WRITTEN ANALYSIS AND

CAN A STRONG
CULTURE BE TOO
STRONG
Submitted By:
Group 9, Section A
Submitted to-Prof Swatantra
Abhishek Kumar Singh 2014PGP008
Abishek Shenoy - 2014PGP013
Anurag Satapathy 2014PGP050
Arun N 2014PGP061
K Uma Prashanthi 2014PGP150
Remika Roy Chowdhury-2014PGP299
Viswakalayan Dalai-2014PGP426

COMMUNICATION

ASSIGNMENT

To,
Prof. Swatantra
Communication Area
Indian Institute of Management, Indore
Madhya Pradesh, India
Date: January 23, 2015
Subject: Written Analysis and Communication - Assignment 1
Dear Maam,
Presented below is our analysis of the case: CAN A STRONG
CULTURE BE TOO STRONG? along with recommendations and an
action plan.
We have discussed the problems faced at Parivar, suggested various
options and offered a suitable recommendation for the organization.
We hope the report is as per requirement.
Please let us know if any clarifications are required.
Sincerely,
Group-9,
Section A,
PGP 2014-2016
Indian Institute of Management, Indore
E-mail: p14arunn@iimidr.ac.in

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our report describes the predicament of IT services firm Parivar who is facing
high attrition rates in the recent weeks in spite of having a very inclusive
work culture where attention to both personal and professional lives of the
employees are given. The Future Vision group of Parivar has come up with a
new innovative idea called People Support where managers will work only to
listen to other employees grievances and offer them solutions as an integral
part of the love culture as propagated by Sudhir Gupta, the CEO of Parivar.
Employees have been complaining that lower pay, too intrusive work culture
and partial access to senior management of only a few inner circle of people
as the reason of their attrition. Indira Pandit, Vice President of HR now
wonders what to tell about the People Support program to Sudhir and how to
reduce the massive attrition rate of the firm. Parivar could either implement
People Support now, shelve it for the time being and improve Parivars
current management practices or increase the pay of the employees to
match it to industry standards. These various options are evaluated on a
number of criteria like cost, scalability, feasibility, reputation of Parivar and
various others. After being evaluated, the most attractive option for Parivar
which we recommend is to shelve People Support for the time being and
improve its current management practices, reduce the communication gap
between top management and employees and to find out about the
expectations of the employees and talent market.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content
No.

Page

Situational Analysis
1
Problem Statement
1
Options
1
Criteria for Evaluation
2
Evaluation of Options
2
Recommendation
3
Action Plan and Implementation
3

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Can a strong culture be too strong? is a case study about a mid-size
Chennai based IT services firm called Parivar which is facing a huge attrition
problem. Parivar has been growing in terms of revenues, profitability and
reputation but is still smaller than leading global providers of businessprocess outsourcing services like Infosys and HCL. This huge turn in its story
from bankruptcy to success has been brought by Parivars CEO Sudhir
Gupta, in the past decade. Sudhir is a big proponent of an inclusive culture in
the organization, where attention to both professional and personal details of
the employees is given. Sudhir is also a people oriented person as he is seen
encouraging Nisha, who is fresh out of business school and wanting honest
opinion of Indira. Who is the vice president of HR. Parivar conducts an annual
innovation process called the Future Vision where employees from all over
the company join senior leaders in brainstorming and designing sessions for
planning strategies about how the firm can achieve its annual goals. This
year, the Future Vision exercise has led to the creation of People Support
idea where managers will be dedicated solely for the purpose of listening to
other employees grievances and figuring out solutions. However the People
Support program has not been fully planned as certain important details like
its cost, scalability, management and applicability outside India in case of
Parivars expansion in US and UK, has not been decided till now. In spite of
being so much people oriented, in the recent weeks Parivar has been losing a
lot of its employees, with as many as 100 employees giving notice in a short
span of time. The problems faced by the employees, as explained by Amal in
an exit interview, are the remuneration being as lower by 30% than industry
standards, too much intrusion in the employees lives due to the inclusive
culture and partial access to senior employees by only a select few. Judging
all the pros and cons of the People Support program, Indira now faces the
dilemma of telling Sudhir about whether to continue with the People Support
program or not.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Given the long list of escapees of Parivar, what measures can be taken by
it to reduce its attrition rate along with maintaining its culture, reputation
and profitability?

OPTIONS
1

Plan and implement the People Support Idea

Do not implement People Support Idea and stabilize current
management practices.
Provide better employee benefits

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

Cost
Scalability
Alignment with companys strategy
Feasibility-Ease of implementation
Reputation-Brand value
Productivity of labor
Relationship with the employee

EVALUATION OF OPTIONS

PLAN AND IMPLEMENT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT IDEA- Parivar can go

ahead with the people support idea if they come up with a proper plan for
the structure of the People Support program and its implementation.
Training and paying the people support listeners will cost money but
People Support might pay for itself from reduced turnover and recruiting
expenses. The program might also help correct the disconnect between
the employees and the leadership and is a chance to show that the
company treats everyone fairly and does not play favorites. This will
reinforce parivars love culture and improve the relationship with the
employees. A major drawback though will be the fact that it might take
quite a lot of time of the employees, decrease productivity and hence
affect revenues and the growth prospects of the company.

DO NOT IMPLEMENT PEOPLE SUPPORT IDEA AND STABILIZE

CURRENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES Instead of starting a new
program by spending considerable resources on it, Parivar should try to
figure out what the employees think about Parivars culture and what
their expectations are. They should implement better management
practices such that the immediate managers are sensitive to the needs
and concerns of the employees and have an open door policy for all
employees. This will have negligible cost on the organization and at the
same time help in improving the relationship with the employees.
2

Communicating the companys needs and meeting the employees

expectations such that there is a mutual benefit will ensure that the
workforce is functioning in line with the companys strategy. Productivity
also wont be impacted.

PROVIDE BETTER EMPLOYEE BENEFITS-In light of the fact that Parivar

is present in an extremely competitive industry where best companies
are continuously poaching for talent, it is important that Parivar provides
employee benefits more in line with industry standards. This might
include better salary, employee stock options, company cars, insurance,
health club facilities, daycare facilities etc. Although this will add
significant cost to the organization, it will be compensated by the
increase in productivity and decreased attrition as the employees will
truly feel that Parivar really cares for them and realizes their importance.
This will also result in establishment of a strong brand image for the
company through word of mouth which will attract best talent and help in
the growth of the organization.

RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that Parivar put on hold its implementation of the People
Support program and instead focus on streamlining its management
practices in order to let it permeate through the entire organization.
Amals exit interview provided firsthand evidence that Parivars culture,
where the top management was accessible to all its employees, was in
reality not felt by all of them. Sudhir uses a nurturing, close and friendly
management approach with his subordinates. But this is only experienced
by those employees within the privileged circle, which antagonizes those
who are left out.
This leads us to conclude that the culture of caring works in isolated
pockets and does not yet form the essence of the organizational culture
as a whole. Therefore, streamlining the way it is practiced by top
management would be a good way to ensure it touches every employee
of the organization.

ACTION PLAN AND IMPLEMENTATION

3

Based on the given recommendation, the action plan will be implemented

in the following phases:

PUT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT PROGRAM ON HOLD There is not too

much convincing evidence for the requirement of the People Support
program at this moment. Furthermore, the considerations of its
economic feasibility and scalability have to be dealt with in more detail.
STRENGTHEN CURRENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES - The current
management practices and culture have to be strengthened in order for
it to form the essence of the organizations culture. The case facts
corroborate that the caring culture is liked, but certain groups of people
are left out of the loop because there is just not enough top
management resources to invest in every individual. Sudhir must meet
with the top management and get them more involved in his love
culture approach. With more people in the fold, every employee can be
afforded some time with top management for personal interaction.
REMOVE COMMUNICATION GAPS the two parties at stake, the
employees and top management must iron out any miscommunications
in order to ensure a match between what is provided and what is
expected. If there is any mismatch, talking it out can bring both parties
to a healthy common ground.
FIND OUT THE EXPECTATIONS OF EMPLOYEES AND TALENT
MARKET Data must be collected through sources such as exit
interviews, surveys, employee interviews, competitor analysis, industry
analysis, etc. to gauge the expectations of both current employees and
talent in the market from the organization. Their reasons for wanting to
join a company evolve with time. Keeping a tab on these changing
requirements may throw up insights that could possibly disprove the
culture angle as the cause of attrition that plagues Parivar currently.