kolkata kindle vol 1 issue 4

National HRD Network, Kolkata Chapter January 2012

KVolume 1 Issue 4

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President's Message 2

Editor's Message 3

Impact of Work Experience on Pay Satisfaction and Job Satisfaction Leading to Turnover Intention : A Study of Young Working Professionals in India

Varun Gupta & Rajashik Roy Choudhury

Managing Organizational Stress toReinstate Motivation of Employees :A Framework for HRD Managers as aCatalyst for Strategic Change Management

- Rana Bandyopadhyay 16

- Suvrodip Banerjee & Deepanjan Deb 22

HR Challenges in India Today - Tackling Ground Realities with New Age Opportunities

- Vineet Kaul 4

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Impact of Spirituality Aspect of Leadership on Spiritual Climateof the Teams and its PlausibleLinkages with Corporate Governance

- Debaprasad Chattopadhyay 12

Evening Knowledge Sessions of Kolkata Chapter along with Silver Jubilee Celebrations of NHRDN 21

Corporate Universities - The Future of Learning In Indian Conglomerates

CONTENTSCurtain Raiser ofSilver Jubilee Celebrations of

NHRDN

National HRD Network, Kolkata Chapter

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January 2012Volume 1 Issue 4

Dr. Chandrima Banerjee (Editor)Vice President - HR, SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd.

Mr. Rajib Kumar,CEO, Material World

Prof. D.P. Chattopadhyay,Professor & HOD-HR,Globsyn Business School.

Editorial Committee

Address for Correspondence:National NRD Network, Kolkata Chapter,

Apeejay House, Block A, 8th Floor15 Park Street, Kolkata – 700 016.

E-mail : [email protected]

Designed and produced at:Repro Digital Pvt. Ltd.

E-mail : [email protected]

Disclaimer:Kolkata Kindle is the official e-newsletter of the National HRD Network, Kolkata Chapter. Views expressed in the e-newsletter by authors do not necessarily purport to constitute an official position of Kolkata Kindle or / and National HRD Network.

Dear Friends,

Another year passes by in our lives as we step into another year. Let us all welcome 2012 with fervour, enthusiasm and optimism for a brighter & more successful year ahead. During 2011 the Chapter achieved a lot of successes & added feathers to its cap a number of accolades due to the committed and untiring efforts of all of you. As we step into the new year, let me share with you two very important responsibilities your Chapter has been entrusted with by the NHRDN fraternity. One is to host the NHRDN Silver Jubilee Celebration Conference in Kolkata between May 25 - 26, 2012 and secondly the National Conference of 2013. We have been asked to shoulder the rare responsibility of hosting two national events in two back to back years - which goes to demonstrate the faith & confidence the National Secretariat and the Leadership Team of NHRDN has on all of us to deliver at levels of international class & quality.

We as a team have to set higher standards of excellence and demonstrate the strength of our collective ability & efforts. "Together we can" - that should be the driving motto for all of us in the months to come so that we can showcase to the rest of the HR world what we can offer to them in terms of learning experience, value addition, conference design & deliver an over all experience. I request all of you to kindly come forward with your ideas and efforts to make these two mega events resounding successes.

I will get back to you soon about the way forward for the Silver Jubilee Celebration Conference in May 2012. We have just a few months to go and we need to get going in order to deliver what we are capable of doing - an experience which would be the best in class.

I wish all of you happy reading and hope this E Journal initiative of your Chapter led by Dr Chandrima Banerjee & her committed team is adding professional value to each one of you.

President's Message Do let us have your comments & feedback on the quality of this journal. Your inputs would go a long way to enable us to further improve upon our efforts.

I also take this opportunity to wish each one of you & your loved ones a very Happy & Prosperous 2012!

Sujoy Banerjee


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Volume 1 Issue 4 January 2012

Editor's Message

Dear Readers,

At the outset, I would like wish you a very happy new year. Let this new year bring all the happiness in your life !

Its about one year back we started our journey and today Kolkata Kindle is one year old ! We are pleased to present you the fourth issue of Kolkata Kindle. On behalf of the editorial committee, I would like to thank all who have supported us throughout this journey.

This issue presents articles dealing with a wide range of topics which I am sure our readers will find interesting. This issue carries contribution from senior HR professionals as well as budding HR professionals who are pursuing their studies. In the article, HR Challenges in India Today - Tackling Ground Realities with New Age Opportunities, the author shares some of today's challenges of HR professionals which includes a wide range of issues from handling internal IR/ER issues to managing external stakeholders including the larger society. These issues were always critical but must be seen and addressed in the context of today's business and economic scenario, The article Managing Organizational Stress Reinstate Motivation of Employees : A Framework for HRD Managers as a Catalyst for Strategic Change Management, focuses on adverse effect of organizational stress on motivation level of employees and how HR managers can adopt different strategies to reduce organizational stress to ensure high level of motivation among employees. The article, Impact of Spirituality Aspect of Leadership on Spiritual Climate of the Teams and its Plausible Linkages with Corporate Governance, promotes a theory of spiritual leadership within the context of the workplace which would lead to both employee wellness and organizational success.

We are pleased to present two chosen articles from all the articles we received in our chapter for NHRDN Young Thought Leader's Contest.

In the article, Impact of Work Experience on Pay Satisfaction and Job Satisfaction Leading to Turnover Intention : A Study of Young Working Professionals in India, the authors offer an insight into the relationship between pay satisfaction and turnover intention as well as job satisfaction and turnover intention among the younger and relatively more experienced employees. The article, Corporate Universities - the Future of Learning in Conglomerates, the authors examine the needs to move up the value chain from traditional Training & Development departments to Corporate University, the hurdles involved in the process and how to overcome them.

This issue presents reports on evening knowledge sessions along with the NHRDN Silver Jubilee Celebrations' curtain raiser

I hope you will enjoy reading his issue. We look forward to your valuable views and suggestions. Your feedback will enable us further improve your chapter's e- journal.

Happy reading!

Warm regards,

Dr. Chandrima BanerjeeEditor


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HR Challenges in India Today - Tackling Ground Realities with New Age Opportunities

Vineet Kaul

The Background :

The Context :

With India's rapid pace among emerging economies, the role of industry and corporate in our country must deal concurrently with issues of global and local concern. Today HR professionals have to grapple with challenges and opportunities

stof the 21 century, in terms of communication through virtual organizations, knowledge management, integration of cross cultures, retaining and nurturing the best talent. However, at the same time, ground realities of IR/ER issues, handling a large workforce, tackling downsizing, playing the responsible corporate citizen, cannot be wished away or ignored.

It is a couple of months since an Industrial Relations issue got settled in a very well known Manufacturing Company in India. This was welcome news especially after a series of articles appeared in various newspapers and magazines. All of a sudden there seemed to be a lot of curiosity and interest in the developments of the Company as also overall in the Industrial Relations scenario across the country. Many related subjects like dealing with Unions and Workmen, Contract labour, Managers' capabilities in handling IR issues, etc., have been discussed and opinions formed. One must appreciate that it is good that IR / ER as it is called, is now receiving the due importance that it deserves.

We would all love the ideal world, no disputes, quick addressal of grievances, if any, and excellent two-way communication flow. At heart, every employee naturally wants to give his best and every Manager wants his team to be satisfied and content. However with the best of intentions, the real world, as we know it, is far from ideal.

In today's world, uncertainty is the only certainty we live with. Just as natural calamities hit us out of the blue, so do the rapid changes in global business. While the Western world crumbled during the recent recession, we in India, were

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relatively better insulated, perhaps because of the traditional managerial prudence of our banking/financial systems. However, the lessons of these dramatic global events cannot be overlooked or forgotten.

In the context of this dynamic business scenario, it is important to keep the organization in a state of preparedness. Businesses across industry sectors, have ambitious plans to grow. In order to survive the market forces and tide over the cycles of downturns, being a pack leader is at times not enough, being a Game Changer is what makes the difference. So, on one hand it is imperative that we ensure long term sustenance of the business / company that we work for and on the other hand, provide impetus and proper conditions to grow and evolve. To my mind, the HR professional is continuously challenged today with many dilemmas that keep coming up. Let us attempt to share some thoughts on some of today's challenges / issues which were always critical factors, but must be seen and addressed in the context of today's business and economic scenario :

This has been a common mantra for all of us. Each company is trying hard to re-invent its products, operations / services and processes. Optimizing resources plays a big role in the Lean Manufacturing model and for the HR function the critical and most difficult resource to be optimized is the Human Resource ! Over time, as a Company moves ahead we find requests / demands to add to the head count cropping up. In the past, Industrial Engineering departments existed hence there was someone to study and handle it. Today, a majority of the Companies are doing without any Industrial Engineering people. However, whilst we focus on productivity levels, improving efficiencies on the shop floor, white collar or managerial productivity does not receive the desired attention. Added to this, is the continuous pressure to pay competitive salaries in order to attract and retain Talent. We have also experienced that adding People is much easier than reducing them. Hence a prime need is to continuously focus on levels of productivity, headcount and measuring the 'value-add' per person. This has to go up, because come April,

1. “Do More with Less” :

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the employees expect the increase or the workmen want the next LTS to be higher than what was given last time.

In difficult times everyone is forced to push for headcount reduction since there is not much of a choice left. It helps to be a 'bit' conservative whilst adding and recruiting headcount. I recommend that having the optimal number of People also helps in Employees being cared for, looked after, having role clarity and also helps the Manager to focus on the 'Assets'. It helps to set proper expectations and last but not the least, the Gen 'Y' looks to a stretch on the jobs so that they can add value to the organisation. Being prudent and conservative when times are good, pays off when the tide turns and helps the organization to survive the tough times.

A group of Employees were discussing on the lunch table in the canteen about the latest development which had been flashed in all the Newspapers about their Company. This news item appeared quite sensational and it also did not project a good image of the Company in its conduct of business. The news reports alleged that the incident was a culmination of various incorrect actions of the company over the last few months. The mood of these Managers was one of surprise, concern building up more because there was no formal communication available inside the Company.

The Company strongly believed on a 'Need-to-Know' approach even whilst sharing information with Senior Managers. Naturally, the flow of communication at subsequent levels was hardly there. It all depended on the individual Manager on how well he could draw information from his 'sources' and then share with his team. The grapevine had become the only channel of information and this as we all know, is not the most reliable of channels, but highly effective in its spread and reach !

Times have changed the compulsions and the real i ty of today force us to share communication and dialogue with Employees on a continuous basis. Studies have proved beyond doubt that Employees develop a sense

2. Communication is the Key :

of pride and ownership when they are communicated and involved through various forums in the Organization. Various improvement programs and suggestions are an outcome of established forums provided for Employees involvement.

Given the spread across geographies and n e e d t o i n c u l c a t e t e a m w o r k i n g , Communication is the key in running the organization. It is appropriate to plan and institutionalize the process key attention being given to the process regularity, and also needs of the Employee being addressed.

In my first year of work, I had the opportunity to attend 'Shop Council' meetings where both workers representatives and Managers met every month to discuss the issues at the Divisional level. The meeting was chaired by the Divisional Head. He would begin the meeting with his opening remarks which would then continue all through the meeting. In the

rd3 meeting the representatives at the beginning of the meeting requested him to prepare a recording of his 'speech' which they would listen to later on a tape recorder. This would enable the meeting time being available for discussions …..strange, but true.

The fact is that in the absence of formal communication, rumors take precedence and also too much of gossip takes place which is unproductive and dysfunctional in the Organization. Top down information is essential but a two-way Communication process builds Employee involvement. This is a critical need and organizations are putting greater efforts now than ever before to communicate with their Employees. Using the technology advancements of this era, HR can play a pivotal role in employee communication a c r o s s g e o g r a p h i e s , u s i n g V i d e o Conferencing, Webinars, the Intranet, internal Blog sites and so on.

Over the years, this lesson has been learnt and the earlier we accept this truth, the better. In the past and perhaps even now any Seminar that you attend, Speakers will take

3. Industrial Relations is a Management Responsibility :

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pains to explain that the Government and the Unions are at fault. A common point would be that in India you cannot fire people which is possible in the Western world. In China, you have full flexibility and labour productivity the Government fully supports all steps taken by Companies and productivity is excellent, etc. A few facts needs to be understood. In countries like France and Germany, the Unions and their restrictive work practices are a challenge even today. In China, early this year, there were strikes and wage increases in few factories touched 40%. In comparison to the last year, minimum wages in most provinces in China have risen by 22%. It is a fact that the law in India does not allow you to reduce people and that there is no “Exit Policy”, but have not factories reduced numbers due to redundancy and even closed down ? Hence this is possible as we ourselves have done so over the years.

It is also a fact that Multiplicity of Unions has been a challenge over decades though all intentions have been there from the Government in passing requisite laws. However, till date, except for Maharashtra and to some extent Orissa no legal / formal remedy is laid down to suggest an approach in dealing with a 'Recognized' Union. We will continue to have multi-Union issues and the pressures on the ballot / constituency will not allow the Government to pass such Acts / Rules.

The experience of dispute resolution at the State level is a mixed one. Some years back, in a particular State, we had exhausted the LTS mandate when the State Labour Department stepped in. Whilst they were convinced about the Management stand being open and the offer being very good, they agreed to settle the issue by asking for another 15% - 20% additional amount. My response was that if we have to give 15% more as a Management, we will do it on our own instead. At times, the third party mediation helps but the accountability again finally rests with the Management. So I come back to taking onus when it comes to the Industrial Relations in a factory no point in blaming the Union or Government. To achieve good IR a lot of hard work needs to be done.

Grievance handling and communication is a Management Responsibility. Building credibility through actions and also developing the right culture will take time and line Managers must also play a key role. The LTS is a good vehicle to get clauses on various productivity and cultural shifts that we intend bringing about however as we know the devil is in the details implementation. This again is management responsibility and the skill lies in truly getting Employees involved. 'Collective Bargaining' is as good as we want it to be and should actually be a win-win. An ex-colleague of mine aptly said “The Management is busy bargaining and the Union keeps collecting”. How often do we audit what actually was implemented post LTS ? Did we really get what we jointly agreed to deliver ? At no point do I recommend going by the 'rule-books' all the time. One needs a combination of relationship being flexible as per the need and also being fair and firm. However, given the dynamic situation that exists despite all steps taken and work done - there could be an IR issue that may still crop up just handle it !

4.

Attrition is a problem encountered by most Organizations the only difference is the extent of Attrition. One quick response that gets communicated to top Management is that X and Y Organizations pay higher than our salary levels. Hence our immediate quick-fix is to increase salary levels. Well this is good news and sends across a feeling of relief but lo and behold ….. Attrition raises its head yet again !

Then of course, there are numerous Consultants and Employee Satisfaction / Motivation surveys who do bring in valuable insights. Action plans are drawn up, communication stepped up and of course same results follow. Coming to the point of a person leaving for higher salary offer. Well, the fact is that no one takes up another job on the existing salary (unless he has no choice). At the same time, there will always be an Employer in the market who will make a higher offer. The issue lies elsewhere. In the real life situation Employees do feel the need to have

Our People Leave because of Higher Salary Offers :

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a series of meetings with prospective Employers and the Salary & Benefits gets discussed only at the end of the selection process (by then 80 85% of selection process is over). Thus is it fair to say that salary was the 'pull factor'? Most often it is the career prospects, location or even the Managers that one works with. Rightly said by Marcus Buckingham “Employees leave Managers, ,not Companies”. This is well known to all of us. Hence Companies are increasingly investing in developing their Managers especially on People related skills. The work culture and empowerment levels have also proved to be excellent factors to retain Employees. We know also of few Organizations who are able to extend 'high' salaries but even so, Employees are not easily tempted to join them, because they can see through the temptations. Or even if they do take up the higher offer, they live to regret it and often seek to return to their original employer. In these matters, word of mouth, reputation of past and present Employees, plays a key role.

A suggestion given the booming market, Attrition will be there despite all efforts, so do plan for emergencies, since business should not suffer due to lack of People. Build your leadership pipeline, invest in the work environment and challenges you offer your people, the motivation and inspiration they draw from their seniors and the enrichment they see in their jobs going forward. Your people can be your best brand ambassadors !

A few years back, an Entrepreneur told me I pay my taxes regularly to the Government and am fair in my dealings with all Stakeholders, which is good enough. Why am I expected to do more? Today, this is truly not enough. We are all aware of the Triple Bottom Line in “People, Planet & Profits”. Organizations are now being measured not only by their financial results but also on the impact made on the social front and natural environment. The work that we do in the communities where we are located is a crucial factor to our survival and growth. The immediate neighborhood

5. External Relations are Assuming Great Importance :

and society at large need to be taken along - we cannot ignore them. I always believe that in today's world you cannot live alone in 'islands of prosperity'. Very rightly, the Government mantra today is 'Inclusive Growth'.

The HR professionals are increasingly required to forge links with the Community, NGO's and ex terna l S takeho lders . Companies are expected to think and work 'Beyond Business'. Hence proactive efforts by the Company and its Employees in CSR or Community activities are needed and HR can play the lead role here. There are numerous examples of Community Leaders helping Industry in times of crises and there are also cases when the Community has posed a problem for the Company, threatening its very existence. It is up to us to turn the tide in our favour and facilitate a Win-Win. However, this subject requires professional handling and a well thought out long term strategy, coupled with a lot of sincerity and integrity in the efforts to be seen as long term and sustainable, rather than just for good media copy. There are numerous and excellent examples of Organizations managing this area well and earning enormous goodwill.

The few points above are a brief overview of what an HR professional in an organization faces from the shopfloor workers to the high potential talent pool of managers; from boosting productivity through people power to building community goodwill for long term sustainability of the business. The Indian context is unique, given our diversity across regions, our multiplicity of political parties with different agendas, tackling social responsibility where Government agencies fall far short and dealing with unions who can be at time remarkably up-to-date in their knowledge and at times can be misled by the wrong forces. The times are challenging, but am sure we have the competence and expertise within us to take these on with full gusto and achieve long term success.

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Vineet Kaul is the Chief People Officer, Hindalco Industries. He can be reached at [email protected]


Impact of work experience on pay satisfaction and job satisfaction leading to turnover intention : A study of young working professionals in India

Varun Gupta & Rajashik Roy Choudhury

Introduction

Turnover intention has been quite an interesting topic to researchers and academicians as it has negative connotation (Singh and Loncar, 2010). Although the experts believe that staying in the same company for a prolonged time is always better compared to hopping jobs frequently, higher pay and better employment prospects attract employees to switch jobs more often in India. Indians are one of the most ambitious lots in the world with eight out of ten employees in the country likely to move to another organization that promises them better pay and job satisfaction. According to Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor survey, India continues to have the highest Global Mobility Index score of 141 which means there is maximum employee mobility in India followed by China and Mexico.

The present research is based on the premise that intention to quit is dependent on pay satisfaction and job satisfaction with a moderating effect of work-experience. Experts believe that Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries have been the major drivers to the trend of recurrent job quit. This turns out be expensive for organizations since they incur considerable costs, both direct (recruitment and selection, training and development), and indirect (employee commitment, service/product quality, productivity and profit) (Griffeth et al, 2000; Kinicki et al., 2002; Price, 2001; Mobley, 1982). The paper is organized to address this HR issue through a proper research background and related literature reviews which helped to formulate the research hypotheses, followed by the research context and the methodology used. The major findings are then discussed and the final section draws conclusions, reviews the limitations of the study and presents scope for future research.

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Literature Review

Job satisfaction and turnover intention

Job satisfaction is described as the positive attitude and emotion towards one's job and work environment (Locke, 1978). This good feeling occurs when an employee perceive that there is a definite alignment between the current job and their personal goals. Since many employees have narrow control on the outcomes, they tend to quit their jobs after trying and failing to restore equity (Greenberg, 1987). Leaving job of any profession not only reflects the quitter's attitude but also discourages others to join that profession (Ingersoll, 2011, 2006). Present research focuses on job satisfaction but not specifically on a particular industry. lgbaria and Greenhaus (1992) observed that job satisfaction is related to actual turnover of employees in an organisation. Koh and Goh (1995) and Lam et al. (1995) described that job satisfaction is negatively related to employees' turnover intention. Present paper focuses on impact of work experience on job satisfaction in Indian context.

Pay satisfaction and turnover intention

In a study about turnover prediction among employees and entrepreneurs in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Carraher (2009) claimed that attitudes towards benefits were generally significant predictors of turnover for employees and entrepreneurs over a four year time period while satisfaction with pay was typically significant for employees but not for entrepreneurs. A finding by Joetan, Edwin and Kleiner (2004) as a part of their study on incentive practices in the automobile industry in US, was that, a bad pay system leads to high turnover intention among employees. Changing the pay system to a more comfortable and predictable system such as the salary based payment will greatly increase the retention rate of the salespeople. Thus literature reveals that pay satisfaction has a negative correlation with turnover intention. Chew (1993) said, "In the past, employees used to look for an alternative job before resigning the current one. Nowadays, they resign from their jobs even before securing another one." Logically, quitting is preceded by intention to quit. Turnover intention is comparatively less researched in Indian context,

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and hence this study has tried to build its relation with job satisfaction and pay satisfaction in Indian context.

Regarding tenure or work experience, (Oshagbemi, 2000a; Hom and Griffeth, 1995) reported that employee who is dissatisfied will resign whereas satisfied ones will remain in the organisation. Oshagbemi (2000a) found tenure to be positively and significantly related to job satisfaction in a study of the effects of tenure on job satisfaction levels of university teachers. Sarkar, Crossman, & Chinmeteepituck, 2003 found that while overall job satisfaction increases with the tenure for employees aged 25 or higher, job satisfaction also decreases for employees younger than 25 years. In present paper tenure is taken as moderating variable. Moderating behavior of tenure in such Indian context is not much studied. From above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed in Indian context.

H1: Higher the work experience more is the significance of pay satisfaction than job satisfaction towards turnover intention.

H2: Lower the work experience more is the significance of job satisfaction than pay satisfaction towards turnover intention.

A. Data Collection and Sample

An online questionnaire including 3 questions on turnover intentions, 5 questions on job satisfaction and 17 questions on pay satisfaction was shared to collect data from young Indian employees working in various industries. The final data set contain 230 responses. Work-experience of respondents varied from 3 to 188 months; median value being 32 months.

B. Measures

The items used to measure turnover intention were modeled after an index from the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins, and Klesh, cited in Cook, Hepworth, Wall and Warr, 1981). Job satisfaction was measured using 5 items borrowed from a research done

Methods and Research Contexts

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by Brayfield & Rothe (1951) where two items having negative connotation were re-coded as part of this research. Similarly, Pay satisfaction was measured using the Pay satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) by H. Heneman and Schwab (1985) who initially hypothesized four dimensions of pay satisfaction but the present study considered the summated score of 17 pay satisfaction items rather than original 18 items. One of them, based on pay structure, was found to be confusing in Indian context.

Independent Variable

Job Satisfaction

Pay SatisfactionDependent Variable

Workexperience

Moderating Variable

Fig.1 : Theoretical model

Turnover Intention

C. Analysis

The study divides the entire data set into two groups based on median work-experience value. First, turnover intention is used as the dependent variable in the linear regression equation and both pay satisfaction and job satisfaction as independent variables for work-experience less than or equal to the median value 32. In the second step, similar process is followed for work-experience greater than 32. In both steps, the extent of impact of independent variable on turnover intent is assessed. The reliability was checked for all 3 variables for both work-experience groups. The Cronbach's alpha for job satisfaction items was calculated after removing the recoded items as the cut-off value was taken as 0.700. Similarly, to maintain the parity for both work-ex groups, only 3 positively connoted items of job satisfaction were considered for regression analysis.

D. Results

Both the hypotheses are established. Table I & II show the reliability analysis of all items as well as the regression analysis respectively for both work-ex <=32 and work ex>32 :


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Turnover intention is indicated as TI, pay satisfaction is symbolized as PS and job satisfaction is represented as JS in the regression equations.

The regression equation for step 1 is

TI=15.172-0.0xPS - 0.452xJS .................. (1)

The regression equation for step 2 is

TI=18.015-0.106xPS - 0.224xJS ................(2)

T-value are important as they help in determining the relative importance of the variable in particular model. For work ex<=32, satisfaction is not at all significant and t-statistic is very low which shows that pay satisfaction does not have a significant importance in turnover intention for younger professionals; job satisfaction being more significant as noticed from table-II. For work ex>32, pay satisfaction becomes more significant than job satisfaction.

The results provide an insight into the impact of work-experience on pay satisfaction and employee job satisfaction which, in turn, has an

Practical Implications

Table I : Reliability Analysis

Variable

Pay satisfaction 0.886 0.920

Job satisfaction 0.724 0.789

Turnover Intention

The Cronbach's alpha scores were above the 0.70cut-off point recommended by Hair et al. (2010)

0.801 0.782

Work-ex <=32 Work-ex >32

Table II : Regression Analysis

Independentvariable

First step (work-ex<=32); N = 118

Second step (work-ex>32); N = 122

Pay satisfaction

Pay satisfaction

Turnoverintention

Turnoverintention

0.000

-0.427

1.000

0.000

0.127*

0.244*

0.000

-5.083

Note : *p<0.01

Dependentvariable

Betacoefficient

Significance R-squarevalue

t statistic

Job satisfactionTurnoverintention

-0.356 0.000 -3.891

Job satisfactionTurnoverintention

-0.197 0.021 -2.349

January 2012

effect on turnover intention that could benefit the Indian managers to focus on HR policy making. The present study is unique as it empirically shows that job satisfaction of young Indian employees has more impact on turnover intention than pay satisfaction when employees are relatively new to the organization having work experience of 32 months or less. In addition, the study also finds that the impact of job satisfaction and pay satisfaction on turnover intention gets switched as work experience increases beyond 32 months. As there is little Indian literature available on this theme, this study helps HR managers to come up with innovative poeple management practices in their organizations. It would be really thought provoking for HR managers as the general notion says that an employee starts focusing on pay rather than job profile in the initial years of this tenure. This study enables HR managers to play change agent roles by showing that as work-experience increases pay becomes more important to Indian employees. This may happen because of family burden and social obligations on them. After a certain work-experience, Indian employees settle down with their spouse and children and their parents also become dependent on them. This is a contradictory result as compared to western findings and hence poses a real challenge to young Indian thought leaders to formulate strategies and bring cultural and structural changes in organizations.

The managerial implications of this study aims at innovative HR practices where an HR manager can decide to control tangible benefits to mitigate exit behaviour of an employee based on his tenure. Also, factors affecting job satisfaction can be identified so that intention to quit can be managed. This study might also help employers to cut direct costs which according to the study of Staw (1980) is expenditure which is incurred on the selection, recruitment, induction and training of new employees. In addition, this study might also be useful in curbing indirect cost which according to Des & Shaw (2001) is the cost of learning clubbed with reduced morale, pressure on the existing employees and the loss of social capital.

Research Limitations & Future Score

Reference :

The major limitations of this study are common source, common time and common method. A single instrument was designed to contain questions pertaining to all the three variables in the form of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intention. A single method of questionnaire is used to collect data rather than using various techniques like interview, survey of even company document. Also, the sample was limited to Indian employees having work-experience ranged from 3 to 188 months. Future research needs to be obtained on more diversified samples in terms of work-experience and should be continued by examining additional variables and application of structural equation modeling for taking any measurement error into account. Also, this study focused on employees across all sectors, Hence, it may not be appropriate to generalize the findings on a particular industry.

1. Abelson, M. A., 1993. Turnover cultures. Res. Person. Hum. Res. Manage, 11, p.339-376.

2. Berg, T.R., 1991. The importance of equity perception and job satisfaction in predicting employee intent to stay at television stations. Group and Organization Studies, 16(3), p.268-284.

3. Brayfield, A. H. and Rothe, H. F., 1951. An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35, p.307-311.

4. Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D. and Klesh, J., 1979. The Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

5. Carraher, S. M., 2010. Turnover prediction using attitudes towards benefits, pay, and pay satisfaction among employees and entrepreneurs in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Baltic Journal of Management, 6(1), p.25-52.

6. Chew, R., 1996. Excessive labor turnover: the case of clerical staff in Singapore. Int. J. Manpow, 14(9), p.32-40.

7. Cook, J.D., Hepworth, S.J., Wall, T.D. and Warr, P.B., 1981. The Experience of Work: A Compendium and Review of 249 Measures and their Use. Warr, P.B. (Ed.). New York: Academic Press.

8. Dess, G.D. and Shaw, J.D., 2001. Voluntary turnover, social capital, and organizational

performance. Academy of Management Review, 26(3), p.446-56.

9. Griffeth, R.W., Hom, P.W. and Gaertner, S., 2000. A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26(3), p.463-88.

10. Heneman, H. G. and Schwab, D. P., 1985. Pay satisfaction: Its multidimensional nature and measurement. International Journal of Psychology, 20(1), p.129-141.

11. Hunt, J. W. and Saul, P. N., 1975. The relationship of age, tenure, and job satisfaction in males and females. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4).

12.Igbaria, M. and Greenhaus, J. H., 1992. Determinants of MIS employees' turnover intentions: a structural equation model. Communications of the ACM, 35(1), p.35-39.

13.Ingersoll, R. M., 2001. Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: an organizational analysis. Am. Educ. Res. J., 38(3), p.499-534.

14.Koh, H. C. and Goh, C. T., 1995. An analysis of the factors affecting the turnover intention of non-managerial clerical staff: a Singapore study. Int. J. Hum. Res. Manage, 6, p.192-207.

15.Locke, E. A., 1978. Job satisfaction reconsidered: reconsidered. American Psychologist, 33(9), p.854-855.

16.Mobley, W. H., 1982. Employee turnover: causes, consequences, & control. Addison: Wesley Publishing Company Inc.

17.Sarker, S. J., Crossman, A. and Chinmeteepituck, P., 2003. The relationships of age and length of service with job satisfaction: an examination of hotel employees in Thailand. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 18(7), p.745-758.

18. Singh, P. and Loncar, N., 2010. Pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intent. Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 65(3), p.470-490.

19. Vandenberghe, C. and Tremblay, M., 2008. The role of pay satisfaction and organizational commitment in turnover intentions: A two-sample study. Journal of Business & Psychology, 22(3), p.275-286.

20.Wai, C. T. T. and Robinson, C. D., 1998. Reducing staff turnover: a case study of dialysis facilities. Health Care Management Review, 23(4), p.21-42.


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January 2012

Varun Gupta & Rajashik Choudhury are students of XLRI, Jamshedpur. They can be reached at [email protected]


12

Impact of spirituality aspect of leadership on spiritual climate of the teams and its plausible linkages with corporate governance

Debaprasad Chattopadhyay

Introduction

Organizations of today have been witnessing a high rate of attrition. People join companies with lots of hope and high aspirations. Unfortunately, as time progresses in the wake of their on-boarding, employees get disillusioned. Their expectations are belied and their confidence in companies to provide them employee-satisfaction, let alone, employee-delight, start dwindling. Many start looking for alternate openings elsewhere while others continue to 'get into the rut' and suffer from boredom and frustration. Health issues develop and it is not unusual to come across employees who suffer from bouts of depression and other organic ailments. Psychologists and consultants are roped in to diagnose the problem. After much of probing and interviews with employees ,such specialists infer that the organization climate does not provide an enabling or facilitating work-environment. Beset with such a finding, organizations feel intrigued and bewildered and start pondering as to what is meant by an enabling or facilitating organization climate. Initial observations reveal that employees are of the opinion that the culture prevailing in the company is not positive.

Culture, as we know, consists of a set of values and beliefs that help to bind and reinforce work groups and communities. Culture, in turn, creates climate. When this is applied to organization-settings, we find, there exists different types of organization-climate. Accordingly, there can be sales climate, innovation climate, safety climate, quality climate and a host of other climates.

The thinking revolves around the notion that the inappropriate organization-climate is the root-cause of various perils at the work place and may act as the trigger for acrimony, conflict, politicking,

Statement of the problem:

and ineffective teamwork. So, not only employees are inconvenienced in terms of their quality of work-life in the organization, the organization also suffers because of less productivity and output. It starts losing its competitive advantage and 'bad-mouthing' of discontented employees bedevils the organization's reputation in the society in general and industry in particular.

Today people are finding that there's more to life-and business-than profits alone. Money as the single bottom line is increasingly a thing of the past. In a post-Enron world, values and ethics are an urgent concern. The hottest buzz today is about a “triple bottom line,” a commitment to “people, planet, profit.” Employees and the environment are seen as important as economics. Some people would say it's all about bringing one's spiritual values into one's workplace.

What is spirituality in business ? There's a wide range of important perspectives. Some would say that it's simply embodying their personal values of honesty, integrity, and good quality work. Others would say it's treating their co-workers and employees in a responsible, caring way. For others, it's participating in spiritual study groups or using prayer, meditation, or intuitive guidance at work. And for some, it's making their business socially responsible in how it impacts the environment, serves the community or helps create a better world. Be that as it may, there lies an enigma in what the word “spirituality” relates to, in the work environment.

This compounds the problem in its usage in organization context, more so, to justify the rationale as to how spiritual leadership can foster spiritual climate in an organization.

Foregoing is the statement of the problem that this research thesis aims to address.

The purpose of this study is to analyze known academic articles for how they characterize spiritual leadership, explore the nexus between spiritual leadership and spiritual climate, and discover essential factors and conditions for promoting a theory of spiritual leadership within the context of the workplace.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate

Purpose of Study:

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13

January 2012

the relationship between four sub-variables (meaning/calling, membership, inner life/spiritual awareness and concern for larger social and natural environment) at the leader level and three work-related variables (harmony with self at work, harmony in work environment, transcendence) to assess the climate of the unit or work-group at the team level by applying the concept of Ashish Pandey, Rajen K Gupta, A P Arora's spiritual climate inventory (2009) to manufacturing and service organizations across diverse industries and to examine the concept quantitatively from Pandey-Gupta-Arora Spirituality Scale (The 2009 Pfeiffer Annual Consulting) so as to find promising management p r inc ip les fo r bus iness organizations.

The secondary purpose of this study is to provide organizations with new management principles regarding Spiritual Leadership and Spiritual Climate variables. With this knowledge, administrators in business organizations could implement and apply these principles in managing their employees. The identified predictors might be used to prevent high attrition-rate and impaired quality of work life and in the process increase job satisfaction.

The main research question is “ Do the self perceived spiritual leadership variables(meaning/calling, membership, innerlife / spiritual awareness and concern for larger social and natural environment) predict the three workrelated variables ( harmony with self at work, harmony in work environment, transcendence) associated with spiritual climate of the team ?”

The second question is “ How does team members perception of leaders spirituality at work affect team climate ?”

This study seeks to review the growing body of qualitative and theoretical research on the field of spiritual leadership, with particular attention to determining the impact it has on creating spiritual climate for the team and thereby plausibly being linked with some aspects of corporate governance. This research also seeks to advance the direction of future psychometric scale

Research Questions:

Significance of the Study :

development in the interdisciplinary academic field of spiritual leadership and spiritual climate. By suggesting a new rubric for understanding the literature (manifestation, development, and adherence), and analyzing the scale validity and reliability I hope to expand the conceptual imagination for new scale research.

Specifically, this research argues that the previous research has begun to address important aspects of research scale development, although it has been limited in its applicability to workplace contexts, and falls short of understanding how and the degree to which individual or collective spirituality integrates and manifests itself in the workplace. Moreover, while much scale research has been directed towards personal fulfillment, faith maturity and wellness, only recently have scales been developed with an eye towards spiritual leadership and spiritual climate.

To this end, this study will codify and extend the aforementioned work by identifying the major drivers for the field, consider the present operationalized definitions, explore the theoretical connections between spiritual leadership, spiritual climate and organizations' corporate governance, review existing scales and instruments, discuss the literature review findings, identify gaps and problems within the reviewed research, and resolve by suggesting specific areas for further research.

Authors have argued that workplace spirituality contributes to organizational performance and brings individual-level benefits, including increased physical and mental health of employees, personal growth , realization of full potential, enhanced sense of self-worth, more tolerance for failure, and less susceptibility to stress. Though the study on workplace spirituality is recent and vigorous, few studies relate leadership behaviors with workplace spirituality. Maslowian notion of eupsychian management (eu, meaning good, and psyche, meaning mind or soul, “toward a good mind or soul” or the “well-being of psyche” ) showed that leaders' behavior has an impact on how people perceive the organization at the higher levels of self-actualization : the spiritual ones. This creates

Conceptual Framework:


14

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enlightened managers, as Maslow called them, and are likely to contribute toward creating eupsychian islands amongst their teams.

Pursuant to one school of thought, the roots of effective leadership are grounded in the spiritual dimension of the individual leader. It is complemented by another school of thought focusing on how effective leaders behave and affect workplace spirituality and, in this way, how they affect the followers' behaviors. My research is conceptually framed to this last school of thought. Leadership behaviors can be wide and varied. Some respect workplace spirituality while others disrespect workplace spirituality. This raises two questions: (a) What are the employees' conceptions of workplace spirituality ? and (b) Can leadership behaviors that affect workplace spirituality be called “ Spiritual leadership ?” My research attempts to answer (b) and also to discern Spiritual Climate.

Spiritual Leadership

Spiritual Climate

The purpose of spiritual leadership is to tap into the fundamental needs of both leader and follower for spiritual well-being through calling and membership, to create vision and value congruence across the individual, empowered team, and organization levels and, ultimately, to foster high levels of organizational commitment and productivity. Operationally, spiritual leadership comprises the values, attitudes and behaviors that are necessary to intrinsically motivate one's self and others so they have a sense of spiritual well-being through calling and membership. (Fry, 2003)

The organizational benefits of spiritual leadership include increased organizational performance, intrinsic employee job satisfaction and involvement (Fry, 2003), For the stakeholders of the organization, the impact of a spiritual organizational culture translates not only to the integrity of the organization but also to the financial returns from improved performance and customer satisfaction.

Definition of Key Terms :

Spiritual Leadership:

A spi r i tual leadership approach asks fundamentally different questions about what it means to be human, what we really mean by growth and what values and power distributions are needed to enhance both organizations and society as a whole. Spiritual leadership asks the leader to be the one who can show what it means to be human, and what it means to be authentic, which is an important aspect for organizations for gaining deeper insights of spiritual self and of the spiritual lives of others with whom the leaders interact and also those who are affected by the results of their leadership.

Some authors define spiritual leadership by five components which are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. It is a fast emerging postmodern management paradigm. Spiritual leadership has the potential to guide organizational transformation and develop positive organizations, where human well-being and organizational performance can not only coexist, but also can be maximized.

Based on the qualitative interviews conducted with 32 managers in Turkey, a typology of spiritual anchors has been developed. Spiritual anchors are patterns of deeply held spiritual motives, values, and attitudes, which provide direction, meaning, and wholeness to a person's life or work. They are the spiritual DNA of the individual or a fractal of the individual's holistic value system. Nine spiritual anchors that characterize leaders' value compasses in organizations include:

(1) perfection; (2) compassion;

(3) passion; (4) inspiration;

(5) investigation; (6) dedication;

(7) appreciation; (8) determination; and

(9) cooperation.

Foregoing therefore, are the essence of spiritual leadership.

In India many a company follow the new-age principles (such as Meditation to attain inner calmness, Purshartaa for the balance between

Spiritual Climate:


15


personal and professional life, yoga for healthy and disease-free life, etc.), which have their roots in Indian ethos for the spiritual upliftment of an organization. At an individual level, spirituality at work provides job satisfaction and reduces employees burnout as found in the case of health care professionals. Research on the topic 'Spiritual Climate' is still in its early stages.

Impact of spirituality in organization has been studied (Pandey, 2009) and as per literature presented and opinion of other experts, below-ment ioned var iables of spi r i tual i ty in organizations were identified. These variables embrace the three conceptually converging streams being identified in the 'spirituality in management' literature and their parallel notions in the Vedantic literature. The variables of meaningful work, hopefulness, and authenticity are related to harmony to 'harmony with self', Sense of Community and respect for diversity are related to 'harmony in work environment' and meditative work, and Loksangrah are related to 'transcendence' aspect of workplace spirituality (Pandey et al., 2008).

Spiritual climate as a construct is different from related constructs of employees' engagement , ethical climate, and service climate.

Though engagement is akin to spiritual climate in terms of deeper involvement in work and a feeling of connectedness at workplace, the two are different in terms of level of construct and contributing factors of the construct. Firstly, employees' engagement covers both individual level variables like role clarity and learning opportunity, as well as dyadic level construct like appreciation and collective level construct like enabling environment. In contrast, spiritual climate is purely a collective level construct. Secondly, sense of contribution to the larger social and natural environment, authenticity, meaningful work are constituting variables of the spiritual level climate which are not the part of employees'

Climate regarding Spirituality:

Distinguishing Spiritual Climate from Related Constructs :

engagement construct(Pandey et al., 2008)

Rightfully therefore, Pandey et al., (2008) have defined Spiritual Climate as : the collective perception of the employee about the workplace that facilitates harmony with 'self' through meaningful work, transcendence from the limited 'self' and operates in harmony with social and natura l envi ronment having sense of interconnectedness within it. Summarily, the prevailing concept about the work and immediate work group that have spiritual content constitute the spiritual climate.

The conclusion of the study would therefore be useful:

in infusing spirituality in the workplace

i d e n t i f y i n g i n h i b i t i n g f a c t o r s f o r institutionalizing spirituality at work

for motivating and controlling the employeest

The above mentioned applications would result in several benefits to employees at large in enhancing her/his job satisfaction and job involvement, organizational commitment and in turn productivity. The organization, therefore, would also derive benefits, in terms of business performance and sustainability. These would lead to employee wellness and organizational success.

Fry, L.W.(2003) Towards a theory of Spiritual Leadership,

Fry,L.W.(2005) Towards a theory of ethical & spiritual well-being & corporate social responsibility through Spiritual L e a d e r s h i p i n R . A . G i a c o l o n e , C . D u n n , & C.L.Jurkiewicz's(Eds.). Positive Psychology in business ethics and corporate responsibility.

Pandey,Ashis, Gupta, Rajan K and Arora, A.P.(2009). Spiritual Climate of Business Organizations and It's Impact on Customer's Experience, Journal of Business Ethics(2009)88:313-332

Pandey,Ashish and Gupta, Rajan K(2008), A Perspective of Collective Consciousness of Business Organizations, Journal of Business Ethics(2008)80:889-898

Conclusion:

Reference:

Debaprasad Chattopadhyay is a professor & HOD-HR, Globsyn Business School, Kolkata. He can be reached atdebaprasad @globysn.com


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C o p i n g S t r a t e g i e s F o r R e d u c i n g Organisational Stress :

Conclusions :

The three major categories of coping strategies are

Diversion Activities such as engaging in any hobby, taking a nap, watching T.V. , listening to music, playing etc. These activities do not address the stress directly but divert our physical attention for a while.

Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, exercises, progressive relaxation, bio-feedback and creative visualization. These techniques address the physical stress symptoms regardless of their cause.

Behavioral Changes such as improving skills of communication, negotiation, expressing feeling, developing assertiveness etc.

The predominance of stress amongst the employees resulting in loss of output and increase in labour cost has already drawn the attention of the advance countries of the world. They are doing a lot of analysis on the stress related data so that the occupational stress may be reduced to its minimum through a balance scientific approach as stated in the above mentioned coping strategies.

Optimal HRD Strategies for Intervening Organisational Stress :

Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that Stress operates at all levels among the workforce of Indian Organizations, yet any concerted effort is given to identify the existence of the degree of stress of our workforce and thereby to take necessary steps to reinstate movitation by managing Organizational Stress. Though in recent days, there are some isolated efforts to improve work motivation by managing stress by organisation either by yoga, meditation camp or by providing welfare amenities, but there is no policy of government on Stress Management or any synchronized effort of the Indian industries as a whole as it is in the case of United State of

January 2012

America where there is a National Stress policy.

However, in view of its growing importance particularly in the open market economy concept, Human Resource Managers may come forward to handle the issue in a scientific way in their respective organizations through systematic training and development program so that motivation level of the de-motivated employee owing to occupational stress may be reinstated at par with the highly motivated group of employee of that particular organization itself. Moreover, these organization wise efforts may result in a stress management movement which in turn will act as a pin pointer to raise the issue before the Government so that they may consider the issue and ultimately formulate a National Policy on Stress which will raise the level of Gross Domestic Product of our country.

For the purpose of handling the issue at the respective organizational level, the Human Resource Managers may :-

a) identify the level of motivation of their employees.

b) identify the “Stressors” of the low motivated group.

c) divide the “Stressors” both in terms of psychological and physical factors.

d) apply interventions. (counseling service and physical activities)

e) re-assess the psychological and physical factors.

Interventions may be given by applications of two therapies viz.

a) physical activities and exercise science

b) counseling therapy

For the purpose of administering the therapeutic treatments, in order to train and develop the Low Motivated Group of employees for raising their level of motivations to the expected standard of High Motivated Group (who have been already identified) within the organization itself, help of trained physical instructor and clinical psychologist may be taken. This may not cost much but attitudinal change with proper relaxation techniques and psychological


19

Volume 1 Issue 4

Base of optimum performance = High Motivated Group

Work Plan DiagramPost Test Level

Optimum Performance Level Through Interventions

MotivationLevel - Low to High

Stress LevelHigh to Low

Reference :

1) Budhwas P.S. & Sparrow P.R. (1997), Evaluating Levels of Strategy Integration Levels of Human Resource Management. In India, International Journal of HRM.

2) Chakraborty, S.K., 1991, Management By values Towards Cultural Congruence, New Delhi, Indian Oxford University Press.

January 2012

3) Chatterjee & Pearson, C.A.L. (2000a), Indian Managers in Transition, Orientation Work, Goals, Values & Ethics, Management International Review, 40, 81-85.

4) Stpen Robbins (2001), Organizational Behaviour, th10 Ed., Pearson Eduction

5) David & Hartl (1978), Stress and the Agent of Change Forum, J.C. Penney Company.

6) Davis, Mckay and E'Shelman (1980), The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Work Book, New Harbinager Publication.

nd7) Hofstede. G (2001), Culture's Consequences (2 Edition), New Delhi, Sage Publication.

8) Pal. D., S. Bhattacharyya & S.K. Dasgupta (2006), 'Nature of Environmental Stress Responses of Calcuttans'. Journal of Psychometry, Vol. XX, No. 1, Jan. Page 9-14, By

9) Kerans Paul (2003) , H.R. Strategy Business focused invididually centrered, Butterworth Heinemann.

10)Reddy, B. Rathan (2005), 'Eggective Human Resources Training And Development Strategy,' Himalaya Publishing House, pp.22-29

counseling / will certainly yeild better results with low sress and high work motivation in Indian industries and the HRD managers can act as a catalyst in the process of strategic change management process.

Intervention

Physical

Psychological

Low WorkMotivation

High Stress

Figure 2

Work Plan DiagramPre Test Level

Rana Bandyopadhyay is manager (HR & A) of W.B. State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. He can be reached at [email protected]


20


Evening Knowledge Session of Kolkata Chapter alongwith Silver Jubilee Celebrations' Curtain Raiser dated 09th Dec, 2011.

Kolkata Chapter had the privilege to have Prof. Debaprasad Chattopadhyay, Professor & HOD-HR Globsyn Business School as the speaker for the evening knowledge session on 09th Dec, 2011 at Globsyn Business School, Kolkata. Prof. Chattopadhyay, a senior member of NHRDN, ISTD, ISABS & NIPM is currently pursuing his doctoral research on,"Impact of Spiritual aspect of leadership on spiritual climate of the teams and its plausible linkages with corporate governance". His work has infact, already been presented at IIM, Bangalore at an International Conference on Spirituality in Management in January '12.

The evening started by reading of the Code of Conduct by Mr. Rajib Kumar, CEO, Material World & Hony Jt. Secretary NHRDN, Kolkata Chapter. It was a special evening as the silver jubilee celebrations were flagged off by screening of a special video titled “Remembering Dr. Udai Pareek”. Mr. M B V Rau, the chapter Treasurer and Chief-HR, Exide Industries delivered a special presentation which tracked the growth the network of the years since its inception in 1985.

This was followed by the silver jubilee cake cutting, marking the beginning of the celebrations which shall culminate through the silver jubilee convention slated in May end at Kolkata. Prof. Sanjay Shankar Maitra, the seniormost member present on the occasion and Advisor to the chapter did the honors.

Prof. Chattopadhyay started off by presenting a perspective on the statement of problem on modern organizations witnessing a high rate of attrition, where people joining companies with lots of expectations and ambitions.

The purpose of his study he said is to analyze known academic articles as to how they characterize spiritual leadership, explore the connect between spiritual leadership and spiritual climate and discover essential factors and conditions for promoting a theory of spiritual leadership within the context of the workplace.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between four sub-variables (meaning/calling, membership, inner life/spiritual awareness and concern for larger social and natural environment) at the leadership level and three work-related variables (harmony with self at work, harmony in work env i ronment , transcendence) to assess the climate of the unit or work-group at the team level by applying the concept of Ashish Pandey, Rajen K Gupta, A P Arora's Spiritual Climate Inventory (2009) to manufacturing and service organizations across diverse industries and to examine the concept quantitatively from Pandey-Gupta-Arora Spirituality Scale so as to find promising management p r inc ip les fo r bus iness organizations.

The secondary purpose of the study is to provide organizations with new management principles regarding Spiritual Leadership and Spiritual Climate variables. With this knowledge, administrators in business organizations could implement and apply these principles in managing their employees. This might be used to prevent high attrition-rate and impaired quality of work life and in the process increase job satisfaction.

Prof. Chattopadhyay also enlightened us by sharing his valued thoughts on significance of his study and its conceptual framework. He also briefed the august gathering on definitions of key terms like Spiritual Leadership and Spiritual Climate.

Mr. Indranil Banerjee of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. presented a bouquet and Dr. Chandrima Banerjee of SREI Sahaj e Village Limited presented a memento and a token of appreciation to Prof. Chattopadhyay.

The 'Vote of Thanks' was delivered by Mr. Rajib Kumar followed by a sumptuous High Tea.


21


Evening Knowledge session of thKolkata Chapter dated 04 Nov

2011.

Kolkata chapter had the pleasure to have Mr. Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, Executive Director HR , Retail Sector , RP Sanjeev Goenka Group as

ththe speaker of eminence on 4 Nov 2011 at the auditorium of the International Management Institute , Kolkata Campus. Mr Ghosh, also an elected national board member of the NHRDN, presented his thoughts on “The emergence of HR & the HR challenges in organized retail ”

Mr. Ghosh started off by presenting a perspective on the Retail Industry in general and the advent of modern retailing in India. He went on to present data on the population, earning capacities and the spending nature as well as the changes in the consumption pattern of the population in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, Chaina) nations and thereafter showcased the Indian scenario as well touching upon the changing pattern of the Indian consumers, the present trends as well as the expected trends in the near future. He also shared data and facts on the Indian shopping attitude and retailing practices touching upon the current market scenario , the key drivers of growth as well as the opportunities and potential .

Mr. Ghosh enlightened us with the detailed scenario of retail industry and then went on to share his experience in his present organization, Spencer's Retail Ltd. He touched upon the growth story of Spencer's from 2001 onwards till 2011 emphasizing on what makes Spencer's different than others. He thereafter went on to present HR role, scope and challenges in organised retail especially w.r.t. Spencer's where the HR function continues to evolve alongwith the evolution of the industry. He stated that the key HR challenges in retail continue to be at environmental, cultural and individual levels where there is tremendous pressures on attracting and retaining talent, keeping the engagement and motivation levels of employees high and customer focused. Mr. Ghosh concluded his presentation stating how Spencer's is trying to resolve its challenges by aligning talent management across levels with the

overall business strategy of the organization as well as creating employee engagement and motivation intrinsically.


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Corporate Universities- The Future Of Learning In Indian Conglomerates

Suvrodip Banerjee & Deepanjan Deb

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage".

- Jack Welch

Learning is a continuous process and it holds true not only for individuals or societies but for organizations too. Imagine what would have happened if our forefathers had stopped learning from their experiences, the nature or from their mistakes. Similarly what would happen if organizations stop learning? They would be stagnant, start losing out to competitors, never change, lose their best employees and die a natural death. The reason why GE still exists while all its contemporaries became extinct like the dinosaurs, is the simple fact that GE never stopped learning.

Employee learning and development is considered one of the most important aspects of human resource management. The need of a well developed Learning & Development (L&D) system within the HRD framework of an organization is important to enhance skills of the employees continuously, keep them motivated and retain the best talents. The L&D departments are hence assuming critical importance in modern organizations. The complexities of L&D increase when diversification happens whether in terms of business or product units or geography or the organization reshapes itself into a conglomerate.

As for example when company X diversified from its traditional auto business to an IT, communication, financial services and media- its HRD systems diversified too and hence its L&D processes. Often the emerging sectors lose out in terms of L&D due to limited budget assigned to them and depend heavily on external training programs when the same kind of programs are being run by the bigger sectors of the

organization. The high potentials of a smaller sector of X may need a General Management Program to move up the hierarchy. The smaller sector due to lack of infrastructure either has to depend on an out-of-house program which more often than not turns out to be costly or has to keep the training need unattended leading to attrition, fai led succession planning and costly replacement of the high potential employee. The other alternative could be seeking help from the big brother to train its employees which requires increased co-ordination among the sectors, checking training duplication(same training program happening at two different times using same facilities for the two different sectors) to save cost and resources and creating a common learning culture across the conglomerate.

Further, organizations are increasingly becoming interested to include their vendors and suppliers in the learning process in order to keep them in sync with their own growth strategy,culture and policies.

The above stated factors and many more have led to the shift from traditional L&D structures to the formation of Corporate Universities across the world.The first Corporate University was set up by GE as Crotonville in 1958 while MacDonalds in 1961 set up its "Hamburger University". However it was under the guidance of Jack Welch that Crotonville reached new heights and today it is the site of pilgrimage for every GE manager.

A corporate university is a strategic initiative that helps organizations to instill and evolve a common philosophy of employee L&D integrated with business priorities and tied to achieve strategic objective. As per Allen (2000)" A corporate university is an educational entity that is a strategic tool designed to assist its parent organization in achieving its mission by conducting activities that cultivate individual and organizational learning, knowledge, and wisdom"

The key objectives of a Corporate University in a conglomerate are :

Executive development programs for high

�

�

What is a Corporate University (CU)?

January 2012


23

potentials across all sectors of the conglomerate

Research and internal consultancy for the organization

Knowledge Management and complete e-learning solutions

Including vendors and customers in the learning process

Orientation programs for new and lateral leaders across the group

Coaching Programs for Managers

A rise in 400% in the number of corporate universities in the last decade shows the growing importance of a corporate university in larger organizations. From Motorola University to Macdonald's "Hamburger University" to GE's Crotonville to Gyanodaya of Aditya Birla Group, all CUs have become temples of excellence providing complete learning solutions, research and internal consultancy for their respective organizations.

The main differences between a traditional Training & Development (T&D) department and corporate university are: CU is more pro-active in nature while traditional T&D is reactive A corporate university is not focused on improving the personal skills of individual employees through classes or seminars. Rather than teaching presentation skills, time management or other generic skills; a corporate university aims to improve a broader set of skills that will have a measurable impact on corporate goals, or business results or on customer satisfaction.

Traditional T&D departments meet needs of individual sectors while corporate universities is the central tool that caters to high potentials and leaders across all sectors.

Besides learning CUs act as change agents and serve a variety of strategic roles while traditional T&D departments cater only to learning.

CU aims more to the strategic skill development of the high potentials and senior leaders of the

Difference between a Corporate University and a Traditional T&D

conglomerate. According to Wheeler (2005) it incorporates elements like change management ,team management, negotiations and strategic thinking

CU includes vendors and customers too in the learning process.

With more and more Indian firms becoming conglomerates, diversifying their portfolio of businesses, expanding across the world, the need to integrate learning is becoming more and more important. Along with integration what is important is flexibility and nimbleness.

The main reasons why a traditional T&D in conglomerates should move towards becoming a Corporate University are:

Coordinating training & development activities centrally to ensure consistency and alignment

Creating a culture of equal learning and development opportunities for all employees.

To develop a shared vision in the corporation

Saving costs by avoiding duplication of learning and development activities and through economies of scale by offering costly courses to a audience across various sectors within a conglomerate

Building Leadership capabilit ies and competencies across all levels of organization

Prepare organization to anticipate and lead change

Facilitate to internalize organization's core values and cul ture-"reinforcing and perpetuating behavior"

Capitalize on knowledge, skills and Best Practices within group

Encourage progressive ideas

Foster innovation and creativity

Another interesting area where corporate universities are playing a vital role is the e-learning domain. Most CUs help centralize the e-learning facilities of the conglomerate. The CU of a large conglomerate in India for example offers over 4000 different e-learning courses, study materials and certifications from its CU located in Mumbai

Why Corporate Universities for Conglomerates?

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24

including courses from HBS and University 21. Mobile enabled learning is another area where CUs are providing infrastructural and content support

Once a conglomerate realizes the need to set up a corporate university, it starts analyzing the potential hurdles.The main hurdles could be:

a) Getting buy-in from various stakeholders: The most important area of concern is getting a buy-in from various sectoral HR teams in the conglomerate, the top management, the finance department as well as resistance from within the group HR who may lack the confidence to tackle such a big change.

b) Budget: The budget for such a change could be at least Rs24-30 Crores due to infrastructure requirements, cutting edge courses and best faculty. In organizations where any cost cutting initiatives target Training and Development every now and then, budget could be a hurdle.

c) Agency issues: When Corporate Universities are set up, naturally L&D managers from bigger sectors within a conglomerate apprehend that their own scope and influence may be curbed and they try to resist the whole change .

d) Confusion regarding target audience: GE's Crotonville targets the new recruits and the top 20% high performers among junior, middle and senior management. Macdonald University targets most of its employees while Coke University targets distributors too. So deciding the target customer becomes crucial.

In order to avoid some of the hurdles mentioned above could be:

a) Involve top management : The best way is to involve the CEO/Chairman of the group in the whole idea.It helps in better buy-in as it lends more credibility to the idea, keeps the flow of resources including budget smooth and gives confidence to the project.

Hurdles In Setting Up a Corporate University

Some Ways to Overcome Hurdles

b) Develop a technology strategy to determine how the reading materials will be delivered.

c) Develop partnership with best institutes, faculties and B-schools

d) Use expertise power to attract audience: Offering cutting edge programs that individual sectors cannot afford / offer (including larger sectors) will help getting better buy-in from all HR managers across sectors especially in federation structured conglomerates where decisions cannot be imposed on any sector from group.

e) Run as a Profit Centre rather than Cost Centre: The CU of an Indian conglomerate offers its courses to external parties including government administrators. The i n f ras t ruc tu re o f CU o f ano the r conglomerate is used by companies across India to provide training. IBM is another example of a CU modeled as a profit centre.

f) Try to keep a very flat structure for easy flow of communication : The Corporate University of conglomerate X has the following structure.

January 2012

Chairman

Chief Learning Office(Dean of CU)

Program c-ordinatore-learning

Program co-ordinatorclass room learning

Program co-ordinatorresearch, coaching,internal consultancyand vendor learning

g) Branding: Proper branding of the CU internally is extremely important for the success of the CU.


25

January 2012

h) Targeting the right population: CU programs should be targeted to the high potential employees in-order to position itself as an elite brand and also for the vendors and distributors.

i) Make action learning a part of all programs: Research from Motorola University shows how effective action learning can be in case of CU offerings and how they can be used to prove the top management about the efficiency of a Corporate University.

j) Develop balance scorecards to measure the performance of the CU.

It is unfortunate that many organizations fail to grasp what power they could unleash if they created and provided appropriate resources to a corporate university instead of a training and development function, albeit a great one. The two functions are no more similar than book-keeping is to financial management. Both are essential, but not for the same reason. As more and more Indian companies dream of becoming conglomerates, CUs are going to take the center stage of learning, retention and growth. A corporate university charged with leading and managing an organization's knowledge and learning initiatives needs to be at the very heart of the enterprise and decision making.

1. Allen, M. (2002). What Is a Corporate University, and Why Should an Organization Have One? The Corporate University Handbook.

2. Beaver, C. P. (n.d.) The Rise and Rise of the Corporate University: the emerging corporate learning agenda. The International Journal of Management Education.

3. Jones, J. Y. (2001). Business, Corporate Universities and e-learning. TechKnowlogia.

Conclusion

Reference:

Suvrodip Banerjee & Deepanjan Deb are students of XLRI, Jamshedpur. They can be reached at [email protected] ; [email protected]

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