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Globalization has increased the need for [information technology] IT companies to transfer employees to manage their overseas operations. To be able to perform abroad, expatriates must harmonise themselves to the different cultures prevailing in the host country. These include getting accustomed to living, working and interacting with the host country nationals. The process is commonly referred to as 'cross-cultural adjustment'. Various factors influence the process of adjustment. In order to identify these issues, a quantitative study was undertaken, which was mainly comprised of a comprehensive literature review and self-structured questionnaire with Indian expatriates working on international assignments in different countries. Through an interpretative approach the current study aims to understand the concept of cross-cultural adjustment of Indian expatriates based in other countries and their influencing factors. The data was collected from 95 Indian expatriates through a self-structured questionnaire.

The findings suggest that the success of expatriation does not entirely rest on an expatriate's ability (self-monitoring) but also on organisational support (training and development, financial support) and assistance that expatriates receive prior to and during the assignment. This study is relevant to IT companies employing Indian expatriates, who need to be cognisant of the issues highlighted above to make rational and informed decisions when handling international assignments.

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The importance of [human resources] HR practices is being increasingly realised in industrial and non-industrial organisations in India and abroad. This realisation has come about because of the increasing complexity of the task of managers and administrators. In most organisations the problems of getting competent and relevant persons, retaining them, keeping up their motivation and morale, and helping them to both continuously grow and contribute their best to their organisations, are now viewed as the most critical problems. The objectives of this study are to: understand the qualities and competencies required for HR managers to contribute constructively to their organisations; and know the role of the HR manager in directing the employees, employee competency mapping, maintaining human relations, and managing organisational change.

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Purpose: In the past decade, the rapid globalisation and modernisation has resulted in an increased focus of organisations on implementation of family friendly work-life balance (WLB) policies for enhancing employee retention. The purpose of this study is to review the importance of WLB policies and programmes and its impact on organisational outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: Using Deery's (2008) framework as the conceptual framework, the current study attempts to provide an integrated literature review of the empirical studies conducted in the area of WLB and employee retention in India for a decade from 2007 till 2017.

Findings: The analysis of the extant literature revealed that the research on WLB for Indian organisations really surged since 2013. Most of the empirical studies conducted in this area use a positivist paradigm. Numerous industry sectors including the information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing sectors have benefitted from WLB policies, but the banking and higher education sector have generously implemented employee-friendly WLB policies. Practical implications: The study stresses upon the implementation of employee friendly WLB policies for achieving high organisational outcomes. Furthermore, the findings may be useful for human resource management and human resource development professionals to understand and appreciate the organisational components, settings that are necessary to facilitate better WLB in Indian organisations, thereby resulting in better organisational outcomes. Originality/value: The study provides us with a comprehensive review of different WLB studies conducted in India till date and its possible impact on various organisational outcomes.

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In a growing fast-changing technology and competitive environment, training is considered an important activity in the textile industry. Still, very little attention is paid to redeployment training activity, whereas modernisation and upgrading of technology does take place in textile mills. This paper deals with training approaches adopted during redeployment training, as also results achieved through training.

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This report was commissioned by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) to highlight the importance of inclusive human capital strategies as key differentiators in organizational growth and sustainability. At the heart of this approach is the concept of diversity and inclusion (D&I). This report therefore provides a contextual overview of D&I broadly and more specifically across the Asia-Pacific region. In light of globalization, migration trends, and an aging workforce in many jurisdictions, to name a few drivers, companies are being forced to focus on how they manage their workforce. Although D&I are often linked, it is important to note that they are not the same thing. Generally, diversity as a 'strategy' refers to an organization's focus on implementing policies and practices that attract a demographic range of employees, including members of society who have traditionally been underrepresented within the particular organizational culture or sector. Inclusion focuses on creating an environment that encourages people to bring their differences, perspectives, and ideas forward and on utilizing all aspects of an individual's diversity in the workplace.

General findings include: (1) the focus on D&I is relatively new within the Asia-Pacific region; (2) diversity is contextual to organizations and the environments in which they operate, and therefore diversity strategies vary; (3) some organizations focus their diversity strategies on compliance with external government targets, while others seek to go beyond those targets by implementing a broader focus, based on a strong business case for changing organizational culture (policies and practices); (4) companies that have a strong business case for D&I seem to achieve better results in meeting and surpassing organizational goals; (5) gender appears to be the primary common focus of most companies that are implementing inclusive strategies within the Asia-Pacific; (6) measurement and accountability are important in driving change and achieving results; and (7) all organizations invest in some form of training and development; however, it is unclear, with few exceptions, to what degree training is geared to developing the ability to operate in an environment of diversity and plurality. The current best practices identified in this report emerged from common practices across organizations and/or the degree to which each company links its practices to positive organizational impacts or results. Given the small sample size of participating countries, this report should not be viewed as the gold standard for D&I in the Asia-Pacific but as a framework to stimulate thinking about how D&I can increase performance, profits, and overall organizational success of companies in the region.

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a key economic sector and generator of jobs and may be considered the backbone of the digital economy across all sectors. In many countries, the global ICT sector is facing a shortage of skilled ICT workers. A lack of skilled labour will constrain future growth and job creation in the sector, but with the right policies in place, the digital economy could make a significant contribution to advancing decent work and inclusive economic growth at the global, regional and national levels. This report is the first outcome of the ILO development cooperation project entitled 'The Future of Work in Information and Communication Technology'. The global research project focuses on anticipated needs for skilled workers and strategies for addressing labour shortages, including the scaling up of investments in ICT education and training, and more efficient management of ICT specialist migration flows. This report helps us gain a more comprehensive understanding of the most critical aspects of the future of work in ICT by assessing how technological changes, employment, skills development and migration in India, Indonesia and Thailand may be interrelated.

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The concept of quality of work-life is not new but with the changing pace of life and increases in stress levels negatively affecting the quality of work, organisations have begun to think about the strategies for maintaining a work life balance. There is a strong link between quality of work-life and reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and job satisfaction. Other benefits include improved recruitment and retention rates with associated cost savings, reduced stress, greater levels of job satisfaction and loyalty, and an improved corporate image. The quality of work-life strategy offers a variety of ways to reduce stress levels and increase job satisfaction of employees. This study focuses on: comparing employees' perception towards quality of work-life variables in five different sectors (steel, power, banking, education, and mining); and finding out which factors contribute significantly to satisfaction of employees with reference to quality of work-life.

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This book examines India’s information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) industries in terms of the people who work in them, the nature of the work, and the wider social and cultural ramifications. The major themes of this book are how cultures at work and beyond the workplace are mutually constituted and overlapping within one another, and the diverse ways in which the ‘global’ is represented in visible form in the ‘local’ in the context of hi-tech globalisation in India. Several chapters were written for an international conference on ‘New global workforces and virtual workplaces: connections, culture, and control’, held in Bangalore, India on 12-13 August 2005. Each chapter draws on original field research in India, and contextualises its observations within current theoretical debates on globalisation, the information economy, and the transformation of work in the post-industrial era.

The chapters are as follows: Outposts of the global information economy: work and workers in India’s outsourcing industry / Carol Upadhya and A. R. Vasavi; Producing the knowledge professional: gendered geographies of alienation in India’s new high-tech workplace / Sanjukta Mukherjee; Betwixt and between?: exploring mobilities in a global workplace in India / Marisa D’Mello and Sundeep Sahay; Management of culture and management through culture in the Indian software outsourcing industry / Carol Upadhya; The scientific imperative to be positive: self-reliance and success in the modern workplace / Sonali Sathaye; Software work in India: a labour process view / P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan; Empowerment and constraint: women, work and the family in Chennai’s software industry / Chris Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan; ‘Serviced from India’: the making of India’s global youth workforce / A. R. Vasavi; Work organisation, control and ‘empowerment’: managing the contradictions of call centre work / Babu P. Remesh. Show less

In this exploratory study, the author examined the role of job demand, work-family conflict, compensation benefits and supervisor support on call center employees' knowledge related to the availability of work-family policies in their organization. Furthermore, the role of job demand, compensation benefits and respondents' knowledge related to the availability of work-family policies on respondents' use of work-family policies was also examined. Surveys were used to collect data and regression analyses indicated that high work-family conflict, compensation benefits and supervisor support were significantly related to respondents' knowledge related to the availability of work-family policies and the direction of the relationships were positive. Job demand and respondents' knowledge of the availability of work-family policies were significantly related to use of work-family policies. These results are discussed with respect to implications for policy and future research.

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Digitalization is a key driver of change. As information and communication technology (ICT) continues to advance and digital technologies are further integrated into sectors across our economies, the skills that are needed the most also continue to change and are increasingly in demand. To better understand the implications for the world of work, the ILO's 'Future of Work in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)' project has for the past two-and-a-half years conducted in-depth research on anticipated needs for skilled ICT workers and formulating strategies to address labour shortages, including the scaling up of investments in ICT education and training, and better governed international labour migration. This report summarizes the project's findings, which were formulated on the basis of research conducted in Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. It provides an overview of: (a) trends in the ICT sector, ICT labour markets and the migration of ICT workers; (b) the potential demand for skilled workers and current and anticipated skills mismatches in the digital economy; and (c) strategies for improving ICT education and training. Furthermore, it summarizes the key research findings and outlines possible policy responses that could be adopted with a view to scaling up current initiatives to advance decent work opportunities in the digital economy.

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