Download 07 - Shodhganga

Chapter-7
Implications & Recommendations
7.1
Summary
The present study offers evidences of the role of societal norms and culture in
shaping the mindset of a people. It is more than evident that indigenous
cultural norms influence and dictate the mindset of the native people; this
study also explored the extent to which the expatriate people are influenced by
cultural norms of their native land. It confirms the powerful impact of ‘social
norms’ learned and ‘values’ inherited in an indigenous culture, in fashioning a
given population’s mindset.
The present study through its exploration and elucidation underlines that
‘mindset’ and ‘the behaviour it causes’ are outcomes of one’s socio-cultural
learning and are not easily displaced by secondary influences. Even if the core
mindset and behaviour display an oscillating or shifting tendency in
themselves, they do not shift instantaneously and voluntarily in response to a
new socio-cultural milieu.
The contribution of the study, therefore, is twofold; first, it has allowed an
exploration into the mindset of a diasporic population - in the times of changing
cultural and social values, when newer phenomenon are being experienced
every now and then, in the turbulent, volatile, ever-fluctuating workplace - to
observe and measure any shift from their indigenous mindset; and has
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underlined the fact that alien or compromised cultural positions need not
necessarily lead to a shift in mindset and create drastic changes in
perceptions and behaviour of people. And second, it has promoted a concept
of a ‘cultural personality’ promulgated by Geert Hofstede besides an individual
personality which accounts for a large part of human behaviour arising out of
one’s cultural ethos in various social and organizational settings.
This study desires to contribute to the arenas of organizational behaviour and
human resource management. Its intended primary contribution is providing
an insight into the affect that native social and cultural values have on the
Indian mindset at large and also whether the mindset of expatriate Indians is
affected by 1) their current socio-cultural context (beyond Indian frontiers) that
they find themselves in and
2) the work-practices, adopted by them in the wake of their contemporary
scenario of multi-national organizations which are a compound of diverse
national cultures, contexts and outlooks.
The changing Scenario and the emergent Mindset:
The Hindu religious values hold the beliefs of hierarchy (e.g. the caste system
in humans) and group-embeddedness (collectivism) (Suri, 2009). The Hindu
social order does not recognize the individual as a center of social purpose.
For the Hindu social order is based primarily on class, not on individuals.
There is no Hindu consciousness of kind. In every Hindu, the consciousness
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that exists is the consciousness of his caste. …The Caste System prevents
common activity it has prevented the Hindus from becoming a society with a
unified life and a consciousness of its own being (Ambedkar, 1916). Louis
Dumont expressed his surprise at the structure of our society thus ‘the caste
system is so different from our own social system in its central ideology… it is
a social system which is as stable and powerful as it is opposed to our ethics
and unamenable to our intellect’ (Dumont, 1970). This social structure has
changed, ever since the transformations made by social-reformers in the early
20th century and the coming of Gandhi and his conquest of the common man’s
mind - Gandhi organized the Hindus as Indians, not as Hindus (Ambedkar,
1916), partially eradicated the evil of untouchability plaguing the Indian castedriven society for centuries and brought about a sea-change in the outlook of
the Indians. Besides in the recent years, there have been reports of changing
Indian values with the economic rise of India, making market-oriented goals
the latest norms (Chatterjee and Pearson 2000a, Upadhya 2007, Upadhya
and Vasavi 2006).
Dheeraj Sinha claims that ‘The mindset of India, as a nation, is changing. The
new Indian is a go-getter rather than a passive being who believed in Karma.
This change in mindset is fuelling the Indian economic charge’. The emerging
Indian mindset is finding its roots in the Kshatriya values of the traditional
warrior class as against the Brahminical values of the priestly knowledge class
that has been the biggest influencer of the Indian mindset so far. The new
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India has found a leaf within its cultural roots in the Kshatriya way-of-life which
is putting an accent on the extrinsic values of action, success, winning, glory
and heroism as against the Brahminical values of knowledge, adjustment,
simplicity and restraint. The India of today is seeking a ‘karmic transformation’.
While traditionally, Indians have taken refuge in the idea of karma and its
interpretation that our life is governed by our fate hence not much can be done
to change what is writ. The new India is seeking to transform its karma. The
emerging belief is that karma is shaped by your actions and it is possible
therefore to transform your being; to achieve a life that you desire than live the
one that’s destined. This desire and belief of being able to change ones’
destiny is the driving idea or the core value of the changing Indian mindset.
This larger cultural change is visible in the changing cultural codes. For
instance Indians today are no more content with sitting back and waiting for
opportunity to strike, on the contrary they are going out and knocking on the
doors of opportunity (Sinha, 2007).
The most recent study in the area of Indian mindset recognizes a
phenomenon, a very indigenously Indian trend of using manipulation and clout
for achieving one’s goals. Jugaad is the latest trend in management and
business reports of India's awakening. The term refers to the widespread
practice in rural India of jury-rigging and customizing vehicles, using only
available resources and know-how. While the practice is often accompanied
by indigence and corruption in traditional interpretations, the notion
of ‘jugaad’ has excited many commentators on India's emergence into the
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global economy, in its promise of an inimitable Indian work-ethic that defies
traditional associations of other-worldliness and indolence, widely reported as
inherent in India's society and culture. Jugaad has been identified across
India's economy in the inventiveness of call-center workers, the creativity of
global transnational elites, and in the innovativeness of Indian product
designs. The term has seen an unprecedented growth in popularity and is now
proffered as a tool for development and a robust solution to global
recession. Jugaad is now part of a wider method for working within resource
constraints as ‘Indovation’ (Birtchnell, 2011).
However, the extent to which these changing values are evident in workplace
settings is still under-researched.
The literature discussed above gives an insight about the relationship between
Indian social and cultural values and their resultant Indian mindset that can be
sensed in the social behaviour in the Indian way of life and in management
ethics within Indian organizations.
7.2
Implications
The significance of the mindset as both the object and harbinger of change in
societies and social organizations cannot be understated. The mindset is a
reflection of a person’s primary and secondary socialization. As culture
provides the framework within which our lives become meaningful (Kasper,
2001), it plays a definitive role in the process of socialization. Kumar states
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that culture is the lens through which members of a culture perceive the
external world. Although this insight is by no means novel, there has been
insufficient emphasis given to the role played by mental frames in shaping how
individuals from different cultures perceive and respond to the external reality.
The tendency has been to view culture as behavior, as opposed to viewing
culture as a meaning system. …cultural context has a powerful impact in
delineating the boundaries of negotiation theory (Kumar, 2004) which can be
ascribed to other managerial theories and social behaviour as well.
We live in a knowledge economy. The core assets of a modern business
enterprise aren’t its buildings, machinery and real estate, but the intelligence,
understanding, skills and experience of its employees. Harnessing the
capabilities and commitment of knowledge workers is arguably the central
managerial challenge of our time (Manville & Ober, 2003). Understanding the
nature of cultural diversity and accepting the existence of varying mindsets
would certainly be advantageous to such an objective.
On managing cultural differences, in the boundary-less world, people have to
see the local to international standards and incorporate the perfect managerial
theories (Harris & Moran, 2007) which in the times of an EQ rationale, may be
transposed into developing a local sensitivity and incorporating the most
humane managerial theories, which would make the quest for perfect, utopian
theories redundant.
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Jai B. P. Sinha (2003) while discussing the ancient Indian wisdom mentions
that the trend toward integrative indigenization is anchored in indian folkways.
It differes from exogenous and endogenous indigenization in having an
encompassing framework to accommodate both Indian and western concepts
and methods.
Amartya Sen's (2006) closely reasoned and absolutely convincing essays in
his book, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian history, culture and
identity reveal an India that should be much better known as a civilization with
a long history of public debate and vibrant heterodoxy that goes back at least
to the Vedas, and that informs many aspects of civic life today in the world’s
largest democracy. Sen's ‘Argumentative Indian’ argues against Western
interpretations of India as a land of airy mysticism and religious speculation
whose democratic traditions were imposed by the British, he also addresses
the fact that the cultural predilection for argument and debate, along with a
healthy respect for opposing points of view is not to reminisce about a glorious
past but about finding a usable past that Indians can take pride in as they look
forward to a more global future. Pareek (1988), for example, argued that each
culture has its strengths in developing modern organizations but they must
also borrow from others. Indians’ concern for others, tendency to harmonize
and synthesize various points of view, and general respect of knowledge and
expertize can be effectively used for designing effective organizations that
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should also include Westren values such as openness, collaboration, trust,
authenticity, autonomy, and confrontation (Sinha, 2003).
Therefore the implications of the present study for management are two-fold:

Learning to recognize cultural-diversity in social organizations and to cultivate
accommodating-behaviour and adopt assimilation at the individual as well as
organizational level and

Learning to accept that the organizational-culture may be influenced by
divergent value systems, and that it could be turned into an advantage rather
than an impediment.
7.3
Limitations of the study
A study as aspiring as this one is bound to come up with some limitations &
constraints which make the efficiency of the same slightly questionable and to
some extent make it contrived from its main line of thought. Though no stone
was left unturned and no effort spared to make the study accurate and
relevant to the objectives.
1. Since the present research is confined to ‘the Indian Mindset beyond Indian
frontiers’ the first and the foremost limitation of the study is that the sample
size of 315 respondents could by no means be considered sufficient to
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represent the universe fully. A study conducted on an epidemic proportion
alone can justify such an endeavour.
2. As the researcher was limited to accessing only the respondent-sample
working and/or living overseas, quite evidently respondents were neither easily
accessible nor available, so only people suggested through referrals and
willing to participate were involved.
3. Though every caution was observed in conducting the study, but the survey
being based on people’s perception does not rule out the possibility of biases
in the answers of the respondents, due to the subjectivity of human nature.
4. Many a times, concerned respondents had problems comprehending the
purpose of the study, so some rapport building over the telephone or the
internet became a necessity.
5. Sometimes the respondents did not give exact information due to some
personal reasons and many were indecisive and suspicious about sharing
personal information.
6. Respondents’ distribution on variables like age, generation, etc. does not
justify the ideal criterion for an empirical exposition as expatriates do not find
an equal representation on these variables.
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7. Contrary to the anticipated outcome, of the acquisition of a new mindset owing
to their new environs, the researcher was somewhat awed by results that
reflected a strict adherence to a mindset of primary socialization alone.
8. Empirical investigation shows that the difference in human generations
contributes to the disparity in managerial values and practices among young
and old managers (Mellahi & Guermat, 2004). Accordingly, the perception of
first-generation and second-generation expatriates was expected to vary as
was their mindset. Since the major contributors to the data-resource were 1st
generation expatriates, regrettably the difference could not emerge.
9. The data used in this study to test the deviation in the mindset of expatriate
Indians was limited in the ability to compare the findings of this research
country-wise as number of respondents from each country varied drastically.
Hence, future research should try to examine the robustness of these findings
in other data-sets with equitable representations.
Limitations to this research should be considered carefully before making any
generalizations.
7.4
Recommendations for further research
The inherent nature of this study, being focused as it is on an abstract
predictor like people’s perception, always leaves scope for improvement in the
future researches.
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Other avenues that are proposed for extending the present line of research in
the future include:

The sample-size of the present study comprised of 315 respondents. A
more expansive study with a larger sample would probably be more
justifiable to the purpose of the research.

Future researches should bear in mind that the sample characteristics
of the present study made it difficult to address the key-aspect of an
empirical study, which would entail an ideal sample representation such
as near equal involvement of both the genders, all age-groups, socialstrata, parental background, educational background, occupational
groups, etc.

The perception of first-generation and second-generation expatriates
was expected to vary along with their mindset, but could not be
captured through the representative sample of the present study, as
only 07.65% of the second-generation expatriates found a voice in the
present survey. An endeavor to explore the impacts of a different sociocultural milieu on the mindset of two generations of expatriates would
probably throw significant light on the research concern.

A longitudinal study with more opportunity to involve expatriate Indians
from all parts of the world, to allow a more balanced exploration owing
to a more justified sample-representation is also suggested.
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
The study was limited in that only a single focused-study was
undertaken under some time-constraint however there is scope for
undertaking a longitudinal study on the basis of current results to further
examine the nature of changing norms and behaviours in alien cultures
and their interaction with work practices.

Although the findings cannot be generalized yet the concepts can be
developed further and explored in similar research settings.
7.5
Conclusion
Indians overseas, through the findings of the present study, have only lent
support to A. K. Ramanujan’s proclamation that: India never changes: under
the veneer of the modern, Indians still think like the Vedas. .. Indians have no
philosophy, only religion, no positive sciences, not even a psychology; in India,
matter is subordinated to spirit, rational thought to feeling, intuition….
‘Inconsistency’ is not a matter of inadequate education or lack of logical rigour.
They (Indians) may be using a different ‘logic’ altogether. Some thinkers
believe that such logic is an earlier stage of ‘cultural evolution’ and the Indians
have not developed a notion of ‘data’, of ‘objective facts’ (Ramanujan, 1989).
Kissinger explains that cultures which escaped the early impact of Newtonian
thinking have retained the essentially pre-Newtonian view that the world is
almost completely internal to the observer… empirical reality has a much
different significance for many of the new countries than for the West because
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in a certain sense they never went through the process of discovering it (Said,
1978). Zimmer praises the Indians for not being hung up on an objectivity that
distinguishes self from non-self, interior from exterior; what for Naipaul is a
‘defect of vision’, is for Zimmer the vision itself. Sheryl Daniels speaks of a
‘tool-box’ of ideas that Indians carry about and from which they use one or
another without much show of logic; anything goes into their ‘bricolage’ (Levi
Strauss, 1962).’ The trend still continues. The new does not replace the old,
nor does it cause an inevitable dissonance or discomfort in the minds of
Indians (Bharati, 1985). Indians, according to Carl Jung, “do not mind
seemingly intolerable contradictions” (quoted by D. Sinha & Tripathi, 1994).
Further, “When Indians learn, quite expertly, modern science, business, or
technology, they ‘compartmentalize’ these interests… the new ways of thought
and behaviour do not replace, but live along with the old ‘religious’ ways”
(Ramanujan, 1989). Indians are “capable of living simultaneously and
effortlessly on two mutually opposed planes” and “can make quantum leap
from one epoch to another without showing any strain” (Varma, 2004).
Now the time is right for a new transcendental revolution viz. transcendental
management with roots in Indians ethos and its manifestations in terms of
Indian culture, Indian concepts and Indian ideas (Sharma, 2005).
Finally, to draw an analogy one could quote from the field of language
‘something gets lost in the translation’. What often gets lost is the subtlety of
the message or the fact that the concepts in one language are alien to the
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other. Even long explanations are not sufficient to get the original message
across (Beatty & Takahashi, 2009). What is said here of translation in the
sphere of language, could easily be extended to ‘interpretation of the mindset’
in the context of culture, as one culture has practices absolutely alien to the
other and therefore the resultant mindset may seem
intangible, if not
indecipherable.
To find one’s culture normative and the other’s a shock, is the way all humans
cognize. A magnanimous acceptance and integration of the ways and
behaviour of the others could provide potential solutions for our new-age
management and lead towards realizing a truly global mind-set.
It seems that the Indian-mindset with its ‘without much ado’ synthesizing,
encompassing, enfolding and integrating ways may afford a clue for
developing the much desired intercultural-competencies for the present day
culturally diverse, global work-teams. Probably the entire globe can look
towards the all-embracing, all-accepting, ever-adapting Indian mindset to cope
with the conflicting diversity that has been thrown together into the melting-pot.
It appears that the time is nigh for the world to turn towards India for availing
global solutions.
“It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning in
business management will have to have an Indian ending, when the world
adopts rich thoughts of Indian ethos and wisdom, if it is not to end in the selfdestruction of the human race”. – Arnold Toynbee, Nobel Laureate.
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