In terms of organizations, India is a very paternalistic country what means that the boss concerns very much about the welfare of his employees and organizations work almost as families. They are a very collectivistic society, but it does not necessarily mean that they bring that collectivism to work, in which they look for personal development. They work in teams as long as they are told what to do and they try their best to avoid direct confrontation bringing up excuses.
The local workforce is very attached to traditions what often leads them to the dilemma of embracing modern life or stay attached. They respect seniority rather than experience and they accept expatriates as long as they behave as Indians.
They have been very successful upgrading their labor force skills and have been able to evolve and change their management style to fit today’s world.
This table will present a brief comparison between the Traditional Management style and the Contemporary Management Style.
THE CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA
It has been used for many years and has played a major role in creating the values in which the country is based in. It is said that the caste system gives a “sense of order and peace among people”. When a person is born into a caste, he will live, marry and die within the same caste. It means every person has its own place in the society and by accepting it they prevent society from disintegrating.
There are five different levels in the caste system: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Harijans (untouchable). Members from the lower castes often suffer from discrimination within the organizations. They are forced to live apart from te rest of the people and they get the worst jobs.
It is said that the caste system excludes the element of competition because one cannot move through the different levels, but thanks to India’s economic expansion are paying less attention to castes and looking deeper into a person abilities and experience. It does not mean that castes are irrelevant but as long as the country continues it expansion they are likely to lose importance and real competition may appear.
QUESTION
What do you think are the reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India?
The first step towards the creation of an outsourcing industry in India was the opening of the Indian economy to multinational corporations. After opening its economy, India supported the new process on its highly prepared and educated workforce being able to deliver a high quality service. Focusing on a constant development and improvement of technologies, India created a mixture of three elements (education, quality and technology) to become the world’s leader in the outsourcing industry.
Being more specific, CAMS as a leader company in the outsourcing sector in India states that if a company wants to achieve and maintain sustainable competitive advantage it is necessary to focus on technology as well as in human capital.
Focusing on human capital means upgrading employee skills, building a strong culture of learning, great emphasis on training and development, promoting exchange of information between employees “in an attempt to create a more knowledgeable work force and constantly seeks to transform the organization into a “knowledge enterprise”. (Vijaya, T.G., D`Netto, Brian and España, Juan. 2007. “HR Challenges at Computer Age Management Services (P) Ltd.” The Management Case Study Journal 7 (2): 41-51.)
If a company is able to develop such activities and philosophy it will be able to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.
Focusing on technology means achieving technological sophistication in order to provide the company’s clients with novel, quick and high quality service. The final purpose is to provide greater value to the customer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vijaya, T.G., D`Netto, Brian and España, Juan. 2007. “HR Challenges at Computer Age Management Services (P) Ltd.” The Management Case Study Journal 7 (2): 41-51.
Callaham, Terence and Pavich Roxanna. Indian Caste System. [online] available in http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/india.htm
Images from: Lennart Poettering, Panoramic View of Devaraja Market, Mysore, Karnataka, India