The Brave New World of Young Indian Decision Elites

Among the young elite decision-makers in modern India, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) probationers and management graduates from institutions such as Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) rank high. They come from similar family and educational backgrounds. Yet, within the space of the first five years on the job, they display markedly different attitudes towards work. The paper makes an attempt to posit an exploratory hypothesis to account for this difference. The critical phase in the attitude formation is the time between the decision to apply for IAS examination or admission to IIM and actual entry into the job, a period of two and a half to three years. The bulk of this is spent in the professional training institution. The variables that influence work attitude include a cognitive map of career and life progression of each individual, inputs provided by peers and seniors and feedback from the trainers. Together, these influence attitudes towards the role of the environment and of the individual himself. While the administrator sees his role as the controller of resources and dispenser of justice and rewards, the manager sees himself as the creator and generator of resources. The administrator takes the micro-environment of the organization, namely, the bureaucracy, as given. He seeks to modify the macro social and economic environment. The manger, on the other hand, takes the macro environment as given and tries to modify the micro environment. This makes the best among the administrators visionaries and dreamers, while the best among the managers become doers in the short run. Neither, however, is in complete contact of the total Indian reality. Consequently, they become doomed, perhaps martyred; fighters of lost causes.