“RECULTURING ORGANISATIONS.”

There was a student in States hailing from the African continent. He was, pursuing his studies for quite some time, there. He had imbibed the Western culture in the process. He landed a support job while studying. Later he decided to buy a car so he could; commute easily.
When he purchased one, there was a very peculiar ritual he performed. He bought a couple of eggs from the grocery store; round the corner. He placed the carry bag containing the eggs on the floor behind the car, and backed it on the same.
The eggs were crushed under the rear tyres. Then he smeared the front of the car with some of the yolk of the eggs, run over by him. He cleaned the entire mess with a bucketful of water and dried it up too.
“Now it is safe to drive the car.” He said.

On being questioned about the strange act he said. “At my place back home, whenever a new vehicle is bought one has to back it on a chicken and then smear the vehicle with the blood of the chicken. This would have been too gory, and outrageous, a practice, in the culture I am living in, now. So I had a compromise formula. This ritual I resorted to would be satisfying my inbuilt cultural background, and was not revolting to the surrounding now I am in. The egg represents the chicken. But now the car is readied for a drive as per my custom. “

There is no scientific basis for such actions, which are culture oriented. One just acts; accepting these rites. These beliefs are held unconsciously and are not available for scrutiny. When one mentions anything contrary to it, there would be an enormous resistance to any change from it. .

ACULTURATION.

CULTURE IS A SET OF EXTERNAL BEHAVIOUR, WHICH IS ACCEPTED BY A COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE INNATELY; WITHOUT QUESTIONING.
It is handed over from generation to generation. The preceding generations’ success is attributed to the adherence to culture and; is followed blindly.
In our culture, the young generation displays a respect to the elders, by touching the feet of parents. This is a ritual; there is an assumption, that they will be blessed, due to this act. This value system is passed from past generation to the succeeding ones.
Thus many rituals, assumptions, and a value system, are all interwoven, in the omnibus term CULTURE.
The process of acculturation takes place unknowingly and incidentally.
Look at another custom, followed by a community as their normal eating habit. They collect the dried seeds of some leafy plant. These are roasted and then ground, baked. The embryo of a bird is, broken and fried, on the fat derived from the mummery glands of some domesticated animal.
Gruesome, you might say. But that is what we have, for our breakfast everyday. We are so used to it. You will notice when looked at objectively, some, which we follow routinely, may sound, barbaric, archaic, or funny to us.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THINGS TO BE CHANGED.
As the community progresses, one has to look at some of our cultural heritage critically. Replace it with a more suitable one to the changing times.

• We are a very vocal lot. More noise, than specific activity; related to the deliverables.
• Lack of punctuality, indifference to a priority system.
• Our inviting somebody for a visit to our place without any specifics.
• We must develop a sense of commitment, intense involvement, in the assignment in hand.
• As a community we have to learn to subscribe to quality standards in all walks of life. Japanese nationals learnt it from Edwards Demming after 1948, only; and are a changed society now.
• Acquire excellence in the professional skills at world-class levels.
When a new set of behavior has to be adopted this has to be done consciously. There has to be a design for it. Identify anomalies and find out people who will be willing to adapt themselves to the new thinking. For this, the first step is to analyze the assumptions which are the anchors for our flawed notions. The most glaring assumption is CHALT HAI syndrome. Things just happen as per destiny, why the hubbub about deadlines. These are the stumbling blocks for any reforms.

HOW TO PART

Punditji had changed his scheduled Programme to attend a speech, in our parliament, of a scholarly parliamentarian, Mr. Dandekar. He was a Swatantra Party, M.P.
Panditji had then remarked about Mr. Dandekar,
“His speeches are full of wisdom. He would have studied everything that was required to be read on the subject. Whatever he would have not read was not worth reading.”
That kind of perfection need be followed by our young generation, as a role model. Can we strive to script a world class performance in all our professional activities?

Organizations have a culture too and it is held as a sacrosanct thing .The cleanliness you notice in Mac Donald outlets is a passion with them. They had to induct Russians in customer relations when they opened up their eateries in then USSR.
Corporate Associates, who have acquired over eighty different software companies, abide by a certain culture and they induct the personnel in the new acquisitions in this, meticulously. This process of acculturation is an essential part in consecrating the new incumbents in the organization...
Our quiet belief in certain strange things needs a hard look. If your computer has packed up there is no point in trying to break a coconut to get it restarted. You have to call an engineer who will fix it.
I have seen individuals who are otherwise quite logical in their approach doing Reiki on a comp to get it back to life. This is ridiculous but tries telling this to the one who is a Reiki believer.

CONCLUSION

In the knowledge Society we live in we are looked upon as an emerging power in knowledge/skill based businesses. We have to adopt a different culture. Updating of knowledge is important in the current context. It is a continuous process and has to be imbibed as a culture. Independent learning techniques need to be mastered, to upgrade one’s knowledge and skills. There is no classroom teaching possible for adults. However they have to keep pace with new knowledge as a routine.
Concept learning is the; prime thing, in learning, by adults. Get to the root of the learning by acquiring the basic concepts. These are generic in nature and can be then applied to any new situations. Knowledge is one asset which we can bank on and encash too, through many assignments which will come our way through Business Process Outsourcing route.

M. S. RANADE ,
mranade@vsnl.com
PUBLISHED IN INDIAN EXPRESS PUNE APPOINTMENTS COLUMN, ON THURSDAY, 23RD OCTOBER,2003.