one question only from this case study: Identify the main issues raised and discuss how they may be explained in terms of the cultural and institutional contexts of Pharmaz in general and Pharmaz India in particular.?

CASE 7 BALANCING VALUES - AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE ON CORPORATE VALUES FROM SCANDINAVIA by Martine Cardel Gertzen and Mutte Zainur ACT 1 BangidoroOctober 17th 2012 8.45 AM Amrita Chopra, a senior financial manager in Pharma India is sitting in the back seat of one of the company cars while the driver slowly but skiltuly manoeuvres the car forward through Bangalore's dense traffic jam, using the hom digently. This morning, Amrita is on her way to a meeting with her new immediate superior, a recently arrived expatriate, Niels Nielsen He has told her that he wants them to discuss the alignment of local work procedures with Pharmaz' cor- porate values Pharmaz India Pharma India in Bangalore is a subsidiary of multi- tional pharmaceutical company headquartered in Denmark Pharmaz employs around 6000 people 2500 work in Denmark, the rest in subsidiaries in more than 30 countries around the world. Pharma top management, and the CEO in particular, like to characterize the company as value-drven! At Pharmaz the corporate culture is taken very seriously not least at the headquarters. It has developed slowly as the company has grown over the years, for the first many years primarily within the borders of Denmark But now, as the company finds itself in a process of rapid globalization, the headquarters is making very conscious efforts to disseminate the corporate culture across borders Pharmaz is strongly focused on research, and this is refected in its corporate culture and values. The company attempts to create a learning environment for all employees, not just those working in R&D Pharmaze website and latest annual report state New ideas are our business and what we live from Therefore our corporate culture strongly encourages al our employees, regardess of their position, to sam continuously and to work together creatively no cordance with this del Tree Corporate core values have been formulated Empowerment mayng that all employees should be able to make independent decisions within their respective areas of responsibility Equal opportunities for employees to develop ther competences and advance in their careers Openness in communication between employees at all levels in order to further froe cucharge of knowledge and ideas Pharmaz India has been in stence since 1983, but until 2005 it was a local sales office with 10-15 employees. The local management wils alowed con- siderable latitude since the subsidiary's strategic im portance to the company was limited. In 2005 this situation changed when Pharma established an off- shore financial services center in Bangalore. This loca tion, known as the Silicon Valley of India', offers low costs and qualified, English-speaking professionals in the relevant fields. The process was initiated with two local employees, and gradualy, more employees were recruited to form teams responsible for registration of Invoices and various accounting and controlling tasks. At first, the center only perfomed tasks for the head- quarters in Denmark. After a couple of years, the con- for bagian depanding more rapidy, and tasks requiring colaboration with ortployees in other subsidiaries were gradually introduced. Today, the center employs 50 people and this number is expected to grow to more than 130 employees in the course of the next two years as more financial activities will be transferred from other parts of Pharmaz to India in 2007 Pharmaz acquired a part of a locally owned Indian company in order to be able to establish its own production facilities, including some R&D activities, in Bangalore. The acquisition added more than 100 employees to Pharma India's workforce. So today Pharmaz India comprisos, in addition to various stall functions such as HR a production unit & RSD department, a sales department and a financial serv. les conter. The subsidiary employs more than 200 and according to Pharmaz plans, a considerable number of new people will be recruited in the years to come, not just in the service center. Thus, Pharma India has achieved crucial strategic importance and has become a center for growth. This increased focus on Pharmaz India means that the management at headquarters is very keen that the corporate values of empowerment, equal opportunities and openness are fully implemented, or ived as the top managers like to put it in the subsidiary The senior financial manager and the challenges she is facing Amrita Chopra is 45 years old and she has worked for Pharmaz for three years. One of the company drivers takes her to the office in the moming around 8 am and picks her up in the evening around 6 pm. Although shelves only 20 km away the journey takes about an hour. She prefers not driving herself on the bumpy and chaotic roads where holes in the asphalt, motorbikes, bikes, dogs, cows and pedestrians abound. Amrita also appreciates the opportunity to antive home with out being too stressed, especially because she has a family to take care of she is married and has two sons who are 12 and 15 years old. The financial service center where Amrita works divided in two sections: one providing financial serv ices to the headquarters and subsidiaries in Europe. and one providing services to the Pharmar subsidi ries Asia, the US and Latin America. Ara heads the first section where currently 20 people work, they are divided into 4 teams. As for Amnta's background, she has a master's degree in finance from a reputable Indian University and is a chartered accountant. She was born in Delhi where she lived until she got married Her husband is in the hi-tech business, and Bangalore soomed to be the best place for him to be in terms of enhanced chances for career progress, so the couple decided to move there. Unti Amrita got the job as a senior financial manager with Pharma, she worked in the finance department of a locally owned IT company. She achieved good results in her former fob, but the con that he had to struggle to obtain pect company that was very male dominated and managed na way she thinks of os traditionally Indian She was the first employee ever in the company to take mater nity and some of her male coloagues soomed genuinely surprised when she came back to work for here she did not receive any training, the pay Waverage, and her working hours were long, SH, she was not happy in her former job. Her work was interesting and she always for that she had the sup- port of the CEO who did his best to help her when problems occurred. By comparison, Pharma offers more advantageous working conditions. The salary better, though admittedy not quite as good as in some other international companies in the Amrita has been on various types of training in Denmark and she appreciate that the company invests in her pro- Sessional development in this way. At Pharmat there is a lot of about work-ite balance, especially from the headquarters. The idea is that employees should be able to have shorter working days and more flebil- ty in the schedules because of more efficient organe zation of work As a manager Amnita is rarely able to have very say, but her working days are still shorter than they used to be, which makes is possible for her to spend more time with her family Although Amtakes her job, her family is her first priority. Her husband cams enough for all of them to we comfortably, and she has a times been tompted to stay at home and be a full-time houtwife. But seems to her that it would somehow be a waste, considering her education. Also, since they live with her in-laws, there is always someone at home to look after the children and the house. And they have a live-in mad who does most of the housework Licher own family, Amrita's in-laws are quite iberal in their attitudes to women's role. When they moved in they told Ama "You just go ahead and look for a job: we will take care of the children'. Amrita s glad that they have given he this opportunity to continue her career Sul, in Pharma is not uncomplicated. Amrita finds that the corporate values are in Ine with her own ideas of what management ought to be at least dely, but she finds them out to implement in an Indian conted. As a middle manager she often fola Sound between the headquarters wishes and the expectations of her employees. Visiting managers from hearts have voiced that they find her management style a little too authoritarian and have encouraged her to act more Sko & coach, gato more and give fewer orders. Anvita argued that as the sonor financial manager, the results of the section are her responsibility. Therefore, she sees it as her job to tell her subordinates what is good and what is not good enough so that they can improve their perform ance. The managers from headquarters answered that of course she should intervene someone kept making mistakes, but in general, they believed the employees would am more from being empowered to work independently Amrita was- and remains unconvinced, but as a manager in a subsidiary she feels compelled to follow directions from the head. quarters. So she delegates more and gives fewer orders. Yet, her employees complain that she expects too much of them when she tries to adjust her behav. for to the headquarters' suggestions in this way. If she leaves it up to them how carry out their tasks and how to organize their work, some of them just keep coming back to her and ask for directions anyway. Others appear to interpret this approach is an indication that she does not find their work important and conto- quently, they get very ittle done. There are exceptions, of course a few of the most competent financial and lysts seem to thrive without managerial interference Instilling and maintaining a collaborative spirit in the teams can be quite a challenge, too. At the moment three of the foams function well, but the situation has become quite tense in the fourth foam. Recently, the team has made a few regrettable mistakes that appeared to be due to internal misunderstandings and lack of communication. Amrita has been told that this resulted in opon quarrots between the team members, but she did not witness this Horself. So far, no one has boon willing to tell her exactly what the problem is and the team leader, Balvinder Singh, is evading her ques- tions. It is clear to her, though, that communication has not flown easily between the team members since the arrival of her section's newest employee, Shankan Savarkar, a competent chartered Accountant. Shankar a comes from a Brahmin family and thus belongs to the highest ranking casto according to the traditional Indian viow. Amrita is concerned that he tends to act in a rather standoffsh manner with Balvinder and two other members of his team, and she has noticed that he never eats lunch with them. She thinks that the team members' different backgrounds may be at the root of the team's problems, even though she fools that this ought not to be so in a professional working environment. It is a delicate According to Indian og station, the higher cases are not to enjoy any spe cial privileges in the workplace, and cast never openly discussed in Pharmaz. Arra is at a loss what to do to address the team's difficulties The car arrives at Bangalore's largest technology park and stops at the entrance to wait while the secu- rity guards check the vehicles in front. Next to the ine of cars employees QUO up and move slowly through the gates as the guards finish checking their entrance cards. As a senior manager and a familiar face, Amrita simply nods to the security guards and her careers the technology park which offers quite a change of scenery compared to the buzzing, dusty road, Ined with the shacks of the poor in front of the larger houses. In the park, all the buildings are tal and sleek constructed in glass and stool, and between them the green towns are dotted with well-kept lower beds. The company car lots Amrita off in front of the building where Pharma India is located, now occupy- ing three full floors. Amrita gets out of the car, habitu- aly taking care not to disarrange for dothes in the process. She almost always dresses in a traditional Indian sari, and today she has chosen one of her best a bright pink one, to fool as confident as possible dur- ing the important meeting. She wears a bindi la dot of color, usually red, applied in the center of the forehead of a matching shade. Her hair style is the same as always a long black plait. Generally, the employees in Pharmaz dross smarty, but relatively informay. A few women wear Jeans and Western-style shirts or blouses, but the majority are dressed traditionally in ther a Salwar Kameez foose frousers and a long tunic or a sarl. The men wear shirts with long sleeves and dark trousers, but normally, jackets and ties are only wom for the occasions of important ederal meetings Amrit takes the ift to go to the 9th floor where the nancial service center is located On her way to the meeting the sopa by to say hello to the regional manager, Ganesh Karanth. The regional manager has been in Pharma India since the subsid ary was founded and has worked his way to the top His long career in Pharmaz has given him a lot of insight into the company and Amrita les taking things through with him before important meetings such as the one she has today. She would like to get an idea of what the rest of the management in Pharmaz India thinks of Niels' approach and plans. Also, she would ke to ask the regional manager for advice on how to solve the problems in Balvindor's team. Although Ganesh has of course never said so she knows that he is a Brahmin because of his name, his food proler ences and his social network of other Brahmin Amrita would not want to hit the topic of caste explicitly with Ganesh. But she thinks that he wil understand without her having to spel it out. And she has seen him chatting with Shankar several times, so he may already be familiar with the situation in the team. But unfortunately, Ganesh is not in his office this moming Niels texts her that he is delayed. Stuck in a traffic jam. Amrita asks the new chal watah to bring her a toa. He is a thin, quiet man of middle age, and as she expects him to speak poor English she addresses tim in Hind. She is still not comfortable with the local language, Kannada, since she is not from Bangalore originally. Not that matters very much in her daily life; otherwise, she would probably have learned it by now. But most people in the fast-growing city of Bangalore sem to be from really the pro- fessionals. English is Pharma official corporate la guage and here, everybody, except the chal walans and the Janitors, speaks fuently and use it for al work-related purposes. Amrita gets her hot tea, and as she sips at her cup absentindedly she is getting increasingly impatient and nervous from the subsidiaries in Mexico, China and soon. He als that everybody should use his first name and dislikes it when subordinates address him Sir Amrita remembers when he first connected her in this regard with the explanation that what counts and deserves rospect is not a person's it, but his or her and competences' Niels' management stylestrondy embedded in the company's dos about empower. mont, equal opportunities and openness. And, in line with Pharmaz headquarters aspirations, he never misses a chance to practice these values conspicu Cusly within the Indian organization. Though Niels knowledge of the organizational context is limited after just three months in Bangalore, he has strong opinions about what to do and what not to do. He boven implementing the corporate culture by managing explicitly through the values, for instance with a view to speeding up decision-making processes by minimi ing control and bureaucracy. As far as practically posso, I believes that decisions are to be made by the people who will carry them out and live with them in their daily work. Now, he inds that the time has come to reorganize the work processes in the financial services teams so that they reflect Pharma' business model and values botter. And he has decided to start with the four teams in Amrita's section Arruita is not against changes being made in her Learns, but she hopes to be able to make Nois realize that you cannot go all the way with Pharmac' manage- ment style and values right away. Moreover, she would also like to use the opportunity to suggest that a way of motivating employees to accept more responsibility in their daily work would be promotions and prices. She has already mentioned this idea briefly to Niels, but she is not sure what he thought about it Ho scomed to Indt a bit amusing, somehow, so maybe he just did not get the point. So this time, per haps, she should also emphasize that promotions and prices can be important instruments for Pharmaz to use in order to retain their qualfed employees in the competitive and dynamic Bangalorian labor market for financial experts The expatriate finance director and his plans Amrita is always apprehensive before meeting with Niats, and she knows that today's discussion was difficult. His direct and demanding way of communi cating was initially a bit of a shock to Amrita and sav. eral of her colleagues, and she still finds it a challenge Niels urges and expects a free exchange of ideas, and Amrita finds that discussions with him can be quite inspirational. He is good at showing his appreciation when he lkes the viewpoints and ideas presented Sometimes, however, he can be difficult to convince. This, in Amrita's experience, is especially the case When your arguments refer to the particularities of the Indian contact and the need to bend Pharmaz' corpo rate values in order to put them into practice in a realis tic manner Niels took up his position as finance director in Pharmaz India three months ago. He is Danish, 40 years old, and he aready has many years of experi- enco in Pharmace, not only from headquarters, but also Question: . Gentily the main raised and show they may be complained in terms of the cultural and non conting Pharma India in particular