perceived difficult enough to arouse the employees, but attainable to a reasonable extent so that they experience a sense of self-efficacy by getting them. Sinha (2004) reported that Indian workers in a Korean subsidiary put in extra hard effort to meet the targets set to them. They even raised their efforts to meet the targets that were often raised higher. Evidence shows that specific and challenging goals lead to better performance than non-specific goal such as asking, ÂDo your bestÊ. Specific goals provide feedback regarding how much has been achieved and how much more is required to be done to reach the goal. The second issue is: How should goals be set so that the employees own the goals, get more motivated, and perform better? The evidence in Western literature (Locke and Latham 1990) suggests that the goals set by individuals or groups by themselves have more motivating potential than the ones assigned by others. In the former case, the individuals and the groups feel responsible for achieving the goal, because it is they who have set the goal.

Social Dimension of Motivation People do not satisfy their salient needs, perform meaningful tasks, and achieve challenging goals in a social vacuum. They look around and compare themselves with others to see whether the incentives and rewards that they are getting are fair enough. AdamsÊ (1965) equity theory deals with how people judge whether what they get is fair or unfair. A sense of equity depends on two sets of considerations·first, what a person is contributing to a task and, second, what he is getting in lieu of his contribution. That is, is he getting in proportion to his contribution? Second, what similar others are contributing to it and what are they getting in return? The comparison process leads to the following assessment: 1. If his and othersÊ contributions are by and large the same in quality and quantity, and the rewards are also same or similar, it is an equitable and fair deal. 2. If a person is contributing the same or more and is getting less than comparable others, he will consider it an unfair, dissatisfying, and de-motivating deal. 3. If a person is contributing less and getting more, he will feel guilty of a disproportionate favour and will try to either enhance his contribution or rationalize why he is getting more by changing the definition of his contribution. The critical consideration is how contributions and rewards are evaluated. In a purely contractual work setting, contributions may be restricted to the quantity and quality of performance. For example, a new mantra of management, pay for performance, typically takes this truncated view.

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However, many argue that oneÊs contribution should also include oneÊs other investments that have a long-term impact. For example, employeesÊ education and skills could be treated as long-term investments. But do the loyalty and commitment of the employees too deserve to be included as part of their contribution? How about organizational citizenship behaviour? It does not directly add to oneÊs role-based performance, but helps build up relationships and culture that positively impact on organizational effectiveness. Seniority in the Indian conditions is taken as employeesÊ investment in the organization. Do the employees belonging to the ownersÊ families constitute an inherited investment deserving disproportionately more benefits and higher positions? Fairness is a tautological value, but it gets messy when we try to operationalize it in real life conditions. Fairness is conceptualized differently in the cultures where equality is a dominant value and differential reward or treatment is explained in terms of unequal contributions. In Indian culture, where inequality is deeply engrained in peopleÊs mind and where the hierarchical order is taken for granted, fairness is also defined within the constraint of a host of considerations.

THE PROCESS THEORY While the content theories emphasize on what motivates people (needs, goals, and tasks), the process theories focus on how people get motivated. Vroom (1964) advanced an expectancy theory, which was further elaborated by, among others, Porter and Lawler (1968). The theory contends that oneÊs motivation to perform depends on three factors: 1. Expectancy (perceived probability) that if one makes efforts he can perform well. 2. Instrumentality of performance, that is good performance will be rewarded. 3. Valence of the reward, that is, the reward is important and valuable for him. In other words, if a person believes that he has the capacity to put in high quality performance that will fetch him what he wants·better pay and perks, promotion, appreciation, or recognition· he will be motivated to perform well. There are two additional factors that are implicit in their impact, but are quite critical·a personÊs assessment that (a) he has skills and knowledge to perform well and (b) the organization has a policy, system, and procedure to reward the nature and level of performance that he would put in. If an organization, instead of rewarding performance, rewards loyalty to the boss, personalized connections, or ingratiating behaviour, the employees are likely to be motivated to make efforts to cultivate loyalty, getting personally close to the boss, or ingratiating themselves to those who are likely to bestow undue favours on them. This theory, like the equity theory, is applicable to Indian organizations to the extent that the employees have imbibed the Western value of exchange and the principle of reinforcement. The principle of reinforcement signifies that a rewarded behaviour is likely to be repeated again in the hope of being rewarded again. The rule of exchange means that employees exchange their behaviour with the coveted reward.


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Rewards could be diverse. We can conceptualize rewards in terms of oneÊs inner sense of consolidating oneÊs self-efficacy or the satisfaction of doing something significant for others, the community, or the society at large. Earlier, the eudaemonic approach to well-being conceptualized happiness and satisfaction arising not from the immediate gratification of mundane needs, but from the efforts, struggles, and striving involved in cultivating higher order virtues. In fact, there is a theory of intrinsic motivation (Deci 1975) that postulates that the fewer or the more insignificant are the external rewards, the greater is the probability that the person will invent an inner reason (an intrinsic motivation) to do well, because there is no external justification for his efforts. Tulsidas, for example, composed the Ramayana for swantah sukhai (self-satisfaction) without expecting any other gains.

Idealized Indian Approaches There are two Indian approaches to motivation that are radically opposite to the Western views on drive-propelled, goal or task-bound, or exchange principle of motivation. Common to both approaches is the belief that motivation should not be an externally initiated process that meets deficiency or growth needs; rather it should flow from inside as part of the process of self-realization. Nishkaam Karm One of the two approaches advocates nishkaam karm·to work without any concern for the outcome. Work, according to Chakraborty (1987), purifies oneÊs mind (chittashudddhi) and enlarges oneÊs selfish self, if it is conducted as a duty (Chakraborty 1987: 124), which is Â. . . not contingent upon whether others reciprocate . . . if the intention, the motivation is right and pure, the effect, the result must also be wholesomeÊ (Chakraborty 1987: 125). Although it is difficult for most people to believe that if they individually do their duty, others will do the same, and the collective outcome will be positive, there is a way to explore a deeper meaning of nishkaam karm. A high concern to achieve a coveted goal is likely to create some anxiety that might distract a person from concentrating on his performance. On the other hand, if a goal is visualized as a series of interconnected and progressively placed sub-goals on a temporal dimension, the effort to keep realizing the series of goals, one at a time, becomes process orientation. In other words, a goal orientation becomes process orientation of the type that Western literature calls Âhere and nowÊ orientation·to live in and cope with the present believing that the future will take care of itself. The process orientation of nishkaam karm does create less stress than goal orientation, and whatever stress is still caused is much more manageable in process orientation (Pande and Naidu 1992). Box 5.3

Nishkaam Karm

Nishkaam karm takes anxiety out of being too preoccupied with goal achievement, and thereby enables an actor to focus on the process of making efforts.

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Giving Theory of Motivation In consonance with the concept of nishkaam karm, Chakraborty (1987) has advanced a giving theory of motivation, which negates the principle of exchange underling the Western theories of motivation. Giving, the Hindi equivalent of which is daan, is traditionally conceived as a duty for a Hindu. Quoting the Taittirya Upanishad Chakraborty says, ÂThe offering (daan) should be with honour . . . should be plenty . . . with modesty . . . with awe . . . with sympathyÊ (Chakraborty 1987: 167). A person must give daan to those who are worthy and deserving without expecting any return. Giving also creates a milieu of supporting, helping, sharing, and other pro-social transactions that have the potential to get returns that are more than what individuals contribute by way of giving. It is a special kind of social capital that goes beyond trusting each other and enabling them. Thus, giving (daan) neither upgrades the status of the donor nor does it downgrade the status of the receiver. Rather, it enriches both by causing a bond between the two, which could be highly motivating to both. Box 5.4

Daan (Giving Away)

Within in-group-like situations, daan creates a norm of giving away important resources to each other without expecting instant returns. Such daan results in social capital enriching both the donor and the receiver.

NEEDS AND VALUES Needs and values are closely related, but not the same. Values, as defined in Chapter 2, are the enduring preferences for and importance attached to certain objects and ideas and a sense of a desirable state that people tend to realize. Values Âgive expression to human needs and to guide human actionÊ (Erez 1997: 205). Thus, the values of being independent and intellectual are closely associated with the need for achievement; the need for affiliation is highly related to the values of personalized relationships, friendship and world peace; the need for status reflects the values for hierarchy; the need for money implies the value of materialism, and so on. Values link the needs on one hand and incentives and goals on the other. Erez (1997) observes: Because goals and intentions are conscious, needs cannot be translated into goals unless they have a cognitive representation in the form of values. Thus, values play a necessary role in ascribing cognitive means to needs and transforming needs into goals and intentions for action. Goals can be viewed as applications to values to specific situations. Goals and intentions serve as the immediate regulators of behaviour. They regulate the intensity, direction, and persistence to action. (Erez 1997: 205) There are, however, clear differences between the two. Needs, according to McClelland (1961), are Âa personÊs spontaneous thoughts under minimum external restraints . . . his waking fantasies and free associationsÊ (McClelland 1961: 39). Needs are the same for all people, but their salience varies


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across situations. Values, besides representing needs, also reflect societal and cultural demands (Rokeach 1973), which have co-evolved with human beings. There are values that are parts of the human cultural heritage and are universal in nature. They are, for example, the values of truth, compassion, beauty, aesthetics, justice, courage, and so on. They are cherished values because they reflect human beingsÊ aspirations to realize the ideal state of well-being. There are more specific values that human beings develop out of their life experiences. As stated in Chapter 2, they are distilled from norms, which disclose peopleÊs consistent behaviours across situations (for example, stopping at a red light, walking on the left side of the street, respecting oneÊs father). Because life experiences are different in different cultural contexts, cultural values are different across cultures. There are other typologies. Rokeach (1973), for example, distinguishes between instrumental values such as achievement and ability utilization, which lead to the terminal value of self-realization. The dichotomy, however, does not always hold. For example, those pursuing the value of achievement may be caught in the emotion of enjoying the process of achieving and keep achieving forever. Materialism may be an instrumental value serving the terminal value of peace of mind. But, the former may become a self-serving value by sustaining the behaviour of accumulating material affluence, that is, the means becomes an end.

Work Values Work values are the values attached to work. That is, the centrality of work in comparison to other life roles such as family, leisure, community, and religion (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Centrality of work has also been expressed as work commitment, work salience, central life interest, work motivation, and work values (see review by Sinha 1990: 48). Work value, according to the MOW research is, ÂThe degree of general importance that working has in the life of an individual at a given point of timeÊ (MOW International Team 1987: 81). J. B. P. Sinha (1990: 51ă54) asked respondents to judge the importance of work in their life space by marking its location in a circle·the greater the importance of work, the closer it was to be placed to the centre, the less the importance of work, the closer it was to be placed to the periphery. Further, Sinha conceptualized work values having cognitive, affective, and action orientations, which are measured by getting respondentsÊ ratings of the following factors: 1. Cognitive (job clarity): How clear are the employees about what they must or must not do, what are desirable and undesirable work-related and people-related behaviours, and what can they legitimately expect from others including superiors, peers, and subordinates? 2. Affective (job affect and satisfaction): How much do they like the work, to what extent do they identify with the organization and defend it against any criticism, how satisfied are they about pay and perks, working and service conditions, behaviour of superiors, peers, and subordinates? 3. Action orientation: How hard and sincerely do they work, do they come to office before time and overstay if the work so requires, and do they work with efficiency and speed?

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Following the expectancy model of Super and Nevill (1986), Sinha (1990) also measured work values by asking the respondents about (a) the importance that they attached to 21 value dimensions and (b) the chance (probability) that they saw of satisfying each of them in their work activities (see Table 5.3). The sum total of the product of the importance and the probability across 21 value dimensions was taken as an indicator of the respondentsÊ work values. The expectancy model may be utilized as an exercise. Table 5.3

Value Dimensions and a Sample of Activity for Each Dimension

Value Dimensions Ability utilization Achievement Advancement Aesthetics Altruism Authority Autonomy Creativity Economic rewards Lifestyle Personal development Physical well-being Prestige Risk Social interactions Social relations Variety Working conditions Peace of mind Comforts Dependency

Sample Activities Use all my skills and knowledge Have results which show that I have done well Get ahead in career Make life more beautiful Help people with problems Tell others what to do Act on my own Discover, develop, and design new things Have a high standard of living Live according to my own ideas Develop as a person Get a lot of exercise Be admired for my knowledge and skills Do risky things Do things with other people Be with friends Have everyday different than the previous ones Have comfortable space and amenities to work Have peace of mind Comforts of life Have the opportunity to seek help in personal matters

Source: The first 18 value dimensions are drawn from Super and Nevill (1986), the last three are from Sinha (1990).

MANAGING STRESS Managing stress is essential for maintaining a sense of well-being. Stress occurs when a person faces a difficult situation that he cannot cope with. As long as he is hopeful to succeed, his stress is mild and has a motivating impact on his sense of self-efficacy and well-being. However, if he is not sure, his stress becomes unpleasant and debilitating. It erodes his sense of well-being. The factors that cause stress are called stressors. Stressors are perceived as threats to what a person strives to


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achieve. The threat causes physiological arousal that first alarms the person to muster all the energy of his body and mind to achieve his goals. If the threat persists, the body prepares for a sustainable level of activation of energy in order to keep making concerted efforts. After a while, both body and mind get exhausted, activation level drops resulting in a feeling of failure (Selye 1976). Thus, stress consists of threat perception, negative emotions, and physiological arousal. High stress, if prolonged, causes (a) anxiety, insecurity, and lack of concentration affecting oneÊs performance, (b) physical (for example, cardiac problems, ulcers, blood pressure), degenerative, and infectious diseases, and (c) break down of social relationships. Burnout (emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion coupled with feelings of low self-esteem or low self-efficacy) (Greenberg and Baron 1993: 246) is one of the consequences of prolonged exposure to intense organizational stress. Causes of stress are either external or internal to a person. Anything in an organization can have the potential to cause stress. Too many, too high, or too little role demands, inadequate authority to discharge oneÊs duties, sense of technical inadequacy, obnoxious boss, truant subordinates, biased appraisal, poor future prospect, or bad working or service conditions can cause stress (Greenberg and Baron 1993). Further, individuals react differently to all these stressors because of their own dispositions, capabilities, and life experiences. Those who are already stressed because of stressful life events such as the death of oneÊs spouse or a family member, recent financial losses, serious health problems, and so on, are quite vulnerable to even a minor organizational stressor. Emotional people, compared to problem solvers, get worked up quickly and become stressed. Individuals with a Type A personality will react more sharply to a stressor than those with a Type B personality. On the contrary, dare devils seek out stressors to prove themselves. Coming to a discussion of managing stress, there are so many sources of stress that not all can be sealed off. Also, it is not desirable to do so. A mild degree of stress can serve as a tonic to oneÊs well-being. However, severe stress has to be kept in control. The causes of stress show the possible remedies. Organizations that create conducive conditions to work, relate positively to each other, and realize personal growth along with organizational viability hedge their employees against other stressful events. The Indian approach, on the other hand, focuses on individualsÊ efforts to grow in mind and body, realize spiritual self, and thereby remain immune to stress. Assuming five layers (sheaths) of human self (body, vital breath, sensory and cognitive functions, and joyous living), the kosha model (U. Sharma 2007), for example, resorts to the central tenants of yoga. According to yoga, the hierarchy of steps that ensure the highest levels of well-being are the following: 1. Proper diet that nourishes the body and keeps it healthy. Food items vary in being taamasic (causing inaction and lethargic behaviour), rajasic (causing higher activation), and satwik (causing purity in thought). Nutritious and satwik food should be taken neither hurriedly nor in an agitated state of mind. 2. Proper code of conduct involves positive thoughts about oneself and pro-social behaviour towards others. Nishkaam karm creates less stress and reduces whatever stress is still there (Pande and Naidu 1992).

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3. Yogic exercises prepare the body and the mind to get united and relaxed for attaining higher levels of consciousness. 4. Pranayam consists of breathing exercises that calm the agitated mind and regulate the flow of energy in the body. 5. Meditation is the relaxed concentration of mind that gradually empties the mind of all agitating stressful thoughts and helps a person to attain joyful spiritual experience that absorbs all tensions and turmoil.

SUMMARY Well-being is the ideal goal of life. There are levels of well-being ranging from the basic to the ideal, that is, from a healthy body, mind, and social efficacy, through the motivation to meet the challenges of life, proving oneÊs worth, helping others, and serving larger causes, to actualizing oneÊs potential, rising above material concerns, realizing oneÊs spiritual self, and enjoying a blissful life. Because work is central among the life goals, human beings strive to realize higher and higher levels of well-being by putting in motivated efforts to rise on the growth trajectory to the highest state of well-being. A number of theories of motivation focus on what and how needs, goals, and tasks motivate the members of an organization. Values, particularly, work values, facilitate the process. Managing stress is essential for well-being.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Check Your Needs Profile Step 1 A number of activities are given here that people like you are engaged in at work. Please judge how often you perform the activities by selecting a number from the five-point scale given here. Note down your number alongside the activity. 1·Rarely. 2·Once in a while. 3·Frequently. 4·Quite frequently. 5·Always. 1. Developing a better way to do what you have been doing. 2. Visiting colleagues and subordinates on social occasions.


3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

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Influencing people to change their attitudes and behaviour. Seeking advice and direction from a superior. Being accepted as a part of a group or team. Gaining control over information and other resources. Going out of the way to help a colleague or a subordinate. Waiting for a superiorÊs decision. Defeating an opponent or an enemy. Feeling good when appreciated by a superior. Reaching out to a difficult goal. Being liked by people at the workplace. Performing better when a superior is watching. Solving a complex problem. Controlling people and their activities. Extending a helping hand to a subordinate in solving a problem. Doing better than competitors. Being in a position of authority over others. Agreeing with a superior without any doubt. Sharing job-related information with those who need it. Working with people who are friendly and cooperative. Carrying out a challenging assignment successfully. Listening to those who want to share their personal problems. Maintaining harmonious relationships and avoiding conflicts. Participating in social festivals.

Step 2 Add the scores on the items listed in Step 1 for getting a total score for each need category. Need

Activity Number

Achievement

1, 11, 14, 17, 22

Affiliation Dependency Extension Power

5, 12, 21, 24, 25 4, 8, 10, 13, 19 2, 7, 16, 20, 23 3, 6, 9, 15, 18

Total Score

Step 3 Individual need profiles will be shared in the whole group/class in order to see whether there are dominant profiles that match with participantsÊ views of modal Indian need profiles.

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Exercise 2: Check Your Own Well-being Step 1 The following statements deal with how you feel about yourself and your life. Select a number from the six-point scale given here, which best describes you. Record your score for each statement. 1·Strongly disagree. 2·Disagree somewhat. 3·Disagree slightly. 4·Agree slightly. 5·Agree somewhat. 6·Agree strongly. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

In general, I have control over the situation in which I am. I have done well in the past and I hope to do the same in future. I listen to and follow my inner voice. I continue to learn more about myself as time passes. I am a kind of person who likes to give new things a try. Many others, whom I know, have gotten more out of life than I have. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings with family members and friends. I am not quite satisfied only by my material achievements. I have a sense of direction and purpose in life. I wish that, not only I, but also others around me were happy and prosperous. I attentively listen to my close friends when they share their problems with me. Being happy with myself is more important for me than othersÊ approval. I like the way I am. My happiness lies in the well-being of my family and friends. I am honest to accept my limitations. I do not lose control of myself even when I am emotionally aroused. I enjoy making plans for the future and working to make them a reality. For the most part, I am proud of who I am and the life I lead. I feel that I have developed a lot as a person over time. I feel I have a responsibility to serve my society and my country. For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growing. I trust my friends and they trust me. I feel strong when I am able to resist the temptations to do wrong things. I am satisfied with what I have achieved in life. I have been able to help others several times even at my own cost.

Note: The statements given here have been selected from Ryff (1989) and other sources.


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Step 2 Please add the scores. A total score of 100 or above means a higher level of your well-being. The more sincerely you reply, the better an understanding you will have about yourself.

Step 3 The participants will share their scores and discuss the implications with the whole group/class.

Exercise 3: What to do with Mahadeva? Step 1 Read the following case: It was a holiday for Mahadeva Mahto. His wife had gone to take care of their daughter-in-law in Bangalore, who was expecting a baby any day now. The servant had brought in the morning tea. He had plenty of time to reminisce. He was grateful to the Almighty for all that he had achieved in life. There was nothing to complain about. But still, there was a sense of something missing or something unrealized in his life. He started to reminisce. His father, Shiva (that is what he was called his whole life) moved to this city a little over 50 years back when Mahadeva was just six-months-old. There had been a severe drought in the village and nothing was left there for Shiva and his family. ShivaÊs uncle was working as a senior worker at Steel India at that time. Fortunately for Shiva, the company had just launched an expansion plan in the 1950s. His uncle pleaded with the foreman, who was kind enough to get Shiva the job of a helper in the Billet Mill which was a part of the new Rolling Mills Complex. Shiva had no education so that was the best job he could get. Six months later, he got a two-room company flat where Mahadeva spent most of his childhood. His childhood memories were full of stories about the company. Whenever his father was home after his shift, he would talk endlessly about how great the founder was, how nice the present managers were, and how wonderful the company was. Mahadeva learnt the lesson of being fiercely loyal to oneÊs company much before he started learning his A, B, Cs. Suddenly one night, when he was just 16, he was woken up from sleep only to be shown the dead body of his father. Shiva had been killed in an accident in the factory. Mahadeva was studying in a polytechnic run by the company. He was given a job in the same Billet Mill on compassionate grounds. As he was underage, he had no work, but was made to run errands for the foreman and others. Most of the time, he was allowed to take his ailing mother to the company hospital and stay there to attend to her. Time passed quickly. His mother died and he started working full-time. He could not complete his education nor was he too smart. But he went through a number of training programmes and

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was liked by the senior workers, foreman, and the shift managers, particularly for his loyalty to the company, honesty, hard work, and friendly behaviour. He was always eager to extend help to whoever needed it. The managers saw him as a highly agreeable person and got him inducted into the Joint Departmental Council where he always convinced other workers and defended the management. Slowly but surely he got promotion after promotion, became a foreman, and then a junior manager. He was highly respected by his foremen and workers for his integrity, devotion to the company, and his helpful nature. He was the first person on the spot whenever there was any accident on the shop floor, he was always there if there was a marriage at his subordinatesÊ place, or any exigency in his workersÊ family. His old Maruti 800 was available to even the lowest employee under him in case of any emergency. Superiors regarded him as an invaluable asset and listened to his recommendations and suggestions as far as possible. In 1999, when the old Rolling Mills were closed down, he was selected for the forthcoming Cold Rolling Mills, and was sent to the Nippon in Japan for an intensive training programme. After a year of training, he got another promotion and was placed next to the superintendent. It was then that turbulence began in his work life. It all started with the company hiring McKinsey for restructuring the management in the process of implementing a business excellence model. Mckinsey recommended a performance appraisal system following which an outside agency was hired to interview all managers and assess their competence in 15 areas such as planning, achievement orientation, intelligence, creativity, technical competence, problem solving competence, team building, quick decision-making, and so on. The patterns of competencies were matched with the various job requirements. Those who were mismatched were either given the option of voluntary retirement or were given less important positions in other departments. Those who matched well were promoted, often superseding their seniors and even immediate superiors. The entire Cold Rolling Mills was de-layered from nine to five rendering it a new face. Mahadeva was able to retain his position. But there were drastic changes in the managers who were working under him. Some retired and new faces were brought in. They were young, bright, technically very competent, and over-ambitious. Loyalty was not their forte; nor did they care for building relationships of trust and cooperation. They were fiercely competitive and were always thinking of how to outwit others in the next round of downsizing that they all knew was around the counter. Once in a while they indicated that Mahadeva had inadequate technical knowledge and that he was rather out-dated in the changed scenario. Mahadeva tried his best to be patient with them, convince them of the merit of helping each other and putting the companyÊs interests before their own. But his words did not cut any ice. He even tried to give them freedom to decide technical issues, confining his role to see that the work flow was coordinated. But their striving for individual excellence turned him off. There were instances of friction and tension that affected the division. For a while Mahadeva remain frustrated and depressed. One day he decided to take leave (he had plenty of them) and go for an Art of Living programme. This changed his outlook and behaviour. He now became generally composed and no longer imposed his will on others. He still, however, could not digest the selfishness of these bright youngsters. They too seemed to have diminished respect for him. The superintendent started noticing this growing mismatch but did not know how to deal with it.


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Step 2 Each participant will put himself in the superintendentÊs position and suggest a plan of action.

Step 3 The whole class/group will discuss each individual participantÊs views and action plans.

NOTES 1. Satwa signifying purity and enlightenment, raj (emotion, action, attachment, etc.), and tam (inaction, darkness, staleness, etc.). 2. See http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/happy.htm.

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PART 3 GROUPS The six chapters in Part 3 posit that individuals in organizations work mostly through groups. Groups manifest the interplay of individuals’ characteristics, job requirements, and Indian cultural influences. Groups have different forms and structures that regulate individuals’ functions. Individuals either prioritize their personal interests, collectives’ interests, or attempt to strike a balance between the two. Consequently, they cooperate, compete, or combine both. Competition may lead to conflicts. Some conflicts are natural and even desirable, but beyond a point, if not resolved or reduced through negotiation, they have an adverse impact on individuals, groups, and organization. Teams are more effective than groups, but building teams in hierarchy oriented Indian culture is problematic and requires special measures. Power and leadership are critical concerns in organizations. Power has dark as well as bright faces that are expressed in many forms. Power dynamics turn an organization into a political system. Leadership has been viewed from two angles. First, all variables that affect leadership effectiveness are identified and then they are selectively reorganized into the theories of leadership.

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6

Individuals and Group Dynamics


Explain how and why groups are formed. Describe the variety of groups in organizations. Map group structures and functions. Show the role of culture in group dynamics.

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FACETS OF A GROUP

I

ndividuals do not function in a social vacuum. Most of their activities are carried out in groups or in the presence of others impacting on how they feel, think, and behave. Even while they are alone, they imagine others watching and evaluating them. In other words, groups provide frames of reference to regulate their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. They, therefore, naturally join or form a group, are aware of others’ presence, or imagine them to be there. A group has its own dynamics, which means the interplay of factors operating in and around a group governing (a) its formation, structure, and functions, (b) interactive relationships among the members, and (c) changes in one or all of them (Cartwright and Zander 1968). The factors that affect all these groupbound processes are rooted in individuals, organizations, and the surrounding culture. The chapter aims to address the various features of groups and their dynamics in organizational contexts.

What is a Group and Why is it Formed? A group is a collection of two or more individuals, who interact with each other, form a stable pattern of relationships, share one or more common goal, and collectively strive to achieve them. Individuals in a group serve their individual interests along with the group’s common goals. They perceive themselves as parts of a group. Sheer physical proximity among individuals hardly means a group. Individuals standing in a queue for railway tickets, for example, do not constitute a group, nor do they constitute a group when they occupy seats in a train compartment. But once they start interacting with respect to some common issue for example, if they all start asking why the reservation counter is not opening, or why the train running late or if one of them takes it upon himself to lodge a complaint and a few others join him, or all of them start commenting on the common fate of travelling together, and so on, they become a group. Even if they do not interact, but feel that the presence of others is affecting their thoughts and behaviour, they constitute a group, which is called a nominal group. At times we imagine a group and moderate our behaviour so as to suit the group conditions. For example, while going to work or a social party, we think of what the appropriate way to dress would be and dress accordingly. Here, the imagined group’s influence intrudes upon our private thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Why do people join or form a group? There could be a number of reasons. Some of them are as follows (Greenberg and Baron 1993): 1. Security: A group provides a security umbrella where people can help and protect each other. In conditions of fear or crisis, people tend to cluster together. For example, workers need a trade union. 2. Mutual benefits: There are many needs that cannot be satisfied without others. A dependenceprone person needs someone to depend on while a domineering person needs someone to dominate.


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3. Need for affiliation: People, by nature, prefer to relate and share their thoughts and feelings with others. Individuals who are isolated for long feel lonely and deprived. 4. Need for self-esteem: Individuals have a basic need to compare themselves with others in order to assess their own self and to feel positive about themselves. 5. Physical proximity: Physically proximate people naturally start interacting with each other. Interactions lead to identifying common interests, opportunities, and threats, which then result in the formation of a group. 6. External imperatives: Groups are also formed by external agencies. For example, organizations recruit individuals, put them into various work groups with specific roles and responsibilities. Once put together, they start interacting and working as part of a group. All these reasons for group formation—internal and external—operate as the factors, the interplay of which determine which type of groups are formed, how do group members interact with each other, what do they jointly achieve, and so on.

TYPES OF GROUPS The groups that individuals join or form depend on the combinations of their interests and goals, the kinds of groups that are available, or the possibility of forming new groups that meet their needs and expectations. Quite often individuals join or are placed in an already existing group. Family is an example of such a given group where the members are born, although an outside member (for example, a servant or a relative, or even a pet) may also be included. Groups within organizations such as departments and sections are given, and individuals have only the choice to apply, get recruited, and be placed in one of them. However, once they are there, they might interact with others and develop a variety of groups based on their shared and unique needs, interests, and opportunities (for example, car pool members, bridge players, same caste members, etc.). Thus, there are a number of the types of groups. These are discussed next.

Formal Groups Formal groups in organizations are those that the management has created. They have well defined positions, roles, and responsibilities, follow explicitly given goals and objectives, receive rewards and punishments depending on the extent to which they succeed or fail in realizing the goals and objectives and in following the rules and procedures, and so on. Thus, the relationships in a formal group are contractual and impersonal. Divisions, departments, sections, and sub-sections are such formal groups, which vary in terms of their size. There could be other formal groups in an organization: The board of governors for deciding policies and business strategies, committees, task groups, and cross-functional teams for handling specific issues. Thus, formal groups may vary

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in terms of (a) size, (b) time span, and (c) task specificity. The smallest group could consist of two people while the largest could be an organization or even a corporate body having several units (for example, the Tata Group of Companies). A task force may have the responsibility to re-structure the whole organization, or design an appraisal system, or may be limited to developing a particular product or services.

Informal Group Informal groups are those that individuals create by way of interacting with each other for the purposes that are of interest or importance to them. They are often small, but not necessarily so. For example, it could consist of those who play chess during leisure hours. It could also be a caste grapevine that has tentacles in all departments within an organization. It could be a sub-group within a formal group such as a department or the board consisting of those who share a game plan to force certain decisions on the rest of the group members. It could be a friendship group of those who have a car pool to save time and money as well as to enjoy each other’s company while commuting to the workplace. Informal groups are not designed by the management of an organization. They crop up irrespective of the management’s wishes (for example, groups in the Howthorne Studies, see Chapter 1). The distinction between formal and informal groups is not always maintained. The members of a formal group might go beyond contractual relationships and develop a liking for each other, ways and means to help each other in personal and social matters, and work as an informal group. Similarly, informal groups too develop certain norms and structures that are formalized to govern how the members are expected to behave (for example, norms governing Rotarians).

Autonomous Group An autonomous group is one that functions on its own terms and conditions. A formal group may be allowed to function in self-regulating ways without any control or interference from the superiors or the management. The concept of the autonomous group has been discussed earlier in Chapter 1 as a part of the socio-technical approach.

In-Group–Out-Group An in-group is one in which the members share psychological affinity. In the closest in-group, the members define their identity in terms of group identity, yield their individual interests to those of the group, help and sacrifice for each other, and share the same world view. In-groups may consist of family


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members, or friends, or trustworthy people. They are one’s own people—apane log. In contrast, those who are excluded from the in-group are paraye log (others) constituting an out-group. All cultures have people categorizing other people as apane or paraye log (own versus others). However, there are two interesting features about this categorization. First, the boundaries between in-group and out-group expands and shrinks depending on the frame of reference. There could be an ingroup within a department, but the whole department may become an in-group with reference to another department or the whole organization may function like an in-group while competing with other organizations. Second, in collectivist cultures, in-group and out-group demarcation lines are more sharply drawn. The members of an in-group are much more positive and bound by strong emotional reciprocity. Accordingly, they favour in-group members, distance themselves from out-group members, and discriminate against the latter in many ways. Box 6.1

Types of Groups

• Formal groups: These are created by organizations and have a formal structure and functions. • Informal groups: These are formed by individuals having common interests and goals. • Autonomous groups: These groups function on their own terms and conditions. • In-groups–out-groups: These groups distinguish apane log (own) from paraye log (others). • Membership-reference groups: Membership groups are groups to which one belongs while reference groups are those groups which one holds in high esteem. • Sensitivity groups: These groups enhance the sensitivity to each other’s feelings, needs, etc.

Membership-reference Groups A group to which members formally or informally belong to is a membership group. But the group that they wish to belong to or hold in high esteem, or evaluate positively is a reference group. Sinha (2004), for example, reported that Indian managers considered expatriates in Anglo-American, European, Japanese, and Korean companies as reference groups in the sense that the expatriates were rated higher on positive values such as efficiency, honesty, dedication to work, and so on than their compatriots.

Sensitivity Group (T-Group) A special kind of group is also called the T-group, because it is meant for training a group of people in getting sensitized to each other’s views and feelings, which in turn improves interpersonal relationships and hence work performance. It is also called a sensitivity group.

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GROUP STRUCTURES The structure of a group means a pattern of relationships among the group members. As the members start interacting, a pattern regarding interpersonal relationships among the members, their ways of realizing shared goals and serving part of their individual interests gets stabilized. This pattern has four facets: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Role differentiation. Status differentiation. Norms formation. Cohesiveness among members.

In a formal group within an organization, the first three facets of structure are, by and large, predetermined, although the members may modify, change, or ignore them to a certain extent. Organizations are often conceptualized as an inter-locking system of positions, each having one or more roles that are regulated by systems, procedures, rules, and routines. For example, a department may have the positions of a manager, deputy managers, assistant managers, supervisors, workers, and helpers. The incumbents of the positions play roles as given by the codes of conduct of the organization. Positions are both vertically as well as laterally arranged. Vertically arranged positions signify hierarchy, that is, status. Each position is vested with formal authority, which is defined by the organizational systems, procedures, rules, and routines. All three—roles, status, norms—evolve in interaction processes in an informal, in-group, or unstructured groups. They are almost non-existent in sensitivity groups.

Roles Differentiation Roles are sets of behaviour that group members generally perform or are expected to perform; the former is called role behaviour and the latter role expectations/prescriptions. Roles reflect group members’ rights and duties or obligations. Thus, group members are interrelated by an inter-locking system of rights and obligations to each other. Member A’s rights with regard Member B become the latter’s obligations, and vice versa. For example, a supervisor’s role is to direct, guide, help, and reward his workers, which constitutes the workers’ rights and expectations while the workers’ role is to obey, perform, and respect the supervisor, which constitute the latter’s rights and expectations. Each member of a group plays a number of roles that may be related to: 1. Common tasks that have to be performed jointly by the members. 2. Maintaining positive relationships in the group so that they are willing to work together simultaneously, serving their individual interests.


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Some examples of each set of roles in an organizational setting are discussed here: 1. Task-oriented roles: • • • •

To give and seek task-relevant information. To assess information in order to find alternative solutions. To help the group zero in on a particular solution for implantation. To examine success or failure and help the group make mid-course corrections.

2. Relationship-building roles: • • • •

To extend support to other group members for free and frank interactions. To maintain group harmony by resolving conflicts. To encourage and inspire group members to come up with new ideas. To draw weak and marginalized members into group interactions.

3. Self-serving roles: • • • •

To align group interests and goals to personal interests and goals. To highlight one’s contributions in order to gain superiority in the eyes of others. To shift blame for group’s failures to other members. To block the group from going against one’s long-term interests.

Because individuals have to play multiple roles, which are not always compatible, they experience inter-role conflicts, which have to be reconciled in order for the group to function effectively. For example, one member’s need to keep arguing in order to show his superiority has to be curbed to allow others to participate fully. Employees in an organization have to keep balancing the incongruent role demands and resolve conflicts between role demands. For example, women employees have to meet both family and work demands. Even at the workplace, the task, relationships, and self-related roles may be incompatible causing intra-role conflict. An example of this could be how to prune out an ineffective subordinate who is personally loyal? Employees often get stressed because they may be required to play too many, very few, or insignificant roles causing role overload, role underload, or role-redundancy respectively. There exists a general tendency to overload those subordinates who are prone to deliver and to overlook those who fail to perform, or are surplus. In many instances, some employees are not quite sure about the organization’s expectation from them. This uncertainty causes role ambiguity that deters a person from working to the best of his abilities. There are significant cultural differences in how sharply roles are differentiated as well as how strictly organizations sanction those who intentionally or unintentionally fail to play the roles assigned to them. Roles are generally less sharply differentiated in a collectivist culture than in an individualist culture, although both collectivistic and individualistic cultures may have individuals who are individualists and collectivists respectively. As a result, groups in any culture might have members of both orientations perceiving and performing their roles differently. Triandis and Bhawuk (1997: 35) have delineated four reasons for varying degrees of role differentiations:

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1. Individualists follow an exchange principle and clearly spell out what they give to other group members and what they receive while collectivists do not tend to have such a cut and dry market-orientation. In other words, the former have much clearer role perception than the latter. 2. The exchange in case of the former requires equal value and of same or complimentary resource. Collectivists distaste such pricing process. There is much less tolerance among individualists than among collectivists for non-performing members. 3. Individualists prefer instant or short-time perspective: The return must be made as quickly as possible just like we do in shopping. If a member is working an extra hour for the group, he must have an extra hour off or paid for overtime according to the rules. 4. Individualists in a group define their roles in terms of explicit or implicit contract while collectivists tend to go by empathy putting oneself in other’s position, sensing them, and behaving so as to remain ego-sensitive. In other words, individualists focus primarily on task roles and their own individual needs and goals considering relationship-oriented roles as supportive to task performance. Collectivists, on the other hand, prioritize relationship-oriented roles assuming that once relationships are well managed in a group the tasks will be performed smoothly. Further, because roles are less differentiated in collectivist cultures, people can switch from one role to another more readily. Roland (2005) quotes an Indian woman reporting that Indian women, compared to their American counterparts, have fewer problems in switching from becoming mothers, teachers, painters, and so on. Although the majority of Asian cultures are collectivists compared to Western cultures, there are cultural differences even among Asian cultures. The Japanese, for example, are more collectivist than Indians (Hofstede 1980; Roland 1988). Indians, compared to the people in the West, are more relationship oriented and hence, consider their task roles as a part of relationship roles (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). But the Japanese go much further. Trompenaars (1993: 65) has reported a case of collective role-playing by the Japanese (see Box 6.2).

Status Differentiation As group members start interacting, some assume more crucial roles than others and become central to the group. They are attributed higher status. Status is the perceived superiority of members because of their perceived capacity to contribute more to shared group goals. While roles mean functional differentiations (that is, the differentiations in the functions that group members perform), status signifies vertical role differentiations implying that some roles are relatively more important than others and hence those who perform them are perceived to be superiors by the group members. Basis of Status Differentiation Status is not either or, but is relative and is attributed in varying degrees to group members. In formal groups, status is generally accorded to the positions in the organizational hierarchy. A supervisor,


Box 6.2

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Who is Responsible?

Jean Safari was investigating a serious error made by a Japanese worker at the Japanese subsidiary of a US multinational. A component had been inserted upside down and the entire batch had to be pulled out of production and be re-worked. The cost of this was high. Jean asked the Japanese plant director which employee had made the error. Had she been identified? What action was being taken against her? She was amazed when the director claimed not to know. ‘The whole work group has accepted responsibility’, he told her, ‘As to the specific woman responsible, they have not told me, nor did I ask. Even the floor supervisor does not know and if he did, he would not tell me either.’ ‘But if everyone is responsible then in effect no one is’, Jean argued. ‘They are simply protecting each other’s bad work’. ‘This is not how we see it.’ The plant manager was polite but firm. ‘I understand the woman concerned was so upset she went home. She tried to resign. Two of her co-workers had to coax her back again. The group also knows that she was responsible and she feels ashamed. The group also knows that, although she was new, they did not help her enough, or look out for her, or see that she was properly trained. This is why the whole group has apologized. I have their letter here. They are willing to apologize to you publicly.’ Source: Trompenaars (1993: 65).

even in a participatory group, or a facilitator in a sensitivity group enjoys higher status. However, interactions may highlight the varying degrees of contributions of the member who may thereby emerge as informal leaders. Even in formal groups, a member occupying a lower position might enjoy higher status than his senior because of his greater perceived competence. The more unstructured a group is the greater is the chance that status will be allocated as a function of members’ contributions to the shared group goals. Once a member gains or is given a high status, he also collects symbols that not only manifest status, but enable him to consolidate and enhance it further. Higher positions in an organization are accompanied by bigger offices, more luxurious furniture, special elevators, prized parking lots, and so on. The occupants might add more indicators such as expensive cars, big houses, frequent parties, access to exclusive clubs, etc. Predisposing Factors Status does not always emerge through interactions even in an informal group. There are certain factors that predispose group members to assume varying levels of status. Some of them are related to background (for example, the son of the owner) and personality (high need for power and position), the varying degrees of task-relevant information (for example, technical competence) that the members might have, or the physical arrangement (seating at the head of the table) for group meetings. Some of the indicators elevate a group member onto a leadership position (see Chapter 10). The Impact Once status is differentiated, it starts impacting on the flow of interactions, processing of information, decision-making, granting rewards, imposing sanctions, and assuming responsibility for the group’s

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outcomes. There are again cultural variations that facilitate or interfere with status differentiation. In the highly hierarchical culture of India, status differentiation occurs much more rapidly than in the Scandinavian culture, (Sinha 2004) where the dominating value of equality is expressed in the statement, ‘I am not superior to anyone else, nor is anyone else superior to me.’

Norm Formation Norms are standards to judge the appropriateness or desirability of a response to a situation. They are not written rules of an organization, but an understanding of what most of the people do or should or should not do. Thus, norms are prescriptive—what one should do—as well as proscriptive—what one is forbidden to do. Together norms range from what is desirable, tolerable, to what is unacceptable, punishable. Norms may be related to task, relationships, self, or domains of behaviour. The Howthorne Studies, reported in Chapter 1, showed how workers developed norms about how much to produce. Calling superiors by their first name is a Western norm, which presents a contrast to the Indian norm to address one’s superior as ‘Sir’ or even better, ‘Respected Sir.’ Placing personal agenda ahead of the group interest is one of the proscribed norms in all societies. Even the most unstructured groups such as the sensitivity groups have norms such as to remain open to each other’s ideas, not to hurt each other, not to delve deep into somebody’s personal life, and so on. Without norms, situations are a social vacuum in which individuals or groups cannot function. Hence, they must form some norms, however tenuous they might be. Some of the factors that lead to norm formation are discussed next. Precedence If there is no reference point available to decide what one should or should not do, a person makes a random choice. Then the first choice of behaviour serves as the basis for making the second one, the two together influences the third one, and all the four affect the fifth choice of behaviour, and so on. Thus, a norm comes into being. Gradually, the norm-building process yields increasingly stable norms; unless subsequent experience weakens the existing norm. Take a simple example: The members of a group, meeting for the first time, may take any seat around a table. However, in the next meeting, they are likely to take the same seat (if it is available). In other words, the precedence of how one behaves shapes how they are likely to behave in the future. The tendency is quickly strengthened if people are rewarded or at least not punished for their behaviour. Convergence As group members start interacting, their individually formed norms converge to result in a group norm. The convergence is quicker if the group members argue back and forth, agree and disagree,


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tend to influence each other, and gradually come to some agreement about the range of desirable, acceptable, tolerable, undesirable, and punishable behaviours with respect to common tasks, relationships, and individuals’ interests. The more powerful members swing the norm towards their own positions.

Transfer of Norms It seldom happens that members come to join a group without having some stabilized or rudimentary notions of their own norms, which they have already acquired elsewhere. Respecting superiors, performing up to standards, not hurting others, and so on are some of the universally accepted norms that at best can show some cultural variations. Socialization processes in the family, schools, organizations, communities, and the world at large inculcate a variety of norms that people carry around and transfer from one situation to another. Sinha (2004), for example, reported that Korean expatriates stayed beyond office hours in a Korean subsidiary in India while AngloAmerican expatriates left exactly at the end of office hours showing the transfer effects from home cultures to their subsidiaries in India. Consequently, Indian managers in the Korean subsidiary in India also stayed at work till late, but their counterparts in an Anglo-American subsidiary in India did not. Box 6.3 • • • • •

Factors of Norm Formation

Precedence helps form a norm. Individually formed norms converge into a group norm. People transfer norms from one situation to another. Explicit demands by the organization create new norms. External compulsions lead to the acceptance of new norms.

Explicit Demands to Conform to a Set of Norms Traditionally, the Indian norm regarding punctuality is quite flexible. Hence, many employees, particularly in government administration and public undertakings are not punctual. Nationalized banks, for example, were notorious for their lack of punctuality. However, as they tightened their demands, the employees showed remarkable punctuality. There is anecdotal evidence that two brothers from the same family conform to different norms of punctuality in public versus private sector organizations. It is not only punctuality, but also a whole range of new norms that Indians conform to in foreign multinational organizations. In fact, in many instances, they overdo it to show that, if not better than expatriates, they are equally effective, productive, and dedicated to the multinational organization.

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External Compulsions The norm formation process remains continuously exposed to changing external compulsions for being re-examined and modified, and, if required, to be drastically changed. In the changing business milieu of India, traditionally managed Indian organizations are shifting towards multinationals’ ways of doing business by adopting globally applicable practices. Seniority is sidetracked in favour of merit; loyalty to the organization yields to performance; short-term contractual outsourcing replaces lifetime employment; and so on. These new practices require a brand new set of norms regarding increasingly improved task performance, contractually relating and competing with others at the workplace, and upgrading skills and shopping around to find better pay masters. An appropriate example of how the competitive business environment has changed the whole set of norms of an organization is the case of Tata Steel, which replaced Indian cultural norms by globally applicable business norms in a course of just 10 years (Sinha and Mohanty 2004).

Group Cohesiveness A group’s cohesiveness is the extent to which the members perceive and feel to be the unalienable parts of the group. In a highly cohesive group, the members identify with the group, attach greater importance to group interests and goals than those of their own and pool their individual resources to achieve them, enjoy being and working with group members, support each other, suppress disagreements, avoid conflicts, and tend not to leave the group. Although roles and status are differentiated, their sharpness is diminished and different roles are made complementary in a highly cohesive group. Members tend to rally around the majority in the group and accept group decisions without much doubts or questions. Group cohesiveness in a nut shell is the gestalt, that is, more than the sum of individual members’ resources available to the group, which enable the members to act as one entity. There are three features of group cohesiveness that need to be noted. First, cultures differ in fostering as well as prioritizing the basis for group cohesiveness. Japanese culture is more conducive than Indian culture to foster group cohesiveness, which in turn is more conducive than American culture. Collectivist cultures, by and large, emphasize relational and emotional interdependence while individualist cultures emphasize task-interdependence as the factors facilitating group cohesiveness. Second, not all group members in any culture feel or are perceived to be equally integrated into the group. There is one or a few who constitute the nucleus, a few who are marginally integrated, and the rest are located in between the two extremes on the dimension of cohesiveness. Finally, group cohesiveness is a phenomenon that may have both positive and negative impacts on organizational behaviour. It works in the following two ways: 1. In instances where the group is positively oriented to organizational goals and objectives, its cohesiveness energizes the members to put in extra efforts and record extraordinary


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performance. However, if the group and organizational goals are at cross-purposes, cohesiveness puts barriers and blocks members from contributing to group goals. Militant trade unionism in the pre-liberalization phase of the Indian industrial scenario is an example of the latter. Groups based on caste, religion, and regional bonds might be quite cohesive, but not conducive to serve organizational objectives. 2. If a group is entrusted with a complex problem, which requires thorough explorations of various aspects, lots of information, critical analyses of various alternatives, divergent thinking, and a cold calculating approach to problem solving, group cohesiveness may prove to be a handicap, because it often results in groupthink (Janis 1982) where a less than optimal solution is endorsed prematurely without the issues being thoroughly examined. We shall return to the phenomenon of groupthink in the next section. Factors increasing and decreasing group cohesiveness are internal as well as external. The internal factors relate to the members’ characteristics, their interactions, and the outcomes. The members in a highly cohesive group are likely to: 1. Share the same or similar background (for example, MBA from the same school, caste, language, region, etc.), 2. Hold compatible attitudes, beliefs, and interests. 3. Share common norms, cultivate compatible work habits, and values. 4. Hold the same views about the significance of the group in the organization. 5. Get ample opportunity to interact with each other. 6. Have authority and responsibility to include or exclude members, socialize with them in the group, monitor and give them feedback about their performance, reward higher performers and punish work-shirkers. 7. Experience success in group activities. The external factors consist of the following: 1. Clear boundaries delimiting the group from other groups and instilling inter-group competition and rivalry. 2. External threat to the survival and prosperity to the group. For example, members of a production line, which is likely to be discontinued unless product quality improves, feel the threat to work single-mindedly to improve quality. 3. An organizational culture that fosters cohesiveness by rewarding groups rather than individuals.

Mapping Group Cohesiveness Assuming that interpersonal liking is the core of group cohesiveness, the method of sociometry (Moreno 1934) can be employed to assess the degree of cohesiveness as well as the structure of

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interpersonal liking and disliking. In an exercise using sociometry, group members may be asked either to (a) identify the members they like and dislike, (b) rank the members from the most liked to the most disliked, or (c) rate all members on a scale ranging from liking to disliking. It is essential to maintain complete confidentiality so that the members may express themselves freely. The scores are thus nominal, ordinal, or interval respectively. Because the interval scores can be collapsed into rank and nominal, an example of a group of five members rating each other on a five-point scale ranging from least liked (1) to most liked (5) is given in Table 6.1. Table 6.1 Members

Members Giving (Rows) and Receiving (Columns) Ratings of Liking A Receiving

B Receiving

C Receiving

D Receiving

E Receiving

Average Given

A Giving

5

5

3

1

4

3.60

B Giving

4

5

2

2

3

3.20

C Giving

2

4

5

1

2

2.80

D Giving

3

5

2

4

3

3.40

E Giving

3

5

4

1

2

3.00

Average Received

3.40

4.80

3.20

1.80

2.80

Received–Given Score

–.20

1.6

.40

–1.60

–.20

64% of Total Possible –

Out of the possible maximum score of 125 of cohesiveness, the group rates to have 64 per cent, which is on the positive side, but not quite high. Among the members, B is the most liked one, but A has an edge over B in giving the ratings of liking to the group members. Member D has a precarious position, he does have liking for the members but they do not reciprocate the feeling rendering D a marginal member (disparity of –1.60). Members A, D, and E are more attracted to the group than the other group members are to them.1

GROUP FUNCTIONS Group processes mean the ways in which groups function or group activities are conducted. The processes are basically the same that individuals generally engage in while working outside a group, except that the group dynamics alters the nature as well as the direction of the processes. Individuals in a group perceive each other, stimulate and inspire or interrupt and block each other’s ideas, inflate or deflate each other’s ego, succumb to other’s pressure or press others to toe a particular line of action, and engage in a number of other mutually facilitating or inhibiting activities. As interactions proceed, the emerging structures influence the flow of interactions among the group members altering their individual and joint behaviour. The major group processes are discussed here:


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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Social facilitation. Social loafing. Communication. Decision-making. Groupthink. Group polarization.

Social Facilitation Over a century back, Triplett (1898) noticed an interesting phenomenon: People bicycled faster when they raced against others than when they raced alone against the clock. This was further substantiated when he found that pairs of children made faster moves in a game than when they played the game alone. The conclusion was that co-acting individuals work faster and perform better. Others extended the finding by showing that even the presence of others, compresence, facilitates one’s action orientation and improves performance. But it is not always true. In some cases, co-acting or compresence led to poorer performance. In other word, the presence of others facilitates as well as inhibits individuals’ performance. Two theories have been advanced to account for these opposite trends.

The Drive Theory This theory suggests that compresence makes group members aroused. Seeing others watching them makes them experience tension and excitement, which increases the tendency to perform better by evoking the most dominant response in the members’ repertoire (Zajonc 1965). An arousal restricts the span of attention and constraints them from exploring the whole range of responses that they are capable of making. Instead, they choose what they tend to do most readily,and do it fast.

Evaluation Apprehension Evaluation apprehension further elaborates this arousal process (Cottrell 1972). As described in Chapter 4, one of the basic motives of human beings is to compare themselves with others with the aim of enhancing their self-esteem by collecting positive feedback. The comparison leads to the perception that others are watching and evaluating their worth. This apprehension mobilizes individuals to put in extra efforts to present their best in order to get positively evaluated for reinforcing their self-image. The arousal, however, has both a facilitating and an inhibiting impact depending on either the degree of arousal or the complexity of tasks and relationships, or both. A mild degree of arousal has a motivating potential to search and pursue more actively the effective ways of performing tasks or relating to others. However, an intense arousal to prove oneself to others constrains individuals from

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thinking analytically, examining a task or a relationship with all its facets, exploring all relevant information, and acting effectively. As a result, a strong impulse to impress others at the workplace is likely to end in dysfunctional moves. If a group has a simple task where action, rather than lots of exploration and critical thinking, is involved, the arousal has a positive impact. For example, a group, which is given a repetitive routine task on an assembly line, can get going in no time and reach and exceed the targets. However, if the group is engaged in complex research and development (R&D) activities, intense arousal is likely to yield poor performance as the group tends to spend less time in thinking out the appropriate actions by jumping into the most dominant actions. The impact of strong arousal for performing a complex task could be quite disruptive. The group members might jump to actions realizing later that reflex-like actions were inappropriate. Evaluation apprehension is likely to be stronger in the collectivist culture of India than in the individualist cultures of the West. Collectivists are generally more concerned about social norms and ‘face work’. Indians are often heard expressing this concern, ‘what will people say’ (log kya kahenge) if they do this or do not do that. There are always actual or imagined public eyes that are believed to be watching and evaluating whether individuals are behaving in culturally appropriate ways. The eyes become real when others are present.

Social Loafing The opposite of the social facilitation process, social loafing, occurs when the members of a group work together to produce a group product. In instances where group members’ individual contributions are not recorded and rewarded separately, the members are not likely to get aroused to perform better. Rather, they stop working as hard as they do individually presuming that others would be doing their part of the job. It is like taking a ‘free ride’. This process of social loafing was first reported by a German scholar who found that the members in a group exerted less force in pulling a rope than they did individually, and that the larger the group, the less force was exerted per person. Individuals on the average exerted 63 kg of force, but in a group of three, the average dropped to 53 kg, and in a group of eight, the average dropped to 31 kg. Bib Latane and his associates (Latane et al. 1979; Latane and Naidu 1980) confirmed social loafing occurred when they experimented on individuals making noise alone and in groups of varying sizes. They too found that the amount of noise made per person dropped dramatically as the group size increased. Two-people groups made 82 per cent and six-people groups only 74 per cent of the noise that they made individually. There are supporting observations that many Indians in groups shirk work assuming that others will make up for them. The extreme of social loafing can be seen in a famous anecdote, according to which Emperor Akbar once asked the people of Agra to put one pot of milk each in an empty tank hoping to see the tank full of milk the next morning. But the tank was full of water only because everyone thought that they need not pour milk since the others would be putting milk into the tank.


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Diffusion of Responsibility Diffusion of responsibility was postulated to be the main reason for social loafing. The impact of the social force on a group to perform is divided equally among the group members. Thus, the larger a group, the less responsible each member is for the group output, particularly in situations where their individual contributions are not identified (Greenberg and Baron 1993). As a part of this diffusion of responsibility is the individual members’ belief that they are dispensable: There are others to do their part of the job. When each of the group members thinks like that, the group output is sure to drop. Second, responsibility for group performance is likely to be at the lowest when the members form only a nominal group. Bib Latane and his associates created only nominal groups devoid of the physical and social presence of others. As the members could not see, hear, or communicate with each other, they probably did not develop a group mindset, or establish specific standards, or performance goals (Erez 1997: 226–27). Third, social loafing was also caused by the nature of the task. Making noise or pulling a rope is hardly a meaningful or engaging task. A significant and challenging task for a group is much more likely to get the members involved and, thereby, reduce the chance of social loafing. Autonomous groups in the socio-technical systems did not report any social loafing (Emery 1959). Culture Moderates the Degree of Social Loafing Culture moderates the degree of social loafing. In the collectivist cultures of China and Israel, social loafing did not occur (Erez 1997). Groups in collectivist cultures are likely to be more cohesive where the members feel responsible for each other as well as the groups’ outcome. On the contrary, members of a group in an individualist culture are less likely to feel responsible for the group’s output, particularly when their individual contributions are not separately recognized. As Indian culture has a mix of both collectivist and individualist orientations in work organizations, the degree of social loafing will probably be a function of whether the members of a group are primarily collectivists or individualists and how organizations record and reward or punish individual contributions to the group tasks.

Eliminating/Reducing Social Loafing Given the complex nature of the causes of social loafing, the strategy to eliminate it, or at least reduce it, would also be complex. For groups of individualists, Greenberg and Baron (1993) suggest the following: 1. Make members’ individual contributions to the group task identifiable. 2. Make the task more involving and challenging.

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3. Pay for individual performance based on the equity principle. 4. Threaten to punish the loafers. For groups consisting primarily of collectivists, a different strategy may be required. In the vertical collectivist Indian culture (Triandis and Bhawuk 1997), a mix of both—clear role allocations, individual accountability, and social pressure, individual as well as group rewards and punishment, and so on may be necessary. The superiors have greater responsibility to keep the peripheral members fully involved without making up for their deficiency.

Communication Communication is defined ‘as the process by which a person, group, or organization transmits some type of information to another person, group, or organization’ (Green and Baron 1993: 489). Thus, communication involves a sender, a recipient, and a message. The sender encodes and transmits a message, which the recipient receives, decodes to understand, and generally reacts by giving a feedback to the sender.

Types of Communication Communication can be verbal or non-verbal, formal or informal, face-to-face or distant through electronic means. Oral or written communication often gets more attention; they are constrained by linguistic limitations, organizational norms and rules, and social codes of conduct. Not all feelings can be expressed in words, nor do all organizations allow their expression. Non-verbal communications are made through body language (expression of one’s eyes, gestures and postures, attire, etc.) that is less restricted and hence more revealing. Use of time and space are other modes of communication. Powerful people keep the less powerful ones waiting. Higher level managers claim a larger office space, better location in the office building, more privileged parking space, and luxurious gadgets in their office. Informal communication is that which the employees are neither restricted nor obliged to engage in, but they do so for either expressing their thoughts, feelings, or sustaining social networks, or some other—noble or mischievous—purposes. Electronic communication is efficient and saves the communicator from the discomforts of face-to-face communication.

Cultural Impact on Communication Whether the sender and the recipient are individuals, groups, or organizations, the process of communication is influenced by a host of factors ranging from individuals to culture. They all combine together to impact the process of communication. Gibson (1997) examined the cultural


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influences on the chain of communication process (encoding, transmitting, receiving, decoding, and giving feedback) under two contrasting cultural clusters: 1. Collectivist values that are also accompanied by communal values, high power distance, and low role differentiations. 2. Individualist values along with low power distance and high role differentiations. Collectivists tend to draw on external sources for selecting a message to make it emotional rather than rational, and transmit preferably through implicit rather than explicit channels of communication. External sources may include one’s status, title, position, organizational characteristics, and so on. The Japanese, for example, are known to first exchange their visiting cards conveying their status and the brand image of their organization before any communication is initiated. Indians, who are largely collectivists and status oriented, namedrop to talk from a position of power and connections. Collectivists also include additional information in order to make the communication more meaningful. They tend to employ implicit ways of communication involving body language or creating condition where the recipient senses what is being communicated. Sensing on the part of a recipient requires putting oneself in the sender’s mindset and understanding a communication from his perspective. Collectivists’ reactions are tempered by a concern to maintain harmonious relationships by saying what others want to hear, not contradicting others, or giving at least an evasive feedback. Negative emotions, particularly those aroused by seniors, are expressed indirectly by bearing a sullen face, withdrawal from the scene, or (in the family) even refusing to eat. Triandis (1995) quotes Iwao to say: There is an unspoken belief among Japanese in general that putting deep feelings into words somehow lowers or spoils their value and that understanding attained without words is more precious than that attained through precise articulation. (1995: 185) Triandis further observed: Collectivists tend to beat around the bush. They will communicate all but the most crucial piece of information, which the listener is supposed to supply in order to make the whole message comprehensible. This strategy has the advantage that it permits people to keep track of the other’s feelings and avoid an argument if it is likely to disturb the harmony. (1995: 188) Individualists, on the contrary, ‘. . . get to the point so quickly that the collectivist finds it shocking’ (Triandis 1995: 189). Individualists tend to draw on their own self-interests, knowledge, or expertise to prepare that which they want to communicate. They give rational arguments and prefer to express themselves explicitly, calling a spade a spade. They tend to confront and react as they actually feel like, even if it is a negative response. Explicit channels are verbal, written, or formal ways of communication such as telephones, manuals, instructions, newsletters, Intranet, Internet, and so on. Roland (1988) distinguished between Indian collectivistic communication and American individualistic communication as follows:

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Indian communication is subtle and frequently non-verbal, in terms of emotional closeness, which one has with another—which Indians seem constantly attuned to. This contrasts with American life style where everything is out in the open; it is expressed, hashed out, and worked out. (Roland 1988: 200) The Chinese deliberately inject certain degrees of ambiguity in communication that is designed either to withhold crucial information from subordinates or to exert power (Lin 1997). Indians too resort to third-person passive voice when they want to avoid assuming responsibility for a piece of work, for example, ‘It will be done’ without specifying who will do it and when (Sinha 2005). There is a famous report that President Nixon, during his visit to Japan, urged Prime Minister Tanaka to open the Japanese market to US goods, to which Prime Minister Tanaka replied, ‘I will do my utmost.’ Nixon was pleased and sure that Tanaka would indeed do something, but most Japanese understood this verbal formula was used to imply that nothing would be done. (Eastman quoted in Tinsley and Brodt 2004: 443). Cultural differences are quite marked in the inter-cultural negotiation process (Brett 2000; Kumar 2004). People from the individualist cultures negotiating with Indians find it difficult to finalize a contract and feel frustrated by the long drawn negotiation process. Indians are also reported to have a habit of interrupting others without listening patiently. One can check one’s listening orientation by reading Exercise 1 at the end of this chapter.

Group Structure Group structure too affects the communication process. Role differentiation has already been shown to accompany the impact of collectivistic and individualistic values. Sinha (2004) reported that despite the presence of elaborate channels for formal communication, Indian managers even in multinationals, tend to communicate more crucial information through in-groups and the grapevine. In an earlier review (Sinha 1997), Sinha revealed that high-status people initiate more communication than low-status people in an organization. When juniors communicate, they fashion the communication keeping in view the status, moods, reactions, and the nature of relationship with the seniors. They say what the seniors want to hear, not want they want to say or what they should say for the benefit of the group or the organization. The members of a more cohesive group are likely to communicate more through implicit than the explicit channels of communication. They share norms, sense each other’s non-verbal cues, and tend to maintain harmony by keeping the communication within agreeable limits.

Decision-making The decision-making process is so basic to organizational behaviour that it is often considered to be synonymous with the process of managing organizations (Simon 1977). It means choosing one of the alternatives that are already available or to explore new ones, and then to make a choice. In the organizational perspective, it intuitively implies that the choice is meant to solve a problem or address an issue. There are


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two extreme ways of making decisions: Rational and analytical or intuitive. The completely rational analytical approach involves eight steps: 1. Identify a problem that needs to be solved. 2. Define objectives: What is to be gained by solving the problem. 3. Make a pre-decision whether the problem needs to be solved, how to go about it, who is or are to be entrusted to solve it, the time frame for solving it, etc. 4. Generate alternatives by collecting relevant information. 5. Evaluate alternatives in terms of their probabilities to solve the problem. 6. Make a choice of one of the alternatives, which has the highest probability of solving the problem. 7. Implement the chosen alternative. 8. Monitor and evaluate to see if it works. If not, then modify it or take a brand new line of action. Another extreme is the intuitive way where the decision-maker follows his gut feeling and intuitively makes a choice often ignoring the views of others, statistics, or the market trends. An employer hires a person intuitively feeling that their chemistry matches. An entrepreneur strikes a deal, floats a product, and chooses a business partner following his intuition rather than facts and figures or suggestions made by others. Box 6.4 • • • •

Five Facets of Effective Decision-making

Precision: What exactly is decided for further action. Speed: How quickly an alternative is selected for action. Agility: How flexibly a decision is made. Consistency: How consistent is the decision with reference to other decisions.

Source: Rohde (Harvard Business Review, June 2005, p. 24).

The famous evidence of Henry Ford deciding to manufacture T-Model cars by disregarding market trends during the recession in the early 1930s is an example of an intuitive decision. Shukla (1997) quotes Percy Barnevik, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) spelling out his style of making decisions: I would say that in any business decision, 90 percent of success is execution, 10 percent is strategy. And of that 10 percent, only two percent is real analysis. Eighty percent is the gut to take uncomfortable decisions . . . it is the vision to see beyond analysis, to ask whether one really believes . . . . (1997: 139) . . . and you have to move boldly. You must avoid the ‘investigation trap’—you can’t postpone tough decisions by studying them to death. (1997: 141) Most of decision-makers, however, adopt an approach that is somewhere in between, trying to be rational by collecting and analysing information, and yet recognizing the limitations of evidence

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and precedence, and making decisions with varying doses of intuitive understanding. As a result, there are a number of approaches, three of them are as follows: 1. Bonded rational approach: This is an administrative model where the decision-maker realizes that he cannot have all relevant information, the information may be inaccurate or misleading, and that he can at best have minimally satisfying choice (March and Simon 1958). As soon as critically minimum information is available, the decision-maker makes a choice. 2. Framing: Framing signifies the way a problem is framed and presented for solution (Abelson and Levi 1985). The way a problem is posed often affects the kind of information that will be collected, the people who will be delegated to make the decisions and to implement them. Whether poor work discipline on a shop floor, for example, is presented as a problem of permissive supervision or lack of infrastructural support, or poor skills of the employees is likely to determine to a large extent which of the sources of information will be collected and what decisions will be taken to rectify the deficiency. 3. Heuristics: Heuristics mean the simple rule of thumb that decision-makers follow (Nisbett and Ross 1984). Quite often than not, the decision-maker bases his decisions on the information that is readily available. It may not be either the most relevant or adequate, but that is the information that is readily available and that the decision-maker has been looking for. Managers are always pressed for time and are required to make quick decisions. As a result, they go for a soft option. Sometimes the heuristics reflect stereotypical perceptions of things and people. Decision-makers go by such stereotypical images. They hire those who look smart and speak fluent English for positions that require sophisticated technical skills. There are plenty of such stereotypical perceptions floating around in Indian organizations: top Indian managers lack a global mindset, the Japanese are methodical, Koreans are result oriented, Europeans compartmentalize work and non-work roles, and so on (Sinha 2004). Decisions regarding brands of products, organizations, or top executives also involve heuristics. The factors that lead to selectively adopting the various approaches in making decisions depends on the following: 1. Members’ personal characteristics. 2. Group structure. 3. Cultural imperatives. Individual members, for example, vary in their beliefs, values, and personality, which affect how they make decisions. There are many such individual-based factors. For example, individuals who have high cognitive complexity are capable of handling elaborate, intricate, and lots of complex information. They are capable of abstract thinking, making creative and innovative decisions, and tolerating lots of ambiguity. Those who are low on cognitive complexity make quick decisions with fewer pieces of information (Feldman 1990). Members differ in their creativity. The creative ones can come up with many new ideas, combine old ideas into a new solution, and so on. There are open-minded and closed-minded people (Rokeach 1960). The open-minded managers are open to new


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ideas, tolerant of disagreements, and divergent in thinking. The closed-minded managers, on the other hand, perceive the world in black and white, believe that they can make quick and correct decisions, and are sure of their own heuristics. The managing director of a Danish multinational in India, for example, believed that his Indian subordinates would start social loafing if they were not closely supervised and that it was his responsibility to make all major and many minor decisions that were to be implemented by his managers (Sinha 2004). Type A managers would probably make quicker decisions than Type B managers. Further, they would decide in favour of their own type believing them to be more effective managers. Cultural influences on decision-making have been amply documented (Sinha 1990, 2004; Trompenaars 1993; Virmani and Guptan 1991 among others). Indian organizations, despite having Western systems, rules, and principles of management, take cultural detours to get work done. Decision-making is centralized and is based on personalized relationships, personal loyalty, in-group preference, and so on. The highly group-oriented Japanese tend to make joint decisions. The success of quality circles in Japan reflects this group orientation. Quality circles were not so successful in the highly individualist culture of the USA (Cole 1980). Similarly, the American ways of making decisions are not quite appropriate outside the USA (see, Sinha 2004; Trompenaars 1993).

Group Influences Not all decisions are made in a group. However, in conditions where a group makes decisions, the members’ interactions impact on the decision-making processes. The members in a participative group freely and frankly discuss their ideas, support and encourage each other to express their ideas fully, and allow the ideas to converge into a group consensus that the leader or the central member implements. In groups that have sharp status differentiation such as Indian work groups, the high status person sets the boll rolling, has major influence, and makes the rest of the members fall behind him. Subordinates at best like to be consulted (De 1984). Russi Mody, the chairman and managing director of Tata Steel, used to say in a light vein, ‘I am the most democratic person around; I allow you to agree with me.’

Groupthink

G

roupthink reflects the overwhelming influence of a group on the individual members in making decisions. It is a function of group cohesiveness. In a highly cohesive group, the members are often so concerned about not disrupting the harmony and we-feeling in the group that they stop thinking critically, do not disagree even when the group is drifting towards an apparently wrong decision, ignore information that runs contrary to group thinking, become immune to the outside reality, believe that everyone in the group agrees with the decision, and are quite optimistic about the outcome (Janis 1982). As a result, groupthink leads to wrong decisions. Janis reported blunders that US government officials committed in making decisions of national importance. We blundered

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due to groupthink at the top policy level believing in Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai and then were invaded by the Chinese in 1962. Although groupthink is likely to occur in any culture, collectivist cultures, compared to individualist cultures, are more vulnerable to groupthink. Indian work conditions, hence, are likely to have more instances of groupthink to the extent that group members are collectivists. As Indians have both collectivist and individualist orientations, groupthink will depend on how cohesive the groups are. A large power distance also facilitates groupthink. The seniors in a group set the pace and make decisions, which the rest of the group members are likely to accept without further questioning. It is necessary that groupthink is prevented for quality of decisions. One way to do so is to make the group first engage in brainstorming (Osborn 1957), which requires that the members: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Avoid criticizing other’s ideas. Share even far-fetched solutions. Offer as many suggestions as possible. Build on other’s ideas to create new ideas.

Group Polarization Another influence of a group is to polarize its decisions. Compared to decisions made by individuals, group decisions are more extreme, that is, either more risky or more conservative. All decisions involve a certain degree of risk of being wrong and thus incurring varying costs. Hence, individuals in a group either take a risk or remain cautious. Their decisions taken as a whole seldom converge to the middle (neither too risky nor too cautious). Suppose that a top management team is engaged in deciding the following: Should the company merge with or acquire a company, go international, add a new portfolio that requires huge investment, diversify, restructure, change its line of business, buy stock and bonds, or hire a new chief executive officer (CEO)? In each situation, the critical decision involves some risk: What are the odds? Should the company enter into a risky venture? How will the group members assess the risk and come to a decision? Common sense suggests that individual members will come to a decision by pooling together their individual assessments of risks through a give-and-take process resulting in a middle-of-the road decision. That is the way group norms are formed to judge appropriate or desirable codes of conduct. However, decisions by a group are made differently. Research shows that individuals in a group make more risky decisions than they make individually (Pruitt 1971; Stoner 1961; Wallace et al. 1962). For example, the members’ individual preferences for the odds at which a large investment can be made may be averaged to 50:50. However, they as a group are likely to recommend going ahead even if the chance of succeeding is, say 30 against the odds of 70. That is, there is a risky shift when individuals make decisions jointly in a group. Further research that followed (Lamm and Myers 1978; Walker and Main 1973) revealed that not all groups always shift towards more risky decisions. In certain cases, they shift towards more conservative decisions. In other words, individuals in groups move to take more extreme decisions. That is, group decisions are polarized.


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The reason for group polarization probably lies in the process of decision-making. Individuals in a group condition sense what is valued in the group or the organization in which the group is functioning—being assertive, aggressive, bold, and daring or cautious, careful, calculating, and adopting a risk-aversive approach. Having sensed the valued stance, they compare with each other and tend to impress other members by shifting towards the valued approach. In the process, they dig up reasons selectively, choose information, and engage in persuasive arguments that move each other towards either of the extremes.

Balance Sheet of Group Processes Individuals in a group think and behave differently than they do when they are alone. The presence of other group members and interactions with them lead them to compare with group members, heighten their concern to impress others, prove their worth, take others for a ride, uncritically succumb to their views, and/or to retrieve and employ their personal characteristics and cultural baggage for influencing the group process. Ideally, group members are expected to pool their diverse resources, encourage and stimulate each other to come up with new ideas, facilitate group processes through effective communication, and function in more creative and effective ways in dealing with complex problems than what the members can accomplish individually. However, it may not happen unless deliberate efforts are made to counteract the effects of the factors (for example, social loafing, framing, heuristics, and groupthink) that inhibit critical thinking, free and frank discussions, and genuine disagreements. In recent years, we have seen numerous examples of how groups, when informed, make better decisions than individual (Surowiecki 2004).

SUMMARY People form or join groups in order to realize their individual and common needs, interests, and goals, which they cannot achieve by acting alone. Groups have many types: Formal or informal, in-group or out-group, membership or reference group, structured or unstructured groups, etc., depending on how they are formed, the extent of affinity among members, their preference for an ideal group compared to their existing group, and so on. Interactions among the members assume identifiable patterns that we call group structure pertaining to roles and status differentiations, norm formation, and cohesiveness among the members. The structural factors, along with individual characteristics and cultural imperatives, affect the way individuals singly or jointly behave in a group condition. In some conditions, they try their hardest to perform better and to take greater or lesser risk in order to uphold the group values and to impress others; in some other conditions, they take others for a ride by loafing instead of putting in their maximum efforts, and in still other conditions they blindly rally around an uncritical group decision that they believe to be a genuine

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group decision. Cultural factors are shown to influence all aspects of a group. Collectivism and individualism affects the extent to which individuals get integrated into their groups by yielding to groups goals, conforming to group norms, being guided by ‘what people will say’, choosing formal or informal modes of communicating task or relationship-related roles, social loafing, succumbing to groupthink, and so on.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: The Listening Audit Step 1 Please read the following list of behaviour and judge how often you perform them using the following five-point scale, and write the number of your choice against the behaviour: 1—Never. 2—Rarely. 3—Sometimes. 4—Frequently. 5—Always. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Do you often fiddle or doodle while in conversation with someone? Do you often find the person you are talking to is unreasonable? Do you get bored listening to others? Do you launch a new topic before the other person is through with the previous one? Do you interrupt the other person because you think you understood the point? Do you make notes if you are discussing a number of points with someone? (N) Do you feel that most people ramble rather than coming directly to the point? Do you keep eye contact with the person while listen to him or her? (N) Do you look at your watch or wall clock while listening to someone? Do you often get angry in discussions if someone does not agree with you?

Source: Business Times, 22 September–6 October 1997, p. 197.

Step 2 Compute your listening orientation by first reversing the scores of the items marked (N) by subtracting the score from 6, then add the total. The smaller the total, the better is your listening orientation.


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Step 3 Discuss the pattern of listening orientation of the class/group members in the class/group identifying individual differences and Indian cultural values.

Exercise 2: Understand Your Group This is an exercise to understand the whole range of group structures and processes. Please follow the following steps:

Step 1 Form a group of 10–12 persons. The number should not exceed 15. Divide the group into two subgroups, the central (C) or peripheral (P), of near equal numbers. You may use the method of either randomization by drawing a lottery or allotting members into the sub-groups according to their odd and even positions in the seating sequence.

Step 2 Ask the members of the C-group to sit together in the central part of the room and the P-group members to sit around the C-group members maintaining some physical separation.

Step 3 Give a problem to C-group members to solve in say 30 minutes or less. The problem should be relevant and have the potential to get all the members involved. Alternatively, you may ask the group to identify a problem that they think will involve most of the members.

Step 4 Ask P-group members to observe C-group members solving the problem without interfering or disturbing them. They need to take notes about the following: 1. Who is giving the most number of ideas, comments, answers, etc. 2. Who is receiving ideas, comments, answers, etc., the most? 3. Who are facilitating and who are interfering?

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4. 5. 6. 7.


Who are listening and who are not listening, but interrupting? Who are not participating and getting isolated? Who are talking to P-group members? How cohesive is the group?

Step 5 After the C-group ends the session by solving or failing to solve the problem, ask them to describe their feelings, observations, and whatever comments they might have regarding the seven points of observations given in the preceding step.

Step 6 Now ask P-group members to give feedback to C-group members by comparing their observations with the experiences of C-group members.

Step 7 Let both C-group members and P-group members share their observations.

Step 8 Integrate the whole discussion along the various aspects of group dynamics, that is, a flow analysis of the group processes. Be sure that you have briefed the group members and relieved them of any negative self-reflections that they might have accumulated.

Exercise 3: Groups and Individuals Step 1 Read the following case: Mr Harshvardhan, branch manager of an insurance company, reached out for his bottle of aspirin. He had a throbbing headache again. ‘How long can I take it’, he asked himself. It had been recurring and getting worse. A delegation of development fficers (DOs) had just left his office. They were


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blatantly aggressive. Not all but just two of them, Jitendra Singh and Vinod Mishra. But that was no solace, because the other seven were firmly behind them, nodding their heads whenever either of the two said anything emphatically. Only Sheela Chaudhary was a reluctant follower. They had a long list of complaints, some specific, but others quite general: ‘Your clerks sit on our TA [travel allowance] bills for days, they find holes in our medical reimbursement, worse they don’t want us to procure policies that they allege increase their work without any extra gain, they disappear into the toilet if they see one of us approaching them with a new policy just before 3 p.m. and stay there long enough to tell us that it is too late, they make us wait even for getting simple office facilities, they expect us to keep them in good humour, talk to them and treat them nicely while they behave indifferently, give them rides, and even lend them our cars to take their families to movies and shopping. And, your additional administrative officer [AAO] is the worst of all. You too are playing games with us by encouraging agents to work independently of us. Enough is enough! You either tame them or we shall have to do something. And, don’t forget, you all exist because of us; we help you earn your pay and perks!!’ Even the regional office was concerned about this branch. Its performance was deteriorating and, perhaps some of the DOs had been spilling the beans. The other day, the regional manager (RM) mildly reprimanded him and asked him to sort out the problems and set the house right sooner rather than later. ‘I must have a talk with Ravindra Kumar [the AAO] before this gets out of hand’, Harshvardhan said to himself, and called for him. Kumar had his own list of grievances against the DOs and their agents, ‘They claim false TAs and medical reimbursements. Many of them have been found watching movies or going to weddings of their friends and relatives and then submitting TA bills the next day and demanding that the bills be processed the same day. There is objective proof of them colluding with truck owners and using false documents for bleeding the company. Worse still, they keep bossing us and telling us everyday that they are feeding us and that we are just parasites and redundant in this computerized world.’ Harshvardhan stayed on till the rest left. He asked Kavindra Mohan, the head clerk whom he trusted above Kumar to stay on too. Kavindra was a competent but mild person of few words. Harshvardhan asked him to tell him confidentially what was wrong with whom. Kavindra disclosed that Kumar had ganged up with three of the clerks—two belonging to his caste and one who lived close to Kumar’s home. The four indeed harassed the DOs and their agents and expected favours from them. He protected and defended his clerks whenever a DO or an agent complained. The DOs too were to blame because they too made false claims and colluded with some policy holders at the cost of the company. Some of them also tried to appease Kumar by encouraging their agents to share part of their commission with the clerks. Agents flattered the clerks and were more than willing to return the favours. Kavindra had his own list of grievances against Kumar. He had destroyed office discipline. None of the clerks, except Veenita, was punctual. Kumar did not like Veenita and kept harassing her because Kavindra appreciated her work sincerity and competence. Kumar’s most favourite clerk, Ramesh Prasad, was always late for work. He did not come to office everyday. Once in office, he would hang around Kumar, keep chatting with the others, pass his share of work to Veenita, and boss over the record keeper who was not very competent but was a nice person who had been promoted

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two years back. Prasad did not listen to Kavindra, in fact, he would often pass sarcastic comments about him. Kavindra had complained to Kumar, but he would always side with Ramesh and run Kavindra down. ‘Many say’, Kavindra whispered, ‘Kumar takes bribes through Ramesh.’ Harshvardhan was in a fix. What was he to do? Should he get Jitendra Singh, Vinod Mishra, Ravindra Kumar, and Kavindra Mohan to confront each other? Would this aggravate the conflict? Should he confront them with complaints made by others? Would that make them defensive? How should he communicate with them without offending them? Should he try to patch up their differences and ask them to go their own way without bothering others? Should he get himself transferred and so get rid of the whole problem? Should he take more direct interest in routine functions and keep control over Kumar and the clerks?

Step 2 Each participant will identify the groups within the branch, the basis of group formation, role of individuals within the groups, areas and sources of conflicts, ways of inducing them to cooperate, and answer the questions bothering the branch manager.

Step 3 The whole class/group will discuss individual participants’ views and recommendations.

NOTE 1. Precaution! Sociometry should be used only in groups where all members agree, complete confidentiality is maintained, and the ratings are used only for improving group cohesiveness through supportive and participatory discussions.

7

Working for Self and Others


Understand individuals’ unilateral pro-social behaviour. Explain how prioritizing self-interests over other’s interests results in competition and conflict. Expose types of conflicts and ways of resolving them. Describe negotiation processes for arriving at agreed solutions.

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AN OVERVIEW

A

critical factor in group behaviour is whether the members are guided primarily by their own interest, other’s interest, common interests, or all three of them. Depending upon their order of priority, they either compete, self-sacrifice, cooperate, or coopete (cooperate and compete simultaneously) in varying degrees. Competition may result in conflicts that have both positive and negative impacts on organizational behaviour. Conflicts may not be fully resolved but can be managed by certain techniques, some of which are also applicable in business negotiations. This chapter aims to examine these issues in the light of the moderating effects of Indian culture.

Pro-social Behaviour Pro-social behaviour manifests people’s orientation to help others, their organization, and society at large by placing their interests, needs, and goals before their own. They are recognized as altruism, organizational citizenship, and citizen’s conscientious behaviour at the interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels respectively.

Altruism Altruism signifies an intention and a willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests and welfare for the sake of others and the resultant self-sacrificing and helping behaviour (Kanungo and Mendonca 1996: 37). Kanungo and Mendonca distinguished two extremes of altruism: Genuine or moral altruism and utilitarian or mutual altruism. Moral altruism is unilateral self-sacrificing behaviour for the sake of others’ benefits even at one’s own costs or benefits without expecting any return. The primary motivational force, according to Kanungo and Mendonca, is ‘the internalized social responsibility norm or moral imperatives’ (1996: 40). Utilitarian or mutual altruism, on the other hand, is based on an expectation that others will reciprocate the help. Moral altruism is an ideal that has been built into the Indian psycho-spiritual heritage (Chakraborty 1987, 1993). Chakraborty advocated enlarging the small self into a large self that is inclusive of others—the ‘I’ is expanded into ‘we’ where making sacrifices becomes a self-fulfilling experience. The idealized part of Indian socialization tends to inculcate moral altruism,1 which is continuously reinforced by saints and gurus, religious discourses, and some of the scholars (Chakraborty 1987, 1993; Kanungo and Mendonca 1996; Sharma 2007; Srinivas 2000, among others). As a result, moral altruism is an internalized disposition that does not depend on extrinsic rewards. However, there are not many morally inspired people in the organizational world. Utilitarian altruism involves an exchange principle of give-and-take whereby a manager ensures that his own well-being is helped by helping others. An implicit cost and benefit analysis enables one to assess whether altruism is a cost-effective and profit-making endeavour (Gouldner 1960). In fact, a high status person, for example, a boss, might expect a disproportionately high return.


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McClelland (1975), for example, contended that Indians’ renunciation of worldly pleasures in favour of others or giving away resources to others leverages their control over others. In most cases, Indians’ altruistic behaviour is neither totally utilitarian nor purely moral. Indians are reported to believe that the world is a benign place where someone will always turn up to help, should an exigency arise (Kakar 1978: 83). So, people have to help each other facilitating the process of norm formation where people extend help to each other expecting to get it reciprocated, but not necessarily by the person who has been helped. Further, the return does not have to be instant, similar, or equal in value. In fact, the belief is that the person gets more and from more people than he gives. In reality, however, the norm holds only in in-groups (J. B. P. Sinha 1990). Indians allocate resources more to the needy and those who are affiliated than to those who are meritorious (Berman et al. 1985). Organizational Citizenship Altruism extended to organizations amounts to organizational citizenship behaviour. It means feeling responsible for one’s organization and doing whatever one can do to create positive synergy in it (Organ 1988; Podsakoff et al. 1997). More specifically, organizational citizenship behaviour manifests in the following: 1. Doing more than the job formally requires without asking for extra reward or recognition. 2. Helping out coworkers in completing their unfinished work. 3. Having empathetic understanding of their personal and family problems and being willing to help them out. 4. Identifying with the organization, protecting its resources, and defending it against outsider’s criticisms. All three—individual, organizational, and cultural—factors are likely to foster organizational citizenship. Altruistic individuals, compared to others, are more likely to extend help to others working around them and look after an organization’s interests. Organizations that are fair, caring, and which promote employees’ growth inculcate greater degree of organizational citizenship than those that are technocratic, market-driven, and profit-oriented. Collectivist cultures socialize their people in prioritizing collectives’ interests over their own and thereby might foster greater degree of organizational citizenship. In fact, collectivist cultures create culturally embedded organizations that are more likely to facilitate employees thinking in terms of groups and organizations (Sinha 1999). Globalization of Indian organizations, on the contrary, might reduce organizational citizenship (Sinha 2005). Citizenship Behaviour Pro-social stance for safeguarding the interests of the society at large is an extension of citizen’s conscientious orientation. In instances where organizational interests clash with societal ones,

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conscientious individuals go by the latter. There are, for example, instances of whistle blowing by employees of pharmaceutical companies marketing insufficiently tested drugs or hiding their side effects and by employees of transnational companies in the USA that were fudging accounts and engaging in other frauds at the cost of the employees and shareholders. Indians are reported to be more nationalist than many other nationalities (Kumar 2004). During national catastrophes or crises, Indians rally around and manifest extraordinarily pro-social behaviour at high personal costs. They love to proclaim that they are working for higher causes or for national interests. Work organizations claim to function as instruments for national-building (Sinha 1994), as custodians of the environment (Sinha and Mohanty 2004), and so on. On the other hand, India, according to a recent survey (Transparency International 2007), suffers from a severe problem of corruption. Small interests are served at the cost of huge losses to public resources.

COOPERATION, COMPETITION, AND CO-OPETITION Cooperation Cooperation is also a pro-social behaviour, and yet it is different from the preceding pro-social behaviours, which are essentially unilateral and may have only expectations that others might reciprocate. Cooperation indeed involves two or more individuals, groups, or organizations acting together to achieve a common goal so that the achievement of one also means the achievement by the others. Cooperation may have two levels: Coordination and interactive cooperation. In coordination, the individuals, groups, or organizations work on separate parts of the whole task or project in such a way that they add value to each other and if any one reaches the goal, others too feel the taste of success. Examples of this would be runners in a relay race, workers in an assembly line, marketing and sales personnel, or two units of a multinational company having complementary portfolios that need to work together in order to achieve the organization’s goals. Interactive cooperation requires partners to engage in relating to each other, stimulating, encouraging, facilitating, and thereby enabling each other to come up with their best and jointly advance towards the shared goal. Brainstorming for finding an innovative solution to a complex problem, research and development (R&D) personnel jointly inventing a product for patenting, marketing, sales, and production people jointly agreeing to float a new product, members of an organization in a workshop for deciding a business strategy, and so on, are examples of interactive cooperation. No group or organization can function without its members cooperating at least in its core functions, or on a majority of occasions. Cooperation at the workplace certainly has many advantages: 1. It cashes in on the best idea, most important information, or most crucial resource that is available from any person in the group or the organization. 2. It enhances positive feelings for each other and creates synergy. 3. Goals are realized that cannot be realized otherwise. 4. All share the benefits and are better off.


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Competition Despite its advantages, cooperation at the workplace is often missing, inadequate, intermittent, or problematic. Individuals and groups tend to compete when they are required or expected to cooperate. Competition means that individuals, groups, or organizations are vying to realize the same goal, and if one of them reaches the goal, others will be left out. So, competing individuals, groups, or organizations work independently, compare with rivals and try to surpass them, and, if necessary, block their rivals so that they can reach the goal safely and surely. Organizational reality is such that at times and in certain domains, competition is inevitable. Certain resources and goals are limited or are such that they cannot be shared. There may be only one company available to be acquired, only one contract to be grabbed, only a few positions open for promotion while there may be many aspirants, the market may be receptive to a particular product that a number of companies want to offer, a company’s budgets may be fixed while competing divisions may be claiming a lion’s share, and so on. In such cases, the gain of one means the loss for the rest, the gain and loss are perfectly and inversely related, that is, these situations have a zero-sum property. However, people start competing even in situations where competition is neither inevitable nor gainful to any one. The reason may lie in basic human nature. As discussed in Chapter 4, a basic human motive is to feel good about one’s self by comparing with others and collecting evidence supporting that one is better than many. If he is inferior, he strives to become at least equal. Once he becomes equal, he strives to become superior. This process of social comparison induces individuals to surpass others. In the process, people start competing even within their in-groups, but more so with others, particularly when there is no counter force to suppress the impulse. There are three ways that people can feel superior to others: 1. To excel, achieve, and keep achieving without caring for how others are doing, and thereby maximizing one’s own gains. 2. To beat others by achieving more and even blocking others, if necessary. This leads to maximizing the difference between one’s own and other’s achievement. 3. To incur a small amount of loss in order to ensure that one’s adversaries face a greater loss: If I can make my adversary lose both eyes by losing one of my eyes, it is worth it. That is, maximizing the loss of the rivals. Individuals, groups, and organization adopt any one of the three at a time or all three simultaneously. Leading organizations keep enlarging their market share, block new entrants, engage in under-cutting prices, or even buying competitors’ stocks and bonds at spuriously high prices to either control them or to ease them out of the market. Marketing and sales people tend to outdo others while they are expected to cooperate. In-groups compete for greater access to organizational resources and even individuals within an in-group start competing in order to prove their superiority. There are highflying individuals who climb the organizational rungs ruthlessly putting their rivals down, cutting corners, and manipulating situations.

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Co-opetition Co-opetition is a blend of cooperation and competition when the competing persons, groups, or organizations collaborate or form an alliance to add value to their products and services (Nalebuff and Brandenburger 1996). Similarly, cooperating individuals, groups, and organizations may be simultaneously monitoring and comparing with each other and waiting for an opportune time to surpass and gain an edge over their partner. It so happens that individuals, groups, and organizations rarely either cooperate or compete all the time. In fact, they often do both simultaneously cooperating in some areas while competing in some other areas or at different time points with the same individuals, groups, and organizations. Cooperation and competition inter-penetrate. The Japanese company, Honda, has a joint venture with the Hero Group called Hero-Honda, but it has also floated its own brands in the same product line. The joint venture partners often have a co-opetitive relationship where they cooperate while still angling to ease out their partner in order to have complete control over the company. Further, groups and organizations compete with other groups and organizations while cooperating among themselves. In fact, the more intense is the competition with outsiders, the more intense is the cooperation within the groups and the organizations. Box 7.1 Co-opetition Involves • • • •

Collaborating with your competitors to expand existing markets and building new ones. Joining hands with your competitors to provide more value to the customer. Teaming up with your competitors to enable suppliers to spread their development costs. Forming alliances with your competitors to extract lower prices from suppliers.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game Tucker (1955) introduced the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG) as a convenient tool to study whether two persons are cooperating, competing, or coopeting (see Table 7.1). The source of the PDG goes to the following scenario. Suppose two suspects are taken into police custody and are put in separate cells. The government attorney is sure that they are guilty, but does not have adequate evidence to get them convicted. So, if both refuse to confess, they cannot be prosecuted. He tells each prisoner: ‘You have two alternatives: To confess or not to confess to the crime. If you do not confess, but the other does, you will get 10 years in prison. But if you do, I shall get you a lenient treatment of a 2-year prison term for turning state witness against the other and get the other convicted for 10 years. Will you confess?’ Their best interest lies in not confessing (that is, the prisoners cooperate to avoid getting prosecuted). But they do not know what the other is going to do. Consider the point of view of Prisoner A. There is a risk for Prisoner A of getting severely punished by receiving a 10-year sentence if he does not confess and Prisoner B does. What will Prisoner A do? He has two considerations:


Table 7.1

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Years in Prison for Confessing/ Not Confessing Prisoner A

Prisoners’ Dilemma Game

Prisoner B

Does not confess

Confesses

Does not confess

None convicted

A gets 2 years. B gets 10 years

Confesses

A gets 10 years. B gets 2 years.

Both get 2 years.

Source: Based on tucker (1955).

1. He might take the risk of not confessing, trusting that Prisoner B will also not confess (chances of getting 0 or 10 years in prison). 2. He will minimize his own risk and possibly maximize Prisoner B’s punishment by choosing to confess (chances of getting a 2-year sentence, but this might send Prisoner B to jail for 10 years). Prisoner A’s choice will partly, depend on (a) his orientation regarding risk taking, trusting the other person, putting the other person at a greater loss, (b) the amount of gain or loss, and (b) the opportunity to assess what the other person might do. A risk taker, for example, will not confess. If the terms are changed rendering cooperation or competition a more attractive preposition, the choice of cooperation or competition might change accordingly. Suppose two workers, A and B, are playing the game with the following pay-off: 1. If both cooperate on a task, they get 10 points each. 2. If both compete on the task, they both get 0 points. 3. If A competes while B cooperates, A will get 20 points, but B will get 0. What will they do? If they get a chance to discuss the pay-off, they are likely to see the gains in cooperating with each other. However, if A is competitive in nature, he might trap B to cooperate by cooperating with him in the first instance and thus inducing B to cooperate in subsequent trials, while he might double-cross B and compete in the second trial to gain a total of 30 points, and simultaneously increase his points compared to B. Once that happens, B will feel cheated and might start competing. Both will gain nothing, although A will maintain the edge that he earned by double-crossing B. If one of the players is consistently cooperative, irrespective the other player’s moves, he will be gullible and likely to be exploited. The pay-offs too affect the nature of choice. The greater the disparity in the pay-off for cooperative and competitive choices, the greater is the chance that the players will compete, double-cross, and drift into cut-throat competition. The converse is also true. If the players have an opportunity to communicate, develop a norm to cooperate, and conform to the norm, they are more likely to cooperate; but only if the one who violates the norm is liable to be punished. Let us now discuss selfish behaviour in the face of the collective’s cooperative efforts. Quite often the workplace requires more than two people to work together. Such situations may be simulated to

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understand how individual members of a group behave where it is in their interests to cooperate for realizing the shared goals. Olson (1982) observed the following: If the members of a group have a common interest or objective, and if they all would be better off if that objective were achieved, it has been thought to follow logically that the individuals in that group would, if they were rational and self-interested, act to achieve that objective. However, . . . rational, self interested individuals will not act to achieve their common or group interests. (1982: 44) Olson’s logic is traced to the Pareto-Optimal postulated as far back as 1935 that it is in everyone’s individual interest not to cooperate in collective effort though everyone would be better of if they all cooperate. Pareto argued that if everyone, less one person, cooperates, the one who does not cooperate would gain much more than he would if he also cooperated. For example, if all workers are on a strike except one, the one who crosses the picket line benefits the most. Similarly, if a group of people is working on a project, but one of them slips out, he is likely to enjoy leisure time at the cost of the whole group. This is also probably the cause of social loafing (see Chapter 6) and this is precisely the reason that no organization solely depends on the members’ voluntary contributions to the organizational goals and interests. Organizations frame codes of conducts, develop norms, and devise ways and means to reward those who contribute to the collective efforts and punish those who shirk their share of responsibilities. Furthermore, there are other conditions that restrain the members of an organization from serving their own interests at the cost of the organization: 1. Selfish behaviour in a collectively cooperative group can occur only when the group is large and the deviant cannot be identified. 2. The cooperating members, who see a deviant, might retaliate by refusing to cooperate, and thereby reducing and eventually eliminating the advantage that the deviant enjoyed. 3. The cooperating members may sanction the deviant by isolating and punishing him. In sum, the members of a group might realize that their cooperative behaviour will benefit all. But knowing that others are making collective efforts, they individually are likely to indulge in selfish behaviour for maximizing their individual gains, unless the group evolves systems and procedures to monitor all members and ensures that they all cooperate, rewards those who cooperate, singles out those one who do not, and sanctions them.

CONFLICT AND ITS MANAGEMENT Conflict arises when two opposite entities—needs, ideas, interests, egos, or goals—clash and, if not reconciled, possibly cause negative consequences to one or all concerned. Conflict may arise either within a person or between persons, groups, and organizations. Although a mild degree of conflict may have an


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energizing potential, severe intra-personal conflicts causes crippling confusion in a person’s mind. Similarly, serious interpersonal conflicts result in ‘smothering resentment and broken relationships that . . . can persist for months or even years, continuing to exact a major toll in precious human resources long after the situation that initiated the conflict is merely a memory’ (Greenberg and Baron 1993: 365). Similar negative consequences result from inter-groups and inter-organizational conflicts. This chapter examines the dynamics and resolution of conflicts at three levels—intrapersonal, interpersonal, and inter-group—within organizations.

Intra-personal Conflicts The conflicts that a person experiences within himself result from either mutually exclusive needs and goals or incompatible roles that the person assumes. All of us experience a variety of needs, aspire for divergent goals, are torn between the dilemma of choosing one of the alternatives that are equally attractive or avoiding those that are equally aversive. Four broad sources of such conflicts are recognized: 1. Approach-approach conflict means that we want to achieve two mutually exclusive goals or satisfy two opposite needs. Examples of such conflicts are many. MBA graduates have to choose one of the two or more equally attractive jobs, a manager is torn apart in meeting the requirements of a demanding job versus unavoidable family obligations, a person suffers from the dilemma between realizing peace of mind or cutting corners at his job to get a promotion, a boss has to decide whom to promote among two equally competent subordinates, a human resources (HR) manager has to fire a worker who is the only bread-winner of the family, and so. The more equally matched are the alternatives, the more serious could be the consequences if one goes wrong in choosing one of them, and, consequently, the conflicts he would experience would be more intense. 2. Approach-avoidance conflict arises when we strive to realize a goal, but also feel an aversion to it. Suppose a general manager has been chosen to make a presentation during the annual general meeting of the company. This is a prized opportunity for a privileged few, but making a presentation in front of so many people could be a nerve-wrecking experience. A manager respects his boss for his technical competence, but hates him for his rough behaviour. An MBA wants to join a highly reputed multinational, but fears that the company might cause him to burn-out. A young man is hugely attracted to his girlfriend, but is terribly anxious about her temper tantrums. The world is full of people, relationships, and situations that attract and dispel simultaneously. 3. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts involve two aversive goals that we think we shall fail to avoid. In instances where one can avoid both by walking out of the situation, the conflict is resolved. However, in many instances, we get stuck in a situation and have to choose a lesser evil. A subordinate has a nasty boss, but cannot resign because of the fear of remaining unemployed. The choice between a nagging wife and the travail of the divorce procedure is another example.

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4. Intra- and inter-roles conflicts emanate from either incompatible role demands or opposing roles. There may be a disparity between the personality of an individual and the role given to him. A supervisor might have a soft nature but might have to take a tough stance with the production line, a physically weak person might be placed on a taxing job, a low-caste boss supervising high-caste subordinates, and so on are instances where our personal characteristics do not fit with the role demands. A role itself may have built-in contradictory expectations. For example, a caring mother also has to discipline her child, an HR head has the job of empowering employees and downsizing the workforce, a manager has too many responsibilities but too little authority, etc. Furthermore, different roles may place incongruent demands. A working woman has to meet job and family demands—and often both encroach upon each other’s space making the working woman’s life stressful. Managing intra-personal conflicts becomes difficult at times because part of their roots are buried in our subconscious and unconscious strivings and part in previous life events that we do not remember. We are not always aware of the sources of our likes and dislikes, needs and aspirations, and expectations and attitudes towards others. Naturally, we have to live with some of our conflicts by managing the disturbed state of our mind. If the conflicts, however, are severe, we have to actively take steps to contain them. A rational approach is to attempt a cost-benefit analysis by assessing the importance of the plus and minus sides of the alternatives leading to a choice. Once an alternative is chosen, evidence from research shows that we start attributing more positive qualities to the chosen alternative in order to rationalize our choice. By the same token, the rejected alternative loses its glamour. Another technique is self-talk through which we try to convince ourselves that there is nothing in the world which is totally black or white, there is a large grey area, everything has bright and dark aspects, and we have to live in the world as given to us. We accept our ambivalence and try to soften the stings of conflicts. The traditional Indian approach advocates meditation and breathing exercises to calm one’s mind, to develop an observer’s stance (drashta bhav), and a detached view that takes out the pangs resulting from conflicts. Another traditional approach is to distract one’s mind by chanting prayers and visiting temples hoping that one of the gods and goddesses would bail us out. There are also drugs to calm the mind.

Interpersonal Conflicts Conflicts between two or more persons may occur due to the following reasons (Whetten and Cameron 1991): 1. Personal differences resulting from differences in background, upbringing, cultural and family traditions, values, or interests. Any of these differences might disrupt communication, cause misunderstanding, and snowball into clash of egos. Small issues are blown out of proportion, conflicting individuals get emotionally charged and lock their horns losing sights of the real issues.


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2. Informational deficiency tends to aggravate personal differences, as the conflicting individuals may not have adequate or correct information about the issue that triggers conflict. 3. Role incompatibility is another reason. A trade union leader and the managing director of a company may have conflicting roles—the formal is committed to safeguard and advance the interests of the workers while the latter’s main interest is to get as much work done as possible. 4. Environmental stress aggravates all other factors of conflicts. Under stress, people tend to overreact and blow the differences out of proportion. Instances of conflicts between employees increase when the organization runs into a crisis. Of all the factors, struggle for power and position is the most salient cause of conflicts. The classic cases of Russi Mody versus J. J. Irani of Tata Steel in the early 1990s and the recent one between Anil and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance are examples of top-level people fighting for dominance. Similarly, sibling conflicts within the Rahul Bajaj family have been simmering for quite sometime. Indians’ strong need for power (McClelland 1975) makes them ultra-sensitive to power differentials and inflates their ego. Once a conflict starts, it tends to build up in its intensity and burst out into a full-fledged fight with no holds barred, unless measures are activated to defuse it at the earliest. Whether a conflict escalates or de-escalates over a time period is only partly determined by the real clash of interests or egos. It is also affected by each other’s perception of power to retaliate, long-term interests, others working around the conflicting persons, cultural preferred modes of resolving conflicts. Managing interpersonal conflicts is often examined with reference to the dual concern model (Pruitt and Rubin 1986), which suggests that the management strategy hinges on two factors: Relative concerns for self and other’s interests yielding the following five major strategies: 1. Collaboration is a positive problem solving approach that is based on the belief that conflicts are inevitable, but basically manageable. It is a win–win strategy where both adversaries benefit by resolving a conflict. In order to do so, the conflicting persons may adopt a number of tactics. They might first cleanse it from inflated egos and focus on the merits of the bone of contention. Further, they identify common ground, explore more information, and negotiate for first minimum acceptable solution, and finally enlarge the scope of the solution. We shall discuss the negotiation process later on in the chapter. 2. Competition is the strategy to win by making the adversary to lose. The underlying belief is of a zero-sum situation where the gain of one means a corresponding amount of loss to others. The pie is fixed and one tries to grab a lion’s share by either enhancing one’s capability, changing the ground rule in order to put the adversary at a disadvantage, or both. The risk is that the losing person feels cornered and might bounce back when he musters strength and strike at the winner’s vulnerable point. 3. Compromise is negotiating for part win and part lose position for both. The underlying belief is that there is no possibility of a total win and that a compromise can help save face for all concerned.

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4. Accommodation implies yielding to the interests of others to the extent that one can undermine or suppress his own interests. There could be a number of considerations in accommodating others’ interests. The accommodating party may not have much choice because the adversary is more powerful, might want to look good and charitable, or might want to oblige the adversary with the expectation that the latter will reciprocate his good gesture. 5. Avoidance is like sweeping a conflict under the carpet by ignoring it as if it does not exist or is unimportant. The simmering of negative feeling persists, but does not require any definite steps to resolve it. Box 7.2 • • • • •

Strategies for Managing Interpersonal Conflicts

Collaboration: High concerns for own as well as others’ interests. Competition: High concerns for one’s own interest and low concerns for others’ interests. Compromise: Medium concerns for own as well as others’ interests. Accommodation: Low concerns for one’s own interest and high concern for others’ interests. Avoidance: Low concern for own as well as others’ interests.

Culture moderates the choice of a strategy by bringing in its values and norms regarding what is desirable, acceptable, and unacceptable behaviour. Collectivists, for example, attach relatively more importance to in-group’s interests than individualists who care relatively more for their own interests. This is because collectivists are also concerned about others’ face, their self-respect, and image (Ting-Toomey 1980). Furthermore, collectivists, because they are embedded in their in-groups, take into consideration the in-groups’ interests and norms while choosing a strategy. Collectivists, compared to individualists, prefer to reduce animosity and avoid escalation of conflicts (Leung 1987, 1997), avoid rather than solve conflicts (Chua and Gudykunst 1987; Tang and Kirkbridge 1986; Trubisky et al. 1991), are more prone to compromise (Cushman and King 1985), and opt for third-party mediation so that none of the conflicting persons lose face. Indians blend their collectivist and individualist orientations changing their stance back and forth (Sinha et al. 2001b; Sinha et al. 2002; R. B. N. Sinha 2004). Because of their collectivism, they are less competitive than their US counterparts (Morris et al. 1998). They at times employ collectivistic rhetoric to cover up their individualistic interests. Indian socialization discourages confrontation and open conflict and encourages cooperation, compromise, and accommodation. Hence, conflicts are avoided till they get out of control. In large power distance cultures, conflicts between more and less powerful persons result into the former forcing the latter to accept a solution that favours the former (Lin and Germain 1998). In such imbalanced power relationships, the less powerful person has three alternatives: First, to refer to the norm of fairness hoping that the more powerful ones will conform and desist from imposing his will; second, to resort to third-party mediation; and third, to adopt a uniquely Indian technique (D. Sinha 1987) of non-violent (ahinsa) passive resistance (satyagrah), which involves the following steps: 1. Reasoning with the opponent to make him realize the need to reduce conflict. 2. Failing which, self-suffering (for example, fasting, etc.) to arouse moral responsibility in the opponent for the person’s suffering.


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3. If that too fails, the person is morally entitled to resort to non-cooperation, polite disobedience, stopping interactions in order to prevail upon the opponents. The special features of the technique are that (a) it puts the conflict resolution process on a moral pedestal, (b) satyagrah is directed against the unfair act of the opponent, but not against him, and (c) the technique is wrapped up in a concern to bring the opponent back to a just mindset. So long as the conflicting persons share the same social norms and values, the technique seems to work without letting anyone lose face.

Inter-group Conflicts Inter-group conflicts within organizations arise when the members of one group clash individually or collectively with another group or its members. Inter-group conflicts do not necessarily involve all group members equally. The key persons of the conflicting groups make the conflict look like interpersonal conflicts, except that (a) they have direct or indirect support of their group members to whom they feel obliged not to yield too much to the adversary and (b) the norms of the conflicting groups impact on both the occurrence and the resolution of conflicts. When a group encroaches upon the norms of another group, the latter tends to retaliate (Singh and Sinha 1992). There are four major types of inter-group conflicts (Luthans 1998): 1. Hierarchical conflicts between the board of directors and the managing director, between the managing director and others managers, and between the managers and workers. 2. Functional conflicts between production and sales, sales and marketing, R&D and production, accounts and R&D, and so on. 3. Line–staff conflicts arising in situations where staff personnel do not feel that they have any authority over line people. 4. Formal–informal group conflicts result from informal groups (for example, those based on caste or religion) start functioning at cross-purposes with formal groups. The genesis of conflicts could be many. A few that stand out (Yukle 1990) are the following: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Competition for resources. Task interdependence. Safeguarding turf. Struggle for status.

Managing inter-group conflicts requires that efforts be made at both the groups’ level as well as at the level of the key persons in both or more groups. The key persons spearhead conflicts by often putting their egos at stake. At both levels, third-party mediation is an effective mechanism, particularly the one at a superior level in the organization. The mediator, first of all, separates the ego-related issues from the differences in their interests by listening to them separately and impressing upon them that their egos have to be taken out in settling the issue. The mediator then helps them focus

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on sorting out the real issues in such a way that no party loses face. A typical Indian approach of a mediator is to appeal or put pressure on the more powerful or resourceful party to yield to the underdog by evoking the social norm of generosity and the idealized Indian traditional value of giving away (daan) what is justifiably his to the weaker opponent. The aim in this approach is to restore inter-group harmony rather than a fair settlement.

NEGOTIATION PROCESS 1. Negotiation involves the process of conferring with a view to come to, hopefully, an agreement. It plays a crucial role in conflict management. However, its role is not confined to conflict management only. It is much larger. Negotiation occurs whenever two or more parties of individuals, groups, organizations, or countries start the process of bridging differences in order to come to an agreement for a common purpose. For example, a school girl negotiates with her mother to go on a school trip, a manager negotiates for a raise in his salary, trade union leaders negotiate labour contracts, organizations negotiate acquisitions, mergers, supply costs, etc., and countries negotiate trade agreements, truce, and a host of other issues. Interpersonal negotiations are generally much simpler as they involve fewer stakeholders. Negotiations get more complex and time-consuming as we move from individuals to groups to organizations to nations. Tata Steel, for example, took two years to acquire Corus. On the other hand, POSCO, a Korean steel maker, decided to build a 12 million ton per annum (mtpa) steel mill in Orissa in 2004, but took one year to reach just a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Orissa. Both parties had complementary needs and views about the feasibility of this project. For example, the Korean giant not only established that the Paradip area of Orissa had similar soil, forests, and other features as Pohang (Korea) where it had established one of its plants, but that POSCO had the experience of rehabilitating over 67,000 people in Pohang compared to only 400 households with a population of about 2000 that were to be rehabilitated in Paradip. Despite all these positive points, POSCO and the Orissa Government could not accomplish the first step of land acquisition till the end of 2007. This was primarily because the tribal people, whose land was to be acquired, refused to agree and some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took up their fight. The Indo-US nuclear deal is another example of a highly complex negotiation process that has been dragging on for years because there are so many parties with diverse vested interests that are involved. The following are specific features of the negotiation process: 1. There have to be at least two parties that are aiming to arrive at some agreement regarding their goals and interests. 2. Each of them knows what it ideally wants to achieve and what it could minimally agree to, but does not disclose the minimum. 3. Each pitches for the maximum, and quite often more than the maximum, with a view to offer some concessions later on and still get as much as possible.


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4. Hence, each party bargains to get the maximum in a condition of uncertainty about the other’s minimum. 5. Negotiation succeeds if the ranges of their acceptable goals and interests overlap and fails if they do not. Irrespective of the varying degrees of complexity, negotiation consists of three main components: Frames, schemas, and scripts (Tinsley and Brodt 1997). 1. Frames signify goal orientations of the parties, what they want to achieve, what their interests are, etc. 2. Schemas are knowledge structures consisting of many kinds of information that help people understand their own and other’s perspective, strategies for negotiation, meanings of their actions, aspirations, etc. 3. Scripts are ways and habits of behaving for arriving (or failing to arrive) at an agreement.

Frames, Schemas, and Scripts Frames of the negotiating parties could be as diverse as the parties themselves. Whether a negotiation succeeds or fails depends on the parties’ schemas and scripts containing their knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and action orientations regarding the following: 1. Distributive or integrative negotiation: The goals and interests being negotiated constitute either a fixed or an expanding pie that leads them to either distributive or integrative negotiation respectively. In a distributive negotiation, the gain of one amounts to the loss of the other. On the contrary, integrative negotiation induces them to jointly create more resources so that all can gain simultaneously. The former results in the parties adopting a competitive stance, while the latter results in the parties adopting a collaborative stance. 2. Task versus relationship orientation: The preference is either to focus on collecting correct and adequate information, place them on table, and argue rationally or to build trusting and reliable relationships that enable the parties concerned to come to an agreement without much friction. This task versus relationship orientation affects how the parties initiate and conduct the negotiation process. 3. Tangible versus emotional gains: The bottom line in a negotiation is to take home a packet of tangible gains versus saving face and feeling good even if nothing tangible has been achieved. The former is a materialistic orientation while the latter is an emotional orientation. 4. Power orientation: Perception of one’s own power and the other’s weaknesses versus one’s weakness and the other’s power that leads to either forcing or yielding, retaliation, or brinkmanship. 5. Detailing all possible contingencies: A general agreement with scope for filling in the details as it is being implemented compared to working out all possible contingencies and providing specific details in order to reduce the chances of back-tracking or changing positions by the parties.

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Box 7.3

Tata Steel’s Acquisition of Corus: A Case in Negotiation

It all started as the two CEOs, M. Muthuraman (Tata Steel) and P. Varin (Corus) ran into each other at the International Institute of Steel & Iron at Brussels in Autumn, 2005. Small talk led to a discussion of serious business issues. Corus was planning a € 650 million cost reduction drive and was looking for a low-cost base in a country like India while Tata Steel, being one of the most cost-effective steel-making companies in the world, was aspiring to enter into the high value Euro-American market. They seemed like perfect partners for an alliance of complementary interests. They were excited and approached their bosses Ratan Tata and Jim Leng. Being emboldened by his earlier acquisitions in the Euro-American market, Ratan Tata was indeed looking for a juicy target like Corus. He quickly set up a team comprising Muthuraman and Kaushik Chatterjee (vice president, finance) along with Ishhat Hussain (finance director, Tata Sons) to negotiate with the Corus team comprising Varin and his financial officer, David Llyold. Several rounds of negotiations between the teams that were reinforced by five meetings between Ratan Tata and Jim Leng resulted in a plan for merger. But the board of Tata Sons did not like it because it could reduce its stake in Tata Steel by about 15 per cent. Corus, however, was too attractive for Ratan Tata to let go of. He took a bold step of offering a cash-friendly takeover. Leng was receptive. The Tata’s negotiating team was expanded to include N. Soonawala (a finance brain) and Arun Gandhi. ABN AMRO, Deutche Bank, and Rothschild were brought in for advice. Corus was advised by Credit Suisse. While the months of negotiation was near completion, CSN of Brazil jumped into the fray by offering a better deal. That led to an auction organized on Monday, 28 January 2007, by the UK Takeover Panel, which rarely adopts such a device. It required each side and its advisers to sit at separate locations and bid via email. The auction started at 10 p.m. (IST) and went through nine rounds taking seven-and-half hours. In the final round, Tata steel offered 608 pence per share, which was 5 pence more than what CSN had finally offered. It was 33 per cent more than what Tata Steel had offered in the first place (that is, a total of US$ 12.2 billion, which was US$ 4.5 billion more than the first offer). A ‘visibly ebullient’ Ratan Tata and his team reported ‘We haven’t slept a wink all night.’ The price was indeed high. The Bombay Stock reflected negatively. But, certainly the pride of not only Tata Sons, but also of the nation was at stake. Back home, this deal was a path setter for the rest of the industry. Source: The Times of India, Patna, 1 February 2007.

Factors of Successful Negotiation Schemas moderate the extent to which successful negotiations depend on people negotiating, situations of negotiation, and the processes of negotiation—each is also affected by cultural factors. Intracultural negotiations are easier than inter-cultural negotiations, primarily because cultures foster certain schemas that affect what are the desirable characteristics of a negotiator, how situations are differently structured, and how the negotiation processes are generally conducted (Adler 1991). Successful Negotiators Cultures vary in conceptualizing the personal characteristics that might make certain negotiators more successful than others. The reviews by Adler (1991) suggests that American negotiators are


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likely to be articulate, analytical, capable of thinking under pressure, and time bound; Japanese are patient, planning oriented, respectful, unobtrusive; Chinese are persistent, determined, practical, and expedient; Latin Americans are verbal, emotional, and power oriented. Indians are argumentative, analytical, talk about ideals but pursue materialistic goals, change positions, and so on. They are guided by (a) Brahminical idealism resulting in a search for high and idealistic goals as well as (b) anarchical individualism manifesting in highly competitive individualistic search for material gains (Kumar 2004). The coexistence of these opposing orientations enables Indians to shift their cultural frames to suit different situations (Sinha 2005). This probably is one of the reasons why Indian companies have been able to negotiate, acquire, and form joint ventures with foreign companies that are bigger than them. Box 7.4 • • • • • • •

Some Factors of Effective Negotiation

Skills to listen and sense others and getting them involved. People orientation in order to create conditions for communication. Willingness to negotiate through teams having varied resources. High self-esteem to negotiate what one stands for. High aspirations to bargain for maximum gain. Attractive personality to attract and retain other’s attention. Reasonable power to influence.

Source: Adler (1991).

There are, however, certain characteristics that are universally helpful in negotiation. They are good listening skills, people orientation, willingness to negotiate through teams, high self-esteem, high aspirations, an attractive personality, and reasonable power and influence in one’s own group and organization (Adler 1991: 188).

Conducive Situations A conducive situation make a significant impact because it carries symbolic meanings. There was a time when information technology was not developed and location made a significant difference for the negotiating parties in having access to crucial information and the opportunity to discuss the progress with their home organization. Location still has a symbolic significance. The preference is to meet half way or at a neutral ground and at a pleasant place like a resort. Cultures differ in entertaining each other. Asians, particularly the Japanese, spend a lot more than Europeans and Americans on hospitality. Indians and Chinese probably lag only a notch behind the Japanese. Physical arrangements reflect the orientation of the parties. It is well known that the Chinese and the Americans sat on different tables to negotiate peace in Vietnam. The number of participants varies in various countries’ teams. The Japanese have bigger negotiating teams than Indians, which often have bigger negotiating teams than Americans. A team with a large size allows the members to watch for non-verbal cues and discuss the information in greater detail. Time consciousness is reported to make a significant difference. Cultures vary on how they conceptualize time, how much punctuality is valued, and how keen people are to meet deadlines. Those who have a flexible time frame put

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the time-conscious and deadline-oriented people at a disadvantage, because the former stretch the latter’s patience and make them yield helplessly. A typical way to do so is to keep entertaining the visiting team, arranging pleasure trips for them to exotic places, throwing lavish parties in their honour, and to keep talking about generalities rather than the issue at hand till the last day or hours when the visiting party has to leave for their home. Because the visiting party does not generally want to return empty handed, they yield much more readily. Box 7.5

Negotiation between a Brazilian and an American Company

One Brazilian company invited a group of Americans to Brazil to negotiate a contract before Christmas. The Brazilians, knowing that the Americans would want to return to the United States by Christmas, took advantage of the situation and pushed hard for concessions and an early agreement. The final agreement definitely favoured the Brazilians. Source: Adler (1991: 191).

Modes of Negotiation Americans tend to come to the real issue without beating around the bush unnecessarily, but the Japanese do like to interact without first exchanging their visiting cards and ascertaining who the leader of the visiting negotiating team is. Indians still have some hangover mindset of the colonial days (Nandy 1983; Roland 1988) and, as a result, they perceive Europeans and Americans superior (Sinha 2004). Their perception, in many cases, are reinforced by the larger capital base and better technology of their companies. As a result, Indian companies are reported to be over willing to start joint ventures with them. However, the emerging trend among Indian companies is to negotiate to buy companies in the Euro-American sector with money from Western financing companies (see Chapter 3). Negotiating Process The negotiating process includes strategies for negotiation, planning from preparation to arriving at an agreement, and tactics used to get a profitable contract. Very broadly speaking, negotiating parties choose either a competitive strategy involving deception and win–lose paradigm or a collaborative strategy with a win–win paradigm. The latter, according to Fisher and Ury (1981), requires a principled approach having four facets: 1. Separate the people from the problem and thereby cleanse the negotiation process of egos. 2. Focus on interests that leads to looking for common ground rather than positions that harden one’s approach. 3. Insist on an objective criteria and resist pressure. 4. Invent options by exploring new information and thereby expand the pie.


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These four principles lead the negotiation from preparation to agreement on a positive note and employ tactics that are functional. Tactics could be numerous. Adler, Rosen, and Silverstein (1996) distinguish low risk from high risk tactics. Box 7.6

Functional and Dysfunctional Tactics

• Functional tactics: 1. Building sincere relationships. 2. Identifying common ground. 3. Reflecting rather than rebutting impulsively. • Dysfunctional Tactics: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Throwing a temper tantrum. Giving a liberal offer and then back-tracking. Taking a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ stance. Waiting till the last minute to strain the other party’s patience.

Adler (1991) lists a variety of verbal and non-verbal tactics that are part of the communication process. Of them, three are quite culture-bound. The use of silence comes naturally to the Japanese, but makes American tense and unsure of what it means. Frequent use of ‘no’ is much more typical in Brazil than in Japan where there are numerous ambiguous ways of implying ‘no’ without actually saying it. Latin Americans and Arabs express lots of emotions, gestures and postures than do the Americans or the Japanese.

SUMMARY The members of a group have a basic concern either to serve their individual interest or others’ interests and group’s interests, or both. The resultant processes are pro-social behaviour, cooperation, competition, or co-opetition (a mix of both cooperation and competition). Pro-social behaviour comprises unilateral acts to help others, organizations, and the society at large with at times implicit expectation that the help will be reciprocated either directly or indirectly. Cooperation aims to pool individual resources to realize shared goals, ideally in a way that the sum of individual efforts is more than the aggregated total efforts. Competition, on the contrary, is meant to maximize either one’s own achievements or superiority over others. It is the latter that often causes conflicts among the members of a group or between groups within an organization, although conflicts also occur within a person when he is torn between two or more options. Conflicts could be motivating, but the severe ones need to be managed. One way is to negotiate for a win–win type of agreement between individuals and groups. The negotiation process can also aim to arrive at an agreement regarding the shared goals and interests of the concerned parties. Indian culture is shown to affect all these processes.

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EXERCISES Exercise 1: Negotiating a New Contract Step 1 Divide the whole group/class into groups of three or four ensuring that you have an even number of members in each group. Ask them through a lottery to represent either the trade union team (T-Team) or the management team (M-Team). Randomly pair the T-Teams with M-Teams.

Step 2 Ask the pairs of teams to negotiate a new labour contract that covers a whole range of issues regarding service and working conditions. The most contentious issues are the company’s hiring and firing policy, salary, bonus, criteria for promotions, management’s right to downsize and outsource, and the union’s right to go on a strike.

Step 3 Allow them around one hour or an hour-and-a-half and then ask each pair to report their successes/ failures, processes of negotiation, and their experiences. The faculty will integrate them.

Exercise 2: Cooperative–Competitive Game Step 1 Divide the class/group into pairs of A and B players. Tell them that the pairs will play two rounds of the game.

Step 2 Ask each pair of A and B players to gain as much point as they can. In order to get the players involved, promise (depending on the grading system) to add a small percentage of the points earned to their grade average. Give and explain to each pair the following pay matrix. Let them get familiar by playing a few trial rounds before the actual game is played for 20 rounds. Each participant will also have two identical scoring charts for keeping a record of their scores.


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Player A Plays Red

Pay-off Matrix for Round 1

Plays Green

Plays Red

Both get 0

A gets 0

Plays Green

A gets 15 points

Both get 10 points

B gets 15 points

Player B

B gets 0

Scoring Chart (Round 1): Player A/B (Circle A or B) Trials

A’s Score

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Score

A’s Total

A’s Cumulative Score

B’s Score

B’s Cumulative Score

B’s Total

Step 3 Give the pairs a break of about 10 minutes to discuss their scores and future strategy for the second round of the game.

Step 4 Start the second round of the game with a different pay-off:

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Player A Pay-off Matrix for Round 2

Plays Red

Plays Green

Both get –5 points Plays Red Player B

A gets –15 B gets 20 points

A gets 20 points

Both get 10 points

Plays Green B gets –15 points

Scoring Chart (Round 2): Player A/B (Circle A or B) Trials

A’s Score

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Score

A’s Total

A’s Cumulative Score

B’s Score

B’s Cumulative Score

B’s Total

Step 5 Ask each player to report to the whole group/class his final score, the strategy that he used, and the changes in his strategy, if any. Discuss the data thus generated.

Exercise 3: How Do I Design a Strategy? Step 1 Please read the following case:


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Ratanam called his wife to inform her that he would be late by an hour or so for dinner (he was very punctual about getting home by 8 p.m.). ‘It has been a long day’, he exclaimed, ‘I must think of what to do and do it fast.’ It was very quiet on the executive floor of ElectroFast. Most of the people had already gone home. ElectroFast was founded about 15 years back. Starting as a very small organization with about 80 permanent and 55 casual workers, and 30 managers working in a single shift from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the company had now grown into a fairly big player in the market. The turnover exceeded US$ 600 million, the profit before tax was about US$ 85 million, and the market capitalization was over US$ 1 billion. It now had over 1,000 permanent workers and 342 managers. It started as a single line refrigerator factory, added air conditioners and washing machines in the third year, and then entered into high-end electronic products including DVD, PCs, colour monitors, LCD, and music systems. In all these portfolios, it had consistently pushed up its market share and cut into the major players’ turf; all except mobile phone sets that it started producing just four years back. During the first three years it was able to grab about 6 per cent of the pie, but now it had slipped down to just 4.70 per cent. ‘That’s the worry that is eating into Swami’s peace of mind’, Ratanam said to himself. Swami (R. Swaminathan, the managing director) had called him that morning. ‘Ratanam, do something. We can’t afford to slide down in this cell business while the market is swinging up!’ Ratanam had the highest regard for Swami who had recruited him about 10 years back: ‘It has been a long time’, Ratanam recalled, ‘I was fresh from the Kelloggs, a dashing dynamic marketing graduate itching to conquer the world! Swami saw the fire in me and got me on board.’ Since then, he had been Swami’s blue-eyed boy, a trouble-shooter, and a trusting soul-keeper who now headed the department of strategic management. Ratanam thought of having a brainstorming session. The vice presidents were left out of Ratanam’s list—they were too old for the exercise. He decided to pick up younger ones whom he personally knew as bright guys. They were Ravi Kumar, general manager (GM), marketing, Vinod Sharma deputy GM, R&D, and Kishore Ram GM, HR. There was no one from the production department or the finance department, the former being too busy with the nuts and bolts and the latter being too concerned about reducing costs. Ratanam narrated what Swami had asked him earlier, ‘Swami wants an outline of the strategy within a week! So, start thinking aloud boys. We can’t waste any time’. The brainstorming session continued for over three hours. But still there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Vinod was the first to speak out. He was a little critical of the design of the mobile phones: ‘They are meant for urban people. What we need is to redesign them. We must segment the market into rural and urban as well as younger urban. Over 70 per cent of the market is rural and need rugged, simple-featured, and cheap products. Then, we must find a way to recharge the batteries easily. Maybe we can work on a built-in solar re-charger . . . Let us not go for a quick fix. Even older people in urban areas have no time to use the features that we are proud of providing. Our phones are meant only for young urban people. We need different kinds of products for different people. Allocate a respectable budget and we shall deliver a range of products you will be able to flaunt as the next best thing. But the management must take care of the R&D. We have been the most neglected lot.’ And, then he went on to elaborate how the management had neglected R&D: ‘R&D here is more for public relations; we hardly get enough money; nor are

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we asked to develop innovative products. All that we do is to suggest cosmetic improvements in products and procedures. We are even asked to do other routine administrative jobs. Further, give us the latest technologies to experiment with and some bright boys from good schools.’ Kumar interrupted him several times. Kumar was bright and dashing (he reminded Ratanam of his younger days) and a bit too ambitious. He wanted the company to form an alliance with a major international service provider to re-launch its range of products. He claimed to know from the grapevine that Verizon, an American major, was on a shopping trip to pick up an Indian company that would provide products and add to their services. Verizon with its deep pockets was ready to make a big investment. ‘We must explore the possibility’, said Kumar, ‘In the meanwhile, the company must launch an aggressive advertisement campaign to gain better visibility. T20 and motor racing are coming up as new attractions for the urban youth who are going to be our core consumers. We must tap them. For the rural people, the advertisement must be functional and address their day-to-day needs.’ Kumar was so self-confident and imposing that he had several clashes with Vinod. The two could be contained only because Kishore had a knack to bring them back on track. Kishore did not advance any new idea, but kept the group together. ‘One thing was very striking about Kishore’, Ratanam recalled, ‘he always looked to him for approval and appreciation’. Ratanam also had a nagging feeling that Kumar had a personal agenda. He felt that perhaps he was hoping to jump to the Verizon bandwagon should ElectroFast opt for some kind of alliance or even otherwise. Ratnam repeated to himself, ‘What should I do? How do I get these boys out of their groove and make them do some real brainstorming? Do I ask them reverse role playing? Or do I pick up younger ones? How do I make them communicate more effectively?’

Step 2 Imagine that you are Ratanam. How will you pre-empt any conflict among the members, keep the group cohesive and creative, and make decisions for turning around the market share of ElectroFast mobile phones. Step 3 Share individual modes of resolving conflicts and creating cohesive and creative groups with the rest of the class/group.

NOTE 1. There are stories of supreme self-sacrifice in Indian mythology. A saint, Dadhichi, donated his bones so that the gods scould manufacture weapons to defeat the demons. King Shiba gave away his body, piece by piece, to a vulture in order to save a bird, which the vulture had claimed as his food.

8

Teamwork


Show how teams are a special form of groups. Discuss how integrating diversity of resources is critical for effective teamwork. Describe why multinational, cross-functional, and departmental teams vary in complexity. Argue why Indian teams need to be vertical in structure. Suggest ways to build effective teams.

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GENESIS OF TEAMWORK

A

lthough human beings have learnt the hard way that working together is often more effective than working alone, the importance of teams was first established through research in the coal mines of Britain immediately after the Second World War. As described in Chapter 1, when a number of interrelated tasks were clustered together and assigned to a group of workers who were autonomous in planning, supervising, and performing the tasks, they performed better and were more satisfied. Later on, the idea of autonomous teams spread to the Scandinavian countries and proved to be more successful there than in the place of its origin. A management guru, Joseph Juran, introduced this team approach to Japanese organizations where it assumed the nomenclature of quality control circles (QCCs). Japanese culture was so conducive to teamwork that it was an instant success to the extent that it was brought back to American organizations in the 1980s to fight back the Japanese competitive edge (Hart 1996; Yarborough 1993). Most large organizations in the world, today, tend to work in teams. Johnson (1996) in a study of Fortune 1,000 companies in the early 1990s, for example, found that almost all used project teams (managers or employees from cross-functional areas working on specific projects for defined, but extended period of time), 87 per cent of them had parallel teams (employees working on problem solving or quality enhancing teams parallel to formal work groups), and about half of them had formed quality teams (self-contained autonomous work groups). The universal popularity of QCCs and total quality management (TQM) further highlighted the importance of working through teams. Box 8.1 Genesis of Teamwork The importance of teamwork became apparent as a result of socio-technical analysis conducted in the United Kingdom, from where it moved to the Scandinavian countries. Thereafter, it travelled to Japan and took the form of QCCs. Its success in Japan brought it to the United States where it was tried out in a large number of organizations.

TEAMS AND GROUPS Teams are a special form of groups. Just like groups, teams are composed of two or more people who get together and interact to achieve some shared goals and objectives within a time frame. Yet, teams differ from groups in the quality of interactions, their structural details, and the degrees of effectiveness in achieving their goals and objectives. Thus, teams are indeed better structured and more effective in their performance than groups. Hence, group characteristics may be attributed to teams, but the teamsÊ characteristics are not always applicable to groups. Katzenback and Smith (1993) listed the following differences between groups and teams: 1. Work groups have a clearly identifiable leader while teams have virtually collective leadership.

Teamwork

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2. Work groups have individual accountability. Teams have both individual and collective accountability. Team members have differentiated roles, but they work collectively to produce better results. 3. Work groupsÊ purpose is the same as that of the organization; but teams have specific purposes. 4. Work groups have individually identifiable products while teams have collective products. 5. Work groups have more structured and formalized patterns of interactions while teamsÊ interactions are more unstructured and problem oriented. 6. The effectiveness of work groups is measured indirectly through other indices of organizational effectiveness. But teamsÊ effectiveness is measured directly with reference to the specific purposes assigned to them. 7. Both work groups and teams discuss and decide about work, but the former delegates work to individual members while the latter accomplish it collectively. Long back, McGregor (1960) delineated the following characteristics of effective work teams: 1. The atmosphere within teams is informal, relaxed, and comfortable getting the members quite involved and interested in the team. 2. Teams have lots of free and frank discussions in which all members participate. If the discussion is digressed, members feel free to bring it back on the track. 3. The task or objective is well understood and owned by the members. 4. Members listen to each other, every idea is given a hearing, and members feel comfortable in placing any idea without being afraid of looking stupid. 5. Members are free to disagree. Disagreements are not suppressed, but there is no Âtyranny of the minorityÊ. 6. Most of the decisions are reached by consensus. 7. Criticisms are frequent, frank, and are taken in good faith. 8. Members remain open without having Âhidden agendaÊ that could be inconsistent with team agenda. 9. When action is taken, clear assignments are made and accepted. 10. The team leader works through teams without imposing his views. 11. Teams are self-conscious of their operations, monitor their functioning, and take remedial actions, if necessary. In other words, effective teams have both clearly focused task orientation as well as cooperative relationships. Members remain highly motivated to accomplish the task and manifest high cohesiveness that does not drift into groupthink. Ineffective teams, on the other hand, manifest the following features (Dyer 1987): 1. Domineering leader. 2. Warring cliques or subgroups. 3. Unequal participation by members.

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Box 8.2

Factors Facilitating Teamwork

A review of a variety of teams disclosed that effectiveness of teams depends on the following: Ć Ć Ć Ć

Very careful selection of team members. Willingness to drop those who do not consistently perform. A leader who supports and builds confidence in team members. Managing stress from pressure to perform that might cause membersÊ burn-out.

Source: Harvard Business Review, September 2005, p. 42.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Uneven use of resources. Rigid or dysfunctional norms and procedures. A climate of defensiveness or fear. Uncreative alternative solutions to problems. Restricted communications. Avoidance of differences for fear of conflicts.

DIVERSITY–CONSENSUS DILEMMA The most crucial features that distinguish effective from ineffective teams are the extent to which the members bring in variety of diverse perspectives, values, beliefs, skills, and experiences, and are still able to converge and integrate them resulting in a consensus regarding how the team will make collective efforts. Evidence shows that diversity in personality, attitudes, and gender among team members improve the quality of decision-making and problem solving by the team (Jackson et al. 1995); but only if the team can still manage to arrive at a consensus. The factors that lead to a consensus reside either in the membersÊ shared perspective and commitment, or the nature of a problem that requires concerted collective efforts, or the organizational norms that give freedom to the expression of diverse views, but expect members to narrow them down finally in the form of an agreed way to address a problem. Because of the consensus, members own the decision, put in their best, show best results, and become more positive about each other. However, it is not always easy or feasible to have the cake and eat it too. That is, the greater the diversity, the more difficult it is to arrive at a consensus (Argote and MacGrath 1993). Ilgen, LePine, and Hllenbeck (1997) observed that: [The diversityăconsensus dilemma] occurs when teams need diverse personnel with a wide range of talents, skills, personal experiences, and different perspectives and also need people who can form a common perspective and work together, resolve conflicting viewpoints, and agree upon and carry out a common plan of action. Needs for both diversity and consensus create a true dilemma because the advantages of diversity are almost always purchased at the cost of consensus, and vice versa. (Ilgen et al. 1997: 386)

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The dilemma particular gets serious with respect to three crucial aspects in solving a problem or accomplishing a task: 1. Defining the problem: Different members may hold diverse perspectives that may not allow the team to agree on what exactly the problem is and how to search for solutions. While discussing causes of low performance, for example, the members of a team may have different views on whether outdated technology, poor incentives, lack of skills, unsupportive behaviour of superiors, or other factors are the real culprits. Conversely, a strong urge to have a consensus, particularly under time constraints that are typical in most work situations, may prematurely narrow down to a superficial view of the problem or an easy solution. The team members may jump to a conclusion attributing the cause of a problem to an outside factor, for example, inadequate incentives suggesting that the management revise the compensation system. An effective team, however, examines all diverse views thoroughly and lets them converge in order to indentify membersÊ consensus on the best way to go about solving the problem. 2. Sharing information: Sharing information hits barriers because of the diversity among the members. There are three ways in which diversity has negative effects. First, divergent perspectives lead to a search for information that may prove to be distractive. The members may shift blame on others or outside factors (for example, poor incentives). Second, the members may hesitate to express ideas and bring in the information that they are afraid would be unacceptable to the team (for example, their poor skills). Third, divergent information is a power that some members might wield by withholding it and thereby putting others at a disadvantage. In order to counterbalance these effects, the team members, either on their own or at the instance of the organization, must hold views that explicitly appreciates sharing all relevant as well as seemingly irrelevant information that can be retained and integrated or rejected after due diligence. 3. Managing conflicts: This becomes problematic when diversity increases and members start imputing extraneous intentions and rubbing each other the wrong way. Members need to learn to live with differences in order to cooperate and collaborate to accomplish tasks and realize goals. This is made possible by building into the team the realization that conflicting views are to be separated from conflicting egos and that real teamwork lies in transcending ego hangs up and constructively building on differences. Integrating diversity of perspectives, values, beliefs, skills, and work habits into purposive and goal-directed concerted efforts depend partly on (a) the extent of diversity and its relevance for teamwork, (b) organizational support to team-building, (c) clear organizational norms favouring convergence, and (d) cultural values that are conducive to teamwork. Hollenbeck et al. (1995) postulated that there are three factors that mediate the relationship between the diverse characteristics of team-makers and team effectiveness: Team informity, staff validity, and hierarchical sensitivity. 1. Team informity means the extent to which a team shares information relevant to the task and gets that information to the person who needs it to make well-informed decisions.

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2. Staff validity manifests the quality of decisions that the individual team members take. 3. Hierarchical sensitivity is the extent to which team leaders are sensitive to the membersÊ task-relevant information, skills, and experiences, which can be pooled together to make good decisions. Box 8.3

Conflicts are Not Always Bad for Teams

ÂContrary to popular myth, great teams are not characterized by an absence of conflict. On the contrary, one of the most reliable indicators of a team that is continuously learning is the visible conflict of ideas. In great teams, conflict becomes productive . . . The free flow of conflicting ideas is critical for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on his own. Conflict becomes, in effect, part of the ongoing dialogue. On the other hand, in mediocre teams, one of the two conditions usually surrounds conflict. Either, there is an appearance of no conflict on the surface, or there is rigid polarization. In the smooth surface teams, members believe that they must suppress their conflicting views in order to maintain the team·if each person spoke her or his mind, the team would be torn part by irreconcilable differencesÊ (Senge 1990: 249).

The three factors basically refer to the processes through which teams can retrieve diverse human resources, integrate them, and come up with better decisions and solutions of problems. The extent of diversity and teamsÊ capability to handle them constructively depend on a host of factors. For example, teams within a department generally have less diversity than cross-functional teams within an organization. Organizations too differ on the extent to which they promote free and frank expression of ideas and cooperative efforts by putting in place a reinforcement system (see Exercise 1, this chapter). Certain cultures foster while others discourage teamwork by putting a premium on either cooperative collective or individualistic and competitive ways of relating with each other.

CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON TEAMWORK Natural Homes for Teamwork Scandinavian Culture As stated earlier, teams found a natural home in the Scandinavian countries. The Volvo experiment is a classic example of how self-managed teams could be a grand success (Scarborough 1998). Scarborough examined the cultural components that fostered the success of teamwork: Scandinavians are the most homogeneous people in Europe. They are also the most democratic of people anywhere. Participative decision-making is very much the norm and the Scandinavian workplace is the most democratic in the world . . . Scandinavians are delegators, comfortable with flat structures and are very apt to challenge the boss. They

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enjoy social ties in the workplace, and successful performance bears social importance and reflects directly on individual identity and acceptance by peers . . . (Scarborough 1998: 227ă28) Other scholars supported Scarborough (1998) observing that Scandinavians tend to work together towards common goals, compromise and negotiate to arrive at decisions acceptable to all concerned, delegate authority, and hear everybody concerned before arriving at a decision (Schramm-Nielsen and Lawrence 1998: 17). They are highly individualistic as well as egalitarian. A popular Scandinavian saying is that ÂI am not superior to anyone, nor is anyone superior to me.Ê The egalitarian values depress individual competitiveness and emphasize consensus and cooperation. Naturally then, open conflicts are avoided (Lawrence 1982). In such a cultural setting, consensus takes time, but once it is arrived at, implementation becomes quick and effective.

Japanese Culture Japanese culture is another natural home for teamwork. Although Japanese culture presents a contrast to the Scandinavian culture, people indeed work through groups that tend to function more as teams rather than sheer groups. Japanese culture is high on collectivism and power distance. Age, length of service, and seniority of individuals are indeed recognized; but not their specific roles and responsibilities in the organization. Except for top positions, there is no statutory requirement to give specific titles to individuals in order to identify them. Each group does have a head, but the position is based not entirely on technical competence, but on seniority and capability to maintain group harmony and to mobilize resources from whoever in the group has them in order to come up with the best solution. The head enjoys unconditional loyalty and obedience of the group members who remain available should the head feel the need to get ideas and suggestions from them. Assertiveness and individuality are discouraged, sharing and cooperation are encouraged, and technical sophistication is often subjugated to dedicated performance. Weak members are supported and their weakness covered up in order to show the groupÊs performance. The head spends a lot of time with the group members, identifies talents even in among the junior members, and enables them to contribute to the group without disturbing the seniority and age-based hierarchy. Although group members do not disagree in public, they discuss the issues frankly, and let a consensus arise. In other words, the success of Japanese groups lies in the teamwork that the leaders are able to realize by forging harmonious relationships among the group members (J. B. P. Sinha 1990: 199). As a result, Âa task is performed by a group, not by individual and the responsibilities are consequently shared by the entire groupÊ (Yoshino 1968: 202).

Comparative View of the Scandinavian and Japanese Cultures A comparative view of the Scandinavian and Japanese cultures highlights the different reasons why these two contrasting cultures foster teamwork. Scandinavian culture reflects the liberal European

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tradition arising out of economic, technological, and industrial advancements that resulted in a welfare society where individuality, freedom, participation, and pragmatism are the core values. Gender participation, for example, is the highest in the Scandinavian countries. Hence, individuals join or form teams, participate on equal terms, remain rooted in their own independent assessment of an issue, but conform to the norm of agreeing on the merit of the arguments in order to arrive at a consensus, and, once a consensus is reached, to work diligently to accomplish the task. The core component of teamwork is the task, which is accomplished through rationally guided participative work. For the Japanese, in contrast, working through teams is a survival need. According to Scarborough (1998), homogeneity of population, long isolation from the rest of the world, persistent demand of the rice culture, lack of natural resources, natural disasters, foreign invasions, and so on have created a strong imperative to join together and work through teams. They have realized the instrumentality of teamwork the hard way. The QCCs, for example, were formed out of the workersÊ anxiety about losing their jobs unless the quality of their performance was the best with zero defect products and services. Employees at a work station voluntarily form QCCs to monitor their performance and to continuously undertake quality-improving measures (Onglatco 1988: 15) in order to ensure the best performance as well as to have a sense of self-worth. Similarly, another Japanese management tool, TQM, was also implemented through teams.

Different Nature of Teams Because of the different reasons for working through teams, the Scandinavian and Japanese teams are different in nature. Scandinavian teams are horizontal where members believe they are equal, communication is multi-directional, and the leader is largely a facilitator and arbitrator. Japanese teams are mainly vertical where the leader takes the initiative to identify and mobilize membersÊ resources, sustain teamwork, and is responsible for outcomes. NakaneÊs (1970) description of Japanese team structure is given in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1

Source: Nakane (1970).

Japanese Team Structure

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American Teams Japanese success in working through QCCs instigated American interest in forming teams (Ouchi 1981). Davis and Taylor (1972) conceptualized a combination of semi-autonomous teams with the requirements of job design. Wellins, Byham, and Dixon (1994) reported 20 world-class organizations functioning primarily through teams. Lawler, Mohrman, and Ledford (1992) surveyed 313 American organizations to find that they were increasingly using teams to get better performance. There was a strong trend to design organizations as overlapping teams in order to compete with the Japanese. However, a survey by A. T. Kearney disclosed that nearly seven out of 10 teams failed to produce desired results (Gupta 2002). Management guru, Peter Drucker (1995), found that, although highly valued by American organizations, teams were not giving Âoverly impressiveÊ results. The pioneers of introducing team structure in their organizational designs such as Ford Motor, General Motor, Proctor & Gamble either failed to get the desired results or relapsed into individually-centred performance. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) examined 4,500 teams in 500 organizations to find that teamwork was not quite effective. Nahavandi and Aranda (1994) concluded that, despite many success stories, teams were not as successful in American organizations as they were in Japanese organizations. They pointed out the following reasons: 1. Strongly entrenched cultural belief that performance improves through individual ingenuity, creativity, and hard driving behaviour. 2. Primacy of individual rights and independence over conformity and interdependence. 3. Competitive and confronting orientation that overrides cooperative and harmony seeking behaviour. 4. Distrust of power and hierarchy in the minds of people for those in the authority. 5. A historical orientation to focus on individual efforts to achieve quick results. 6. Impatience for slow, steady, and incremental progress. 7. Demographic diversity and heterogeneity that defies fusing into teams. Kirman and Shapiro (1997) support the view that American individualism deters individuals from dissolving their individuality in teams. Scandinavians are also individualists, although less than Americans (Hofstede 1980). The two cultures differ more sharply on power distance. According to Triandis and Bhawuk (1997), ÂSwedes do not like to be unique, in contrast to the kind of [American] individualists who want to be distinguished or uniqueÊ (1997: 19) that constrains their teamwork.

Indian Scenario Indian cultural context is relatively more complex. Indian culture is indeed very high on power distance and moderately high on collectivism (Hofstede 1980; Roland 1988; Sinha 2004; among others. See Chapter 2 for details). It is a vertical collectivist culture (Triandis and Bhawuk 1997). This combination brings it closer to Japanese culture. There is, however, a difference. Indian culture also contains a set of individualistic beliefs, values, and action orientations. Thus, depending on

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the situation, Indians either oscillate between collectivist and individualist modes of behaviour, or use collectivist means to realize individualist goals and interests or vice versa (Sinha et al. 2001b; Sinha et al. 2002). Because of the vertical nature of collectivism, Indian teams are also vertical teams like those of the Japanese. Yet, there is a difference. Because of individualism coexisting with collectivism, Indian team members simultaneously think of their individual interests that, unlike the Japanese, prevent them from fusing into the teams. If the team leader maintains a familial in-group ethos in the team, the members manifest team spirit. Ideally, the superiorăsubordinate relationships are bonded by affectionădeference (snehăshradhha) where the superior remains warm, caring, and mentors the juniors while the subordinates reciprocate by being loyal, respectful, and obedient. Such vertical solidarity is the basis of teamwork. However, if the leader succumbs to his individualistic impulses and seeks personal goals, the team members too, while maintaining the façade of a team, serve their own interests at the cost of the teamÊs interests. Thus, teams in Indian organizations are continually vulnerable, unless efforts, particularly on the part of the team leader, are made to gel the members into the team. Box 8.4

Whom Do People Prefer: Competent Jerks or Lovable Fools?

ÂPersonal feelings played a more important role in forming work relationships·not friendship at work but job-related relationships·than is commonly acknowledged. They were even more important than evaluations of competenceÊ (Cassciaro and Lobo 2005: 94).

Under Western influence, Indian organizations have clearly defined roles and positions resulting in the prominence of formal groups. Teams are also formed along formal lines. Hence, departmental teams are more frequently formed than project or parallel teams. Yet, individualistic strands often lead Indians to establish informal but strong bonds bypassing the line of authority or departmental boundaries. Further, the superior of an immediate superior in certain cases may extend patronage to the latterÊs subordinate who too may strive to get close to him. This erodes the total control of the immediate superior on his team members. A visual display of the complex pattern of interpersonal relationships in Indian organizations is given in Figure 8.2. Figure 8.2

Indian Group Structure

Notes: TM means team members. Solid lines show formal relations and broken lines show informal relations.

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Figure 8.2 shows the nature of departmental teams where the head of one department extends influence to a team member within his own department as well as to the team leader and one of his members in another department. Such instances erode team spirit. Teamwork based on in-groups rather than work groups are hazardous on two counts. First, in-groups in the largely collectivist Indian culture are likely to marginalize out-group members and discriminate against them. If an in-group continues to hold a central power position in an organization, it can run the organization, but at the cost of alienating a large number of those who are not part of the in-group. Second, those who are marginalized form their own in-groups to counteract the domineering influence of the centrally-placed in-group. The result is a number of cliques and factions competing for serving sectarian interests that are at cross-purpose with organizational objectives. Indian organizations have been victims of such infighting (Ganesh 1982; R. K. Gupta 2002). The problem is aggravated in large organizations that invariably draw their employees from different parts of the country. IndiaÊs population is so heterogeneous in its demographic composition that teams of homogeneous members are unthinkable.

TYPES OF TEAMS Teams can be as diverse as the tasks that are to be performed by them. There can be a small team of twoăthree people focused on a very specific issue of, say high rate of attrition in the company, or a very large team of about 60 persons to Âhelp set Afghanistan on the path to reconstruction and developmentÊ in a short time. There could be a task that can take months like the task of developing a new product as well as tasks such as those faced by fire fighters or policemen where there is no opportunity to discuss options, but only time enough to act in a disciplined and coordinated way with each team member sharing the concern of all other members (Harvard Business Review, JulyăAugust 2005: 41ă50). Teams vary in the degree of diversity among members, immediate organizational environment, and the strategies that can be adopted to make them work effectively. From this perspective three types of teams stand out: 1. Departmental teams. 2. Cross-functional teams. 3. Multicultural teams.

Departmental Teams Teams are formed within a department to focus on a priority area that is critical for improving performance, solving specific problems, coming up with new ideas, or competing with other departments in comparable activities. Because of the highly pluralistic nature of Indian culture and the policy of most large Indian organizations to hire people from all over the country, departmental teams in Indian organizations are not quite homogeneous. Employees differ in their language,

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religion, castes, age, gender, and stereotypical perceptions of people coming from different states of the country. However, departmental teams still have less diversity than cross-functional and multicultural teams because of the following reasons: 1. Homogeneous cluster of tasks: Departments generally have a relatively more homogeneous cluster of tasks that require complementary skills and work styles. Sales, marketing, personnel, research and development (R&D), finance, production, and maintenance, for example, are differentiated in terms of job descriptions and required skills and experiences. 2. Own subculture: Departments generally have their own subculture that fosters similar values, beliefs, and work practices, which generally reduce individual differences in working and relating with each other. The members of a department know each other and share a common perspective on how to define a problem or an issue, how to search for relevant information, and come to a consensus. Broadly speaking, people in finance, for example, are cost conscious, those in R&D are creativity oriented, those in production are technocratic, those in human resource development (HRD) are people oriented, those in sales are assertive, and so on. 3. Clearly defined authority structure: Departments have a clearly defined authority structure that helps regulate interaction patterns in order to arrive at consensus and to implement decisions more readily. Superiors can help the team sharpen its focus, relieve the members from the anxiety of being wrong, arbitrate and reduce interpersonal conflicts, and protect the members from other departmentsÊ criticisms. Quality Central Circles are an example of departmental teams. The origin and effectiveness of QCCs in Japanese organizations has been discussed earlier. Indian organizations too have experimented with QCCs, some reporting a positive impact. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), for example, claims to have effectively introduced QCCs with good results (Business Today, 20 November, 2005, pp. 106ă109). Tata Steel formed QCCs in 1983. By the year 2003, 95 per cent of its workers were involved in 5,500 QCCs that solved over 1,400 problems. As a part of its modernization process, Tata Steel adopted the Juran technique for forming QCCs that focused on quality planning, control, and improvement. They aimed to achieve a breakthrough by creating positive changes as well as by controlling unproductive work habits of the workers (Sinha and Mohanty 2004). The success of QCCs in Tata Steel is credited to the support that the management provided by forming a Joint Works Quality Committee at the divisional levels and the Quality Council at the corporate level. As stated, the success of QCCs in Japan is credited to the organizational support given to them. Tata Steel subsequently created project teams under the nomenclature of continuous improvement projects (CIPs) that by the year 2002ă2003 completed 68 per cent of 9,011 improvement projects in the areas of production of steel, corporate services, finance, human resource management (HRM), and management services (Sinha and Mohanty 2004: 97). The experience of Tata Steel suggests that departmental teams supported by the management can go a long way to improve the effectiveness of the organization.

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Cross-functional Teams Organizations form cross-functional teams by drawing personnel from different functional areas, departments, or divisions. Such teams are formed because of the following reasons: 1. A multi-faceted problem: A cross-functional team may be formed when a problem or project at hand is such that it does not fall in the domain of a single department or division. For example, developing a new product or designing a new service requires the involvement of a number of departments. Modern organizations are such that the majority of their issues concern more than one department or division. 2. Complex requirements: Issues facing organizations are often complex enough to require diverse skills, experiences, and perspectives that can be pooled together only by drawing persons from different departments or divisions. Developing a new project or service requires the involvement of not only the R&D department, but also production engineers, marketing people, among others, to examine its various stages from design to delivery to users. 3. Bureaucratic basking: Often problems need to be addressed and decisions are to be made without getting trapped in bureaucratic delays. The competitors might also be angling for floating a similar product or service and the company that can hit the market first can have the advantage of head start. Hence, sequential procedure from R&D through production engineering to marketing and back and forth may be self-negating. 4. Diversity breeds creativity: Many organizations believe that getting team members from diverse background to interact will make them come up with greater creativity, innovation, and quality decisions leading to a more effective work culture in the organization. The advantages of having diverse resources, however, interfere with the process of cultivating team spirit. Some of the constraints are the following: Ć Hangover of departmental culture causing multiple allegiance that can either depress team spirit or neglect departmental line of authority, or both, having negative consequences. Ć Individuals from different departments have different modes of functioning and integrating their modes of functioning might be time consuming. Ć It is difficult to shift from individual-centred personnel policies to team-centred ones in many organizations. Despite the difficulties in forming cross-cultural teams, modern organizations have to manage complex issues that can be effectively handled only through such teams. Hence, cross-functional teams are indispensable. Sinha (2004) showed how an Anglo-American corporation was functioning effectively through cross-functional teams. The Anglo-American corporation in India had inculcated the culture and philosophy of the parent company to work through teams. Accordingly, crossfunctional teams were formed whereby personnel from the human resources (HR) department served as facilitators. The corporation evolved systems and procedures to facilitate teamwork. Managers

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were required to share information and support each other to function smoothly. The open office and email facilities enabled them and their staff to interact face-to-face and meet freely without any time loss (Sinha 2004: 122). In sum, the success of cross-functional teams lies in retrieving task-relevant information from individual team members drawn from diverse departments, providing them supportive systems and procedures to process information and interact with each other, and organizational support to function through teams.

Multicultural Teams Multicultural teams are formed by drawing members from different cultures varying in their background, values, beliefs, and practices. As organizations cross their national boundaries and start operations at the international level, they have an imperative to work though multicultural teams for the following major reasons: 1. Glocal perspective: For multinational organizations with operations in dispersed locations, it is imperative that instead of having mono-cultural teams where, for example, Europeans work in Europe designing a product for Europe and Americans at work in North America designing a product for North Americans, to form teams of individuals from all those locations where the company has major operations (Ilgen et al. 1997). Multinational and transnational organizations adopt a glocal strategy where the overall perspective remains global, but the applications are managed locally. In order to have global perspective, inputs from various locations are indispensable. 2. Interdependence in relationships: Internationalization of organizational activities result in interdependence of relationships between units (Birkinshaw and Hood 1998; Ghosal and Bartlett 1990; Rugman and Verbeke 2001) whereby they gain competitive advantage by allowing each unit to learn from its unique environment and share its knowledge among the multinational network. Multicultural teams are the natural vehicles to serve this purpose in a much better way than mono-cultural teams. 3. A geo-political imperative: There is also a geo-political imperative to draw managers from all those locations where multinational and transnational companies operate in order to show their sensitivity to the demands of the government and society, and thereby to gain legitimacy for their operation (Ilgen et al. 1997). Because of these imperatives, multinational and transnational organizations do form multicultural teams. Even Indian organizations tend to form such teams. They import advance technology that is installed by a team from the country exporting the technology. The local managers have to work with expatriates during the installation and commissioning of new plants and machines. Tata Steel, like all other large Indian companies, has a long experience of having such multicultural teams (Sinha and Mohanty 2004).

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However, it is not always easy or effective to function through multicultural teams. They share all the diversities that the departmental and cross-functional teams have, in addition to the cultural differences that compound the complexities in developing a team mental model·a common view of the task and the problems shared by all members of the team (Orasanu and Salas 1993). ÂDifferent cultural orientations on masculinity, power distance, uncertainty, and individualism are likely to interact differently with team building methodsÊ (Ilgen et al. 1997: 395). Not only do the members carry different cultural orientations, but they also differ in their perception of each other, which moderates how they function and relate with each other. The greater the cultural difference, the more difficult it is to function in multicultural teams. Danish managers, who are quite low on power distance and quite high on individualism, for example, experience much more difficulties while working with Indians than do Koreans and Japanese, who are high on both power distance and collectivism. This was probably the reason why the Danish multinational·Hilton Roulunds· left the entire Indian management to an Indian managing director and his team whereas both the Korean subsidiary and the Indo-Japanese joint venture had expatriates who worked along with Indians (Sinha 2004). Similarly, a subsidiary of a Swedish multinational organization in India was run by Indians save one Swedish manager who was involved with e-business.

Cultural Differences As stated earlier, cultural differences appear in conceptualizing a problem or a task, going about collecting information, and resolving interpersonal conflicts that affect teamwork (Ilgen et al. 1997). Western expatriates, for example, tend to introduce a variety of products to expand the market share on the assumption that the variety creates new desires while a majority of Indians prefer to live with less variety of products, but prefer to have products at more cost-effective prices. There are also differences in searching for solutions of a problem. The Japanese, for example, go to the root cause of a problem even if it takes longer to initiate actions to solve it, but the Koreans prefer to start on the first feasible solution and try another only when the first does not work. Indians are reported to seek much more information than their Western counterparts before they feel comfortable about making a decision (Kumar 2004). Kumar also reported that Indians are idealistic in their search for perfect solutions contrary to people in the West who are more practical and pragmatic. The Chinese too are reported to be more pragmatic and practical than Scandinavians (Worm 1997). There are also differences in tolerating ambiguity. The Chinese (Lin 1997) and Indians (Sinha 2005) can tolerate greater ambiguity than people in the West. In case of differences, Americans tend to confront them while Indians prefer to sweep them under the carpet unless they are too glaring and refuse to lie low (Sinha 1995). Multicultural teams consisting of members having such discrepant orientations are likely to create more problems than other types of teams. Lest cultural deterrents to teamwork be blown out of proportion, it should be pointed out that multicultural teams can still be formed and made to function effectively by carefully identifying the salient areas where the members can converge and manifest a team mind model. Chao, OÊLearyKelly, Wolf, Klein, and Garderner (1994) delineated six areas that can be examined separately to see

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the possibility of critically minimum points of convergence that can ensure effective teamwork. They are the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Performance proficiency: High priority to better performance. Relationships: High importance attached to working through relationships. Politics: Less importance to the struggle for personal and sectarian power. Language: Common language understood and spoken by members. Organizational goals and values overriding personal needs and interests. History of inter-cultural exchanges: Members of different cultural background working together.

Sinha (2004) reported that Indian managers in a Korean subsidiary were unhappy with the KoreansÊ insensitivity to IndiansÊ preference to form positive bonds, their insistence that all must exercise together and shout productivity-related slogans, and to some extent their excessive emphasis on total cleanliness and absolute punctuality. Yet, the majority believed that the Indians and Koreans worked as good team members and had an understanding of each other. The rallying points were total commitment to work performance, rigorous training for collective efforts, and adequate incentives to those who performed well. In sum, the minimum requirements for effective multicultural teamwork consist of (a) a strong focus on the task and supportive conditions with (b) a reasonable amount of understanding and acceptance of cultural differences. However, teams are likely to function even more effectively as more and more content areas are brought under a shared perspective.

BUILDING TEAMS IN INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS First of all, it is not necessary to get all organizational work done through teamwork. Unlike Japanese organizations, Indian organizations invariably have clearly defined roles and positions. Systems and procedures to hire, place, appraise, and compensate employees are individualistic in nature. Management education is by and large Western in its content and methods of teaching drawing primarily on Western individualism. Although Indians are largely collectivists, they have deeply enshrined strands of individualism that are triggered at the workplace. Hence, Indian organizations are not known for teamwork (Gupta 2002). Unless the tasks are complex enough to require collective efforts, diverse skills, experiences, perspectives, etc., there is no need to compulsively form teams. However, teams are indispensable in major parts of organizations. There are five critical steps that need to be taken while forming teams, irrespective of whether the team is departmental, cross-functional, or multicultural (Chaudron 1995): 1. Choose members carefully considering the task requirements in terms of skills, knowledge, experience, and so on. 2. Clearly establish the purpose of the team.

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3. Ensure that everyone understands how the team will function. 4. Conduct intensive team-building exercises so that the members learn to interact critically, analytically, as well as synthetically. 5. Achieve noticeable results within a time frame so that the members can maintain high expectancy about the success of the team. An important omission in ChaudronÊs list is the compensation for performing in teams. Unless the teams, instead of individual members, are rewarded for their performance, there is no reason to expect that the members will share their skills, information, and experiences to enrich the team. In a study of three organizations, M. W. Van Alstyne (2005) reported, ÂPeople rewarded for individual performance shared information least; people, rewarded for team performance shared more; and people rewarded for company performance shared most.Ê There are four additional Indian cultural requirements that are even more crucial in Indian organizations: 1. Given the hierarchical orientation and the large power distance in Indian culture, teams have to be vertical with a superior holding the leadership position. 2. The leader is expected to play an active role and inculcate a culture of snehăshradha (affectionă deference) relationship. He should consult, draw out the required resources from the team members, integrate them, and should be responsible for the outcomes. 3. Considering the collectivistic orientation of Indians, the team first of all needs to build up an in-group kind of sharing, supportive relationship and mutually reciprocal sacrificing orientation. 4. Considering the individualistic orientation of Indian culture, the teamÊs structure will have to be differentiated with specific roles assigned to individual members. The members, besides interacting with each other, will be accountable to the leader. Ilgen, LePine, and Hollenbeck (1997) suggest two sets of interventions that can be recast in terms of both task and relationships requirement within the Indian cultural frame for forming effective teams.

Shifting Teams towards Homogeneity Homogeneity is important in any team, but particularly so in multicultural teams that have greater diversity than mono-cultural teams. Two methods can be adopted for the purpose. 1. Selection of members having homogeneous beliefs, and values: Efforts should be made to select members who can work together. The departmental leader generally knows who in the department can work with whom. He should select members to form departmental teams. Selection of members for cross-functional teams has to be coordinated by the HR people who can carefully assess the task requirements and the required skills, experiences, beliefs, and

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values of potentially good members located in concerned departments. The HR people at the headquarters of a multinational organization can play a similar role of screening expatriates who can adjust to the Indian cultural setting and can work with Indian counterparts amicably. The HR people in their Indian operation too can select appropriate Indians who can work with the expatriates. 2. Socialization to increase homogeneity: Despite the best of efforts, it may not be possible to have team members who are sufficiently homogeneous in their beliefs and values. Hence, a programme of organizational socialization is necessary to build a team mind. The programme can focus on three dimensions: Functional, hierarchical, and inclusionary (Van Maanen and Schein, 1979). Functional socialization means the members are made to learn how to perform the task components in a coordinated way, and cooperate in such a fashion that there is no bottleneck or redundancy or wastage of efforts. Functional socialization is a necessary but not sufficient condition to build an effective team. Socialization in hierarchical relationships means that the members need to understand the authority system and accept their hierarchical positions. Indians do it spontaneously going often by seniority or positions in authority. In teams, however, hierarchical relationships should be based more on capability. Hence, the membersÊ mindset has to be shifted to accept the hierarchy based on their potential to contribute to the common task. Inclusionary dimension signifies the process of granting the out-group members the affinity of an in-group. Indians indeed have the capability to Âconvert outsider relationship to an insider one (Roland 2005: 7). There are instances of family-owned and managed organizations where a non-family member has been trusted and treated like a family member (Sinha 2005). In instances where affinity has to be cultivated, T-group method can be quite helpful (De 1984; Pareek 1988; Pareek and Rao 1982; D. P. Sinha 1985).

Shifting the Task Structure Ordinarily teams are built to address a given cluster of tasks. Hence, the tasks cannot be changed. However, there are two ways to increase the salience of tasks to the extent that the members undermine their individual interests to rally around and make collective efforts. The first is to enhance the degree of the strength of a task: Strong tasks are relatively straightforward in terms of structure, require few assumptions, and have unambiguous performance criteria. Strong situations have more standardized interpersonal interaction requirements and typically communicate those to team members. As the strength of a situation increases, so should the shared understanding concerning task requirements . . . it should be easier for people to converge on a common view of the problem. (Ilgen et al. 1997: 401) Even in instances where the task is so defined that its salience cannot be changed, it should be possible to look for ways to make the task more concrete and demanding (Ilgen et al. 1997). In a

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subsidiary of a Korean company in India, the target realization was made so sacrosanct that Indians and Koreans, despite their interpersonal differences, worked in teams (Sinha 2004). Indians are known to suppress their beliefs, values, and dispositions to conform to situational demands. Hence, if the team situations are clearly defined and made demanding, Indians are likely to function as effective team members.

SUMMARY Teams are special groups that are more focused on a task having members who behave like parts of an in-group, sharing information, relating positively with each other, and pooling their resources to come to consensus decisions that lead them to make collective efforts to accomplish the task assigned to the team. There are three major types of teams. Departmental teams address the problems faced by departments. Cross-functional teams are formed to address the issues that concern a number of departments so that the members can bring in diverse resources to come up with better solutions. Multinational organizations form multicultural teams to draw on the resources available at various locations of their operations as a part of their glocal (global in perspective and local in applications) strategy to function effectively. The essence of forming teams is integrating diverse resources for optimal results. The extent to which teams succeed depends on cultural and organizational support, selection of the right people, and adequate programmes for team-building. Indian collectivism and hierarchical orientation suggest that effective teams in Indian organizations need to have a vertical structure where the team leader plays an active role, maintains a nurturing climate, encourages members to interact freely, consults them, and makes decisions that he owns. The team members identify with the team leader and manifest a team mind.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Organizational Support to Teamwork Step 1 Each participant will assess the extent to which his/her organization has created conditions that foster teamwork. Please read each of the statements given here and circle a number that shows how often your organization supports you. You may choose any of the numbers from 1 to 7 depending on the frequency of support. 1. Do your ideas and suggestions get a fair hearing? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

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2. Is your boss interested in listening to your ideas? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

3. Do you receive encouragement to innovate on your job? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

4. Does anybody get a reward for innovating or improving things on the job? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

5. Is there encouragement for expressing diverse opinion by subordinates? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

6. Are you reluctant to tell your boss about the mistakes that you have made? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

7. Are you given enough responsibility to do your job? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

8. Do you feel that you need to be a friend or a relative of your boss for getting promotion? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

9. Are there other jobs in your organization that you would prefer to have? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

10. Do you feel that the management keeps a close watch on you? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

11. Do you feel that the management trusts you to do your job without watching your progress continuously? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

12. Do you feel that the management deals openly with confusion, disorder, and chaos in the functioning of your team? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

13. Do you feel that the organization maintains high standard of excellence? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

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14. Is your boss open to receive your opinion to improve his own performance? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

15. Does your boss have a very high standard to judge his own performance? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

16. Does the management solicit your suggestions for improving customer service? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

17. Does your boss exhibit lots of enthusiasm for the work your group is doing? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

18. Do you feel that the mistakes in this organization are to learn from, not to penalize? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

5

6

7 Always

19. Are you allowed to set your own goals? Never

1

2

3

4

20. Does the organization have clear rules and regulations for guiding your behaviour? Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Always

Source: Dyer (1987). Step 2 Note that item numbers 6, 8, 9, and 10 are negatively worded. For these statements subtract your response number from 8 to get the real score. Now add all scores. The higher the score the greater is the organizational support for teamwork.

Exercise 2: Check Your Team Spirit Step 1 Each participant will follow the instructions to express his views about himself. Instructions: A number of statements about what a person believes in, prefers, and practices are given here. Please read the statements and judge how true or false they are for you using the fivepoint scale given here. Write down your score for each statement.

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1·Quite false. 2·False. 3·Uncertain. 4·True. 5·Quite true. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 15. 17. 18. 19. 20.

I have strong likes and dislikes. I quickly judge a person and I am always right. It is better to work together than alone, even if I alone can work faster. I am a good listener. If I trust my colleagues, I am sure they too will trust me. I do not have patience for those who cannot meet deadlines. I work so fast that my colleagues have a hard time keeping pace with me. I believe that everyone has some positive qualities. I believe that if a person is given a responsibility, he will try his best to discharge it. I do not hide my differences with my colleagues. I try to sort out differences and get a consensus in my group. I always keep crucial ideas to myself for having advantage over others. I prefer to work alone than with the less competent colleagues. I hate to lose in a discussion. I believe in making compromises rather than fighting for my gains. At times I find that others in my group have better ideas than I have. If I keep agreeing in my group, nobody will take me seriously. I am known for my excellence rather than being a cooperative person. If I do not watch out, there are persons who might ditch me. I respect otherÊs right to differ from me.

Step 2 There are statements that are positively worded and there are also statements that are negatively worded for assessing your team spirit. They are as follows: Positive:

3,

4,

5,

8,

9,

10,

11,

15,

16, and 20

Negative:

1,

2,

6,

7,

12,

13,

14,

17,

18, and 19

Reverse the scores for negative items by subtracting the response number from 6 (5+1). For example, if a participant has give 4 to statement 1, his score will be 6ă4 = 2; if his response is 1, his score will be 6ă1 = 5. Add the scores (including the reversed ones) for all 20 statements. The greater your score is than 50, the stronger is your team spirit. Note: The exercise is meant for discussion and not for diagnostic purposes.

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Exercise 3: How to Demolish the Walls in the Minds of Vice Presidents! Step 1 Read the case given here: Shekharan walked to the balcony. It was a bit chilly, but crisp and clear morning. ÂIts beautiful . . . just gorgeous! The Himalayas have a golden ring from the rising sun . . . I must thank Ravi [the secretary] who found this remote cottage 20 miles off Almora.Ê He could not take his eyes off the Himalayas, but his mind drifted to the post-dinner warming up where nine vice presidents (VPs) got together for the annual retreat. As the small talks and pleasantries were running out, Shekharan decided to make his pitch: ÂGentlemen, this is not going to be a regular routine retreat. This time we have to address the problems that we donÊt see, identify the challenges that are still in the making, reach out to a destination for which we do not have a roadmap. We have to transcend our mindsets and, during the next two days, re-invent BFBPL in a way that we donÊt know how. Good night!Ê Bharat Food and Beverages Private Limited (BFBPL) was a major player since the early 1980s. It started with the portfolio of food and beverages. Later on it added soap and detergents to its product line, then personal care products, a few other assorted items, and recently ice cream. Some of its brands, particularly its chocolate brand, Fun, its health drink, Body Builder, and the toothpaste, Smile, were once the craze in the market. Its sales exceeded Rs 150 billion and the net profit was about Rs 9.20 billion on an average. Over 55,000 employees worked at 37 locations dispersed all over the country. In the intensely competitive market, BFBPL was a giant that was proud of having low but stable return on capital. But the giant was ageing. Its growth rates in sales were slowing down. In personal products, which accounted for about 15.65 per cent of its turnover, sales had dropped from 30 per cent to 20.66 per cent. Detergents and scourers, which formed 42.31 per cent of its turnover, had grown by less than 8 per cent, and its market share in ice creams was indeed growing very sluggishly. Only the processed food and fruit items were sustaining the company. Whenever Shekharan raised this problem, the counter arguments would start pouring in: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Excise duty has increased. Consumer prefers low-priced over premium brands. It is a passing problem. The rising middle class will soon be running after our brands. Unscrupulous small competitors are snipping at us; but are insignificant in the long run.

They all pertained to external factors and forces or something that was temporary and would pass soon. No attempt was ever made to see what was wrong inside the organization nor was any attempt made for a kayakalp (transformation) of the organization. Shekharan toyed with a number of cures that he often noted mentally: 1. Hive-off low productive units and stick to core competencies. 2. Launch massive technology replacement to overhaul the units.

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3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.


Voluntary retirement scheme to get rid of about half of the fat. A major outsourcing drive that could cut costs significantly. Aggressive acquisitions internationally to move up the value chain. Tightening work discipline. Hire a consultant to match job and employees to have a better fit. Expanding new products. Reaching out to search for fortune at what Prahalad calls Âthe bottom of the pyramidÊ. Launching aggressive publicity campaigns. Pushing the smaller players out of the market. Turning this huge organization into profit centres. Streamlining supply and distribution channels.

He was not sure where to start and how to prioritize. He wondered: ÂMaybe I shall let the group come up with a consensus and its collective ownership. But first I have to demolish the walls in their mindset. On the surface they are polished and friendly, but are actually preoccupied with protecting their own turf. They must first unfreeze, think collective, and reformulate a strategy that can leverage the company. How do I go about it without imposing on them?Ê

Step 2 Let each member of the group/class assume that he is Shekharan and think of a strategy that can create an effective team for suggesting a strategic approach.

Step 3 Divide the class into groups of sixăeight people and let them draw a consensus strategy and a common list of solutions.

Step 4 Let the whole group/class discuss the processes involved in team-building and the quality of decisions made by the groups.

9

Power and Politics


Distinguish power from other related concepts. Explicate the Indian perspective on power. Record the resources that make people powerful. Delineate strategies and tactics for exerting power. Relate power play with organizational politics.

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THE CONCEPTS Power, Influence, and Control

T

he concept of power is closely related to concepts such as influence, control, authority, and politics. Power is defined as the capacity to influence. The capacity may be evoked in the influence process or may remain dormant. It is not necessary that a supervisor keeps wielding his power on the shop floor or that a managing director keeps issuing directives everyday. It is said that Emperor Jahangir abdicated virtually all his power to his wife Noorjahan. Once evoked, power manifests itself in the influence process by attempting to change othersÊ thoughts, feelings, or behaviour. The influence process may turn out to be unsuccessful or successful in varying degrees or in different ways. Suppose a supervisor asks a worker to complete a piece of work before the latter leaves the work station, but the worker refuses. Here the supervisorÊs attempt to influence has failed, although the worker might be afraid of his wrath. So, there has been a change in the workerÊs feeling; but this was not the change that the supervisor had attempted to make. Only the desired change is a successful influence. Box 9.1

Power, Influence, and Control

Power is the capacity to influence. Influence is a process to change otherÊs thought, feeling or/and action. A successful influence is called control over othersÊ behaviour or their desired outcomes (fate).

Successful influence is called control. Control could be full or partial, depending on the extent to which the influence attempts are successful. Control may be of two types: Behaviour control and fate control (Thibaut and Kelley 1959), that is, control over means and end respectively. A manager may prevent his staff from taking the day off unless the task at hand is completed. An organization might promote those who perform well. These are the instances of behaviour control. However, if a head consistently gives positive or negative appraisal to a manager, irrespective of how he performs, the departmental head has fate control over him. Similarly, if an organization has a rigidly defined compensation system without any room for incentives, the organization has fate control over its employees. Power that is based on the position a person occupies in an organization is called authority. Thus, the managing directorÊs capacity to influence managers may be based on his authority, irrespective of having or not having personal qualities to exert power. Organizational charts display the lines of authority signifying who has authority over whom.

Asocial Power Attempts to influence do not always have to be directed to other persons or groups. They may be aimed at changing an object or a situation. This is asocial power and can be an indicator of a

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sense of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, as shown in Chapter 4, is central to oneÊs belief in having the capacity to cause an impact. For example, a manager fixes his car, completes a challenging project, or solves a difficult problem, and thereby feels powerful. The concept of asocial power is closely related to the concepts of personal causation·Âthe belief that one is the master of his fateÊ (deCharms 1968: 270)·and the internal locus of control (Rotter 1966)·the belief that a person has control over oneÊs acts and outcomes. While the desire to cause an impact reflects a need for power, the belief stands for the experience of having power. Box 9.2

Asocial Power

Asocial power reflects a sense of self-efficacy, personal causation (belief in being the master of oneÊs fate), and internal locus of control (expectancy of causing a desired effect by oneÊs behaviour).

Facets of Power: Need, Capacity, and Experience The need or desire for power is part of human nature. Long back, Hobbes (1657/1968, Chapter 11) observed that all mankind has Âa general inclination and a perpetual and ruthless desire for power after power that ceaseth only at death.Ê According to Nietzsche (1883ă88, Section 702), ÂWhat man wants, what every smallest part of a living organism wants, is an increase of power.Ê Later on Adler (1956) conceptualized the need for power as Âthe striving for superiorityÊ in order to overcome the feeling of deficiency or inferiority in certain domains of life.

Experience of Feeling Powerful A strong need for power generally propels one to either cause an impact on objects and situations or to influence others, or both in order to experience having power. But not always. McClelland (1975) distinguished between the Âstriving to influence othersÊ from Âthe need to feel powerfulÊ in the following way: We can conceive of a man high in power motivation [need for power] who acts in no powerful ways at all, but sits home and reads sex and adventure novels, watches boxing on television, and collects rare stamps he gloats over in private. (1975: 16)

The need to feel powerful without any urge to cause an impact or influence others often emanates from oneÊs lack of self-efficacy. That is, one wants to feel powerful, but does not think that he has the capacity. This often results in fantasizing about creating an impact or influencing and thereby experiencing being powerful. A manager, for example might want to influence his superior for getting a promotion or to discipline his truant subordinate, but cannot. He might want to have the

218


power desperately, but finds himself wanting. The discrepancy might push him to fantasize about having the power. There is a probability that he might gulp a few drinks of whiskey and feel at the top of the world while the effect of the liquor lasts. There exists evidence that drinking alcohol is associated with a strong need for power (McClelland and Wilsnack 1972). Such fantasies, that make people experience being powerful, do not last long or at best give a vicarious satisfaction to the need for power.

Social Power Social power involves the presence of real or imagined others who are being influenced. Those who feel powerful by either accomplishing difficult, strenuous or risky ventures or cultivating self-control, reading adventure novels, collecting valuables, or fantasizing about them gain a sense of selfefficacy by imagining others applauding them for their capacity to do so. However, the need for power, capacity to influence, and the experience of feeling powerful remains latent unless power is actually exercised and an impact is created (Minton 1967). Once exercised, power becomes much more social in nature. Social power manifests itself when a person validates having the capacity to influence others who too attempt to influence him. Thus, social power is reciprocal and relative to each other. XÊs attempt to influence Y simultaneously induces the latter to react either by succumbing or resisting the influence depending on their relative power and orientations to each other. In the individualistic culture of the West, people value being independent and autonomous, and so are likely to resist otherÊs attempts to influence them if they can. Thus, social power is also conceptualized as the capacity of a person to overcome the resistance of others by making them do that which they would not do otherwise. The capacity to overcome resistance is a function of power differential. The difference in the power of X over Y than the power that Y has over X amounts to the actual power of X over Y. If X has enormous amounts of power over Y, he may not have to manifest or exercise it. Y knows that he is virtually powerless and cannot resist X without being subject to even stronger retaliation. Hence, he may not even try. A subordinate, for example, does not even raise an issue that his powerful superior may not like to be raised (Bachrach and Barata 1962: 948). Sinha (2004) reported a number of instances where workers were supposedly free to air their grievances in the monthly meetings, but did not do so lest their supervisors and managers feel bad. The more powerful persons in such instances drop enough hints of possibly coming down heavily in case the less powerful persons dare to open their mouth. Such hints consist of either occasional use of power or non-verbal cues, gestures, postures, and expression of the eyes. There could be a modelling effect too. That is, if a manager finds that one of his colleagues is being subjected to strong pressure from their common boss for a certain behaviour, he too will expect a similar pressure should he indulge in such behaviour. In other words, power differential has to be supported by past instances of an effective use of power that gives

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rise to the expectancy of its use in order to get the desired impact. A more effective way of exercising power is to create a situation where the less powerful persons learn to sense what the more powerful person would like them to do and behave accordingly. Lukes (1974) observed: A may exercise power over B by getting him to do what he [B] does not want to do, but he [A] also exercises power over him [B] by influencing, shaping, and determining his very wants. Indeed, it is the supreme exercise of power to get another or others to have the desires you want them to have . . . . (Lukes 1974: 23) In other words, the process of exercising power has three levels corresponding to the degree of direct action by the power wielder: 1. X overcomes the resistance of Y, and makes him to do what Y would not do otherwise. 2. X is perceived as having such huge power over Y that Y yields without any resistance or actual attempt at influence by X. 3. Y internalizes what X desires and expects him (Y) to do and does so accordingly.

The Indian Perspective on Power In all cultures, a larger power differential results in greater influence requiring less direct efforts by the more powerful person. Further, a powerful person in all cultures employs a number of ways over a period of time to make the less powerful identify with him and to comply with his wishes on their own. The process of internalization, however, occurs somewhat differently in different cultures. In the vertical collectivist Indian culture, the internalization process is fostered during primary socialization. Children learn to obey, respect, and behave as elders expect them to do just as elders feel obliged to take care of childrenÊs needs and to mould their thoughts and behaviour for their proper development. Hence, a hierarchical asymmetrical power relationship is formed spontaneously serving the interests of both. Ideally, the sneh (affection and nurturing) of a senior or more powerful person is reciprocated with shradha (deference) of a younger one allowing the power to flow freely both ways. The less powerful persons seek guidance, influence, and inspirations from a more powerful person, thereby, acknowledging his superiority. The superior too grants them patronage and protection that lets them feel powerful in the deflected power of the superior. Power in the traditional Indian view is ideally expressed through ÂgivingÊ (daan); but ÂgivingÊ by Indian superiors, according to McClelland (1975), is a way of demanding more: Â . . . renunciation, yielding, and self-sacrifices often serve only to serve a strong urge to powerÊ (McClelland 1975: 143). McClellandÊs formulation of ÂgivingÊ as a power ploy reflects the Western theory of exchange where ÂgivingÊ obliges the recipient and, if not reciprocated, makes the latter feel indebted and, therefore,

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Box 9.3

Complex Power Relationships in the Indian Setting

Within in-groups, power flows freely guided by the snehăshradha (affection and nurturingă deference) relationship where a more powerful gives away, by making self-sacrifices, important resources to the less powerful who glow in the formerÊs deflected power. With out-group members, however, Indians exert power the way Western people do to acquire resources that they give away generously to build their in-goups and strengthen their power base. In between the two is a grey area where power dynamics manifest a mixture of the two ways.

inferior (Blau 1964). But daan in the traditional Indian view is a dharma (duty) that simply creates a social norm of giving away important resources to the deserving ones, and thereby establishing influence relationships that are bi-directional. Giving away important resources, however, is confined to in-groups. Indians compete intensely with out-group members, grab whatever resources that enhance their power, which in turn is used to corner more resources that Indians give generously to those who are close to them in order to nurture networks of in-group relationships that too add to their power and prestige. In between the two extremes of clearly accepted in-groups and recognized out-groups, there exists a grey zone where Indians deploy complex combinations of pseudo-nurturance·fake deference and ingratiating and manipulating behaviour to which we shall return later in the chapter.

Power and Politics Politics refers to the use of power to serve oneÊs own or groupÊs interests (Mayers and Allen 1977). One way to conceptualize an organization is as a Âpolitical entityÊ (Pfeffer 1992) where individuals and groups form coalitions and cliques to serve their individual and groupÊs interests by acquiring power and cornering disproportionately more resources (Nord 1978). Martin (1992) conceptualized organizations as an arena where integrative, differentiating, and fragmenting forces coexist resulting in a fierce struggle for supremacy. Ferris and Kacmar observed, Â. . . politics in organization is simply a fact of life. Personal experience, hunches, and anecdotal evidence for years have supported a general belief that behaviour in and of organizations is often political in natureÊ (1992: 93). It is, however, not always true that the personal interests that individuals and groups tend to serve by engaging in organizational politics are invariably detrimental to organizational goals and objectives. We shall return to this later in the chapter.

INTERPERSONAL POWER DYNAMICS Interpersonal power can be examined with reference to (a) the need for power, (b) the modes of expressing it, (c) the resources or bases that make individuals powerful, and (d) the strategies to exert power over others. All these are partly universal in nature and are partly conditioned by cultural influences.

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Indians’ Need for Power Earlier it was stated that the need for power is part of human nature. However, people in different cultures vary in the intensity of their need for power. Indians, compared to many other nationalities, are found to have a higher need for power (McClelland 1975; Sinha 1995). Three major factors are held responsible for attenuating IndiansÊ need for power: 1. Hierarchical world view. 2. Social comparison. 3. Poverty syndrome. Chapter 2 discussed the hierarchical world view of Indians according to which the whole cosmos and everything within it are believed to be arranged hierarchically·being superior to some and subordinate or inferior to others. As a result, Indians tend to locate themselves on the various dimensions of hierarchies by indulging in continuous comparison with others in all comparable as well as incomparable matters. People naturally find themselves superior on some dimensions and inferior on others. This results in greater salience of the need to leverage their power position where they are lacking. The poverty syndrome further accentuates the need to acquire and exert power. Poverty in India is so extreme and pervasive that even those who are not poor live in the fear of becoming poor and the fear seeps into their Âsubconscious, suppressed but not all together, to emerge in self remembered dreamsÊ (Mehta 1967: 565). Hence, they need power to grab resources in order to hedge their fear of poverty. Power helps to acquire more resources, which enhances power further. In the largely collectivist culture of India, the main sources of power are bonds of relationships with people occupying important positions having authority, skills, knowledge, and information. So, a strong need for power must lead to networking with such resource persons for bringing them into oneÊs in-group. In sum, the hard reality gives rise in the minds of Indians to a strong need for power that leads to acquiring, monopolizing, and hoarding resources by exploiting others, networking for mutual advantages, and giving resources to in-group members.

Modes of Expressing Power Both Maslow (1954) and McClelland (1970) visualized modes of expressing the need for power in a developmental framework. According to Maslow, those who are driven by lower order needs to exert power adopt more direct ways while those motivated by the need for self-actualization provide a model to others regarding how to realize oneÊs potential and claim a position of admiration. Others, as a result, tend to emulate the self-actualizing persons rendering them influential. McClelland considered social, compared to personal, ways of expressing power as more developed ways of satisfying the power need. Personal ways of satisfying the power need aims at self-enhancement by influencing others that in some cases are more likely to have negative consequences: ÂPeople

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with this personalized power concern are more apt to speed, have accidents, and get in physical fights. [Personalized power] is associated with heavy drinking, gambling, having more aggressive impulses, and collecting „prestige supplies‰ like [indicators of status and prestige such as luxurious cars, villas, etc.]. . .Ê (McClellend 1970: 36). The social way of expressing power is quite close to the concept of collective agency (Bandura 1997). It is characterized by: [A] concern for group goals, for finding goals that will move people, for helping the group to formulate them, for taking some initiative in providing members of the group with some means of achieving such goals, and for giving group members the feeling of strength and competence that they need to work hard for such goals. (Bandura 1997: 41) Later on McClelland (1975) refined this ÂselfÊ versus ÂothersÊ ways for expressing power into a twodimensional model having the ÂsourceÊ for deriving power and the ÂobjectÊ or locus of experiencing power. Thus, power may be derived from either oneÊs self or others and may be experienced by either at the personal level (self) or at the level of others. This leads to four ways of expressing the power need (see Figure 9.1). Figure 9.1

Four Modes of Expressing Power

Source: McClelland (1975).

Dependency The least developed way of experiencing power by a person is his behaviour of depending on a powerful person and thereby to glow in the deflected power of the latter. A helpless child draws power from the lap of his mother; the personal secretary of a managing director exerts power over managers because of his proximity to the managing director, although his position in the organizational hierarchy is much lower than that of the managers. It is interesting to note that Hitchock and Minturn (1963) found that Âseeking dominanceÊ was the highest and Âseeking helpÊ was the second highest need of the Khalapur children. The less powerful

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people not only depend on the more powerful ones, but they also experience power by collecting valuable things, buying luxury items (such as houses or villas, cars, diamonds, antiques, paintings, expensive dresses, etc.), getting membership of exclusive clubs, and throwing lavish parties to flaunt their affluence, and thereby experiencing a sense of power.

Self-Control Control over oneÊs impulses, habits, and behaviour makes one feel powerful. Thus, both the source and the locus of power may lie in the self. The traditional Indian preference is not to yield to oneÊs needs and desires, but to control them. Fasting, yoga, meditation, controlling breathing, and renunciation of worldly comforts make people feel that they have self-control. Instead of ÂgivingÊ (daan), it is tap (which literally means Âto burn oneselfÊ) that endows a person with tej (a glow), that makes him feel powerful.

Assertion Assertion is the most familiar way of expressing power. Earlier in this chapter, power was defined as oneÊs capacity to influence others by overcoming the resistance that they might put forth. Here, the source of power lies inside the power wielder who experiences power by making others do what they would not do otherwise. Assertion is the most manifest form of power that people deal with.

Duty When a personÊs self-concern or ego is taken out of his acts of influencing others, power becomes a duty. People identify with organizations and serve as instruments for realizing organizational goals. In the process, it is their duty to enforce work discipline, allocate roles, reward and punish, guide, direct, inspire, and so on. Such acts of influencing others give people a sense of self-satisfaction in meeting their obligations rather than the vanity of being a superior. The four modes are developmental in the sense that the people feeling weak and powerless cling around a more powerful person like creepers cling to a tree for gaining a sense of power, although they still have the lingering discomfort of being weak. Self-control is more assuring, but influencing others provides a more veridical manifestation of having power. Power in its highest form expresses itself in the service of larger entities such as a group, organization, community, nation, and mankind. The borderlines between the four modes or their hierarchical order, however, are not always clear. People shift from one mode to another or employ more than one mode simultaneously. Thus, those who draw their power from the boss also boss over subordinates or in a subtle way, render their boss dependent on them for relishing the feeling of being capable of having the shoulders to let them lean on. Those who accumulate valuables not only feel that they are privileged, but also flaunt those valuables to impress or run down the less privileged ones. Self-controlled superiors

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are perceived as more composed and influential. They do not have to throw their weight around to influence their subordinates. Further, there is a very thin line of demarcation between exerting power as part of oneÊs duty or as a means of self-gratification. There are instances of dictators who believed that they were ordained by the divine to rule their people ruthlessly. In other words, the four modes present a range of expressing power and the possibility of power in the service of a larger than personal goal.

Bases of Power While modes of power mean the ways of expressing the need for power, the bases are the resources and characteristics possessed by individuals enabling them to influence others. French and Raven (1959) delineated five bases that are still the most quoted bases of power. They are the following: 1. Coercive power is the capacity to punish, inflict pain, criticize, harass, delay, or deny what is due to individuals. 2. Reward power is the capacity to give material or non-material rewards including appreciation, recognition, inspiration, challenging assignments, and so on in order to influence others. 3. Legitimate power is vested in the authority that individuals have by way of occupying a certain position in an organization. 4. Expert power is the capacity derived from the expertise that individuals possess and can employ to influence others. 5. Referent power signifies the attractiveness of individuals resulting from their personal characteristics that make others seek out their influence and emulate their behaviour. Later on, a sixth base, informational power, was added. Informational power at times is included as part of expert power because experts have technical information. However, there are instances where a person may have information enabling him to exert power without having any expertise. He may be, for example, an intercom operator or a secretary of the managing director having access to crucial information that he might use to influence some people or some decisions. There could be other bases of power such as persuasive power and charismatic power (Greenberg and Baron 1993: 410). Persuasive power refers to the ability of a person to use facts and logic to present a case in such a way that others are convinced. Charismatic power is the capacity of a person to enthuse and inspire others to rise above their individual interests and behave as desired by the charismatic person. The bases of power are broadly categorized into personal power and positional power. Personal power includes expert, referent, persuasive, and charismatic power as they emanate from the characteristics of a person. Positional power consists of legitimate, reward, coercive, and informational power as their source is generally the position held by a person in an organization. The bases of power are differentiated for conceptual and heuristic reasons. In reality, a power holder generally evokes more bases than one. For example, the promotion of one of two equally

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deserving aspirants is a reward for one and punishment for the other. A charismatic person may also have referent power and experts are likely to be more persuasive because of their knowledge and skills to present. At times the power bases, instead of adding power, counterbalance each other. For example, rewards and punishment have greater impact only when an admired person gives them. They do not cut much ice if the person does not have expertise, referent, or positional power. The bases of power reflect a hierarchical order in terms of the following: 1. 2. 3. 4.

How unilaterally a person exerts power to influence another person. How much surveillance is needed to have that influence. How quickly the influence is mitigated. How externalized or internalized power relationships are.

The listing of the six power bases reflects a hierarchy. A more powerful person can coerce a less powerful person irrespective of whether the latter listens to him or not. A boss does not have to ask a subordinate whether he should be sacked, demoted, or given a negative appraisal. In extreme cases, the victim can only terminate, if he can, the relationship by either walking out of the situation (by, for example, getting himself transferred). But the person exerting power must keep a watch to see if his power has the desired impact. A reward, on the other hand, is reinforcing only if the recipient considers it valuable. A pay raise for a manager is not rewarding if he expects a promotion and a promotion is not rewarding to a person who wants to be transferred to a place near his home so that he can take care of his ailing parents. Legitimate power is often accepted as a reality and does not have to be manifestly exerted. Expert and information power works, but only for those who need that kind of expertise and information. Referent power is not exerted. The potential recipient seeks it out. Hence, the locus of the power process lies mostly in the recipient who does not need any surveillance. Furthermore, coercive power is much more quickly neutralized as it builds on resistance. Machiavelli (1965) in his book, The Prince, advocated that the ruler should have power to create fear in the minds of the ruled; for fear is more important than the love of the people. But the ruler has to be careful not to let the fear cause hatred that might lead to resistance, and eventually destroy the ruler. The case of the Sitapur Dairy is a pointer in this regard (see Box 9.4). Satisfaction resulting from rewards too is satiated as the recipient gets used to rewards and wants more. Incentives, for example, have to be increased in order to motivate employees. On the contrary, referent or charismatic power lasts longer, unless the angel is found to have feet of clay. Luthans (1998) integrates the bases of power with KelmanÊs (1958) processes of changing attitudes to present a contingency model consisting of bases of power, power processes, targetÊs ability to be influenced, and the required conditions that support the relationships among them (see Table 9.1). Table 9.1 shows that the bases of power, targetÊs orientations, and agentÊs characteristics and behaviour jointly determine whether the target will comply and identify with the power wielder, or agent, and behave as desired by the later, or internalize the latterÊs expectations and behave accordingly.

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Box 9.4

The Sitapur Dairy

The plant manager (PM) of the Sitapur Dairy had near absolute power over his people. He was knowledgeable, hardworking, dedicated, but also a strict disciplinarian. He was so particular about the cleanliness inside the plant and quality of products and services that no one, except the concerned employees, dared to enter the plant or come late. Whoever entered the shop floor had to take their shoes off. His bosses, the general manager and the chairman, too used to yield to him. It was reported that, Ânothing could be done in the dairy without his consentÊ. Workers and even managers were so scared of him that they would immediately become alert and pretend to be busy with their work as soon as the PM entered the campus. It so happened that some of the junior dairy operators developed certain grievances regarding anomalies in their pay scales. They approached the PM who did not listen to them. Then they met the chairman. This was taken as an act of insubordination by the PM who took immediate action against them. Two of them were suspended and the employees were asked to boycott them. He was so powerful that even the officers did not interact with the suspended operators. However, the chairman felt bad and did not approve of the PMÊs coercive style. In order to undercut the PMÊs power, he encouraged the trade union leaders to come close to him. He also appointed a new general manager and encouraged him to contain the PM. The PM fought back fiercely. The result was a long drawn out tussle for power in which the officers of the company as well as the local politicians got involved. Eventually the PM had to leave the company. Source: Reddy and Nagbrahmam (1992).

Table 9.1 Bases of Power

Contingency Model of Power Dynamics

Power Process

TargetÊs Orientations

AgentÊs Characteristics

Compliance

To gain rewards and avoid punishments

AgentÊs surveillance over target person

Identification

To establish and maintain self-satisfying relationships

Agent has to be a role model

Internalization

To go along with agent because of consistency in values

Agent must be relevant and reliable

Reward Coercive Means-end control Referent Attractiveness Expert Legitimate Credibility Source: Luthans (1998). Note: Agent is the one who exerts power and the target is the recipient of the influence.

Power Strategies 1. Power strategies are differentiated from the bases of power and tactics to influence others. Bases signify ÂwhatÊ makes a person powerful, and strategies indicate ÂhowÊ the person influences others. They both are interrelated. A particular base can lead to a range of power strategies and a

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strategy can draw on a number of bases (Ansari 1990: 109). Power strategies are plans that a person chalks out to influence others, while tactics are specific ways of influencing others. Thus, strategies are configurations of tactics. A particular strategy may consist of one or a number of tactics that a person may evoke either simultaneously or sequentially to make an effective effort to influence others. If it is one tactic in a strategy, then the tactic and the strategy are the same. Strategies are differentiated as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Strong or weak (Wilkinson and Kipnis 1978). Rational or irrational. Direct or indirect (Falbo 1977). Unilateral or bilateral (Falbo and Peplau 1980). Hard or soft (Sinha and Singh-Sengupta 1991).

A strong strategy is also likely to be direct, hard, and may be unilateral in certain cases. A soft one may be indirect but not necessarily weak in the Indian setting. The most quoted tactics are the ones that Yukle and Falbe (1990) delineated and are rephrased as the following: 1. Pressure: Demanding compliance by using threat, intimidation, creating crisis, and so on. 2. Exchange: Promising rewards or some benefits in exchange for complying with oneÊs request. 3. Coalition: Forming alliance with others in order to improve oneÊs capacity to influence a common target. 4. Upward appeal: Approaching superiors to exert influence over subordinates in order to get them to behave in a desired way or creating an impression that one has the approval of the people higher up. 5. Rational persuasion: Using logical arguments, facts, and evidence to convince that it is in the best interest of all concerned to behave in the way that is being suggested. 6. Ingratiation: Praising or behaving with a person in such a way that he likes and does what he is desired to do. 7. Consultation: Asking for ideas, suggestions, or involvement in a discussion, and thereby opening avenues for bilateral influence. 8. Inspirational appeal: Enthusing and exciting someone by appealing to them to uphold certain ideals and values and behaving in the desired fashion. Employees are reported to employ strategies that at times are single tactics and at times are a cluster of tactics (Ansari 1990). Some of the typical ones are the following: 1. Assertion, which involves asking for compliance, expressing cold anger if there is any inkling of resistance, pointing to a rule and the targetÊs obligation to follow the rules, and sticking obstinately to a position and thereby forcing the target to yield. Thus, assertion includes pressure and positional power. 2. Coalition and alliance formation is one that Indians use in those situations where they do not feel adequately powerful to influence others. Workers combine to press their supervisors and form trade unions to negotiate a favourable contract with the management. Officers too form associations to press the management. Quite often workersÊ union and managersÊ associations collude to extract benefits from their management.

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3. Exchange of benefits is again a frequently adopted tactic in Indian organizations to get compliance. Managers promise good appraisals, promotions, and undue help not only to get their subordinates to perform well but also to extend patronage to them. Both superiors and subordinates go out of their way to help each other in non-work domains in order to unduly influence each other. 4. Ingratiation means that a person praises the target person, flatters, and use words that make the ingratiated person feel good and powerful and attracted to the ingratiating person. Consequently, the ingratiated person reciprocates by giving the ingratiating person what he wants. 5. Manipulation is a part of ingratiation. However, it consists mainly of presenting information, evidence, and arguments in such way that the target person has no choice but to do what the manipulating person wants him to do. 6. Reasoning and persuading is a tactic that is included in YukleÊs list. 7. Upward appeal is also a tactic in YukleÊs list. It is more often evoked in Indian organizations because of the hierarchical orientation of Indians. Seeking a superiorÊs support to curb a defiant subordinate also involves a kind of coalition formation. 8. Threat and defiance. In a culture where personalized relationships have premium value, a superiorÊs threat to take revenge if a subordinate does not yield to him is as uncommon as defiance by a subordinate that makes a superior retreat tactfully. Neither wants a breakdown of relationship. 9. Formal sanctions are different from personalized threats and defiance as they involve organizational prerogative to mete out punishments for violating organizational norms. Ansari (1990) reported that the strategies most frequently used by Indian managers to influence their superiors were reasoning and persuasion followed by ingratiation. Tripathi (1981) found that less powerful people ingratiate the more powerful ones to extract some undue favours. Pandey (1981) also recorded a rampant use of ingratiation in Indian organizations. Juniors ingratiate their bosses more than seniors. Bosses are ingratiated more than friends or strangers. Typical ways in which Indians ingratiate themselves involve inflating the ego of the target person by attributing exceedingly positive qualities to him, denigrating themselves and posing that only he (the target) and no one else cares to help them, and simultaneously dropping names to hint that they too have connections with powerful people (see Box 9.5). Ingratiation in Western cultures is a risky venture because, if exposed, it backfires on the ingratiating person. He loses his credibility, his compliments are discounted, and he is distanced. But not in Indian culture. Ingratiation is a part of the cultural habit in the service of building personal bonds and scratching each otherÊs back. It is often said that the best way to influence others is first to get influenced. Sinha (1995) suggests a number of ways in which Indian culture creates such mutually influencing relationships: 1. A superior may nurture his subordinates in order to instill in them a sense of deference that will lead them to seek out the superiorÊs guidance, direction, and directives.

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An Ingratiation Scale

Pandey (1981) developed a measure of a personÊs orientation to ingratiate himself to others. The scale has the following dimensions and behavioural indices: Ć Other enhancement: To avoid those activities that can displease the target person and to overemphasize the target personÊs positive qualities. Ć Instrumental dependency: To impress him that only he, and no one else, can help him and to show total helplessness and dependence on the target. Ć Self-enhancement: To overplay oneÊs own qualities and achievements and to show how he too can be useful to the target person. Ć Support: To criticize those whom the target person does not like and praise those whom he likes. Ć Name-dropping: Casually mentioning that he has personal connections with powerful persons. Ć Self-presentation: To present himself in a way that the target person will like him; to avoid disagreeing with him. Ć Yielding: To disagree initially, but gradually yielding to impress the target person that the latter is capable of convincing him. Ć Conformity: To agree to whatever, even inconsistent views, the target person expresses and to seek out his opinion, views, and directions.

2. A subordinate may cultivate emotional dependency on his superior to evoke a sense of moral obligation for the latter to do what the subordinate wants or expects. 3. Two persons having near equal power might make compromises and allow themselves to be influenced by each other with a view to avoid any confrontation and loss of face. 4. Two persons having near equal power might resent each otherÊs attempts to influence, but still avoid confrontation. They may manifest simmering discontent thus putting pressure on each other to blink first. 5. A subordinate, instead of refusing to perform as asked to, may slow-down to, make his superior grant what the former wants without expressing it explicitly.

Choice of Power Strategies The choice of tactics or power strategies depends on how a person constructs a situation and plans to influence others in order to maximize his gains and minimize his losses. He takes into an account a number of factors. Of them, the following stand out: 1. Need for power: A person having strong need for personal power is likely to adopt more direct unilateral and hard strategies and tactics. 2. Magnitude of power: The magnitude of power is the power differential or the power distance (Mulder 1977) between two persons. The greater the magnitude, the higher is the probability of the use of direct tactics or strategies because the lesser is the chance of retaliation. On the

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other hand, small power differential leads to compromise and accommodation of each other. Near equal power may instill a sense of interdependence that leads to the belief that the pie is an Âexpanding pieÊ instead of a Âfixed pieÊ (Thibaut and Kelley 1959). 3. Perceptual frame: Direct, assertive, and exploitative tactics are often used for out-group members (paraye log) while nurturing, cooperating, depending on, and willfully yielding to in-group members. Power tactics are further differentiated as a function of whether a person has greater, equal, or lesser power that he exerts on either apane log (in-group members) or paraye log (out-group members). The six conditions, thus created, require a variety of tactics or strategies, which are employed in various combinations. Some of which are listed in Table 9.2. Table 9.2

Power Strategies as a Function of Power Distance and Perceptual Frame Strategies of a Person Having

Target Person

Greater Power

Near Equal Power

Lesser Power

Own (In-group)

Nurturance Reasoning Assertion Assertion Pressure Threat

Self-sacrifice Compromise Accommodation Simmering Retaliation Manipulation

Dependency Yielding Conformity Ingratiation Manipulation Defiance

Others (Out-group)

Source: Sinha (1995: 160).

Managing Power Relationships The following considerations are important for effective management of power relationships: 1. Power is essential: A reasonable amount of power is essential for a manager to get things done. If he has no power, his best of efforts and intentions are not likely to cut any ice. He may simply be laughed at and ignored. 2. Power is graded: The bases, modes of expressing, and strategies for exerting power are graded from lower level to higher order, from direct to indirect, from coercive to referent and inspirational. 3. Firefighting is essential for survival: If a manager does not have adequate power or if his power base is being undercut by a person or a group of workers that defies his authority, he first has to restore his power and authority. 4. Upward shift in power strategy is recommended: Once a person has established his power position, he must shift to the higher order strategy in order to position himself at the higher bases, modes of expressing, or strategies for influencing others. The higher the level of power relationships, the more it is sustaining.

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INTER-GROUP POWER RELATIONSHIPS Inter-group power relationships include some of the features of interpersonal power relationships, because group members tend to behave as individuals while still representing their groups. However, inter-group relationships also include group-specific components that may be examined with reference to vertically and horizontally arranged groups as well as informal groups serving as power centres. Vertically arranged groups are board of directors, senior managers, junior managers, supervisors, workers, and contract workers. Horizontally placed groups are functional divisions, departments, sections, as well as cross-functional teams. Informal groups are those that are formed either around a common background or interests, against common adversaries, or because of individualsÊ hidden agenda that are planned to be pursued through collective efforts. Thus, individual and organizational-level factors combine to form inter-group power relationships.

Power Dynamics in Vertical Groups Vertical groups have positional power granted by the organization. Tannenbaum (1968) suggested a simple but effective way to measure their positional power. He called it a control graph that ideally shows a linearly and moderately declining power of groups from the top to the bottom. The actual power curve may deviate from the ideal control graph. A steeper actual power curve means that power is centralized at higher levels while a flat curve signifies a more even distribution of power (see Figure 9.2). Figure 9.2 also shows that the actual control graph discloses a non-linear deviation from the normative control graph to reveal concentration of power in certain groups (for example, workers) compared to others (for example, lower- and middle-level managers). Tannenbaum (1968), for example, found that workers in the small plants of former Yugoslavia had more power than their counterparts in the US, Israel, Australia, or Italy. The Yugoslav managers had more power than their boards of directors and the actual control curve was relatively more flat in Yugoslav organizations than in others. This was because of the system of workersÊ management that Yugoslavia had adopted in the 1950s and 1960s. A number of Indian studies (Singh-SenGupta 1990; Singh 1985; J. B. P. Sinha 1990, 1995; Tiwari 1984) examined the patterns of power distribution prior to the liberalization of the Indian industrial landscape. They revealed a steep fall from the high-to middle-to low-level managers followed by a steep rise in the power of the workers particularly in public sector organizations. This was the era when the militant trade unions used to virtually defy lower, and to a certain extent middle-level managers, and pressed the top management to yield to their justified as well as not-so- justified demands. Power in Multinational Organizations As an increasing number of multinational organizations of foreign origin have started entering the Indian market since the 1990s, the power relationships between the parent and the subsidiary or

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Figure 9.2

Control Graph of Ideal and Actual Power Distribution

Source: Based on Tannenbaum (1968).

a partner requires attention. A typical view is that a parent is the principal and its subsidiary (or even the partner) is the agent that has to follow the directives of the parent to realize the objectives and add value to its products and services (Chang and Taylor 1999; Eisenhardt 1989; Jensen and Meckling 1976; OÊDonnell 2000; Roth and OÊDonnell 1996). In a study of five multinationals (AngloAmerican, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, and Korean), Sinha (2004) found that the controlling power remained vested in the parentÊs headquarters and the Indian operations were totally dependent on their guidance and direction. Power relationships are different in those multinational and transnational organizations that maintain the relationships of interdependence (Birkinshaw and Hood 1998; Ghosal and Bartlett 1990; Rugman and Verbeke 2001). The interdependence reduces the power differential between the headquarters and the units in different countries.

Power in Horizontal Groups Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) have advanced a model to show how divisions, departments, and sections exert power over each other. The model consists of two major considerations: resource dependency and strategic contingency. The departments that control the resources that other departments need also exert greater power. The resources could be personnel, equipment, supplies, information,

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money, etc. Strategic control refers to the capacity of a department to facilitate or restrict another departmentÊs regular functioning or the results that it can deliver. The finance department, for example, often has the power to push up or pull down other departments through monitoring and evaluation of their costs and expenditure. It can block new initiatives of the research and development (R&D) department or agree to a huge budget for the marketing department. In the selling Indian market prior to liberalization, production and sales departments occupied priority. Marketing was insignificant. Now with the fast expanding market, marketing has gained priority. In the 1960s, when managers were scared of militant workers, security was the most powerful department. The personnel department wields power because it controls the service conditions. HRD is gaining power with a growing realization of the importance of human capital in the highly turbulent market.

Enmeshing of Interpersonal and Inter-group Power Plays It may be noted that all departments or divisions command certain resources and depend on others for certain other resources. They vie with each other in order to gain an edge in power for claiming more resources from the top management and hence greater power. Thus, power play involves both horizontal and vertical groups rendering the power dynamics very complex. Power-hungry individuals often cross the departmental boundaries as well as organizational layers in order to form cliques and groups to function as power centres. Seniors reach out to juniors to build up personal empires. Juniors align themselves with powerful seniors in the latterÊs power plays. At times, juniors cultivate personalized relationships with powerful seniors bypassing their immediate superiors to wield power over their superiors (see Figure 9.3). Figure 9.3

Direct and Indirect Power Relationships

Figure 9.3 shows that the managing director of course has legitimate power over the general manager who in turn has legitimate power over his manager. However, the manager may be the managing directorÊs nephew. As a result, he may have certain informal power over the managing director, through whom he will exert power over his boss, the general manager.

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The power play gets particularly complex when organizational systems and procedures are not in place. Sinha (2004) reported the case of a Swedish multinational, which had acquired five Indian companies and was yet not able to integrate them adequately. The managing director was quoted as saying, ÂThere are walls between groups of managers still carrying the hangover effects from their previous companies and there are personal power centres that prevent us from having synergyÊ (Sinha 2004: 134).

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS Organizational politics are the Âaction, not officially sanctioned (approved) by an organization, [but] taken to influence others to meet oneÊs personal goalsÊ (J. Gandz and V. V. Murray quoted in Greenberg and Baron 1993: 419). It is not, however, always necessary that personal and organizational interests and goals need to be mutually exclusive. There could be diverse constructions of organizational vision, mission, and objectives fostered by different groups of senior managers who may be engaged in fierce politics to gain power in order to be able to lead the organization from the front. The political struggle between Russi Mody and J. J. Irani was only partly a matter of their egos and personal power. Partly, it was the two divergent visions of Tata Steel. The winner, J. J. Irani, was not only able to ease out Russi Mody and control the management, but was also able to make Tata Steel a world-class company (Sinha and Mohanty 2004). The actions or tactics engaged in organizational power play and politics are the same. Mintzberg (1983) calls them organizational games. Some of them are the following: 1. Authority games that include insurgency of the employees and counter-insurgency by the organization whereby the former sabotage, defy, and mutiny while the latter takes steps to prevent and control it. 2. Power base games that are designed to form alliances and coalitions in order to build a personal empire or cartel by a group that controls important resources. 3. Rivalry games that are conspicuous all over the organization, but are noted particularly between the line and the staff. 4. Change games that include leaking important information that is called kite flying to test how a particular change project will fare. Another form is whistle blowing where an employee exposes the dubious conduct of dominant individuals, groups or the organization with the aim of creating public opinion against them. It is obvious that organizational politics are approved and considered to be appropriate if employed by those in authority, who justify their use for the sake of the organization; but are disapproved and looked down upon if they are practiced by others, particularly if they distract the employees from performing their roles. Again the line of demarcation is thin and subjective. There have been instances where the actions that questioned organizational routines and approved practices were frowned upon and resisted, but later on were found to have helped in identifying new and better ways of functioning.

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Sources of Organizational Politics The main source of organizational politics is the nature of the trade-off between individualsÊ and groupsÊ interests and goals and those of their organization. Individuals and groups have needs and goals, some of which could be incompatible with those of their organization. Some people are able to align them by acquiring power to utilize organizational mechanisms to serve both·their personal as well as organizational interests and goals. They claim to be the custodians of organizational interests and goals, and use extraneous means to contain the unscrupulous usurpers of power and position. Others, who find organizational and personal goals and interests incompatible, but still place organizational interests and goals before their own, are not the ones who engage in organizational politics. It is only those who see organizational and personal interests and goals as incompatible, and fight to serve their own interests and achieve their goals are the ones who are accused of playing politics. They employ whatever tactics they can adopt either to displace those who are entrenched in privileged positions, restrict them in order to serve their personal needs and goals, or open new avenues for serving their own needs and goals irrespective of the goals and interests of the organization, other people or groups. They are alleged to indulge in politics, although in reality they all are doing politics. Miles (1980) observed the following: . . . conditions that threaten the status of the powerful or encourage the efforts of those wishing to increase their power base will stimulate the intensity of organizational politics and increase the proportion of decision making behaviours that can be classified as political as opposed to rational. (Miles 1980: 182, emphasis in the original) In sum, organizational politics is a joint product of the intensity of individualsÊ and groupsÊ personal needs and goals and the organizational arrangement (or failure) to provide legitimate means to serve them along with organizational interests and goals. The self-oriented power-hungry members of an organization have a strong impulse to indulge in organizational politics that trigger reciprocal political behaviour by others. Further, the conditions in the organization may encourage or discourage to do so. The conditions that stimulate politics are the following: 1. Porous organizational boundaries stimulate organizational politics. Organizations vary in the extent to which they are open to surrounding societal culture. Indian work organizations are more susceptible than Western ones to the political culture of the country. Public sector organizations are more exposed than private sector organizations to political pressures and trade unionism (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Private sector organizations are politicized due to internal organizational dynamics and personal power play at the top. 2. Ambiguity regarding organizational goals, poorly defined policies, and lack of sufficiently spelled out rules and regulations for making important decisions about resource allocation, recruitment, appraisal, promotions, and so on, create a fertile ground to engage in politics with no bars held. 3. Organizational levels are generally associated with varying degrees of role ambiguity. Lower levels have more clearly defined job descriptions with limited rights, obligations, and authority.

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Positions higher up have more flexible and expandable roles and obligations with greater scope to indulge in politics. The politics at the lower levels of an organizational emanate mostly from interpersonal rivalry. At the higher levels, politics also have an agenda for defining the goals of the organization and how to steer it towards the goals. 4. Scarce resources further accentuate the pressure to grab them through political means. New resources such as acquisition of a new company or opening of a new market make many claimants look for positions of greater power and privileges. 5. New technology triggers political activities resulting from either the unwillingness of the employees to change their habitual ways of functioning or over-excitement among those who want to have control over it and thereby enhance their position in the organization. 6. Reorganization and other major changes often de-stabilize people and groups, their roles and relationships, and initiate a struggle to protect oneÊs interests or to advance their claims resulting in struggles for power and indulgence in politics.

SUMMARY Power is the capacity to influence others to do what they would not do otherwise. It lies in the capacity to reward and punish, use authority, expertise, and information, and attract others to seek out influences from positively-valued sources. People employ a number of tactics such as rational persuasion, promises of rewards, threats of punishment, pressure to follow rules and regulations, ingratiation, manipulation, appeals to higher ups for support, alliance and coalitions, inspirational appeals, and so on to influence others. Indians distinguish apane log (in-group members) from paraye log (out-group members) and allow power to flow freely in the former, while employing exploitative and manipulative tactics for others. Divisions, departments, and sections or groups of employees at the various levels in an organization (for example, workers, junior and senior managers, board of directors) exert power to claim scarce resources or maintain strategic control over others. In fact, individuals and groups are continuously engaged in power plays to serve their own interests and goals, often at the cost of those of their organization. Such power plays are known as organizational politics. Although some politics is inevitable in an organization, there are factors that expand and accentuate organizational politics.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Major Modes of Expressing Power Step 1 Read the statements given here and judge how true or false they are for you by selecting a number from the scale given here. Record your score for every statement.

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1·Quite false. 2·False. 3·Undecided. 4·True. 5·Quite true. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

I feel a lot of strength because I have the backing of the bosses. I feel strong when I am able to control my impulses and temptations. I maintain full control over my subordinates. It is my duty to maintain work discipline in my department. I cannot be effective without the support of my boss. I can give up any habit that I really want to give up. I try to have a strong influence over my superiors. My subordinates know that if I press them to perform well, it is only in the interest of the organization. People here need a godfather to advance in their career. I try hard to remain technically up-to-date. It is necessary to have power and authority here to function effectively. I consider myself an arm of my organization. I want to buy luxury items, an expensive car, a posh house, etc., that impress others. I control my emotions in order to handle difficult situations. I expect my subordinates to look to me for help and advice. I feel good when I am able to mobilize my people to achieve difficult tasks. I need a patron to guide and inspire me. I undertake difficult assignments to convince myself that I am competent. I prevail upon my subordinates to do what I want them to do. I take even unpleasant decisions in the interest of the organization.

Step 2 Add your scores for responses to statements 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17 to get the score for dependency. Add your scores for responses to statements 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18 to get the score for self-control. Add your scores for responses to statements 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19 to get the score for assertion. Add your scores for responses to statements 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 to get the score for duty.

Step 3 The individualsÊ scores may be discussed in the group, if the exercise is done in a group.

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Exercise 2: Fieldwork: Survey of Sectarian Power Distributions Step 1 Conduct a survey in an organization (either to which you belong or you have access to) by asking samples of high-, middle-, and low-level managers and workers (sample size will determine the feasibility) the following questions: 1. How much power and influence do the following have in the organization as a whole? (Make a 9 mark in the appropriate column). You may add/delete departments. Extent of Power Groups of Workforce

Very High

High

Moderate

Low

Very Low

High-level managers Middle-level managers Low-level managers Workers Departments Administration Finance Production HR R&D Marketing Sales Legal Other departments

2. What is the nature of the organization? Circle the appropriate option. Ć Manufacturing, service, information technology, information technology enabled services, or others. Ć Public, private, cooperative, non-governmental organization, or others. Ć Profit-making, loss-making, or neither. Step 2 Develop control graphs for the workforce and bar diagrams for the departments. Step 3 Compare with other participants to find out the following:

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1. Are there common profiles of power distribution? 2. Are power distributions related to the nature of the organizations?

Exercise 3: What to Do? Step 1 Read the following case: It was a great day for JP Automotive Industries which was now a subsidiary of Schmit International. Mr Volger was moving in as the chief executive director. The new company, Schmit India, planned to develop as a hub for manufacturing and exporting automotive parts to the South-east Asia, besides feeding the fast growing automobile industry in India. Everybody, almost everybody, was hoping to have a part of the huge pie. Volger was received in the traditional Indian style with garlands and tilak on his forehead by the most attractive lady from the human resources department (HRD). Volger immensely enjoyed the welcome. He was further pleased to find everyone so friendly and willing to cooperate. Managers, secretaries, peons, and messengers were helpful, courteous, and more than willing to please him. Krishnan, the managing director, took him for a visit to the shop floor. The machines were old, but the whole place was neat and clean and decorated with flowers and posters welcoming Volger. Krishnan and the rest of the managers took turns to invite him for dinner where he met their friends and relatives, and a host of others. Volger indeed felt very comfortable and at home. As he settled down, however, things did not seem that rosy. The managers and the secretaries were very informal but not quite punctual. He brought this up in conversation with Krishnan who brushed it aside casually pointing out that they were the dedicated ones and that he trusted them. Krishnan, Volger noted, was often surrounded by managers who stayed longer with him than seemed to be necessary. Volger was getting somewhat uncomfortable. His discomfort reached a climax one day when he walked in unannounced to the shop floor. It was chaotic and in a state of mess. The tools were scattered all over and there was paint and oil on the floor, and so on. While some of the workers were at work, others were standing idle and chatting. He felt that the place needed an overhaul. He first pointed it out to the manager of the shop floor and then to the supervisors and workers reprimanding them about how inefficiently they worked and what a mess they had created. They all remained silent and non-committal. He felt angry. Once back in his office, he called Krishnan and the HR head, told them what he had seen, and asked them to get photographs of every detail of the mess on the shop floor and put them on the notice board to remind the people there what the place must not look like in the future. He further directed them to see to it that the shop floor was cleaned up, the tools were properly arranged, and that the workers attended to their work without loafing around. The supervisors and manager were to watch them continuously. He also asked for

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a time recording machine to be installed. Everyone in the office, from the top to the bottom, would have to punch in and out every time they came in to the office and when they went out. He waited for a while to see how things changed. He was disappointed. Krishnan was now kind of elusive, not so warm and accommodating, but rather defensive. The general manager, who earlier had been submissive and cooperative, was no longer friendly. Whenever he ran into people from the office, they avoided him. And worse, the workshop was messy again. He wondered, ÂWhat did I do wrong? What should I do now?Ê

Step 2 Analyse the scenario in terms of power play and advise what Volger should have done to start with and what he should do now.

Step 3 Discuss individual analyses and solutions with the whole group/class.

10

Effective Leadership


Take a systemic view of the complexity of leadership. Discuss the interplay of factors impacting on leadership effectiveness. Highlight the sliding modes of leading subordinates. Identify strategies for developing leaders.

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CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES

L

eadership is one of the most researched topics in a variety of social science disciplines including organizational behaviour. Consequently, there have been a large number of definitions of leadership. The simplest of them defines leadership as the acts of a leader; and a leader is the person who has at least one person working under him. However, having a subordinate does not necessarily make a person a leader. He may be a permanent worker having a casual assistant, a supervisor, or a manager. But unless he has additional qualities and roles, he is not a leader. And, if he is not a leader, his acts do not automatically constitute leadership. Later on we shall see that the construct of leadership is more inclusive than that of a manager. All organizational leaders are also managers, but not all managers become leaders. In other words, managers in leadersÊ role perform more functions than they do as managers. Therefore, leadership is defined more appropriately as the processes through which individuals Âinfluence, motivate, and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are membersÊ (House et al. 1997: 548). ÂOthersÊ include subordinates, peers, and superiors working around leaders. An effective leader does impact on his superiors and peers. However, the primary concern of a leader is to lead his subordinates, which he does by selectively employing his personal characteristics that, he thinks, will work in specific situations in the organization. Thus, effective leadership involves the following: 1. Processes (influencing, motivating, and enabling or empowering). 2. LeadersÊ characteristics (abilities, skills, dispositions, roles, and styles). 3. Organizational context (situations that facilitate and depress the use of leadership characteristics and processes). This chapter first examines the features of organizational context, followed by a leaderÊs characteristics, and finally the processes of leading. Thereafter, it discusses how a leader matches and/or modifies organizational and his own characteristics to influence, motivate, and empower his subordinates to enhance organizational effectiveness and success. Effective leadership, in essence, is the outcome of the interactive relationships between the three.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT Organizational context consists of the totality of all tangible and intangible features of an organization as well as the surrounding milieu having the potential to impact on the choice of a leaderÊs characteristics and processes. The most pertinent of them are related to the following: 1. Task, organization, and milieu: Nature of tasks, organizational characteristics, and surrounding environmental forces impacting on the organization. 2. SubordinatesÊ characteristics: Their needs, expectations, habits, beliefs, and so on, regarding relationships with superiors.


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3. Power and authority structure: Authority and power distribution in organizations influence tactics and norms regarding desirable, acceptable, and tolerable ways of exerting power and influence. Each of the three has a variety of components ranging from insignificant, not so desirable or nonfunctional, through simple, routine, mundane, or pragmatic, to complex, innovative, normative or idealistic. They provide a wide range of scope to a leader to slide back and forth from one end of the spectrum to another, evoke, match, balance, and prioritize the elements within each and across them in order to effectively utilize his personal characteristics to lead his subordinates to function effectively.

TASK SYSTEM The task system of an organization consists of the units of work that individuals accomplish singly or in groups. The simplest units consist of a small number of routine, repetitive, and standardized operations at a workstation. At the other extreme, a work unit might require a group of technical experts to negotiate a merger with or acquisition of another company, to design a new chip, or to find a solution to a vexing problem, say how to reduce humidity without reducing the oxygen supply in an aircraft cabin. In between the two extremes, there are innumerable varieties of tasks that can be differentiated in terms of the following: 1. Simple to complex technology: Assembly line technology for mass production (of say cars) that reduces a task to the simplest possible operations are simpler compared to batch production technology (for example, of electric generators) that, in turn, is simpler than process technology (in petrochemical plants) (Hunt and Osborn 1982; Woodward 1965). 2. Structured to unstructured task: Structured tasks are those that have written rules and procedures. Once the persons responsible for performing a task are trained to perform, no further intervention is required, except monitoring to prevent social loafing. Unstructured tasks, on the other hand, allow people to evolve their own ways of performing and judging how well or badly they are performing. By the same token, they need clarifications, feedback, and guidance from a superior in a leadership role. 3. When a taskÊs variety, identity, significance, and feedback increase while the autonomy of the employees decreases (Hackman and Oldham 1975), they need supervision by a leader. Simpler, structured, low variety, fragmented, and unimportant task assigned to workers who have autonomy but no feedback renders leadership redundant and unimportant. A written Âhow-to-doÊ manual handed over to the people responsible for performance, necessary training for them, a mechanical monitoring device, and a clearly specified compensation package can serve as Âsubstitute for leadershipÊ (Kerr and Jermier 1978). Even robots can be installed to perform them. In a Danish multinational organization in India manufacturing industrial belts, the role of supervisors was reduced to managing the inflow of raw materials

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and getting machines repaired promptly. Because of the standard ways of work flow and incentive systems, the workers worked hard on their own. If one machine did not work, they either moved to another one or approached the concerned supervisor and the manager to get the problem rectified at the earliest lest they lose money (Kerr and Jermier 1978: 171). Levels of a subordinateÊs involvement in performing a task have a curvilinear relationship with the need for a leaderÊs intervention. Simple and unimportant operations can generally be performed even without much involvement. Organizations may tolerate perfunctory performance in such operations. However, even simple but important tasks might require the involvement of the employees. For example, an operator at the intercom, a person at the reception, or a guard at the gate might have simple tasks, but their lack of involvement might create serious problems. Generally, the greater the complexity and significance of a task, the greater is the involvement required from employees. Complex and critical tasks require creative and innovative performance that results from employeesÊ job identification. To the extent that employees are competent, experienced, and job involved, leadership takes a back seat. All that a person in a leadership position is required to do is to watch the employees and say a few words of inspiration, appreciation, or displeasure on how they are performing.

Organizational Characteristics There are three organizational characteristics that impinge on leadership processes: 1. OrganizationÊs life cycle. 2. Organizational culture-leadership-environment fit. 3. Levels within an organization. Organization’s Life Cycle An organization starts, grows matures, and hits a plateau of performance, is restructured and renewed to reach a new height of performance, or degenerates and is forgotten. At each of these stages, the organization needs somewhat different types of leader. For a green field organization, a leader is expected to envision the future of the organization through the entry-level odds, move fast in making and implementing decisions, take risk, create assets, mobilize resources, put in place systems and procedures, and manage the boundaries in order to protect the nascent organization from hostile forces as well as draw sustenance from helpful sources. However, once the organization gets going, it requires a different kind of leader at the top. Schein (1987) observed, ÂIt is quite often difficult for founding leaders to recognize that the qualities that made them successful initially . . . can become sources of difficulty later on . . .Ê (Schein 1987: 319). Instead of being entrepreneurial, the leader has to play the role of a culture builder·one who consolidates the gains of the formative stage, emphasizes stability rather than continuous change, and


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establishes systems and procedures that give employees a sense of certainty about the direction of the organization (see the case of the Home Depot in Box 10.1). Box 10.1

Home Depot’s New Leadership

Home Depot started in 1978 and grew faster than even Wal-Mart. The credit for its success went primarily to Âits founder, charismatic Marcus who was known for his entrepreneurial spirit, willingness to take risk, passionate commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and the community accompanied by his equally strong aversion to bureaucratic and hierarchical way of functioning.Ê He created a culture Âthat was characterized by warehouse feel of its orange stores, complete with low lighting, cluttered aisles, and sparse signage; focus on sales growth, and extra-ordinary autonomy to store managers who were expected to sense a change in the market and react quickly to itÊ. The founderÊs style of leadership and culture building led to its fast growth, but proved to be a dysfunctional legacy in the following years. Another man, Nardelli was brought from General Electric (GE) in the year 2000. He replaced many top old timers, brought in a person of his confidence, Donovan, from GE, as the head of the human resources department (HRD). Together, they restructured the systems and procedures by establishing objectivity in the appraisal system, transparency in business transactions, commonalities in making decisions, and new priorities of performance. He created a new culture marked by collaboration, understanding of the whole business, common ways of functioning, Monday review meetings, and so on. Home Depot, as a result, achieved new heights in productivity as well as employee satisfaction. Source: Charan (2006: 61ă70).

Over a period of time, an organization develops complacency·taking the systems and rules, their privileges and perks, and so on for granted. The organization hits a plateau in performance and may even run into a crisis if the external environment changes drastically. In such a case, a new leadership is required. The case of Tata Steel (see Box 10.2) is an illustration (see Chapter 14 for details). Box 10.2

Transformation of Tata Steel

Tata Steel in the 1980s was a model Indian organization. It created a culture of taking total care of its employees who then kept the old and aging plants producing above 100 per cent capacity. Total care meant that employees, many of them along with their fathers, were born and housed in the company administered town of Jamshedpur, educated in the companyÊs schools, treated in companyÊs hospital, employed in the plants or the town, and received other generous benefits either free or on nominal charges. The chairman-cum-managing director, Russi Mody, valued people more than technology. He freely mixed with employees at all levels, listened to them, ignored rules of bureaucracy to patronize those whom he liked. With increasing competition due to the liberalization, all these familial values proved to be a dysfunctional legacy. A boardroom war resulted in Russi Mody being replaced by Dr J. J. Irani in 1993. Dr Irani was a technocrat, a work-oriented forceful leader. He took the union into confidence, modernized the plants, acquired new plants, lived off non-essential ones, reduced the workforce by more than half, and introduced the latest models of business excellence. By the year 2003, Tata Steel became one of the most cost-effective steel making companies in the world.

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Organizational Culture–Leadership–Environment Fit The culture of an organization promotes a certain kind of leadership and suppresses certain other kinds. Reciprocally, the leader too strives to cultivate an organizational culture of his choice, and if necessary to destroy the existing one in order to build a new culture that can enable the organization to realize its objectives (Schein 1987). Thus, organizational culture and leadership are reciprocally interconnected. Together, they influence and are influenced by the surrounding environment that supports some of their functions and resist others (see Figure 10.1). Figure 10.1

Organizational Culture–Leadership–Environment Fit

These triangular influence relationships develop differently in different organizations, although the differences are generally larger across sectors than among the organizations within a sector. Some illustrative studies are discussed next. Their findings are by and large still valid today. Box 10.3

Contextual Demands and Leadership

Reginald Jones and his predecessor Jack Welch of GE, are examples of how changing contextual demands render different type of leaders more successful. The reserved and dispassionate Reginald Jones was an ideal head in the business milieu of the 1970s when rational planning and prudent investments were the guiding principles of good management. But GE needed a dashing person like Jack in the quickly expanding global market. Similarly, Alfred P. Sloan was a pioneer in designing a model of large effective companies in the 1920, and the model is still emulated by many in running enterprises. However, he was eased out because he could not see the importance of trade unionism and refused to meet the new United Auto Mobile Workers Union (Mayo and Nohria 2005).

Small manufacturing enterprises located in the backward state of Bihar reflected pervasive poverty, lack of opportunities, and the culture of deprivation (Sinha 2000). The physical conditions of work were deplorable, health and hygiene measures were conspicuous by their absence, and the service conditions were unsatisfactory. The owner-managers, along with supervisors, had created an amoral


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work-centric culture where they extracted maximum work, cared for machines but not for men, and rendered the organization profitable. Their style was to control and command and to keep the workers helplessly dependent while posing to behave like a provider by doling out some help during workersÊ exigencies. The owner-managers and the supervisors could hardly be called leaders, as they neither cared to motivate nor empower their workforce. Cooperatives in the developed and enterprising state of Gujarat were different on two counts (Shah 1991). First, membersÊ stake went beyond the return on capital, as they could not shift their capital like their counterparts do in industrial enterprises. They were both the employees and the shareholders. Second, unlike in industrial enterprises, each member of the cooperative, irrespective of the number of their shares, had one vote. Consequently, cooperatives were and still are a closely interactive system where members are empowered to make all major decisions. Consequently, the leaders were participative, manifesting exemplary conduct, high dedication, frugality, and capacity to manage diverse members. The conclusion still holds: ÂA strong, responsive, and honest leadership seems to convey a sense of well-being and hope that pervades the membership and the immediate environment of the cooperativeÊ (Shah 1991: 32ă33). Public sector undertakings have changed a lot in response to the increasing competitiveness of multinationals. However, they still have to cope with two environmental constraints: they were established on the model of public administration that still persists to a significant extent. Second, they are still overtly politicized where political patronage, sectarian and regional interests, and populism ride roughshod over organizational objectives. Leaders naturally need to be a blend of a bureaucrat and a politician who takes shelter under rules and precedence, seeks out political patronage, and plays politics within the organization to build personal loyalty and power base. There are some, however, who have integrity, vision, capacity to work hard, knack for building relationships, and dedication to serve organizational objectives (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Private sector enterprises, particularly the large ones, are also politicized, but their politics stem from the boardroom and permeate down the levels. Those among them that have higher degrees of professionalism (for example, the Tata Group of companies) are driven by technological sophistication and productivity concerns. But the organization still revolves around the top man whose personalized style permeates down the levels. Multinationals are diverse in their culture depending on the joint influence of the cultures of their origin and the parent company, and how they function in the Indian business milieu (Sinha 2004). Sinha reported the case of five multinationals (Anglo-American, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, and Korean). The British leaders trusted their subordinates, moved informally among them, and delegated adequate authority. The Indo-Japanese joint venture was run as a private Indian company where the chairman practiced personalized, hierarchical, and familial style of leadership while his son, the managing director attempted to introduce global management practices. The Indian managing director of the Swedish multinational carried over his American style of leadership from his previous experience. The Indian managing director of the Danish multinational was an autocratic leader who centralized most of the decisions, closely supervised the plant, and ran it very effectively. The Korean managing director was a distant, non-interfering, and respected father figure who delegated full authority to his second line of leaders who ran the organization in a typical Korean way. None

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of them was aggressively entrepreneurial like the new generation of owners such as Laxmi Mittal or Azim Premji who grew fast by mergers, acquisitions, and alliances, by constantly upgrading technology, by increasing efficient management, and so on. Levels within Organizations Focus on organizational leadership is often confined to the top-level leadership. We often fail to realize that an organization may have leaders at all levels. They, however, need to have somewhat different characteristics to meet different demands and play different roles. At the top, leaders are believed to be mostly entrepreneurial, visionary, and courageous while lower-level leaders are those who focus on meeting subordinatesÊ needs and inducing them to form teams by participating in-group activities (Denhartog et al. 1999). They need to have conceptual skills at the higher levels, interpersonal skills at the middle levels, and technical skills at the lower levels (Mann 1964). At the top, leaders need to have an overall picture of the organization embedded in the surrounding environment that has as diverse aspects as cultural, socio-economic, political, etc. The leadersÊ priority is to keep scanning the environment continuously, regulating the inflow and outflow of human and material resources, protecting the organization from hostile forces, and steering its course smoothly towards its objectives. Middle-level managers do not have the same onus to view the organization in an environmental context. Their main responsibility is to concretize organizational vision, mission, goals, and objectives into achievable targets, share them with the rest of the organization, and to mobilize people to contribute to realize the targets. Leaders have to coordinate sections and departments, remove bottlenecks, resolve conflicts, identify talents and promote them, motivate the workforce, and represent it to the management. At the lower rungs, those who are in-charge of the shop floor, sections, or departments have a relatively limited brief to realize the set targets, supervise a smaller number of employees, see that the machines are running properly, work discipline is maintained, and organizational routines are adhered to. Some, for example, Katz and Kahn (1978) contended that Âleadership skills appropriate at one level of the organization may be irrelevant or even dysfunctional at another levelÊ (1978: 538). It may not always be true. Leaders at all levels need to have conceptual, human relations, and technical skills, except that their relative salience and the uses of the skills vary across organizational levels (Sinha 1995). Even leaders at the lower levels need to conceptualize the interconnectedness of shop floor activities, impact of the surrounding sections and departments, and the management of relationships with workers. There are many international companies such as Ikea, which require their top managers to serve on the shop floor to have a feel for the technology of operations that comes handy when they reach the top (Sinha 2004: 86).

Subordinates’ Characteristics Leaders and subordinates are reciprocally interdependent. There cannot be a leader without having subordinates and vice versa. They need each other except in extreme situations where either


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subordinates are forced to behave like slaves, are so internally motivated that they do not need a leader to tell them what to do, or the task is so routine that employees can handle it by themselves. Box 10.4

Great Leaders

ÂGreat managers know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attackÊ (Buckingham 2005: 72).

SubordinatesÊ characteristics that are relevant to a leader could be many and diverse. Some of them are easy to change or improve. For example, subordinatesÊ lack of skills or experiences is easy to rectify through appropriate training inputs. Others such as punctuality and a sense of discipline are part of their habit that can be changed with greater effort over a time period. Still others such as their needs and values (for example, of aaram, that is, the need for rest and relaxation which is not preceded by hard work, excessive dependency, etc.), which are more deeply ingrained during early socialization, are more difficult to change. A leaderÊs responsibility is to identify those that are instrumental to organizational effectiveness, and help his subordinates shift or to strike a balance between them. Some of the most relevant needs and values that are acquired in early socialization and stand in contrast to those that are picked up during organizational socialization are the following: 1. Dependence proneness versus need for initiative and risk taking: Many Indians acquire a high degree of dependence proneness in their childhood (Chattopadhayaya 1975; Pareek 1968; Sinha 1970). Organizations, on the other hand, expect their managers to take initiative, make quick decisions, take risks, and struggle to advance their career on their own. 2. Hierarchicalăegalitarian values: Indians are used to hierarchical relationships while organizations require them to participate freely and frankly as equals, irrespective of their hierarchical positions. The leaderÊs responsibility is to accept the reality of hierarchical orientation in the Indian culture, but to help subordinates feel free to express themselves and to give their best without disrupting the hierarchical nature of relationships 3. Preference for personalized relationships: Indians prefer to personalize even formal relationships, cultivate personal loyalty, and build up personalized network of relationships. They do not always segment work and non-work relationships and feel left out and deflated if the leader confines their relationship to a formal contractual relationship. A leader in Indian organizations has to wrap his work relationships with personalized care that can extend to non-work domains also; but he must see to it that personalized relationships do not dilute the subordinatesÊ work orientation.

Power and Authority One way to conceptualize leadership is that it Âis a particular type of power relationshipÊ (Ansari 1990: 17) as both leadership and power refer to influence processes. There is, however, a difference. While power relationships may involve any two or more persons, leadership means influence

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relationships primarily between a leader and his subordinates, although leadership does not preclude influence over peers and superiors. In fact, a leader who has the potential to influence his superiors is much more influential with respect to subordinates than those who lack upward influence potential (Pelz 1951). Power over superiors and peers inflates while the lack of it deflates a leaderÊs power over his subordinates. Without a reasonable amount of power, a leader is totally ineffective no matter how strongly he tries to influence or how many laudable qualities he is endowed with (Sinha 1995). A leader has a positional power that corresponds to his location in the organizational hierarchy. He builds up personal power on the foundation of positional power by acquiring expertise, proving to be persuasive, cultivating qualities that make him likeable and even charismatic. In fact, all bases of power are potentially available to a leader (Hersey et al. 1979). He uses them in combinations to fashion his strategies and tactics to influence subordinates (Yukle and Van Fleet 1992: 148). The bases and the tactics of power that a leader employs depend partly on societal culture, the conditions in the organization, the critical importance of the problems that he solves, and partly on subordinatesÊ characteristics (Rahim and Magner 1996; Singh-SenGupta 1990). Indian managers employ coercion, reward, and referent power more often than other bases. Japanese managers like managers in the United States (US) use assertiveness, sanctions, and appeal to the third party as well as some culture-specific tactics such as appeal to the companyÊs authority and the personal development of subordinates (Rao et al. 1997) Entrepreneurs in green field organizations wield much more power than culture-builders in stabilized organizations. Top-level leaders enjoy much more power in centralized organizations than in decentralized ones. The top men in the private sector wield much more power than in the relatively more bureaucratized and politicized public sector organizations (Sinha 1995). The competence to solve difficult problems renders leaders more powerful (Yukle and Van Fleet 1992).

LEADER’S CHARACTERISTICS Historical Background The search for characteristics that can distinguish leaders from non-leaders goes back to ancient time when scholars looked for divine and superhuman qualities in leaders. The trend continued till the middle of the twentieth century (see Sinha 1995: 11ă13). In this phase, leadership qualities were believed to be hereditary and inborn: Leaders are born, not made. The search first focused on physical characteristics (for example, taller, heavier, and physically strong men with big eyes and large forehead, etc.) then shifted to personality traits. Stogdill (1974) reviewed all such studies conducted from 1904 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1970. He found that effective leaders were reported to have greater intelligence, alertness, verbal facility, originality, sense of judgement, scholarship, knowledge, dependability, initiative, persistence, aggressiveness, self-confidence, striving for excellence, sociability, cooperative orientation, adaptability, humour, higher status, popularity, sensitivity to followersÊ needs and expectations, capacity to tolerate frustrations, and so on. However, none of these was able to distinguish leaders from non-leaders in all situations.


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Stogdill concluded that leadership is determined by group situations that increase the salience of specific leadership traits. He argued that individuals join a group because they want to realize some common goals that they cannot realize individually. As they interact, one of the members demonstrates a greater capacity than other members to expedite the groupÊs efforts to realize a goal. He offers and is accepted as the leader. For another goal, another person shows another kind of capacity in a greater degree and is called upon to lead the group. In other words, Âevery group member . . . in some degree is a leaderÊ (Cattell 1951: 181), that Âpersons who are leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in other situationsÊ (Stogdill 1948: 65), and that the combination of leadership characteristics put certain persons in advantageous positions to assume leadership only in appropriate situations (Stogdill 1974: 82). This situational approach was strongly refuted by a number of scholars such as Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) who contended that, ÂLeadership is a demanding, unrelenting job with enormous pressures and grave responsibilities. It would be a profound disservice to leaders to suggest that they are ordinary people who happened to be in the right place at right timeÊ(Kirkpatrick and Locke 1991: 58). Thus the search for characteristics of a leader continued. A large variety of characteristics were identified, which can be broadly organized into two clusters: 1. Abilities, dispositions, and styles. 2. Skills and roles of leaders.

Abilities, Dispositions, and Styles A leaderÊs abilities are his capability to solve problems, perform a task, and influence subordinates. He is driven in all these by his dispositions that cause him to function in particular ways in most situations. Abilities and dispositions jointly cause behaviour. A pattern of behaviour is style. Combinations of styles constitute theories. (This will be discussed in Chapter 11.) Abilities, disposition, and style are interrelated and are at times difficult to distinguish. While some of them represent the dark face of leaders, others reflect the humane face of leaders. Dark Face of Leaders Leaders can be manipulative (Machiavelli 1965), for they (like MachiavelliÊs prince) can control their people more effectively by instilling fear in their minds instead of cultivating respect, which is much more brittle than fear. Effective leaders can also be great intimidators like Lyndon Johnson, Sandy Weill, Rupert Murdoch, Andy Grove, Carly Fiorina, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs (Kramer 2006). Intimidators have clear goals of their own without any iota of doubt about how to realize them. They are so impatient that they shove all impediments, manipulate people, and exploit their weaknesses to serve their purpose. Kramer observed: Intimidators have political intelligence, which is different from social intelligence. While leaders with social intelligence use empathy and soft power to build bridges

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with subordinates to empower them, the political intelligence of intimidators uses hard power to exploit the anxieties and vulnerabilities that they detect in others. They adopt a dispassionate, clinical, and even instrumental view of people as resources for getting what they design to get. (Kramer 2006: 91) Another variant of this style is forceful ruthless leadership, an example of which is Percy Barnevik, the chief executive officer (CEO) of ABB who discusses his style as follows: You have to move boldly . . . You canÊt postpone tough decisions by studying them to death. You canÊt permit a ÂhoneymoonÊ of small changes over a year or two; it is better to make swift decisions and be right seven out of ten times than to waste time trying to achieve perfection. I would rather be roughly right and fast than exactly right and slow (Barnevik, quoted in Shukla 1997: 141) . . . you can go into any traditionally centralized corporation and cut its headquarters staff by 90% in one year. You can spin off 30% of the staff into freestanding service centres that perform real work . . . You decentralize 30% of the staff·human resources, for example·by pushing them into line organization. The 30% disappear through head count reductions. (Barnevik, quoted in Shukla 1997: 144)

Achievement-oriented Leaders There is another set of characteristics such as high need for achievement combined with moderate need for power, and low need for affiliation that enable a leader to excel in realizing collective achievements (McClelland 1975). The combination, in fact, reflects a leaderÊs striving for excellence (Dayal 1999). Persistence is another characteristic that carries him through formidable odds and chains of failure into a position of success (see Box 10.5) Box 10.5

A Model of Persistence

Who is He?·He: Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Failed in business at age 21. Was defeated in a legislative race at age 22. Failed again in business at age 24. Overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26. Had a nervous breakdown at age 27. Lost a congressional race at age 34. Lost a congressional race at age 36. Lost a senatorial race at age 45. Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47. Lost a senatorial race at age 49. Was elected president of the United States at age 52.

Abraham Lincoln. Source: Robins (1986).


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Leaders with a Humane Face There is a cluster of approaches suggesting that leaders need to focus on their own self, develop it so as to help develop their subordinates in a mutually supportive process of growing together and leading the organization to run effectively. Effective leadership, in essence, is a composite of the holistic development of all three. There are some variations in formulating how this can be realized. Cultivating emotional intelligence is one such way (Goleman 1995: Chapter 4). Another approach has been advanced by Quinn (2005) who contends that a leaderÊs high effectiveness results from his rise from a normal run to a fundamental state (see Table 10.1) having a number of features. Table 10.1

Leader’s Shift from Normal to Fundamental State

Normal State

Fundamental State

Comfort-centred Sticking with what one knows Externally directed Complying with otherÊs wishes in an effort to keep peace Self-focused Placing oneÊs own interests above those of the group Internally closed Blocking out external stimuli by staying on familiar tasks and avoiding risks

Results centred Venturing beyond familiar into new territories Internally directed Behaving according to oneÊs own values Other focused Putting collective interests first Externally open Learning from the environment and showing the propensity to change, if necessary

Source: Quinn (2005).

A variant of this approach is anchored in authenticity in the leaderăsubordinatesÊ relationship that is established through sincerity, honesty, and integrity (Goffee and Jones 2005: 88). A part of the process is oneÊs willingness to reveal oneÊs weaknesses. By exposing oneÊs weaknesses, both the leader and his subordinates communicate that they are not perfect and that they need each other to make up for deficiencies. This creates trust, openness, and a collaborative spirit. Once they trust each other, the leader can even drive subordinates to work hard (Peace 2003). They would not misunderstand and doubt the leaderÊs intentions. Authenticity emanates also from a leaderÊs blending of personal humility with fierce professional will that the leader manifests by the following behaviour (Collins 2005): 1. Personal humility: Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Demonstrating a compelling modesty by shunning public adulation. Acting with quiet and calm determination. Motivating by standards of work instead of promises of rewards and favour. Fusing self-interests with those of the organization. Accepting responsibility for failures without blaming to others.

2. Professional will: Ć Functioning as a catalyst for super performance.

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Ć Persisting to produce the best against all odds. Ć Setting standards for building sustainable effectiveness in the organization. Ć Apportioning credit for success to those who deserve it. Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) too maintain that trust is the basic glue for effective leadersubordinate relationships. The trust, according to them, sprouts from leaderÊs altruism. Altruism is prioritizing subordinatesÊ interest over oneÊs own: Subordinate Âbegin to trust their leader when they perceive, beyond any doubt, that their leader is unflinchingly dedicated to the vision and is willing to work towards it even at the risk of considerable personal cost and sacrificeÊ (Kanungo and Mendonca 1996: 60). Pure altruism emanates from the purification of a leaderÊs narrow selfish self (chittashudhi) by expanding it into a larger self that includes his subordinates (Chakraborty 1987). Once a leaderÊs self is enlarged subsuming those of his subordinates, the latter become unalienable parts of the same collective. They are willing to sacrifice for each other unconditionally. The mutually sacrificing interactions radiate and render the group effective. Even a shift towards such a goal is a pilgrimage resulting in inner transformation of the leader. Srinivas (2000) has reported many instances of ÂCorporate leaders [in India] who have been admired and have been able to turn around their organizations [and they] have invariably been people with integrity, with high valuesÊ (Srinivas 2000: 181).

Skills and Roles Leadership skills are varied. They are broadly grouped into four: administrative, technical, conceptual, and interpersonal (Yukle and Van Fleet 1992). 1. Administrative skills involve basics of managerial functions such as planning, organizing, coordinating, appraising, reinforcing, delegating, etc. 2. Technical skills include knowledge of technology involved in a range of operations regarding products and services, market, environment, competitors, operational efficiency, and so on. 3. Interpersonal skills refer to a leaderÊs ability to understand the feelings, attitudes, motives, competence, strengths, and weaknesses of his subordinates in order to be able to establish rapport with them and to mobilize them to contribute to organizational effectiveness. 4. Conceptual skills mean a leaderÊs competence to take a strategic view of his areas of operations, identify their connectivity, foresee problems, create opportunities, and prepare others to meet challenges, avail of opportunities, continuously scan the market, form alliances and networks, merge with or acquire other organizations, and so on. Although all four types of skills are indispensable for a leader, their relative salience varies as a function of the levels of an organization. Administrative skills are necessary at all levels, but are not sufficient. Interpersonal skills are crucial at all levels and are more important at the middle


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levels. Technical skills are more useful at lower levels, although a broad understanding of them is helpful even at the top. Conceptual skills are a must for the top managers, although leaders at all levels can function more effectively if they have a full picture of their domain. The salience of skills is also closely related to the three roles that leaders perform. They are the following: managerial, entrepreneurial, and culture-building. Box 10.6

Leadership Roles

Ć Managerial role lays the foundation of effective leadership. Ć Entrepreneurial role builds a super-structure by creating assets in an organization. Ć Culture-building role puts life in an organization.

Managerial Role A controversy has been persisting for quite some time regarding whether all managers are also leaders or not. Organizations recruit managers and admire those who rise above the managerial role and function as leaders. Not all succeed. Does it mean that leaders and managers are made of different stuff? According to the situational approach, there is no difference between a manager and a leader. Any person having at least one person working under him is a leader. So is the manager. Others do not agree. Bennis (1989), for example, drew a sharp line of demarcation (see Table 10.2). Table 10.2

Profile of Managers and Leaders

Managers

Leaders

Administer Maintain Focus on system and structure Rely on control Take a short-term view Eye on bottom line Imitate Accept status quo Follow seniors Do things right

Innovate Develop Focus on people Inspire and trust Take a long-term view Eye on horizon Originate Strive for change Follow own values Do right things

Source: Bennis (1989).

In sum, managers cope with the present demands of the organization while leaders strive to change the organization itself (Kotter 2003). Leaders create organizational culture while managers follow their job description (Schein 1987). Not all agree to such a sharp distinction. Mintzberg (2003), for example, contended that managerial skills involve: . . . developing peer relationships, carrying out negotiations, motivating subordinates, resolving conflicts, establishing information networks and subsequently disseminating

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information in conditions of extreme ambiguity, and allocating resources. Above all, the manager needs to be introspective in order to continue to learn on the job. (Mintzberg 2003: 15) Similarly, leaders also structure their own and their subordinatesÊ roles, set norms and standards of performance, influence subordinates to get work done, reward those who perform, and punish those who shirk their work. Effective performance of managerial role is a sound foundation on which leaders build a laudable super-structure. Entrepreneurial Role Leaders in the entrepreneurial role, particularly at senior positions, are strategically oriented rather than system bound. They continuously scan the business environment and formulate strategies to meet challenges and to create new opportunities. They acquire companies for quick inorganic growth; merge with those having complementary resources, and form alliances and networks. They upgrade or acquire state-of-the art technology from wherever it is available, launch new products and services, expand on existing products and services and penetrate into new markets, and give new directions to the organization by formulating its vision and mission. In order to align with and tune the organization to all these demands, they restructure the organization, downsize, outsource, and often turn it into a virtual organization. Underlying all these is the leadersÊ propensity to take enormous risks with the magnanimity to own failure, self-confidence to be right in the face of formidable odds, and an urge to keep transforming the organization in order to maintain its competitive advantages over others. Although entrepreneurial leaders blossom most at the top of organizations, they do present a model that aspiring young managers use as benchmarks. Such young entrepreneur-managers manifest a strong need for achievement and power to make things happen. They expand their managerial role by doing more or better than what the role requires, become highly technocratic, take risks, look for better opportunities, put themselves on a fast track, and jump organizations to position themselves to gain competitive advantages in the job market. Many acquire these dispositions during their childhood (Dayal 1999) and develop them systematically by proactively reaching out to meet challenges and to create opportunities. Culture-Building Role Building organizational culture around human beings and their relationships that facilitate high performance is the central leadership role (Schein 1987). It is based on the axiomatic belief that the organizational culture, that takes into account the nature of employees, their needs and expectations, and the ways they relate with each other and contribute to the organization, constitutes the founda-tion for building sustainable productive and competitive organization. Schein (1987) observed, ÂOrganizational cultures are created by leaders, and one of the most decisive functions of leadership may


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well be the creation, the management, and·if and when that becomes necessary·the destruction of cultureÊ (Schein 1987: 13). In conclusion, the three leadership roles·managerial, entrepreneurial, and culture-building· require different sets of skills for being effective in different types of organizations. The managerial role requires administrative skills to serve organizations functioning in a stable business environment having standardized products and services. Fast-changing, market-driven, and strategically-oriented organizations place greatest emphasis on conceptual skills that are driven by a strong need for achievement and a higher propensity to taking risks. Culture-building requires interpersonal relationship managing skills that are congruent with culturally embedded organizations. However, all these skills are required in varying degrees in all high-performing organizations except that they are combined in different ways.

LEADERSHIP PROCESSES Leadership processes involve influencing, motivating, and empowering subordinates to function more effectively and to contribute to organizational effectiveness. The processes have an underlying dimension ranging from being leader-centred to being subordinate-centred. Influencing is a leadercentred process while empowering is a subordinate-centred process. The motivating process lies in between because the characteristics of both the leader and the subordinate jointly determine its success. Influence covers a wide range of processes from controlling to providing facts and figures that are meant to create a condition where subordinates see for themselves the justification of what the leader wants them to do. A leader in the controlling mode can be manipulative, intimidating, or forceful having either strands of narcissism or insecurity or organizational compulsions to get work done. The impact on the subordinates is generally short-lived, particularly if it is driven by the leaderÊs concern to prove himself. Controlling if prolonged causes the subordinates to either revolt (if they gain clout) or sabotage if they cannot retaliate. Reasoning to influence involves logic and evidence that allow subordinates some space to think and see the legitimacy of leaderÊs attempts to influence them. Subordinates may believe that they have agreed to accept the leaderÊs arguments. There is a grey area in between controlling and reasoning. Motivating, on the other hand, takes into an account the variety of subordinatesÊ needs, expectations, skills, and attitudes and to provide appropriate incentives, support, directions, and guidance. What could be an attractive incentive for one may be meaningless to another subordinate. Leaders need to employ a wide range of skills and styles to present a cafeteria-approach so that the subordinates with different needs, expectations, experience, can still find something attractive to listen to and hence follow the leader. Interpersonal skills with a culture-building role work best with subordinates who are receptive to a leadersÊ range of influence tactics such as reward, reasoning, ingratiation, and so on. Empowerment also has at least three levels. The lowest level means that subordinates are assigned jobs, provided with necessary infrastructure, and held responsible for their successful completion.

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This is the kind of empowerment that Korean multinationals subscribe to when they give targets, necessary supports, and demanded 100 per cent target realization (see Sinha 2004). At the next level of empowerment, subordinates are delegated authority so that they can discharge responsibilities by planning and implementing on their own. An example of this is the socio-technical group (see Chapter 1). At the highest level of empowerment, subordinates take the initiative to identify what their job needs them to do and have the freedom to assume the responsibility to plan and implement them with dedication. They at best need mentors and guides with authentic and sincere relationships with them. Box 10.7

Narayana Murthy on Effective Leadership

An effective leader: Ć Enthuses his people with a desire to reach for the stars. Ć Raises the confidence of the followers making them understand that tough times are part of life and that they will come out better at the end of it. Ć Inculcates trust and confidence in people by having a premium on transparency. Ć Creates an environment where each person feels secure enough to be able to disclose his mistakes, and resolves to improve upon himself. Ć Subscribes to the PSPD Model (predictability, sustainability, profitability, and derisking) for effective organization. Source: http://rajnionline.rediffiland.com/blogs/2006/08/04/Narayan-Murthy-s-Speech-TOO.html.

An effective leader slides back and forth engaging in all three processes singly or in combinations for different subordinates in different organizational contexts. He distinguishes fire-fighting or short-term measures from those that have lasting, enabling, and more pervasive impacts. Even if he has to engage in fire-fighting to bring his subordinates on track or to protect his turf by coercing and forcing, he quickly shifts towards rewarding, reasoning, and persuading, and eventually to inspiring, mentoring, and guiding, and thereby uplifting his subordinates from forced to idealistic levels of leaderăsubordinate relationships.

STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE LEADERS Whether managers are developed into leaders depends first of all on their own efforts to rise above their routine functions, expand their roles, and cultivate beliefs, dispositions, skills, and styles that make them stand out from others around them. Organizations too play a facilitating role by creating conditions and devising mechanisms that help managers transcend their managerial roles. Hence, the strategies for developing managers into leaders have to be two pronged.


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Efforts for Self-development Some of the leadership characteristics are easier to develop than others. People can change their manifest behaviour more easily than their underlying beliefs and dispositions. If a person consistently behaves in a particular way for a while, he is likely to start believing that thatÊs the way he is (Bem 1967). A superior who keeps helping his subordinates is likely to start believing that he has a disposition to help others; otherwise why would he help despite incurring costs in doing so. Ordinarily, people make sense of their behaviour by attributing causes to either their inner disposition or external circumstances. Less obvious, but equally true is a reverse flow of logic to infer about oneÊs inner beliefs and dispositions. The process can be facilitated by deliberate efforts to see the value of behaving like an effective leader does. The efforts have to be supported by believing that they are capable to do so or that they indeed have the dispositions to behave like that. A. K. Singh (1998) recommended a number of devices for the purpose. Self-talk is one such powerful instrument. It Âis a creative process through which an individual looks at himself dispassionately and objectively, discusses with himself the paramount issues of life and finds answers to his questionsÊ(Singh 1998: 51). Deliberate fantasizing generates new ideas to experiment with. Yoga suggests the use of dhaarana (concerted focusing) on what one wants in order to generate additional energy to realize the desired outcome. Another method is to write a regular diary that provides a concrete feedback about the extent to which a person has been able to or has failed to behave like a leader and to initiate specific corrective measures. Reading biographical accounts of great leaders is often inspiring as well as informative about the ideal skills and styles. Dayal (1999) found that successful top leaders try to upgrade their competence by listening to others carefully, reading technical as well as non-technical literature, and trying out new ideas even when they involve some risk. Learning from oneÊs role model and mentor is a live source for acquiring critical dispositions, skills, and styles. Learning through job experiences that enrich leaders is another source. Managers can seek out variety, complexities, and challenges in the job in order to expand their expertise and to gain self-confidence. Box 10.8 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Self-efforts to Develop as a Leader

Self-talk reflecting on self and coming up with corrective measures. Deliberate fantasizing about functioning effectively. Yoga for focused concentration on efforts that result in success. Writing a regular diary for getting feedback. Upgrading competencies by listening and by gaining technical knowledge. Reading biographical accounts of great leaders. Learning from oneÊs role model and mentor. Learning through job experiences by seeking out challenges.

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Role of Organizations LeadersÊ efforts towards self-development cannot be realized in a vacuum. They are diluted in the absence of support from others and from the organization. Leaders do change the culture of an organization, but the latter shapes the leaders too (Schein 1987). Dayal (1999: 86) believes that an organization can play a critical role in creating conditions in which managers feel free to innovate and experiment with new ideas. The audit approach, where one wrong decision negates all right ones and puts a person in the dock, stifles leadersÊ growth efforts. Three specific measures have been suggested: 1. Challenging assignments with opportunities to excel and show results that give the potential leaders an experience of success. 2. Openness throughout the organization so that potential leaders can ask questions, share experiences, cultivate skills, and experiment with new ideas without the fear of being punished. 3. Involvement of potential leaders in decisions and actions taken by their superiors so that they feel accepted by their superiors.

Outsourcing Leadership-building Programme Besides having their own leadership development programmes, most organizations send their managers to outside institutions for training. Such facilities are available in management institutes, in the management faculties of the institutes of technology and universities, and in institutes that specialize in leadership training. While some of the modules on leadership training are tailor-made for organizations, most of the others aim to inculcate leadership capabilities and drives to help in developing skills in abstract thinking, risk taking, interpersonal sensitivity, trust, emotional intelligence, and problem solving. Methods for imparting training are varied too. A small portion of training inputs consists of lectures and panel discussions, but larger portions are devoted to role playing, simulation and games, and adventures in difficult terrains. The underlying assumption is that knowing the art and science of the leading process is less significant than putting people in situations where they have to learn to behave like real leaders. Further, climbing mountains, rafting, trekking, rope waking, and similar activities are symbolic presentations of the exciting and challenging tasks of leadership that the trainees master as a part of developing risk-taking entrepreneurial disposition and persistence of efforts in realizing difficult goals. Unfortunately, the variety of training modules and their widespread use is not always checked for their effectiveness in actual organizational contexts.

SUMMARY Effective leadership involves the processes of controlling, motivating, and empowering subordinates to function more effectively and to contribute to organizational effectiveness. It is a joint function of


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the characteristics of the leader and the subordinates and the nature of the organizational context. Organizational contexts comprise the complexity of tasks, types and life cycle of organizations, and the levels at which leaders function within an organization. SubordinatesÊ characteristics refer to, besides their skills and work habits, their preference to maintain dependency and personalized relationships with leaders and their willingness to accept the latterÊs superior status. Leaders employ their skills, dispositions, styles, and roles sliding back and forth between controlling, motivating, and empowering subordinates. They first accept subordinatesÊ characteristics to establish rapport with them, and then leverage the rapport to help subordinates retain and acquire those characteristics that are functional considering what may or may not work in different organizational contexts. The strategies for developing leadership have three aspects: individualsÊ own efforts, support given by their organizations, and training at leadership training institutions. This chapter takes the position that all managers can develop into leaders provided they deliberately cultivate leadership characteristics and the organization facilitates their efforts.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: The Boss that You would Prefer to Have Step 1 The following statements describe what you think of your immediate superior, what you expect from him, and how you behave with him. Please read each statement and judge whether it is true or false for you by selecting a number from the five-point scale given here. Note down the score for each statement. Please go through the statements quickly without missing out any. After you complete rating all of them, you can score them into three categories as described at the end of the statements. 1·Quite false. 2·False. 3·Undecided. 4·True. 5·Quite true. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

I have high respect for him. I often seek advice and direction from him. I try to maintain a personalized relationship with him. Before taking any decision, I prefer to seek approval from him. I feel bad if one of my colleagues smokes in front of him. I often pay him a social visit at home. I try to keep my voice humble and low when I talk to him.

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8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.


When faced with a problem, I prefer to consult him, even if I have a solution. I do not expect him to greet me first; I always greet him first. I go out of the way and help him and his family members in their personal matters. I feel good when he shares his personal problems with me. I am not sure of decisions unless he approves of them. I gladly accept his superior authority over me. I want him to notice and appreciate my good performance. I try to oblige him by doing something personal for him. Faced with differences in our opinion, I concede in order to make him feel good. I believe that if I stay close to him, I shall be better off. It is always wise to check with him before I take any decision. I do not answer back even if he is harsh with me. I expect that he gives clear directions to me. I feel pleasure in doing some personal work for him. I feel good when he pays attention to what I am doing. I blindly obey him. I often invite him out to dinner and to social occasions. I do not like to disagree with him. I often inquire about the well-being of his family members. I always address him as ÂSirÊ. I do not go against his wishes, even if it is inconvenient to me. I feel pleasure in taking his guidance in my personal problems. I behave humbly and submissively with him, even if it is not necessary.

Step 2 Compute your scores as follows: 1. Dependency score (Preference for depending on the leader for seeking attention, support, appreciation, etc.) by adding scores for statements 2, 4, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 25, and 28. 2. Personalized relationships (Preference for maintaining personalized relationships) by adding the scores for statements 3, 6, 10, 11, 15, 17, 21, 24, 26, and 29. 3. Status orientation (Acceptance of superior status of the leader) by adding scores for statements 1, 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 19, 23, 27, and 30. Note: A total of more than 25 on any of the three orientations means that you are high on that orientation.


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Step 3 Given your orientation, think of the characteristics that you would prefer your boss to have. List the characteristics according to their importance.

Step 4 Share your orientations and the characteristics you would prefer in your boss with the whole class/group.

Exercise 2: Models of Effective Leaders Step 1 Distribute the names of the following business leaders among the group/class members through a lottery so that at least two participants get the name of the same leader. Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Arun Sarin Azim Premji Kumar Mangalam Birla Laxmi Mittal Mukesh Ambani Naresh Goyal Narayana Murthy Ratan Tata S. Ramadorai Sunil Mittal Vijay Mallya

Step 2 The participants will have a week to search through the Internet and prepare a profile of the leaders spelling out their characteristics and the organizational contexts and factors that led them to become effective leaders.

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Step 3 Each leadership profile will be presented to the whole class/group followed by a discussion that will identify the models of effective leadership.

Exercise 3: Lost Leadership Step 1 Please read the following case: Dr Navin Chandra was totally lost. He had lost all that he built up in the last 30 years or so. His dream that he thought he had almost realized had turned into a nightmare. Let us get to his story from the very beginning. Dr Chandra was a brilliant scholar. Having a tripos from Trinity College and a doctorate from Cambridge, he got a faculty position in the London School of Economics (LSE). Just a few months after, he was invited by the Indian High Commissioner for a Republic Day dinner. It was the first Republic Day, 26 January 1950. The air was euphoric with the surge of fresh nationalism and the pride of being Indian. On top of this, Krishna Menon fired his imagination, ÂCome on! Build a new India that the West can envy!!Ê And so he gave up his job at the LSE and returned to India for an exciting ÂpilgrimageÊ. Krishna Menon was his mentor and patron. He introduced him to Pandit Nehru who grew fond of him. This allowed him unlimited access to the prime ministerÊs house as well as boundless demands on his time to get involved in the five-year plans for nation-building. A land lease of just Re 1 and a huge grant from the central government resulted in a sprawling 10-acre campus for the National Institute of Econometrics (NIE) at the periphery of New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Krishna Menon. One of the best architects of Delhi designed the main building, library, faculty houses, flats for bachelors and staff, and an international guesthouse in such a way that the campus looked more like a luxurious garden than a bare academic institute. Dr Chandra would spend hours everyday watching every structures come up in order to be sure that they matched and fused with the ambience of the place. The Ford Foundation helped build up a library that did not have any rival in the country in social sciences. A nearby university approved its Ph.D. programme. But hiring was another story. Dr Chandra was very fastidious. He wanted to have young bright scholars who were dedicated to research with a nationalist fervour. He wanted more faculty than support staff, and only a few peons and others. He travelled far and wide meeting young aspirants for hours before he took them on board. He travelled from New York to Berkeley to get Dr Rao from the University of California to join the NIE. Dr Dutta from the LSE knew him from the early days and volunteered to join. It took him only about two years to build the campus, but over six years to have 14 senior fellows, each having two or three research fellows and two or three Ph.D. scholars. By the late 1950s, the NIE had 14 clusters of 38 faculty members, 11 support staff, and nine others (peons, drivers, guards, and gardeners).


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What Dr Chandra enjoyed most and was proud of was the community life that the NIE had. The senior fellows had comfortable houses and others had equally comfortable flats. They were free to work as long as they wanted. Most of the faculty remained glued to their office or library to which they had unlimited access. They could go to work any time. The library remained open from 8.00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Dr Chandra enjoyed drifting into their offices or into the library at any hour and picking up conversations and discussions with them. He knew every bit of what they were working on and was invariably ready to give them new ideas and constructive critiques. He read every research paper before it was sent out for publication. Amazingly, he had, more often than not, some new ideas that the faculty felt obliged to incorporate in their papers. The faculty was free to order any book or journal and seek out Dr ChandraÊs advice at any time. Dr ChandraÊs wife, Renu, did a great job in building up this community. Their bungalow was the centre of frequent get-together and many celebrations. She was a regular visitor to the families, helping the newcomers with guidance and tips about shopping as well as family affairs. Whenever a child got sick or there was an exigency in a family, Renu was almost always the first to arrive and take command. The mid1960s were the golden years. The faculty quickly expanded into 17 clusters of about 60 creating an intellectual hub par excellence! Invariably, there were fourăfive international scholars rubbing shoulders with their Indian counterparts. I. G. Patel (who later became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India), Amartya Sen (who was a very young scholar at that time and was to later became a Nobel Laureate), K. N. Raj, and similar other young economists were regular visitors to the NIE. Things started changing around the late 1960s. Pandit Nehru was no more and Krishna Menon had lost his ground after the Chinese invasion. The changes at first were too subtle to notice. The senior faculty did not look enthused when Dr Chandra just dropped into their offices. His suggestions were not refuted, but were not necessarily acted upon either. Renu did not feel quite welcome and stopped visiting families so frequently. Dr Chandra glossed over these minor things. But then there were other signs that he could not ignore. The faculty was spending too much time in seminars and conferences outside the country. They were publishing books and articles without showing them to him or intimating him about them. Internal seminars often turned less constructive where even his helpful ideas were controverted unnecessarily. He could not do anything, because it was he who had given them the freedom in all academic matters and had encouraged them to engage him in dialogue and debate and to refute him if they wanted to. But he did feel like having some norms now. When he raised the need for some norms (now that the faculty was large), the senior faculty doubted his intentions and vigorously opposed the idea. Thereafter, it increasingly became a battle royale! The more he tried to assert himself, the more he was openly defied. It climaxed one day when he approached the board of control with a set of norms for the InstituteÊs employees including its faculty. Right from the beginning, he had very carefully selected and got nominated to the board members who had almost blind faith in him. Earlier, because of his proximity to the prime minister and Krishna Menon, the central government nominees in fact were too eager to support him. Economists on the board were his personal friends. The faculty representative was

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like his spokesperson. Things had changed by now. The government nominees had now started throwing their weight around. Some of the members were in close touch with the faculty. The younger economists on the board were now more friendly with the faculty than with him. As soon as he presented his draft of the norms, Dr Rao, the faculty representative, placed a demand signed by all senior faculties to fire him because of his autocratic style of functioning. They had threatened to resign en masse if he continued as the director. The board deliberated for a while and finally asked him to resign. Dr Chandra walked out of the board room without saying a word. As he walked to his bungalow, he looked back at the main building where he had reigned for over three decades. He wondered what he had done wrong.

Step 2 Attempt an analysis of the leadership process at the NIE individually and then discuss it in the group.

11

Theories of Leadership


Explain why theorizing about leadership is important. Identify different types of theories of leadership. Show the increasing complexity in leadership theories. Explain the role of culture in leadership theories.

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AN OVERVIEW

T

he preceding chapter showed that effective leadership depends on a successful interplay of three sets of factors: leaderÊs characteristics, subordinatesÊ characteristics, and organizational context, which includes the nature of tasks, characteristics of an organization, and the surrounding milieu. Theories of leadership attempt to put this interplay into specific frames, although not all theories encompass all three factors and their components. While the preceding chapter focused on leadership processes incorporating all variables of significance, the present one selectively picks up only those that fit into the specific theories. Some of the theories focus primarily on the leadersÊ characteristics that make subordinates perform as the leaders want, irrespective of the subordinatesÊ characteristics and the organizational imperatives. Others take the position that it is the followers who attribute leadership qualities to their superiors and accept and follow them if the superiors are perceived to possess those qualities. A corresponding view is that leaders attribute internal or external causes to subordinatesÊ performance (or lack of it) and modulate their influence attempts accordingly in order to get the subordinates to perform effectively. Another variant of this approach contends that leadership lies in the interactive relationships between a superior and his subordinates. The relationships unfold over a time period, enable them to adapt to each other, and accomplish tasks jointly. Still others contend that effective leadership is contingent on all three factors. That is, leaders accept the way subordinates are, but then employ ways and means at their disposal to induce them to behave differently so as to realize group and organizational goals keeping in view the parameters set by organizational contexts. In other words, there are three broad categories of leadership theories: 1. Leader-centred theories. 2. Theories of leader-subordinates interactive relationships. 3. Contingency theories. The three categories are only conceptually distinct. Demarcation lines often get blurred when empirical evidence is brought in to test their validity and examine their practical implications. Both the leader-centred and the interactive theories eventually gravitate, in varying degrees, towards the contingency approach that is accepted universally, although the contents in the theories are different. Culture plays a crucial role in all of them in two ways: 1. It provides models of normative leadership styles. Normative leadership styles are those patterns of a leaderÊs behaviour that are believed to be desirable and hence are preferred in a culture. 2. Culture increases or decreases the impact of different leadership styles on subordinatesÊ performance by evoking culture-specific values, norms, and beliefs. Cultures are transmitted through socialization processes. Children see how their parents and their surrogates make them behave properly. They learn both how to follow the dictums of superiors as well as how to enact superiorsÊ roles in dealing with their younger siblings. They also observe


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superiorsÊ ways of behaviour that work in different situations and emulate them. For example, Indian children are taught to share their things (for example, their bed, toys, books, etc.) with their siblings; they see others in the family obeying their superiors and superiors taking care of them; they emulate similar ways of obeying and caring behaviour. Their American counterparts, on the contrary, are taught to do what they want, fight back if they have to, question their parents if the latter are wrong. These patterns are deeply etched in their psyche. They are often reinforced by subsequent life experiences and are carried over to work organizations. Box 11.1

Culture’s Impact on Leadership

ÂClearly, what is expected of leaders, what leaders may or may not do, and the influence that leaders have vary considerably as a result of the cultural forces in the countries or regions in which the leaders functionÊ (House et al. 1997: 536).

Work organizations are themselves embedded in their cultural surrounding. They too draw on cultural values, norms, and practices to set their goals, and design systems and procedures to realize them. Hence, organizations reinforce the values, norms, and work habits that individuals carry from their previous socialization in enacting leadership roles. However, organizations also inherit global management practices and their underlying values and norms that either converge or diverge with indigenous ones. The resultant theories of effective leadership thus subsume some universal and some culture-specific elements. This chapter traces the three categories of leadership theories by uncovering the imprint of Western culture where most of the leadership theories were developed and shows how Indian culture has enriched these theorizing processes.

LEADER-CENTRIC THEORIES The Great Man Theory The great man theory, for example, is the origin of the leader-centred theories (Jennings 1960), for leaders were believed to be endowed with superhuman qualities through which they could cause revolutions, win wars, liberate or colonize countries, propound new religion, make new discoveries and inventions, and rewrite history. The immediate descendents of the great man theory were the trait theories that too subscribed to the importance of situation-free dispositions and abilities that were believed to equip leaders to effectively influence their subordinates.

Authoritarian–democratic Leadership A typical example of the trait approach is the authoritarian and democratic leadership that manifested authoritarian and democratic personalities. In the late 1930s, a number of German scholars fled

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from Nazi Germany to the United States (US). They set to prove the superiority of democratic over authoritarian leadership. Kurt Lewin and his associates at the University of Iowa (Lewin and Lippitt 1938; Lippit and White 1943) conducted a series of studies that showed that authoritarian leaders centralize all power, take all decisions, keep all information to themselves, maintain distance from subordinates, control them tightly, and praise or rebuke them whimsically. Democratic leaders, on the contrary, encourage subordinates to participate in the groupÊs activities, share information, explain their actions, and reward or punish group members on objective criteria. Although the amount of work performed under the two types of leaders may not be different, authoritarian leaders make their subordinates submissive, docile, and obedient, which the subordinates start resenting in the long run. As a result, they eventually turn hostile to the leader. On the contrary, subordinates under a democratic leader remain satisfied, friendly, spontaneous, cohesive, and positive to the leader. Obviously, there was an intuitive preference for democratic leadership. The underlying beliefs were that (a) the congruence between cultural and leaderÊs values makes the latter more effective and (b) the democratic nature of Western culture fits well with democratic leadership. The principle of congruence was applied to Indian culture. Indian culture was labelled as authoritarian (Myers 1960) and therefore Indians were believed to work more effectively under authoritarian leaders. Meade (1967) indeed confirmed that Indian children under authoritarian leaders performed better, were more attracted to each other, absented themselves less often, and showed stronger preference for their leaders. House, Wright, and Aditya (1997) quoted a number of studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s showing that subordinates in high power distance and collectivist cultures accept and respond positively to authoritarian leadership styles compared to those who belong to low power distance and individualistic cultures (House et al. 1997: 576). Sinha (1980) refuted the Western view that Indian culture is authoritarian and that an authoritarian leader is likely to be more effective in Indian organizations. Authoritarian style, he argued, springs from an authoritarian personality that manifests rigid and structured interpersonal relationships, power and discipline orientation, and demanding posture reflecting the underlying psychodynamics of insecurity, anxiety, cynicism, and paranoid dispositions (Adorno et al. 1950). He found that Indians do manifest some of the behavioural manifestations, but there is no conclusive evidence that they also possess the underlying neurotic dispositions. Further, he reported empirical evidence indicating that authoritarian leaders were neither effective in enhancing productivity nor adding to subordinatesÊ satisfaction.

The Ohio State and Michigan Universities Studies Two other centres of leadership studies that came into prominence in the 1950s were the Ohio State and the Michigan universities. Having demolished the trait theories, Stogdill (1948), along with Shartle (1956) at the Ohio State University, initiated a series of studies in a variety of organizations employing hundreds of behavioural statements in order to search for effective styles of leadership. They came up with two dimensions: Initiating structure and consideration. Initiating structure manifests in a leaderÊs concern to structure his and his subordinatesÊ roles in order to realize the group goals. Once the


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roles are explicitly assigned and accepted, both the leader and the subordinates are accountable for their performance. A leaderÊs consideration, on the other hand, is expressed in the nature of job relationships that are characterized by trust, respect for subordinatesÊ ideas, and consideration for their feelings. Subsequent research generated evidence that indicated that (a) effective leaders are high on both dimensions (House 1971), (b) a number of factors moderate the effectiveness of the dimensions (Kerr et al. 1974), and (c) in certain instances the theory remains unrelated to subordinatesÊ performance or satisfaction (Schriesheim and Kerr 1977). A similar dichotomy of directive versus participative styles was identified in the Michigan University studies in a variety of organizations such as industries, hospitals, and governmental organizations. Rensis Likert (1961) and his associates found that directive leaders closely supervise subordinates. They are production oriented. Participative leaders, on the other hand, are people oriented. They encourage employees to share their ideas and opinions and come up with joint decisions. Likert (1967) subsequently elaborated directive and participative styles into four clusters ranging from exploitativeăautocratic to democratic leadership with varying degrees of leaderÊs trusts and confidence in subordinates, subordinatesÊ feeling of freedom to share job-related problems and ideas, and leaderÊs seeking subordinatesÊ ideas and opinions and making constructive use of them (see Table 11.1). Table 11.1

Michigan Typology of Leadership Styles Leadership Styles

Leadership Variable

Exploitative Autocratic

Benevolent Autocratic

Participative

Democratic

Confidence and trust in subordinates

None

Low

Substantial but not complete

Complete in all matters

SubordinatesÊ scope of participation

None

Very little

Substantial

Complete

Leader seeking subordinatesÊ ideas and opinion

Seldom

Sometimes

Usually making use of them

Always making use of them

Source: Likert (1967).

Performance Maintenance Leadership MisumiÊs (1985) performance maintenance style of leadership reflected the direct influence of the Ohio State University and Michigan University theories of leadership (see details in Sinha 1995: 83ă95). Misumi went to study under Kurt Lewin and later on spent a great deal of time at Michigan University. Following the Michigan tradition, he conceptualized two dimensions of leadership: performance (P) and maintenance (M), which, like the Ohio State University study formulation, were visualized as independent dimensions. Leaders can be high or low on both, or high on one and low on the other generating four configurations of styles (see Table 11.2).

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Table 11.2

Performance Maintenance Styles of Leadership Performance (P)

Dimensions Maintenance (M)

High Low

High

Low

PM Pm

pM pm

Source: Misumi (1985).

Maintenance (M) is quite close to the consideration and participative style while performance (P) is quite close to the initiating structure and task-oriented styles of leadership. M-style leader does not impose his opinion on subordinates; rather he seeks their ideas and opinion in problem solving. He considers subordinatesÊ preference in assigning work to them, does not make changes in job contents without consulting subordinates, and if he has to do so, he informs them in advance. He is available to subordinates without any prior appointment and is generally supportive of them. A P-style leader tries to make subordinates work to their maximum, sets clear time frames for completing work, and is strict about subordinates completing the work within the given time limit as well as observing all rules and regulation regarding work. He monitors their progress in work closely by asking them to report the progress regularly, and reprimands those who fail to perform well. Misumi improved upon the Ohio State University and Michigan University models by adopting an interactive view of leadership as it affects the motivational levels of subordinates. The leader prioritizes P over M. However, as he pressurizes subordinates to perform, they are likely to develop resistance and the group feels tension. The motivation level goes down. The leader needs to resort to M to raise the motivation level. Once motivated, emphasis on performance is not necessary. P then turns into Planning. Thus, P is ÂpressureÊ under low M, but is ÂplanningÊ under high M. The low on both, pm, is actually laissez-faire style. The most serious limitation of the performance maintenance theory is that the Japanese ethos is totally missing in it. Japanese leaders are well integrated with their group members. Their relationships are that of a parent and children (oyabun-kobun). Leaders are not always the most competent in technical matters; they are only the senior most. Their competence lies in realizing harmony, cooperative efforts, and team spirit in the group while the technical experts may stay at the sidelines waiting for the leader to draw on their expertise. In fact, the leadersÊ human-like weaknesses bring subordinates closer to them (Nakane 1970; Yoshino 1976). It is not their either performance or maintenance, but the close bonds with subordinates that make the Japanese groups effective.

Other Dichotomous Leadership Styles Similar to and following the Ohio State University and Michigan University models, a number of dichotomous styles were advanced·all reflecting the task versus people orientation of a leader. Some of them were the following:


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Task versus social emotional style (Bales and Strodbeck 1951). Restrictive versus permissive style (March 1955). Theory X versus Theory Y (McGregor 1960). 9ă1 versus 1ă9 style (Black and Mouton 1964). Autocratic versus consultative style (Vroom and Yetton 1973). Centralized versus delegated decisionămaker style (Heller 1973). Low versus high least preferred co-worker (LPC) style (Fiedler 1967). Theory-in-use versus theory espoused (Argyris and Schon 1974).

The trend was to believe that Âall forms of people oriented behaviour are identical in character and all task-oriented behaviour are merely variants of authoritarianismÊ (Stogdill 1974: 423). That is, leaders whose top concern was to get tasks accomplished were not sufficiently sensitive to employeesÊ needs and expectations and were labelled as authoritarian in their style. On the contrary, peopleoriented leaders reflected the democratic values of individualÊs autonomy and freedom. Some of these theories (for example, low versus high LPC and autocratic versus consultative) were, in fact, contingency theories. They are listed here to highlight their people versus task orientations. Despite their common emphasis on the dichotomy of people versus task orientation, the theories varied in three ways: 1. Conceptualizing. 2. Dimensionalizing. 3. Measuring the style.

Conceptualizations of Styles Among the task-oriented styles, Theory X was conceptualized as a set of beliefs that subordinates do not want to work on their own and therefore have to be forced to do so. By implication, a leader has to adopt a task-oriented posture. The 9-1 style suggests arranging conditions of work in such a way that subordinates work efficiently without being distracted by their relational concerns. The autocratic style comes closest to the authoritarian style in its behavioural manifestation without sharing the underlying psychodynamics of the leader. Similarly, a centralized leader, like an authoritarian leader, does not involve subordinates in decision-making. He does not necessarily have an authoritarian personality either. The low LPC leader manifests a stronger dislike for poor performing subordinates. The theory-in-use, compared to the one that a leader espouses, implies that a leader realizes the reality and the reality demands that he press the subordinates to perform. Among the people-oriented styles, a high LPC leader is generous manifesting less disliking even for least preferred subordinates. A permissive leader behaves like laissez-faire, except that he has faith in his subordinates behaving responsibly. He delegates authority believing that subordinates, once given the authority, will perform with greater responsibility. Both the permissive and the delegating type believe in Theory Y. A social-emotional leader is concerned with the maintenance of good relationships

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among the members. The 1-9 leader creates a friendly environment by satisfying subordinatesÊ needs. A consultative leader takes into account subordinatesÊ ideas and needs while making decisions.

Dimensionalization of Styles Some theorists (for example, Fiedler 1967; Heller 1973; Likert 1961; March 1955; Vroom and Yetton 1973) postulated that the styles were the extremes of a single continuum so that a leader who is high on a particular style is low on its opposite style·the higher on one side means lower on the other. For example, a leader who is high on task orientation is so concerned with task accomplishment that he neglects his subordinatesÊ needs and expectations, and thereby causes dissatisfaction that dilutes the leaderÊs efforts to get the task done. Similarly, a people-oriented leader is disposed to keep his subordinates happy and satisfied and as a result the latter may take the liberty not to deliver their best. Others (Argyris and Schon 1974; Bales and Strodbeck 1951; Black and Mouton 1964; McGregor 1960; Shartle 1956; Stogdill 1974) viewed them as independent dimensions implying that a leader may be high or low on both, or high on one and low on the other dimension. Further, an effective leader is high on both dimensions by integrating tasks as well as peopleÊs requirements (for example, a 9ă9 type, initiating structure and consideration, task and social-emotional leaders). Some of the theorists elaborated the styles into a number of levels or categories. Black and Mouton (1964) had 9 ï 9 grid showing nine grades each of people and task orientations. The most ineffective leaders are 1ă1, and the most effective ones are 9ă9, others occupying a variety of positions in the 9 ï 9 space.

Measurement of Styles The styles were measured differently too. Lippitt and White (1943) trained leaders to behave in authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire styles and assigned 10-year-old children to work under each of them. The Ohio State University and Michigan University studies developed hundreds of statements regarding what leaders do in a variety of work organizations and asked managers to rate their leaders on them. The responses were factor analysed deriving four clusters that reflected combinations of high and low on the two dimensions discussed earlier. Vroom and Yetton (1973) and Blake and Mouton (1964) had descriptions of styles that either the leaders self-rated or were rated by their subordinates. Fiedler (1967) asked leaders to recall all co-workers who had worked with them in the recent past and identify the one who was the least preferred co-worker (LPC) and to rate him on a number of bipolar adjectives. A higher rating implied that the leader was liberal and generous even to the co-worker who was least preferred. Such a leader was believed to be people oriented. On the contrary, those who reported stronger disliking for the LPC were the ones who were assumed to care more for task performance.


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Leadership Styles Congruent with Indian Culture There are two theories of leadership that are congruent with the Indian cultural ethos, although they are applicable in other cultural settings also. They are the pioneering-innovative (PI) style (Khandwalla 1988) and paternalistic leadership (Virmani and Guptan 1991).

The PI Style Khandwalla (1988) examined 75 large Indian public and private sector organizations in order to identify the indigenously evolved PI style that, he argued, is Âthe outgrowth of the entrepreneurial tradition in the country exemplified by Jamsetji Tata, Walchand Hirachand, and Ghanshyamdas BirlaÊ (Khandwalla 1988: 141). The PI leaders are essentially entrepreneurs with a blend of professionalism. They tend to launch pioneering, novel, technologically-sophisticated, and high quality products and services in the market. They are willing to take risks and adapt to the changing business environment. They acquire the latest and best quality equipment and machines from anywhere in the world by paying even premium prices. They invest heavily and take the risk to incur losses. They carefully scan the business environment and adapt to its changing demands. According to Khandwalla, the PI style is an ambitious style with high performance aspirations combined with conscientiousness, expertise, teamwork, achievement orientation, tough as well as tender to personnel mode that Âseemed to land the organization into a more complex, turbulent, but favourable operating environment, depressed the work ethic in the management level immediately below the top management, but raised it in the middle management level, and raised the long term growth rate of the organization both absolutely and relative to rival organizationsÊ (Khandwalla 1988: 141ă42). The PI style is quite similar to the forceful style described in the previous chapter. Box 11.2

Collectivism, Power Distance, and Leadership Styles

ÂBoth power distance and individualism affect the type of leadership most likely to be effective in a country. The ideal leader in a culture in which power distances are small would be a resourceful democrat; on the other hand, the ideal leader in a culture in which power distances are large is a benevolent autocrat (or „good father‰). In collectivist cultures, leadership should respect and encourage employeesÊ group loyalties; incentives should be given collectively, and their distribution should be left to the group. In individualist cultures, people can be moved around as individuals, and incentives should be given to individualsÊ (Hofstede and Bond 1988: 14).

Paternalistic Style Virmani and Guptan (1991) studied managers in a variety of Indian organizations ranging from family-owned, cooperative, public sector, and multinational organizations. The managers reported

276


that participative style is ÂfarcicalÊ in Indian conditions and that the effective top man is ÂpaternalisticÊ who centralizes power and takes all decisions. If he is competent and has concern for subordinates, subordinates have faith in and respect for them. The paternalistic leader is one who is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

A person of high integrity, vision, dedication, and warmth. An effective boundary manager. A successful resource mobilizer. A system builder. A father-figure with a humane face.

A paternalistic leader is found to be effective in a number of Asian countries (Pye 1985). The Asian conceptualization of paternalistic leadership is different from the one in the West where the paternalistic leadership style is equated with autocratic leadership. Unlike an autocratic leader, a paternalistic leader shares, discusses, and consults his subordinates, maintains personalized relationships, listens to their ideas and concerns in private, and tends to maintain harmony (Tjosvold et al. 1997). He has a moral obligation to use his power not for exploiting and domineering, but to protect the less powerful ones (Pye 1985; Spencer-Oatey 1997).

THEORIES OF INTERACTIVE RELATIONSHIPS Theories in this category postulate that both leaders and subordinates are engaged in reciprocally influencing relationships. They match each otherÊs behaviour against the expectations that they hold, and act and react to see that the interactions are on the right track taking them to the group or organizational goals. However, there are shades of differences among the theories, some of which are the following:

Implicit Theory of Leadership According to the implicit theory of leadership, people develop a notion of what ideal qualities superiors should have and how they should behave with subordinates. They watch their superiors, match their superiorsÊ behaviour with their expectations, and accept, obey, and respect those who meet their expectations. The closer a leader comes to the expectations, the greater is the probability of his being accepted, the higher is his influence, the higher is the status attributed to him, and the higher is the degree of the subordinatesÊ compliance (Lord and Mahler, 1991). Such a cognitive map of desirable leadership characteristics can be developed from many sources such as societal and organizational cultures and unique life experiences. Societal culture, of course, is the major source. ÂBecause the members of cultural entities share values, beliefs, assumptions, social identities, meanings, and motives, they are likely to have very similar implicit theories of leadershipÊ (House et al. 1997: 600).


277

A Theory of Leader’s Attribution Just like subordinates, a leader too attributes the causes of his subordinatesÊ high or low performance, and decides the influential tactics that can improve their performance (Lord and Mahler, 1991). A leader observes his subordinates performing the assigned tasks and evaluates whether the latter are meeting, exceeding, or failing to perform up to the leaderÊs expectations. If the subordinates are doing very well, the leader feels good and manifests his warmth and appreciation by being friendly and permissive to them (Greene 1975). However, if subordinates fail to come up to the leaderÊs expectations, he attributes reasons for their failure. The reasons could be external circumstances (for example, equipment, resources, systems and rules, external interference) or internal (subordinatesÊ lack of ability, skills, work habits, or attitudes.). A leader takes different steps for either removing the external obstacles, providing infrastructural support, training, directing, or motivating subordinates (Lord and Mahler 1991).

Transactional versus Transformational Leadership Interactive relationships between a leader and his subordinates imply an exchange principle. That is, both the leader and his subordinates expend their efforts and time influencing each other because both of them anticipate gaining something in return. Further, they would continue to do so only if they expect that their interactions are going to be adequately rewarding (Bass 1990). Besides tangible gains in terms of getting work done and receiving material rewards, they may get psychological satisfaction out of the interactions. For example, the leader might be satisfying his self-esteem arising out of his need for dominance while the subordinates relish a sense of security and support by leaning on a more resourceful person. This exchange approach led Bass to distinguish transactional style from transformational style. In contrast to a transactional leader, a transformational leader puts his subordinates on a higher pedestal to help them rise above their concerns for rewards and work for goals higher than their individual concerns and goals. Bass (1990: 22) distinguished the two styles in terms of the following features: 1. A transactional leader: Ć Subscribes to an exchange principle giving or promising rewards for performance. Ć Watches for deviations from standards and targets of performance and rewards exceptionally good performance and punishes poor performance. Ć Does not intervene if subordinates are performing as per schedule. Ć Abdicates responsibility, avoids making risky decisions, and avoids getting involved. 2. A transformational leader: Ć Ć Ć Ć

Possesses charisma. Inspires rather than rewards subordinates with material gains. Stimulates them intellectually. Pays attention to their needs and feelings.

278


A transactional leader is like a manager who follows routines, believes in status quo, and copes with existing task imperatives. A transformational leader, on the other hand, strives to make qualitative changes in the way subordinates feel about the leaders and works for the organization. Singh and Bhandarkar (1990) examined five transformational leaders in Indian organizations to identify a blend of some Western and some Indian cultural characteristics. They were the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Sincerity of the leader. Kutumbization, that is, creating a familial ambience in the organization. Consultation and participation with subordinates. Collectivization and teamwork. Support to subordinates by way of empowering them. Presenting a role model who should be emulated. Novelty coupled with continuity in systems and modes of relationships.

A transformational leader is a kartaa (head of the family) who considers his organization as an enlarged family in which he consults other members sincerely. He is a role model that others respect and follow. He is essentially paternalistic in his style. A transformational leader in Western literature, on the contrary, is often identified with charismatic qualities.

Charismatic Leadership Max Weber popularized the concept of charismatic authority (Eisenstadt 1968). In contrast to traditional, rational, and bureaucratic bases of authority, charismatic authority is vested in a person who has magical abilities, heroism, and power of mind and speech. A review of literature disclosed that charismatic leaders are characterized by a transcendent vision and/or ideology, acts of heroism, and ability to inspire and build confidence, a revolutionary zeal, hazardous ideals, rhetorical ability, and a powerful aura (Conger and Kanungo 1987: 638). In other words, a charismatic leader by his sheer character, will power, drive, and skills can salvage his followers from a crisis or catastrophe, solve insoluble problems, and instil in his followersÊ blind faith in him. He is an idol that inspires and salvages, but is not exposed to routine interactions and close scrutiny. In a study of 485 managers in four organizations, Conger and Kanungo (1987) identified the following characteristics of charismatic leadership: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Vision to show the possibilities for the future of the organization. Environmental sensitivity to protect hostile invasions and to augment inflow of resources. Sensitivity to membersÊ needs and expectations. Propensity to take personal risks. Unconventional beliefs and disposition to try out new ways of solving problems. Capacity of articulation. Anti-status quo.


279

Both Conger and Kanungo (1987) and House and Baetz (1979) postulated that the charisma of a leader primarily lies in the eyes of followers who attribute it to their leaders in order to hedge their anxiety, fear, insecurity, and a sense of inadequacy by blossoming in the power and capabilities of their leaders. The greater the crisis that the followers find themselves in and, therefore, the greater the need to rely on a stronger source, the greater is the possibility that followers will look for a charismatic leader. The most widely conducted Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) project in 62 cultures involving about 17,000 middle-level managers recorded that charismatic (along with team-oriented participative) leadership was universally endorsed (House et al. 2004). House et al. also found that large power distance was associated with charismatic leadership. Because cultures vary on the dimension of power distance, it is reasonable to believe that followersÊ search for charismatic leadership will also vary accordingly. Smith (1997) argues that charismatic leadership is particularly effective in developing countries characterized by high power distance and collectivism. Nandy and Kakar (1980) argued that charismatic leader or guru is particularly sought after by Indians because of the nature of their identity: Fragmented male identification, an increase in narcissistic vulnerability, an unconscious tendency to submit to idealized omnipotent figures both in the inner world of fantasy and in the outside world of the occupations, the life long search for someone·a charismatic leader or a guru·who will provide mentorship and a guiding worldview, thereby restoring intimacy and authority to individual life, are some of the themes that reverberate through Indian identity . . . (Nandy and Kakar 1980: 149) The extent of hero-worshipping and the bhakti (devotional) tradition in Indian culture manifests itself in IndiansÊ faith in charismatic leadership. The immense popularity of Lord Hanuman stems from the belief that he can make the blind see everything, make a lame person climb mountains, and so on.

Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) Model The VDL model assumes that a leader does not interact with all group members in a uniform way (Dansereau et al. 1975). Either due to his intuitive preference or perception of his subordinatesÊ characteristics, or job requirements, he starts interacting more with some subordinates than the rest. Those who receive greater attention respond more positively creating an increasingly closer bond between the leader and his preferred subordinates (Bhal and Ansari 2000). They constitute an in-group leaving the rest as the out-group. VDL is also called the LeaderăMemberăExchange (LMX) model (Graen et al. 1982a; Graen et al. 1982b). Gradually, the leader relies more on the chosen subordinates, assigns greater responsibility to them, who too feel more involved and committed to the leaderÊs expectations and directives. Liden and his colleagues (Liden and Maslyn 1998; Liden et al. 1997) came out with a four-dimensional LMX model having the following features:

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1. Contribution: The LMX dyads contribute more towards the common goals than others. 2. Loyalty: The LMX members express greater public support for the goals and are more loyal to the leader. 3. Affect: The LMX dyads have greater affection for each other. The affect is based primarily on interpersonal attraction between the leader and the chosen members. 4. Professional respect: The LMX members of the dyad have higher reputation within and/or outside the organization for being professional. They perform better and remain more satisfied. The out-group members, on the other hand, are rendered marginal and alienated. The cultural preference of Indians for cultivating personalized relationships (J.B.P. Sinha 1990) has a built-in tendency to get into the LMX mode where the leader rewards loyalty, the members work for the leader, and expect personal gains from the relationship (Dayal 1999: 67). The LMX, according to Dayal, contributes to organizational effectiveness only if the leader shifts his subordinatesÊ personal loyalty to the organization and induces them to contribute to organizational, instead of personal interests and goals. Even if the leader so succeeds, it is obvious that he causes a sense of discrimination in the minds of the alienated members and thereby tolerates redundancy and inefficiency in the group. Luthans (1998: 387) observed that the VDL or LMX model is more descriptive in selecting members for preferential treatment than prescriptive for effective leadership.

CONTINGENCY THEORIES There are three contingency theories that attracted a great deal of research interests, but have lost much of their shine because the research evidence has not been conclusively supportive of them. Further, they are the products of the American culture and do not look very promising in adding to the understanding of leadership in different cultural contexts where the contingent factors could be different. They are briefly discussed here.

A Normative Theory of Decision-Making Vroom and Yetton (1973) argued that leadership is essentially a decision-making process and a rational framework for making decisions yields the best results. They identified five modes of decision-making ranging from most autocratic to fully democratic. They were the following: 1. AI (totally autocratic) where a leader solves problems and makes decisions unilaterally using whatever information is available to him. 2. A II (somewhat autocratic) where a leader obtains necessary information from his subordinates, but makes decision unilaterally.


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3. CI (somewhat consultative) where a leader shares a problem with his subordinates individually, collects their suggestions, but makes decisions unilaterally. 4. CII (fully consultative) where a leader shares a problem with his subordinates in a group, lets the members discuss them, but makes decisions unilaterally. 5. GII (group decisions) where a leader shares the problem with his subordinates in a group, the group makes decisions, and the leader implements them. None of the modes of decision-making is effective in all situations. Their effectiveness depends on seven considerations: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Is there a quality requirement that one solution is more rational than others? Has the leader sufficient information to make quality decisions? In the problem structured? Is acceptance by the subordinates of a decision critical for its effective implementation? Is the leaderÊs decision likely to be accepted by the subordinates? Do the subordinates share the organizational goal to be achieved by the decision? Is a conflict likely to occur as a result of the decision made?

Thus, the basis to opt for particular modes of decision-making depends on (a) the quality requirements, (b) sufficiency of information available to a leader and his subordinates, (c) the known property of a problem, and (d) the chances of accepting decisions or causing conflicts. If a leader has sufficient information to make quality decisions that are likely to be accepted by his subordinates, it is cost and time saving to make decisions unilaterally. However, if subordinates hold information, he would accept only those decisions that are made on the basis of their information, and it is better for the leader to take them into confidence. Further, if subordinates are divided about the best decision, it is better that the leader makes a decision through group participation and consensus. This recipe of making rational decision is intuitively appealing to leaders, but it totally glosses over the cultural preferences of leaders and subordinates for the different modes of decisionmaking. Subordinates in Indian organizations often prefer to be consulted rather than burdened with the responsibility of making decisions (De 1984) and prefer a paternalistic leader. In the West, participation is valued on its own without any contingent considerations. Greenberg and Brown (1993) concluded that the theory offers useful guidance to leaders, but has to take into account leaderÊs and subordinatesÊ general preferences, their skills, and so on (Greenberg and Brown 1993: 465).

LPC and Situational Favourableness As described earlier, Fiedler (1967) measured leadersÊ task versus people orientation by asking them to rate the least preferred co-worker (LPC) assuming that the higher raters are people oriented and low raters are task-oriented. Fiedler postulated that the low LPC leaders are more effective in

282


highly favourable or highly unfavourable conditions while high LPC leaders are more effective in moderately favourable conditions. The favourableness of a condition depends on the structure of the task, subordinatesÊ acceptance of the leader, and his power over them. In the most unfavourable and the most favourable situations, the leaders have to emphasize task requirements, because subordinates are either not work oriented or are so positive to leaders that they can work on their own. In moderately favourable situations, leaders have to motivate subordinates by being people oriented in liking them even when they are the least preferred subordinates (see Table 11.3). Table 11.3 Favourableness of Situation Very Low

Moderate

Very High

Task Structure Low High Low High Low High Low High

Fiedler’ Contingency Model LeaderÊs Acceptance Low Low High High Low Low High High

LeaderÊs Power Low Low Low Low High High High High

Effective Style of Leadership Low LPC

High LPC

Low LPC

FiedlerÊs theory was criticized on two counts. First, liking and disliking for the least preferred worker does not necessarily reflect people and task orientation. Second, equal weights to task structure, leaderÊs acceptance, and leaderÊs power were found to be unsupported by empirical evidence. A meta-analysis of the contingency theory (Fieldler and Garcia 1987; Strube and Garcia 1981) led to the reformulation of the theory by replacing LPC by a leaderÊs cognitive resources consisting of expertise, intelligence, and experience. Situational favourableness was assessed by subordinatesÊ acceptance of the leader, their motivation, and cordial bonds with him.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Life Cycle or Situational Approach Hersey, Blanchard, and Natemeyer (1979), like other theorists, believed that a leader has to have concerns for both task completion as well as maintenance of relationships. The high and low levels of the two concerns yield the following four styles of leading (see Table 11.4): 1. Telling subordinates what to do. It is a highly directive style. 2. Selling is reasoning with subordinates impressing why they should do what the leader is asking them to do. 3. Participating in the group so that the members can jointly take decisions. 4. Delegating to subordinates to decide and work on their own.


Table 11.4 LeaderÊs Task Orientation Low Low High High

283

Leadership Styles and Maturity of Subordinates

LeaderÊs Relationship Orientation

SubordinatesÊ Maturity Levels

LeaderÊs Style

Low High High Low

Very high High Low Very low

Delegating Participating Selling Telling

Which of the four ways of leading is effective depends on subordinatesÊ maturity that is a composite of subordinatesÊ need for achievement, willingness to accept responsibility, and skills and experience to do so. As subordinates rise on their maturity level, the leader shifts from telling through selling and participating to delegating styles. The model has an intuitive appeal that, as subordinates mature, a leader should shift from being highly directive to highly delegating. However, it is difficult to accept that a delegating leader is less concerned about task and relationships, equating delegating to laissez-faire. Luthans (1998: 418) reviewed the literature to show that the theory is simplistic and weak. It neither presents a coherent and explicit rationale, nor is it supported by empirical evidence

Nurturant Task–participative (NT-P) Model of Leadership Over two decades of research resulted in formulating the NT-P model of leadership that draws on Indian cultural values as well as universal leadership processes (Sinha 1980). The model emphasizes the importance of participative style; but only when it is preceded by the nurturant-task style. Nurturance is valued in Indian culture (Kakar 1971): . . . the image of the superior [in children stories and textbooks] was either nurturant or assertive, never impersonal or fraternal. Although both assertive and nurturant superiors exist in other areas of social relations in India, it is the nurturant superior who is held to be the most effective one. (Kakar 1971: 300) To nurture means to nourish, rear, train, and educate (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1976: 749). Thus, a nurturant leader is one who cares for his subordinates, is committed to their well-being, allows them to depend on him for guidance and direction, establishes emotional bonds with them, guides and directs them in work as well as personal matters, helps them grow and mature, and if necessary reprimands them to bring them back on track. The nurturant style is quite close to the paternalistic style (Virmani and Guptan 1991), which is reported to be effective in Asian cultures (Pye 1985) and the kartaa (house head) symbol in the formulation of transformational leadership (Singh and Bhandarkar 1990). A nurturant leader is particularly preferred by those subordinates who have the dispositions to accept his superiorÊs status, depend on him, and maintain personalized relationships with him

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(see details in the preceding chapter). Nurturant leadership is ideally a relationship of sneh (affection) for subordinates who reciprocate by cultivating shradhaa (deference) for the leader. There is controversy about whether this nurturance should be unconditional and unlimited as a part of a leaderÊs self-sacrificing (Chakraborty 1987, 1993) or altruistic orientation (Kanungo and Mendonca, 1996). Singh and Paul (1985) advocated unconditional affection that has the potential to establish an emotional bond between a leader and his subordinates. Once an emotional bond is established, the subordinates consider work as a duty and do not require tangible compensation for performing it diligently. In other words, affection should not be denied to non-performing subordinates. Sinha (1980) admitted that unconditional nurturance creates an emotional bond, but it does not necessarily orient subordinates to view work as a duty and, hence to perform it diligently. On the contrary, it might displace work from its centrality in the life space of subordinates giving rise to sycophancy where subordinates ingratiate the leader profusely, over depend on him, and overplay their loyalty cards to seek increasingly greater degree of nurturance. The leader may inadvertently enjoy his adulation at the cost of work performance. Therefore, Sinha argued that a leader must make his nurturance contingent on his subordinatesÊ performance. The nurturant-task leadership, in other words, is based on the universally valid principle of operant conditioning where subordinates have to earn nurturance by performing their task well.

Nurturant-task Leadership—A Dynamic Reciprocal Influence Relationship The model involves reciprocal influence relationship between a leader and his subordinates·a relationship that evolves over a time period (see Figure 11.1). Figure 11.1

The Model of NT-P Styles of Leadership

Note: A = near authoritarian leader, NT = nurturant-task leader, P = participative leader, nt/p = combination of NT and P, S = subordinates, t = time point, solid line = positive relationship, broken line = negative relationship, arrow = direction of influence.


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Sinha (1980) reported evidence that highly dependent subordinates, who accept the superiority of the NT leader and relish being personally attached to him, in fact, overdo to meet his expectations. They work more diligently, come up with creative ideas, and take risks if the leader so expects (that is, leader-subordinates, NT and S1, relationship at time point 1 in Figure 11.1). In the process, they gain experience, expertise, and confidence to handle their job by themselves. This in turn set in motion a process of change in their needs and expectations. Increasingly, they want to work on their own, they want freedom to make decisions and assume responsibility, and expect the leader to remain available without telling them what to do. The leader now finds himself in a dilemma. His NT style that worked so well previously does not seem to remain congruent as the subordinates reach time point 2 (S2 at t2). If he realizes that his subordinates have grown up and deserve to have autonomy and responsibility to work on their own, he too shifts by downplaying his NT and injecting doses of P (nt/p), and thereby re-establishing mutually supportive relationship at time point 2. His nt/p style further boosts subordinatesÊ involvement and performance resulting in greater change in their needs and expectations. The leader too reciprocates; thereby creating a mutually facilitative growth-orientated relationship in which the leader adopts a participative style. The relationship may eventually result in an autonomous group as conceptualized in socio-technical analysis (Emery 1959; Herbst 1974, among others). The participative style of Indian leaders, however, is different from the Western one. The leader is still respected as a superior and is looked upon for inspiration and mentorship. He possesses the image of a loving father-figure who treats subordinates as responsible and capable adults. Time point 2 (t2) is critical as the leader may or may not change. He may remain hung up on his NT style that worked so well previously and may not see the legitimacy of his subordinates expecting freedom and autonomy. Rather, he might feel hurt: how could they become so ungrateful! I really brought them up! Such a leader drifts into a retaliating oppressive authoritarian-like style (A) causing frictions, resentment, dissatisfaction, and poor performance at t2. The critical factor that induces progressive or regressive shift in a NT leader is his authoritarian personality. Those who are basically authoritarian tend to satisfy their narcissistic ego by providing patronage by being manifestly nurturant. In a favourable situation, they can afford to be loving, caring, and generous. However, they crack up in a crisis at time point 2. Those who are genuinely nurturant and task-oriented carefully keep scanning their subordinates and calibrating the styles from NT through nt/p to P in order to keep the leader-subordinates relationships cordial and task-oriented.

Differential Approach to Subordinates Not all subordinates have the needs for dependency, personalized, and hierarchical relationship with the leader. A leader has to understand their needs and employ either NT, nt/p, or P styles (see Figure 11.2).

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Figure 11.2

Dyadic Leader–subordinates’ Relationships

Empirical Evidence Both experimental and field studies supported the NT-P model (Sinha 1980, 1995). Ansari (1986) from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, reported that the NT style was distinctly different from other styles in having positive correlations with caring and friendly behaviour, and negative correlations with authoritarian and bureaucratic styles (Ansari 1986: 34). Madhok (1990) from the Punjab University found that the NT style was positively correlated with ÂsellingÊ that is defined to be high task and high relationship style. In an international study, Smith, Tayeb, Sinha, and Bennet (1990) compared the NT style with the 9×9 and initiating structure and consideration in India, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK) and found that group effectiveness was positively correlated with both NT and 9×9 styles in all three countries and that NT was positively correlated with the high scores of initiating structure and consideration. El-Hayek (1999) from the University of New Castle (Australia) reported that effective Lebanese-Australian leaders were significantly more nurturant than Australian leaders. Their Lebanese background probably was more conducive to the values of dependency, personalized relationships, and status consciousness. A scale measuring the NT style along with authoritarian, purely nurturant, and purely task-oriented styles is given in the exercises at the end of this chapter.

SUMMARY The processes through which a leader influences, motivates, and empowers his subordinates have been viewed through a number of theoretical frameworks. The theories of leadership are broadly clustered under three categories. The first group of theories are leader-centred in delineating the characteristics of a leader that he selectively evokes. The characteristics are either personality based traits such as authoritarian or democratic leadership or patterns of behaviour reflecting task and people orientation of a leader. The second group of theories focuses on the interactive relationship


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between a leader and his subordinates in which both influence each other either through the processes of attribution or as a result of their interactive behaviour. The third group consists of contingency theories that show that the effectiveness of a leadership style depends on the nature of task as well as the nature of the subordinates-leader relationship. A leadership model, which is particularly relevant for the Indian organization, is the nurturant task-participative (NT-P) combination of styles that takes into account the model characteristics of Indian subordinates, the reciprocal influence relationships between a leader and his subordinates, and the dynamic process of their growing together and working effectively.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Assessment of Leadership Styles Step 1 The members of the group/class having work experience may assess their own style or administer the following scale on managers in an organization with the following instructions: Please rate the following statements regarding how you deal with your subordinates. Please read the statements and decide how often you engage in the behaviour given in the statement on a fivepoint scale given here. Please note down the number indicating the frequency of your behaviour for each statement. 1·Never. 2·Rarely. 3·Sometimes. 4·Usually. 5·Always. Statements 1. I consult my subordinates. 2. I take personal interest in the promotion of those subordinates who work hard and sincerely. 3. I keep important information to myself. 4. I help my subordinates grow up in the organization. 5. I tell my subordinates what I expect from them and what they can expect from me. 6. I gladly guide and direct those subordinates who work hard and sincerely. 7. I let my boss make major decisions. 8. I encourage my subordinates to solve a problem jointly. 9. I believe that power and prestige are necessary for getting compliance from my subordinates.

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10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.


I help my subordinates even in their family matters. I mix freely with my subordinates. I maintain impersonal relationship with my subordinates. I encourage my subordinates to assume greater responsibility for their job. I take special care that work gets top priority. I treat my subordinates as my equals. I go by laid down rules and procedures only. I maintain high standards of performance. I go out of the way to help my subordinates. I go by the joint decisions of my group. I work hard even in adverse conditions. I do not think that all subordinates are capable of handling their job on their own. I treat my subordinates with care and affection. I keep my job knowledge up-to-date. I am confident of making right decisions. I am generous only to those subordinates who work hard and sincerely. I openly favour those subordinates who work hard and sincerely. I do not take decisions or actions in a hurry. I appreciate those subordinates who strive to improve their performance. I see that my subordinates work to their capacity. I listen attentively to what my subordinates want to share with me. I am open to the ideas and suggestions of my subordinates. I keep an eye on what my subordinates do. I encourage free and frank discussion in my group. I drive myself real hard at work. I am very affectionate to hard-working subordinates. I join my subordinates over a cup of tea or coffee. I am meticulously punctual. I want my subordinates to confine themselves to the prescribed job only. I go out of my way to help those subordinates who maintain a high standard of performance. I confine myself to my own jurisdiction. I strongly resent my subordinates coming late to work. I feel concerned about the well-being of my subordinates. I make it clear to my subordinates that personal loyalty is an important virtue. I openly praise those subordinates who are punctual. I spell out detailed procedures to my subordinates to follow at work. I do not tolerate any unwanted suggestions from my subordinates. I protect my subordinates against outside criticisms. I strictly follow the precedence in making decisions. I arrange assistance to my subordinates when they are sick. I am alert because there are many people who may pull me down.


51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60.

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I tell my subordinates to do only what I want them to do. I make my subordinates feel free even to disagree with me. I am against giving and receiving verbal orders. I feel good about subordinates who are eager to learn. I advise my subordinates with their career problems. I am informal with my subordinates. I have strong likes and dislikes for my subordinates. I treat my subordinates as family members. I keep track of the progress of my subordinatesÊ work. I consider seniority as the best criterion for promotion.

Step 2 Add the scores of the statements as follows: Styles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Authoritarian Bureaucratic Nurturant Nurturant-task Task-oriented Participative

Add Statements

Total

3, 9, 21, 24, 32, 43, 46, 50, 51, 57 7, 12, 16, 27, 38, 40, 45, 48, 53, 60 4, 10, 18, 22, 30, 42, 47, 49, 55, 58 2, 6, 13, 25, 26, 28, 35, 39, 44, 54 5, 14, 17, 20, 23, 29, 34, 37, 41, 59 1, 8, 11, 15, 19, 31, 33, 36, 52, 56

= = = = = =

Step 3 Find out the pattern of your own style of leadership or those of the managers interviewed by you on the basis of the scores.

Step 4 Discuss the leadership styles in the group/class.

Exercise 2: Identification of Theories of Leadership Step 1 Approach a middle-level manager and conduct an interview asking the following six questions:

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1. Please recall an instance in which you were able to cut a truant subordinate to size and made him do what you wanted him to do. Please describe. 2. Please recall an instance in which you failed to cut a truant subordinate to size and could not make him do what you wanted him to do. Please describe. 3. Please recall an instance in which you were able to motivate a subordinate and made him do what you wanted him to do. Please describe. 4. Please recall an instance in which you failed to motivate a subordinate to do what you wanted him to do. Please describe. 5. Please recall an instance in which you were able to empower a subordinate to do what you both wanted to do. Please describe. 6. Please recall an instance in which you failed to empower a subordinate to do what you both wanted to do. Please describe.

Step 2 Identify the theory that explains most effectively your managerÊs style of leadership.

Step 3 Share your finding with the rest of the group/class.

Exercise 3: Formulation of a Leadership Strategy Step 1 Read the following case: Sidharth Srinivasan was in a reflective mood. He asked himself, ÂWhat to do? Where to start from? What should be the strategy?Ê He decided first to review the scenario. It all started towards the end of February. Devi Lal Khurana invited him for late afternoon tea. He was a bit intrigued that Mr Khurana wanted him to meet, not on neutral ground, but at his residence in Gurgaon. Srinivasan had never met Khurana. He had, however, heard about the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Khurana Food & Beverages. Srinivasan noticed that this old man made tea for him. Thereafter, he came straight to the point: ÂSidhi, may I call you Sidhi as they all do? I want you to run my baby. It is strong, but needs a young man like you. I have heard a lot about you. You set the conditions.Ê Saying this, he passed a thick folder on to him. Srinivasan was a bit hesitant, but polite. He said that he would get back to him next morning. The rest of the meeting was spent talking about a variety


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of topics ranging from power shortage to politics drifting finally to their families. Sidharth learnt that the old man had lost his wife a few years back and his son was not interested in business and preferred to teach in an American university. He had an American wife. Most of the time, Sidharth just listened. Mr Khurana already knew that SidharthÊs wife was a fashion designer in Mumbai and that their daughter was doing fine arts in a college in Kolkata, and that he was not exactly a family man. Later in the evening, leafing through the folder, Sidharth gathered that Khurana Food & Beverages was indeed a strong baby with over Rs 560 million in reserve, near insignificant debt, respectable capitalization, strong brand image in Haryana, Punjab, New Delhi, and Rajasthan, and an enormous potential given the prosperous states in the hinterland, but equally formidable problems in competing with the giants around. It was the challenge that captivated him. He was bored with his success at the American multinational soft drink company he worked in and wanted some fresh hills to climb. KhuranaÊs offer was too tempting to let it slip through his fingers. Next morning, he committed diplomatically saying that he must first see the set-up. After a few short trips to the factory near Sonepat, he agreed and joined as the managing director (MD). The pay and perks were not that great, but he got a totally free hand. He met the senior and junior managers, supervisors, workers, spent time on the shop floor, searched for strengths and weaknesses in every nook and corner of the company, glanced through the balance sheets, talked to suppliers, vendors, distributors, and even visited some retail outlets to have a first-hand feel. The picture that now emerged had the following frames: Exactly, 42 years back, Devi Lal Khurana, then a 35-year-old engineer working in the famous Horlicks Company in Punjab, got offended by the behaviour of his British general manager and resigned. He retuned to his native village near Sonepat, sold a big chunk of his huge property, took a loan from a bank in Chandigarh and set up a small dairy factory that collected milk from the neighbouring villages to produce a Horlicks-like health drink, Takat. Given the social prestige of his affluent family, Takat became quite popular. Gradually, he expanded the product line to include butter, ice-cream, variants of the local popular drinks, Chhacha, for adults and, Josh, for children. He deliberately used local names and hired local people to advertise the products. Much later, he started processing and canning food items such as tomato sauce, pickles, fruits slices, and so on. The business kept expanding. He travelled far and wide, visited dairy farms in New Zealand, Denmark, and other European countries to get the latest machines, but saw to it that expatriates left the company as soon as the local replacements were able to handle the machines. He made it a point to hire locally as far as possible. All of the workers were local. They travelled to the factory by bicycles. The managers were mostly from Punjab and Haryana. His vendors and suppliers were relatives and family friends. Even when he spread his wings to the neighbouring states, he chose distributors who were distant relatives or friends of distant relatives. When not travelling, he spent hours in the factory premises closely monitoring everything, talking with even the lowest-level employees, and bestowing small favours on the spot. Khurana had an open door policy. Irrespective of whether he was in his office or house near the factory, employees of all levels kept pouring in. They did not need any appointment. On social occasions, his sprawling lawn looked like a festival ground with hundreds of employees enjoying themselves. He moved around calling many of them by name, enquiring about their family members, offering small favours, and seeking information about the

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factory. He kept contact with most of the vendors and suppliers and was able to get supplies at very short notice, sometimes even within a few hours. All this worked for a while. As the company expanded further, they became somewhat problematic. Srinivasan noted the following: By the financial year 2005ă2006, the growth rate had fallen from 11 per cent to 6 per cent, the return on the capital from 15 per cent to 9 per cent. The major players such as Amul in dairy, Hindustan Levers Limited (HLL) in food products, and Pepsi and Coke in soft drinks were taking away chunks of its business. Ice cream, butter, and soft drinks were the major victims. Only its tomato sauce and pickles were holding up. The company was still profitable, but ageing. The new machines were the latest, but were not always integrated with the old ones creating problems in work flows. Some of the workstations had a mix of incompatible machines. The shop floor at places was not as clean as was mandatory in food and beverages processing. The major departments·production, marketing, sales, and research and development (R&D)· were not information technology (IT)-enabled causing very slow sharing of information manually and lots of passing the buck whenever any serious problems were detected. While the other departments were headed by general managers, R&D and human resources (HR) were managed by deputy general managers reporting to the general manager (production) who was the senior most and the closest to the boss (as they all called Mr Khurana). He posed to be next to the boss in power and often bullied the other general managers. He also claimed full competence to handle HR. The R&D had young bright boys, but the deputy general manager was an old hand who believed only in quality control and testing of products. The general managers in marketing and sales were competing for KhuranaÊs attention and patronage and saw the general manager (production) as a road block. The general managers, by and large, were authoritative, employing command and control methods that their subordinates also emulated. However, the subordinates also whispered against their superiors to Mr Khurana who had his ears open to all such information. The workers were by and large disciplined and work oriented. Over half of them were over 50 years or more. They were fiercely loyal to Mr Khurana but were less competent than the younger ones whom they tended to boss over. The often heard remark was that ÂI have been working here from the time when you were just a toddler.‰ The younger workers resented this privately, but were afraid of the older ones, many of whom had access to Mr Khurana. A powerful political party of the state was trying to exploit the simmering discontent among the younger workforce. There were rumours doing rounds that things were cooking and might one day explode in the face of the management. Srinivasan knew his own mind. Just a few months back, his personal consultant advised him, ÂYou have Type A personality that makes you a hard and fast taskmaster. You are a workaholic, impatient with delays, always in a hurry to get things done, highly structured in timing events, demanding the same from others, somewhat ruthless, and low on sensitivity to others. Watch out for your blood pressure. Learn to tolerate frustrations. Be sensitive to otherÊs feelings. Go slow. And at times, relax and let things happen in their own way.Ê Srinivasan thought, ÂThe whole place has to be overhauled. But how to plan and strategize?Ê


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Step 2 Suppose you are Sidharth Srinivasan. Prepare a strategy for the transformation of Khurana Food & Beverages.

Step 3 Share the individual strategies in the whole group/class in light of the theories of leadership discussed in this chapter.

ii


PART 4 ORGANIZATIONS Although individuals and groups constitute an organization, an organizationÊs behaviour is more than the aggregate of individualsÊ and groupsÊ behaviour. The three chapters in Part 4 highlight such collective entities in terms of organizational culture, knowledge organization, and organizational change and development. Organizational culture incorporates more than individualsÊ thoughts, feelings, and behaviour regarding work and non-work roles. It also includes structure, systems, procedures, etc., along with shared assumptions, values, norms, beliefs, and practices. Knowledge organizations not only collect individual pieces of learning, but integrate and codify them to develop a composite frame for understanding and guiding organizational functions ranging from strategy formulation to routine operations. Organizations develop not only as a sum total of individualsÊ development, but make planned efforts to re-structure themselves for managing increasingly complex sets of activities, create conditions for individuals to develop, and build their skills and relationships into a human capital that plays a more critical role in organizational success than other factors.

ii


12

Organizational Culture


Distinguish organizational culture from related concepts. Highlight the integrating, differentiating, and fragmenting nature of organizational culture. Describe the typology of organizational culture. Show how to cultivate an organizational culture.

297

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RELATED CONCEPTS Organizational Culture

J

ust as society has a culture, so has an organization. Organizational culture has been called ÂCorporate SoulÊ (Singh and Paul 1985)·the spirit and the ethos (Pareek 2004) that percolates all aspects of organizational behaviour; and, like societal culture, cannot be seen directly. It has to be inferred by peeling out the most external, tangible, and hence visible sheaths of an organization to the most central and invisible values, beliefs, and assumptions regarding how and why people work (or do not work) and relate (or do not relate) with each other within an organization. Organizational culture consists of the following five layers (J.B.P. Sinha 1990): 1. Organizational mission, vision, goals, objectives, strategies, and the underlying philosophy of management. 2. Organizational structure, systems, work forms, technology, capital structure, and other physical features of an organization. 3. Group characteristics such as power and authority structure, group dynamics, leadership, and forms of work and social relationships. 4. Work and non-work practices and behaviour 5. Assumptions, beliefs, values, and norms regarding work as distinct from non-work domains such as family, community, leisure, religion, etc. Box 12.1

The Core of Organizational Culture

ÂValues are the bedrock of any corporate culture. As the essence of a companyÊs philosophy for achieving success, values provide a sense of common direction for all employees and guidelines for their day to day behaviour. These formulas for success determine (and occasionally arise from) the types of corporate heroes, and the myths, rituals, and ceremonies of the cultureÊ (Deal and Kennedy 1982: 21).

Societal and Organizational Cultures Organizational culture thus consists of the totality of an organization around one or more focal concerns regarding work and relationships at work. Its structure is prototypical of a societal culture. At the core are the assumptions, beliefs, and values regarding work or non-work interests that manifest in individualsÊ and groupsÊ behaviour that in turn affect or are affected by organizational systems, procedures and norms, and the underlying philosophy, strategy, and so on. Organizational culture mirrors societal culture (Newman and Nollen 1996) because of two reasons. First, organizations are open systems embedded in a society. Society forms them to serve its goals and objectives, and therefore fashions them according to their own needs, values, beliefs, and practices. Public sector organizations, for example, are designed and managed to serve the countryÊs


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developmental needs. Instead of having the culture of commercial organizations, they mirror the culture of public administration. On the other hand, family-owned enterprises inculcate a familial ethos through paternalistic management (Sinha 1973, 1990). Second, individuals acquire societal values, beliefs, and practices during their primary socialization in the family and carry them to the organizations that they join (Sinha 2004). Box 12.2

Organizational, Societal, and Work Cultures, and Organizational Climate

Ć Work culture is the importance attached to work compared to other life roles. Ć Organizational culture could be work or non-work centred reflecting the core concerns, values, norms, practices, physical and social artifacts of an organization. Ć Organizational culture is embedded in societal culture (Chapter 2). Ć Organizational climate is the subjective perception of an organization or parts of it.

And yet, organizational culture is not a replica of societal culture (Zaheer and Zaheer 1997). If it were so, then all organizations within a society would have the same culture. Infosys, Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), and Wipro, for example, remain somewhat different in their culture despite sharing the same societal cultural heritage and even though they are in the same line of business. Not all public undertakings and family-owned enterprises have an identical culture (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) are different. So are the Tata and Birla groups of industries (Khandwalla 1988). There are a number of reasons for the differences between organizational and societal cultures: 1. Societal culture evolves over a long period of time involving the interplay of many known and unknown factors. In comparison, organizational culture has a shorter life cycle, clearly defined boundaries that regulate the inflow and outflow of influences, and hence fewer and better known causal factors. Indian culture, for example, has a history of at least over 3,000 years (see Chapter 2 for details). Modern Indian work organizations, on the other hand, are of recent origin; most being formed in the post-independence period, and many more cropping up almost everyday. 2. Hence, while societal culture evolves without any planning in a complex and broad milieu, organizational culture is cultivated through a planned design that is deliberately adopted, and is enforced by various means. The founder nurtures a philosophy regarding work and people and gives it a form with a congruent vision and mission. The rest of the organizational details are worked out accordingly. The next generation might superimpose its own design, although the founderÊs imprint on the organizational culture is not eradicated completely. 3. Above all, organizations, though embedded in a societal culture, are relatively more open to global influences. In fact, modern organizations procure appropriate technology, principles of management, systems and practices, and most other formal features from global sources. The global culture consists of the belief that the basic problems of management are essentially the same throughout the world for which globally uniform and time-tested solutions are available: ÂThe principles related to the task of managing apply to any kind of enterprise in any kind of

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cultureÊ (Kootz and OÊDonnel quoted in Nagandhi 1986: 47). Organizational culture manifests a shift from socially determined to technologically determined forms of work, replacing familial, reciprocal, and political work forms by a new occupational system grounded in industrial technology. (Udy 1970: 95ă96) Most Indian organizations are neither totally transformed nor do they remain totally fixated in the Indian cultural mode. While a large number of Indian organizations are adopting global practices, even the multinationals of foreign origin blend Indian cultural influences with global cultural influences along with a flavour of their home culture (Sinha 2004). The systems and procedures of a variety of Indian organizations are reported to be Western, but they take a cultural detour to get work done (Virmani and Guptan 1991). It is not societal and global cultures alone that influence organizational culture. There are also reverse flows of influences from organizations to societal and global cultures. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, used to say that factories are the Âmodern templesÊ from which modern influences would cascade over traditional Indian society. Similarly, the subsidiaries of foreign multinationals in India acquire new insights, practices, and values that they transfer to their units and the parent organization. In other words, societal and global cultures jointly influence as well as get influenced by an organizationÊs culture (see Figure 12.1). Figure 12.1

Organizational Culture Nested in Societal and Global Management Culture

Work Culture Work and organizational cultures are often used interchangeably primarily because organizations are supposed to be focused on work that is reinforced by supportive assumptions, beliefs, values, and


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norms. They have in all probability a work culture that may vary in its strength. Some organizations, however, may not be focused primarily on work, but on some other non-work goals or interests such as providing employment to near and dear ones, making profit and capturing a market, playing politics, or just being a place for enjoying with like-minded people. That is, an organization may or may not have a work culture. Work culture consists of assumptions, values, beliefs, and norms disposing to perform work diligently, but not necessarily within the four walls of an organization (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Indians are known to work quite diligently when they work for themselves or their familyowned organizations, but shirk it in impersonal organizations. In other words, work culture is an attribute of: 1. Individuals or groups independent of their organizations. 2. Organizations that are focused on work in different degrees. Further, certain individuals and groups may have acquired values, beliefs, norms, and practices that lead them to consider work as central to their concerns even in organizations that have a nonwork culture. Similarly, organizational cultures too vary in the extent to which they place work at the centre stage, irrespective of the presence of certain individuals who may or may not have imbibed a strong work culture. Work culture is strongest where most individuals and groups, and the organization in which they are located, have work at the centre of their concerns. That is, organizational and work cultures overlap, but not totally. Organizational culture has a collective entity, apart from individualsÊ and groupsÊ entities, that includes social and physical artefacts. Work culture, on the other hand, is simply the importance attached to working (Super 1982) or the centrality of work in oneÊs life space or how positively work is viewed and valued (J.B.P. Sinha 1990) or the positive meaning and significance of working (Meaning of Working 1987). Culture plays a role in developing a work culture. People start developing (or fail to develop) rudiments of a work culture during their early socialization, well before they join an organization. Children start learning to complete their homework, obeying parents and teachers, eating, sleeping, going to school on time, dressing by themselves, making up their beds, arranging their personal things properly, cooperating and competing with siblings and others in the community and school, and similar other routines. They are given justifications why they should do so, rewarded if they do, and punished if they do not. They learn to feel good if they come up to the expectations and bad if they do not. Subsequent life experiences build upon the early socialization by either reinforcing or modifying how they view and value working. Organizations accentuate employeesÊ extant work culture by putting in place supportive systems, procedures, and overall support and by socializing employees to unlearn dysfunctional and learn functional work behaviour. However, those organizations that are preoccupied with other interests distract employees and make them cultivate a non-culture. Long back, senior managers from a number of public undertakings used to say that Âthey have a culture where action, not inaction, has to be defendedÊ (Sinha 1980). If they took initiative to show better results and they make 10 correct but one wrong decision, it was the wrong one for which they were held accountable. On the other hand, if they just did routine tasks, their records remain untainted. On the contrary, a strong

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work-oriented organizational culture encourages employees to experiment with and innovate new products and services even if they make well-intentioned errors. A number of organizations within a societal cultural zone may have employees manifesting similar work or non-work culture, primarily because of the values that the societal culture attaches to work or non-work. Similarly, organizations having multiple locations might have different work or non-work cultures. In a study (Sinha et al. 2004) where 674 middle-level managers from nine distant locations in India reported the beliefs, practices, and preferences of those who lived and worked around them. The findings disclosed that the people in and around Ahmedabad (Gujarat), compared to those from the Kolkata area, had higher work orientation. Organizations from Ahmedabad were highest in entrepreneurial orientation as well as in quick rich disposition. Similarly, a British-American corporation displayed different cultural configurations in its head office, regional sales office and in its plant (Sinha 2004). The head office was the fountainhead through which the model culture of the parent company flowed down and cascaded over to the regional sales office and the plant. The model culture was characterized by teamwork, delegation of authority, flexi-time, informal relationships where everyone was on first name basis, and so on. The regional sales office had similar physical artifacts, delegated authority, and supportive relationships. The plant was located in a rural area. It indeed was work-centric, but the Indian cultural preferences· hierarchical orientation, personalized relationships, and family-like transactions·characterized the relationships among and between managers and workers. Box 12.3

A Work-centric Multinational

There are examples of highly work-oriented cultures that refuses to accept individualÊs nonwork needs. A junior manager was getting a haircut during office hours and was promptly fired. He did plead that he worked from 6.30 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. seven days a week and had no time to get a haircut. But getting a haircut was a private errand and had to be done after work hours. There was the case of a branch manager who did not meet the managing directorÊs expectations of executional excellence, that is, completing a job perfectly within a time frame. He was promptly fired on the spot. Further, the managing director was so sold on the idea of executional excellence that he refused to give him a letter of recommendation to enable him to get a job elsewhere. He did not want to vouch for an incompetent person to an unknown employer. The company was ready to provide all facilities, but everyone had to perform. If there was any constraint, an employee had to approach the relevant persons at the earliest; but there was no excuse for non-performance or for lapses that could not be explained. The management took a very serious view of sitting on a problem till the last minute and not seeking otherÊs, including the managing directorÊs help. Source: Sinha (2004: 142).

J. B. P. Sinha (1990) conceptualized work culture as a composite of three basic psychological components: Cognitive (clarity about job requirements), affective (job satisfaction, and liking for job), and action orientation (punctuality, overtime spent on job, and hard work). He also had a holistic test for visualizing the centrality of work with other important concerns, for example, family in the life space of managers. The managers were asked to imagine their life space as a circle and place W (work) and F (family) as close to the centre as they consider them central to their life (see Figure 12.2). For example, three managers (m1, m2, and m3) have different centrality of work and


Figure 12.2

303

Work and Family Centrality in Life Space

family as shown in Figure 12.2. The first manager (m1) considers work as highly central to his life (Wm1) at the cost of his family, which is marginal to his life (Fm1). For the second manager (m2), both work (Wm2) and family (Fm2) are central. For the third manager (m3) neither work (Wm3) nor family (Fm3) is central. He is alienated from both. Besides work and family, other life concerns (for example, leisure, community, religion, etc.) can be easily located in the circle for their relative centrality.

Organizational Climate Organizational climate is the aggregate perception of the members of an organization (Joyce and Slocum 1984; Litwin and Stringer 1968). It may be the perception of the whole or parts of an organization. It is generally descriptive, but invariably carries feelings and emotions regarding how an organization impacts its members. On the other hand, organizational culture, as discussed earlier, consists also of physical and social artefacts that are objective in nature and exist, irrespective of membersÊ perception, beliefs, or values. For example, organizational structure, lines of authority, roles and positions, vision and mission statements are all parts of culture and have independent existence, although membersÊ perception of them turn them into the aspects of climate. Organizational culture and climate overlap particularly with respect to membersÊ beliefs and values regarding working and relating with each other that are inferred through ratings. Another difference between organizational culture and climate is that culture has been conceptualized as the organizational soul, ethos, or spirit that interacts with situational contingencies and membersÊ needs and expectations to result in the perception of organizational climate (Morgan and Volkwein 1992). We know that perception is only partly determined by a stimulus. People also perceive what

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they want to perceive. Those members of an organization who are not performing well are likely to perceive their organization negatively by way of blaming it for their non-performance. Because organizational climate is the perception of any part or the whole organization, its description varies widely depending on the perceiversÊ perspectives. Pareek (2004: 412ă19) lists a variety of them ranging from motivational (membersÊ perception of organizational emphasis on achievement, influence, extension, dependency relationship, and affiliation) to the organization as a whole (covering perception of the organizationÊs (a) orientation; (b) extant interpersonal relationships; (c) ways of managing problems, conflicts, mistakes, and rewards; and (d) processes such as communication, decision-making, and risk taking). A study of organizational climate of organizations at four locations (north, east, west, and south) in India (Sinha et al. 2001a) identified two distinct configurations of characteristics constituting organizational climate: 1. Work-centric and caring organizations. 2. Boss-oriented and personalized climate. Another study of five multinationals of foreign origin (Sinha 2004: 272ă75) disclosed that Indian managers perceived the following five major facets of organizational climate: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Presence of ethnocentric expatriates. Cultural integration of expatriates and Indian managers. Enabling systems and process for work performance. Export-oriented management. Adaptive and attractive nature of organizations.

It may be noted that the five aspects of organizational climate are varied, some refer to the organization as a whole, others to groups of employees, expatriates and Indian managers. There are other climatic dimensions such as competent and caring managers, sociable managers, authoritarian managers, self-centred workers, and so on. In sum, climatic description of an organization may have many facets, not all of them are congruent with each other in one organization.

PERSPECTIVES ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Large organizations have a dominant culture and several subcultures (Gregory 1983). They present a mosaic of organizational culture that may have the following as the main types (Martin 1992): 1. Integrative. 2. Differentiating. 3. Fragmenting.


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Integrative Organizational Culture Integrative organization culture is one in which the subcultures as well as the components within them tend to remain integrated. Organizational philosophy, goals, and strategy drive systems and procedures; various organizational units, departments, and groups work in tandem; and the members of the organization feel that their needs, expectations, beliefs, and values are integrated with those of the organization. The unity of purpose overrides differences. Dissents are few and far between. Deviants quickly fall in line. Members have clear roles; they know what they have to do and they do so accordingly. Values and beliefs are shared by most, and are manifested in a wide variety of organizational behaviour. Integrated culture enables an organization to perform well and keep improving its performance, particularly if it is work-centric. Integrative organizational culture is a strong culture because it is shared by most members who remain intensely committed to their organization (Luthans 1998). Leaders are viewed as culture creators and custodians. They have a vision that inspires intense loyalty, strong commitment, and high performance. They often are those who have turned around a drifting organization into a highly purposive one. Johnson of Campbell, for example, created a strong culture by eliminating much of its bureaucracy, setting ambitious goals and insisting on getting them realized, streamlining procedures, downsizing, and so on. Others took up one of the divisions as a model to create a similar culture in other divisions (Luthans 1998). Bob Allen, for example, adopted the consumer production division to integrate other divisions of AT&T (Keller 1989). The tools division of Microsoft has a strong work culture, which was created by Bill Gates: Nearly half the programmers are still hunched over computers, even though for many itÊs now hour 13 of the workday. Empty cups of espresso coffee and the sleeping bags hooked to the backs of doors speak volumes about the night ahead. And the next night and the next. And probably the next year. (Rebello 1996: 56) Strong culture could be built around a common set of values. For example, a British-American corporation created a strong culture in its Indian subsidiary characterized by long tenures of managers and workers, low profit making, slow, risk aversive, and non-aggressive management. It balanced professionalism with concern for people, work demands with family needs, growth and profit with ethical codes of conduct, target realization with scope for managing stress, and performance with attractive pay packets (Sinha 2004: 107). Strong organizational culture can also be a tight culture (Pelto 1968) where the core beliefs, values, and practices are held as sacrosanct. The top imposes them and the members have no choice but to yield and compromise. A wholly-owned Korean company illustrated such a culture where target realization thorough team work was the top priority (Sinha 2004). An integrative culture enables the organization to realize its goals with speed and effectiveness (Peters and Waterman 1982; Wilkins 1983; Wilkins and Ouchi 1983). However, some members might consider it an organizational mechanism to control employees and iron out minorityÊs interests and opinion. Further, an integrative organizational culture is more normative than fully operative even in the best of organizations. That is, it is an ideal to which organizations tend to move with varying degrees of success.

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Differentiating Organizational Culture More often an organization has a number of Âoverlapping nested organizational culturesÊ (Martin 1992: 83) that coexist as subcultures in the organization. At times they work in harmony, at others they conflict, and at still other time they function disjointed from each other. So long as they work in harmony, differentiating cultures of an organization can be an asset for two reasons. First, organizations are invariably differentiated into a number of functions such as production, finance, sales, marketing, research and development (R&D), human resource development (HRD), etc., to serve coordinated but different task-based functions. This requires them to function somewhat differently and to relate differently to outside agencies. Sales and marketing people have to be externally oriented while production people have much less outside contacts. Finance and accounts are called the Âbeans countingÊ departments. The R&D has to keep scanning the latest developments in science and technology. The HRD has to balance the interests of shareholders and employees. Different functions lead to different interests, norms and eventually values that keep competing for positions of prominence and greater access to resources. So long as their subcultures converge on an overarching common organizational goals and interests, the organization is enriched by its diversity to meet the complex demands on it. Large organizations such as BHEL, SAIL, Philips India, and Hindustan Levers are likely to have different subcultures. Sinha (2004) reported that an Indo-Japanese joint venture had different cultures in its technical operations and human resource management. The technical operations had by and large a Japanese cultural ethos while human resource management was controlled through the highly centralized and personalized style of the Indian chairman.

Fragmenting Organizational Culture In case an organization fails to contain the differences among subcultures by providing an overriding common framework, the culture is likely to get fragmented. In a fragmenting organizational culture, the various organizational units and subcultures function at cross-purposes, systems and procedures are incongruent, and ambiguous members misconstrue each other and events and take the liberty to serve their personal interests. Some of the public sector organizations before the 1990s had cultures where workers, managers, and the management were working at cross purposes at the cost of the organization (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). A Swedish multinational that had acquired five Indian companies suffered from a lack of integration between the cultures of the acquired companies. There were ÂChina wallsÊ between the groups of managers who still maintained personal power centres that prevented the organization from realizing synergy (Sinha 2004: 134). A comparative view of the three perspectives on organizational culture is presented in Table 12.1.

TYPOLOGIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES There are two approaches to identify the various types of organizational cultures: 1. A simplistic way to delineate organizational cultural types in a two-dimensional space having two levels of each.


Table 12.1

307

Perspectives on Organizational Culture Organizational Culture

Levels of Impact

Integrative

Differentiating

Fragmenting

LeaderÊs role

To create and maintain culture

To work through teams

To do nothing to contain hegemonic discourses

Environment interface

Limited

Salient due to task demands and employeesÊ diversity

Porous boundaries causing constant influx of influence

Organizational change

Little, except when replaced by another

Changes in sub-cultural configurations

Constant flux having localized and fragmented changes

Subcultural role

To converge and ignore differences

To work in tandem

To fight for prominence

IndividualÊs role

To conform and internalize and creatively deviate

To submerge in subcultures but serve common goals

To mind only own and groupÊs interests

Action implications

Speed and top-down and third-party control

Coordination and cooperation among subcultures

Powerless individuals trying to serve own interests

Source: Martin (1992: 169) with minor modifications.

2. A holistic approach to develop cultural profiles of organizations incorporating a number of interrelated characteristics

The Two-dimensional Approaches Those who subscribed to the two-dimensional approaches to organizational culture were selective in assuming their own vantage point for developing profiles of cultures. A summary view of the two-dimensional typology is given in Table 12.2. Harrison (1972) chose two features of organizational structure·centralization and formalization·to delineate role-bound, power-oriented, task-oriented, and atomistic organizational cultures. Role-bound culture is high on both centralization and formalization. Power is vested in systems characterized by rules, regulations, procedures, practices, and precedence, although major decisions are made at the top level. Bureaucratic organization is a typical example of such a culture. MembersÊ involvement, as a result, is low. Even the leaders are not personally involved. They exert influence only through rules and precedence. Some of the Indian public undertakings are good examples of such a culture. On the other hand, a task-oriented culture hinges on the central value of accomplishing tasks. It is much less concerned about going by formal systems and procedures so long as tasks are performed effectively and efficiently. Under low centralization, decisions are made at the point where relevant information is available. Hence, consultation, cooperation, and collaboration are likely to occur in

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Table 12.2

A Summary of Dimensional Typologies of Organizational Cultures

Harrison (1972) Centralization

High

High Low

Role bound Task-oriented

Formalization Low Power oriented Atmostic culture

Deal and Kennedy (1982) Feedback Risk

Fast

Slow

High Low

Tough guy, macho culture Work and play hard culture

Bet-your-company culture Process culture

Integration

Differentiation

Centralization

Clan

Adhocracy

Decentralization

Hierarchy

Market

Bureaucratic

Anti-bureaucratic

Presidential Pharaonic

Monarchical Barbarian

Sensing

Intuitive

Bureaucratic Familial

Matrix, R&D Organic/adaptive

Quinn and McGrawth (1985)

Graves (1986)

Managerial Ego driven Mitroff (1983)

Thinking Feeling

such a culture. A power-oriented culture is one where the top people centralize power and make most of the major decisions. Their commands are the rules without being constrained by formalized systems and procedures. Many of the private sector organizations in India fit in this category. An atomistic culture is permissive culture where members improvise their own course of action. Depending on their work-centrality, the culture could be open and stimulating or drifting without any radar or gyroscope. Compared to HarrisonÊ (1972) structural perspective, Deal and Kennedy (1982) emphasized organizational activities having a determining role in fostering different cultures. In particular, they took into account the magnitude of risk and the time lag in getting a feedback in conceptualizing organizational cultures. The high risk-taking organizations that are likely to get a quick feedback about the outcome of their risky ventures develop a macho culture. It is often found in organizations dealing with construction, cosmetics, management consulting, venture capital, advertising, filmmaking,


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television industries, etc. This culture requires fast action and individual excellence. Such a culture is credited with quick success as well as frequent failures. Employees have to learn to cope with failures and persist with their efforts. Stress and burnout are the side effects. Therefore, the culture requires star performers to inspire, building high confidence, and taking out stress by supporting their workforce. The work hard/play hard culture is one where employees can put in enough efforts and get sure results. The risk is low. Industries where such culture is likely to evolve are real estate, computer, and office equipment. As feedback is prompt, the organization has to react fast. It is important to maintain good long-term relationships by meeting customer needs and ensuring their satisfaction. Although individual initiative is important, a greater emphasis is placed on teamwork and collaboration. Organizations that require high capital investment with a long gestation period such as ONGC, Reliance, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) develop a culture that emphasizes thorough planning, detailed analysis, wise investment, and patience (bet-your-company culture). Senior managers deliberate and discuss issues with experts and consultants before taking major decisions. Employees are required to possess a high level of technical competence and a great deal of coordination and cooperation. Public undertakings with the goals of expanding the industrial base of the country and service organizations where the impact cannot be precisely measured in a short term, develop the values of processing their functions. Universities, R&D labs, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in developmental programmes are the best examples. In the absence of quick feedback from outside, the emphasis shifts on realizing internal excellence in in delivering services with speed, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. Rules, procedures, and precedence are provided to guide employees. As a result, such a culture is in danger of drifting into too much of bureaucracy. Deal and Kennedy (1982) recognized that all four organizational cultures Âartfully blend the best elements of all four typesÊ to respond effectively to environmental challenges. Like Harrison (1972), Quinn and McGrawth (1985) selected organizational structures such as centralization·decentralization and integration·differentiation as the dimensions that lead to four types of organizational cultures. The clan culture is one which is consensual with an emphasis on internal focus and flexibility. Hierarchically-oriented culture is quite similar to the rule-bound culture of Harrison (1972). Adhocracy is close to atomistic culture with an emphasis on improving ways and means for facilitating development of products and services. It naturally highlights the importance of being flexible internally and focused on the external market and contingencies. McDonald and Gandz (1992) have a simpler typology where cultures are differentiated in terms of their priority to task versus relationships and change propensity versus inertia to maintain status quo. Graves (1986) has the dimensions of bureaucratization versus anti-bureaucratization and managerial roles versus egocentric values leading to the cultural configurations that are given metaphorical labels of presidential (highly bureaucratic and highly managerial), pharaonic (bureaucratic and ego driven), monarchical (managerial and anti-bureaucratic), and barbarian (ego-driven and antibureaucratic) cultures. In a presidential culture, the top leaders enjoy authority, epitomize the needs and aspirations of employees, and reward those who manifest outstanding skills and dedication, and loyalty. The pharaonic culture, like the pharaonic Egyptians, is characterized by two contrasting qualities, that is, the pre-eminence of both the system and individuals. Systems are followed but

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there also exists sufficient space for individualsÊ creativity and excellence. The monarchical culture emphasizes personal loyalty, seniority, and long tenure. LeadersÊ power emanates from their competence and effectiveness. The barbarian culture is informal and flexible. There is a value for individual excellence and achievement. The actors have high power and resources. But they are also under constant pressure to excel and bring more business for the organization. Graves conceptualized an evolutionary process of organizational culture-building whereby an overtly aggressive barbarian urge to form and expand an organization eventually ends up assuming more a democratic presidential form. Mitroff (1983) formulated four cultural types representing the dimensions of sensing versus intuitive and thinking versus feeling. The resultant cultures are bureaucratic, matrix, familial, and organic/adaptive. In sum, the two-dimensional typologies taken together highlight the following broad themes in organizational cultures: 1. Bureaucratic orientation that includes going by rules, regulations, and precedence without or with low personal involvement. 2. Hierarchical and power orientation that manifests the values of personal loyalty, compliance obedience, and conformity. 3. Task orientation where the efforts are directed to accomplish tasks by improvising rules and regulations, ensuring cooperation, and coordination, procuring feedback. 4. Achieving and assertive orientation to expand and enhance productivity and profitability. 5. Freedom and permissiveness that allow employees to work on their own.

Cultural Configurations in Indian Organizations An organizational culture is the product of many factors, some of which are located within the organization while others are located in the external milieu, and still others in the history of its formation. As a result, any profiling of organizational culture has to take a composite view of the interplay of all three sets of factors. A birdÊs eyeview of Indian organizations helps identify four types of organizational cultures that stand out (Sinha 2000).

Box 12.4

Four Profiles of Organizational Culture

Ć Soft where organizational goals and objectives are compromised to serve employeesÊ personal and sectarian interests. Ć Technocratic where technology gets priority over human considerations. Ć Work-centric nurturant where work requirements are blended with peopleÊs concerns. Ć Amoral work-centric where maximum work is extracted for profit without any other concerns.


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Soft Organizational Culture A soft organizational culture is one where organizational goals and objectives are compromised with individual and sectarian interests. Although ownership is not the reason, a larger percentage of public sector organizations developed such a culture. A soft culture got a welcome home in public sector undertakings primarily because they were established to serve multiple goals·commercial, welfare, and nation-building. Of them, welfare goals, by and large, superseded others in many instances. Hence, the employees believed that the organization had an obligation to provide employment to them, guarantee them full security of job, arrange comfortable working conditions, and bestow other benefits without asking them to work hard to generate profit. Fractured and militant trade unionism, poor work disciple, social loafing, and constant pressure on the management to dole out benefits lest the workers create problems characterized such a work culture (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Some of the comments commonly heard in such organizations were: ÂIt is a place where some work sincerely while others are praised and promotedÊ, ÂIt is a place where it is wise to mind oneÊs own businessÊ, ÂIt is a place where donkeys and horses are treated alikeÊ.

Technocratic Organizational Culture A technocratic organizational culture develops in an organization that prioritizes technological considerations over human needs, expectations, and attitudes. Not only are the best possible plants and equipment procured, but strict measures are taken to keep improving operational efficiency by cutting costs (for example, downsizing, closing down of loss-making units, etc.), introducing new systems and managerial practices, innovating and pioneering products, penetrating new market or claiming a larger share of the existing market, and proactively relating to the business environment. Such an organization benchmarks against the best ones in the world. An example would be Modi Xerox (MX) in the year 2000 (Sinha 2000b).

Work-Centric Nurturant Culture A work-centric nurturant culture shares with the technocratic culture the centrality of work. Employees believe that the management rewards hard work, recognizes merit, establishes clear norms of performance, and gives the employees adequate workload. Superiors expect their subordinates to work hard, provide close supervision and direction, and differentially reward those who work harder. Formal systems are established to enable the organization to realize its goals. All work hard, irrespective of their personal grievances. The management provides a nurturant task-oriented leadership (see Chapter 11). Tata Steel used to be a model of the work-centric nurturant culture till the end of the 1980s (Sinha and Mohanty 2004).

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Amoral Work-centric Culture A study of small and medium-sized organizations located in the backward areas of Bihar and Jharkhand led to the identification of an amoral work-centric culture in which work is the most central among the concerns of the members (that is, the owners, managers, supervisors, and workers); but the construction of this centrality is based on oneÊs selfish orientation which is, by and large, devoid of any concern for others or for the compulsion of being right or wrong. This selfish orientation is accompanied by the beliefs that everybody is trying to maximize oneÊs gains, nobody is willing to contribute to the common good, and one can disregard any social norms, rules, and regulations so long as he has power to get away with it. The owners used supervisors to exploit workers by forcing them to work to their physical limits under unhygienic and unsafe conditions. The workers had no choice but to depend on their employers for subsistence. A summary view of the four types of organizational cultures is given in Table 12.3. Table 12.3 Components

Leading Features of Organizational Cultures

Soft

Technocratic

Work-Centric Nurturant

Amoral Work-Centric

Values

Employees interests and relationships

Quality, costs, and customer satisfaction

Work oriented caring relationships

Profit and individual gains

Behaviour

Inefficient and indifferent to work

Efficient, demanding, and competitive

Productive and paternalistic

Exploitative and amoral

Relationships

Need based, socially determined

Technologically determined

Socio-technically determined

Controlling and dependent

Technology

Neglected

Latest and R&D driven

Latest and suitable to employeesÊ skills

Reasonably good and well maintained

Structure

Uncertain and bureaucratic

Lean, flexible, and team based

Socio-technically integrated

Personalized and fluid

Procedure

Non-work oriented

Outcome oriented and fast moving

Work and people oriented

Work oriented and controlling

Goals and Objectives

Multiple, but welfare dominated

Market leadership, expansion, and profit

Interest of all stakeholders

Maximizing profit and gains

BUILDING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Formation of an organizational culture can be viewed from two perspectives: 1. The founder and the top leaders who lay the foundation of an organizational culture, perpetuate, strengthen, or change it. 2. The employees who join and build a culture through interactive relationships with the management.


313

The Founder’s and Leaders’ Perspective Building an organizational culture commences the day a founder starts nurturing the idea of establishing an organization. His philosophy, his dream, and his vision get a shape as he assesses the market, finds a niche, collects key persons, procures capital and technology, lays a foundation stone, hires people, and starts running the organization. The founder and the top leaders have two sets of roles in building organizational culture: 1. To establish its legitimacy in the surrounding socio-political and economic environment. 2. To realize internal integration among the various structural and human factors with the organization. External legitimacy is a function of showing how the organization caters to the needs of society, meets legal and financial requirements, and fills a gap in the market. Internal integration involves gelling diverse human resources with the structure, systems, and procedures of the organization. Tata Steel is a good illustration of how a founder lays the foundation of an organizational culture (Sinha and Mohanty 2004: 15ă17). The founding father, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, envisaged establishing an enterprise that could initiate industrial growth in the country by being ÂprosperousÊ and by following the Âsound and straightforward business principlesÊ of integrating Âthe interest of the shareholders, our own, and the health and welfare of our employeesÊ (Harris 1958). Accordingly, he asked his son, Dorabji Tata to get a township designed with wide streets lined with trees, plenty of space for lawns and gardens, sports complexes, and temples, mosques, and churches, and so on. Tata Steel was launched as a swadeshi (indigenous) enterprise for which the capital did not come from the United Kingdom (UK), The United States (US), or Europe. ÂWithin three weeks the entire capital for the construction purposes of £1.63 million was secured, contributed by 8,000 native Indians and the working capital of £400,000 was subscribed by one Indian·the Maharaja Scindhia of GwaliorÊ (Fraser 1919: 51). Tata Steel was cherished as a truly nationalist venture in which about 68 per cent of workers were drawn from neighbouring states, clerks and supervisory staff came from Bengal, Madras (now Tamil Nadu), and Bombay (now Maharashtra), and Pathans from the Northwest (now in Pakistan) for tough jobs (Bahl 1995: 104). It was this nationalist ethos that the founderÊs son, Dorabji, and, the founderÊs nephew, Ratanji, cultivated to the extent that the workers manifested unusual spirit to help the company survive during the crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Further, the founders fully realized the importance of procuring the latest technology and consulting with the best experts available anywhere in the world so that the company remained nurturant as well as work-centric. Box 12.5

Leadership and Culture-building

ÂOrganizational cultures are created by leaders and one of the most decisive functions of leadership may well be the creation, the management, and·if and when that may become necessary·the destruction of culture. In fact . . . the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture . . . Ê (Schein 1987: 2).

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Pascale (1985) conceptualizes organizational culture as a process of organizational socialization of employees that involves seven steps: 1. Selection of employees: This has to be done keeping in view the needs of the organization not only in terms of skills and educational qualifications, but also their attitudes and values, which have to match with those of the organization. 2. Humility-inducing experiences: The organization needs to create a condition for the employees to feel that their old beliefs, values, and habits may or may not be appropriate in the new organization. If they are not appropriate, they have to unlearn them and acquire those that are appropriate. 3. Training: An organization has to help the employees in acquiring skills, experience, beliefs, values, and practices that enable the organization to function effectively. 4. Meticulous appraisal and adequate rewards: Organizations must develop systems and procedures to assess the performance of employees and give rewards in order to reinforce the performance. 5. Careful adherence to the firmÊs transcendent values: The organization has to ensure careful adherence to the firmÊs transcendent values that work as guiding posts for the employees. All other considerations and issues have to be settled within the overarching organizational values. This is the most critical step. 6. Reinforcement of folklore: Organizations have to reinforce the formation of organizational culture by citing and creating success stories, incidents, folklore, and myths. Employees often are more influenced by these sources of incidental learning than by formal prescriptions. 7. Consistent role models: Concrete role models of the founder and the top managers have deeper impact than formal systems and procedures or sermons and prescriptions. Words are empty unless employees see them as genuine, coming from trustworthy leaders.

Employees Perspective The same internal integration process can be viewed from the employeesÊ perspective (Feldman 1976). In the process of getting integrated, individuals pass through a number of phases that are broadly traced as follows:

Developing Anticipatory Picture of the Organization Individuals strive to join the organization that is perceived as having the potential to meet their needs and expectations. They collect information from the mass media as well as personal sources regarding various organizations, and select a range of organizations having varying degrees of attractiveness and the probability of their getting recruited.


Box 12.6

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Organizational Rites Reflecting Its Culture

Rite:

A relatively elaborate, dramatic, planned set of activities having practical and expressive consequences. Ritual: A standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviours that manage anxiety without having practical consequence of importance. Myth: A dramatic narrative of imagined events accompanied by unquestioned beliefs that are not supported by evidence. Saga: A historical narrative highlighting the unique accomplishments of a group or a leader. Legend: A handed down narrative of some wonderful historical event with functional details. Story: A narrative combining true and fictional events. Symbol: An object, act, or event that serves as a vehicle for conveying meaning by representing another thing. Language: Verbal and non-verbal vehicle for the communication of meaning. Gesture: Movements of parts of the body expressing certain meanings. Physical setting: Physical things surrounding a person that reflect some meaning. Artefacts: Material objects made by people to facilitate culturally expressive activities. Source: Adapted from Beyer and Trice (1997: 63).

Interfacing of Anticipatory Picture with Organizational Reality Once recruited, individuals confront the reality of the organization. What they had known before joining the organization was its public face that is likely to be idealized and generalized. The real organization is invariably more differentiated having a variety of shades of positive and negative facets. Correspondingly, individuals face varying degrees of congruence and incongruence that might lead to satisfaction in some respects but tension and conflicts in some other respects. Tata Steel in the 1980s, for example, was a model organization that attracted some of the best graduates in the country. Once they jointed Tata Steel, they found themselves at the base of a tall bureaucracy and were assigned jobs that they did not find befitting to their intellect and qualifications causing simmering resentment and in many cases high turnover (Pandey 1989).

Reconciling Differences and Yielding to Organizational Norms Employees experience two sets of incongruence·those relating to organizational norms and values and those that are related to interpersonal relationships arising from diversity in the workforce. They generally suspend their own interests, needs, and values to comply with organizational demands, unless the demands are so incompatible that they prefer to leave the organization. Reconciling interpersonal and inter-group differences is more time-consuming and tedious. A good example of how employees reconcile differences is the case of Indian and Korean managers in a Korean subsidiary (Sinha 2004). Indian managers yielded to the Korean norms of participating in morning exercises,

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shouting productivity-related slogans together, getting training with workers, and undergoing public shaming for mistakes. But they still could not take the KoreansÊ insensitivity to their interpersonal needs. They followed the KoreansÊ directions, but disliked the KoreansÊ indifference to them.

Internalization of Organizational Values and Norms So long as the employees accept organizational norms and values under compulsion, their compliance behaviour remains perfunctory and mechanical. The spirit behind them remains missing. However, if they internalize them owning them as their own arising out of the realization of their self-worth, the integration becomes complete. Employees behave spontaneously. They become creative and innovative. They may recognize differences with respect to both organizational as well as other employeesÊ norms and values; but are inclined to live and deal with them constructively under super ordinate organizational goals and objectives.

SUMMARY Organizational culture is the totality of an organizationÊs unique characteristics that are focused on how employees view and value work and relate with each other compared to other non-work concerns. Both organizational culture and work culture are jointly influenced by the surrounding societal and global cultures. Organization climate is different from organizational culture as the former is only the perceptual configurations of the organization. An organization may have an integrated, differentiated, or fragmenting culture depending on the degrees of congruence among the subcultures and the characteristics within the subcultures. Different scholars sample different core values, norms, and practices to recognize different types of organizational cultures. Organizational culture starts building up at the initiative of the founder and his team of top leaders who form the organization and hire employees who too get involved in giving the organizational culture a shape.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Organizational Culture Mapping Step 1 The participants need to map their own or any other organization. There are two parts of the exercise. Part 1 is about the organizationÊs history, structure, profitability, etc. Part 2 consists of statements about how employees work and relate with each other. If a participant is mapping his own organization, he will complete both parts. If he is mapping another organization, he will get


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Part 1 completed by a top man of the organization. He will draw a suitable sample of employees from all levels to answer to Part 2. The participants may form groups of two persons to conduct the mapping.

Part 1: The Company Please provide the following information (tick mark (9) at the appropriate places). 1. Name of the company: ····················ă 2. When did it start its operation (year): ·············· 3. Is it a foreign multinational? Yes ····/No ·········· (a) (b) (c) (d)

If yes, the nationality of the parent company, if any: ·····ăă Equity share of the parent company in the Indian company: ····· Number of expatriates, if any: ·····ăă Is it a: Ć Joint venture ·····ăă Ć Wholly owned subsidiary ·····ăă Ć Any other ·····ăă

4. Is it in: (a) (b) (c) (d)

Private sector ·····ăă Public sector ·····ăă Cooperative ·····ăă Joint sector ·····ăă

5. Number of employees: (a) Managers ·····ăă (b) Permanent workers ·····ăă (c) Casual workers ·····ăă (Range, if there are fluctuations). 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Number of levels in the Indian company (From CEO/MD to permanent workers) List of products: ····················ă Annual sales turnover: ·····ăă Profit after tax (Rs): ·····ăă Percentage of exports to total turnover: ·····ăă Countries of export: ····················ă Average absenteeism rate (%): ·····ăă Defects rate in assembling process (%): ·····ăă Replacement cost during the guaranty period as percentage of sale: ·····ăă ManagersÊ annual turnover (number): ·····ăă Total R&D expenditure as percentage of total sale: ·····ăă

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17. Percentage of indigenization of parts and spares: ·····ăă 18. How many man days of training are given to the following: (a) (b) (c) (d)

Senior managers: ·····ăă Middle-level managers: ·····ăă Junior managers: ·····ăă Permanent workers: ·····ăă

19. How much emphasis is given to the following in the training programmes? Give a score ranging from: 0 for no emphasis 10 for a great deal of emphasis 1ă9 for varying degrees of emphasis. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i)

Industry/business knowledge: ·····ăă CompanyÊs mission and values: ·····ăă Quality initiative: ·····ăă Problem-solving skills: ·····ăă Skills to build teams: ·····ăă Coaching skills: ·····ăă Managing stress: ·····ăă Managing change: ·····ăă Improving performance: ·····ăă

20. Which of the following options are offered to help employees balance work and family related responsibilities? Please tick mark (9) the applicable options: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j)

Flexitime: ·····ăă Job sharing: Telecommuting: Extended leaves for more than three months: Part-time tracks: Child care: Sick child care: Elder care referral: Flexible spending accounts: Others (please specify):

21. Do all employees receive some reward based on how well the company performs? Yes ····/No ···· 22. What are the levels of employees eligible for incentives? Please tick mark (9) the applicable options.


(a) (b) (c) (d)

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Officers and executives. Managers. Key job functionaries. All employees.

23. What are the types of teams used in your company? Please tick mark (9) where applicable: (a) (b) (c) (d)

Self-directed teams. Cross-functional teams. Task forces. None.

24. Does your company use 360 degree appraisal? Please tick mark (9) where applicable: (a) Neither uses it nor considers using it. (b) Planning to use in the near future. (c) Using it. 25. What are the measures adopted by the company for improving the quality of products and services, reducing costs, ensuring customer satisfaction, penetrating foreign markets, and maintaining a competitive edge in the market?

Part 2: Perceptions of the Company The following items are designed to understand how a person views his company. There is no right or wrong response. What you believe and perceive are the most valuable for understanding the company. Please read the following statements and select an appropriate number for each of the statements from the alternatives given here. 5·Quite true. 4·True. 3·Partly true and partly false. 2·False. 1·Quite false. 0·Not relevant. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The organization is primarily export oriented. The organization spends a significant amount on R&D. The organization has or is seeking the latest technology. The organization is willing to sacrifice short-term profitability for long-term growth. The company provides codified job description. Written communications are preferred over verbal ones. Lines of authority are clearly defined.

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8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47.


The grievance handling system is formalized. The policies of recruitment, training, placement, promotion, etc., are strictly followed. Important decisions are made at the top. There is a transparency in how the organization functions. Departments have an integrated information-sharing system. Problems are tackled by multi-level teams whose members operate with little regard for formal ranks in the organization. The outside consultants are hired for assistance in planning and management. Specialists are listened to with respect. There is a great deal of openness, frankness, and information sharing in meetings. Suggestions for improvement in work are welcomed. Seniors and juniors have very informal relationships. Juniors call seniors by their first names. Subordinates are pressurized to achieve targets set by their seniors. Managers maintain a large distance from workers. Managers do not delegate authority to their juniors. Managers are concerned about the professional and career development of their subordinates. Managers go out of their way to help subordinates in their private and family matters. Managers are always available to help their subordinates in job-related matters. Managers openly appreciate and reward those who perform well. Managers are technically very competent. Managers are quite innovative. Managers are high risk takers. Managers keep exploring future possibilities of the organization. Superiors make emotional appeals to their subordinates to perform their best. Managers visit each other socially. Superiors visit subordinates during marriages, festivals, etc. Superiors and subordinates participate jointly in recreational activities. Superiors respond warmly to their subordinatesÊ greetings. Festivals are celebrated in the organization. Picnics are organized by the organization. EmployeesÊ birthdays are celebrated with enthusiasm. The organization extends help to employees on occasions such as marriage, death, etc. The company invites employeesÊ families on special occasions. Workers are more concerned about pay and perks than their performance. Workers make fun of their superiors. Workers take pride in working for the company. Workers expect undue favours from their supervisors. Permanent workers boss over their casual workers. Workers often come up with innovative ideas. Workers expect that their superiors will listen to their personal problems.


48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

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Workers adopt secret ways to slow down the pace of work. Workers resent too much emphasis on cleanliness on the shop floor. The infrastructure in this area is inadequate. Law and order around the company is bad. The company culture has good mix of Indian and foreign influences. Managers have sufficient authority to discharge their responsibilities. Managers have enough freedom to perform their job. Managers prefer private rather than open offices. The management gives sufficient notices to employees prior to making changes in policies and procedures. The management makes sufficient efforts to get the opinions and feelings of people who work here. Recognition and praise are closely linked to job performance. Pay and perks depend on oneÊs performance. Promotion is based primarily on performance. Those who do not perform are eased out. The company gives employees the opportunity to improve their skills through education and training. Managers have yet to develop a global mindset. You advise your friend to join this organization. You feel proud to tell your friends that you work in this organization. Employees care for their factory just like their family. You are willing to do anything so that this organization remains at the top in the market. Managers have favourite subordinates. Managers try to please their superior by all means. There are many managers looking for better prospects elsewhere. The company has a secure future in India. The company is continuously adapting to the changing environment. The company is continuously improving its position in the market.

Step 2 The organizational culture profiles developed by the participants should be discussed in the whole group/class.

Exercise 2: Mapping Your Work Culture This is an exercise to understand how much you value you work. The value of work for you depends on the extent to which work allows you to satisfy important values of life. Please follow the three steps given here to get an idea of your work value.

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Step 1 Rate each of the statements given in the table for their importance to you using the importance scale given here. Record your score in the Importance column. 1·Not important. 2·Somewhat important. 3·Important. 4·Very important.

Step 2 Please go over the statements in the table and rate them on how much chance do you see to satisfy each value statement in your work activities using chance scale given here. Record your scores in the Chance column. 1·No chance. 2·Some chance. 3·High chance. 4·Sure chance.

Step 3 Multiply the ratings of Importance by Chance in the third column, Product. Add to get a total. The total scores range from 21 to 336. Your score in terms of percentage can be calculated by the following formula: (100/336) ï your score = % For example, a score of 200 will amount to 59.652 %.

Step 4 The higher the percentage, the stronger is your work value. The class/group may discuss the distribution of individual work values, their causes, and consequences.


Value Statements 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Importance

Chance

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Product

Use all my skills and knowledge in working Have results which show that I have done well Get promotions Make life more beautiful Help people with problems Tell others what to do Freedom to work on my own Discover, develop, and design new products and services Have a high standard of living Live according to my own idea Develop as a person Get a lot of exercise Be admired for my knowledge and skills Do risky things Do things with other people Be with friends Everyday is different from the previous one Have good physical conditions and facilities Do work that gives peace of mind Have a comfortable life at work Oblige those who work around me Total

Exercise 3: Culture Change at KIMCO1 Step 1 Read the following case: Despite its meteoric growth and remarkable success in claiming a large market share, KIMCO, India, emitted signals that alarmed the head office in South Korea. They sent Uichol Cho as the new managing director (MD) to take corrective measures. Cho joined in the first week of March 2007 and immediately set about to take stock of the situation. KIMCO India was a fully owned subsidiary of KIMCO Korea which, taking advantage of the rapidly liberalizing business environment, had established a fully-owned subsidiary in India in the mid-1990s. The factory was set up near New Delhi and production started with full capacity utilization within a year. Initially, KIMCO produced refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing

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machines with just about 225 permanent and 150 casual workers, 75 managers, and 10 Korean expatriates. The factory ran only one shift from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. that was occasionally extended by a few hours. Within 10 years, KIMCO posted a fantastic growth both in its range of products as well as in market share and profit. The turnover in the year 2004 was about US$ 900 million, profit before tax was about $ 110 million. It added new products such as LCD projectors, DVDs, flat coloured monitors, mobile phones, and a variety of models within each product, ranging from low to high value. The second factory was set up five years back near Pune and another one, meant exclusively for mobile phone sets, was coming up near Shimla. In the year 2006, KIMCO claimed about 22 per cent market share in refrigerators, 12 per cent in air conditioners, and 10 per cent in washing machines. It was still a small player in other segments. What worried the head office, however, was the downward, although slight, skid in the performance of all brands. Just about three to four years back, it had 26 per cent market share in refrigerators, 16 per cent in air conditioners, and 12 per cent in washing machines. Their mobile phones had, for example, about 7 per cent of the market share, but this had now come down to less than 4 per cent. Granted that the market for durable electronics was getting increasingly competitive, but other players were doing much better than KIMCO. Cho hired an international consultant, Global Consultants, for giving a thorough report within three months. The report was discussed by the top management, which constituted its own team of HR personnel to collect further information on all the issues raised by Global Consultants. The report and the collaborative evidence collected by the HR were placed before the top management team consisting of U. Cho (MD), Sun Young (vice president, production), J. E. Kim (vice president, fianance), P. Davesh (vice president, marketing), and B. Kumar (vice president, HR) for a thorough discussion. The facts and issues highlighted were the following: 1. Basic assumptions Ć Indians are more cost-minded than quality-minded. They tend to compromise on quality if they can get a product cheaper than its rivals in the market. Ć Indians can work extra hard for earning a bit more money. Money, in a poor country, matters much more than either physical discomforts, and to a certain extent, other considerations such as family and social obligations. Ć Employees are replaceable, if pay, bonus, and other benefits are attractive. Ć Indians feel good and can tolerate physical hardships if they are made to believe that the company cares for them and their family, offers free food, and other amenities. 2. Strategy Ć Aggressive marketing is the key to success, particularly if the products are accompanied by gifts that may have some modest, but symbolic values.


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Ć Market demands have to be met by setting targets that can be raised and realized by extending the shift hours. Ć Pay reasonably, but give attractive bonus for performance to keep the employees glued to work. Extended shift hours can be made acceptable by providing free meal and assured transportation to go back home. Ć Close supervision and intensive training are the necessary mechanisms for enabling employees to perform well. 3. CompanyÊs pressure drivers Ć Target setting: Everybody has a daily target that is raised if the work so requires. Demands for target realization are heavy and continuous. At the end of the day, it is checked whether the targets are realized. Ć Systems building: Supportive systems and practices have been put in place. Examples are the quality improving measures and mechanisms for controlling production processes, sequential inspections, checking work events through frequent quiz or game or debate, review meetings, regular quality audit, and so on. Ć Bonus: Bonus is up to 200 to 300 per cent two to three times in a year. The rates depend on the departments and levels of workers and managers. Ć Long hours of work: Almost everyone works beyond office/working hours. Family visits by the HR personnel revealed employees resentment of the long hours of work. Ć Reluctance to grant leave: Employees are made to believe that taking leave is like committing a sin. Ć Strict punctuality: Everyone has to be punctual, clock in exactly on time. A 10 minute tea break is exactly for 10 minutes. Half-an-hour for lunch is exactly for 30 minutes. 4. Outcomes Ć High rejection rates: In order to meet sudden rise in market demands (for example, rise in demand for air conditioners due to rise in summer temperatures), shift hour is extended, but the rejection rate rises (at times up to 40 per cent). Sub-standard products are sold at discount rates and untold items are given at discounted rates in lieu of bonus to employees. Ć High attrition rates: High attrition rates that reach up to 20 per cent for managerial categories. Further, the placement team has to recruit people from second-rate institutions and those who are the leftovers. Even then, many leave before or after induction. Ć Increasing complaints from consumers: Complaints from consumers have been increasing causing strain to the after-sales services personnel. Ć Erosion of brandsÊ images: Comments about the poor quality of products spread by word of mouth are depressing the rise in market share.

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In conclusion, Global Consultants recommended a culture change involving measures ranging from practices to basic assumptions.

Step 2 Each participant will design a change plan and the whole class/group will discuss it.

NOTE 1. Based partially on the case of KIMCO (Sinha 2004).

13

Knowledge Organizations


Highlight the importance of knowledge organization. Show the superiority of double-loop over single-loop learning. Delineate different forms of knowledge. Discuss the role of forms of knowledge and culture in knowledge transfer.

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IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATIONS

B

y all accounts, the world economy has transitioned from the industrial age to the information age where knowledge, based on the digital convergence of Internet, computer, and telecommunication, has replaced the traditionally crucial natural resources for enabling organizations to have competitive advantages (Drucker 1999; Senge 1990; Stewart 1997). Not that capital, technology, and other natural resources are irrelevant or profit and products are unimportant, but organizations are increasingly being driven primarily by knowledge. Even for realizing high productivity and profitability, organizations have to depend on the stock of their expanding knowledge (Owens 1990). It is this intangible asset that often differentiates winning organizations from losing ones. Conceptualizing organizations as special configurations of specific knowledge started in the 1970s because of two converging influences (see Serenko and Bontis 2004 for a review). First, with the dawning of the information age, employees were recognized as Âknowledge workersÊ having better education, doing their job with greater skills, learning to upgrade their skills, and employing their thoughts and discretion to improve their performance (Argyris and Schon 1978). Second, the top management in the process of strategy formulation had to scan the surrounding environment, notice even subtle changes and emerging trends, and learn to develop a plan to steer the organization through an increasingly turbulent market. Thus, learning processes within organizations as well as at their interface with the environment assumed a pivotal role in managing organizations. The organizations that harnessed more effectively the knowledge that was accumulated collectively by their members were better off than others. The realization of the importance of knowledge led to a plethora of concepts by the mid-1980s, some of them were labelled as Âinformation based organizationÊ (Drucker 1988), Âeducated organizationÊ (Handy 1990), Âknowledge-creating companiesÊ (Nonaka 1994), Âintelligent enterprisesÊ (Quinn 1992), and Âlearning organizationsÊ (Grant 2000; Nonaka 1994; Zahra and George 2002) among others.

Knowledge and Learning Knowledge and learning are inextricably interrelated and yet can be distinguished for a better understanding of their roles in organizational behaviour. Knowledge is an understanding of persons, objects, events, and the underlying principles that explain their relationships. Organizational knowledge, at the surface, is the understanding of organizational structures, systems, rules, regulations, and activities. At a deeper level, it is the understanding of the principles, philosophy, beliefs, and values that shape and sustain the surface-level features of organizations. Knowledge is created, restructured, and expanded by integrating related and unrelated pieces of information at both surface and deeper levels to provide a framework to understand how organizations function and how they can improve their functions. Knowledge, in other words, is the cognitive face of organizational culture. As discussed elsewhere, large organizations have one primary and a number of secondary organizational cultures. Large organizations, therefore, are likely to have a number of sets or frames· some congruent and others not-so-congruent·of knowledge that they apply to their functions.


Box 13.1

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Learning and Knowledge

Learning is the process through which new information is acquired, interpreted, rejected, and integrated into the existing body of knowledge. Thus, knowledge is the product of the learning process at a particular point of time.

New information through the learning process reinforces, modifies, or changes parts of existing knowledge that initiates new learning that again enhances, enriches, or demolishes the extant knowledge. Individuals, groups, and departments learn in specific situations resulting in a variety of knowledge that is either integrated by the consensual and differentiating organizational cultures or remain disjointed and fragmented patches of knowledge. In other words, the learning process and the resultant knowledge feed on each other creating a variety of knowledge that is integrated or remains disjointed in different degrees.

PERSPECTIVES ON KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATIONS Knowledge organizations have been viewed from five overlapping perspectives focusing on the various facets of organizations. Organizations vary in emphasizing the processes of creating knowledge, using knowledge for strategic decision-making, facilitating the innovation of products and services, turning them into marketable forms, and managing their interface with the surrounding contexts·regional, national, and global·that promote different kinds of knowledge. Box 13.2

Five Perspectives on Knowledge Organizations

Ć The learning organization perspective emphasizes creating and using new knowledge. Ć The strategic perspective highlights the use of knowledge for designing strategies. Ć The technological perspective prioritizes innovating ideas and renders them marketable. Ć The contextual perspective focuses on the organizationăenvironment interface. Ć The management perspective suggests how organizations can be managed.

The Learning Organization Perspective Conceptualizing knowledge organizations as learning organizations is a process perspective (Argyris and Schon 1996; Spender 1996). Just as individuals learn, so do organizations. Learning organizations, however, are not those that harvest only the individual membersÊ learning in specific job situations. They do more than that. They tend to accomplish the following: 1. Integrate individualsÊ learning. 2. Codify it in terms of rules, regulations, procedures, norms, policies, etc. 3. Develop a composite frame or perspective to interpret subsequent information.

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4. Use the perspective to formulate strategies. 5. Guide organizational decisions and actions.

The Strategic Perspective One of the important roles of knowledge is to enable organizations to develop a strategically driven management. Organizations are endowed with unique resources that constitute their core competences (Prahalad and Hamel 1990; Teece and Pisano 1994), invisible assets (Itami 1987) and intellectual capital (Sullivan 1999). Knowledge leads to strategy formulation in the following two ways: 1. It enables organizations to establish viable mechanisms to collect a variety of information. 2. It helps organizations to process them to develop future business scenarios where all major players are competing with each other. Accordingly then, it leads them to develop an effective game plan for gaining a competitive advantage in the market. The organization that commands greater knowledge is in a better position to predict and even create future to its advantages.

The Technological Perspective The technological perspective emphasizes the use of technological knowledge for promoting innovation and facilitating the process of bringing innovative ideas to market commercialization. In other words, knowledge creation is closely related to the process of concretizing ideas into products and services. Research and development (R&D) activities constitute the core of knowledge organizations by establishing linkages between the latest developments in science, the pressing needs of the market, and the resources of organizations. The technological perspective also focuses on the importance of establishing inter-organizational linkages for the transfer of knowledge (Inkpen 1996; Wong 1992).

The Contextual Perspective The contextual perspective is based on the belief that the knowledge that organizations create and use is not entirely a function of only organizational characteristics and dynamics. It is also impacted by the surrounding milieu. The surrounding milieu may range from the local and regional milieu to the national and international milieu. Scholars subscribing to this perspective argue that local and national cultures as well as the global business environment foster different kinds of knowledge


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that leads to different performance outcomes (Lam 1996; Hedlund 1993). Organizations in India, for example, are likely to develop knowledge that not only caters to the elites and the middle class of Indian society, but also helps them reach out to the Âbottom of the economic pyramidÊ in order both to maximize their profits as well as to meet the expectation of being socially responsible.

The Management Perspective This perspective emphasizes the importance of processes and tools through which new information can be captured, processed, shared, and codified into useful knowledge for managing organizations effectively (Liebowitz 1999). The perspective draws heavily on information management technology comprising the Internet, Intranet, telecommunications, and computers and translates them into systems, procedures, and practices for sharing and accumulating knowledge.

LEARNING: PURPOSE AND COMPLEXITY Purposes of Learning Learning serves a number of purposes ranging from organizational survival to prosperity. Four of them stand out (Shukla 1997): 1. Incremental improvement in products, services, process of working, and ways of relating with each other. 2. Adaptation that means marked changes in products, services, procedures, and relationships. 3. Innovation of new brands, new ways of producing old or new products and providing services, and relating with each other. 4. Transformation implying that an organization reinvents itself in the light of new learning. The four purposes signify different degrees of departure from the old ways. Incremental improvement comes mostly from the employees who have first-hand learning of how the old ways of working can be improved upon by making small changes in the existing ways. This does not require massive investment either of capital or technology, or dislocations in workforce. Japanese organizations cash in on it by following the principle of kaizen, which means continuous improvements that eventually make a big difference in organizational effectiveness. EmployeesÊ suggestion box is a known mechanism for bringing about incremental improvement in work practices or the factors that influence them. Adaptations involve relatively larger changes. Market research, periodic reviews, consumersÊ surveys, and analysis of local conditions often lead organizations to change their products and services. KelloggÊs cornflakes blended a mango flavour, McDonaldÊs changed the flavour of its burger, and DominoÊs Pizza used a different recipe to suit the Indian market. The soft drinks marketed by

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Pepsi and Coca-Cola in India are different from the ones marketed in the United States. Hindustan Levers Limited learnt that a rival company was going to launch an anti-bacterial soap through an extension of its brand, Dettol. It pre-empted the competitorÊs move by floating its own liquid brand of soap (Chatterjee 1995). Nestlé, a Swiss conglomerate worth Swiss Francs 150 billion and employing over 230,000 people across the world, is Âadapting, improving, and re-structuring as a continuous processÊ (Peter Brabeck, CEO Nestlé, quoted by Wetlaufer 2001: 122) rather than by making dramatic changes just for the sake of it and hence getting disruptive. Innovation involves much more creative learning for producing totally new products and services and new ways of doing business. It requires merging different facts and perspectives: EmployeesÊ ingenuity in seeing the prospects of working differently, R&Ds initiatives to work on rough and raw ideas, managementÊs ability to pick up even weak signals from the market, an understanding of the consumersÊ existing and emerging needs, and so on. For example, Hindustan Levers Limited installed an e-network for connecting with all its suppliers and 7,500 distributors. It was planning to connect all divisions to the top on one hand and to the two million retailers on the other. Further, it followed a policy of hiring the best people and retaining them by entrusting them with independent responsibilities in order to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture. It also strived to expand its market to the rural areas by arranging small credits to village-level retailers to keep its products in their shops and helped villagers procure small loans through rural banks for buying their products. It has already extended its cosmetic line, Lakme, into beauty salons and has used its Annapurna Atta (flour) business for selling ready-to-eat chapattis, and so on (Sinha 2004: 55). Transformation requires a clear break from the past and diversification into qualitatively different lines of business. The Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), for example, saw that the tobacco market was rapidly being restricted and diversified into other portfolios such as hotels, agricultural products, paperboards, etc., that added more than 50 per cent to its profit. Such a departure from the old business and transformation in the new ones could have hardly resulted from single-loop learning.

Simple Learning: Single-loop Just as there hardly exists a person whose mind is so closed that he cannot perceive and learn a new thing, there cannot be an organization that is totally immune to external stimulants and completely unable to learn to respond to them. In fact, an organization is invariably conceived as an open systems collecting information from the environment, interpreting it in light of its existing knowledge, and generally reacting in a way that advances its interests. Learning is a natural process for both individuals and organizations. Unplanned, incidental, learning does add to organizational knowledge without anybody actively paying any special attention to it. It can also lead to a breakthrough. Johnson and Johnson invented Band-Aid accidentally (Garrison, quoted in Shukla 1997: 107). One of Johnson and JohnsonÊs employees had a hard time putting bandages on his accident-prone wife who used to get cuts very often. One day, he took gauze, tape, and a pair of scissors and prepared


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readymade bandages. He could now put a bandage on his wife in 30 seconds. Once he mentioned this to his peers, they saw an opportunity for the company to mass produce Band-Aids of all shapes and sizes. However, a major part of organizational learning is deliberate. Organizations adopt ways and measures to collect information that they can use gainfully. Market research, surveys of employeesÊ and customersÊ satisfaction, internal and external audits, employeesÊ training, outside consultants, meetings at various levels of employees, suggestion box, R&D initiatives, and a host of other measures are systematically employed to collect information, examine their relevance, and incorporate them in the organizationÊs strategy, systems, rules, and procedures. Whether learning is incidental or planned, it involves three components: 1. Perception of certain pieces of information, attention to them, and search for related information. 2. Reflection on their relevance and significance for the organization, their interpretation in light of previous experience, and weightage to different options to handle them in a gainful way. 3. Action that follows the reflections either to approach or avoid the situation. This is called single-loop learning (see Figure 13.1) because a perception initiates reflections that lead to an action that affects subsequent perception (Argyris and Schon 1978). Figure 13.1

Single-loop Learning

Source: Based on Argyris and Schon (1978).

Limitations of Single-Loop Learning There are two limitations of single-loop learning. First, it does not adequately describe how individuals or organizations actually enact the processes of perceiving, reflecting, and acting. Organizations, like individuals, perceive what they want to perceive, actively search out those pieces of information that suit them, and gloss over those that do not fit with their policy frames, systems, norms, and values. For example, most of them focus more on market trends than environmental consequences of their products and services, many of them actively engage in competitorsÊ profiling, but gloss over employeesÊ simmering resentments. They also vary in the search for information that might lead to their future growth. Some take a long-term growth perspective and give it priority over short-term profit. They look for the opportunities in the market, new technology, sources of procuring capital, and so on. Others prefer to generate surplus that then can be ploughed back to fuel growth. They would look for cost-effective measures such as the possibility of downsizing, assertive marketing, aggressive sales, and over-driving workforce. In other words, there are invariably a

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number of routes to reach a goal and organizations set to learn about the routes that they believe are more promising. Second, organizations, like individuals, give priority to what worked well in the past. Success reinforces the belief in the benefits of learning from the past, although the present might have radically changed the business scenario. Organizations that become successful through the R&D route opt for R&D solutions, those that did well by vigorous training of their employees invest more in training, and those that made profit by downsizing see downsizing as the most effective solution to their problems. Shukla (1997) cites many cases where success in the past became a trap to prevent learning afresh and led to phenomenal failures. Four of them are the following: 1. Two-thirds of 43 excellent organizations mentioned in Peters and WatermanÊs book, In Search of Excellence (1982), did not remain excellent by the end of the 1990s. Six were, in fact, in deep financial crisis. 2. HMT was once a leader in watch making. As watch making changed from mechanical to quartz technology in the 1980s, HMT kept producing mechanical watches and thereby lost its leadership to Titan-Timex. 3. Remington, the leader in the manual typewriter market till the 1980s, lost its market to word processing equipment, only because it failed to see the changing technology. 4. In 1977, DCM Data Products (DCM DP) was an unquestioned leader in supplying large reliable mainframe computers. However, with the advent of personal computers, marketing became more crucial than R&D-driven manufacturing. Because DCM did not change accordingly, it lost its market leadership.

Complex Learning: Double-loop While single-loop learning is Âwhat to learnÊ, double-loop learning is Âlearning how to learnÊ. That is, learning organizations question the learning process at every stage: why should they collect this, but not that, information; is this the best way to collect information; why this, but not that, interpretation is valid, or why this, but not that, action is appropriate. In other words, learning organizations question the assumptions, the values, and the reasons for learning. They may find that what they know is not right or useful and that they first have to unlearn it. That is, they may have to distinguish their obsolete past knowledge that once worked well, but now is misleading rather than enabling them. DCM DP, for example, as referred earlier, could have learnt that propriety systems were obsolete, selling was becoming more important than R&D-driven manufacturing, and a tall hierarchy was no longer appropriate for a marketing enterprise. It could have re-invented itself by downplaying its R&D, highlighting software packages, and launching improved versions of PCs. Double-loop learning is described as follows: Double loop learning occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organizationÊs underlying norms, policies, and objectives . . . Its


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members learn about previous contexts for learning. They reflect on and enquire into previous episodes of organizational learning, or failure to learn. They discover what they did that facilitated or inhibited learning, they invest new strategies for learning, they produce these strategies, and they evaluate and generalize what they have produced. (Argyris and Scon 1978, quoted in Shukla 1997: 83) Double-loop learning is also called higher-level learning (Fiol and Lyles 1985) because it gives a deeper understanding of the business milieu; generative learning (Senge 1990) as it is not mechanical like single-loop learning and generates more insights and knowledge, and strategic learning (Dodgson 1991) for its instrumental role for not only enabling organizations to adjust, adapt, or innovate, but also to transform them. Double-loop learning depends on the joint function of an organizationÊs willingness and capabilities to reflect, question, and explore new ways of perceiving business situations, interpreting them, taking decisions, and choosing ways of actions to cope with the situations. There are four capabilities, each pertaining to the four components of learning (Shukla 1997) as shown in Figure 13.2. 1. 2. 3. 4.

To scan the environment. To reflect and solve problems. To disseminate new insights and knowledge. To experiment, learn from mistakes, and act. Figure 13.2

Source: Shukla (1997).

Double-loop Learning

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Capabilities to Scan This means the ability to maintain a radar-like constant vigilance of both the internal and the external environment in order to notice even weak signals, major as well as subtle changes, competitorsÊ moves, new government regulations, new technology, innovative products, consumersÊ changing mood, or anything that can impact on the organization directly or indirectly. It is easier said than done, primarily because of three reasons (Shukla 1997): 1. Organizations generally have mechanisms to record tangible and quantifiable information (for example, market share, profitability, new technology, etc.), but not for the qualitative changes arising out of new insights and intuitions. 2. Organizations fail to notice changes that gradually cross their perceptual threshold. Organizations, like individuals, tend to keep glossing over minor changes in the environment, unless they accumulate and become pronounced enough to be noticed. However, continuous minor changes over a period of time often burst into major crisis before an organization can realize it. The simmering grievances of employees are unnoticed till they result in an unanticipated major labour problem. 3. Organizations tend to label a particular change as an aberration or so unique that they fail to foresee its impact, and, therefore, ignore it.

Capabilities to Reflect and Interpret Perceptions Organizations are invariably under pressure of time and resources that compel them to employ their readymade interpretations based on their past experiences and evidence. They hardly have time to question the organizational norms and models of past decision-making, explore all necessary alternative ways of looking at the situations, and come up with new ways of handing them. The reflective capacity is also compromised by the concern of organizations to maintain continuity in their functioning and to demand conformity from their employees. Hence, employees express what they think the organization likes to hear.

Capabilities to Disseminate The capabilities to disseminate learnt knowledge or even a new piece of information depend on the arrangements that organizations make for sharing and pooling pieces of knowledge into a comprehensive body. Certain organizations maintain an independent department for information or knowledge management with a number of platforms (for example, Intranet, regular meetings, newsletters, etc.) for sharing and integrating knowledge. However, many organizations suffer from


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rigid hierarchical and departmental boundaries that prevent new knowledge to spread. Juniors do not speak out unless they are encouraged to do so. They may have better information, but hesitate to speak out, lest they are taken to be arrogant and defiant subordinates (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Capabilities to Experiment and Take Actions Once divergent pieces of information are made available to organizations, the choice of actions becomes problematic. A number of options look attractive and organizations have to experiment, try, and find out which ones works under which conditions. This is made possible only when organizations cultivate skills among the members to experiment and the disposition to take risk. The members have to be empowered to take decisions and trusted that they might make mistakes, but only to learn from them. One factor that can guide them is the shared vision and the belief that there are many ways to realize the organizational vision. Willingness to Learn How to Learn The four capabilities are instrumental to double-loop learning; but they provide only the necessary conditions. It is also important that organizations are willing to focus on the process of their learning and question their basic premises, relevance of past knowledge, and explore new ways of learning. This willingness emanates from organizationsÊ culture of openness, participation, and empowerment of employees.

FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE Knowledge takes as many as 13 forms varying in components, processes, and purposes. They are clustered into five broad types (Machlup 1980): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Pastime knowledge. Practical knowledge. Abstract and intellectual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge. Unwanted knowledge.

A more systematic way to understand the variety of knowledge is to differentiate it in terms of complexity, nature, levels, and depth. Complex knowledge, compared to simple knowledge, consists of a larger quantity of information (Garud and Nayyar 1994). Appraisal of an employee may be based on one single impression of

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the superior about the worth of the employee or his performance during a period. This is simple knowledge. However, the same employee can be assessed on the basis of an objective checklist or a detailed questionnaire that asks for information about his performance in a number of job activities, work and social relationships with his superiors, subordinates, and peers, his commitment to the organization, capability to work in teams, his emotional intelligence, and so on. Further, a 360-degree appraisal can yield a three-dimensional more complex knowledge about the employee. Levels of knowledge mean the knowledge that is created, transmitted, and utilized at human, social, and systemic levels (De Long and Fahey 2000). Human knowledge is individualsÊ knowledge consisting of information, skills, experiences, intuitions, perspectives, vision, and whatever else that they have learnt either for solving their problems or sharing with others. Social knowledge resides in the understanding of relationships among individuals or within groups that are based on certain cultural norms, trust, team spirit, sense of belonging, and so on. Systemic knowledge is embedded in organizational codes and routines manifesting organizational systems, procedures, norms, and standards for working and relating with each other. Depth of knowledge is examined by distinguishing between Âknow-whatÊ, Âknow-howÊ and ÂknowwhyÊ knowledge (Ahlstrom and Nair 2000). ÂKnow-whatÊ is the new information that has been collected for addressing to certain problems. Organizations identify human and material resources, buy technology, and adopt certain practices (for example, downsizing, methods of appraisal, etc.) for improving their performance. Their utilities are obvious. ÂKnow-whatÊ does not necessarily tell organizations how to implement Âknow-howÊ or conduct a particular operation. ÂKnow-howÊ is about how to apply a piece of information. New machines that are imported in an organization invariably carry a manual detailing how to operate them. ÂKnow-howÊ is, thus, a partial knowledge that requires blind compliance of the procedures and rules. On the other hand, Âknow-whyÊ is more fundamental in capturing the underlying causeăeffect relationships or the principles underlying the functioning of a particular system, procedure, or technology (Graud, 1997). The three levels of knowledge are differentiated in Table 13.1. Table 13.1 Three Levels of Knowledge Levels Know-what Know-how Know-why

Definition Description of something, what a system or technology can be used for How a technology or system is built and used Underlying principles of a technology and rationale for using it

Example Descriptive usersÊ manual and specifications Production steps, operating, and maintenance procedures Theory, cause and effect maps, and deductive predictions

Source: Graud (1997).

Of all forms of knowledge, the most frequently discussed is the nature of knowledge being explicit or tacit (Nonaka 1994; Polanyi 1966). Explicit knowledge is coded in organizational routines such as rules, formal and informal procedures and policies, work manuals, directions, training modules,


Box 13.3

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Assembly Line of a Hong Kong-based Company

The assembly line of a Hong Kong-based toys company in China was reporting an increasing number of defects, despite a great deal of time and effort that the company had invested on total quality management (TQM). One explanation was that the Chinese employees did not have the skills. It was found to be untrue, because they were well trained and were doing what they were told to do. However, they were not told why they needed to do what they were doing. As some of the toy-testing steps were quite tedious, workers were cutting corners by not properly tightening some of the parts. The parts were inside and hidden from view so the workers thought that as long as the toy looked and worked allright, everything was fine. They did not realize that parts that were not completely tightened could gradually come loose after some time and could prove dangerous to the children playing with them. Once this was explained to the workers, they realized why all the parts needed to be meticulously tightened. Thereafter, the defect levels dropped. Source: Ahlstrom and Nair (2000).

newsletters, communications through emails and Intranet, etc. It is also found in written documents such as vision and mission statements, strategies for performing complex tasks, reports of market research, copies of government rules and regulations, and so on. Explicit knowledge can be imparted through training, discussion groups, and exchange of written or verbal pieces of information. On the other hand, tacit knowledge is acquired through Âlearning by doingÊ and Âlearning by usingÊ while employees handle on-the-job facts, events, problems, and constraints. Hence, it is the insight that employees get the hard way. It is rare, unique, embedded in the contexts, and hence cannot be easily transferred to others. Nonaka defined it as follows: Tacit knowledge is highly personal. It is hard to formalize and, therefore, difficult to communicate to others . . . tacit knowledge is so deeply rooted in action and an individualÊs commitment to a specific context·a craft of profession, a particular technology or product market, or the activities of a workgroup or a team. Tacit knowledge consists partly of technical skills·the kind of informal, hard-to-pin-down skills captured in terms of ÂknowhowÊ. A master craftsman after years of experience develops a wealth of expertise Âat his fingertipsÊ. But is often unable to articulate in scientific or technical principle behind what knows. (Nonaka quoted in Shukla 1997: 108ă109)

Knowledge Cycle Explicit and tacit knowledge is always locked in constant mutually influencing relationships that characterize the process of creating new knowledge (Nonaka and Konno 1998). Tacit knowledge cannot be fully articulated or shared widely. But others might notice unique ways of how some employees handle their job. That might gradually lead them to start describing it first in a sketchy

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way and subsequently in a more refined way and thereby coding them first partially and then fully. This process renders implicit knowledge explicit, which in turn helps others to use it for performing a task or solving a problem. The use of explicit knowledge might lead to new insight or a unique experience of a tacit nature. Shukla (1997) identified four stages in this cycle of knowledge creation and how knowledge finally becomes common knowledge (for example, seeing an apple falling resulting into an insight about the law of gravity, which explains why all things fall and why things further away from the ground fall more rapidly). 1. Discovered knowledge: This comprises the insights and context-specific experiences that individuals have acquired either by an accident or through struggles to cope with job-related problems and challenges. They are personal and tacit. 2. Codified knowledge: Tacit knowledge tends to be made explicit for the benefit of the organization. In fact, knowledge organizations develop mechanisms to harvest tacit knowledge by encouraging individuals to introspect and share their unique skills and experiences, to observe how others are doing a task in unique ways, and to provide platforms (for example, Intranet, discussion groups, sensitivity training, etc.) to codify tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. 3. Migratory knowledge: Once codified, knowledge can migrate from one individual to many, from one department to others, and from one organization to other organizations. It becomes a shared property. 4. Invisible knowledge: In the course of time, knowledge transcends a particular organizational boundary and becomes common knowledge that any organization anywhere in the world can access. Once it becomes common knowledge, organizations lose the advantages accruing on account of this knowledge. Individuals within them use the common knowledge, but tend to discover new unique knowledge to build on the common one, thus discover another tacit knowledge. The process goes on! The four stages are shown in Figure 13.3.

TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE Knowledge transfer takes place naturally and routinely within and between organizations, irrespective of whether the organizations plan it or not (Davenport and Prusak 1998). Knowledge that is created by employees, groups of employees, or an organization tends to move out as a function of a host of factors. Some of them are the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Forms of knowledge. MembersÊ cognitive styles. Organizational characteristics. Inter-organizational relationships. Organizationăculture interface.


Figure 13.3

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Stages in the Knowledge Cycle

Source: Shukla (1997).

Forms of Knowledge Simple knowledge is transferred easily and quickly. Earlier, it was reported how the insight of an employee of Johnson & Johnson, who prepared readymade bandages for his wife, led the company to mass produce Band-Aids. A simple suggestion to improve a work procedure might be added to the work manual for the benefit of the whole organization. On the contrary, induction of a new complex technology might require a lot of capital, time, and better trained personnel. Technological skills can be imparted easily while work attitudes take a long to change. New systems of working can be enforced more easily than creating a team spirit among employees. Employees can be handed over a list of new dos and donÊts with clear direction to stick to them than to cultivate organizational citizenship behaviour. Know-what and know-how can be more easily transferred than know-why that requires communicating the principles and rationale for enacting a particular system or a technology. Transfer of know-what and know-how does not allow the recipient to have full knowledge and hence constrains him from creating new knowledge. The most difficult is the transfer of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is ÂstickyÊ (Szulanski 1996) and has to be made explicit before it can be imparted and acquired. Tacit knowledge lies so intricately in employeesÊ experiences in a particular context that it becomes difficult to extricate, code, and transfer to other parts of the organization. Long period of apprenticeship or mentoring, for example, is necessary for the learner to observe,

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sense, and cultivate tacit knowledge. The tradition of learning music from the father-teacher is well known in India. Similarly, Tata Steel had a tradition of hiring the sons of the existing employees in the belief that the sons would acquire the tacit knowledge of their fathers.

Members’ Cognitive Styles Cognitive styles mean individual membersÊ ways and preferences for receiving information of a certain nature and amount, processing it, and using it. There are three cognitive styles that have been shown to affect the transfer of knowledge (Bhagat et al. 2002): 1. Tolerance for ambiguity. 2. Signature skills. 3. Holistic versus analytical modes of thinking. People who have high tolerance for ambiguity can attend, collect, view, and disseminate a larger quantity of information, not all of it may be consistent. They feel less uncomfortable with uncertainties in causeăeffect relationships and are more effective in transferring both complex and tacit knowledge to others (Szulanski 1996). Signature skills result from three interactive dispositions of individuals to: 1. Attend to certain tasks but gloss over others. 2. Seek and give information selectively for solving problems. 3. Employ tools and methods that they employed successfully in the past. Holistic versus analytic thinking signifies the tendency to analyse the entire spectrum of information versus the tendency to analyse each piece of information, taking them one at a time for its unique contribution to the existing body of knowledge. Holistically-oriented individuals tend to locate information in a context that helps them decipher meanings attached to the information. Indians are highly context oriented where any piece of information is interpreted in terms of desh (ecology), kaal (time), and paatra (person) (Sinha and Kanungo 1997). If the persons disseminating and receiving information are high on tolerance for ambiguity and low on signature, the transfer of complex and tacit knowledge becomes relatively easier. While higher levels of analytic thinking facilitates the transfer of complex, explicit, and systemic knowledge, the higher levels of holistic thinking facilitates the transfer of tacit, complex, and systemic knowledge.

Organizational Characteristics There are two sets of organizational characteristics that impact on knowledge transfer: 1. Organizational culture of openness to new experiences, willingness to experiment and tolerate mistakes, acceptance of deviants and iconoclasts, relatively more egalitarian relationships, empowered employees, and so on


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2. Organizational mechanisms to notice, record, process, store, retrieve, and use new knowledge. Organizations often establish a separate department and assign employees with specific responsibilities to manage knowledge. Box 13.4

Knowledge Communities in Tata Steel

Tata Steel organized knowledge communities to improve its capabilities. The idea was conceptualized in 1999 from the need to pool expertise of individual employees and to store them properly for managing technological complexities in the post modernization period starting in the year 2003. Earlier, the company used to invite foreign experts to come over and solve technological problems. They used to take back their expertise with them. The company lost expertise of their own experienced officers as they retired or got separated from the company. In order to take care of this problem, the company formed 24 knowledge communities for areas such as steel making, safety, health and environment, waste management, human resources, process and product development, etc. Each knowledge community was headed by an officer, called champion, who was responsible for articulating the mission and targets in his area, stimulate the interest of the community members, organize interactive sessions, nominate a convener, practice leaders, and lead members to encourage others to join as learners, and to organize other activities that enhanced membersÊ knowledge in the focal area. An officer was permitted to function as a practice leader or a lead expert on some issues and a lecturer in three other knowledge communities in order to serve as lynch-pins. The knowledge communities and the individuals within them were rewarded for their valuable contributions to the expanding knowledge base of the company. Source: Sharma and Arora (2003).

Inter-Organizational Relationships Transfer of knowledge is much smoother within an organization than between organizations (Gupta and Govindarajan 2000). A number of factors that facilitate the transfer of knowledge within an organization are absent in inter-organizational relationships. Proximity of employees, complementarities of activities, sharing of norms, values, vision, mission, strategies, and so on create conducive conditions for sharing information, learning by observing each other, and imitating highperforming individuals and departments. Inter-organizational relationships are of many types: A corporate body having a number of units (for example, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited [BHEL]), multinationals and their subsidiaries (for example, LG and LG, India), two or more organizations in the same line of business (for example, Suzuki, Tata, and Hyundai), and networks of organizations (for example, producers, suppliers, distributors, etc.). They differ in the degree of interdependence on each other. From the perspective of interdependence, the modes of inter-organizational relationships deserve attention: 1. A corporate body having a number of units engaged in similar or complementary activities presents a congenial context for sharing knowledge. For example, BHEL has production facilities at a number of locations·all engaged in similar or complementary activities that facilitate

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learning from each other within a common strategic framework. On the other hand, the Tata and Birla group of companies have units involved in diverse and different lines of business. Learning across their groups of companies would be difficult, unless they form a joint venture (for example, idea) or a special instrument, invite each other on their boards, or formulate a common strategy for facilitating learning from each other. Even within the groups, the diverse lines of business are likely to delimit what they can learn from each other, despite their shared ownership. 2. Multinationals and their subsidiaries maintain close relationships in which the transfer of knowledge is smooth, but not necessarily bi-directional. The superior knowledge base and R&D activities of the parent organization, combined with their greater organizational power, deep pocket, and so on, equip them to generate new knowledge and transfer it to their subsidiaries that are benefited without making efforts of their own. However, the extent and nature of knowledge creation and transfer depends on the nature of the parentăsubsidiary relationships that could be of two types: Ć The relationships of a principal and its agent (Chang and Taylor 1999; OÊDonnell 2000): A multinational as the principal adopts a controlling strategy so that the agent, its subsidiary, performs as designed and directed by the principal for adding value to the principalÊs products and services. The principal transfers only know-what and know-how knowledge that are instrumental to meet its standards of quality and the quantity of its products and services. The knowledge flows downward from the principal to the agent, which can at best give feedback to the principal to act upon and improve its strategy and decisions (see Box 13.5). Ć The relationships of interdependence: As multinationals evolve into transnational or global companies, they are required to retain local flexibility while achieving global integration Box 13.5

Transfer of Knowledge from Multinationals to Subsidiaries

Five multinational organizations (Anglo-American, Swedish, Danish, Korean, and an IndoJapanese joint venture) provided technology to their subsidiaries in India. Although the technology in most of the cases was the latest one, the knowledge that was transferred was about how to run the machines and their maintenance. The design capability or the capability to re-engineer products and process were not transferred. The parent companies indeed had world-class R&D activities and they did provide continuous back up to their Indian companies. There was again a difference in the approach of the parent companies. The Scandinavians allowed greater access to Indian R&D personnel visiting them than did the Japanese, who, it was alleged, did not allow Indians or other nationalities to enter specific areas of their R&D facilities in Japan. The fact that a team of Japanese technical experts supervised the production process in the Indo-Japanese joint venture even after 15 years of its operation supported the impression. The R&D of the Indian companies of these multinationals, irrespective of the capabilities of the Indian personnel, were at best aimed to make incremental improvements, suggest improvements that had to be processed and approved by the parent R&D division, or at worse engage in component testing or doing insignificant jobs aimed at saving tax for the company. Source: Sinha (2004: 230ă40).


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(Ghosal and Bartlett 1990; Birkinshaw & Hood, 1998; Rugman and Verbeke 2001). Hence, they need to have capabilities to link different countriesÊ operations with each other as well as with the centre in a flexible way and thereby leverage local as well as central capabilities. This they achieve by allowing each unit to learn from its unique environment and share its knowledge among the multinational network. The parent organization facilitates the sharing process through socialization and other formal integrative mechanisms. The present situation in India has been shifting from what is reported in Box 13.5 as many transnational organizations are now establishing state-of-the art R&D laboratories in India or are outsourcing designs from India. 3. Unlike parentăsubsidiaries, relationships in multinationals, alliances between organizations and their networks signify legal independence but functional interdependence between organizations. Alliances are Âlong-term relations that entail highly relationship-specific investment in ventures that cannot be fully specified in advance of their execution (Phan and Perridis 2000: 201). No organization can function without establishing some kind of dependable relationships with suppliers, distributors, collaborators, and even competitors. Members of an alliance or network watch each other and learn the best practices of others by transplanting them in their own organizations. The greater the similarity in the functioning of the allied organizations, the greater is the probability that they would learn from each other. It is, however, argued that such learning is single-loop learning. The chances are that relatively more dependent or less well-off organization would imitate the better-off organization. The more different allied or networked the organizations, the more difficult it may be to learn from each other. However, if they share a common perspective for realizing their super-ordinate goals and are willing and capable of double-loop learning, the more they can add new knowledge to each otherÊs stock of knowledge (Phan and Perridis 2000). Distributors, for example, have a greater opportunity to sense the emerging changes in consumers and can provide feedback to the producer in time to realign their production lines. Producers too may provide distributors with new products that might enlarge their scope of operations.

Cultural Distance Culture conditions how people within a culture select to focus on certain information, interpret them according to their cultural frame, and use them in culturally preferred ways. Similarity between cultures facilitates knowledge transfer because the people at both the disseminating and the receiving ends have similar codes to attach meanings and draw inferences with similar histories of what works and what does not. Dissimilarity, on the contrary, hampers knowledge transfer at all stages, unless the knowledge is simple, explicit, know-what, and know-how. Human knowledge such as job skills and organizational codes and routines can be transferred even across dissimilar cultures more readily than complex, tacit, and social knowledge. The greater the distance

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between cultures, the greater are the difficulties in transferring complex, tacit, and social knowledge (Bhagat et al. 2002; Kedia and Bhagat 1988). Two of the cultural dimensions that impact knowledge transfer are individualismăcollectivism and verticalăhorizontal orientations (Triandis 1995). People in individualist cultures are more concerned with rationality when they transfer and receive knowledge. They: 1. View each piece of information as independent of its context. 2. Focus primarily on knowledge concerning personal attributes such as personality, beliefs, feelings, and attitudes towards an event, object, or person. 3. Attach greater significance to written and codified information. 4. Accept such information at face value. On the other hand, people in collectivist cultures: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Examine information in their context. Look for contextual cues in each piece of information for deriving meaning. Construct situations and responses to them in terms of long-term goals. Pay more attention to information concerning organizational history, patterns of obligations, norms, in-groups and out-groups in terms of attending, comprehending, and using knowledge for action.

People in vertical cultures tend to process information and knowledge in terms of hierarchical arrangements within the organization. Superiors have first access to important pieces of information and knowledge derived from external sources. They decide when and how such information and knowledge is to be diffused in the organization. Communication flows primarily from the top to the bottom. Juniors communicate only if asked to. They tend to sense what the superiors want to hear and select information accordingly, even if it is wrong or inadequate. On the contrary, communication in horizontal cultures flows in multiple directions·up and down, as well as horizontally. In vertical collectivist cultures (such as India), superiors pass on crucial information mostly to their trusted in-group members depriving out-group members of necessary information. People in vertical individualist cultures (such as Americans) are disposed to diffuse as well as receive explicit knowledge that is independent of the organizational context. Vertical individualists might experience significant difficulties in transferring knowledge to horizontal or vertical collectivists, who are likely to put more emphasis on the knowledge that is relevant to serving in-group goals and norms and are more relational in nature (Kashima and Kashima 1998). Unlike those in vertical individualist cultures, people in horizontal individualist cultures (such as Scandinavians) are most comfortable in transferring explicit knowledge and ignore the knowledge that implies hierarchal superiority of either the transferring or receiving person. Although cultural distance generally hampers the transfer of knowledge, it may serve a seminal role in facilitating double-loop learning. Different cultures are positioned to generate unique knowledge from their contexts. Organizations located in them can develop mechanisms to share the unique knowledge and thereby qualitatively build on their knowledge stock. The pre-condition for


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such double-loop learning is that that the interacting organizations must share the common superordinate goal of learning and growing together.

SUMMARY Knowledge organizations adopt ways and means to continuously harvest the learning experiences from all sources in order to formulate strategies, put in place effective management systems and practices, concretize innovative ideas into marketable products and services, and draw on societal support to keep enriching their knowledge base. Organizational learning helps them adjust, adapt, innovate, and transform themselves for gaining and retaining their competitive advantage over their rivals. Double-loop learning is more enabling than single-loop learning because the former allows organizations to question their existing values, assumptions, and modes of functioning while the latter keeps them grooved in past modes of sensing, interpreting, and reacting to new situations. Knowledge comes in many forms that vary in complexity (fewer or many pieces of information), levels (human, social, and systemic), depth (know-what, know-how, and know-why), and being explicit (coded and written) or tacit (work embedded insights, experiences, and expertise) that are yet to be coded and documented. Knowledge is created spontaneously as well as through systematic planning within organizations, in inter-organizational contexts, and at the interface of the organization-environment. Culture plays a crucial role in all of them, particularly when knowledge is transferred from one culture to another.

EXERCISES Exercise 1: Profile a Learning Organization Step 1 Each participant of the group/class will assess the organization that he belongs to or has access to in terms of the extent to which the organization is a learning organization with reference to the nature of learning, types of knowledge that are being built and transferred, and the role of Indian culture.

Step 2 The profiles will be shared by the whole group resulting in an understanding of the nature of learning organizations in India.

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Exercise 2: Developing a Learning Organization Step 1 The participants will form 3ă4-people task forces. Each task force will develop a design for an ITenabled organization that is going to process functional foods of an organic nature.

Step 2 Individual designs will be pooled together to develop the architecture of an organizational design for health foods.

Exercise 3: Restructuring a Low Learning Organization Step 1 Participants will form groups of 3ă4 people and read the following case:

Belts & Brakes, India Hermann Wenzel, the CMD of the Wenzel group of companies, called for Dr A. F. Thomas, head of the South-east and South Asia desk. He tossed a folder to Thomas saying: ÂThomas, B&B is doing fine. But I want it to re-invent it by getting it focused on our future needs. Take a flight at the earliest and give us a blueprint by next week.Ê During the eight hour Lufthansa flight to New Delhi, Thomas leafed through the folder. The Belts & Brakes (B & B) Company was established by T. K. Saini in the mid-1980s, about 40 km from New Delhi for manufacturing industrial V-belts and raw edge automotive belts. It was taken over in 1996 by the Wenzel Group, which was a well-established company with a history of over 100 years. Over the period, the Group had become a major multinational producing fan belts, brake lining for the automobile industry, conveyor belts for a variety of industries, automobile parts, oil drilling equipment, etc. It had subsidiaries in a number of countries such as the UK, France, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, among others. Before the takeover, B&B was in a bad shape. The productsÊ quality was below international standards, the finish was decidedly poor, and hence the products were unacceptable outside the Indian market. There was no system to prepare systematic reports on sales, profit, outstanding costs, collections, etc. The owner-boss made even routine decisions in a personalized way. Employees were paid poorly and were fired at the whims of the owner. Mr Saini attempted to seek


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an order from Maruti Udyog but had neither the capital, nor the technology, nor the skills to meet MarutiÊs standards. The German parent initiated a complete transformation. It supplied machineries and equipment to renovate the old plant and set up a new one. Roflex TS, the Wenzel GroupÊs global brand of industrial V-belts, was introduced resulting in more than 40 per cent growth in sales in the Indian market. The multi-ribbed V-belt project was set up in the year 2000 to meet the demands of companies like Hindustan Motors, Fiat, and Maruti. B&B assumed a dominant position in India as a manufacturer of auto belts and friction materials for the automotive industry as well as power transmission belts for the industrial and agricultural sectors. About 40 per cent of the products were sold in India, while the remaining 60 per cent were exported to Europe, Thailand, and Malaysia. The parent company made all major decisions regarding policies. It set quantitative targets and the product mix, standards of their quality, reporting format, quality audit, and so on. It upgraded technology, supplied additional capital whenever required, and provided R&D backup. It was very strict about getting reports on time. It also made all the marketing and purchase decisions. Teams of experts regularly visited B&B to take stock of the factories, house-keeping, and conducting training programmes. Initially, all managers and a large number of technicians were trained in Germany. The headquarter was very keen to have an Indian managing director (MD) to manage the company following detailed guidelines from the headquarter. It indeed had a highly competent, dedicated, and task-oriented MD who too made all major and most of the minor and routine decisions and demanded all his vice-presidents and the rest of the management to implement them in letter and spirit. Thus, B&B was able to function as designed and directed by the parent company. It produced and supplied the products as a part of the global strategy of Wenzel. Unlike other multinational subsidiaries, however, B&B did not have the following: 1. Information technology to integrate either the internal functions or B&B with the Wenzel Group. Communication was poor between the factory and the head office that was located in New Delhi. The management relied only on mobile phones, as landlines did not always work. There were no e-mail or online facilities. Documents were sent to the head office by fax. Although this often caused delays of one or two days, the products were so standardized and the time frame for their supply was so streamlined that the financial health of the company was not affected. 2. Independent VP of the HR department: The MD believed the he was capable of handling HR functions that were confined to traditional personnel functions. Rules were followed strictly. 3. Effective R&D: There was indeed a small R&D department. It had some very bright boys. But their roles were confined to testing products. The board of directors at Frankfurt had recently come up with a very ambitious plan to expand the Indian operation, grant greater autonomy to B&B to respond to the growing automobile and possibly the aviation market in India. B&B needed to be creative and proactive in the Indian and subsequently the South-east Asian market.

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Step 2 Suppose that the group members are assisting Dr Thomas in preparing a plan to design B&B as a learning organization in order to meet the plan of the board of the parent company. The groups will share it with the whole group/class.

14

Organizational Change and Development


Show the importance of organizational development. Describe different ways of developing organizations. Explain the importance of human resources in organizational development. Highlight the challenges for managing human resources.

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THE CONCEPTS

C

hange is a natural and inevitable process; but response to change varies in the extent to which people let the change take its own course and drift along or try to foresee change and plan to cope with it, or, even better, engineer a change that serves their purpose and aspirations. Those who drift with a change as it occurs may become better or worse off, virtually at the mercy of chance. However, those who foresee or engineer a change are most likely to improve their future prospects, adjustments, and performance. Box 14.1

Survival and Change Proneness

ÂIt is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to changeÊ (Charles Darwin1).

There are shades of grey in between unplanned and planned change. An unplanned change is often responded to by taking ad hoc measures that are drawn out of the ways that an organization has been successfully employing in the past. The outcome may be effective or ineffective, but it does lead to hindsight for future actions. Similarly, a change programme no matter how meticulously planned may leave a few loose ends or spring an unanticipated outcome that is indeed an unplanned change. Another way to look at change is its source that can be either internal or external to an organization or a mix of both. Ignoring such complexities for the time being, a simplistic, two-dimensional, fourfold view of changes in organization, with some examples, are provided in Table 14.1: Table 14.1

Two-dimensional View of Organizational Change Nature of Change

Locus of Change Internal External

Unplanned EmployeesÊ demographics, critical incidents, and accidents Government policy shift, oil prices, and socio-economic events

Planned New human resources (HR) initiatives and new administration Adoption of new technology, merger and acquisition

Unplanned changes are not completely uncontrollable. For example, employees grow older over time, lose their strength and stamina, and need more money for health care and family responsibilities. As a result, they need and demand more pay and perks, but are more resistant to changing their work habits. However, this unplanned internally-caused change can be foreseen by the management, which can plan manpower by having a better health care programme and a scheme of voluntary retirement and replacements. Mills and machines are worn out, but phasing them out can be planned. A big fire breaks out in a plant that dislocates its functioning for a while; although the organization may have a contingency plan for such an eventuality. Similarly, the new turf war between, say administration and production directors is an unanticipated change, but can be averted by certain pre-emptive measures to keep the heads of all departments in harmony.


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Similarly, external causes of change could be many, some of which can be anticipated by fine tuning the scanning devices for picking up changes in the surrounding environment. Indian organizations can anticipate government pressure for affirmative action and can gear up to take effective measures, should such a situation arise. There are, however, instances of unexpected changes that defy any corrective posture. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s created a unipolar system favouring a market economy, which Indian organizations had to respond to. Planned changes result in organizational development. Organizations plan to change partly because of internal compulsions arising primarily out of a serious lack of fit between their goals, structures, and functions and partly by way of managing their interface with the surrounding socio-economic-political, technological, and other environmental pressures. Planned changes can be targeted to either parts of an organization or to the whole organization, pressing problems or future challenges that are yet to emerge, turning around a sick organization into a profitable one, enhancing the profitability of an organization, replacing obsolete technology or innovating technology for future use, and so on. Broadly, organizations plan to develop either to cope with the new challenges, or to create appropriate and adequate conditions for effective functioning, or to build on their strengths. More specifically, the planned change has the following purposes: 1. Coping with organizational differentiations and expanding activities resulting from launching new products and services, enlarging workforce, entering into new markets, mergers and acquisitions, and so on. 2. Restructuring working conditions in order to improve the way work is performed, replace or upgrade existing technology, machines, and mills, systems, routines, and so on. 3. Building human capital by adopting appropriate management of human resources, aligning human resources with business strategies, and integrating human resources and management practices. Expanding organizational activities require greater differentiations in organizational structure. Re-structuring an organization results in changes in number of divisions, departments, lines of authority, employeesÊ roles and positions, reporting system, and accounting and auditing modes. Working conditions have to be changed accordingly in order to facilitate work performance. Building human resources is the most critical, because it is the human beings who let the other factors operate optimally. All three types of organization development programmes are generally initiated by the management, although some of organizations give enough scope to individuals and groups (for example, the Ringi system in Japan) to at least initiate seminal ideas that the organization processes and develops into an intervention design. However, they all require employeesÊ involvement without which no change programme can succeed. They all pose challenges that have to be addressed. This chapter focuses on three major forms of organizational development: organizational differentiations, re-structuring working conditions, and building human capital. Further, it describes the techniques of organizational development and examines the prospects and problems in implementing planned changes.

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ORGANIZATIONAL DIFFERENTIATIONS Forming an organization and developing it further is a planned change. An organization is formed as soon as a person hires a help to ease his burden, share responsibilities, or improve performance. He allocates roles to himself and his employee, monitors his performance, rewards, punishes, retains, or retires him. As the volume of work increase, he hires more and more people, recruits one and then more supervisors, and then others to supervise the supervisors, adds machines and mills, pump in more capital, and so on. In this process, organization expands and gets differentiated in terms of multiple goals, different forms of work, complex organizational routines, and allocations of roles and positions (Lorsch and Morse 1974). Culture also plays a role in all these processes. Bureaucracy, for example, is a rational mode for managing a large number of employees, but strong preference for personalized and dependency relationships in Indian culture renders it a kind of snake and ladder game for favouring oneÊs own and discriminating other people (J.B.P. Sinha 1990). Organizations of the same size manifest substantial differences in their structure in Hong Kong and England. Compared to English organizations, those in Hong Kong have less precisely defined roles, fewer standardized procedures, fewer staff functions, and more centralization (Redding and Wong 1986). Further, the Chinese culture in Hong Kong ensures that firms remain small and work through networking rather than resorting to a great deal of formalization and functional specialization (Smith and Tayeb 1988). In comparison, the Korean chaebols are very large and only a few of them at one point controlled 80 per cent of the industrial activities in Korea (Chen 1995). Hierarchically-oriented cultures often lead to vertical differentiation resulting in taller organizations while egalitarian ones have employees who are less concerned about their status differentiation and hence the organizations remain flat. This was probably the reason why the Indian subsidiaries of Danish and Swedish companies, which were influenced by the egalitarian Scandinavian culture, were relatively flat compared to the Indian subsidiary of a Korean company (Sinha 2004: 243). The nature of activities also decides whether an organization develops in a mechanical or organic mode. Manufacturing organizations generally develop in a mechanical way while research and development (R&D) tends to have an organic nature. However, the latest information technology and its enabled services (ITeS) have pushed all organizations from mechanical to organic mode of functioning. The differences between the two are listed in Table 14.2. Table 14.2 Dimensions Structure Tasks Change Authority source Mode of control Direction of communication Communication content Source: Burns and Stalker (1961).

Characteristics of Mechanical and Organic Organizations Mechanical Organizations Rigid Well defined, stable, standardized Resistant Hierarchy, positions Authority Downward, commanding Instructions, decisions

Organic Organizations Flexible Dynamic, loosely defined Receptive Knowledge and expertise Self and peers Consultative, multi-directional Information, advice


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Basic Forms of Differentiations At different points of industrial development, different forms of organizations were more popular, although others existed too. For example, around the year 1800, most organizations were managed single-handedly by the owners. By 1850, they tended to be vertically differentiated where the owner hired managers and supervisors placing them vertically as a chain of commands for better control and coordination. As activities increased, organizations, by 1900, were differentiated into departments and divisions that by the 1950, yielded to a matrix form, and eventually led to networking. The most frequented bases for organizational differentiations are functions, products, market segments, and geographical areas, and their various hybrid forms (Galbraith 1995; Thompson 1967). The underlying principle in any form of differentiation is to enable organizations to run efficiently and to provide better quality of products and services for customer satisfaction. Functional differentiation in terms of manufacturing, finance, sales, marketing, HR, R&D, legal, and so on are the most basic ones. An organization starts with manufacturing and adds other departments as it grows. Thus, functional differentiation is typical of organizations that are relatively small and are producing single or similar products for an undifferentiated market. The products are stable having long development and life cycles. Organizational processes are standardized and hence can be formalized. Products differentiation signifies that the organization has distinctly different products that are meant for separate segments of customers. Products have shorter life cycles and are modified to give customers a feeling of enjoying change and variety. Because the organization sells a variety of products, it can outsource some of the products or their components for efficiency in the scale of production. Cosmetics, for example, are differentiated from soaps and detergents by Hindustan Levers, and can be further differentiated into health care and luxury items. Marketing segments are relevant when the organization grows enough to cater to a few large customers and or numerous small ones. Steel-making companies gainfully segment real estate construction companies, those manufacturing automobiles, white goods, and small customers that need steel for a variety of purposes. Each segment differs in its buying strengths as well as the nature and quality of products, and delivery schedules. Geographical differentiation is made in instances where specific focus has to be given to certain areas due to their significance. If China and India are emerging as the fastest growing economy, multinational companies first establish centres for marketing, then create manufacturing facilities, and in certain cases establish R&D centres for innovating area-specific products and services. Proximity to customers of important areas leads to cost-effectiveness, quicker delivery and support, and ease in catering to the unique needs of the area. Hybrid forms of organizational differentiation are more typical in larger organizations. Core functions, for example, are centralized, but separate products and services are provided at different locations. For example, a centrally-managed human resource management (HRM) division attaches its managers to different plants manufacturing different products. The HR manager reports to the general manager of the plant as well as the general manager HRM in the corporate office in organizations with a matrix form.

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The most complex forms of organization emerge when a company becomes an international one. It might have either functional, or geographical differentiation or differentiation based on products at the headquarter, but can establish another form of differentiation at the country or regional level. Furthermore, a multinational organization can establish vertical mode of relationships with its subsidiaries in different countries whereby the subsidiaries directly report to the headquarter. However, as multinationals become transnational, they put in place a complex exchange system whereby all units maintain autonomy, but communicate with each other, share knowledge and personnel, and work through networking. The head office simply coordinates and provides guidelines aligning the unitsÊ functions with the corporate strategy (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1988).

CHANGING WORK SETTING Organizations tend to develop for better performance often by restructuring their activities and improving their work setting. Organizational development is often defined in terms of the social science techniques designed to plan and implement change in work settings for the purposes of enhancing the personal development of individuals and improving the effectiveness of organizational functioning (Porras et al. 1992). The changes aim either at incremental improvement or transformation of the whole organization.

Transformational and Transactional Changes Burke and Litwin (1992) distinguished transactional and transformational changes as follows: Transformational change occurs as a response to the external environment and directly affects organizational mission and strategy, the organizationÊs leadership, and culture. In return, transactional factors are affected·structure, systems, management practices, and climate. These transformational and transactional factors together affect motivation, which in turn, affects performance. (Burke and Litwin 1992: 523) Organizational development aims to realize either transformation or transactional changes, or both. It is only a preference for starting from the organizational-level changes that cascade over the rest of the organization by changing finally individualsÊ performance or starting from changing individualsÊ motivations, attitudes, and skills, and then moving in a bottomăup way to build peoplefriendly structures, systems, practices, and finally developing a mission and fashioning a strategy. One view is that the most sustainable organizational development is that which emanates from the experiential bases of employees and increasingly permeates the fabric of the organization (Brown and Harvey 2006).


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Techniques of Organizational Development A variety of techniques have been reported in the literature (see Table 14.3). Table 14.3 Techniques Organizational diagnosis Team-building Survey feedback Education Inter-group activities Third-party mediation Socio-technical analysis Process consultation Career planning Coaching Planning and goal setting

Organization Development Techniques Examples

Interviews, surveys, group meetings Improvement in groupÊs functioning and team-building Sharing survey results with members Classroom training, sensitivity training Communication development, conflict resolution Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration by a third party Integration of technology, group structure, and peopleÊs characteristics Observation of groups in action with immediate feedback on processes being observed Future-oriented schemes to match individuals and organizational goals, skills, and responsibilities Non-evaluative feedback to individuals from otherÊs perspective Training to individuals to improve HR planning, goal setting, and their integration into the organization

Source: French and Bell (1978).

Some of the techniques that were used most prominently in Indian organizations were the following: 1. Sensitivity training (T) group, action research, and socio-technical analyses were the first to be tried out in the 1960s and 1970s (Singh 2001). Sensitivity training (see details in Chapter 1) did not work quite satisfactorily in Indian organizations (Singh 2001). Because of the hierarchical orientation, Indian managers do not feel comfortable opening up to their superiors and subordinates. Further, Indians are highly context oriented (Sinha and Kanungo 1997) while sensitivity training focuses on personal growth that has pan-situational relevance. There was a need to relate personal growth to job context. Hence, sensitivity training sessions were designed to enhance participantsÊ sensitivity to each otherÊs thoughts and feelings and relate them to the ways that their sensitivity can contribute to their work performance and relationships. 2. Action research followed the Michigan model of survey research and feedback method where the employees provided information that was used to diagnose the problems and give feedback to them. It was assumed that jointly made diagnosis enabled the employees to change their modes of behaviour. Although survey was the main tool, other methods such as interviews, group meetings, and secondary sources were also employed to collect comprehensive understanding of an organization and the changes that were required. Once a diagnosis was made, the following steps were involved in implementing changes (Pareek 2004: 478):

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Ć Planning (strategies, phases, and processes of change). Ć Monitoring of implementation, review and feedback, and communication regarding what has been accomplished and what remained unfinished. Ć Corrective action so that the lag in performance is made up and target realization is brought on the track. Ć Adaptation may be required to align the implementation process with the requirements. Ć Institutionalization of changes so that they are independent of the persons enacting changes and thus lasts longer. Ć Stabilization of the changes. 3. De (1984) and his associates applied socio-technical analysis in a number of public sector organizations with limited success. There were a number of factors that constrained its success. The top management in the Indian hierarchical culture was not convinced about the merits of industrial democracy. Trade union leaders felt apprehensive that their authority would be eroded. Finally, there did not exist effective modes of resolving conflicts among the groups functioning as autonomous teams (Singh 2001: 33). 4. Management by objectives (MBO) was another poplar organizational development technique in the 1970s and 1980s (Maheshwari 1980). MBO is based on the goal theory of motivation (Locke and Latham 1990), according to which employees work harder to achieve explicit and measurable goals that they themselves set than those that are non-specific and are set by their superiors. Accordingly, MBO involves the following steps: Ć Goal setting: Managers and their subordinates work together to jointly set goals that serve the needs of the organizations. The goals have to be directly measurable with a clearly spelled out time frame. Ć Implementation: They have to see that the goals and objectives are realized as per the plan, review the progress regularly, and take remedial measures in case the progress is slow or the plan fails in any way. Ć Evaluation: Once the set goals are attained, they jointly again evaluate the achievements and set the next round of goals. However, if the goals are not achieved the way or to the extent to which they were planned to be achieved, new sets of goals are set again. And, the process keeps going on. MBO was exclusively focused on task orientation glossing over the salience of relationships. In a relationship-oriented culture, as it exists in India, managers need to take extra care to build positive relationships first and then to engage in goal setting. As this did not always happen, MBO, according to Maheshwari, was used more as a planning and control device than as a tool for team-building or as a motivational mechanism. Further, there was no evidence that MBO improved performance (Khandwalla 1988: 181). 5. The McKinsey Model: Integrating the Indian economy into the international market since the 1990s created a new business milieu in which Indian organizations started changing the way they used to function. They tended to emulate multinationals. A number of consulting firms


Ć

Ć

Ć Ć

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appeared to help them transform themselves. Some of them were Arthur Anderson, Boston Consulting Group, Arthur D. Little, McKinsey, J. P. Morgan, among others. While there were variations in their approaches, they, by and large, shared a common perspective on restructuring organizations for international competitiveness. Khandwalla (2001) called it the Mckinsey model for organizational re-structuring. The model was characterized by the following: It aims to create a vision-driven organization that strives to get transformed into a global corporation. It assists organizations to stick to the areas of its core competency, exit from businesses where it could not remain a major player, form joint ventures and adopt the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) route to grow fast, exercise control through sophisticated management information system (MIS), outsource and downsize to gain competitive advantage, inject competitiveness among employees, and so on. It advocates a strong leadership that takes responsibility for transformation, shows commitment to the vision and ruthlessness in realizing it, delegates authority and holds employees responsible for their roles and performance, and so on. Its strong faith in the vision leaves very little room for participative decision-making, getting the employees to develop vision from the bottom up, or manifest disagreements or discontent. Its main concern is confined to the profitability and competitive advantage that overrides the interest of other stakeholders, business ethics, or social responsibility in a developing country such as India.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Mahindra & Mahindra were reported to follow the model (Khandwalla 2001). Tata Steel was another organization that meticulously followed the model to transform itself into a world class steel-making company. The case of Tata Steel is described later in the chapter. 6. The Movement Model: In contrast to the McKinsey Model, the Movement Model advanced by Khandwalla (2001) has a ÂcauseÊ as the driving force that mobilizes a large number of employees who feel committed to rise above their mundane individual interests and engage in Âa prolonged phase of impassioned and idealistic activityÊ in order to transform their organization. Such a movement is led by a transformational leadership that inspires employees by stressing higher values, a noble mission, and a vision of high ideals. The Movement Model is characterized by the following: Ć Intensive communication whereby the members of the organization share information, support and inspire each other, and create a culture of participation and consultation. Ć Involvement of all stakeholders having strong and personal commitment to the planned change, and the resultant willingness to make individual sacrifices for organizational goals. Ć Collective leadership at the top that works as a team and spearheads the transformation process. Ć Widespread credibility emanating from the noble cause accompanied by practical and pragmatic design for the change that manifests tangible results impressing the rank and file.

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Ć Resourcefulness, innovation, and improvization are evoked due to the meagre means available to the organization. Ć Optimism and empowerment prevails among the rank and file energizing them to persistent efforts towards the goal of transformation. Ć Ideology that legitimizes the movement and binds employees into collective efforts. Khandwalla (2001) has given the example of a number of organizations in India (for example, Bank of Baroda) and abroad (for example, Sears Roebuck, Ford, 3M, etc.) which adopted this model for effective transformation. Compared to the McKinsey model, the movement model is much more compatible with the IndiansÊ orientation to get aroused emotionally and pursue idealistic goals under a leadership that is self-sacrificing and mobilizing people for higher goals. Box 14.2 Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć Ć

Organizational Development Techniques Employed in India

Sensitivity training. Action research. Socio-technical analysis. Management by objectives. McKinsey Model. Movement Model.

Essential Conditions for Organizational Development There are several individual (Nadler 1987) and organizational-level reasons (Katz and Kahn 1978) for employees resisting change. Some of them are the following: 1. Economic insecurity: Planned organizational changes are often associated with upgrading of technology, downsizing, and outsourcing that are threats to employees. 2. Fear of unknown: This is a part of human nature. Current work settings with known co-workers makes employees comfortable. Future is uncertain and hence change is risky. 3. Threat to social relationships: A change may result in new placement with unknown persons who may not be that friendly. 4. Habit dies hard: Even when a change holds bright future prospects, people have to work differently and that requires efforts, new skills, and, in some cases, new lifestyles. 5. Failure to recognize the need for a change: Employees may not see the bright future in change. 6. Change in job structure: Job structured by organizational factors result in specific ways of performing the job. Changes disrupt the configuration of motions that are performed in a time frame causing physical and mental strain. 7. Work group inertia: Groups within which individuals work develop their norms about the amount and the tempo of work. The norms foster conformity that is disturbed through change requiring formation of new norms.


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Therefore, a programme of planed change, particularly of a transformational nature, involves at least three key persons who can take the employees out of the inertia of the status quo. They are the chief executive of the organization, an outside consultant or a group of consultants, and the individual or team that is assigned the role of implementing the change process.

The Top Executive The top executive is a role model, a fountainhead of ideas and inspiration, creature of culture, and so on. Unless he owns a change programme and backs it vigorously, the efforts by the rest of organization are bound to fail. Pareek (2004) identified three roles that he can play to effect the change. 1. Legitimizing role: The chief executive makes it imperative that the organization must change to address the exiting deficiencies, overcome a crisis, or meet new challenges. His commitment to a change programme and personal involvement accelerates its implementation. 2. Energizing role: This involves granting material and human resources to stimulate the change process, particularly when the implementation hits a barrier, employees lose interest and get discouraged, or the results are not visible. 3. Gate keeping: This signifies that the chief executive has to see that the change programme gets appropriate inputs from the consultants and hence regulates the interface of consultants and the various groups involved in the change programme.

The External Consultants Even when internal expertise and experience are available in an organization, an external consultant or a team of consultants are helpful in all stages of organizational change, particularly in the beginning. Pareek (2004) delineated the following roles for the external consultant or consultants. 1. Implanting change: An external consultant establishes credible relationships with the members of the client organization, supplements, and implants expertise. He sets the ball rolling and carries with him the members for effective implantation of the plan for change. 2. Transcending insiderÊs biases: He has the advantage that he can take an outside unbiased view of the organizational reality, which the insiders cannot. Insiders may have biased views, may be perceived as biased, or may be constrained by organizational norms, history of their relationships, time and work pressure. 3. Generating alternatives to change: With his wide experience from many different organizations, he has in his repertoire a number of alternatives that are not available to the insiders who often develop blind spots because of their limited experiences in the organization. 4. Facilitating change process: This is the primary role of a consultant. The change process often gets slowed down or stuck due to a number of factors such as the ego problem of individual members, their vested interests, dwindling resources for sustaining change, diminishing

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5.

6.

7.

8.


interest of the top executive, time drag, and so on. The consultant keeps his eyes on the flow of the change process and intervenes wherever it slows down or gets stuck. Shock absorption: A change process starts with a diagnosis that often discloses some unpleasant organizational reality. The members of the client organization hesitate to either express or accept it. An external consultant takes it upon himself to bring it out of the cupboards. He is often subjected to harsh reactions, but he helps the organization face reality. Resource sharing: While the members of the client organization have specific expertise and experiences from their organization, an external consultant has diverse experiences and expertise from a variety of organizations. Thus, the two taken together yield best results. Resource building: An external consultant helps the client organization build up its own internal resources so that he can fade out and let the responsibility of carrying on the change process be taken over by the internal resource persons. Self-liquidating: Instead of cultivating dependency in the members of the client organization, an external consultant gradually fades out.

The Implementation Team While an external consultant initiates and facilitates a change programme from outside, organizations invariably set up a team to work closely with the consultant and facilitate the process of change. Pareek (2004) identified the following roles for the implementation team: 1. Collaboration building: The implementation team needs to build collaboration among the various sections, departments, and groups. The team does this by listening to the various stakeholders in the change programme and sorting out differences and misgivings. 2. Gate keeping: The team regulates the flow of information regarding the change process between those who are directly involved in the change process and the rest of the organization. 3. Reviewing: The team periodically reviews the progress in the change process, the bottlenecks, and the facilitators in order to take remedial measures for mid-time corrections in the change programme. 4. Policy formulating: Once a cycle of change process is complete, the team suggests policy for the next round of change.

BUILDING HUMAN CAPITAL The most effective way to develop on organization is to build human capital for it. Human capital is the human resources. Human resources are the capabilities of employees and the strength of their relationships that the organization values for its effective functioning. Human resources can be viewed at the individual, group and collective, and global levels. Corresponding to these levels are the agentic, communitarian, and glocal (integration of global and local) capabilities of human beings working in organizations.


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Agentic Capabilities The core of human resources are the agentic capabilities, which are the capabilities of human beings to deliberately try to acquire new skills, expand oneÊs roles, function effectively, and keep improving their effectiveness (Bandura 1997: 21). The seeds of agentic capabilities are rooted in the self and personality of the employees, but are cultivated by organizational socialization. In order to build agentic capabilities, organizations carefully screen individuals for their potential for different jobs, train them to help realize their potentials, place them at appropriate positions, allocate challenging roles, rewards those who meet the expectations, and weed out those who fail. A specific measure to develop agentic capabilities is to empower the employees to be self-driven and function in creative and innovative ways. In the 1970s, the emphasis was on participation of the employees on the basis of the belief that participation brings out best ideas from the employees. In the following decade, the emphasis shifted to employeesÊ involvement in the decision-making (Foy 1996) on the rationale that the ownership of decision-making naturally motivates employees to see that the decisions are implemented (Walkinson 1998). Box 14.3

Changing Emphasis in the Measures for Agentic Capabilities

Ć 1970s: Participative management. Ć 1990s: Employees involvement. Ć 1990s: Empowerment.

Empowerment incorporates the following: 1. Attitude shaping: Organizational structures, systems, and rules are not changed, but employees are made to feel powerful to be able to impact on organizational behaviour. 2. Information sharing: Information sharing both vertically by superiors and horizontally in crossfunctional teams as a result of which organizations are able to make informed decisions. 3. Problem solving: A greater scope for solving increasingly difficult problems gives employees a greater sense of self-efficacy. 4. Task autonomy: This allows employees to assume responsibility to see that tasks are accomplished. 5. Self-management: Decisions, rules, and authority are set, not by a few, but by the individuals and groups responsible for implementing decisions. Because of the strong Western influence on our management, agentic capabilities tend to accentuate a personÊs individualistic orientation to strive for individual excellence, strong competitiveness, high need for achievement, lack of concern for others, type A personality, and so on. In extreme cases, the person may engage in opportunism and high Machiavellianism (manipulative nature) that serves his purpose even at the cost of others around him and his organization. Such a person may achieve his ambitions, but would have to bear some costs in terms of alienation and loneliness, early burnout, hypertension, anxiety, and so on. Further, the organization may pamper such a person for a while for undertaking risky ventures or accomplishing extraordinarily difficult assignment, but is likely to isolate or even ease him out once he becomes a spent force or an irritant to others.

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Communitarian Capabilities Organizations generally value those who can form effective groups and teams. The extent to which the members of a group or team pool their individual competencies, provide mutual support, share their feelings and emotions, stimulate and inspire each other, and work together, they acquire belief in their collective efficacy (Fernandez-Ballesteros et al. 2002: 108). Collective efficacy enables employees to expand their individual human capitals into its social capital: Social capital is a capability that arises from the prevalence of trust . . . as a result of voluntary contract between individuals who have made the rational calculation that cooperation is in their long term self-interest . . . while contract and self-interest are important sources, the most effective organizations are based on communities of shared ethical values. . . . Acquisition of social capital . . . requires habituation to the moral norms of a community and, in its context, the acquisition of virtues like loyalty, honesty, and dependability. (Fukuyama 1995: 26ă27) The idea of social capital has intuitive appeal in India because people prefer to form emotional bonds, care for family and friends, meet interpersonal obligations, bestow affection (sneh) on juniors, and show deference (shradha) to elders and seniors. They espouse the values of trust, loyalty, honesty, and dependability. The dark side, however, is that all these components of social capital are confined to in-groups. Unless the in-groups within an organization are made to converge on the organizational goals and objectives, the organization cannot have the benefits of the social capital.

Glocal Capabilities As an organization turns into a multinational or transnational one, it requires additional capabilities that have global perspective and local appropriateness (glocal capabilities). The global-level capabilities are expressed in strategic thinking, high technical competence, intimate understanding of the policy frame of the multinational organization, loyalty to corporate identity, continuously upgrading of knowledge of the latest innovations anywhere in the world which are potentially usable in the organization, mobility to move and work anywhere in the world at short notice, and flexibility to work with oneÊs counterparts in the host country. Local-level capabilities are expressed in being responsive to the legal, socio-economic, and political milieu, and above all to the cultural values and employeesÊ habits, needs, and expectations (Briscoe 1995; Dowling et al. 1999).

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS The three types of organizational development pose different challenges. Organizational differentiations as a function of expanding business activities at increasingly dispersed locations


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in multinational organizations constitute an imperative that has fairly standardized designs for differentiation and coordination. Cultural and other local factors do play significant roles. For example, the Malaysian policy is that multinationals must hire a certain proportion of employees of Malaysian origin. Earlier, it was reported that whether an organization is tall or flat depends on the hierarchical or egalitarian culture. Further, HRM managers have to design HRM practices that are in consonance with the cultural imperatives. The HRM managers play a much more significant role in designing working conditions, systems, and procedures that facilitate individualsÊ and teamsÊ performance. They have a decisive role in building human capital. Correspondingly, they face increasingly enormous challenges and serious dilemmas in building human capital. The major ones are the following:

Phasing of Organizational Development Interventions Beatty and Ulrich (1997) suggested that organizational development intervention strategies have a short or long-term perspective varying in the magnitude of impact that the interventions are planned to cause. A visual display of the impact of ongoing organizational development interventions in large organizations is given in Figure 14.1. Re-structuring that involves downsizing, outsourcing and de-layering, enhancing participation, and decreasing status differentiation has a small short-term impact. Large and tall organizations may start with them with immediately good results. Bureaucracy bashing by getting rid of the practices of asking for unnecessary reports, wasting time in unproductive lengthy meetings, going through proper channels that delays decision-making, and too much of formalization yield slightly greater impact having advantages that might last relatively longer. Both these measures are directed mainly to improve conditions of work that are likely to induce employees to tighten up their belts and perform their job in more efficient ways. They also reduce costs and create a climate of high performance. It is, however, the improvement of employees by getting them involved, empowered, and motivated to take initiative and develop individual and collective agentic capabilities that energize organizations for a longer duration. Interventions for employeesÊ improvement require enlarged roles, effective communication, synchronization of power and responsibility, team-building, and so on. The largest and longest-term impact on enterprises is created when organization development efforts improve both conditions of work and employeesÊ empowerment and create capabilities of strategic thinking, transformational leadership, global mindset, and so on. The challenge for HRM managers is to diagnose the most needed and feasible entry point in an organization and initiate interventions that eventually are made inclusive enough to have large and long-term impact.

Aligning Organizational Development Interventions with Business Strategy Initially Indian organizational behaviour scientists (Dayal et al. 1996; Maheshwari and Sinha 1991; Pareek and Rao 1981) were mostly concerned with specific HRM practices regarding appraisal system,

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Figure 14.1

Energizing On-going Large Organizations

Source: Beatty and Ulrich (1997).

career planning, training, and personal growth of the employees in order to enable employees to play their roles effectively (Singh 2001). Later on, they suggested integrating HRM with business strategy in order to enhance human capabilities on a larger scale. A futuristic vision of HRM is to re-fashion it to meet the highly efficient and cost-effective ways to utilize human resources for organizational purpose (Peters 1997). In such a vision, the administrative work is dissolved by automating and applying technology and the routine ones are outsourced in order to focus on core HRM functions such as capability-building, integrating individuals with the organization, and creating synergy for organizational excellence. It was argued that integrating HRM with business strategy would position top HRM managers centrally enough to participate in macro issues such as negotiations for merger and alliances, decisions about re-structuring, and culture-building. Arthur Anderson has a model of coupling HRM with business strategies (Mishra et al. 2001) that can be further improved to consist of the following stages: 1. Assess the extent of peopleÊs possible impact on business strategy.


2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Appraise the available human capital with its strengths and weaknesses. Develop HRM strategy and identify how it can be coupled with business strategy. Design change plans to bridge the missing links between the two strategies. Try the HRM strategy. Measure its success and limitations. Learn from the experience. Refine HRM strategy to improve its alignment with business strategy.

The crux of coupling HRM and business strategies is to inculcate a sense of belongingness in the minds of the members of an organization. To the extent that they feel a sense of belonging to the organization, they would own the HRM practices and would take upon themselves to innovate and come up with creative solutions. The belongingness is a joint function of a clear understanding of organizational systems, rules, routines, practices as well as the congruence between organizational and individual needs, interests, values and norms. Both sets of factors are dependent on a clear and adequate understanding of what the organization aims to achieve, what its core values and norms are, how unique it is, and how they match with human resources available in the organization (Garg 2001). A visual display of the relationships is given in Figure 14. 2. Figure 14.2

HRM Strategy

Source: Garg (2001).

Aligning with business strategy, however, is likely to induce HRM managers to view and facilitate organizational processes from the perspective of an enterpriseÊs goals and strategies that might undermine the employeesÊ perspectives on how should they develop and contribute to the enterprise. The human capabilities that an enterprise values as important resources may not be those that the employees in that enterprise can use for their quality of life and well-being. The tight work culture that was valued in a Korean subsidiary, for example, was likely to adversely affect the employeesÊ well-being in the long run (Sinha 2004). Here lies a serious challenge to HRM managers: How to strike a delicate balance between organizational and employeesÊ perspectives on the choice of human capabilities, needs, and values that they should cultivate for improving employeesÊ and organizational performance as well as the well-being of the employees.

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Integrating Global Practices with Cultural Ethos There is another challenge to HRM managers. Because multinationals are now the models that Indian enterprises are emulating, there is a strong trend to adopt global management practices that are by and large Western in origin. Underlying these practices are a set of values such as work discipline, punctuality, meritocracy, equity in pay and perks, achievement, rationality, individualism, egalitarianism, impersonal contractual relationships, risk taking, and so on. Not all of them gel with Indian cultural values and practices such as paternalism, centralized style of management, strong status consciousness, and personalized relationships that are found to persist even in some of the multinationals based in India (Sinha 2004). Torn between these two sets of contrasting values, Indian managers manifest the Trishanku complex (Garg and Parikh 1993). In other words, there exist gaps between how managers are expected to behave and how they actually behave. The challenge for HRD personnel is to bridge these gaps by helping managers replace dysfunctional Indian values (manifested, for example, in the chalta hai culture, ego-centric orientations, and the sense of collective inferiority) by strong performance orientation, openness, and the sense of collective efficacy, and integrate them with functional Indian values such as caring, nurturing, and empathetic concern for employees in order to cultivate communitarian capabilities or social capital.

Prioritizing Performance Over Loyalty The incongruence between multinationalÊs management practices and Indian cultural preferences is most conspicuous in prioritizing the focus on performance over loyalty to the enterprise. A striking trend in enterprises emulating multinationals is to practice the 1-2-3 rule; that is to hire one person, pay him double the market rate, and extract from that person three times the work that a person in that position normally performs. This is enforced by the practice of variable pay packet that is contingent on the values that the employees add to the products or services that they are providing. Variable pay is based on the principle of immediacy·compensating the person for what he is contributing now·ignoring what he contributed in the past, his potential to contribute in the future, or how loyal he has been to the organization. It is a principle of instant exchange·one gets in proportion to what one contributes. Thus, star performers of yesterday may lie in the dust today. This ensures continuous pressure to perform lest the person loses his competitive edge. There are organizations that ease out a certain percentage of bottom performers replacing them with new ones to keep the competition on·not that the bottom performers were bad performers, but there were others who were better than them. The enterprise cares for the winners of the intensely competitive game only, not for the losers. While such an approach injects intense interpersonal competitiveness that stimulates individual agentic capabilities, it depletes communitarian capabilities and shows utter disregard for spent up employees who once were valuable resources. HRM managers have a challenge to devise ways and means to compute composite contributions of employees for rewarding them. The composite contributions score should include not only immediate performance, but also


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cumulative past contributions in terms of quality task performance, inputs in building teams and relationships, potential to contribute in future, and loyalty to the enterprise.

Downsizing and Building Social Capital Another facet of this sharpening focus on performance is the practice of downsizing or rightsizing that involves easing out surplus employees. Every time an organization acquires new technology, reengineers work processes, and re-structures itself in terms of profit centres, it finds it more profitable to get more work done with fewer employees. Further, non-core competencies are outsourced reducing the liabilities further. In fact, more downsizing requires more outsourcing. It is the HRM managers who have the unpleasant task of appraising, identifying, and giving the ÂgoldenÊ or not-so-golden handshake to those who become redundant every time the organization upgrades its technology or repositions itself in the market. Employees hold HRM managers responsible for crucifying them for the sake of benefiting the company. Because downsizing is not a one-time measure, the employees are in constant anxiety to avoid being singled out for the next round of farewells. How can HRM managers cultivate trust with employees who take them for yamaraj in the service of the management that is more concerned about its competitive edge in the market than the fate of those who are eased out? HRM managers need to have a thoroughly transparent system for downsizing with the active involvement of the employees as well as a scope for their replacement or counselling. Box 14.4 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Five Dilemmas Faced by Indian HRM Managers

Phasing of organizational development interventions. Aligning organizational development interventions with business strategy. Integrating global practices with cultural ethos. Prioritizing performance over loyalty. Downsizing and building social capital.

SUMMARY Although changes are inevitable and only those who adjust with them survive, effective organizations plan changes for improving individual and organizational performance and well-being of the employees. Changes result in organizational development. There are three ways organizations develop. As their activities expand and they start functioning at dispersed locations, the organizational structure is differentiated on the basis of functions, products, markets, geographical areas, or a combination of some or all these bases. Organizations also develop by changing working conditions, systems, organizational routines, and so on. The most crucial way organizations develop is by building human capital consisting of individual and group-level and globally applicable capabilities. Although HRM strive to take measures that improve human and organizational performance, they often face a dilemma in optimizing employeesÊ performance and their well-being.

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EXERCISES Exercise 1: A Human Resources Audit Step 1 Visit a company and conduct a human resources audit to see what measures are being adopted to develop working conditions and building human capacity.

Step 2 The audit reports should be shared in the class/group to prepare a status report about the modes of HRM in Indian organizations.

Exercise 2: Compare McKinsey and Movement Models for Indian Organizations Step 1 Form groups of four persons and examine critically the merits and demerits of the McKinsey and the movement modes of organizational developments.

Step 2 Each group will present their arguments followed by discussion in the class.

Exercise 3: Future Scenario of Tata-Corus Steel Step 1 Read the case of Tata Steel and develop a future scenario of Tata-Corus in terms of organizational differentiations and strategy for organizational integration and development.

Tata Steel’s Transformation Following the vision and philosophy of the founding father, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, Tata Steel was formed as a swadeshi enterprise that integrated the interest of all stakeholders as well as the


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health and welfare of the employees. The early years were turbulent. In the early 1930s, it ran into a crisis so deep that it was to be sold to an American company. Dorabji, the son of J. N. Tata, had to pledge all his properties, houses, family jewellery, and whatever he had to save it. The workers willingly worked full time on half wages. As the crisis deepened, the workers volunteered to retire till the companyÊs fortune returned. About 4,000 workers were indeed retired for good without a trace of resentment. By the end of the 1930s, the fortune indeed returned. Since then there has been no looking back. Tata Steel kept upgrading its technology and transforming its culture to remain a model for other Indian organizations.

Technological Development Early growth: Although swadeshi in spirit, Tata Steel started with American consultants, American technology, and American general managers from 1909 to 1937. About 175 Europeans handled technical jobs while about 2,500 workers were drawn from all parts of the county. The first blast furnace went into operation on 2 December 1912. It produced a very high grade of iron that met the British standard specifications and was comparable with the best imported brands. The output already exceeded expectations and the company was receiving more orders from all over the world than it was in a position to meet. It is worth noting that all units (coke ovens, blast furnaces A and B, steel works, and rolling mills) were commissioned within a short period of six months manifesting highly synchronized planning, designing, and commissioning of the plants. In order to meet the requirements of the Second World War, Tata Steel increased its capacity by establishing, besides four blast furnaces, a rolling mill, a plate mill, a merchant mill, and a sheet mill. Jamshedpur Technical Institute was established in the year 1921 to train Indians. The R&D division was established in 1935. Phase of rapid expansion: Immediately after Independence, Tata Steel hired Arthur G. McKee (USA) to prepare a plan for expansion and diversification envisaging mechanization of coal mining, coal washing, ore beneficiation, new open hearth, and finishing mills. During the Second Five Year Plan (1956ă61), Tata Steel expanded in a big way. It started a new iron ore mine, mechanized the existing ones, started a refractory plant, an ore crushing and screening plant, a sintering plant, a blast furnace, a huge SMS-3 metal mixers, three bassemer converters, and a new rolling mill, a sheet bar mill, a billet mill, etc. It also established a new battery of 26 ovens and re-built three of the old batteries. Phase of consolidation: As the government policy shifted in favour of the public sector during the years, 1960ă80, Tata Steel concentrated on maintaining plants and building, spares, and consumables, procuring indigenous spares, imparting training, and improving its mines and collieries. Four phases of modernization: With the liberalization of the economy, Tata Steel planned four phases of modernization to replace its aging plants, upgrade its equipment, renovate its work process, add capacities, improve product mix, shift to customer orientation, and streamline procurements. The first two phases were directed to major overhaul and renewal (MOR), the third aimed at technological excellence that really took off and reached its climax in the fourth phase of modernization. New mills and machines were installed, collieries and mines were modernized, the

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dispatch system was upgraded with foreign collaboration, and above all, the jewel in the crown of Tata Steel·the cold rolling mill complex was established. By the end of the 1990s, Tata Steel had reached its technological excellence.

Cultural Transformations Technological developments were coupled with cultural transformations that retained the core values of realizing technical excellence, high profitability, employeesÊ welfare, but evolving in response to the demands of the changing business environment and the world views of the top leaders. The three phases were the following: duplex culture (1908ă37), familial culture (1938ă92), and global culture (since 1992). The duplex culture manifested two intertwined strands: Indian welfare orientation and American technological expertise. The twin strands led Tata Steel to install a welfare-oriented management that would take care of employeesÊ needs and aspirations, but would draw on the expertise of the West. Some of its welfare practices were introduced well before they were required by any act of law. The major ones were 8 hour working day, free medical aid, free schooling for employeesÊ children, employeesÊ provident fund, and grievance handling work committees. The familial culture was the result of three major events: J. R. D. Tata became the chairman, Jehangir Ghandy, became the first Indian general manager, and Abdul Bari took over the Tata WorkersÊ Union. The employees not only felt relieved about not having arrogant American general managers, but were enthused to have their own people at the top. The first remarkable feat that J. R. D. Tata accomplished was to make the Tata WorkersÊ Union friendly for the rest of the life of Tata Steel. His humane approach led to the creation of a familial culture where the ethos was to take total care of the employees who would then take good care of Tata Steel. Further, the company adopted a cooperative approach to industrial relations, a proactive role in discharging social responsibility, and a systemic view of the management practices. Tata Steel signed a contract with the Tata WorkersÊ Union in 1956 recognizing the managementÊs right to introduce new or improved methods or equipment, to decide the number and location of plants, and to manufacture the products it so decides. The management on its part committed neither to retrench any employees nor to reduce employeesÊ wages and benefits because of technological changes. By the mid-1980s, Russi Mody became the managing director cum chairman. Mody was known for his familial, generous but personalized, and work-oriented style. With the full backing of J. R. D. Tata, Mody not only cultivated a highly people-oriented culture, but also launched a number of community and rural development schemes both for the families of the employees and for the rural people around Jamshedpur. There are accounts of the extent to which the management went out of its way to care for the employees and their families incurring high costs with the belief that the employees would reciprocate by being loyal to the company and would keep the company productive and profitable. The company used to boast that ÂTata Steel Also Makes SteelÊ meaning that its primary allegiance was to the people and making steel was secondary. Global culture (since 1992): By the 1990s, the company acquired huge liabilities in maintaining its liberal welfare orientation. Its welfare measures were holding back the company from moving


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faster. It also promoted favouritism and discrimination. The management also tended to keep the union leaders in good humour by bestowing personal favours on them. It adopted a strategy to route whatever facilities and favours it wanted to bestow to the workers through the union leaders. The president of the Tata WorkersÊ Union, Gopal, received preferential treatment over many senior managers. On the other hand, the business scenario was getting competitive and required a different way of doing business. There was a change in the top leadership. Dr J. J. Irani, a distinguished technocrat from Sheffield, became the managing director on 22 July 1992. Ratan Tata took over the chairmanship of Tata Steel on 19 April 1993. With the unequivocal support of Ratan Tata, Dr Irani was now in full command of the technological modernization as well as cultural transfusions. He was a sharply focused person, and, being a technocrat, his top priority was to realize technological excellence. Beginning in early 1990s, Tata Steel had already sought the help of several international consultants who were associated with world-class steel industry. Dr Irani strongly believed that Tata Steel had to (a) reduce costs, (b) increase its volumes with a better product mix, (c) become customer oriented, (d) adopt the best management practices of global standard, and above all (e) focus on its core business·making steel (not also making steel). He forcefully started re-structuring Tata Steel.

Re-structuring of Tata Steel A strategic management group was formed in 1993 to recommend the re-structuring of Tata Steel considering the increasing competitiveness caused by a new wave of entrants. The group studied leading international steel makers such as Hoogovens (The Netherlands), BHP (Australia), and British Steel (UK) and recommended a three tier profit responsibility system at the levels of business units, product divisions, and product groups. As a result, while some of the functions (for example, R&D, HR, finance, projects, legal, social welfare, audit, etc.) were centralized, others were delegated to the product groups. Later on McKinsey & Company recommended the business excellence model that had the following four tiers in the quality management structure: 1. Apex business excellence council consisting of the MD, deputy MDs, VPs, and chiefs of departments meeting bi-monthly. 2. Corporate business excellence councils consisting of deputy MDs, chiefs, and general managers meeting bi-monthly. 3. Business excellence councils consisting of general managers and chiefs of departments. 4. Business excellence divisional/departmental councils consisting of chiefs and heads of departments and sectional heads meeting monthly. Implementation of the recommendations led to a number of measures. The main ones were the following: 1. Rightsizing: The workforce was reduced from 78, 276 to about 38,000 and later on less than that through a generous separation packet that doused any resentment among the retired to

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a minimum. Rightsizing was realized through the Performance Ethic Programme (PEP) for officers and cluster manning for workers. Following the recommendations of McKinsey & Company, a subsidiary of the McKinsey & Company, ESSAR, conducted a thorough interview of all officers to assess their positions in 13 core competencies: achievement orientation, customer service, empathy, people development, communication, planning, decision-making, influencing, team-building and conflict management, problem solving, organizing, change orientation, and learning. The existing 13-layer hierarchy was reduced to five impact levels having profiles of job requirements. Those who did not match had to leave, shift to a new position, or miss a promotion. Similarly, the workers having 16 different ranks were clustered into five on the basis of seniority and acquisition of skills, skills getting priority over seniority. The specific jobs were combined together into a cluster of similar jobs and all members of a cluster were required to perform all jobs assigned to the cluster. It meant multi-skilling and joint responsibility without making any excuse for any lapses in the clusterÊs performance. 2. Disinvestments and outsourcing: Parallel to rightsizing was a strategic decision to disinvest those activities that did not constitute the core business. Cement was sold out. The power plant at Jojobera was handed over to the Tata Power Company. Shifting from the old paradigm of doing all jobs in-house, Tata Steel systematically moved to outsource some services and supplies. The main consideration in outsourcing was to reduce the companyÊs liability and costs and obtain better services and products that others provided more efficiently. 3. Quality improving structures: Quality concern has been a hallmark of Tata Steel from the very beginning. It had a long tradition of effectively managing the suggestion box scheme and rewarding employees for valuable suggestions. In 1983, quality circles were introduced. By the year 2003, 95 per cent of the workers were involved in 7,500 quality circles that helped solve over 1,400 problems. In 1988, the Juran technique for quality planning, control, and improvement was introduced. Synchronizing with the Juran technique was the value engineering approach through which a project was systematically examined from inception to implementation by a department for adding value to a product or service. By 1995, a more comprehensive scheme, the continuous improvement projects (CIPs), was introduced in each department and employees were expected to come up with projects that could improve work conditions or process and thereby save money. The Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEMP) covered them all and generated new initiatives such as Six Sigma, EVA+ goal, retail value management, CIPs, and later on ASPIRE and change accelerating teams (CATs). 4. Building relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners: In order to integrate sales, production and costing data to enable decision-making on product mix, credit limits, business planning, and other organizational-level decisions, the company launched the SAP system.

The Outcomes By the year 2003, Tata Steel, under the leadership of Dr Irani and Muthuraman, was a totally transformed and one of the most cost-effective steel making companies in the world having a record revenue growth of 12.14 per cent and a turnover of 12.32 per cent of the working capital. Both the


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revenue and profit after tax really grew fast and kept growing phenomenally only after the four phases of modernization (see Figure 14.3). Figure 14.3

Growth after Modernization (Rs Crore)

Source: Sinha and Mohanty (2004).

In fact, Tata Steel recorded all round development in indicators such as capacity utilization, efficiency and effectiveness, ISO certifications, R&D contributions, knowledge management, labour productivity, turnover of professionals, and overall satisfaction of employees. The HR division had fine-tuned the performance management system, adopted measures to improve job content, process of giving rewards and recognition, empowerment initiatives, communication, physical conditions and so on, which had a significant impact on the employees. The manpower quality measured as number of professionals compared to total officers was 67 per cent, which was even a shade higher than Nippon Steel. Because of PEP, the middle-level managers were now much younger·the majority of them were in the age range of 30ă50 years. Their average competency scores improved from 31.6 to 36.9 and the manpower quality from 61 to 65 per cent. There were indeed some heart burns due to the way PEP was used. Towards Becoming EVA+ Having achieved a remarkable level of excellence by the year 2003, Tata Steel, under the leadership of Muthuraman had a vision to become an EVA+ company by the year 2007 that aspired to run faster, take off, and fly high by continuously accelerating improvement in all business activities, cutting costs, expanding capacity, creating world-class facilities, exploring new business areas including non-steel, and forging global alliances and joint ventures, keeping employees motivated, managing the environment, and so on.

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In the year 2007, Tata Steel had the turnover of US$ 4.6 billion, market capitalization of US$ 3.3 billion, and capacity of 5 million tons per annum (mtpa). It created history by acquiring the AngloDutch company Corus for US$ 13.70 billion, which was about five times larger with a turnover of US$ 17.7 billion, market capitalization of US$ 11.13 billion, and capacity of 19 mtpa (The Times of India, Patna, 1 February 2007, p. 11). The acquisition made Tata-Corus the sixth largest steel making company in the world.

Step 2 Individual projections of the future scenario should be discussed in the class/group highlighting how individual students/participants make different projections.

NOTE 1. Quote sourced from http://www.quotegarden.com/change.html.

Glossary Accommodation implies yielding to the interests of others to the extent that individuals, groups, or organizations can undermine or suppress their own interests. Acquisitive versus protective style involves an active and manipulative effort versus highly modest self-portrayals and reluctance to behave contrary to social norms to enhance one’s impressions on others. Adhocracy emphasizes haphazardly improving ways and means for facilitating development of products and services. Agentic capability of human beings is the ability to acquire new skills, expand one’s roles, function effectively, and keep improving their effectiveness. Altruism signifies an intention or a willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests and welfare for the sake of others and the resultant helping behaviour. Amae is a positive view of dependency that signifies emotional support and security. Amoral work-centric culture is one in which work is central in importance, but this centrality serves narrow selfish interests without any concern for others or for being right or wrong. Anthropology is the science that seeks knowledge about of the patterns of living in societies and cultures. Applied science aims to generate knowledge that can be used for practical purposes. Approach-approach conflict means that a person wants to achieve two mutually exclusive goals or satisfy two opposite needs. Approach-avoidance conflict arises when a person strives to realize a goal, but also feel an aversion to it. Aram as a value is a preference for rest and relaxation without putting in hard work. Arthshastra of Kautilya highlights the salience of a secular administration based on merit, and proper codes of conduct in different situations, with different persons, and in different points in time. Artefacts are material objects made by people to facilitate culturally expressive activities. Asocial power is the influence attempt directed to an object or situation (not to a person). 377

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Atman is the psychic organizing principle of mind that observes and regulates the functioning of the other layers of self; but is not dependent on them. Atomistic culture is a permissive culture whereby members improvise their own course of action. Authoritarian leader centralizes all power, takes all decisions, keeps all information to himself, maintains distance from subordinates, controls them tightly, and praises or rebukes them whimsically. Authority is the power of a person vested in the position that he occupies in an organization. Autonomous group functions on its own terms and conditions, makes and implements decisions, and so on. Avoidance of conflict means ignoring it as if it does not exists or is unimportant. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts involve two aversive goals that a person wants to avoid, but has to choose one of them. Barbarian culture is ego-driven and anti-bureaucratic. Bases of power are the resources and characteristics possessed by individuals enabling them to influence others. Basic science is primarily concerned with generating knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Belief is an awareness of how things, persons, and ideas are interrelated. Bhagavad Gita of Vyas is the most revered Hindu text that primarily advocates one’s duty and karm (appropriate behaviour). Bonded rational approach implies that one has to make decisions or interact with others that are not totally based on rational ground. Bottom of the pyramid of Indian people consists of the vast majority of Indians who are poor, illiterate, located in the rural areas, and have limited purchasing power. BPO (business process outsourcing) involves sending jobs overseas, particularly from the developed countries of the Euro-American sector, to India where it is less expensive. Brainstorming is a process through which the members of a group interact freely expressing farfetched ideas and solutions, stimulating others to share any idea that crosses their mind without criticizing them in order to come up with a variety of ideas. Bureaucracy is a structure in which organizational behaviour is decided by rules and precedence. Bureaucracy bashing means getting rid of dysfunctional practices of asking for unnecessary reports, wasting time in unproductive lengthy meetings, going through proper channels that delays decisionmaking, and too much of formalization.

Glossary

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Career planning means putting in place future-oriented schemes to match individuals and organizational goals, skills, and responsibilities. Centralization means that decisions are made at the higher, and mostly at the top positions. Chaebols were large South Korean private business groups generally under the control of a single powerful family. They maintained close connections with the government and were involved in a variety of commercial activities ranging from farming to ship building. Charismatic leader is the one who has character, will power, drive, and skills to enthuse and inspire others, salvage his followers from a crisis, solve insoluble problems, and instill in followers blind faith in him. Citizenship behaviour means the behaviour that safeguards the interests of the society at large as a function of citizen’s conscientious orientation. Clan culture is the one which emphasizes internal focus, flexibility, and consensus. Classical conditioning is incidental learning in which a behaviour gets associated with a rewarding experience a number of times resulting in an orientation to repeat the same behaviour with the implicit expectation of experiencing the same reward. Coaching is non-evaluative feedback to individuals often provided by a superior for improving their performance. Coalition government is composed of more than two independent political parties generally on the basis of a common minimum programme. Cognitive styles mean individual members’ ways and preferences for receiving information of a certain nature and amount, processing, and using them. Cohesiveness in a group is the degree to which the members of the group perceive and feel to be the unalienable parts of the group. Collaboration is a process through which individuals, groups, or organizations work together to bridge their differences, explore ways to cooperate, and find solutions of mutual interests. Collectivism refers to societies in which people are integrated into strong, cohesive, and ascribed in-groups. Communication is the process by which a person, group, or organization transmits information to another person, group, or organization. Competency motive is the disposition to have mastery over surrounding objects and persons. Competition means that individuals, groups, or organizations are vying to realize the same goal, and if one of them reaches the goal, others will be left out.

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Complex knowledge consists of a larger amount of information. Compromise is a process of negotiating by give and take so that individuals, groups, or organizations win a bit and lose a bit. Configuration of organizations reveals the extent to which organizations are tall (having many layers) or flat (having fewer layers). Conscious mind consists of all those perceptions, memories, thoughts, needs and impulses, habits, attitudes, emotions, and so on, of which we are aware. Conservatism is a cluster of values that include family security, social order, respect for tradition, honouring parents and elders, security, and politeness. Consideration style of a leader is expressed in the nature of job relationships that are characterized by trust, respect for subordinates’ ideas, and consideration for their feelings. Consultative leader takes into account his subordinates’ ideas and needs while making decisions. Context sensitivity signifies sensitivity to the cues of the surrounding environment that guide a person about how to behave. Contingency model of power shows that the power process is a joint function of the bases of power, target’s orientations, and the situational imperatives. Contingency theory of leadership shows that the effectiveness of a leader depends on a number of factors regarding task, relationships, and situational demands. Control graph provides a visual display of how power of the different groups within an organization is distributed. Cooperation involves two or more individuals, groups, or organizations acting together to achieve a common goal so that the achievement of one amounts to the achievement by the other. Co-opetition is a blend of cooperation and competition when the competing persons, groups, or organizations collaborate or form an alliance to add value to their products and services. Cosmic collectivism posits that the universe consists of diverse forms and elements that are interrelated in a whole. Culture is the totality of values, norms, and practices of the people of a geographical area that enable them to maintain continuity as well as to adapt to changing situations. Dalits are Scheduled Castes people who were historically exploited. Decision-making is a process through which the alternative solutions to a problem are explored and chosen.

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Defence mechanisms are mental processes that defend the conscious mind against the onslaught of the ever-pressing socially undesirable unconscious impulses. Democratic leader encourages subordinates to participate in group activities, shares information, explains his actions, and rewards or punishes group members on objective criteria. Dependence proneness is a propensity to seek help, attention, support, etc., in situations where a person can decide and act on his own. Depth of knowledge ranges from ‘know-what’, through ‘know-how’ to ‘know-why’ knowledge meaning what to do, how to do it correctly without making mistakes, and understanding the underlying principles for doing what a person does. Differentiating organizational culture is characterized by overlapping sub-organizational cultures that coexist with each other. Diffusion of responsibility means that people in a collective feel that others too are responsible for the outcome and hence they do not have to exert as much as they have to if they were alone. Directive leader closely supervises subordinates to get work done as he is production oriented. Diversity-consensus dilemma in a team signifies that the team can take advantage of the diversity in the resources of its members in order to come up with better ideas and more effective solutions. Diversity, however, makes consensus, which is essential for teams, difficult. So, teams face the dilemma of how to balance the two. Dominant organization culture reflects the values, norms, and practices of the majority of the members of an organization. Double-loop learning is learning ‘how’ to learn, questioning the learning process at every stage, asking why certain pieces of information must be collected, are there other ways of interpreting them, and are there other ways of acting upon them. Downsizing is reducing the size of the workforce by organizations in order to remain cost-effective and efficient. Dravid movement was an anti-Brahmin movement led by the ‘Non-Brahmin’ unity (periyar) in what is now Tamil Nadu. Dual concern model suggests that conflict resolution depends on the relative concern for either self or others’ interests. e-choupal are information technology-enabled services established in the rural areas by the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) for involving local people in marketing its products. Ego is a sense of reality that reminds a person of the consequences of his behaviour.

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Elephant syndrome stands for a slow moving economy. Emotional intelligence of a person reflects his ability to recognize and understand his own emotions, control them, empathize with others’ feeling and thoughts, build and nurture social networks, and make it serve collective interests. Entrepreneurship is a set of orientations and actions to take calculated risk for larger gains, expanding business, creating assets, claiming market share, etc. Equity theory is about a fair distribution of rewards in proportion to the employees’ contributions, as a result of which they remain motivated. Ethnocentric expatriate managers are those who have a poor impression of their Indian counterparts, as a result of which they manifest discriminatory behaviour towards the latter. Eudaimonia is the assumption that long lasting happiness flows from realizing human behaviour that produces a sense of well-being. Expectancy theory of motivation contends that employees remain motivated in the conditions in which they expect that their good performance will fetch them the rewards that they value. Explicit knowledge is expressed through organizational rules, formal and informal procedures and policies, work manuals, directions, training modules, newsletters, communications through e-mails and Intranet and other documents. Extended family is the one where other relatives or relative-like persons live together. Extraverted versus introverted persons—extraverted people are sociable, talkative, assertive, and active while introverted people, on the contrary, are shy, retiring, sober, reserved, and cautious. Femininity indicates softness, politeness, and an accommodating orientation. Formal groups in organizations are those that the management creates. Formalization in organizations means that instructions, rules, and procedures are written (not verbal). Fragmenting organizational culture is characterized by the presence of sub-organizational cultures that function at cross-purposes with each other. Frames in negotiation signify goal orientations of the parties, what they want to achieve according to their interests. Fundamental attribution error occurs when a perceiver wrongly blames a person for his failure or poor performance without considering the external causes and constraints. Generative learning is the one that involves exploring many more information and interpreting them in different ways to create many more options for action.

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Gesture is the movement of parts of the body expressing certain meanings. Global management culture consists of globally accepted management practices and norms and underlying, values and assumptions. Global management practices are the practices that are generally adopted internationally and are recognized to be effective for organizational behaviour. Globalization is the process through which products, services, cultural influences, and so on, move across national boundaries. Glocal means an approach that is global in perspective, but local in applications. Goal setting theory postulates that goal setting by employees motivates them to realize goals. Great and small traditions signify whether subcultures are dominant and pervasive or restricted to small groups and are less pervasive in influence. Great man theory postulates that leaders are endowed with superhuman qualities through which they can cause major events in the world. Group dynamics is the interplay of forces within a group or at its interface with the environment that causes changes in the structure and function of the group. Group is a collection of two or more persons who interact and form relationships to realize common as well as their individual needs and goals and perceive themselves as parts of the group. Group polarization means that the members in a group make either more risky or more conservative decisions than they do when they are alone. Group structure is the pattern of stable relationships and interactions within a group. Groupthink reflects overwhelming influence of a group on individual members in making decisions to the extent that the members agree without exploring alternatives or questioning the decisions. Gunas are the temperamental make up of a person having three types: Satwa (signifying purity and enlightenment), raj (emotion, action, attachment, etc.), and tam (inaction, darkness, stale, etc.). Harijans are Scheduled Castes people who were called the people of God. Hedonism means that one’s well-being amounts to the extent of pleasure and happiness that he enjoys. Heuristics mean the simple rule of thumb that decision-makers follow. Hierarchical order signifies that the whole cosmos and everything within it—animate as well as inanimate—are so arranged that they are superior to some and inferior to others.

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High LPC leader is one who does not dislike poor performing subordinates to the extent that a low LPC leader does. Hindu rate of growth implies a very low rate of economic growth. Hinduism is defined as the religious thoughts that originated on Indian soil. Human capital comprises the abilities, skills, experiences, attitudes, motivation, commitment, and other characteristics of human beings that are resources for their organizations. Human knowledge is an individuals’ knowledge consisting of information, skills, experiences, intuitions, perspectives, vision, and whatever else that they have learnt either for solving their problems or sharing them with others. Human resources management (HRM) is the management of human beings from recruitment to retirement with the purposes of realizing organizational objectives and employees’ well-being. Hybrid forms of organizations are those that are partly differentiated on the basis of products, partly on functions, and partly on geographical spread. Id consists of mental forces that consist of animal impulses, desires, and strivings. Implicit theory of leadership is a subjective construction of leadership having the qualities that subordinates value and want to see in their leader. Incidental learning (classical conditioning) happens when a behaviour gets associated with a rewarding experience a number of times resulting in an orientation to repeat the same behaviour with an implicit expectation to experience the same reward. Inclusionary dimension of teams signifies the process of granting out-group members the affinity of an in-group. Individualism refers to societies in which people are conceptualized as autonomous individuals doing what they want to do to serve their own needs and interests. Influence is a process to change other’s thought, feelings or/and actions. Informal groups are those that individuals create by way of interacting with each other for the purposes that are of interest or importance to them. Ingratiation consists of the behaviour that is intended to make the target person feel good so that he will bestow some favour to the person who is being ingratiating. In-group (apane log) is a group in which the members share psychological affinity. Initiating structure of leadership style manifests in a leader’s concern to structure his and his subordinates’ roles in order to realize the group goals.

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Integrative organization culture is the one in which the subcultures as well as the components within them tend to remain integrated. Intellectual and affective autonomy is a cluster of values consisting of the importance of being curious, broadminded, and creative as well as having a free, exciting, and varied life full of pleasure. Intrinsic motivation is based on the assumption that the fewer or the more insignificant are the external rewards, the greater is the probability that the person will invent an inner reason to do well, because there is no external justification for his efforts. Jatis are castes. Johari window is a 4-cell (2 × 2) perceptual window in which two persons in the dual roles of being the perceiver and the perceived share their perceptions of themselves as well as each other in order to expand their understanding of self and the other person. Joint family is a family where parents, their children and grand children live together. Judicial activism is the tendency of judges to examine and pass judgement on petitions of public interests that generally fall within legislative or executive domains. Kartaas are the heads of households. Knowledge is an understanding of persons, objects, events, and the underlying principles that explain their relationships. Knowledge cycle signifies how a new knowledge is acquired, documented, transferred to others, and becomes common knowledge for all. Kutumbization is the process of creating a familial ambience in an organization. Leader’s theory-in-use means that a leader does what he thinks is necessary. Leader-centred theories are those that postulate that the effectiveness of a leader is determined only by leadership characteristics. Leadership is the processes through which individuals influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of their organizations. Learning is the process through which new information is acquired, interpreted, rejected, and integrated into the existing body of knowledge. Legend is a handed down narrative of some wonderful historical event with functional details. Liberalizing phase of the Indian economy started by the 1980s and gained momentum after 1991, accelerating the growth rate of the Indian economy.

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Life cycle or situational approach to leadership postulates that an effective leader gives commands to his subordinates, argues with them, participates with them, or delegates responsibility to them depending on their task and emotional readiness to assume the responsibility. Locus of control signifies one’s belief that the events of life are either shaped by one’s efforts and abilities (internal control) or by fate or powerful others (external control). Lokayat is a philosophy propounded by Charvaka that advocates a materialistic approach to life. It calls for people to enjoy all the pleasures of life by building a strong body through hath-yoga (a strenuous system of yoga). Loose culture has divergent, inconsistent, and varied values, norms, and beliefs allowing people to evoke them selectively according to their needs. Low LPC leader manifests a stronger dislike for poor performing subordinates than does a high LPC leader. Machiavellianism is the manipulative orientation of a person. Macho organizational culture manifests in the high risk taking organizations that are likely to get quick feedback about the outcome of their risky ventures. Maintenance-style leader is primarily concerned about maintaining harmony in the group by being receptive to the ideas, opinion, and preferences of subordinates. He consults subordinates in assigning work to them, does not make changes in job content without consulting subordinates, and if he has to do so, he informs them in advance. Management is the science of using capital, technology, materials, physical attributes of an organization, and people working within it for creating products and services for a market. Management by objectives (MBO) involves setting measurable and attainable goals that serve organizational objectives, formulating action plans to attain them, implementing action plans, monitoring, evaluating, and then setting goals again to keep the cycle going. Masculinity refers to potency, rough and tough orientation. Maslow’s need hierarchy, in ascending order, comprises physiological, safety and security, affiliation, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. Matrix organizational structure is one where employees report to their functional as well as the administrative heads. McKinsey model is the design of McKinsey & Company for organizational transformation by downsizing, discarding loss making activities and units, and tightening the organization for effective performance.

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Mechanical model takes individuals for cogs in a machine that is regulated through specific design and proper handling. Mechanical organizations are characterized by rigid and hierarchical structure, well defined and stable tasks, use of authority for control, and downward direction of communication for passing decisions or giving instructions. Membership-reference group is a person where one either belongs and looks to for guidance respectively. Modelling effect is learning by observing others who get rewarded for their behaviour. Monarchical culture is managerial and anti-bureaucratic ethos in an organization. Motivation is the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behaviour towards attaining a goal. Multinational organizations are those which function in a number of countries as decentralized federations that respond to local needs and imperatives but are managed by the strategic framework of the head office. Myth is a dramatic narrative of imagined events accompanied by unquestioned beliefs that are not supported by evidence. Navratna (public sector undertakings) are the nine leading public enterprises that have been consistently making profits. Need for power is the desire to feel powerful or striving to influence others. Negotiation involves the process of conferring with a view to come to, hopefully, an agreement. Network organizations are interrelated entities that cash in on each other’s competency and minimize costs for leveraging the quality of products, services, profit, etc. Hence, they are flat, flexible, and guided by market mechanisms rather than administrative procedures. Nirdwandwa means that the mind is neither blurred by anger or lust nor fractured by doubts and dilemmas. Nishkam karm is working diligently without getting preoccupied about the outcome of one’s efforts. Nominal group is one in which members do not interact but feel that the presence of others is affecting their thoughts and behaviour. Norms are the standards based on what most people judge what is an appropriate behaviour. Normative theory of decision-making shows that a leader decides by himself, seeks information from subordinates, consults them or lets them decide depending on the quality requirements of decisions, sufficiency of information available, and the chances of subordinates accepting or not accepting decisions.

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Nuclear family is one where a husband, his wife, and their children live under one roof. Nurturant leader is one who cares for his subordinates and their well-being, allows them to depend on him for guidance and direction, establishes emotional bonds with them, guides and directs them in work as well as personal matters, helps them grow and mature, and if necessary reprimands them to bring them back on track. Nurturing superior is a warm and caring person who grooms subordinates for their development. Open minded people are those who entertain new ideas, tolerate disagreements, and are flexible. Open system view of organizations means that outside influences flow in and organizational influences flow out to the surrounding milieu. Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which a learner behaves in manner so as to receive a coveted reward, and if rewarded, repeats the behaviour again, thus making it a habit. Organic organizations are flexible having loosely defined tasks, receptivity to new ideas that cause change, expertise and knowledge as the source of authority, and consultative mode for sharing information and advice with peers. Organization politics are the actions, not officially sanctioned (approved) by an organization, but taken to influence others to meet one’s personal goals. Organizational behaviour is the social science of how individuals, groups, and organizations function with a view to suggest ways of improving organizational effectiveness and employees’ performance and well-being. Organizational citizenship behaviour means feeling responsible for one’s organization and doing whatever one can do to help create a better organization. Organizational climate is the subjective perception of an organization or parts of it. Organizational culture is the totality of the assumptions, values, norms, and behaviour of employees that create physical and social artefacts of an organization. Organizational development is planned changes in an organization in order to improve its performance and employees’ well-being. Organizational transactional changes start from changing individuals’ motivations, attitudes, and skills, and then moving up to build people-friendly structures, systems, practices, and finally developing the organization’s mission and vision. Organizational transformation means major planned changes in the organization that start at the organizational level and percolate down to the employees in order to renew the organization.

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OSHA model depicts employees rising above animalistic impulses by being humanistic, spiritual, and thereby integrated into oceanic experience of being inclusive of others. Out-group (paraye log) is one in which members do not feel psychological affinity. Pareto-optimal postulated that it is everyone’s individual interest not to cooperate in collective efforts though everyone would be better off if they all cooperated. Participative leader is people oriented. He encourages employees to share ideas and opinions and come up with joint decisions that the leader implements. Paternalistic leader is a father figure who builds systems, procures resources, manages group’s boundaries, and is of high integrity, vision, dedication, and warmth for subordinates. Perceptual figure and ground indicate the point of focus (figure) and the surround area (ground) of a perceptual field. Performance-style leader makes subordinates work to their maximum, sets a clear time frame for completing work, and is strict about subordinates completing the work within the time limit as well observing all rules and regulation regarding work. He monitors their progress at work closely by asking them to report the progress regularly, and reprimands those who fail to perform well. Personal causation is the belief that one is the master of his fate and can determine his behaviour. Personality is the totality of all characteristics that others perceive in a person, as a result of which the person is considered to be unique. Pharaoic culture is bureaucratic and ego-driven. Physical setting comprise physical things surrounding a person that reflect some meaning. Pioneering-innovative leaders are essentially entrepreneurs with a blend of professionalism. Political science seeks knowledge about power and politics in societies. Politics refers to the use of power to serve one’s own or group’s interests. Poverty syndrome is a constellation of beliefs, dispositions, and action orientations arising from extreme and pervasive poverty and manifests itself in a sense of insecurity, the belief that resources are scarce, and that one has to resort to any means to acquire, hoard, and monopolize them in order to hedge against the possibility of becoming poor. Power distance is the extent to which both more and less powerful members of societies expect and accept the unequal distribution of power. Power is a capacity to influence.

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Power strategies are plans that a person chalks out to influence others. Power tactics are specific ways of influencing others. Presidential culture is highly bureaucratic and highly managerial. Prisoner’s dilemma game is a tool to study two persons cooperating, competing, or coopeting with each other. Process consultation is observation of groups in action with immediate feedback on processes being observed in order to help the group improve its performance and relationships among the members. Pro-social behaviours are the ones that manifest people’s orientation to help others, their organization, and society at large by placing their interests, needs, and goals before their own. Psychology is the science of human behaviour and experiences. Quality control circles (QCCs) comprise groups of employees at work stations who collective and continuously tend to improve the quality of products and procedures. Receptive phase of the Indian economy, from 1947 to the mid-1960s, signified a welcoming stance to foreign capital and technology to establish public sector industries of basic and strategic importance. Restrictive phase of the Indian economy, 1968 to 1979, was marked by restrictions on foreign direct investment as well as on the outflow of foreign exchange in order to stimulate the growth of Indian companies with a view to bolster self-reliance in the economy. Rite is a relatively elaborate, dramatic, planned set of activities having practical and expressive consequences. Ritual is a standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviours that manage anxiety without having consequences of importance. Role means a set of rights and duties attached to positions in a group, organization, or society. Role ambiguity means that the rights and duties of a role are not clear or are incompatible. Role conflict is the tension arising out of incompatible roles that a person holds. Role expectation is the expected set of rights and duties attached to a role. Role differentiation means allocation of different roles to the members of a group or differences between the roles that a member of a group holds. Role performance is the extent to which a person behaves according to the role.

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Role underload means very few roles given to a person or there are very weak expectations within a role. Role redundancy means the useless roles in a group. Role overload means too many roles given to a person or too many expectations within a role. Rorschach test is a projective test in which respondents project their feelings and thoughts by seeing objects, figures, colours, and movements in inkblots. Saga is a historical narrative highlighting the unique accomplishments of a group or a leader. Samkhya is the philosophy propounded by Kapil. It suggests how to regulate sensory and motor functions and expand self-awareness through yog in order to get over the sorrows of life. Sanatan dharmi were the followers of Vedic tradition who were later called Hindus. Satyagrah (Passive resistance) for resolving conflict involves three successive steps: reasoning with the opponent to make him realize the need to reduce conflict; failing which, to resort to self-suffering (for example, fasting, etc.) to arouse moral responsibility in the opponent; failing which, to start non-cooperation, polite disobedience, and break up with the opponent. Schemas in negotiation are knowledge structures consisting of information that helps the negotiating parties understand their own and other’s perspective, strategies for negotiation, meanings of their actions, aspirations, etc. Scripts in negotiation are ways and habits of behaving for arriving (or failing to arrive) at an agreement. Self is the totality of an individual’s perception of himself that distinguishes him from others and orients him to relate with them. Self-actualization means a full realization of one’s potential by transcending one’s limitations. Self-confidence is a generalized self-efficacy that one can handle any difficult job, nothing is impossible if one tries hard enough, or that one can live the life that one wants to live. Self-efficacy is a belief that one can get things done, solve problems, make friends, and influence others. Self-identity is a constellation of psychological elements that evolve together as a person grows in his life-roles, but still maintains continuity of his being the same person. Self-regard is a positive feeling about one’s worth. Semantic differential scale consists of bipolar adjectives at the two extremes having a scale in between. Respondents are required to place the target object, person, or idea on the scale according to their

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proximity to the applicable adjectives. The responses reveal the evaluative, affective, and potency meanings that the respondents attribute to them. Sensitivity group is one that enhances its members’ sensitivity to each other’s feelings, needs, and thoughts. Sensitivity training aims to sensitize participants of a group to each others’ feelings and thoughts with a view to establishing team spirit in them. Signature skills in knowledge management manifests in selectively attending, collecting, and passing on information to others in ways that worked successfully for solving problems in the past. Single-loop learning includes the processes of perceiving new pieces of information and analyzing them in the light of past experience to lead to certain actions. Sneh–shradhha (affection–deference) relationship is one in which a superior remains warm, caring, and mentors subordinates who reciprocate by being loyal, respectful, and obedient. Social capital is the resources that arise due to the prevalence of trust among the members of a group, which is based on the rational calculation that cooperation is in their long-term self-interest as well as in the interests of the organization. Social facilitation is the process signifying that the presence of others in a group mobilizes a person to perform better. Social knowledge resides in the understanding of relationships among individuals or within groups that are based on certain cultural norms, trust, team spirit, and sense of belonging. Social loafing is a tendency among the members to exert less in a group than what they do individually. Social power is the attempt to influence directed to a person or persons. Social-emotional leader maintains harmony and cohesiveness among the group members. Sociology is the science that seeks knowledge of societies, their structures, and functions. Sociometry is a technique to assess the degree of cohesiveness in the structure of a group. Socio-technical analysis involves integration of technology, group structure, and people’s characteristics in order to improve performance and enhance quality of work life. Soft organizational culture is one in which organizational objectives are compromised to appease the employees, work suffers, but employees get generous welfare benefits. Special economic zones (SEZs) are areas that are demarked for giving incentive for promoting economic activities, allowing tax relief, and producing goods for exports or providing specialized services.

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Specialization in an organization means the extent to which employees have specialized roles and positions. Spirituality is a cluster of beliefs (such as continuity of human and divine existence, composed state of mind), preferences (such as inner peace), and practices (including religious activities, efforts to rise on moral scale and improve one’s merit, etc.). Standardization signifies that standard rules and procedures are available for guiding work. Status differentiation involves allocation of superior and inferior positions on the basis of certain indicators. Stereotyping is the process of placing a person in a collective or category and attributing the shared characteristics of the collective to him. Sthitaprajn signifies ‘steady wisdom’ of a composed mind that is not carried away by emotions. Strategic learning plays an instrumental role for not only enabling organizations to adjust, adapt, or innovate, but also to transform them. Subconscious mind lies in between the unconscious and conscious mind, witnessing the drama of unconscious impulses trying to enter into consciousness and the ego regulating them with or without super-ego’s assistance. Subculture is a part of a larger societal culture. Subculture of an organization is the values, norms, and practices of specific groups within an organization. Sufi tradition, similar to the bhakti tradition of Hindus, is a devotional tradition within Islam. Super-conscious (turiya avastha) means the fourth state of mind in which, according to Hindu philosophy, the distinction between the subject and the object, knower and known, disappears. Super-ego is the conscience of a person that distinguishes right from wrong and moral from immoral. Symbol is an object, act, or event that serves as a vehicle for conveying meaning by representing another thing. Systemic knowledge manifests in organizational systems, procedures, norms, and standards for working and relating with each other. Tacit knowledge is an insight that employees acquire through learning and doing. It is sensed and experienced rather than documented and handed over. Task force is a small group formed for a specific purpose.

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Task leader is concerned primarily with getting tasks accomplished. Team informity means the extent to which a team shares information relevant to the task and gets that information to the person who needs it to make well-informed decisions. Team mental model highlights a common view of the task and the problems shared by all members of a team. Teams are special groups having clearly focused task orientation as well as cooperative relationships among the members. Technocratic organizational culture develops in organizations that prioritize technological considerations over human needs, expectations, and attitudes. Theory X is based on the assumption that human beings have to be forced to make them work. Theory Y is based on the assumption that human beings have an internal disposition to perform their best. Third-party mediation for resolving conflict involves approaching someone who is not party to the conflict. Tight culture has clear norms that are consistently imposed on people with very little freedom to deviate, and the deviants are severely sanctioned. Time and motion study attempts to combine minimum number of motions with minimum amount of time taken in each motion for performing a task most efficiently. Tolerance for ambiguity means individuals’ capacity to attend and process the pieces of information that are not consistent with each other without feeling uncomfortable or stressed. Total quality management (TQM) is a Japanese philosophy that attempts to improve all organizational processes in order to get the best possible outcomes. Two factor theory argues that the causes of satisfaction are different from those for dissatisfaction; hygiene (external causes) if taken care of reduces dissatisfaction and motivators (internal causes) increase satisfaction. Trait is communality among a cluster of similar behaviours that orients a person to behave in a specific way across a number of situations. Transactional analysis conceptualizes the mind having three sets of forces—the child, who signifies spontaneous desires, joyfulness, and playfulness; the parent, who is a restrictive and moralizing agent; and the adult, who balances the two. Transactional leader follows an exchange principle to expend his efforts and time influencing subordinates as well as rewarding them for performance because he anticipates some gains in terms

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of work getting completed, his sense of self-efficacy being validated, satisfaction in the process of influencing, and so on. Transformational leader enthuses and inspires his subordinates to rise above their concerns for rewards and work for goals that are higher than their individual concerns and goals. Transnational organizations are those that operate at different national locations, are inter-linked with each other as well with the head office, and leverage local as well as central capabilities. Trigunatita signifies that the mind has transcended the limitations of gunas. Trishanku complex is the mindset of those Indian managers who are torn between behaving according to Western management practices that they learnt during their management education and retaining the traditional Indian values that they acquired during their childhood. Type A personality shows a distinct pattern of working fast, being deadline driven, impatient, hard driving while a Type B personality is relaxed, easy going, patient, and tolerant. Types of personality are the clusters of traits. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people in a society tend to avoid uncertainty by establishing and observing formal systems, structures, and rules in their behaviour. Unconscious mind is a reservoir of bio-genetically generated animal impulses, desires, and strivings. We are not aware of them, unless they are brought into our conscious mind. Universalism-particularism: Universalism refers to the orientation to follow universally applicable rules while particularism signifies being highly context oriented, employing different rules, for example, for in-group and out-group members. Upanishads are the ancient texts that dwell on basic issues of life and death, sorrows and happiness through a highly logical and analytical approach. Value is a preferences for and importance attached to objects, things, persons, or ideas, and a desirable state. Varnas was the basis for occupational classification of Hindus during ancient time. Vedas are the most ancient Hindu texts that advanced a collectivist, hierarchical, and spiritual worldview and advocated a devotional approach. Vertical collectivism refers to hierarchically structured collectivistic values. Vertical dyad linkage model shows that a leader selectively interacts with his subordinates to identify the one or a few whom he starts preferring, and together they spearhead the efforts to get tasks performed.

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Vertical solidarity is the emotional bond between a superior and his subordinate who accept the hierarchal difference. Virtual organizations are a specific type of network organizations that are temporarily inter-connected to exploit fast changing opportunities by getting associated with resource partners rather than creating permanent assets, realizing forward and backward integration, or maintaining a stable hierarchical structure. Vision of an organization is a scenario of its possibilities for the future. Well-being at the most basic level means an absence of any physical, social, or psychological malfunctioning. At the highest level, it means self-actualization and self-realization. Whistle blowing means that an employee leaks information to outsiders about the wrongdoings within his organization in order to safeguard the interests of the larger community. Wipro’s string of pearls are the companies that Wipro acquired to enhance its synergy and international spread. Work-centric nurturant culture is one in which organizations attach high priority to getting quality work accomplished by maintaining caring and helping subordinates, and grooming them for their personal growth as well as high performance. Work culture is the importance attached to work compared to other life roles. Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is a text that details the theory and practices of yoga.

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Author Index Abelson, R.P., 158, 397 Acton, L., 67, 397 Adair, J., 408, 413 Adams, J.S., 121, 397 Aditya, R.N., 270, 403 Adler, A., 217, 397 Adler, N., 182, 183, 184, 185, 397 Adler, R., 185, 397 Adorno, T.W., 16, 270, 397 Agarwal, R., 19, 38, 118, 397, 406 Ahlstrom, D., 338, 339, 397 Ahmad, A., 404, 410 Aiyar, S.S.A., 58, 64, 397 Akhilananda, S., 31, 397 Alderfer, C.P., 116, 397 Allen, D., 42, 72, 397 Allen, R.T., 220, 406 Andersen, W.K., 42, 71, 397 Ansari, M.A., 227, 228, 249, 279, 286, 397, 398 Aranda, E., 199, 407 Argote, L., 194, 397 Argyris, C., 273, 274, 328, 329, 333, 335, 397 Arkin, R.M., 104, 105, 397 Arora, R., 343, 410 Asch, S.E., 91, 397 Azuma, H., 42, 397 Bachrach, P., 218, 397 Baetz, M.L., 279, 402 Bahl, V., 313, 397 Bales, R.F., 273, 274, 397 Bamforth, K.W., 12, 413 Bandura, A., 222, 363, 397, 400 Bandyopadhyay, S., 70, 397 Banfield, E.C., 35, 397 Barata, M.A., 218, 397 Baron, R.A., 113, 127, 138, 153, 154, 175, 224, 234, 281, 401 Barrick, M.R., 101, 397 Bartlett C.A., 23, 204, 232, 345, 356, 398, 401 Basham, A.L., 54, 398 Bass, B.M., 277, 398 Bayly, S., 69, 398 Beatty, R.W., 366, 398

Bell, C.H. Jr., 357, 400 Bellah, R.N., 39, 398 Bem, D.J., 259, 398, 414 Bennet, B., 286, 412 Bennis, W., 15, 255, 398 Berman, J.J., 169, 398 Beyer, J.M., 315, 398 Bhagat, R.S., 342, 346, 398, 403 Bhal, K.T., 279, 398 Bhandarker, A., 69, 411 Bharati, A., 37, 398 Bhawuk, D.P.S., 33, 40, 140, 143, 154, 199, 398, 413 Birkinshaw, J.M., 204, 232, 345, 398 Black, R.R., 273, 274, 398 Blanchard, K.H., 282, 402 Blau, P.M., 219, 398 Board, R.D., 296, 398 Bond, M.H., 275, 402, 409, 410, 412 Bontis, N., 328, 410 Braasch, S., 36, 398 Bradford, L.P., 12, 398 Brandenburger, A.M., 172, 407 Brett, J.M., 156, 398 Briscoe, D.R., 364, 398 Brodt, S.E., 156, 180, 413 Brown, D.R., 356, 398 Brown, J.D., 84, 104, 398 Buckingham, M., 249, 398 Burke, W.W., 356, 398 Burns, T., 354, 398 Byham, W.G., 199, 414 Byrne, D., 90, 398 Caldwell, D.F., 100, 398 Cameron, K.S., 176, 414 Carr, N.G., 22, 398 Carstairs, G.M., 43, 398 Cartwright, D., 138, 399, 400 Cattell, R.B., 251, 399 Chakraborty, S.K., 18, 49, 111, 123, 124, 168, 254, 284, 399 Chandra, B., 42, 72, 399 Chang, E., 232, 344, 399 Chao, G.T., 205, 399

415

416


Charan, R., 245, 399 Chatterjee, A., 332, 399 Chattopadhyay, D.P., 33, 399 Chattopadhyay, G.P., 44, 399 Chaudron, D., 206, 399 Chen, M., 354, 399 Chie, N., 36, 44, 399 Chua, E., 178, 399 Cole, R.E., 159, 399 Collins, J., 253, 399 Conger, J.A., 278, 279, 399 Cottrell, N.B., 151, 399 Cushman, D.P., 78, 399 Damle, S.D., 42, 71, 397 Dansereau, F., 279, 399 Das, G., 58, 59, 399 Davenport, T.H., 340, 399 Davidow, W.H., 22, 399 Davis, L.E., 199, 399 Dayal, I., 92, 252, 256, 259, 260, 280, 365, 399, 410 De Long, D.W., 338, 399 De, N., 16, 17, 159, 208, 281, 358, 399 Deal, T.E., 299, 308, 309, 399 deCharms, R., 217, 399 Deci, E.L., 112, 123, 399, 409 Denhartog, D.N., 248, 400 Dickson, W.J., 9, 409 Dirks, N.B., 70, 400 Dixon, G.R., 199, 414 Dodgson, M., 335, 400 Doi, T., 118, 400 Dowling, P., 364, 400 Drucker, P.F., 199, 328, 400 Dumont, L., 30, 400 Dyer, W.G., 193, 211, 400 Eastman, R.A., 156, 400 Edelman, G.M., 82, 400 Eisenhardt, K.M., 232, 400 Eisenstadt, S.N., 278, 400 El-Hayek, T., 286, 400 Emery, F.E., 13, 15, 153, 285, 400 Erez, M., 124, 153, 400, 401, 403, 405, 412, 413 Erikson, E., 82, 400 Fahey, L., 338, 399 Falbe, C.M., 227, 414 Falbo, T., 227, 400 Fayol, H., 6, 7, 8, 14, 400

Feldman, D.C., 314, 400 Feldman, S.M., 158, 400 Fernandez-Ballesteros, R., 364, 400 Ferris, G.R., 220, 400, 405 Festinger, L.A., 90, 400 Fiedler, F.E., 273, 274, 281, 282, 400 Fiol, C.M., 335, 400 Fisher, R., 184, 400 Foa, E.B., 39, 400 Foa, U.G., 39, 400 Foy, N., 363, 400 Fraser, L., 313, 400 Freedman, D.G., 83, 400 French, J.R.P., 224, 400 French, W.L., 357, 400 Freud, S., 96, 400 Friedman, M., 102, 400 Fukuyama, F., 23, 364, 401 Galbraith, J.R., 66, 355, 401 Gandz, J., 309, 406 Ganesh, S.R., 15, 17, 201, 401 Garcia, J.E., 282, 400, 412 Garderner, P.B., 205, 399 Garg, M., 367, 401 Garg, P.K., 18, 368, 401, 408 Garud, R., 337, 401 Geertz, C., 82, 401 Geissbauer, R., 43, 401 George, G., 328, 414 Germain, R., 178, 405 Ghoshal, S., 356, 398 Gibson, C.B., 154, 401 Goel, M.L., 30, 401 Goffee, R., 253, 401 Goleman, D., 101, 253, 401 Gouldner, A.W., 168, 401 Govindarajan, V., 343, 401 Graen, G., 279, 399, 401 Grant, R.M., 328, 349, 401 Graud, R., 338, 401 Graves, D., 308, 309, 310, 401 Greenberg, J., 113, 127, 138, 153, 175, 224, 234, 281, 401 Greene, C.N., 277, 401 Greenfield, S.A., 82, 401 Gregory, K.L., 304, 401 Gudykunst, W.B., 178, 399, 413 Gupta A.K., 343, 401 Gupta, D., 41, 401

Author Index

Gupta, R.K., 69, 199, 201, 206, 401, 402, 404, 410, 411, 412 Guptan, S.V., 36, 41, 159, 275, 283, 300, 413 Hackman, J.R., 119, 120, 243, 402 Hall, E.T., 300, 402 Hamel, G., 23, 64, 330, 402, 408 Handy, C., 328, 402 Harris, P., 313, 402 Harris, T.A., 96, 402 Harrison, L.E., 55, 402 Harrison, R., 307, 308, 309, 402 Hart, E., 192, 402 Harvey, D., 356, 398 Hedlund, G., 331, 402 Heller, F.A., 273, 274, 402 Herbst, P.G., 12, 13, 15, 285, 402 Hersey, P., 250, 282, 402 Herskovits, M.J., 54, 402 Herzberg, F., 11, 16, 118, 402 Hickson, D.J., 14, 402, 409 Hitchock, J., 222, 402 Hobbes, T., 112, 217, 402 Hofstede, G., 37, 40, 144, 199, 275, 402 Hollenbeck, J.R., 195, 207, 402, 403 Holmes, D.S., 102, 402 Hong, Y., 402 Hood, N., 204, 232, 345, 398 House, R.J., 242, 269, 270, 271, 276, 279, 400, 402, 403 Hu, H.C., 104, 403 Hudson, D.W., 113, 403 Hughes, M.L., 48, 403 Hunt, J.G., 243, 403, 410 Ilgen, D.R., 194, 204, 205, 207, 208, 402, 403 Inkpen, A.C., 330, 403 Itami, H., 330, 403 Jackson, S.E., 194, 403 Jaeger, A.M., 19, 403, 408 Jaffrelot, C., 70, 403 Jain, U., 19, 403 Janis, I.L., 149, 159, 403 Jennings, E.E., 269, 403 Jensen, M., 232, 403 Jermier, J.M., 243, 244, 404 Johnson, R., 192, 403 Jones, G., 253, 401 Joshi, A.P., 69, 403 Joyce, W.F., 303, 403

417

Kacmar, K.M., 220, 400 Kahn, R.L., 248, 360, 403 Kahneman, D., 112, 403 Kakar, S., 16, 19, 37, 39, 42, 83, 118, 119, 169, 279, 283, 403, 407 Kangle, R.P., 33, 403 Kanungo, R.N., 19, 30, 95, 168, 254, 278, 279, 284, 342, 357, 399, 403, 406, 408, 411 Kao, H.R.S., 401, 402, 404, 407 Kashima, E.S., 346, 403 Kashima, Y., 346, 403 Katz, D., 248, 360, 403 Katzenback, J.R., 192, 199, 403 Kaur, P., 18, 403 Kedia B.L., 346, 398, 403 Keis, S., 27, 403 Keller, H., 83, 403 Keller, J.J., 305, 404 Kelley, H.H., 216, 230, 413 Kelman, H.C., 225, 404 Kennedy, A.K., 299, 308, 309, 399 Kerr, S., 243, 244, 271, 404, 410 Khan, J.A., 34, 404 Khandwalla, P.N., 15, 18, 23, 275, 299, 358, 359, 360, 404 Khanna, A., 59, 61, 404 King, S.S., 178, 399 Kipling, R., 35, 404 Kipnis, D.C., 227, 414 Kirkbridge, P.S., 178, 413 Kirkpatrick, S.A., 251, 404 Kirman, B.L., 199, 404 Kitayama, S., 98, 405, 406 Klein, H.J., 205, 416 Koestler, A., 54, 404 Konno, N., 339, 407 Kotter, J.P., 255, 404 Kramer, R.M., 251, 252, 404 Krishnan, L., 19, 404 Krueger, A.O., 63, 404 Kumar, K., 36, 404 Kumar, R., 43, 44, 45, 47, 156, 183, 205, 404 Kurman, J., 104, 404 Lam, A., 331, 404 Lambert, R.D., 16, 404 Lamm, H., 160, 404 Lannoy, R., 54, 404 Lapierre, D., 37, 38, 404 Latane, B., 152, 153, 404 Latham, G.P., 120, 121, 358, 405

418


Laurent, A., 23, 404 Lawler, E.E., 122, 408 Lawler, E. III, 199, 404 Lawrence, P., 197, 405 Lawrence, P.R., 5, 405, 410 Leana, C.R., 74, 405 Leary, M.R., 104, 410 Ledford, G. Jr., 199, 404 LePine, J.A., 194, 207, 403 Leung, K., 178, 405, 407, 413 Levi, A., 158, 397 Levine, R.V., 38, 405 Levinson, D.J., 397 Lewin, K., 11, 12, 270, 271, 405 Lewis, O., 16, 54, 405 Liden, R.C., 279, 401, 405 Liebowitz, J., 331, 405 Likert, R., 11, 13, 271, 274, 405 Lin, X., 178, 405 Lin, Z., 156, 205, 405 Lippitt, R., 11, 16, 270, 274, 405 Litwin, G.H., 303, 356, 398, 405 Locke, E.A., 120, 121, 251, 358, 404, 405 Lord, R.G., 276, 277, 405 Lorsch, J.W., 354, 405, 407 Lukes, S., 219, 405 Luthans, F., 82, 118, 179, 225, 226, 280, 283, 305, 405 Lyles, M.A., 335, 400 MacGrath, J.E., 194, 397 Machiavelli, N., 225, 251, 405 Machlup, F., 337, 405 Madhok, A., 286, 405 Magner, N.R., 250, 409 Maheshwari, B.L., 358, 365, 401, 405 Main, E.C., 160, 414 Malone, M.S., 22, 399 Mann, F.C., 248, 405 March, J.G., 158, 273, 274, 405 Markus, H.R., 98, 405, 406 Marriott, K., 37, 406 Martin, J., 220, 304, 306, 307, 406, 409 Maslow, A.H., 10, 82, 112, 113, 115, 221, 406 Maslyn, J.M., 279, 405 Mayers, B.T., 220, 406 Mayo, A.J., 246, 406 McClelland, D.C., 11, 117, 118, 124, 169, 177, 217, 218, 219, 221, 222, 252, 406 McDonald, P., 309, 331, 406 McGrawth, M.R., 308, 309, 409

McGregor, D., 10, 15, 115, 193, 273, 274, 402, 406 McLuhan, M., 20, 406 Meade, R.D., 16, 270, 406 Meckling, W., 232, 403 Mehta, P., 19, 38, 117, 406 Mehta, V., 221, 406 Mendonca, M., 19, 95, 168, 254, 284, 403, 406, 412 Miles, R.E., 235 Miles, R.H., 92, 406 Miller, E.J., 17, 406 Minton, H.L., 218, 406 Minturn, L., 222, 402 Mintzberg, H., 234, 255, 256, 406 Mishra, A., 67, 411 Mishra, B., 366, 406 Misra, G., 18, 19, 38, 118, 397, 406 Misumi, J., 271, 272, 406 Mitroff, I.I., 308, 310, 406 Moghni, S.M., 34, 406 Mohan Babu, K., 37, 49, 407 Mohanty, S., 69, 148, 170, 202, 204, 234, 311, 313, 411 Mohrman, S., 199, 404 Moore, B., 34, 407 Moore, C.A., 30, 31, 33, 409 Moreno, J.L., 149, 407 Morgan, E., 303, 407 Morris, M.W., 178, 407 Morse, J.J., 354, 405 Mount, M.K., 101, 397 Mouton, J., 273, 274, 398 Mulder, M., 229, 407 Mullen, B., 93, 407 Myers, C.A., 16, 270, 407 Myers, D.G., 160, 404 Myrdal, G., 16, 54, 407 Nadler, D.A., 360, 407 Nagandhi, A.R., 14, 300, 407 Nagbrahmam, D., 226, 409 Nahavandi, A., 199, 407 Naidu, R.K., 18, 123, 127, 408 Naidu, S., 152, 404 Nair, A., 338, 339, 397 Nakane, C., 272, 407 Nalebuff, B.J., 172, 407 Nandy, A., 42, 184, 279, 407 Natemeyer, W.E., 282, 402 Nayyar, P., 337, 401 Nevill, D.D., 126, 412 Newman, K.L., 298, 407

Author Index

Nietzsche, F., 217, 407 Nigam, A., 70, 407 Nisbett, R.E., 158, 407 Nohria, N., 246, 406 Nollen, S.D., 298, 407 Nonaka, I., 328, 338, 407 Nord, W., 220, 407 O’Donnell, S.W., 232, 344, 407 O’Leary-Kelly, A.M., 205, 399 O’Reilly, C.A. III, 100, 398 Oldham, G.R., 119, 120, 243, 402 Olson, M., 174, 407 Onglatco, M.L.U., 198, 407 Orasanu, J., 205, 407 Organ, D.W., 23, 169, 407 Orme-Johnson, D.W., 18, 407 Osborn, A.F., 160, 408 Osborn, R.N., 243, 403 Osgood, C.E., 89, 408 Ouchi, W.G., 199, 305, 408, 414 Owens, H., 328, 408 Padaki, R., 15, 117, 118, 408 Pande, N., 18, 123, 127, 408 Pandey, A., 49, 103, 411 Pandey, J., 19, 47, 117, 228, 229, 404, 408, 412, 413 Pandey, S.N., 315, 408 Paranjpe, A.C., 31, 39, 96, 97, 408 Pareek, U., 19, 44, 117, 208, 249, 298, 304, 357, 362, 365, 407, 408, 411 Parikh, I.J., 18, 368, 401, 408 Pascale, R.T., 314, 408 Paul, O., 284, 298, 411 Peace, W.H., 253, 408 Pelto, P.J., 305, 408 Pelz, D.C., 250, 408 Peplau, L.A., 227, 400 Perridis, T., 345, 408 Peters, J.W., 366, 408 Peters, T., 305, 334, 408 Pfeffer, J., 220, 232, 408 Phan, P.H., 345, 408 Pisano, G., 330, 413 Podsakoff, P.M., 23, 169, 408 Polanyi, M., 338, 408 Porras, J.I., 356, 408 Porter, L.W., 122, 408 Powers, B.R., 20, 406 Prahalad, C.K., 23, 64, 330, 402, 408

419

Pruitt, D.G., 160, 408 Pruitt, D.M., 177, 408 Prusak, L., 340, 399 Pugh, D.S., 8, 14, 408, 409 Pye, L.W., 276, 283, 409 Quinn, J.B., 328, 409 Quinn, R.E., 253, 308, 309, 409 Radhakrishnan, S., 30, 32, 409 Rahim, M.A., 250, 409 Ramachandran, S., 68, 409 Ramanujan, A.K., 33, 37, 409 Rangarajan, L.N., 43, 117, 409 Rao, A., 250, 409 Rao, T.V., 208, 365, 408 Raven, B.H., 224, 400 Rebello, K., 305, 409 Redding, S.G., 354, 407, 409 Reddy, K.P., 226, 409 Rice, A.K., 17, 409 Riordam, C.A., 93, 407 Robins, A., 252, 409 Robins, N., 35, 409 Roethlisberger, F.J., 9, 409 Rokeach, M., 125, 158, 409 Roland, A., 30–33, 35, 37–39, 41, 47, 48, 93, 98, 144, 155, 156, 184, 199, 208, 409 Rosen, B., 185, 397 Rosenman, R.H., 102, 400 Ross, L., 158, 407 Roth, K., 232, 409 Rotter, J.B., 103, 217, 409 Rubin, J.Z., 177, 408 Rugman, A., 204, 232, 345, 409 Ryan, R.N., 112, 409 Ryff, C.D., 113, 130, 410 Salancik, G., 232, 408 Salas, E., 205, 403, 407 Savarkar, V.D., 72, 410 Scarborough, J., 196, 197, 198, 410 Schein, E.H., 208, 244, 246, 255–57, 260, 313, 410, 413 Schlenker, B.R., 104, 410 Schon, D., 273, 274, 328, 329, 333, 397 Schramm-Nielsen, J., 197, 410 Schriesheim, C.A., 271, 410 Schulberg, L., 30, 410 Schwarzer, R., 86, 410 Segall, M.H., 104, 410

420


Selye, H., 127, 410 Sen, A., 43, 410 Senge, P.M., 20, 196, 328, 335, 410 Serenko, A., 328, 410 Sethi, A., 45, 404 Shah,T., 247, 410 Shapiro, D.L., 199, 404 Sharma, B.R., 15, 410 Sharma, S., 18, 168, 410 Sharma, S.K., 343, 410 Sharma, U., 127, 410 Shartle, C.L., 11, 270, 274, 410 Shukla, M., 157, 252, 331–32, 334–36, 339–40, 410 Shukla, R., 61, 410 Shweder, R.A., 19, 410 Siememsen, H., 43, 401 Silverstein, E., 185, 397 Simon, H.A., 156, 158, 405, 410 Singelis, T.M., 82, 410 Singh, A.K., 16, 259, 357, 358, 366, 404, 410 Singh, C.B.P., 231, 410 Singh, M.P., 67, 411 Singh, N.K., 284, 298, 411 Singh, P., 69, 278, 283, 411 Singh, R.B.P., 17, 179, 411 Singh-SenGupta, S., 227, 231, 250, 411, 412 Sinha, A.K, 18, 403 Sinha, D., 15, 37, 39, 111, 118, 178, 401, 402, 404, 407, 411 Sinha, D.P., 208, 405, 411 Sinha, J.B.P., 15–17, 19, 21, 30, 35–42, 44, 45, 47–49, 54, 55, 69, 73, 92, 100, 103, 117, 118, 121, 125, 126, 141, 144, 146–48, 156, 158, 159, 169, 170, 178, 179, 183, 184, 197, 199, 200, 202–206, 208, 209, 218, 221, 227, 228, 230–32, 234, 235, 246–50, 258, 270, 271, 280, 283–86, 298–302, 304–306, 310, 311, 313, 315, 326, 332, 337, 342, 344, 354, 357, 365, 367, 368, 411–12 Sinha, P., 33, 412 Sinha, R.B.N., 39, 412 Slocum, J.W. Jr., 303, 403 Smith, D.K., 192, 199, 403 Smith, P.B., 279, 286, 354, 412 Snow, C.C., 22, 406 Spencer-Oatey, H., 276, 412 Spender J.C., 329, 412 Srinivas, K.M., 18, 49, 168, 254, 412 Srinivas, N., 36, 412 Stalker, G., 354, 398 Stewart, T.A., 20, 328, 412 Stogdill, R.M., 11, 250, 251, 270, 273, 274, 404, 412 Stoner, J.A.F., 160, 412

Stringer, R.A., 303, 405 Strodbeck, F.L., 273, 274, 397 Strube, M.J., 282, 412 Sullivan, P.H., 330, 412 Super, D.E., 126, 301, 412 Surowiecki, J., 161, 412 Szulanski, G., 341, 342, 412 Taeube, F.A., 57, 413 Tang, S.F., 178, 413 Tannenbaum, A., 231, 413 Tayeb, M.H., 286, 354, 412 Taylor, F.W., 7, 8–9, 413 Taylor, G., 95, 413 Taylor, J.C., 199, 399 Taylor, S.M., 232, 344, 399 Teece, D., 330, 413 Thibaut, J.W., 216, 230, 413 Thompson, J.D., 355, 413 Ting-Toomey, S., 178, 399, 413 Tinsley, C.H., 156, 180, 413 Tiwari, A.K., 231, 413 Tjosvold, D., 276, 413 Triandis, H.C., 15, 37, 40, 143, 154, 155, 199, 346, 398, 411, 413 Trice, H.M., 315, 398 Tripathi, R.C., 19, 37, 39, 228, 406, 411, 413 Triplett, N., 151, 413 Trist, E.L., 12, 413 Trompenaars, F., 15, 38, 39, 42, 144–45, 159, 413 Tucker, A.W., 172, 413 Udy, S.H., 14, 300, 413 Ulrich, D.O., 365–66, 398 Ury, W., 184, 400 Van Fleet, D.D., 250, 254, 414 Van Maanen, J., 208, 413 Varma, P.K., 43, 47, 413 Verbeke, A., 204, 232, 345, 409 Verghese, A., 38, 413 Verma, J., 37, 47, 411, 412, 413 Virmani, B.R., 36, 41, 159, 275, 283, 300, 413 Viteles, M., 413 Vivekanand, S., 95, 413 Volkwein, J.F., 303, 407 Vroom, V.H., 122, 273, 274, 280, 414 Walker, T.G., 160, 414 Walkinson, A., 363, 414

Author Index

Wallace, M.A., 160, 414 Waterman, R.H., 305 Weber, M., 7–8, 14, 54, 278, 400, 414 Wellins, R.S., 199, 414 Wetlaufer, S., 332, 414 Whetten, D.A., 176, 412 White, R.K., 11, 270, 274, 405 White, R.W., 84, 414 Wilkins, A.L., 305, 414 Wilkinson, I., 277, 414 Will, M.J., 102, 402 Wilsnack, S.C., 218, 406 Wolf, S., 205, 399 Wong, P.K., 330, 414 Wong, G.Y., 354, 409

Woodward, J., 243, 414 Worm, V., 205, 414 Wright, N.S., 270, 403 Yarborough, M.H., 192, 414 Yetton, P., 273, 274, 280, 414 Yoshino, M.Y., 197, 272, 414 Yukle, G., 117, 179, 227, 250, 254, 414 Zaheer, A., 299, 414 Zaheer, S., 299, 414 Zahra, S.A., 328, 414 Zajonc, R.B., 151, 414 Zander, A., 138, 399 Zanna, M.P., 410 Ziegler, J., 78, 414

421

Subject Index aaram, 17, 44, 249, 377 accommodation for resolving conflicts, 17, 178, 230, 377 altruism, 47, 126, 168–69, 254, 377 apane–paraye log (in-group–out-group members), 39, 45, 141, 230, 236, 384 Aston Studies, 14 authorial personality, 16, 270, 273, 285 atman, 32, 97–98, 378 avoidance and tolerance of uncertainty, 41–42 bonded rational approach, 158, 378 bottom of the pyramid, 64, 65, 214, 378 Brahmanical idealism, 44 brainstorming, 160, 170, 378 BKO (business knowledge outsourcing), 58 BPO (business process outsourcing), 57, 378 chalta hai orientation, 44, 368 Charak Samhita, 111 chittashudhi, 254 collectivism, 31–32, 37–38, 40, 42, 44, 98, 162, 178, 197, 199–200, 205, 275, 279, 346, 379 competition, 170–73, 177, 380 Conflict intra-personal, 175–76 approach-approach conflict, 175 approach-avoidance conflict, 175 avoidance-avoidance conflicts, 176 inter-group, 179–80 interpersonal conflict, causes of, 176 managing, 177–87 third-party mediation, 178, 179, 357, 394 role of culture, 178 contractual relationship, 39–40 cooperation, 170 co-opetition, 172 daan (giving) theory of motivation, 124 as power ploy, 221 dependence proneness, 44, 116, 249, 381 Drashta bhav, 176 Dravid movement, 70, 381

422

economic scenario of India phases of economic growth, 55–56 transformation of economy, 56–61 FDI (foreign direct investment), 60 FII (foreign institutional investment), 60 bureaucratic delays, 64 gender inequality, 63, inadequate human resources, 61–63 pervasive poverty, 64 weak infrastructure, 63 regional disparities, 65 rural–urban disparities, 65 emotionality–rationality, 43–44 entrepreneurship, 36, 44–45, 54, 57, 58, 382 environmental degradation, 66 Fayol’s principles of management division of labour, 6 line of authority, 7 incentives, 7 goals of (Hindu) life arth (wealth), 111 dharma (duty), 34, 46, 111, 219, 219, 391 kaam (pleasure), 111 moksh (salvation), 32, 111 groups functions social facilitation, 151–52 social loafing, 152–54 communication, 154–56 decision-making, 156–59 groupthink, 159–60 group polarization, 160–61 structures role differentiation, 142–44 status differentiation, 144–64 norms formation, 146–48 cohesiveness, 148–50 Indian group structure, 200 types nominal, 138

Subject Index

formal, 139–40 informal, 14 in-group–out-group, 140–41 membership-reference, 141 sensitivity group, 12, 141 groupthink, 159–60 gunas, 18, 33, 111, 383 harmony, 42 hierarchical orientation, 16–17, 40–41, 47, 207, 209, 228, 249, 302, 357 Hindu goals of life, 111 Howthorne Studies, 9–10 impression formation, 92–93 impression management, 104–05 Indian cultural perspective pluralistic world view, 29–30 synthesizing mindset, 30 context sensitivity, 30–31 place, 45 people 45–46 time, 46 enabling and debilitating contexts, 46–47 cultural values, 37–44 Indian mindset primordial Hindu worldview, 31–32 indigenous mindset, 34–35 colonial experience, 35 global face, 35–37 composite Indian mindset, 37–44, 103–04 individualism, 37–39, 44, 98, 162, 183, 199, 200, 205, 206, 346, 368, 384 ingratiation, 19, 47, 92, 227–28, 230, 257, 384 Iowa University, 270 Johari Window, 93–95 judiciary, Indian, 68 knowledge organization perspectives on 329–31 forms of knowledge, 337–39 tacit and explicit knowledge, 338–39 knowledge cycle, 339–40 factors of knowledge transfer forms of knowledge, 341–42

423

members’ cognitive styles, 342 organizational characteristics, 342–43 inter-organizational relationships, 343–45 cultural distance, 345–46 knowledge community, 343 kutumbization, 278 leadership effectiveness culture, personality, organization interfaces, 99–100 organizational context task system, 243–44 organizational characteristics, 244–48 organization’s life cycle, 244–45 organizational culture-leadership-environment fit, 246–48 levels within an organization, 248 subordinates’ characteristics, 248–49 leader’s characteristics abilities and dispositions, 251–54 skills and roles, 254 dark face, 251–52 achievers, 252 humane, 253 leader versus manager, 255 entrepreneurial role, 256 culture-building role, 256–57 leadership processes, 257–58 strategy for building leadership self-development, 259 organizational support, 260 outsourcing leadership training, 260 leadership theories leader-centred theories great man theory, 269 authoritarian and democratic, 269–70 initiating structure and consideration, 270 performance maintenance style, 271–72 other dichotomous styles, 273–74 PI (pioneering-innovative), 275 paternalistic, 275–76 participative, 11 theories of interactive relationships implicit theory, 276 attribution theory, 277 transactional and transformational style, 277–78 leader as kartaa (head of the family), 278 charismatic leadership, 278–79

424


VDL (Vertical Dyad Linkage) Model, 279 LMX (Leader–Member–Exchange) Model, 279 contingency theories Vroom-Yetton Model of Decision-making, 280–81 LPC style, 281–82 life cycle situational approach, 282–83 NT-P (nurturant task–participative), 283–86 laissez-faire, 272, 273, 274, 283 learning learning organization, 328 knowledge and learning, 328–29 process incidental, 87 operant conditioning, 87 modelling, 87 purposes 331–32 types single loop, 332–34 double loop, 334–37 locus of control, 103, 217, 386 masculinity–femininity, 42 materialism, 32, 43, 44, 124, 125 Michigan University, 271, 272, 274 motivation needs typology Maslow, 115–16 Alderfer, 116 McClelland, 117 deficiency and growth needs, 116 theories of motivation two-factor theory of motivation, 11, 118–19 Hackman and Oldham Model, 119–21 goal setting, 119–21 Vroom’s Expectancy Model, 122–23 motivators and hygiene, 11, 118–19 negotiation components frames, schemas, scripts, 181–82 negotiators’ characteristics, 182–83 conditions of, 183–84 modes of, 184 process of, 184 third-party mediation, 178, 179, 357, 394 nishkaam karm, 123, 127 Ohio State University, 270, 271, 272, 274 organizational politics power games in organizations, 234–35 sources of organizational politics, 235–36

organizational behaviour contributing disciplines: 4–5 growth of, in India, 15–18 from replications, 15 through disenchantment, 16 to integration, 17 Indian approach, 18–19 global organizational behaviour, 20–24 IT enabled, 20 multinational and transnational, 21 innovative structures, products, and process, 21–24 organizational citizenship, 169 organizational culture components, 298 embedded in societal and global culture, 298–300 work culture, 300–303 organizational climate, 303–04 nature integrative, 305 differentiating, 306 fragmenting, 306 typology two-dimensional, 307–10 role-bound, 307 power-oriented, 308 task-oriented, 307 atomistic, 308 macho culture, 308 clan culture, 309 presidential, 309 pharaonic, 309–10 monarchical, 310 barbarian, 310 holistic profile soft, 311 technocratic, 311 nurturant-work-centric, 311 amoral, 312 building organizational culture founders, 313–14 employees, 314–16 OD (organizational development) organizational change and development, 352–53 culture and OD, 354–55 organizational differentiations bases of OD, 355–56 changing work setting transactional and transformational changes, 356 techniques of OD, 357 OD in Indian organizations, 357–60

Subject Index

McKinsey model, 358–59 movement model of OD, 359–60 pre-conditions for OD, 360 actors of OD top executive, 361 external consultant, 361 implementation team, 362 building human capital agentic capabilities, 363 communitarian capabilities, 364 glocal capabilities, 364 prospects and problems in OD phasing, 365 aligning with business strategy, 365–66 integrating global practices with cultural ethos, 368 prioritizing performance over loyalty, 368–69 downsizing and building social capital, 369 organizational types bureaucracy, 7–8, 21, 35, 54, 77, 315, 354, 365, 378 matrix, 22, 308, 310, 355, 386 hybrid, 22, 355, 384 virtual/network, 22, 396 outsourcing and downsizing, 73–74 perceptual processes in organizations, 88–92 personality types authorial personality, 16, 270, 273, 285 five robust dimensions, 101 emotional intelligence, 101–02 Types A and B, 102 personalized relationships, 39, 49, 103, 124, 159, 228, 233, 249, 261, 280, 283, 286, 302, 386 political scenario of India coalition governments, 66–67 corruption and criminalization, 67–68 poverty, 35, 42, 43, 55, 64, 221, 246 poverty syndrome, 35, 42, 47, 221, 389 power power, influence, and control, 216 asocial power, 216–17 experience of and need for power, 217 social power, 218–19 Indian perspective, 219–20 Indians’ need for power, 220 modes of expressing need for power, 221–24 bases of power, 224–26 personal and positional power, 224 contingency model, 226 power strategies, 227

425

power tactics, 227–28 determinants of power strategy, 229–30 management of power relationships, 230 power in vertical groups, 231 power in horizontal groups, 232–33 power in multinational organizations, 231–32 direct–indirect power relationships, 233 power and leadership, 249 prisoner’s dilemma game, 172 scientific management, 8–9 self formation biological, 83–84 social, 84–86 moral, 95 dimensions, 95–97 Hindu view of self, 97–98 cultural construction of 98–99 self-actualization, 10, 111, 112, 115, 116, 117, 221, 386 semantic differential scale, 89, 391 sensitivity group, 41–42, 145, 146, 392 sneh–shradha (affection–deference) mode of relationships, 207, 219, 220 social milieu of India caste, 69–71 family, 69 model of organization, 6 familial culture, 372 job reservations, 70–71 Hinduism and politics, 71–73 sociometry, 149–50 socio-technical approach, 12–13, 140 spirituality, 18, 32, 43, 98, 112, 393 stress nature, 127 causes and solution, 127–28 Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, 13 teams genesis, 192 characteristics of, 192–94 diversity–consensus dilemma, 194–96 Scandinavian teams, 196–97 Japanese teams, 197–98 American teams, 199 Indian teams, 199–200 team-building in Indian organizations, 206–09 types departmental teams, 201–02

426


cross-functional teams, 203–04 multicultural teams, 204–05 culture in team-building, 205–06 Theory X and Y, 10, 11, 273, 394 tight culture, 73, 305, 394 time and motion study, 8–9 turiya avastha, 96 values values and needs, 124–25, 249 Indian values, 18, 31, 37, 69 western, 12, 17, 18, 19, 36

universal values, 95 work values, 125–26 vertical solidarity, 200 well-being Indian conceptualization sthitaprajna (steady wisdom), 111 nirdwandwa (without self-doubt), 111 trigunatita (beyond gunas), 111 Maslow’s conceptualization, 112 eclectic approach, 113 whistle blowing, 170

About the Author Jai B.P. Sinha is Professor, Psychology and Management at the ASSERT Institute of Management Studies, Patna. He has a long-standing career of over 40 years in research and teaching. He is an authority on cultural influences on organizational behaviour. He taught psychology in Bihar, Ranchi, and Patna universities. He was a Visiting Professor at Hunter College, New York, and Wake Forest University, NC (USA), where he taught social psychology. He taught cross-cultural management courses during his tenure as a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal (Canada). In 2005, he was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Management at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Professor Sinha is also a well-known writer and has authored several books. His latest publications include Patterns of Work Culture: Cases and Strategies for Culture Building (SAGE 2000), Managing Cultural Diversity for Productivity: The Asian Ways (ed.) (Asian Productivity Organization 2000), and Multinationals in India: Managing the Interface of Cultures (SAGE 2004).

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Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain, 1660-1760

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The Politics of Social Work (Sage Politics Texts)

Texas! Sage

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Blue Sage

Eagle-Sage

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Understanding drugs and behaviour

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Organization and Economic Behaviour

Adaptive Behaviour and Learning

Nonverbal Behaviour and Communication

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Language and social behaviour

Management and Organisational Behaviour

Red Sage

Eagle Sage

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The SAGE Handbook of Healthcare (Sage Handbooks)

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Texas! Sage

Culture and Organizationational Behaviour (Sage Texts)

Applied Psychometry (Sage Texts)

Sage

Differential Calculus and Sage

Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain, 1660-1760

The Politics of Central Europe (SAGE Politics Texts series)

Local Governance in Western Europe (SAGE Politics Texts series)

The Politics of Social Work (Sage Politics Texts)

Texas! Sage

Texas! Sage

Neuseeländische Sage

Blue Sage

Eagle-Sage

Tibetan sage

Understanding drugs and behaviour

Understanding Drugs and Behaviour

Organization and Economic Behaviour

Adaptive Behaviour and Learning

Nonverbal Behaviour and Communication

Understanding Drugs and Behaviour

Poultry Behaviour and Welfare

Society, Behaviour and Epilepsy

Language and social behaviour

Management and Organisational Behaviour

Red Sage

Eagle Sage

Sage Creek

The Sage And The Housewife

The SAGE Handbook of Healthcare (Sage Handbooks)

Sage Creek

Texas! Sage

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