The Americanization of Chennai by Katherine Boo - Essay Example

Assignment Answer The article “The best job in town; the Americanization of Chennai” has described the various dynamics and characteristics of Office Tigers that surprised me after studying the management course. The first includes the fact that founders of Office Tigers choose India as a destination country and started their operations in an economy where they can make the most of domestic population and extremely cheap labor (an average worker receives 10-20% of what workers receive for same menial jobs) that will react according to wishes and desires of their American founders and that considers itself a direct or an indirect part of America by identifying that ‘there is no difference between New York and Chennai since one can do the same work in both the cities’. In fact, they chose this country to make the people react like their partial slaves (training and recruiting programs) through the covert colonialism compared to the overt colonialism of Britishers. This manipulation and exploitation of Indian workers for personal gains and benefits (in the name of competitiveness and free market system) can’t be explained, justified and supported because it’s against the ethics principles of business. Secondly, Office Tigers have also been involved in taking the jobs away from American workers because their Outsourcing business and its marketing to other businesses of providing the work at cheaper rates compelled the American organizations to cut down their labour force that later resulted in mammoth job losses in America. So, it was also against the greater well-being of US workers and economy. Thirdly, the management says that managers must take care of societal values, standards and norms but Office Tigers adopted an open door policy in India by disregarding the traditional cast system and did not place any restrictions on employment of low caste workers. Theoretically, they violated the societal norm that says that an Upper Caste Hindu can not work with one from a lower caste but surprisingly this didn’t go against the firm’s long-run objectives. Answer 2: Chennai is the fourth largest city of India, an underdeveloped economy, where a great number of people are still deprived of basic living/health and quality (plus cheap) educational facilities (universities and higher education institutions) compared to United States, which is a developed economy, an industrialized nation and an economic super power where people have access to all basic necessities and they are not deprived of education. This difference among Indians and Americans also affects the attitudes, beliefs, tastes and preferences of workers in Chennai who are ready to complete odd, simple and tedious jobs because they lack in managerial and administrative skills essential for top management ranks. Whereas in USA, people prefer high pay white-collar jobs since they have quality educational facilities. Secondly, there is unemployment because of fewer jobs creation and purchasing power disparity in India, even in Chennai where per capita incomes are far lower than what an average US worker receives; therefore, people are not able to spend on higher education that finally results in a large pool of unskilled and semi-skilled workers who accept any odd job they get to support their families. Thirdly, the large group of these unskilled workers in Chennai work diligently to retain there menial jobs because they fear they will find it difficult to get a new and better one if they quit. This makes the task of an employer easy to operate in India because of lower turnover rate plus lower wages. The opposite is the case in United States where are always grudging to accept the ‘menial’ jobs and tend to quit immediately when they find a better opportunity because of more job creations although outsourcing has caused many jobs losses but focus on heavy engineering industry and economic growth has also created a reasonable number of jobs. Based on above explanation, I could use a reasonably stable and task-oriented managerial style in managing an office in Chennai where as have to use a more relationship oriented and collaborative managerial style in Seattle. I would prefer the group of workers in Chennai would be the better group of workers than in Seattle because of availability of cheap, willing and hard-working labor that tries to follow the exact instructions and procedures of their western managers and bosses. Better productivity and efficiency can be accomplished in Chennai. Answer 3: Being a consultant, who has been asked to make changes to improve Office Tiger, i first would like to mention the aspects in this organization that are impressive and beneficial for the company. The first point is the focus on building friendly, cordial and healthy relations among the employers, top management and employees through mutual trust, collaboration, communication and respect. As mentioned in the case, the employers at Office Tigers ‘love’ their employees like Harish and others who, in turn, do the same for their bosses. This results in higher employee productivity, enhances the internal efficiency and reduces the turnover rate besides strengthening the image of Office Tigers that has received considerable employee acceptance. Secondly, the company focuses on attracting a talented pool of workers who can contribute in accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives. Third, the company has a solid growth strategy including both domestic (employees are increasing at a phenomenal rate within India) and global growth (expansion of business by starting Office Tigers facilities at Srilanka and Philippines). For instance, the founders are themselves very much dedicated to travel abroad and have meetings with the executives of international groups to persuade them to outsource their work to Office Tigers. In this way, more orders or business could be received for the company. Some areas that may need improvement include improvement in interpersonal communication among employees so that any conflicts or disputes could be minimized. Secondly, the company has to improve the structure of its hiring, recruiting and training programs in order to reduce any chances of cultural miscommunication at the company as the company doesn’t favor any discrimination even because of strict cast system followed in India. Third, the company could improve itself by become a learning organization where employees are empowered and encouraged to take risks, involve in decision-making process and in experiments for greater organizational success. Together when applied may result in much better results. Source: KATHERINE BOO. “The Best Job In Town; The Americanization of Chennai”. The Newyorker. July 5, 2004. Read More