Leadership
Leading with humility, integrity and empathy- the hallmarks of Indian organizational leadership
The meaning of leadership varies according to the various cultures in which it is practiced.(Sanchez-Runde et al. , 2011). Depending on the culture, a society's expectations for leadership can differ greatly.
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Indian managers, according to Jaggi (1978), were situated between the benevolent and consultative styles rather than the exploitative and authoritarian styles. He defended this by pointing to industrialization and people's increased consciousness of the value of participation in organizations of all sizes, concluding that small-business managers were more attuned to the needs and sentiments of their staff.
In addition to size, foreign-collaborated organizations tend to be impacted by the foreign managerial environment and culture, which results in less authoritarian views in these managers when compared to managers of Indian organizations.
Writers examined that Indian leaders are more affected by the Soviet or Japanese systems of running businesses than by the American ones. They draw attention to the differences between conducting business in the pre-liberalization, pre-globalization, and pre-privatization eras, as well as how the business model varied for multinational versus privately owned businesses.
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Their findings clearly showed how much leaders valued a hierarchical operating system with a large power distance (Cappelli, Singh and Singh 2010). Some of the qualities of an Indian leader, according to their book ‘The India Way’, including having a larger social mission, serving others, looking for meaning, assisting others, and having compassion and generosity. Chhokar (2008), who summarizes the GLOBE project's findings for India, refers to the numerous continuing changes in Indian society that have been documented by surveys conducted in that country.
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Myers concluded that most Indian top managers behave in a highly authoritarian manner towards their employees based on his study of leadership behavior in both Indian and foreign-owned organizations. According to Rangaswamy and Helmick's study of 56 top managers, Indian executives are more focused on their employees. They credit Indian culture and religion, which place a strong emphasis on collaboration and helpfulness.
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Elhance and Agarwal found that 67% of private sector organization units and 57% of public sector organization units use a democratic style of leadership in their study of 123 executives at various levels of management working in private and public sector organizations. According to Singh and Das' research, the bureaucratic style predominates, followed in that order by the benign autocratic, developer, and democratic.
Based on more than 40 empirical research, Sinha (1980, 1995) created a culturally contextual leadership model for the Indian setting that he calls the nurturant-task (NT) leadership paradigm. Three qualities of leadership are highlighted by Sinha (1995), namely: Excessive reliance even when not necessary.
This necessitates the openly expressed need for assistance, direction, and encouragement. Increased perception of the difference between one's own personal and impersonal relationships leads to a preference for individualized interactions (Kumar and Singh, 1976). It frequently leads to favoritism and nepotism.
Indian Women in Leadership
Even though India has become a major global hub in recent years, there are still many obstacles to women's freedom and empowerment (Haq,2013). Indian women who rise to prominence in a variety of fields do so after surmounting numerous obstacles posed by a particular civilization.
Hinduism is India's founding religion (Denton,2012). Christianity and Islam arrived considerably later in India. Most references to women in ancient India come from Hindu mythology and epics. Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, is one of the many idols worshipped in Hindu mythology. Hinduism really has the most prominent representation of the divine feminine among the main world faiths, both historically and currently (Bryant,2007).
The average Indian woman may not necessarily profit from the practice of goddess worship, even though a few unorthodox women may use female goddesses in Indian society to justify their non-domestic leadership roles. The culture believes that women should only be permitted to serve in positions outside of their traditional home obligations if and only if they possess superhuman strength and manage to handle both responsibilities well.
According to National HRD Network research, women make up 35% of HR professionals in India, and this percentage is projected to rise in the coming years. The management of employee interactions, talent acquisition, training and development, and performance management are areas where Indian women in HRM excel. They are also renowned for being able to successfully juggle work and family obligations, which is a huge issue for many Indian working women.
Indian women in HRM have received national and worldwide recognition for their contributions to the discipline. For instance, in 2019 the Asia Pacific HRM Congress presented the "HR Professional of the Year" award to Dr. Shalini Lal, the HR Director at Avery Dennison India. In a similar vein, the Business Today HR Awards awarded Archana Singh, the HR Head of HCL Technologies, "HR Leader of the Year" in 2021.
Leadership-related issues in Indian Organizations:
Despite having one of the world's fastest-growing economies in the twenty-first century, there is a dearth of literature on the trends in HRM for Indian businesses (Budhwar and Verma, 2010); this lack of literature also applies to leadership (Palrecha, Spangler, and Yammarino, 2012; Cappelli et al., 2010, 2015).
Leaders in the public and private sectors in India must be aware of the intricate relationships that exist between their social and organizational environments. A leader's capacity to lead may be impacted by the caste system, social rank, religion, regionalism, ethnicity, political ties, and other factors of those being led.
India has a serious corruption problem, which can make it difficult for executives to uphold moral standards in their workplaces. The two biggest issues affecting Indian business today are corruption and cronyism (Mitra and Chatterjee, 2020).
India has a wide variety of cultural and linguistic diversity, which can be very difficult for leaders to manage. Understanding and navigating the various cultural nuances present in India presents leaders with an additional challenge (Chatterjee and Mitra, 2019).
Another issue that Indian organizations face when it comes to leadership is gender bias. India has a considerable difference in women's labour force participation, placing 108th out of 144 nations in the World Economic Forum's gender gap index, according to HBR (Nath, 2018).
Gender-based prejudices still exist in many workplaces despite the rise of women in leadership roles, and women are frequently the target of discriminatory attitudes and actions (Nair and Panda, 2020). They may be left out of crucial meetings or decision-making processes, for instance, or they may experience subtle kinds of bias and discrimination that can hinder their ability to grow in their jobs.
Many women find it difficult to locate mentors who can help them build their careers, and this can be especially difficult for those who are attempting to break into jobs or industries that are dominated by men (Venkatraman and Ramaswami, 2021).