Labour Unrest

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION
“Organizational culture is the “basic

assumptions and beliefs that are shared
by members of the organization. Culture
is considered as an internal variable
meaning that it is something that
organization has”
(Schein 1985)”
 Conceptual Framework
 HRD Through Cultural Values
 HRD Audit
 HRD Climate
 Organizational Culture
 OCTAPACE Culture
 Information Technology (IT)
 IT Companies Profile
 IT Based Services
“A Study of the Efficacy of OCTAPACE Culture on IT based Services” By: Soniya Shah
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1. 1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Organizations are made up of people and people are the real assets of an organization.
If treated well, they can take organizations to commanding heights. Two plus two could
be four or even ten. Organizations are, generally, driven by a set of predetermined
goals. They employ physical, financial and human resources in order to achieve the
goals. These goals have no meaning unless people understand the underlying
philosophy, translate them into concrete action plans and put their heart while realizing
the targets. Organizations, thus, depend on the work of people to sustain and survive.
Without people organizations cannot exist.
The resources of Men, Money, Materials and Machinery are collected, coordinated and
utilized through people. These resources by themselves cannot fulfill the objectives of
an organization. They need to be united into a team. It is through the combined efforts
of people that material and monetary resources are effectively utilized for the
attainment of common objectives. Without united human efforts, no organization can
achieve its goals.
All the activities of an organization are initiated and completed by the persons who
make up the organization. This resource is called Human Resource and it is the most
important factor of production. People have always been central to organizations but
their strategic importance is increasing in today’s knowledge-based Industries. When
they are properly motivated, even ordinary people can deliver extraordinary results.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is responsible for the people dimension of the
organization. It is a pervasive force, action-oriented, individually oriented,
development-oriented, future-focused, and integrative in nature and is a comprehensive
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function. HR can be a source of competitive advantage, when the talents of people
working in the company are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and well organized to
deliver efficient and effective results. From an organizational standpoint, good HR
practices help in attracting and retaining talent, train people for challenging roles,
develop their skills and competencies, increase productivity and profits and enhance
standard of living.
The effective use of people is the critical factor in the successful accomplishment of
corporate goals. To this end HR managers need to understand the needs, aspirations of
employees proactively, face the challenges head on and resolve issues amicably in the
years ahead. (V S P Rao, 2006)
1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CULTURAL VALUES
Human resource development is a people-oriented concept that focuses on developing

the skills, knowledge and competencies of people. Human resource development can be
applied both at the organizational level as well as at national level. Various authors
have not yet been fully successful in conceiving the whole concept of human resource
development. They have defined the term from their stand point due to the fact that it is
a recent concept and therefore is still in the conceptualizing stage. Lifelong learning has
become an important topic under the globalization perspective, the whole world
develops into a “learning society” (Gass, 1996).
Work organizations are becoming important partners in this learning society, as

they provide more and more opportunities for continuous learning to their employees
with the objective to optimize organizational learning as a whole (Karen et al., 2001).
The formal introduction of the concept of Human Resource Development was done by
prof. Leonard Nadler in 1969 in American Society for Training and Development
Conference. In India, Larsen and Toubro Ltd, was the first company to introduce this
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concept in 1975 among the private sector companies with an objective of facilitating
growth of employees, especially people at the lower levels.
Among the public sector government organizations, it was BHEL which introduced this
concept in 1980. Nadler (1984) defines Human Resource Development as "Those
learning experiences, which are organized for a specific time and designed to bring
about the possibility of behavioral and attitudinal change”. Organizational view point is
that human resource development is a process in which the employees of an
organization are motivated to acquire and develop technical, managerial and
behavioral knowledge skills and abilities (John, 2005).
Their values, beliefs and attitudes are reshaped in order to perform present and future
roles by releasing the highest human potential with a view to contribute positively to
individual’s social goals as well as the organizational goals. Human resource
development is considered as a key to higher productivity, better relations and greater
profitability for any organization. Iqbal (2007) says human productivity is crucial for
growth and survival of organizations.
With the environment of liberalization, privatization and globalization across the world,
there is a whole new thrust in raising the level of performance in various sectors. Any
practice that deals with enhancing competencies, commitment and culture building can
be considered as HR practice. The practice can take the form of a system, a process, an
activity, a norm, a rule, an accepted or expected habit, or just a way of doing things.
Human Resource Development (HRD) has been defined as essentially consisting of

these three C’s: Competencies, Commitment and Culture or HRD also means
competence building, commitment building, and culture building (Rao, 1990). All
three are needed to make an organization function well. Without competencies many
tasks of the organization may not be completed cost-effectively or with optimal
efficiency. Without commitment they may not be done at all or are done at such a slow
pace that they lose relevance. Without an appropriate culture, organizations cannot last
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long. Culture provides the sustaining force and spirit for organizations to live. It
provides the oxygen needed for them to survive. Its utility comes to the fore front
especially when organizations are in trouble.
Thus, we talk about Quality, Productivity, and cost consciousness and so on. But let us
examine the basic driving force. Undoubtedly, it is the human energy- the individual’s
and the team’s competence, dynamism, and motivation. Management of human
resources, therefore, becomes a prime concern for the organizations. To develop these
resources, nurture them and align their aspirations with the values and needs of the
organization, is what HRD means. Needless to add, that HRD is not only important for
existing operations but it provides the basic resource for growth of the organization
also.
HRD is a key strategy to raise the level of organizational performance. It highlights

unlimited human potential. HRD must be compatible with overall business goals. Thus
HRD strategy is intertwined with the business strategy. Organizations have to carefully
choose right HRD intervention termed as OD from amongst many which are available.
The role of top management in any HRD exercise is crucial and basically centers on
creation of right HRD environment of OCTAPACE culture, wherein people are free
and attain new levels of performance for them and thereby for the organization as a
whole.
HRD is needed by any organization that aspires to be dynamic and growth oriented, and
wants to succeed in a fast changing environment. Employee capabilities must be
constantly acquired, sharpened, and used. HRD therefore, emphasizes unlimited human
potential to propel organizations. Any HRD effort that does not contribute to business
goals is likely to end up in confusion. Management has to clearly determine mission,
vision and objectives of the system; compare it with the current situations and work out
HRD strategy. Ultimately, HRD should develop self-managing capabilities in the
organizations, so that it can successfully negotiate emerging challenges to attain the
goals.
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HRD environment entails the development through where O-Openness, C-Confronting,
T-Trust, A-Authenticity, P-Proactive, A-Autonomy, C-Collaboration, E-
Experimentation for employee capabilities to develop continuously. Organizations must
have the right, supportive climate. Such an ‘enabling’ or ‘developmental’ climate is
characterized by the following dimensions:
- Treating humans as the most important and the crucial asset, and therefore
money spent on their development and well-being is investment, and not a cost.
- An environment of trust.
- Spirit of mutuality and collaboration amongst individuals, groups, and units.
- Faith in the concept that employees have unlimited potential and that it’s the job
of each manger to develop his/her own subordinates.
- Freedom to express ideas, and communicate freely.
- Encourage new ideas, experimentation, and risk-taking.
- Effective usage of mechanism such as Performance Appraisals, Potential
Appraisal, Career Planning, etc.
- Fair compensation and reward policy.
The above tendencies not only vary from organization to organization but even within
an organization, from unit to unit, from one layer to another. Most importantly, the
values and commitment exhibited by top management often decides the HRD climate.
An organization which is high on positive HRD climate can be very dynamic and
proactive, exploiting opportunities to its very best advantage. On the other hand, an
organization low on HRD climate may sooner or later get into stagnation coupled with
low morale, whenever favorable business conditions change for the worse.
Abraham’s (1989) study has established clearly the linkage between the HRD Climate
and organizational performance in financial terms. Even if the climate does not show
any direct linkages at a given point of time, logically it makes sense to have a good
HRD climate for the benefit of the organization. HRD climate is the tendency and
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environment where development of individuals and teams is given the highest priority
and where human resources are considered the most important resources. The positive
HRD Climate renders the Existing system more effective and makes the organization
more receptive to the introduction of relevant additional system.
1.3 HRD AUDIT
In the last two decades a large number of corporations have established HRD
departments, introduced new systems of HRD, and made structural changes in terms of
differentiating the HRD function and integrating it with the HR function. A good
number of CEO’s saw a hope in HRD for most of their problems, issues and challenges.
It is estimated that on an average, establishing a new HRD department with a small size
of about five professionally trained staff cost about two million rupees per annum in
terms of salaries, another ten million in terms of budget (e.g. training budget, travel,
etc.) and probably about five to ten times the amount in terms of managerial time costs
and opportunity costs. This is because HR systems are people intensive and require a
lot of managerial time.
In spite of these investments in a number of corporations, there is a widespread feeling

that HRD has not lived up to the expectations of either the top management or the line
managers. There are also examples of corporations where HRD has taken the driver’s
seat and has given a lot of benefits. In today’s competitive world, ‘people’ or
employees can give a good degree of competitive advantage to the company. To get the
best out of the HR function, there should be a good alignment of the function-its
strategies, structure systems, and styles - with business goals (e.g. financial and
customer parameters).
It should be aligned both with the short-term goals and long-term strategies. If it is not
aligned, the HR function can become a big liability to corporations and they will have
no alternative but to close their HR departments. Besides this alignment, the skills and
styles of the HR staff, line managers and top management should be in synergy with the
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HR goals and strategies. HRD audit is an attempt to assess these alignments and ensure
that they take place.
HRD audit is a comprehensive evaluation of the current HRD strategies, structure,

systems, styles and skills in context of the short and long term business plans of a
company. It attempts to find out future HRD needs of the company after assessing the
current HRD activities and inputs. In the last few years Udai Pareek has pioneered, a
methodology for auditing the HRD audit, and implemented it in many companies, in
India
HRD audit starts with an understanding of the future business plans and corporate
strategies. While HRD audit can be done even in organizations that lack well
formulated future plans and strategies, it is most effective as a tool when the
organization already has such long term plans. HRD audit also examines the linkages
between HRD and other systems like Total Quality Management (TQM), personnel
policies, strategic planning, etc. The consultants make suggestions on the basis of
evaluation about the future HRD strategies required by the company, the structure the
company needs to develop, new competencies, the systems that need to be
strengthened, and the styles and culture that have compatibility with the HRD process.
HRD audit always keeps business goals in focus. At the same time, it attempts to bring
in professionalism in HRD. In keeping the business focus at the center, HRD audit
attempts to evaluate HRD strategy, structure, system, staff, skill and style and their
appropriateness.
HRD audit is undertaken by most organizations to make HR systems and processes

more relevant to business goals. Over a period of time, business changes may have
taken place for a variety of reasons including environmental changes. Organizational
restructuring (financial, technological, marketing, manufacturing, engineering, etc.)
may have necessitated meeting the changing environmental demands and opportunities.
Such changes should be accompanied by appropriate changes in the HR function (its
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goals, emphasis, strategies, systems and processes). Some companies go in for HRD
audit to examine and make changes in the HR function to accompany organizational
changes. Some organizations that have undertaken Business Processes Reengineering
(BPR) have conducted HRD audit to ensure that the HR function is aligned with
business goals and strategies.
Many good organizations in India, after liberalization, have entered a competitive

phase. These are those organizations which saw a lot of opportunities, both within the
country and abroad. In light of these new opportunities, some of these felt that they had
not paid adequate attention to their human resources due to constraints of the past. They
used to recruit employees at low salaries and on the basis of contacts rather than
competence. As a result, the organizations ended up having very heterogeneous
categories of employees.
Moreover, organizations suddenly discovered that what was valued in the past-
employees with average competence and high loyalty-had become a weakness in the
present. In order to be competent for future, they had to change their profiles. Thus,
companies felt the need to take stock and see the direction in which they should move.
Some of these companies have borrowed many HRD practices from professionally
managed companies, but without adequate preparation. They are not sure if they are
going in the right direction. Thus to know in which direction their HRD should move,
they have gone in for HRD audit.
The experiences of the companies discussed indicate that HRD audit can give many
insights into a company’s affairs. HRD audit is also cost effective. In India it costs as
low as US $10,000 to US $25,000. The auditors normally camp in the organization for
one to two weeks, make their observations, and give their report in a month’s time.
They normally make a preliminary presentation at the end of their visit.
Ironically, it may seem that HRD audit should begin with such strategic plans, but in
some cases it has propelled the top management to formulate such plans. Another
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aspect in this regard is that people cannot participate in HRD audit without some
sharing of these plans. The audit, therefore, has forced the top management to share
their plans across the organization, resulting in increased involvement and commitment
of employees. In few cases, a new system of annual planning and sharing of the
business plans with management staff, to enable them to plan their own activities and
competency development programs, have been initiated.
1.4 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CLIMATE
The human resource development climate of an organization plays a significant role in

ensuring the competency, motivation and development of its employees. The human
resource development climate can be created using appropriate human resource
development systems and leadership styles of top management. The human resource
development climate is both a means to an end as well as an end in itself.
Hellriegel and Slocum (1974) defined organizational climate as a "set of attributes

which can be perceived about a particular organization and/or its subsystems, and that
may be induced in the way that organization and/ or its sub-systems deal with their
members and environment”. Perception about an organization's goals and about
decisions that a manager should take to achieve these goals come not only from formal
control systems but also through informal organization. Underpinning this prescription
is a belief that organizations have climate, and both the formal and informal structure
combine to create what is called organizational climate.
The term climate is used to designate the quality of the internal environment which
affects, the quality of cooperation, the development of the individual, the extent of
member's deduction or commitment to organizational purpose, and the efficiency with
which that purpose gets translated into results. It influences morale and the attitudes of
the individual towards his work and environment.
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Ashton and Sung (2002) stated that high performance working practices supported the
climate of the organization in a way which results in a working environment which not
only provides the potential for developing the personality of the worker, but also
raises the productivity of the organization.
Climate perceptions are psychologically meaningful, that people can agree to

characterize a system's practices and procedures. By its practices and procedures a
system may create climates. People perceive climates because the perception
functions as frames of reference for the attainment of some congruity between
behavior and the system's practices and procedures. However, if the climate is one
which rewards and supports individual differences, people in the same system will not
behave similarly. Further, because satisfaction is a personal evaluation of a system's
practices and procedures, people in the system tend to agree less on their satisfaction
than on their description of the system's climate as concluded by Noorjahen (2007).
Reichers and Schneider (1983) outline a four-fold progress made in climate research.
This approach is founded on perception and aids in the understanding of how work
contexts affect behavior and attitudes. It provides an alternative to motivation theories
as explanations for almost everything that people face while at work. What
motivational, whether the content (need) or process (instrumentality), persuasions fail
to recognize is the key role these perceptions play in operational wing.
A second advance in climate research examines multiple levels of analysis. While

motivation tends to concentrate on the explanation of phenomena from an individual's
perspective, climate research tends to focus on aggregated or group level data to
discover relationships between clusters of perceptions and organizationally relevant
outcomes.
A third advance has been the explanation of the distinction between psychological
climates and organizational climate. This distinction, first proposed by James and Jones
(1974), and further clarified by Jones and James (1979), has gained general acceptance.
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The fourth advance follows from the idea that people attach meaning to, or make sense
of clusters of psychologically related events. People in organizations encounter
thousands of events, practices and procedures and they perceive these events in
related sets.
Human resource development climate can be further grouped into three-broad

categories-
 General Climate
 OCTAPAC culture
 Human Resource Development Mechanisms.
To begin with, the general climate items focus on the importance given to human
resources development by the top management and line managers, in general. The
OCTAPAC items deal with the extent to which Openness, Confrontation, Trust,
Autonomy, Pro-activity, Authenticity and Collaboration are valued and promoted in
the organization. The items dealing with human resource development mechanisms
measure the extent to which human resource development mechanisms are
implemented seriously.
OCTAPAC culture is essential for facilitating human resource development.

Openness is present when employees feel free to discuss their ideas, activities and
feelings with each other. Confrontation involves bringing problems and issues into the
limelight with a view to solving them, rather than hiding them for fear of hurting or
getting hurt. Trust is taking people at face value and believing them. Autonomy is the
freedom to allow people to work independently with responsibility. Pro-activity is
encouraging employees to take initiatives and risks. Authenticity is the tendency of
interdependencies, to be helpful to each other and work as teams. Collaboration is
required so that employees can cope up with the changes and upcoming trends in an
organization.
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The conventional implication with which the term 'climate' has been used in literature
is 'Organizational Climate'. The concept of climate with specific reference to the human
resource development context, i.e. human resource development climate, has been
introduced by Rao (1996). “The climate here stinks/ morale is low, no one seems to
want to produce, my work is not challenging, and my colleagues don’t stimulate me”
The employee making these comments was definitely not referring to the weather by
using word climate. Thus climate, in natural sense, is referred to as the average course
or condition of the weather at a place over a period of year as exhibited by temperature,
wind, velocity and precipitation.
The term “climate” is also used to designate the quality of the internal environment
which conditions in turn the quality of cooperation, the development of the individual,
the extent of member’s dedication or commitment to organizational purpose and the
efficiency with which that purpose becomes translated into results. Climate is the
atmosphere in which individuals help, judge and reward, constrain and find out about
each other. It influences morale and the attitudes of the individual toward his work and
his environment.
Organization climate has been a popular concept in theory and research for some time
and has received a great deal of attention in the past 25 years. It refers to the internal
environment of an organization prevailing over a period of time like individual
personality; every organization has some unique characteristics and properties.
Organization climate is described by these unique characteristics and properties.
Organizational climate can only be discussed in terms of how it is perceived or felt by

organizational members. Consequently, a climate may be perceived as hostile or
supportive, as conductive to achievement or stifling, and so on. Taguiri (1968) viewed
that organizational climate is a relatively enduring quality of the internal environment
that is experienced by the members, influences their behavior and can be described in
terms of a particular set of characteristics of the organization.
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Whereas Hellricgel and Solcum (1974) defined Organizational Climate as a set of
attributes which can be perceived about a particular organization or its subsystems. It
deals with their members and environment. Several themes are implicit in this
definition of organizational climate.
A. Perceptual responses sought are primarily descriptive than evaluative.
B. The level of inclusiveness of the items, scales and constructs are macro rather
than micro.
C. The unit of analysis tends to attribute the organization rather than the
individuals and
D. The perceptions of organizational climate have potential behavioral

consequences.
Members of the Organization work within and are continuously influenced by this
internal environment, which is also called as organizational culture or organizational
climate. Culture refers to the deep structure of organizations, which is rooted in the
values, beliefs and assumptions held by organizational members. Socialization is
established through a variety of identity groups that converge in the workplace.
Climate, in contrast, portrays organizational environment as being rooted in the
organization’s value system, but tends to present these social environments in relatively
static terms, describing them in terms of a fixed set of dimensions.
Thus, climate is often considered as relatively temporary, subject to direct control and
largely limited to those aspects of the social environment that are consciously perceived
by organization’s members.
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1.5 ORGANIZATION CULTURE
Concept of Culture
The common meaning of culture is 'the way we do things around here'. But this
statement over simplifies the concept and misses powerful underlying concepts and
processes. The culture can be better understood as the shared assumptions, beliefs,
values and norms, actions as well as artifacts and language patterns. It is an acquired
body of knowledge about how to behave and shared meanings and symbols, which
facilitate everyone's interpretation and understanding of how to act within an
organisation. Culture is the unique whole, the heart and soul that determine how a
group of people will behave. Culture is collective beliefs that in turn shapes behaviour.
Maclver and Page (1953), indicate that culture is the expression of our nature in our
modes of living and our thinking, intercourse, in our literature, in religion, in recreation
and enjoyment. Culture is the sum total of behavior pattern, attitude and values shared
and transmitted by the members of a given society (Linton, 1936). Culture is to a
human collectively what personality is to an individual. Culture could be defined as the
interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influence human groups to its
environment.
Hofsted (1980), states that culture determines the identity of a human group in the
same way as personality determines the identity of an individual. More over the two
interact - Culture and personality is a classic name for Psychological Anthropology.
Culture traits some time can be measured by personality traits.
Gillis (2002), indicates that Culture is a basic attribute of society, a familiar concept,
yet difficult to define. It is the subject of prodigious research and millions of words by
insightful and expressive people. It has many aspects and exhibits itself in many ways.
Any short definition does not capture the complex concepts suggested by the word.
Here are some thoughts and suggestions relating to culture and cultural change. Our
culture is inside us - it is transparent to us. It affects everything we do: the way we
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perceive and interact with the world, the way we relate to one another, the way we cope
with our lives, the way we resolve conflicting interests. It is passed on to us through our
institutions and traditions, our political and social organizations, our language, our
technology, our literature and art, our music and theatre, our games and entertainment,
our icons. Our culture is the theatre in which we play out our lives. It is embedded in
the synaptic connections in our brains. It is a major part of who we are.
Many academicians who studied culture and have often come up with rather narrow
definitions. Others have taken these definitions and combined them into new, more
embracing definitions. Way of looking at organizations borrows heavily from
anthropology and sociology and uses many of the same terms to define the building
blocks of culture Organization theory hypothesizes that organizational culture plays a
critical role in the development of multiple organizational ethical climates. (Trevino
1986, Ferrell et.al, 1989).
The organizational culture perspective is gaining importance as organizations become

more complex, decentralized and fragmented (Mausolff, 1996, Grosenick and Gibson
2001, Ott, 1998).
Cultural influences change the character and identity of an organization. In this manner
the organizational climate, a social force that constrains individual behavior, can be
permanently changed. Perceptions and behavior of organizational members can be
altered. However, unless the underlying shared assumptions and values in organizational
culture are changed, the climate will revert back to the old climate as soon as the
pressure from organizational leaders or citizens, for example, are removed (Ott, 1998).
Organizational culture is the “basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by
members of the organization” (Schein, 1985). Organizational climates are distinct,
however, from the organizational culture. (Cullen, Victor and Bronson, 1993).
Organizational climates are the “psychological environments in which behavior of
individuals occur” (Ott, 1998). Individual norms operate in the organizational climate
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and evolve into institutional systems that are well known by organizational members.
An organizational ethical climate is the “collection of shared perceptions on what
ethically correct behavior is and how ethical issues should be handled” (Victor and
Cullen, 1987).
Once in an organization, employees learn through formal and informal socialization

processes what is correct to contribute to this organizational ethical climate (Cooper,
1998, Victor and Cullen, 1987), and they react to it collectively (Ott, 1998). The
organizational culture, characterized by shared assumptions, beliefs and values helps to
shape and guide this behavior (Schein, 1985, Ott, 1989, 1998, Victor and Cullen, 1987).
The organizational culture is a system of organizational symbols, beliefs, values and

shared assumptions and "is a social force that controls patterns of organizational
behavior by shaping members' cognition and perceptions of meanings and realities"
(Ott, 1989) and is an anthropological construct. In public organizations, the focus is to
be on a values based ethic that considers the public interest through the implementation
of policy and law. This effect varies between public organizations based on their
mission and structure. It is therefore logical to posit that differing organizational ethical
climates are to some extent a product of different organizational cultures.
Within an organization, different organizational cultures may be found in different

operating departments (Van Maanen and Barley, 1984, Louis, 1981 in Schein, 1992;
Ott, 1989). It is important to assess the culture in different operating units within
organizations. Assumptions about the organizational culture based on the organization
as a whole are inappropriate.
Culture comprises the symbolic side of an organization, and it shapes the human
thought and behavior in the system. The concept of organizational culture is in common
use since the 1980’s. Organizational research originally focused strongly on the
surveying of corporate climate, but in the 1980’s, the organizational climate concept
was to a certain extent replaced by the concept of organizational culture. Climate was
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redefined as the visible expression of organizational values. It is generally accepted as
“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems
of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be
considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (Shafritz and Ott, 2001).
The organizational culture plays a very significant role in making organizations get the
best out of themselves. Culture provides the energy needed to function well by ensuring
as it were a proper circulation of blood through all the organs. Organizational culture
shapes the values and beliefs of the members. Organization culture is defined as
“shared managerial beliefs and assumptions about employee nature and behavior”
(Ayean et. al., 2002).
Geert Hofstede (1980), has clearly brought out a strong influence of culture in
organizational working. Linda Smircich (1985), brought out the direct link between the
concepts of culture and organizational behavior. Pettigrew (1979), referred culture as a
system publicly and collectively accepted meanings operating for a given group. Louis
(1983) also came up with the idea of common understanding. Thus it is rational and
logical to say that culture with its different dimensions has a significant influence on
the organizations performance.
Organizational culture is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of

an organization's culture, not with whether or not they like them. That is, it is a
descriptive term. It also represents a common perception held by the organization's
member. Culture plays an important role in shaping any organization. It evolves with
the business perspective, internally and externally.
Organizational culture is considered as an internal variable meaning that it is something

that organizations have. This perspective of culture has been taken by a number of
researchers. It has been described as a set of assumptions (Schein, 1985), rituals and
ceremonies (Deal and Kennedy, 1982), shared management practices (Hofstede, 1998)
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and shared values (O Reilly, 1991). Peters and Waterman (1982), argued that a strong
culture distinguishes successful organizations from other organizations. They
emphasized that any organization, in order to survive and achieve successes, must have
a sound set of beliefs.
If an organization is to meet the challenges of a challenging world, it must be prepared

to change everything about itself, except those beliefs as it moves through corporate
life. They argued that the "Soft" is hard. Ouchi (1980), viewed that strong culture
facilitates coordination and communication and these give strong-culture companies a
competitive advantage over their competitors.
Among these the theory propounded by Edgar Schein has been the most influential in
understanding organizational culture. Culture exists at three levels ranging from latent
to manifest. At the latent level lies a core of beliefs and assumption, in middle the
values and at the manifest levels are the artifacts. Schein (1985), believes that the core
of basic assumptions and belief is the essence of culture. This core guides the values
and behavior norms, which the members recognize, respond to and maintain. Pareek
(1988) relied on the functionalist approach to study culture.
Culture related concepts can be seen as multi-level concepts. Values, beliefs, attitudes
and norms are inter-related. Pareek (1997), discussed the concept of ethos, as the
underlying spirit of character or group and is made of its beliefs, customs or practices.
At the base of ethos are core values i.e., "People need to give and get something from
the occupation that goes beyond simply earning a salary".
A healthy organizational culture rests on eight strong pillars of "OCTAPACE" referring

to Openness, Confrontation, Trust, Authenticity, Proactive, Autonomy, Collaboration
and Empowerment and Experimentation. T. V. Rao introduced the concept of
OCTAPAC culture as a good progressive way of building organizations. Udai Pareek
and T.V. Rao pioneered the concept of HR Culture and propounded the OCTAPAC
culture. An E for Empowerment and Experimentation was later added and it became
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OCTAPACE. In addition to being an acronym For these values, OCTAPACE is a
meaningful term, indicating eight (octa) steps (pace) to create functional ETHOS
From the last quarter of the previous century, a host of indomitable factors have been
constantly threatening the survival of business organizations. Rising customer
expectations, escalating environmental pressures and daunting competitive onslaughts
are some of the challenges that business organizations are facing today. In such
intimidating contexts, organizational culture assumes immense significance as a central
theme for attaining competitive advantage.
Organizational culture is hypothesized to play a decisive role in the development of a

unique corporate identity, which in turn provides organizations with the opportunity to
leverage their corporate identity to achieve strategic leadership. Cultural influences
have a strong bearing on the character and persona of an organization. Peters and
Waterman (1982), have opined that excellent companies focus on building an enabling
corporate culture.
Organizational culture is defined as shared managerial beliefs and assumptions about

employee nature and behavior. Deal and Kennedy (1982), define organizational culture
as the way things get done around here. Schein (1990) describes it as a set of shared
assumptions, values, beliefs and norms about expected behavior. Schwartz and Davis
(1981), view culture as a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by organization
members.
Ouchi (1981) puts it as a set of symbols, ceremonies, and myths that communicate the
underlying values and beliefs of an organization. Organizational culture sums up the
way a business functions. The importance of culture is enhanced through its impact on
employee morale and work attitudes. Consequently, job satisfaction is likely to be
affected by the various aspects of organizational culture. Job satisfaction is important
because of the well-established association with a range of organizational outcomes.
Employees, who are more satisfied, exhibit lower rate of absenteeism. They reduce the
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rate of intension to leave and are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship
behavior and are satisfied with their lives in general.
IT companies are very dynamic in their working and IT employees also require a
different set of job satisfaction factors. The commitment also differs due to other
variables and thus working culture of IT companies is very different. The working is
totally different, so the variables which are applicable to any other industry differ
significantly from IT industry. Thus, this brings a keen interest in studying the job
satisfaction and its relationship with organizational commitment and organizational
culture in IT companies.
Several extensive researches have been conducted on corporate culture but very little
empirical research has examined organizational culture. Small Organizations differ
from large organizations in terms of their organizational structures, responses to
environment, managerial styles and the job satisfaction among organizations according
to their size. Support for innovation has been identified as an important aspect of
organizational culture and may contribute to employee’s job satisfaction.
In a research it was found that company size and formalized human resource practices
had a negative impact on employee’s perceptions of an innovation- supportive culture.
The close interaction of management with employees in smaller organization provides
an opportunity for direct leadership which may improve communication, relationship
and job satisfaction. Although bigger organizations offer large pay, fringe benefits and
job security, smaller firms offer more interesting jobs and better opportunities for
employees to use their skill which suggests that job satisfaction level could differ
according to the size of the organization.
Organizational culture is the product of all the organization’s features: its people,
objectives, size, technology, unions, policies, its successes and its failures. It is the sum
total of shared values, beliefs and habits within an organization: in short, the
organization’s personality. The challenge for HR professionals is to adjust positively to
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the culture of the organization. They have to choose paths that best reflect the culture of
the firm and the attitudes of its people. What to do when workers start violating the
company norms such as smoking, when they are not supposed to smoke? Should it be
dismissed as a minor violation and bear with such offences in future too- or should the
rights of non-smokers be given importance? How to strike a balance between
maximizing shareholders returns and workers concern for job security, especially
during a merger or acquisition? A closed and threatening culture goes against the larger
interests of employees.
Decisions are made at the top; there tends to be a lack of trust and confidence in
subordinates, secrecy pervades executive actions, workers are tightly controlled. In
organizations where there is an open culture, most decisions are taken at lower levels,
subordinates are trusted, two way communication is encouraged, and teams are created
to solve problems. Understanding the type of culture that prevails with in a firm is
important in order to formulate appropriate HR policies and strategies.
1.6 OCTAPACE Culture
In the present business scenario, firms must adopt world class competitiveness for their
long term survival and sustenance. An organization’s success is determined by the
skills and motivation of the employees. Competent employees are the greatest assets of
any organization. Given the opportunities and by providing the right type of climate in
an organization, individuals can be helped to give full contribution to their potential, to
achieve the goals of the organization.
The organizational culture plays a very significant role in enabling organizations to get
the best out of themselves. Culture provides the energy needed to function well by
ensuring as it were a proper circulation of blood through all the organs. The Corporate
culture is one that results from the belief of the top management initially and
subsequently from the HRD systems and practices. Organizational culture shapes the
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values and beliefs of the members. Organization culture is defined as shared managerial
beliefs and assumptions about employee nature and behavior (Ayean et al., 2002).
It is widely recognized that different organizations have distinctive cultures. Through

tradition, history and structure, organization’s build up their own culture. Culture gives
an organization a sense of identity – ‘who we are’, ‘what we stand for’, ‘what we do’.
Organizational culture/ethos is the underlying spirit or character of an organization and
it is made up of its beliefs, customs or practices. The influence of organizations in
shaping the attitudes, values, motivation, and performance of people is being
increasingly realized.
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 for 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/her 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.
1.6.1 OPENNESS.
Openness is there where people (Individuals, dyads, teams and all in the organization)
feel free to express their ideas, opinions and feelings to each other irrespective of their
level, designation, etc. There are no barriers to such expressions. They are encouraged
to express and are heard. Their views are taken seriously. Such expressions provide an
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opportunity for individuals to explore their own talents. 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/she 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 due to 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.
1.6.2 COLLABORATION
Collaboration is the culture where people (Individual, dyads, teams and the
organization as a whole) are eager to help each other. There is a spirit of sacrifice for
the sake of each other and larger goals. Personal power is played down and people are
governed by larger goals like the goals of the organization, country and humanity.
People are willing to go to any extent to help each other to make sure that the larger
organizational goals do not suffer. Particularly the organizational goals govern the
decision making and people do not have narrow departmental or team loyalties when
they are required.
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There are fewer overheads in resolving interdepartmental conflicts. The ‘We’ feeling is of
the highest order. Team spirit is high. Intra departmental loyalties do not come in the way
of interdepartmental collaboration. Cohesiveness of small groups has an enabling and
empowering effect on building organizational identity and cohesiveness. 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.
1.6.3 TRUST.
Trust deals with a culture of people believing each other and acting on the basis of
verbal messages and instructions without having to wait for written instructions or
explanations. There is no need for monitoring and controls. There are no overheads to
check, if people mean what they say. The word given by individuals, dyads or teams is
relied on. In such a culture, both trust and trustworthiness are of highest order. To
create a culture of mutual trust, a culture of trustworthiness is essential.
If every individual becomes trustworthy, trust automatically follows. Trust puts the
onus on the person who is the recipient of promise or word given. 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 process. The outcome of trust includes higher empathy, timely
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support, reduced stress, reduction and simplification of forms and procedures. Such
simplification is an indicator of trust and of reduced paper work, effective delegation
and higher productivity.
1.6.4 AUTHENTICITY
Authenticity is speaking the truth fearlessly and keeping up the promises made. It is
indicated by the extent to which people mean what they say and do what they say. In a
way, it is of a higher order than trust and trustworthiness. Individuals, dyads and teams
can be counted upon not to make false promises. They never promise or commit
something just to please others. They also make full efforts to implement their
promises. They do not need any follow-up and if they fail to deliver, it is understood
that it is due to some extraordinary circumstances beyond their control.
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.
1.6.5 PROACTION
A Proactive culture promotes initiatives and exploration on the part of all employees. A
proactive culture encourages everyone to take initiative and make things happen. New
activities and new ways of doing things are encouraged. Such proaction can be in any
area including role making (giving new interpretations to one’s role for achieving
organizational or team goals.), role taking (taking new initiatives, initiating new
activities, changing the old methods of work), work methodology, cost reduction,
quality improvements, culture building, HRM, etc.
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Pro Action means taking the initiative, preplanning and taking preventive action, and
calculating the payoffs of an alternative course before taking action. The proact can be
contrasted with the term react. In the latter, action is in response to (and in the pattern
of) 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 (of shouting) 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.
.
1.6.6 AUTONOMY
Autonomy is present if every role-holder in the organization, irrespective of his level,

has some scope to use discretion in his job. The discretion may be in terms of work
methods, decision making, communication or any such area. There should be scope to
choose one’s activities and role. It can be 10 percent of the time or 20 percent. The
greater the freedom to choose what one wants to do or the way one wants to do it, the
higher the autonomy.
Autonomy is using and giving freedom to plan and act in one's own sphere. It means
respecting and encouraging individuals and role autonomy. It develops mutual respect
and is likely to result in willingness to take on responsibility, individual initiative and
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. Autonomy has been found to characterize most academic and research
institutions. This is very critical for bringing out academic excellence. Knowledge
workers, IT industry and R & D departments thrive as a result of this.
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1.6.7 CONFRONTATION
Confrontation can be defined as facing rather than shying away from problems. It is the
culture of facing issues squarely. People discuss issues with very little fear of hurting
each other. Even if one may have to hurt the other, the issue is handled and not put
under the carpet. People can be relied upon to treat issues not as a personal assault, but
as focus areas needing improvement. This culture enhances the problem solving ability.
It also implies deeper analysis of interpersonal problems. All this involves taking up
challenges.
The term confrontation is often used with some reservation and means putting up a
front as contrasted with putting one's back (escaping) to the problem. A better term
would be confrontation and exploration. 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.
1.6.8 EXPERIMENTATION
Experimentation is the orientation on part of the employees to try out new ways of
doing things and take new decisions. It characterizes a risk- taking culture in the
organization. Without risk, there is no growth. Without experimentation, there is very
little scope for renewal, rejuvenation and simplification of life. It means using and
encouraging innovative approaches to solve problems, using feedback for improving,
taking a fresh look at things, and encouraging creativity.
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We are so much engrossed 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.
Openness and Confrontation go together. Autonomy and Collaboration go together.

Trust and Authenticity go together. Pro action and Experimentation go together. Thus,
these four pairs are the four corner stones of HRD culture. When these values are
practiced in an organization, they become a part of life and are likely to get the best out
of people. Human potential gets developed to the maximum extent and people
competencies are utilized to the maximum.
An OCTAPACE culture can be built only by an enlightened top management. Top

management refers to all those who are decision makers and event makers in the
organization. This includes the Owners, Board of Directors, Unit heads, Heads of
departments and even Sectional Heads. It also includes Office Bearers of Unions and
Associations.
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All heads in formal and informal organizations that have the capability to influence the
course of action of the organization, its units, subsystems or functions, can be
considered as top level managers. It is these influential people who set the tone for
creating an OCTAPACE culture. They do it through the roles they perform or do not
perform and the styles with which they perform these roles. Their styles of functioning
have a larger impact on culture creation.
Indian managers have been found to exhibit benevolent or paternalistic, critical

(autocratic and coercive) and developmental (participative and empowering) styles. Of
these, the developmental style is the most conductive for creating on OCTAPACE
culture. The OCTAPACE culture can be called the HRD culture and the developmental
style the HRD style. HRD audit attempts to assess both the culture and style.
If the style is not developmental, the HRD culture may be difficult to establish and the
HRD systems and strategies may have limited impact. HRD audit includes interviews,
questionnaires and observation, on the basis of which consultants suggest mechanisms
to improve the HRD style and make it more facilitating and congruent to HR
philosophy and outcomes.
1.7 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The relegation of technology to the background in the organization sciences could be

dismissed as simply reflecting the role that Information Technology (IT) played in
organizations into the 1980’s. IT was primarily used to automate existing operations
and to increase the speed of communication.
Automation within organizational functions meant only routine information collection

and storage tanks were taken over by IT, replacing paper and people with electrons,
without fundamentally changing the way work was done. As “automated plumbing,” IT
reinforced the traditional, bureaucratic approach for handling uncertainty and
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information complexity. Think about the “bureau” in “bureaucracy” literally as a chest
of drawers, each drawer representing a function.
Each function collected and stored information relevant to the activities within its own
drawer. Marketing developed and held sales information, accounting generated and
kept financial information, manufacturing assembled and possessed production
information, and so on. What information technology did in this situation was to
accelerate the existing patterns of operation within each drawer. On the information
technology side, these new benefits arose from IT’s increasing capacity in terms of
computing power, communication (Fulk and DeSanctis, 1995), and integration
capabilities. The doubling of processing power and storage capacity after every couple
of years, along with rapid increases in communication bandwidth, increased the speed
and decreased the cost of information processing and communications.
IT has the ability to create software enhanced products and services by quickly
recombining components in new and innovative ways. It is made possible by the
existence (either within a company’s software catalogue or in cyberspace) of small
software-based components that can be integrated in some fashion, and of the
organizational system by involving business strategies and practices that emphasize
agility. A company can license Google Maps and quickly integrate it with their store
locations to help customers find their stores. Book publishers can modularize their
books to allow for the ability to create customized texts as products on demand.
Several enabling technology features make possible the integration of components in

innovative ways including web-based service-oriented architectures, standardized
component designs, and open source software. Service-oriented architectures (SOAs)
refer to the notion of breaking up the software in a firm into its various services that can
then be reused to rapidly create new applications. Software components for a bank, for
example, might include foreign currency exchange, loan application, fund transfer,
secure logon, and opening an account. The online bank E Trade, for example, used
these components in their SOA to rapidly create an application that allowed customers
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to open accounts securely and transfer funds within E Trade accounts and between E
Trade accounts and other banks.
These components are often Web based, and may be “integrated” not only by literally
being combined, but by having such fast connections that data and rules are transported
back and forth between the different components so rapidly that they seem like a single
integrated system. As a result, a customer making travel arrangements may actually be
using a number of different components (e.g., flight schedules, cost optimizer, credit
checker), with each component residing with a different vendor over the Web. Tying
these different components together is made possible through standards agreed to by the
various key players in the software market.
There is software behind business perfection. In recent years, developing countries have
taken initiatives to introduce Information Technology (IT) software and services to add
value to their services Information Technology. IT Industries come under service
industry and the success of an IT Industry is completely dependent on effective
implementation of service marketing strategies crafted by the industry. As the role of IT
industry is changing from merely a service provider to the complete technology
solutions. Marketing IT software and interacting services that benefit the company at
large are some of the strategies that should be considered in order to improve their
services in the digital era.
In present scenario we have seen that today different companies have different
problems so they don’t want package software, they want the software which can fulfill
their demand and solve their problems. So for this purpose the software designer has to
continuously interact with the customers because the expectations of today’s
customer’s have increased. To get success in service sector, companies should have
clear vision for different dimensions of Service Marketing i.e. Internal Marketing,
Interactive Marketing, and External Marketing. The peculiar characteristics of IT
industry makes it fall under the category of Industrial Marketing as well, because most
of the times it caters to the business organizations.
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IT products refer to sources of information and knowledge contents that are available in
electronic forms such as CD-ROMs, interactive video, films, audio digital products,
online publishing, public domain and commercial online databases available through
Internet and other propriety databases available through various private network
providers. In addition, there are Cable and Satellite TV programs with varieties of
channels that provide information to masses. This fast development of Information
Technologies has provided new possibilities for libraries to introduce IT products and
services to its customers
The advent of new technologies such as: dramatic increase of digital storage media;
convergence of telecommunication and broadcasting, the availability of wealth of
information resources accessible through the Internet and also increasingly reducing
cost of computers in the marketplace, make it possible for companies to introduce IT
software and services to fulfill information needs of their customers.
Companies should promote the use of IT software as an integral part of services in

meeting the changing information needs of the community. Companies must ensure
that these new services are visible and meaningful to the community they served. The
communities using IT software and services are vital. Marketing strategies of IT
software and services act as the driving force in achieving quality services that meet
information needs of the community.
In developing marketing strategies, the need is to undertake environmental analysis to

determine market trends that have major influence in the information needs of
customers, conduct market research before marketing programs can be introduced,
develop marketing strategies through internal marketing and finally institute a
monitoring and review system in order to maintain continuous customers' satisfactions
of services offered by IT companies. The growth in IT industry is perhaps the fastest of
all that within a span of a decade or it has become a multibillion dollar industry.
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The early 1970’s saw large computer organizations like IBM and ICL as the dominant
players in the industry. The trend then was not to sell but install the hardware, lease it
and provide a range of services to users.
On the other hand, the provision of quality information services is very much
influenced by the efficient use of IT products by its users. For becoming market
oriented they have to develop their human resources, in order to provide better response
to customers’ needs. In the long run, market oriented approach will lead to better
services through the provision of superior and quality IT products and services, higher
productivity among its staff and strong customer loyalty.
The Online Community Information Services can include the following information:
community leaders, local community events, local sport events, directories of public
utilities and youth associations, local entertainment centers, places of interest to
tourists, local historical and cultural heritages, publications of interest to local
communities and youth, local news and community forums. Local businesses can be
invited to advertise their products and services. Providing IT services has became more
important and that is where the industry rests.
IT emerged, in the late eighties, as a combination of several facts; Hardware, Software

and Communication. It became evident then IT had a wide range and scope as it
covered a variety of hardware, several operating systems, innumerable application
software that facilitated development and easier interface with the user. IT
specializations have facilitated working in many sectors such as banking, finance,
mining, steel, transportation, government and what not. Communication networks have
also developed that allow users either a local area network (LAN), which allows access
on computers within a building or a wide area network (WAN) which is remotely and
geographically distributed.
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Human resources are the most valuable assets of any organization. It is the people in
the organization, who interact with the customers and, contribute to the achievement of
the organization's objectives to achieve competitive edge. With experience and proper
training in IT, the staff will become the most knowledgeable asset of the company.
The provision of quality and efficient services depend on the knowledge, skill
competencies and experience of IT staff. These require IT Industries to take positive
measures to develop its human resources in IT. For internal marketing, the vision and
mission must be communicated to all levels of staff, so that they understand the future
direction of company and have a shared aspiration towards realizing the vision of
company to develop as competitors.
The staff must be trained in the effective use of IT software, such as navigating the net,
so that, they in turn will interact with the users and make effective use of IT software
and provide services. This will make the work of staff more challenging and will create
a new image of IT managers in their own rights in providing software services.
Continuous training in IT is essential as IT software have shorter life cycle and new
software’s always appear in the marketplace.
As an institution that promotes independent learning, the companies should also

develop as a truly learning organization, where staff is encouraged for continuous
learning and undertake research for ensuring continuous improvement for them and for
the organization. Staff from different departments having specialized expertise relating
to their work can be tapped for answering reference inquiries and for delivering quality
IT software and services.
System of rewards and recognition must be given to staff that are committed and excel
in developing IT software and for those who are able to deliver quality IT software and
services. Companies having expertise and experiences in providing IT services can be
invited to deliver seminars to Companies and organizing professional meetings or
47
forums to share their experiences. The aim is to develop and provide continuous
exposure to company in the area of new technologies.
1.7.1 Modern Practices of IT Companies
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the

Indian Chamber of Commerce is a consortium that serves as an interface to the Indian
software industry and Indian BPO for maintaining a state of the art information
database of IT software and services related activities for use of both the software
developers as well as interested companies overseas. The various activities of
NASSCOM are -
 To encourage members to provide world-class quality products, services and
solutions in India and overseas and help build brand equity for the Indian IT
software and services industry.
 To take effective steps to campaign against software piracy.
 To assist in Personal selling: Personal selling is the process of assisting and

persuading the existing and prospective buyer to buy the software or services in
person. It involves direct and personal contact of the seller or his representative
with the buyer.
 To carry out Publicity this is a non-personal, non-paid stimulation of demand of

the software or services.
 To provide an ideal forum for overseas and domestic companies to explore the
vast potential available for Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances, Marketing
Alliances, Joint Product Development, etc., by organizing Business Meets with
delegations of various countries.
 To Work actively with Overseas Governments, Embassies to make the Visa and
Work Permit Rules more "India Industry Friendly".
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 To disseminate various policies, market information and other relevant statistics
by sending more than 200 circulars (annually) to all members.
1.7.2 A Big Road Map of the IT Industries of India
The Indian information technology (IT) industry has played a key role in putting India
on the global map. Thanks to the success of the IT industry, India is now a power to
reckon with. According to the annual report 2009-10, prepared by the Department of
Information Technology (DIT), the IT-BPO industry garnered a revenue aggregate of
US$ 73.1 billion in 2009-10 as compared to US$ 69.4 billion in 2008-09, and grew at a
rate of over 5 per cent. The report predicts that the Indian IT-BPO revenues may reach
US$ 225 billion in 2020.
According to DIT, the Indian software and services exports reached US$ 49.7 billion in
2009-10 as compared to US$ 47.1 billion in 2008-09, registering an increase of 5.5 per
cent in dollar terms. Further, the IT services exports was estimated to grow from US$
25.8 billion in 2008-09 to US$ 27.3 billion in 2009-10, showing a growth of 5.8 per
cent.
Moreover, according to a study by Springboard Research published in February 2010,

the Indian Information Technology (IT) market had grown at around 15.5 per cent in
2010, Mainly due to growing investor confidence and favorable initiatives taken by the
government.
The data center services market in the country was forecasted to grow at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7 per cent between 2009 and 2011, to touch close to
US$ 2.2 billion by the end of 2011, according to research firm IDC India's report
published in March 2010. The IDC India report stated that the overall India data centre
services market in 2009 was estimated at US$ 1.39 billion.
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As per a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market
research firm IMRB, the total number of Internet users in India reached 71 million in
2009. The number of active users increased to 52 million in September 2009 from 42
million in September 2008, registering a growth of 19 per cent year-on-year, stated the
report.
Outsourcing
India is a preferred destination for companies looking to offshore their IT and back-
office functions. It also retains its low-cost advantage and is a financially attractive
location when viewed in combination with the business environment it offers and the
availability of skilled people.
Some big deals in the outsourcing space include:
 Wipro Ltd, an IT services company, has entered into a strategic collaboration
with Hitachi Data Systems, to offer co-branded products and services on Hitachi
Technology in India.
 Software company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won a multi-year

outsourcing contract from Norway-based telecom company, Telenor Norway to
provide application maintenance and development services.
 HCL Technologies has entered into a five-year IT infrastructure outsourcing

deal with Singapore Exchange (SGX) for US$ 110 million. The company has
also won a US$ 500 million strategic IT outsourcing contract from US-based
drug manufacturer, Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD).
 Computer services firm, Mahindra Satyam has signed a four-year offshore

contract with Denmark-based IT company, KMD for US$ 48 million.
 Software exporter Patni Computer Systems won a five-year IT and back-office

contract potentially worth around US$ 200 million from US-based health
insurance provider Universal American.
50
1.7.3 Bangalore IT Industry
Bangalore is the capital of Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed as the

Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau
in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and
fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. As of 2009, Bangalore was inducted in the
list of Global cities and ranked as a "Beta World City" alongside cities such as Geneva,
Copenhagen, Boston, Cairo, Riyadh, Berlin, in the survey performed by the
Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network in 2008.
The Silicon Valley of India is a nickname of the Indian city of Bangalore. The name
signifies Bangalore's status as a hub for Information Technology (IT) companies in
India and is a comparative reference to the original Silicon Valley, based around Santa
Clara Valley, California, a major hub for IT companies in the United States. One of
earliest mentions of this sobriquet occurred in late 1980’s in the Indian Express. The
more prevalent application of the nickname Bangalore began in the 1990’s based on a
concentration of firms specializing in Research and Development (R & D), electronics
and software production.
Electronics City is one of India's largest electronic industrial parks; spread over 332
acres (1.3 km²) just outside Bangalore, India. It houses more than a hundred industries,
including IT industry leaders such as Wipro, Hewlett-Packard, Infosys, HCL
Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, CGI, Siemens, and Yokogawa Electric etc.
The Electronics City was the brainchild of R.K. Baliga, the first Chairman and
Managing Director of Keonics, Karnataka Electronics. He dreamt of making Bangalore
the Silicon Valley of India when he developed the concept of Electronic City. He did
not live to see his dream materialize (as he died in 1988). The liberalization of the
Indian economy in the early 1990’s by the then Indian Prime Minister - Shri P.V.
Narasimha Rao and the Indian Finance Minister - Dr. Manmohan Singh helped
Electronic City to become what it is today—the outsourcing capital of the world.
51
Some of the World famous IT Companies located in Bangalore are -
 Infosys Technologies
 Wipro Technologies
 Tata Consultancy Services
 Cognizant Mind tree Ltd
 Capgemini, Accenture
 IBM
 HP
 Dell Inc
 HCL Technologies
 Patni Computer
 Tech Mahindra
 LandT InfoTech
 Polaris Software
 Hexaware Technologies
 Oracle
 Siemens Information System Ltd
 Genpact
 Mphasis, Yahoo and Google, etc. to name a few
1.8. IT COMPANIES PROFILE - CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY
1.8.1. TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services started in 1968. TCS is an Indian multinational information
technology (IT) services, business solutions and outsourcing, services company
headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. TCS is a subsidiary of the Tata Group and is
52
listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE)
of India. It is one of India's most valuable companies and is the largest India-based IT
services company by 2012 revenues.
Mr.F.C Kohli who is presently the Deputy Chairman was entrusted with the job of
steering TCS. The early days marked TCS responsibility in managing the punch card
operations of TISCO. The company, which was into management consultancy from day
one, soon felt the need to provide solutions to its clients as well. TCS was the first
Indian company to make forays into the US market with clients ranging from IBM,
American Express and Sega etc.
TCS is presently the top software services firm in Asia.

During the Y2K buildup, TCS had setup a Y2K factory in Chennai as a short-term
strategy. Now, with E-business being the buzzword, the factory is developing solutions
for the dotcom industries. Today, about 90 percent of TCS' revenue comes from
consulting, while the rest from products. TCS has great training facilities. In addition
to training around 5 percent of the revenue is spent upon its R & D centers like the Tata
Research Design and Development Centre at Pune, along with a host of other centers
at Mumbai and Hyderabad.
It benchmarked its quality standing, invested heavily in software engineering practices

and built intellectual property-in terms of patents, code and branded products. At the
same time, it expanded its relationships with technology partners and organizations,
increased linkages with academic institutions and incubated technologies and ideas of
people within TCS and outside.
TCS has already patented 12 E-Commerce solution product packages and has filed six
more applications for patent licenses. Over $25 million were spent on enhancing
hardware and software infrastructure. The company now has 72 offices worldwide. As
many as seven centers were assessed at SEI CMM Level 5 last year(3.4 mistakes in a
million opportunities). These include Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta,
53
Hyderabad and Lucknow. Several business and R & D relationship with global firms
like IBM, General Electric, Unigraphics Solutions have been made. The present
CEO of the company is Mr. S. Ramadorai. The company employs a manpower of
about 14,000.
1.8.2. INFOSYS
Infosys Limited (formerly Infosys Technologies Limited) is an Indian multinational

provider of business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services. It is
headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. Infosys is the third-largest India-based IT
services company by 2012 revenues. Infosys was co-founded in 1981 by N. R.
Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D.
Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora after they resigned from Patni Computer
Systems. The company was incorporated as "Infosys Consultants Pvt. Ltd." in Model
Colony, Pune as the registered office and signed up its first client, Data Basics
Corporation, in New York. In 1983, Infosys corporate headquarters was relocated to
Bangalore.
In 1999, Infosys achieved Capability Maturity Model level 5 certification. Infosys has a
global footprint with 67 offices and 69 development centers in US, India, China,
Australia, Japan, Middle East, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands,
Poland, Canada and many other countries. Infosys and its subsidiaries had 155,629
employees as on Dec 31, 2012.
1.8.3. WIPRO LIMITED.
Wipro Limited (formerly Western India Oilment Limited) is an Information

Technology (IT) consulting and outsourcing, service company located in Bangalore,
Karnataka, India. As of 2012, the company had 1, 40,000 employees in 54 countries.
Wipro is the second largest IT services company in India. Its subsidiary, Wipro
Enterprises Ltd., offers consumer care, lighting, healthcare, and infrastructure
engineering products. The company was incorporated on 29 December 1945 in
54
Mumbai by Mohamed Hasham Premji as Western India Products Limited, later
abbreviated to Wipro.
In February 2002, Wipro became the first software technology and Services Company
in India to be certified with ISO 14001 Certification. Wipro Technologies, the global IT
business of Wipro Limited is a leading Information Technology, consulting and
outsourcing company with a comprehensive portfolio of services and an organization
wide commitment to sustainability and innovation. The IT products segment sells a
range of Wipro personal desktop computers, Wipro servers and Wipro notebooks. It is
also a value added reseller of desktops, servers, notebooks, storage products,
networking solutions and packaged software for international brands.
Wipro entered into the technology business in 1981 and has over 130,000 employees
and clients across 54 countries today. IT revenues stood at $ 5.9 billion for the year
ended March 31, 2012 with a repeat business ratio of over 95%.
1.8.4. HCL TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED (HCL)
HCL Technologies Limited (HCL) is an Indian provider of Information Technology

(IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It
is primarily engaged in providing a range of outsourcing services, business process
outsourcing and infrastructure services. HCL Technologies is fourth largest IT
Company in India and is ranked 48th in the global list of IT services providers.
HCL Technologies is one of the two businesses – both of them separately listed in India
– falling under the corporate umbrella of HCL Enterprise with combined annual 2011
revenues of US$ 6 billion. HCL Enterprise was founded in 1976 and is one of India's
original IT garage startups. HCL Technologies was formed in 1991 when HCL's R & D
business was spun off and to focus on the growing IT services industry. They have
decided to expand their features in Information Technology all over the world.
During last 20 years, HCL has expanded its service portfolio in IT applications (custom
applications for industry solutions and package implementation), IT infrastructure
55
management, and business process outsourcing, while maintaining and extending in
product engineering.
1.8.5. IMPETUS TECHNOLOGIES
Impetus Technologies is Software Product engineering and Software R & D Services

provider based in India that creates software products for software and technology
companies. Many of these products have been award winning products. Since 16 years,
the company has been providing outsourced software product development solutions to
its clients across the globe.
The company was founded in 1991 by Praveen Kankariya in Indore, India. Software
was a relatively new industry at that time in India and Impetus was among the first
companies in the country that was building software products and offering product
design and development services.
The first product developed by Impetus was for the Newspaper Industry. The product
automated the news acquisition process from various wire services, consequently
saving valuable resources like time and manpower for the clients. This product was
deployed at more than 200 publication houses across India.
Impetus developed many software products and in 1996, Praveen Kankariya moved to
USA to establish Impetus’ operations there. He realized that to be successful, the
company’s products needed to be seen and experienced by international markets. The
first International account for Software Product engineering Services bagged by
Impetus was 3M in the year 1995. Interestingly, 3M is still a client of Impetus.
Impetus is a Young and Dynamic Professional Service Firm, Providing Effective and
Value Added Services in the Area of Human Resources, Including Talent Acquisition.
It works closely with Management in Strengthening Human Resource Controls and
Processes By Evaluating Effectiveness of Human Resources, Developing HR Manuals
and Policies and Performance Management System for Talent Acquisition (Permanent
and Temporary) and Outsourcing (Complete or Partial) of Functions.
56
1.9. IT Based Services
IT based services means services in which information technology is the base.

Advances in Information Technology (IT) and Global Connectivity, combined with
waves of economic liberalization, have given impetus to a new dimension of
globalization. IT services typically include IT Applications and Engineering services,
while IT Enabled Services (ITES) involve a wide range of services delivered over
electronic networks. These are two broad segments, however, and the sophistication of
the services in each segment varies considerably. Estimating the market size for trade in
IT services and ITES is difficult to predict given the definitional issue and the relative
novelty of the field. Today Cross border trade in services has taken place. Some of the
IT based Services are –
 Business Process Services

 Horizontal Process –
Customer Interaction and Support (including Call Centers)
Human Resource Management
Finance and Administration
Supply Chain (Procurement Logistics Management)
 Vertical Process –
Banking
Insurance
Travel
Manufacturing
Telecommunication
Pharmaceuticals
Others
 Knowledge Processing Outsourcing
Business and Financial Research
Animation
Data Analysis
Legal Process and Patent Research
57
Other high end Processes
The ITES Industries have an important impact on the labor market in India. The
Industry directly employs nearly 2.3 Million people in jobs that pay 50 to 100 percent
more than comparable service sector jobs. In addition, the sector creates indirect
employment opportunities in industries such as Construction, Retail, Transport,
Telecommunications, as well as induces employment due to higher spending on goods
and services such as Food, Transportation, Entertainment, Health and Medical Services.
McKinsey estimates that each new job in IT services and ITES in India has led to the
creation of between three and four new jobs in other sectors. Other estimates put the
number of new non – IT/ ITES jobs at four for each job created in IT services and
ITES.
1.9.1. Large Market and Growing Opportunities
The service sector now accounts for 70 percent of employment and 73 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) in developed countries and for 35 percent of employment and
51 percent of GDP in developing countries (UNCTAD 2008). As infrastructure and
skills improve in developing countries, Cross border trade in services is expected to
continue to expand. Official statistics are often not available or not reliable, and
calculation based on balance of payments and trade in services may not accurately
isolate IT services and ITES. As a result, much of the data on the size of the current
market comes from public surveys, consulting firms and anecdotal evidence.
According to McKinsey estimates, the annual addressable market for IT services and
ITES was $ 475 Billion in 2007 and about $500 billion in 2008. Among the various
segment of IT application services, the greatest opportunities lie in traditional services
(about $100 billion), system integration ($50 billion), application development and
maintenance ($ 43 billion) and consulting ($6 billion). For IT engineering services,
Opportunities are significant in Mechanical design and production (about $45 billion),
embedded software ($ 40 billion), and plant engineering ($35 billion).
58
By the report of NASSCOM in 2010, the IT services and ITES industries in India will
have created 8.2 Million indirect job successes in the IT services and ITES sector
engenders a number of positive impacts other than employment and contribution to
GDP. An important one is the positive impact on the status of women. In India, Women
make up 45 percent of the IT Services and ITES workforce – a much higher rate of
female participation than in the service sector in general in 2010. In Ireland 70 percent
of Call Center employees are Women.
Finally, Success in IT services and ITES presents Opportunities for repositioning the
image of a country, a “Branding” effect that can have profound implications. In India,
the positive impact of industry leaders such as Genpact, Wipro, Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), and Infosys. Points to this effect as one Commentator put it, “More
importantly, impact was Psychological. It signed to the world that India was much more
than its old Historical stereotypes. It suddenly …made the world think that every Indian
was Smart and could fix their Computer. That helped entrepreneurs in India from all
industry segments because it gave them a more receptive environment in which to do
business” (Masant, 2008).
59

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CHAPTER I.

“Organizational culture is the “basic

 HRD Through Cultural Values

 Information Technology (IT)

1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CULTURAL VALUES

Human resource development is a people-oriented concept that focuses on developing

Work organizations are becoming important partners in this learning society, as

Human Resource Development (HRD) has been defined as essentially consisting of

HRD is a key strategy to raise the level of organizational performance. It highlights

1.3 HRD AUDIT

In spite of these investments in a number of corporations, there is a widespread feeling

HRD audit is a comprehensive evaluation of the current HRD strategies, structure,

HRD audit is undertaken by most organizations to make HR systems and processes

Many good organizations in India, after liberalization, have entered a competitive

1.4 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CLIMATE

The human resource development climate of an organization plays a significant role in

Hellriegel and Slocum (1974) defined organizational climate as a "set of attributes

Climate perceptions are psychologically meaningful, that people can agree to

A second advance in climate research examines multiple levels of analysis. While

Human resource development climate can be further grouped into three-broad

 Human Resource Development Mechanisms.

OCTAPAC culture is essential for facilitating human resource development.

Organizational climate can only be discussed in terms of how it is perceived or felt by

A. Perceptual responses sought are primarily descriptive than evaluative.

D. The perceptions of organizational climate have potential behavioral

The organizational culture perspective is gaining importance as organizations become

Once in an organization, employees learn through formal and informal socialization

The organizational culture is a system of organizational symbols, beliefs, values and

Within an organization, different organizational cultures may be found in different

Organizational culture is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of

Organizational culture is considered as an internal variable meaning that it is something

If an organization is to meet the challenges of a challenging world, it must be prepared

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

Organizational culture is hypothesized to play a decisive role in the development of a

Organizational culture is defined as shared managerial beliefs and assumptions about

1.6 OCTAPACE Culture

It is widely recognized that different organizations have distinctive cultures. Through

Similarly, it means giving, without hesitation, ideas, information, feedback, feelings,

Autonomy is present if every role-holder in the organization, irrespective of his level,

There are several aspects of creativity in an organization. Creativity is reflected in new

Openness and Confrontation go together. Autonomy and Collaboration go together.

An OCTAPACE culture can be built only by an enlightened top management. Top

Indian managers have been found to exhibit benevolent or paternalistic, critical

1.7 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The relegation of technology to the background in the organization sciences could be

Automation within organizational functions meant only routine information collection

Several enabling technology features make possible the integration of components in

Companies should promote the use of IT software as an integral part of services in

In developing marketing strategies, the need is to undertake environmental analysis to

IT emerged, in the late eighties, as a combination of several facts; Hardware, Software

As an institution that promotes independent learning, the companies should also

1.7.1 Modern Practices of IT Companies

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the

 To take effective steps to campaign against software piracy.

 To assist in Personal selling: Personal selling is the process of assisting and

 To carry out Publicity this is a non-personal, non-paid stimulation of demand of

1.7.2 A Big Road Map of the IT Industries of India

Moreover, according to a study by Springboard Research published in February 2010,

 Software company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won a multi-year

 HCL Technologies has entered into a five-year IT infrastructure outsourcing

 Computer services firm, Mahindra Satyam has signed a four-year offshore

 Software exporter Patni Computer Systems won a five-year IT and back-office

Bangalore is the capital of Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed as the

1.8. IT COMPANIES PROFILE - CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY