Discovering the human images through individual organization interface: Experiences and reflections

Anand Prakash

Contemporary organizations tend to be designed according to the Western ethos. They carry within their fold an essentially Western set of assumptions regarding goals, objectives, human resources, processes, and approaches involved in their working. The present paper examines how organizations in India have created an unwitting mismatch between the core values of the human participants on the one hand and organizational requirements on the other hand. Researchers have demonstrated that Indians are predominantly spiritual, religious, hierarchical, context dependent, status conscious, have preference for personalized interdependent relationships in their social dealings, and have difficulty in accepting contractual relations. Given these defining features of Indian people many common organizational processes are not accepted as natural extensions of life. They, therefore, tend to create many non-negotiable discontinuities and dissociations in the life of individuals thereby causing issues of motivation, cultural fit, and a host of other psychological disparities.

Empirical findings from three studies are presented to provide the necessary backdrop for the aforesaid statement. These studies were conducted in the tradition of qualitative inquiry by taking up detailed interviews to map the psychological world of the people participating in organizations as employees. The participants shared their life experiences about various aspects of life and work in the organizations. The centrality of organization and family in their respective life space turned out as the most dominant themes of the narrative generated by them. One of the organizations included in the study was a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), and two were from the Hospitality Industry. While they cannot be claimed to represent the prototypical character of organizations in India they do provide an insight into the relevant cultural mindset governing the employee-organization relations.

The thematic analysis of the narratives centres around the issues of lack of motivation, skepticism, poor interpersonal relations, lack of trust and faith in the climate, blaming others, lack of ownership, and an impoverished sense of well-being. These and other conjoining contextual factors contribute significantly to the experience of discontinuity in life and work. The implications for evolving an approach, which may help minimizing the disparities between human existence in the society at large and organizational life in particular are presented. The potentiality of integral psychology as a promising approach to create bridges between existing organization design and desirable designs has been discussed.