Sanghamitra Chaudhuri

Reverse Mentoring: A Social Exchange Tool for Keeping the Boomers Engaged and Millennials Committed

The aging of the workforce and the concurrent advent of the Millennials represent a major demographic and sociological phenomenon that can have dominant implications for organizations, as a whole. This presents a situation, where the Boomers and Millennials will be working together for the next decade or so. In the wake of mass scale retrenchments and economic upheaval, this is creating a greater urgency for HRD professionals to focus more attention on not only retaining this amalgamated workforce but also on keeping them actively engaged. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to propose reverse mentoring as a social exchange tool, which will leverage the expertise of both generations, that is, Boomers and Millennials, respectively, by being perceptive of their different needs, value systems, and work demands. We conclude by emphasizing different outcomes of reverse mentoring program for Boomers and Millennials and identify areas for future research.

Work–Life Balance A Cross-Cultural Review of Dual-Earner Couples in India and the United States

The Problem Today’s global workforce is rife with dual-earner couples. For dual-earner couples, finding a suitable balance between work and living is often difficult, creating a need for organizations globally to be aware of the similarities and dissimilarities that exist for dual-earner couples around the world. This article identifies the work–life issues of dual-earner couples and organizational practices in both the United States and India in an effort to help organizations effectively manage work–life policies affecting the gender role dynamics of today’s multicultural organizations. The Solution This article identifies themes within the work–life literature for dual-earner couples in India and the United States in an effort to inform human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners about the current state and work–life needs of dual-earner couples in both countries. It would be beneficial for HRD professionals to understand and appreciate better workplace demographics in terms of social, cultural, and legal requirements in the two countries to encourage the creation and implementation of work–life friendly policies and environments. The Stakeholders This research benefits HRD practitioners and scholars, employers, public policy officials, and dual-earner couples employed in the United States and India. It opens the door to a better understanding of the transferability of current research to practice.

An expatriate’s perspective on leadership and leading (a global organization) in India: interview with Matt Barney

Organizations are often confronted with the challenges of developing global leaders who can function effectively in different cultural contexts. The existing scholar-practitioner literature offers limited information regarding evidence-based practices for developing global leaders who are called to exercise effective leadership in different cultures. The interview presented here is an attempt to highlight some of the unique challenges and opportunities senior executives face when they operate in international contexts.

The relationship between training outsourcing and employee commitment to organization

In many countries, the human resource practice of training outsourcing has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the broader business process outsourcing industry. In spite of the growing popularity in professional practice, training outsourcing continues to be subjected to critical review and ongoing debate with most attention focused on the decision to ‘outsource’ or ‘not to outsource’. However, there exists a shortage of research on training outsourcing as a human resource development (HRD) practice and the potential relationships with desired organizational outcomes including employee commitment. This exploratory international study extends previous research that has examined the relationship between training and organizational commitment by focusing exclusively on outsourced training. Data were collected from information technology firms in two countries: India and the United States. Results showed positive relationships between specific measures of employee perceptions of quality, usefulness and supervisor support for outsourced training with organizational commitment. Recommendations are made for future research as well as for professional practice to guide HRD practitioners involved in the rapidly growing global practice of training outsourcing.

Family Roles Posing Challenges for Women Leaders in India

The past decade has witnessed an increased number of women participating in the workforce in many spheres of India’s society. Yet, Indian women largely remain underrepresented in senior management and leadership positions. This can be attributed to existing patriarchal beliefs and other socio-cultural barriers that have led to struggles for Indian women to set themselves free from the challenges associated with gender stereotypic roles. Despite these obstacles, modern India is showcasing an expanding middle class and increased service sector jobs, gradually influencing the mindset of people. Due to the availability of higher paying information technology (IT) jobs for educated women employees, men are coming forward and the burden of handling household and childcare activities for Indian women is being reduced. Organizations are also making dedicated efforts to break the shackles of gendered family roles by implementing progressive human resource development (HRD) practices. India is slowly but steadily moving toward a gender-neutral culture and aspiring to strike the right chord between the personal and professional lives of Indian men and women.

Indian Women in Leadership in an Asian Context

The landscape of women’s leadership today in Asian countries is in a state of flux with a slow but steady increase in women leaders. The path to the summit has not been easy for Asian women leaders with various roadblocks along the way, including gender stereotypes, rigid cultures, stringent organizational practices, family commitments, and limited educational opportunities. However, the silver lining boosting Asian women leaders to break through the glass ceiling is manifested through inclusive organizational practices, more emphasis on women’s education, and blurring of gender roles. This chapter is an overview of various barriers and successes of Indian women leaders as compared to their Asian counterparts in countries including China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.

Borrow or Grow: An Overview of Talent Development/Management Practices in Indian IT Organizations

The Problem In recent years, as India started to emerge as the IT (information technology) super power and the supplier for human capital trained in IT to the Western world, a plethora of talent management and development issues have started coming to the surface. Given the vastness of India’s young and diverse human resources, the concerns center less around availability of talent and more around managing and developing the available talent to suit local needs. Furthermore, concerns are raised over excessive reliance on Western models of TD/TM (talent development/talent management) in Indian organizations and their implementation without significant adaptation to local cultural and institutional conditions. The Solution This study explores TD/TM strategies in three different business organizations using the case study method. The three organizations are a multinational corporation headquartered in India, a foreign multinational organization with subsidiaries in India, and a smaller local business organization. The article discusses (a) the commonalities and differences in the TD/TM strategies followed by three different types of organizations, (b) the use of home-grown strategies and strategies borrowed from the West, (c) the trends and challenges of TM/TD practices facing the IT industry. The Stakeholders Chief learning officers, directors of human resources, HRD scholars