Satyagraha and employee relations. Lessons from a multinational automobile transplant in India
| Pages | 501-517 |
| Date | 10 August 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451211248550 |
| Published date | 10 August 2012 |
| Author | Saji K. Mathew,Robert Jones |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Satyagraha and employee
relations
Lessons from a multinational automobile
transplant in India
Saji K. Mathew and Robert Jones
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of non-violent protest (satyagraha)ina
multinational automobile plant in India that has suffered from considerable employee relations
problems.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a case study of a Japanese-owned company
using data obtained from 30 personal interviews and from internet media sources.
Findings – It is found that workers initially pursued their protests through satyagraha-style methods
before taking on a more violent posture when company management refused to accept any notion of
jointly seeking a new harmony. The reasons for these developments are explored.
Practical implications – The paper has implications for the manner in which scholars and
practitioners view the respective roles, significance, and management of satyagraha and non-
satyagraha protest in Indian companies.
Originality/value – The importance of satyagraha in Indian employee relations is under-researched
in comparison with other factors, and is especially significant for culturally-unaware multinational
companies in successfully understanding and managing protest in the workplace context.
Keywords India, Employees relations, Multinational companies, Automobile industry, Protest,
Satyagraha, Toyota
Paper type Research p aper
Lean production methods have become ubiquitous across the global automobile
manufacturing industry. Lean production focuses on eliminating waste from all
aspects of the enterprise. Anything that does not produce value is classified as waste
(Womack et al., 1990). Opposition to lean production is widespread in the critical
literature, often condemned as an inhuman device that sacrifices human consid erations
for commercial gain (Stewart et al., 2009). A popular analogy is to equate “lean” with
“mean” and “management by stress” (Parker and Slaughter, 1988a). The anti-lean
literature concentrates its analysis on the de-humanising and exploitative dynamics of
the system that sacrifices dignity and safety in an endless search for mo re from less
(Parker and Slaughter, 1988b; Babson, 1995; Elger and Smith, 1994; Stewart et al.,
2009). A number of researchers have published ethnographic accounts of the realities
for workers within lean factories in the automobile industry, for example, Toyota
(Kamata, 1982; Mehri, 2005), Subaru-Isuzu (Graham, 1995), Mazda (Fucini and Fucini,
1990), Vauxhall-GM and Rover-BMW (Stewart et al., 2009), and GM-Suzuki CAMI
(Rinehart et al., 1997). These studies have all occurred within developed industrial
nations (USA, Canada, UK, and Japan). However, the literature is far less rich in
connection with opposition to lean systems in the automobile industry in developing
nations. In this paper we analyse the role of opposition to lean production in a
multinational vehicle producer in India.
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Employee Relations
Vol.34 No.5, 2012
pp. 501-517
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425451211248550
501
Satyagraha
and employee
relations
India is a heterogeneous country with diverse religions, cultural values, and
languages often varying between different states and regions (Tripathi, 1990; Sen,
2005; Das, 2000). This diversity can complicate employee relations for multinational
companies wishing to establish operations within the country (Sinha, 2004; Bagla,
2008). Numerous studies have pointed to the complexity of factors that influence
human resource management and employee relations in the country (Budhwar, 2003;
Bjorkman and Budhwar, 2007; Ramaswamy and Schiphorst, 2000). One aspect of
Indian society that outsiders often find difficult to grasp relates to the notion of protest.
Protest lies at the heart of Indian history and culture and can take on a bewildering
variety of forms (Bayley, 1962). But, arguably the fo rm of protest that has mos t
captured the imagination of scholars relates to the Gandhian philosophy of satyagraha.
Satyagraha espouses that “non-violence is a power that can transform adversaries into
friends and resolve issues of injustice and oppression” (newworldencyclopedia.org,
n.d.). More fully, the word translates as “Truth-force” or “the force that is generated
through adherence to Truth” (mkgandhi.org, n.d.). Satyagraha was extensively
followed as a form of protest against British colonialism in the p eriod after 1920. The
British left India in 1947 and Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 but there is
evidence that his mantra of non-violent protest still enjoys popularity in moder n-day
India. For example, as recently as April 2011 the influential Indian social activist and
Gandhi adherent, Anna Hazare, commenced a satyagraha-style fast-until-death in
protest against the government’s refusal to allow a greater public role in the Anti-
Corruption Bill. This quickly developed into a mass movement ( Jha, 2011). Within
days the government acceded to all his demands.
Although satyagraha has been well analysed in the literature in relation to such
topics as political studies, social change, and philosophy it is noticeable that its role in
regard to employee relations, especially in regard to multinational companies, remains
under-researched. This represents a significant gap in the literature. The pu rpose of
this paper is to analyse the role of satyagraha in a multinational automobile plant in
India that has suffered from considerable employee relations problems. We employ
a case study of Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) because of the momentous impact of
industrial unrest during the early years of this company’s operation. Toyota Motors
entered India in 1997 as a joint venture with the Kirloskar group of manufactu ring
companies with the name TKM and started producing motor vehicles in late 1999 at its
Bidadi plant near Bangalore. This gives us an opportunity to study the chronological
nature of protest at the plant and make a welcome addition to the literature on this
company. The academic literature is fragmented and analytically thin, comprising
only a few descriptive case studies (Majumdar, 2006b; Mikkilineni, 2006; Ray and Roy,
2006), book chapters (Das and George, 2006), and other scattered references (Sinha,
2004; Mooij, 2005).
It seems remarkable that the legacy of satyagraha is still strong in India de spite
the momentous events that have occurred in the country since independence, most
notably the era of state-sponsored socialism (1948-1991) and the more recent impact
of capitalist-inspired globalisation (since 1991). Other competitive phi losophies in India
have been in direct contrast with satyagraha, such as the propagation of violence as the
only way to attain freedom by Subhash Chandra Bose, the rise of extreme Hindu
nationalism, and the impact of communist-inspired political parties and trade unions.
We offer two potential explanations for this. The first lies in the all-encompassing
nature of Indian thought: “a unique feature of Hinduism has be en its ability to
incorporate a wide variety of different beliefs” (Kumar and Sethi, 2005, p. 56). Scholars
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