The Managerial and Social Hierarchy of India

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Our world is diverse: peoples of different countries and even different parts of the same country have different mind-sets. Indian society is group-oriented, that means the interests of a society are more important than the interests of an individual. Although these days people become more and more individualistic, especially in megalopolises, even know we can see the cases when a father kills his daughter under the pressure of local society ("to protect the family and village honour").
There are several reasons for group-oriented way of thinking, which defines the managerial culture in India. The most important reason is financial insecurity. India is a country with huge population, and though unemployment rate looks relatively low (3.8 % ), the absolute number of unemployed people is high. As the chance to find a good job is low, “authority and resource-distribution in a typical Indian family takes place so that the father hands over the family business to the eldest son, and all other children work in different areas of the same business under the leadership of the eldest son”. Family promotion can be noticed in big companies as well (Tata, Birlas, Mittals etc.).
Strong social hierarchy is another feature of managerial culture in big Indian companies. “The boss is definitely not expected to perform any seemingly 'menial' tasks such as making coffee for everybody or moving chairs in a meeting room. The boss is expected to give explicit instructions, which will be followed to the letter - even if everybody knows well that the instruction is incorrect.” So boss behaves like a boss, otherwise he will lose his employees’ respect, and employees do not contradict him in fear of losing their jobs.
Social connections help to run businesses in subsistence marketplaces, and in particular, in such a poor country like India. Low income Indians prefer to shop in more expensive local shops than in cheaper wholesale markets, because in local shops, regular customers can get a loan for food items and other important goods. It is crucial in conditions of unstable income and unsecure future. In addition, poor illiterate people are loyal to the same local shop as they get due respect during their shopping, while in other unknown shops their illiteracy can be rudely exposed and they will feel humiliated. Madhu Viswanathan, Professor in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, perfectly explained the importance of social connections and customer loyalty in Indian society from a low-income customer perspective in the following passage:

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