we are the product of our culture and before we come to know as who we are, we are already a cultural product. Hofstede model is being questioned on many methodological considerations notably be the using of individual level data to derive the nation level cultural values.

Best HR practice model was fad long ago and the best way to tap HR in Indian context  is to take into account how Indians are socialized to become Indians and then Corporate employees. I think cultural lens is very important for the success of HR in the Indian contecxt.

I am not an HR expert but in by business role promoting leadership development programmes I have generally been impressed with the standard of HR professionals in India, often surpassing the standard in the UK and others parts of the Western World. The problem is that often their leaders are very  technical and solely performance driven and although may be quite spiritual need to develop their emotional intelligence and become more people centred. That would help HR professionals develop their people in a more appropriate way in my view.

I hope my observations are useful for you. Regards, John

Every country has their own trajectory and mechanism of human capital development, which is subdivided into different groups consists of culture, language, religions. This is the peculiarity of the Creator that bestowed different features to all creatures who passed, exist now and will come in this mundane world in future. USA and Japan, even being close allies having similar individualistic society (younger generation who are main focus of capital development is shifting towards individualism), but practice different styles of management.

We the South-Asian, especially Indian are traditional, emotional, religious, and give values to collectivism, should devise our own style of management rather inclined to the westerners’ style (as they reign us for centuries with their divided blue blood-white blood notion well manifested in Law we being administered yet). We should know that values so deeply ingrained in religion, culture and society can make it hard to operate within different value systems. So, in order to manage this large amount of human capital we desperately feel our own management style rather depend on westerners’.

I agree Mohammad that every culture should develop their own style but my experience is that if we can put aside the past inequalities (to put it lightly), we all share more as humans than we differ by culture.

Based on my experience, In India the needs and issues are still concentrated (especially in south) towards Physiological, safety and Security Needs; whereas in western countries these need satisfaction is taken care and mandated at policy levels. Western is more proactive and communicative to changes.

 Various researchers have put forth different approaches/models to manage HR and no single approach has been earmarked as the best approach. Most of the organisations use hybrid approach to manage their human resources. India is also experiencing a shift from collective culture to individualistic culture (though collective culture is still dominant but you can not deny the change). For managing HR in Indian organisations you have to adopt a proactive approach based on sound HR analytics as the there is diverse workforce.

Regards

Yes, Thanks Dr Amir, I teach Hofstede, Trompenaar, and Edward Hall's work. But i was more interested in contemporary application and forms of HR models being practiced in India and perhaps South Asia!

I have worked in the banking and IT sectors in India, and wanted to share my observations on differences in managing HR in these two sectors. In the IT organisation that I worked, talent acquisition and retention were the major challenges; also fixing policies, compensation, benefits and reimbursements across countries were a challenge. Employees travelled from the home country to various locations on projects, giving rise to comparisons with peers in the home country, with global best practices, as well as the host country of the project. Since projects had their own budgets, this was a dynamic and evolving area. We actively benchmarked with global practices, listened to thought leaders across the world, and took part in CMM initiatives and six sigma projects in HR, with a global outlook.

In the banking sector, employees usually spent a lifetime in the same organisation. The focus was on promotions, relocations, role based training, reimbursements and superannuation benefits. We had to be fully tuned to local business needs of loans, deposits and banking services. The domestic banking industry was a mature one, with its own compendium of practices in banking, in management of labour, service rules, and comprehensive guidelines from industry associations and the government. For HR challenges, we took our cues from practices across banking and financial services organisation in India rather than abroad.

So I do think you will find differences across industries, depending on the extent of internationalisation of business and the workforce.

A relevant, yet oft-overlooked, aspect of the HR process?

Varman, R. & Al-Amoudi, I. Accumulation through derealisation: how corporate violence remains unchecked. Human Relations, 69(10), pp. 1909-36.

we are the product of our culture and before we come to know as who we are, we are already a cultural product. Hofstede model is being questioned on many methodological considerations notably be the using of individual level data to derive the nation level cultural values.

Best HR practice model was fad long ago and the best way to tap HR in Indian context  is to take into account how Indians are socialized to become Indians and then Corporate employees. I think cultural lens is very important for the success of HR in the Indian contecxt.

I would suggest reviewing some of the works of Jai B.P Sinha. He has worked for over 5 decades on behavioral issues in Indian cultural context. His latest book entitled Psycho social analysis of Indian mind set, published by Springer can be of interest to you.

The book , The India Way from HBS gives the unique ways of managing in India. From HR perspective it gives Employee Empowerment a pillar of India way.

The environmental and cultural differences between the West and the Indian continent are very large

Here, one must pay attention to these differences before applying any scientific research or model on Indian HR  before applying any scientific model to study these resources

These environmental and cultural differences have led to fundamental differences in the mental structure of the Indian worker 

Every country in the world says their culture is unique and therefore global models don't apply. My strong contention is that although culture does have an impact but we tend to underrate our common humanness, especially around the areas of emotions and how we react to them. I would estimate that our behaviour is 80% based on being human and maybe 20% on our national culture (which is even different across India and many other countries).