Introduction

The country what weve chosen to do our research in employee motivation,

leadership style, current leadership reflected with the current dimensions and
preparing an assignment in our country for American managers is India.
India is the second most populated country in the world, leading after China. It has
around 1.2 billion citizens. What cultural dimensions have 1.2 billion people is the
next question. India has a high power distance with a score of 77 (this is illustrated in
figure 1). The country scores intermediated with long term orientation and
individualism which means that it also has its collective side. India has a Masculine
society that is associated with success and power rather than focussing on the
quality of life. Nothing has to go as planned is acceptnace for imperfections thats
why India has a low medium uncertainty. The last on Hofstede dimensions, India has
a low score on indulgence.
Furthermore India is Polychronic, has a high context, no personal space and is
particularism.
Halls key concept
Polychronic
High context
No Personal Space
Trompenaars Dimension
Particularism

Figure 1 Hofstedes dimension (Hofstede, n.d.)

What generally motivates employees in India?

Hierarchy of needs theory
Abraham Maslows motivation theory is one of the best-known. According to Maslow,
every person has five needs:
1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Social
4. Esteem
5. Self-actualisation
If the physological as hunger or thirst is satisfied, you move up to number 2: safety
and so on. For example if they are on lower order needs. A manager can provide
safety work conditions for an employee. At a social stage, a manager can encourage
teamwork for the social needs.
You need to determine the hierarchy level of an Indian employee in order to satisfy
the needs that leads to motivation. This differs individually at the last stage of selfactualisation and relates to the score of 48 of Individualism.

Expectancy theory
Victor Vrooms expectancy theory is one of the most accepted theory explanations of
motivation. It is the act followed by the outcome of a good performance appraisal.
Robbins, S,, & Campbell, T (2010)

When Indian employees do their best in a way of giving additional benefits to a

company, a reward will be waiting for them. Indian employees focus on success and
achievement. Organizational rewards such as bonuses, salary increases or
promotions leads to job satisfaction.
This suits with the masculine society of India. Visible symptoms of success in the
workplace are very important to them. Thats why they value competetiveness and
ambition as culture values.

Talk about leadership in your country: Which leadership style would you use?
Use two leadership theories from Robbins (chapter 12) with which you can
illustrate how leadership works in your country. Use the outcomes of the
Project GLOBE research to point out the culture specific leadership aspects
from a global perspective.
Leadership style
The employee-orientated style would work out best if you have a leading function in
India. If you are employee-orientated you focus on the personal relations between
you and your employees, you show interest in their needs and feelings. All of this has
the purpose to get better work performances. Employee-orientated leaders are more
likeable to achieve job satisfaction and higher group productivity compared to
production orientated leaders.
Of course there should be a balance between the two styles, the situation also has it
influence on which style would be more effective. But in general to gain success in
India as leader the employee-orientated style gets the upper hand.
Leadership theories linked with India
Being considerate as leader is very common the Indian business world, consideration
is described as the extent to which a person is likely to have a relationship with their
employees. This is characterized by mutual trust and the regards for the employees
feelings. Consideration overlaps very well with the employee-orientated style. The
only problem with this is that the relationship with the employee influence the

judgement about the results more than the qualities of the employee. This happens
very often in India.
Another theory which illustrates the working of leadership in India is the cognitive
resource theory; A theory of leadership that handles the negative effects off stress on
a certain situation and that intelligence, education and experience can decrease the
influence of stress on the leader. In India those things are considered as very
important to succeed as a leader. A should rely on their experience and education
when they have to deal with a stressful situation. You can see these values as
instruments they use to determine if you are capable enough.
GLOBE research of leadership in India
Age is one of the important aspects in India according to the globe research of
leadership. In India people value a high age leaders because they link age with
experience and wisdom. If you take a look at leader functions in the politics and the
business world you can see that most of them are very old. Besides age Education
plays a key role in in the view of most Indian according to the Globe project. It is very
simple, they value this aspect because educated people are more likely to make
decisions and achieve goals. Origin of place is also important in this culture because
the environment and wealth you grew up with influence your behavior and habits.
Choose and present a leader from your country of choice and show how the
cultural dimensions are reflected in his/her behavior.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, was one of the
greatest and one of the most influential leaders of India, who is best known for using
non-violent resistance against injustice. Gandhi served as an inspiration not only to
the millions of his supporters, but also to the leaders of the worlds because of his
outstanding leadership skills that he acquired through hard work. In order to
understand better why Gandhi was called the father of the Indian Independence
and how he succeded to abolish discrimination against Indians in South Africa, I will
make an analisys of his leadership traits and qualities according to Geert Hofstedes
Cultural Dimensions, Halls Model of Cultural Differences and Trompenaars
Dimensions and Cultural Reconciliation.
Geert Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions:
Power
Gandhi is known for interacting very closely with his supporters
distance
and bonding with them. Despite being called the father, he kept a
low power distance which benefited him when facing the masses.
(low power
For example, when liberating India from the British rule Gandhi
distance)
was always between people, helping and motivating them. He was
a servant leader whos main purpose was dedicating his life to the
people. In addition to that, Gandhi never took advantage of having
millions of followers, he remained humble and considered himself
a superior.
Collectivism Gandhi considered all Indians his family and he felt the need to
protect and cherish them. For example, after graduating from law
school in Britain he thought of going back to India to practice law,
but he changed his mind when he was treated badly on a train in
Africa. He remained there for the next 20 years fighting for Indians
rights and against discrimination and injustice. Later on, he
achieved to bring together all Indians in order to give their country

Femininity

Uncertainty
Avoidance
(low)

Long-Term
Orientation

High Context

Polychronic
Culture

Personal
Space
(not valued)

independence without using violence.

Mahatma Gandhi never pursued owning material wealth. It was
the opposite, he limited himself to less clothes, a very small and
modest house. Gandhi never has a car, he preferred walking and
encouraged his followers to do so. In addition to that, he was a
strict vegetarian who practices abstinence from alcohol and from
any kind of carnal pleasures.
Throughout his life time Gandhi has face a lot of obstacles. For
example, when being in Africa and fighting for Indians rights, he
has been assaulted many time and even had gone to prison.
Gandhi never worried about what could have gone wrong or what
could have happened to him. He was very focused on his goals
and very good task knowledge and therefore none of the obstacles
could have stopped him from achieving his objectives.
Mahatma Gandhi had a plan of how to give India the
independence. He put into practice all the skills and knowledge he
acquired in South Africa and in the law school and next he began
to plan and achieve every task that would slowly but steady help
him to achieve the biggest goal of his life.
Halls Model of Cultural Differences
Gandhi wasnt a very good orator, but he had outstanding
qualities and charisma that would empower and motivate
Indians in continuing to fight for their country. What made
people listen to him was Gandhis personality, he easily
ecourage masses to follow the non-violent method of protest
and to boycott the British goods and the English language only
by saying a few sentences.
Gandhis greatest achievement was giving India the
independence. Even though he was busy with work in South
Africa, he started to plan a step by step task years before he
actually called all the Indians to follow him and to free India from
British power. This quality shows on one side he was helping
Indians in South Africa, on the other side he was sketching his
plan of action for liberating India.
Gandhi did not value his personal space. He had to deal with
masses and he was not afraid to interact with millions of his
followers. Gandhi is known for spending a lot of time of his
supporters and bonding with them.

Trompenaars Dimensions and Cultural Reconciliation

Particularism Even though Gandhi studied law, he considered that
dedicating his life to people and building relationships with
them was the main purpose of his life even if that mean
trespassing a law. When he brought all Indians together to
liberate their country, though his short but meaningful
speeches, Gandhi encouraged Indians to stay together and
built relationships with each other because the power lies in
the masses, not in the violence.

Conclusion
Directed at the American managers preparing for an assignment in India we want to
give some advice. First we would like to highlight the cultural dimension; Power
Distance. India has a high score when it comes to this dimension. For an American
this can bring up problems whenever doing business because the US has a lower
power distance than India. A mid-low power distance similar to what the US has can
mean that people see themselves as equal. Which is not the case in India, whenever
a American will be working in a hierarchical structure in India, he or she must always
respect whatever the authoritative person at the time has to say or does, more than
he or she is already used to.
India is a society that is lead by men, a male-dominated society. An American
businesswoman may also stumble upon some problems, which in this case can be
gender inequality. That is why would like to advice the American businesswoman as
follow: be prepared, not only for doing business, but also of the approach of the local
culture toward women. Furthermore always try to anticipate gender equality issues
because there is a major chance that they will surface. (Global Road Warrior, 2010)
For Indians it is very common to be or to have a considerate boss or leader
(employee-oriented). The problem that can occur is that the relationship with the
employee will start to influence judgement on the employees results. Therefor for
Americans that will start to lead an organization in India, be aware of having a good
relationship with your employee while the results suffer under this relationship.
If for instance an American entrepreneur will start up a start-up in India, and wishes
for people with high expertise, he or she must not be surprised when high aged
people will apply for the job. They might have the expertise needed to do the job,
because in India experience and wisdom is linked to high age. Thus an American
must not be surprised when older people apply and are intelligent enough to obtain
the high-skilled position as well.
The last piece of advice brings us to another cultural dimension namely
Individualism. India has both individualistic and collectivistic traits in comparison to
the United States, which are highly individualistic. For Americans doing business in
India this last piece of advice will definitely come in handy. Loyalty between employer
and employee is what gives India their collectivistic traits. An American in India
should therefor always see their boss as a relative. If the relationship maintained and
made progress the American under the reign of an Indian boss could then be
promoted or rewarded.

Bibliography
http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/india.html
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/India#/media/File:India_(orthographic_projection).svg
Hofstede, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Hofstede Centre: http://geert-hofstede.com/
Robbins, S,, & Campbell, T (2010), Organizational bahviour
https://books.google.nl/books?
id=6SnrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA380&dq=GLOBE+leadership+asian&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0
CDAQ6AEwAWoVChMItpLQ4_u9yAIVA7YUCh2XEAc1#v=onepage&q=GLOBE
%20leadership%20asian&f=false
https://books.google.nl/books?
id=L1i51KFUyzIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=india+leadership&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CD
4Q6AEwAmoVChMI2aGkvYi-yAIViboUCh2fxQNe#v=onepage&q=india
%20leadership&f=false
https://books.google.nl/books?
id=FU_GQgAACAAJ&dq=organizational+behavior+robbins&hl=nl&sa=X&sqi=2&ved
=0CDgQ6AEwA2oVChMIzOCF35W-yAIVxWsUCh1vPAEi author: Stephen p.
Robbins, Timothy A. Judge and Timothy T. Campbell
http://www.leadership-with-you.com/gandhi-leadership.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gandhi_mohandas.shtml
Chhokar, J. (2007). India: Diversion and compexity in action. In Culture and
leadership across the world the GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
https://books.google.nl/books?
id=v0txL5LnLcYC&pg=PA1006&lpg=PA1006&dq=Globe+research+India&source=bl&
ots=Q5oyXFWvEO&sig=m2ZT5XWKnMNvIGjHgah1GXGt0k&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBmoVChMI5YqSzpuyAIVjD0UCh0nlA_L#v=snippet&q=india%20leadership&f=false
Women and Business - India Culture Guide. (2011). Retrieved October 13, 2015.
https://sites.google.com/a/global.t-bird.edu/india-culture-guide/doing-business-inindia/women-and-business