When I try to explain the difference between the work place environments in India vs. the US, I find myself reaching back. Back to the time when my grandfather had a job at Chrysler and worked there for 30 years. Every day he went in and every few years he was given a new job, one with more responsibility. The equation was simple:
If Brains, Time=Promotion
My American friends call this structure MICROMANAGEMENT.
Amazing. Two generations later our culture has shifted so dramatically that we now view this intensely guided career process as cumbersome, confining, and suffocating. ANGST pops to mind. We want to make our own way at our own pace. We want to be the President of the company when we decide its the right time, not when John Smith in HR thinks we have sat at desk A for 2.2 years and therefore is worthy of a promotion.
Stepping back from the details--these new organizations that are breading grounds for creativity is called flat. They are composed of equal status bearing members who have power. That’s right power. We tell our bosses what we think. We are heard. We contribute at all levels of the org chart. Hierarchy is blurred.
Kurian explains (Are we tuned to the global work culture?) how these new American business ways appear to an Indian employee. Notice the items here that we so easily take for granted:
"all the data is available to you and it is assumed that you are going to use it"
"There are no barriers between your seniors and you".
"You are expected to have a view about everything, and back it up with facts...sitting quietly would be interpreted as non-performance"
The new US equation:
Brains+Personality+Communication+Whatever else is required=Promotion
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