Som, Ashok. (2010). \"Emerging Human

Som, Ashok. (2010). "Emerging Human Resource practices at Aditya Birla Group." Human Resources Management. 49 (3): 549-66.

The advent of globalization has had a profound effect upon numerous cultures in the developing world, particularly those of India, in which a large, burgeoning population of trained workers are available to assist many Western countries in customer service, technical support, order fulfillment, and more. Along with this advent of more jobs, of course, comes the subject of human resources and new and innovative ways to manage larger groups of people within a liberalizing business environment. One of the prime reasons for HR reform is the extreme hypercompetitiveness of business in India, and the continual search for new talent.

The case study in question here, the Aditya Birla Group, is one surrounding a company that has been part of the Indian/Western business alliance since the 19th century. Because of its diversity and portfolio, it has weathered the changing political and social nature of India and is still one of the dominant players in every sector in which it participates. Because of this strong penetration nature, it continues to vie for talent and, to remain competitive, must keep its average turnover below 5%. To do this, even as a high-growth business, the company was forced to create a more logical and innovative business model, somewhat reminiscent of Six-Sigma and the Jack Welch prinicpals of change management.

The case study is well-researched, logical, and is almost a text-book example of the way new modeling theories of management can be incorporated into traditional cultures. We must remember, by most standards, India has only been a democracy for about 1/2 a century, and needed time to evolve and develop a culture in which sharing of responsibility, encouragement of constructive dissent, and models of shared excellence were acceptable to most of the workforce. Too, it seems like Indian managers are now realizing that their human capital is their greatest resource and, within this framework, utilizing Human Resource Management to continually reevaluate competencies and develop new contingency plans. A bit more on the demographics and psychographics of the organization's workforce would have been helpful in understanding some of the cultural attributes of the Indian workforce, and, comparatively speaking, the references, while robust, could have been a bit more in depth.