SOIL Report 2011 - ACCESS Development Services

Private Industry and Services—What Is ‘India Inc’ Delivering in Employment to the Poor? 127organizations must find new ways to developmanagement–worker (and customer–supplier) relationships to ensure a constructiveand meaningful pressure is brought tobear on the management by the workerswho understand the business realities.Industry must address productivity issuesto justify better jobs: We have shown how themajority of India’s wages—across industryand services—remains shockingly low. Butproductivity is frequently extremely low too.India’s garment sector, for example, is abouthalf as efficient as China’s and a one-thirdof the USA’s. It is standard for managers toblame workers (and perhaps their machines)for low productivity, but productivityexperts know that in most cases the solutionis in the hands of the management.‘Indian factories are typically disorganized,with inventories and spare parts chaoticallyorganized, inadequate performance tracking,and extremely poor quality control’(Bloom et al. 2010). With increased attentionto building second-tier managers, systemsand communications throughout thefactory, there will be gains in productivitywhich will justify higher wages.New management thinking to build abetter psychological environment for job satisfaction:Work is increasingly being done inthe field of HR on the contribution of nonfinancialfactors to job satisfaction (Ghosh2010; Biswas 2011; Lopes 2011). The role ofline and peer relationships in harnessing aworker’s commitment and loyalty is highlightedas crucial. Ghosh (2010) explores thedifferent values sets which drive organizationsand demonstrates how such valuesets influence the type and level of workercommitment. A worker can be motivated towork hard and stay with:1. Affective or emotional commitment2. Normative commitment that is a senseof duty and obligation3. The view that the cost of leaving theorganization would be too highEach of these commitment forms is moresuitable for some organizational valuesthan for others. For example, affective oremotional commitment is more importantfor an organization perceived to be drivenby ‘humane’ values (consideration, cooperation,fairness and moral integrity), whilenormative commitment is a more importantresponse for an organization driven byvision (initiative, creativity, innovation). So,organizations which come across as beingdriven by certain kind of values motivate acommitment in keeping with those.Another key aspect of improvement inthe psychological environment is a moresincere and better dialogue between supervisorsand workers. This has repeatedly beenshown to be a key factor in job satisfaction(Biswas 2011). Also, it is important to knowhow to improve peer relationships formutual learning, cooperation and creativesuggestions, while laying the management’sfear of a workers’ association.ReferencesAnant, T., R. Hasan, P. Mohapatra, R. Nagaraj, andS.K. Sasikumar. 2006. Labour markets in India:Issues and perspectives. In Labour markets in Asia:Issues and perspectives, ed. J. Felip and R. Hasan.New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.Besley, T., and R. Burgess. 2004. Can labour regulationhinder economic performance? Evidence fromIndia. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (1).Bissell, W. 2009. Making India work. New Delhi:Penguin Viking.Biswas, S. 2011. Psychological climate as an antecedentof job satisfaction & job involvement. The IndianJournal of Industrial Relations 46 (3).Bloom, N., B. Eifert, A. Mahajan, D. McKenzie, andJ. Roberts. 2010. Does management matter?Evidence from India. International Growth CentreWorking Papers Series, 10/0873.Business India. 2011. A time for labour reforms. BusinessIndia, 1 May, pp. 42–48.Chadha, G. 2004. Human capital base of the Indianlabour market: Identifying worry spots. The IndianJournal of Labour Economics 47 (1).Datta, S., and V. Sharma, eds. 2008. State of India’slivelihoods: The 4P report. New Delhi: AccessDevelopment Services.Dougherty, S. 2010. Labour regulations and employmentdynamics at the state level in India. Paris: OECD.