the new hr

office
design
Standardised
Design
Personalised
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aparna Piramal
Raje writes Head
Office, a popular
monthly column
in the Mint. She is
also the author of
Working Out of the
Box: 40 stories of
leading CEOs.
Table 2 - Workplace archetypes and work styles
Build Organisational
Capital
Collaboration
Craftsmanship
Purpose
Agility
Integrative Thinking
Nourish Personal Energy
Accessibility
Learning & Renewal
Partnerships
Portfolio Lives
Resilience
Spirituality
Sustain the Environment
Sustainability
Communicate Brand Values
Personal Branding
Story Telling
Innovation
Internal Assets External
But since the title of this journal is Indian
Management, I would like to highlight one workstyle
in particular: spirituality.
Spirituality is not commonly construed to be a
business tool, as it is associated more often with
philanthropy, or as a retirement vocation. Yet, it is
an element of daily business practice for several
business leaders, including Kumar Mangalam Birla,
chairman of the Aditya Birla group of companies,
and Ajay Piramal, chairman of the Piramal group
of companies, both of which are diversified
industrial conglomerates.
Birla and Piramal draw on the Bhagavad Gita
for business inspiration in several ways, which
include developing greater mindfulness and
equanimity during business negotiations, as well as
cultivating a sense of legacy through the notion of
long-term trusteeship.
These workstyles are echoed in contemporary
business management literature, which emphasises
emotional intelligence as an essential leadership
trait. For example, renowned psychologist
Daniel Goleman, writing in ‘What Makes A
Leader?’, published in 2004 in the Harvard Business
Review, explained that emotional intelligence
comprised five specific skills: self-awareness,
self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and
social skill. Many of these skills, including selfawareness,
self-regulation, and motivation in
particular, are just as central to ancient Indian
notions of spirituality as they are to business
management literature.
These values are reflected in their physical
work environment. The C-suites of both Birla and
Piramal are archetypes for contemporary ‘spiritual
business retreats’—luxurious and refined in form,
while calm and peaceful in mood and atmosphere.
I hope this example illustrates how workspaces
reflect workstyles, and how workstyles in turn
underline leadership traits.
I am usually asked one question in particular,
so I would like to take the liberty of pre-empting
it: What is the business impact of an effective
workplace? There is no short answer, unfortunately,
since workplaces impact intangible assets that are,
by definition, hard to measure.
Many companies, especially multinationals,
regularly assess employee satisfaction at work. This
serves as a proxy to gauging employee productivity
and is especially helpful to understand if a new
facility is successful.
The Head Office series highlights that there is little
doubt that chief executives are closely involved
with decisions relating to their spaces, and that
they adopt different strategies to create an effective
workplace. Rather than trying to identify if and
how much the workplace can contribute to business
success, my goal is to present tangible ways in
which it can do so (and why).
64 INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015