Indian Patriarchs: Old School Businessmen
In many industries, Indian (family) companies still mostly function according to fairly traditional Indian values. This is especially true if they are run by “old-school business people.” Patriarchs and business family clans often dominate other areas of Indian business life. And they largely shape the highly hierarchical rules of corporate management in the country. This is particularly true here: Different values – different customs.
When European business people are confronted with this completely different corporate culture for the first time, the reaction is often helplessness and sometimes even a certain bitterness.
In particular, the diametrically opposed views of management and personnel management between Europe and India often lead to the failure of a joint venture in the long term (see also Why joint ventures really fail), because the profound cultural differences play a major role, especially in joint ventures. It is therefore advisable to know the background in order to be able to react correctly, i.e. in a targeted manner for your own company's success.
We would therefore like to address some typical and, for us Europeans, quite disturbing behavioral patterns from the Indian working world that you will encounter again and again when working with and in Indian companies from industry and commerce.
Traditional and unquestioned hierarchies lead to inefficient communication, lack of independence and incompetence
India is extremely hierarchy-oriented
The strictly hierarchical Indian society is reflected one-to-one in company structures and working life. A variety of management levels organize, distribute and control the work of the executive units. In our opinion, this enormous personnel effort often appears inefficient and bureaucratic; However, it is sometimes absolutely necessary for personnel management and control in India:
For cultural reasons, independent and responsible action is not particularly encouraged among the general population in this country, neither in their own families nor during training - not even at universities! As a result, employees tend to be more dependent and, unfortunately, often below average qualified - and so the management effort increases accordingly.
The strict hierarchical system also has another piquant effect: Since millions of new workers enter the market every year, all existing employees automatically gradually move up towards “middle management”. Since a career as a specialized professional is not planned in India, a competent specialist sooner or later turns into an incompetent manager (“Peter's Principle”).
Working in India means obeying authority
The often observed vicious circle of mistrust or a misunderstood “protective instinct” on the part of management and personal dependence among employees unfortunately begins in the families. The parents make almost all the decisions for the offspring and the children are almost over-provided for - this is called “spoon-feeding”. In addition, in families right up to the lower middle class, there are “serving spirits” in every household who relieve the children of most of the challenges of everyday life. In return, the children learn how to order without being contradicted at an early age.
However, this leads seamlessly and consistently to chronic dependency among young adults - especially in later working life. Many young Indians – including university graduates! – are not at all used to working without guidance and supervision and, on the other hand, have no idea that leadership could work in any other way than “top-down”.
The predominant view of humanity in Indian leadership philosophy seems to be this “Theory X” by Douglas McGregor correspond to. This assumes that people are naturally lazy and therefore try to avoid work as much as possible. Therefore, an employee must always be motivated from outside and rewarded or sanctioned through extrinsic measures.
Obedience and “motivation” through pressure from above
Mistrust towards employees is the normal and fundamental attitude in Indian companies. On the other hand, since management generally does not build trust, it is not possible for employees to work independently in India. Instead, pressure and quantitative guidelines – for example the number of calls – and constant control are used. To be on the safe side, management also sets completely exaggerated sales targets, which leads to the phenomenon of typically Indian “hard selling”: aggressive selling without taking the time to find out who the customer actually is and what problems and ideas they have. The simple motto is as good as always: More is better!
New ideas or even critical but factual questions “from below” have little chance of ever being heard. Instead, criticism tends to and traditionally be understood as a personal attack. Unfortunately, the personal level always comes before the matter and therefore between people. Based on this attitude, it is not uncommon for employees to use terminations as a reason to simply withhold their last salary “in retaliation”.
Working between worlds
a constant balancing act between cultures
Working in India means adapting to the challenging cultural environment, but also staying true to your personal – European – values. For you, this means: As far as necessary, adopting the unfamiliar authoritarian leadership behavior in order to simply keep the business running. And at the same time, the widespread bad behavior such as personal humiliation and astonishing lapses in tone or whatever else you may encounter that is unpleasant - even in public! – strictly rejected. This means a daily and permanent balancing act that you have to face in order to steer your Indian company safely through the abyss of culture clash.
If you yourself are taking on a management role in India or are managing an Indian organization from Europe, we would also refer you to our specialist article: Adequate management and control of your Indian business
