Written Analysis and Communication

Individual Submission

Submitted To: Prof. Rihana Shaik

Submitted By: Siddharth Gautam

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 Letter of Transmittal

August 16,2019
Prof. Rihana Shaik
Written Analysis and Communication
Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak
Subject: Submission of Case Analysis Report
Respected Ma’am
As per the guidelines provided by you during the class room discussion, I hereby submit a report
on the case titled Can a Strong Culture be Too Strong. This report has been prepared after
going through the entire case and carefully scrutinizing the facts and assumptions. The report
contains the relevant fact in the introduction, problem statement and list of possible alternatives
and best actin plan to be implemented.
I request to kindly evaluate the same and provide your valuable inputs.
Regards,
Siddharth Gautam
(PGP10233)
Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak.

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 Executive Summary

A Chennai based, medium size IT Service Company Parivar is growing in all

aspects including revenue, profitability and reputation but still has a long way to go
to compete with the top most Indian IT companies. The company has survived a
near bankruptcy situation and now growing at a fast pace and aspires to be in the
top tier. The company is facing the problem of high attrition rate of 35% as most of
the workforce is leaving the organization for better opportunities outside. This is in
spite of the fact that Parivar’s culture is that of a homely environment and is
supportive to its employees in any personal or professional problem. The head of
recruitment Mr. Vikram Srinivasan blames the Indian labor market for this
situation while the Vice – President of HR Ms. Indira Pandit does not feel the
same. Nisha a young employee has come up with the “People Support” philosophy
to tackle the present problem and increase involvement of the employees with the
organization. While Vikram is concerned with its implementation cost Indira is
doubtful about its success. Now Indira has to decide whether to endorse this idea
and come up with a robust implementation plan for the same.

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Table of Contents

Introduction:..............................................................................................6
Problem Statement:...................................................................................6
Analysis:...................................................................................................6
Alternative and Evaluation:......................................................................7
1. Accepting Nisha’s proposal and implementing people support
function..................................................................................................7
2. Increasing the pay in line with competitors......................................8
3. Outsourcing HR practices.................................................................8
4. Increase payment and benefits..........................................................8
5. Cultural change.................................................................................9
Recommendation:.....................................................................................9
Implementation:......................................................................................10

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Introduction:
Parivar Ltd. is a Chennai based midsize IT Services Company. Sudhir Gupta, who is the
charismatic CEO of Parivar, made a success story by not only saving company from bankruptcy
but also tripled revenue and quintupled profits. He treated his company like his family and
followed big brotherly love concept.
The Parivar is a much smaller company as compared to big IT giants like TCS, Infosys and HCL
etc. They paid salaries to employees which are approximately 30% below the market rate. Only
differentiating factor between Parivar and other competitive services company was its culture,
their big brotherly love culture which was not process oriented. They, believed in treating all
employees like family members. Company had a concept called Annual innovation in which
junior and senior members collaborated together and brainstormed ideas. Sudhir also promoted
young people to take initiatives and one of its example was Listener concept introduced by new
business school graduate, Nisha.
Recently, Indira received notice from 100 employees for leavingthe organization. Company was
having a turnover rate of 35% which was higher than the IT service industry turnover rate of
20%. Based on couple of exit interviews and feedback from ex-employee Indira put forthtwo
main reasons behind this. First was low salary and other was its current big brother love culture
as some people were of the opinion not to share their problems with others. Indira wanted to
discuss these facts but hesitated because Sudhir always used to tell the employees that don’t
come to him with problem, come with some solution. There were two questions infront of Indira,
first one whether to tell Sudhir about these facts or not and second one should Indira endorse the
new people support function which was proposed by Nisha and supported by Sudhir.

Problem Statement:
How to retain the employees and win new recruit to ensure long term sustainable growth of the
organization?

Analysis:
Though the case facts are presented to us in black and white, it is important for us to understand
the reasons for Indira’s apprehension to the new People Support function and its implications on
the organization. The attrition figures at Parivar stood at 35% which was quite high for the Indian
labor standards.

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On the outset there seem to be a number of issues plaguing Parivar. The charismatic CEO of the
organization Mr. Sudhir Gupta seems to be showing some favoritism in his attitude and behavior
toward both Senior and Junior level employees. There seems to be a hint of the same in Amal’s
exit interview and in Mr. Gupta’s response to Nisha’s “People Support Idea”. The entire People
Support idea came out of a Future Vision exercise of which Nisha was a part. Mr. Gupta’s
defense to this idea during the presentation did not clear the air around the apprehensions that
some senior managers had. Thus, the idea was never open to discussion and finer refinement to
the same could not be made.
There seems to be a mention about lower compensation levels at Parivar. But considering the fact
that Parivar was still Tier-II IT company moving towards higher revenues, profits and reputation
but it was still much smaller than the likes of Infosys’ and HCL Thus, a strong organizational
culture promoting openness and creativity could help retain employees.
The People Support function is currently at an idea stage and the exact details of implementation
are needed to be finalized. There appears to be no mention about how Parivar will rope in so
called “listeners” and how their performances will be evaluated. Amal, during his exit interview
also pointed out the possibility of personal intrusion and Indira needs to figure a perfect balance
for the same.
Kumar’s apprehension of the program’s international permeability also needs to be addressed.
The program would also involve a significant investment from Parivar’s side and Indira needs to
be clear about the costs and benefits of such an investment. There also seems to be a lack of
strategic thinking from both Nisha and Indira.
Indira at this point in time needs to get away from the fear of Mr. Sudhir and try to look at the
situation objectively. Perhaps this is the right time for Indira to understand the reasons for the
high turnover rate and spend some time conducting surveys, interviews and focused group
discussions to find the true cause of Parivar’s worries.

Alternative and Evaluation:

1. Accepting Nisha’s proposal and implementing people support function.
Nisha proposed a new system, the People Support Function, which would include one designated
“listener” whom the employees can approach in case of any problem or dilemma. The listener
would help them to negotiate with the boss and provide probable solutions to the grievances
faced. The listener would act as anintermediate communicator of problems between the
employee and employer.
People support function came along with a package of expected positive and negative effect on
the company’s current situation. There were chances that the issues and problems of employees

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were tackled and fixed leading to high employee satisfaction. The idea was also loved by few
managers as it emphasized on “genuine caring of people”.
Many issues associated with this idea were whether the listener would be able to tackle the
grievances and would be able to figure out solution. The criteria by which the listener’s
performance will be evaluated as turnover rate suggested by Nisha was not appropriate way
given the volatility of labor market. Decision needs to be taken on the selection of people who
will work as listener whether they should incorporate old employees or should they hire new
people for the post. The company would have to bear the cost involved in training of people for
the role of listener. The boss may feel neglected when they will hear about employee grievances
through third person. The employees may have concern about the privacy, whether their personal
problem would be kept secret by the listener or not.

2. Increasing the pay in line with competitors

During the exit interview Indira countered that one of the most prevalent reason behind
employees leaving the company were the high salary offered by competitors. The competitors
offered a 30% pay increase due to which people get attracted to them inspite of the rigid and
process driven work culture.
Increased salary would decrease the turnover rate which was presently 35% and eventually
decrease the cost of recruitment and training. The combination of family culture and high
payment will help in retaining employees and will also increase their satisfaction level.
It would be difficult for Parivar a mid-sized company which is in its growing stage to increase
the salary of all the employees as compared to competitors as it will lead to higher cost for
company which they may not able to afford.

3. Outsourcing HR practices
One of the alternatives to address the turnover issue, could be outsourcing of People support
task. Many of employees don’t acknowledge family like culture. A young employee Amal
expressed his discontent in exit interview “I’m just stuck at a company that wants to be over
involved in my life”. Many young employees don’t like too much interference in their personal
life. This family like culture was not alluring anymore as company was growing. Employees
didn’t want to feel like part of a family at work.
People can consult with this agency more freely, for their problem. As in exit interview Indira
came to know that employee perceived bias behavior of boss in organization. The issue of
favoritism can be reduced by the agency. External agency can focus on employee issue more
precisely, as they have no personal relation with Parivar employee. It can also suggest how to
adjust the Parivar culture as per current scenario. Training and development program can be
conducted by these agencies to motivate the employee. This alternative will incur high cost as
compared to internal people support group.

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 4. Increase payment and benefits
Increase payments provide motivation to the employees to put strenuous efforts in their work.It
enhances the efficiency of the employees as well.In addition to this a faith develops in the
employees which increases the loyalty of the employee towards the organization.They start
feeling that organization cares for them so they should also show devotion in their work
too.Other benefits would also act as differentiators when other organizations offers same salary
to the employees.It would also lead to competition among the employees because they might
think that they may fetch some more benefits if they show some more consistency in their work.

There are certain disadvantages related with increase payment as well.Some employees may feel
relaxed and may not put enough effort in the work.Some people don’t prefer certain benefits like
holiday trips etc.It depends upon age group and the nature of the employee whether they want
these benefits or not.So it might be possible some employee prefer jobs only with handsome
salaries.It would also be not possible for a small firm like Parivar to bear such high costs on
benefits or paying high salary initially.

5. Cultural change
The overinvolved culture in Parivar is a not much appreciated by young employees which can be
inferred from Amal’s exit interview with Indira. The over competitive industry dynamics is
demanding professional culture.
Opting for professional culture will eliminate the favoritism and biases that were happening
previously. Also, since the company is growing rapidly this cultural change will help them to
support this high growth rate. The company has plans of expanding in UK and U.S. where this
professional culture will facilitate the western working environment.
People who are already accustomed with a particular culture then it is very difficult to adopt a
complete different culture.Some people may adjust but the overall performance of the
organization will get affected.It is not easy to resist such a change.Even one has to match the
industry standards with the other competitors.So if you believe in professionalism then one
would not try to make changes in culture.

Recommendation:
It is of utmost important that Parivar comes up with a solution to this problem of excessive
attrition rate as soon as possible. The entire environment is extremely uncertain and employees
are leaving for higher pay in other companies. This, trend of increased turnover rate must be
looked into as an extremely crucial problem and steps need to be taken in the forward direction
at the earliest possible.

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The solution in line with the company work culture is the ‘People Support Function’ proposed by
Nisha. It is a brainchild of the Future Vision team and most of the plan is ready for
implementation. The idea is centralized around the family and love culture that the company tries
to follow. While there are employees like Amal who think the culture is little more overinvolved
in the personal life of the people, still there are a number of employees who look up to the
charismatic leader in Sudhir Gupta ad tries to imbibe the ideas he tries to implement.
The People Support Function is about as the name suggests ‘People’, employees of the firm to be
precise. It is about making life in the firm enjoyable, enticing, competitive, and at the same time
supportive. The idea is to create a feeling of goodness within the company, an environment
people like to be part of, a place where people can be open and expect the complete help and
appreciation from the co-workers and executives. It is about company reaching out whenever
there is a problem with someone. People Support function is about togetherness which has a
pivotal role in maintaining the employees’ integrity and loyalty towards the company.
Here a particular person can approach a particular ‘listener’’ one who hears to his problem and
suggests solutions if possible. The listener will negotiate with the employee to come to an
arrangement for his dilemma. The problem can be anything a work-based problem, a timing
adjustment, personal crisis.
There are many concerns that can be raised to this particular solution like the ones of Kumar –
How much would the function cost? How would it scale up as the company grew? Who would
manage it? Etc. While these concerns are all valid and solutions to these are in-process, it is
important that the company puts the fastest foot forward towards solving the attrition problem
and this is the fastest option they have. This particular solution imbibes within it the values and
virtues the company stands for. Options like payment increase is something that a start-up like
Parivar cannot really afford. Since it will lead to direct competition with the big guns and their
pockets are not really that deep to sustain it. On the other hand, People Support Function is based
upon their Unique Selling Point of a culture that brings everybody on the same platform.
It is important that the implementation of this scheme is not made in haste without proper
planning. It is important that every employee is kept in the loop, giving them a sense of
importance and security. Mr. Sudhir Gupta has to much more approachable and visible. A huge
problem will be favoring one employee over other that any employee can feel. It is important
that this is not the case and all the employees are treated equally. It is in this sense of unity and
equality there lies the success of the plan. Hence it is proposed that the People Support Function
is the right way forward.

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Implementation:
While implementing any HR policies especially if the policies are changing special care must be
taken since resistance is bound to happen. The most important thing is conveying information to
the employees about the changes that are taking place and how they are going to affect them. For
this the Parivar’s HR department should be well prepared to solve employees’ queries. Whenever
there will be any ambiguity among the employees it should be cleared immediately so as to not
create any problem in the future. Especially Indira and Sudhir should look into these matters
personally to smoothen the functioning.

The selection of “listeners” should be done properly since they are going to be the
communication point between the employee and management. The employee must trust the
“listeners” then only they will share their problem that they are facing to them. The “listeners”
should be given proper training so that they can handle the situation properly and solve the issue.

The managers may fill that employees are going to these “listeners” for their problems without
consulting them because of this system hence this should be taken into consideration while
implementing. The new system should be properly explained to these managers so as not to hurt
them.
The assigning of the “listener” to the particular employee should be done without any biases, on
the basis of their background and by checking how compatible they can be with each other so
that the main purpose of this system will get fulfill.

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