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Journal of Organizational Change ManagementEmerald Article: Organizational change and development in India: A case ofstrategic organizational change and transformation

Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Pawan Budhwar, Pallavi Srivastava, Debi S. Saini

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Organizational changeand development in India

A case of strategic organizational changeand transformation

Jyotsna Bhatnagar

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, IndiaPawan Budhwar

Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and

Pallavi Srivastava and Debi S. Saini Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine developments in the field of organizationalchange (OC) with reference to the context of India. It highlights the need to analyze this topic in thepresent Indian economic environment and discusses the main developments reported in the Indianliterature on the same.

Design/methodology/approach – Empirical evidence based on a qualitative analysis of a casestudy undertaken at a public-private partnership transformation at North Delhi Power Limited

(NDPL) in India is presented.Findings – The findings focus on trust building and belongingness for the employees, establishing ahigh-performance orientation, quality improvements, and the resultant transformations at NDPL.The analysis indicates a number of ways by which NDPL sought to improve its efficiency in order tobetter adapt to the rapidly changing Indian business environment.

Practical implications – Based on the findings, the paper identifies key messages for policymakers and change agents regarding how to transform companies in the rapidly changing businesscontexts of emerging markets such as India.

Originality/value – The paper offers an in-depth analysis of OC practices in a large organization inIndia.

Keywords Organizational change, India, Performance management, Transformational leadership

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Over the past 20 years or so, there has been much debate in Western literatureregarding the most appropriate way to manage organizational change (OC) (Beer andNohria, 2000; Dawson, 2003; Kanter et al., 1992; Kotter, 1996; Pettigrew, 1990; Stickland,1998; Stacey, 2003; Wilson, 1992). Over the years, the scope of OC has increased toencompass large-scale interventions, including strategic change (Chapman, 2002).This emphasis in OC literature on strategy may account for recent developments whichindicate a converging trend in the activities and processes of human resourcemanagement (HRM), human resource development (HRD), and OC and the need toensure coordination and partnership amongst these functions in order to achievecompetitive advantage in the present dynamic business environment (Ramos and

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/0953-4814.htm

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Vol. 23 No. 5, 2010pp. 485-499

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0953-4814

DOI 10.1108/09534811011071243



Rees, 2008; Ruona and Gibson, 2004; Sparrow and Budhwar, 1997). Considering thatHRM is a relatively new discipline (especially in emerging markets) and the existence of a strong variation regarding the practice of HRD and OC in different parts of the world,more evidence is needed to confirm observations and claims that this convergence istaking place. Further, keeping in mind the contextual and cultural differences acrossnations (Hofstede, 2001), it is imperative to conduct both country-specific literatureanalysis and in-depth research investigation to obtain a clear picture of OCinterventions and to clarify linkages between OC, HRM, and HRD (Metcalfe and Rees,2005). This study is specifically focused upon OC in the context of India.

The main aims of this study are twofold: first to highlight key developments in the

field of OC in the Indian context; and second to provide empirical evidence from arobust case research analysis to explore how OC interventions are implemented in anIndian setting in order to bring about both individual and organizational efficiency andeffectiveness. The study includes a case study of a public-private partnership OCtransformation at North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) in India. The next sectionconsiders the changing business environment in India and discusses why documentedanalyses of OC interventions in the Indian context are important to theory building andpractice.

Economic liberalization and OC in IndiaThe relatively strong economic performance of the Indian economy in recent years(IMF, 2007) is an outcome of the economic reforms initiated in 1991. India was forced toliberalize its economy as in 1990 it reached its worst position and witnessed a

double-digit rate of inflation, decelerated industrial production, fiscal indiscipline, avery high ratio of borrowing to the gross national product (both internal and external)and a dismally low level of foreign exchange reserves. The World Bank and the IMFagreed to bail out India at that time on the condition that it changed from a regulatedregime to a “free market economy”. In response, the government announced a series of economic policies, followed by a new industrial policy and fiscal and trade policies.A number of reforms were made in the public sector, trade and exchange policy, thebanking sector, and foreign investment was liberalized (Budhwar, 2001).

However, the liberalization of the Indian economy has resulted in sudden andincreased levels of competition for Indian firms from international firms. At the sametime, it has also created opportunities for resource mobilization from new sources. In thepresent environment, HRMissues havebecome moreimportant, with thefirms’ adoptionof strategies of expansion, diversification, turnaround, and internationalization. Thehuman resources (HR) function is under severe pressure to bring about large-scale

structural changes in order to cope with these challenges. In such conditions, the corefocus of the Indian HR function has been on the development of theirhuman resources inorder to implement major OCs (Budhwar and Sparrow, 1997; Sparrow and Budhwar,1997; Saini and Budhwar, 2004; Budhwar and Bhatnagar, 2009). In a haste, some Indiancompanies tried to adopt the readily available Western interventions to facilitate OC(Kalra, 2004), but with limited success (Gupta, 1991). In this regard, scholars (Sparrowand Budhwar, 1997) have raised a serious need for relevant OC interventions which canenable Indian firms to attain quality improvements, cost efficiency, employeedevelopment, motivation, and successful change programs (Amba-Rao et al., 2000;Budhwar, 2003).

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Researchers highlight that the role of economy, the position of the state, the ways of doing business, and the national culture have an impact on the effectiveness of OCinterventions in different settings (Child, 1981; Golembiewski, 2000). For example,Golembiewski (1993) finds the value-laden nature of traditional OC interventions to bea serious constraint faced by OC practitioners in Asia (Dietrichsen, 2006). Interventionsin organizations by OC practitioners and managers are perceived to be culturallybiased, hence, to better understand the diversity of OC practices in India it is necessaryto appreciate the broader socio-economic and cultural environments that shape them,while also recognizing the growing diversity of sub-cultural influences (Amba-Rao et al.,2000). As Ahuja and Khamba (2008) point out, the implementation of OC interventionsin the context of India is often frustrated by the existence of organizational, cultural,and behavioral barriers rather than by the substance of the change intervention itself.

India has a high-context culture where work relationships are personalized ratherthan contractual (Sinha, 2000) and many influences such as authoritarian practiceswithin the family, the educational system, society’s hierarchical structure, and religiousinstitutions act together to create a strong sense of dependence (Dayal, 1999). Gupta(1991) states that in India power in relationships is maintained through renunciation,giving away, self-sacrifice, and self-denial. While it is difficult to characterize a commonIndian cultural pattern because of its heterogeneous demographics, some genericattributes are identified (Sinha, 1990). Predominant among these are submissiveness,fatalism, power conciousness, possessiveness towards subordinates, fear of independent decision-making, and resistance to change (Sparrow and Budhwar,1997). Owing to such unique socio-cultural milieu of India (which is further complicated

by its legal, political, and economic set up), it is important to develop specific OD/HRDinterventions to facilitate OC in the present Indian business environment for, as notedby Ranganathan and Kuruvilla (2008), there is currently an apparent inability of firmsto develop integrated organizational cultures that permit a focus on long-termorganizational performance.

Research literature on OC in India suggests that terms such as OC, changemanagement and organization development (OD) have been used interchangeably.Similarly, corporate transformation (Singh and Bhandarker, 1990, 2002; Bhandarker,2003) and organizational transformation (Apte, 1998) have also been used as asynonym for change management. A number of scholars have prescribed differentmechanisms, which can facilitate OC in Indian organizations (Blythe et al., 1997; Danieland Benjamin, 1992; Prasad and Sayeed, 2006; Sharma, 2007; Singh and Bhandarker,1990; Srivastava, 2003). For example, Ramnarayan (2003) analyzed OC in severalIndian Government organizations and found that a combination of both psychological

and leadership-related impediments affect the change efforts.Undoubtedly, successful change management requires effective leadership at the top

(Page and Pearson, 2004; Irani, 2004) and sensitization of the top-level executives(Singh and Bhandarker, 2002; Bandyopadhyay, 1998). Indeed, institutionalizing andinternalizing such efforts is seen as essential when attempting to bring about change(Garg and Singh, 2005). Institutionalization means making the change a permanent partof an organization; internalization of change means stabilization of change(Pareek, 1987). Pareek’s study suggests six main roles need to be performed forsuccessful OC and different functions need to be performed by each role. Such proposalsseem to be over prescriptive in nature as they lack clear empirical evidence to highlight

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the applicability of the proposed roles (for a thorough review, see Fisher et al., 1997;Gupta, 1991; Nilakant and Ramnarayan, 2006; Ramnarayan and Bhatnagar, 1993;Sharma, 2007; Suyampirakasam, 2006).

The evidence surrounding Indian firms’ ability to pursue successful OC programs ispatchy (Saini and Bhatnagar, 2005; Bhatnagar and Saini, 2007). Although many Indianorganizations have been using OC interventions (either via their managers as internalchange agents or facilitated by external consultants) to bring about changes, very fewcases have been well documented in the existing literature (Bandyopadhyay, 1998).Also, there is a general tendency to document only the successful OD experiencesthough some failures have been highlighted (Gupta, 1991). A well-thought-out strategy

of OC intervention as evolving from the Indian OC literature is then sparse (notableexceptions being Rao, 1998; Nilakant and Ramnarayan, 1998; Rao and Vijayalakshmi,2000). For example, Kazmi (2008) has stated that existing strategic change literature isinadequate in respect of procedural and project implementation in the Indian context.Similarly, Bezboruah (2008) has called for the development of action strategies tomanage the resistance to change that is likely to represent a significant part of anychange process in the context of India.

In summary, an analysis of the relevant literature highlights that OD interventionshave been practiced in a diversity of Indian organizations over the past few decades.Second, a number of different OC interventions have been adopted in the Indian contextand there is a scarcity of research relating to transformational OC. Third, there is ascarcity of OC research in the newIndian economic environment, particularly as regardspublic-private partnerships (which are a strong emerging phenomenon in the neweconomic environment) and the key issue of how to manage OC in these partnerships.

The present study attempts to explore these themes further by means of a casestudy analysis. Reliable information about OC which is drawn from the present Indiancontext will not only contribute to the existing academic literature but will also beuseful for organizations which intend to pursue change programs in order to surviveand excel in the present Indian context. Specifically, the main research questionsrelating to the case study analysis are as follows:

RQ1. How did the leaders of the organization foster change with a concern forpeople and for institutionalizing strategy, systems, and structure in apublic-private partnership context?

RQ2. How was the embedded old culture of poor performance replaced by the newexpectation of high-performance orientation?

RQ3. How did the organization ensure that its HR function was delivering internal

customer satisfaction, and also helping to foster a forward thinking mind-setof people in the organization?

The methodology adopted for the case study is discussed in the next section.

MethodsTo examine our research aims and questions, 30 unstructured in-depth interviews wereconducted with different stakeholders of the case company, namely: CEO, Head of HR,HR managers, heads of main functional areas, line managers, and customersof the organization (see Table I for sample characteristics). At least, two authors were

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present in all the interviews and made separate notes. The interviews were also taperecorded and later transcribed verbatim. Each of the two authors independentlycoded the interviews, using a coding scheme that emerged over a period of time andplaced portions of interviews into these codes/themes. Most of the time, these broadcodes/themes mirrored concepts studied in literature, for example, organizationalculture (before NDPL – the case company was formed, and after) from both managers’and employees’perspectives; thekey HR and strategic OC interventionsused for change;

key strategic HR themes (for example, flexibility, empowerment, leadership building, job enrichment, work culture interventions, human resource information systems(HRISs), and team building); and the identification of concrete cases and events whichreflect claims of the management in support of these HR/OD interventions.The qualitative data analysis also consisted of decision stories, development of systems, profiles, documentation of historical data, archival data, and snapshots of oldand new documents. To analyze each interview, we used a two-step coding system, inwhich codes are derived inductively from the interviews and agreed upon by authors.To do this, the authors created their own case transcripts. In the second step, the authorscompared their independent transcripts in joint coding meetings, wherein independent

S. no. Rank Gender

1. CEO Male2. CFO Male3. GM (operations) Male4. GM (technical services and project management) Male5. GM (commercial) Male6. GM (HR) Male7. GM (BPR) Male8. DGM (admin) Male

9. Management trainee HR Female10. Management trainee- HR Female11. Management trainee- HR Male12. CEO-cell Male13. Managers (admin) Female14. (senior manager: ex-TATA power Mumbai) Male15. HR manager Male16. KM officer Male17. Internal change agent 1 Male18. Internal change agent 2 Male19. AGM – systems, North-West area Male20. BU manager Male21. HOD – IT manager Male22. Senior manager (IT) Male23. Corporate communications Female24. AGM – key consumer cell Male25 Manager (admin) Male26. Manager (industrial engineering) Male27. Manager (personnel) Male28. AGM-finance Male29. Deputy company secretary Male30. Joint interaction forum (JIF) member Male

Table I.Sample characteristics

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codes were compared and authors determined the final codes to be used in eachtranscript. Given the scope of the project, two joint transcripts emerged. One transcriptfocused only on OC interventions while the other transcript looked at strategic HRinterventions. We conducted six such joint meetings and examined the emerging codes,which were later built into themes. In the current study, we enumerate the firsttranscript. Inter-rater reliability was not possible during the primary-coding phase dueto the emergent nature of codes. We did follow the secondary-coding process after atheoretical saturation was reached, where emergent themes were fitting the data(Butterfield et al., 1996, p. 2484).

The case of NDPLSector and organization background The case study organization is based in the utilities sector in India, This sector is goingthrough a phase of major transformation. Huge losses incurred by state electricityboards have placed a heavy burden on the exchequer. Inefficient systems, large-scalecorruption, pilferage of power, inability of boards to collect revenue, and lack of accountability of employees are some of the reasons for these losses. In the presenteconomic context, India is not in a position to enjoy the luxury of yesteryears, as wasthe case of many national electricity boards over the past decades.

In Delhi, the process of privatization of the utilities sector was initiated in March1999 with the establishment of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission. Enactment of Delhi Electricity Reform Act came into existence in March 2001. Delhi ElectricityReform Transfer Scheme Rules were announced in November 2001. The process was

completed in May 2002. The Delhi Vidyut (electricity) Board (DVB) had been split intosix companies – three distribution companies, and one each as holding, transmission,and generation companies. DVB has been reporting very high losses particularly indistribution in the past. In order to control the losses, it transferred distribution of power to two private companies from 1 July 2002. On 31 May 2002, DVB signed anagreement with Tata Power Company (TPC) and Bombay Suburban Electric Supply(BSES) for distribution of power. In August 2002, the two distribution companies of BSES were re-named as BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (South-West region) and BSESYamuna Power Limited (Central-East region). TPC renamed the North-NorthwestDelhi Distribution as NDPL. Three of the present authors were invited to conduct anempirical investigation (using participant observation and interviews methodologies)to understand the change process initiated at NDPL that was designed to reduce losses,improve efficiency within the organization and customer satisfaction, and increaserevenues and shareholders’ value as per its new strategy. In 2002, the aggregate annual

technical and commercial losses of all state electricity boards reached a massiveRs 25,000 crores (US$1 ¼ approximately Rs 48.82 in February 2009). The criticalcommitment of NDPL was to bring such losses down to 31 percent from a level of 53 percent at the time of privatization with an expected load growth at the rate of 7-10 percent over the next five years.

The organizational structure at the time of takeover was chaotic. For example, insome cases even the existence of person in whose name the salary was disbursed wasnot known. To sort out these structural problems, a manpower mapping exercise(mainly taking the form of meetings) was initiated for the entire organization in 2002.Two executives were exclusively assigned to this task. An analysis of the secondary

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data, along with detailed discussions with senior executives about the existing patternsof reporting and manning levels was undertaken. An important outcome of thisexercise was the appointment of 482 new NDPL employees (which included 300engineers to facilitate the operations and maintenance work and 15 business graduatestudents in different functional areas) to expedite the change effort.

As per the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed at the time of acquisition,NDPL inherited 5,368 employees from the DVB. The CEO devised an attractivevoluntary retirement scheme (VRS). Out of the total DVB workforce, 1,794 employeessought retirement under the VRS. This included about 90 percent of the meter readers.The union was involved in the rightsizing process throughout. The DVB-scheme

employees continued to be governed by the old DVB-pay-structure as per the MOU,and were also entitled to pension and retirement benefits as per the DVB structure.A number of changes were made to the job titles such as an operator was now calleda “service associate”, and the chief engineer of erstwhile DVB was now consideredequivalent to a deputy general manager.

Role of senior managers as the main change catalystsThe interview data indicate that the top management team respected the CEO of NDPL,for his charismatic and visionary leadership qualities. His technical competencies andsoft skills proved to be an important change-management asset. Similarly, thecompetence, experience, and proactive mindset of the Head of HR effectively facilitatedthe articulation and implementation of NDPL’s people management strategy. One of the main goals of the CEO was to achieve corporate excellence through customer

satisfaction. His strong technical background proved very helpful throughout thechange process. The interviewees cited various examples of this background andapproach. For example, he was seen explaining a circuit diagram to the members inmeetings. Some of his sessions, with the engineers evolved into training sessions as thesituations so demanded. This helped to promote a sense of urgency and the commitmentto change on the part of the senior management. Most of these managers were erstwhileDVB people.

The CEO’s working style showed his determination to acclimatize the DVB-schemeemployees in the NDPL’s ethos. His belief that corporate performance is determined not just by customer care, but equally by focusing on employees’ care and theirinvolvement in decision making was useful in order to promote employee commitmentand, to a great extent, helped to legitimize his change agenda. For example, in thefortnightly meetings with his team members, the CEO emphasized the need for regularcommunication with the employees, which helped in directing the change effort.

Similarly, he instigated a “meet the CEO scheme” to demonstrate his sense of transparency. His positive stand on three of the burning issues from employees’ pointof view, that is, uniforms, widow fund, and time-bound promotion, could be seen as aquid pro quo for securing the employees’ consent to the change agenda.

Modernization and rationalization of the performance management system (PMS)The adoption of performance measurement devices (such as balanced score cards) sentout signals within NDPL that claims of better performance need to be supported byreliable data. These efforts included devising the PMS, a system of zonal performanceand sending zonal performance data through e-mail to relevant people and departments.

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of assistant managers. For each set of position, a certain level of competency wassought. Poor performance had an adverse affect on employees’ final remuneration.

The “perform or perish” strategy is still followed at NDPL. A special reward schemewas introduced to recognize ingenuities and to promote talent. The scheme had fourcategories of awards namely, “extra kilowatt award”, “extra megawatt award”, “gridaward”, and “the CEO award”. More than 40 awards have been given under the schemein the last year. Employees who successfully achieved their targets were rewardedwith appreciation certificates and target mementos. Further, special quarterly awardsand monthly awards have been institutionalized and non-performance letters were alsogiven to employees.

Apart from the above-discussed issues, the company also used benchmarking inmanaging business excellence to overcome employee diffidence. As a result, NDPLimproved its functioning on several operational parameters. For example, itbenchmarked itself against the top five utilities in the world. In relation to billingerrors, substantial reduction had taken place since the time of takeover, but they werestill believed to be an area of concern.

Further, NDPL hired a market survey firm AC Nielson – ORG MARG in orderto understand and accurately measure its consumer preferences. NDPL is nowbenchmarked on various parameters, for example its equity indices are benchmarkedagainst international standards. AC Nielson and ORG – MARG now conducts themarket survey every quarter. Issues related to customer-requirement analysis,reliability of services, price, and ambience of customer care center have been identifiedand resultant amendments have been made. For example, avenues for bill paymenthave been increased from 22 to 1,150 in two years. Power interruptions have beenreduced from 50 to 16 per year.Averagewaitingtimeforbillpayment went down by fourtimes. Customer confidence in paying bills by checks has increased to 50 percent.In remote areas, where collection centers were less in number, mobile catch vans havebeen made available for the collection of bills. The use of the internet by customers tocheck and pay their bills was actively encouraged.

These initiatives were followed by regular audits of the distribution network, whichresulted in the rationalization of the system of billing database, replacement of faultymeters, and aggressive enforcement activities demonstrated seriousness of company’spurpose to one and all. The performance of the new recruits put pressure on theDVB-scheme employees to perform or leave. The adoption and implementation of theTata Business Excellence Model also facilitated performance.

HRD initiatives as OC interventions

To achieve the above-mentioned ambitions, the company made HRM one of itsstrategic priorities by making an investment in training. Training needs analyses wereregularly carried out to assess the skills and knowledge required for different levelsof employees within the organization. For example, initially in July 2002, there were5,000 employees in the organization and 100 persons were employed only for salarypreparation. Then NDPL management decided to reduce this number and theyintroduced computers in the salary department. To facilitate such a move, it wasnecessary to train these employees. Further, quality improvement training wasprovided to the concerned employees. This improved the general technical proficiencyin the organization.

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Moreover, some old transformers were replaced with new transformers and in thisregard training was provided to technicians for maintaining the new transformers.Training for team building was also designed after brain storming session. Since thecreation of NDPL, a record 9,000 plus man days of training have been imparted to 4,500employees under a planned and sustained training schedule covering operational,technical, and information technology (IT) skills and also basic programs onconsumerism and communication.

Like the CEO, the role of the Head of HR in facilitating the change was important.Internally, there were burning issues of setting the tone of affection right, caring forinternal people, reducing fear, and increasing trust. The Head of HR expressed the view

that leadership should be marked by a concern for acclimatizing the employees to thecore values of the company. The policies and OC interventions devised andimplemented by the HRM department helped to determine industrial harmony.

Given the context of this case study organization, it is noteworthy that the HRdepartment reinforced the CEO’s approach to the OC interventions by placing a heavyemphasis upon communication with all levels of employee. Internal communicationchannels were opened through an employee newsletter and a “JIF” designed toacclimatize DVB-scheme employees into the new organization ethos. The HRMdepartment also commissioned an independent “employee engagement study” with theaim of gaining further feedback about employee involvement within the company. Inrelation to employee relations, the Head of HR encouraged union leaders to visit theTata Steel Plant at Jamshedpur to observe labor-management cooperation. During theinterviews, this initiative was regularly cited by both mangers and union leaders as anexample of a positive HRM action that had helped to develop an atmosphere of cooperation between managers and union leaders in respect of the OC interventions.

Conclusion and implicationsThe two main aims of this paper were to highlight key developments in the fields of OCin the Indian setting and to provide empirical evidence from a case research analysis toexplore how OD/HRD interventions are implemented in India.

The research highlights the growing strategic role of HR in the Indian context andits crucial contribution to the field of OC. In terms of transformational change, the HRrole is found to be important especially when devising innovative HR practices whichare designed to support business strategy, influence the attitudes and mindsets of employees, and align business strategy to HR strategy (Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2004;Bhandarker, 2003). Our findings provide evidence of the growing need within thecontext of India to establish the entire HR architecture (Becker, 2001) with an emphasis

on establishing a climate of trust in order to remove fear about the adverse impacts of change from employees’ minds.

We conclude from this analysis that OC interventions, when associated with HRdepartments, require the HR department to move beyond traditional training anddevelopment activities (Rao and Vijayalakshmi, 2000; Sripirabaa and Krishnaveni,2008) and to engage actively in the internal marketing of OC-related strategy, image, andinitiatives. Such marketing also acts as a showcase to internal customers about theimpact of HR interventions on business performance. Indian academic literature onorganizationaldevelopment and change supports thisfinding. Forexample, Bhandarker(2003) states that that the slow pace of change is due to inadequate efforts to transform

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the attitudes and perceptions of people and convert them into partners in thetransformation process. Yet, the approach should go beyond superficial employeeparticipation and towards tapping employees’ competencies for their greaterinvolvement (Rao and Vijayalakshmi, 2000).

Arguably, the establishment of more sophisticated HR subsystems like balancescorecard approaches and talent management is the need of the time in the presentIndian context. The current study provides evidence in this regard. Theimplementation of these performance-based systems is not only supported byleading representatives of the scientific community (Kaplan and Norton, 2000) but alsoby management practitioner surveys (Eschenbach, 2001). In the case study reportedabove, this approach had an important practical implication for the organization underquestion by accelerating its forward thinking strategic role as indicated by thestrategic HRD audit results.

Like most successful organizational transformations, this case study of NDPL inIndia reiterates the need to integrate people-related dimensions of change managementstrategies. These dimensions include the creation of an efficient top management team,the identification of core problems, formulating clear targets for change, establishingclear benchmarks to follow, and designing appropriate OC interventions. Otherliterature supports this kind of an intervention. For example, Dayal (1999) states thatOC interventions need to involve the total organization and Ramnarayan and Nilakant(2006) point out that employees feel more energized when they believe that the changesare worth undertaking and that they have a role in making contributions. ThoughKotter (1996) does not focus specifically on performance management as a focus area

for change management, it should be noted as a key aspect of change management inthe Indian context, and more so when dealing with a workforce imbued in a strongbureaucratic culture. Amba-Rao et al. (2000) point out that the abuse of performanceappraisal authority adversely impacts upon Indian employees who have already beendescribed as low on “efficiency emphasis” meaning “low on initiative for processimprovement”, “low on risk-taking propensity to increase productivity”, and “low onself-monitoring inclinations” (Sparrow and Budhwar, 1997). It demonstrates thatsuccessful change interventions can occur when management takes a holistic,performance-driven, and excellence-orientated approach to OC in India.

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Further reading

Bhatnagar, J. and Sharma, A. (2005), “The Indian perspective of strategic HR roles andorganizational learning capability”, International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 16 No. 9, pp. 1711-39.

Pareek, U. and Rao, T.V. (1981), Designing and Managing Human Resource Systems , Oxford &IBH, New Delhi.

Parikh, I.J. and Jeyavelu, S. (2002), “New trends in sensitivity training in organizations”, Vikalpa,Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 5-14.

Corresponding author Jyotsna Bhatnagar can be contacted at: [email protected]

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