WORK CULTURE IN INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS A Journey Towards Organizations of Today’s Knowledge Based Industries Work is a source of sustenance to human beings. The environment where the person works has a lot of effect on the efficiency and effectiveness. In a layman’s language we can call this environment along with the processes working in it as the ‘Work Culture’.With the opening up of Indian economy and the flourishing of knowledge based industries in India, this environment of work has considerably changed and it has a marked influence on the social lives of the people working in these kinds of industries. As these industries are located mostly in big/metropolitan cities and affects educated urban middle/upper class generally, this paper will be somewhat skewed towards these class of people working mostly in large organizations. I will also concentrate on defining work culture, on types of work culture, on the impact of society on work culture, on emerging work culture and finally focusing on the knowledge based industries What is Work Culture?Work culture refers to work related activities and the meanings attached to such activities in the framework of norms and values regarding work. These activities, norms and values are generally (but not always) conceptualized in an organization. An organization has its boundaries, goals and objectives, technology, managerial practices, material and human resources as well as constraints (which is referred to as organizational culture). Its employees have skills, knowledge, needs, expectations and behavior. These two set of factors – organizational and organismic interact and over time establishes roles, norms, and values pertaining to work. It is this totality of the various levels of interacting forces around the focal concern for work, which is labeled as work culture. The work culture also has its roots from the socio-cultural values and systemic features of the ...
