This analogy came to my mind three weeks ago when our manager from US came to visit us. We were having a knowledge sharing session with our manager, when suddenly he was posed with this question, "We see that Indian managers are more of 'people managers' whereas managers in US manage a team and still contribute to the team output and are also experts in their field. Any particular reason for this difference?" Hmm ... our US guy gave a politically correct answer that he was supposed to give :)
The fact that Indian managers are pretty much slackers can't be denied. But why are they like the way they are? Not all are slackers, well if you are really lucky, then you may work under an manager who epitomizes the "guru" that our Upanishads talk about. But our culture is influenced by the mirage that "Life without hard work is what one should aim for". Is it an artifact of our age caste system is the real question?
If we try to understand the caste system in the modern organization then, the CEO and the top management would be Kshatriyas, the HRs and the so called middle managers would be Brahmins, the Marketing/sales team would be Vaishyas and the oppressed operations team which is the only productive unit of the organization would be the Shudras. The Shudras have dreams about changing their caste, but in the long run very few of them are successful in doing that.
Nowadays there are MBA shops that promise to change one's caste to a better one so many people try that too. So in the end, everyone wants to be a HR Professional, a middle manager or even better, a CEO.
Well let us look at the western culture. According to Max Weber, the success of capitalism or English imperialism is related to a highly specific series of ethical norms grounded in the Calvinistic traditions of honesty, hard work, and integrity. I am not agreeing to this but if we look at what they did in India was just taking advantage of the greed and laziness of Indian rulers.
Hence, managers in the west are programmed to work even after they achieved what they set out for, whereas Indian managers are programmed to escape work even after reaching the highest form of achievement that they set out for.
The fact that Indian managers are pretty much slackers can't be denied. But why are they like the way they are? Not all are slackers, well if you are really lucky, then you may work under an manager who epitomizes the "guru" that our Upanishads talk about. But our culture is influenced by the mirage that "Life without hard work is what one should aim for". Is it an artifact of our age caste system is the real question?
If we try to understand the caste system in the modern organization then, the CEO and the top management would be Kshatriyas, the HRs and the so called middle managers would be Brahmins, the Marketing/sales team would be Vaishyas and the oppressed operations team which is the only productive unit of the organization would be the Shudras. The Shudras have dreams about changing their caste, but in the long run very few of them are successful in doing that.
Nowadays there are MBA shops that promise to change one's caste to a better one so many people try that too. So in the end, everyone wants to be a HR Professional, a middle manager or even better, a CEO.
Well let us look at the western culture. According to Max Weber, the success of capitalism or English imperialism is related to a highly specific series of ethical norms grounded in the Calvinistic traditions of honesty, hard work, and integrity. I am not agreeing to this but if we look at what they did in India was just taking advantage of the greed and laziness of Indian rulers.
Hence, managers in the west are programmed to work even after they achieved what they set out for, whereas Indian managers are programmed to escape work even after reaching the highest form of achievement that they set out for.
5 comments:
Hahaha... Very well defined and yes, it actually is the scenario in Indian corporate world. How easily you captured and related to caste system is what I loved.
Cheers!
Being Traveler | Himanshu Nagpal
http://www.beingtraveler.com
@Himanshu: Thanks for liking my post. I am looking at your blog now. Your phtography is just stunning.
ha!ha!Interesting read....Well written.....
Did you get a chance to check the website www.ezedcal.com/ta to manage editorial calendar easily for your blog and show your editorial calendar in your blog easily (optional)
Thanks & Regards
Malar
Hey Malar, Thanks for reading my post!I will checkout the calendar soon!
I never thought of applying the caste system tl this context! It's a new look at both caste and corporations!
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