ABSTRACT
Given the ground reality of complex political, legal and socio-cultural nuances in the Indian diaspora, the need for an efficient, effective and innovative HR system becomes an imperative for all managers struggling to understand the upcoming Indian business context. This is an important contribution, to this volume, as the business challenges become more daunting when we find a mixed response within the Indian business context to the early 1990s initiated liberalization of the Indian economy. Managers struggle with HR systems, which are transforming from traditional ones to more efficient systems and practices. Yet most are lost in the cross-fire of change, especially when changing from the traditional HR systems. These traditional systems were based on personal status within the society, personal connections within an organization and one’s social connections. Within this context when a manager in India would like to shift to innovative, cost-effective, efficient, and metricdriven HR system, he has to struggle with archaic rules within this business context and finds the navigation within the system still based on traditional ways of doing things and knowing the right people in the system.
