Problems and Challenges in Transferring and Adapting Knowhow Management to India

Indian organizations are in the process of transition. This process of transition is both at the organizational as well as societal level. As long as the Indian units of work were small and entrepreneurial in nature the traditionally designed social structures were sufficient in work units. As the organizations have grown with the national developmental thrust and opportunities in the environment social structure have been insufficient to manage the emerging work realities. New inputs have been required and India has extensively relied on western technology, management structures and management know-how. This paper explores the impact of western management knowhow in Indian organizations. The western management knowhow has been brought to India through the educated elites, borrowed technology, and management training programmes. The training inputs have been introduced at the corporate, middle and junior level of management. The history of growth of Indian organizations has been from small, medium, large and mammoth. It has been through phases of growth from finance and trade, production, marketing, systems and personnel. The knowhow from the west has been borrowed at both the structural as well as behavioural level. This has led to manifest changes. But enduring impact has not emerged. It is proposed that inputs from oen cultural context cannot be transplanted to another cultural context. Assumptions of work ethos and structures and processes of relationship need to be understood. What also needs to be explored are also the ideological postulates of learning and training, social structures of a given culture, modes of relationship and unique characteristics of each organization to design management inputs. As such, learning models as distinct from training models need to be designed. Similarly, the nature of transition occurring in the society, country, and organizations need to be understood to design relevant managerial knowhow and role taking in organizations.