Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India...Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles...

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Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India Saibal K. Pal* Vijay Kapur** A number of corporate organizations in India have been successful mainly due to their unique leadership style. Based on the study of existing leadership trends and primary data analysis, this paper explores specific leadership qualities and styles that would be useful for steering organizations rapidly towards growth and enabling motivation and satisfaction to their employees. Though directive leadership has been commonly practiced in the past, there is a shift to other styles due to the rapidly changing corporate environment. It was found that competence based leadership, participative leadership, innovative leadership, empowering leadership and high-tech leadership styles are emerging and promise to accelerate corporate India in the path of growth and prosperity. Keywords: Leadership qualities, styles, participation, innovation, technology, India *Defence R&D Organization, Scientific Analysis Group, Metcalfe House Complex, Civil Lines, Delhi–110 054, India **Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110 068, India Abstract Introduction The study of leaders and leadership theories (Northouse, 2007; Bass & Bass, 2008) has been carried out in the social, political and corporate contexts since the last many decades. A leader, in general, has been defined as a person capable of influencing, inspiring and associating others with a dream. The other definition agreed by experts is that a leader is someone who has followers. One would require influence to gain followers but not by lack of integrity or trust. Focus of the leader should be towards results and not on gaining popularity. The leader should be highly visible, courageous, visionary, innovative, creative, willing to take risks, recognize and nurture talents of individuals and maintain high ethical standards. There are many general definitions of leadership: (a) The ability to get the work done from the followers without force. (b) Organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal and getting the work done effectively. (c) Influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. (d) The process of influencing the behavior of other people toward group goals in a way that fully respects their freedom. (e) A function of knowing oneself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize ones own leadership potential. (f) Process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. (g) Enabling a group to engage together in the process of developing, sharing and moving into vision and then living it out.

Transcript of Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India...Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles...

Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India 75

Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India

Saibal K. Pal*Vijay Kapur**

A number of corporate organizations in India have been successful mainly due to theirunique leadership style. Based on the study of existing leadership trends and primary dataanalysis, this paper explores specific leadership qualities and styles that would be useful forsteering organizations rapidly towards growth and enabling motivation and satisfaction totheir employees. Though directive leadership has been commonly practiced in the past,there is a shift to other styles due to the rapidly changing corporate environment. It wasfound that competence based leadership, participative leadership, innovative leadership,empowering leadership and high-tech leadership styles are emerging and promise to acceleratecorporate India in the path of growth and prosperity.Keywords: Leadership qualities, styles, participation, innovation, technology, India

*Defence R&D Organization, Scientific Analysis Group, Metcalfe House Complex, Civil Lines, Delhi–110 054, India**Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110 068, India

Abstract

IntroductionThe study of leaders and leadership theories (Northouse,2007; Bass & Bass, 2008) has been carried out in thesocial, political and corporate contexts since the lastmany decades. A leader, in general, has been definedas a person capable of influencing, inspiring andassociating others with a dream. The other definitionagreed by experts is that a leader is someone who hasfollowers. One would require influence to gain followersbut not by lack of integrity or trust. Focus of the leadershould be towards results and not on gaining popularity.The leader should be highly visible, courageous,visionary, innovative, creative, willing to take risks,recognize and nurture talents of individuals and maintainhigh ethical standards.

There are many general definitions of leadership:(a) The ability to get the work done from the followers

without force.

(b) Organizing a group of people to achieve a commongoal and getting the work done effectively.

(c) Influencing people by providing purpose, directionand motivation while operating to accomplish themission and improve the organization.

(d) The process of influencing the behavior of otherpeople toward group goals in a way that fullyrespects their freedom.

(e) A function of knowing oneself, having a vision thatis well communicated, building trust amongcolleagues, and taking effective action to realizeones own leadership potential.

(f) Process of social influence in which one personcan enlist the aid and support of others in theaccomplishment of a common task.

(g) Enabling a group to engage together in the processof developing, sharing and moving into vision andthen living it out.

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In general, a leader should have a set of qualities(Trump, 2004; Daniels & Daniels, 2006; Maxwell,2007) irrespective of the domain in which he exerciseshis influence – dedication, passion, confidence,inspiration, motivation, creativity, vision, trustworthiness,having positive attitude and effective communicationskills. A comprehensive list of leadership qualities/traitshas been compiled and is given in Appendix-I. Basedon these qualities, the type of environment and the natureof employees or followers different leadership modelshave been proposed in the literature (Mills, 2005; Foti& Hauenstein, 2007). It is true that no leadership modelis universal and different models or styles work wellunder different situations. An individual handling armypersonnel guarding the tough borders requires leadershipqualities or traits quite different from one leading a teamof researchers working on drug discovery or geneticengineering within a laboratory.

For any organization leadership, management andadministration are individually important activities andneed different skills (Yukl, 2006) for successful realizationand functioning of the organization. Management andleadership share many similarities but are different inprinciple (Kotter, 1996). The concept of managementstrengthened from the time of industrial revolution andinsisted more on organizational control, planning,supervision, staffing and execution. A manager isresponsible for efficiently delegating duties to theemployees and getting the work done smoothly keepingthe time, cost and resource constraints in mind. On theother hand, leadership is the power of influencing andcreation of a vision for change (Bennis & Nanus, 1986)in the organization. The qualities of inspiration, passion,creativity, commitment, confidence, self-knowledge andhumility along with long-term focus on organizationalgoals differentiate a leader from a manager of a company.Leaders have excellent communication skills, are goodin building relationship and developing team spirit andhave the capability of gracefully bringing the employeesand the entire organization through a crisis. In the presentcorporate scenario, it is obvious that organizationsrequire different types of people (Zaleznik, 1998) formanagement and leadership.

Corporate leadershipIn the corporate world, leadership is the capability andpractice of elevating the performance of employees to

a desired level (above normal) in favor of theorganization. The way companies conduct businesslocally and globally, are changing rapidly and hence thereis a critical need for managers and leaders to changetheir style of functioning (Charan, 2007; Hamel, 2007).In order to be successful in the corporate world, a leaderis required to be equipped with a set of specific skillsand qualities. Some of these are:

• Passion for dynamism and entrepreneurship.• Loyalty, integrity, honesty, accountability and

trustworthiness.• Capabilities of developing sustained growth

strategies.• Providing opportunities for expansion of domestic/

global operations.• Providing scope for improving the organizational

culture.• Maintaining a healthy balance between

organizational culture, values and ethics and growthand profitability.

• Having desire and adaptability for change, desireand capability of handling risks.

• Clear and consistent communication skills includinggood receptive skills.

• Empowerment, engagement and retention ofemployees.

• Emproving loyalty of employees towards theorganization, particularly when there is no jobguarantee.

• Keeping employees motivated and satisfied inorder to improve effectiveness.

• Providing opportunities for employee development& growth – training, career succession, mentoring.

• Respect for employees and concern for their wellbeing.

• Creating space for leadership to grow at all levels.• Understanding and practicing social responsibility.• Improving brand image of the organization and

customer loyalty..

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric andalso considered to be a great corporate leader is of theopinion (Welch, 2005) that “good business leaderscreate a vision, articulate the vision, passionately ownthe vision and relentlessly drive it to completion”. It is

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clear that apart from a clear vision, a leader should beable to communicate or propagate it to his followers,actively pursue it himself and inspire others to worktowards the goal. A recent study conducted andpublished by IBM Corporation in 2010 revealed thatthe most sought after leadership traits are creativity,integrity, global thinking, influence and openness. Theother important qualities are dedication, focus onsustainability, humility and fairness. Other recent literature(Ambler, 2010; Hulsmans, 2010; Jindal, 2010; vanVugt& Ahuja, 2010) indicate that there is a serious need forchanging leadership styles in order to adapt to the rapidlychanging corporate environment and business practices.

Despite global commonalities, leadership styles havebeen found to vary from region to region. The Asianstyle of corporate leadership differs in many aspectsfrom the American and European leadership styles (Mills,2005). Blind replication of western leadership modelsin Asia is not a recommended solution. However, dueto rapid economic development in Asia and particularlyin India, many companies are seeking access to globalcapital markets and are therefore in need of capableand visionary leaders. A number of Indian companieshave been highly successful due to their unique andinnovative leadership styles. Based on the study ofexisting leadership trends in India and other parts of theworld, this paper explores the unique qualities thatwould be useful for successfully steering organizationsparticularly with an Indian origin.

Indian LeadershipThere is hardly any country in the world having social,economic, cultural and lingual diversity as complex asin India (Chattopadhyaya, 1975; Spencer Stuart, 2010).For any organization of large or moderate size in thiscountry, the background, mental abilities and workingcapabilities of employees are quite heterogeneous.Influencing such a diverse profile of employees,members, partners, stakeholders and customers usingspecific style of leadership is a real challenge. In additionto this aspect, rapid economic developments in Indiaand other parts of the globe are introducing changes inthe corporate environment much faster than expected.From government controlled and family ownedcompanies, corporate India is fast moving towardsprivatization, globalization and innovation. Emergence

of new business environments and customer segments,inflow of a large number of multinational companies,expansion, modernization and diversification of Indiancompanies, improvement in infrastructure andcommunication facilities in this country and acquisitionand mergers have together generated an environmentof dynamism, competition and corporateprofessionalism.

Corporate India still benefits from availability of laborin abundance, experienced and qualified manpower, lowcost of raw materials and liberal policies of the IndianGovernment for conducting business. With the currentfocus of attention of the entire world towards specificcountries including India, its leadership shouldcommensurate with its economic growth and uniquestyle of functioning.

India has mainly witnessed the directive style ofleadership (Bennis & Nanus, 1986) in the businesscircles. The leader is in charge of the team or theorganization and issues orders and gives instructions tosubordinates to carry out specific tasks. His main motiveis to get the work done that helps him to derive certainbenefits, improve his image or win against hiscompetitors. This style makes the entire workforcedependant on the leader. The employees normally donot think much beyond the order of the boss nor dothey get motivated to outperform. The leader is busywith the most redundant and routine activities and doesnot get time for creativity or out-of-box decision making.This slows down the organizational response, strategicdecision making and future developments in theorganization (Chattopadhyay, 1975). Domination as astyle of steering an organization is very common in India.

Some of the other styles observed in the corporatecircles are enlisted below:

(a) Action-oriented leadershipThe leader is active, assertive, determined, hard taskmaster, performance-oriented, energetic, demandingand possesses persuasive and coaching skills. He keepsthe team members active and on their toes.

(b) Dynamic leadershipThe leader is fast acting, self confident, inspiring andhas quick grasping power. He has the ability to acquire

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knowledge rapidly, to understand the environment, toadapt himself and lead the team accordingly.

(c) Transactional leadershipThe leader is clear about the objectives and goals of theorganization. He decides what the employees arerequired to do for achieving these objectives. The mainfocus here is getting out the product / service in time.Such leaders have short or medium term goals and arebent upon achieving these within the deadlines.

(d) Transformational leadershipIn addition to achieving certain organizational goals, theleader helps to transform the character of theorganization. The leader is committed, dedicated,humane and motivating and develops organizationalvalues for his employees. He also believes in long termsuccess of the business.

(e) Visionary leadershipThe leader is broad minded, inspirational,knowledgeable, conceptual, good communicator andlistener, pragmatic, has presence of mind and isstrategically sound. He leads by inspiration and canevoke emotional commitment for his employees.

(f) Innovative leadershipThe leader is imaginative, creative, future oriented,empathetic, strategic thinker, a good communicator andlistener. He is ready to take suggestions from employeesat all levels and encourages them to debate on corporateissues.

(g) Knowledge-based leadershipThe leader is conceptual, decisive, flexible and selfconfident. He believes in relationship/partnership forachieving the final goals. He empowers individuals,nurtures talents and uses cognitive and analytic skills.

(h) Empowering leadershipThe leader is creative, flexible, emotional oriented,relationship oriented and a team builder. He encouragesemployees to think, take decisions and actindependently. He believes in well being and fulfillmentof the employee. He creates space for growth ofleadership and encourages employees to feel and actlike leaders themselves.

(i) Participative leadershipThe leader is confident, magnanimous, compassionate,humble, supportive, open, flexible, delegative andpeople oriented. He is friendly, unprejudiced and arelationship builder.

(j) Executive style leadershipThe leader is disciplined, professional, strong minded,rule driven, assertive, decisive, organized and goaloriented. He is also a strategist, demanding, cautious,formal, focused, fact-oriented and result oriented. Heuses his authority and gives instructions to employees.He normally uses power and fear to get the work done.

(k) Charismatic leadershipThe leader has unique personal style, has excellentcommunication skills, is motivating, jubilant, graceful/charming and inspirational. He is trusted blindly by hisfollowers due to his unique influencing style.

(l) Sharing leadershipThe leader distributes power more evenly to hissubordinates. He encourages employees to contributeto new ideas and develop necessary skills. He ishospitable, encourages team work and fosters betterinteraction between the team members.

(m) Hi-tech leadershipThe leader is intelligent, dynamic and extensively usesIT, high-tech devices and the Internet for improving thework efficiency of the organization. He expects othersto acquire these skills and follow the same trends.

(n) Spiritual leadershipThe leader is ethical, morally principled, unprejudiced,simple minded, informal, a good orator, down to earthand cool minded. He uses spiritual values and ethicalprinciples to lead the organization.

(o) Green leadershipThe leader is humane, environment friendly and adoptsgreener practice for the organization. He has the courageto challenge and change existing practices that lead toenvironmental damage or degradation.

Today, with the fast changing corporateenvironment, a leader in any part of the world should

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be able to understand this change and adapt himselfand his team to cater to this change. The leader shouldcontinuously update his knowledge and skills in orderto influence and confidently lead the team or theorganization. It is also important for leaders to adoptglobal practices and follow international benchmarks tobe globally competitive. The leader should becomfortable with global clients, partners, stakeholdersand employees. Issues related to family control inbusiness (Mills, 2005), spirituality (Hicks, 2003;Giacolone & Jurkiewicz, 2010), ethics and socialresponsibilities (Schreck, 2009) are also importantaspects of this study. Women leaders and specific stylesof women corporate leadership (Rosner, 1995; Kanter,1997; Wachs, 2001; Coughlin et al, 2005; KPMG,2009) in India have also been addressed. In addition,there is also an urgent need for leadership developmentfor the younger taskforce, specifically the Generation Y(Martin & Tuglan, 2001; Gogoi, 2005; Krotz, 2006).Development of leadership skills for technologically-oriented businesses, physically distributed organizationsand virtual teams have also gained significance in thepresent business scenario. These issues have beenaddressed in brief in remaining part of the paper.

ObjectivesThe main objectives of this study are:(a) To analyze existing corporate leadership qualities

and styles in India.(b) To identify leadership styles that is gaining

prominence due to changing corporateenvironments - mainly competition, globalizationand the new generation of young employees.

(c) To identify what the present day employees andother stakeholders expect from their organizationand leaders.

Research MethodologyOur research involves tapping of relevant secondarysources and primary information collection using pre-designed questionnaires. Secondary information onsuccessful leadership models and styles has beencollected from printed literature and the Internet. Priorreported interviews with corporate leaders regarding

their way of thinking and their style of functioning underdifferent environments have been studied. Twoquestionnaires were prepared – one from the leaderpoint of view and the other one from employee andstakeholder point of view. Each questionnaire containedtwelve questions with eight open-ended questions andfour specific choice based questions. In addition, a listof observed / expected leadership qualities (Appendix-I) was provided in the questionnaires and therespondents were requested to add entries to make thelist more exhaustive. Opinions of leaders were collectedto gather information regarding important corporateissues and their effective solutions. Employees andstakeholders were also interviewed for understandingwhat they expect from a leader in their industry.

A sample of 48 senior executives and professionalsfrom more than 20 organizations of different types(regions in India, nature of work and type of industry)was taken. They represented organizations related topublic and private sector enterprises, hospitality,manufacturing, IT/ITeS, financial services, advertising,pharma, oil and gas, energy. 80 middle-level employeesand fresh recruits responded and gave their opinionregarding their bosses and what they expect from leadersin their sectors. Interviews were held mainly by contactingsenior managers / leaders from different parts of Indiaand by discussing with them face to face. Thequestionnaires were provided to them in advance andsufficient time was provided to them before the interviewsand discussions. In some cases due to large physicaldistances, the questionnaires were sent by couriers ande-mails and responses were collected bytelecommunications or by reply e-mails. Seniormanagers, executives, directors, administrators,professors, scientists, engineers, doctors, governmentofficials and self-owned professionals were consultedfor their views and opinions. On the other side,professionals in companies and private organizations,government employees, executives in service industriesand call-centre, industrial workers, university staff andstudents etc. were also consulted. Fresh recruits andGeneration-Y employees were specifically interviewedregarding their opinion about the leadership qualities andstyles they appreciate.

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Observations and FindingsPreferred Leadership QualitiesPrimary data analysis suggests that the most significantleadership qualities expected/desired for the specifiedcategories are as follows:(a) Global Corporate Leadership – visionary,

innovative/creative, good communicator, goal/resultoriented, good manager.

(b) Indian Corporate Leadership – visionary,passionate, good communicator, team builder, goal/result oriented.

(c) Leadership for Government / Public Sector – Taskoriented, honest/transparent, accessible, unbiased,organized.

(d) Leadership for Service Industry – performanceoriented, assertive, proactive, good manager,disciplined.

(e) Leadership for High Growth & CompetitiveIndustry – change oriented, fast acting/strategist,innovative, future oriented/foresighted, risk taker.

(f) Administrative Leadership – visionary, decisive/strategist, honest/morally principled, humane,impartial/unbiased.

(g) Leadership for Armed / Police Forces – disciplined,hard task master, bold, influencing, attitudinal.

(h) Leadership for Scientific / R&D Institutions –innovative, inspirational, open minded, dedicated,good mentor.

(i) Leadership for Education Sector – knowledgeable,educated/qualified, good communicator/orator,updated, disciplined.

(j) Woman Leadership – mentally strong, creative,assertive, good mentor, tolerant.

(k) Youth Leadership – knowledgeable, dynamic, out-of-box thinker, adaptable, unprejudiced.

(l) Leadership for Generation Y Employees /Teams–open minded, active, receptive, hospitable, risktaker.

(m) Leadership for Aged / Elder Teams – respectful,good communicator, receptive/ready to seekopinion or take suggestions, motivator, encouragetraining needs/prepare team for handling newtechnology.

Preferred Leadership Styles(a) Directive Leadership: Directive leadership that is

still widely practiced in India has its own benefitsand limitations. For regular activities and manualwork, directive leadership results in adequate andconsistent performance of employees. However,collaboration or creativity cannot be expected andmembers normally work as independent entities.For dynamic business environments, directiveleadership helps to get the work done without anyfriction in the team. The leader’s expertise andexperience help the subordinates to learn andemulate. A substantial percentage of the workforcein any organization likes to be blind followers of amanager / leader and this style is the most suitablefor getting the work done effectively. The limitationof this form of leadership is that creativeparticipation of subordinates is minimal and preventstheir fresh, innovative and out-of-the-box thinking.60% of the respondents believe that directiveleadership is good for our country in some senseand should be practiced to get the work doneefficiently from the workforce. It is felt that this styleworks well for defence and paramilitary forces,police and security services and the manufacturingsector. This style of leadership is also prevalent inemerging China and people feel that the rapidgrowth of this country is due to practice of thisstyle.

(b) Family Control & Competence based leadership:A number of large and medium Indian family ownedbusinesses are well known in the corporate world.For these business houses, succession has beenpassed on to children and other family membersirrespective of their management skills or leadershipqualities. Many of these companies have diversifiedbusiness domains and are in need of competentand talented leaders who can handle the rapidlychanging needs of these businesses. The chosenleader is expected to be an expert in his/her domain,has the ability to seize opportunities and takeeffective decisions even with partial and incompleteinformation. However, shift from strict familycontrol in these businesses to competence basedleadership is still minimal due to the social structure

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prevalent in this country. In order to grow andprogress globally, an increasing number of theseIndian companies are planning and would beseeking talents outside their homes.

(c) Participative leadership: There has been a shift fromdirective to participative leadership. The leader ismore involved, inculcates team spirit and cultureand can hook employees and stakeholdersemotionally to the company. Participation ofemployees in the decision making process ismaximized and collective efforts are nurturedleading to better growth opportunities. 94%respondents believe that there is a gradual shift fromdirective to participative and empoweringleadership styles in many Indian organizations dueto rapid changes in business environment. Industriesrequiring innovative inputs and knowledge basedindustries are actively pursuing this style ofleadership. However, for some businesses,participative leadership may lead to delay in decisionmaking, conflict of interest among individuals anddelays in implementation of policies. It may alsoresult in chaos in unplanned situations or underdynamic business environments.

(d) Empowering leadership: The leader delegatesresponsibilities to subordinates and gets the workdone more efficiently. He possesses the skill toinspire and energize his subordinates and givesroom to realize their full potential. The subordinatesfeel a sense of responsibility and are motivated towork harder towards the common goal of theorganization. This type of leadership helps in thegrowth of the organization and also nurtures anddevelops future leaders for the organization. It isinteresting to note that a number of Indianorganizations are now practicing this style ofleadership and have been successful in thisendeavor.

(e) Innovative leadership: The leader uses innovationand creativity in the business model, encouragesexperimentation and promotes R&D and productdevelopment. A large number of Indian companiesare practicing this style that enables the leader todevelop new and innovative products regularly andrapidly. The leader takes risk and uses his skills to

present a product/service that is acceptable tocustomers.

(f) High-tech leadership: The leader is dynamic,comfortable with modern technology and prefersthe use of automated machines, IT and the internetfor conducting business. He tries to improve theefficiency of the organization by use of technology.He also understands the psychology of the Y-generation and is able to efficiently handle theyounger staff and utilize their talents for the benefitof the organization.

Specific IssuesWomen LeadershipOur country is witnessing a significant increase in thenumber of women in boardrooms and senior positions.People prefer to have a better percentage of womenemployees in senior and managerial positions as theyprovide substantial diversity in the corporation in termsof skills or leadership qualities. Women are better teambuilders, flexile yet assertive and persuasive and havebetter interpersonal skills. Some of these gender specificqualities perceived by respondents and having value inthe corporate world are:

• Build emotional intelligence in the organization.• Better in interpersonal skills and are better listeners.• Better in nurturing talents in the organization.• More committed, principled and value based.• Better team builders, organizers and collaborators.• Often more determined and persuasive while

chasing organizational goals.• More willing to take risks.• More effective in crisis management.• ave long term focus.• Treat financial aspects cautiously and more seriously.• Provide a more balanced working environment.• Provide motivation for women to grow without any

gender bias.The challenges that many women face in leading

their organizations relate to problems in balancing theirprofessional life with their personal or family life. Alsoexistence of gender stereotypes in Indian organizationsbar them to reveal their true leadership potential. Business

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trips during odd hours may also be a limiting factor forwomen in this country.

Men have been considered to be more aggressiveand competitive – a set of qualities considered to beimportant for successfully conducting business.However, feminine traits of relationship building,generating harmony in the team and nurturing talents inthe organization are equally important. More than 80%employees (except the labor intensive taskforce) wouldlike to see women leaders and senior women executivesin the boardrooms. They feel that a woman leader hasunique traits that help to improve the corporate cultureof an organization. Almost all the respondents believethat a mix of both these qualities (though mutuallyexclusive) would be required to build and sustain ahealthy corporate environment. A good corporateleader has to be like a coconut – strong minded fromoutside but soft from his heart.

Leadership for the Generation YGeneration Y (GenY) are individuals born around theinterval 1977-1997 and are now entering the workplacein millions. They have had a dynamic lifestyle and havebeen involved in diverse and multitasking activities. Theyare often impatient, fun loving, have high expectationsfrom themselves and like to achieve results immediately.They are also creative, confident, good communicators,informal, technology savvy and like to do things in theirown way. Managing and leading GenY teams by seniorpeople in India has been a challenge. Mentally engagingthem and retaining them in one job are problems thatmost organizations are presently facing.

GenY employees do not hesitate in taking risks.They love being challenged, trusted and heldaccountable. They demand personal growth and expectthemselves to be well treated. They demand flexibilityin their working and dislike a regular monotonous jobwith directive leadership. The leader of such a teamshould be dynamic, a good manager and communicator,honest, hospitable and optimistic. He should havefrequent and regular interaction with the taskforce,motivate the employees and provide performance basedincentives. He should also be able to understand theirmentality and entrust them with the responsibilities theyare supposed to handle despite their casual attitudetowards work. It is interesting to note that a reasonable

number of organizations in India are preparing theirleaders to effectively handle the GenY task force.

Spiritual and Ethical Aspects of LeadershipThough the corporate world believes more inmaterialistic and commercial values, spiritual and ethicalaspects are becoming equally important aspects whileconducting business. Spiritual wisdom and leadershipqualities are well depicted in mythological epics andancient stories of India. Our history and culture havealso insisted on welfare of humans, animals, environmentand nature. Though uncommon, leadership based onideals, transparency and integrity, ethics, spiritual valuesand moral excellence is desirable for all organizations.While targeting global markets it has become veryimportant for companies to balance profit and growthwith human and environmental welfare. 80% of therespondents agreed that spiritual inclination of a leadermakes him mentally strong and focused and also makesthe organization a better place to work under hisleadership.

More and more companies in India and other partsof the globe are adopting ethical practices includingcorporate social responsibility (CSR) towards mankindand nature. It is interesting to find leaders workingtowards providing improved lifestyle to theunderprivileged and local people. Facilitating education,health, better living facilities, special attention to women,old, physically challenged and underprivileged are someof the philanthropic activities taken up by many Indiancorporate houses with motivation from specificindividuals or their leaders. Others are working towardsgreener environment, clean mountains and rivers andprotection of endangered species on earth. Such ethicalpractices have helped to improve the brand image ofmany organizations in this country. A few Indiancorporate leaders have set examples to the world byproviding huge financial assistance for noble causestowards improvement of primary or higher education,improving medical facilities and other basic needs indeprived regions.

Work pressures due to severe competition inbusiness are taking a toll on physical and mental healthof employees that is reflected in their performance.Organizations are taking active steps to maintain ahealthy work-life balance to boost employee

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performance. Employees are normally instructed to planand finish their office work on regular basis and avoidcarrying their work at home. In many Indianorganizations, one would find facilities for meditation,yoga, health and fitness along with stress managementprograms being provided to the employees.Organizations occasionally arrange informal get togethermeetings and social gatherings like parties and familypicnics. These help as stress busters and provide scopefor relaxation and socializing with other members of theorganization. A healthy family life and a healthy workenvironment act as a tonic for employees and drasticallyimprove their performance.

Some Unique Aspects of India CorporateLeadershipFollowing are some of the expectations from an Indiancorporate leader:

• India being a multicultural country, the leader shouldbe able to handle the diverse communication andfunctioning styles of the employees. He should becurious enough to understand, respect andembrace the cultural diversity of the workforce.

• The leader is expected to be more relationship-oriented with good communication and orationskills. He should be expressive as well as receptive.

• To take into account the changing business needs,the leader should promote a more open workingenvironment even if directive style of functioning isrequired.

• The leader is expected to be friendly with theemployees and have regard for them. He shouldexercise patience along with firmness while dealingwith abnormal situations. Disrespect for employees,particularly elders, is taken seriously in this country.

• Indian leaders should plan about growth andexpansion and forays into global markets by meansof relevant acquisitions or by other effective means.

• Due to global expansion, leaders should be able tomake the work environment friendly for foreignemployees and connect them emotionally to theorganization. They should also improve theircommunication skills to handle the internationalclients and users.

• The leader should take appropriate measures forretaining and motivating the top talents in theorganization. This is a critical challenge for the futureand may require out-of-box skills and capabilitiesof the leader.

• The leader is expected to be more technologyfriendly as it eases the work process and makesthings faster and simpler.

• The leader should encourage the company toprovide quality yet value for money products andservices.

• Leaders of profitable and rich organizations shouldbe generous and encourage philanthropic activitiestowards critical problems requiring attention withinthe country.

• The leader should encourage standardization ofprocesses and follow global quality standards fortheir processes and operations.

• Though Indian leaders look at their businesses in amore integrated, long-term and holistic manner, theyshould also take quicker and crispier decisions.They should also be more willing to take risks andhandle them.

• One of the strength of this country is its intellectualcapital. The leader should be able to formalize thisaspect in favor of the organization. Carrying outinnovative R&D work and filing of national andinternational patents and copyrights of intellectualproperty should be encouraged.

Other Notable Aspects• Whereas an individual may possess suitable

leadership traits for influencing the subordinates oremployees, the parent organization should providegrounds/freedom/opportunities to exercise theinherent leadership skills. Due to rigidity in theorganizational structure of many Indian companies,it is difficult even for capable individuals (exceptthe ultimate boss of the organization) to reveal theirtrue leadership potential at their specific levels.

• Corporate India is in need of creative and innovativeleaders, people having global business exposureand experience and those having the ability toanticipate and manage risks. 86% respondents

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believe that Indian leaders should take more risksin business in order to grow and beat global marketcompetition.

• Leaders good in talent and employee managementare in great demand. Leaders who are able topromote and nurture talents, who are peoplefriendly and have good communication skills (bothoration and reception) are critically required toretain key talents in the organization.

• Other than domination, leadership styles at lowerlevels are largely missing in the Indian corporateworld. Leadership qualities suitable for effectivelyhandling the lesser educated multilingual task forceneed to be nurtured by organizations. Thoughdomination may be beneficial in manycircumstances, developing soft skills may also helpto improve performance of the team. Promotingunique leadership styles at lower levels should begiven priority by organizations in India.Nine out of ten respondents agree that age plays asignificant role in leading an organization and theyexpect younger leaders in their organizations.Contrary to the belief that people are uncomfortablewith younger bosses, the same percentage ofpeople agreed that they would be comfortable witha dynamic, adaptable and unprejudiced boss(younger) who has out of box thinking abilities.

• Today, products and services need to comply withinternational quality standards. Gone are the dayswhen the Indian customer’s purchase decision wassolely based on pricing. Development andmanufacturing processes and other organizationalactivities need to follow international qualitystandards. This aspect has been catered by mostof the large corporate houses but should be in theagenda of mid segment and small businesses inIndia.

• Senior foreign executives coming to India forleading teams should make themselves comfortablewith the social complexities and cultural diversitiesof this country. He should learn to manage themulticultural and multilingual taskforce and lead thedifferences and diversity to achieve the commonorganizational goal. Tolerance for diverse opinion

is one of the important qualities that such leadersneed to develop to be successful in India.

• Political influence, official corruption, unnecessarydelays in official permissions/proceedings, problemsdue to labor unions and loss of efficiency due topoor infrastructure are some of the unique issueslinked with corporate India. On the other hand,friendly nature and team spirit of people, willingnessto work even in uncomfortable and adverseworking conditions, willingness to deliver more thanexpected, dedication, sincerity and adaptability aresome of the plus points of employees here.

• Out of 100 corporate bosses/heads/chiefs/directors/senior managers in India, people feel thatonly 20 of them can be termed as leaders. It istherefore important for senior corporate professionsto acquire and improve their leadership skills forbetter growth of the organization and its employees.

Concluding RemarksThis paper explored leadership qualities and styles thatare emerging in India due to the rapidly changingcorporate scenario in this region and around the world.The fast economic growth is demanding corporateleadership styles specific to this country that has diversitybeyond imagination. However, we understood that aset of general qualities are required for any corporateleader and specific styles are effective as per the natureof business, market conditions and employee profile ofthe team or the organization.

There are different ways in which we feel thisresearch can be improved further. We are well awareof the limitations of the sample size for both types ofrespondents. Interviews with a larger group of corporateleaders would help to widen our understanding andobtain suggestions on specific issues with which theyare directly involved. We are also interested in seekingopinion from corporate leaders outside India regardinghow universal leadership styles may be borrowed toimprove India’s position in the Asian and worldeconomy. Deeper quantitative analysis is also requiredas this work focused mainly on qualitative analysis bydiscussing different issues related to leadership qualitiesand styles with leaders and employees. After this study,

Exploring Unique Corporate Leadership Styles in India 85

we are interested in further carrying out quantitativeanalysis to answer specific questions on Indianleadership styles. Exploring leadership aspects in e-businesses, virtual organizations and geographicallydistributed companies are also areas of our interest. We

also feel there is a need to focus on leadership aspectsrelated to specific industries, size of business, cultures,stages of corporate development and demographicprofile of employees. We reserve some of these themesfor our future work in this area.

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Appendix – IQualities / Traits of a Leader

A Accessible, Accountable, Action oriented, Active, Adaptable, Aggressive, Ambitious, Analytic, Assertive, Attitudinal, Attractive,Authoritative, Autocratic

B Bold, Broad minded, Bureaucratic

C Calm, Capable, Caring, Cautious, Change oriented, Charismatic, Charming, Clever, Collaborative, Collectivistic, Committed,Compassionate, Competent, Competitive, Comprehensive, Conceptual, Confident, Conscious, Conservative, Consistent, Constructive,Consultative, Cool minded, Courageous, Courteous, Creative, Credible, Culturally oriented, Curious, Customer-oriented

D Decent, Decisive, Dedicated, Deductive, Deep thinker, Delegative, Demanding, Democratic, Dependable, Determined, Dictator, Diplomatic,Directive, Disciplined, Diverse natured, Dominant, Down to earth, Dynamic

E Educated, Effective communicator, Efficient, Effort oriented, Elegant, Emotional, Emotionally tough, Empathetic, Empowering, Energetic,Enlightened, Enthusiastic, Entrepreneurial, Ethical, Exceptional character, Experienced

F Fact oriented, Fair minded, Fast acting, Flexible, Fluent, Focused, Formal, Foresighted, Forward looking, Friendly, Funny, Futureoriented

G Generous, Global thinker, Goal oriented, Good communicator, Good listener, Good manager, Good mentor, Good orator, Graceful

H Handsome, Hard driving, Harmonious, Hard working, Honest, Hospitable, Humane, Humble, Humorous

I Ideological, Imaginative, Impersonal, Impartial, Incredible, Independent, Individualistic, Informal, Influential, Initiative taker, Innovative,Inspirational, Intelligent

J Jubilant, Joking, Jovial

K Knowledgeable, Keen listener

L Lateral thinker, Logical

M Magnanimous, Manipulative, Materialistic, Mentally strong, Merciful, Mindful, Morally principled, Motivating, Multi cultural, Multitasker

N Noble

O Open minded, Opportunistic, Optimistic, Organized

P Participative, Passionate, People oriented, Performance oriented, Persistent, Personality oriented, Persuasive, Philanthropic attitude,Philosophical, Physically strong, Polite, Practical, Pragmatic, Predictable, Principled, Pro-active, Problem solver, Procedural, Professional

Q Quick grasping

R Rational, Realistic, Receptive, Relationship builder, Religious, Resourceful, Respectful, Responsible, Result oriented, Rigid, Risktaking, Role model, Ruthless

S Secular minded, Self-absorbed, Self-aware, Self-confident, Self critical, Self-sacrificing, Self-esteemed, Selfless, Self-reflective, Shrewd,Simple minded, Skilled, Smart, Sincere, Soft spoken, Specialized, Spiritually inclined, Status conscious, Straight forward, Strategist,Strong character, Stylish, Supportive

T Tactful, Task oriented, Team builder, Technically competent, Timely, Tolerant, Traditional, Transformational, Transparent, Trustworthy

U Unbiased, Unprejudiced, Updated

V Visionary

W Well behaved, Well dressed, Well spoken, Willing, Winner, Wise

Z Zealous