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Many of us who have (or are) working with established large organisations have often been frustrated at how many great ideas were killed before they even got a fair chance. Rejected by a boss who wanted to see more and more details about how it would work OR killed by the naysayers in finance OR rejected by the boss as ‘too risky’ and so on. Then we have seen how a start-up or small business launched something that was new OR introduced a new way in its distribution and became successful – sometimes the very same idea rejected somewhere in the bowels of the large organisation.

The cutting edge that organisations need in today’s world requires innovation in not just products and services but in every aspect of the business model and the value chain – from supply chain, marketing, employee engagement, compensation…. businesses have to constantly invent, innovate, adapt or adopt.

The theory and need is well understood and ‘innovation’ often features as a key ‘value’ in an organisations stated values. Yet when it comes to implementation, there always seems to be problems – particularly with large currently successful organisations and/or those that have been around for some time.

‘My boss does not motivate me’ – voice of disgruntled employee.

‘People should be self motivated’ – voice of irritated supervisor.

“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.” – Stephen R. Covey

“You can motivate by fear. And you can motivate by reward. But both of these methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.” – Homer Rice

“Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.”- Lee Iacoca

I could go on in the same vein and the question would still beg an answer – do people need to be motivated from outside OR is motivation a purely internal drive? Is it the task of leadership to motivate their troops or provide an environment and direction that people will find motivating from their personal viewpoint?

What are your views? Put in your vote and let us hear the reasons why in the comments.

As always, thank you for being here.

Recently I had very similar conversations with the HR Heads of two very large corporations. One is a global giant and the other a very large Indian media house. Both were agitated because they were overseeing large downsizing plans. By downsizing we are refering to the job of letting people go and not of shutting down production facilities.

It is never easy to ask people to go, usually for no fault of theirs. And in these kind of exercises the knife usually falls on those who will find it most difficult to find alternative employment. However, corporations believe that they have to put the proverbial stone on their heart else its future, and hence many more jobs, will be in jeopardy.

When a company, which is till profitable (in one case it is down by half to only a few billion dollars now and in the other by a similar percentage and so to a few hundred crores) decides to downsize, is it justified? Does it make good business sense? What do you think?

Please join this poll and express your point of view. This is a very live and real dilema that many of us are facing, from one side of the fence or the other.

Chances are at some point of time in your career you have been at one end of it.

New job negotiated, accepted, joining date fixed, team members met. Out of the blue comes this other opportunity. It is more enticing, either much more money, bigger responsibility, better employer brand, chance to work with dream team, better career path…whatever.

As an employer you might have been left fuming at the employee for the last minute ditch. As an employee, it was gut wrenching but you did not want to take the wrong decision.

Please vote your choice and leave us your reasons in the comments box.

What happens if and when your boss becomes your best friend? CAN your boss actually become a close buddy? And by close, we mean someone you can just be ‘yourself’ with. No guise, no pretence, just trust.

Or on the flip side, if you’re the boss, would you/can you really trust your subordinate? On a personal level, as a close friend? And what do we mean by ‘personal’ and ‘professional’levels? Are the two, insular points that cannot meet? Certainly not in the workplace, as one old timer told me sometime ago. But the work culture today is vastly different, argue the hip/highly successful/sensible professional junta. With more and more time being spent within the corporate walls, the new age work culture, it seems, allows for an infinitely more egalitarian space that encourages an open and free camaraderie with juniors, peers and seniors alike. So, wouldn’t this environment be the most fertile ground for great bonding, irrespective of hierarchy, erstwhile professional ethics / code of conduct et al? Or does this kind of bonhomie at work place add up to groupism, favouritism among other isms? How difficult is it to maintain a professional and personal balance? Some say from experience that it can be quite an edgy line drawn between the two collaterals. So when and how does one draw that line?

While quite a few declare it’s not possible, there are others who’ve struck beautiful bonds of friendship that they continue to cherish with their bosses/subordinates.

What kind of experiences/ thoughts/feelings do you have? Firsthand, secondhand, thirdhand…

Does the workplace culture allow for your boss/subordinate to be your best buddy? Is the workplace culture today conducive to your boss/subordinate becoming your best buddy?

Lets hear em’ for all of us here on yet another unspoken and often misunderstood issue. We’d wish for comments below from both sides, especially from those who have experiences from a time when the work environment encouraged people to stick to a single job for long enough to have a real meaningful relationship with a boss.

In this the 2nd poll in BullzI Rebuttal we take up yet another ‘politically incorrect’ topic.

We have heard this often enough – from both men and women. We have heard it being refuted strongly and supported equally vehemently. Arguments have ranged from ‘Look at Indra Nooyi, Kiran Shaw, the ICICI women….” to “Exactly! Look at them and see what has happened…”

The question still remains:

In the corporate world…..

Let us also hear your views on the subject. Share experiences, statistics. We KNOW you have an opinion about this.

Thank you all for the wonderful responses and participation.

As the poll clearly suggests, prejudice, in some form or the other exists in corporate India. Some of you have also asked for answers on how does it get tackled. There are no simple easy answers but here are some of the things that are being practised.

Equal Opportunity Employer
“Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. Equal opportunity practices include measures taken by organizations to ensure fairness in the employment process.” – Wikipedia

“: an employer who agrees not to discriminate against any employee or job applicant because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, physical or mental disability, or age” Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary

When a corporation declares itself as such it commits to having representation of all segements in its employee base. It also commits to having representation, of women, coloured, Hispanic etc at senior levels as well. At a functional, operational level it boils down to ‘minimum quotas’. I know of a certain corporation which hired a woman in a very senior position in marketing because they were short on women in senior positions.

Importantly, in such an organisation, there is a clear message that gets communicated that biases and prejudices on the basis of sex, colour, ethnicity etc will not be allowed to come in the way of work or careers.

The flip side is that it leads to very ‘politically correct’ environments where you choose all your words carefully, least you offend someone or land in some trouble. I guess it will even out as we go along.

The Sexual Harassment Act
I am using the term ‘Act’ here loosely to denote the whole set of procedures and bodies that have come up specifically to address this issue. For a complete guideline on this issue please read http://www.indiatogether.org/combatlaw/vol2/issue3/harass.htm

The awareness of the fact that the distressed party (largely women) can seek redressal, will in itself go a long way in dealing with this issue. It needs to be part of stated policy and procedures in a company. HR departments need to be extra vigilant in spotting the first signs (and there will be many signs from a harassed person) and nip it in the bud, publically if neccessary. Point to note here, the harassed person needs to know that if redressal is not forthcoming from within the organisation, she/he can seek it from outside as well. There are NGOs that will provide help.

Culture of Meritocracy and Competence
As some of you have mentioned, your organisations have transcended these biases and are run on the basis of merit and competence. It also seems to be truer of younger organisations. When the culture, systems and processes are transparently designed to operate on the basis of merit and competence alone, prejudices and biases remain minor irritants that do not really affect people. The ‘elite’ in the organisation will be those who are best equipped for their roles and not the caste brother, fellow Bengali (or whoever) or the ‘man’ just because he is a man.

The opposite of course is equally true and here the role of the Leader cannot be stressed enough. If he plays favourites on lines of race, caste, sex etc., the organisation will follow suit with double the enthusiasm. HR has a huge role to play here to spot these tendencies and eradicate as quickly as possible.

Managed Diversity
One of the traits in common amongst successful teams is their ability to manage diversity. It is the existence of different skills, personalities that makes for a balanced team. And all organisations are a sum of many different teams. Organisations can institutionalise the celebration of diversity. Depending on size, geographical location etc. organisations can celebrate different festivals, have special food days in canteens, run internal campaigns around ‘mother’s day’, ‘woman’s day’…..just different ways of saying all of this is equally important.

A Looming Challenge
Whereas we are learning, as a nation, to live with and respect many of these differences, the coming years are going to throw up a challenge much bigger with the potential to change the corporate landscape completely. As India Inc battles with trying to find talent to run their growth engines, we are already beginning to see increasing numbers of people from small towns, non-English medium backgrounds entering the corporate world.

Their numbers will invariably increase and the meritorious amongst them will knock on the doors of the corner cabins with increasing frequency. How is the old gaurd going to fight their feeling of superiority born from their command of English and their large town upbringing? How will it assimilate the new workforce in its leadership and still be outward looking? Hmmm….food for further thought.

Does the corporate workplace in India reflect the prejudices of race, religion, caste etc. that exist in our society at large?

Should we be making time off mandatory in our workplaces? Does the Indian corporate scape present a level playing field for women executives? Do we carry our prejudices of race, religion, culture into our work places? Should you tolerate office affairs?……..There are many such issues that affect our daily work life and many newer ones that are increasingly going to come up as the new workplace gets defined in very different ways.

BullzI Rebuttal wants to hear your opinion on these issues. We will be hosting an ongoing debate on a subject at a time to hear what you think about it. The readers of this blog are an eclectic gathering of business leaders, HR leaders, young aspirants, job seekers, academicians and assorted friends. The opinions will be interesting to share for all of us.

So, to kick off this series, here is the first one. India is not one country but a sub continent – a cliche we come across all the time. Our workplaces are often a mirror of this subcontinental nature – Tamilians, Bengalis, Marathis, Punjabis…..We have often heard of groupism by ethnicity and some I know claim to have suffered because of this. Yet others believe this is all bunkum and our workplaces are by and large free of these prejudices. We would like to hear your opinion on this issue.

Answer with a YES, NO, SOMETIMES and say your piece by clicking on ‘comment’.

Here is hoping to hear from lots of you.