Human Resources Development for Business Leadership in India (2020s)

 

Human Resources Development for Business Leadership in India

 

T. V. Rao and Siddhartha Saxena

 Draft version from the book

  (Reproduced from draft version of the chapter from "Human Resource Development and Business Leadership in Asia edited by AAhad M. Osman-Gani and Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Pearson  ')

<h1>Introduction

India, Asia, Corporate, Competency, Education, Human Resource Development, Institution Building, Indian Context, Jobs, Leadership, Mapping, National, Planning Policy Formulations, Skills, Startups, Talent Management

<h2>Conceptualisation of Human Resource Development

The term human resource development has been used in a variety of ways. Governments usually apply it to mean their education and development programmes and include primary education, school education, adult literacy and higher education, which form the foundation for citizens’ development. Organisations usually apply it to competence building, culture building and commitment building. This is done through a variety of interventions such as effective recruitment, induction, formal and informal training and learning, performance management, succession planning, career development and all forms of organisational improvements through people. In recent years, it has also acquired the meaning of developing leaders and leadership talent, developing a talent pipeline to prepare for the future. In public services, it is used to enhance the service quality of its employees through attitude and skills development and effective customer service.

 

In a national context human resource development (HRD) could be viewed as ‘… the process of enabling people to make things happen. It deals both with the process of competency development in people and creation of conditions (through public policy, programs and other interventions) to help people to apply these competencies for their own benefit and for that of others. There are many things included and implied in such a definition of HRD’ (Rao, 1996, p. 25).

Human Resource Development in the organizational context is a process by which the employees of an organization are helped, in a continuous, planned way to: 1) Sharpen their capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles; 2) develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potentials for their own and/or organizational development purposes; and 3) develop an organisational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships, team work, and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well-being, motivation and pride of the employees (Rao, 1996)[TE1] [TR2] [TR3] .

 

<h2>Brief Description of India: Geo-economic, Sociopolitical Environment

India is one of the world’s oldest civilisations. It has achieved all-round socio-economic progress during the last 72 years of its independence. It is the seventh largest country in the world and ranks second in population. The country stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off by mountains and the sea, which give her a distinct geographical entity. India can be broadly divided into six zones – North, South, East, West, Central and North-East. It has 28 states and nine union territories. India’s population as on 1 March 2011 stood at 1.2 billion (623.2 million males and 587.5 million females). The country accounts for a meagre 2.4 per cent of the world’s surface area of 135.79 million sq.km, yet it supports and sustains over 20 per cent of the world’s population. According to one estimate, its population is 1.27 billion, which is projected to reach 1.63 billion by 2050, surpassing China’s. The 2011 census reveals that India’s literacy rate is 73 per cent, 80.9 for males and 64.6 for females. Today, more than 50 per cent of the country’s population is below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent is below the age of 35. It is expected that in 2020 the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared with 37 for China and 48 for Japan. People of all religions live in this country: 80 per cent are Hindus, 14 per cent Muslims (172 million), 2.3 per cent Christians (27.8 million), 1.76 per cent Sikhs, 0.70 per cent Buddhists (8.4 million), 0.37 per cent Jains, and others make up the rest. Despite all the developments and efforts made by the country to improve its quality of life and education, owing to its size and diversity, the human development ranking remained as low as 129 out of 189 countries ranked by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2019.

 

<h1>Conceptual Framework

In this chapter, human resources development is used to mean:

1.      All planned policies and interventions aimed at building all forms of competencies (knowledge, attitudes, skills, values, motivations and qualities or traits) of people that enhance their effectiveness (employability, earning capability, and/or contributions to organisational effectiveness) at their places of work and dwelling places.

2.      A large part of preparation for life skills is undertaken by the education system and the Ministry or Department of Education through its schools and colleges, including vocational education centres and professional institutions. For the government’s own employees and public service providers , HRD largely means education and training activities undertaken by the ministries or government departments concerned, such as Agriculture, Rural Development, Urban Development, Labour, Skill Development, Science and Technology, Industries, Health, Law, Police, etc. In the corporate sector, it means the policies, practices and activities undertaken by the HRD department.

The second section of this chapter focuses on the skill development programmes that address citizens in general, and those that address employees of any government or ministry or department are not included. HRD for the corporate sector has gained considerable significance. Owing to the high degree of global competitiveness, innovations in competency, commitment and culture building have come enormously from the corporate sector. Increasingly, governments in various countries are becoming more professional and entrepreneurial by learning from the best practices of the corporate sector. The third section focuses on corporates. The fourth section is devoted to legal framework and laws that govern employee welfare and ensure their contributions and keep them motivated. These policies and legal aspects are highlighted. Some aspects of regional cooperation in HRD-related areas and laws that protect individual contributions are also highlighted. The chapter concludes with a summary that points the way ahead.

This approach has been used by many. For example, The International Labour Organisation (ILO)Reference incorporated suggests that HRD should focus on the development of people through education and training in a national context as well as within enterprises (International Lbour Organization, 2000). HRD, in an integrated sense, also encompasses healthcare, nutrition, population policies and employment (Muqtada & Hildeman, 1993; Commonwealth Secretariat, 1993).

This chapter focuses on the following points:

(i)                 Those policies and practices that contribute to human development and human capital formation in the country and form the basis for economic development through the supply of human capital for business activities.

(ii)               Those policies and practices that deal with HRD and leadership development in different business contexts, including self-employment, small and medium enterprises and government-owned enterprises that generate economic activity, private industry and multinational corporations (MNCs).

 

                                                 <h1>National Policy Perspectives on Human Resource Development

<h2>Highlights of National Economic Planning/Policy on Manpower Development

Given the vastness of the country, there is not one policy but many that have implications for HRD. They range from policies on education (primary, secondary, tertiary and higher education) to policies on development of entrepreneurship, skill development, women’s education and many more. Some of the notable policies introduced in recent years to promote entrepreneurship and skill development are as follows:

<h3>The new start-up policy

Recognising the need for promoting entrepreneurial activity in the country, the government has formulated a start-up policy that aims to eliminate some of the constraints to entrepreneurship. The Prime Minister’s Office has taken the lead in initiating this policy. The start-up India action plan envisages many incentives for start-ups. Some of these incentives include tax concessions, easy registration and exit, start-up hubs serving as a single-point source of information, simplification of the intellectual property rights and patent regimes, dedicated large fund, credit guarantee scheme for loans and new policies to help women entrepreneurs. The start-up policy has encouraged the emergence of many entrepreneurs and eased unemployment pressures. According to a National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) report, India ranks third globally in the number of start-ups (NASSCOM, 2015); these numbered 8,900 in 2019 (NASSCOM: see: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/over-1300-startups-added-in-2019-over-8900-tech-startups-in-india-now-nasscom/articleshow/71925791.cms)

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (n.d.), as part of the National Policy on Electronics, constituted two sector skills councils within the overall national framework of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC). These are Electronics Sector Skills Council (ESSC) and Telecom Sector Skills Council (TSSC) The Department has initiated several initiatives to provide quality human resources for the electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector and launched two schemes, one to scale up the number of PhDs in Electronics and IT and another to support 3,000 additional PhDs (1,500 in ESDM and 1,500 in IT/ITES). In addition, 100 PhDs (full-time) are to be supported by industries/state governments as a part of this scheme. They have also launched a scheme of financial assistance for the setting up of electronics and ICT academies with the objective of establishing seven electronics and ICT academies as units of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), etc., for faculty/mentor development or upgradation to improve the employability of the graduates/diploma holders in various streams. This initiative will be undertaken in active collaboration with the states/union territories (UTs) with financial assistance from the central government. The electronics and ICT academies would aim to provide specialised training to the Engineering, Arts, Commerce and Science faculties in colleges, polytechnics etc. by developing state-of-the-art facilities.

 

Make in India is an initiative launched, in September 2014, by the Prime Minister, to encourage national and MNCs to manufacture their products in India. Following this initiative, in 2015 India emerged as the top global destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), surpassing the USA as well as the People’s Republic of China (Anand, Kochhar, & Mishra, 2015).

<h3>New draft education policy 2019

NEP is one of the major steps being initiated towards reforming education in India. The policy is an attempt to elevate India’s standard of education to match global standards that have have created higher demand [H4] [TR5] for technology and new skills. A government-appointed body, under the leadership of Dr. K. Kasturirangan, talks about not fine-tuning but changing the educational system in the country. It talks about removal of the system of affiliation by 2032, becoming independent degree-awarding [H6] [TR7] institutions, 4-year programmes with multiple exit and entry points. Teacher education and technology usage have been given the maximum emphasis. The policy advocates changing the system to 5+3+3+4 for schools as well. It also talks about making the school system less stressful but conducive to increased skill development. The medium of instruction, according to the policy, should focus on English, and there should be one classical language for students their formative years. It also talks about modification of the policy on right to education and making it more comprehensive; in addition, it envisages multiple-level exams such as the board-level exams to ensure preparation of students. It is a comprehensive draft, and many of the upcoming universities in liberal education are trying to implement it in every possible way.

<h3>Ease of doing business in India

India ranks 130th out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s 2016 ‘ease of doing business’ index, covering the period June 2014 to June 2015. India was ranked 134th in the 2015 index. In February 2017, the government appointed the UNDP and the National Productivity Council  ‘to sensitize actual users and get their feedback on various reform measures’ (Anand et al., 2015). Many states in the country have tremendously simplified their processes, making it easy to do business in India. The index limits its measurement to a few cities and hence may not be representative of the country as a whole. All the states are competing with one another to facilitate business. However, the bureaucratic mindset of officers dealing with licencing is making slow progress, but change is taking place. This year, 2020, India has moved to the 63rd position in ease of doing business, in response to the earnest implementation of various governmental policies.

 

<h1>HRDF and Other National Skills Development Incentives

The Skill India programme was launched by Prime Minister Modi in 2015 to skill over 400 million by 2022. Various initiatives under this campaign are: National Skill Development Mission; National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015; Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY); Skill Loan scheme and Rural India Skill.

 

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): This is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). Its objective is to enable a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them secure better livelihoods. Individuals with prior learning experience or skills are also assessed and certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Training and assessment fees are entirely paid by the Government.

 

National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015: The objective of the National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015, is to meet the challenge of skilling at scale with speed and standard (quality). It aims to provide an umbrella framework for all skilling activities being carried out within the country, to align them to common standards and to link skilling with demand centres. This policy links skills development to improved employability and productivity.

 

National Skill Development Mission: The National Skill Development Mission has been developed to create convergence across the sectors and states in terms of skill training activities and is driven by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE, 2015). The objectives of the mission are to be achieved through key institutional mechanisms, comprising seven sub-missions: i) institutional training, (ii) infrastructure, (iii) convergence, (iv) trainers, (v) overseas employment, (vi) sustainable livelihoods, (vii) leveraging public infrastructure.

 

A recent systematic literature review by Cabral and Dhar (2019) has identified the significance of skill development through the implementation of schemes aimed at mitigating poverty, utilising the demographic dividend, socio-economic empowerment of underprivileged sectors, achieving economic growth, reducing social challenges, and economic inclusion. As far as institutional mechanism is concerned, the NSDC, MSDE and the PMKVY scheme have achieved considerable results, though not the expected outcomes. The study argues that the goal of skill development is to achieve technology adoption and women’s empowerment in the country (see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill_India).

 

Higher Education: To bridge the industry-academia gap, NSDC has developed a unique model for integrating skill-based training into the academic cycle of the universities. This is based on national occupational standards set by industry through sector skill councils. The job roles offered are designed to be progressive in nature – from Level 5 to Level 7 in the National Skills Qualification Framework.

 

National Career Service Portal: India has launched the National Career Service (NCS) portal and has begun the process of using information technology in the delivery of services at the country’s 978 employment exchanges. Bringing people and opportunities together, the portal now provides a nation-wide online platform for job seekers and employers for job matching in a dynamic, efficient and responsive manner. The NCS, which is transforming the National Employment Service into an IT-based service platform, provides abundant career content on over 3,000 occupations across 53 sectors.

 

<h2>New Jobs and New Skill Sets in India

India is changing thanks to new nature of organisations turning up and youth engaged in creating new types of ventures. Nor has the country lagged behind organisations’ need to be data, technology and analytics driven. The jobs that are being focused on are not just traditional human resource practices but are moving towards end-to-end processes, which are data driven and decisive in nature. Companies have started focusing on analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the age of work 4.0 is here. Fractal, Rubique, Niki.AI, etc. are changing the way organisations were running. Firms like Pymetrics have brought the age of gamification to recruitment, and Hindustan Unilever [ED8] [TR9] Limited (HUL) and Accenture are among those firms that are buying into it. Although this modern age of data has dawned, there is a serious lack of skill sets for handling such job roles. Skill gap is one of the most daunting problems facing India’s youth, and even in the wake of the fourth industrial revolution, the next generation is not ready to take up the most coveted jobs because of lack of skills in analysis and programming. Thus, the education policy and the training and development policies of corporates have to be changed to focus on bridging this gap and working towards more growth of this data-driven and dependent industry.

 

 

                                                            <h1>Education in India

India holds an important place in the global education industry. It has more than 1.4 million schools, with over 227 million students enrolled and more than 36,000 higher education institutes. The country has one of the largest higher educational systems in the world. However, there is still scope for further development of the educational system.

 

The higher education system in India has undergone rapid expansion. Currently, India’s higher education system is the largest in the world, with a total enrolment of over 70 million students, while in less than two decades, India has managed to create additional capacity for over 40 million students. Various government initiatives are being adopted to boost the growth of the distance education market, besides focusing on new educational techniques, such as E-learning and M-learning.

           

The education sector has seen a host of reforms and improved financial outlays in recent years that could possibly transform the country into a knowledge haven. With human resources gaining increasing significance in the overall development of the country, the development of educational infrastructure is expected to remain the key focus in the current decade. In this scenario, infrastructure investment in the education sector is likely to see a considerable increase in the current decade.

 

Among other things, the government has opened IITs and IIMs in new locations and has also allocated educational grants to research scholars in most government institutions. Furthermore, with online modes of education being used by several educational organisations, the higher education sector in India is set for major change and development in the years to come (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2017).

 

<h2>Regional and Global Networking Relationships Influencing Leadership Effectiveness

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. India’s search for economic space resulted in the ‘Look East Policy’. The policy has matured into a dynamic and action-oriented ‘Act East Policy. Apart from ASEAN, India has taken other policy initiatives in the region that involve some members of ASEAN such as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)[ED10] . India is also an active participant in several regional forums, such as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF).

ASEAN-India Projects: India has been cooperating with ASEAN in implementing various projects in the following fields: agriculture, science and technology, space, environment and climate change, HRD, capacity building, new and renewable energy, tourism, people-to-people contacts and connectivity, etc. To boost people-to-people interaction with ASEAN, India has been organising various programmes, such as a training programme for ASEAN diplomats, exchange of parliamentarians, participation of ASEAN students in the National Children’s Science Congress, ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks and ASEAN-India Eminent Persons Lecture Series. India is establishing four centres of excellence in software development and training (CESDT) in CLMV countries, including the setting up of an IT Resource-cum-Study Centre at Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC)[ED11] [TR12] , Noida, consisting of 1 existing lab and 1 new lab as well as the development of 12 E-learning courses in six identified areas.

 

ASEAN Studies Centre: Inaugurated on 8 August 2016, it will function from the Indian Council of Social Science and Research-North Eastern Regional Centre located in the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong. The Centre has proposed to serve all the stakeholders in the north-eastern region and ASEAN by facilitating ASEAN-India research projects, studies, workshops and related activities. There is a student exchange programme between ASEAN and India, which includes exposure to industry, culture and other aspects, and it is coordinated by industrial bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industry (ASEAN India, 2014).

SAARC: In 1983 the foreign ministers of seven countries in India’s neighbourhood adopted the Declaration on South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC, n.d.) and formally launched the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) initially in five agreed areas of cooperation, namely agriculture; rural development; telecommunications; meteorology; and health and population activities. The South Asian University (SAU) was established in New Delhi, and its first academic session began in August 2010 with two postgraduate academic programmes, one in economics and the other in computer sciences. At full capacity, the main campus of SAU in New Delhi will cater to nearly 7,000 students and an international faculty, with campuses linked to other South Asian countries (South Asian University, undated).

The BIMSTEC is an international organisation involving a group of countries in South Asia and South-East Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. Its main objective is technological and economic cooperation among South Asian and South-East Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Commerce, investment, technology, tourism, HRD, agriculture, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather, etc. have been included in it. The Asian Development Bank has become BIMSTEC’s development partner to undertake a study designed to help promote and improve transport infrastructure and logistics among the BIMSTEC countries (BIMSTEC, n.d.).

Commonwealth: The Commonwealth's members are developing countries, which comprise 50 of its 54 members; 32 of the Commonwealth's members are small states, defined as those states having a population of 1.5 million or less. The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) is the principal means by which the Commonwealth delivers development assistance to member countries. India provides a comparatively large number of long-term experts to various CFTC programmes, which is the largest proportion of CFTC experts provided by any developing country in the Commonwealth and second only to the United Kingdom. The contribution made by Indian experts in various fields is greatly appreciated by the beneficiary states and provides an excellent example of South-South cooperation. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation (with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada) created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training. It is the only official commonwealth agency located outside Britain.

<h1>Corporate Leadership Development Practices

The terms ‘Lead’ and ‘Leadership’ have many connotations and perspectives. To lead means to think ahead or to show the way to others to follow or to act ahead or to provide guidance to others. Leaders are those responsible for thinking ahead, thinking big and leading the nation or an organisation or a community or society ahead. They could be high achievers (Rao, 2010[TE13] [TR14] [TR15] a,  Rao and Sharma, 2012), as depicted in a book titled 100 Managers in Action or Managers who make a Difference, in the lives of others. Corporate leaders are those who set up corporations, expand them, take them to new territories, invent new products, provide new services, reach new customers, etc.

India has seen tremendous growth leaders in the last two decades after the economic liberalisation of the 1990s. Once India opened its doors to investments from other countries and liberalised its economic policies and reduced its entry barriers, it started witnessing tremendous growth in its leadership and institution building. The newly emerged leaders who prominently talked across the globe include N.R. Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, V. Kurien, Sunil Mittal, Deepak Parikh, Venu Srinivasan and Anand Mahindra from the private sector. Leaders from the public sector included V. Krishnamurthy, Col. Wahi, Dr. V. Kurien, N. Vittal, Anil Bordia, D.R. Mehta [ED16] [TR17] and Amrita Patel who have set up institutions and nurtured them.

Following the methodology of Zenger and Folkman (2002) in their book The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders, who studied about 20,000 managers, assessed by around 200,000 managers, Rao and Sharma (2012[TE18] [TR19] ) identified 100 managers from among 8,000 Indian managers between 1996 and 2010, assessed by over 80,000 managers, and studied their qualities. The study revealed that these leaders are highly networked, value continuous learning from various sources, are achievement driven, like to share their experiences, are system implementers, self-motivated and leverage their strengths. Since Noel Tichy published his book, Leadership Engine (Tichy & Cohen, 1997), it is now understood that everyone could be a leader and the definition of leadership has been extended to anyone who can make an impact. According to them, all wining individuals are leaders. They are people with ideas, energy and the guts to do things. Winning companies value leads and invest time and effort in building leaders.

Leadership interventions started as a part of HRD, where the focus of Indian corporations shifted to building every one as a leader and developing leadership culture in Indian corporates. Many studies have highlighted the qualities and characteristics of Indian leaders (Chary, 2002; Pandit, 2001; Pareek, [TE20] [TR21] 2002; Piramal, 1996; Singh and Bhandarkar, 1990; Sinha, 1995; Srivastava, 2003). Pareek (2002), emphasising that leaders should be institution builders. They should focus their attention on the following eight roles: 1. Identity creation, 2. Enabling (resource creation), 3. Synergising, 4. Balancing (conformity and creativity), 5. Linkage building, 6. Futuristic, 7. Impact making and 8. Creating superordination.

Lala’s (1986) study of an analysis of Indian leaders has indicated 13 qualities of leadership: communication, compassion, competence, courage, decision-making, humility, love, integrity, man management, stamina, teamwork, training and vision. Chary (2002) studied seven Indian business leaders: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Azim Premji, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Venu Srinivasan, Deepak Parekh, Dr. V. Kurien and Mukesh Ambani. The following emerged from his study: 1. They are passionately committed to their goals. 2. They are visionaries rewriting management principles – they are ahead of their times. 3. They are missionaries of the world. 4. They have exalted goals and social concerns. 5. They had a mission and then acquired core competence, making us revisit the core competence theory. 6. They had a firm foundation of values (integrity, humility, compassion, honesty and customer service being some of these). 7. Simplicity and humility characterise most of them. 8. They share love for people. 9. They all practice out-of-the-box thinking.

<h2>Leadership and Managerial Competence Building Research in India

360 degree feedback (DF) has emerged as one of the most used recent interventions for leadership development (as indicated by the number of organisations conducting 360 degree feedback-based interventions; Rao and Chawla, 2005; Rao, Mahapatra, Rao, & Chawla, 2002; Rao, Vijayalakshmi, & Rao, 2000; Vohra and Singh, 2005 etc.). 360 DF has been linked to several positive outcomes, such as improved performance, better interpersonal communication and smoother work relationships (Rai & Singh, 2005).

Ramnarayan (2010) analysed 360 DF data from 11,761 assessors of 1,288 candidates at the Indian School of Business to identify factors in a 35-item 360 tool. The analysis identified six factors underlying the 35 items. These include: emotional intelligence, personal leadership, adaptability, persuasive communication, networking and motivating and influencing for improvements. Analysis of 16 courses taken by the students across the 1-year period has indicated three clusters of these courses. The 360 DF data of the candidates was correlated with the admission scores, course performance and placement performance. Placement performance was measured on the basis of the number of offers received as well as salary and nature of jobs.

<h1>Analysis by Corporate Sectors in India

For the purposes of this chapter, we focus on the leadership development practices of the corporate sector under the following heads:

1.      Small and medium enterprises

2.      Government-linked corporations, including public sector undertakings (PSUs), public sector banks and financial institutions (PSBs), including government-owned corporations, at the central and state levels

3.      Private sector corporations, including those in agriculture, manufacturing and services

4.      MNCs (multinational companies/joint ventures)

5.      Role of corporate universities/learning or training centres

6.      Leadership perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics, diversity, environment, etc.

 

<h2>Small-/Medium-Sized Enterprises

Indian SMEs, which number over 48 million, have grown annually by 4.5 per cent in the last 5 years. According to a report by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, over 6,000 products are produced by the SMEs, and they employ close to 40 per cent of India’s workforce. SMEs rank second to the agricultural sector in providing employment opportunities. Many SMEs are controlled by families and are struggling to become professional. In a recent seminar of SME owners and HR professionals attending a leadership development programme, the following issues were pointed out:

1.      Getting the right talent in an era of high competitiveness

2.      Motivating and retaining top talent

3.      Aligning talent strategy with business strategy

4.      Process of talent management[H22] [TR23]  (recruiting and retaining and upskilling)

5.      Employee engagement and early signs of decay

6.      Centralisation versus decentralisation in decision-making

7.      HRD professionalisation versus ad hocism

8.      Generation issues between owners and their children

 

SMEs have been playing a significant role in economic development. Leadership development for SMEs would largely mean the following:

1.      Scaling up (geographically, scale of products, diversification of products and services to different levels)

2.      Developing professionalism and professional attitudes using systems

3.      Developing change management skills and attitudes

4.      A brand building

5.      Acquisition of talent

6.      Retention of talent

7.      Succession development

8.      Creation and mandating of HRD departments

 

The author recently worked with a few SMEs that showed keenness to embrace professionalism and development for the future:

·         They are technologically sound and produce quality manufacturing goods to remain competitive across the globe.

·         They have many advantages in being small as they can make fast decisions and can customise their products with ease.

 

·         However, they feel more comfortable with clear-cut directions from the top and show no understanding and appreciation of professional managerial practices such as the 360 DF and assessments.

·         Another company holds regular ‘train-the-trainer’ programmes. Innovative top management always adopts any of these technologies.

Leadership development in the SME sector is at a nascent stage, and only a few mid-sized corporates have embraced professionalism and undertaken innovations. The sector still has a long way to go as they are beset by constraints cited earlier.

 

<h2> Government-Linked Companies: [ED24] [TR25] Public Sector Undertaking, Public Sector Banks and Other Large Local Companies

There are about 313 state-owned undertakings, or PSUs. These are centrally owned by the government and are found in all sectors such as manufacturing, mining, airlines, railways, shipping, oil and gas, heavy engineering, telecom services, fertilisers, insurance, aeronautics, insecticides, postal services, and so on. Government-linked organisations are in sectors that have a bearing on every aspect of life, including agriculture, fertilisers, chemicals, oil and gas, steel and transportation projects. The Indian public sector contributes a lot to the economy by manufacturing goods and services and by providing employment.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) undertook a turnaround in the mid-eighties by starting a programme called priority for action, involving many task forces and internal teams to improve its manufacturing and marketing practices. The company reviewed and revisited the performance of the management system in the last two decades at least four times through a 360 DF and Assessment and opened development centres to build and enhance its leadership talent. In collaboration with the IIM, Ahmedabad, it undertook a massive exercise of identifying and recognising innovative HR practices in the manufacturing sector in the country. A large number of corporations were studied and the results made available (see Nair, Vohra, Rao, & Srivastava, 2010 for a report of the best practices in the manufacturing sector).

Most of the PSUs and PSBs have their own training institutes both at the national and at the unit levels. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), for example, has its own Power Management Institute in Delhi and corporate training centres in plants; SAIL has its own management training institute at Ranchi; Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has its own HRD Institute at Noida, Life Insurance Corporation has its own staff college in Mumbai; Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)[ED26] [TR27]  has its own Petroleum Management Training Institute at Gurgaon, IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertilisers Corporation) has its own training institution and training centres at plant locations. Most of these institutions are known to have provided leadership to management through state-of-the-art interventions. For example, the State Bank of India Staff College, at Hyderabad, was the first to sponsor and promote, in the mid-1960s, what was known as sensitivity training or T-Group with the help of National Training Laboratories in the USA and actively promoted the application of behavioural sciences knowledge and technology. Leading public sector organisations in India (ONGC, NTPC, HPCL, IOC, SAIL, HAL, BEML, BEL, BHEL, etc.) have been using the following interventions in the last two decades to build leadership competencies among their employees:

1.      Reviewing and redesigning their performance management systems (PMS) by including leadership competencies and linking PMS with the vision and values of the respective organisations, including customer centricity, entrepreneurship, innovation, teamwork and other such leadership qualities

2.      Developing their own frameworks using consultants to identify competencies and develop competency models for leadership development

3.      Using 360 DF as a tool to help senior management gauge their strengths and identify areas needing improvement and leverage the same for enhanced contribution to their corporations

4.      Using assessment and development centres for identifying high flyers and contributors and developing them through appropriate advanced leadership development programmes

5.      Designing leadership development programmes in collaboration with national-level institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management, Indian School of Business and other schools of technology and management

6.      Undertaking field visits to other progressive organisations across the world and using job rotation, project assignments, on-the-job training and competency building exercises with project assignments often as a part of the joint education programmes with national-level institutions

7.      Conducting educational programmes to develop leadership talent

The following are a few practices that illustrate the trends in leadership development in the government-owned corporate sector. Established in 1954, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is one of the few Navaratna companies in the public sector. Through its highly trained workforce of around 12,000 employees at its 9 units and offices, BEL has maintained its technological leadership with its in-house R&D, and spends around 7 per cent of its turnover on R&D. BEL has adopted many initiatives, including developing a competency framework for the company, setting up assessment and development centres to improve the capabilities of senior managers and reviewing its PMS and making it more development oriented while also incorporating employee performance incentives. A major leadership development initiative undertaken by this company includes a 360 DF, addressing the top-level managers, around 500 of them, of deputy general managers’ rank. The programme is aimed at enhancing their key leadership competencies and helping them play an active role in propelling the company to new heights. 97 per cent of the participants have reported revisiting their 360 DF to leverage their strengths and to work towards self-improvement and development of leadership potential.

 

HPCL: Succession planning at HPCL happens through their Advance Resource Modelling System (ARMS). Role analysis for critical senior management positions and subsequent skills inventory for higher levels are first developed. Career modelling charts for critical positions are also developed. Competency analysis and performance appraisal data of potential for the preceding 5 years are examined in order to identify potential leaders. Inputs are also drawn from the PMS. Comparing the potential leaders’ data against the career modelling charts helps to identify development needs and the training required for success in key positions (Nair et al., 2010).

NTPC: To identify its potential candidates, NTPC uses a 3X3 matrix based on performance and competence, both managerial and potential, and all executives in the ‘High-High’ quadrant are taken as ‘potentials’. Training interventions for those in the ‘Low’ quadrant are planned. The NTPC Leadership Assessment and Development System (LEADS) enables measurement of leadership effectiveness, gap identification against an identified set of leadership competencies and leadership development. Against each of the 28 unique leadership positions at NTPC, at least three potential successors are identified for further grooming. HR facilitates the process by combining inputs from the HR processes of 360 DF, assessment centre, PACE and psychometric tools and forms a pool of candidates. A succession planning committee comprising functional directors of the company identifies the list of potential successors from this pool (Nair et al., 2010).

<h2>Banks and Financial Institutions

There are about 30 private sector banks in India. Prominent among them are ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Indusind Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, Centurion Bank, Axis Bank, and Catholic Syrian Bank. There are also 28 public sector banks (PSBs), employing over 1.1 million employees. In 2009 the average age of senior staff of the PSBs was around 56 years. Most of the senior staff were expected to retire in the next few years. The Ministry of Finance appointed an expert committee to consider the human resource aspects of the banking system. This committee, called the Khandelwal committee,  (Khandelwal Committee 2010) carried out an audit of the HR status in all the 28 PSBs[ED28] [TR29]  and came to the following conclusions on their leadership needs:

The HR function is very weakly monitored at the board level, and, in fact, strategic issues relating to talent management, succession planning and leadership are rarely discussed. Only five banks had subcommittees of the board on HR, and in at least three banks these were non-operational, in spite of some excellent work done by these committees in some banks. CEOs had no time to devote to HRD issues.

The Khandelwal Committee (2010) [TE30] [TR31] identified the following key leadership challenges of the PSBs:

a.       Building capabilities for the future – improving the quality of manpower, managers and quality

b.      Building talent management practices

c.       Building HRD function from scratch and linking it with business

d.      Developing ownership, accountability, professionalisation and institutional mechanisms for sustained human capital management

e.       Improving the quality of HR processes and HR subsystems such as performance management, promotion process and training

Many private sector banks and PSBs in India conduct leadership development programmes internally and with the help of leading business schools covering global leadership development practices, organisational culture, customer focus, entrepreneurial thinking and the like.

<h2>Private Sector Corporations (in Agriculture, Manufacturing and Services)

About 80 per cent of the total working force is employed in either the organised or unorganised private sector units. The private sector accounts for about three-fourths of the country’s national income. Moreover, this sector also plays a vital role in increasing gross domestic saving (GDS) and gross domestic capital formation (GDCF) within the economy (Seth, n.d.).

The private sector consists of many family-owned business groups managed professionally, including Tata, Birla, Murugappa, TVR, Baja, GMR and GVK. Prominent among them are the Tatas and Birlas.

Tata Group: Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group (n.d.) is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100 independent operating companies. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with the mission ‘[t]o improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six per cent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture. In 2015 to 2016, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was US$103.51 billion. These companies collectively employ over 660,000 people. Tata companies use the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM, n.d.), which covers business aspects that range from strategy and leadership to safety and climate change. Adapted from the renowned Malcolm Baldrige model, TBEM encourages continuous improvements through a formal system of benchmarking and assessment. The TBEM initiative falls under the aegis of the Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG), an in-house organisation mandated to help different Tata companies achieve their business excellence and improvement goals.  The TBEM is used by all Tata companies to build their leadership competencies. The performance of each company is assessed periodically by an external group of assessors who award points on the TBEM. TBEM’s core values and concepts are embodied in the following seven categories: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus and business results.

Birla group: The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, named after Aditya Vikram Birla, headquartered in the Aditya Birla Centre in Worli, Mumbai. The Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 120,000 employees, belonging to 42 nationalities. Over 50 per cent of its revenues flow from its overseas operations, spanning 36 countries. The Group has leadership development programmes operating in several countries. In fact, they have now been involved in conducting outreach programmes across different countries. Typically, these programmes are conducted at the workplace. The Group’s leadership development initiatives are being tailored to train people not just to inspire others or to create vision, but also to be flexible, nimble and able to connect highly dissimilar people in their teams. These leaders are assessed through in-house assessment and development centres. They are typically those who are identified to be of high potential. It is a common practice for senior leaders to steer these initiatives. As an example, the Accelerated Leadership Programme has a steering committee, led by five directors of the Group, who remain present at the beginning of the programme for a full day, spending time with the participants and mentoring them over a period of 18 months (Anand & Misra, 2011).

GMR Group: This group is a family-managed organisation and has interests in airports, power, transportation and urban development. It is the only company in India to have a family business charter and is actively involved in promoting family business. It has well-defined values and beliefs and HR policies that promote talent review and succession planning. Using the Public Private Partnership model, the Group has successfully leveraged its core strengths to implement several iconic infrastructure projects in India. The Group is actively engaged in education, health and hygiene, community development and empowerment through its Foundation, reaffirming its grass-roots presence as an agent of social change in the field of CSR. GMR Group, in its quest for growth, has brought in the process of institutionalisation and has evolved a set of seven values and beliefs to define the GMR Group culture. The group has its own competency model and uses 360 DF, assessment centres and a well-defined professional development plan and talent review mechanism, with the involvement of line managers on a continuous basis (GMR, n.d.).

Gati Limited is a pioneer and leader in the express distribution and supply chain solutions in India. It was the revolutionary approach adopted by Gati that helped launch many path-breaking initiatives in the logistics segment, and many were firsts in the Indian market. In a span of 20 years, Gati has consistently explored various ways to bring premium value to the customer, always setting benchmarks in quality of service and customer satisfaction. Mahendra Agarwal (2010), the Managing Director of Gati, himself narrated in a paper the implementation and use of 360 DF across a 12-year period. The MD participated in the first ever leadership development and organisational effectiveness workshop conducted at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1987. Later, he sent some of his top-level executives to the public programmes organised by TVRLS and has been exposing his top management team to 360 DF.

 

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) conducted a 360 DF for managers a few years ago. The initial process covered 580 managers and included a first exposure, followed by generating a list of assessors for each candidate. The consulting company made the choice of assessors, profiled and finalised the feedback. The feedback seminars were conducted internally. The process ensured confidentiality and established credibility. The process has been established and matured. Follow-up is now planned (Sanjiv Kr Sinha, 2010). Sinha (2010) reports the following results: the Individual Feedback report has been an eye-opener for many of the managers as shared by the incumbents. The leadership style of many individuals has been significantly transformed.

 

<h2>Multinational Corporations and Joint Ventures

MNCs in India normally follow their parent company models; Nestle India, for example, has its own leadership development programme using 360 DF, which results in development action plans that are reviewed periodically. Most of the IT companies have their own leadership development models, though their Indian counterparts in HRD have influenced the thinking of the parent companies. For example an IT company (Allstate) located in Bangalore has been using the services of T. V. Rao Learning Systems (TVRLS), with which the first author is associated in conducting a 360 DF-based leadership development programme. In this programme the top-level managers receiving 360 DF are assisted over a period of 1 year to self-analyse their strengths and areas of improvement, work out a development action plans and monitor their impact through face-to-face and consultant-aided interactions with their seniors, juniors and colleagues. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has a well-developed leadership development programme. The leadership development effort of three MNCs is presented in what follows to illustrate the type and depth of the leadership development work.

With a focus on developing leaders at all levels in the organisation, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) offers programmes for grooming leaders at all important levels of management – first line, middle and senior management. There are specialised management programmes for each level, which include nominations to both open enrolment programmes for individuals requiring inputs in specific areas and to customised short-term training programmes for select individuals. The 70-20-10 method for developing and grooming leaders is adopted, according to which 70 per cent weightage is given to work experience, projects, job assignments and rotation; 20 per cent to coaching, feedback, working with others and action learning; and 10 per cent to training courses and formal programmes. For example, the first 70 per cent is attended to by offering potential leaders international assignments to grant wider and more enriched experience working in different cultures and handling different businesses. Working with others, coaching and action learning components are integrated with the leadership and management development programmes. There is also a mentoring programme to facilitate leaders at the middle management level to take up senior positions (Nair et al., 2010).

Leadership Development @ Siemens (Shankar, 2011): In Siemens, Talent Management initiatives today are focused on rotating the talents across functions, business verticals within the country or even overseas on global positions. A clear step-by-step career road map is being designed within the organisation along with initiatives like development centres, global training programmes, coaching and mentoring from key people, involvement in business impact projects, etc., in order to support them in their journey to the top. In Siemens Leadership Framework results are measured along the four dimensions of a business score card: financials, customers, employees and processes. The Siemens Leadership Framework is based on nine capabilities: business results orientation, strategic innovative orientation, customer orientation, change management, collaboration and influencing, intercultural sensitivity, leadership, team development and value orientation. These capabilities are assessed on a 7-point scale with behavioural indicators for each level. Further, the capability profiles are defined for all the positions as reference points for assessment. Potential is assessed on the basis of lead indicators on capability, capacity, ambition and ability to learn.

 

            Leadership Development at Hindustan Unilever (HUL) (Punj, 2011): The five key elements of leadership development at HUL are (i) attract the best; (ii) start early; (iii) establish robust talent management processes; (iv) transparency and clarity to individuals; (v) invest in capability building.

 

Vohra and team drew the following conclusions after a review of many experiences covering various sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, IT, pharmaceuticals, consumer retail, heavy industry, family-owned business groups:

1.      A plan is a must in order to develop a robust leadership pipeline

2.      Leadership development is triggered by diverse factors, which may include change in the top leadership and context, change in the needs of the company and growth of the company

3.      Wise selection of participants for leadership development initiatives is vital

4.      There is a variable understanding on what needs to be part of leadership development

5.      The focus of leadership development is on self, role, team and organisation

6.      Methods sued for leadership development are diverse and include: 360 DF and project work

7.      Participation of top management is essential

8.      HRD department’s active involvement facilitates and ensures alignment with objectives

9.      Auditing helps improve efficiencies of the programmes

 

<h2>Role of Corporate Universities/Learning or Training Centres

About 20 years ago, an Indian company, Crompton Greaves Limited (CGL), decided to prepare its middle-level managers for leadership roles in the company. A few hundred miles away from its workplace, CGL developed a learning centre where the managers would go in teams of 20 to 30 and get a few weeks of instruction on professional management techniques, including finance, marketing, business strategies, business economics, leadership, HR and production and operations management. This management or engineering education centre eventually became corporate university as many more organisations started using this model. Today there are various forms of corporate universities. Every large organisation in India has its own leadership development school or has tie-ups with a local university or a university board where it sends its executives for short periods and they keep in touch with the learning centre, undertake projects or assignments and, at the end, receive certification.

Recently, the Mahindra group started a leadership university to build future leaders in the company. Their management development centre, at Nashik, was renamed Mahindra Leadership University (MLU). The group aspires to be among the top 50 globally admired companies in the world, and the MLU aspires to develop functional, managerial and other skills besides vision and value for excellence. The group has tie-ups with global business schools and caters to all levels of managerial staff. Recently, in collaboration with S. P. Jain Institute, they started a women’s leadership programme, spanning over 18 months, that provides on- the-job learning, classroom sessions, mentoring, E-learning modules, webinars and other learning tools.

Larsen & Toubro, an engineering and construction company operating in several countries, has created a leadership development academy with a mission to create a community of leaders and managers well versed with the dynamicity of the ever-evolving corporate scenario. They expect to offer a knowledge centre loaded with the entire infrastructure required to facilitate the transformation of professionals into visionary leaders capable of leading the way forward for their respective businesses.

Infosys, way back in 2002, set up its Global Education Centre (GEC) in Mysore. It started with 50 trainees, one trainer and one classroom. Today it has the distinction of being the world’s largest corporate learning centre.

The corporate universities or the learning centres of Indian corporates play the following roles:

1.      Developing competency frameworks needed for becoming effective managers, leaders or employees in the organisation;

2.      Conducting research and creating tools for identifying high flyers and future leaders and preparing a leadership bench or succession planning;

3.      Documenting innovative practices and developing innovations (technical, managerial and functional) and working as laboratories for social change

4.      Designing and developing training programmes, including train-the-trainer programmers;

5.      Undertaking certification courses, either independently or in collaboration with other recognised universities and institutions, that will add value to participants and the organisation;

6.      Engaging students from tier-2 cities, rural areas, fresh from college and teaching them skills to make them employable;

7.      Conducting leadership development courses and undertaking advanced HRD interventions like 360 DF, assessment centres and the like;

8.      Offering on-the-job education and training programmes at basic, graduate and postgraduate levels in collaboration with other institutions

 

<h1>Leadership Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, Diversity and Environment

The term ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) can be defined as a corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company’s effects on the environment and impact on social welfare. The term generally applies to companies’ efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups. CSR may also be referred to as ‘corporate citizenship’ and can involve incurring short-term costs that do not provide an immediate financial benefit to the company but, instead, promote positive social and environmental change.

CSR is the process by which an organisation thinks about and evolves relationships with stakeholders for the common good and demonstrates its commitment in this regard by adopting appropriate business processes and strategies. Thus, CSR is not charity or mere donations but a way of conducting business such that corporate entities visibly contribute to the social good. Socially responsible companies do not limit themselves to using resources to engage in activities that only increase their profits. They use CSR to integrate economic, environmental and social objectives with the company’s operations and growth (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, 2014).

The provisions of the CSR, contained in Sub-Section 1 of Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013,  state that companies with a net worth of Rs.500 crore or more or a turnover of Rs. 1,000 crore or more or a net profit of Rs.5 crore or more during any financial year shall be required to constitute a corporate social responsibility committee of the board (CSR Committee) with effect from 1 April 2014. The policy recognises that CSR is not merely compliance but a commitment to support initiatives that measurably improve the lives of underprivileged by one or more of the following focal areas: (i) eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, (ii) promoting education, including special education and employment, enhancing vocational skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects; (iii) promoting gender equality and empowering women (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, 2014).

Under this policy, companies making a profit exceeding a certain level are expected to spend 2 per cent of it on CSR activities. Since this policy was enacted, many industrial houses and professional bodies have started organising seminars and programmes to educate organisations on its effective implementation. As a result, many organisations in India have developed their own CSR policies and activities and have started a playing more active role. An example of how this policy is being implemented follows, with Dabur India as an illustration.

Dabur India’s CSR Policy: It is inspired by the words of its founder, Dr. S. K. Burman, who said, ‘What is that life worth which cannot bring comfort to others?’ While pursuing a business strategy of introducing products that give its consumers health and wellness, Dabur operates in a manner that not merely continues to generate an attractive return for shareholders, but also minimises its impact on the environment and helps in replenishing the planet, while also lending a helping hand to the community (Dabur India's CSR Policy: Undated).

Leadership development has come to mean the following in the corporate sector: In micro enterprises and village and cottage industries it has meant fostering attitudes of self-employment and entrepreneurial skills among the population to help them undertake small business activities and entrepreneurial activities.

For start-ups, it has meant project planning, product and service identification, incubation, launching, financial management, marketing management, resource mobilisation, strategic thinking, capital mobilisation and self-development, emotional intelligence, self-management and perseverance, technological upgradation and the like. Leadership and human resources development programmes for these categories are offered by technical institutions and management schools and supported by government policies and facilities, as discussed in the earlier chapter.

For small and medium enterprises, it has meant developing entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial talent among of business owners and scaling up, expansion and growth. It also meant talent identification, recruitment, retention management, employee motivation and engagement using various HR systems, such as performance management, reward and recognition policies, decentralisation and expansion. Leadership development also meant succession planning, transition management from one generation of business owners to another, change management from family business to professionalisation, etc.

For large corporations in the public sector, private sector and MNCs in all sectors, leadership development and HRD has s very similar connotation. For the CEOs and CXOs, it has meant articulating and developing vision, mission and values, developing appropriate technologies, identifying business opportunities, strategic business planning, formulating business policy, sourcing top-level talent, managing stakeholders and investors, preparing strategies for growth and expansion and so on. In the public sector long years of stagnation and licence raj until the early nineties has produced a shortage of senior-level leaders, making it imperative to develop next generation leaders and effective managers at senior and top levels. For CEOs in the public sector and owners of the private sector it has meant developing a leadership or talent pipeline to take over business as people retire, or identifying young managers to prepare for the future, utilising the talents of GenY and millennials, technology and systems development and management, customer delight and marketing strategies, internal customer and subordinate management, and so on. For younger levels of employees, it has meant capacity building and self-management for career building and career development and ensuring good personal careers.

Thus, leadership development and HRD had different connotations and meanings for different sectors and age groups and hierarchical levels in organisations. Irrespective of the level and sector, the following principles seem to have been used for leadership development and HRD in the corporate sector:

1.      Identification of competencies required to perform specific roles or a set of tools in an organisation using competency mapping and competency models. Most organisations seem to have developed, or are in the process of developing, competency models and frameworks suitable for their effective performance in the present and growth and expansion into the future;

2.      Development of organisational-level competency models and frameworks that form the basis of subsequent talent management and leadership development;

3.      Special attention to the articulation of the vision, values and culture and ensuring culture and values at the time of recruitment itself in order to avoid employee attrition and ensure high retention;

4.      Heavy investments in induction, onboarding and assimilation and integration programmes to ensure that an employee, once recruited, gets up to speed and is soon acculturated into the organisation;

5.      Introduction of good PMS that ensure goal setting, goal alignment, performance review and performance development with feedback and coaching integrated into it;

6.      Employee coaching and mentoring programmes to ensure continuous satisfaction, balancing and engagement and contributions to the organisation;

7.      Leadership development and competency building programmes using 360 DF and development centres to identify strengths and development needs and create development and career building opportunities for managerial staff;

8.      Succession development programmes with identification of high flyers and employees with high potential;

9.      Carefully designed leadership development programmes jointly undertaken with national and international schools of repute and brands that include a stint across other countries or exposure to cross-cultural managers and processes;

10.  Assignments or projects and/or job rotation opportunities created to widen the talent base of managers [H32] [TR33] that will enable them to be converted into leaders;

In all these efforts, local training centres, in-house education and management development programmes and facilities, corporate universities and other innovative strategies seem to have played a significant role. These are on the increase and are likely to spread to [H34] [TR35] those who have not yet embarked on such strategies and practices.

 

<h1>Conclusions and Future Directions

<h2>Future National Agenda on Leadership/Management Development

India has moved forward in the last two decades since it began liberalising and opening up its economy. It has made significant progress in many fields and has risen to international prominence by making available its IT professionals globally. Further, Indian MNCs in IT, oil and gas, engineering, infrastructure and other industries have spread themselves globally and are doing a great work. The Indian corporate sector has learnt fast locally to use benchmarkable talent and leadership development practices from their MNC counterparts through professional bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), National HRD Network, National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) and Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD). India has produced many leaders, particularly in its corporate sector, through its IITs and IIMs and other educational institutions and are establishing themselves globally by supplying leadership talent to Microsoft, Pepsi, GE, Google, Social Media, Proctor & Gamble and such other MNCs. India has also produced its own business leaders, who have set great examples for the youth to think big, be mission driven, articulate their own mission and values and create an impact both within and outside the country. Yet in certain areas, such as human development, ease of doing business, talent spotting, and harnessing its enormous human resources from among its people, numbering over a billion, India’s pace has been tardy. In some parts of the country talent still appears to be caged. Governments in recent times have recognised this and have introduced policies like make in India, skills development, start-up policies, Swachh Bharat, reforms in the Company Act, IIIM Bill, educational reforms, labour reforms and the like, which are reviewed in various chapters. Leadership and talent development practices in all of India’s sectors such as the PSUs and the private sector have attained international standards. Some Indian corporates are setting up benchmarkable next practices integrating indigenous knowledge with modern technologies and development. It is time to make the new policies work through their effective implementation. Lessons could be learnt from past successes and failures. A few pointers in this direction are presented in the following paragraph to indicate how growth can be accelerated and how India can take advantage of its well-formulated policies.

<h2>Future Directions for Filling Gaps in Policy Formulation and Implementation for Human Resource Development and Leadership Development

Skill Development and Entrepreneurship: Leadership development at the national level understandably focuses on skill building, start-ups and entrepreneurial development. A facilitating environment is being provided for skill building through employment creation, establishment of incubation centres at various places, provision of finance and infrastructure, upgradation of management and technology education, encouragement of make in India and other such policies, encouraging businesses to invest more in the country by enacting policies that facilitate business operations in the country. Labour reforms are in place to remedy the conditions of the vulnerable working class and encourage women’s participation and leadership roles.

While the development of national skills is an excellent initiative, merely training people in skills can achieve only limited success without psychological education. David McClelland and his team, who worked at the Small Industry Extension Training Institute in Hyderabad in the mid-sixties, demonstrated that through psychological education in the form of short-term motivation development programmes entrepreneurship can be developed (McClelland & Winter, 1969). Gujarat has learnt a great deal from these experiments and has developed a state model of entrepreneurship development and successfully implemented the same across the country through its institution, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (see for details Kuratko & Rao, 2012). Mehta demonstrated a few decades ago that achievement motivation can help teachers to create high achievers among students (Mehta, 1969). Unfortunately, India is so vast and other priorities and concern seem to have over taken to be able to use such wisdom from research. [H36] [TR37] 

The country should tap into its rich experiences in entrepreneurship development through psychological education to reap the benefits of the new policies of skill development, start-up India, make in India and the like. Although at the national level, through the Ministry of Education, a lot is being done to open the educational system to knowledge imports and development of excellence by setting up institutions of national importance, such as the IITs and IIMs and upgrading technical institutions, very little is being done to help them play a leadership role. Provision of infrastructure alone cannot build institutions of excellence without a proper understanding of the dynamics of leadership. The government has recognised the importance of the need to provide academic autonomy with the goal of creating excellence by enacting laws such as the IIM Bill, which empowers the boards of these institutions to play a leadership role. This is not enough. For example, a mere change in the law that facilitates freedom and autonomy to higher educational institutions will not produce leaders and enhance leadership. The boards of these institutions and its leaders need to be trained to articulate the vision and learn from the past. For this more direction is needed. For example, several lessons in managing institutions of excellence have been drawn from the SDA and World Bank-sponsored studies on managing change and innovations in institutes of technical education (see Chand & Rao, 2011; Rao, Indiresan, & Jomon, 1999).

The future national agenda on leadership development should focus on the following:

Focused leadership development interventions, including leadership education and training, should be undertaken for all levels and all categories of people, particularly those working in strategic sectors. These categories include politicians, civil servants, educational planners and administrators, heads of institutions in schools, colleges and universities.

<h2>Doctors and Other Health Workers and Health Administrators, Teachers, Students, Parents and Society in General

Leadership should be defined and the desired leadership behaviours in each sector and each role should be identified and widely disseminated. An approach worth examining and adopting is already available from Tichy and Cohen (1997):

   Leaders should take direct responsibility for developing other leaders.

   Leaders should articulate and teach others how to make their organisations successful. They should write and tell stories about their past and explain their learning experiences and beliefs.

   They should disseminate their own well-developed methodologies for teaching others.

   Leadership talent can be nurtured, and it is never too late or early to develop one’s own leadership abilities and others’ talents. Seniors with experience should be roped in to share their knowledge and disseminate it. Retiring employees have a lot to offer and should be treated as treasures of the institutions and the country at large.

 

The adoption of this approach will lead to a number of policy imperatives. Organisations could encourage all employees to develop their points of view, encourage reflective conversations and give heads of corporations and institutions the role of developing other leaders in each of their respective settings.

Policy implications 1: Develop a definition of leadership and outline all the behaviours required to be exhibited by each role holder in every organisation or setting. 2: Identify the leadership culture and values to be promoted by each leader in his or her respective settings and focus on leadership, particularly HR interventions that will promote the development of leaders and leadership culture.

The concept of intellectual capital has become more prominent in recent times, and many are beginning to recognise its significance. Intellectual capital consists of intellectual material (knowledge, information, intellectual property and experience) that can be harnessed to create wealth (Stewart, 1997). Human capital is the main component of any firm’s intellectual capital. Higher and more relevant forms of human capital in today’s business environment include the following (Rao, 2011):

1.   Learning orientation (the desire to acquire and apply knowledge)

2.   Humility; a feeling that as one learns more there is more to learn

3.   Constant efforts to learn and apply what one has learnt

4.   The ability to appreciate the humanness of others and the willingness to treat all others as possible sources of learning

5.   The ability to envision the future

6.   An awareness of the impact one is having on others

7.   A desire to improve and make a better impact on others and convert human capital into other forms of capital

8.   The extent to which one is able to multiply and use the human capital of all co-workers in the organisation

9.   The ability to acquire different aspects of human capital and from all directions

10. The ability to cater to the power needs of each other continuously [H38] [TR39] so that they can use their power and enhance it

Implication 3: Leadership talent in any organisation constitutes its intellectual capital. The importance of building intellectual capital at the national and organisational level should be recognised. HRD departments have a lot to contribute to the formation of human capital and should be held responsible for building the less visible intellectual capital rather than for earning profits and achieving short-term goals. The role of HRD departments should be redefined in terms of building intellectual and human capital and developing measures that ensure that they do their jobs.

 

<h1>Trends in Corporate Practices of Leadership Development

Our experience in developing leadership and human capital, reviewed earlier, shows that:

1.   360 DF is a potentially valuable tool as major changes are reported because of such feedback programmes.

2.   Self-administered tests are very effective Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI[H40] [TR41] , etc.).

3.   Assessment centres are very useful.

4.   New technologies such as simulated incidents are useful training tools.

5.   Leadership talent plays a critical role.

6.   The desire to learn is even more critical.

 

People pay little attention to human capital because they have a hard time distinguishing between the cost of paying people and the value of investing in them. If the primary purpose of building human capital is to enhance innovation, then corporates need to generate more activities that could result in innovation.

 

Human capital grows in two ways: when the organisation uses more of what people know and when more people know more things that are useful to the organisation. But human capital is also easily dissipated; hence, it needs to be amassed and concentrated.

CEOs and their role in leadership development:

There are no laws specified for the role of CEOs, and it is high time they were spelt out. It is only recently that the duties of the directors have been spelt out in the revised company law in India. Also, the role of directors of institutions has not been spelt out fully and properly. It is time to make provision for proactive laws.

Similarly, the laws on HR are regulatory and address only workmen. The leadership building role of the top management needs to be spelt out. Similarly, the skill building role of the workmen and their unions must be formulated. Research needs to be undertaken on the effectiveness of various interventions and tools of leadership building and development.[H42] . Institution building roles of those who work in services need to be outlined. Research studies need to be disseminated. Leadership audits should be undertaken by independent bodies periodically for self-renewal and development. Talent audit needs to be undertaken.

The role of HR departments should be redefined and refocused along the following lines:

1. HR should think ahead of their CEOs: Hr should be able to provide contexts and explore and disseminate contexts to make work and life meaningful. The global, national, countrywide, sector-specific contexts should be explained to help employees to get meaning of work. HR should  also understand the process behind business (what it is and how to do business). HR should be having a global view: products, markets, business opportunities, customers; knowing other cultures and countries. HR could understanding employees and customers and vendors and other stakeholders; look for business opportunities; build teams; build global competencies, educate top management on global trends and benchmarking of all functions

2. Influencing the thinking of CEOs or business heads by communicating, building personal credibility, managing routines and thinking ahead and removing the traditional image of HR

3. Restructuring HR’s role or structuring it appropriately by building teams, conducting HR audit and self-renewal exercises and learning

4. Developing leaders and leadership by using new HR technologies and practices like 360 DF, assessment and development centres, designing and implementing leadership development interventions

5. Continuous learning and learning from juniors (Gen Y): they are so well connected that if an employer does not meet their expectations, they can tell thousands of their peers with the click of a ‘mouse’, interacting with Gen Y, reading literature and books

6. Making the corporation innovative and promoting innovations by designing incentive and reward systems, creating a culture of innovations

7. Developing intellectual capital through culture and values by aiming far ahead; balancing short- and long-term goals and results; building structural relationships and human capital

8. Policymaking: Policies should be made with full respect to individuals and people more than systems - as no single policy exists for a diverse and heterogeneous world. The time for standardisation of pay, perks, packages, leave, incentives is  over, and it is time to make heterogeneous policies and practices that suit every individual or team[H43] [TR44]  and change with flexibility.

This review makes it clear that human capital formation can be influenced by having the right HR practices. This in turn provides a road map to win the war for talent.

 

<h2>Implications for Future Research and Corporate Practice

In a study on effective people comprising various professionals such as social workers, civil service employees, film actors, professors, educationists and scientists, the following characteristics were found (Rao, 2015). Effective people were defined as those who use their talent to benefit others. They were classified into effective, very effective and super-effective people. Effective people were defined as simple leaders in their fields who do their jobs with vision and service orientation, very effective people as those who employ various methods to benefit others, and super-effective people as those who build institutions so that their talent continues to be used even after they leave. The study concludes that institution building is a greater and higher form of leadership (Rao, 2015). The book reveals the following characteristics of such institution builders:

1.      They make efforts to discover their inner talent and use it to serve others.

2.      They have a high degree of self-awareness.

3.      They stretch their talent, keep testing themselves in new situations and discover their undiscovered talent.

4.      They are value driven and cultivate their own values and superordinate goals.

5.      They are compassionate.

6.      They live with a sense of purpose and infect others with passion and larger goals.

7.      They reach out to many and enhance their impact to benefit others.

8.      They build institutions, take the initiative and are set to deliver a lasting impact.

In another study of 100 most effective managers who are identified as leaders, the author found several qualities characterising people with a high impact (Rao and Sharma, 2010).[TE45] [TR46]  More studies are required to delineate the leadership behaviours of leaders in different settings. The scope of such studies should be extended to include government, education, NGOs, institution builders, civils servants and other policymakers.

There is also a need to develop effectiveness indicators. Intellectual capital indicators need to be developed in all sectors besides the corporate sector. Leadership studies must be contextual and should recognise changing trends such as the following:

• The world has become a global village
• Internet social networks disseminate information instantaneously
• Best practices do not remain best the next day
• Four or even more generations under one roof
• Diversity has increased and is being pushed
• Short tenures of organisational citizenship
• People have taken more [H47] [TR48] ownership for their learning and  career growth
• Change from focus on career to focus on happiness
• Competition is taking different meaning

Some consulting firms with commercial interests have misused new HR technologies such as assessment centres, 360 DF and employee engagement surveys and created unhappiness among employees by using the studies against people rather than for them. Research needs to be done on the contextual relevance and effectiveness of various HR technologies like these, and guidelines need to be set.

Values of HR professionals in India, as in many other countries, have come under question. An article that appeared a few years ago, ‘Why we Hate HR?’ (Hammonds, 2005), [H49] [TR50] needs to be read and re-read and precautions taken to enhance the image and credibility of HR. The code of conduct and leadership behaviours expected from the developers of people needs to be formulated and disseminated. HR should be made a noble profession for developing talent and leading nations to be better places to live.

 

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