Management and Indian Culture Essay

1. Evaluate the managerial style of Brian Moseley and explain how it fits with Indian culture. Be specific in identifying any mistakes Brian made in managing Indian workers. * Brian spoke with managers and employees, made mental notes of conversations (3 months) * Identified employees whom he felt should be replaced and whom had greatest potential for advancement * After 3 months, met with senior managers and proposed that they collectively formulate turnaround strategy * Suggested changes such as pay-for-performance programs, annual performance reviews, management by objectives, 360-performance appraisal program * Highly frustrated, he sometimes criticized members of managerial team in front of subordinates relationship with managers became increasingly strained * â€Å"Big Boss† manager who had little understanding of Indian culture * Rajan criticized Brian as being too direct and forceful â€Å"culturally imperialistic†, saying Brian was too immature, concerned that Brian was trying to change culture to fit American Management * His style of management was way too direct and forceful, didn’t fit with the Indian culture at all as they are more relaxed and laid back. * He made the mistake by trying to force it upon all the managers and if they didn’t give in, they should just quit, which they did. 2. Rank the following principals and justify the ranking in terms of responsibility for the lack of change at the Bindi Brake Company: Brian, Rajan, Aspen, the Indian Manager. * Brian – Although he was very excited to implement change, he didn’t implement the change according to the differences in cultures that India is accustomed to. He tried to hard to implement an American strategy rather than adapting to the culture surrounding him. * Indian Manager – I believe that hes the most responsible because people that work for the company look up to the manager, listens to the manager and will accept changes in the company if the manager asks them to do so. Because of their refusal to accept changes, they didn’t initiate or implement the strategies towards their employees, which made it that much more difficult to implement change. * Rajan – he was being stubborn and not listening to his directing officer. Even though he didn’t believe in the change process, he could’ve at least attempted to implement the change within the employees to see if it would make the company more efficient. His refusal to accept responsibility and take action caused the company’s plans to fail. * Aspen – sent an employee who they thought was experienced and competent to complete the job. 3. What could each of the above-named principals have done differently to avoid the situation? * Brian – adapted to the cultures instead of being stubborn and trying to implement a completely new culture into an organization that isn’t accustomed to it * Indian Manager – listen to his commanding officer and attempted to improve the company * Rajan – instead of being negative about all the ideas, comply to them and test them and see where it goes. Offer suggestions instead of just refusing to do anything * Aspen – monitor Brians progress and see how well he’s doing. Hire a more competent and easy-going person for the job 4. What should Brian do now? * He should learn to adapt to the Indian culture and develop new strategies to implement in order to improve the companies efficiency. *   * Brian selected to direct organizational change effort because of his past accomplishments, to improve overall efficiency and profitability of Bindi Brake Company * MBA in management from Michigan State * Bindi produced reasonably high-quality breaks, low labour costs, but just not efficient * Plant crippled with bureaucracy and there was no incentive for exceptional performance * Too many employees drinking tea and socializing instead of working * No performance reviews, pay for performance was never considered * Employees were never fired, even if they were not suited and performed poorly * Pay increases based on sonority, hired based on relation with current employees, high # of sick days * All of the managers were Indian and educated at Indian universities. * Rajan Patel – studied in London, postgrad for Econ, Brian felt he was one of the most promising candidates for advancement, hoped that he would take lead in change in management program * Brian became dissatisfied with progress by Indian Managers