PIONEER INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES,

INDORE

DIGILENCE & EXCELLENCE

MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT

ON

“Comparative study of OCTAPACE CULTURE in Governmental and

Non-Governmental Educational Institutes”

PROJECT GUIDE: - SUBMITTED BY:-

PROF.RASHMI FARKIYA PURVA PITRE
MBA III SEM
SEC ‘R’
 Abstract

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The OCTAPACE profile is a 40-item instrument that gives the profile of organization's ethos in
eight values. These values are openness, confrontation, trust, authenticity, pro action,
autonomy, collaboration and experimentation. The instrument contains two parts. In part I,
values are stated in items 1 to 24 (three statements of each of the eight values), and the
respondent is required to check (on a 4-point scale) how much each item is valued in his
organization. Part 2 contains sixteen statements on beliefs, two each for eight values, and the
respondent checks (on a 4-point scale) how widely each of them is shared in the organization.
In addition to checking the items on the extent of their importance or sharing in the
organization, the respondent can also check how much they should be valued, or how much the
beliefs are useful. Thus present as well as desired and ideal profiles can be obtained.

OPENNESS: Openness can be defined as a spontaneous expression of feelings and thoughts,

and the 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. For example, openness means receiving without reservation, and taking steps to
encourage more feedback and suggestions from customers, colleagues and others. Similarly, it
means giving, without hesitation, ideas, information, feedback, feelings, etc. Openness may also
mean spatial openness, in terms of accessibility. Installing internal E-mailing may be a step in
this direction: everyone having a computer terminal has access to information which he may
retrieve at any time. Offices without walls are another symbolic arrangement promoting
openness. In some organizations, even the chief executive does not have a separate exclusive
cabin; floor space is shared by other colleagues at different levels in the organization. This
willingness to share and this openness results in greater clarity of objectives and free
interaction among people. As a result of openness, there should be more unbiased
performance feedback. Indicators of openness in an organization will be productive meetings
and improved implementation of systems and innovations.

CONFRONTATION: Confrontation can be defined as facing rather than shying away from

problems. It also implies deeper analysis of interpersonal problems. All this involves taking up
challenges. The term confrontation is being used with some reservation and means putting up a
front as contrasted with putting one's back to the problem. A better term would be
confrontation and exploration (CE).
Let us use the term confrontation in this sense of confrontation and exploration, i.e. facing a
problem and working jointly with others to find a solution to the problem. The outcome of
confrontation will be better role clarity, improved problem solving, and willingness to deal with
problems and with 'difficult' employees and customers. There will be willingness of teams to
discuss and resolve sensitive issues. The indicators, which are also outcomes, can be improved
by periodical discussions with clients, bold action, and not postponing sticky matters.

TRUST: Trust is not used in the moral sense. It is reflected in maintaining the confidentiality of
information shared by others, and in not misusing it. It is also reflected in a sense of assurance
that others will help, when such help is needed and will honor mutual commitments and
obligations. Trust is also reflected in accepting what another person says at face value, and not
searching for ulterior motives. Trust is an extremely important ingredient in the
institution building processes.
The outcome of trust includes higher empathy, timely support, reducedstress, and -reduction
and simplification of forms and procedures. Such simplification is an indicator of trust and of
reduced paper work, effective delegation and higher productivity.

AUTHENTICITY: Authenticity is the congruence between what one feels, says and does. It is
reflected in owning up one's mistakes, and in unreserved sharing of feelings. Authenticity is
closer to openness. The outcome of authenticity in an organization is reduced distortion in
communication. This can be seen in the correspondence between members in an organization.

PRO ACTION: Pro action means taking the initiative, preplanning and taking preventive action,
and calculating the payoffs of an alternative course before taking action. The pro action can be
contrasted with the term react. In the latter, action is in response to an act from some source,
while in the former the action is taken independent of the source. For example, if a person
shouts back at his friend's accusation he shows reactive behavior. However, if he does not use
this pattern but responds calmly and suggests that they discuss the problem together, he is
showing proactive behavior. Pro activity gives initiative' to the person to start a new process or
set a new pattern of behavior. Pro activity involves unusual behavior. In this sense pro activity
means freeing oneself from, and taking action beyond immediate concerns. A person showing
pro activity functions at all the three levels of feeling, thinking and action. .

AUTONOMY: Autonomy is using and giving freedom to plan and act in one's own sphere. It
means respecting and encouraging individual and role autonomy. It develops mutual respect
and is likely to result in willingness to take on responsibility, individual initiative, better
succession planning. The main indicator of autonomy is effective delegation in organization and
reduction in references made to senior people for approval of planned actions.

COLLABORATION: Collaboration is giving help to, and asking for help from, others. It means
working together (individuals and groups) to solve problems and team spirit. The outcome of
collaboration includes timely help, team work, sharing of experiences, improved
communication and improved resource sharing. The indication could be productivity reports,
more meetings, and involvement of staff, more joint decisions, better resource utilization and
higher quality of meetings.

EXPERIMENTING: Experimenting means using and encouraging innovative approaches to solve

problems; using feedback for improving, taking a fresh look a things, and encouraging
creativity. We are so caught up with our daily tasks that we often only use traditional, tried and
tested ways of dealing with problems.
While these methods save time and energy, they also blind us from perceiving the advantage of
new ways of solving a problem. The more we work under pressure, the less is our inclination to
try a different approach as the risk seems to be too high. And yet, complex problems require
new approaches to their solutions. Organizational learning does not imply repetitive action; it
implies applying past experience to current problems to reach beyond. This can be called
creativity. Other terms such as innovations, experiments, new approaches, etc. also convey the
same meaning.

There are several aspects of creativity in an organization. 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. The last one is also called lateral thinking,
i.e. thinking aimed at generating alternatives. There is enough evidence that such thinking
contributes towards the development of new products, new methods and new processes.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Implications of the impact of psychological climate on job satisfaction: a study of Indian

organisations

Soumendu Biswas A1
A1
 Management Development Institute, Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon 122001, Haryana, India

Abstract:

The current study focuses on psychological climate of an organisation as a predictor of the level
of job satisfaction of its employees. It draws upon literatures that suggest two variables, namely,
organisational commitment and job involvement identified to provide a model that caused
mediation in the association between psychological climate and job satisfaction. The study takes
into account India, a country most amenable for the purpose leading to a study that focuses
upon the association between the variables from the perspective of neo-liberalisation wherein
new management thoughts and ideas were made accessible to Indian organisations. The study
draws heavily upon previous studies made by the pioneer in this field namely, Jai B.P. Sinha. Data
collected for the purpose of this study were subjected to goodness of-fit tests using SEM
procedure. It was concluded that psychological climate indeed makes and indirect prediction of
job satisfaction through organisational commitment as well as job involvement as the significant
mediators.

Keywords:

psychological climate, job involvement, organisational commitment, job satisfaction, India,

business management, managerial neo-liberalisation, psychology
Organisational culture in Indian organisations: an empirical study

Rakesh Kumar Agrawal A1 and Archana Tyagi A2

A1
 Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
A2
 University of Business and International Studies Geneva, 6 Place Chevelu, Geneva CH-1201,
Switzerland

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 culture 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 organizational culture.

Keywords:

organisational culture, India, OCTAPACE profiling, consultants, manufacturing industry, service

industry, IT industry, ITES, information technology enabled services, professionally qualified
employees, gender attitudes, private sector, public sector, authenticity, autonomy, openness,
confrontation, collaboration
Rationale

Cultural awareness in higher education helps to achieve organizational goals, analyze

organizations, explain differences among organizations, and unify personnel. Cultural
awareness is also important because culture influences the making and implementation of
decisions. Two major research views regarding organizations and organizational culture have
developed. First, the functional view regards organizational values as absolute, culture as an
ontological entity, and culture as a product of the organization. Here, researchers examine
causal laws, observable behaviors, and organizational structures. By contrast, the interpretive
approach regards organizations as cultures that subjectively create their own realities. Here,
researchers assess how personnel interpret their organizations. Under the interpretive
paradigm, three facets of culture furnish a framework for interpreting culture in organizations.
The structural facet concerns the ways in which organizations perform their activities; the
environmental facet concerns the context of people, events, demands, and constraints; and the
value facet concerns the beliefs, norms, and priorities held by personnel. Administrators and
researchers should analyze culture in their own organizations to reduce conflict and to promote
the sharing of goals.

HRD believes that individuals in an organization have unlimited potential for growth and
development and that their potential can be developed and multiplied through appropriate and
systematic efforts. Given the opportunities and by providing the right type of climate in an
organization, individuals can be helped to give full contribution to their potentials, to achieve
the goals of the organization, and thereby ensuring optimization of human resources.
Therefore, to initiate HRD practices, a firm philosophy with humane and value based approach
has to be established. This will result in the establishment of HRD culture in the organization,
which further strengthens practices. Organizational culture includes ethics, values, beliefs,
attitudes, norms, ethos, climate, environment, and culture. It can be characterized as consisting
of openness (0), collaboration(C), trust (T), authenticity (A),

Proaction (P), autonomy (A) confrontation(C) & Experimentation (E). And it is

abbreviated as OCTAPACE.
This paper goes on to present the major findings based on descriptive research design
undertaken with the help of structured questionnaires to study the OCTAPACE Culture. The
results show that the sample organizations differ significantly in their OCTAPACE Culture & are
having varying level of OCTAPACE culture.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
By
Yusuf Ali Solanki

A fundamental shift is occurring in across the business world. We are moving progressively
further away from a world in which national business were relatively isolated from each other
by barriers by distance, time zones and language; and by national culture differences, and
business systems. And we are moving toward a world in which national culture is merging into
an interdependent global culture system. It rapidly raises a multitude of issues for business
both large and small. It creates opportunities for business. But one question has thrown up
about individual organisation culture. How organisation cope with this globalisation of culture?

The learned community always says, a company is by people not machines, you just
concentrate on your men and it will be them who will be after your machines, thus will save
most of your precious time.

In the stammering summer of may this year, I was busy with my research work on a similar
subject in one of the oldest working cement plant in the Indian industry, to be fortunate
enough I had the opportunity to meet a Japanese delegation out there, the fact that when it
comes to productivity no one may doubt the Japanese efficiency, the difference they found in
the Indian counterpart was of "organizational work culture", Where completion of the allocated
job is given prime importance, the Indian counterpart believes in working for 8 hours, people
come at 8 in the morning to go back at 5 in the evening. Why children walk to school & run to
home is what I could associate with this.
Just a year before to this incidence, I was on to my research project for one of India's leading
pharmaceutical company, sharing his thoughts on the company, an employee says, "the culture
of my company is vulture", though further discussions revealed that the reasons for this
dissatisfaction were personal not professional as he was into a job of chance not of choice,
though his arguments to his comment were that when I return from this cruel, brutal &
merciless world, my boss eagerly waits for me to return just to  exhibit his bossism, is this not
the story of all Indian employees, but does this means that all organisations have a vulture
culture, that when employee fails to perform he is lazy & when boss does the same he is too
busy, no probably not.

Ø Sir Roussie Modi once stated his success secret that there were thousands of employees in
TISCO & he knew all of them with their first name.
Ø Sir Narayan Murty from INFOSYS says, my assets come at 9 & go back at 5
Ø Sir G.D. Birla broke a strike, simply by saying to his employees that, I am your father & you
are my children, no injustice will be done to you so now go & resume your work, & things went
off smoothly thereafter.

Talking more about culture, people are due to be influenced by the culture they grow & live in ,
for instance a kid of middle class family will be brought up with values, ethics, morals e.t.c.
while a boy belonging to the upper class is being taught the lesson of materialism right from his
childhood. The same applies to an organisation & its members, the only difference being that a
society has social culture while an organisation has an organisational culture.

Organisation culture thus starts up with a common life style adopted by its members in form of
shared learning, behaviours, values & interests & provides the employees with a clear
understanding of the way things are done around them in their organisation thus guides their
further actions. It is considered to be a common perception held by the employees regarding
their organisation.

Culture in an organisation plays at different levels, dominant culture which is shared & accepted
by the majority of the organisations members, the next level to come are the subcultures that
exist at the micro level that reflect the common problems & situations faced by every member
in the organisation within his own group or department. A culture adopted in the organisation
may be quite possibly based on the national culture or even the local societal  & religious
norms.

Thus in a nutshell view it may said that the organisational culture is a social glue that helps to
hold the organisation together.

To me culture is nothing else than a managerial jargon given by the society of few learned
people, if we simply try to follow the basics of life we may find management is none other than
an art of governing functions in a systematic manner, where the management is just like
mother who despite knowing all the problems manages to bring a million dollar smile on her
face simply to keep her child away from tensions, is this not what culture asks for? In a nation
like India where the slogan is unity in diversity, is this not the resemblance of organisational
culture where different people strive for a common goal under one single flagship thus, is an
organisation not the reflection of society? Don't we know that the best way to get things done
from someone is by treating him with dignity respect & humanity, which is the first lesson to be
taught to build a healthy culture? Then what is so special about organisational culture, it is all
about a systematic effort to manage people and channelise their efforts for the attainment of
organisational goal by providing them with congenial conditions to live think & work.

The next thing to be discussed is how does an organisational culture comes into existence, all
this starts with the philosophy of the father figure & the founders of the organisation, who then
try to recruit & select the manpower of their desires who match their frequency when it comes
to the thoughts, philosophies, values & beliefs, thus here we are with a group of people
standing in  hierarchy with a common state of mind, & this is the stage we may describe as the
socialisation  (adapting a culture among members of the organisation). 

As all good businessmen are always concerned with the benefits derived from phenomena
more than the phenomena itself, let us try to analyse how does organisational culture benefits
an organisation? It has direct links to the performance of an individual, although if you impose a
culture on your men the results will never cross the confined boundaries of minimum
specifications as enforcement kills creativity and makes the job monotonous. On the other hand
you let your men to derive their own culture, which makes them feel at ease & then monitor
the response.

You will be shocked to note that the performance has raised like anything, this is all because of
the freedom enjoyed by your men which is the most dominating factor for the improvement of
their creativity, sense of belonging to the job & the organization & obviously to their happy &
delighted mood that uplifts their performance, behind all this there is one single factor which is
none other than the concern for people & not for the results, as a matter of fact, it will be
people now who will play a crucial role for the attainment of results & not you as it is their
responsibility which they will realise soon as you realize concern for them as your responsibility.

Imagine something happening in your organization & you are not aware of it, will you be able to
contribute best of your potential later when asked to do so, the answer will probably be no, this
may be the possible story of   every common man, thus this is what organisational culture tells
to avoid, a healthy organisational culture is not individual in nature rather a grouped effort
which brings common benefits to all, a slightest mistake might lose the man and his sense of
belonging for ever so when magic words of organisational culture start they start with
openness.

It becomes very essential to know all the factors that decide the validity of your culture for the
objective attainment of the organisation because creating a culture is not tough, what actually
counts is can you sustain it? "Yes" responses to these questions indicate your culture is
prepared for any challenges coming in the way of the organisation

1. Do employees have high energy levels?

2. Do all employees feel that they can supply input to the decision makers?
3. Does everyone on the staff understand the "big picture?"
4. Can any employee speak directly to any other employee without have to go up and down the
"chain of command?"
5. When things happen quickly, does the staff maintain a positive attitude?
6. Is top management "visible?"
7. Are problems addressed as soon as they appear?

The more enthusiastic your "yes," the better prepared you are. "No" responses are indicators of
organizational issues that require immediate attention.

A healthy organisational culture rests on eight strong pillars of "OCTAPACE" referring to

openness, confrontation, trust, authenticity, proactive, autonomy, collaboration & explicitness.

In the current scenario of a cut throat competition, made worse with the emergence of
liberalised globalised & privatised economic era where the domestic industries find it tough to
face the competition posed by the multinational companies from developed nations with
superior technology resulting in better output at lower prices, many people argue that
technology is the field where most of the Indian companies lag, but I strongly comment that
even if one has a superior technology but not proper manpower to exploit & cultivate it what
may be the use of holding such advanced technology, one might acquire the best of the man
power but what is the guarantee that they will strive for the organisational goal.

Yes the healthy organisational culture with an open environment, filled with the feeling of
mutual trust & confidence, with added flavour of authenticity, sense of collaboration, freedom
& autonomy added to the responsibilities, proactive measures, loyalty, surrendered personal
interests before organisational interests and above all a treatment with respect and
humanitarian consideration for each employee provides this guarantee. 

Once all such features become the regular features of Indian industries, I hope wish & prey that
we too will enjoy a mark for ourselves in the global trade arena.

Research Methodology
An empirical study based on descriptive research design was therefore undertaken withthe help
of structured questionnaire to study the OCTAPACE Culture in government and private
institutes with the sample of five government and five private institutes.
Objectives:
This project is being carried out to fulfill three main objectives:
1. To study the OCTAPACE CULTURE of governmental institutions.
2. To study the OCTAPACE CULTURE of private institutions.
3. To compare the OCTAPACE CULTURE of both private and governmental institution.

Brief about Questionnaire

The OCTAPACE Profile has been developed to measure organizational ethos in terms of
the eight values which deals with the extent to which Openness, Confrontation, Trust,
Autonomy, Pro-activity, Authenticity, Collaboration & Experimentation are valued and
promoted in the institutions.
The instrument contains three items that measure values and two items that measure
beliefs on each of the above eight dimensions, with total of forty items.
Respondents rate their organizations on eight aspects, using a four-point scale.