Abstract
The book entitled “Organisational Studies in India” is a good compilation of several Indian works in the related field. In this book, editors—R.C. Tripathi and Rohit Dwivedi have tried to synthesise research on various topics related to organisational studies in India. The book is easy to read and is written in a very lucid manner. Apart from academicians, the book has a special appeal for the practitioners who are engaged directly with human resources (HR) department and make organisational interventions at multiple levels. The book has a potential to become a direct reference for HR professionals and organisational consultants worldwide.
Including the introductory chapter, the book has a total of 17 chapters. These chapters have been categorised into four sections. The sections are titled as “Micro-Level Issues”, “Performance-related Issues”, “Transformation and Change” and “People’s Organisation”. Before the start of these sections, authors have introduced the book through their chapter entitled “Organisational Studies in India: Towards a Multi-Lens Perspective”. In this introductory chapter, they have explored the historical roots of organisations by referring to ancient India, colonial India, etc. They have also briefly discussed economic, cultural and political contexts of organisations in India.
The first section deals with micro-level issues in organisations. This section comprises of five chapters.
The first chapter entitled “Motivation and Values” authored by Ritu Tripathi, raises the issues related to culture differences and work motivation. It argues that importance of the topic is all-time high given the fact that in many organisations the workforce is increasingly becoming multicultural. Implications of cultural differences for modern organisations have been discussed. To discuss this the author uses some indigenous concepts too, such as Dharma and Karma. The work presented in this chapter is very interesting. However, like many other studies in the field, it has the limitation of treating Indian and Western cultures in a monolithic manner. A page or two, highlighting the cultural differences within India would have further made the chapter richer.
In the second chapter entitled “Justice and Identity: Implications for the Workplace”, the author Purnima Singh highlights the importance of social justice in Indian organisations. The issue is of international importance and may be interpreted in a global context by incorporating the aspects of race, colour, ethnicity, etc. The chapter discusses the intricacies such as injustice perceptions, power structure, etc., which are involved in the relationship between justice and identity. Toward the end, arguments for inclusions are presented. In a paragraph, the chapter has also tried to link the issues of justice and identity with the related human resource development (HRD) policy of India, for example, caste related policies. However, the policy has been discussed in a very limited manner, and that too, mainly from the public-sector perspective. The chapter needs to incorporate the emerging issues in the field. For instance, due to internationalisation of the workforce, the issue of race too has entered India which requires a discussion.
The third chapter entitled “Reframing the Leader–Follower Relationship” has been authored by Mamta Srivastava. In this chapter, a review of various leadership theories has been done. An interesting categorisation of theories has been done in terms of indigenous and non-indigenous types. The category of non-indigenous types covers range of theories, such as trait theories and behavioural theories. In the indigenous category Nurturant task leader, OCTAPACE model, etc. have been presented. Author has also presented her own framework to examine the leader–follower relationship. However, in the given context of this proposed framework, the chapter requires a more detailed discussion about changing context of leadership. Today, corporations demand a lot of flexibility from their employees including CEOs and senior managers in terms of playing different roles. In one team a senior manager can play the role of leader while in another team she needs to play the role of follower. Further, both maintenance and transformation roles are expected from the leaders.
The fourth chapter entitled “Excellence in Leadership Development: Structural Similarities beyond Cultural Dissimilarities” authored by P. Sethu Madhavan is also on the topic of leadership. In the context of Leadership Excellence Determinants (LEDs) one interesting audit framework has been presented in this chapter. The audit framework is likely to be of great interest to HR and Organisational Development (OD) professionals, and leadership coaches/consultants. The author has also presented example of evidences for LEDs audit which may be used by practitioners. However, the chapter needs to present the benchmark data highlighting the best practices about LEDs audit. It will be more useful for readers if evidences are presented as appendix rather than case study.
The fifth chapter entitled “Emotional Climate of Organisations” has been authored by Alka Bajpai and Supriya Chaturvedi. This chapter discusses several studies and presents the argument that Indian organisations are very complex and vary in terms of emotional climate. The chapter seems to suggest that latent level emotional and social universe of Indian managers may differ from their western counterparts. Thus, there is a strong need of deeper exploration, and present indigenous lenses. This way the chapter presents a very important research gap and is likely to be of great interest to researchers in the field of organisational behaviour, psychology and related fields. The chapter has very effectively dealt with various contextual factors of emotional climate. These factors include nature of work, organisational structure, etc. However, it is not clear how these factors operate and interact at individual, group and organisational level. A categorisation of factors at these three levels shall help the reader in appreciating the role of these factors. An insight into the interaction amongst factors might make the chapter further interesting.
The second section deals with performance-related issues in organisations. This section comprises of three chapters.
The sixth chapter entitled “Job Performance Research: Review and Future Directions” by Shailendra Singh, deals with Indian studies done in the area. Specifically, it covers those studies in which job performance measurement has been carried out. The chapter provides specific suggestions such as need of conceptualisation and measurement of job performance, for researchers in the field. Further, as the job performance is multi-dimensional consisting of both defined and undefined parameters, situational and depends on several factors including industry type, the summary of studies presented in the chapter could also incorporate industry context in which these studies have been conducted.
The seventh chapter entitled “Organisational Capital” has been authored by Anamika Pandey. In this chapter the concept of organisational capital and its components have been dealt with. The chapter also presents an approach to measure organisational capital and compute an index for organisational capital. Though the method of computing organisational capital presented in the chapter, has a lot of limitations (e.g., problems in assigning weights to different components of organisational capital), nevertheless, the approach and the method of measurement is an interesting attempt and could be used as an input for other studies in corporate valuation. Currently, the chapter seems to be more of a research article than a book chapter. So, the chapter is not congruent with the style of other chapters of the book. Further, a more detailed presentation of the constructs of human capital, learning capital and ethical capital would have made the chapter more interesting.
In the eighth chapter entitled “Transgressive Behaviours in Organisations”, Rashmi Kumar and Seema Singh present a review of studies done in the area. The authors have suggested a research framework that could be used for finding new research gap in the domain. The chapter discusses various theoretical explanations of transgressive behaviours in organisations. A presentation about rationale related to usage of these theoretical explanations will help the reader in appreciating the theoretical context and possibilities which a study of transgressive behaviour might involve.
The third section deals with issues related to “transformation and change in organisations”. This section comprises of four chapters.
The ninth chapter entitled “Reinventing Educational Organisations” has been authored by Rajeev Sharma. In this chapter, the author presents his arguments regarding organisational changes through cases. A total of eight cases of Indian schools imparting education from nursery to class XII have been discussed to build the argument for reinventing schools in specific cases. The author’s ideas will also be useful to educational institutions in general. A table comparing various aspects of schools such as their structure, leadership, etc., might have been more effectively presented information about heritage, leadership, shared vision and community involved in educational organisations. Schools also need to be compared with other educational institutions like universities, and a question needs to be raised concerning how leadership in these two set of organisations differ?
The tenth chapter entitled “Making Sense of Organisational Change”, by Rohit Dwivedi, presents memetics as an approach to understand organisational change narratives. Different kinds of memes, such as resident memes (organisation practices and rituals in the organisation for the longest period), imported memes (borrowed from the outside organisation and/or other similar organisations) and potent memes (evolving combination of memes), have been discussed in this chapter. This should be of great interest to both academicians and practitioners who want to explore this methodology in detail. The chapter, however, ends abruptly. There is no summary or conclusion. Perhaps a summary highlighting the key concepts and their applications will improve the readability.
The eleventh chapter entitled “Emotions as Vehicles of Organisational Change: Learning from Some Indian Narratives” has been authored by Anand Prakash. In this chapter, narrative analysis of emotions has been discussed. The findings (emergent emotional themes—fears of change, frustration and repair, contempt and disgust and hurt and disappointment) discussed in the chapter, have clear implications for managing organisational change like ones led by merger and acquisition. Practitioners are likely to find this chapter very interesting as managing organisational change has become a very common requirement nowadays. Analysis of stories has led to identification of themes as findings. Perhaps findings call for usage of the construct of “empathy” which is currently missing in the chapter.
The twelfth chapter entitled “Subaltern Narratives of Organisational Change” has been authored by Chandranshu Sinha. Findings presented in this chapter are very interesting and relevant. In the context of policy framing, with an objective of social inclusion, a study of subaltern narratives is very critical. In the literature of organisational studies, the subaltern has primarily been studied from the perceptive of productivity, efficiency, demand and supply, etc. However, deeper insights are required in terms of understanding how subaltern looks at her role in the organisations, society, etc. By incorporating these issues to some extent, the chapter presents arguments which have clear implications for policymakers. As the meaning of the term subaltern is contextual depending on nature of society, government and organisations, a more detailed discussion on the term in the introductory section of the chapter was required. In the current form, it is not very clear that what is subaltern except that it is non-dominant.
The thirteenth chapter entitled “Aligning People Product/Services and Processes: The A3P Model for Strategic Change and Development in Organisations” by Mala Sinha uses indigenous concepts (having roots in the ancient Indian literature) to build the arguments about alignment. The chapter discusses the findings of the study covering four service sectors, viz., hospitality, higher education, IT and private healthcare. Findings reflect on differences with respect to knowledge orientations across sectors. For instance, knowledge coordination is reported to be the highest for hospitality sector. The chapter could further deal with the question as how effective A3P model shall be in the context of changing roles and teams. The alignment/re-alignment needs to be linked with learning and unlearning also.
The fourth section of the book is entitled “People’s Organisations”. The section discusses sector-specific issues, that is, issues faced by Co-operatives, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and Not-for-Profit Organisations (NPOs). This section comprises of three chapters.
The fourteenth chapter entitled “Organisational Behaviour in Co-operatives” by Saswata Narayan Biswas, reviews various studies carried out in the field. This chapter also discusses unique aspects of co-operatives. From the perspective of HRM, the chapter highlights implications in terms of reward system, public image and hiring potential. It is not, however, clear on what basis these areas of implications have been identified.
The fifteenth chapter entitled “Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India” by G.V.P Rajan, discusses work culture of PSUs and tries to arrive at dominant organisation forms of PSUs. Incorporation of two more sections might make this chapter more interesting and relevant. The first section could be on the differences between twenty-first century and twentieth century PSUs and the second section could get into comparison with large private organisations. For instance, in PSUs as well as in large private organisations, many employees seek long-term employment. However, motives for the long-term employment are often different in these two sectors. Motives toward the long-term employment in PSUs might very often be restricted to job security, whereas in private sector these might mean faster promotions and other rewards like lucrative employee stock options.
The sixteenth chapter entitled “Not-for-Profit Organisations (NPOs)” by Rekha Singhal focuses on terms and typologies associated with NPOs. Toward the end, it discusses the issues which need to be explored in future research. Academicians interested in the topic are likely to find this chapter very useful. In one section, the chapter has highlighted promises and challenges of NPOs which seem to be primarily derived from author’s own reflections. In another section, the author presents emerging areas for organisational behaviour research. An integration of these two sections might make the chapter more impactful.
The book ends with the sixteenth chapter. The list of contributors to the book is very impressive in the sense that many high-profile scholars from India have made their contribution about organisational studies in India. Another attractive feature of the book is the coverage of a wide variety of subjects pertaining to management of organisations in India. By covering vast and complex topics the book justifies its name. The book is likely to be used as a reference book by academicians. Young researchers who are at the stage of exploring research topics will particularly find this book to be of a great source for exploring their research interests. For practitioners, it is likely to act as a good source of reference that can be utilized from time to time for consultancy, and organisational development/interventions as several action models have been presented in the book. The HR research and consultancy firms may particularly find this book useful from a methodological perspective.
The book seems to have attempted analysing certain significant issues of organisational functioning using multiple lenses. This objective of the book could have been achieved better if it was conceptualised in terms of issues which make Indian organisations different from their western counterparts, for example, usage of extended family as resource, caste, etc. rather than organisational-functioning related issues. Using only indigenous lens (focusing on conceptualisations which evolve from the original Indian text) could have been another option. In its current form, the book offers plurality of perspectives and views, but the book is predominantly with Euro-lens. It is not clear if many of the concepts and models discussed in this book will be applicable to the sociocultural and political environment of India, and other South Asian countries. It is not certain if sufficient literature exists with respect to the evolution of indigenous organisational studies in India. Though individual works on Indian management are there but it is very difficult to capture the same at a systemic level. Given the existing situation of research and writing about organisations in India, the book is an excellent attempt for promoting future research on the structure and management of organisations in India.
This book shall surely make the reader think what indigeneity means in the context of organisational studies in India. By creating such a debate, it deals with the fundamental question of Indian schools of thought concerning management of organisations. The book makes one realize about such a need, and thereby does justice to the topic.