At a recent training program at the local office of an MNC I was told unambiguously by the participants: “The rule is clear. If we are told by our ‘white’ counterpart to do it then we just have to do it.” I asked for further explanation before jumping to conclusions. What I was given to understand was that even though the American and Indian offices ostensibly work together, it is understood that one person’s word will have to be accepted over another even at the same designation level. No, that is not done after talking it over but is the diktat straight away.
So what is this?
From the one side the American company may just believe that its local employees are better-equipped to take more suitable decisions than its Indian employees. It may feel that it has better controls this way. It is not so confident about its employees who don’t have the American approach and training. And, it is ready to take the responsibility for that decision.
From the other side, the Indian employee could feel like almost bonded, mute labour. And in such a situation, a designation could become a bit of a joke. The self-esteem of the person who has to work in such a place may take a daily beating. He may stick around but with no interest or sense of pride in his job. Not the best way to grow an organisation, I imagine.
Not surprisingly, I have on many occasions found the energy and morale in this place very low. Lackadaisical time-keeping, initial ennui among participants; unimpressive co-ordination are some of the very unattractive features during the sessions.
So I continue to ponder: What makes people stay in such a work environment? Does the new generation have a completely different, may be a more practical take on this? Am I reacting with the cross of History on my shoulders? Do Indian MNCs have similar, unwritten rules for their employees in the West?
Have you been exposed to this kind of governance, directly or indirectly? Please do share your thoughts.
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ReplyDeleteresponse via email:
ReplyDeleteHi thought provoking item.
Anooba Kini.
another response via email:
ReplyDeleteNice one. This phenomenon may be as direct as this in some but definitely covert or subliminal in most MNCs. The only way I have realised of overcoming these barriers is to provide genuine value - with your thinking, ideas and action.
Westerners do approve of people who are willing to stand up and be counted and appreciate thinking that is contrary to their own, so long as you show how the job will get done and there are no procedural, ethical/ moral boundaries that you transgress in the process.
The problem I see in the scenario you've shared is one of leadership - is the leader in India convinced of his/ her team's capability to deliver and is he convinced that what they suggest add value to the goal of the project? If so, let him/ her take a stand and give it a shot at influencing others and see what happens.
Any organization which has a strong D&I ( Diversity & Inclusion ) policy would never condone such behavior
ReplyDeleteSo No we don’t have such issues in our organisation
Ganesh Natarajan
Thanks Ganesh for reading and participating. I understand that a strong D & I policy along with an assertive but non-egoistic leadership would get one closer to the desired results.
Deletecomment via email:
ReplyDeleteDear Nirupama,
Seasons Greetings.
Its been always a pleasure receiving email from you. Trust you are doing fine.
Well the questions posed in your email being multiple but seems to be three fold:
a. Decision making
b.Racial discrimination ( Poor Morals/ lack of proper approach etc.)
c.Lack of Training (Low self confidence/ Leadership qualities etc.)
Well, all this boils down to one single point in the organization:
TRAINING. (By HR and other external sources) at the time of joining and on regular intervals.
I am sure we Indians have much better IQ's in our respective roles and day to day functionaries to reach the top and achieve best desired results. Its, I guess the lack of proper training and inculcation of certain leadership qualities which are required through a process by the Organization at all levels, especially at critical positions, where interaction with the Sales teams, Customers, (Internal Customers) etc. are a part of the routine function.
I feel these are my thoughts to your issues.
Cheers,
S
S,
DeleteI do agree with you that the leadership at the top management as well as the lower rungs could be more assertive. It would help to have a person stand by his team if he believes in the capability of the team.
And yes training at the entry level and through the time they spend in the organization would help to build this confidence- to be able to stand by what you say without letting the ego take the upper hand.
I have been all over map with this, I have worked as offshore contractor, offshore employee, onsite consultant working with offshore contractor, onsite employee with offshore employee, USA employee with India team.
ReplyDeleteThe single most issue is of responsibility and ownership (or lack of it)
If I get a remote team who will see issues to its end I am happy to give them complete control, but we don't get such teams that often. There are many who want share of fame but none of blame.
DeleteHi Nirupama - you raise some interesting issues, as always.
ReplyDeleteMy experience is in the Uk and Europe with indigenous and International Companies - so you will need to decide how closely this fits with Indian business and commerce.
Firstly, the Indian employees "perceive" a difference in MNC's "espoused culture" and its "culture in practice". Perhaps you should test this, to discover if their perceptions are accurate.
Next - why do they stay? The answer to this may be in exploring the nature of the "psychological contract" they have with their company. Clearly, in the matter above "the fit" is not good. But what about pay, security, chance to develop and use their skills, prestige from working for the company? "The fit" here may be closer and more to their liking.
In one company with a very strong work hard/play hard company culture, the employess and the managers often expressed to me privately that they found the management style obvious, parental and false. Yet their pay and benefits were high and mostly they really enjoyed the parties and rewards of the "play hard" side. Senior managers said to me - the job here is tough and this style of management keeps people motivated and helps our employees live with the tough elements. It seemed to be so.
I have only come across one person who left a company because the moral values part of the contract offended him. This was someone working as a copy-wrihter in a drugs company. On the other hand I found non-smokers who were vigorous in refusing cigarettes and strongly opposed to smoking - still stayed with their company - that paid well and was a market leader in the tobacco industry.
So, as always people's alignment with their organisations is a personal one and often appears to be contradictory. Plenty of interesting areas to pursue therefore. Hope this helps you a little with MNC.
Regards
Michael. (HR-England)
in most conflict-management, smoothing out operations aspect, its best to start and keep on highlighting the win-win aspects to all sets of groups, opinion-makers involved.
ReplyDeleteKeep at it as the core of problem-solving because you have to first get everybody's attitude in correct perspective of giving, receiving and sharing.
there are many case studies available online which will have more nitty-gritty on how to overcome such obstacles. one can find them by researching google with the correct keywords.
Gautam Sharma
I hope you remember that there is a difference between the Workers, Supervisors, Managers, Those trusted with Governance and the Owenrs. One has to recognize them by the function they discharge and not by fancy desingations that are given to different groups/people. If you talk to the supervisors and workers they will tell you what these guys are telling no matter whether it is in India or abroad.
ReplyDeleteProblems is that you think you are addressing senior managers (also seconded by their titles/designations and high slalries) but find that they are only supervisors and /or workers.
Salaries do not decide the role but the job contents do.
With regards and best wishes,
Harsh Kumar
response via email:
ReplyDeleteYou've raised something very interesting.
My take, during my limited 3-year experience here is, whether you are white,black, brown or yellow, you belong to a personality type that will either listen, reason or retaliate. Anyone who wants to dominate you, will do it if they are given a chance to do it. The customer is of course always right, irrespective of his race. And if the only white people Indians have dealt with are customers or bosses, they are right! With other white colleagues, it really depends on their own background and attitude towards multi-cultural workplaces.
Manjiri
May be the initial perception and hostility towards the 'white people'- definitely prevelant in a bid to be not seen as a sycophant- may be creating a vicious downward cycle in this particular case. Also cultural differences may be the culprit oftentimes in the communication gap becoming an ever-widening chasm. In all these years of training Nirupama, how many clients actually get cross-cultural training done, after all? So people assess the attitudes of the 'alien' by what's passed on to them from colleagues. So if an American boss says something he says it very,very straight. The listener wasn't warned that that's how direct his comment will be and takes offence and harbours a grudge that grows. The other way round, a British colleague rued over how all "Indians' at the discussion table would always nod and smile. So he would think that he had sold his point. And then? And then they would never sign the agreement! It took several years for him to understand that we smile so as not to offend but it in no way means that we agree!
ReplyDeletevia email:
ReplyDeleteDear Nirupama:
i am going to be upfront here and hope you understand my views.These are my experiences in the past having worked with atleast 4 MNC and ofcourse, my personal opinion.
Count automobile companies like Maruti, Honda Motors , Honda Motorcycles, Hyundai and perhaps many more.....................All have one thing common. All companies do not have a single indian on the board. Dont you find this strange? Such acts would not find acceptability in GCC, Iran, Iraq , China, Japan or even Vietnam.
More and more MNC will be managed directly by Gora's and operationally by indians in the future. FDI will only help the scope of flexibility to offer expatriate positions in India which could be managed by indians and a thrid of the cost.
Era of top guns such as Indira Nuyi , Pandit have faded with the success of the legal pronouncement of punitive measures on Rajat Gupta. Pandit was as unceremoniously removed from Citibank as Shashi Tharoor in UN.
More scope for Expatriate Gora's in India and less and less opportunities for indians in the European and American Shores. The game changer was as swift as the entry of Astro - Turf in Hockey in the 80's throwing indian hockey into the dark black hole. Indians and Pakistanis never recovered from the under the belt changes.
When we got the better of teh Goras in Test Cricket , out came the 50-50 One - day international concept.Here we Indians got the better of them and even went a step forward with the maverick pioneer Lalit Modi with the new T20's. Like squabbling crabs we bought shame to the concept, much to the amusement of the whites.
Tomorrow , when i resign from my position as the Vice President - HR, my company will likely bring a French lady to take over my position in India.
Not forgeting the tension all HR - Heads go thru every year on MNC merit increase budget, where in every single year, we get to hear , the same old response on how MNC's decision to balance the globalbudget equally with ecomomical dead white based companies at the cost of our booming economy.
Training programmes in China are more relevant to all these MNC where in it is considered more appropriate to send indian talent to Shanghai rather than the IIM's.
I could go on and on about this but then let us face it its plain simple white hegemony and i dont mind screaming at the top of my voice- Its Racial!
Regards
Soum