rkagrawal paper1

68 Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Organisational culture in Indian organisations: an empirical study

Rakesh Kumar Agrawal* Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author

Archana Tyagi University of Business and International Studies Geneva, 6 Place Chevelu, Geneva CH-1201, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This paper explores the nature of organisational ethos prevalent in different sectors of Indian economy using the OCTAPACE profile. Analysis of data collected from employees of 16 different organisations belonging to consulting, manufacturing, services and IT/ITES sectors indicate that significant differences exist in the cultures of organisations in the different sectors. Authenticity and autonomy are more valued in consulting as compared to the manufacturing and services industries. Openness and confrontation are higher in the IT/ITES sectors, while collaboration is higher in the manufacturing sector. Private sectors have an open and a trusting culture as compared to the public sector. Results also reveal that employees who are professionally qualified rate confrontation, authenticity and autonomy higher than those who are not professionally qualified. However, no significant difference exists between males and females in their evaluation of organisational culture.

Keywords: organisational culture; India; sector-wise; OCTAPACE.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Agrawal, R.K. and Tyagi, A. (2010) ‘Organisational culture in Indian organisations: an empirical study’, Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.68–87.

Biographical notes: Rakesh Kumar Agrawal is an Associate Professor of OB&HR at the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India. He obtained his PhD from IIT Roorkee after completing his MTech in Behavioural and Social Sciences from IIT Delhi and BTech from IIT Bombay. His primary research interest is in the area of humanistic principles of management and related issues. He has a number of publications to his credit.

Archana Tyagi is a PhD in Psychology, DM&SP (Clinical Psychologist) from CIP Kanke, Ranchi and MA from BHU, Varanasi, India. She has experience of nearly 15 years in the areas of teaching, research and executive education. She has been a Professor of OB/HR at IMT, Ghaziabad and has worked as Area Chair – OB/HR and Chairperson – PGDBM (HR) in IMT. She is a qualified trainer of MBTI and DISC. Her research focuses primarily on personality, work-life balance and organisational culture. Currently, she is based in Geneva and is associated with UBIS-Switzerland as an adjunct faculty.

Organisational culture in Indian organisations 69

1 Introduction

An organisation’s culture, which is its soul, comprises the collective values of the individuals that make up the organisation. Each individual has his/her beliefs that translate into personal values which, expressed collectively, shape an organisation’s culture (Haines, 2000). Culture also operates as a ‘social control system’ (O’Reilly, 1989). It communicates how things ought to be and defines the “unwritten rules of the game” (Scott-Morgan, 1994). Culture can be felt in the implicit rules and expectations of behaviour wherein employees know what is expected of them, even in the absence of written rules (Saxena and Shah, 2008).

A clear understanding of organisational culture is important for all organisational managers and leaders because it influences the way their organisations react to the changing demands of the business environment. At any given time, the culture of an organisation is strongly influenced by the past successes and past learnings about how to adapt and survive. As the business environment changes, leaders must constantly anticipate the necessary changes and actively monitor the relationship between the demands of the environment and the capabilities of the organisation. However, most successful changes also require changes in mindset, in values and in behaviours of organisation members. Without creating these changes, changes in basic capabilities of the organisation are impossible. Many organisations are discovering that successful change requires careful attention to the ‘soft’ side of organisations – the values and beliefs that are the ‘heart of the company’, the policies and practices that put those values into action, and the importance of teaching organisational members an understanding of how they create value for their customers (Denison and Neale, 1996, pp.1–4).

Organisational culture has been perceived to have a great impact on a range of organisationally and individually desired outcomes (Mc Naughton, 2003). When organisation members identify with the culture, the work environment tends to be more enjoyable, boosting morale. This leads to increased levels of team work, sharing of information and openness to new ideas (Goffee and Jones, 1996). Organisational culture also affects the way in which people consciously and subconsciously think, make decisions and ultimately the way in which they perceive, feel and act (Hansen and Wernerfelt, 1989; Schein, 1990). Koh and Boo (2001) found that three measures of organisational culture (top management support, ethical behaviour and career success) are positively associated with commitment of employees. Similarly, Chusmir and Koberg (1988) found that employees’ personal belief in organisational culture had a direct effect on commitment with increased empowerment. In a recent study of R&D professionals in India, Saxena and Shah (2008) found that organisational culture had a significant role in creating or removing learned helplessness.

In the light of the importance of organisational culture to managers and leaders in a changing business context and its possible impact on organisational outcomes, this study empirically examines the organisational ethos of Indian organisations in various sectors, an area which, although quite significant, is still under researched. The rest of this paper is organised as follows: The next section reviews the literature on organisational culture, especially in the Indian context. This is followed by a development of the objectives and the methodology of the study. The results and discussions are described next, while the final section gives the conclusions emanating from the study.

70 R.K. Agrawal and A. Tyagi

2 Literature review

Culture is a complex and vague term not easy to define (Mohe, 2008). More than 50 years ago Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) compiled a list of 164 different definitions of culture. The origin of the concept of culture lies in the ethnographic studies of anthropology, where specific tribes or societies are observed, and a set of observations about their norms, rituals, language, physical structures, stories, etc. are noted (Geertz, 1973). Thus culture denotes a set of common theories and behaviours or mental programs that are shared by a group of individuals (Earley and Erez, 1997). A commonly used definition of organisational culture is ‘the way we see and do things around here’ (Saxena and Shah, 2008, p.29). An organisation’s culture encapsulates what it has been good at and what has worked in the past. Since culture is a complex phenomenon – its elements ranging from underlying beliefs and assumptions to visible structures and practices- some observers question whether culture can actually be ‘measured’ in a comparative sense (Fey and Denison, 2003). However, it should be noted that organisational culture facilitates the acceptable solutions to known problems as members learn, feel and set the principles, expectations, behaviour, patterns and norms that promote high level of achievements (Marcoulides and Heck, 1993; Schein, 1992).

In the literature, culture as a construct has been studied at different levels. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) put forth the concept of national value orientations and their influence on organisational systems. National culture has the potentiality to influence the relation between the organisational culture and the individual outcomes (Agarwal et al., 1999; Chow, 2000; Lee and Mathur, 1998). Trompenaars (1993) conceptualises culture as the way people solve problems, particularly in connection with relationships, time and external environment. Hofstede (1980) has conceptualised national culture as the ‘collective programming’ of the mind that distinguishes inhabitants of one nation from another. He initially proposed four dimensions of national culture: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism and masculinity–feminity; and later added a fifth dimension, viz., long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. However, other researchers question the homogeneity present in national cultures (e.g. Meek, 1988; Singh et al., 2008). Culture cannot be analysed in terms of a universally unitary concept (Meek, 1988). Culture is embedded in the context and cannot be understood fully without taking that context into consideration. Mohe (2008) proposes a four-level cultural framework for bridging the cultural gap in management consulting research: micro-culture-based consulting research focusing on the individual consulting firm or client firm; meso-culture-based consulting research focusing on relationships between consultants and clients; macro-culture-based consulting research focusing on role of consulting within their particular social or national setting and inter-culture-based consulting research focusing on the role of consulting across countries or societies.

Culture plays an important role in every individual firm as, self-evidently, each firm has its own culture (Mohe, 2008). Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and Waterman (1982) suggest that organisational culture can exert considerable influence in organisations particularly in areas such as performance and commitment. A high degree of organisation performance is related to a strong culture, that is, a culture with well integrated and effective set of values, beliefs and behaviours (Cameron and Quinn, 1999; Deal and Kennedy 1982; Denison, 1990; Juechter and Fisher, 1998; Kotter and Heskett, 1992). Several other empirical studies support the positive link between culture and


performance (Calori and Sarnin, 1991; Chatman and Jehn, 1994; Denison and Mishra, 1995; Gordon and DiTomaso, 1992; Kotter and Heskett, 1992).

Organisational culture has also been linked to knowledge management (KM) in organisations. Kyriakidou (2004) has stressed that one of the key drives to a successful KM strategy is ensuring that an organisation embeds a rich cultural environment into its vision and mission. KM can be used to developing an innovative culture. Srinivasan (2004) has found that approaching new cultural and community focused domains yielded new, satisfying techniques towards the management of knowledge. Zhu (2004) has explored the cross-cultural concept in KM and finds heterogeneity among KM styles would continue because of differences in histories, cultures and institutional forces.

2.1 Organisational culture in the Indian context

India is one of the fast growing economies in Asia. Several organisations outside India have been evincing interest in the country but not much research has been done so far to throw light on effective management practices in the Indian context (Singh and Krishnan, 2007). Indian work culture indicates that high-power distance, collectivism and affective reciprocity are major cultural values of Indian managers (Chhokar, 2000). Singh and Krishnan’s (2007) study suggests that transformational leadership does not manifest in the same set of behaviours in the Indian cultural context as it does in the Western world. In addition, a criticism against Hofstede (1980) is that he treated large nations like India as single units. Authors on Indian culture have noted the diverse elements that are part of the culture, but have highlighted an underlying unity behind that diversity (Gupta, 2002; Sinha, 2000). Pearson and Chatterjee (1999) have commented that “Within the context of organizations, Indian employees can embrace global work values while retaining deep connection to their societal culture”. Sinha and Kanungo (1997) tried to provide a sociological explanation and the coexistence of the ‘global’ and ‘local’ in Indian’s organisational behaviour on the basis of what they call ‘context sensitivity’ and ‘balancing’. Context sensitivity is basically a thinking principle or a mind-set that is cognitive in nature and it determines the adaptive nature of an idea or behaviour in context. Balancing is a behavioural disposition to avoid extremes and to integrate or accommodate diverse considerations. Context sensitivity mindset and balancing disposition in Indian culture suggests that Indian managers have the potential to integrate, blend and accommodate traditional values and western management practices in order to render their organisations effective in the face of global competition (Sinha and Kanungo, 1997, p.96 and 103).

Singh and Kedar (1991) have studied organisational culture in terms of achievement, extension, control and dependency. Pillania (2006) has studied the state of organisational culture for KM in the Indian industry. His study of software, pharmaceuticals and petroleum marketing companies reveals that there is a lack of organisational culture for knowledge creation, sharing and dissemination which could affect the competitiveness of these firms, the industry and the country as a whole. Saxena and Shah (2008), based on data collected from 332 R&D professionals from India, have concluded that the dimensions of organisational culture are negatively related to learned helplessness. Singh et al. (2008) question the homogeneous conception of Indian national culture and look at national culture from a multidisciplinary perspective by exploring the antecedents of culture formation. Using social, historical, institutional, economic and geographic variables, they suggest 10 different clusters of Indian states that manifest different cultures.


3 Objectives and methodology

3.1 Objectives

The current decade has witnessed a surge in interest in examining the concept of organisational culture as managers become increasingly aware of the ways by which an organisation’s culture can affect employees and organisations (Saxena and Shah, 2008). Culture becomes important in understanding an organisation, and by extension, groups of organisations, as organisations in the same sector might be facing similar challenges and problems from the external environment and might develop similar internal response mechanisms. Pillania’s (2006) study on the state of KM in Indian industry has revealed that cultural barriers in KM differ across the software, pharmaceuticals and petroleum marketing sectors. Yet, while increasing space is being devoted in literature in examining organisational culture, there are hardly any recent studies that empirically examine the organisational culture in the different sectors of Indian economy. The current research intends to fill the gap by examining the organisational culture in different sectors in India.

In addition, research on organisational culture indicates that culture is central to the change process and to the attainment of strategic objectives (Bluedorn and Lundgren, 1993). In the organisational change process, it is imperative for managers to understand current organisational culture. This enables change management strategies to be developed that are appropriate for the organisational context (Kanter et al., 1992, p.202). While suggesting a model for cultural change, Pareek (2004, p.50) opines that “cultural change must be built into the system so that the new culture becomes a part of the organization”. Public sector organisations are expected to be in a state of flux as they shift away from traditional models of public administration under the influence of prescriptions of effective management derived from the experience of private sector organisations (Hughes, 1994). Many public sector companies in India are still undergoing transformations to compete with those in the private sector ever since the opening up of the Indian economy in early 1990s. They can be expected to increasingly model their private sector counterparts and even the multinational corporations as they strive to compete in the marketplace. This can be conceptualised as a process of organisational isomorphism in which public sector organisations are moulded to match or mimic the best practices of private sector organisations (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Metcalfe and Richards, 1992; Osborne and Gaeber, 1992; Rhodes, 1991). Thus this paper also explores the organisational ethos of public and private sector organisations in the Indian context.

Finally, an understanding of the culture will enable managers to understand the distinctive psychological dynamics and develop greater awareness about the underlying assumptions, beliefs and values of the employees. It will also be useful in designing and implementing change processes if required.

In the light of the discussions above, this study is formulated with the following objectives in mind:

1 to conduct an exploratory study of organisational culture of Indian organisations in different sectors

2 to explore the differences in the cultures of public sector and private sector organisations, if any


3 to evaluate and discuss the gender-wise differences in the perceptions about organisation culture, if any

4 to explore whether employees with professional qualifications (PQs) have different perceptions about culture than those without PQs.

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 Sample

Employees of 16 different organisations belonging to different sectors in India were administered the OCTAPACE questionnaire. However, only those organisations which allowed access to employees for data collection were studied. For organisations whose offices were present in the National Capital Region of India (NCR) (i.e. in and around Delhi), the questionnaires were administered personally to the respondents and collected after about a week. For a few organisations located outside the NCR region, the questionnaires were sent as email attachments. Those who had not responded were reminded again and a second attempt for collecting the filled in questionnaires was made after two weeks. Out of the 640 respondents initially targeted, only 260 questionnaires were returned completed. Out of these, six response sheets could not be used due to a large number of incomplete responses. Thus, the final sample consisted of 254 responses from 16 different organisations, yielding a response rate of 39.7%. These respondents belong to 16 different organisations in 4 different sectors of Indian industry – services, manufacturing, IT/ITES and consulting. In the final analysis, 3 organisations (37 respondents – 14.6%) belonged to the services sector, 6 organisations (92 employees – 36.2%) to the manufacturing sector, 4 (72 employees – 28.3%) to the IT/ITES sector and 3 (53 employees – 20.9%) to the consulting sector.

Of the 254 respondents considered for the final analysis, 186 (73.2%) were males and 138 (54.3%) were married. The average age of the respondents was 28.11 years (SD = 5.25). On an average, they had a total work experience of 5.17 years (SD = 4.92), out of which 3.53 years were spent on an average in the current organisation. About 51.2% (130) of all the respondents had received professional education, while the rest did not have a professional qualification (PQ).

3.2.2 Measures

The current research utilises Pareek’s OCTAPACE profile instrument (Pareek, 2003). This is a 40-item instrument that profiles organisational ethos along eight dimensions – openness, confrontation, trust, authenticity, proaction, autonomy, collaboration and experimentation. In addition to being an acronym for these values, OCTAPACE is a meaningful term, indicating eight (octa) steps (pace) to create functional ethos (Pareek, 2003). Pareek (1994) strongly recommends that organisations should make an attempt to develop OCTAPACE culture or culture of mutuality and value orientations in organisations. Empirical studies conducted by eminent scholars indicate that the culture of OCTAPACE values is imbibed in the culture of many organisations to a good or moderate degree (Alphonsa, 2000; Bhardwaj and Mishra, 2002; Kumar, 1997; Kumar and Patnaik, 2002; Mishra et al., 1999; Rao and Abraham, 1999). These values help in fostering a climate of continuous development of human resources (Mufeed and Rafai, 2007).


In the OCTAPACE instrument, each item is measured through five items. In the first part of the questionnaire, 24 items (three items for each dimension) representing values that are valued in the organisation are required to be answered on a 4-point scale. The second part contains 16 statements (two for each dimension) on beliefs. The respondent checks (on a 4-point scale) how widely each of them is shared in the organisation.

The meaning and indicators of the various value dimensions covered in the OCTAPACE profile are elaborated further in Exhibit 1. In our study, the reliability of the scales for each of the dimensions varied between 0.703 and 0.755. These are shown in Table 1 along the diagonal.

Apart from the 40 items in the OCTAPACE questionnaire, the questionnaire also contained items seeking information about various background variables like age, gender, experience, educational qualifications, etc. Exhibit 1 The eight value dimensions of OCTAPACE profile

Openness: a spontaneous expression of feelings and thoughts, and sharing of these without defensiveness. Openness is in both directions – receiving and giving. Both these may relate to ideas (including suggestions), feedback (including criticism) and feelings. Openness may also mean spatial openness, in terms of accessibility. Offices without walls are another symbolic arrangement promoting openness in the organisations. Confrontation: facing rather than shying away from problems. It also implies deeper analysis of interpersonal problems. Confrontation has been linked with exploration – facing a problem and working jointly with others to find a solution to the problem. The outcome of confrontation is better role clarity, improved problem solving and willingness to deal with problems and with difficult employees and customers. There is also a willingness in teams to discuss and resolve sensitive issues. Trust: trust is defined as maintaining confidentiality of information shared by others and not misusing it; a sense of assurance that others will help when needed and will honour mutual obligations and commitments. The outcome of trust includes higher empathy, timely support, reduced stress and reduction and simplification of forms and procedures. Authenticity: the congruence between what one feels, says and does. It is reflected in owning up one’s mistakes and in unreserved sharing of feelings. The ultimate outcome of authenticity in an organisation is reduced distortion in communication. Proaction: taking the initiative, preplanning and taking preventive action, and calculating the payoffs of an alternative course before taking action. Proactivity gives initiative to the person to start a new process or set a new pattern of behaviour. Autonomy: using and giving freedom to plan and act in one’s own sphere. It develops mutual respect and is likely to result in willingness to take on responsibility, individual initiative and better succession planning. The main indicator of autonomy is effective delegation in organisation and reduction in references made to senior people for approval of planned actions. Collaboration: giving help to and asking for help from others, working together (individuals and groups) to solve problems and a team spirit. The outcome of collaboration includes timely help, team work and improved resource sharing. The indicators can be productivity reports, more meetings, involvement of staff, more joint decisions, better resource utilisation and higher quality of meetings. Experimentation: using and encouraging innovative approaches to solve problems, using feedback for improving, taking a fresh look at things and encouraging creativity. Creativity is reflected in new suggestions generated by employees, attempts at improving upon previous ways of working, trying out a new idea to which one has been exposed, innovating new methods and thinking about a problem while ignoring so called constraints.

Source: Pareek (2003); http://www.citehr.com.


Table 1 Means, SDs and intercorrelations among the study variables (N = 254)

11

(0.7

64)

10

(0.7

75)

0.39

6**

9

(0.7

06)

0.13

9*

0.23

1**

8

(0.7

56)

0.05

1

0.07

9

0.02

1

7

(0.7

03)

0.23

9**

0.13

7*

0.16

9**

0.20

6**

6

(0.7

44)

0.03

3

0.44

5**

0.12

2

0.14

5*

0.07

2

5

(0.7

15)

0.32

5**

0.04

9

0.36

6**

0.05

9

0.32

7**

0.05

7

4

(0.7

14)

0.15

9*

0.22

5**

0.20

5**

0.12

6*

0.20

9**

0.17

6**

0.28

4**

3

0.53

5**

0.01

5

0.20

3**

0.09

8

0.16

9**

0.20

4**

0.10

9

0.30

9**

2

0.02

4

0.01

8

0.18

5**

0.04

3

0.15

1*

0.04

6

0.14

6*

0.07

5

0.05

3

1

0.01

4

0.06

0.04

9

0.06

6

0.02

2

0.00

8

0.02

8

0.05

7

0.11

2

0.02

7

SD 0.44

0.50

0.46

2.84

2.36

3.05

2.53

2.83

2.43

2.44

2.61

Mea

n

0.73

0.51

0.70

14.1

8

14.2

1

13.8

9

12.1

7

14.4

9

12.8

3

14.7

4

13.6

2

Gen

dera

Prof

essi

onal

ed

ucb

Publ

ic/p

rivat

ec

Ope

nnes

s

Con

front

atio

n

Trus

t

Aut

henc

ity

Proa

ctio

n

Aut

onom

y

Col

labo

ratio

n

Expe

rimen

tatio

n

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

**p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. aMale = 1, female = 0. bYes = 1, No = 0. cPrivate = 1, public = 0. Note: Alpha reliabilities are given in brackets along the diagonal.


3.2.3 Data analysis

Data analyses were carried out using SPSS software (version 15.0). Independent samples ‘t’ tests were used to test the differences in perceptions about organisational culture between two sets of respondents (male–female, public sector–private sector, professionally qualified– not PQ). One-way analysis of variance, along with Duncan test, was used to study the differences in culture across the sectors.

The next section gives the results and discussions flowing from the analysis.

4 Results and discussions

Table 1 lists the means, standard deviations and intercorrelations among the study variables. It is seen from the table that gender is not correlated significantly with any OCTAPACE values, while professional education has significant and positive correlations with confrontation (r = 0.185, p < 0.01), authenticity (r = 0.151, p < 0.05) and autonomy (r = 0.146, p < 0.05). It seems that employees who are professionally qualified exercise greater autonomy and are willing to confront problems directly. It is also seen from the table that public–private sector has significant positive correlations with openness (r = 0.535, p < 0.01), trust (r = 0.203, p < 0.01), autonomy(r = 0.204, p < 0.01) and experimentation (r = 0.309, p < 0.01) dimensions of OCTAPACE. Private sector organisations thus seem to have a more open, trusting, autonomous and experimenting culture than the public sector organisations. Openness is also positively and significantly related to trust (r = 0.225, p < 0.01), autonomy (r = 0.209, p < 0.01), collaboration (r = 0.176, p < 0.01) and experimentation (r = 0.284, p < 0.01); proaction is positively correlated with confrontation (r = 0.366, p < 0.01), trust (r = 0.445, p < 0.01) and authenticity (r = 0.239, p < 0.01); while experimentation has a positive and significant correlation with authenticity (r = 0.206, p < 0.01), autonomy (r = 0.231, p < 0.01), collaboration (r = 0.396, p < 0.01) and openness (r = 0.284, p < 0.01). These results seem to validate Ahmed (1998) – that empowerment in the presence of open cultures that guide actions and behaviours produces both energy and enthusiasm for working towards an innovative goal.

4.1 Gender and culture

The gender-wise differences on OCTAPACE dimensions are shown in Table 2. Gender refers to the set of culturally expected personality, behaviour and attitude attributes associated with being one sex or another in any given society and is perpetuated through institutionalised gender symbolism and gender structures; categories for gender in many societies are ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ (Hawkesworth, 1997). The mean age for the female respondents in our sample was 26.51 years, while it was 28.69 for males. About 50% of the female respondents and 51.6% of male respondents were professionally qualified.


Table 2 Gender-wise differences on OCTAPACE dimensions

Gender Mean t-Value Sig (two-tailed)

Female 14.41 0.782 0.435 Openness Male 14.10 Female 13.96 1.048 0.296 Confrontation

Male 14.31 Female 14.00 0.348 0.728 Trust Male 13.85 Female 12.13 0.126 0.900 Authenticity

Male 12.18 Female 14.62 0.441 0.660 Proaction Male 14.44 Female 12.60 0.904 0.367 Autonomy

Male 12.91 Female 14.29 1.782 0.076 Collaboration

Male 14.91 Experimentation Female 13.74 0.432 0.666 Male 13.58

Note: n1 = 68 for females; n2 = 186 for males.

t tests reveal that there is no significant difference about the perceptions of organisational culture among the males and females (p > 0.05). The results are in line with the findings of Niranjana and Pattanayak (2005) who also could not find any difference in the perception of organisational ethos with respect to gender. This indicates that organisations have a unified work culture. In addition, women’s occupational aspirations have been found to be similar to those of men (Powell and Butterfield, 2003). Over the years, a pronounced shift in job attributes and aspirations has taken place in relation to the career prospects of the women. In India too, with increasing education, changing social norms and growing aspirations among women, recent years have seen a surge of working women in India, many of them in professional roles (Bhatnagar, 2008). Women aspiring to managerial careers placed more importance on the opportunity for challenging work and the opportunity to utilise their education than did their male counterparts (Bigoness, 1988). Women in higher occupations were even more concerned with job content than were men (Hofsted, 1980). The changing aspirations of Indian women has been highlighted in the words of Padaki (2008, pp.118–124): ‘The resulting ‘progress’ in the status of urban women is very noticeable. Highly qualified women have made a mark in practically every field. They have broken their traditional boundaries, competing with their male counterparts at every stage of their careers.’ It is this progress in the social, economic and career status of females that gets reflected in the similarity of perceptions about organisational ethos.


4.2 Does professional qualification matter?

Table 1 revealed that there was a strong relationship between three dimensions of OCTAPACE instrument – confrontation, authenticity and autonomy – in relation to professional and non-PQs. The data are further subjected to ‘t’ tests to find out if there are differences in perceptions about organisational ethos between those who have a PQ versus those who do not possess a professional qualification (NPQ). The results are shown is Table 3 and confirms that perceptions among the two groups differ along the dimensions of confrontation, authenticity and autonomy. The means are higher for PQ for confrontation (PQ = 14.64, NPQ = 13.77, ‘t’-value = 2.989, p < 0.01), authenticity (PQ = 12.54, NPQ = 11.77, ‘t’-value = 2.432, p < 0.05) and autonomy (PQ = 13.18, NPQ = 12.47, ‘t’-value = 2.349, p < 0.05). It appears from our results that having a PQ makes one feel independent and confident about one’s work. The result is that the individual prefers to confront problems directly. He/she plans and takes responsibility for his/her own work. The interactions are based on mutual respect and the person is bold enough to walk his talk, to own up mistakes. All these get reflected in the perceptions about organisational ethos along these dimensions. Thus, organisations that have a philosophy and a work design based on empowerment would do well to employ a greater number of professionally qualified people. The high level of autonomy or empowerment encourages those who are professionally qualified to take decisions and exercise freedom to plan and act in their own spheres. Table 3 Perceptual differences on OCTAPACE dimensions based on professional

(non-professional) qualifications

Prof_educ Mean SD t'-Value Sig. (two-tailed)

Openness No 14.13 2.90 0.285 0.776

Yes 14.23 2.79 Confrontation** No 13.77 2.46 2.989 0.003

Yes 14.64 2.19 Trust No 14.02 2.99 0.685 0.494 Yes 13.76 3.11 Authenticity* No 11.77 2.58 2.432 0.016

Yes 12.54 2.43 Proaction No 14.35 2.79 0.734 0.464

Yes 14.62 2.87 Autonomy* No 12.47 2.42 2.349 0.020

Yes 13.18 2.39 Collaboration No 14.56 2.60 1.196 0.233

Yes 14.92 2.28 Experimentation No 13.48 2.71 0.848 0.397

Yes 13.75 2.51

**p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. Note: (n3 = 124 for ‘no’, n4 = 130 for ‘yes’).


However, it should also be noted that having a PQ does not make an employee view the organisation culture as more open, trusting and collaborative than those without PQ. Having an open, trusting and collaborative culture would require an honest give-and-take relationship amongst the members of an organisation, which may be outside an individual sphere of empowerment.

4.3 Organisational ethos in public and private sectors

The results of ‘t’ tests revealing the differences in organisational cultures of public and private sectors is shown in Table 4. Significant differences exist in the cultures of private and public sector Indian organisations in the organisational values of openness (‘t’ value = 10.04, p < 0.01), trust (‘t’ value = 2.99, p < 0.01), proaction (‘t’ value = 3.20, p < 0.01), autonomy (‘t’ value = 2.70, p < 0.01) and experimentation (‘t’ value = 5.16, p < 0.01). There is no significant difference between public sector and private organisations along the values of confrontation, authenticity and collaboration (p > 0.05).

The results also show that amongst the significant dimensions, the means of private sector organisations are higher than the public sector organisations in openness (private = 15.16, public = 11.84), trust (14.29, public = 12.93), autonomy (private = 13.15, public = 12.07) and experimentation (private = 14.14, public = 12.37); while mean is higher in the public sector in proaction (public = 15.23, private = 14.18). Table 4 Differences on OCTAPACE dimensions between private sector and public sector

employees

pub_pvt Mean t-Value Sig. (two-tailed)

Private 15.16 10.039 0.000 Openness** Public 11.84 Private 14.19 0.236 0.814 Confrontation

Public 14.27 Private 14.29 2.992 0.003 Trust** Public 12.93 Private 12.01 1.322 0.189 Authenticity

Public 12.55 Private 14.18 3.203 0.002 Proaction**

Public 15.23 Private 13.15 2.700 0.008 Autonomy** Public 12.07 Private 14.92 1.604 0.111 Collaboration Public 14.33

Experimentation** Private 14.14 5.163 0.000 Public 12.37

**p < 0.01. Note: n5 = 179 for private sector; n6 = 75 for public sector.


The results validate Bozeman’s (1979) contention that private sector organisations have a more open culture based on trust and mutual respect that empowers its employees to take quick individual decisions and is open to experimentation. On the other hand, public sector organisations are characterised by the presence of a system of rational rules and procedures, structured hierarchies, formalised decision-making processes and advancement based on administrative expertise. According to a similar study conducted by Mathur et al. (1996) to examine the differences between the internal work cultures of public and the private sector organisations in India, the internal work culture of private enterprises placed greater emphasis than public sector enterprises on internal locus of control, future orientation in planning, participation in decision making, and obligation towards others in the work context.

An appreciation of the cultures of public sector organisations may help explain the outcomes of the reform process in terms of the fit or absence of fit between the public sector culture and the strategies and objectives of reform. The results show that in spite of the reforms initiated by the Government of India in the early 1990s and giving of more autonomy to the management of public sector companies, significant differences still exist in the organisational ethos of public and private sector organisations. Stability and predictability have been central characteristics of the traditional model of management prevalent in the public sector organisations (Perry and Rainey, 1988). Literature on public organisations suggests that they have traditionally under-emphasised developmental and rational aspects of organisational culture because they lacked an orientation towards adaptability, change and risk taking (developmental culture) and they have lacked an orientation towards outcomes such as productivity and efficiency (rational culture) (Parker and Bradley, 2000). It is also possible that public sector activities cannot be easily equated with productive activities in the private sector because they involve high levels of inter-organisational coordination, research, communication, and negotiation and conflict resolution (Considine, 1990). Consequently, Massey (1993) and Pollitt (1990) have even suggested that the prescriptions of management theory which are drawn from the experience of successful private sector organisations might be unsuitable for application to public sector organisations. However, what is intriguing is why the public sector has a higher mean value than the private sector in the dimension of proaction. This implies that initiative taking and preplanning are greater in the public sector than in the private sector. While public sectors lack an orientation towards openness and change, the results could be indicative of structured and rigid planning culture – a legacy of 5-year plans undertaken by the Government of India under which many public sector undertakings were started. Further research is required in this direction before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.

4.4 A sector-wise analysis

The means and standard deviations of the OCTAPACE variables in different sectors are shown in Table 5(a), while Table 5(b) shows the results of one-way analysis of variance. Significant differences are observed in the OCTAPACE variables in the consulting, manufacturing, services and IT/ITES sector in all the dimensions except the experimentation variable (p < 0.01 for confrontation, trust, authenticity, autonomy and collaboration; p < 0.05 for openness, proaction; p > 0.05 for experimentation) (Table 5(a)). The results of post-hoc tests (Duncan tests) are tabulated in Table 5(c).


Table 5a Sector-wise analysis; Sector-wise means and SDs of OCTAPACE dimensions

Sector --> Consulting Manufacturing Services IT/ITES Total

Dimensions (n = 53) (n = 92) (n = 37) (n = 72) (n = 254) Openness 13.45 (2.90) 13.9 (2.56) 14.43 (2.34) 14.94 (3.21) 14.18 (2.84) Confrontation 13.11 (1.90) 14.34 (2.54) 14.46 (1.86) 14.74 (2.44) 14.21 (2.36) Trust 12.21 (2.98) 13.98 (2.94) 13.19 (2.83) 15.38 (2.63) 13.89 (3.05) Authenticity 13.74 (2.70) 10.96 (2.28) 11.32 (2.24) 12.99 (1.87) 12.17 (2.53) Proaction 14.15 (2.50) 14.03 (3.65) 14.51 (2.10) 15.31 (1.89) 14.49 (2.83) Autonomy 13.75 (2.49) 12.18 (2.71) 12.68 (2.19) 13.06 (1.84) 12.83 (2.43) Collaboration 14.25 (2.06) 15.50 (2.22) 13.11 (2.73) 14.99 (2.39) 14.74 (2.44) Experimentation 13.28 (1.90) 13.41 (3.15) 13.41 (2.67) 14.24 (2.18) 13.62 (2.61)

Table 5b Sector-wise analysis; Results of one way analysis of variance

Variable SS df MS F Sig.

Openness* Between groups 79.56 3 26.52 3.379 0.019 Within groups 1962.11 250 7.85 Total 2041.67 253 Confrontation** Between groups 87.47 3 29.16 5.509 0.001 Within groups 1323.05 250 5.29 Total 1410.52 253 Trust** Between groups 327.69 3 109.23 13.484 0.000 Within groups 2025.22 250 8.10 Total 2352.91 253 Authenticity** Between groups 339.83 3 113.28 22.173 0.000 Within groups 1277.22 250 5.11 Total 1617.06 253 Proaction* Between groups 73.25 3 24.42 3.133 0.026 Within groups 1948.22 250 7.79 Total 2021.46 253 Autonomy** Between groups 88.16 3 29.39 5.242 0.002 Within groups 1401.56 250 5.61 Total 1489.72 253 Collaboration** Between groups 169.00 3 56.33 10.499 0.000 Within groups 1341.36 250 5.37 Total 1510.37 253 Experimentation Between groups 38.99 3 13.00 1.928 0.125 Within groups 1684.96 250 6.74 Total 1723.96 253


Table 5c Sector-wise analysis; Post-hoc multiple comparisons (Duncan testsa)

OCTAPACEvalues

Sector -> subsetsb

Consulting (n7 = 53)

Manufacturing (n8 = 92)

Services (n9 = 37)

IT/ITES (n10 = 72) Sig.

Openness 1 13.453 13.902 14.432 0.079 2 13.902 14.432 14.944 0.062 Confrontation 1 13.113 1.000 2 14.337 14.460 14.736 0.389 Trust 1 12.208 13.189 0.068 2 13.978 13.189 0.141 3 15.375 1.000 Authenticity 1 10.957 11.324 0.387 2 13.736 12.986 0.079 Proaction 1 14.151 14.033 14.514 0.392 2 14.514 15.306 0.132 Autonomy 1 12.185 12.676 13.056 0.065 2 13.755 13.056 0.117 Collaboration 1 13.108 1.000 2 14.245 14.986 0.090 3 15.500 14.986 0.239 Experimentation 1 13.283 13.413 13.405 14.236 0.075

**p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. aUses harmonic mean sample size = 56.614. bFor alpha = 0.05. Note: SDs are given in brackets.

Besides occupying a prominent place in present day economies, the knowledge or technology-intensive sector consists of a ‘different breed of firms’, which has significant and fundamental differences with the other sectors of the economy in many important aspects (Grinstein and Goldman, 2006). Because of the knowledge intensive industry’s keen investment in building an empowered and innovative culture, economy has witnessed high levels of growth in developing countries like India. The analysis of the data suggests that the values of the organisational culture in IT/ITES is significantly higher along most of the dimensions than the other sectors. In openness and confrontation, the means for IT/ITES sector is significantly higher than that of consulting, while in trust, it is higher than in consulting, manufacturing and services sectors. With India's burgeoning role in the global IT and ITES landscape, people will be the key-value differentiators that organisations may have to offer to their client. Hence, it becomes imperative for organisations to attract, retain and motivate the right talent. To achieve the same, organisations must offer a distinct value proposition to successfully attract talent. The right mix of culture and HR practices contributes to the above in a big way (NASSCOM – Hewitt Total Rewards Study, 2007–2008). The analysis of the data suggests that the empowerment or professional freedom is a significant aspect of organisational culture. It often enables employees to approach and deal with customers,


colleagues and reporting officers freely and informally without the restrictions of hierarchy and, in turn, in the timely execution and closure of projects (Mathew, 2007).

Authenticity and autonomy values are comparatively higher in consulting as compared to manufacturing and services. Authenticity as a value is important for the development of the culture of mutuality. Autonomy can lead to interdependent collaboration and mutuality, a value necessary for successful project acquisition and completion so important in the consulting industry. Individuals, instead of working independently to solve problems, work in teams and develop commitments to their role and the organisation (Dwivedi, 1995). Since successful completion of projects is the hall mark of consulting organisations, the importance of values of authenticity and autonomy is reflected and emphasised once again from our data analysis.

Collaboration is found to be significantly higher in the manufacturing sector than in the consulting and services sectors. Collaboration is giving help to, and asking for help, from others. It means working together to solve problems and a team spirit. The outcome of collaboration includes timely help, team work, sharing of experiences, improved communication and improved resource sharing. One can expect that the culture of collaboration would be higher in the consulting, services and IT/ITES sectors than in manufacturing, as the work is often organised around teams in these sectors. However, the results indicate that manufacturing organisations have taken to team work in a big way. This could be manifesting through such reorganisations as building horizontal or process-based structures, quality circles, etc., as well as cross functional teams to design and launch new products rapidly into the markets. Fletcher’s (1996, p.114) argument that current trends indicate that work accomplishment will require ‘understanding oneself as increasingly connected to others in more complex and sophisticated ways’ appears to be valid even in the manufacturing sector.

It is to be noted that experimentation is equally valued in all the sectors, viz., consulting (13.283), manufacturing (13.413), services (13.405) and IT/ITES (14.236). Experimentation implies using and encouraging innovative approaches to solve problems, using feedback for improving and encouraging creativity. Our results show that the market is very competitive in all the sectors, and organisations in all of these sectors have developed a culture of innovation and experimentation to remain competitive. To remain competitive in today’s business world, every firm must make innovation a central pillar of its strategy for differentiation and growth. In a survey of more than 75 senior executives across sectors, conducted jointly by Business-Today and Monitor Group, more than 90% of CEOs said that innovation is ‘very important’ to achieving their organisations’ goal and is an explicit part of their corporate strategies (Business Today, 2008). Our results validate these contentions. For example, Bharti Airtel (services industry) has established the future factory – ‘a centre of innovation’ that aims to develop innovative applications specifically targeted at individual customer segments; Wipro (IT/ITES) has established an ‘Advisory Board’ and ‘Innovation Council’ to invest in and manage innovation projects; Tata Motors (manufacturing) has initiated a ‘New Product Introduction’ process that defines business processes for new products – tackling everything from understanding customer requirements to commercialisation, and everything in between.


5 Conclusions

This study has mapped out the ethos/values present in the culture of Indian organisations along eight dimensions. The analyses indicate that the cultures differ along public and private sectors and amongst services, manufacturing, consulting and IT/ITES sectors. It is essential for growing companies, especially those in the public sector, to develop and maintain open and flexible corporate cultures and avoid the bureaucracies typically associated with larger, more complex organisations. Companies can foster innovative and empowered cultures by encouraging knowledge sharing and rewarding creativity and risk taking while focusing on tangible results. Culture can also be a great attracter for talent, especially those who are professionally qualified, in these competitive times. It is important to understand the elements that attract, retain and engage employees. Successful implementation of a positive corporate culture with strong values/ethos can be a powerful human resource strategy whose importance will be growing continuously. Future studies can explore whether the findings of this study have generalisability beyond the Indian context.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive criticisms to improve the quality of this paper.

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