Global transfer and Indian management: a historical hybridity perspective.
| Verfasser | Becker-Ritterspac, Florian |
| Posten | RESEARCH ARTICLE |
Abstract:
* The goal of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of Indian management and to challenge more generally a historical and essentialist notions of indigenous management perspectives.
* Drawing selectively on postcolonial theory, we suggest that a historical hybridity perspective serves as a crucial heuristic device to understand the nature of Indian management and its globalization related transition.
* Discussing the example of the local mismatch and transfer outcome related to a global transfer initiative in a German subsidiary in India, we illustrate the analytical value of a historical hybridity perspective.
* Our paper concludes that the postcolonial notions of 'hybridity' or 'inbetweenness', are crucial to understand the nature of management in India and in emerging markets more generally as they move us beyond reductionist Eastern vs. Western or indigenous vs. global dichotomies.
Keywords: Indian management * Indigenous management * Hybridization * Globalization * Emerging markets * Postcolonial theory * Historical hybridity perspective
Introduction
The rise of major emerging markets has been recently paralleled by calls for a better understanding of indigenous management concepts and practices in those economies (e.g., Welge and Holtbrugge 1999). The goal of this paper is to respond to this call by advocating for the adoption of a historical hybridity perspective. Drawing selectively on postcolonial theory, we suggest that a historical hybridity perspective serves as a crucial heuristic tool to understand the nature of contemporary management in India and its globalization related transformation. We illustrate the analytical value of a historical hybridity perspective in the example of a global practice transfer, local mismatch, and transfer outcome which we observed in a German subsidiary in India.
Indian management research has seen in recent years a debate on the question to what extent Indian management is likely to be transformed by its new global context (Sinha 1999; Narayanan 2001; Davis et al. 2006). Clearly, the government-induced reforms towards a more market-based system that started in India in the early 1990s have not only ignited a remarkable leap in economic development, but also forced Indian businesses to compete in a changing, global environment. Consequently, the contemporary Indian management, be it in Indian firms and even more so in Indian subsidiaries of MNCs, is bound to face a multitude of influences, both local and global. Against this background, recent literature has frequently used the term hybrid in association with the transition of Indian management (e.g., Gopalan and Stahl 1998; Gopinath 1998; Chatterjee and Pearson 2000; Neelankavil et al. 2000; Kakar et al. 2002; Davis et al. 2006). These contributions are suggesting that the Indian management is moving towards unique hybrid forms of management that blend traditional Indian elements of behavior with a selection of global best management practices. Studies have found, for instance, a 'duality of managerial values' that would be partially drawn from managers' own cultural background and from international parameters (e.g., Bedi 1991; Neelankavil et al. 2000; Sinha 2002).
We argue that while this literature has very much advanced our understanding of the contemporary and globalization related transition of Indian management practices by viewing them as blends of global or Western and indigenous influences, it has tended to neglect the already hybrid nature of what is indigenous as well as of what is seemingly Western or global (Shimoni 2011). Moving beyond the confines of a contemporary hybridization perspective, we selectively draw on postcolonial theory and advocate for a historical hybridity perspective as a heuristic device to understand Indian management and its globalization related transition. Using the example of a transfer initiative in a German MNC in India, we illustrate that the added value of adopting a historical hybridity perspective lies not only in a richer understanding of the causes of mismatches between the transfer content and local behavior, but also in capturing the nature of transfer outcomes which are defying a simple Eastern-Western or indigenous-global dichotomy.
In our view, adopting a historical hybridity perspective informed by postcolonial theory makes two crucial contributions. The first contribution rests on challenging a historical and essentialist notions of contemporary hybridization perspectives on Indian management and builds on complementing the predominant contemporary hybridization perspective with a historical one. The second contribution is more general and involves challenging the essentialist notions underlying indigenous management perspectives.
While the importance of context is commonly recognized in indigenous management studies, the issue of how to define what is indigenous and what it is not becomes especially problematic in postcolonial scenarios where much of the status quo can at least in part be related to the colonial condition. Our approach suggests that management concepts and practices in postcolonial contexts can be better captured by notions of 'hybridity' or 'inbetweenness' that account for the continuous confluence of multiple historical and contemporary influences. Hence, a broader aim of this paper is to pose the fundamental question of how useful the notion of indigeneity is in the postcolonial contexts of many emerging markets.
Our paper is structured as follows: In the literature review in Sect. 2 we discuss recent Indian management research. This is followed by an introduction of the historical hybridity perspective informed by postcolonial theory. Sect. 3 presents the research method of our study. The paper proceeds in Sect. 4 by presenting the case of a global practice transfer in a German subsidiary in India. Sect. 5 provides an interpretation of the case findings adopting a historical hybridity perspective as a heuristic device. The paper concludes in Sect. 6 comprising a summary of findings, a discussion of future research, managerial implications and limitations of the paper.
Literature Review
Contemporary Hybridization Perspectives on Indian Management
Recent Indian management research has predominantly adopted a contemporary hybridization perspective, centering on the question to what extent Indian management culture reflects forces or elements of globalization or westernization. Specifically, studies that discuss the hybridization of the Indian management have documented how the rise of globalization has induced a shift from a principally Indian management culture to one comprised of both Indian and international features (e.g., Gopalan and Stahl 1998; Gopihath 1998; Chatterjee and Pearson 2000; Neelankavil et al. 2000; Kakar et al. 2002; Davis et al. 2006). This hybridization perspective builds in part on the insight that top executives in India have often received their management education at well-known Western institutions while, at the same time, top leadership positions (typically that of the CEO) remained occupied by members of the founding family. The hybridization perspective on Indian management has not been restricted to the top management, however. Chatterjee and Pearson (2000) found that traditional Indian values are increasingly giving way to more 'global' value archetypes. When looking, for instance, at the composition of mid-and high-level employees, most came from the upper and middle classes of urban India rather than belonging to the traditional owners' business community, and have enjoyed education at institutions which have also significantly exposed them to Western management values (Boer and van Deventer 1989). A similar perspective is adopted by Gopalan and Stahl (1998), who studied the transferability of American management concepts to India. They argue that the increased acquaintance with Western education, the Internet, and the English language are causing Indian managers to develop a hybrid approach to management that combines indigenous and Western approaches. For example, while some Indian values, such as loyalty and idealization of leaders, are seen to persist despite the Western imperative because they foster effective business relationships, others, such as preferential hiring, are expected to disappear in favor of Western methods.
The result of increasing westernization has generally been described as hybrid or the coexistence of dual behavioral modes in Indian management practices. Neelankavil et al. (2000) suggest, for example, that Indian management culture has evolved into a hybrid approach that consists of a primary mode of behavior supported by the traditional Indian system, as well as a secondary mode driven by Western influences. Along the same lines, Sinha's work (2002) provides a cultural framework describing primary and secondary modes of value expression; primary modes are supposedly grounded in traditional Indian culture, while secondary modes are brought about by subjecting to Western management concepts. In this context, a number of recent studies have also emphasized the conflict between newly imported and traditional practices. An example is the struggle taking place within the Indian Human Resource (HR) function between existing strong social traditions (such as the importance of social contacts, relationships, and one's affiliation to a particular group) and the pressure to move to modern professionalism by formalizing and rationalizing management systems (e.g., Budhwar et al. 2006; Bhatnagar et al. 2010). In a similar way, Mishra et al. (2012) discuss the discordance between the contemporary pressure on HR to become a strategic asset and its traditional tendency to play a predominantly short-term and reactive role.
It should be noted that there is also a number of studies that are rather skeptical about the prospect of Western or global practices...
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