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:
Thousands of years ago, Indian society developed into a complex system based on different classes. This system was known as the Caste System. It separated Indians into different castes based on what class were born into. As thousands of years went by, this system grew larger and became further complex (Wadley 189). This system caused frustration for the Indian citizens because they were receiving inequality. Not only did the inequality and separation of the Indian society frustrate the citizens of India, but the imperialism Britain had upon them as well. In the early 20th century, Indian nationalists wanted to take a stand against the British rule and make India independent. The British created unfair laws that created a nationalist movement
All the decision making in centralized, all the workers have to follow the direction delegated from the higher authority without any hesitation. In mechanistic culture there is individual specialization. Workers work separately in their delegated task. This reduces supervision cost as proper subordinates are performing the task to their best capabilities. Workers can’t transfer their duties and responsibilities to other subordinates. It results in embedding discipline among the employees. There is high level of standardization too, as clear rules and regulations are demonstrated to the employees on how to perform the work. More emphasis on completing the task for the organization and achieving their goals. Top level management knows what’s the right decision for the firm. They don’t ask for any suggestions or advice from the lower level management. This reduces time in decision making, implementation is occurred quickly. Sometimes quick decision making results favourable in some circumstances. These firms usually have narrow span of control as all the authority is managed by the higher level management. Workers have the less autonomy to make decision, workers work individually and team based approach is very rare in this structure. Mechanistic culture might not be beneficial for the employees, but for organization such as Delhaven this is best suited for
Aspects of the perceived culture in an o organization, such as, level of communication among members, the level of support in regard for new innovations and technology, as well as the amount of support by upper level management all have a positive influence on the manner employees behave and interact with each other as well as how they treat consumers and suppliers. If employees emulate a manager that does not share the same values and beliefs of others within the organization, or that does not share a good work ethic, employees will not complete tasks and fail to be productive. It works as well in the opposite manner; when employees see a manager who supports a company’s mission, its goals, and business strategy, the organizational culture of the company will aide in providing a clear direction for employees to follow and strive towards. Ultimately, the culture supports desire business strategies and the overall mission of an organization, and the capacity of the culture is dependent on just how intensely employees share the values and basic assumption of the
Hindu society as a whole is divided into various small groups called castes each of which are well developed social groups. The membership of the caste is determined by the consideration of birth and children are automatically part of the caste that their parents belong to. Each caste group has its own privileges and rules in which are adopted by new generations and passed onto the next. Caste membership is an unchangeable and unarguable fact by which the male and females position in the social structure is entirely determined. Even if the person’s status, occupation, education and wealth may change the membership of that particular caste will still remain the same. Since this is usually a lifelong membership there is almost no social flexibility, however a low caste has been able in a generation or two to raise itself in the hierarchy. This is after gaining economic and...
The Indian core values are individualism, family, spirituality, success, age, and adaptability. Care providing professionals should understand these core values within the Indian culture to help understand these people. People from India are very traditional in their beliefs. It is considered an insult to touch anyone from India with your left hand. Another insult would be...
The Indian government is corrupted and makes promises it is unable to keep. In The White Tiger, Balram describes that the government is “...the world’s greatest democracy. What a fucking joke.” (Adiga 145). When Balram lived in Laxmangarh his right to vote for the prime minister was taken from him, due to the fact that running candidates pay the current government to make sure they are elected. The government system also enables the rich to get richer. They do this by immensely taxing the poor and enforcing the caste system on the poor. The caste system is a labeling system you were born into and of what you are expected of in life. For example Balram had the caste of Halwai, which is derived from “sweet-maker”. This meant Balram was expected to work...
The theory suggests that the nature and quality of the company’s leaders is an important factor of the performance and job satisfaction of their subordinates (Glisson 1989). The theory implies that managers while in control need to be capable of maintaining cooperation from his or her employees. In this type of leadership style, the employees would be encouraged to share opinions and ideas. Staff would feel engaged in decision-making and creativity would be rewarded. The leader would be flexible, open to communication, and respectful of new
Dr. Sutton highlights what it takes to be a good boss. People that work for a good boss are 20 percent less likely to have a heart attack (Sutton, 2010). Dr. Sutton wrote that teams with stronger leaders cost the company less money and achieved their work better (Sutton, 2010). Engagement and performance of employees were based upon their direct boss and not if the company was good or bad (Sutton, 2010). Most bad bosses have employees who have check-out: actively disengaged, and undermine their co-workers accomplishments. Managers have to find the balance between performance and humanity to be successful. Performance is about doing everything possible to help followers do great work; while humanity is about employees experiencing dignity and pride. Treating managerial work as an endurance race instead of a sprint race with small wins will lead one to becoming a good boss called grit by Sutton. Sutton believes that good bosses walk a constructive line between being assertive and not assertive enough with guidance, wisdom, and feedback that he called Lasorda’s law (Sutton, 2010).
It is these ideas that that sometimes promote the wrong image to Indian society. By promoting the ideas of caste people may be influenced to do the same in real life which can result in an array of situations. People may run away from home, or even commit suicide as a result of not being allowed to be with whom they please.
Throughout the course of this paper, I have discussed Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions where I broke down these dimensions. Additionally, I have stated how India tends to appreciate the hierarchical relationship structure, is a collectivist country and leans towards being a more masculine society. Additionally, India tends to possess a medium to low preference towards uncertainty avoidance and leans towards being a future oriented society. Having lived in the United States for almost a decade I think I have become more “Americanized”. India is a great country and I’ll always visit it in the future, but from the way things are going I am going to permanently settle down in New York where I would like to start my career and family.
In each society, there are different types of rules and ideologies that are used in order to help govern its people. Within these communities, these rules create a social hierarchy developed through a ranked system based on either economic value or religious beliefs. A type of ranked system that most people are familiar with is the Caste System in India, which is a system of classification in a society based on birth. This complex social structure is most prevalent in India, where social hierarchy is in affiliation with Hinduism. It recognizes two concepts known as Varna and Jati. Varna is a word in Sanskrit meaning color and includes four main groups: the Brahmans, Kshtriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. The fifth group, the most segregated caste in the system, is the Untouchables. Within each Varna contains an array of sub-caste called Jatis, which are also based on birth. The rules of the cases are governed through religious ideas of purity and pollution. These two socially constructed ideologies determine whether or not you were respected in the community. Caste assignments in India are predestined at birth rather than a personal choice. Individuals act and dress like those of their own caste in public, due to strict caste laws. Pressures of these rules tend to brainwash people into conforming into what society considers pure, as we’ll see in Kakar & Kakar’s reading. As human nature takes precedent, caste rules become less relevant. Indulging in one’s own desires or needs, especially during times of hardship, outweighs any types of rules that we’ll see in Freeman’s reading and the movie Distant Thunder. Though the caste system is such an intrinsic part of life, when faced with needs to survive, it becomes nothing more than just a...
India sits in the middle of the scale and can be considered both individualistic and collective. There is great need for belonging to a bigger social framework. In Indian culture family is highly stressed. They strive to increase and preserve their family’s riches, by working hard in order to maintain the family’s dignity and insure the longevity of their offspring.. On the other hand the individualistic aspects of Indian culture are influenced by the major religion in India, which is Hinduism. Hindus believe in reincarnation where past lives are seen as affecting and determining the present life, as a result of this individuals are responsible for how they live their lives and how that will impact their next lives. Since aspects of both individualism and collectivism are present, India scores intermediately in this dimension. (Cultural tools, n.d.)
Simply speaking, a company’s structure and design can be viewed as its body, and its culture as its soul. Because industries and situations vary significantly, it would be difficult and risky to propose there is a “one size fits all” culture template that meets the needs of all organizations” (Nov 30, 2012). Those organizations who have shared beliefs and values and have organized methods on chain of command going to have positive outcomes. This will help shaping their employees views and performances. The growth and profit of the business relays on their employees and their performances. Culture is the core which will help and encourage all different level workers. If the core itself is weak, it will weaken the atmosphere of the business. Many companies announce that they have great culture but fail to implement to the lower level of workers. The basic issue is when organization has one set of culture and thinks one culture will meet the needs of all the workers. Each business is different and each individual is unique and have different beliefs and behaviors. The culture that is right for one individual might not work the same for the others. The ideal approach in this case would be, looking at the bigger picture of diverse working environment and give importance and respect to what are the ranges of business firms to achieve the perfect culture for organization. Sometimes one size fits all will not going to fit anybody, so the organization have to keep their ideas open and value everyone’s presence respecting all of their culture for the betterment and
Richard L.D considers that organisation was a clear goal, a well-designed structure and coordinating the activities of the system, social entities associated with the external environment. Along with the development of the economy, organisational culture's influence on employee behavior is the most used more and more big, in general, organisational culture is refers to the organisation in long-term survival and development for the organisation which is formed by the holdings of members and is said to follow the value of the system. Organisational structure refers to all members of the organisation to achieve organisational goals and the division of writing, the scope of duties, responsibilities, rights, etc formed by the structure of the system. Developing the ideas of Harrison , Handy describes four main type of organisational cultures: the power culture; Role culture and task culture, and the person culture.
Organisational culture can be defined as a total function of common beliefs, values, patterns of behaviour that held and shared by the member in an organisation. It is also a valuable resource which can improve competitiveness of a company and uses to distinguish the company (Barney 1986). From 1970's the study of organisational culture has become an important issue and closely studied in early 1980s. Since then organisational culture turned out as one of the most important factors which affects the overall performance of a company. It brought organisational culture to the performance of a company which has become a critical topic in management department. In addition to what organisational culture is, organisations need to aware and prepare changes of the expanding workforce from business growing. Companies are facing with maximizing benefits as well as profits while minimizing negative factors that comes from those changes. There is no only one answer for the issue, but some of guidelines are clear. Awareness of organisational culture, teamwork, individual performance, external environment adaptation, leadership, and measurement of organisational culture are key factors that lead a company performs better.