Developing More Value Flexibility for Organisation Development in India: Lessons Learnt from Different Value Orientations Across the World

Abstract

Organisation development is riddled with values from the Occident; these Western values fly in the face of driving, developing trust and facilitating change in global organisations. Organisation development, via its Western values thus can vitiate to be seen as the handmaiden of cultural force-feeding, albeit perhaps not with malicious intent. This article explores episodes where the occidental and the relatively non-occidental, including the oriental context, make painful and ineffective interface. It raises the possibilities that organisation development can be and must be retooled. This article provides both vignettes and pertinent insight-bearing inferences from a qualitative lens, which will enable the reader and practitioner to hone awareness of the value-laden skill sets required to support effectiveness of global organisations. The intercultural outlay has special reference to India and the phenomena therein are stretched between several national cultures from real-life episodes, where consultation presented challenges to the author.