Recently one of my senior colleagues frantically called me up from abroad and told me that he is coming back to India with his family. I was surprised – not because he is coming back but because of the reason that he had labored hard to get to the States and was doing well, so what made him feel like returning to homeland now all of a sudden. Later I found that he was finding it difficult to manage his children. Born in a foreign country, they had slowly started adopting the culture of the land. This transformation was not liked by the couple who could barely find time to teach their children the right type of values. After numerous efforts and failures, they decided to come back.
A tremendous ‘amount’ of change has taken place in our lives in the past one decade. With the global economy tiding past the rough weathers and the Indian market tightening up its belly for the big game, things are set to change even more and at a faster pace.
Of all the welcome things that could have ever happened to us is the availability of a plethora of job opportunities and services that were perhaps an unimaginable thing !!. The Indian psyche has also witnessed this sequence of events and has aligned itself to tune with the challenges.
The concept of modern services has had a remarkably different kind of manifestation in the Indian context as compared to the western context. There is a clear reflection of our Indian identity in our businesses and somewhere down the line there is a feeling as if we are loosing our traditional values. The growth of the urban elite can classify this change and rattle our minds as to where are we heading to? Maybe the coming generations would radically define their preferences but truly speaking ‘we’ Indians are not used to such kind of environment. We cherish the social bonds and love to dance and make merry to country music in a ‘baraat’ rather than go for ballrooms. We may be relishing the Mac Burgers and the pizzas as they are now there to define the status-food but it is ultimately the ‘desi chai’ that strikes the right cord and is still a widely accepted social gesture. We may have forgotten our rich heritage in the almost two centuries of colonial rule and we did miss out the dramatic changes during the industrial revolution but there are so many important learnings embedded in our ancient literature that hold good in our context. They have been formulated by none other than our own ancestors after years of careful research and experimentation.
I was bogged down by the mesmerizing influence of mall culture in my town. From the inaugural day onwards, there was so continuous and heavy rush of customers that the roads got congested due to parking that the district administration had to intervene to make things smoother. You may not agree that our way of doing things seems to be a bit undisciplined !! and we are in a habit of breaking all rules – ride on the wrong side of the road, cross a traffic signal or pee on the great national highways !
I recall an incident my Uncle used to narrate. He was attending a conference in States where many Indians were invited. As the organizers may have realized that their Indian guests may prefer to give a call back to their homes every now and then, they arranged a kiosk for making free ISD calls. At the beginning of the session, this message was announced and lo behold !! there was a beeline to the kiosk to make calls to home. Forget about the sessions and the lectures, people were busy making phone calls to almost anyboby to tell that they were calling from “amreekaa”.
Our penchant for anything western is evident since ages in many areas be it education, management, the household goods we buy, the clothes we wear or what we speak or listen. We derive pleasure when we speak English, wear jeans and go to Cine plexes. We do lack a national spirit – one that defines the Chinese or the Japanese who prefer to speak in their own native language and have in fact transformed technology to suit their requirements. There is a burgeoning craziness for going abroad, working and staying there to get the much-coveted “green card”. Yes, these are the new status symbols and are now defining the benchmarks in the social circles. Technological improvements are a must, however they must not tinker with our value system. Technology must make our job easy rather than ourselves going after it. Often I come across young college pass outs who have picked up some marketing skills and have caught up some small time jobs. These guys speak ‘broken’ English and try to impress their customers. If you happen to be in Delhi or any other metro you would witness this. The point is not the standard or accent of their English but the popular belief that speaking English is an attractive proposition.
Another example of our inclination towards adopting western customs are the management concepts. We are adept at aping the outside world. We have Japanese technology, Chinese technology and so on. But when it comes to developing one of our own, we feel helpless. The scarcity of job opportunities and the dwindling rural economy had led to the migration of the rural folk to the nearby cities and metros. Our ignorance of key developmental issues – water, electricity, housing & roads has had a severe impact on the traditional familial values. So much has been lost on the social front in the garb of development – the Indian psyche had shunned its joint-family system long ago and has gradually adopted a micro family system to keep in line with the changing trends. The anguish of staying away from near and dear ones, the feeling of being missed out in the social circles looms large and it does make a dent some where. The inequities of the availability of resources still exist. Cities near metros like Gurgaon, Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, Vizag etc are fast expanding. Villages are disappearing and along with it the green cover and natural resources as people have no other option but to sell off their land in order to make a decent living. People have been forced to move closer to the markets. These markets too miserably failed in absorbing this huge rush. Examples galore – migration of laborers from economically underdeveloped states like Bihar, some parts of UP to Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. These few metro cities as we call them cannot sustain such large populations. There is a surplus of unskilled manpower in these cities leading to unemployment and frustration among youth. Today also, these cities lure people holding out a promise that is uncertain and unpredictable.
There is a strong appeal towards these new trends. Maybe they are seen as parameters that have proven themselves as key factors for success or have established themselves as ‘strong’ indicators that offer hope of getting success. But where is our originality? Are we progressing towards a mature society? What are our values? A deeper analysis can reveal some astonishing results.
We share a strong value of commitment – it is very much evident from our customs. We are so habituated to following regimens that we forget to even question why they existed in the first place. We miss out the relevance of our customs. Our familial values teach us commitment right from childhood – be it by tying a rakhi to one’s sister, performing the ‘saat phere’ during marriage or by performing ‘pooja’, hawan etc. All these symbolize our commitment in various forms that are to last long for years maybe till death. So, truly speaking commitment is ingrained in the Indian psyche and is a striking feature of our “Indianness”. We relish to gossip of yester years and our contributions. I strongly believe that we can keep our valuable human resources with the organization for a longer period provided we are able to generate an enabling environment. The primary excuse that an HR professional would make is to quote attrition trends across the globe and justify the phenomenon back at home !! The respect for our elders is another distinguishing feature of our “Indianness”. We learn from early days that seniors are respected. This order is followed with devout adherence. ‘Touching the feet of parents/ elders’, standing when some elderly walks in are signs of respect. We value our workplace. We worship it, pray to God to protect it from ill happenings. We celebrate Vishwakarma puja and ganesh puja at our workplaces. Our work is of importance to our family and we are dedicated towards it. Perhaps this is “Indian ness”, but do we have any Indian management philosophy? Is there anything “Indian” that we can speak of regarding the way we organize businesses and services? There is no harm in customizing ‘foreign’ business practices to suite our requirements, but are they as effective as they should have been ? Are they in tandem with our social values or do we need to have to change our work values to feel better in the changed circumstances? I bet many people are unconsciously at crossroads and have compromised with the demands of the situation. In such circumstances, there is a force that misleads people towards a more chaotic state - away from their roots and traditional values. The worst scenario is the identity crisis that we shall soon be facing. Can HR develop a niche for stirring the long dormant sensibilities for carving an identity of our own – an Indian identity in the global business scenario? Can we not transport these old and time tested traditional values to our workplace. Shall we not depend on them so that there is less conflict of values and a strong work culture is developed? Are there any takers?
The Indian economy is positioned in a better way to become one of the strongest economies of the world. In order to sustain the present status and to face challenges, it is essential to have “Indianness” in the way we manage our organizations – a link with our past, our values and our roots because for future we would not like our next generations to look back and ask us as to what we have done?
